Quote Originally Posted by Inspectre View Post
Aliani

The gnome follows you silently out the door to his office after collecting his horn and hopping back up onto his stilts. It seems that you’ve failed to sway Sissyphus’s mind here in regards to publishing his anti-Trinia screed . . . although perhaps not entirely – for as you reach the exit to the publishing floor, you hear the gnome blare out from his horn “Alright people, listen up! We’ve got some corrections for tonight’s special issue, so I’m afraid we’re going to have to start over . . .”

Whether those “corrections” would actually end up being positive or negative for Trinia in the end, you can’t say yet, but perhaps the gnome is going to take you up on your offer of a tell-all on the “white whale” of Venster after all. For now, however, there is nothing more for you to do here, and you have other stops to make before nightfall to help ensure the city doesn’t burn down.

From the investigations by other members of your party, you had learned that Jack was going to stage a little “demonstration” up in the Heights, almost directly at the foot of the Grand Mastaba upon which Castle Korvosa rests. While it seems unlikely that demonstration was going to spiral out of control into violence, Jack was certainly someone not afraid to resort to that if someone tried to stop him. And even though the guards were likely busy to be busy elsewhere tonight, that doesn’t mean innocent citizens couldn’t get caught up in whatever follows after Jack is done burning effigies and ranting at the walls of the castle.

Sure enough, you find the scarred elf and a group of people you recognize as other members of his cell setting up bonfires and soaking wood in oil in the middle of the broad boulevard leading up to the Grand Mastaba’s ramp, a much smaller group of guards looking on warily from a distance at the base of the ramp. The elf gives you a jaunty wave from where he’s carefully placing a tin crown on top of a wicker humanoid-shaped “body”.

“Hey there, kid! Come to help pitch in for our little camping trip?”
Aliani returned the wave, walking over to Jack and the others. "Only in spirit, I am afraid" he said quietly, before pulling Jack in for a long hug and a whispered reproachment/encouragement. "There's someone who needs my fullest attention. I assume you have heard of the events at the damned Asmodean temple. Do as you will here, but remember for whom we do what we must. Don't go starting something that will put innocent people at risk, please. Sometimes, it is better to be a hungry mouse than one caught in a trap."

Stepping back, he gave Jack a wry smile. "Try to keep things under control. If you need to be bailed out, send word."