Mysteries of the Floating Islands

[TenOfSwords13]

Yes... let's win this fight, Mordecai!

>Also attack Keith

[Florien]

THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!

Avanyiss shrieks as she watches a fight break out.

I hate the monarchy as much as anyone, but we aren't starting a no-witness-no-quarter fight with the army today! Look, Infantrvolkiv, Irekhiniv, calm your tits and stop fighting. We're here to fix things. We're here to worry about this dragon business that's happening before we go anywhere too fun.

Look, we should PROBABLY negotiate this, but we NEED YOU TO STOP TRYING TO MURDER EACH OTHER FOR A MOMENT! I'd rather that when the revolution comes that I'm not on the bad side of the army by association with you slash-happy maniacs! Yes, violence IS the answer, but in this case, it's only the second best option, and not as easy as some others, so can we CALM DOWN before anyone loses a hand? We don't even know if there's a one-true-king curse upon the land, we should know that before starting the revolution, and we shouldn't start it where NO ONE CAN SEE US AND HELP! Vels, Mordecai, you didn't NEED to start this fight, this wasn't the time to show off, this... ugh.

Panicking, Avanyiss tries to diffuse the situation by 

>negotiating with the guards... and her party members who started a fight over being told to please leave the restricted area.

[MadameButterflyKnife]

While Hadil is in the cellar, she hears the fighting. Fighting wasn't optimal, but sacrifice was necessary sometimes. And right now, Hadil sacrificed her desire to handle this with conversation, and her sanity.

>examine what's inside the cellar. search for traces of a dragon's presence, or any clue of where the tennants went.

[Florien]

...Now, I recommend Mordecai surrenders and goes to prison-or-death for this terrible terrible crime of assault over... apparently nothing. Or at the very least pays a fine for this. I PROMISE you, I'm not helping pay for that. You are the ones who've caused the problem for these innocent...

Fuck, this really is over nothing. Someone ELSE got told to not go somewhere and you just attacked the infantrvolkiv over that? I cannot believe you people. I cannot BELIEVE I responded to the letter. I thought this was going to be a research team, not a party, and not one of the weirdly aggressive ones! The guards WERE backing down! They were not interested in a fight! Do you have the appropriate papers filled out by the appropriate authorities to be irekhin? I doubt it. I DOUBT THEY EVEN ISSUE THOSE PAPERS HERE!

Oh and the scarecrow should do the same. Both of you surrender. This was a POINTLESSLY quick escalation. All of you, drop your weapons, and we'll resolve this before someone loses things.

[MadameButterflyKnife]

Overhearing Avanyiss, Hadil pokes her head out of the cellar. "I do admire your sanity in this situation, at least. While I would rather solve this problem as fast as possible, I did think violence was a bit detrimental."

[Despair's Archon of Memes]

Yeah... Things got out of hand quickly...

[Florien]

Out of hand. Out of hand. OUT OF HAND?! Things didn't so much get out of hand as escape into the deepest marrow of the world, live there for thousands of generations, and become small, blind, pale, wormlike creatures living off BRINE SHRIMP!

This is not just an absurd escalation, this is a disaster, and I must insist we ditch the instigator, MORDECAI, at the next town, or turn him over to the appropriate authorities. He is not just a vicious attempted-murderer-over-nothing, he is a vicious-attempted-murderer-over-nothing doing it in front of WITNESSESS! At the very least Jack there only joined in, we can make a peer pressure exception. But for the sake of fuck, the security forces did no wrong to us yet!

Now, is the Dragon really the one to blame for this disaster? Maybe. Is it actually the king's fault? Also maybe. Should both of them die for claiming nobility? Yes! But these soldiers claim nothing of the sort! They only asked that you not go picking through the rubble and looting things without their permission, and what do you do, you STAB THEM! WHY?!

[MadameButterflyKnife]

At this point, Hadil gets out and tries to cool down the fighters, the soldiers, and Avanyiss. "I understand you are angered, and I absolutely agree, we can instigate the sultans of this land later, but if we put our trust in the person who sent us on this quest, then we do have to keep him along. I do think that restraining Mordecai would be a reasonable compromise for such a thing, as well as treating these soldiers."

[Florien]

Oh, fine, but the point stands, Mordecai is a danger to himself and others. I do NOT trust him, nor do I trust anyone who would send a letter to him, if this is normal behavior for him. "Remember who they're up against". Have you ever seen such moronic posturing? Not to mention self-defeating, not to mention ILLEGAL, and POINTLESSLY DONE!

Mordecai, you are not ranked. You are not part of the power structure in which these security forces are! You cannot arbitrarily claim power within that structure through force alone, and they cannot REMEMBER who they are up against if they have NEVER MET YOU BEFORE! Your threat makes no sense!

...What I'm getting at is we should gag him too. Though, being a walking corpse, he may have a magic-generated voice, so we may have to wrap his whole body in heavy cloth to prevent air resonance.

Avanyiss paces wildly, attempting to calm down, but in reality only becoming more panicked and alarmed at how quickly this all fell apart, and muttering something about getting a new identity and starting over far away if this goes south.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

I am simply trying to obtain our goals without people interfering in our business. The last thing we need right now is to deal with meddling guards. If the Dragon Queen poses such a huge threat, we need to know everything as quick as possible. And you don't trust me? I can say the same for you too.

[Florien]

Not helping your case, Mizheldt. I see no reason beyond "you also answered a letter that presumably got sent to far more people than just us" that you should not be at the very best left at the first stop we make, and at worst publicly executed for your numerous crimes. You attacked the guards over nothing, might I repeat, NOTHING! You are not helping anyone.

Your attitude is that of a particularly petulant hatchling. For someone with undeath on your side, I would think you'd be a little more patient than that. The guards do not meddle, they do their job, and you try to kill them, over nothing. No finesse, no nuance. Exactly like a paladin, except you do not do it in the name of a liar, you do it in the name of INCOMPETENCE and IRRATIONALITY!

She pauses for a moment after her tirade, before switching into "correction of point of fact" and "irritated" mode.

Also, as a point of fact, our goal is not to pick through these ruins. This is optional. Our goal is to go somewhere that's a good ways past here to go check out an airship accident/airspace violation. So if you want to wander off alone and get eaten by wolves or gored by a boar, please, proceed. I call right of claimancy on your equipment and money should that happen. Quite besides that, the Dragon Queen could have reasonable claim to the territory, if she was not claiming monarchy. She could be competent in her own right as a ruler! She might not be a ruler at all! "The Dragon Queen is Dangerous" is hardly an excuse to try to kill people ostensibly opposed to her. In fact... one could cast you as a sympathizer to her cause if one were so inclined, what with your assault on the Human King's army.

Who else is with me that this maniac is playing a dangerous game with our lives by association, and that we must either bring him down ourselves, or cease association therewith? After all, if he were to get caught doing a crime, surely we would be implicated for travelling alongside.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Mordecai sighs in irritation before putting away his sword.

Fine, I'll yield for now. But be forewarned. You better not try anything on me, Lizard. Don't think I won't be watching you all the same.

[Florien]

Yield. Forewarned. Oh, okay. Yes.

Excellent, now I'm being threatened. Fucking maniac. You think you can threaten me? Piteous! This changes nothing, you STILL attacked the guards unprovoked. Just because you stopped, that does NOT mean that you are remotely forgiven for your less-than-arbitrary violence. You are a legal liability to us, and I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not a lawspeaker! I didn't go to lawspeaker school of any kind, here or there, so I won't be able to bail us out when we all end up in front of a judge or jury or council of elders or priests or something else or some strange combination thereof because YOU in PARTICULAR murdered a pedestrian for walking slowly or whatever!

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

The guards came after us, so I fought back. And I didn't murder anyone. I left the guard alone as soon as he surrendered if you haven't noticed. And if we end up in front of a council, then I will find a way to free us all. And I could care less if you forgive me. Now do you want to focus on the mission? What do you suggest we do next then?

[SmilyCube112]

Err, at least the guards aren't gonna deal with the Drow Elf, who decides to stay off the property and let the others do......whatever they're currently doing. He'll just be silently sitting in a nearby bush.

[Florien]

Come off it, I was right here. I saw what happened. Don't argue with me on this.

The guard said "don't go in there" while you were going in there, and then, instead of going "oh okay I won't", you attacked. And words like "finish this fool off" hardly implies you weren't planning on executing the surrenderers after you were done, or particularly worried about killing them. You attacked first. They weren't about to fight you before YOU charged. Can you not comprehend how stupid that was, or are you being willfully obtuse in order to get out of responsibility, for, I reiterate, ATTEMPTED MURDER OVER LITERALLY NOTHING? Neither option is good, and I think you realize that much, at least.

You got told to not go into an area. Presumably, if you got permission or got to be under observation, you could have gotten in. But NOOOO, you tried to sneak in and immediately got caught. So, what do you do? Say sorry and ask if you could look around while under observation or for permission to check the place out? Just apologize and leave? NOOO! You come out sword swinging because someone has the audacity to tell you what to do for once in your miserable undeath! A sword isn't exactly a non-lethal weapon Mizheldt. You USED your sword. So don't give me your idiotic "I didn't murder anyone", because clearly you intended to, or at the very least didn't care one way or the other, and neither is particularly good.

ACT REASONABLY for once. This isn't "undead armorman goes around on a brigandry spree", this is important business and investigation of a potential airspace violation of the equally legitimate monarch's claim!

Avanyiss pauses to think of something else to add... turns to the dark elf...

AND YOU!... you did almost fine. But it would have been better if you'd introduced yourself earlier to us instead of skulking around in a suspicious manner. And it would have been better had you asked the guards first. Do better. Pull yourselves together, all of you! Now, I'm going to talk to the security forces here. DON'T FUCK ANYTHING ELSE UP. ANY OF YOU.

She walks over to the guards.

I apologize for the idiocy of these people around me at the moment, though I am not responsible for their apparent inability to act in a matter sensible. They answered letters that they clearly were not prepared for, and at least one of them is a dangerously twitchy borderline-bandit apparently. May I explore these ruins? If not, why not? If there are some conditions that I should adhere to before exploring them, could you tell me what they are so I may follow proper procedure?

[TenOfSwords13]

>also stand down

... ... ...

[SmilyCube112]

The Dark Elf looks at Avanyiss and says to them "Oi, don't you think there's a good reason why I'm trying to keep myself hidden? Like, for example, loan sharks or a coven wanting my head?"

......

"And I am NOT A BANDIT!!"

[MadameButterflyKnife]

"I will give ypu the benefit of the doubt you are not a bandit. But why were you sneaking and following us in particular? She is rational to be suspicious.

[GoldenCityBird]

@Florien: For that high-effort roleplay and peacekeeping efforts, you now have an extra reroll for the next failed action.

You roll a 2 4 for your negotiation roll (Reroll spent)

The guards stand down. "We'll still be expecting reperations from Mordecai himself, to be perfectly honest. 15 Ducats for the trouble. More than the standard fine, but we also won't be telling the king about all this in exchange."

"If you honor your deal, that is. Any more crimes, and we'll make sure you never hear the end of it."

@MadameButterflyKnife: You roll a ??? on your investigation roll. (For this one, you do not know to what extent you have succeeded)

Through the gaps in the rubble, you can kinda piece the scene together. A small group, probably no more than 6 people, sitting around a table. Seems like the house went down pretty quickly at that.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Mordecai obliges and gives the guards 15 Ducats as he was told.

Never let it be said I can't be cooperative. Although I will say Avanyiss could be a deadly warrior herself. Way she rants, she can talk you to death.

[Florien]

Excellent! Thank you. Now, about these ruins. Looks like that place collapsed, yes? May we investigate please, security forces? I would like to thoroughly pick through these ruins and see what happened here precisely. If I shouldn't, is there any particular reason I shouldn't or any conditions I should adhere to? Please explain.

And you, dark elf? I wasn't calling you a bandit. You need to stop assuming everything is about you. My opinion of you just dropped several notches, but you're still better than the petulant hatchling over there who's complaining about my willingness to get us through this with as little unnecessary bloodshed as possible. There will be necessary bloodshed later, presumably. And if possible, I'd like to avoid that too and get you functioning like a proper research team rather than a glorified Unlicensed Irekhiniv Party. We're here to solve the mystery, not to stab people. Stabbing is purely incidental to our goals.

...I go through four years at college for this? I go through learning your whole language after getting stuck in this monarchist hellhole? For this? I promise you, bailing us out is not what I wanted to do when I got up this morning, but apparently it's what I'm doing now.

Anyway, moving on. Guards! Answer my question please when you get the chance after being done bleeding.

Avanyiss waves and walks over to the guards, and

>asks why they can't go in and if they could go in if they met certain conditions.

[MadameButterflyKnife]

Meanwhile, Hadil kneels over the guards, and goes to

> try and heal any injuries they got during the short skirmish

[TenOfSwords13]

Can you lot at least tell us what happened, or who happened? Why happened and how happened will also be good questions to answer.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Way to put words in my mouth, you overgrown dinosaur. I haven't complained at all. In fact, you have just noticed that I am cooperating with you all. I stopped fighting and I paid my penance just like it was agreed. Hardly the act of a complainer. But you're the college graduate among us, so that automatically means you're the smartest one here. How can I be so blind? Mordecai says the last two sentences dripping with sarcasm.

While I'll leave you to keeping your head in the clouds, I will at least concur with you on one thing.

> Also ask if there's anything that can be done in the area so the guards can let the group access into the cellar