Malark looks long at Orst, his eyes questioning. Orst takes several moments to translate that as an invitation to speak.

"Oh, ermmm..." Orst stumbles on his words as he's distracted from thought. "Well, I mean, I think we need to dig deeper into the immediate threat. All the high minds around here are concerned with dragons and red wizards and my question is... Where are the hobgoblins coming from, what are they looking for, and why? I suppose that's three questions, but, my point is... They may tie to larger stories in the end, but I've a mind for logistics... Care for the details and the big picture cares for its self."

Orst looks to Malark for validation, who only chuckles and shrugs in response. Slightly flustered, Orst raises his hands and summarizes.

"Old Orst wants to go kill some hobgoblins, capture one or two, and ask them what they're up to... Ask them hard."

Amused by the dwarf's blustery demeanor, Dawnbringer Malark smiles as it's his turn to speak.

"I don't know the origin of the Red Wizard papers sent with Kanon to the Gate, except to say we found them hidden amongst some tomes in the library at Song of the Morning. They'd been left there, recently, it seemed, but no one seems to know by whom or why. That's why we were curious as to their contents, though it seemed no one here in Candlekeep could assist us. Though that, in its self, seems strange to me - and unlikely."

Malark looks about the room as if someone were watching him.

"While I'm concerned counter-attacking the hobgoblins could be dangerous, or even raise the wrath of powerful foes, it seems we need to do something. I especially think we need to find out what they were looking for. If they were after those papers, we definitely need to step up our efforts to determine what they were."

"So maybe we do a little excursion for some hobgoblins without going after the whole mess and see what we can find out." Portia drums her fingers on the head of her mace which is hanging from a belt loop. "Though we might get more than bargained for since we do tend to attract them before we find them."

She doesn't elaborate about Zina's book, but that thing had attracted two attacks already. One of them had cost Orst dearly. She watches Orst.

"Keep in mind," Malark adds after he's thought for a moment. "Powerful folk look after their own interests first. Candlekeep's primary concern is Candlekeep. I'd expect nothing of them that doesn't directly and obviously serve their purposes."

"Care for the details and the big picture cares for itself." Pettilaen liked that advice, and Orst's plans rang true within what Pettilaen wanted to do.

"If they're military minded, then we'll want to nab higher ups." Glancing to Mara briefly as he looks about the group, he continues, "I don't have any real experience with military organization, but if they're anything like your standard thieves' guild, your bottom feeders and base levels usually don't know too much outside of what they need to. It helps protect from encounters that we're looking to do. The common soldiers see just a piece of a puzzle, and we want to see the more than one piece. So if we could find a captain... or someone higher in their ranks, and get them to talk, we might be able to get a lot more information than capturing any peon or common soldier." He felt content on his explanation - stating something twice, in two different ways, with a conclusion at the end of the statement usually worked well and avoided confusion.

"I don't know much about these scrolls.... in fact, I had thought they were looking for the gem we found. But those scrolls also seem likely, now that they've been brought up. I can't help with the scrolls, but I can at least help nab someone important in their military organization. Getting them to talk is a different matter, and we might have to get pretty nasty, both through mundane and magical means, to get them to speak....

He looks again to Mara, addressing her, "Mara, I'm sure you know of some techniques to get people to talk. Zina, you know of any..." His words were cut short by her snoring as he turned to her. Sighing, he acknowledged, "Perhaps we should wait until those two have had some rest. We'll need their minds.... in a figure of speech."

"Until the morning?" Pettilaen repeated her in a questioning tone. What time is it anyway? He looked out the window, seeing it to be around noon to early evening. They'll want to sleep... probably through the night as well. Pettilaen sighs and shrugs his shoulder. "Yeah," he affirms, "probably not until the morning." Seeing her awkwardly attempt to leave the room, Pettilaen suggests, "You're welcome to sleep with us Mara, if you'd like. The beds are quite large, and I only need a little bit of space."

He smiles wide, imagining Zina's reaction play out in his mind. "Or! Stick me and Zina in the same bed. That'll open up a free bed for you. I think that would be best suited. I won't be going to bed for a while anyway, so I might wander around and see if there's anything I can pick up and purchase."

"I think we should..." Mara is already outside, closing the door behind her. "Stick... together."  

"Well," he says to Petti and the others, "I've been up as long as Zina, so I'm going to... sleep." He smiles to everyone, "It's been a pleasure, Malark." 

Kanon turns and heads into the private room, the sounds of him struggling out of his leathers are heard from within. Finally, silence for a few moments before there's a soft snore. 

Zina slept soundly for a long time; it was the best rest she had gotten in ages. She woke up at around two in the morning for a little bit, although she went right back to sleep after washing the ink from her face.

The gnome was still the first to rise, mostly because she had been sleeping for well over twelve hours by that point. Zina had groggily rose from bed and made her way toward the kitchen for coffee and cinnamon rolls.

The illusionist noticed the sleeping human as soon as she opened the door. "Who the farji are you?" She said, startled at the appearance of a stranger. "And what are you doin' right outside our rooms?"

Portia chuckles some as she follows the gnome who probably hadn't seen her by one of the few windows in the strange room they had to sleep in yet again. At least the floor was not lumpy like the camps out on the road. That makes her chuckle all the more. Dawn had just started, but did not light the room much. She had cut off her prayer expecting exactly what happened.

"Good morning, Mara. I don't blame you for sleeping out here. Orst was trying to snore a hole through the wall."

She looked down at Zina with a smile. "Mara is a good fighter and in need of something to do, so here she is. I see you got well rested from the all nighter of research with Kanon. You slept through a lot of discussion. I don't know how much of Kanon will remember with how tired he was."

She put her attention back on Mara. "I was thinking you would take point when we go out today and I'd be rear guard. We can make sure Pettilaen can work with Gaia as we travel for an aerial view. Hopefully we can find a hobgoblin with intel and that will talk. I'm quite sure Kanon has a spell to help, most bards have it, but I'm betting he's never interrogated anyone either. Not that I have. Closest I've gotten is asking questions of visitors to the temple so they can be directed to the right person."

"Though I'm ready for a good breakfast first and then we can sort our excursion out better with everyone awake." She chuckles and shakes her head. "Sorry. Too early I think."

It's like she has been up awhile and had some coffee instead of only having a short time praying in the dawn.

"Save the ration. We are going to eat a hot meal served from a kitchen." Portia looks inside the room to see if anyone else is waking up with the dawn. "Maybe we should leave a note so they know to come get breakfast before we eat it all."

"So we're just going to implicitly trust another random person off the street just because they know Portia's name," Zina huffed grumpily. "Why didn't any of you wake me up to warn me that there was a stranger watching me sleep?"

The gnome glared at Mara. Kanon had turned out an alright addition to the group, but there was no guarantee that this one wasn't going to murder all of them in their sleep. Besides, she looked far more capable than Kanon.

"What's all of this about interrogation?" Zina asked Portia, beginning to retrace her steps to where she thought the kitchen was. Coffee. Food. Then deal with her lack of knowledge on the coming days. 

"Geez, Zina." Pettilaen mumbled. He had been fake sleeping since he first noticed Zina was awake, ready for any type of prank. He was only slightly disappointed nothing came. "I know you're awful at making friends, but you made friends with me!"

Getting up, he stretches and yawns. "Just give her time, Mara. She'll warm up to you. Just show her you're more than just a sword." 

"But anyway..." he mutters a few incantations to clean himself up before continuing, "We're going to catch some hobgoblins and make them talk, which will require both mundane and magical skills. But if Mara isn't good at interrogation, then maybe I'll have to do that part. So Zina, your job is to make them talk through magic... either befriending them, or brainwashing and skulldigging them until they give us what we want. You can do that, right? ... You are the most talented mage out of us." He smiles sweetly at her.

"Tip-top, hip-hop, skip-skop, let's go to breakfast-bop!" He chuckled giddily to himself. He was going to have a good day.

"If they're dull-witted, unlike our master wizard here, I can have them answer any question we have," Kanon says as he walks out of his little room. "I might even be able to have him eating out of our palms before the end of the day."  

Kanon stretches with a few audible pops, "Is anyone else ready for a hot breakfast?" He looks over at Orst, sprawled on his bedroll like a beached whale. "We could bring something back for him?" He suggests, more a question than a statement.

"I hated you at first too, Pettilaen," the gnome grumbled. "It wasn't until you saved my life that I trusted you."

Zina contemplated the half brained plan, wondering how they could have ever decided that they had come up with something complete. "So the entire plan you came up with during the time I was asleep was to just wander around until we found some gobbos to try and interrogate?" The illusionist asked incredulously. "How... did... you... survive... before... you... met...me?"

Without waiting for the rest of them, Zina began to walk in the direction of coffee.

Kanon follows near the end of the train to the mess hall, occasionally calling out directions to Zina up front. 

"I wouldn't worry too much, Ma'am. She gets that way with new people," he whispers this as the caravan continues through the Keep's halls. "Eventually she'll come around, I think." 

He calls out, "Left!" And moves closer to the front of the line. As Zina storms her way through the younger readers he says, "You know she was a member of the Beregost Guard, right? She just wants to make her home safe again..."