audio | username: raven master

[pulvisetumbra]

( You might remember this voice: )

Good afternoon. To our newcomers, I introduce myself as the Merchant. You have heard of me. I have heard of you. To our elderly additions, I note you have prevailed against the odds to persist among us. A triumph.

( Dry laughter. ) Further pleasantries at a later, more forgiving time. For now, it will not surprise you that certain gestures have been entertained. Crude, direct and mercenary.

Absent a contact point, Unhalad’s lieutenants have left word with several port masters, who have conveyed his message. He believes you have been well positioned to access Anurr’s forces and woodland allies. He asks for any remnants of the mirror his brethren sent aboard the vessel Imperious and for assistance to cleanse the woods of Anurr’s supporters. In exchange, he offers free passage from Sa-Hareth once the storms clear and a letter of recommendation that will ease voyage across the eastern provinces commanded by his brothers. He threatens the full force of his allies, if you do not comply.

( A moment’s peace, to let that sink. ) I expect our forest visitors have kept Lord Anurr better informed of your whereabouts and affiliation. He has addressed my liaisons to request your assistance to shut in the salt mines and the source of Unhalad’s local force replenishments. He too offers to facilitate your departure from Sa-Hareth, once he gains the terminals, financial provisions and free return to the citadel, should you wish it done. He threatens nothing, but notes that you are alone, and have been alone for some time, and where has it brought you? ( Laughter, outright) To me.

( Second verse, same at the first. Silence is a strength. ) Quite. Given the limitations of these creatures, you will forgive me for excluding any physical evidence of these interactions.

If you want counsel: you have sustained neutrality for the better part of two months. Your position to do nothing has been self-serving, but clear. Do not stray course at the last hour. If you intend to proceed otherwise… alert me. I shall endeavour to broker the relevant agreement, so that you may at least benefit from your gumption.

You will otherwise be pleased to know I expect to receive the pertinent passport papers and two potential routes for your strategic departure within days. Until then, good day.


( ooc: feel free to use the Merchant’s or other character posts to debate the course of action! The Merchant will be scarce. If most/any characters plan to side with Unhalad, Anurr, either warlord or even both of them, designate a character to let the Merchant know. Address messages to the him this time! )

Comments

[soulsrob]

I would pretend to be on the side of anyone who could make passage for everyone a little easier later on. This man has brothers that rule the other places we might go to, if I'm understanding correctly, yes?

I present to you a scenario: We help Mr. Anurr take down the mines and help us leave. They launch an attack on Mr. Unhalad and lose. Mr. Unhalad finds out we helped Mr. Anurr and sends word to his brothers in the other lands to look out for us and make our lives very, very difficult. At best, we become outlaws. At worst, we're enemies of the realm and they're told we're to be killed on sight.

Another scenario: We tell Mr. Anurr of Mr. Unhalad’s propsal and ask for him to relocate his troops or whatever elsewhere and bring back some sort of proof that we've "wiped them out," so to speak, thus giving them the element of surprise. Perhaps a small group of us secretly go and shut down the mine operations in the meantime, but in a way we can deny culpability. After all, we're helping Mr. Unhalad! We're on his side, are we not? Perhaps it's Mr. Anurr who did it, but worry not, for we have wiped out his people!

Mr. Unhalad thinks Mr. Anurr was the problem and that problem is gone. He sends word out to his brothers that we are friends and to be helped. We leave. Mr. Anurr can then launch an attack and, hopefully, take Mr. Unhalad down due to the element of surprise being ultimately on their side. We get to enjoy the hospitality of Mr. Unhalad’s brothers for quite some time before word gets out perhaps that oh dear, he's fallen, or very nearly! How dreadful, good luck Mr. Unhalad’s brother in this land, we shall continue our journey onward but will gladly carry the letter of Mr. Unhalad’s fall to the next brother for you, don't worry yourself!

[She smiles] And who knows what might happen to that letter? Lots of things could prevent it from ever getting out, delaying any help he might have hoped to gain.

[beitangmoran]

You would make a very good politician, Young Mistress.

I see a lot of merit in your second scenario, but I doubt some of our more.... value-minded cohort have the wherewithal to pull off the deception.

[soulsrob]

Well now, there's not need to be insulting. [but her tone is teasing and playful and she laughs in delight]

I've simply read far too many stories! There's a saying about 'keep your friends close, but your enemies closer'!

The others are a bit of a problem, but I suppose we could always lie to them too and work very quickly to usher them onto a boat before they can figure things out...

[beitangmoran]

Any such plan would require days for completion. Could we even keep them otherwise occupied that long without suspecting anything?

[soulsrob]

I'm sure we could think of something to occupy them with. Some meaningful impossible task, like in the stories.

Or simply knock them out long enough to do what needs to be done and let them wake up on the ship once it's too late for them to do something.

Or the third option of ostracizing them from the group entirely and letting them attempt their own way and see how far they can go with nothing but their honor to feed them.

[Cheerfully:] Of course, I'd rather we could all reach a compromise!

[beitangmoran]

Staying out of it still seems like a sounder option, if you ask me.

[royal_venant]

I think your plan is brilliant. No need to lie to me.

[bearshermark]

It's far from brilliant. We can't ever trust Unhalad's forces. They need to be kept firmly on only one end of our swords.

[royal_venant]

I like the idea of keeping them on the end of other's swords.

[soulsrob]

Of course we can't trust them, but I'm rather disappointed in you that you'd prefer letting most of us starve or die than to play pretend for a little while. [She has that "I'm not bad, just disappointed" mom tone and everything.]

[bearshermark]

I'd rather starve and die properly than risk being consumed and corrupted by straying too closely into their hands.

[soulsrob]

You would rather condemn everyone to die? This seems incredibly selfish.

I'll admit I'm terribly confused by this stance. Please elaborate.

[bearshermark]

I don't think it's difficult to understand. Risk death, or risk undeath? You understand what nearly happened to us, when we were captured by Unhalad at the start, don't you? Why it is that we're fleeing this world now?

[soulsrob]

Oh, I have no fear of that.

So what do you propose we do if we go against Mr. Unhalad entirely, and he has all the other kingdoms turn against us? What is your solution for when our large group travels to another country, only to find every door slammed in our faces, no where to sleep and nothing to eat? What if one of us grows sick, and no one will give us medicine or aid because Mr. Unhalad's brothers have threatened the populace with death for trying?

Are you going to just hope that the one person who could help us will be the person willing to turn their back on society to do so?

[corvis]

All right, calm down, kid. Boo need to be a martyr, yet. It's one idea.

[bearshermark]

[Breathes]

Someone needed to say it, before anyone else thought it was a brilliant idea.

[soulsrob]

[You can practically hear the beaming smile] Wonderful! It seemed the most practical to me. The most to gain with the least amount of losses.

It'd be easier with a smaller group though, truthfully. But I'm going to remain optimistic that we can do it if we can get enough people to commit to it!

[royal_venant]

I agree with the way you think. [ Someone is impressed with this display of cunning. ]

I'm Regulus. One of the newcomers.

I'd like to hear more about your plans. [ Is it safe to discuss such matters through these stones? ]

[soulsrob]

Pleased to meet you, Regulus! May I call you Reggie? [TOO LATE. nickname got]

My name is Winnie, and I've been here since the beginning. That is, I was with the first group to awaken here.

I believe Mr. Lee is going to be gathering us all soon to speak off of the crystals, but frankly I have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. Even if Master Raven is to overhear, he's as pragmatic as it comes. I don't fear his overhearing like most do. I trust him to do what needs to be done.

I'm afraid my plans mostly stop there though. I've laid the base idea--the details can be handled by someone else. The less this becomes 'my' plan, the less blame might fall to me if things go wrong! [her tone is joking and she laughs, but like...really though.]

[royal_venant]

[ It's like she's read the Slytherin handbook. ]

It's a pleasure to meet you, Winnie. [ Someone is too thoroughly charmed by this woman's priorities. ]

I'll defer to your experience and knowledge about this place.

Perhaps I'll seek you out Mr. Lee's gathering.

[jeoha]

I have some small experience dealing with nobles who believe themselves to be the rightful rulers of a kingdom, and what kind of deals and bargains they will make for power, and I will tell you this:

I doubt very much that Unhalad would ever give a good word for us to his brethren, whatever we do for him. And in a world where messages travel faster than we can, any 'element of surprise' we offer will be lost by the time we reach the next citadel.

Our very existence as a seperate entity like we are is a threat to him and to his brethren, no matter how much we heel. So even if we were to entirely ignore the effects our actions would cause, we are unlikely to see any benefit from him that isn't inherently poisoned.

Men who raise the dead to do their bidding do not care about the living. They care about their power and how to keep it, and once we are gone from his lands, we are no benefit to Unhalad at all, and speaking on our behalf does even less for him.

[soulsrob]

You don't think he would look at it as getting something powerful on his side, what with all the quaint little abilities some in our group can do?

I, too, know something of powerful nobles who believe themselves better--they always believe themselves better. They believe others will fall in line beneath them, for that's where the powerful think the others belong. They don't believe that a dog that bears its teeth will truly bite them if they offer it scraps.

Unhalad is offering us scraps.

But frankly. [She sighs here, as if Much Put Upon] It's all a bit tedious to argue since any thing could go right or wrong and change the outcomes. Perhaps it's better to kill them both and let the civilians deal with the fallout themselves.

But even I know the power vacuum that creates could be devastating too and with no infrastructure to stop someone else from just invading in the chaos. [Siiigh. Having to care about the civilians in the aftermath is a pain]

[jeoha]

Mm.

I think this is a conversation best continued where vested interests can't pry. If you would care to take a small walk?

[soulsrob]

Sounds dangerous. [She teases, then laughs.] But I don't mind. I can meet you where you like.

[jeoha]

I think the the dining room will suffice.