The black orc standing in the doorway demands, "Me Marrakt, where strangers?"
Ada turns to the company, who are all staring back at her. She explains, "Marrakt is the bodyguard of Constable Tren. And, apparently, his messanger."
The orc grunts, "Don't smartmouth. Tren want strangers him to come. Now."
The party stands, their hands instinctively going to their weapons. Ada cautions them not to with a gesture, then says, "You'd better go with them."
"That right," Marrakt growls, "you listen her. You no come, we bash heads."
"If you don't go with them willingly," Ada tells them, "they will just send more soldiers and tear the town apart brick by brick until they find you...probably hurting a lot of people in the process. Besides, you've done nothing wrong."
The bald thug behind the orc grunts, "That we know of."
Elessaria concedes, "We'll come with you. As you say, we've done nothing wrong."
The party goes out into the street and escorted through town past the market square and through the Sally Port for the garrison. Judging by the size of the bunkhouses and the stables the garrison could easily support 400 troops. Among those there the company can see humans, orcs and other races. As they move through the interior gatehouse toward the Constable's tower, the party realizes they are the only ones not wearing Zhent uniforms.
They are escorted into the Constable's tower and up to one of the upper floors, where the walls are hung with bright tapestries and the floor is littered with dirty rushes.
Constable Tren, a tall blond man with gray eyes and a powerful build, is sitting at a heavy oaken table, listlessly toying with some papers. He rises and smiles tightly when you enter. "Welcome, strangers, to our little frontier community. My name is Tren, Constable Tren, and I can't tell you how glad I am to make your acquaintance."
Stago, unimpressed, "Isn't Tren a type of overgrown lizard man?"
Tren smiles a grin that would put the fear into any type of lizard man, and says, "That's right. The Tren are a miserable race of cold blooded carnivores that would slit your belly from balls to jaw with a signle movement of their little finger and then hold you up to their snout and scoop out your guts with a flick of their tongue before tossing your eviscerated, but still screaming, husk to the side. Then it would do the same thing with each member of your little party and still be hungry for more....me and them lizard freaks have a lot in common. Don't forget it."
Elessaria asks, "What do you want with us, we've done nothing to deserve to be imprisoned by you, and I don't know what you think you can gain by threatening us."
"I don't need to gain a thing, elf," Tren said coldly. He continued, "I run this town. And that's something you visitors need to realize, remember, and act accordingly. Now, I understand you are mercenaries. Am I misinformed?"
Elessaria speaks for the company, "We are sellswords, this is true. Is that a crime in this community?"
"Oh, by Cyric no. We like mercenaries...sellswords if you'd rather. They take a lot of the burden of dying off the backs of my soldiers. I'll get right to the heart of the matter. I can see that you're impatient...I've never understood why elves, who live so much longer than we humans do, get so impatient...."
Tren chuckles to himself and sits and stands, walking toward the company and smiling. He looks into Elessaria's eyes before continuing, "You're the leader of this bunch. I can tell, a leader is easy to recognize. You and I, we're both leaders. Let me tell you, one leader to another, we're not a big city like Waterdeep...we're not a soft village like Shadowdale...we've got our shortcomings, there's no doubt about that, but we've got things the people of Dagger Falls are justifiable proud of, and we like our lives and our town just the way they are...but we're not without problems. Recently we've had more than our share...people getting sick, people scared of getting sick, it makes everything....tense. I'm nervous, and I don't like being nervous. I think that rebellious dog, Randal Morn, has some sorcerer working for him, killing innocent women and children with this Dream Fever thing that's going around....I think he's trying to...."
He hesitates, then continues, "Well, really, the politics of it are surely beyond you, but the good people of Dagger Falls are willing to pay 20 gp to each of you if you go to the temple of Lathander and rid me--and the town of Dagger Falls, of course--of the things in that are living down in that foul crypt. I'm convinced that whatever is causing this illness is both under the ruins and in the service of Randal Morn. Oh, and if you know of any of Randal's men, there's a 50 gp bonus for each one you capture."
The company stand silently for a moment, looking at each other nervously. Tren is clearly not going to give them time to confer. He's waiting for Elessaria, as the leader of the company, to decide for them. It would never occur to him to get input from anyone under him, and so he doesn't consider that any other leader would either.
Elessaria says, "Agreed."
"Excellent," Tren says with a grin that called to mind his reptilian namesake, "unless you have questions, Marrakt will see you out."
Elessaria says, "I have one question. How many men have you already sent down there?"
"Excellent question, you're not as green as they told me you were," Tren says. "Of the dozen men that were dispatched under the temple, only two lived. And their minds are so fractured they might as well be dead."
Stago chimes in, "If we're working for the city, we're going to need supplies and time to plan what we're doing."
Tren smiles at the gnome, "Good advice. A good leader is only as good as the people under his command. You need good advice, but you're going to have to get your own supplies. If you live, I'll reimburse you for any expenses incurred on behalf of the job...its the only way to make sure we're keeping costs down and so that I don't waste any of the town's resources if you fail."
Stago says, "Unfortunately, that makes sense."
Tren continues, "I'll give you until noon on the day after tomorrow to get down in the ruins. Now, I really have other business to attend to."
Now technically Zhentish agents themselves, the party leaves the tower.
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