The imp, Perchillux, is offering Pilster a month’s worth of food for the low price of his soul. Pilster is preparing to sign the contract as you come upon the pair.

Seeing the Imp proffering the contract, and knowing what it is like to have been starving where you will do anything for your next meal, Tibi lands with a flutter of his wings "hang on lad i wouldn't be signing that if I were you. I'm sure we can make a better deal. How about for the princely sum of one dragon Drabash here will give you two days food. I'll tell you what to make it easier I'll give you the dragon to you" fishing a dragon (gold piece) out of his pouch..

The imp looks over at Tibi and gives him a sour look.  "Eh, this isn't your business, move along."  Pilster however looks like he has having second thoughts.  He hands the contract to Tibi.  "Hey, read this over.  Does this look OK to you?  He's offering a month of food, you offer 2 days.  Your dragon is worthless, there is no one here to buy food from."

If you choose to read it, or have someone else read it, whoever reads it (just one of you) makes an Investigation Check.

 "Eh, this isn't your business, move along."  

"Listen shortstuff as Decisionist of the local chapter of Acquisitions Incorporated, I'm making it our business. As to our coin being worthless I beg to disagree because we will honour it. Now Gil what do you think of this?" as he hands over the contract 

Gil would step forward and take the contract. His eyes moving from the imp to the contract... He would quickly look over the text and try to decipher its language

25

The first thing Gil notices is that the contract is written on parchment made of halfling skin.  Gil reads the contract, then reads it again.  He is able to penetrate the dense and convoluted text of the contract and determines that it will give the imp the souls of Pilster’s entire family if Pilster signs it.

(OOC: If Gill were to take out his quill and write on the contract.. could he edit it? Would it still be binding? Gil knows A LOT about contracts as a documancer after all)

((Anything can be edited, but will the parties involved agree to the edits?))

(could I lie about the edits? What It I wanted the man to know that the imp was trying to take the the souls of the whole family and tell him I am changing that part.. when reailty I do change that part but then also add a few lines that I don't mention to the imp or the man)

 OoC: For what it's worth, Darvin is an expert liar and forger if Gil wants help passing something off.

((You are welcome to try anything.))

"Well my friend, it appears this deal was actually for not only your soul.. but the souls of your family as well in return for the food." Gilbert would say as he pulls out a quill and begins to edit to the document. "Now I am sure that was just an oversight so let me just change this around here and fix it... Perchillux seems like a nice imp so I doubt he would object to me correcting the mistake" He would continue as he strikes out the part asking for the multiple souls and changes it to one. He then adds another line towards the end of the contract written in very tiny goblin text that: "if the years worth of food and water guaranteed by Perchillux are not delivered to the man within 5 seconds of him signing the contract, the soul shall remain the property of the man and the imp known as Perchillux will faithfully serve the verdan known as Gilbert for all eternity or until Gilbert signs a separate contract that would release Perchillux of his previous contractual obligation. Any hostile action performed by Perchillux that have not been ordered the verdan known as Gilbert will result in the soul of Perchillux becoming the property of Gilbert and the destruction of the imp known as Perchillux)

Gil would then hand the contract to the human and smile. "Looks good now, I work with documents for a living and I think you got yourself a pretty nice deal there., go ahead and sign it"

Perchillux face sours at all of the writing Gilbert seems to be doing.  As Gilbert hands the contract back to the halfling he speaks up "All nice and good, but edits must be approved by both parties before the contract is valid and can be signed.  And I have a feeling you didn't change much in my favor."

With that said he snatches the contract out of Pilster’s hands and suddenly disappears. 

"Well that is a shame... I had hoped to convince him that it was a great deal.. but oh well I suppose."

 "Good riddance, I say," Darvin says. "My young friend, you dodged an arrow there. A month of food is not worth an eternity of your soul. Here," he hands him two days worth of rations. "There's two days from me, plus what my friend there had offered you," he gestures to Tibi. "And I'm sure the others will chip in as well. I know, it's not a month, but the value proposition is far better, I promise you. Now, let's get you inside the high hall."

Drabash will dig into his pack and pull out some rations mostly comprised of dried meat and biscuits. He hands them to the halfling, "Apologies, they aren't the most flavorful but will definitely do the trick." he says with a grin 

Pilster thanks you and begs you to get him and his family to safety. His wife, Merrywile, and their three children are nearby.  They come out of a nearby building and jopin you as you make your way to the High Hall.

Along the way others join you and you escort quite the crowd now.  Wandering demons that walk the streets seem to give you wide berth and disappear around corners as you make your way through the ruins of the city.

Reya telsl you that you are on the eastern side of the side and must cross to the western side to reach the high Hall.  Bridges once spanned the river and she hopes they are still intact.  As you approach where the first of these bridge would be you see for yourselves that a rift in the earth divides Elturel into two sections. The riotous din of the battle taking place far below the city is louder here, echoing up and through the jagged open chasm.

A bridge twenty feet wide and more than a hundred feet long spans the chasm. Holy runes etched into the stonework of the bridge indicate that the structure has been consecrated in the name of Torm, god of courage and self-sacrifice. Six infernal creatures stand guard at the center of the bridge, scanning in all directions.

"Looks like we're going to have to get through them..." Darvin whispers. "I have an idea that should make that easier, but for it to work we need to get the jump on them."

He scans for possible cover between them and the bridge, with an eye on possibly approaching unseen...

OoC: How far away are we from the creatures at the moment?

Watching from behind some buildings up the road you estimate the distance to the bridge to be no more than 150 to 200 feet away. 

You recognize the creatures that stand guard at the bridge to be 2 Bearded Devil and 4 Spined Devil.

Additionally Darvin and Gilbert also recognize that the runes etched into the stonework of the bridge can be activated to produce a radiant energy harmful to fiends and undead. Touching the bridge and succeeding on a DC 15 Intelligence (Religion) check as an action can speak the proper prayers to Torm to activate the runes for 1 minute. While the runes are active, any fiend or undead creature that starts its turn in contact with the bridge takes 22 (4d10) radiant damage. When this effect ends, the runes cannot be activated again for 1 hour.

"Well I would love to be able to toss a fireball at them but I don't think it would do any good." Gil would reply as he looks for some cover to hide behind.  "Perhaps we can lure them on to the bridge and then activate those runes. I Don't particularly know a lot about Torn exactly but I could try to activate those defensive runes." The verdan would say as he squints to get a better look at the runs from their location.

"All right I'll try and lure them away to the northeast" (assuming map is orientated with north to the top "while the rest of you make your way to and across the bridge" Tibi says as he heads off around the back of the houses.