Chapter One: The Iron Sphere of Sthombo

Leth, not being much of a "people person", decided to leave the talking to the others and merely stood close nearby, listening carefully but not putting away his bow. He looked around carefully at the dead bodies and the man they have tied up, as well as the immediate surroundings to see if he could find any other external clues to the nature of the attack or the attackers... anything that would give him some kind of insight into the perplexing situation. He also took this opportunity to see if any of his arrows were salvageable.

OoC: Found a couple conflicting rules for gathering ammunition... In one place it says you can get back half of what you use in battle. In another place it says you roll a dice for it. When do I follow which rule?

While the others question the captive, Felor pokes through the dead attackers' belongings and attempts to ascertain whether they're paid assassins or mercenaries, or merely passing bandits who picked the wrong victims.

Vad approaches the prisoner and sits down cross legged besides him. He draws his dagger and starts flipping and twirling it in his hand, not so much as a threat, but more of a distraction. Leaning close to the bound man he asks, "You and your dead friends here wouldn't happen to know anything about the symbols we've found carved into the debris?"

The pace of the dagger twirling between his fingers increases as he leans back and awaits a reply.

Vad is using his Prestidigitation Cantrip in order to make the dagger appear to flip and twirl faster than he could ever do it manually.

Vad's dagger stops in his hand as he abruptly stands up. He turns to Carillon and gives him a slight wink, "He's of no use to us, do with him as you will."

Leth, of course, knew that his companions were simply trying to intimidate the bound prisoner and had no intentions of killing him just yet. But his investigations had given him no special information and it seemed he had no choice but to join the others in questioning; particularly a few questions that were buzzing around in his head since their captive's first response.

"Just a moment." He said to Vad and Carillon. "Let's not be too hasty; he may still be of use." He turned to the prisoner.
"Surely you understand our position. We can't be too inclined to trust you. Do you have any kind of proof that you're telling us the truth? A contract, perhaps? You said you were hired men; are you part of any sort of mercenary guild or company? Do you know the name of your "intermediary"? Where and when were you going to meet with him if you had been successful here? Where could we find him? Anything you could tell us would go a long way towards proving your truthfulness. Even your own name or the names of your companions over there could be considered a gesture of your honesty. But if you refuse to cooperate..." He shrugged, and gestured back to Carillon. "I can't stop my friends here from giving in to their... emotions. We've lost a good friend today and our tempers are running high. Don't test your luck."

Felor stands ten meters or so away from the others as they question the prisoner, leaning on his spear and gazing into the distance. Interrogations weren't his forte - he'd fought plenty of bandits in his time but they were usually the sort to plead for mercy when outmatched. Determined resistance was a new one on him.

Listening in on the conversation, he begins get an uncomfortable feeling that things won't end well for the captive. His - well, they were hardly friends yet, let's say acquaintances - didn't seem the type to take this poor fellow back to the justicars for the correct legal proceedings. That said, he suspected that the justicars wouldn't offer up a resolution any more fair than the one he'd get here.

OoC: I'm trying really hard to come up with ways to move this forward without leaving it dependent on one person's response... It's kinda difficult haha

At this point, Leth was running out of ideas. He wasn't particularly fond of killing people; defending himself was one thing, but to outright murder this helpless fellow because he wouldn't give them the information they needed seemed extreme. On the other hand, they could hardly afford to let him go because he could easily report back to his employer and any chance they would have had at solving this mystery would be gone. There was the matter of some carved symbols that Leth didn't know about, but their prisoner genuinely seemed just as clueless about them as Leth was. At this point the only line of information that seemed useful was the meetup with their intermediary. As far as that went, Leth was beginning to develop an plan as to how they could exploit this information.

"Well then. I guess there really isn't much we can do for you. Seems at this point, you're doomed to either die by our hand, or by your employer's. That's some bad life decisions, really.... however, there may be a third option, should you choose to cooperate." He glanced over at the others in the group to catch their attention and make sure they were listening. The thought crossed his mind that it probably would have been smarter to discuss this amongst themselves first, but they were quite possibly running out of time. He didn't know when the intermediary would be coming, and he also knew some of them were still intent on resurrecting Kells. Either way, they needed to resolve this quickly, something they could not do by subjecting the poor man to torture and more death threats.

"Lets say we let you capture two of us. You take us in, get your pay, and get away free, so long as you don't let on that we're in on it. You get what you want - your life, and your gold - and we get what we want - an audience with your employer. You just have to show us where the meeting place is, and tell us when to expect company. Play along, and we'll take care of the rest." He said all of this to the bound man, but also in part to the others - he wanted to see what they thought of this idea as well.

Felor is silent for a few seconds, then turns and nods at Leth.
"Aye. Aye, that could work."

Looking back and forth between her compatriots as they discuss, Tzipporah notices the hesitance in their eyes. They want to kill this man. But can't bring themselves to do it. Quietly she pulls a dagger from its sheath.
"There is no quarter for useless foes. Pity you didn't have more to contribute."
With a quick motion she slashes the man's throat stands to sheath her dagger.
" Shall we find this ruined building and take the battle to them?"

Should we be keeping track of our own Xp or are you?