Alexander leaned back up a bit and smirked ‘ye who wan answers but never listen’ he thought while he, again turned Ritter leaned an elbow and forearm onto his table and spoke softly “I’ve told you I’ll give you details but for this I demand discretion, a tavern has far too many ears.” Alexander leand closer, still with apparent amusement on his face and spoke again in a hushed whisper “a hunt will place Rem in far greater pearl then you realize and in more danger we can deal with.” Alexander spoke in a harsh and deathly tone with piercingly jaded eyes. He turned back to his table, took an other drink of water and then got up. He reached into his inner left breast pocket and took out a single silver coin and place it on the table, more than enough to pay for the… drink… that he was given that he did not partake of and for one of Alden’s.
“And since you’ve failed to properly tack the imitative it then falls to me, such a bother…” Alexander sighed haply and sarcastically while rolling his eyes away from the conjoined party while he adjusted the cuff of his over coat’s left sleeve before he glanced about for a more isolated spot within the immediate area, the further out of ear shot the better. Given that Ritter and Sef were affectively guarding the inn while Friton and Heneth were in it he took into consideration that the duo would want to be somewhere that could observe the tavern’s front door, but was not, and would not settle for a location were their conversation could be easily listened to without the listener making themselves obvious.
Once he had found an adequate location and the other had joined him he would continue. “Before I say anything I trust you shall keep this to yourselves, a panic, or fools starting a war they have no hop of winning, could get us killed in short order.” Assuming Ritter, Sef, and Tio implied they accepted Alexander’s term he would continue. He would pause accordingly to let any passersby leave or let any of the three who did not agree also part company.
[the fallowing assumes all three fallow and stay]
“Rem itself is of little consequence to the war, a Gnoll host that is presently not openly hostile towards humans is between Rem and any hope of reinforcements, the Host is a warparty presently out to kill ‘kniff ears’ and there’re Treylor forces in the area. We can have a few Gnolls mucking about to scalp elves we ourselves want dead or we can have them marshal their forces and remove Rem from the map entirely well before word can even get to a force large enough to fight them. And this is assuming such a force would be sent at all, the loss of Rem might not be seen as worth the loss of fighting strength needed to battle a Gnoll war party and by the time such information would get out any sane commander would assume Rem already lost, and far from worth the effert.” Alexander would say this while staring at Ritter and Sef judgingly. “The pact, as I assume it to be, is more or less an alliance, or at least a truce and I don’t know what it will endure; If the Gnolls want to take a few head of cattle? Let them. Rem is safer losing a few cattle to glorified wolves then being attacked by either the Elves or the Gnolls. If Rem would be so lucky if all that is lost is a herd or two, leave it be.” Alexander then smirked yet again and glanced to Tio “and I thank you for missing them.”
Alexander smiled smugly and then continued.
“As for why we took the back roads: the Gnolls are thicker there. And since one of my duties is as a linguist I chose to take the safer, if less pleasant road. If we happened onto Gnolls I felt it would be easy enough for me to just talk my way though, meanwhile I’ve no clue just how infested with Treylor forces the main road is now; I assume their watching traffic to and from Rem, perhaps even Rem itself, to see if it is worth purging: the less seen activity the better. As it stands my hop is they will just ignore Rem in much the same regard we’re doing.”
Alexander again looked to Tio “And given that you found Alden surrounded by Gnolls, and by his account they surrounded him while he fought a beast I can only assume they were giving him a chance to finish his own battle before stepping in; since there was no trace of the beasts I can only assume they took the corpses with them, their probably gnawing on the bones right about…” Alexander gave a dramatic pause, rolled his eyes up and to the leftward, made a leftward smirk and grinned wickedly.
Alexander raised his right hand beside his head and extended his index finger like he was pointing strait upward “Now.” He chuckled menacingly as he clicked his finger and hand forwards, he was relishing the idea of the things that tried to eat him were being eaten themselves. He snickered like a serpent briefly before continuing.
“All things considered I think the encounter with the Gnolls went very well, it means the Gnolls value the pact enough to leave an attack behind; for the moment their presence is to Rem benefit,” Alexander glanced back to Ritter and Sef “Antagonizing the Gnolls could make situations Dire where they need not be. So let the Gnolls eat the Elves and let the Elves slay the Gnolls. Preserving the statuesque in this regard is vital for Rem and anyone in it and it aids the war. That said, once the war is over and don with, feel free to get yourselves killed, just don’t do anything that can get a whole town raised to the ground in the process.”
