Klinkin

Perils of the Lost Coast

Gratianus shrugged. "Just give me a minute to call Nerva for the road and I'll be ready to go." With that, he restarted the ritual he had abandoned when the lizardman had agreed to the armistice.

Perils of the Lost Coast

Gratianus tilted his head. "I've had a lot of practice trying to reconcile two opposed sides." Both of those sides being in my head doesn't make it any easier. He turned to Smirk. "I hope you won't get in too much trouble if you sell your wares to someone other than the original purchaser?"

Perils of the Lost Coast

Gratianus got up. "Good." He turned to Smirk and switched to Common. "New plan: This person's employer, whom I'm lead to believe goes by the name 'Pillbug,' is willing to buy your supplies on reaching Sandpoint. Seelah, could you please tend to Desgoffe or Arzhel?"

Perils of the Lost Coast

Gratianus rolled his eyes, keeping most of his focus on the ritual. "You said these supplies are for your competitors, not your enemies. That implies you'd also have a use for them, no? Here's a mutually agreeable offer: we finish escorting Smirk and his supplies to Sandpoint or another town similarly close by of your choice; wherever 'Pillbug' would have otherwise 'taken care of the rest'. You then buy the supplies for a fair price, Smirk pays us for the escort, and then we are available to work for this 'Pillbug' fellow." Gratianus managed to keep the conceit out of his voice; those who saw the world in only black and white were an antithesis of him. "You not only deprive competitors of supplies, but gain them for yourself. Smirk gets to sell his supplies for close to what he was planning to. We get paid for the escort job, and have a promise of more profitable work in the future. And, of course, we all get to avoid any fighting." He switched over to Common for the benefit of the rest of the group. "Let's see if he'll take the counter-offer."

Perils of the Lost Coast

OOC: Going to try and make use of "talking is a free action" here to talk while still maintaining the ritual. Feel free to ignore my dialogue if it would interrupt the summons.

Gratianus opened one eye from where he sat. "Smirk happened to hire us first," he said in Common before turning to the lizardman. "I don't suppose you speak Common, do you? That would make things easier here. If you really want this done without bloodshed, I'm sure you can negotiate a mutually beneficial arrangement."

Perils of the Lost Coast

OOC: Yes, unfortunately, none of us are healers, with the possible exception of the alchemist who's about to betray us.
Also, tell me when the minute's up.

Perils of the Lost Coast

OOC: Smirk can join in the conversation any time now.

Perils of the Lost Coast

Gratianus scowled at the alchemist. "We're under contract. We don't abandon a job halfway through because someone pays us more to betray our employer." He turned to the lizard. "If you want to negotiate the delivery or destruction of these supplies, you'll do it with him and him alone." With that, he sat back down, legs crossed, and closed his eyes and meditated, reaching out to Nerva to begin the calling.
OOC: Hopefully this lizard doesn't have the knowledge to recognize a summoning ritual...barbarians rarely do.

Perils of the Lost Coast

Gratianus sighed and stood up. "I should point out that, as you can likely see, we're in the middle of a job right now. If you want to hire some or all of us, you could always wait for us to finish, instead of, well, attacking us at night. Hardly the best way to start a business transaction." One part of Gratianus wanted to just burn the lizard and be done with it. The more sensible part of him noted that there wasn't enough fire on hand.

Perils of the Lost Coast

Gratianus took the lull in combat as an opportunity to rouse the few people who had either somehow managed to sleep through the battle, short as it was, or decided to pretend to still be asleep in hopes of avoiding combat. Hopefully one of them had some skill in medical treatment for the half-elf...