[Game Thread] Chapter 1: For Love or Money

[DukeofTuring]

Seeing that the dwarf is handling Bertram, Marcus focuses on the child. Trying his best to be friendly and casual, Marcus says, "Let me take a look at the wound, young man."

Holding his holy symbol in his right hand, and placing his left on the kid, Marcus intones "Sigmar, bind these wounds on your child"

 

Marcus casts cure light wounds and cures 6 HP of damage, which I believe cures the kid entirely

Turning to Karl, "Barkeep, something warm for the child to drink, not too stiff"

Turning back to the kid while doing his best to look paternally stern but still friendly, Marcus continues, "I am a priest of Sigmar, the great god of the empire and a protector of the, ah, small. Why don't we sit down and talk thing over, you know, you can tell me what happened." he says, gesturing to any open spot he can find far away for Bertram.

[Insacrum]

Ollona lowers her bow, seeing the fight break-up. Her lizard continues to mumble into her hear, and she decides to go along with it's suggestion. She looks at the kid that Marcus is currently talking to, and after a wave of her hand, the wounds that Marcus's heal weren't able to heal continue healing. She refrained from saying anything about it. Let the man think his god was helping him out.

After the disturbance, she's still hungry, and hoping that the food that she had ordered was still being sent out to her. She helps out by up-righting the table and gathering the chairs that used to be around it.

OOC For my healing roll, see my previous post.

[Quadra Wield]

Holly holsters her pistol, and cringes at the thought of paying for the new ceiling. Luckily, this Bertram fellow, offered his master's money to pay for her damages.

"Well Bertram, I feel like I owe you now."

Plus the gold would be nice she thought.

"I'll take up your master's job offer, just give me a time, place, and what needs to be done."

She says as she takes a seat, waiting for more of an explanation.

[darthcharon]

Wil looks up at Marcus stunned as his wounds heal before his eyes. At the suggestion of talking to Marcus, Wil nods weakly, and says, "Ok, I guess, but there isn't much to tell. Me an five others were sent to the forest to find Bela's da--something, which he believed had been taken by the bandits. We didn't stand a chance. I only barely got away, I don't know what happened to the others." Wil falls silent. Ned chooses that exact moment to burst back into the room, an elderly man right behind him. Ned points at Wil, then realized that Wil is now healthy looking and looks confused.

The older man steps foward, and carefully examines the boy, who does not resist. Looking up, the man says, "Did you do this? Impressive magic. I'm sure his family will be grateful." Turning towards the boy, he asks, "How are you feeling?"

"Better," The boy admits, though he still has a glazed over look in his eye.

"Come on," Ned says, snapping out of his stupor, "Let's get you home." Ned then leans over and picks up the boy, looking at Marcus again. "Marcus was it? Thank you on behalf of his mother. Should you have time later, I'm sure she'd appreciate it if you stopped by so she could thank you personally." With that, Ned and the older man walk out the bar the same way they came in.

Meanwhile Bertram nods as the dwarf and gunslinger agree. "Good," he nods. "I understand you have questions, but I am but a servant. It is Bela whom you will want to talk to. If you would follow me, I will take you to his estate. Oh, and before I forget," He pulls out forty gold and hands it to the dwarf, "your advance." Turning towards the elf and, reluctantly, the warrior priest, he asks, "And you? Are you interested as well?"

OOC BTW, that's 40g total, not each, and he handed the gold to the dwarf because he was the closest. It's up to you all to make sure you get your share

[Insacrum]

Ollona looks around at the group as they are making decisions about what to do. It looked like two of the travelers that she just met were going along with this Bertram character. When Bertram regarded her with the question of going, she thought, 'This looks like it'll be the most interesting thing in the last 10 years, I guess I can give it a try.'

"I guess I can go along," but still something nagged at her, and Chompy's took it upon himself to reminder her.

"Squeek grumble grumble squawk."

"Oh yeah, what about the food. Chompy would prefer that we actually got it, rather than leave it here for someone else. I mean we did paid and all. By the by dwarf, will I be getting my share of the funds, or will it be going towards your drinking funds?"

OOC Let me know if the lizard talk is getting annoying. I figured it would be fun to do until the thing could actually speak.

[Quadra Wield]

"Alright Bertram, I'll follow you to your master's estate.

Holly had been wondering about that weird lizard on the elf's shoulder, was it talking to the elf, and the elf was responding back? Eh, whatever the elf was a bit "special" after all, maybe she thinks she can talk to lizards. She raises her eyebrows when the dwarf receives the money, and after Ollona is done talking, Holly says,

"Ha, dwarf it is going towards drinking funds make sure to share half the drinks with me."

[DukeofTuring]

Marcus does his best to listen in on both conversations at once. Turning to Bertram and the other adventurers, he says. "Go along with him, I'll catch up when I'm done with the boy. Which way is it to your master's estate?"

Once he gets an answer, Marcus turns back to Wil, Ned, and the surgeon. "Not a problem, simply doing the work of Sigmar. It would be my pleasure to call on Wil's family if I have enough time."

Focusing on Wil, Marcus does his best to tease out more information. "I'm sure this is a very stressful time for you, so feel free to take your time in answering. But being a priest of Sigmar, it is my duty to enforce law and order within the empire. Can you what happened with the bandits, what you were doing at the time, how you encountered them? Start from the top, when you first left town. And again, I realize this isn't easy, but I'm sure that anything you tell me could help me mete out justice to these people."

[darthcharon]

The halfling looks up confused at the elf for a moment. Then he looks down, and realizes he is still holding a meal, and remembers that he had just been on his way to deliver said meal when the brawl started. "oh, right, here you go! beef stew and two slices of buttered toast. You can keep the bowl if you want to eat it on the go!" He then turns to help his wife clean up the mess, apparently now in a better mood now that he knows he will be reimbursed later.

The boy, talking to Marcus, hesitates. "Well, I think..." before he can go anyfurther, Ned intterupts

"While I understand your desire to take out the bandits, this boy's been through enough already today. Why don't you come by after you've gone to talk to Bela, or preferably tomorrow morning even, and we'll see how he's feeling then, eh?" Ned then leads the boy, along with the elderly man, out the door.

Meanwhile, Bertram leads everyone who follows him to a very large estate. It is two and a half stories high, with a tall iron gate surrounding its courtyard. on either side of the double doors that lead into the building is a obviously well tended garden, and the building opens up into a large entrance hall, with a door immediately to your right and left, one straight ahead, and a double set of stairs leading up to a catwalk that overlooks the entrance hall, and has several other doors. There are several benches along the wall, and two bookshelves, one on either side of the stairs.

Bertram turns towards you, and says, "Wait here. I need to inform Bela that the first group has failed, and that I have found another, potentially more competent group to replace them." He then climbs the stairs and departs through a second set of double doors, through which you can temporarily see is a library.

[DukeofTuring]

Marcus waits quietly and patiently

[Glenn Coco]

Groz appeared excited and somewhat impatient knowing that they will be off on their quest soon.

Realizing that he still had all the gold he takes out the coin bag.

"Aye, here's your cut... although I could just invest it into our brew fund..." winking at Holly as he says this.

He then proceeds to hand each of them 10 gold coins.

[Insacrum]

Ollona takes the offer of food and bowl from Karl. The smell of it was intoxicating to her, and Chompy is staring at it, waiting for a chance to be able to steal any of it. He emits small hisses, clicks and squeaks whenever the bowl gets close, as he reaches out with his hands to grab anything he can out of the bowl.

Ollona focuses on eating the bread and the broth. Once finished, she takes the pieces of meat that halfling claimed was beef, although Ollona was suspect about it's relationship to the bovine family, and begins giving them to Chompy carefully. Chompy, in his eagerness, snaps at each piece of meat sent flying in his direction.

Once they arrive at Bela's estate, Ollona can't keep the mirth out of her eyes, 'Humans and their buildings!' Upon entering, Ollona sets the bowl down, no longer needing it to eat, thus no longer wishing to carry it. She looks around the entry room, taking note of the different entrances and exits, but in reality it is Chompy who is pointing them out to her as he lets out a long sting of chirps, growls, clicks, and screeches as his observations in her ear.

[Quadra Wield]

Holly was slightly impressed that such an estate was located in such a small town, but having traveled to many different imperial human cities before, the building did not entirely fascinate her.

She received her share of gold from the dwarf and winked back at him when he mentioned brew.

Holly yawned and waited for their job to be explained and given to them.

[darthcharon]

After waiting several minute, the doors open again, and a middle aged man enters the room from the second floor. He has black hair going grey at the temples, a face that is growing more angular with age, and most noticeable a large scar that reaches from just above his nose to the bottom of his left cheek. He is wearing a very elegant noble's outfit, complete with an ankle length cloak, and he walks down the stairs with a grace that suggests he is used to the finer points of life.

"Welcome. Please, come with me." He leads you through a door on the right, on the first floor, which contains a large fireplace, and several chair oriented around it. The entire left wall is covered with books. He motions for you to sit, then fetches a bottle of wine and five glasses. He pours each of you a drink, and one for himself, and then begins his tale.

"Thank you for coming," he starts with a nervous smile, "Bertram mentioned that he thought you would be able to complete my little task. I would not have sent young boys to do men's work, but I'm afraid I didn't have much choice. It's my daughter, you see, she's run off. Julianne ran away to be with a man she calls the love of her life, none other than the leader of the bandits. Ironic really, that it would be a bandit that stole my daughter's heart," He chuckles slightly. "I don't fear for her life, as from what I gather the love is at least reciprocal, but not only is he unlikely to provide the care my daughter needs, but he is a common outlaw! Surely you can understand why I forbade her to see him again." Bela takes a deep sip from his glass, "She ran out the same night I gave my ultimatum. If only I hadn't been so caught up in my books, I might have seen it sooner..." Bela trails off for a moment.

Snapping back to attention, he turns towards you. "And that is why I have need of your aid. My daughter is out there, in the 'hospitality' of thugs. She may think she knows what she wants, but this 'love' of hers is only puppy love, and she will soon realize her folly. When she does, this bandit friend of hers might not be willing to let her go. I want to find the bandits, and get my daughter back. I would prefer that you do so without killing, but as they are bandits, I doubt many will shed tears should it come to that. What say you?"

[Quadra Wield]

Holly sighed quietly to herself. This sort of mission she was not comfortable with. If the daughter left of her own accord and their love was reciprocal she felt that it was the daughter's own damn business, but oh well. After all Holly owed Bela for the damage in the tavern and the money would be nice. Maybe she could convince the daughter to come back, and ask the bandit leader to change careers into a a more "Bela" approved one. She doubted it though, and she thought about her nickname or alias of "The Demon," and how she might earn that nickname once again.

"Alright Bela, I'll take on your job, just tell me where to look, how these bandits are armed, the bandit's experience, and how many of them there are. Also, if there happens to be any lady bandits as well, I don't want to get them confused with your lovely daughter, so a description of her would be nice."

Holly says this with a sort of wry, uncomfortable smile on her face, waiting for Bela's information.

"Oh, and did you have any restrictions, or something you wanted to know about us or me in advance of pursuing your daughter?"

Holly says this, because she is starting to realize something is not right. She only just arrived in town, so talk of bandits and daughters running away, she likely might not have heard from the locals gossip yet, but this Bela man was asking total strangers to rescue his daughter and deal with the "bandits." Their adventuring group could kill the bandits for all Bela knew, and take his daughter hostage for them selves, and ransom her off, after all he didn't seem to be short on money. She would have to go with Marcus to talk to the teen that had already failed the job.

[DukeofTuring]

"Of course, I too would be honored to retrieve your daughter." Marcus adds after Holly accepts Bela's offer.

Once Holly asks her questions, Marcus adds one of his own. "Also, your lordship, are you sure that you would prefer us to be so gentle with these bandits? I understand that your daughter's safety should be our highest priority, but once we've spirited her away to safety couldn't we put these criminals to the sword, as is just? I don't mean to intrude on your authority, but these brigands have already killed several people that we know of, and once men are accustomed to a life of inequity they seldom turn back."