Usurper Session 31

Still in the Pen (the dungeon inside of GRAM), we question Hillseeker but learn very little other than that he is a nasty, awful halfling. He seems to believe that he is helping Clear Creek by ridding it of its worst criminals and scum by selling them out to the necromancers. He also doesn’t have any useful info about the Grey Blossoms since they only started working together a few weeks ago and were quickly interrupted by Diana’s death (at our hands.) The party argues about what to do with him but Ariel, inflamed by the depth of his malice for her hometown, decides to take matters into her own hands. She grabs him by the scruff of his neck and drags him up the stairs (of course letting him bump painfully on every step). The party, not sure what’s going on, follows, as do the various GRAM employees who are startled and unsure of how to handle this sudden hostage situation.

Outside, we send Kava to fetch the papers and Ariel makes straight for the town square where the Dusty Dive celebration is in full swing. The crowd falls quiet as she mounts the podium, brushing aside the danger of exposing herself in public. She begins to speak passionately about the hardships the town has endured under the rule of GRAM, tells them of how Hillseeker betrayed them by selling prisoners to practitioners of dark magic, and reveals the evidence that GRAM’s deed on the town expired long ago. She beseeches them to rise up and take their fate into their own hands, to pursue local self government until the Canter Empire can resolve the legal issues, and to demand respect and better conditions from their higher-ups. The crowd’s reaction is… mixed. Some of the townspeople look persuaded, but many more look fearful and no one seems willing to take the first step to speak up in agreement publicly. It is true that the miners of Clear Creek hate Hillseeker, but they have spent their whole life with their backs bent and their heads down to avoid drawing the ire of GRAM. Such habits are not broken in a day (even with a diplomacy roll of 21 smh.) Ariel looks into their faces and sees this, and her heart breaks a little. Seeing that they cannot or will not take matters into their own hands, she makes a final bid to help her hometown and calls a GRAM clerk up to the podium. In front of the whole town, she counts out 1300 gold to pay off the town debts (and Dayereth throws onto that enough for a free round at the Proud Pariah for everyone to try and boost our popularity.) A ripple of surprise and joy rustles through the crowd, but the Lawkeepers have finally had enough of this shit and begin to close in on the podium demanding that we turn ourselves in. Seeing that time is short and we’ve done all we can, we high tail it out of town with Hillseeker still in tow, stopping only after putting several miles between us and the gates.

Dayereth makes one final trip into town to take care of business. Using Disguise Self, he brings the papers we stole from GRAM to Dallas and tells him where he can find Hillseeker (we left him tied up at a crossroads.) Dallas promises to get the papers and Hillseeker to the local Duke so that the town’s governance can be worked out through the proper bureaucratic channels and Hillseeker judged for his crimes. Dayereth thanks him and pays one last visit to the Proud Pariah for a drink and chat with Mocktah. With that we bid adieu to Clear Creek, hearts heavy with thoughts whether we did the right thing, if Clear Creek will be any better off in the hands of the next Empire-appointed corporation, and if we will ever be able to show our faces there again