Seller Beware

SUMMARY: Yelrona and Razen work out a plan for tracking the slavers operating within Alexandria, using Razen as bait. 

There are two carts on the corner of Market and Main. Or, rather, there _were_ two carts. Now there are the pieces of two carts, along with hotdogs and pretzels spilled on the street, and two human men yelling at each other. Rona is standing nearby, watching, amused.

Razen walks down the street obliviously until quite belatedly he realizes that it is blocked. Noticing Yelrona he sidles closer to her, his eyes on the destroyed food items. "Well that is a shame."

Yelrona replies quietly to Razen: "More than you know... that pretzel cart is also carrying, I would conservatively estimate, between seven and twelve hundred platinum worth of illicit cash. I am _really_ curious how Maxxie is going to get himself out of this one."

"That is a lot of money." Razen makes an impressed noise and glanced toward Yelrona. "On that note, I finally remembered what I wanted to talk to you about." He glances around. "Can we get a table somewhere?"

Yelrona nods. "It is. And of course. I suggest somewhere not in sight of this corner, though... it's going to get very busy here pretty soon." She leads him a few blocks away, to a hole-in-the-wall tavern with no customers and a single bartender who does not seem to expect them to order anything, which indeed she doesn't. "So. What did you want to talk about?"

Razen settles into the chair and looks uncomfortable. "So... I don't know what you've been doing about that... problem with the adventurer's guild?" He looks at her hopefully, but it's clear he's really quite bad at trying to talk about things without talking about them. "The slave problem?"

Yelrona laughs. "It's OK. You can say what you mean here, just don't talk too loud." She summarizes the state of affairs with respect to the Guild investigation.

The half-oruch considers all of the information and shakes his head. "It sounds like it is still a problem then." Razen looks troubled. "I was thinking... With me just joining the Adventurer's guild, maybe I can find out who there has been leaking the information? Somehow..." It's clear his plan isn't fully formed.

Yelrona nods. "It is absolutely still a problem. And short of hanging out in front of the Charneth embassy and reading random people's minds in the hopes of picking up clues, I can't think of a way to make progress on it. So I could absolutely use your help. What have you got in mind?"

Razen grins at Yelrona. "I was hoping you might have some ideas on that. But I figure... nobody suspects an oruch of being clever enough to set a trap. So if you have any clever ideas about how to find this person, I could help."

Yelrona chuckles. "I feel like I ought to object on behalf of your people, but, well, you aren't wrong. So... hrm." She thinks. "The most straightforward approach," she muses, "would be to set you up as a slave, in some way that we can track your movements, and see what we can learn that way."

She looks at him uncharacteristically seriously. "I won't insult you by assuming you don't already know what that would involve... better than I do, frankly. Nor will I ask you if you're sure, because, well, I've _met_ you. You're always sure. So... well. There's that."

He seriously considers her proposition before nodding. "That might be easiest though... Also they will not take many risks with an oruch slave." Razen makes a small motion with his hand. "I could leave you trailsigns. I have been making those since I was a child. That might be enough to lead you to me?" It would however mean the possiblity of him being a slave for a very long time. Perhaps /very/ long if things went badly.

Yelrona nods. "That will help. We shouldn't rely on it entirely, though. It's entirely possible that they'll ship you by boat, for example. Hell, they might even have a teleportation portal set up, although I doubt it... that's expensive. But, my point is... if tracking them were easy, I'd have done it already. They are stealthy and well equipped." She pulls out a notebook and starts jotting down notes. "I can call in some favors to establish some remote viewing... but they'll be expecting that, and likely have magical cloaking set up. So we can't rely on that either." She hrms, tapping her foot on the table. "Do you have any other special abilities I should know about?"

Razen laughs and shrugs his shoulders. "When I am angry I become very much stronger, but I think they will take into account oruch strength. So I can not think of anything else." He shifts in his seat uncomfortably. "I know that magic might aid you, but I know nothing of it myself."

"I know a bit, others know more. We'll work that out. Perhaps we can arrange some kind of mechanism for you to send a signal, though..." she hrms. "I've gotten the impression that you and magic don't really get along. Would you be able to initiate a magical trigger, if we could provide you one?"

"I do not know but... Do you think they will let me keep such a thing?" Razen points out this flaw carefully. "They will certainly take my weapons and anything else they deem dangerous which will be nearly everything."

Yelrona shakes her head. "Not knowingly. It would have to be something completely innocuous, or a tattoo, or something you swallow, or... you know. Conceal internally via other means." She hrms. "I'm afraid 'I don't know' isn't enough of an answer, though. Can you, or can't you?"

Razen looks mildly irritated for a moment, and then embarassed. "I do not know because I have never /tried/." He scrubs a hand over his hair and looks incredibly uncomfortable. "Murder thinks my tattoo's are magic... would that help?" Razen looks a little miserable with the idea.

Yelrona nods sympathetically, though her voice remains firm. "It might? You know better than I. But OK, let's try an experiment." She reaches into a pouch and pulls out a small gem that glows with an obviously magical flame. "This is a magical tool," she explains, "called an Ioun Stone. This one is very simple, it doesn't really do anything except shed light... like a torch. But it has a useful little enchantment on it..." She tosses it into the air, and it starts orbitting her head. "See? That way I can keep my hands free."

She snatches it out of the air and hands it to Razen. "Now you try."

Razen takes the orb suspiciously, but throws it up in the air. For a moment it hovers there and he ducks away from it, completely unable to escape it though he does try shifting his way out of its path until he simply reaches up and grabs it. The half-oruch breathes a little heavily, staring at the stone that he has in his hand before quickly handing it back to Yelrona. "It... it works." He looks as though he really wished that it hadn't.

Yelrona nods. "All right... that'll do," she says, pocketing the gem again. "I'm not sure what we can find, but at least you'll be able to use whatever it is." She pauses and asks "Just out of my curiosity... what is that like for you?"

Razen watches carefully as Yelrona puts the stone away and blinks at her words. "What is what like?"

"Using magic."

The half orc looks at his hand and rubs his fingers on the table. "I do not know. It was unsettling. I guess..." He looks at her suddenly, embarassed again. "I did not think it would hurt me but magic makes me uncomfortable. Ever since I was a little boy being told stories about the things shamman can do."

Yelrona nods. Thinks about that a bit. Asks, gently: "Do I make you uncomfortable?"

Razen blinks at her. "Why would you?" He pauses for a moment and then scrubs a hand over his head. "I know you use magic sometimes but you do not use it on me. And I like to think you would not turn me into a rabbit or something." The half-oruch offers her a grin.

Yelronalaughs. "I don't know... you would make an adorable rabbit, don't you think?" She pauses. "More seriously, though... I would absolutely use magic on you, if I felt it necessary. Most obviously, I would heal you if you were wounded. But other things, too. Call Tarien's blessing down on you, in a fight, for example."

Razen frowns, clearly not thinking it's as funny as she seems to think it. Finally he sighs and rubbs a hand over his arms as though he's cold though he's wearing plenty of layers. "I know that magic can be... good. I have seen it used in good ways. But... I have also heard of it used in terrible ways."

Yelrona nods. "Absolutely true. Of course, we could both say the same thing about maces."

Razen acknowledges this with a nod. "But a mace can only hurt your body. Magic can twist your very being. Think of what is happening to the Sith-makar. They are being turned into terrible things with magic. No weapon could do that."

Yelrona blinks. "What is happening to the Sith-Makar?"

"I do not know the whole story, but I have been told that they are being taken as slaves by some terrible magic-users. That they are being turned into Trygon." Razen shudders.

GAME: Yelrona rolls knowledge/arcana: (18)+7: 25

Yelrona tilts her head to one side. "I know they are being enslaved for magical experimentation, but..." her eyes widen. "Trygon?!? _THAT'S_ how -- Tarien preserve us all." She stares blankly into the middle distance.

"I thought you knew, since you knew so much about the slave trade here." He watches her gaze go distant and reaches across the table to touch her on the shoulder. "What is wrong?"

Yelrona snaps out of it. "Nothing, I'm just horrified. No, that's new to me," she explains. "Where did you hear about it?"

"A Sith-makar named Svarshan." Razen looks at her sympathetically. "It /is/ a terrible thing. I can not imagine... doing that to someone?"

Yelrona nods. "If Svarshan says it, it's so," she says confidently. "And no, I can't. Though slavers rather by definition are willing to treat people as objects, so I can't say I'm surprised. And you're right, that is far worse than anyone can do with a mace."

Razen nods in agreement. "I respect weapons, and magic is a formidible one that I do not understand. I think it wise to be wary of it."

"It absolutely is." She stares quietly at nothing in particular, then shakes her head as though to clear it. "All right. Back to slavers. So... wariness notwithstanding, we'll need to use _some_ sort of magical means to track you, along with your trail markers, and everything else we can come up with. The other question is how we get you snatched in the first place."

After a long moment of silence and reluctance, Razen nods. "I would be willing to get another tattoo that you could track... As for how to get me taken kidnapped I have to admit I had not thought of that much. I have no familial connections and not many people to miss me. So I make a good target." It's clear that in spite of his poorly-planned thought he has in fact thought about this some. "Perhaps I simply need to make myself vunerable in some way? I could start sleeping down at the docks rather than in my hotel? Act as though I do not have the money for better?"

Yelrona nods. "That's good," she says. "All the kidnappings I know of have been in this district, but I assume that's just because I know more about what happens in this district. The docks should be fine... but if you do it here, I can put in more of a bad word for you, if you know what I mean."

Razen blinks at her. "No I do not know what you mean."

"I have influence here, is what I mean," she explains. "I can more easily spread rumors about you here... how you keep breaking into warehouses to sleep, don't have any friends, are strong but docile and easily controlled... that sort of thing."

"Oh!" He looks embarassed again but grins. "Perfect!" Razen holds out his hand toward her. "Sounds as though we finally have a plan!"

Yelrona nods slowly. "We still need to solve the tracking problem... but yes." She shakes the man's hand, opens her mouth, closes it again. Nods again.

Razen laughs. "You will work that part out. I trust you Yelrona."

Yelrona grins. "I'd say that's your first mistake, but it's probably at least your third."