[Carrie] Chapter 5: Chasing the Slavers

[Erynn]

As Carrie listens to Eveleen describe the situation in Thura Forest, her mood darkens and her anger begins simmering once more. She speaks very directly and unambiguously.

"Misophe tried to sell her sister into slavery to Felencorp. She's asserting the right to take over leadership of the lamia priestesses in bad faith as a cover for the outright coup de'etat she just attempted. Last I checked, rendering material aid or comfort to an enemy of the state is treason.", Carrie pauses, allowing Eveleen to process the information she had just provided, then continues, "Misophe's plan was clearly to come into power with a summoned hero backing her up in order to give her move an air of legitimacy, as well as a means to enforce her will. Without that element of her plan, all she has managed to achieve is to trap herself like a rat inside her own tunnel network. Accordingly, exercise an abundance of caution. Whenever someone is backed into a corner, they become wild and desperate. The longer she's trapped, the more likely it becomes that restraint will be thrown to the wayside. At this point, the scenario has essentially devolved into a simple standoff with possible hostage involvement. Those within the tunnels who are still loyal to Synithise may have been discovered. If they have, it's possible that Misophe may use them as hostages to try to escape your cordon. Regardless, we'll be on our way to your position shortly. We're likely a bit more than a day out at this point."

Carrie then turns to the Minotaur and offers a brief explanation, "I'm using magic to speak with a friend back in Thura Forest."

She then addresses the entire group of newcomers.

"So, I'm Carrie. As at least one of you has already guessed, I was summoned from another world by Synithise here. Those of us in Thura Forest are currently planning to do whatever we can to oust Felencorp from this land. That said, we first have a bit of infighting to deal with when we return to the home of the lamia priestesses. The head of their martial arm thought it was a good idea to try to take power the day after I was summoned and, well, you can all tell just how well that's going to end for her.", Carrie then turns the conversation over to her new traveling companions, "Now that everyone knows who I am and what I'm about, who wants to introduce themself next?"

Carrie then takes a moment to whistle loudly in order to get the entire company-sized group's attention and inform all those present both verbally and via hand signals that the group was to now begin moving out as she leads the way back to Thura Forest.

[Throndir]

"Me name Grus. Minotaur clan of south. Captured by dem bad ones. They no good, ke?" When the minotaur spoke, the others in attendance furrowed their eyebrows.

"I'll just say it, it's hard to even understand what you're saying, deary... I know the minotaur use their own language mixed with Darmonian, but..." The shark-mermaid said hesitantly.

"Carrie can understand him!" Synithise chirped in, at the same time the ice-like harpy nodded her head sagely as well in agreement.

The shark-mermaid simply shook her head, but she introduced herself shortly after.

"I'm Apulia... A mershark. And I happen to be the leader of a small group back home." She said.

"They're more like robbers! We actually managed to capture her, so she was thrown in prison." The other mermaid continued, a hint of pride in her voice.

"Not due to the mermaids of course. It was those Felencorp that did the capturing." Apulia said rolling her eyes. "And dear, before you go about accusing me, don't forget you're also a criminal."

At this the mermaid puffed her cheek. "Not really." But she turned towards you in her attempt to clear the misunderstanding. "I am Viviana, a maid in service to the mermaid princess. The Felencorp have already occupied our underwater castle you see... And I well..." She shifted slightly on her feet as if unsure to continue.

"Well do say dear." The mershark prodded.

"I kinda poisoned the food all the humans ate..." She finally said.

"Yes. And when they were throwing her in the cell with me, she was calling all humans... what was it... disgusting land slugs?" Apulia's grin widened in a smile showcasing her sharp teeth. This only brought her a glare from Viviana though.

It was then that the ice-like harpy spoke.

"You're a servant of Princess Amatheia? How has she been?" The harpy asked. "Anyways, where are my manners... My name is... Aliana. I'm from the harpy clan of the mountains in the west. Perhaps all of you already know... But we harpies are being hunted by the Felencorp. Likely due to the fact that the royal family are harpies... And therefore might see us a threat to their rule..."

The icy harpy's red eyes then locked with yours.

"But if the Thura Priestesses managed to finally summon a hero..." She left her statement hanging, the implication of her words were obvious to everyone.

"Carrie is hero? No tricked, ke?" Almost everyone.

Requesting a sense motive roll for each new NPC. I'll give bits more of slight information depending on the result.

[Erynn]

Rolled 1d20+7 : 5 + 7, total 12

Sense Motive for Grus

Rolled 1d20+7 : 6 + 7, total 13

Sense Motive for Apulia

Rolled 1d20+7 : 8 + 7, total 15

Sense Motive for Viviana

Rolled 1d20+7 : 18 + 7, total 25

Sense Motive for Aliana

[Throndir]

Sense Motive (Grus): 12
Grus seemed a bit too simple to be deceitful. When he spoke about 'dem bad ones', he probably meant the Felencorp.

Sense Motive (Apulia): 13
Apulia seemed to always be smiling with her teeth displayed out, even as she spoke. She didn't come off as being deceitful.

Sense Motive (Viviana): 15
You caught a hint of satisfaction as she finally admitted to poisoning the food of the Felencorp occupation. You didn't get any sort of remorse from her either for her actions. You noted that even though she bickered a lot of Apulia, it was harmless enough.

Sense Motive (Aliana): 25
When she said her name, she paused for just a bit too long. She momentarily avoided seeing you eye to eye as well, but continued to lock eyes afterwards when she mentioned her homeland, along with being hunted by the Felencorp, and their reasons. You had a suspicion that Aliana wasn't being completely honest.

[Erynn]

"Yes, I can understand Grus.", Carrie responded immediately, "In fact, I can understand everyone regardless of language. If it weren't for this world's magic, I wouldn't be able to understand any of you right now. The language spoken where I come from is completely different."

Carrie then found herself more than a little amused by the banter between Apulia and Viviana. The mermaid seemed sheltered, or at least naive by comparison to her mershark counterpart, but the fact that both of them had reasons to oppose Felencorp was promising. When Apulia prodded Viviana to share how she had wound up in the slave caravan in the first place, Carrie couldn't help but burst into laughter upon hearing the admission.

"Oh, you are just precious!", Carrie says while simultaneously laughing and wincing as the sudden change in her breathing aggravates the wounds she had recently received, "The way you were talking, nobody would have guessed you had tried to kill anyone!" While Carrie had noticed Viviana declined to deny the bit about calling humans disgusting land slugs despite her presence, she likewise declined to take offense. She knew she had no idea just how ugly Felencorp could get, but if slavery was any indication the mermaid likely had plenty of reason to have a dim view of humanity. Perhaps she could change Viviana's outlook by example later on.

Carrie's laughter tapered off quickly as the harpy spoke, however. She had noticed that the second question she had asked was precisely the sort one would ask when concerned about someone they know personally. She also noticed that "Aliana" had paused just slightly before giving her name. Between the two notable behaviors, Carrie surmised that the harpy hadn't shared her real name. She had a solid hunch as to just who this individual actually was, but decided not to press the issue. She didn't doubt that Felencorp was hunting the individual with whom she was speaking in the slightest, nor would she doubt that all harpies were being hunted. Synithise had told her as much shortly after she had arrived. After all, the best way to earn trust was often to extend it and Carrie intended to foster it as much as she could between all present.

It is at this moment that Carrie realizes that not quite everyone had realized she was the "Hero".

"Yes, Grus.", Carrie replies with a smile, "I just prefer that people use my name rather than the title. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear."

Carrie then shoots a knowing wink toward "Aliana", seeking to wordlessly convey the message, "You didn't quite fool me, but I'll keep your secret.", before turning to Synithise.

"I've got a request you're probably not going to like very much.", Carrie informs the matriarch, "I'd like you to look after our prisoners' condition so that we don't lose any on our way back. All else aside, our goal is to get Felencorp to leave Darmona and her people alone, not to kill them all. The greater the impact we can have without having to fight, the better."

[Throndir]

New World - North of Melrose
Day 4 - 9:30 AM

"We can take them all to Thura forest to have their wounds healed... They're all knocked out. Oh! But we really should use those manacles on them." Synthise said, mentioning the manacles and keys that were once on the slaves.

"Let me do it!" Viviana announced, starry-eyed, and brimming with determination. "I'm a maid, so it's only natural, plus...!" She glanced towards the slavers, still unconscious. "It'll be payback!" With that, Viviana began taking sets of manacles, ensuring she knew what keys went with what, and began to systematically start manacling each one and letting out an almost mean-spirited "Hehehe" every time she locked a manacle.

With the other group of slaves having left, taking one of the wagons, there were two wagons left for the group. Once the slavers were manacled, the rest of the group began to collect what supplies were still in the area, and situated themselves in the last wagon.

As for Grus, he grabbed each manacled slaver, and simply tossed them like bags into the other wagon. Each landing thud was enough to make Synithise and Aliana wince, though Apulia seemed to enjoy the spectacle.

"Throw them higher." The mershark said, to which Grus only grunted and began to throw them in higher arc, resulting in a slightly louder thud.

Donovan, who had been fairly quiet since the introductions finally laughed heartily.

"A lively group you've found Carrie." He said, then he grinned a moment later. "Except me of course." The others looked towards him, not quite understanding his comment. Realizing this, Donovan continued to grin as he simply popped his head right off his torso.

"Y-your head!"

"Wot?"

"My, oh my."

"Oh... You're not alive. I get it."

[Erynn]

"They're all yours then.", Carrie replies to Viviana as she moves to carry out Synithise' suggestion, though when she hears the first thud in the back of the wagon, Carrie turns around to see what made the noise and immediately face-palms. Clearly, the treatment that her new traveling companions had experienced left them with less consideration for their former captors than was ideal. As Apulia chimes in and gets Grus to throw the prisoners in an even higher arc, Carrie simply rolls her eyes as she turns to face away from the spectacle and scans her surroundings while the wagon is loaded with prisoners.

Carrie can't help but laugh again as Donovan continues with his puns, and once more chooses to respond in kind despite once more wincing in pain as the laughter irritates the knife wounds she had received from the Felencorp agent she had fought not long ago.

"That comedy really is one way to get a head.", Carrie replies, unintentionally ending the sentence with a pained, "Ow.", As she reflexively reaches to her side and back.

"Man, this is going to be an uncomfortable hike.", Carrie says under her breath as she recovers from the painful laughter, "At least It'll be easy to keep my eyes open."

As useful as magic was, Carrie was quickly becoming irritated with the degree to which it left her mentally exhausted. Magic was, she was learning, a tool to be used judiciously and only when needed.

[Throndir]

Hero point earned. Moved to chapter 6 shortly.

When you laughed, everyone else couldn't help but share in the mirth of the atmosphere. And with those lingering tones as everyone finally settled the wagon, with Grus pulling the entire thing himself, the group moved back towards the south; their destination: Thura forest.