Alex is an Arse hole 
Alexander studied Alden while the man spoke, and started judgmentally; Alden was distinctly a street rat to Alexander, and likely a too bit crook.
The first, painful, hint was the man’s use of “boss”, while they were in what could be considered a backwater they were still in a military camp, even if Alden did not know who Alexander was he did know that Alexander was his direct superior and the generic title to be used would be sir. In and of itself the use of “boss” was not enough to get Alexander to tag any one as a street rat, but the list of rat like traits was pronounced.
That Alden thought no one cared about what they were doing also told Alexander that Alden was a street rat, a further clue was his dislike of what Alexander assumed was a rather generic secluded village: to what Alexander knew these were hell for street rats For starters very few people and very dispersed making it hard to ‘accidentally’ bump into a passerby and take their coin purse, further given the low population its rather easy to weed out such individuals without the normal effort and there is no crowd to get lost in; except for the angry mod wanting their purses back. This is why Alex kept his inside the inner pocket of his under coat: a thief would have to defy the laws of
magic to get it without him noticing, but this is off point.
Then there was the, very awkward pause before he said ‘enlisted’ most would simply say they enlisted or they were drafted. There was no “I….errr…” to it; this screamed to Alexander that he was serving his sentence out in the army, not that it mattered much to him, just meant he could keep the man on a tighter lease… in this regard it was a boon. Then there was how well the man kept himself.
Sure, the Gnoll camp was smelly to say the least, but just because the camp was smelly was no excuse to completely forget hygiene. And in Alden’s own words “nobody back at the main camp could give 2 copper pieces what's going on up here.” There was literally nothing stopping him from taking at least some efforts in keeping himself clean and shaven, nothing save habit. When no one cares if a street rat keeps up their appearance, they don’t; further, by being as smelly, or nearly as smelly, as their surroundings, it was easier for street rats to blend in. the remark about trying to stay out of trouble only made Alexander certain of his verdict: any sane man who was given such a detail would say nothing about staying out of trouble because they would have to go out looking for it to hind it in this situation, unless they were already in I and it was why they were there in the first place.
Alexander subtly glanced about by rolling his eyes to make sure there was no Gnoll paying close attention and that Martomum was already out of sight, he then figured ‘To hell with it, it’s neon green swirly time.’ As he started a brief chant using his dwarven dialect as a mask, ‘fluttered’ his right hand in front of himself and towards Alden and lead and turned to one side while rolling his eyes again as if rambling on in annoyance. He presumed the dwarven dialect would throw Alden long enough to zap the filth off of Alden and color the man’s hair Neon green with bright red swirly poka dots, and, of cores, make his skin a brilliant bright pink. He would bring this part of the spell, which extended to Alden’s facile hair and creeping downwards, to the man’s attention and explain why momentarily.
As he evoked the spell, Alexander snapped his head back towards Alden and grinned an awfully devious, devious smug grin as a very faint bolt of arcane lightning leapt from his fingers and then ‘poofed’ onto Alden.
[sblock=OoC] Prestidigitation, there are No saves for it!
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Not Giving Alden even so much time as to begin to react to what just happened Alexander started his long awaited reply.
“You didn’t enlist, you were drafted under unarguable circumstances.” Alexander began smugly while staring Alden down; he did so love tearing through deceptions.
“Don’t pretend to fool me with such a frail misdirection: I can tell you aren’t as stupid as you’d like other to believe, you’re just lazy. If you had ever bothered to think of a way to say how you joined the Duke’s army then you would have said just ‘I was drafted’ it’s not a lie and it rises no eye brows. Pah!” he paused with annoyance, Alden’s performance was very sloppy at this point of Alexander critique.
“you could have even said that you were drafted because of your talents and accomplishments and still not lied!” he continued with his eyes pointed upwards and hands help up like open claws as if demanding: ‘why can’t this buffoon get the simple things right?’ in frustration
“I can only assume that you were conning enough to manage to convince what I’m assuming were rather annoyed guards into letting you serve out a sentence in the army instead of just taking one or both hands, perhaps even your life. I can also assume that, given the disputation of the regulars, if you so much as looked at one of their coin purses, and they knew of you, then you’d be walking to the gallows that same day: you can’t be trying to stay out of trouble here unless it comes looking for you.
And before you start thinking I’m complementing your intelligence and skills when thinking you can out wit guards and that you are some kind of thief: you were stupid and sloppy enough to get caught, weren’t you?” he continued with a golden eyed and judgmental stare.
By this point Alexander noticed that Alden’s skin near his hands was a
lovely shade of pink.
“As I’m sure you’re now noticing, yes. You’re changing color, that spells did a few things, among other things, it cleans rats.” He said, cackling like a crow at the end and still gave Alden no time to reply before continuing.
“When I Addressed Martomum, I was not addressing you. The dwarf can talk directly to the Gnolls, he has first hand insights about them that you simply don’t have to offer. The instant you opened your trap with any kind of information you relived him of his burden to inform me about the camp, and its occupants, and placed it on yourself: if you didn’t do so I could have gotten information from him you simple don’t have, and then I could have asked you about possible details he left out. But now…”
Alexander paused while letting out a frustrated breath through his nostrils,
“now, Now I’m stuck with only the information that you have, and it being colorful is of no boon to me. This means I won’t know details that could prove vital” he continued as he leaned forwards and templed his hands together.
“The spell I just used on you,” Alexander continued while letting his temper ebb “has many uses, and I’ll leave it to you to ponder what, nefarious purposes it ‘might’ have if I so ‘wish’ it, also, you’ll be less… colorful, in an hour” Alexander continued ending with a smirk as he said ‘colorful’.
“But I seem to have you at an unfair disadvantage, I am not a ‘Boss’ I am a Lord, all be it a young one; or if you would rather, Lord Alexander Julian Ravensworth, the fourth. And you should know we have orders arriving in the morning. So you see, you might have just ruined my last chance at asking Martomum a damned thing before we are deployed into combat: so instead we shall make a long day of discussing this pack of ‘walking dogs’. But I do need to thank you, I don’t know how the Gnolls would have reacted to me using magic while they rested so near to us, you shooing them away let me zap you without worry.” Alexander ended. he could have said Dellex told him nothing, about the camp, but then he would have been less imposing, and he still felt the need to let it sink in that Alden leaped out of the cabinet, over the skillet, and into the fire.
[sblock=OoC]… He’s an arse hole! World’s greatest arse hole! XD
Also, you can make a knowledge roll to see if he knows of Alexander if you like. :3[/sblock]
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