Port Lorrel- Prison Break

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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"That's the role exactly." Eli smiled. "With the public's support our influence will grow, we've already got people lining up to work for us since Logan upped his employee's wages; the word is he even cut into his personal fortune to do so."

The half-elf drained his glass dry and let out a sigh as the flush hit his cheeks, the day was looking better already.

"His generosity will draw more business, and the business will become an institution. And then? A campaign for the head seat of the city council would be the natural next step."

He looked at the table for a moment, as if he were thinking of something unpleasant.

"I'm not saying it won't be dangerous now that we're legitimate." 'Close enough to it, anyway.' "But Aleron can help you in that regard, and you'll have personal guards in case Drusia or that elf-thief Jack decide to try to assassinate you because 'they deem you a monster who needs putting down'" He finished with a sarcastic tone, and quote marks with his fingers.
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

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Tim sneered at the barbaric inhumanity of the elves. "Good," he said. "I'm not planning on running from them or submitting to them either."

He deliberately refrained from responding to Eli's remark about a "ticket to the higher echelons," though this was exactly what he wanted - to keep him near Eli when the opportunity to save him presented itself. Likewise he didn't press further for details on things he really wanted to know, like the strength of the Ralkin and the immediacy of threats from the peregin and any rival factions. This would come with time. He had to build some trust. Pushing too hard would make him look like some kind of spy and infiltrator. Which, in a way, he was.

So, when the meal arrived, he simply talked about simple and personal things, and enjoyed the hospitality.
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

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"By the way, I didn't ask..." Eli said through a mouthful of steak several minutes later. The half-elf's mood had lifted considerably since the meeting began, he'd amused himself privately by speculating what the sexually-repressed Priest's reaction would be to meeting the bedraggled banditwoman (if circumstances were unfortunate for the Brother to run into her path). Myra's current whereabouts were, unsurprisingly, a low market bar somewhere in a rougher part of town. Her behavior was more or less the same as it had been before the spell had infected her, although her new unquestioning loyalty was faintly disquieting.

"How's Desiree? Is she coping any better at being out in the world? Or is she heartbroken and reclusive in my absense?" The tone was half-mocking as the half-elf voiced the last question.
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

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Though he sometimes missed the subtleties, Tim wasn't fooled one moment by that "by the way" or the mocking tone either. This was something, and someone, Eli still cared about. This was good and bad. In the short run he needed Eli to keep caring about anything remotely human -- to maintain his soul's bridge to the world of men. In the long run, he thought Eli would be much better off with a human woman, or a half-elf who favored the human side, and not with the heedless libertine Desiree.

"Desiree is still Desiree," he said. "She seemed touched when I delivered your message. She's put on a brave face. But I don't think she's touched another man since the last time I saw you."

He neglected to add Rose's voiced plan to use Desiree's skills at seduction and fornication to gather information in Douaga, which doubtless would soon falsify his true statement, nor his lively suspicion that she was touching something other than men. He certainly wasn't going to bring up his own frustration at her inexcusable behavior in Saus. None of that would help to pull Eli back from the brink.
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

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"That was a carefully worded statement." Eli replied with a wince. "A girl then..? I know Desiree's approach to sex, and I know how easily she can flit from person to person, it's in her training as a Priestess after all." He leaned forward and thumped his head gently against the table. "Maybe I shouldn't have gotten involved with her at all..."
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

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Well, no point in bluffing on this one - the man knew her too well. And hell, he was right. He laid a hand on Eli's shoulder. "Maybe that's so," he said, "like we were talking about before. You and she aren't built the same, and anyone who wants love to last the way humans want it shouldn't pair off with her. Don't let it kill your heart.

"But there were tears in her eyes when I delivered your message. What was it you said before? She moves on faster physically than she does emotionally? And I know she'd be torn up if you got killed anytime soon. So no suicide tactics if the peregins show up, okay?"

This was a wild stab, maybe, but young men jilted in love often fantasized about the "blaze of glory" and Eli might be getting the chance to carry out that fantasy all too soon. How soon, Tim would give a lot to know.
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

Post by Graybeard »

[OOC: Something for Tim to play off of with the temple...]

"A message from Kiyoka, Father," Brother Conrad said as he came into the high priest's chambers.

"Kiyoka?" Father Romuald echoed. "Hmph. What are those wild men, and women, up to now?"

The high priest had not had a good day. Something, he had only a very vague idea what, had happened to stir up the criminal underbelly of Lorrel -- not that that underbelly was so easy to distinguish from the legitimate government, as he was well aware. Most likely it was just one of the so-called "guilds" -- he'd have preferred a term closer to "gangsters," but it was necessary to mince certain words -- making a play for power against another. It had happened before, and it would happen again. Generally, such things didn't affect the Church much; they just hunkered down in the temple until the shouting, and the shooting, stopped, and the biggest problems they had to deal with were changes in the so-called "tax collectors" ... and unfortunate additions to the orphanage.

This little affair, however, felt different. The refugees who had passed by the temple had stories that were ... disquieting. At the minimum, unholy, maybe downright blasphemous magic was involved, from the sound of it. None of the priests and nuns at the temple had more than basic self-defense spells, beyond what was required for the ceremonies of Luminosita. It occurred to him to hope that the Kiyoka bunch might be able to do a bit more; rumor from his time back in Emerylon, never confirmed by anyone in the hierarchy of the Church, was that there was more to them than met the eye. (As if that ever needed confirmation when the Reformed people were involved.) Add to that the inexplicable recent death of Brother Norris, and it was not a happy time for the Church of Luminosita in Port Lorrel.

"I don't know, sir," Conrad answered, interrupting his grumpy reveries. "The cover message said it was for your eyes only." He handed the senior priest a slip of paper.

To my esteemed brother in the service of Our Lord Luminosita:

Sister Rose, formerly Major Nuria-Lucas in Our Lord's army, asked me to pass you a message that one of our colleagues is traveling to Lorrel and may need your help.
(Romuald grunted again. He remembered Sister Rose; not merely a Reformed nun, but a rather ... flamboyant one, and she'd passed through here recently.) He is a young priest by the name of Brother Timothy Gantric, and he is part of a team that Rose has gathered to investigate most peculiar goings-on beyond our borders, a matter that has attracted the attention of the Patriarch himself. I am not at liberty to describe this matter in any detail, but she says that Brother Tim, as he is known, is following an important lead in Port Lorrel.

We request that you extend the Church's hospitality to Brother Tim, and try to accommodate any requests he makes of you, even if they sound strange. Apparently this investigation he is undertaking is rather dangerous. However, a note of caution. She also says -- I don't understand this part entirely -- that not only is Brother Tim's life possibly in danger on this mission, so is his immortal soul (her words). She "strongly recommends" that any time you deal with him, you have someone available who can use Divination magic to make sure that he is still himself and is not under any form of mind control. I have no idea whether you have the resources to do this, I just pass on what she says.
(Hmph, thought Romuald. Someone has apparently been reading too many pulp horror stories. But then again, some of what the refugees were saying was ... unsettling.) Finally, Rose requests that you help him get back to Kiyoka as soon as possible, and not later than midnight tonight if that can be done.

I know this all sounds very strange and mysterious, but again, I have confirmed that Rose's mission has the personal interest of the Patriarch himself, and she has considerable latitude in asking for help while maintaining secrecy as to why. May Luminosita's Wisdom guide you in accommodating this curious request.

REDMOND, Abbot of Our Lord Luminosita's Mission to the Faithless [OOC: very delayed edit; the Kiyoka Abbot's name is definitely Redmond, not Ranulph -- OOC]
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

Post by Jack Rothwell »

"No suicide tactics." Eli agreed. "We've got minions to do that for us."

.............

It was a short trip after the meal for Eli to show Tim the convoy he'd be leading into a rougher part of the Port later in the day. The pair had approached the storage house to the sight of labourers heaping crates onto merchant carts with professional urgency, the operation being overseen bydressed men in the same armour as the trio which accompanied the companions. One of the soldiers detached from the group to greet them as they approached, he touched his forehead briefly at the sight of the half-elf.

"News?"

"Nearly done sir, these two will met up with the carts at Dakson's Vacancies and we'll be rolling into Brambrook to the cheers of the neighbourhood by mid-afternoon. Is this the guy?"

"Brother Tim, this is Sergeant Carlson. He's one of the brighter sparks that Logan hired into the guard. He'll be keeping an eye on the goods, and on you, but consider him and his men at your disposal."

"...as long as you don't have me handing out wafers to the faithful." The younger man replied, tapping the firearm at his side.

OOC Edit- never watched it, Al. Wasn't a big thing in the UK. :? /OOC
Last edited by Jack Rothwell on November 26th, 2012, 2:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

Post by Alberich »

"Excellent," said Tim. "And where can I meet you afterwards? I should probably pay the temple a visit this evening, but would like a word with you before I do it."

"...as long as you don't have me handing out wafers to the faithful."

Tim nodded. "Spare me a moment," he said, and took the sergeant aside. He engaged him in a brief conversation to find out his background, and how he'd landed here, and to whom he normally reported, sharing only a little about himself in the process. There would be time for more talk later; for now he needed to know whom he was dealing with in time to get moving.

Then he asked a few questions to ascertain how long these men had been together, how long the sergeant had known them, how long they'd known each other, what they were capable of, how far they could be trusted. Also whether they had any experience of the neighborhoods they'd be passing through.
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Re: Port Lorrel- Prison Break

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Eli left the priest with a word and directions to meet him at The Clark after he'd made his delivery; he had an errand for the bandit bitch that night and the location would allow him to kill two birds with one stone, even if the outlaw's favourite watering hole left something to be desired.

Tim's questions descerned little out of the ordinary about the Sergeant and his men, three, including their leader had worked in a guard capacity for Logan for a few years, and had enjoyed the training a man of great personal wealth could afford them. The Sergeant had been born and raised in the Port, taken a job as a delivery boy for the merchant and hadn't looked back since. The guards had recently been selected for the businessman's growing personal army, the other two were recruits hired days ago for the same purpose, and their personal history was unknown to the leader. All the new recruits had undergone a screening process headed by the Black Guard's Captain; Gabriel Averis, and his judgement had proven sound in finding men of ability. It was he, Eli, and Logan's head of security, Rollins, that the Guard reported to.

"Brambrook's a down and out place." Carlson said, as the Brother got to the end of his questions. "Muggings are pretty common there, but the gang activity is next to nil, and why wouldn't it be? It's 300 square yards of run-down housing, unemployment and struggling businesses." A touch of pride entered the young man's voice. "This cargo is going to make a lot of people happy, I didn't think the owner had that kind of charity in him."
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