"It’s a fair point." Morgan pauses, thinking. "I’m afraid that, aside from knowing his name is Verin Thelyss and that he has a grumpy, one-eyed 'secretary,' we don’t really have proof that we are who we say we are… we didn’t think to ask for a badge or anything."

He glances around, suddenly aware of the patients watching him, and lowers his voice.
"Can you at least tell us if those two seemed dangerous or noteworthy? We wouldn’t want them helping fill this place up any more than it already is."

He pauses again.
"Back to the first question... do you happen to know an expert in these kinds of legends? We already visited what remains of the spiral-shaped temple in the southwest corner of town. We spoke with a friendly firbolg named Foghome, I believe."

Randa tries to surreptitiously read through Aloysias file while the others are distracting Dyrr....

Sleight of Hand - 15

Bautha’s brow knits in confusion as Ylis offers magic cucumbers to her patients. “Magic… cucumber?” Before she can respond with more than that, Morgan knocks her off balance. “Dangerous? I should think not.” She says, eyes still on Ylis as she still questions the little bunny lady with her eyes before finally turning them to Morgan. “The only thing noteworthy about them is that they are fools who will waste my resources that could be used to keep these people alive.

“Foghome is filled with spirit, with a powerful desire to help the people here. It is good you spoke with him. If you are wanting to know about legends, maybe you should speak with Prolix. It might accomplish both of your goals of chasing ancient history and investigating people with nothing better to do than get themselves hurt.”

DM: Randa finds Bautha’s attention thoroughly diverted and is able to scan the charts without being disturbed. S she reads, she notes that Bautha has much to say about Aloysia. She notes that Aloysia is duplicitous and that her ambition makes her dangerous. A sidebar in the clinical note related to Aloysia’s injuries. She was mauled trying to sneak into Betrayer’s Rise alone and that she sneaked past the guards stationed at the gates to the Betrayer’s Rise to get in there. It also notes that though she is dangerous, both to herself and those around her. She is smart and manipulative, stating that Aloysia first attempted to fool Bautha into giving her highly valuable, though unnecessary painkillers with exaggerated pain from her injury, then attempted to bribe her into handing over the medicine. To what end, Bautha is not sure, but Aloysia has no signs of substance abuse. This likely means she did not intend to use them on herself.

"Well as lovely and capable as you are, I hope to never need to see you." Ylis says with a wink and places the cucumbers in Bautha's hands. "Thank you for your help, every little bit counts."

Knowing she can't do anything further for the injured she bows and takes her leave.

Outside she takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out. So many people hurt by those stupid demons and they will keep coming out! She knows the Fellowship can't kill them all...maybe they can put a stopper in the hole or something. Hands on hips, she sighs and looks across the square at the Ready Room. Hopefully more answers will be found there.

Once they are outside Jacaranda relays to Ylis and the others what she learned from Aloysias file.

Morgan thanks the lady, says his goodbyes, and leaves the room completely unaware of what just happened.
"Well, that's a bummer. We came here for almost nothing."

A minute later, Jacaranda’s words bring his smile back.
"Good job, Randa!"

Ylis's ears perk up "Incense!" 

She runs back, asks about where to get incense, then comes back.

"Wait." Bautha calls after the heroes as they turn to leave. "This might all be a fiction, but Avandra is said to have grieved for the hero—not because he had died, but because she feared her aid forced him to give up so much of himself that he would be robbed of a future. I... don't know why I felt the need to tell you that.” She then wanders off, confused at her inexplicable compulsion. 

As the heroes make their way to the exit, the wounded member of the Aurora Watch that Bautha had been caring for upon the heroes' arrival calls for the characters to approach her cot. Her body is covered with wounds she received in the gibbering mouther attack. "Hey. C-c'mere." she croaks. 

The drow woman weakly salutes the heroes as they approach. "Saw you... with the gibberin mouthers. You were..." She stops to catch her breath, the effort to speak is obviously painful and exhausting for her. "M-my satchel. Get it fer me." She gestures to the satchel, resting against the back of a chair next to her armor.

Morgan gives Bautha a polite smile, understanding little to nothing.
"Thanks… I guess. Later… I’ll write that down," he adds, miming a note to himself as he looks at the others, confused.

A bit embarrassed, he turns to the wounded drow woman and takes the satchel without asking questions.
"With the gibbering mouthers, I was basically a statue… luckily they were there," he says, gesturing toward Ylis and Randa.
And He offers the satchel to the lady.

With some noticeable effort, the woman digs through her satchel and pulls out a small tiger's eye carving of a rabbit with a name carved into the bottom of it: Naevyn Tasithar.

"I was planning on... planning on visiting the Wall of the Unforgotten. Going to place it there but we got attacked. That's not... not a problem for your type. Please place it there fer me."

She shoves the trinket into Morgan's hands and closes his hand around it.

Morgan feels a bit trapped. He glances at his companions… but he can’t bring himself to say no.
"Wall of the Unforgotten… of course. Leave it to us. You just focus on getting better. We’ll make sure to pass by that wall. Not a problem."
After an awkward pause, he adds:
"And… where would that be, exactly?"

"Other side of the town square. Between here and *hurk* and the west market." The woman looks a little embarrassed and averts her eyes. "Thanks fer this."

Now the parties leave and share Randa's findings. You are standing outside the Infirmary. 

DM: You have multiple little side quests now. Don't lose the threads! So... what do you do?

Before the 2 groups leave the Infirmary, Frekor stops to ask one more thing to Bautha.

-Before we leave. Do you know where Prolix is so we can talk to him about the amulet? Also, thank you for the help.-

Frekor thinks for a moment about the legend Bautha said. (OOC: don't know what to roll for that, history or religion)

The ranger looks at the parties and talks.

-With what Randa said in mind, we need to be carefull when we interrogate Aloysia so that she doesn't fool us. Then we can go to the Wall of the Unforgotten before we go to talk to Prolix. What do you guys think?-

Morgan considers Frekor’s suggestion for a moment.

"You’re right! Actually… I think we shouldn’t interrogate this Aloysa... at all. We should 'bump'' into her... if you know what I mean. Gain her trust."

He gestures vaguely, thinking.

"She is under house arrest or something, right? We could act as we are in the same situation. All happily in house arrest together. It could be fun! And.. she was looking for someone to escort her to the Betrayer’s Rise, right? We could be that someone… or at least pretend to be."

He pauses, then adds:

"That said, I’d like to speak with this Prolix-guy . It seems he could have information useful... for us. "

Morgan looks to the others.

"What do you think?"

"Everybody seems to think that Aloisha lady is a big fat liar, so she's possibly good at knowing a liar when she sees one." The bunny girl shrugs, "Anyway, good luck with that. I can't tell a lie to save my life, so I'm not going to try and trick her." Then looking a little exasperated, "And how exactly are we going to tell her we're under house arrest when we walk in, then immediately walk out?"

Ylis pauses before the doors of the Ready Room.

OOC: I don't think we're ready to handle the Betrayers Rise either. We got our asses handed to us by just a few minor demons. Going to the place where all the demons are pouring out seems like a bad idea right now.

Bautha snorts at Frekor. “I’m a priest, not a detective.” She then turns her attention back to her patients.

DM: You can choose History or Religion and that will determine the lens through which you can recall the information. The DC on information on this ancient hero is very high though, as the party learned before you joined.

***

“Yes, the woman is on house arrest.” Ayo says. “Uh… where is she on house arrest again?” Ayo says, clearly embarrassed to not be as good at tracking information as you seasoned heroes are. For those who did forget though, The Ready Room is where Verin said she would be and yes, Ylis is right that you would be standing in front of it if you are just leaving the Infirmary. Heroic Inspiration for Ylis for demonstrating in-game that attention has been paid. A DM always hopes but rarely gets to know. <3

“See the wall over there.” Dermot gestures down the road back to the market the party had been at earlier, though by a different route.

" Whatever approach you want to take I'll best serve as an observer....my conversations tend to go off script far more quickly than I ever plan for.", Jacaranda quipped.

" I'd rather get the information we need and a good nights rest before tackling too many more demons myself.....though if we happen across them they're going down."

" Perhaps your group might be best at teasing things out of people Ayo....certain of you are......very convincing in your own ways."

Morgan shakes his head slowly, trying to hide his disappointment. It feels like someone just broke his brand-new toy.

"Who said anything about lying? I was talking about acting. Randa and or Frekor could play the guards. They’ve got the... the physique du role*."
Then, he adds, half-joking: "And if Randa doesn’t want to talk, she can just grunt."

He glances back toward the infirmary behind them.
"I’m sure with all those people in there, we could 'borrow' a watch pin or something. And once we’ve got the information from her… who cares how we get out?"

This time, he shakes his head openly, disagreeing.
"No. Let’s go there, say we work for the people who put her under arrest, and see how friendly she really is."

Morgan looks down at the trinket in his hand, then up at Ylis.
"You know what? Handle it however you want."

He closes his fist around the trinket, briefly imagining himself walking off toward the Wall of the Unforgotten.
But he doesn’t. He stays. Sulking... but he decides to stay. He remembers all too well what happened the last time someone split the party.

---
*Elvish term typically used in the entertainment industry ;-)

OOC: Morgan doesn't want to go the Betrayers Rise either. Not now. That's why he said "pretend". 

Ylis looks aghast at Morgan when he suggested that they not only fake being Aurora Watch but also steal something from the dead or injured people in the infirmary.

She supposes that after doing that the group wouldn't have to pretend to be under arrest, they would be arrested for real!

After picking her jaw up off the ground, Ylis makes a come along gesture to Ayo and crew "This is the Ready Room "tavern", let's go." then pushes the door open and goes inside.