video - un; nightmoves

[ruinously]

[ This seems important enough to divulge immediately while he's on a Ziggy hunt; ]

Guys, got something that might be pretty useful. Check these out.

[ He holds up his stolen papers, stretching them out so everyone can see, doing it slowly so they're able to be read. It's as listed;

- An official-looking parchment, granting an audience with the king to a Lord Durwald

- Several letters, all of them short, discussing arranging a fast horse and safe passage through the Forests of Gha'har, towards South Naelor; none are signed

- Notes, written by the same hand as the one asking for the horse; some of them seem to be detailing council meetings and discussions, but there are some particular entries that are of interest:

I have cause to suspect the king is using something to affect our decision-making. Yet another decision has been overruled by the council, despite majority vote passing it in the parliament yesterday. Have enlisted the help of Y.V. to spy on him.

Two more notes detailing council proceedings follow, but after them, there is one more entry:

Y.V. found the king speaking to the heirloom. Said there was a strange glow in the room. Suspicions can only be confirmed by removing heirloom.

Y.V. found dead this morning. Will put the plan to action tomorrow. ]

Seems important. Dunno how it correlates to stuff everyone else has found, but definitely think it should be looked into.

[ a pause, then- ]

If anybody's seen Cas, let me know.

Comments

audio; un: romanoff | private

[deaddrop]

Did you lose your angel?

[ruinously]

[ his response is a really, really long time coming ]

I think so.

[deaddrop]

I'm sorry to hear that.

I have a couple of leads to follow at the moment, but when things free up a bit I'll get you a drink.

[ruinously]

Let me know how they pan out.

[ a drink? what he wants is a memory wipe. he's--

this is the biggest blow by far, and he fully intends to speak with Viv when they get back. ]

[deaddrop]

Will do. Seems like some of us are start to make progress.

Probably means it's about time for the whole thing to fall on our heads somehow.

[ruinously]

That seems to be what usually happens. Figure it out, then rocks fall.

What're you getting into?

audio; un: felix

[swordandshield]

Lord Durwald was wanted for attempted thievery of the sceptre. We need to find out if this guy is still out there, and if he actually managed to have a crew steal the heirloom.

Sounds like they started to figure out what the orb was capable of doing. A lot of people have died for this thing already.

[deaddrop]

If the king's been speaking to the orb, it's possible he's already made a deal.

Him, or someone else.

[swordandshield]

All right. So is he less of a figurehead than we think he is? I take it the deal still stays in place even if he doesn't still have it in his possession?

[deaddrop]

It might, if he did make a bargain. A lot of it might come down to what he got and what gave in return.

We don't have enough intel that I'd feel comfortable speculating about that, but it does start opening possibilities.

[swordandshield]

Fair enough. I don't know either with as little info about this land as we have so far.

[That irked a little. It was like walking into a black ops mission without any Intelligence. Always his favorite missions, those.]

Why the hell didn't Degar give us more information about this world? Or come down here with us? We could use someone who knows the locals a lot better.

[Like who all these damn lords and ladies were so they could figure out how to find Durwald and/or his associates. Or know whether political shit was going down behind the scenes or not. Or if the land had been altered in any way. Or any number of other things.]

[deaddrop]

[Natasha isn't exactly unsympathetic. She'd have liked better prep too. She's also pretty used to being dropped in it without more than a trail of bread crumbs, too.]

Hard to say. It might come down to him having to stay on the ship to contain the orbs.

[Safe to say they don't want Olivia getting access to them, or them getting access to her.]

Your guess is as good as mine. That said it might be best to be careful about how much we drop his name. Too late to keep it entirely under wraps, but we don't have any way of knowing what everyone here thought of him for sure, or what's happened since he left.

audio; un: Sabriel.Abhorsen

[bindsthedead]

If the king has a bargain... Well, theft might not have broken it. So that's another complication.

People can offer anything that's 'theirs' as the price of a bargain. For a ruler, that price can include the land they rule- or parts of it. If Durwald, or someone in his employ took the orb- then perhaps we should follow their tracks, towards south Naelor.

[And looking at the map... The Silver Caverns, rumored to be overflowing with monsters, lies in that direction.]

[swordandshield]

According to Shortaxe via Finn [does Felix doubt some of the credibility here? probably. not entirely all the kid's fault though] the Brigade tracked it to the Silver Caverns. But the person who had it last died in the Forests of Gha'har. Either he left it in the caverns or it switched hands again at some point.

[Or it's all a lie from Shortaxe but Felix is keeping that one to himself.]

[bindsthedead]

The caverns are near the forest. So... Either of those are likely. But if you were trying to hide something, and powerful people were after it... Wouldn't you hide it in a place that was hard to get to?

And... well, in previous missions, the orb has attracted monsters- and in one case, mutated the local wildlife into being much more aggressive. So when I hear that the Silver Caverns are full of monsters, it makes me wonder.

[ruinously]

I stole these from a gnome in the Adamantine caverns if that gives you any more useful information.

[bindsthedead]

Not much- beyond that the caverns are a frequent bandit hideout.

But who was Y.V.? Someone on the council, or connected to them. Someone who was murdered.

[So the king is absolutely willing to kill to get the orb. Wonderful.]

[ruinously]

Easy place to hide.

But that, I'm not sure. The gnome didn't say, and I was invisible at the time and didn't ask. He just said to himself that they were the most valuable things they had, even over the gold and weapons they'd stolen. He was gonna make off with 'em, let their horses go.

Til I stole them, of course.

[ sure sounding like it. ]

[swordandshield]

Sure, depending on what I wanted to do with it.

[He could leave the Key of Chorus anywhere he wanted and it wouldn't do anyone else any good, but he felt better with it at his hip. He couldn't imagine leaving something as powerful as the orb somewhere that chance could see it stolen. It wasn't a pistol sitting in a locker after all.

Perhaps someone else might be dumb enough to do something like that though. Someone without all the information about it. Someone...altruistic maybe. That wasn't Felix's strong point when it came to understanding. Predicting, yes; comprehending, no.]

So that last part makes sense then. I guess it's time to send a concentrated party into those caverns. They're supposed to be massive and dangerous though. Whoever goes will need to be prepared for more than just a day-hike.

[Could they all 60-ish of them go? That might be what they needed to do. Felix was used to working in smaller numbers but Central Command always sent more than one group into a fray if it was needed. Maybe time to think more strategically.]

[bindsthedead]

Say it was powerful, but you couldn't use it. All you could do is keep it out of the hands of someone that could.

[Assuming the king has a bargain with the orb that's still active. If not, all bets are off.]

Well, plenty of us are used to fighting. Sending in an advance party to scout things out might be helpful. If nothing else, we can understand what it is we'll be facing.

voice; un: y.mikotoba

[softshoes]

Well done-- an important find indeed.

[His voice is low; he's in the middle of traveling right now, lingering toward the back of the party so as not to be detected Talking To Himself.]

I've only discovered a little about a betrayal within the original party in the midst of the hunt for the orb. [A beat.] And that Degar, their bard, had a brother. Not certain how relevant that is to our cause.

[ruinously]

Thanks. Sometimes I'm useful.

[ It's kinda hard sometimes to be a human amongst so many with naturally occurring powers. ]

Oh really? Who betrayed who? Was it a twin brother?

[softshoes]

I'm sure it's far more than just sometimes.

[Said as much for his benefit as Dean's: he's another normal human and beginning to feel it, himself.

He almost privates the message on instinct-- it's someone's personal business, after all-- before realizing other people might need to read this.]

Ellia Roundtree, or so Jun told the young Mr. Finn. As for the brother-- until I spoke to Miss Fribbington at her tavern, no one had mentioned that Dweyer, the former leader of the Songbird Brigade, was Degar's brother.

[ruinously]

[ It can be frustrating, feeling like you can't contribute beyond verbal support. ]

Huh, interesting. Wonder how that correlates with everything else.

[softshoes]

I... understand it's a painful topic to bring up, but it seems like an oversight to only be discovering this now. It wouldn't surprise me if it meant something more than we know now.

[Yujin pauses.]

Do you need help looking for someone, by the way?