Swamped

Are there lots of wizards around here? What continent is this anyway?

Sometimes, when a prisoner is uncooperative but in a foul mood, it works best to just sit quietly and let them stew for a while.

So maybe now's the time. Besides, all this talk of wizards lately has been scratching some old itches.

You were... what, five? Not even old enough for the Guild to be interested. But you sure as the hells remember seeing the sky turn bright red. Everybody does. It's not the sort of thing you just forget.

No one knows the details. A few even speculated it wasn't really magic, just some kind of rare astronomical event.

But nobody really believes that. Not when so many wizards just disappeared afterwards.

Of course, you never had any chance to investigate. The Guild kept you pretty busy, and you didn't get away from them until you cast your lot in with the Marshguards. Still, you always wondered.

And now you wonder just how far that red sky spread. From what you've heard, it was seen across the continent. Did it go even further than that?

The silence seems to be making the prisoner uncomfortable. It might be a productive time to ask another question. Or maybe you're just making an excuse to take your mind off mysteries you're not going to solve out here.

Ask them if they want a drink of water. Try to be understanding with them. They don't seem malicious. They might even have a good reason for being here, one that would convince you to help them. But you obviously can't just let them go because they might not be doing something good, and until you know more, keeping them prisoner is your only rational option. Tell them that.

You think you've probably hit the limits of the harsh approach. Maybe a little compassion will be more effective now.

"Do you need anything?"

She just stares at you blankly.

"I know greblings can go for a while without water, but it just struck me that I don't know how long you've been out there. And then you stopped talking, so I wondered if you might be feeling dehydrated."

"Did it not occur to you that maybe I just don't want to talk?" she spits back.

"Yeah, that's what I thought at first. But then I realized I didn't know for sure."

She's definitely feeling thrown off.

"It's only been two days. I'll be fine," she says, after giving it some thought.

"Look. We don't know anything about you, because you won't tell us. If you at least let us know what you want, we might be able to get somewhere. I can't promise it, since I don't know what you want, but if you don't tell us anything, well, we're just going to have to assume the worst and treat you accordingly."

She seems to be considering it. But after a good while, she just says nothing.

Well, she did seem confident she could escape. So maybe she still is.

Before you can think of anything else to do, Yvonne comes back, this time with Rudolph and another grebling you don't recognize.

"We're ready for her in the medical tent now," Yvonne says. "Thanks for keeping an eye on her."

"All right. Should I help with the escort?" you ask.

"Plinth and I can handle it," Rudolph says. "Besides, we might need you more to help with the other thing that just came up."

You look at Yvonne.

"Hold on now. What other thing?"

"Rider just came back with another prisoner," Rudolph says. "Apparently that one's being pretty cooperative, but you might want to see for yourself."

The prisoner suddenly turns towards Rudolph.

"Did you say Rider?"

She sounds very surprised.

"Yeah, I did. You want to tell me why that's a big deal?" Rudolph snaps back.

"As in, the Rider of the Swamp?"

Rudolph gives her an odd look, then turns to you.

"Well, he's with you," Rudolph says. "So you'd probably have a better answer to that than I would."

He is, of course. You even heard a few stories about him before you found your own way to the swamp.

The real question is if you should let this prisoner know that.

Ask the prisoner what makes them think the Rider of the Swamp would ever come to a place like this.

Try to get information on why this is matters to them

Well. It's always useful to get a read on why someone is asking. So you give it your best sarcastic voice.

"What makes you think the Rider of the Swamp would be all the way out in the desert?"

She looks... strangely worried. More worried than she has since you caught her.

"I don't have any idea what reason he might have for being here. I don't even care what the reason is. I just need to know if he is."

Now you try to sound curious, rather than suspicious.

"Why would that make any difference? Why would you care if some infamous swamp outlaw magically turned up in the desert one day?"

She pauses.

"I'll tell you if you assure me he's not here," she says.

Assure. That's an interesting word.

Is it worth bluffing? That would fall apart the moment she saw him - well, if she knows what he looks like, which she might well not. You know there are a lot of stories about him, most of which get one detail or another wrong.

Maybe it would be better to be honest about it. She might clam up or do something desperate, though. She seems awfully scared of the idea he might be here.

What should you tell her?

Tell her he isn't here and get her to tell you why she cares, try hard to make sure she doesn't found out later.

She's offering to give you info. You decide to go for it and deal with the consequences later.

"Well, Rider's just his name," you say. It's technically true.

"Good. Then I won't have to kill anyone."

That's not an answer you were expecting, and everyone's eyes are on her now. A fact she seems well aware of.

"I'm not explaining any more than that," she says.

Well, of course not. Maybe you should just go and see Rider himself for some answers. Unless you have any ideas on how to get her to talk more.

Ask if she'll at least specify who in particular she would have to kill, but otherwise that seems like everything you'll get. Make sure that she's going to be imprisoned under tight guard though, ideally with someone who has some experience with magic. It seems really likely she's going to attempt to escape at some point.

Ask what the Rider of the Swamp is supposed to look like, to be sure he's not in the camp.

"It's not so much that we want to know more. More of, we want to be clear what you just said," you say, once you regain your bearings. You need to get control of this conversation, fast. "Because that sounds an awful lot like a threat to me."

"It's not. I'd try my best not to kill anyone besides the Rider. No guarantees, but I'd do what I could."

"That isn't the point! You said you want to kill someone -"

"I don't want to, particularly. Just telling you what would happen."

"-and you're acting like this is no big deal!"

"Well, you said he wasn't here. So it's a moot point, unless you were lying."

Is she just trying to call your bluff? No, you don't think that's it - she was genuinely worried before.

"Considering I've heard at least three conflicting stories on what this Rider of the Swamp looks like, I'm not sure how moot it is. Would you even recognize the Rider if he wandered into camp? What if you see someone else and think it's him?"

"I've heard plenty of those stories, too. But I'd know him on sight," she says, rather ominously. "Are you done pestering me? Can we get on with this?"

"Well, now that you're saying this stuff, we've got to treat you as a much more dangerous prisoner," Rudolph interjects. "Which means the shackles we've got on the bed probably won't cut it." He turns to Yvonne. "So what I think is, we ought to wait right here and keep an eye on her until everything's ready." As he stops talking, he gives you a meaningful look.

"Right, I'll see what I can do about that," you reply. Of course, you mean you're going to warn Rider and see what he thinks about the whole thing. This has gotten pretty nuts.

"I'm thinkin' our strongest shackles, the kind we usually use when we've got to catch animals," Rudolph says. "And maybe have Dominique check her for ether just in case she's got more tricks up her sleeve. You can go handle that, right?"

"Yeah," you nod. You excuse yourself. Hopefully nobody takes a look at the broom while you're gone.

You're inclined to go and warn Rider first - at least tell him to stay out of sight - but on the other hand, you're starting to worry about just what this prisoner can do. Maybe getting better restraints should be your priority.

So, what should you do first?

Head for the Rider immediately. He'll probably know where the animal shackles are anyway.

It's probably best to go see Rider. He'd probably have already checked out their gear for animals anyhow, so he can tell you where to look.

It's not hard to find him. He left the wagon right outside the priest's tent. A quick glance inside reveals him, Marshall, the priest, and another grebling you don't recognize offhand. Must be the other prisoner.

"Rider, could I have a word with you?"

He turns towards you.

"Will this be long?"

"Probably not."

He steps out of the tent.

"So we just caught a prisoner and, um, she says she's going to kill you if she sees you."

"I see," Rider says. He doesn't sound the slightest bit surprised. "Where is she?"

"The stable. They're going to take her to the medical tent once, um, once I get back with the right restraints."

Rider seems lost in thought for a moment.

"If you know something about what's going on here, maybe you can share it?" you ask pointedly. "Or if you won't, you can at least point me to the shackles I'm looking for. Rudolph says they're intended for animals."

"Did she know I was here?"

"She seemed to panic when I mentioned your name."

"Then they aren't actively hunting me, at least," he says. "They probably don't even know I've left the swamp."

"Who isn't? I'm not accepting cryptic nonsense for answers here."

"Our other prisoner can explain it to you. I need to speak to Long now." He starts walking away. "Jebediah has custody of the shackles you're looking for. He'd be reluctant to use them for a prisoner, but I think he can be convinced of the need."

"You need to talk to Long? What for?"

"I have preparations to make," Rider says calmly, as though that explains anything. "Thank you for the warning."

You know full well you're not going to get any more details out of him. So you suppose you might as well head in.

When you do, Marshall looks at you, puzzled.

"Where's Rider?"

"He said he was going to talk to Captain Long," you say. As if you understand why. You turn to the prisoner. "So who's this?"

"A fellow priest," Jebediah says. "He's under my protection, so if you're going to be asking him anything, I need to be present. Make sure you're treating him with respect."

"Well, as it happens, I do have some questions for him."

The prisoner looks at you expectantly.

"Go ahead, then."

Where do you even start?

No time for formalities. Why would a grebling want to kill the Rider of the Swamp?

You decide to cut to the chase.

"You're not our only prisoner. We've got one who said she'd kill the Rider of the Swamp. Why?"

Marshall looks surprised. Jebediah seems strangely calm about it, though.

"All I can tell you is that the Rider has been recognized by Reth," the prisoner says. "As such, our order is bound, by our oath to our Goddess, to aid him should he ever ask."

"Wait. Recognized by a goddess? What does that mean, exactly?"

"It means he did a great deed in her eyes. I'm not high enough in the ranks to know exactly what."

You muse on this.

"Doesn't really answer my question, but it gives me some idea. This prisoner seemed to worship a dead god, though I couldn't get a lot of details out of her on that. So... her dead god is mad about whatever favor Rider did for your goddess?"

"A dead god," the prisoner repeats. "So that nonsense is still going around." He looks a bit worried. "There have been heretics acting in the name of the Forgotten God for some time now, but unless they have priests of Reth among them, they shouldn't know anything about the Rider. It's never come up until now, after all."

"Or if their dead god is real somehow," you point out. "I don't know enough about gods to say otherwise."

"Preposterous. The gods cannot die."

You get the feeling there's no sense in arguing with him about that. Probably best to move on to another topic.

Ask them who are they anyway? What group are they with, what group is other prisoner with?

Seems like the camp's been getting a lot of hostile outsiders since you've been here. Ask them if there's anything you should know about this camp that its residents might not have told you.

"Now, hang on," you say. "Jebediah said you're a priest? So what exactly were you doing here?"

"Most large organizations have people they send on missions they don't want widespread knowledge of," Jebediah interjects. "Churches are no exception."

"You make it sound more nefarious than it is," the prisoner shoots back. "It's true that these are secret missions, but that's only because Reth has enemies to keep them from, not that we're ashamed of what we do."

"And I'm sure anyone who turned up dead as a result was a heretic," Jebediah says sarcastically.

"I swore the same oath when I was ordained that you did. The very same oath about not taking the life of another unless Reth herself commands it directly. Do you take your own oath so lightly?"

This is getting more than a little awkward. You think it's best to shift the conversation.

"So what about the other prisoner?" you ask. "She said Goan where I expected her to say Reth. Yvonne thought she might be part of a rebel group, but I couldn't get any details about that."

"There is a group which claims to worship a Forgotten God," he admits, sounding a little reluctant. "They've been launching attacks against the church for about two or three years now. However, whenever we capture one of their members, they refuse to speak and then vanish two nights later. So we know very little about them."

You think he's holding something back. But you're not sure where to start on probing for it, so you move on to give you some time to think about it.

"We had some intruders attack the camp yesterday," you say. "Then today, you show up and so does this other grebling. It sure seems like a lot is happening around this camp."

He just looks at you, not saying anything.

"I don't suppose you have any idea why there's so much interest in the place all of a sudden."

At first it seems like he's not going to say anything. Then, suddenly, he opens his mouth.

"This desert is where the grebling race was born," he says. He sounds awfully dramatic about it. "It is a place of great importance to us. This camp's primary intention is to research matters surrounding our origin, and to investigate whatever remains from long-lost grebling civilizations."

"And the Church thinks we might find something that contradicts the official story on our creation," Jebediah adds. "Not to mention a lot of the types we attract aren't particularly devout. So they can't help but poke around and make sure we're not up to anything."

The prisoner doesn't look happy.

"It's true we have concerns about what goes on here," he says. "But if you were to send in proper reports, we'd be satisfied with that."

"I'm sure you would."

Jebediah doesn't seem to care much for his church. To the point where you think this hostility might be getting in the way of your questioning. Perhaps it's best to keep away from religion where you can, though on the other hand, it might pop up unexpectedly in the conversation.

What should you ask about next?

Try being casual. Show interest about grebling history because it seems to interest Jeb.

Well. You suppose the least abrupt way to change the subject would be to focus on just what kind of historical research is going on here.

"Pardon me for being an ignorant human here," you interject, "but what exactly is the official story on your creation?"

The prisoner suddenly looks very eager. He starts reciting something, clearly from memory.

"In the beginning, the desert covered the whole world. The gods looked down upon it, and saw it could be so much more. First they made life, but few of their creations lasted for long.

They could not understand why, for up in the heavens, there is no need for food or water. The gods had no concept of these things, and so they could not grasp that life required it. They proceeded to bicker about what to do.

Finally, Alac and Reth proposed an idea to the rest of the gods. What if we were to create a life that could speak to us? Then they can tell us what they need, and we can create it for them.

The other gods were skeptical, but no other idea had worked. And so they tried to decide what this life would look like.

Each of the gods had their own ideas, and so, in the end, they each made their own creation to tell them what it needed. But most of them made their lifeforms out of vanity - Dara made the Giant, for she valued strength above all; Hool made the Snake, for he loved the way it could glide smoothly through the desert sands and lay low to the ground; Bua made the Goldstone, for they loved its glitter.

And because these lives were made from such shallow ideals, they did not understand their needs any better than the gods. The Giant only wanted mighty opponents to test its strength against, the Snake wanted nothing more than to conceal itself, the Goldstone wanted only to be admired.

Only Alac and Reth had seen further than such simple ideas. Alac created Hu, a being larger than the Snake but smaller than the Giant, with cunning but little strength or agility. Reth created Greb, a smaller being but one who could move swiftly and could match Hu's cunning with ease.

Hu realized that the world was very hot, and that living required energy. As it explained these things to the gods, they started to come up with the ideas of water and food. They made the rains to cool the world, and they made plants that could feed on the rains and in turn, be fed upon by animals.

Greb, however, thought beyond the simple confines of the problem the gods had presented. It was not satisfied with merely asking what was necessary to live; it wanted to understand what made living worthwhile.

And so, as the world slowly gained plants, water, and life, Greb spoke to the gods and told them what it needed.

'We need to be able to make more life on our own,' it said.

After some arguing amongst themselves, the gods granted its wish. They made more of Hu and more of Greb and more of everything, and granted them the ability to reproduce. The new world began to prosper, and the lands themselves started to change.

In time, the people of Hu spread out through the new world, but the people of Greb chose to stay in the desert, for it was where the world began."

He stops.

"Just to be clear, we don't treat that as completely literal any more," he continues. "We believe it happened, but it was so long ago and the world was transformed so thoroughly by the gods that it isn't really the same as the world we live in today. I understand most human churches take a similar view."

You wouldn't know. You were never the church sort.

"And how many geologists had to be burned for saying this or that piece of land had never been a desert before the Church changed its mind?" Jebediah interjects.

"I won't deny that's in our history, and that it's shameful how long it went on. But at the same time, we did stop doing it."

"Officially," Jeb mutters. It's deliberately quiet... but greblings do have good hearing.

This is what you get for pressing on a point of controversy, you suppose. But maybe you can use this as an opportunity to shift the conversation.

This is enlightening, but I should probably be getting back to the other prisoner. You said that the followers of the dead god would not know about Rider unless they had a priest of Reth among them. Is it conceivable that another god could communicate to their own priests that the Rider is to be killed?

You think you're getting off the subject, though you might need to ask Jebediah about this later. The religious dispute seems like it might be pretty relevant, and you already had some questions about the camp's troubles with the church. Which this fellow seems to be downplaying heavily.

"That was very interesting, thank you," you say. He's proud of his knowledge of scripture, so a little flattery can't hurt. "But... while you were talking, I had some thoughts about what you said before."

He looks at you quizzically.

"You mentioned that you're surprised the followers of this supposed dead god know about Rider. You said that a priest of Reth could have told them... but couldn't it be a priest of another god, too?"

"You aren't suggesting that they have priests who can talk to this false god, are you?" he asks, sounding annoyed.

"No, no! I mean, Alac or Pru or whoever. Would they know about Reth's blessing?"

He's silent for a moment, but you can see he's getting very upset.

"It had not occurred to me before that these rebel scum might follow one of the humans' gods," he says, almost snarling. "Apparently my regard for them wasn't low enough."

"Well, before you get too far down that train of thought, I should point out that the answer to his question ought to be 'they wouldn't'," Jebediah says. "I spent three months learning about the ways the gods keep secrets from each other, so I'm not going to have that just be ignored."

The prisoner looks at him.

"Perhaps she didn't think it should be a secret," he says.

"Then why does the Church think it should? Because I never heard about this."

The arguing just keeps getting worse. You really need to figure out what you're going to do here.

Well you've asked all the pressing questions you had for this particular intruder. Maybe this has just been a coincidence, that two invaders came at the same time, and after this you'll go back to what was passing for normalcy here. But maybe this is a sign things are going to start happening quickly now. In which case, you should probably find Rider.
Just ask the prisoner one more question: is there anything in particular he thinks you should be doing?