Nashkel Mine

"It’s good to see you again… Mayor Ghastkill did you come to compensate us for our works?" Dieter ties him up "stabilize him Stella we need him alive."

Stella flinches she sees the body tumble to a half. She steps out of the doorway stiffy over to him, grunting in pain as she goes.

"Lady of Mystery, help us learn what we need from him."

Out of bandages, she kneels down, cuts some cloth from her own travel skirt and tries to staunch the bleeding, but it doesn't seem to do any good. She couldn't remove the arrows...that'd only make things worse. Her eyes widen as she starts to panic.

Stella heaves what a sigh of relief mixed with a groan of pain.

She gives Runeson a weak smile. "Thanks," she says simply. The simple word carried a lot of gratitude. The paladin had stood up to protect her in the tavern and now he was supporting her here. He looked well-practiced, almost more than she was—she was used to magical herbs doing most of the work.

She looks to the setting sun. Did it really take them all day? She shouldn't have given Minsc the idea that they would be able to help—not until she was certain. Perhaps they could set off to help...tomorrow? Adrenaline fading again, Stella's exhaustion sets in once more.

"Should we go back inside and tie him up to rest?" she asks. "Or we could use the shackles..."

"Shackles," Aiwë agrees grimly.

Stitch happily reunites with Sheemish, spinning around the artificer before running a diagnostic on his worn equipment.

Major Bardolan strides forward, dressed in his fine armor. "I suspected that little creature belonged to your party." He wipes sweat from his brow. "Persistent little blighter. I couldn't figure out what it wanted at first, but when it seemed to want us to follow it into the mine we assumed the worst and called together a proper squad."

The seasoned knight takes in the nearest of Mulahey's furniture and decorations. "Care to explain just what's happened here?"

Quote:

"Was this what you had in mind when you dreamed of adventuring?"

Aiwë pats Sheemish on the back.

"Fighting angry priests and taking war prisoners? Nah. I thought I was getting away from all that."

At the Major's arrival Aiwë steps forward. This is going to be... delicate.

"A man named Mulahey, a priest of Cyric, has been running an operation down here to poison the ore. He was working for someone else, and using kobolds for his operation. We've got one here, Snog'snoot, who we got some information from." Aiwë passes the Major the letters they found, as well as their samples of the ore poison.

"Major Bardolan, I'm afraid we found someone else down here as well. While we were trying to recover from our battles, Mayor Ghastkill came to speak with Mulahey. When he found out Mulahey was dead, he tried to kill us."

Bardolan curses with each revelation, and his men glance at each other in evident shock.

"A priest of Cyric. The mayor! I... What in the Hells is happening in this gods-forsaken town?" He turns sharply back to Aiwe. "Where are they? The priest. And Ghastkill."

The priest is dead," Aiwë says bluntly, pointing to the body-shaped lump under a blanket. For the mayor, she is more gentle. "We subdued Ghastkill. He's in the next room. I'm... sure you realize this throws a different light on the situation with his brother."

Without hesitation the major pulls back the blanket to reveal the half-orc's battered corpse and scowls at it for a moment.
Several of the soldiers gasp, and Bardolan closes his eyes solemnly and takes a deep breath. "If you will excuse me, Aiwe, I need to speak with the mayor."

Quote:

What actually happened with your brother?

As far as the people of Nashkel are concerned, Commander Brage was the most loved and respected Amnian man north of the Cloud Peaks. He was born and raised in the town, then joined the Amnian army. He grew quickly through the ranks, until he was appointed to his hometown Nashkel and its iron mine to defend against any incursions from Baldur's Gate. Some say that his brother Berrun only became mayor because Brage himself couldn't accept the position, so the people installed the next best man (in their eyes) for the job. At the time, Berrun was grateful for the appointment, but as he himself grew in authority and power, he grew resentful that his brother, the beloved and successful Commander Brage, had more.

The canker of jealousy grew. By the time the first miner disappeared, Berrun couldn't stand to be in the same room as his brother, but in any confrontation with him the townsfolk sided with Brage. When Berrun went down into the mine to investigate the missing miner and instead found Mulahey and his kobolds, the half-orc priest easily divined Berrun's character and saw he was nearly ready to murder Brage himself. For Berrun's continued silence about Mulahey's presence in the mine, Mulahey promised to help dispose of Commander Brage in a way that couldn't be traced back to Berrun.

Shortly thereafter, a dark-skinned woman visited Mulahey and brought him a certain cursed sword. Mulahey lent it to Berrun, who 'gifted' it to Brage. Then poor Brage, driven made by the cursed sword's influence, murdered his own family. Berrun planned to capture Brage and have him executed, but Brage escaped and fled into the wilds. Since then, Berrun has been hunting his brother, to put him down and end him.

Quote:

Who else knows about this operation?

There was the dark-skinned woman. She may have been an elf, but what would a lone drow be doing scheming with the likes of Mulahey? Perhaps she was a human.

Stella decided to sleep outside with Sheemish, under the stars.

They acted like a warm blanket, helping her sleep surprisingly well, despite the physical trauma from the previous day. She had dreams littered with flashes of fire and the dark priest's morningstar smashing into her, but they were brief and faded as she slept. In fact...she couldn't feel any lingering injury. No cracked ribs or otherwise. Her druidic powers were definitely growing stronger, she concluded.

She spends part of the morning tallying up gold and planning future expenses. She needed special inks if she were to finally learn and copy Bently's spells from his spellbook. Perhaps she could also finally learn some spells she rapidly copied down during her time in Candlekeep.

She approaches Calliope. "I guess this means we've solved the Iron Crisis? At least the immediate issue. Will you be...meeting up with Mr...Gemini and leave now?" she asks.

Stella liked having Calliope around, especially for her sense of practicality. Her magic was very helpful too.

"Whoever Muhaley works for might not be done with this..." she muses. "I wonder what he had to gain...and if they're related to whoever's in Baulder's Gate hiring assassins." She pauses. "Where is Mr. Gemini anyway? And the creeps Xzar and Montaron for that matter...those two seemed pretty eager to get here as fast as possible. Then again, if they had, maybe they didn't...well...make it," she says grimly, glancing towards the mine tunnels.

"Anyway! she exclaims. "We...did good here...didn't we?" It's clear Stella still isn't comfortable with the idea of killing, but seems to be grasping that this is what being a "hero" might involve.

Calliope shakes her head. "Not Mr. Gemini; he has... likely further business to attend to; I don't know where he is. But you're right we'll be leaving. And if the crazy creeps died on the way, all the better for their future victims."

"And... yeah. We- you, did good here." Calliope corrects the word to make sure it's clear to Stella she's not just referring to herself.

And then with a snap, her wings and dress of feathers melt into a robe of black streaked with ash, her black hair grows longer into silver, covered partially by an ash-covered hat the same shade as her robes; the very picture of a fire-loving wizard in training. She stands up, snapping shut a spellbook that had been a journal just a moment earlier.

"I, on the other hand, didn't have anything to do with it. Must have been that Calliope girl, yeah?" She winks. This must be what she had been talking about before, wearing different faces. "Try to... teach the rest of them a little more sense to go with their heroics." Her expression softens just momentarily to show her exasperation and concern with Stella being the only level head in the group, and wishing her luck with it.

"I'll be around. Or not." A shrug, and a smirk. "If I'm good, you'll never know if I was."

Dieter walks by Stella "did it just leave? …well okay I guess.. you’re not leaving right?"