Avaria nods at the guard, not trusting herself to say anything more.  She steals a glance at Jan to attempt to see what her friend is thinking.

Marta sighs and nods along with Hammerdasher,

"I don't know, I don't get the impression she will be all that forthcoming once she is out if we don't have leverage. I guess we can make the offer to get her out, given we get the information we need first?"

As the evening progresses, more of the guards congregate in the barracks, some playing cards, but most starting to grab some shut eye.

The mess hall gets quiet, and while some food is still available, much of the hot options are done for the night.

The 'dwarf' crew have been shown their rooms, but are free to wander back to the mess hall, which is only a few steps away. They haven't been barred from wandering the rest of the prison but they haven't been invited to as well.

They've heard the three absolution counsellors return to their rooms. There's no indication that they've left since then and the assumption is they're retired for the evening.

The 'guards' are free for the evening and can make their way to the mess hall to grab a late bite.

((The two groups can interact with limited interruption as the prison does seem to be entering night mode - a guard patrol still circulates but that's about it. They stick their heads into the mess hall about once every half hour))

Marta taps Hammerdasher on the shoulder after her thoughts and open question and stands.

"Let's go to the mess and see if we can meet up with the others. They might have a better option. If they don't, I suppose you can offer her the absolution in return for the information."

She will then head to the mess and pick a table near the entrance and grab something light she can nibble on while she waits for the Guard crew to hopefully pop in.

Avaria gestures for Jan and Geoffroi to follow her and she heads down to the mess hall, she hopes to be able to run into the others as she starting to worry about them.

She breathes a sigh of relief as she sees them at a table by the entrance and sits down to join them.  "Have you heard?  A pirate slash gladiator ring runner is showing up tomorrow." she growls.

Marta gives the guard crew a tight smile as they come in, making sure they are alone before acknowledging them, and then replies,

"Yes, we heard that Lord Hargrove is on his way. He is, unsurprisingly, coming to see Korda. We discussed him and his...entourage with the Warden and she agreed that it was best to limit their numbers. I guess he is coming with a rather group. "

She shakes her head and continues,

"We spoke with Korda earlier today and she didn't seem interested in divulging anything new, without some major concessions. The Warden seemed moderately sympathetic to our position but is limited in what she can do. We have a couple not stellar ideas, mostly about getting Korda her pardon or letting Hargrove do it, but let's hear what you've learned to see if we can do better!"

Marta looks hopefully at the Guard team.

"We took Korda out to dump latrine buckets... there's some here that think she's running her old crew from the inside, but with no visitors or packages coming or going, that leaves magic. Latrine duty takes her outside, but she didn't do anything I saw that looked like casting. Ava wondered if she was able to use her tattoos somehow to magically communicate without all the same hand wiggling and magic words... that sound liked anything you've heard of?", Jan asks.

"I had K watch her cell for a bit, but she seems... mildly inconvenienced to be here. I think there might be guards who are having a harder time with their day to day than she is...  I know she's more comfortably than I am in this damnable armor..."

Arcana checks from anyone interested in testing their knowledge of tattoos.

4

Jan did her part in reporting on them, from her experience, they are more often an indicator of criminal affiliations.

"No, she didn't seem to be too put out to be here and definitely acted like she has more cards to play than I would guess."

After again making sure they are alone, Marta reproduces the tattoos she saw on Korda's hands, arms, neck and face on her own hands, arms, neck and face.

"I saw the tattoos, very clean lines, professional work. Any of this look familiar to you? She definitely had more under her clothing but I didn't get a look at that."

Arcana on tats: 14

Avaria smiles and nods at Jan's comment.  "She would rub them and then looked up to the sky, thought it might be something I guess, but I don't know much about it"

Arcana: 7

Ava looks down at Marta's work, "Wow, that is good.  and yes, looks like what I saw."

Marta / Marrin does a good job of reproducing the markings. Once she’s got them in front of her, she does remember a traveling perfomer in a troupe she ran into a while back, back before this mess started, who had something similar but she can’t remember what he could do with.

Soren and Ethel on the other hand both nod once they see what Marrin has drawn.

“I can’t tell you exactly what each of those do but she has power. But I think she could escape if she really wanted to. Though then she’d be stranded out here.” Soren says.

Ethel studies the drawing for a few moments longer and puts her finger down on one of the images.

”That one. That one is for communication. The markings are similar to some basic telepathy spells I’ve seen.” Ethel says.

"Well that's interesting. What makes them work? Magic ink?"

Running her thumb over a tattooed knuckle she ponders,

"I wonder what the Warden would think about one of her inmates having that kind of capability. Probably something she'd see about correcting?"

“I suspect the magic dampening field in here keeps her in check while she’s in her cell,” Soren says, referring to something Jan and Avaria also learned about as guards.

"Yes. She gave no more than token resistance to latrine duty, it seems an unpleasant task they are more than happy to give to an unpleasant prisoner, but that is playing right into her hands."

"How much could she communicate at a time, if you had to guess? Enough to have been in contact with Hargrove and convey our descriptions to him?"

Jan chews at her lip in thought.

"Do we think she is already working with the Hargroves Hadn't occurred to me..."

She tries to communicate with one Ethel pointed out, rubbing it like Ava said Korda did to see if it is the shape that gives it power.