As they wait, Killian calls Brie over. "Tell me, girl, of your service to this woman," she says, not trying to hide the conversation from Ritska at all. "What is it she gives you in return?"

Gruun nods his heads to Ritska in acknowledgement. "I thank for for the Axe, it keeps a keen edge and has already proven it's worth."

Wes follows orders and follows the child, before its complete he takes a trip really high in the sky just to see if there is anything in the distance.

perception: 13

Tanakir makes a face when Roccar explains the child's job, "Using children is distasteful, even in desperate times like these. Very well. Be on your guard, the slaadi are everywhere. We'll test you once you return."

He follows the child back to the others.

"Needs must Tanakir, I agree it is unseemly though." Karst nods in agreement to the other paladin as they make their way to the others. "It appears Roccar wishes us to do this without him so let us trust in him to do his part and we must learn what is required of us."

Brie beams up at Killian. "I get into places big people cannot, and help Ritska. I do all kinds of things, I steal, I spy, never fight though. In return, I...I guess, uh..."

"In return she has a life in this city. Which is more than most of the children that 'live' here under the rule of the High Captains can say. Brie and the other Schoolchildren are very gifted; some have powerful magical abilities, others, like Brie, are very gifted spies and thieves," Ritska finishes.

She looks at Gruun and nods. "I am glad. Had I known you were going up against vampires, I'd have put it in your hands sooner. Not that we had that kind of time..."

After a few minutes, a young boy leads the rest of the party into the room, minus Roccar.

"Good. We're all here," Ritska crosses her arms behind her back, and begins to pace. "Do you know who I am?"

For Wes:

"Roccar said you'd helped keep the Staffs of the Magi secure", Aradurk answers. "But he didn't explain how you came into this, to begin with."

"The living suffer many kinds of lives," Killian says quietly, to herself or to Brie is unclear. She won't answer Ritska's question, letting the others lead here.

Tanakir crosses his arms and nods, "Yes, you are one who uses children to help fight a war. You are an ally, presumably, or Roccar would not have told us to follow, but not one I agree with. Either way, now that we are all present, it is best that we ensure the slaadi are not among us."

With that, Tanakir pulls out his slaad-detection gem and touches it to himself and then those around him.

Wes remains quiet and calm in the corner. Petunia begins to scurry about the room while checking the nooks and crannies.

Tanakir presses the crystal to all within the room; the party, Ritska, and the children all remain unaffected. The only creature not touched by the gem is the mind flayer in the cage, still studying the empty boxes within with an uncomfortable fervor.

"I am Ritska Snow. I am an ally, and I control a network of street urchin spies, smugglers, and safe houses colloquially known as "The Schoolchildren". And I use children to help prevent a war, Tanakir Dreiden, never to fight one," Ritska explains.

She nods when Aradurk mentions the staffs. "Indeed, you have gleaned my business with Roccar, and what was kept here. You have already been to one of my safe houses, which houses Roccar's portal to and from Luskan and Sundabar. This safe house is the secure location where Roccar's cache of Staffs of the Magi was stored. Was."

"That cage is one of the most advanced traps in this world, impenetrable to all but the foremost experts in the schools of magic. Yet twice now the staffs have slipped through our grasp; the first, when a vampire charmed our guards and was subsequently chased down by Gruun and Killian. This time, simply put, Denorian just showed up, took the damned things from right in front of our noses, and left on his damned suicide mission."

"Let me ask you this. Do you know why Denorian took the cache?"

"Don't you?" Killian says, darkly. "Is he not your friend? And who is that?" she points at the mind flayer.

Rycider listens but does not say anything. Yet.

She stands by the door, keeping her ear out for anything that may approach and for the sounds of detonation.

Perception: 18

wow.

Gruun simply rubs his head for a moment and then shrugs his shoulders with a murmured "....I dunno, magic?...."

“Trying to figure out the motives of someone whose connection to reality is fractured”, Aradurk states, “is not a sport I am adapt at or keen at playing.”

"I do," Ritska answers Killian. "H was more shrouded when you first met. He was the one who vouched for your innocence when we were introduced."

The tiefling begins to pace as she answers her own question. "Denorian has changed. He believes it is his own destiny to stop this Elder Evil, and apparently, he has run out of patience. Rather than risk losing Roccar's cache of staffs to Doramor, he has taken them. As angry as I am, it really is quite logical. He sees what Doramor is up to: Hold the city hostage with a wave of terror, then demand we hand over the staffs. Denorian has denied this strategy."

Ritska looks to the members of the party that have only just met her. "Denorian's constructs repeated his name when they captured Ser Mary, before your rescue mission. Why do you think that is?"

“So what should we do while Denorian has them distracted?  Do we join the fight or do we sneak past and go for the throat while the enemy is preoccupied?”

Wes piped up the first thing he has said since walking in the door.  Not really answering Ritska’s question.

"Do we know where the throat is, and how to effectively strike at it?  If so, then that would always be my preferred option.  Against a group of shapeshifters who are powerful in their own right we could be chasing our shadows forever, reliant on magic to see past their tricks and never being certain it has worked, always fearful of a knife in the back.  Better to cut the head from the snake and be done."

Karst looks around the group trying to gauge their feelings with his intense white eyes.

"Perhaps they repeated his name so that allies would recognize it and let them take this Ser Mary without resisting?" Killian suggests in answer to Ritska's question, although she was not there. "Perhaps he needs her help, and is a right idiot who did not think to simply ask for it."

“So we would come to him”, Aradurk ponders aloud.