I honestly want to kill the dwarven woman sitting right in front of me. She is only useful for a set amount of information then what comes around, goes and chops her head with a greataxe. While Riona is interrogating the woman I think I notice that Fedex was talking to the Wolf Man Person Guy, such a mysterious fellow and I am not at full strength. He also appears to be more than just appearances, well, that’s for Fedex to find out instead of waiting for all of us.

Fedex's attention was at its furthest point from Keragri as he began the motion to swing. In bullet time, his attention returns to Keragri as the axe is high in the air. Fedex instinctively quickdraws his hand crossbow and puts a bolt to string but does not draw it back and instead yells,

"KEG, NO!"

OOC: Great, now Fedex is confused and conflicted. Ha!

OOC for All: I don't think Keragri actually tried to axe the prisoner, I think he was "thinking out loud" in his posts. It's hard to follow, due to how it's formatted. He goes on to mention Riona continuing to interrogate the woman, so I assume he didn't actually do anything yet. Let's proceed as if he hasn't actually tried to axe her yet, unless he says otherwise.

Keragri: Can you use a similar post format as the others, for clarity's sake? Thoughts should be italicized or bold, which ever you prefer. Just so we can tell the difference between what Keragri is saying, thinking, and doing.

Lander hears Fedex say "Uhm... Guys....?"  and looks up from his spellbook. He puts his book and the items he found in his backpack and walks over to Fedex and the half-elf. He looks to Fedex. "What's up?"   He takes his glasses off the bridge of his nose and places them in his tunic pocket.

(OOC: I deleted my other post and will see where this goes first. Thanks Dyldor)

Riona pulls the leaf gently out of the woman's hair and places a hand gently on her cheek.

"What happen's to you is entirely up to you dear, but I need you to understand I can't just let you go if you plan on continuing to hurt others. Not to mention you will likely be rather cross with me once the um... calming charm wears off. What did you plan on doing, if you ever found yourself without your little thieving party?"

After she ask she looks up at Fedex and offers him an apologetic smile. "I'll be with the both of you shortly, but I think it's best we start to consider moving off the road. Did some one search the house? Our friend here mentions they have been sat here for a few days, there is likely a plethora of stolen supplies around."

Riona then unbinds the dwarfs feet and offers her a hand to help stand. She then switches the bound hands to be behind the woman all well explaining.

"Where just going to move to a safer place, we can rest there and sort this out, just be patient my dear."

The party can see the worry cross her face as she battles with what is the right thing to do in this situation.

Lander turns towards Riona. "I already checked the house, but we can discuss that after."  Seeing the look of worry on her face, Lander attempts to give her a slight nod and wink, as if to let her know things will be ok. "Do you need any help with her?"

She smiles at him thankful for the offer "For now I can manage, but stay close."

Riona: The Dwarven Woman patiently waits as you tie her hands behind her back, "I don't know... I don't have any family worth going back to... When I was younger I thought I wanted to be a school teacher." She stares into the distance, eyes unfocused as she recalls memories of her childhood. "I never got to go to school, but I could see it from our farm. I remember watching the other kids, walking to school together. Laughing and playing... While I milked cows and shoveled pig shit. The teacher... She was so pretty. A Dwarf, like me. She would wave to me and I would look away, embarrassed..." At this point, a tear rolls down her cheek. "I always volunteered to work the pig sty, just to see her wave." With a sigh, Durothil rolls his eyes so dramatically, you could swear you heard it. He mumbles, "gods... what a crock..." as he shakes his head. The Dwarven Woman continues, "I honestly don't know, miss." She looks down at her bloody armor, "I guess it's too late to go to school..." and she begins sobbing.

Lander looks to the half-elf as he hears him mumble under his breath, then back toward Riona. "Am I missing something here, or do you know this woman? I'm still a bit confused how you happened upon us when you did. What exactly is going on? Are you some sort of martial or something"  He then glances over towards Fedex. "Fedex?"

OOC: Okay Italicized is for my thoughts. And I would copy and paste but those are the thoughts throughout this interrogation thing-y

Lander: Durothil says "I do not know this woman, though I'm curious as to why you would think that. You happened upon my area of operation, sir. I'm responsible for providing reconnaissance on the increased presence of Banditry and Highway men along the Trade Way and reporting on what I find. I only tell you this because I know you have something meant for me. A packet of documents, magically sealed." He pauses to gauge your reaction, "If you expect me to believe you're all just a gaggle of wayward refugees, you can drop the act. Refugees don't massacre a hardened gang of Bandits and go to such great lengths to preserve and interrogate a survivor. You're obviously new to the game, so to speak, but you are also obviously not just refugees." He looks to each of you and says "The packet then?"

Lander figits a bit nervously. He would like to make an insight check to try and determine if Durothil is telling the truth. He's looking for any tells or hints that may give away whether or not he's lying.

Insight: 14

(OOC: When FedEx read the description of who we were supposed to be meeting to give the papers to, does this man meet the description?)

Lander:

 OOC: There was no description of who you were supposed to be meeting, just a map showing the general area that you were supposed to search.

Lander looks to Durothil. "How do we know we can trust you?" 

Lander: He looks over to Riona, giving the Dwarven Woman water and picking leaves from her hair "I didn't try to push you down a well." He holds out his hand, "If you would be so kind as to hand me the packet, I can show you how to open it without scattering flaming chunks of yourself from here to Mirabar."

Fedex finally breaks put of his jumbled thoughts which included a particularly graphic visual of Keragri lopping the head off of a tied up captive.

Fedex to Durothil: "We are new to this." His voice is soft and less confident.

Fedex to all: In still a soft voice,  "Keragri, give him the package." But not with authority, more with a tone of resignation.

Fedex is disheartened that when he chose to pick a side, he ends up feeling like he was trampled in the middle.

Fedex to Durothil: In a normal tone of voice, "Since you are the veteran, what would you have us do with the woman?" 

Fedex, All: While waiting for Keragri to produce the packet of documents, Durothil says "I'm afraid her fate is your responsibility now, you'll have no luck trying to pass the buck on to me, sir. If you're going to play the game you're going to have to make the big boy decisions. A depressing amount of what I do is determining whether killing someone outweighs the risks of letting them live." He lets his words sink in before stepping closer to you and lowering his voice "You're not the first to attempt this delivery. Just the first to succeed. He didn't tell you that, did he?" Durothil chuckles, "He can light a fire in your heart that'll make you want to spit in all five of Tiamat's faces, trust me, I know... There were two other groups before you. I don't know what ever became of them. Maybe they're at the bottom of the well?" Durothil looks to the vine covered well for a few seconds before continuing, "Look, I understand your frustration. I didn't sign up because I wanted to kill people, I signed up because I can't tolerate a bully. I learned that nothing is black and white... and you can't save them all. That sometimes saving a life means ending another... But that's not a decision you let others make for you. Only a coward kills and says 'I was only following orders'... You owe it to yourself to know without a doubt that you aren't just a tool to be used to shed blood. That is why I wanted to know what your plans were regarding her." He nods toward the Dwarven Woman, "I need to know who we're hiring. Cut throats like the ones you all just sent screaming to hell are a copper a dozen." He pauses to look down at Lupa and pet her head, "So I'll ask you again, all of you... What are you going to do with her?"

Riona asks the woman polity to wait for her a moment and ties her to a portion of fence far enough away from the group that she cant hear them talking. She then looks at the group with sad eyes, seaming looking off into the distance. She takes a deep, shakey breath and explains in a soft and quiet voice.

"When I was a much younger woman I was on tour with the military, we were low on numbers so at the time even though I was a messenger I was put on patrol duty frequently. Usually it was easy, I walked around for a few hours, some times it rained, usually it was just a bit chilly. One day I saw something, I pursued what turned out to be a hostile scout from a raiding band we had been tracking. We exchanged a few blows and eventually I pinned them and looked into their eyes. It was a woman, younger than even I was at the time. How could she passably be past saving I thought, she's barely even had a life yet how could she hold malice in her heart. I could have killed her but I hesitated and she got away. I tried to get back to report it as fast as I could but not soon after i returned, before we had time to prepare, the rest of the bandit crew was on us. We lost five friends, to this day I can't help but think if I had just ended her those good people would still be alive. Any one of use could be a victim of circumstance, but continuing that life requires a person to make far more unethical decisions than most ever would. I think we try to return her to a town authority, and if she tries to run or fight, well I'll just say I don't think I will hesitate this time. I don't think I'm willing to risk it."

Her eyes finally focus and shoot between Fedex and Lander and you see a tear trail down her cheek. She offers a small smile but you can see by the hurt on her face this train of though is not easy for her, but she is determined to follow it if need be.

Fedex turns to the party and says gravely, "Unless our path is back to Hill's Edge, we will need to dispense justice here. I will do it, or Keragri can do it. But first, do we use her to search the well for us?"

The thought of tools and using and being used troubles Fedex's mind.

"I'm not comfortable with this at all! We aren't executioners. Before was self defense. They attacked us and our lives were threatened. This is totally different. She's a prisoner. We owe it to ourselves to see her to the proper authorities. If we kill her, we're no better than the bandits. There has to be another way."  Lander is tearing up and visibly upset.