February 19th

Dawn comes to Marblebush slowly but surely as the party recovers themselves, some of whom have already begun interacting with the morning light.

At dawn, after a good night of sleep in Ritholme, Zeiss prepares himself and his horse Nysis to return to Holtburg and join the others. With him, he carries the answer from the Stales about the arrangement.

Spoiler:

Suddenly waking from his sleep, Snarg stretches, almost knocking a startled Zipar off of him. "Oohhhh, I needed that," he groans. Grabbing some food and drink for both of them, he munches on them silently as he scratches the orange lizard, lost in thought.

After downing a healthy amount, he leaves the inn and bounds off towards the local authorities, canvas in tow.

Spoiler:

"Ah, wait a second... Mind if I go with ya? Not much to do in this town.", Javan asked Snarg, and started to follow him without waiting for an answer.

"Sure, if you want." Snarg waves to Javan as he heads out.

Waking early, Gwydo takes the opportunity to utilize the local bathing facilities. Feeling clean and refreshed, he grabs two meals and takes them back to the room.
Hearing Fiernacel rustling on the bed, he knocks politely "I've brought breakfast."
"Wonderful, I'm famished" she responds.
Gwydo walks in, setting one of the trays on the bed next to Fiernacel and taking the other to the window where he can eat and enjoy the view.
"Once we finish breakfast and I get my armor back on, we can go whenever you're ready."
Pausing to take a bite, he adds after swallowing, "If you're up for it, I'd love to have you do the Scionic thing to me, like you did for Snarg. But only if you're up for it."

Spoiler:

Having gotten to bed early the night before, and sleeping in fairly late in the morning, Araiguna feels as though he has gotten his first nights rest in months.
He sees some of his companions have gotten breakfast together and goes to sit and have a small bite to eat.
"Ahhhh I feel so well rested! what are everyone's plans for this week?"

*Z and Rory are currently snoozing near her campsite after having spent an evening sparing. Z is covered in bruises and there is a gash on her right arm that has been bandaged. Rory, however, looks none the worse for the wear and is snoring loudly.*

Gwydo:
Fierneceal nods faintly. "I can try, it takes... a lot out of me, I think I can only do it once a day or so, need to rest afterwards. So if we could wait until it's not the crack of dawn, I'd appreciate it heh."

Snarg & Javan:
The locals actually have no unified government like most Aluvian towns do, instead having a sort of joint council of elders. Nevertheless they have no idea who this Adventurer or whatever he was is, and cannot assist you in identifying him.

Upon being warned away from the ruins, body or no, the council immediately objects. The objects and artifacts and access-rights that they sell to those ruins are the town's only large-scale source of income, and while they are willing to consider alternatives if they exist in general they reject your warnings based on what they believe to be necessity.

The trip to the Skyclaw's bridge will take several hours. On the way Fierneceal will inform you that she has absolutely no idea how her people handled the dead, having never seen such a process in action nor having found any texts or information regarding thereto. She is torn on the thought of cleaning an entire ship full of debris that used to be what people were wearing (after all there is no trace of their bodies left, just like the rest) and will think on it.

"I'll let you decide what to do with them, Fier. Just let me know if you want help. Maybe we can find something about that on this ship."

Upon reaching the ship's bridge

Spoiler:

When everyone started down through the tunnels Araiguna tried to make the case that he was probably better suited to the scionic mind meld in the immediate future as a result of naturally being quite the adaptive thinker and having a grasp of over 6 different spoken word languages

Side note: (ooc)
My attendance tonight will be short lived (this will probably be my only post) because im visiting with family for the week. I will be back on regularly as usual ether tomorrow night or the next. Anyway, g'night.

Zeiss leaves Ritholme at seven O'clock for Holtburg.

Spoiler:

Snarg:
Fierneceal says that if there's nothing useful left (there is not), sweep them up and put them into a barrel. I know that sounds morbid, but they can have a proper rite of passage when I can bring them home.

Zeiss:
You are walking along, just after noon when you encounter a group of 5 bandits. They all have weapons drawn on you and have managed to successfully ambush you. They aren't actually demanding much, to your confusion, merely a 5 gold fee for traveling through their 'territory'.

Sitting on his horse, Zeiss looks down at the bandits that are surrounding him. They are using silver swords. He calmly says :

"Hello."

He takes five pieces of gold out of a small purse and give it to the nearest bandit.

"You have good weapons and seem to be decently organized. I am from an organization called the Exchange, which is based in Holtburg. We plan to take over the remnants of the Undermarket. And for that, we will need to hire people like you. Are you interested?"

Spoiler:

Zeiss:

The head Bandit frowns at you. "You want to recruit me for another Warlord pack? No offense mate, but I don't really feel like fighting my own men right now. Not unless you've got somethin' special going on that I don't know about."

"Actually, I would like to hire the five of you."

He gives a quick look at the other bandits, and while making sure he treats them with respect, he says :

"I doubt that your Warlord has the approval of the Aluvian's government for the activities you are conducting. You are bound to be hunted down by the military one day. That's a dangerous line of work you are into. What I want from you is to work for me. Not the other members of the Exchange. Me. And I pay generously to those who manage to show loyalty."

He pauses. Then says :

"Five pieces of gold a week, for each of you. You protect me, I pay you. What do you say?"

Spoiler:

The bandits all look at each other for a moment, then you, highly suspicious. "Boy," one of the others pipes up, "Yer either a better liar then you look or more desperate then you should be. Why'd you hire five total strangers to take care of you? And what Warlord do you speak for?"

"I am actually a pretty good liar when I need to be."

Zeiss places his hand on the neck of his horse, trying to calm him.

"I am on my way to Holtburg. When I get there, I will need bodyguards. But the five of you are here, right now. I figured I would hire you instead of running around the city to do that. And..."

He examines each of them.

"You are decent enough to not try to rob me of everything I have on my person. It means you follow orders. You were suspicious enough to question me about my offer. It means you are not stupid. And you do not want to fight your other comrades who are working for your current Warlord. Which means you are capable of loyalty. These are qualities I like in an employee."

Rainbow lets her head out of her sack, which she regrets when she sees the silver swords.

"And as for which Warlord I speak for... I could tell you, but prefer not to, unless you accept my offer and escort me to Holtburg. What I can say is that he is an ex-member of the Flock who left because he didn't like the work, joined the Order for a time but got fired because of some politician's game and finally decided with a group of particular people to form an organization called the Exchange, which tries to expand its influence peacefully and with as less bloodshed as possible. That covers all of what I can tell you. So... five pieces of gold a week to protect me. Are you interested or should I make my way to Holtburg by myself?"

Spoiler:

Marblebush, entrance to cave ruins
Rory awoke with a yelp, his mind in a panic as he desperately tried to overcome what turned out to be waking paralysis. He laid himself down again to continue resting inside his tent, wondering what was to be done about the ship in the ruins. He was like to nod off again, but he didn't care. Z would wake him before long--out of an obligation to the others, if not to him.

I felt a disturbance in the force:

Snarg:

Spoiler:

Zeiss:
One of the bandits steps forward, the one you initially spoke to. "Well I'd be a fool to turn down a king's ransom for an easy job. I'll turn coat." So saying he sheaths his weapon and sidles himself over by your horse. The other four jeer at him briefly, but disperse back into the brush, leaving you with your new recruit.

Zeiss looks down to his new bodyguard. He smiles lightly to him.

"Let's go then... Hmm. What is your name?"

His horse starts to go forward again.

"You can call me Alando for now."

Snarg flops over on his back, holding his head. "Oohhh, wish they could have made this a bit easier... I got someplace for these folks to mine so they don't keep poking around here and making more Tuskers. Some Pyreal and gems a bit northwest of here."

Zeiss:
The man, a Half-Elf of Banderling descent it looks like from his unusual facial features, looks at you warily. "I'm Gerald, of Seeker. And you, I presume, are Warlord Alando of the Exchange. Funny," he adds, "most of the Factions haven't been naming themselves things that grandiose. Which means to me," he continues on, "that you're either ambitious, blustering, or both."

Spoiler:

Right after Araiguna woke up, he went to the entrance of the cave with a bunch of gear and started to act like he was getting ready to go in scavenging in case any of the towns people mustered up the courage to go in if he wasnt there to go himself.

"The Exchange is just a name. And I see that you guessed that I am a Warlord."

Rainbow lets her head out of his pocket to look at the new bodyguard.

"Not that I really know from where that term comes from."