Utar visibily relaxes, the tension leaving his body.  His matter of fact tone returns to his voice.

"Thank you for being honest with us, Ellison, but more importantly, yourself.  I think discussion can turn to other matters now.  How did the Cult know where those particular books were located within Phlan? What is the significance of the Pool of Radiance to them? How did you come to be in their employ? How did you make contact with other cult members within the city and how did you communicate with your superiors? There are lots of unanswered questions here Ellison, and the information you provide will likely be what determines your final fate."

"They didn't," Ellison replies. "It was my mission to find where the information could be found. I spent months at the library researching, and identified relevant books. The Cult wishes to find the Pool of Radiance and somehow 'wake it up,' whatever that may mean. I was sent to Phlan to find out the 'where and how.' I was just a lackey. Other members in the city of whom I was aware included only Tibeem, Spernik, and Soares. We covered my interactions (or lack thereof) with the first two already. Soares is nothing but a thug. He was a recent Cult recruit. Rythnax told me to use him if needed. I used the alias 'B' and wore a mask when talking to Soares. I don't think he knows who I am." 

He takes a moment to finish eating his sausage and bread. "Rythnax was my superior, and the only one I had open contact with. He had been in charge of this fact-finding mission and devised the Library plan, as far as I know. He needed someone to play the part and found me down on my luck. I don't particularly follow the Cult's doctrine but had to become a member if I wanted to earn coin and keep my life. I planned to leave them behind after this mission."

Moneus interrupts at this time: "This is all very interesting and all, but I got what I needed here." He turns to face his former party leader: "Aleyd, I trust this man's confession under Utar's truth spell is more than enough to prove my associates' non-involvement in this mess." Aleyd keeps her silence for now but answers Moneus with a firm nod. "Very well then. I shall take my leave." The charming tiefling smiles at CRAP, says goodbye with his eyes, and moves further into the house, clearly looking for an exit other than the front door.

Aleyd looks at Utar, and then the rest of CRAP (maybe not Obsben since she is hiding behind a book), and requests: "Please continue."

Utar raises a hand to simply wave Moneus off, keeping his attention focused on Ellison.

"Again, thank you for your continued honestly, Ellison. How did you contact Soares to arrange to meet and do you still have that mask? Did Rythnax ever mention his superiors? Even by codename? Finally, what kind of terrible were you in mixed up in? How did the Cult approach you to recruit you?"

While observing the interrogation, Neya takes opportunities to look out the window to keep an eye out for unwanted onlookers.

Perception: 11

Graxx nods to Aleyd and steps to stand next to them.

"No more questions from me at this time." says Graxx.

While still awaiting word back from Sourpuss as well, Obsben had indeed kept her face largely buried behind her books, but continued to absently listen. Any questions she might've asked had already been seen to by Utar, and had in fact prompted her to pull out a seperate little journel to jot some things down before carrying back on to her previous business. If there was any concern about Moneus less than direct exit strategy, she never lets it show at the very least.

"Rythnax arranged it, I do not know how," Ellison continues. "I was to leave notes under a stone in an alley next to The Laughing Goblin. A few messages later, I arranged to meet Soares in person. He was to bring some mercenaries with him. I wore a mask. It was supposed to be a resource to employ should I run into trouble... like you."

As the line of questioning turns more personal, Ellison hesitates a bit. But, if there was any fight left in the man, it did not show. "I couldn't keep a job. My trade, researching and inscribing, is dominated by those who are much smarter, ambitious, and magically attuned than me. Neither can it be easily applied to other common trades. At most, I would do some bookkeeping but the pay was meager. I tried carpentry, weaving, even cooking... I tried moving to different cities.... Almost nothing stuck, and the odd jobs that did didn't pay much, or not as much as I wished. I am not sure who first recruited me. They ask questions to which they already know the answer: Do you need money? A place to stay? Do you want to do better for yourself? Gain some respect? No names are spoken in these passing introductions and affirmations. I don't think I fully understood what was going on until they sent me to Rythnax. By then, I had already shared whatever little coin I had with them and was told I owed them more... and my life. There were some rituals involved too, but only minor ones. I just muttered the words and kept going. I don't remember all of it. I think... I think that's by design. I regret it all now."

While Ellison retells his tale, Neya keeps an eye out. She catches a glimpse of Moneus leaving the house and, a few moments later, of Harper arriving. Just at this moment, Sourpuss warns Obsben of the same. Not three minutes later, Harper knocks on the door. "Anyone home?"

 Though she hadn't looked up from her work, Obsben began looking a almost little sad, as she'd been clearly continued to pay some attention to the ongoing conversation.  ".... Seems our... Seems our final guest is arriving." The Lightling warned the group, if a touch a belated with her timing. "I'll get it, Sagin. But if you would be so kind as to get another plate ready for them for our new guest, that would be appreciated." With that, Obby readily slips out of her seat, and at a fairly quick pace made her way around to answer the door. "Fashionably late as always I see." She jests in greeting Harper, before opening the door further and allowing the man inside.

"Thank you, Ellison. I am sorry for your past, when we are at our lowest, that is when we need to be raised up. I am sorry that those around you sought to exploit you for their own ends. That is all of my questions,"

Utar turns to Aleyd, "Do you have anything else to add?"

Graxx listens at Ellison’s words and can’t help but feel sorry for Ellison.

Graxx looks intently and inside is hoping a bit for some form of leniency from Aleyd.

Harper gladly joins the gathering, explaining his late arrival in a jokingly way: "Well, my dear witchling, 'morning' is hardly a precise time for an invitation. By that measure, I am still quite on time." The half-elf looks a bit disappointed at the breakfast offerings, and waves the offer away politely. "What have I missed?"

"Almost all of it," Aleyd rises from her chair. Turning her attention back to CRAP, she compliments the group's efforts first: "If only my men were as thorough and capable as your tactical team..." Next, she turns to Ellison: "You tell an interesting tale, and one which we know to be true. Well, at least we know you believe them to be true." She looks at Utar and Graxx, clearly referencing their latest verbal contributions. "It is apparent to all in here that you are both victim and villain. However, your past hardships do not excuse your present crimes. It is my duty to make sure you no longer present a threat to the citizens of this city. One of your accomplices was met with a swift execution, while another now lives in a dungeon. I believe I can secure you a punishment akin to the latter's, but you'll have to continue collaboration and behaving."

About now, Utar's spell runs it's course.

She then turns back to CRAP: "Is there a secure room where we can leave Ellison for a moment, preferably still bound and re-gagged? I would like to talk to you in private." She looks at Harper and adds. "And I know he will learn of our talk eventually, so we might as well cut the middleman and include Harper in the conversation too." 

Utar follows up Aleyd's words to Ellison with some further chance to collaborate and behave.  "I believe we have a mututal friend who may have some interest in having access to a former member of the cult and would be a further chance for Ellison to redeem themselves.  We can discuss that later though."

(OOC: Going off of some suggestions in the OOC chat.)

"Who would that be?" Ellison asks, but Utar begins to move the scribe further into the house (and upstairs) without answering, at least not immediately. Ellison is brought to Utar's room, which has a magically sealed window, and told to stay quiet. Utar removes some key belongings of his abode, rechecks Ellison's bindings, and redoes his gags. Obsben sends Sourpuss along, who is tasked with serving as the dungeon keeper.

Once CRAP is fully reunited downstairs with Aleyd and Harper, and Sagin is excused, the Black Fist Captain restarts the conversation with a simple question: "So, have you truly killed a dragon? This is quite the claim, and one that could only be interpreted as a major blow to the Cult of the Dragon's interests in the region. Graxx's weapon is nice but would it serve as proof to a layman?"

"Oh..." Harper perks up. "I want to hear that story!"

Earlier:

"True, true." Replied Obsben as she closed the door behind after Harper made his way inside. She then made her way back to her seat once more to continue her work, or what little was left by that point. She might've even brazenly slipped Harper some of the intel, if not so dedicated in checking things over afterwards. Before reaching that point however, Aleyd's request  gave her pause long enough to look up and raise a brow, then... shrugged and snapped her fingers a couple of times.

At the the time of the second snap, Sourpuss appears from a small pocket of distorted space on the table and looks inquisitively at the witchling. She says nothing however, but merely looked in Utar's direction. Yet this appears enough for the Tressym to follow along and play dungeon keeper elsewhere in the house. In the meantime...

At Present:

"To be more accurate, Graxx killed the dragon and quite spectacularly at that. Though of course we supported him in our own ways." She clarifies, and would look to Graxx with a genuinely warm smile for once. "Some might even say it's a deed finally worth perhaps pardoning a few rough and tumble lambs from distant lands that simply lost their ways, if said accomplishment can hopefully reach the right ears... wouldn't you say, Captain? Or are things still just too precarious for that?" She asks of Aleyd, resting her chin at some point on fingers laced together, and with elbows propped on the table to keep things stable.

Graxx perks up a bit but tries to keep his cool as Obsben mentions the freeing of his tribesman.

"It was indeed quite the battle.  One that at one point I was unsure if we were all going to walk away from." says Graxx.

Graxx eyes seem to drift as he recalls the battle

"Obsben and I came upon Ellison and the Dragon by campfire.  We did not catch them by surprise as Rythnax sensed us as we were flying above while Utar and Neya lay in wait in the woods waiting to pounce."

"After some words the battle was on"

"The dragon called several lizard people to it's aid .  They were formidable foes but were not match for us."

"Rythnax had a fierce control of the surroundings even calling upon the insects of the swamp to swarm us."

(OOC:  D&D Beyond lagging.  Will have to finish the recap of the battle later tonight if possible.)

(OOC:  Trying to recap the battle intricately but D&D Beyond has been lagging for the past few hours I have tried.  Will try again shortly)

EARLIER:

When coming back into the common room, after leaving Ellison in his temporary cell, Utar notices a card left on a corner table, next to a window. The outside of the card simply reads "You're Welcome."

PRESENTLY:

Aleyd listens intently to Graxx's telling. "I certainly believe you, but we'll need proof should you really use this as a bargaining chip. Something big, something public, something that can buy us enough goodwill."

(@Grx: Please don't let this post stop you from completing your post with the tale of the fall of Rythnax.)

(@Ori & @Grx: Let's get a persuasion check on that request to free up the tribesmen. One of you should roll and the other can help.)

(OOC:  Let us continue....It's the strangest thing.  Anything before page 43 takes forever to load.)

Graxx eyes seem to drift as he recalls the battle

"Obsben and I came upon Ellison and the Dragon by campfire.  We did not catch them by surprise as Rythnax sensed us as we were flying above while Utar and Neya lay in wait in the woods waiting to pounce."

"After some words the battle was on"

"The dragon called several lizard people to it's aid .  They were formidable foes but were no match for us."

"Rythnax had a fierce control of the surroundings even calling upon the insects of the swamp to swarm us."

"While Obsben and I engaged directly with the enemy Utar and Neya spring upon them with arrows and spells"

"The Lizardpeople then went into to full assault we soon started thinning their ranks."

"Unfortunately, Obsben fell also... Being of the shorter height this was very dangerous as they went under the water."

"The tide seemed to turn into the Lizard's favor as their spellcasters were focusing their magic on heating up Utar's armor."

"However, Neya had no time and quickly delivered more deadly arrows into the bodies of the Lizards."

"Utar changed tactics and went from lifetaker to life savor as he called upon Torm to heal Obsben and get them back into the fight!"

"The Lizard's then summoned a huge snake to the battle to aid them!"

"Obsben went down again as they seemed to be focusing on taking one of the most powerful wizards in the land.  I got them back up and told them to leave this place as I had my doubts if we would survive... But Obsben... No... Obsben refused to leave the battle!"

"Utar summoned his own spiritual weapon into the battle and was causing heavy damage onto the Lizards."

"We took shots at Rythnax now and then but the main focus was on removing the Lizards from the battlefield!"

"Utar fell... But then Obsben gave them and I the power of flight! The battle then turned..."

"Neya reached Utar and with the help of a healing potion got Utar back into the battle once more!"

"Utar responded with being conscious again by summoning Spirit Allies to aid us in battle."

"I flew to take the fight directly to the Dragon.. But they came at me first and bite me but I saw it coming and it missed by the grace of Tempus!  Then the fight was on!"

"Obsben cast a masterful spell by calling Lightning down which caught the Dragon and took down a spellcaster in the process."

"I taunted Rythnax using Tempus's magic forcing the dragon to face me in battle and struck with my pike!"

"Neya and Utar continued the battle against the Lizardfolk and continued to thin their ranks one strike at a time."

"The Dragon went to strike against me but Obsben's magic protected me from the attacks!"

"I unleashed the power of Tempus driving my pike into the Dragon"

"The final lizard folk fell thanks to Neya and Utar."

"Rhythnax retaliated against me but Obsben provided me with healing."

"Rythnax saw defeat coming and went to flee!  But Obsben teleported me right back close to him"

"I made the final strikes and the dragon plummeted to the ground!"

"I was then blessed by Tempus for Victory with this Pike."

Graxx then grins.

"I understand you need proof of this deed..."

Graxx looks to Neya and gives a nod toward the bag.

Persuasion Check:  10

Bardic:  8

Using Inspiration Token:  12

To bolster Graxx's case, Neya removes the black dragon's head from the bag of holding.

"He was a boastful creature. But, it all amounted to bluster in the end."