[Game Thread] Chapter Six: Be Careful What You Wish For

[SpatulaOdoom]

”By mostly I mean those who would be commonly referred to as human, rather than drow touched, half drow, and suchforth.”
”So only about one in twenty humans are slaves then? Out of a population of?”Morgan rubs his chin thoughtfully. ”Hmm.”
Zil darling, what do you think? Is she trying to be truthful, is she trying to twist the estimate from something much larger, or is she outright lying?
A lie by omission is still a lie after all.
“Criminal elements, such as The Exchange? Whom according to my sources you yourself sent to the surface to bring you a tutor. Someone you gave the choice of teaching you or death.” Even if he wasn't a slave any more didn't mean he hadn't ever been one. ”I would like to speak to him at some future point yes. However, logically speaking the human you chose to bring here with you, to a place wherein you had to know you'd be grilled on this specific subject, must be considered a suspect source of information.”

[Makenshi]

"I can't speak for every House or City, but we only send volunteers. There's no point sending someone who doesn't want to fight."

"Difficult to say. I'm almost a millenium out of date with Drow after all. While I don't think that they have fundamentally changed, I can see them being...better than they used to be, although that's not saying much. I expect she is sticking near to the truth, rather than outright lying. If my mother is in charge then she's likely set the Houses and Cities aginst each other to a degree, so I can certainly believe that she can't vouch for what other Cities and Houses are doing at the moment. That my mother has seemingly agreed to honouring any 'terms' is surprising though."

The Drow woman raises an eyebrow at the mention of the Exchange. "Oh? And who would this 'source' be exactly to know so much about what I deign to do? A disenfranchised male if I had to guess, in which case you should take what they tell you with a...how do you say it? A pinch of salt?"

~MTWC

[Blue]

"Besides entertainment and betting pools? You can speak based on what you know, not what might or may not be true for one or more given House or City. Your evasiveness only suggests the worst; that perhaps a minority or of Drow follow standards that wouldn't offend us, if any. I've received recent reports of a surfacer among others currently observing what is going on deep under, someone currently contemplating destroying you all for enslaving a friend. At least one surfacer well-known to us is currently in your fighting pits because of the absence of a better option."

She turned toward the assembly.
"I believe their unconditional release and escort back to safety might be a decent first term, if we are to progress this any further. It would also be very unfortunate if some of these slaves were coincidentally lost or reported dead before this came to happen."

[SpatulaOdoom]

”My source is precisely anonymous as a condition of being willing to speak to me. Don't worry about me though, until I can get it from multiple independent sources, a trusted person, or see it with my own eyes, I take just about everything people say with a grain or two of salt, especially in politics.
So I'm trying to confirm one's statements with another who might know to see if they match.” Morgan spreads his hands in a “there you have it” gesture.
”Speaking of which, can you confirm or deny the story that you sent the Exchange to the surface to acquire your tutor, and when they returned with one you offered him the choice of teaching you or death?”
Tenacity in questioning isn't something that comes naturally to easygoing Morgan, but something that Eloise had taught him. Recognize a dodge and push through it to return to the original question.

[Makenshi]

T'rissafay shakes her head, moving to stand up. "No. If you refuse to name the one slandering us then it is clear there is little point in further discussions at this time." She turns to Tel'shar. "Come on we'd better-" Her eyes suddenly widen in shock, as if she had just seen a ghost, before looking around wildly. "How dare you!" She is clearly enraged at something, although what and why is a complete mystery, even to Tel'shar who plays with a ring nervously in the middle of getting up. "You will take down whatever barrier you have in place that keeps me from Lolth or-" Before slapping the very same hand against T'rissafay's neck and then darting backwards as she howls out in a mix of outage and pain, a dot of red staining her neck where the male must have punctured her with a hidden needle. "You...you...you no good whore, I don't need Lolth to-" She lets out an ear piercing scream, collapsing to her knees as blood trickles from her ears, nose, mouth and eyes.

Tel'shar merely grins, suddenly much more relaxed, even as the guards quickly move in. He even slips the offending ring off, dropping it on the floor and raising his hands up to show he didn't have anything else on him. It is clear that no one is quite sure what just happened or why, although the elusive bard is fortunately forthcoming. "Lolth is dead dear 'sister', and these humans had nothing to do with it." His grin widens even more. "Just a lowborn whore." His face and tone take on a decidedly more sinister tone as he watches T'rissafay struggle and fail to get back to her feet, still in obvious agony. "Gula said it would feel like fire running through your veins, blooming with every breath, and getting worse and worse with every heartbeat. I only wish I could be there to see what happens to Lolth, Myr'delith and all the others."

~MTWC

[Blue]

Mrith didn't need a medical license to figure out that what had stricken the Drow was probably some kind of poison.
It was really annoying that this had to happen right about now, while they were still with them. Letting things take course was extremely tempting but until the Drows' hierarchical situation would be officially cleared up she was still their representative.
It was bothersome too that of all the scrolls she had only one covered poisons.

Perhaps fortunately for T'rissafay, Mrith was quick and anything but indecisive.
She dashed with great speed toward the suffering woman, drawing a scroll of Heal that unrolled from the cylindrical case at her waist and released its magic upon her, hopefully stopping whatever was apparently killing her.

[SpatulaOdoom]

Originally Posted by T'rissafay

"No. If you refuse to name the one slandering us then it is clear there is little point in further discussions at this time."

Morgan thumps his hands on the table, half standing. For the first time starting to raise his voice.
”And you refusing to answer the question leaves us to assume what exactly madam? I'm-” Morgan's words stop as the scene takes a twist that is first confusing then horrifying.
Dammit. Morgan doesn't waste time giving breath to the expletive, or worry that the poison ring somehow slipped past inspection, nor that all these incredible beings never reacted quickly enough to prevent the attack. Instead he shoves his chair back and straightens up.
”Kala, now would be the time to show us what you've got.” If Gula had made it and it was designed to give the poisoned time to properly suffer, Morgan had no doubt it would be incredibly tenacious against normal attempts to remove. Hopefully Kala was up to the task, if not...
”If that doesn't work... Anyone capable of temporal stasis? Even a flesh to stone might do the trick.”
Morgan had the spell in his book, but had never prepared it on a regular basis.

[Makenshi]

As Mrith's scroll fails to penetrate T'rissafay's magical defences Kala runs over. That Gula himself was responsible for the poison likely meant she was the only person in the room with a chance of helping her.

Tel'shar, for his part, shakes his head in disbelief. "Really? You're trying to save her? Why? If it's fear of reprisals then you don't need to worry about that. Most other Rilyn'unds are being wiped out as we speak, starting with Myr'delith and her daughters." Kala gives him a baleful look, however her hands are too busy as she tries to heal the dying woman for her to sign anything. That just earns a frown from the bard. "Somehow I doubt you'd be in so forgiving a mood if you knew that the whole reason she came to the surface was to reach an agreement that would allow the Drow to increase their numbers enough to enslave you all."

"And why do you care?" Vulcar asks, looking more than a little warily at the dangerous Drow.

"Do you think that Humans are the only slaves among the Drow?" He snarls darkly. "All my life I have been no more than a speck of dirt on the boots of the 'superior sex', 'lucky' enough to be born with my people's innate magic that I was worth 'elevating' to Nobility. And it's all because of Lolth and her Clerics."

~MTWC

[SpatulaOdoom]

Originally Posted by Tel'shar

"Somehow I doubt you'd be in so forgiving a mood if you knew that the whole reason she came to the surface was to reach an agreement that would allow the Drow to increase their numbers enough to enslave you all."

Morgan laughs a cynical sounding laugh.
”That was exactly what we were assuming, and no such agreement was going to be reached.”
Morgan had even taken note of the line about “As I was saying, we came here to reassure you that the Drow have no interest in the surface. Even now we are recovering from the losses we suffered during the Demongate Wars fighting alongside your ancestors.” Connecting the two things like that assumed that one would change when the other did as well. ”And you think we're saving her for her benefit?” Morgan is more interested in the intelligence she could offer. Allowing a diplomat to be assassinated, albeit by her own people, in the palace wouldn't look very good either.

What was worse is that the idiot had apparently made deals with the fiendish pantheon to do ti. In the long run they'd just be trading one evil master for another. Tel'shar's little rebellion was more or less what Morgan figured Zilira, Coiya, and the Children might need to do in the near future themselves.

”So let's say this whole thing goes off without a hitch. What then? Who takes the reins?”

[Makenshi]

Kala seems to be having some difficulty in healing T'rissafay, although she has at least stopped bleeding any more, visibly at least. Tel'shar is a bit slow to respond to Morgan's question as he frowns at their continued efforts to save her, although with the guards around him now he doesn't make any further move to harm her. "You misunderstand." He looks back to Morgan. "I'm not a revolutionary or a freedom fighter. The Underdark can burn for all I care. My family will be safe, my true family that is, not the Rilyn'und who bought me."

Celes looks horrified at this news, as do a great many others, while Zilira appears strangely impassive.

~MTWC

[SpatulaOdoom]

Morgan's eyes bore into the drow.
”Funny. You were supposed to be the most decent one, relatively speaking. If the timing had been a little different I would have tried to have a chat.” The mage shrugs. ”I suppose we'll have plenty of time to chat now.” He steps back, symbolically indicating he was done with Tel'shar. He's tempted to call out “guards, take him away.” It would satisfy his sense of the dramatic, but now isn't the time for drama. Now is the time to move on the drow city. Before the fiends took over and became too entrenched. Now was the time to let Deimos know they'd be moving on his daughter. Two things they couldn't discuss while either drow were still present.

[Makenshi]

Tel'shar smiles. "Oh? Well, that depends on your definition and who you talk to."

"Do you really think you can trust the Fiends to keep their word?" Zilira asks.

The bard just laughs. "Do I look like an idiot? I wouldn't trust the fiends as far as I can throw them. They're a means to an end."

"Yet you're trusting them to save your 'true family'. What's to stop them from holding them hostage?"

Tel'shar just smiles. "I'm not trusting them to."

Vulcar seems to have had enough and gestures to his guards. "Take Tel'shar to the cells and have him watched at all times." Although obviously annoyed, the Drow does not resist as the guards lead him away and the King turns his attention to Kala and T'rissafay. "Can you save her?"

For her part, Kala seems more than a little annoyed at the interruption, but quickly signs in reply, which Mortimer translates. "Don't know. Poison keeps changing when I try to heal it."

~MTWC

[Blue]

The drow was out of Mrith's preoccupations. The healing at hand had her whole attention.
She wasn't sure if ...ideas... could actually help in any way since she clearly didn't have the actual talent to help herself.
"Can the poison be relocated or concentrated somewhere in her body and then we just chop it off? She can have the missing parts grown back later."

She had another thought, but it was probably even less enjoyable for the patient.
"Or... How much do you need to bring someone back to life? If her body was to be burnt until the poison in it would be ruined, can you, h-em, put her back together?"
The dragon imagined that the poison would probably kill the drow again if she would be brought back with it still in her body.

[SpatulaOdoom]

”The problem with “using” people like them is that they use you right back, and rarely to your benefit.” He shrugs and says no more, turning his attention to Kala's efforts.

This was a good opportunity. A nice bit of practice for Kala with someone who's loss wouldn't be all that big of a tragedy. A way for her to see what sort of opposition she'd have to face off against in this new theatre. The young dragon's suggestions seemed reasonable.

”Well.” He says, turning his attention to everyone else. ”Now that he's out of here, we need to discuss what to do. Ciin is making her move in Che'eldelorbben, which means their shard of the God Forge is threatened.”
Morgan darts a concerned look Zilira's way.

[Makenshi]

Kala seems to get an idea from Mrith's suggestion, but rather than burning the Drow woman she just looks at her intensely for a moment before the woman suddenly becomes deathly still. Kala tentatively reaches out to touch her, frowning in concentration, before a large grin spreads across her face and she glances back, signing for Mortimer to translate. "Poison used her life to fight magic. No life and it can't change this time." Kala then leans in close to the Drow woman, so close that their noses almost touch, before letting out a breath of a white mist that gently looped in the air between them before plunging into the dead Drow's nose and mouth, eliciting a shocked, bloody, sputtering gasp from the cleric of Lolth as she rolls to her side, hacking up some of the blood that must have still been clogging her insides. Kala wipes away a few speckles of blood on her face before she goes about healing the woman, who looks more than a little dazed by the experience.

On the matter of the Godforge Vulcar too looks concerned. "We'll need to get to the Jael'aem then. Otherwise finding the edge of the Drow barrier will be too time-consuming."

"I'll make contact with the Church of Deimos. I've already alerted Coiya. The Children are mobilising." Zilira remarks to Morgan before vanishing into some nearby shadows.

~MTWC