Nellie grits her teeth and sends a final volley of missiles at the shadow cat. The three glowing darts hit it in quick succession, and it disappeared into dark smoke.
There was a moment where everyone took a breath.
And then the three of them swiveled to look at the strangers. “What… was that?”
Ogeren was still standing in front of Lowana. He wasn’t lowering his greatsword, but he wasn’t charging them either. He eyed Ievos with doubt. Lowana put a hand on his arm and stepped out from behind him. “Thank you. I… don’t know what those creatures were. They jumped the horse as we were running from… them.” She gestured to the two humans who were lying prone on the ground. As she did, they all noticed that the two began moving, waking up. Nellie twitched as the one closest to her looked up with bleary eyes. She dropped her backpack, grabbed some rope and quickly bound the recently-woken man’s arms and legs. Nellie told Ievos to do the same for the other bandit they were standing beside.
Lowana continued, “Unfortunately, we don’t have anything to offer you in payment, as the majority of our belongings are now scattered across the ground. And,” she glanced up at Ogeren and tucked herself closer to his side, “We really must be going quickly.”
Ievos slid over towards Lowana and Ogeren, blocking the path.
“Now, hold on,” they said, looking the two up and down. “There’s a bounty on the two of you, or one of you, I don’t particularly care. The point is- there’s money to be made. Now, I’d hate to turn you in- I grew up outside the law, and I’d prefer not to tattle on my fellow criminals- but there’s gotta be something for me in it. Tell me what you did to get a bounty on your head, and tell me what you’re willing to offer me so we can all walk away from this situation with what we want. Now, I know, I know, you don’t have a lot of things on you- but maybe you know someone of importance you can get me in good with- maybe you can let me in on a useful secret you know, maybe you have some sort of ability that could benefit me. You help me, I’ll help you.” (18 on intimidation check)
Immediately, Lowana tucks herself behind Ogeren again. The half-orc leveled his greatsword at her and growled. Nellie is on her feet, “Ievos! We are not blackmailing someone who needed help!”
Ievos hesitated, but backed off, disgruntled. “Fine. Can I at least blackmail them?” they asked, pointing to the tied up humans.
“Blackmail them all you’d like,” Brennus said, stepping over the tied-up headhunters. He dropped his ax and shield and put his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Ignoring our greedy elf friend, we mean you no harm. If you’d like, we can saddle you up and you can be on your way. But you look worn and tired. If you’d like to camp with us, please feel free.” He shot an icy glare at Ievos. “I promise to protect you from our extortionist elf.”
Ogeren eyes Brennus’ dropped ax and shield, and veeeeery slowly lowers the tip of his greatsword. He half turns to Lowana and they share a look, and she notes the sun’s position. “We really should be going–”
“Can we help you pick up some of your stuff?” Nellie asks from farther behind the other two. “It doesn’t look like you had much anyway. It could be our way of apologizing.”
This gave the two strangers pause. “…We shouldn’t be out in the open like this.” Ogeren said more to Lowana then the others. (He rolled a 14 insight check on all of us.)
“I would dearly like to have a little more then the clothes on my back before we made it to the sea.” He hesitated just a moment before nodding. She didn’t try to step out from behind him when she spoke, “We have been in hiding for quite some time, and will need to continue to do so until we make it off of Wêyrul. we can… accept…. your help for a single night.”
“But if you try anything funny I will turn you into very small pieces,” Ogeren growled.
Ievos had sat down beside the two tied up bandits and had been quietly talking to them during the conversation. (intimidation roll of 14) Ievos eventually untied them both and they hurried away.
“They didn’t have anything, but they used to run with the Ilaqua mafia, so I let them go.” (deception roll of 12 if anyone wants to call them on their bluff, the bandits absolutely gave Ievos some money)
“We having company tonight then?” they asked, glancing at Ogeren and Lowana.
(Ogeren rolled an insight check of 6, he believes you and he doesnt like it). Ogeren’s eyes narrowed as Ievos said ‘mafia’. “You run with criminals, then. People who would take advantage of another person for their own gain.” Lowana stopped him and whispered into his ear. He grunted something softly in return, but his eyes never left the three of them.
Lowana spoke, “It would be foolish of us to pretend to be prepared for this journey when we are obviously not,” she gestured loosely towards the ground scattered with their belongings. “There is… little we can do to stop you if you wished to kidnap me, as much as we’d like to believe we could.” She and Ogeren shared a look. “If you do truly wish to help us, we will accept. If not… well, I ask that you just leave Ogeren be.” Ogeren was shocked. This was not part of the discussion.
Brennus’ eyes dart between the two rapidly and repeatedly, the gears in his head almost visibly turning. “Whyyyy would we kidnap you? Are you a princess or something?”
