Fourth Adventure 05: Saboteurs

After hearing Rory's answer, Zeiss walked away and prepared his horse. Soon, they would leave.

Tabran Cole wrote:"do any of you have any of this stuff i can have a look at?"

"Right here Tabran. It's very dangerous. It breaks down organic matter at a ferocious rate. If I hadn't severed Snarg's arm at the elbow he likely wouldn't have survived. In fact, the arm was completely undone in less than a minute."

Kolson hands Tabran the Vile of Bubbling Liquid.

Tab looks over the poison for a min

then hands it back to kolson

Tab walks up to the Burun on the horse and pulls him off onto the floor with a loud thump and puts his knee on the Burun throat as he draws one of his daggers from a shief.

"you say that you invented this poison?"

Kolson leaves the Burun with the rest and goes to make his report to Z.

To Z and anyone else around him/her: "Hello Z. We had a productive mission to the graveyard. We found a Burun busy poisoning the local wildlife with Bloodthorn poison. He had poisoned a large pile of food, likely from the fort, and laced it with something that would attract the animals. Miss Kez, Han, and Javen stayed behind to secure the pile.

During the struggle to subdue the Burun, he pulled this (Kolson shows the vial to Z) from a pocket and threatened us with it. We continued anyway and some of the substance got on Snarg, destroying his right/left arm from the elbow down. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it is related to the Bloodthorn poison. After I treated Snarg, he was understandably quite angry at the Burun and before I quite knew what he was doing he had chopped the prisoner's arm off in retaliation.

As to the prisoner himself, he claims to be one Argbadh Hozjk'loran, of Thornhollow and a member of the Sho Eighteenth Division, fifty-second Arm. He also took full credit for the creating the poison and for running the operation against the fort. He refused to say anything more and claims that he has protection as a prisoner of war.

It was weird though. If he is telling the truth, then he just took full responsibility for acts of sabotage on foreign soil in a time of peace. If he really was sent from Sho all that would do is provoke a war. I just don't understand what Sho would have to gain from that. I mean, if they want a war couldn't they just attack them straight up? I mean, why go through all this rigmarole?"

Rory & Tabran:

The Burun, still gagged, merely laughs coldly behind his gag. He nods at the Lycanthrope, pride still obvious in his eyes.

Kolson:

Z folds their arms, considering. "Politics," they responded bluntly, disgust evident in their tone. "If they do this, and didn't get caught, the Naverre might start the fight, give them a bargaining chip at the table with Aluvia and Osteth. If they did get caught, Sho could claim Naverre was trying to slander their name. Probably part of why our friends are insisting on their patriotism so strongly. An accusation leveled at this point would be the tipping point on such odd evidence and, again, give the Sho more power at the diplomacy table."

"So getting caught red-handed in an unprovoked attack actually works for them?"

Zeiss turned to Z.

"But we are the one who discovered this. If the Order backs up Naverre, Sho will be the ones at a disadvantage, right?"

Tab puts the dagger over the Burun's left shoulder

"have you ever been to a town called Al-Erat?"

The Burun looks at the Lycanthrope, confused, and shakes his head no.

Z is frowning. "Politics aren't that simple, you should know that. Even if we, a neutral party... which, I remind you, was the entire point to begin with... declare that this was a Sho operation, when our evidence is presented no one will believe it because of how... off it is. This is very different from standard Sho operating procedures."

"Different enough to not be?"

"If any of 'em get wind of 'em, it's gonna be fightin' time." Snarg says, adopting a very stern look, "'specially, I ain't puttin' it past Naverre to be usin' it fer warrin' reasonin'. Maybe they been puttin' 'em here inna first place - they be gettin' more outta this."

Z is still frowning. "This is... complicated. Either this is someone framing the Sho, which is the obvious choice, but with no evidence of whom we have no way to pursue that... or this is the Sho assuming people would assume this isn't Sho."

tab push's the dagger thou the Burun's cloths so it is now scratching the skin

"then why was a poison very much like this that you invented used there to kill 8 people?"

Snarg of Wildpaw wrote:"If any of 'em get wind of 'em, it's gonna be fightin' time." Snarg says, adopting a very stern look, "'specially, I ain't puttin' it past Naverre to be usin' it fer warrin' reasonin'. Maybe they been puttin' 'em here inna first place - they be gettin' more outta this."

"So let 'em have their war," Rory groaned. "Why bother? We did our job, the Order won't care unless we screw up, or had another way out and ignored it."

"Maybe ya ain't got nothin' to lose wit' havin' a war breakin' out 'round ya, but lotsa others ain't bein' so lucky..."

"Well, this is not our place to choose the fate of nations. We have the information, we bring it to the ones who will know what to do with it. What is the next step Z?"

The Burun looks at you but, of course, is still gagged.

"If this were the Sho assuming we'd assume it isn't the Sho, i find it hard to think these two would trumpet their love for the nation so loudly. Hardly seems the trickster thing to do. Sure, it could happen, but doesn't feel right."

tab puts more presser on his neck before removing the gag

The Burun glares. "I invented this lovely concoction ages ago, but to my knowledge no one else is using it. I do like to perfect it over time, of course." You are fairly certain he is flat lying.

tab slowly push's the blade in half an inch

The Burun grins, showing no fear. "By all means," he spits out, "Kill your prisoner. I dare you."

"im not going to kill you we have some very skilled white mages here we can take you apart and put you back together aging over and over"

"Don't be killin' 'em; that's when he's wantin'. We gotta be gettin' some help to be movin' the junk outta the graveyard. Maybe gettin' ya Fort to be helpin' since it's bein' close."

The Burun remains unchanged in his expression. "Over what? The fact that I'm some horrible person by your code of laws, or that you refuse to turn me over to the Naverre as you no doubt have orders to do? Satisfy your sick pleasures elsewhere, fox."