Thar Shaddin

Sure, nothing interesting is likely to happen in there.

Here's a toast to 10 pages of old fuddies and subtle veins of illegal beings and activity. Cheers!

Woohoo!

Here's hoping Derin gets to kill a tough guy in a graveyard.

heee, I'm thinking since he already has them on aiding a fugitive, all he'd want further is some display of magic. What if Gustel catches Derin fiddling with her bracelet and goes to turn them in? And maybe Derin catches him at it and chases him?

Or they could go to the graveyard and he gets very suspicious about Derin's excitement and probing questions about magic, maybe asks some questions of his own... things escalate, and he either attacks them or gives them reason to believe he'd turn them in. Derin would be forced to kill him, and then either hide it from Saruna, or enlist her help in hiding the murder from the police/making Gustel look like the attacker.

The problem there would be making Hanser less suspicious if his agent suddenly goes missing, but a semi-innocent Saruna could probably allay pretty much anybody's suspicions. I mean, who's not going to listen to the sweet-hearted old lady?

Gahahaha, I'm cackling in anticipation of the mess that's going to occur soon. XD

I think the problem will be convincing Saruna to lie to Hanser or anyone. She's not a lying sort. . .she's just too simple. And then if she agreed to it, she'd have to be convincing, which would be very difficult for her.

I'm unsure how things are going to fall into place after this, but I'm happy just to see where it goes. I think probably Hanser gave Gustel a few days at the least or a week at the most before he's expected to report in, so Saruna and Derin will have some time to plot.

As for Gustel, I figure his backstory is that he's trying to get enough money to pay one of the local healers (like Ree) to take a curse/magical ailment off his sister who is wasting away. That, and he's ruthless enough to not care who he has to trample over to get the money; this is likely the fastest way he had to do it. I figure the gambling story is true -- that'd probably be how Hanser or another govt dog got ahold of him and convinced him to work for them.

I think under interrogation Gustel would be likely to trot out the sob story and try to gain some sort of pity thing to let him go, and then he'd figure out a way to stab them in the back. He's a conniving little fucker.

Fortunately, Derin doesn't really understand the concept of 'innocent'. Her idea of 'innocent' is 'it's to my advantage that nobody be harmed at this moment'. She's also appointed herself Saruna's guardian, in the manner that the society she was born into works.

Getting Gustel to talk will be the tricky bit, but if he does, killing him will be out of the question -- it'd not only result in having to cover up a murder from the guards, but Hanser would get very suspicious and put a more badass informant on their tail. Derin's plan of action would probably be buying him off once she finds that that's his lever, but reading human motives isn't really her best skill.

I'd think Gustel would be open to a monetary bribe, but only if it exceeded what Hanser is paying him. He is afraid of Hanser and the Guards/Battlemages -- if he betrays them he's in the dungeons no questions asked. So in his own self interest (without even thinking of his sister) he'd need a good reason to betray them. Derin would be hard pressed to be more scary than a stay in the dungeons.

I think Gustel would stick to his story of being innocent as long as possible, and if that didn't work (ie, he felt in danger of losing his life/torture) he'd switch to pleading for his sister etc etc.

Can I just say that our current posting speed is really, really awesome?

Decent speed of plot advancement for the win!

Please forgive the super short post. I wanted to put more emphasis on the question, rather than any description of what Saruna is currently doing. I wanted to make it a bit cliffhangery for the moment, to put the tension on what answer Derin will come up with.

In a few more posts I'll get back to Saruna come in and maybe surprise them both.

Also, I was wondering, what if Gustel took their money and still turned them in to the Guard anyways, especially as he might feel threatened by Derin?

That would leave the pair in a very tight position.

Derin could easily switch to "plan B" (head off into an alley and get mugged for her bracelet, wake up in a new suspicion-free body eventually) but I'm not sure how Saruna would get out of such a thing.

Of course, all she did was let some guy into her house, so she could just blame Derin and maybe get away with a slap on the wrist. Depending on how incriminating Gustel makes things look and how quick she can talk.

Derin is intending to use a little bluff insurance against betrayal, but it's always possible that he won't believe her. After all, she's been completely sincere so far, but if she starts lying his motive-sensing might pick up on it.

I had a thought. What if, for the time being, we take a break from Derin and Saruna and cut to Hanser and Gustel instead? You could play one, and I could play the other. That way we could sort of skip the menial parts of Saruna and Derin's day to day, and cut back to them in time for something interesting to happen.

Yes no maybe so?

Sure. You want Hanser or Gustel?

I'm excited. If Gustel says anything to trigger Derin's curse I'm going to leave it up to you to put the start or the whole of his death into one of your Hanser posts.

. . .I kind of almost hope Gustel makes it. D:

Since Derin doesn't have any magical powers, I think Gustel will be fine. She's just experienced at bluffing.

Of course, if his own paranoia does him in, that's his fault.