The cost of honor

I stood there in front of the captain, as he nervously asked me once again why I had done it.
He did not seem able to grasp the meaning of my words when I told him once again that I had to stand by my word.
Obviously, the concept of honour and respect of the given word was extremely foreign to a halfling merchant, but I still found it surprising that he was so unable to understand my actions.
I would never break my word, and I had given my word to the pirate.

That very morning, Tyrion had looked at me and said:
"There are things I cannot do and I fear must be done. Do what you want with him, but get the information we need. The elves' lives depend on this. I'll be on the other side of the ship, out of ear range."
And he had walked away.
The priest had looked nervously around and simply muttered something about looking for something upstairs.
Adolfiel had held my stare and simply had said she would prevent the rest of the crew from coming below deck.

So after they had all left I slowly walked to the pirate's cell. The same pirate that had enslaved and killed my people. He had sold me to work and die in the mines. He had tried to kill all of us on this very ship. And he had almost succeded.
I knew that he would try to retain his pride, to remain defiant and to steal from us the only thing he had left, the information about the elves. He had lost everything and would seek at least some form of revenge.
I could only do one thing to stop that from happening.
I would make a deal with the devil.
I came in fully prepared to offer things that would have appalled my friends, because it would have meant betraying them.
After hearing my proposition, he proposed his own deal.
Sometimes, different minds reach the same conclusions. The pirate knew we needed the info, and he wanted something from me.
His deal was simpler, faster, very much his style.
If he gave me the information I needed, I would save him the trial, torture and hanging that was waiting for him in Marshport. He had no doubt that he would be hanged because he knew he was a thousand times guilty.
I accepted and gave my word.
Without hesitation, he told me who had the elves, why they had been taken, where and where I would find at least some of them. And stood there, waiting for me to do my part of the deal.

He knew I would not break my word.

And I didn't break it.

As soon as the rest of the group learnt about my actions, hell broke loose.
Tyrion threw a fit, gave a looooooong speech about morals, justice and ethics and walked away.
He came back later with a piece of news, he had made a formal accusation against me in front of the halfling captain.
For murder.

Technically, we had become his employees in the moment the pirates had attacked his ship.
I was bound again by my word and by accepting this contract I had to respect the halfling's word as justice.
Without a second of doubt, I accepted the trial. To do otherwise, I would have broken my word.
All this I explained once again to the halfling captain, but it was obvious that he did not like the responsability, he wanted nothing to do with it.
He had already proven to be too much of a coward to do justice himself on the pirate and now he had to decide on my future. He had heard everyone else's statements, but there was actually no dispute about what had happened. He had to punish me as he saw fit.
I stood there while the captain made up his mind, waiting for judgement.

I would not break my word.

Gentlemen...

It was difficult to believe that barely some minutes had passed since the attack had come.
Even though we expected it, the attack still had caught us by surprise. We did not expect the pirates to be so bold as to attack under a storm, we did not expect the flame throwing machines and we certainly did not expect an assault so brutal.
In the first moments of the combat, all seemed lost. They approached very fast and assaulted the ship in two places at the same time. The goblin tried to stop the first wave coming on the bow, but he was unable to resist. I moved in to help him while Tyrion, Vistra and Adolfiel faced the attack on the stern.
They were too many, too strong and too organized. The flame throwing machines sent huge waves of flame on our deck and very soon the sails were burning, most of our sailors has fled under the deck and the pirates were on our ship's deck.
We fell under their blows as they worked together to isolate us and make us easy targets. Very soon Vistra, Tyrion and me were helpless and on the edge of dying. Although Adolfiel was shooting as fast as she could and hit many enemies, they kept coming. The goblin had retreated under the deck and was nowhere in sight. Only the captain of our ship stood still defiant, protecting the helm.
The pirates pushed on, thinking that this was going to be an easy combat. The thugs pushed on and moved in for the final blow. All seemed lost...
But the gods would not let us fail, our quest was too important. The slaves HAD to come back to the village.
So in that moment, slowly the wind changed direction.
The fire in the sails started blowing towards the stern and the smoke gave Adlofiel cover from the javelin throwers on the other ship. Tyrion and Vistra got breathing space and the cleric invoked on Berronar to help her protect the group. With her help, I was able to go back to the stern and get in formation with Tyrion and Vistra. Adolfiel kept shooting arrows in all directions.
The pirate thugs hesitated, they had lost the momentum that they had had at the beginning, but very soon with their captain coming along with them, they moved in for the kill.
The clash was monstrous. Arrows, swords, spells, manouevers, it took all we had just to stay alive and resist the wave.
Once and again Tyrion was hit, fell and got back up to stand firm his ground.
Once and again Adolfiel let herself exposed to attack as she kept on shooting arrows at the ranks of pirates.
Once and again Vistra gave healing to the wounded while blows were falling on her continously.
And we stopped the wave.
The thugs started falling, dying. The attack got weaker.
Suddenly, the pirate captain gave a shout and the remaining thugs moved back to the other side of the boat. They were getting back in formation, getting reinforcements before launching the final attack...

With a flourish, Tyrion struck the dying bugbear that had not retreated and as it died, it fell overboard.
As smoke filled my lungs and stang into my eyes, I paused to take a breath and looked around me.
I saw the deck covered with blood and bodies, the cries of pain of wounded pirates and sailors were coming from all around us.
From where I was, just behind the main mast, I could barely glimpse the bow of our ship. Szakeem and his thugs were retreating that way, trying to get space to fall in formation and launch a second attack. They were far from defeated, they still had many tricks ready for us and we had barely survived the last wave.
I looked to my left and saw the pirate ship on our starboard side. It loomed there still intact after all this combat, dark, menacing and huge compared to our own ship. More pirates were coming from its bowels to make a new attack.

It was beatiful.

I turned around, looked at my friends, smiled and said:

"Gentlemen, I'm going to take their ship"

And I ran.

Under siege

The criminal gang made an attempt to kill us that very night, by setting up an ambush in an alley near our inn. We reacted well and were able to fend of the attackers, but did not take any prisoners.
As we returned to the inn, we realized that the ambush had been prepared by people who knew of our whereabouts and that we were under vigilance. That very night we setup a strong guard so that we could rest peacefully.
The next day was almost disastrous.
As we woke up we decided to go on investigating and trying to prove our innocence. We knew already that everything that happened in this town was seen by prying eyes and sent as information to a certain house in the marketplace.
Adolfiel decided to use the same methods they were using on us on that very house and spent the day learning about it. What she found out that day proved invaluable and probably saved our lives.
The rest of the group went on investigating around town. Mandin, the elves and the guards were to stay at the inn waiting for the permission for the ship to leave port.
As we had feared, there were spies all around us.
At a certain given moment we split up, with the cleric going to the house of healing and the mage going to the library. Tyrion and me were to go to the marketplace to look for Adolfiel and get the latest information.
At that moment, the assassin hit.
He had been waiting for us to relax our vigilance, split up and find a weaker opponent that he could easily defeat. He made a mistake by attacking us and not the cleric or the mage, because we survived his attack...barely.
As soon as we started fighting him, we realized he was easily powerful enough as to kill us both. Whoever wanted us dead had come to the conclusion that sending weaklings against us would not work and had decided to pay real money for real might. Thus, this assassin and thus, Tyrion and I were outclassed.
The combat tested us both to the limit. We were resourceful and competent, tried to team up, protect the other and profit from being two on one, but it was not enough, not today.
Very soon we started retreating and trying to escape cleanly. We combined our skills and performed manoeuvres that would have easily worked in normal situations.
The assassin followed us relentlessly and caught up with us over and over again. He poisoned us, made us blinded and paralysed, and run after us like an unstoppable tide.
We felt despair and tiredness dragging us down as the combat went on.
If this did not stop soon, we would be dead.
And finally, at the very last moment, the city guards finally appeared. They had come after the shouts and even though city guards are not known for their speed going towards trouble, they eventually got there.
As soon as he saw them, the assassin smiled, blinked at us, turned round and left, letting us live... for the moment.
The situation was very serious. We realized that we could not stay any longer on the streets, as the third attack would probably not miss again and someone in the group would fall.
We assembled the group in the local temple under protection from the priest. As we prepared to sleep, the balance of the day was bad, very bad.
Tyrion and I were spent, the ship was still blocked and we were still under accusation. We did not know who was attacking us nor how strong the enemy was and we did not dare to got out on the street nor return to our quarters.
But worse of all, the group was not complete.
The elves, Mandin and the guards were still at the inn, unaware of the day's events.
We could not go there to warn them, we were under siege.
The rope was closing around our necks and we were starting to feel it tight. In a few hours we would be choking...

Halflings and more halflings

The group arrived to Fort Eyre without too much trouble. In the road we had the time to get to know each other better and to broadly set up our master plan for the future.
The party seemed decided to go on searching for the missing slaves and searching for the pirate who took them away seemed the best way to do it.
Or intentions in Fort Eyre were to replenish our equipment, send Mandin, his guards and the three freed elves safely in their way and find some ship to take us north, at the very least to Marshport without passing through Poisson again.
This plan seemed sensible and not very difficult to accomplish. However, when there are halflings around, no plan works in a simple way.
The arrival to Poisson proved troublesome. We avoided paying the incredibly high "door taxes" for our cart by selling it to a local tradesman.
Up to that moment, our plans seemed to be progressing slowly but surely. We had good lodgings for the night, a passage in a big ship leaving the next day for Marshport and no problems of importance.
It did not last long.
Unfortunately, the guards did not like that we didn't bow to their corrupt ways and accused us of a crime that they themselves had committed.
The local captain, as good intentioned as he was, was also as thick as a brick and gullible as a sheep. He believed every word from the corrupt sergeant (we will have words, this sergeant and me) and ordered us not to leave the town.
He also ordered the ship to remain in port until things were more clear.
To make matters worse, the local criminal gang got wind of our interest for the pirate.
The clouds were gathering over our heads and we were not ready for the storm.
It took us some time to realize that this day's events would later spiral into combat, pain and death.

When destiny looks at you

At that moment everything suddenly made sense, that was my destiny and my privilege. I would return to my family's name the honours it had always deserved. We would be respected again in Leavendale as we were in the past.
The gods had spoken by putting the whole village into danger and enslaving most of them. This is what happens when you embrace anarco-syndicalism and stop following the natural leaders.
During the first weeks after the attack, I had been too much in shock as to react. However, as time passed and the long hours of wait before the next work shift in the mines came, I came to the conclusion that I had been truly blessed. I had been trained all my life to perform a duty and until the day the slavers came, it seemed all my work, leadership and education were not needed or wanted.
But the occasion had arrived. Contrary to my father and his father, during my lifetime the whole village was in danger and needed its protector.
I would free all of them and bring them back to Leavendale so they could tell everyone what I had known all along, that anarco-syndicalism is wrong and that my family's rule is the best for them.
So when the adventurer's party showed up, it was not too surprising, the gods were merely giving me the starting push in my life's quest.
The first moments seemed encouraging, it seemed it would be easy enough to free the first slaves. Furthermore, it would be done by preforming a good deed that could also allow me to get to know better my helpers and see if they were worthy of coming along in my quest. I was unable to reach a proper conclusion, as it was not so clear.
They proved to be capable of winning a battle but seemed incapable of winning a war. Most of the Krucix died but almost all of us were nearly killed and we were unable to free the slaves. They needed a leader.
I was still captured, but the opportunity of having help outside the tower was too good to let pass. My relationship with Mandin and my family's famous diplomacy skills allowed me to set up a plan for a coordinated escape by sending the party a coded message.
However, the message was not well received and not well understood. They really needed a leader.
The plan was aborted and I had to think something else.
Mandin was growing uneasy. The mine seemed pointless, the halfling workers had an unquenchable thirst for easy money and could turn dangerous with a blink.
He agreed to let me go on one condition, that I would help him with my party if push came to shove with the Halflings.
And so I escaped, leaving behind three other Elves and vowing to come back.
Once I was able to contact the group of adventurers, I set in motion my new plan. The idea was to lure the wizard away from the tower so we could get in an rescue the prisioners. A simple negotiation with the Major provided the necessary time for a daring rescue.
The group's fighter suggested a classic Troy horse maneouver and I agreed on it. Well executed, the plan would be bold and fast, as good plans should.
However, the wizard had seen the intentions of our group and protected his site from any attack. We had to withdraw with a lot of information and no slaves.
Luckily, all our tactic defeats finally gave a strategic victory, as the wizard became more and more uneasy with his situation in Poisson. He felt the pressure of the group from the outside of his tower, but he had no enemy to fight, no target to aim at.
Pacience and prudence finally were our blessing. One night we saw from our vigilance posts the wizard pack and leave the tower.
We had been to him "like shadows in his dreams and had grown and grown inside his head until his will had given up".
Just like Son Tzo wrote in his "art of warfare against class 20 wizards" it should be done.
They needed a leader. And now they have one.
Without any violence, we simply entered the tower, freed the slaves and formed a new party with Mandin, the guards, the free elves the group of adventurers and me.
I pointed west and we all set off.
To Fort Eyre.
My quest had begun.