"Those were goods being sent to the law master's court. Goods taken from others not paid for but taken. Who says we harass civilians? The Empire who gave you those badges I suspect. We only target those who are known for turning on casters and supporting the Empire," the elf replies. He seems sincere. "Of course we won't turn on you but if you use your talents elsewhere....well you'll see the Reaping yourself and I hear the harrowing as an adult is DAMN near impossible to survive," he adds with a serious expression. "Again I tell you. We're not enemies," he adds. "You attacked us," he reminds the party.

"The Empire did say that, though their story was probably aided by some of our own assumptions," Gale concedes. "We didn't quite realize the extent to which resistance efforts were organized. What were you planning to do with the goods you had acquired?" At this point, the hostility has mostly dropped from her voice and face, and she's genuinely curious.

"Didn't you talk to some merchants just this morning that had been harassed? It didn't seem like they were delivering supplies to the law master's court? Or is it just our bad luck that we ran into you and not the real bandits?"  Sef sounds skeptical, but steps back a bit and lets Gale speak, though he's very interested to see what else this man might say.

"We'll redistribute them...," the older elven man begins.

"Hush Sylas," the woman with says frowning. "We're in chains because of them. They might be casters but this..." she holds up her shackled hands, "proves we can't trust them," she adds glaring at the party.

Sef make an insight check.

(Insight: 21)

Malcom also now listens intently, but with an eyebrow raised. He hadn’t survived the reaping this long by trusting someone’s word immediately... Malcom thinks. Their propositions did sound interesting however. 

"If you truly are helping people, then we'll be happy to let you go. Perhaps, if both you and my friends here are willing, once we turn in our badges we could help you complete the delivery of what goods are left, as an apology for everything we've done to hold you up today," Gale offers. "But, for us to do that, we need to know what your plans are. Trust goes two ways, and we've been given a lot of reason not to trust you."

(Persuasion if needed: 15)

See can tell the elf is telling the truth.

"We're taking the supplies to A drop point. None of us know exactly were the camp is so we can't tell the law master anything regardless of the means they use to get it," the elven man explains. "We would appreciate the help. There's slavers running the area. They're looking to catch anyone worth a coin purse even a small one..." he adds. "With your talents you'd be too attractive a quarry to pass up," he adds.

"Sylas..." the girl begins but Sylas shrugs. 

"We've got to trust someone else or we're going to remain in shackles," Sylas replies holding up his wrists.

"Just wait until Rax wakes up...." tje quiet man says. "You reason with him," he adds frowning gesturing at the goliath.

Sef seems to relax a bit, his voice losing some of its skepticism. "So I take it the supplies go to support this camp you mentioned?  What is the camp anyway?"  He steps over closer to Gale as he talks, though still addressing Sylas.  "And if you don't know where this camp is, where do you all stay? You just stay out here on the road all the time?" 

He speaks very quickly - and quietly - turning to face Gale. "What this Sylas is saying seems true to me. You think we should help them?"

(OOC: Sef continues to use Insight to try and assess what the elf is saying: 24)

"The camp moves. It's casters and their families hiding from the Reapings," Sylas replies. "We get messages from the others when and where to meet. We're not the only ones collecting for the camps," he explains. "We live om the road yes. We work from here to Ararosa. Loyalty to Ellyria should be punished. We aren't thieves....we're trying to free casters. I bet the law master master's court even talked about Devlyn as a ring leader eh? He's just the best caster we have and escaped Ellyria as a kid," he adds speaking of the tiefling. 

"He runs because he knows we don't have magic so at best we'll get captured but we get out anyway," the girl says."I'm Brianna," she adds. "This is Sylas and that's my brother Hagan," she points to the quiet man. "Who are you..." she adds looking at the party curiously still skeptical of your offer of help.

"

Sef glances over at the woman as she speaks. "Umm, I'm Sef."  He then gives Gale a brief glance, as though questioning whether he should have given his name. But he quickly looks back at Brianna and continues. "It is nice to meet you Brianna. I do hope you understand we were just trying to earn some money and thought bringing in bandits would be a positive way to do that.  We aren't trying to help the Reapings. In fact just this morning when I heard about..."  Sef pauses suddenly, realizing he might be talking too much.  "Anyway..."  He looks at Gale and Malcom, hoping they might jump in. 

“Malcom.” Malcom adds curtly. “So where if your tiefling friend now, then? Perhaps we can meet with him to discuss these matters more thoroughly. Add a third perspective to the conversation.“ he then says, eyes still locked on the prisoners. 

"It's the least we can do after what we've done to them," Gale mutters back to Sef. She takes in the bandits' story quietly, deliberating what to do. "Gale," she introduces with a small smile when she realizes it's her turn to speak. Glancing over her shoulder at the unconscious goliath, she tells the others, "I'm going to see if I can wake up Raz." Before walking away, she once again speaks quietly to Sef, "I trust your judgement. If you want to let them out, you can."

Once she's made her way over to Raz, she crouches next to him and pulls out her amulet, pressing it between her palms. Closing her eyes and muttering a few words of prayer, she casts healing word on him for 6 hp.

OOC: do y'all unchain the others? That will influence Rax reaction.

Sef watches for a moment as Gale goes to heal the goliath.  He then moves first to undo Brianna's shackles. "There you are. See? We aren't that bad." He gives her a quick nod then moves on to undo Sylas' shackles,  then Hagan's. 

Malcom would begrudgingly move to help Sef unshackle the prisoners before the Goliath wakes up. 

Rax comes too and looks bewildered up at the blue lady.

"Devlyn won't show himself again until I give the signal," Sylas explains as he jumps down from the wagon free of his shackles.

Brianna and Hagan follow with Brianna jogging up to Rax and kneel beside the half-giant as if to look him over for wounds. He seems glad of her attention and begins to rise to his enormous feet.

"Who are they," Rax says pointing to the party. "Devlyn said they were from the Empire," he growls low looking over the group for especially Malcom. "He made me attack Devlyn," he adds motioning to Malcom.

"It was magic Rax," Brianna says her hands on his forearms as her brother Hagan comes up.

"Their casters Rax," Hagan begins, "a bit misguided for coin but seem to be on our side," he adds loudly and skeptically as Sylas joins them.

"If you don't mind loaning up the wagon we could move this lot faster than on foot," Sylas says gesturing at the goods. "Rax will walk beside and Brianna and Hagan will scout ahead," he explains.

Sef watches a moment as Rax awakens and the others move about. He nods to Sylas. "I think we can help." He glances at Gale. "But we'll stay with the cart to help."  His voice has a little reluctance to it, but says nothing more about it. 

"The official we spoke with said something about someone named 'Dirtyhands' and said he was a devil?  I take it this is Devlyn? He seemed to think he was 'the' bandit leader."

Gale notices Sef's slight discomfort and meets his gaze with a knowing look and a tiny nod, resolving to speak to him about it later. "We were led to believe you were stealing from innocent merchants," she begins explaining to Rax. "Well, it shouldn't surprise us at this point that the Empire would lie. We needed coin and something to fill the time, and this seemed like a good way to help people without getting on the bad side of the law. Obviously we were wrong, and though there isn't much we can do to apologize for the mistakes we've made, we'd be happy to help you complete your delivery if you'd like."

Malcom gives a nod of concession. “Yes, we will do our best to help out with whatever you may need. Perhaps you all can help us with a plan of action going forwards as well in regards to the empire. This certainly puts us in a difficult position, but with this many people surely we can figure something out.”

(Would Malcom know how long the empire usually lets a group keep their badges before they become suspicious? How serious are they about recovering rouge groups masquerading as officers of the empire? Are there any serious consequences to failing a mission? Just thinking in terms of the future and how much of a priority returning to town without completing the mission would be.)