Chapter 18 - Further Below Strod

[Zhym]

Angus scowls at Renald, unmoved. "I ain't never been tortured," he drawls, "but I been afeared plenty a time. And I ain't never been so scared what I'd kill hundreds of people because of it. Man always has a choice. Unless he's had a spell cast on him."

He looks up and around quickly, realizing that ensorcelment is a possibility. "We got us any way to know if someone's been put under an enchantment?" he asks the spell casters of the group. He seems to be talking about Renald, but he looks at Kablamicus, who is defending the man who almost killed him moments ago.

[enn.in.me]

The statue speaks with Yenny's voice, "I am not comfortable with murder. Bound, gagged, and stripped of his clothing, he should be safe enough to transport. If only we had a nice carpet to roll him up in."

[Zhym]

Angus nods solemnly and scratches his stubbly chin. "It's like this, then. I ain't executing a man without we're all agreed. We ain't. But I ain't for giving him over to a conclave of wizards, neither. His crimes were against the people of town what's up there. Them and Chet, anyhow. So we take him to their law." He gives the lugubrious wizard a hard look. "Pray they do by you at least as well as we would have."

[enn.in.me]

"That sounds like a fine thing." chimes in the statue, its lips uncannily still. "That way we can get back down here quickly and clean this mess up."

[tkrexx]

I am not comfortable with murder.

S'not murda, no, Hyde pauses, snorting some dribble away from his nose, It be a execution. But like Angus said, it can't be done 'less all of us agree. He points his axe at Renald, his actual smile returning. You thinkin' ya got lucky, hah? Wouldn't be so sure, no, them up above might be alot more creative with their punishment, yeahh. I tell ya what, The surly Half-Orc continues as he cinches his axe back in place, You got any coin, hah? You tell us what's got some worth in heah, and maybe we might consida thinkin' about puttin' in a good word for ya. Puhhaps. Could be.

[AleBelly]

Angus asks whether others can detect and enchantment on Renald. Nobody volunteers their magical prowess.

The mage looks towards the statue as Yenny talks, but does not seem surprised. "There's one of the short folk" he says to himself.

In response to Hyde's question, he answers "So you're just here after money, man? Look, you help me get out of this mess and I'll give you whatever you want. The ring's real cool. I can show you how to use it. I told you about the book. Teaches you how to make statues do what you want, provided you imbue it with expensive shit. Though nobody except the fella in the smoldering hat should look at it. I have these bracers for defense..." he looks down at his wounds "...but they don't seem too good, right?"

He looks towards the door in the east wall. "And there's some stuff down that way. But it's dark and trapped. You'd have to trust me to say some words to reverse the magic and, like, you don't seem so trusting."

[Zhym]

"We ain't here for money," replies Angus, shooting a look at Hyde. "And we done jabbered enough. We got work to do, folks. Let's haul this dude back up top and be about it."

He gags the wizard, hauls him to his feet, and sets out for the surface when the others are ready.

[enn.in.me]

Yenny follows along, her armor clanking.

[tkrexx]

You go ahead, Hyde shoves Renald forward, So anything befalls us befalls you first, yeahh.

[AleBelly]

Angus rips a scrap of cloth from a dead ogre's garment and begins to fashion a gag from it.

"Aw, come on man, that's not nece-mmmphmphmmmph"

And the wizard's voice is muffled as Angus shoves the foul fabric into his mouth and ties it around the back of his head. Resigned to his fate, Renald is led out, quickly, of the underground lair. Blood continues to seep from his wounds, and he leaves droplets of blood in his wake.

Galan quickly loots the purses of the two ogres, finding 87 gp.

The party escapes the lair with little trouble, dodging the pesky pointing things in the ceiling. They bring the mage outdoors in full daylight.

It doesn't take the party long to get the attention of the patrolmen. They explain the circumstances of the mage's capture, and the guards grow hostile, though not violent to him. One departs and soon brings the head guard with him to discuss the matter. After explaining the situation and their wish to turn him over for justice, the guards have bad news.

"There's no formal governing body here. We can mete out justice for common crimes. But this is...extraordinary. No, he must be taken to Alleborg for questioning. If he truly knows much about...the outlands...he could be valuable. We can lend you a cart, horses, and driver. But it exceeds my authority to deal with him myself, and I'm sure the king's men will want to question him.

If you leave soon, you can reach the gates by nightfall."

Actions?

Date: 31 Culling, Year 44
Time: 12:10
Conditions: 57F, sunny
Known Spells in Effect: Yenny invisible
Light bearers: Yenny's bracelet
Injuries: Angus lightly wounded, Kablamicus heavily wounded
Enemy status: Ogres dead, wizard heavily wounded

[enn.in.me]

sounds fine.

A firm believer in transparency, Yenny pipes up, "If we can get to town by nightfall, we can back here tomorrow and perhaps have a good meal in between. I imagine we may find out how cleaned up the town council is with this."

[onlyme]

Dandelion suggests that they should take him there. It's only been a few days, but she is silently afraid she is missing out on the latest gossip.

[Zhym]

Angus grimaces. "Might as well, I reckon. Can't say as I'm sanguine about it, though. Closer we get this dude to civilization and right upstanding folks, closer we get to folks deciding what he's got in his head is worth more'n his crimes."

"On the other hand," he says, with a nasty look at the mage dude, "I ain't so certain what that the ways they'd use to get into his head reckon to be what you'd call comfortable-like. He might end up wishing we'd just killed him."

"Anyhow, let's git."

[tkrexx]

He ain't gonna make it to Alleborg, no, Hyde mutters, Not bleedin' like that, he ain't. And I ain't keen on carryin' him. The Half-Orc spares a few minutes binding Renald's wounds, tho he's not so much concerned with being gentle about it. If the Mage whimpers in discomfort, Hyde just grins. If he gets to ride in that cart, let's hit as many bumps as we can, hah? HAAAHHH hahahahahahh!

[Bluehorse]

Kablamicus

hear me out... there is a mages guild in Alleburd.
Let me send a message with Sophomore. They are equipped to handle such things. If we can place him in holding until Sophomorecan return in say... 18 hours or so... maybe quicker if an official teleports more directly, we will at least have official aid from a qualified authority on such matters.

[Zhym]

"No," says Angus, firmly. He gives the mage another long look. He definitely needs to find a way to check whether Renald put a charm on him. "A bunch of wizards ain't in any better shape to judge this dude's crimes than are the folks of this town. His crimes ain't against wizardry, they're against people. Lots of people, and Chet was one of 'em. Chet wasn't killed what because a spell went wacky. He was killed because this sumbitch was fixing to kill more people and we got in the way. So, no, we ain't asking a nice cushy panel of wizards to tell us whether he said the wrong words when he was plotting his mass murder. He's going straight to Alleborg, where they'll suss out whether what's in his head is worth keeping him alive a while longer. If they want to ask a bunch of wizards what they think, that's their never mind."

"Y'all can take us to the cart and horses now, please," he tells the patrolman. "Time's a-wasting."

[tkrexx]

Hyde glances at Kablamicus as he binds bloody wounds. I think maybe he thinks them wizards might think he be a great thinker, thinkin' to bring this guy to them, hah? He grins. I'm thinkin' maybe they'd wanna talk at Renald for a while, and slap his hands, yeahh.

[Bluehorse]

Kablamicus

Grumbles and speaks to Sophomore, scribbling something on a scrap of paper and soon the owl flitting off with a bit of paper tied to his foot.

[enn.in.me]

I was wondering about that too--short, but invisible...

[Zhym]

To clear up possible confusion, I had posted this before enn.in.me's post:

AleBelly,

Do the rest of us get a chance to stop Kablamicus from doing what the rest of the group has said we aren't going to do, or should we treat Bluehorse's stated action as accomplished?

I deleted it to add the following action if we do get to act:

As soon as Kablamicus starts talking to his owl and writing, Angus rushes over to grab his arm. "What did we just say?" he demands angrily. "Your mages ain't got juris-my-diction over this. We all agreed but you. Now, are you going to play well with others? 'Cause if you're fixing on going rogue, we got us a problem."