Chapter 5: Pleased to Meet You

Ember's glad that Yelnar jumps in so quickly to respond. The thought of the plan failing is a little too much for her to handle right now.

Uelten accepts Yelnar's analysis with obvious relief. "Good, that's good. I was worried for them."

"The only time I've ever seen Verrain not in control was when she demanded the disk after we met you two. She's very level-headed."

And....in her defense, we should really talk to Athisa when this all blows over. Or when we aren’t in the middle of a heist, at least.

If anything, the fact that Verrian acknowledges him only serves to fluster Giran more. He resolutely looks anywhere but at the table where Eanala and Verrian sit.

"Our estimates are around forty. We don't have a good way of knowing for certain, though. We've been trying to get someone on the inside to talk to us, but either Crow or Ghara have them afraid enough about something that they're not giving us much at all," the elven woman says. She pulls out a map of the city, and indicates a large building near the river, tapping it a couple of times with one long finger. "They're being held here. If your friend managed to navigate the entry process and get himself rounded up, this is where he'll be."

She uncovers another map from the pile, a more detailed accounting of the district where the warehouse is found, and indicates a couple of buildings where they have relatively secret entrances lined up.

It is perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes later when a red-haired dwarf with a close-cropped beard and a human of average height and build appear in the otherwise empty back street of this abandoned district. Both are dressed in dark clothing typical of a commoner, with the human also wearing a dark knitted hat that covers the head so that only a few locks of light colored hair escape around the bottom.

They look toward the building where you agreed to wait, and the dwarf nods. He gestures silently to his companion to take up a position at a nearby corner. The human strides confidently but quietly toward an especially shadowed spot where the entire street is visible. The dwarf approaches the building and says in a low, dry tone of voice, "Knock knock. Anyone here?"

Coreene steps close to the door, sharing with everyone @everyone:: "Stay silent, and out of sight." Pulling a dagger from her belt, she calls through the door quietly. "That depends on whose asking."

Swan frowns and fingers the hilt of his rapier, but otherwise refrains from moving.

Wil takes another walk around the room getting the feel for the guards movements and making notes of who looks the most alert.

He spies Brick and has a thought.

Hello sir, Brick is it, do you mind if I talk to you a bit?

Not giving him a chance to answer, Wil goes on.

I am just curious as to why you have such a strong dislike for people who use magic.

Don't look so surprised, I am not quite as dumb as I look. It is obvious these people are not here to be protected. They are prisoners.

Don't say it is because of the mage wars, none of us are nowhere near that powerful. If we were, we wouldn't be so easy to capture.

He looks around and continues.

Do you think Crow is any better for the world? That your boss is some hero? He is a bully the same as the ones before him.

Time to take my shot.

I don't think that is you. I think you fell in with them and now you feel stuck. It doesn't have to be that way. You can be the hero you always wanted to. Some time, there will come a decision and it will decide how the rest of your life plays out. I like you, and I hope you make the right decision.

Wil offers his hand to shake.

Well, I've taken enough of your time, I hope we can talk again. By the way, what is your name? I don't think of you as a brick.

Looking at the map with interest, Verrian says, "That's good to hear - my associates who were in Hara days ago also estimated the number to be about forty. Do you have information on their security procedures?"

The dwarf nods once, seeming satisfied by the skeptical response he gets. "Good answer. I'm a friend of Talva's," he replies, invoking Verrian's nom de guerre. "We're here to take you through the city. This part of town isn't usually patrolled, but it's best to be safe anyway."

While he awaits your response, he turns to look out at the street. You can see he carries a heavy mace at his side, which he rests one hand on.

Brick is pacing absently near the main entrance to the warehouse room, and is immediately suspicious as soon as Wil walks up to him. The difference in size -- not just height but girth -- between the two is almost comical. Brick could be a half-dozen Wils in a trenchcoat. He doesn't bother to put his hand on the thick metal bar all the guards carry as an attitude adjuster. Chances are Brick feels he could squash Wil by pushing down gently. But he's certainly suspicious, and even more so as Wil begins talking.

You would expect his voice to be a low rumble, but when he does respond to Wil, it's surprisingly quiet, with a thick accent common to the southern coast of Ardraven. "Look, kid. I don't know who you are, and I don't care. But you don't know me, and you don't know my boss. People like you destroyed the world," he says, jabbing a thick finger down toward Wil. "And that ain't gonna happen again. Sometimes you gotta do things you don't like to do so's that you can fix stuff, yeah?"

It's clear he believes it. The energy he says it with, the focus in his eyes, it's something he's internalized. But if it's his own thought, his own mantra, and not someone else's that he's co-opted, you can't tell.

"I lost everything because of people like you. My entire family, everything we'd built since my great-great-grandpa carved a farm outta nothing. And I ain't the only one. So yeah. You're here to be fixed up so that you don't become dangerous. No big surprise there, yeah?"

He doesn't take Wil's offered hand to shake, instead folding his massive arms over his equally massive chest. "Not that my name's gonna mean anything, but it's Krigor. Now go talk to somebody else, yeah?"

That suspicious look in his eyes, though... it does seem like it fades a bit. Maybe some of Wil's words made it through to connect with something inside his head.

Coreene nods to the others, putting her dagger back, but keeping a firm hand on her scythe. She opens the door so that he can see only her. "I suppose a chaperone wouldn't be a bad idea."
@everyone:: "It should be safe, but stay on your guard."

Eanala straightens, fixes Verrian with a stare. "You had associates in Hara days ago? Can I ask who they might be? So many people go missing these days for unpleasant reasons, but..."

She spreads her hands out, palms up, in a sort of shrug. "We've been trying to track down some people, and you never know."

Verrian sits back in her chair. The question seems a little strange to her. "You probably wouldn't know them. They had befriended a little girl and her mother. The mother had just gone missing, and my friends uncovered information that she'd been taken by the guards because she had slight magical talent then they left Hara and met up with the rest of us."

Swan flows out of the shadow, and nods greeting to their escort. "We appreciate a friendly face, sir. It was hard enough to get out of the city. I hope we'll have a chance to compare stories."

It's nice to meet you Krigor. You may not believe me, but you have my deepest sympathies on your loss. But these people had nothing to do with it. My village was attacked by brigands, but not all soldiers are bad.

Wil bows and returns to his bunk.

Be well Krigor.

At this point, Ember's wrapped up in her cloak like a child in a laundry bin. She stares daggers at the dwarf.

If this is a trap, you're dead.

She coughs a few times to sell to anyone who's watching that she's just sickly, not covered in magic burns.

"Sounds like a common story," replies Eanala. The slight tension seems to dissipate and she goes back to the topic at hand.

"The warehouse is well-staffed with both city guards and Crow's people. They patrol reasonably often, and at unpredictable times. We've tracked them for a few days now, and there's no obvious pattern. We're not as sure about what's inside, but we can guess from the unique individuals that have entered and exited that there's at least a dozen guards, but quite possibly more," she says, showing Verrian the records of guard patrols they've managed to make.

She snorts indelicately. "We've only seen the head man himself go in one time. Most of the time, he's near the gate, in that bunch of buildings in Sunrise Square, as far as we can tell. The mayor has never been seen there, at least not in the last week. He stays mostly near the remains of the palace, where the guards are headquartered."