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>>5520797

Lord Blackmoore’s study had several servants rearranging the furniture to be more suitable for the meeting. A long and wide dining table had been prepared and you saw that your armour had been already cleaned and put on an armour stand. Unsurprisingly it was Karramyn Langston who was organising all this, Blackmoore must have delegated the work to him.

"Prince Alric, Taretha." Langston greeted you and Taretha when you walked into the study. "It is great to see you in one piece, the news of the attempt on your life shocked all of us."

"Thank you Langston, but it was only an attempt." You said with a smile. "If you want to thank someone, you may want to thank my squire."

"Lady Malevus? Yes, she was here some time ago covered in blood and looking very tired." Langston mused aloud. "You must be proud to have such a dutiful and diligent squire."

"Oh she is the best." You said back to him and chuckled. "I wouldn’t know what to do without her."

"An elf too, no idea how you got her, but I can see why you would have her around." Langston said. You didn’t like the tone of his voice, it was the same he had when he was talking about Taretha.

"But enough of her, how are the preparations going on?" You asked him and deflected away from Malevus. She was probably resting right now and to be honest, she deserved it.

"They are going well Prince Alric, if you don’t mind, Lord Blackmoore changed the meeting into a private dinner." Langston told you. "He thought that would fit the situation better."

"That is a splendid idea." You said to him. Not a bad chance at all.

"Now though Lord Blackmoore asked you to sit next to him, but how are the guests seated?" Langston said and asked you.

Of course Blackmoore wanted to sit next to you. He after all wanted some of that shine and if it helped to keep him happy, then so be it. But this was supposedly to be a meeting revolving around Hillsbrad, and not Hillsbrad and Durnholde.


>From closest neighbour to furthest. Mayor Fowley of Tarren Mill closest to you and the naval officers furthest.
>You will sit at the head of the table with Lord Blackmoore being free to take any other available seat. You don't share the spotlight with him this time.
>Lady Jandice Barov is technically the second highest noble around here. She should sit closest to you.
>It doesn't matter, let people sit where they want. You don't want the dinner to be too official.
>Other, write in.

>>5520798
>From closest neighbour to furthest. Mayor Fowley of Tarren Mill closest to you and the naval officers furthest.

>>5520798
>From closest neighbour to furthest. Mayor Fowley of Tarren Mill closest to you and the naval officers furthest.
>Lady Jandice Barov is technically the second highest noble around here. She should sit closest to you, opposite to Blackmoore.
I'd like to have closer ties with the Barovs and Jandice seems to want the same, though that deal is still fucking stupid and we should never take it. Have Blackmoore on one side and Jandice on the other.

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>>5520797
There's also 2 things I want to present which are:

This little thing I made, even if Im still not quite satisfied with it.

An answer to a question I've been wondering about but always forgot to ask. What is the population of Alric's domain and how does it compare to neighbouring settlements and the kingdoms of the Alliance?

>>5521653
I like the flag, good job
I think the orange could be just a bit more muted to make the white stand out, and the stars a little smaller because they feel like they are too close to eachother.

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>>5521659
Dammit, my mistake was found out...

Yeah, like I said, not guite satisfied with it but I've been meaning to make something like it for a while. Feel free to make other suggestions or even edits of your own.

"Lady Jandice Barov to my right and Lord Blackmoore to my left." You told Langston. "Lady Jandice is technically above Lord Blackmoore and while this isn’t that official meeting, I think honouring the decorum is fitting."

"Very smart Prince Alric. I will have that arranged." Langston said back to you. "One more thing, we moved your belongings here."

"I noticed my armour." You said and thanked in your mind for having stashed your letters into your chest earlier. "But where is the chest?"

"In the guest room over there. Lord Blackmoore used it as his bedroom before moving into his current one." Langston said and showed the way.

The new bedroom for you was adjacent to the study and to get there you would have to go through it. The room apparently was part of one of the towers of the Keep and while it had a double wide bed, it wasn't that big. You could understand why Blackmoore might have wanted to move into a bigger bedroom.

"This is suitable." You said and noted your chest being on the floor.

"It is good to hear that, Taretha helped us to collect your things before she went to… help you with the bath." Langston told you and the tone you disliked returned.

"I was careful with your clothes Prince Alric." Taretha said and smiled.

You gave her a small nod and turned back towards Langston.

"Anything else? Langston, I know you have been exceptionally busy today and I need to thank you for the work you have done." You said to him.

"Thank you Prince Alric and no, I have nothing else for you right now. Just need to make sure that the servants know what they are doing. It has been a difficult day for them as well." Langston said to you. "Do you have anything in your mind Prince Alric?"

"Have you talked with Lady Imswit and her niece yet?" You said and shrugged your shoulders.

"No, not yet. I have been just way too busy for that." Langston said and sounded defeated.


>No, you have nothing in your mind. Langston is already quite busy and you don't want to bury him with even more work. Thank him for all the hard work he has done.
>Have Langston double check the guards and make sure that the prisoners are protected and taken care of.
>Langston has all the work contracts, have him double check them and the guests to see if he could find anything suspicious. Tell him that there could be a fourth assassin in Durnholde Keep.
>Other, write in.

>>5521657
Really good work! I love to see some original content from my beloved anons! With my own artistic skills being quite lacking and closer to Grug cave painting level, I can’t really draw my own original content of the quest. Tell me when you have finished it and I might actually use it in the future.

Through the quest Alterac has received 440 Peasants as a "resource". Most of them are most likely men with families and children, so we can estimate that Dawnholme and your holdings have a population of about 1000~. On top of this you have 60~ Stonemason’s and their families and 101 prisoners in your camp. So we can say that under your rule are about 1100-1200~ permanent residents.

The RPGs give Southshore a population of 2000~ and this is for the time after the Third War and before WoW. So using that as a guideline, Dawnholme is smaller than Tarren Mill, Hillsbrad Fields and Southshore. Compared to your neighbours, you do have a strong military and you have estimated that you could defeat any of them in the field, but if they banded together then you would lose.

>>5522053
>Have Langston double check the guards and make sure that the prisoners are protected and taken care of.
Cant lose the prisoners if we can protect them it will make convincing future prisoners much easier.
>>5521657
I think the flag would look much better with the alterac eagle/hawk like in the first post shows.
Also 2 of the lines arent coloured green properly.

>>5522053
>No, you have nothing in your mind. Langston is already quite busy and you don't want to bury him with even more work. Thank him for all the hard work he has done.
We can ask Langston for permission for us to check the contracts. If he is so busy, he might make a mistake

>>5521657
Very nice anon!

>>5522053
>Have Langston double check the guards and make sure that the prisoners are protected and taken care of.
A quick double check just for be sure

>>5522092
That is not a bad idea. >>5521657 can you replace the eagle/hawk with the falcon from the OP? Let us see how it looks then.

>>5522053
>Have Langston double check the guards and make sure that the prisoners are protected and taken care of.
Should be quick and easy, also inform them of how the previous Syndicate prisoner got assassinated and the tools and methods shown by that assassin. The surprise attack, the smoke bomb etc.
>Langston has all the work contracts, have him double check them and the guests to see if he could find anything suspicious. Tell him that there is a fourth agent in Durnholde Keep.
The more laboreous task. Do as I said in the last thread: Anyone that's similar to Pai and Sahvan. Anyone new, anyone with a nondescript history, anyone that can't be vouched for etc. We can make a more thorough investigation once we have a manageble list.

Im also afraid that Langston won't be thorough if we only say that there might be another Syndicate instead of saying that there definetly is.

>>5522063
Thanks. However, what's the population of the kingdoms of the Alliance? You didn't answer that part of the question.

>>5522092
fuuuug I made sure that I painted all of them but I must've gone back to a previous state when I fucked something up. The choice of eagle was deliberate, I don't like the look of the eagle in the OP so I chose a different one.

>>5522139
But I'll make it for the both of you either today or tomorrow, depending on when I get home.

"Double check the guards, I want the prisoners to be secured and safe." You told him.

"Prince Alric, we already have double the guards in the jail." Langston said back.

"While we didn't find anything suspicious in the death of Nogelman, I don’t want that to repeat." You said back. "Pai is probably still unconscious, but Sahvan. If he starts to have second ideas…"

"Hmm true, you have a point. I will have the guards check on both of them regularly." Langston said. "In fact I will inform them about that personally."

"Thank you Langston, keeping both of them alive is a priority to me and now I am completely dependent on your aid." You told him and continued. "I do have a request, can I go and search the work contracts for people similar to the assassins we have caught? I am not sure, but I was led to believe that there could be a fourth assassin in Durnholde Keep."

"Yet another assassin! Are you sure Prince Alric?" Langston asked and was quite surprised.

"Sahvan, the prisoner who spoke said it. That is why I would like to check the contracts." You told him.

"Then of course. I will open the door for you." Langston said to you. "But should we then go if you want to check the contracts before the dinner?"

"Yes, lead the way." You said back to him.

…

Taretha went to help the servants while you and Langston retreated into his office. You told him how the previous assassin was killed in Dawnholme while you were gone and made sure he would inform the guards about that.

Langston seemed to take this very seriously and quite eagerly wanted to help you. He showed you where the contract papers were in his office and placed the big pile of papers, folders and books in front of you.

It would take some time to go through all of them, but Langston said that he would return after he had gotten the guards in order and double checked everything. But before that you would have to survive alone.

You thanked Langston as you sat down on his chair behind his table and looked at the contracts in front of you. There was a lot of work to be done, but as the door closed you got an idea.

You now had a perfect chance to snoop around. Maybe Langston had something interesting in his office, papers or notes that could prove useful to you? Though how much time you have is a mystery and what would happen if you were caught?


>Go through the contracts, that is why you are here after all.
>Search Langston's desk, there are few drawers in it.
>Search Langston's bookshelf, things could be hidden inside the books.
>Search Langston's office drawers, the contracts were in one of them, there could be more important papers in there.
>Search Langston's liquor cabinet, he could hide things there.

QM: Choose one or as many you want, but multiple choices split the available time to search and increase the time taken.

>>5522476
>Go through the contracts, that is why you are here after all.
Focus on the assassins, no need to search for dirt on Langston.

>>5522420
The populations of the different Kingdoms is a much more complicated thing. Lands of Conflict gives the population of Stormwind City to be 200k, but actually that could be a typo and a mistake and they intended the population to be 20k, same as Ironforge. Same book does give the population of Kingdom of Stormwind to be 250k and Stromgarde to be 100k. Alliance Player's Guide meanwhile gives the membership number of Church of Holy Light to be 800k.

So if we go with these numbers, we can estimate Capital City having population of at least 200k, probably closer to 300k or even higher if Stormwind City had 200k. Then the population in the rest of Lordaeron could easily reach over a million. If Stormwind City's number was a typo, then Capital City has a population of maybe 50k and rest of Lordaeron as high as 500k. Maybe.

The issue here is that the books describe the world after the Third War and no serious thought was put into the numbers outside the RPG books. If you start thinking about these numbers too much, you are just going to poke gigantic holes into the lore as you twist yourself into a pretzel trying to comprehend these things.

So I would say don't worry about it. Because I won't and I don't want to become a pretzel.

Also no need to hurry with the flag. Finish it when you have time and nothing else to do.

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>>5522476
Interesting, we could get something big with little risk if we do this right. Let's go from the most to least suspiscious to be caught looking at.

>Search Langston's bookshelf, things could be hidden inside the books.
Going through books individually would be too time consuming so look for any book that's conspicuous. Positioned differently, doesn't have any dust in front of it, anything that suggests that it's grabbed frequently.
>Search Langston's desk, there are few drawers in it.
Don't rifle through anything, give it a very quick look over and if there's nothing of interest then move on.
>Search Langston's office drawers, the contracts were in one of them, there could be more important papers in there.
Same as the desk drawers.
>Search Langston's liquor cabinet, he could hide things there.
Same as before. If caught, pretend to simply be going for a drink.

If done as quickly as I suggest then it should only take 5 minutes, 7 tops. Speed over thoroughness. After that...

>Go through the contracts, that is why you are here after all.

>>5522476
>Go through the contracts, that is why you are here after all.
No need to be dishonorablu about this.
>>5522420
i really like alteracs falcon and your flags bird just makes me think of poland its too our world for my tastes.

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>>5522512
Im not worried about it, it's just the grand strategy autism speaking. And it's no issue with the flag, changing the eagle is a simple affair.

>>5522542
Well I don't, I think it's too oversimplified. It looks more like a modern logo than a medieval or early modern design. And it makes you think of Poland because it's the polish eagle. The previous version had the Piast eagle but the gradient on it was rather ugly.

>>5522476
>>Go through the contracts, that is why you are here after all.
>Search Langston's bookshelf, things could be hidden inside the books.
It s easy to justify reading books

>>5521657
very impressive, good job Anon

>>5522476
>Go through the contracts, that is why you are here after all.

I'd rather give a shot to setting Langston straight through power of FRIENDSHIP, especially if we don't have any specific justification to snoop. Unless of course we have reason to suspect him specifically as being the syndicate plant.

As much as this was a great chance to snoop around and attempt to find something useful, be it dirt on Langston or information beneficial to you regarding Durnholde and its business, today wasn't the time for it. You had more pressing concerns and if you could find what you wanted, it could help you even more than some dirt does.

So you went to work and started browsing the papers one by one. Langston had been quite thorough in his work with plenty of available information in each contract. Things like previous occupations and where they were from had been included. You would have to thank Langston for such a good work, that must have been time consuming.

Plenty of the work contracts were useless to you. Crofters with contracts going back years, craftsmen from nearby villages. When you got to the guards and servants, many of them had been serving in Durnholde for years. There was nothing suspicious about them, nothing that outwardly would make you think that they were an agent of Syndicate.

You did find the contracts of Taretha and her parents and you read them really carefully. The details on them could prove useful to you when the bargaining starts.

You had put a few more recent hires on their separate pile as you would have to ask Langston more about them. There was nothing suspicious about them, just that they were new hires.

"Have you found anything?" Langston said to you as he returned from the dungeon.

"No, nothing specific that catches my eyes. Just a few recent hires that I need to ask about." You said back to him and pointed out the contracts.

"Let's see, yes this one is a caravan guard that decided to settle here and this servant worked for years in the nearby village. Neither of them are suspicious." Langston said back to you as he sat down and went through the papers.

What a drag, if one of the servants was the agent, they probably had a really good fake backstory or had been converted from the existing workforce.

"How about this one, a servant girl hired this summer?" You asked Langston. She was originally from Southshore where she had been working as a courtesan before she was hired by Langston. The girl wasn't that old either, only sixteen summers old.

"Yes, her… she had left Southshore and moved here. I scouted her from the inn and decided to bring her to work here instead." Langston said to you somewhat carefully. "Annabel has certain assets that could please Lord Blackmoore, I hope you can understand."

1/3

>>5523468

"So you vouch for her?" You asked him. A courtesan to Blackmoore? But he already had Taretha as his mistress, was he replacing her? Was this the servant girl you had heard rumours about? Or did Langston just hire her for himself and shift blame towards Blackmoore?

"I do, I don’t believe she could be an assassin. She is too young and… you would understand when you see her." Langston told you.

"Well I take your word for that." You said back to him.

There were still a lot of contracts to go through and you weren't sure you wanted to delve longer with the courtesan. You wanted to get through this and see if you found anything suspicious.

…

Langston had offered a glass of sherry from his liquor cabinet and you had sipped it as you went through the papers. When you got through the last contract and had asked Langston if he had anything else he could show to you and he said no, you realised how big of a waste of time this had been for you. There were those few recent hires, but outside of them there was nothing suspicious about the servants, guards and contracted workers.

This meant the Syndicate agent must be another guest, if there even is an agent here.

"If you can, go through the guests. Any suspicious outsiders, people you don't know." You told Langston and sighed. "While it is good news for you that no one amongst the workforce is suspicious enough to warrant a more thorough investigation, I didn’t find what I wanted."

"Prince Alric, I will do what I can." Langston said and was clearly disappointed. "Thankfully there are less guests here compared to servants."

"You are right. Well I leave you to that, I think the dinner should be ready in a moment or two." You said and stood up. "Thank you Langston."

"I just do what I can Prince Alric, no need to thank me." Langston said back to you.

…

You were annoyed for not having found anything and the tenseness had returned to your neck and shoulders. The bath had been just a momentary relief. At least the dinner preparations were finished and you nurtured the tension in your body and mind by carefully stretching and sipping a new cup of wine. The light buzz of yours had returned as well and it did ease your mind a bit.

When the servants went to retrieve the guests, it was Mayor Fowley who was first to arrive. You spoke with him briefly before you had to greet the rest of them and soon everyone including Lord Blackmoore and Lady Jandice was here.

2/3

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>>5523469

Blackmoore had continued drinking and was now more drunk than earlier in the day, but he was still fully functional. He was slightly peeved for not sitting next to you, but he had the third best spot. Lady Jandice meanwhile seemed a bit disinterested to be here, but she at least tried to not show it as the naval officers barely attempted to hide it.

With the dinner starting the servants, including Taretha brought in the food, you had to decide what would be the topics you wanted to talk about? What would you try to accomplish here today? And should you first have a short speech about the dinner or the events of today? You probably couldn't accomplish everything today and while you could talk about a little bit of everything, could concentrating on a single subject be a more fruitful approach?


>No specific speech, thank everyone for coming.
>Talk about the assassination attempt and your unwillingness to let it affect your plans. Apologise if it caused any problems to the guests.
>Thank Lord Blackmoore for organising this dinner and for all the help he has given to you. He is a gracious host.
>Reveal Lord Blackmoore and your guests the truth about the assassins. The existence of the Syndicate and your brother's involvement leading it was previously only known to the leaders of the Alliance.

>The talks should be about trade, security and overall cooperation between you and your neighbours.
>You want to talk about security. The threats from Alterac Mountains and Arathi Highlands aren't threats only against you, but against the whole Hillsbrad and Durnholde.
>Trade and market fairs. Speak about the preliminary success of the market fairs with Tarren Mill and how everyone could benefit from it.
>Overall cooperation should be better between you and your neighbours. Getting everyone on the same page and with open lines of communication could be a huge success.

QM: Please vote on both.

>>5523470
>Thank Lord Blackmoore for organising this dinner and for all the help he has given to you. He is a gracious host.
>The talks should be about trade, security and overall cooperation between you and your neighbours.

>>5523470
>Thank Lord Blackmoore for organising this dinner and for all the help he has given to you. He is a gracious host.
>The talks should be about trade, security and overall cooperation between you and your neighbours.

>>5523470
>Thank blackmoore for hospitality, guests for arriving despite the inconvenience and pledge that this attempt on our life does nothing to diminish our commitment to prosperous future for Alterac and its neighbours both

>discuss security threats and logistical concerns
these should interest both Jandice and the military men.
we can mention the market faires as instrument for bolstering intra-regional economy, but things we have shared vested interest in are our main connections to the Capital City, Gilneas on one side and Arathor, Ironforge on the other. We can maybe mention possibility of northern routes that are currently blocked for reasons of trolls and ogres and bandits but don't dwell on them too much.

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Awww no snooping? Sad... but understandable.
>>5523470
> He was slightly peeved for not sitting next to you, but he had the third best spot.
What? He is supposed to be sitting next to us on our left like was said in >>5522053. Do you mean he is peeved for not being the only one to sit next to us?

>Thank blackmoore for hospitality, guests for arriving despite the inconvenience and pledge that this attempt on our life does nothing to diminish our commitment to prosperous future for Alterac and its neighbours both

>The talks should be about trade, security and overall cooperation between you and your neighbours.

I don't really got anything for this whole meeting business.

>>5522092 >>5522139
Here you go. Also darkened the orange like >>5521659 suggested.

>>5523904
The darker orange seem to have worked well.
Can I see one with the other eagle for a better comparison?

>>5523907
You mean like with this orange but with the other eagle? I haven't got that but I can make it in like 5 minutes.

>>5523911
Yes.

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>>5523930
Here you go, even managed to not fuck up the eagle's colours.

>>5523938
Now comparing them side by side, the darker orange does help a lot.
Thanks for going out of your way to satisfy curiosity.

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>>5523943
No worries mate, I enjoy making these little things. Would also draw some of the characters if I could draw something worth a damn without a reference.

Thanking Blackmoore and talking little bit about everything is the winner. Could I have a roll please, let's see how high roll do we get this time.


>1d10
>Best of three

>>5523904
I went with "Lady Jandice Barov is technically the second highest noble around here. She should sit closest to you, opposite to Blackmoore." which I understood as Lady Jandice sitting to the right of you and Blackmoore not sitting next to you, but opposite of Jandice. If Blackmoore was sitting next to you, he couldn't sit opposite of Jandice. Alric is at the head of the table with Jandice to his right and Blackmoore to his left opposite of each other. After that comes the remaining five guests starting from Fowley next to Jandice and Maleb next to Blackmoore.

Also tremendous work with the flags, I have saved both of them and I might use them in the future.

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>5524772

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>5524772

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>5524772
Can I save this?

>>5524775
>>5524799
>>5524810
No I can't. What the fuck... is this a 1 in 1000 chance of happening?

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>5524772

>>5524775
>>5524799
>>5524810
>>5524813
Seriously? What the fuck?

Im gonna ignore these rolls.
>>5524772
> If Blackmoore was sitting next to you, he couldn't sit opposite of Jandice.
How? If we're a the head of the table and Jandice is next to us, on our right, and Blackmoore is opposite of her then he would be sitting next to us on our left.

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I guess it's time for Medivh to have some of this "Fun" he keeps referring to ominously

>>5524775
>>5524799
>>5524810
>>5524813
Ok, this is spooky

Rolled 2 (1d10)

Spaghetti status spilled

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Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>5524832
I am seeing it like this. Either way, it is not a big or a major thing.

But boy howdy! What happened with these rolls! We know the dice can get a bit fucky sometimes, but it has been a while since I have witnessed something like this. So I am going to roll something, this roll probably does not mean anything, just me testing if the dice continue to be fucky.

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>>5524872
And now the dice isn't fucky, so 1 it is!

>>5524812
I know you posted that when we only had three rolls, but I looked up and the chance of 4 d10 rolling 1s is 1 in 10,000

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You know what, I am going to ask you to roll one more time. I was thinking of using that 5 I rolled to test the dice, but what happens in the quest should be in the hands of the players. I really didn’t expect the previous roll to go that way. Getting 1 with 1d10, best of three is 1/1000 chance. Getting a 9 happens 48.8% of the time, it is a seriously top-heavy roll. So now you are seeing the QM scrambling to make sense of what happens next. Let it be, Dice Giveth, Dice Taketh.


>1d10
>Taking the third roll

Rolled 4 (1d10)

>>5524975
I have no idea what this monumental failure would mean.
The fourth assassin appears? Blackmoore mentions the syndicate and our brother?

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>5524975
Don't make this a "rocks fall".

Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>5524975

>>5524872
So do I. So what was that about Blackmoore being peeved about not sitting next to us? >>5523470

>>5524975
And you got a 5 anyway.

>>5524981
The only that makes sense to me would be either the assassin making a terrifying appearence by killing most of the guests or the roof collapsing and killing most of the guests. Anything else would be too out of character.

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rolls 1,000,000 (1d1000000)
you all die and i win

Rolled 986535 (1d1000000)

>>5525000

"First of all I would like to thank all of you for coming. I know today hasn't been a normal day and we all have had our inconveniences, so it is very good that we can put them aside and concentrate on the present and on the future." You said to the guests as you thought talking more in detail about the assassination attempt wouldn't fit the situation. They seemed to understand it as well with a couple of nods amongst your neighbours.

"Secondly and probably most importantly, I need to thank Lord Blackmoore for being a gracious host to me and for all of us. I originally thought to have this to be just a normal meeting, but he insisted on providing us dinner. And I think we can all agree that dinner is a much better choice than a usual dry meeting." You continued and turned to face Blackmoore. He now seemed quite pleased in himself, you didn’t have to say much to accomplish that.

"Now the reason why I called this meeting is simple one. I want to talk about everything, trade, security and about overall cooperation between us in Hillsbrad." You told your neighbours. "And with Durnholde."

"That is a lot to talk about Prince Alric." Lady Jandice said to you. She finally had some interest in the talks. "But what do you wish to accomplish, an agreement?"

"That is a very good question Lady Jandice." You said with a smile and paused for a moment as the servants finished delivering the food to you. "No, I don't believe that we will accomplish much this time. We might sit around the same table, but all of us have our own interests."

"Smartly said Prince Alric." Magistrate Burnside said back. "We can also be fierce competitors, be it in politics or in trade."

That was a poke towards Lady Jandice. The Barovs and Hillsbrad Fields competed quite heavily in the food business.

"That is why I wish we could leave this table understanding the positions of each and everyone of us so that in the future, we could work together more seamlessly." You said back to him and continued. "Be it yet another expedition against the gnolls, providing the Alliance Naval Base the resources they require or making sure that Hillsbrad can compete with places like Andorhal or Westfall."

"You are asking a lot, but it doesn't hurt us to talk Prince Alric." Magistrate Maleb said back.

"While I cannot comment on your experiences, but Tarren Mill has benefited greatly from our cooperation. "Mayor Fowley said. "Lady Jandice can agree with that."

"Yes, I have seen the ledgers. Tarren Mill has benefited from having good friends." Lady Jandice said back to Fowley.

"As has Durnholde." Lord Blackmoore said and drank his wine. "Alterac has been a good friend to us."

It felt like no one here was expecting Lord Blackmoore to say anything like that as an awkward silence appeared in the study.

"Hmmm, Southshore could use a friend." Magistrate Maleb said next. This surprised you, there was a bit of bad blood between you and him, between Alterac and Southshore.

1/4

>>5525198

"The Alliance would prefer a stronger emphasis on defence. The Regional Defenders are already spread too thin." Commodore Troubridge said back.

There were a few agreeing nods.

"So let us talk while we eat." You said and smiled.

"But before that, let us raise a toast for Hillsbrad, Alterac and Durnholde." Blackmoore proclaimed and went to raise his cup before realising it was empty. "Servant more wine… no… go check my cabinet there should be a bottle of Alteraci Brandy in there."

You and your guests were all slightly amused with this.

"Wine would be enough nornally, but this is a special occasion." Blackmoore said back.

The manservant shortly came back empty handed.

"Milord, there was no Alteraci Brandy in the cabinet. We haven’t gotten more bottles lately." The manservant bowed and said.

"Then go to the cellar, there should be a bottle there in my stash." Blackmoore ordered the manservant before turning back to you. "I always keep a bottle or two stashed away for situations just like this."

"We might be the reason for that drought of the brandy, we Alteracis really enjoy that stuff." You said with a laugh.

"Your trader Beric has been annoying the other merchants by hoarding the brandy." Magistrate Maleb said back with a smile. "Always been asking for more bottles. I haven't had a drop in ages thanks to him."

"Well it is our national drink… at least I think it should be." You laughed and got the rest of the table to join you.

…

>1
>5

While the manservant was away and searching for the Alteraci Brandy, you didn’t wait for him as you started to eat. Meat stew with vegetables, fresh bread with butter and fried herrings with onions. The chefs of Durnholde Keep had done it all to provide you with a high quality dinner and it showed. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food and there was casual talk about trade, number of militiamen available or what expectations did everyone have for the next year.

This pleased you, you didn’t have to direct the conversation that much. And when there was talk about cooperation, you were mentioned often. The market fairs, helping to train the guards for Tarren Mill, solving the forest bandits problem and so on.

"Last bottle milord, but we found it." The manservant said quite proudly.

"Last bottle! The drought is real!" Blackmoore roared and nearly startled Lady Jandice. "Fetch the small cups for us."

The manservant did as told and soon all of you had a small cup in front of you. As the manservant started to fill the cups, Blackmoore cleared his voice. His drunkenness was now quite apparent as he had been continuing to drink the wine.

"As I said before, we should raise a toast for Hillsbrad… Alterac… and Maleb don't drink before us." Blackmoore was saying, but got interrupted by Maleb taking a sip from his cup.

"It was just a sip Lord Blackmoore, just like I said, I haven’t had a drop in ages." Maleb said back to him.

2/4

>>5525201

"Where was I? Oh yes, for Hillsbrad… Alterac… and…" Blackmoore said and raised his cup.

Maleb coughed violently and he had to put his cup down.

"Henry, are you alright?" Fowley asked his friend.

"C-can't breath." Maleb said back and started coughing.

"Give the man some space." Commodore Troubridge said and smacked Maleb's back several times to help to break the cough.

Maleb continued to cough as he tried to loosen the collar of his shirt. At this moment, you all started to realise that something was seriously wrong with him.

"Get him on the floor." Troubridge ordered as he realised that the smacks did nothing to help him. "Get the surgeon here, the man is choking on something."

One of the servants ran off to get the help as Troubridge and Fowley helped Maleb on the floor. He continued to cough violently and couldn’t catch a breath. Then he started to bleed from his nose and cough blood and you realised that something was horribly wrong.

Maleb tried to breathe, but couldn't as he grasped his friend's tunic and tried to pull himself up. He tried to say something, but no words came out of his mouth. Fowley tried to calm him down and pleaded for someone to help him. Troubridge tried to swipe the blood away, Captain Alphonse and Magistrate Burnside had both stood up and watched this unfold in apparent shock. Lady Jandice had covered her mouth and couldn't believe what she was seeing. Even Lord Blackmoore had stumbled out of his chair and fallen on his back from the shock. Henry Maleb was dying in front of you and your mind raced into a conclusion, it must have been poison.

"The brandy, don’t drink the brandy!" You shouted and dropped your cup as you rushed to Malebs side pushing past Fowley.

Henry Maleb took hold of your hand as pain and the coughing forced him to grimace. His grip was still strong, but you knew his time was very short.

"I am so sorry." Was the only thing you could say to him as you looked him into his eyes.

Maleb tried to say something to you, but he only coughed blood so he resorted to reach under his shirt with his left hand and grasped a medallion of some sort.

"The surgeon is here soon." You tried to tell him. "Everything will be alright."

You knew those words to be lies and so did Maleb. His legs slowly stopped trashing and his grip started to lose its strength. You could only watch as he tried to mouth something again and again.

Then he was gone.

One moment he was joking about the lack of brandy and next he was choking on his own blood.

Henry Maleb, the Magistrate of Southshore was dead.

"This is my fault." You said aloud.

"He is dead." Troubridge said as he tested for his pulse. "We couldn’t do anything, it is not your fault."

"The brandy was poisoned, everyone knows I like Alteraci Brandy. I was the target, not Henry." You said to him.

"If the bottle was poisoned, then we all could have died." Lady Jandice said with a careful voice.

3/4

>>5525204

Blackmoore stood up and marched to the scared manservant before hoisting him up in the air from his collar.

"Was the bottle opened!" Blackmoore shouted at him. "Was it open? Was the seal broken?"

"Y-y-yes m-milord." The manservant said and having heard that Blackmoore unceremoniously dropped him on the floor.

"The bottles in my emergency stash are forbidden to be opened without my orders!" Blackmoore bellowed and kicked a chair across the room in anger.

"Lord Blackmoore, please respect Henry by calming down." Magistrate Burnside said as the heavy realisation hit all of you and it was Lady Jandice who was first to say it.

"If a sip can kill and Mr. Maleb hadn't been so hasty, we would have all raised a toast." Lady Jandice said carefully and turned to speak to you. "It wouldn’t have been only Mr. Maleb who would have choked in their own blood, wouldn't it Prince Alric?"

Several set of heavy eyes fell upon you as you let go of Maleb's hand and closed his eyes. Nothing you could say could deny what Lady Jandice had said to all of you. Henry Maleb, and nearly every single one of you, was dead because of you. Because of a Syndicate assassin.

You stood up and took a few steps back as a couple more servants along with the surgeon arrived into the room. With the servants was Taretha who now saw the scene. She just like everyone was shocked to see what just had happened.

Closing your eyes, you took a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to clear away the shock. The bottle was opened, so it was poisoned at some point. Sahvan had mentioned poison as one of their plans and the vial he carried was probably full of poison as well, but he hadn't mentioned poisoning the brandy. Did he forget to mention it or didn't he know about it? Would Pai know and could she tell you when she wakes up? Or was this the handiwork of the other Syndicate agent in Durnholde? The agent who was probably amongst the guests.

"Prince Alric, you have a lot to answer." Troubridge said to you and forced you to open your eyes. "But we can't rush this, our priority should be Magistrate Maleb."

"Y-yes." Fowley said back as he held tears. You hadn’t realised how close friends Fowley and Maleb had been.

"The assassin's were dealt with, but if they are behind this, they will pay with their lives." Blackmoore told all of you.

"So Prince Alric, what will you do about this?" Lady Jandice asked you with a tone full of accusations.


>Someone has to tell Miss Elizabeth Maleb and it should be you. After all Henry died because of you.
>Sahvan needs to be interrogated again. He needs to tell you everything he knows about the poisons and their plans to poison you.
>Take a step back, the assassination attempt doesn't concern you alone anymore. Let the other's to handle this as you aren’t sure if you can handle this.
>Tell them the truth about the assassins and the Syndicate, they deserve to know.
>Other, write in.

>>5525207
>Someone has to tell Miss Elizabeth Maleb and it should be you. After all Henry died because of you.
>Tell them the truth about the assassins and the Syndicate, they deserve to know.
This is a really bad idea, but I have this feeling that it's the right thing to do.

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>>5525201
>>5525204
Quite strange that Alric's paranoia didn't notice the massive red flag that there was only one single bottle of his favourite drink left and didn't think to ask the manservant about it. It is also strange that everyone seems to be giving Alric shit for it when it was obviously the manservant that fucked up by giving out a drink that had been clearly tampered with and not checking it's potability beforehand. Massive F for Maleb though.

>Someone has to tell Miss Elizabeth Maleb and it should be you. After all Henry died because of you.
>Sahvan needs to be interrogated again. He needs to tell you everything he knows about the poisons and their plans to poison you.
But don't show any emotion that would suggest that something happened. If they notice it, they will definetly change their tune.

>>5525218
And when I say strange I mean dumb, really dumb. This is what I meant by doing "rocks fall", just as getting a crit success on charisma shouldn't give you mind control, getting a crit fail shouldn't make you temporarily brain dead.

>>5525209
How? It doesn't inform them of anything relevant that they didn't already know. That being that Alric is the target of assassins.

>>5525225
I think te truth implies telling them about the syndicate being alteraci and our brother being involved.
It's a gut feeling, I can't really explain. The smart thing would be to do what you voted for.

>>5525229
> I think the truth implies telling them about the syndicate being alteraci and our brother being involved.
duh.

> It's a gut feeling, I can't really explain. The smart thing would be to do what you voted for.
Then I can't have anything to say. Im not feeling anything from this, besides my annoyance at how contrived this situation is.

>>5525207
>>Someone has to tell Miss Elizabeth Maleb and it should be you. After all Henry died because of you.
>>Sahvan needs to be interrogated again. He needs to tell you everything he knows about the poisons and their plans to poison you.
damn....

>>5525207
So it has come to this.
Well we could try and narrow down who could have accessed the bottle. There's the servant, obviously, although his fault is likely only negligence in security matters.

>I will naturally do whatever is in my power to help apprehend the culprit.

More importantly though, why are we the suspected target when bottle was Blackmoore's, and he's the one known for drinking?
If the attempt was made on us, the bottle had to be poisoned when it became likely that we'd be drinking from it. Otherwise it would be a wild gamble, or a strike at Blackmoore, possibly even entirely unrelated to syndicate business.

>>5525740
so I guess we'd need to interrogate everyone between where we are and the cellar, kitchen staff, lock down the keep after checking guards at each exit for who left recently... and all that will only help if the poison was only applied when the shared dinner where one could expect the toast to be made.

As for what we can share, I suppose there's no harm in saying that we were targeted by criminals that want to take over Alterac, which is why we did not suspect we're the only conceivable target - they would have nothing to gain by murdering an Alliance noble or a military official.

>>5525746
>we did not suspect we're the only conceivable target
that we did not suspect anyone but us would be conceivably targeted
derp

“Someone has to tell Miss Elizabeth the news.” You said to them. “I will do it and then I will go and talk with Sahvan again.”

“Sahvan?” Lady Jandice asked.

“The assassin who tried to kill me earlier today. I got him to speak.” You told her. “He had a vial with him, probably full of poison, and he mentioned poisoning me being one part of their plans.”

“So there we have it, tomorrow both of them will hang.” Blackmoore said back.

“Sahvan didn’t say anything about the bottle or the brandy. It could have been them or the fourth potential assassin.” You told them and continued. “He told me that supposedly there is another assassin or an agent in here. So me and Langston, we went through the work contracts of Durnholde Keep before the dinner and found nothing suspicious.”

Troubridge, who had taken some control of the situation, nodded once.

“We will look into the servants again and follow the bottle back into the cellar.” He said to you before turning towards Lord Blackmoore. “As Magistrate Burnside said, we have to be calm. It would be a disservice to Magistrate Maleb if we went into conclusions immediately.”

You would have to thank Commodore Troubridge later for attempting to handle the situation.

…

You had asked Sir Gravis who was standing outside the study to go fetch Malevus and to tell her what had happened as you thought you could use her help. And as you waited, you had plenty to think about.

You had been too lax, you should have been more careful with the bottle. You should have recognised that it had already been opened. Those were the first things that came to your mind. You blamed yourself for all of this, who else could have been the target but you? It was a known thing that you liked Alteraci Brandy and even if people didn’t know that, it was a thing that you could expect from an Alteraci. While the manservant hadn’t realised that something was wrong, you should have and now Maleb was dead. This was your fault.

You cursed yourself in your mind as you tried to unravel this and put your thoughts in order. Whoever put the poison in the bottle must have expected you to be one drinking from it, but the risk of someone else taking the bottle and drinking first was huge which was exactly what had happened. It must have been done after the news of you having dinner with your neighbours got out, because before it the risk of poisoning someone else accidentally was too high.

1/3

>>5525942

It could have easily been Blackmoore who drank the brandy, it was his bottle in his stash. He could have drunk it weeks after the dinner was over. Another theory that came to your mind was that whoever was the poisoner knew that Blackmoore didn’t have Alteraci Brandy in his cabinet and that he would get the bottle for you. So that someone must have had an access or visited Blackmoore’s study, the problem was that more or less everyone could visit the study.

So it was either a planned assassination of you, and everyone else as innocent bystanders, during the dinner or during a night of drinking with Blackmoore. Third thought did come to your mind, what if the assassin didn’t differentiate you from the guests? What if the plan was to assassinate all of you? In a one fell swoop, the current leadership of Durnholde and Hillsbrad along with you would be dead. The Syndicate could then have exploited the power vacuum and moved in. The mere thought of that frightened you.

Whatever was the plan, you didn’t know what it was and the only way to learn it would be to find the assassin or maybe draw enough conclusions from glues.

…

Malevus looked tired and shocked when she arrived. She tried to keep a stiff upper lip, but it was clear that she couldn’t believe what just had happened. But it was good that she was here and while she wasn’t wearing her armour, just her normal blue robe over her clothes, it didn’t matter. You didn’t ask her to join you so that she could guard you.

You walked across the Keep towards the wing with the rooms for the guests. The word had spread that something had happened and the servants and the guests gave you a way. You remembered where the room was and when you got there, knocking the door was one of the most difficult things you had ever done.

Elizabeth Maleb opened the door and you saw that she knew something was wrong.

“Can we come in?” You asked her carefully.

“You can.” Elizabeth said back to you. She was wearing the same long blue dress with white embroideries from a couple of days ago.

You stepped in and let Malevus close the door behind you.

“Where is Pa?” Elizabeth asked you. “You wouldn’t come here without a reason.”

“Elizabeth…” You started to say.

“Prince Alric, where is my Pa?” Elizabeth said to you with more strength in her voice. She demanded an answer.

“Henry is gone.” You said to her. You didn’t know what else to say.

2/3

>>5525944

You saw how Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak, but she couldn’t do anything but cry, no words came out. She had gotten her confirmation, her father was dead and would never hold her in his arms. She hugged you and pressed her head on your shoulder as the tears started to flow and the cry turned into anguish. You had to hold her as her legs couldn’t carry her and with help of Malevus, you got her to sit on the bed while still holding her in a hug.

You let her cry, there was nothing to accomplish by stopping it. You carefully patted her back and caressed her hair in an attempt to calm her. Finally after what felt like an eternity, she spoke to you.

“How?” Elizabeth said to you and you had the difficult task in telling her, but how much should you tell her?


>Tell her the details, it will hurt her only once to hear them. Take the full blame, you were the target and Henry Maleb was just an innocent bystander.
>There was an attempt to poison the participants of the dinner and Henry Maleb was the unlucky victim. It could have been anyone else.
>Leave the details out, she doesn’t have to hear them, but tell her it was a poisoning.
>Deflect, as what matters is that you are going to find the culprits and deliver justice.
>Other, write in.

>>5525945
>There was an attempt to poison the participants of the dinner and Henry Maleb was the unlucky victim. It could have been anyone else.

>>5525945
>There was an attempt to poison the participants of the dinner and Henry Maleb was the unlucky victim. It could have been anyone else.

>>5525945
>>There was an attempt to poison the participants of the dinner and Henry Maleb was the unlucky victim. It could have been anyone else.
Bad times ahead, i wanted Maleb trade and cooperation for the future a lot syndicate ruining our plans

>>5525945
>There was an attempt to poison the participants of the dinner and Henry Maleb was the unlucky victim. It could have been anyone else.

The more I think about the less it makes sense for Sahvan to be responsible given that he changed strategies from assassinating us to preserving his own life and risking someone being poisoned by the brandy goes directly against that.

It also makes more sense for the poisoner to both have acted as close to the time they expected the brandy to be drunk as possible, given that doing otherwise would make the victim or victims of it be too unpredictable for an assassination, and for them to be either accepting or desiring the likely death of victims other than Alric.

Therefore, I'd say it's a 35% chance of it being either Pai or the third assassin and a 65% chance of it being the mysterious agent.

I think it's also fair to say that no one should be allowed to leave the keep under any circumstances until this gets sorted out.

No update today, I moved into a new apartment and that is a gigantic pain in the ass to do. I hate moving.

>>5527412
we have a saying here that it's preferable to have to suffer a fire than to move (obviously a hyperbole), good luck not losing anything important including your sanity OP.

>>5527453
I need to start using that saying, it is a quite solid one.

Though I could also use a roll for tomorrow. Let's hope that the dice aren't completely dogshit this time.


>1d10
>Best of three

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>5527504
Surely if we all says : FOR ALTERACCCCC !

Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>5527504
Jeszcze Alterac nie zginęła!

Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>5527504

>>5527521
Forgot to say the magic words
FOR ALTERAC!

>>5527511
>>5527514
>>5527521
>(7,6,5)
What did the dice mean by this?

>>5527569
foreshadowing

>>5527569
We don't want to know......

>>5527569
It's a countdown to another triple 1

>>5526146
Sahvan is unlikely i agree. The assassin is avoiding a direct method of assasination, with Malevus, Gravis, our knights and Durnholde fewer guards on alert and near us is suicidal to strike with a dagger. Alric is also quite dangerous and well equipped, making him a difficult target.
If the storm is still going strong at least whoever did this can t leave easily. We have one thing to remember though : there is less guards around in the Keep, and when we arrived we walked for sometime for check the security. And we had seen a lot of rooms without anyone keeping guard, especially that cannon left alone if i remember correctly.

It will be difficult to stop people from going away they might accept for a few more days. But for longer no, same for us.
Thinking about Maleb, we had just started to warm relations again. With him gone who will become the new magistrate of Southshore ? And until we know, Southshore cannot partecipate in our trade/cooperation plan with our neighbours. This said, in regard to Elizabeth we should partecipate to Maleb funeral. And if we ever do a feast there even a small one, we could invite her.
Next social event i am considering to also bring Eligius and Nalice (or only one, we might have other duties for them), regardless if we occupy more space than others guests or not.

>>5527743
> If the storm is still going strong at least whoever did this can't leave easily.
Our time is limited, remember that in the last thread we received the "good" news that the blizzard has started to ease.
> The second bit of good news was that the snow storm had started to ease its grip on Durnholde. It would maybe pass during the night or tomorrow and most importantly you could return back home on schedule. You wouldn't have to spend any more time here in Durnholde.
So we have until tonight or tomorrow to catch this assassin so I wouldn't worry about people being upset at not being able to leave.

“There was an attempt on the lives of all of us, an indiscriminate attempt to assassinate all of us.” You told Elizabeth Maleb and continued after a pause. “And your father was the unlucky victim.”

Elizabeth gripped your robe and pulled herself closer to you.

“I am sorry, but Henry was the first one to drink the poisoned toast, he truly was the unlucky one.” You told her and wrapped your arms around her more tightly.

Elizabeth Maleb sobbed and cried, and you let her do it.

“He saved us in a way. If he hadn’t drunk the toast before us, maybe all of us would be dead.” You said.

It wasn’t exactly the truth, but at the same time it was. Henry Maleb had died so that you could live and you felt so guilty for that.

Elizabeth slowly raised her head.

“Did my Pa suffer?” Elizabeth asked you. “Did he…”

“Poison is a nasty way to go.” You told her. “But we were with him, even though we couldn’t do anything.”

Elizabeth buried her face on your shoulder again.

“I held his hand till he was gone.” You said. “He held his medallion at the same time.”

Elizabeth looked up and pulled out a medallion of hers out from underneath her shirt.

“Like this one?” She asked.

“I cannot say, I didn’t see it, but if he had one, it must have been a similar one.” You told Elizabeth and looked at the medallion she was wearing. It was shaped like a crescent moon. Then you realised what Henry Maleb tried to mouth to you.

“His last words and thoughts were about you Elizabeth.” You said.

She couldn’t control herself anymore and her cry turned into a wail again. But you let her cry, she had after all just lost her father and crying would help in that.

“I don’t have enough words to describe how sorry I am. Me and your father didn’t see things eye to eye, but this wasn’t the way to go.” You said to her.

“Will you catch them? Those who killed my father?” Elizabeth asked.

“I will, I will try and if I fail, I will find whoever did it.” You promised her.

“Thank you Prince Alric.” Elizabeth said back to you.

She continued hugging you till she stopped crying and she took a deep breath.

“I am Elizabeth Maleb and whatever you need, I will help you Prince Alric.” She told you and collected herself.

“Thank you Miss Maleb.” You said to her and gave her a smile.

“What will you do next Prince Alric?” Elizabeth asked you.

“I will go talk to my prisoners.” You said. “To see if they know anything.”

“If they are guilty, if they killed my Pa… make them hang.” Elizabeth told you and wiped away her tears. “Make sure whoever killed my father dies and hopefully dies slowly.”

“I will find them.” You said to her and looked into her blue eyes. “That I will promise to you.”

1/2

>>5529113

>7

You had left Malevus to be with Elizabeth. She was good with people and you thought that Elizabeth would like to have someone to talk with and most importantly lend her shoulder to her. Malevus would know what to do. And if she didn’t, Malevus could help Elizabeth with praying.

When you left Elizabeth’s room, you made sure that your knights surrounded you. Walking through the Keep, you could feel how nervous the servants and guards were. It wasn’t like earlier in the day when they knew that something had happened. Now something had happened and Henry Maleb was dead.

The servants and guests gave way, they realised the weight of the situation, but they hadn’t folded or panicked. They held themselves together somehow. Having an important guest assassinated must haven’t been easy for them.

It didn’t help that you were really pissed off, annoyed and tired. Rightfully people gave you way and didn’t want to slow you down. They most likely feared your reaction.

When you reached the dungeon or the jail as it was known in here, you found your prisoners in good health and shape. Sahvan didn’t know what was going on, but he must have realised that something had happened. Pai meanwhile was still unconscious and hadn’t woken up from her injury and wounds.

You couldn’t interrogate Pai without waking her up, that is if you could do it. She probably would know the most as the leader of her group of assassins.

Sahvan meanwhile had told you a lot already, but you weren’t sure how much more he would know. He might have details that could help you, or he could only tell you things you knew about. You didn’t know how he would react if he heard the news.


>Try to wake up Pai the assassin. She has lost a lot of blood, but she would know the most about their plans, including the attempt to poison you.
>Sahvan will know about the poisoning, he should know as he had a vial with you. Talk with him and try to get as much out of him as possible.
>Tell Sahvan everything about what had happened and try to get him to cooperate through that. If he knows what is good for him, he will talk to you.
>Other, write in.

>Be blunt towards your prisoners, Lord Blackmoore and others want your prisoners to hang. It is better for them if they speak.
>Threaten your prisoners personally. Make them understand that you want the information you are after, even if that means that you can’t ensure their safety or well-being.
>Try to be gentle, you promised to keep Sahvan alive and safe. To protect him.
>Other, write in.

QM: Please vote on both.

>>5529156
>Sahvan will know about the poisoning, he should know as he had a vial with you. Talk with him and try to get as much out of him as possible.
>Be blunt towards your prisoners, Lord Blackmoore and others want your prisoners to hang. It is better for them if they speak.
>"I promised to save you Sahvan, but they are blaming you for the poisoning. I'm a prince, bu not their prince, and they are not as forgiving as I have been. Unless the assassin is found, you will be turned into the scapegoat"

>>5529156
>talk to sahvan, get from him all that he knows and if he knows what’s good for him he will talk (2 & 3)
type of poison, means of delivery, acceptable targets etc
>be blunt
+ write in from >>5529163

Although honestly it’s not really sensible, or just, to hang someone for crime they literally have alibi for.

>>5529163
>>5529742
support this two

>>5529742
It's definitely not, it's why I mentioned that they want to kill them, not us.
Everyone is really angry and not thinking clearly, and we can't just pull rank because we aren't their superior.

Talking with Sahvan, being blunt and the write in wins. The previous roll was to see if the people of Durnholde Keep had panicked and they hadn't. Now I would like to see another roll.


>1d10
>Best of three

Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>5530061

Rolled 10 (1d10)

>>5530061

Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>5530061

I don't do diplomacy rolls often, but I could have one roll now. Failure is not the end of the world, just to see if you can fish all the information you can get out of Sahvan.


>3d10, best of three
>DC 20, No Crit

Rolled 1, 6, 5 = 12 (3d10)

>>5530156

Rolled 10, 3, 10 = 23 (3d10)

>>5530156
every death is an end of a world.

Rolled 4, 8, 1 = 13 (3d10)

>>5530156

>23, Success


Sahvan was in his cell and while the guards hadn’t removed his shackles, they had opted to just chain his hands behind his back and leg irons kept him from getting away.

“Sahvan, you must have realised that something has happened.” You said to him when you entered his cell.

“The guards, they have been more active.” Sahvan said to you.

“Because there has been a poisoning.” You said to him. “And we have a couple of assassins locked up in here. Quite convenient isn’t it?”

You waved the guard standing inside the cell to leave before you took a few steps to be closer to Sahvan.

“Someone died and a bunch of people including me were really close to following him. So I came here to ask you to tell me everything you know about the poisons and your plans regarding it.” You told him. “Because the alternative is that you end up hanging. Lord Blackmoore and others want your head and my ability to protect you goes only so far.”

You let what you had said to hang in the air for a moment.

“So how is it? Will you talk to me?” You asked the assassin and continued after a pause. “I promised to save you Sahvan, but they are blaming you for the poisoning. I'm a Prince, but I am not their Prince, and they are not as forgiving as I have been. Unless the assassin is found, you will be turned into the scapegoat."

“I will, it is not like I have an option.” Sahvan said.

And so he spoke. Pai had given Sahvan and Gerard a vial of poison each that according to her should be enough to kill an ogre, even in small amounts the poison was potent enough to kill a human. Their plan was to get the poison into a drink or a food you would be eating, but they just didn’t have a chance to do so. You being extra careful had prevented that and this was one of the reasons why Sahvan was ready to take the risk and try to assassinate you directly.

You prodded carefully and tried not to lead him with your questions. And as a result you thought that what he was saying was the truth. He spoke about how they were ready to poison the drinks during the feast to get you or if they could have gotten access into your room. If you had drank freely, they could have done it.

So you asked about the vial, the one that you found on him. Sahvan confirmed that it was the poison vial. So you asked, did they have any qualms about poisoning bystanders? Sahvan didn’t say anything immediately, but then nodded. They were ready to carry out their plans even if there is more than one corpse in the end. You asked him if they had any specific plans and Sahvan told you that they had thought about poisoning whatever you were drinking, they just hadn’t gotten close enough.

You thanked Sahvan for the information as you left the cell. What Sahvan had told you wasn’t much, but it did give you some ideas. You wanted to check out the vials, if all three or more were found, it could help you a lot.

1/3

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>>5530534

>10

Sahvan’s daggers and gear were stashed in the storage room of the dungeon as were Pai’s. The vial Sahvan had been carrying with him was there as were two vials Pai apparently had on her. So that was three vials of poison.

Gerard, the third assassin that had been killed by Blackmoore and the guards had been moved into the cold storage and you found his body with the gear he had been carrying. So you searched him thoroughly and you didn’t find the vial. He didn’t have it on him.

So you asked one of the guards nearby and they told you that they hadn’t seen a vial on him or noticed it. You even had them bring one of the men who had been with Blackmoore and he told the same story.

This raised you the question, had Gerard been the one who had poisoned the brandy? Or was it the supposed fourth agent?

…

The talks with Sahvan had given you a lot more to think about and you had returned back to the study to tell the news to others.

Mayor Fowley had left as his stomach had started to trouble him again. It was probably for the best if he got some rest as the death of Magistrate Maleb had hit him hard.

You told the others what you had learned and Commodore Troubridge seemed quite thoughtful for a moment before pulling out an empty vial from his pocket.

“We backtracked the brandy and found this in the cellar behind several barrels.” Troubridge told you as he handed the vial to you. “Prince Alric, do you recognise it?”

“Yes, it is the same design as the other vials.” You said back to him.

“So we have our poison vial.” Troubridge said back. “The servants near the cellar said that they hadn’t seen or spotted anything unusual. And we spoke with Mr. Langston, he confirmed to us that the workers and servants aren’t suspicious, he doesn’t think that one of them is an assassin.”

“The vial confirms it, the assassins are behind this.” Blackmoore said back.

“It is their poison Lord Blackmoore, but to our disadvantage, the one whose poison is missing was killed.” Troubridge said back to him.

“Could whoever poisoned the brandy have retrieved it?” Magistrate Burnside asked.

2/3

>>5530537

“The guards and servants said that they hadn’t noticed anything.” You told him. “Now if the poison had been taken before Gerard had died or retrieved from Pai as she had more than one vial on her… the thing is we do not know.”

“It is clearly their poison Prince Alric.” Blackmoore said back. “Fourth assassin or not, I want them to hang.”

Blackmoore looked at you sternly and made it clear what he wanted.

“You have all the right to do so Lord Blackmoore, this is your domain after all and the laws of the Alliance are on your side.” Captain Alphonse said to him.

“But we aren’t sure if they were behind it.” You said and continued. “If there is a fourth assassin, whoever it is, they are hiding their tracks really well.”

“Or it was the plan of the dead assassin to poison us. The one who had tried to kill you, did it on his own initiative after all, so Gerard could have done it as well.” Troubridge said to you and others.

Lady Jandice didn’t say anything as she sat lazily on her chair and drank from her glass of wine. You felt like the eyes were again on you, like they expected you to make the decision or guide them forward in what they were going to do next.

You didn’t have that many glues. The poison was clearly from Pai, the shape of the vials was identical. Gerard, the now dead assassin, had his vial missing and supposedly Pai had given one vial to both him and to Sahvan. The guards nor the servants hadn’t noticed anything to be awry and it was very unlikely that it was one of them who was the potential fourth assassin.

You sighed and closed your eyes as you thought. It could have been Gerard who on his own initiative decided to poison the brandy. It could have been the fourth assassin who had received or retrieved the poison at some point and had then made their move. The issue was that you had nothing to pin the blame on the fourth assassin other than Sahvan having said that there was a fourth Syndicate agent in Durnholde. This left you with a few options.


>Put the blame on Gerard, the dead assassin must have tried to assassinate you on his own initiative. It was his poison that was missing after all. Maybe having someone to blame, this could get Blackmoore and others to accept him as the scapegoat.
>The remaining guests should be investigated thoroughly. If the fourth assassin isn’t one of the servants, they must be one of the guests or parts of their retinue. Though you don’t know how you would spot the assassin amongst them.
>You need to get Pai to wake up. She knows how many vials of poison they had with them and she probably knows if Gerard had poisoned the brandy. Problem is just the blood loss, getting her to wake up and to be coherent would be difficult.
>You have the orange bandana taken from Sahvan. Wear it and make it known to everyone that you want to talk with the fourth assassin. Try to get them to reveal themselves through that.
>Other, write in.

>>5530538
>>You need to get Pai to wake up. She knows how many vials of poison they had with them and she probably knows if Gerard had poisoned the brandy. Problem is just the blood loss, getting her to wake up and to be coherent would be difficult.
>The remaining guests should be investigated thoroughly. If the fourth assassin isn’t one of the servants, they must be one of the guests or parts of their retinue. Though you don’t know how you would spot the assassin amongst them.

>>5530538
>The remaining guests should be investigated thoroughly. If the fourth assassin isn’t one of the servants, they must be one of the guests or parts of their retinue. Though you don’t know how you would spot the assassin amongst them.
>You need to get Pai to wake up. She knows how many vials of poison they had with them and she probably knows if Gerard had poisoned the brandy. Problem is just the blood loss, getting her to wake up and to be coherent would be difficult.
Well we know how Pai and gerard infiltrated and passed as guests. the fourth assasin could be some new hire to some other guests.

>>5530537
This stinks desu.

Blackmoore requested the brandy specifically, at the time the assassin who carried the poison was already dead. Killed by Blackmoore, incidentally. So if it was Gerard, he would have had to poison the brandy preemptively with no idea who or when would drink it.

It could have even be done with intention to poison Blackmoore. It's his stash after all.

Could Blackmoore have retrieved the poison for his own use? But what possible benefit would he have for killing several nobles?

What about Langston? Could he have opportunity, or reason to?

Obviously we can't just level accusations at either of them too freely.

And does servants not noticing anything suspicious means this is not a thread worth pursuing at all, or does it mean that the poisoner was someone who either slipped into the cellar without noticing (is that possible?) or is he someone who had legitimate business there (therefore not suspicious)?

Am I forgetting something important?

>>5530640
Well there's also Jandice. This kind of sinister stuff could well be in her ballpark, and she has magic to help her too.
I doubt it could be the alliance officers, and from among the guests, only the ones in the meeting would know it's the brandy that needed to get spiked, if other guests tried to interdict it would have raised suspicion of the servants.

>>5530538
>>You need to get Pai to wake up. She knows how many vials of poison they had with them and she probably knows if Gerard had poisoned the brandy. Problem is just the blood loss, getting her to wake up and to be coherent would be difficult.
>The remaining guests should be investigated thoroughly. If the fourth assassin isn’t one of the servants, they must be one of the guests or parts of their retinue. Though you don’t know how you would spot the assassin amongst them.

>>5530538
I forgot to actually vote, hmm.
>Fourth assassin needs to be found. Hanging the ones who failed will not neutralize the threat that poisoned bottle in your private stash, lord Blackmoore.

"The fourth assassin needs to be found. Hanging the ones who failed will not neutralise the threat that poisoned the bottle in your private stash Lord Blackmoore." You said to him. "It doesn't solve the issue."

"Then what do you suggest?" Troubridge asked back as Blackmoore opted to not say anything.

"We haven't found any proof outside of what Sahvan told me that the fourth assassin even exists." You said back and continued. "But even then I don't believe that Gerard was the one who poisoned the brandy. It is plausible, but unlikely."

You sighed and fixed your chaperon on your head. If no proof or evidence had been found, it felt unlikely that they would be more successful this time.

"The guests need to be investigated thoroughly. Be they local nobles or from elsewhere, we need to investigate them." You told him.

"Lord Blackmoore and Mr. Langston can help us with that." Troubridge said back. "But what about the fighters, the gladiators?"

"They don't have access to the Keep proper." Blackmoore said and seemed disgruntled. "But we can go through them as well."

"We need some leads. Anything." You said. "And while difficult, I think we need to wake up Pai."

"Prince Alric, you mean the assassin who supposedly is their leader?" Troubridge asked.

"Yes, she just has lost a lot of blood and is unconscious. I don’t know how to wake her up, but if she was awake, she could tell us what we require." You said back to him.

"I can help you with that Prince Alric. Illusions don’t only fool the eyes, but the mind as well." Lady Jandice said to you.

"You can get her to wake up?" You had to ask her just in case.

"I can make her mind believe that she should be awake. So yes Prince Alric, I can do that." Lady Jandice said.

Rest of the people in the study seemed somewhat less enthusiastic about the idea, except Blackmoore who nodded enthusiastically.

"That is then settled. We will investigate the guests while Prince Alric and Lady Jandice… interrogate the unconscious assassin." Troubridge said.

…

You returned back into the dungeon with Lady Jandice in tow. She didn't say anything to you and she just continued leering at you.

"You want to do what?!" The surgeon said to you after you had told him the plan. "The patient has lost too much blood to be woken up."

Pai was resting in a bed and was covered by a simple sheet of linen. In case she suddenly wakes up and tries to escape, she has been chained into a wall from her leg. The cell was a dreary place to be recovering from the wound, it was a cold and a damp place, but it did beat the alternative of dying in the snow.

"The patient's wound is too recent." The surgeon said and lifted the linen enough to show the handiwork of Malevus and him while preserving Pai's modesty. They had done impressive work with the sutures. "If she wakes up now, I fear she will tear the wound open."

"That is the risk we are willing to take." You told the surgeon.

1/2

>>5532247
"Then Prince Perenolde, I cannot ensure that she will survive. She is too weak." The surgeon said back. "But do what you want, I cannot stop you, but I have told you my opinion."

The surgeon stepped aside and you allowed Lady Jandice to take her position behind Pai. She then put her hands above her head and started chanting.

At first nothing seemed to happen until a purple light from Lady Jandice's hands illuminated the cell. You noticed how previously still Pai started to move her fingers and shift around a bit underneath the linen.

Suddenly her eyes shot open and she gasped for air.

"She is awake, but isn't." Pai said to you as Pai's eyes frantically searched the room. You saw in them how terrified she was. "Mind is awake, but the body isn't. She is a prisoner in her own body."

"Thank you for the explanation Lady Jandice, but can she speak?" You asked her as Pai's eyes became fixated with yours. "Does she feel pain?"

"Yes, I can get her to speak and yes, she does feel pain." Lady Jandice said and the purple light illuminates the room once more.

"You bastard! What have you done!" Pai shouted in pain and grimaced. "Oh it hurts, it hurts so much!"

"Lady Jandice?" You spared her a glance.

"I needed to wake her body up a bit Prince Alric so that she could talk." Lady Jandice said back.

"Go fuck a rusty rake!" Pai shouted to you. She was in incredible pain. Her body moved more under the linen and she raised up her right arm. "Are you here to ravage my body while I can’t move or resist! I will never tell you anything!"

"Prince Alric, her mind is surprisingly strong." Lady Jandice said and sounded surprised. "I don't know how long I can keep her still or awake without waking her up completely."

So you had a limited window to ask your questions. Or maybe you could have Lady Jandice wake her up completely? Though that seems to be extremely painful to Pai, but she seemed to not want to talk with you. Maybe the threat of pain makes her talkative? Sooner she talks, sooner this is over? At least she was still strong enough to continue with her lewd jokes.

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>>5532249

>Ask about the poisons. How many vials did she bring with her and to whom he gave them and how many?
>The fourth assassin. Ask about the agent who supposedly is in Durnholde Keep.
>The plans they had for killing you. How big of a risk they were willing to take, were they prepared if their poisoning failed or if someone else got poisoned?
>Other, write in.

>Have Jandice wake her up completely. This will give you plenty of time to speak with her, but she will be in great pain and it risks her life.
>Have Jandice continue as is. If there is a danger of her waking up, Jandice puts her back into sleep.

>Threaten to keep her mind awake if she doesn't talk. Being a prisoner in her own body seems like an awful and painful experience.
>Promise that if she speaks, you will put her back to sleep. Sooner she speaks, sooner this is over.
>Give her the same terms as you had given to Sahvan. If she speaks now, you can protect her from hanging.

QM: Please vote on all three. What will you ask from her, will you wake her up for more time to talk and will it be a carrot or a stick?

>>5532251
>ask about the fourth assassin who apparently used gerard's vial to attempt mass assasination
gauge her reaction to the revelation

>have jandice continue as is
no point in killing her off with this

>if she cooperates, she can rest again AND has a chance to keep her life. Man has died and our protection only goes so far.

I can't shake feeling I'm forgetting something important...

>>5532269
Support but maybe ask about the poisons? Trying to ask for details that we already know, to check how much truth she is telling

>>5532282
And by that I meant that the poison could kill an ogre and the like.
Although it might be a waste of time.

>>5532294
it's what I'm worried about that if we try to drag this out too much she'll either fall back asleep or die on us so we better make the question count. But of course if someone comes up with better question, shoot away!
We need a clue, any clue to point us towards who took and used the poison... hopefully also when etc

>>5532251
>>5532269
Isn't that jumping the gun? How do you know Pai is not complicit in all this? Or are you betting that her reaction will give it away?

>>5532251
>>The fourth assassin. Ask about the agent who supposedly is in Durnholde Keep.
>Have Jandice continue as is. If there is a danger of her waking up, Jandice puts her back into sleep.
>Promise that if she speaks, you will put her back to sleep. Sooner she speaks, sooner this is over.

Asking about the fourth assassin and a bit about the poisons, Jandice puts her back to sleep if she is going to wake up and tell Pai that sooner she speaks, sooner this is over. Due to that, could I have a roll for Jandice.


>3d10, Best of three
>DC 16, Crit 22

Rolled 9, 1, 4 = 14 (3d10)

>>5533251

Rolled 2, 4, 6 = 12 (3d10)

>>5533251

Rolled 10, 10, 1 = 21 (3d10)

>>5533251

>>5533276
So close

>21, Success

"If she is going to wake up, put her back to sleep." You told Jandice. "Pai, did you hear that? Sooner you speak and tell me what I want to know, sooner this is over."

Pai grimaced as another jolt of pain moved through her body. She still kept moving her hands and legs beneath the linen as she clearly was in anguish.

"No, I won't tell you anything." Pai said back to you.

"Lady Jandice here is an archmage, we can continue this for a quite long time, because I think she was just a bit too modest about her skills." You said back to Pai as you watched her twitch on the bed. It wasn’t a pretty sight and you saw the concentration it required Lady Jandice to keep doing this.

Pai fought back and a single drop of sweat appeared on Lady Jandice's forehead before she exerted and took hold of her mind and body. Pai's body trashed around the bed and as her hands moved the linen covering her shirtless body fell off her. Her back arched and she screamed in pain once more. Then suddenly she dropped and laid still with tears in her eyes.

"Just make the pain go away…" Pai said in defeat and cried. The closed wound on her side trickled a few drops of blood.

"You must speak first." You said back to her.

"I will, I will!" Pai desperately said.

"Supposedly there is a fourth agent here. What do you know about it?" You asked and crossed your arms. Pai's eyes told you the story well enough, she was very terrified.

"We got the order to come here as most likely you would be here as well… Lord Creedy gave us the order and he told me that Durnholde is territory allocated to Lord Falconcrest." Pai told you and continued. "There could be an agent of Lord Falconcrest in here."

That was the confirmation you had wanted, but you needed more.

"Do you have any idea who the agent is? Have you seen the agent?" You asked again.

"No, we haven’t seen shit. Lord Creedy and Lord Falconcrest are kept apart on purpose by your brother. They do not get along." Pai told you and started to pant and sound more tired. "I was warned… our goals can differ."

Now that is interesting. Pai believes that her plan to kill you could conflict with the plans of the agent sent by Lord Falconcrest.

"An important person was poisoned and the vial Gerard supposedly carried was missing and then found elsewhere." You told her. This was a bit risky, but her reaction or her answer could reveal something important. "How many vials did you have and to whom did you give them?"

"Five vials. Two for me, two for Gerard and one for Sahvan… that fucking idiot got himself caught by you." Pai said and grimaced again thanks to the pain.

Five vials? Sahvan had said that Pai had given one vial each to him and Gerard. Was he lying or did he just not know? Though this meant that there was one vial of poison missing.

"Did Gerard plan on doing anything with the poison?" You asked her.

1/2

>>5533341

"We talked about poisoning your drinks. To get into your room and poison the wine there… or poison something that you would drink." Pai said and her voice started to be even more tired and laborious.

"Even if there was a risk of poisoning someone else?" You asked her quickly.

"Yes… but..." Pai answered faintly.

"But what? Answer me." You said back to her.

"Prince Alric, I couldn't keep her with us any longer." Lady Jandice said to you. She was visibly tired and exhausted.

Pai's eyes were still open as their lifeless gaze looked straight at you. Her bare chest still faintly moved as she was still at least breathing. Checking her pulse, you found her heart still beating. She wasn't dead, but had fallen back into unconsciousness.

"I hope we got what we wanted out of her." You said and picked up the linen that had fallen on the floor. "Confirmation that there could be a fourth agent and that one vial is missing.

Then you carefully covered Pai with the linen, preserving her modesty once again. This made you wonder, why would such a beautiful woman end up as an assassin?

…

"How does your magic work?" You asked Jandice as the two of you sat down in the jailer's office. Jandice wanted to rest a bit first.

"Mind is a powerful tool, but very hard to directly fool or control." Jandice said back and was visibly tired. "Fooling the eye with illusions is way easier."

"Lady Jandice, but what about this spell?" You asked again.

"Awfully curious aren’t you." Lady Jandice said. "But fine, I will tell you. She was unconscious and I made her mind think she was awake. Technically she was sleeping that whole time, I just made her mind think she wasn't."

"But why did her body then move, why was she in such a big pain?" You asked her.

"Her mind was strong and she tried to fight back. And as the mind is strong, sometimes it can amplify things like pain. What you saw was my spell doing exactly that." Lady Jandice said to you and continued. "In the worst case scenario if my spell had gone wrong, the connection between her mind and her body could have been cut."

"A prisoner in her own body, that's scary." You said. The mere idea of being stuck and not being able to do anything sounded absolutely horrifying. No wonder Pai was terrified at first.

"Prince Alric, what will we do next? We have the confirmation that they had the poisons and one is now missing. And that there is the fourth assassin." Lady Jandice asked you and continued. "And what did you and her mean by calling the assassin an agent? And how is your brother mixed in this?"

2/3

>>5533345

Lady Jandice sounded adamant, she clearly wanted answers, but you weren't sure if you should give them to her. The business between you and your brother was something you wanted to keep within the family so to speak and the existence of the Syndicate is still supposed to be a secret outside of the Kings of the Alliance and a small circle of your close confidants. But at the same time, Lady Jandice saw you being at fault with this. No wonder she was ready to use such a difficult spell without reservations. Maybe if you told her, she could understand your situation better.


>You should go and aid with going through the guests. A pair of extra eyes should help somewhat.
>You need to attempt to find the missing vial of poison. Go talk with the servant's and try to follow Gerard's tracks.
>You need to think, there must be an alternative approach in finding the fourth Syndicate agent. Talk with your entourage, if they have any ideas.
>Other, write in.

>Tell Jandice about the Syndicate and your brother. You hope that would make her see your position in all this.
>Tell Jandice about the Syndicate, but not about your brother. Syndicate is a threat as much to her as it is to you.
>Don't spread the news about them. You are supposed to keep Syndicate as a secret and not spread their existence.

QM: Please vote on both.

>>5533347
>You need to attempt to find the missing vial of poison. Go talk with the servant's and try to follow Gerard's tracks.
>You need to think, there must be an alternative approach in finding the fourth Syndicate agent. Talk with your entourage, if they have any ideas.
If there are more poison vials, then the agent may try to do more poisonings
>Tell Jandice about the Syndicate and your brother. You hope that would make her see your position in all this.
Pai already mentioned our brother, so might as well deal with it.

>>5533347
So we have not only an assassin but also additional poison unaccounted for.

>talk with our entourage
>track the path of the poisoned bottle, carefully
I wonder how does Falconcrest come in... he may have simply decided to act the commotion to his advantage and then pin blame on Creedy's men.

Maybe Gravis would have some insights on who could we be looking for?

>Tell Jandice about Syndicate and our brother
not much point in keeping it secret anymore given circumstances.

>>5533347
>You need to attempt to find the missing vial of poison. Go talk with the servant's and try to follow Gerard's tracks.
>You need to think, there must be an alternative approach in finding the fourth Syndicate agent. Talk with your entourage, if they have any ideas.


>Tell Jandice about the Syndicate and your brother. You hope that would make her see your position in all this.
Do ask her to not spread it around it is a open secret of sorts.

>>5533347
>You need to attempt to find the missing vial of poison. Go talk with the servant's and try to follow Gerard's tracks.
>You need to think, there must be an alternative approach in finding the fourth Syndicate agent. Talk with your entourage, if they have any ideas.


>Tell Jandice about the Syndicate and your brother. You hope that would make her see your position in all this.

You waved your hand and one of the guards from Durnholde understood that now was the time for him to leave the office.

"What I am telling you has been previously privy to the leaders of the Alliance and my closest circle, so I would like, if you wouldn't spread what I am going to tell you around." You told Lady Jandice and sighed.

"Prince Alric, that is a hard promise for me to make. If it is something that affects us Barov, my family needs to know." Lady Jandice said back to you.

Well, that was good enough. So you started telling her what you knew starting from who these assassins are and what the Syndicate has been doing. You didn’t tell her all the details, but made a big emphasis on them controlling Strahnbrad and how you had fought against them in the Strahnbrad Hills.

Lady Jandice listened to what you told her and weighted your words in her mind as she let you speak without interruptions. And when you mentioned your brother, you saw how she perked up and clearly found what you told her very interesting.

"I don't believe that my brother wants me killed, but his closest officers do." You said to her. "I hope you can understand my situation now."

"How much does Dalaran know?" Lady Jandice asked after a pause.

"Nearly everything I told you." You said back to her.

"Hmmm…" Lady Jandice said. "This requires further thinking from my part…"

It felt like she was more concerned about Dalaran not telling her about the Syndicate than trying to understand you.

"Sir Gravis, I know you have been listening. What do you think about all this? How could we catch the assassin?" You asked your bodyguard in his black plate mail.

"Prince Alric, outside of bringing the fight to the Syndicate, I don’t think they will stop." He said to you. "The failed and captured assassins might deter them though."

"But nothing else to stop them?" You asked.

"No Prince Alric." Sir Gravis said back.

"Do you think we can find the assassin?" You asked him again.

"No, I don't believe we can." Sir Gravis said. "We only know that the agent sent by this Lord Falconcrest exists and could be in here."

"Do you have any ideas?" You had to ask him.

"Outside of trying to call the agent out and searching the whole Keep, no I don’t have outside bad ones." Sir Gravis said to you.

"Well what are your bad ideas then?" You asked.

"My job is to protect you Prince Alric. And it becomes increasingly difficult if you seek out danger." Sir Gravis said to you. "This agent or assassin is highly skilled for not having been seen or caught already. Yet another attempt could succeed or if confronted, the agent could have tools or ways to bring your life in danger."

"Sir Gravis, are you implying that we should let the assassin go?" You asked.

1/2

>>5534334

"Yes Prince Alric. Not all battles are worth fighting if the chance to win is slim." Sir Gravis said to you. "We do not even know if it is the fourth agent or this Gerard who is now dead."

"Thank you Sir Gravis." You said to him.

"Do you agree with your knight?" Lady Jandice asked you.

"No, but what he says is correct. The agent must be quite skilled or it was Gerard who tried to poison me. And that we do not know much in the end." You said and sighed. "Either way, let's go backtrack the footsteps of this Gerard if we can spot anything that was missed."

You were tired, the buzz from the alcohol had disappeared and all the tension and twitchiness had returned. You were pissed off with everything going on around you and it was still snowing outside. You couldn't even leave Durnholde if you wanted.

And you had hoped that this visit could have been an easy way to spend a few days and relax.

…

You started to backtrack Gerard's movements by first talking with the manservant who had brought the poisoned Alteraci Brandy. He explained as you went into the cellar where the brandy was and how to get into the storeroom.

You and Lady Jandice interrogated the still shocked servants and cooks who regularly visited the storerooms and they said that they hadn’t noticed anything to be wrong or an outsider or someone who wasn't supposed to be there having been found entering or leaving the cellar. They pointed out how the empty vial had been found stashed behind some wine bottles, but that alone didn't help you much. The next option was to go and search the room he was using.

…

Next to the room Pai had been using was Gerard's and Sahvan’s room. Lord Blackmoore’s guards had turned the place upside down with clothes and their belongings stretching all over the place. The furniture had been moved out of the rooms and a pair of guards were standing around watching the rooms.

"Well this is a bit of a pain in the ass." You said aloud. "How are we supposed to find anything in this mess?"

"We are sorry Prince Perenolde." One of the guards said. "Our orders were to ransack both rooms and search everything."

You waved his apology away and pinched the bridge of your nose. This sucked hard.


>Interrogate the guards. Have they seen anything out of place or unusual? Anyone acting strangely or trying to enter the rooms?
>Start searching the rooms again. It is plausible that the guards missed something.
>Ask Lady Jandice if she has magic that could help you to find what you are looking for? Though she is quite tired.
>Backtrack Gerard's footsteps once more and try to spot or find anything unusual. Someone must have spotted something.
>Other, write in.

>>5534335
>Interrogate the guards. Have they seen anything out of place or unusual? Anyone acting strangely or trying to enter the rooms?
>Backtrack Gerard's footsteps once more and try to spot or find anything unusual. Someone must have spotted something.

>>5534335
>Look around for irregularities anyway
>Ask guards what they found and if anyone came by while they were conducting the search

>>5534335
>>Interrogate the guards. Have they seen anything out of place or unusual? Anyone acting strangely or trying to enter the rooms?
>>Backtrack Gerard's footsteps once more and try to spot or find anything unusual. Someone must have spotted something.

"Have you seen anything unusual? Anyone trying to get into the rooms? Loitering suspiciously around here?" You asked the guards.

"Milord, just the guests and servants moving around." A guard said. "This hallway sees a lot of traffic and we have told everyone to move quickly."

"Prince Perenolde, no one has tried to enter the rooms and we haven’t seen anything." Another guard said. "Quite many stopped to ask what is going on, but we have told them to move on."

Of course they hadn’t seen or heard anything.

"Are you sure about it? Has anything happened that you could tell me, be it insignificant or not." You asked again more sternly.

"Well no Prince Perenolde." Guard said.

"The storm did open the window in the woman's room milord. I went to close it then." The other guard answered.

"Prince Perenolde, the windows are old. That tends to happen here. Besides, I stayed here and kept watch." The guard answered.

Absolutely tremendous, the only thing worth something was a window opened by the storm outside. The guards really hadn’t seen anything.

You would have to think of something else.

…

You decided to backtrack the steps of Gerard once more in case of you having missed something.

So you talked with every guest, guard and a servant you met and tried to prod information out of them.

Some had seen other guests or servants. Guard mentioned having seen the assassins earlier in the day coming from the mess hall, which alone didn't help you that much. Another servant had seen them elsewhere in the Keep around the same time. Conflicting information, where people had seen who, plenty of useless trivia to you.

And on top of that you hadn't found anything. Nothing dropped, no one having seen Gerard near the doors that lead into the cellar. Neither had Sir Gravi or his knights managed to unravel anything.

"Prince Alric, I do not think we are going to find anything." Lady Jandice said to you after having reached the cellar. "At least not here."

"Not a single track or a glue that could help us. This is bloody frustrating." You said back to her. "We must have missed something, the assassin couldn't have disappeared into thin air."

You hadn’t noticed that you had raised your voice as you had nearly shouted at Lady Jandice.

"I am sorry, I shouldn't have raised my voice." You said and sat down on a bench. Fixing your chaperon you looked up at Jandice. "This is just so frustrating."

"Prince Alric, maybe it would be better if we rested for a moment and try to put all of our leads together?" Lady Jandice said to you. She was tired just like you and she hadn't stopped leering at you.

"What leads?" You asked. "We don't have leads, we don't know who or where to search."

Lady Jandice looked at you as you stood back up. You could definitely use some rest, but at the same time you felt like you had to do something. You felt like you had missed something.

1/1

>>5534850


>Go back to Blackmoore’s study and share your findings with the others. Put your leads together and try to find a new direction to pursue.
>Once more to talk with Sahvan. Have him tell you everything from the moment they arrived here in full detail.
>Return back to Gerard's and Pai's rooms. There must be something in there that the guards have missed that you could find.
>Just go for a walk. You need to get your thoughts sorted and then put back together.
>Other, write in.

>>5534854
>the assassin couldn't have disappeared into thin air.
What if they could? Is there a way to detect invisibility or illusions?
Do the castle have any emergency passages that they could have used?

>>5534867
Thankfully you have an archmage specialised in illusions standing right next to you. And you are fairly sure that Durnholde Keep has underground pathways that are supposed to be secret. Old castles and keeps usually have at least an escape tunnel.

>>5534903
Then can we ask Jandice if the assassins could have used ilusions to plant the poison?
The passages would be something to talk to Blackmoore I guess.
The only other thing I can think of is that window really was open because of the assassin, or that they could have somehow got one of the workers to do it for them, either through blackmail, treats or bribery.

>>5534910
You can definitely ask Jandice if any illusions were in the play.

>>5534854
>Just go for a walk. You need to get your thoughts sorted and then put back together.
>Other, write in.
>Ask Jaundince about the use of illusions, either for cover the use of a secret passage, a servant do something for an assassin unknowingly, for cover the use of the vials or perhaps further cover their true identity and face.

>>5534854
>Ask Jandice how feasible it would be that the assassin was using magic to conceal themselves
>Check the window that opened itself for traces of an intruder or escapee
>Go back to Blackmoore’s study and share your findings with the others. Put your leads together and try to find a new direction to pursue.

>>5534927
In that case I'm voting for
>>5534854
>Ask about the possibility of magic
>Check the window
>Go back to Blackmoore’s study and share your findings with the others. Put your leads together and try to find a new direction to pursue.
>Secret routes

Magic, window, Blackmoore. Lady Jandice requires a roll.


>3d10, Best of three
>DC 15, Crit 20

Rolled 5, 4, 2 = 11 (3d10)

>>5535633

Rolled 1, 10, 5 = 16 (3d10)

>>5535633

Rolled 9, 5, 4 = 18 (3d10)

>>5535633

>18, Success

The two guards were still there as you returned. You allowed Lady Jandice to look for any traces as you had to ask something that slightly bothered you.

"Could anyone climb through the window?" You asked the guards.

"Yes milord, with a hook and a rope. But in this weather, I don’t believe so, that wall is the outer wall. You would have had to go out." One of the two guards said.

"But you could do it?" You asked again.

"Prince Perenolde, the window opened due to a gust. It happened when we were standing here and we closed it quickly before snow could get in." A guard said back.

Well there went out that theory, it sounded really unlikely for someone to use it to enter or exit the Keep.

"Nothing in this room." Lady Jandice said to you as she left Pai's room. All the clothes and other belongings were spread as Lady Jandice had searched everything just in case. "Prince Alric, will you lend a hand."

"Yeah, just tell me what to do." You said as you walked into Gerard's room.

"Give me a bit of space and then do as told." Lady Jandice said to you as she closed her eyes.

A faint breeze appeared in the room as Lady Jandice started to concentrate. In your brief studies you had learned that some mages can feel magic like it is smoke in the air. And now Lady Jandice is attempting to disturb that smoke and spot it.

"There is something in here." Lady Jandice suddenly said to you. "A very very faint trace."

"Where is it?" You asked quickly.

"Go pick up clothes and things one by one." She said to you with her eyes still closed.

You did as you were told. Gerard's belongings were all over the room and you started going through them and presenting them to Lady Jandice. Pieces of clothing, a spare dagger, a waterskin. With all of them Lady Jandice shook her head.

"There aren't that many remaining." You told her as you picked up Gerard's boots and then threw them away as Lady Jandice shook her head again.

The mattress on the bed was checked next, a bag containing Sahvan’s spare clothes or a pendant with a hammer on it. Again no reaction from Lady Jandice.

"What kind of an object could it be?" You asked her. "We have checked nearly everything."

"A small staff, book or a scroll. Maybe a robe or a cloak." Lady Jandice said. "Keep looking, there is something in here."

"Alright." You said back and scanned the floor once more.

The things Lady Jandice had mentioned circled in your mind. There was a travelling cloak, but it got no reaction out of Lady Jandice. But then you had a tingling in the corner of your eye.

That was strange so you tried to look towards the tingling, but you saw nothing. Again you looked away, this time to another direction and the tingling returned. There was something in the corner that you didn't see.

A couple of careful steps and you had a huge urge to turn around and avert your eyes elsewhere. You fought back the urge and kneeled to pick something up.

1/3

>>5535930
A robe, a black robe was in your hand and you pulled it up as you were now very confused why you were holding a robe? What had just happened?

"Prince Alric, did you find anything?" Lady Jandice asked and you presented the robe to her. Her eyes immediately opened and you knew you had found something. "That's it!"

"I didn't see the robe, my eyes tried to avert looking at it." You told her as you folded the robe open to have a better look. It was quite nondescript looking black robe, something junior mages or travellers might use. "It was so strange. There it was in the corner, but I couldn't just see it."

"Try it on Prince Alric." Lady Jandice said and you did as told.

"So how is it?" You asked as you started going through the few pockets inside of it.

"I can see you Prince Alric, maybe because I know you are there." Lady Jandice said back.

The pockets outside didn’t have anything. Two pockets inside were empty as well, but then a pocket over your heart had something in it.

A vial, the fifth poison vial.

You showed it to Lady Jandice whose eyes immediately showed interest and energy.

"We have all the poison now." You said to her. "Found inside this robe in Gerard's room."

"Prince Alric, if the robe made you avert your eyes away from it, maybe we should test it?" Lady Jandice asked you. "Close it and put the hood on. Let's return to the study, we have plenty to show the others."

You could see how for the first time in Durnholde, Lady Jandice was eager about something. And that something happened to be a robe.


Gained:
>Robe of Obfuscation

…

You thanked the guards and followed Lady Jandice back to the study. Behind the door before stepping in you pulled the hood over your head and closed it with the simple clasp near the neck. Then you stepped in after Lady Jandice.

"Lady Barov, any luck with your search?" Commodore Troubridge asked her. Blackmoore, Langston and Magistrate Burnside were with him. Both Mayor Fowley and Captain Alphonse weren't here.

"Not much Commodore." Lady Jandice said to him.

2/3

>>5535932

She knew you were following her, but no one else hadn't noticed you yet. No one was looking at you.

"Neither did we find anything. Lord Blackmoore and Mr. Langston helped us greatly in going through the guests. But everyone knows each other, no one pointed out strangers or found others suspicious." Commodore Troubridge said back to her and continued. "Where is Prince Alric, wasn't he with you?"

Lady Jandice paused and kept watching the Commodore.

"Prince Alric said that he needs to relieve himself. He will be in here shortly." Lady Jandice said and didn't reveal that you were in the room.

You walked past Commodore Troubridge and Blackmoore. Purposely you walked in between Blackmoore and Lady Jandice and the moment you blocked Blackmoore’s line of sight to her, he averted his eyes and turned his head away. When he could see Lady Jandice again and you passed him, he turned his head back towards her.

It was amazing, he hadn't seen you and Lady Jandice noticed it as well. The robe prevents people from seeing the user if they don't know that they are there. This must have been the reason why the assassin wasn't spotted by the servants or the guards.

"Lady Jandice, do you think Prince Alric is at fault for the death of Magistrate Maleb? Could he have prevented this?" Commodore Troubridge asked her suddenly.

Lady Jandice shared a quick glance at you and probably wanted you to reveal yourself. Though now you had a very good chance to listen to what they were going to say. What they actually had in their minds that they wouldn't say when you were in the room with them. What would Blackmoore say about you?


>Hide until everyone has talked freely about what they think of you and about all this. You want to hear their naked opinions.
>Wait for Lady Jandice's answer and then reveal yourself. See if she still sees you at fault.
>Reveal yourself now and attempt to prevent this from becoming a quite awkward moment.
>Other, write in.

QM: Lady Jandice not getting a Crit was actually a good thing, because it gave you and not her a chance to find the robe.

>>5535934
Interesting.
Does that mean Gerard used the robe to poison the drink before it was decided who would drink it?

Why would it be there otherwise? It looks like exceedingly useful item and the place where we found it somewhat risky one. Although admittedly if we did find assassin's tool literally anywhere else, it could be very incriminating. Someone might conceivably have put the robe away because they needed to be seen, such as in this meeting.

Well for now, Jandice knows we're there, right? Maybe she wants to try something. I mean she's not going to speak as if she didn't know we were there.
>Wait for her answer, then reveal yourself after she speaks

I thought we could leave and return conventionally but we won't be hiding the robe as it's evidence and Jandice knows about it anyways.

what was that obfuscation effect called again, 'somebody else's problem'?

>>5535934
>Hide until everyone has talked freely about what they think of you and about all this. You want to hear their naked opinions.
I can't believe I was right about invisibility, I thought I was being paranoid.

>>5535934
>Reveal yourself now and attempt to prevent this from becoming a quite awkward moment.
As curious the answer may be lets NOT put lady Jandice on the spot let alone listen in on this.
We can address the issue personally without trickery.

very tempting..... we would never get another occasion like this just to hear what they say. I have a vague idea of what they could say honestly, i am pretty sure the Alliance while neutral to Alterac is still thinking about only one thing : "Look for even the tiniest little thing that could be the sign that Prince Alric is actually our enemy".

>>5535998
good call, honestly i was wondering how they did it. This object sound pretty useful, for sneak attacks or even scouting really

I also agree with >>5536011 that listening in right now is not a good idea because we are immediately going to reveal the robe as evidence. We can't keep it secret because Jandice obviously knows about this and although she might be willing to not immediately sell us out, she would hold it over us.

I thought in >>5535954 of giving Jandice a chance to speak at her discretion but I'm fine with revealing ourselves immediately as her plan may not be to our benefit, or she may assume we want to keep hidden and then our reveal would embarrass her.

>>5535934
>>Reveal yourself now and attempt to prevent this from becoming a quite awkward momen

>>5535934
>Reveal yourself now and attempt to prevent this from becoming a quite awkward moment.
This is silly, there's no need to make the guests distrust us even more.

File: Alric, early armour.jpg (114 KB, 454x800)

114 KB JPG

Revealing yourself and avoiding an embarrassing situation wins. Alric doesn't want to snoop around.

Though there won't be no update today for the simple reason of me being too drunk to write. Therefore I would like to ask what does Alric think about all this? Does Alric think that he is at fault for the death of Magistrate Maleb? Could he have prevented it? What about the Syndicate assassins under your umbrella and safety? What will happen to them, how far are you willing to protect them?


>Other, write in

Also take a rare close enough picture of tired Alric after a battle wearing his old armour and short hair.

>>5537260
Not really, that situation was because of bad luck of noone noticing what happened. The only thing that could have prevented it was if the meeting was called off until the fourth assassin was found.
I'm of te opinion that we should protect Sahvan. We made a deal, and if we go back on our word it would be harder for other to turncoat, although the Syndicate will probably try to use our merciful nature against us.
Pai on the other hand, we captured, and only cooperated under mind torture. I wouldn't try very hard to protect her.

>>5537260
- A real big mess.
- Perhaps in part, for not having thought of the possibility. Mostly because he is an enemy of the syndicate. But what he can do ? Think of all ? No. And the Syndicate could have use a lot the death of so many leaders.
- No. A man can't think of everything.
- Sahvan we have given our word. Pai not so much. We ll see the arguments

Very cool art!

>>5537260
>Does Alric think that he is at fault for the death of Magistrate Maleb?
Maybe tangentially because he was likely intended target. So he/we may feel guilty in terms of "maybe there was something I could have done..."
>Could he have prevented it?
I don't see how he could save for brilliantly unraveling the plot before any of the assassins made a move. Maybe if we noticed the bottle has been open - but even then, was it our place to have it tasted for poison? Blackmoore is the host here anyway.
>What about the Syndicate assassins under your umbrella and safety?
Well we are under Blackmoore's jurisdiction so I guess if he says they hang, they hang. However...
>What will happen to them
I'd like to recruit the two we've captured. They made attempt on us alone, even if their associate ended up murdering Maleb. They could be valuable assets in our fight against the syndicate and testify to value of our word
>how far are you willing to protect them?
we will argue for them being given to our custody

File: 1748927.jpg (86 KB, 469x746)

86 KB JPG

>>5537260
> Does Alric think that he is at fault for the death of Magistrate Maleb?
Partially, his negligence caused a death that would've otherwise been prevented. It was absolutely within his capacity to suspect that the brandy was poisoned, he had already been careful around what he ate and drank and he knew that there was still an agent within the keep and yet he acted carelessly anyway.

Ultimately, though, the fault lies with the poisoner because it is they who are the one directly responsible for his death. It was them that murdered Maleb, not Alric.

> Could he have prevented it?
He unequivocally could have.

> What about the Syndicate assassins under your umbrella and safety? What will happen to them, how far are you willing to protect them?
As the others have said, Sahvan will be unharmed. Pai's behaviour so far has not been conducive to reaching the same conclusion but I would prefer to wait until she wakes up and can be observed more thoroughly before making a call. I hope to recruit them for our infant intelligence network.


On an unrelated note, I don't know why this is only bothering me now but your habit of using the vocative "Prince Alric" every single time a character acknowledges him is really getting on my nerves. It's always at the front of the sentece and you use it even when it is completely unnecessary, such as when they're simply answering his question and yet feel the need to say "Prince Alric" before actually giving the answer. I'd get it if it was some sort of class difference but even characters that are of equal standing to Alric do it.

>>5537260
>Does Alric think that he is at fault for the death of Magistrate Maleb? Could he have prevented it?
Considering how he kept trying to purge the Syndicate countless times, having the potential of becoming a personal hatred or obsession (I Am Here To Kill Chaos), Alric might be affected by this failure. The usual bleeding heart/goodie two shoes mentality - "I could've saved everyone if I worked harder."

>What about the Syndicate assassins under your umbrella and safety? What will happen to them, how far are you willing to protect them?
My guess is that Blackmoore and the nobles won't accept a next day without a hanging, so I expect a compromise. If Pai doesn't cooperate like Sahvan (which I doubt it'll happen), she's getting hung once we drip all information out of her.
Additionally, this could be justice for Pai's fuckery, seeing how she fooled Sahvan into a suicide attack. It would be ideal, tactically and in Alric's Good Ending ideal, that both are spared - but if the rolls don't go in our favour, then Pai can die at the price of our turncoat.

As much as keeping yourself hidden and listening to their conversations would have been immensely helpful in learning what they really think about you, you didn’t think it was a smart thing to do. You needed friends and an act like that would have been counterproductive to that.

“Partially yes, after all the assassin was after me and I should have been more careful with the brandy. Maybe I should have noticed it and been able to do something.” You said to them as you removed the hood and opened the robe before taking a few steps to be closer to them. “Ultimately, though, the fault lies with the poisoner, because it is they who are the one directly responsible for his death. It was them that murdered Maleb, not me.”

“How did you get in here?” Blackmoore asked you in a shock.

“Same way the poisoner managed to slip through the servants and guards, this robe. Lady Jandice, could you explain?” You said and turned towards her.

“Yes Lady Jandice, could you explain this? Troubridge asked her.

“We found that robe in the room of Gerard and Sahvan, well it was Alric who found it. The robe avoids to be seen, a work of enchanted thread and cloth, it turns the heads of those who could see it away and muddies their minds.” Lady Jandice told them and continued. “If you don’t know that the robe exists, then you won’t see it.”

“What Lady Jandice meant is that I walked past you Lord Blackmoore, and you turned your head away from me.” You said to Blackmoore. “That is how this robe works and it is how the poisoner succeeded in avoiding being seen.”

“So Prince Alric, you walked in here wearing that robe to fool us?” Blackmoore asked back.

“To see how it works Lord Blackmoore.” Lady Jandice said to him. “To confirm our suspicion.”

“And it works very well.” You continued and put your hand in one of the pockets and took out the vial. “And we found this, the fifth vial of poison. We interrogated Pai the assassin and found out that she had five vials. Four have been found and one has been used.”

“So we have the means and the tools.” Troubridge said as he stood up from the chair he had been sitting in. “But we do not have knowledge of who did it.”

“The poison and the robe were found in the room of the assassins. They are the ones who did this.” Blackmoore said and raised his voice.

“We do not know that Lord Blackmoore and as much as I would like to deliver justice here and now, we of the Alliance are civilized and we cannot make hasty decisions.” Troubridge said back to him. “We aren’t orcs.”

1/2

>>5539207

“I have to agree with the Commodore.” Magistrate Burnside said. “A tragedy has struck us, but we shall not be hasty. It wouldn’t be what Maleb would have wanted.”

Blackmoore sighed and took a deep breath.

“You are right, what we will do can wait till later.” Blackmoore said back to them.

“Thank you Lord Blackmoore.” Troubridge said and gave him a solid bow before turning towards you. “We have gone through the servants, through the guards and through the guests and we have found no one who could be the so-called fourth assassin. Whoever it is, they have hidden their tracks extremely well or they didn’t do it.”

“So we have no leads on who the poisoner is?” You asked them. “We have what has happened, what the assassins who we have caught have told us and what we have found.”

“And they tell us it was the assassins. The robe, the poisons. All of it was found in their room.” Blackmoore said back to you. “But we can wait till tomorrow, the snow storm still rages outside. If the fourth assassin even exists, they cannot leave Durnholde Keep.”

“And that is what we are placing our bets against. We can sleep through the night and think about what we will do next tomorrow morning.” Troubridge said back to you.

“Then we will wait till tomorrow.” Blackmoore said back to the officer.

“Thank you Lord Blackmoore. I might be the ranking officer here, but you and Prince Alric outrank me. It honours me to be able to have your ear.” Troubridge said and gave a bow to you. “I will make my leave now.”

Troubridge started to leave and Magistrate Burnside followed him shortly behind him.

“Then we will see tomorrow morning Prince Alric, Lord Blackmoore.” Lady Jandice said and gave the two of you a pleasant smile.

As the guests left the study, it left you and Blackmoore alone. Well Sir Gravis and the knights lined up the walls just in case.

“So, what a day it was.” Blackmoore said and took out his flask and took a long gulp. “Will you drink with me Prince Alric, I can have the servants bring us some food and drink.”

It had been a long day and you were tired. First and foremost you wanted to rest and get your thoughts away from what had happened today. But Blackmoore most likely wanted to speak with you about the Syndicate and about your brother and maybe declining him wasn’t the best decision. And you could have a few drinks with him. Blackmoore would like that and maybe that could help to clear the tension in both your body and mind away. To relax and try to clear the knots away.


>Drink and eat with Blackmoore. The two of you can talk with each other and you have a chance to tell him about the Syndicate and your brother.
>Decline the drink and food, but talk with him. He deserves to know after all this.
>Decline, you just want to rest. You are too tired and tomorrow is going to be a long day. You have no energy nor motivation to continue this today.
>Other, write in.

>>5539210
>Decline the drink and food, but talk with him. He deserves to know after all this.
I would rather not risk a third poisoning attempt, who knows if there is a second cloak, or if the fourth has a poison vial of his own. I have a feeling they are trying to plant all evidence on the trio, but might take the chance. I still think the window wasn't because of the wind.

>>5539210
>Decline the drink and food, but talk with him. He deserves to know after all this.
After the whole poisoning thing who could blame alric for not having much of a appetite.

>>5539210
>>Decline the drink and food, but talk with him. He deserves to know after all this.

>>5539210
>Decline, you just want to rest. You are too tired and tomorrow is going to be a long day. You have no energy nor motivation to continue this today.
We almost died, Alric definitely is running on mere fumes at this point.

Wasnt there a empty chair in the room when we had the meeting just before the poisoning? I wonder who could have sat there but didnt.

>>5540064
Was there?

Well, who was at the meeting
>Us
>Blackmoore
>Jandice Barov
>mayor Fowley
>magistrate Maleb
>magistrate Burnside
>commodore Troubridge
>captain Alphonse
from guests. Then the was serving staff and possibly the assassin with their robe.

Langston is conspicuously absent from the dinner. But he did have good chance to try and murder us when we were in his office, and his absence can be explained by not having been invited (although I kind of expected him to be there to not have to rely on Blackmoore relaying stuff that needs handling to him) or having work to do, including what we asked him.

>>5539210
>>Decline the drink and food, but talk with him. He deserves to know after all this.

Declining the food and drink, but telling Blackmoore about the Syndicate and your brother is the winner. Could I have a roll please.


>1d10
>Best of three

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>5540308

Rolled 10 (1d10)

>>5540308

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>5540308
>>5540327
nice

"I will have to decline the drink. Sorry, I don’t have the appetite for it." You said back to him.

"I understand, it has been a long day." Blackmoore said.

You nodded in agreement as you sat down and pulled your hair back. It really had been a long day.

"You wanted to talk with me and I think now is the time." You said. "Take a seat, this might take a few moments."

Blackmoore did as told and you started to speak. Similarly as with Lady Jandice, you left out some bits, but you told most that you could tell.

It was difficult to gauge his reaction, but Blackmoore seemed concerned first and foremost. When you finished talking, he at first didn't say anything, but then he spoke.

"This information should be public." Blackmoore said.

"No, there is a reason why the masses don't know. If the Syndicate was public knowledge, they wouldn't have a reason to hide nor avoid being careful." You said back.

"They already tried to kill all of us, they aren't careful." Blackmoore said and raised his voice. "Tomorrow, I will demand that both assassins will hang before the day is over. This Syndicate and your brother will get the message that their actions and presence in Durnholde will not be tolerated."

It is probably for the best to not argue against that now. You were tired and didn't want to upset him.

"We will discuss the details tomorrow." You opted to say back.

"That we will." Blackmoore said and continued. "Prince Alric, I am disappointed in the fact that you didn't inform me about them earlier when we talked."

"I am sorry, it wasn't my intent." You said and deflected. "Though, while it isn't that late yet, I am quite tired. Can we finish for the day, we can talk again tomorrow morning if you want."

"Hmmph… we could, but there isn't much to talk about." Blackmoore said.

You stood up and gave him a polite nod before turning around on your heels and walking into the new guest room.

...

You were hungry and tired, the task of attempting to find the fourth assassin had given you energy to overcome the tension and strain. Now that you weren’t on the task, it felt like all that came crashing down.

You had sat down and pulled off the robe and top layer of your finer clothes. Cinder Sword and your sword belt lazily leaned on a drawer next to the wide bed as you stretched your shoulders and neck.

You had asked Sir Gravis and his knights to stay in the study just in case for your protection and to send for Taretha to bring you something to eat and drink. As you waited for that, you kicked off your boots and decided to lounge in the bed for a moment or two. What you didn’t expect was how fast you would fall asleep. The tension and strain was too much to overcome.

1/2

>>5540572

>10

You woke up with a blanket covering you. You didn’t remember going to sleep, but as you started to listen while having your eyes closed, the faint noise from someone else sleeping in the room came from next to you.

Carefully turning, you realised that Tari had covered you with her blanket. A faint smile came to your face, but you didn't dare to wake her up. Tari was deep in sleep. So you chose to carefully get out of the bed and give her the blanket. Tari mumbled as you covered her, you didn’t want her to be cold after all.

As silently as possible you put on your clothes, took your sword belt, just in case threw the black robe over your shoulders and picked up the tray of food Tari had brought to you. It was all cold now, but it should suffice. With successfully exiting the room, you sat down and started to eat.

"Good morning my Prince." Empleton greeted you. It was his turn to be awake. "It is early, barely a morning."

"I fell asleep very early." You said back to him between mouthfuls. Your knight nodded back before going and waking up the rest of the knights.

While no exact time had been given for the meeting where the aftermath of the events of yesterday would be decided, you presumed that it would happen during the morning. Now with you having woken up early, you had time to talk with someone or do something before the meeting. It could help you to have a better understanding where everyone is regarding the assassins.


>Blackmoore is adamant at hanging both assassins. You should talk with him and see if his mind could be changed.
>Troubridge had taken a senior position in the investigation. Go through the details with him before the meeting.
>Sahvan could still provide you with useful information. Try to get anything useful out of him that could help to save his life.
>Try to feel the overall mood in Durnholde Keep and see what the servants and guests are thinking. That could help you a lot if you understand their wants and mood.
>Other, write in.

>>5540576
>Blackmoore is adamant at hanging both assassins. You should talk with him and see if his mind could be changed.
>Sahvan could still provide you with useful information. Try to get anything useful out of him that could help to save his life.

>>5540576
>Sahvan could still provide you with useful information. Try to get anything useful out of him that could help to save his life.
Keeping Sahvan alive is important as he turncoated if we can keep him alive from syndicate and in this case from blackmoore it will make turning and gathering information from other capture syndicate agents much easier.
>Troubridge had taken a senior position in the investigation. Go through the details with him before the meeting.
Could also use this opportunity to present our point about sahvan.
>Blackmoore is adamant at hanging both assassins. You should talk with him and see if his mind could be changed.
Pam can be a sacrifice if we must but we should definetly try to save sahvan for afromentioned reasons.

>>5540576
This >>5540690, there is much work to be done.

>>5540690
Sure support

>>5540690
sounds good, although it's a lot and I'm not sure if we should put Blackmoore off after seeing Trubridge, though seeing Sahvan to fish for more arguments to let him (ideally the woman too) get transferred to our care.

I am terribly sorry for the lack of updates in the past recent days. Work has been way too time consuming and I haven't really had the strength to sit down and write. I will try to get the update up in the coming next few days.

>>5543786
Np medivh
We will wait

>>5543786
Medivh, you okay? Still alive at least?

>>5543786
:(

File: Medivh.jpg (23 KB, 480x360)

23 KB JPG

I will have to call this thread here. My work has been thrown upside down and I just have had so many things to do in my personal life that I haven't had the time or most importantly the creative motivation to write anything. I hope that in a week or two things return back to normal and then I have time for this quest.

My sincere apologies, this thread has been archived and when the next thread comes, I will tweet about it.


Twitter: https://twitter.com/MedivhQM
/qst/ Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Alterac%20Resurgent%20Quest
Prince Alric Stats: https://pastebin.com/rysxdRsv
Quest Mechanisms: https://pastebin.com/CyD88qqf
Character List: https://pastebin.com/FkYd6wkJ
Side Character Stats: https://pastebin.com/aRfyksUG

>>5554410
thanks for the thread OP!
Was great as always, despite of how we flail around in this murder mystery. Be safe!

>>5554410
Np glad everything is fine.
And it was a good thread