eastbound | audio | username: raven master

( It would appear even the Merchant sounds... ruffled, on this fine occasion. Will wonders never cease? ) Good afternoo — ...good day.

I understand you have been visited by an improbability of recent afflictions. Expectedly, Unhalad failed to present the full scope of his ultimatum alongside his proposal. ( A pause. ) I understand he has been rewarded for his oversight.

( Ding-dong, the undead is... twice dead. ) We have been informed Anurr and his people have... taken steps to close the mines. The locals are ill pleased for it, however. Sa-Hareth has survived countless transitions before. It may do so again. For your service in this endeavour, Anurr has communicated he will allow your return to. ( Another pause. ) His Sa-Hareth, freely. Do with this token as you will.

In the meantime, two of my associates have volunteered the regions they patron for your next destination. We are sufficiently funded — and I shall thank a transfer of your earnings shortly — to access either, and they are both possessed of once-functional portals. I speak of Taravast, a scholarly citadel that's fallen into... some degree of chaos as its keeper approaches his last hour. His heirs are... not invulnerable to a degree of persuasion. And then we have Yassair, where a young prince strives to reassert itself before an unsupportive staff to battle the plagues.

Taravast, Yassair. Karsa and Haltham have volunteered to join you, if you will have them. I understand a... woodland friend of yours also wishes to join. Consider. Then send word of your preference, and start to gather your possessions while I broker your passport papers. Anurr has graciously broken the storms, and the markets are once more filling. Enjoy the fairs and procure some last trinkets, although...

I advise you travel light. I shall have no more than one wombat in my care, and no further exotics.

( ooc: come one, come all and cast YOUR MERRY VOTE on the upcoming destination, if you haven't, already! It will be assumed everyone's votes reach the Merchant somehow. Feel free to have IC debates or tie any loose strings in this post, or do your own! If you're short of things to play with for the next few days but want a light setting — the Sa-Hareth markets should be thriving, and characters can bask in local trade, or meddle with merchants and sailors. ~~God help this party.~~ )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Remarkably responsible for men who raided a bank.

As well as organised items for auction along more legal routes.

( He sounds amused, passingly. He's no stranger to theft, but robbery on that scale wouldn't have been his brainchild. )

Note that only one of these actions condemned a citadel.

My good friend, what is it you wish to hear?

Little, other than what we're inviting to walk along in our shadows while we look for our way home.

And a question, more pertinent now than ever—if we die. What then?

Within the reach of Unhalad or his brethren would be a regrettable outcome. They would likely summon you alive once more and consume you.

Outside of it, there are... exotic options.

Can you give me more information on these exotic options? If not now, then as we're underway?

There are eastern necromancers who perform resurrections for a fee. Some more proficiently than others.

Do you find yourself requiring the service?

Is there any you know I can learn anything viable from once we arrive in either location?

Very nearly. Too nearly, and with too great a chance of what you said regarding Unhalad and his brethren acting before we could. I won't sit back assuming we're not going to get that near again, or cross that line.

Allow me a moment of transparency and personal prejudice. I do not recommend you position yourself at the mercy of these practitioners and their art.

Nor would I, but until myself or another in this party can find the means to offer the same, if it comes to that end, what are our options?

...very well. I shall write the appropriate letters of introduction to the more respectable guilds. If you take no other counsel, consider this: better to pay handsomely for decent service than to give into the temptation of a lower fee for the corresponding quality of performance.

Lives don't come cheaply, for all they end cheaply. I'll remember, and thank you.

I am not blind to your or Archeval's inclinations. I ask you here and now, candidly: do you intend to use this opportunity for your own purposes?

Candidly, in turn: to return a life to one of our rag tag group, to those I love, yes. For anything other than that—until the moment this world has given me and every last one of us no other option to hold on to those I love and see them home, no, and even then, I don't know that I could. It would be a lie saying it's not tempting, that the magic as it's called here doesn't fascinate, that power isn't its own defense and weakness both. But I've lived that life once. I ended it, decisively, thinking I'd be the only one to bear that final cost. I was wrong, on all counts.

That's not a choice I will make again.

The words are very well spoken. Forgive my ongoing reticence. A habit.

You've reason enough to be. I wouldn't have expected otherwise, even before when we last spoke.

( If he wasn't holding all of them suspect for what they could do...

... And it's not like he's wrong to, regardless of apparent inclinations. How straightforward is half the party with the rest? )

And yet you all appear convinced I am a malign influence.

I doubt that surprises you terribly much.

( Again, a touch amused. )

Suspicion, trust, paranoia: we're not people at our best moments. If we were blind acceptance and adoration, I'd suspect you'd find it as inconvenient, if in different ways.

I would not know how to approach it. That is correct.

This is at least more familiar territory then?

You must imagine I do this very often.

I should live to say yes, but no, no, more about merchants and wares and as far as I can tell, there's enough challenge involved in trade like that already.

I am not a slave trafficker.

Why in the world would you think I mean people and not goods for trading?! Merchants deal with other merchants and buyers! Those are all people! Money of them being moved as goods, I hope!

'Smuggling'?

(no subject)

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