Treachery, lies and secrets

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Heinrich kept his gaze locked on Restaz, almost as if he dared the guard to pick up the pistol, despite not being in the condition to fight, a walking cane can cause severe injuries on a person if used to hit hard enough. The only change on his expression of a small smile at the corner of his lip, a signal to Ixevim to say his thanks to the Mindflayer.

[Coan]

Restnaz obviously knew when to pick his fights. Nodding over to Fernardo he turned and left the room with an angry scowl stuck onto his face. Fernardo soon followed after giving Heinrich a probing look.

After they had left with the outside gaurds, the elf in bandages began sniffing again before pawing the air. Heinrich's ears could pick out the sounds of someone else moving in the room when he suddenly saw the side table across form the elf tracker shift as if some weight were placed against it.

[alhoon]

As soon as the door closes behind the disgrunted guards Ixevim entered their minds.
"I'm telepathic. I have powers of the mind that you don't understand. So don't pretend you understand and start spreading rumors about my nature. Not all creatures with a powerful mind are mind flayers.
I'll read your thoughts when I meet you again and I'll probe in a few other guards' minds to check if you could keep your mouths shut about what happened."

Then he addressed his companions and the noblewoman telepathically. "I'm afraid that rumors about the incident will spread rapidly. People won't be as friendly to me anymore."
When he sent the word friendly he mixed in emotions raging from fear to open hostility. Kimuriel got the imprint as good as possible for a non-illithid. Heinrich struggled a bit to get the meaning and sort out the emotions popping in his head along with the words, but he was somewhat used to this weird form of conversation by now even if it was disorienting.
The girl was buffled. Afraid as she was for her life the simple and only warning she had received before (when the guards were in the room) has passed more or less unnoticed. But now to have a strange, wet, almost genderless voice in her head accompanied with emotions (by what she now knew was a mind flayer) was too much. Her mind abadoned the message and in the effort she misstepped and fell on the table that Heinrich noticed.

Guessing what happened (and receiving the emotions of fear and confusion) Ixevim shifted to vocal communication.
"It's all right Heinrich, we have . . . a guest. We will fill you in, but first we have to take care of the elf."
And telepathically he added to Heinrich and Van "that at least we know it is innocent. We have to discuss about the invisible woman and if we turn her in."
Speaking again Ixevim added:
"In the mean time, Heinrich I would like to give you a part of your well-earned payment. It is not gold but I believe you'll find it as useful or even more."
Ixevim took out a wooden box the size of a thick book. "Take this" he said.
Then he went on telepathically addressing Kimuriel and Heinrich.
"This is called Cracking Gel. It is an explosive more powerful than gunpowder and safer in the most part. When it goes off, it doesn't create massive heat waves and rapid air torrents but shock waves that create expanding cracks in rock formations making them to collapse in small pieces."
Looking at both of the others puzzled expressions he simplyfied the explanation.

"It doesn't explode like gunpowder with a loud noise and flames. It functions like something between a gigantic hammer slamming on a wall and an earthquake. It can be used as a weapon to create bombs with similar destructive power as gunpowder but it is best used to breach walls more or less silently. If you dig a hole in a wall 5' thick and place the quantity I gave you inside it and then shoot at it with a musket or pistol, it will blow out a hole of 6 - 7' diameter. The cloud of dust it creates settles soon, but it will be mostly in your side.
The explosion will make as much noise as if the wall was crushed by a cannonball. Loud yes, but far more silent than 2 or 3 barrels of gunpowder, also this noise can be mistaken for an earthquake at a distance. Cracking gel doesn't explode with fire, only with a rapid, concussive hit.
If you just place it over the wall instead of inside the wall, it will make more noise and create a smaller opening, about 4' -5' in diameter but your side of the wall will have less dust and thrown stones.

As I see it (and we have tested this before) it can create a quick and safe entrance or exit from a castle."

[VAN]

Kimuriel doesn't pay much attention at Ixevim's words. He finds interesting and very useful the cracking gel, but for now his attention is up to the elf, to the woman and of course about their lifes. As Ixevim finishes he says:

"I don't think that the guards will be back soon, but we are not sure that they will not start talking and continue spreading the ridicolous rumor about Ixevim's nature. I wonder how stupid can be someone to believe that there is a mind flyer in the Manor!"

Kimuriel looks one more time the elf. He doesn't dare to guess what kind of spells or experiments have been used upon him.

A telepathic message reaches Ixevim's mind:

"I think we should wait the morning before go out and search for a doctor. Believe me, I'm the first who wants to see him walk and act normally again, but now it's dangerous to do it. Guards are everywhere and we cannot pass unnoticed with him. I can do him invisible, but I'm afraid that he can make noises which can betray him. Maybe it's better wait, talk to the woman and decide what to do with her."

Then Kimuriel gets the gun from the floor and carefully looks outside. When he is sure that nobody is there hidden, he turns in, locks the door and says in low voice.

"Heinrich, in this room it's a woman. A noble woman. The guards are after her, she came in my room asking me to help her, so I make her invisible. The rest you know it."

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Heinrich takes the box.

"Thank you, I am certain this will prove very useful in many ways."

"As for the guards..." he studies the door "I am certain they will be more mindful in future, they will not return soon and if I need it, I can have word reach Lady Romaine of their actions, even incapacitated as she is, she carries much weight in this land and has the ear of Lady Boritsi. We also are friends of the Lady and she owes us each a favour, something we may have to call in with original requests if necessary."

Ignoring the invisible woman for the moment, he turned his attentions back to the elf and his wellbeing. He again smils down at the demihuman and speaks to the creature softly.[/i]

"Now, you can trust us my friend, can you tell us if you are injured in any way? Are you suffering and if so, how?"

[alhoon]

A telepathic message reached Heinrich mind only. "I wouldn't approach that much the elf Heinrich. I have checked its mind and it is obviously shattered. I don't know if this one is dangerous but perhaps there was a reason it was in chains."

Then the telepathic message reaches Kimuriel too. "About the noblewoman I have a plan to test her real character. Don't react to what I'll propose. It is just an act."

Ixevim turned to regard the place where the afraid girl stood. He couldn't see her but he could hear her breathing. He sent out a telepathic message that reached all of them.
"Young lady, don't worry about this telepathic communication. Just calm down and receive the info I send you. It's not something dangerous."
After a moment he went on.
"As for the noble woman I have a plan. We will keep her here for a few hours perhaps a day and meanwhile we will gather goship for some maid or servant about her size that has no close friends or family in the manor and who is not well known. We will call that commoner here for a 'service' and kill her.
Then we will cast a spell on the noblewoman to make her look exactly as the maid for about a week or two. After that time things would have probably calm down enough for the noblewoman to be able to run away impersonating a maid."
Ixevim made another pause to let the plan sink in.

After a second or two he went on. "Young lady, can you successfully impersonate a maid? Can you do some basic chores to save your life?"

Ixevim immediately sent the others the additional: "If she is willing to have an innocent woman killed only for her to escape I believe we should turn her in. After all, she is an enemy of the state and she participated in this macabre feast over the wounded and dead rebels."

[VAN]

Kimuriel sends telepathically to Ixevim that he agrees with his plan, but adds that maybe they should check also her thoughts in order to understand better her way of thinking and her actions.

[alhoon]

OOC> OUCH! Kuddos VAN, I haven't thought of that, but Ixevim certainly would. Coan, consider that Ixevim uses detects thoughts on the girl. The DC is 16.

IC> Ixevim agrees and telepathically sends Kimuriel and Heinrich the thoughts of the noblewoman.

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Heinirch grunts his approval over Ixevim's plan, but keeps his attention on the elf, as if he were observing the creature. He felt truly sorry for the elf and wished that perhaps there must be some way to restore it's mind.

[Coan]

The girl thought for a moment then answered with her voice.

"I can impersonate a maid but I don't see a reason to kill her. Mayhap we could simply hold her hostage for a few days so that I can escape? There are many maids as well, so simply changing my appearance would work well enough."

Ixevim scanned her mind and found that she was not lying. She seemed to hate the idea of killing a lower class member and was shocked to hear it proposed. He could not tell if she would give the same answer if he had mentioned killing a noble instead.

[VAN]

"It's an interesting alternative. May I ask you what are you planning to do soon after? You know that you should leave the country, don't you?"

Kimuriel keeps his eyes focused on the young woman but he doesn't reveal his approval yet. He waits first to get Ixevim's signal that she is telling the truth.

[alhoon]

Ixevim mentally replied "You passed the test Lady. If you have hinted that you would accept an innocent girl dying for you to be saved, then I would have turned you in. Before we think of a plan to help you, now that I agree that you are worth helping, answer me this.
What were you doing in this macabre party? Eating, drinking and mating along suffering creatures of your kind?"

[Wiccy of the Fraternity]

Watching silently, not thinking it was his time to step into the conversation, Heinrich observed the others and the conversation as it unfolded. If the woman had accepted the chance to murder a maid for herself to escape, he would have personally seen to it that she were handed in to Ivana directly if necessary.

At least, he wouldn't have left it to Artemis, for he was not to be trusted and Heinrich would continue to watch the diplomat with interest in the coming days, wekks, perhaps even months to see where his loyalties truly lie.

[Coan]

The girl looked into the illusion of Xevim's eyes.

"I'm sorry but you weren't here in the hard years. Great Pietor offered us a chance to get back, even as he let us know it wouldn't last long. I wanted to make the nobles suffer, to make them learn. What we did, we did knowing that it would be a brief but bright example, they deserved it but what is more we... I... needed it. I needed to see them bleed, cry, beg; like so many of us did before them."

[alhoon]

Ixevim paused for a moment. Well, he didn't have to like the girl to help her. "How old are you lady?" He asked plainly.