Auratus' Lair
The dragon had rested himself from the battle for a few days, even taking some time trying to identify his part of the spoils. With Wild Red's corpse gifted to the boarsman, he only had the soul as bargaining piece for the prayer, and so he was intent on delivering it this month. Still, with his lair finally sporting some items of true value, he did feel a pang of unease while doing leaving them alone. He would need to secure it, one way or another.
Sparing his belongings one last, careful glance – he was sure he would know it if someone would dare to move them in his absence – he set out for Kiatown. Seeing as Rattigont might intend to strike at the one who had - in a sense - caused Wild Red's death, he even intended to use subtletly once inside of the city walls.
Interaction - Auratus takes the dagger / Wild Red's Soul, to represent it to Lord Elken Lionpaw
Using subtlety for once, you slip into the ocean, swim through the storm just below the surface, and after some time you climb onto the Kiatown docks in the somewhat distasteful but unnecessary disguise of a well-to-do Bellian merchant.
From there it is but a simple walk to the gates of the Lionpaw Estate, where you drop the disguise and state your intentions to the guards. They waste no time ushering you in. You are let into a well decorated hall, and told that Lord Lionpaw will be down as soon as he can make himself presentable to meet a god.
As you wait, you ponder the art of the wall. Most of murals are landscapes, depicting several key battles of the Red River Rebellion, a war you have studied little do to a general lack of Draconic involvement, at a distance great enough to avoid showing any blood or gore. You know little of Lionpaw; In their favor they are one of the youngest of the Bellian High Houses, and did not exist to take part in the war before time, but weighted against them is the fact that they descend directly from Valor, the God responsible for more crimes against Dragonkind than any save Glaciana. There is also the fact that your mission on the island is to prevent its wealth from falling into the hands of the powers that be on the mainland, and as the rulers of an empire of three cities, the argument could easily be made that entity on the island represents mainland interests more than the owners of the hall you presently stand in.
Your thoughts are interupted by the arrival of Elkin, or, as it turns out, his replacement. A boy in his mid teens adorned with fine jewels and emerald encrusted ceremonial armor approaches, bows as deeply as said armor allows him, and introduces himself. For a Bellian Child talking to a dragon and a god, he keeps his composure well.
"I am Lord Badger Lionpaw, humble servant of your pantheon. Welcome to my hall, holy one. Before he was incarcerated, uncle Elkin informed me that he had prayed at the temple for Wild Red's head. As I have heard that said pirate lord is missing since being driven from the Harbor at Selma's Gate, and the god of vengeance stands before me, I assume that I am to given said trophy? Or do you have other business to discuss with me?"
Auratus reply was an angry groan, before spewing back at him. " You don't get to tell me what to do, Mortus, nor is it in your interest that I "Let this one go" ! "
Crossing his arms behind his back, the dragon began circling the god, delivering his spiel alongside. " The orcs tell of a ritual, where their warriors and my kin partake of those who loose said gambit. I am quite sure this extends to their souls as well, as, god or not, we dragons do tend to know a thing or two about handling them. Once we introduce this host you speak of, and use it against those four, we will break their idea of honour – the same honour which is the only thing currently keeping the girl alive! If we don't retrieve Chell before then, you won't be able to revive her soul this time around. They. Will. Devour. It. "
" Any other options, and time to implement them, are limited. Should we try to retrieve her by ourselves, they will spring the trap that they undoubtedly have sprung for us. After they have shown us their capabilties with the Wild Red incident, I doubt this approach to have any success. Sneaking in, through unknown terrain, retrieving her from their watchful gaze? The others are welcome to try, but I won't hold my breath. I, on the other hand, am confident that I could get one of them to move in our interest, with relative ease even. "
Throwing his arms up in theatrical abandon, the dragon continued. " But, true enough – if me taking diplomacy towards them would brand me as traitor, I guess we will have to leave your girl to her fate. "
Stopping to face the boatsmen once more, he quizzed the same. " Unless you try harder, that is. Well, Mortus? "
Mortus calmly shrugs off your rant, although you think you detect the slightest hint of a frown when you mention his daughter. You suppose he deals with alot of anger, pleading, outbursts, bargining and other such behavior in his line of work.
"Telen told me Chell's kidnapper is a Deep Dragon. I don't know ta full history, but I understand that they don't always see eye to eye wit or follow ta same rules as ta rest o' yer lot. Why should I trust my daugher's fate ta the diplomatic efforts of one who was likely taught in ta grand draconic tradition o' whitewashing conflict and differences between dragons. They could have reason ta hate ya that we don't even know about."He blinks, and pauses, almost as if he is giving your words further consideration. After an uncomfortably long silence, he speaks again.
"But even if we were ta put our faith into ya plan, crossing Valor is dangerous. Not unlike yerself, his temper is short, an unlike yerself he is stronger than me, and has more influence over Rexxis than I do. I'm not saying his will couldn't be subverted, but ta price o' failure, or even detectable success, could be high for all 'o us... It is not path I be willing ta walk just because somebody wit clear ulterior motives tells me its fer the best." Pyrite considered this for a bit. So... the bitter, shattered remnants of a perhaps not wholly functional family and pantheon. Interesting, but he wasn't sure what it meant.
"Well, I suppose that brings us to the next topic of importance. What can you tell me of these Chimaera, and how they came to fight and largely win a war against the Orcish Pantheon?"
"The Chimera..."She hisses in disgust before giving you an answer.
"They are monsters and no to are alike. Each is custom built from living or dead body parts to serve a single purpose, and broken back down into parts when that purpose is served. Unless you can completely and quickly run them from a battlefield, or burn all the corpses, their losses are always negated, and your losses will be doubled when your dead are used to build more Chimera.""They, they, hisssss," she pauses briefly, in disgust,
"follow the same patterns for their gods. Building and unmaking them as needed. Once they know enough about a noteworthy being, even a deity, they may construct a creature specifically to exploit its weaknesses, negate its strengths, and either capture or kill it.
The harpies have some means, which they fight hard to keep secret, by which they prevent any effort by the Chimera to make new tunnels to the surface, forcing them to exit through several choke-points high up in the mountains. Between the death of the Orc Pantheon Matriarch, and their entrapment at the hands of the winged ones, The Chimera ruled the land and exploited the Orcs. They view all other life as my pet views his crops, or I might view my web; Useful materials and nothing more."Pyrite turned back to Mortus after his spat with Ketari.
"Uh, well. Thanks for the lighthouse tip. Why do they gather there, though?
As for Glaciana... gah. Any tips for dealing with her otherwise? Or is it not normally worth the effort?"
"Bellians are instructed to go ta the sea after they die so that I can collect them, I think ta pirate tradition of souls gathering at lighthouses sort o' comes from that. I also know of a Barbarian death goddess who lives in a lighthouse, so that may have something ta do with it.
As fer her icyness, once she knows a soul is o' value ta ya, she will milk it for as much as she can. In the end, she will let ya have it. If she doesn't let one go once in a while, people will stop trying ta bargin with her, but the most surefire way to get one quickly is ta offer her kin; She feeds off of loss, so she will almost always give a soul of mere practical value for a soul of emotional and personal worth.""I suppose we should learn more about them before making our decisions. Heh. Giving them the choice has some merit, but it does encourage us to play nice, which is unfortunate," he added with a chuckle. "Obviously we'd still want to split everything evenly, but if nothing else, willing servants tend to be better servants.
Speaking of which, I say we do that now."
Making his way to the stage, he made to drag the captives into a convenient line. Kin and Red loyalists to the left, the prized spellcasters to the right, the rest assorted by power in the middle.
"So!" he announced cheerfully, bearing a pointy smile, "Anything any of you would like to say before we get started?"
The group remains quiet, nobody daring to speak. Your translation abilities do pick up on Ogov sending a messing along the lines of 'not yet' in the direction of the mages, and your divine perception discerns that the bindings on both himself and Makko seem to have been loosened significantly.