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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1292983" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #5: The Smugglers, Episode 4 of 5We arrive back in town without incident, arriving in the early light before the dawn of day. It is the 13th of Charder, Wildday. Jim pulls his dark hood down over his face, but rides with us. We head straight for the temple of Madriel. The priestesses are already awake, giving dawn prayers. They take in Thar, sympathetically, and promise that he will be well cared for. Miriel, Paks, and Delonia go to talk to Verenia about the plan. As the three women reach Verenia’s quarters, she welcomes Miriel and Paks warmly. She looks at Delonia with one eyebrow raised, and asks what she can do for us. Paks explains the problem. “We have a commission from Grilliam to round up the smugglers. We went to the tower last night, where we found Delonia and recaptured her. She is under a sentence of death, but we would like to give her a chance to redeem herself before that sentence is carried out. Can you have senior priestess talk to her?”Verenia studies Delonia’s face before answering. “I’ll talk to her myself.”“I hope you can convert her to Madriel,” Paks explains. “I don’t see any other way for her to be saved. Then she can help us, paying her debt to society that way.” “I see what you want,” says Verenia. “I appreciate and understand your feelings of mercy and compassion, and your desire to give the opportunity for redemption. These are all traits that Madriel brings out in us. Everyone deserves a second chance. I’ll talk to the notorious Delonia. However, slaving is wrong, even to Madriel, and Madriel doesn’t believe in forced conversions. We will only trust in her change of heart if she converts of her own free will. Nonetheless, I will talk to Grilliam and see if he will allow her to try to help you capture the smugglers and free the slaves.”“I understand,” says Paks, “And she does have a strong faith already.”Verenia nods. “Give me a few moments.”“Thank you,” says Paks. “I have faith in the gods.” She gives Delonia a long, compassionate look. “Good luck, Delonia.” Delonia rolls her eyes as Miriel and Paks step through the door. While the women are talking, Milo goes into the temple to pray. Chuck follows Milo to watch him. Milo manages to duck under a bench, and disappear. He sneaks over and surprises Chuck, tapping on his belt pouch. Milo looks quite pleased with himself, but Chuck is far from amused.When Miriel leaves Verenia’s office, she goes to the dawn rites and finds Chuck watching the benches, standing in the doorway. Jim says, “That halfling is so much trouble. Chuck, you can bring him to the Inn if you want, or I’m sure he’ll find us. How much trouble can one little halfling make...” He looks, but Milo has disappeared from view again. “Oh, no...”   Milo sneaks up, expecting not to be noticed, but Jim spies him and says, “Oh, there he is now.”We all gather outside the temple, and make a brief plan. Paks decides to wait near the temple, and goes to a nearby bakery for a fresh loaf of bread. Milo goes with her. Miriel decides to stay at the temple for the dawn rites, and talk to Verenia when she’s ready. She says she’ll meet everyone back at the Laughing Ogre for lunch. Goldpetal goes to the woodland shrine to meditate. Chuck and Jim go to the Laughing Ogre for food and rest. When Chuck and Jim arrive at the Laughing Ogre, Fox greets Jim as an old friend, saying, “I’m so happy to see you, Jim. You’re never here enough. I feel safer with you around, even though there’s usually trouble when you show up! How’s Rick?”“He’s still running things, even though he’s getting old,” replies the Vigilant. Though this is the first he’s heard of Rick, Chuck guesses from their conversation that Rick is a senior Vigilant, maybe Jim’s boss.When Miriel finishes the dawn rites, an acolyte arrives with a message from Verenia, telling her that Verenia has contacted Grilliam, and that Miriel should go now and come back to the temple after lunch to discuss with Grilliam what should be done with Delonia. Miriel leaves the temple and looks for Paks, but doesn’t see her, and heads back to the Laughing Ogre. She finds Chuck and Jim and gives them Verenia’s message, then has a small snack and goes to lie down until lunch, as it was a long night with little sleep.Paks finds a bakery, but when she arrives there, she notices that Milo has disappeared. She selects a loaf of bread, and as she pays for it, inquires if the baker knows of a shrine to Enkili. “There isn’t actually one in town,” he answers, “But you could always go down to the Conch and Trident and gamble. Enkili is a god of gamblers and sailors; sometimes worship is just a roll of the dice.”That doesn’t suit what the serious young warrior is looking for, so she goes out of town to pray in a field, instead. She takes out a coin, and begins a prayer. “Please, Enkili” she prays, “Do not take offense at my actions. I hope that my actions were your way of giving Delonia luck.” She pauses for a moment, contemplating the coin in her hand. “If I have acted according to your wishes,” she prays, “Let this coin come up heads.” She flips it high in the air, and catches it. It lies in her palm, heads up.At the Laughing Ogre, over lunch, Chuck asks Jim about Milo. “I don’t really know much about him,” answers the elder Vigilant. “I’ve never seen him before. He’s clearly a sneaky git, following you around all week the way he did. I tried to follow him, but even though I’m a good tracker, he still got away from me. I don’t really like halflings anyway, but this one...” He shrugs. “He gives me the willies. He’s trouble.”“That’s no reason to tie him up,” says Miriel, who has come down from her nap to dine. “We can but see if his actions match his words.”Paks arrives midway through the meal, feeling immeasurably reassured after her prayer. She joins the group at our customary table in the corner. Goldpetal joins the group shortly after she does.Milo is the last to arrive, and when he does, the halfling asks Fox, “May I take a room, sir?”Fox looks at him, and says, “Certainly, for my usual rate of two gold pieces per day.” The halfling blanches slightly. Miriel suggests, sweetly, “I’m sure you can stay at the temple of Madriel.”Milo glances at her, and says, “I’ll consider it.” He steps out into the courtyard, to sleep under a tree in Fox’s garden. After lunch, rested, all of us go to the temple. On the way, Chuck and Jim both express a lack of trust for Delonia. Even though he doesn’t trust her, Jim thinks she could be used. We find Grilliam at the temple, in Verenia’s office. Verenia is seated, while Grilliam stands behind her right shoulder. Delonia is with them, standing in the far corner, and she meets Paks’ questioning look with a smile and a nod. She is no longer wearing the manacles.Grilliam tells us, “I heard about your exploits, scaring off the smugglers and capturing this Delonia. You’ve proven your worth, and started to earn the money I gave you. Hello Jim, thanks for helping out. This is a very serious matter.”“Yes,” Jim says, “Slaving is very serious.”Grilliam looks at Paks. “Well, I’ve heard your plan for giving Delonia a chance. I’m willing to waive the death sentence if she helps you to get into the swamp and raid this trading post.”“Yeah,” Jim says, “I think we could use her. That’s exactly what I want to do; this is a good group, and I think we could put an end to this smuggling and slavery, at least for now.” Chuck again suggests, “What about letting Thar have vengeance?” Everyone else ignores this, as it doesn’t fit with anyone’s plans. Miriel outlines the plan of posing as Delonia’s convoy, and asks Grilliam about providing us with some armed men. “I’ll have to think about that,” the priest of Hedrada answers. Jim asks Delonia, “How many men did you typically go to the swamps with?”Delonia says, “Just a few. It wouldn’t be good if you showed up with a lot. I usually brought six slaves, with four men at arms.” Milo suggests, “It would probably be suspicious if you showed up with a halfling.”Delonia shakes her head, and gives him a bright look. “No, we had plenty of halfling slaves. King Verduk has been selling you off.” Milo looks quite disappointed at this news.“Could we really disguise ourselves as slaves?” asks Chuck.“Sure,” answers Jim, with his customary optimism, “At least for a cursory inspection.”“We could get up to the door at least,” asserts Miriel.Grilliam decides, “I don’t think I can spare any men.”“We could hire some men at arms,” Jim says speculatively, but then shakes his head and says, “No, I’d rather go with people we know and trust.” Miriel tells Grilliam, “Well, okay. I guess that’s why you hired us. Is there any help you can give us, though, perhaps some healing potions?”Verenia glances at him, and then offers, “Yes. We can provide you with some healing potions.”Jim says, “I think the group of us can handle a group of rat men.”“Ten, yes,” Paks says. “Hundreds, no.” She looks over to Verenia. “Did Delonia convert?”The high priestess tells us, “No, she has not converted. However, Grilliam has waived the death sentence if she helps us, on her solemn word of honor.”“Excellent,” Paks says, giving Delonia a warm smile.“We are agreed, then,” Miriel says. “We’ll go back to the inn and rest; it’s been a long day. But we’ll set out for the swamp tomorrow.”As the rest of us leave, Verenia takes Miriel aside. “Grilliam and I,” she tells the young priestess, “Have laid a geas on Delonia to ensure that she assists you faithfully.”Back at the inn, we talk over our plans and what has happened so far. “Is there anything else we should do, before we set out?” asks Paks.Chuck suggests, “We could tell the harbormaster about Thar’s experience, to see if we can find out anything about the island.”Goldpetal disagrees, pointing out, “We already know that we’ve been watched in that part of town.”“We could have Grilliam send someone,” Miriel suggests.Milo suggests, helpfully, “Of course we don't want to go to the harbormaster during the day, but I can go down there unseen in the evening.”Miriel looks at him firmly. “No. We should let Grilliam do it.”Paks asks Fox, “Where might we hire men at arms?”The innkeeper answers, “All the adventuring types in town are already with you, and there are no real mercenaries around. You might be able to hire some wanderers down at the docks, but I’m hardly sure I’d trust them.”“Can you leave a message for Stone,” asks Chuck, “And tell him where we’re going?”“I’d be glad to,” Fox says. Chuck takes him into Fox’s office, and shows him the map, and where we will be. We all go to sleep. Delonia and Milo stay in Goldpetal’s empty room; nobody else will trust them, and Goldpetal wants to go out to the outlying woods near town to meditate.</blockquote>

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