Frozen Sick (2) BE7

Torwynn wiped her dagger clean on a scrap of ruined cloth before sliding it back into place.

Her eyes moved from the trembling kobold, to Gus and his spoon, to Gal's barrage of questions, then finally to Cato.

At the threat of being sat on, she had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.

"Gods help me," she muttered. "We've been together less than a day and somehow we're already conducting interrogations with a spoon and weaponized sitting."

She stepped forward, resting one shoulder against a shattered display case.

"Let's try this another way."

Her voice softened considerably as she looked at the kobold.

"You've already told us more than your friends managed." She gestured vaguely toward the bodies littering the shop floor. "Which means you're currently having the best day out of all of them."

A pause.

"You said Hulil is sick."

The humor faded from her expression.

"How sick?"

Her orange eyes studied the kobold carefully.

"Because if she's desperate enough to send five kobolds into a shop full of armed strangers, then whatever happened to Urgon is getting worse."

She glanced briefly toward the others.

"And if that's true, I think we're all asking the wrong question."

Her gaze returned to the kobold.

"What made Hulil think she'd find a cure here?"

The kobold's eyes darted left and right, absorbing the threats and questions as best as it's small brain could manage.  "The cave is up the coast, about an hour walkin'.  She says to gets magics, we looks for magics.  She says, we does.  Hulil don't like to tell twice.  We looks for books, potions, scrolls, magic lookin' stuff.  She's been real mean since the blue veins showed up on her skin.  Been gettin' worse.  Hulil is in the cave."

Gus listens intently, and a grin slowly spreads across his face as the kobold talks. “Well would you look at that,” he says, raising the spoon triumphantly. “We have a lead, because Hulil is alive, infected with the blue-vein curse, and sitting in White Wyrm Cave desperately searching for magic that might save her.” He nods enthusiastically despite the fresh stab wound in his chest.  "We came here looking for clues and somehow found directions, which means the investigation has officially relocated to White Wyrm Cave.”