Makara IC

The Squire Scarf tells Ketha a story about one of its previous masters, Sir Dharzan Uelmnthor, a male drow who had been captured by dueregar in battle. One by one over months the dueregar would ritually sacrifice their captives, after they'd been tortured for weeks to pry information from them. So Sir Dharzan organized a break out attempt. He conveyed very special instructions to a young drow who was fleet of foot and did something the dueregar would never expect a drow to do, strengthen the young woman by frequently giving her his share of food. The escape attempt went off as expected. Which is to say poorly. But the young woman escaped due to being in better health than their captors had any reason to expect.
Months later when they tortured Dharzan, he gave up the route of a supply shipment meant for the upper ranks. Cavalry, officers, priestesses, and the like. With this information the dueregar ambushed the shipment and cut the drow forces off from their supplies and within a few weeks eliminated them. The dueregar held a great celebration of their victory, delightedly mocking the drow by sharing the fine foods and wines with the rank and file.
The next day almost every deuregar lay dead or dying from the poisoned supplies and the drow forces waiting for this came in and mopped up the remainder and freed Sir Dharzan and the other captives.

Ketha nods along to the story, eyes closed. As the tale concluded, Ketha keeps her eyes closed, resting her chin in her hand in a thinking position. A brief smile flashed, as she imagined the dwarves back at Thaloom gloating on how they would have taken all that drow poison and been fine the next day, needlessly adding that they'd be not even a touch hungover on elvish wine. "What happened to Sir Dharzan after the rescue? Was he recognised for his accomplishment?"

"He did enjoy a promotion and a significant rising in his family hierarchy, yes milady. That is until he was poisoned by his niece who coveted his position in both and saw he was the only obstacle between her and what she wanted." The scarf replies.

"Hmm." Ketha opens her eyes. "Thank you." She gets up and does a quick stretch. "How old are you, squire?"

"I apologize milady, I am not entirely sure. I lay dormant between periods of service and do not sense the passage of time while I do so. I believe it has been many ages since my creation." the scarf answers.

"I have milady, and I do." the scarf replies confidently.

Ketha nods. "So what makes the best heroes?" Excitement swells in her voice. Any opinion of hers were forged from her parent's own stories, or from tavern tales and minstrel music. The squire scarf offered an exception. Perhaps its opinions may lean more towards ones more accepted in the Underdark, but its wealth of experience over many ages means its worth a shot regardless. "What makes one be admired the most?"

If dragonborns had expressive faces, Ketha's would have had it all drain away with that answer. Instead, after brief silence, she replies dryly "Of course. Thank you."

Assuming Ketha doesn't tuck out as soon as the sun starts to go down, she can hear Steam long before she actually sees the genasi, raucously laughing and complimenting Adelinde on her performances still, maybe singing parts of the songs again. It's all very genuine.

Parveth follows along quietly still, but has been adding her own periodic approval along the lines of, "Yes, I quite enjoyed your performances as well," and halfheartedly trying to quiet Steam an amount.

Adelinde is in much better spirits than usual, happily accepting the praise and encouraging Steam when she sings. Joining in with a little instrumental accompaniment or a supporting voice, but letting Steam be the lead singer and trying to cajole Parveth into joining. Her tail swishing back and forth languidly and a bit of a skip to her step, it's clear she's worked through a fair bit of stress. She spins around with a little laugh and gives an exaggerated bow as she walks backwards. "Thank you! Thank you! It's always a delight to please with my music!"

Once they get closer to the building that they're staying that she doesn't need to be too loud to be heard, she calls out to Ketha with a wave. "Good evening! You've had a good day I hope?"

When she hears Steam and Adelinde's improv street performance, Ketha begins tidying her books, scrolls, and other resources away quickly. As she hears Adelinde call out to her, she peers out of the closest opening to see the party in good spirits. "A productive one." She answers bluntly. As far as she was concerned, no day trapped here should be considered a good day. "Did you break anyone's legs?"

Adelinde laughs at that. "I may have swept a few off them!"

"Glad to hear it went well." Admittedly she isn't glad to know that the bandits enslaving them likely had a great time as well, but she tried not thinking about it...

Similar to Adelinde, Steam seems significantly more at ease now, if she had even been stressed before going out on the outing. After hearing Ketha respond, she shouts “Ketha!!!” and runs to the doorway, to where she can see her favorite dragon.

“hey.” She gives a tight grin, soaking in the sight of the dragonborn before getting pushed unceremoniously out of the doorway as Parveth heads to reclaim her book. The genasi is given an absent-minded head pat as compensation, which she nuzzles into before the hand is rugged along after the still striding body.

”Adelinde did well out there; we are truly lucky to have such a skilled entertainer among our number. I am glad you have had a productive day.” You can sort of tell she’s restraining herself from saying things like “in spite these poor circumstances we exist in,” “in these cursed ruins,” “in this slaver’s camp.” Those sorts of downer things.

Ketha returns Steam's greeting with a nod as the genasi stands in the doorway. She thanks Parveth for her comment before turning back to Steam. "You seem more excited than usual. Enjoyed yourself?"

Steam sort of recollects herself, leaning all cool-like on the wall. “Oh, yeah I guess. Adelinde’s performances were great, and we got to interact with people kind of, and there wasn’t this expectation that we needed to be going and doing something to earn our freedom and the potential freedom of others we had come to the ruins with and/or an amount of magical goods.”
She nods to herself for a moment, before continuing, “I was surprised you didn’t want to go see the people you were escorting when you were captured, but like I understand that you have your reasons.” She opens her mouth like she’s going to keep talking about this point, but changes her mind and approaches an open bed, testing its comfiness with a hand.
“Uh, I guess we should figure out sleeping spots? You try out the beds yet, see if one fits your fancy?”

Ketha winces a little inside when Steam mentions refusing to see the people she was captured with, but as Steam changes the subject, Ketha walks up to her and places a hand on her shoulder. "Steam, I am grateful you'd organise that. But I was to protect those people, and I failed. Now they are slaves. If I met them, better off than them, wearing new armour." She tilts her head towards a neat pile of spider chitin armour to the side of the room. "What would they think of me?"

Steam leans her head onto Ketha's hand, shooting her puppy dog eyes. "They'd see how getting captured wasn't your fault, and how hard you're working to free them?"

Ketha looks away, occasionally glancing back at Steam's innocent expression. In the end she sighs, facing Steam with a bitten lip. "Freeing two, of thirty eight." The caravan Ketha travelled with comprised of forty people, not including Ketha herself, but seeing as she remembers how two of those people joined the Boar's forces, she has elected to ignore those two. They chose their fate...

Steam's eyes widen in surprise, but she doesn't raise her head. "Oh! That's...a bunch. Uhhh, maybe they'll be open to us bringing more people with us, now that that city's moving up here?"

Steam nods a little, acceptingly, but continues to keep Ketha's hand semi-pinned to her shoulder vie head. This continues until Ketha decides to remove her hand, which isn't being forcibly kept there, but it's sort of like when a pet sits on part of you, you kind of just accept it until you're actually required to move.

Ketha looks to the side and the others as Steam rests on her hand. A scratch to her neck and a quick cough follows. "If," she starts to ask, "After all our tasks, they offer a role of power if you stay in Kelfas, would any of you take it?"