The main goal is to get Drake talking to Len, in a situation that’s as favorable as possible to the latter. The simplest way of doing that is to have Drake lose control of the situation, and then give Len an opening to reassert control. Your best idea on that is to just let Drake finish singing. The longer he goes on, the clearer the flaws in his performance will become. “I think he’s trying…
If this were a more typical venue, you’d probably mingle amongst the crowd and shout things yourself, to give Len a chance to build off of them. But the crowd consists of brewery workers and greblings. You can’t really blend with the latter, and you’d have trouble slipping between the scattered pockets of the former without drawing notice. Especially if any of them happen to be fans of yours. Your other thought would be to…
“Forty greblings were saved from the Guild, But they had no colony to call home. Not one among them knew how to build, They could not even dig well in loam.” You’ve never seen this before. Drake is singing. He’s countering their song with his own song. You knew he could switch approaches when you did, but you didn’t expect he’d go that far with it. “They didn’t trust humans, no greblings called them kin,…
Seems to be something about Drake getting his position through a bargain with the Church of Nual that involves not investigating their priests. You’ve got no idea if it’s true, but it’s certainly the sort of thing that happens often enough to be believable. “This is all they’ve got?” a Protector asks. “That meeting between him and the high priest’s been whispered about since practically the day he was sworn in. And his answer’s always…
“She has family in town, and they’ve never got on well with the Church, but they’re very devout and have their own shrine to Reth,” the Protector explains. “So it was simplest just to send her there. I hear her uncle isn’t too fond of the Protectors either, but he’s willing to help us out just to spite the Church.” “It sounds like the religious situation for greblings is rather complex,” you observe. “But maybe…
“There’s a girl named Chopi whose devotion to Reth gets worrying from time to time, and keep in mind I say that when our entire order has sworn multiple oaths to Reth,” they explain. “Could see her quitting because that devotion drove her to it for some reason, like if for some reason we decided to break a principle of Reth not covered by our oaths. But this badge is a symbol of Reth, so…
“Maybe someone new, potentially even an infiltrator?” you muse. “It’s not as if we just take random greblings in off the street to join our ranks. Being a Protector of Life is a heavy responsibility,” they reply. “We train potential recruits for two years, and a good part of that is making sure they understand the weight of the oaths before having to actually make them. On top of that, for a major operation like…
The most likely scenario is that Mina’s earring scratched the badge at some point. But this earring has been in Redlake’s office for much of the night, and from what you heard she left the office before the Protectors even arrived. So, what? She hid it in there afterwards? That doesn’t make sense. Except, there was a lizard keeping a nest in there. Maybe it took the earring from wherever else it was. But then…
“The festival!” they shout at you. “It all starts at the festival! Find the others…” Then they fall unconscious. “No chance of the festival being delayed, with how big a deal it is for Nual,” you mutter. “So we’re on the clock for finding any more of these.” Then an unsettling thought strikes you. “Oh hells, is there going to be one of these for every god?” “Doubt it,” says a Protector. “This setup is…
You try to think of whether there’s anything else you have to go on about Hool. Maybe some portent with snakes you could try to repeat? Well, there was the story where a Hool believer was under attack by soldiers who hated him for his belief. A large number of snakes descended on the scene, biting the soldiers, but they took two separate paths around the believer. That’s the best you’ve got. And you’ve only…