Immersive Ink

Zem looks at the leader and sighs. "No tales huh.... A week ago 13 set out form Manfred's Bastion to assault a goblin fort in mountains nearby in hopes of cutting off support to occupied Ket. We killed many hobgoblins and other things, before retreating with a goodly amount of gold, alas only 4 survived long enough to be waylaid by Elves on the return journey to Manfred's camp." Having boiled it down to the simplest facts Zem sits back down.

Leudigar steps forward and nods at the dwarf, "That's Zem there. His most brief summary is the truth of it. The other two there are Fried and Karl. I guess we were just the luckiest of the lot. We did come from Manfred's Bastion, though not because of any orders from Manfred, to be sure. None of us was soldiers in his army, mind you. Most of us were displaced from the countryside when the goblins took control of Ket. Though he used some of us for scouting, we weren't 'scripted soldiers, which was his way of keeping us short on food and low on pay."

"I don't know what Manfred plans on doing about the gobbies, but it seemed to us that he wasn't doing enough. We had friends and family dead or lost or imprisoned in Ket and his lot just sits around, planning and scouting and... and emptying the countryside of supplies to feed his army. We wanted to do sommit about it, but we knew we couldn't do anything about Ket - there's just too many snorks there. So some of us starts thinking that maybe with all the snorks in Ket, maybe there's less of them at... well, wherever they came from."

"We heard some rumors about a goblin fortress in a valley some three days travel from Manfred's camp, so we packed up what little supplies we could scrounge up and headed out. Took us a little longer, but sure enough we found their fortress, cut into the walls of the mountain facing a valley rimmed by jagged cliffs. We found an old path down, though, and sneaked in."

"Caught them by surprise, to be sure. They didn't expect anyone showing up in their home, in any case. We were able to take a group of them by surprise, but one escaped and he warned others. We... well, there was lots of fighting after that. We got split up at one point, but regrouped when we found one particularly large and ugly goblin. We put him down, along with the rest. That's where the dirk there come from." He points at the quality dirk in his pile of possessions.

"After that..." Leudigar pauses as he tries to remember. "Hags and their animated skeletons... a hydra... worshipers of some cult... and then two snake-women what could turn a man to stone with a look from their hideous faces. We left several good fighters there, in a hall of statues... of men turned to stone. And that's where we got most of this gold from."

"But we were down to just four, and we were pretty beat up, so we tried to make our way back to Manfred's camp. We thought maybe we could convince him trying to fight the goblins in Ket wasn't the only option, that we could hit them hard where THEY live, maybe disrupt their supply lines. We do that enough, get enough of them to leave Ket, and then maybe we can take our town back."
He stops and looks at the others, raising his eye brows to ask if there is anything important he'd missed...

"Captain Halemmír, my name is Manfreid, no relation to the leader of the camp you mentioned, though." Freid begins as he steps forward giving a short bow,"Zem, who just spoke, told the truth. None of us have any love for the Snorks that have infested this area, taken Ket, and waged war on Man, Dwarf and Elf alike."

"Speaking for myself, I was hoping to do both myself and all of us a good turn by attacking a Snork stronghold we'd heard about. Being a poor man, I certainly could use any treasure I was able to liberate from Snorks, and the more Snorks we killed in their lair the fewer there would be to kill later was my thought."

"Looking back at it. We were all too new to this sort of thing and although we did the best we could, we lost most of our party and only dented the bastards." Fried continues with a shrug and a sigh, "We four got out with our lives and these few sacks of Snork treasure. I was hoping to use my share to equip myself better, both in training and in armament to better carry the fight to the Snorks."

"We were on our way back to Manfried's Camp when you folk grabbed us. That's all I can tell you and it's all the truth.", Freid spreads his hands and steps back.

Halemmír and his Lieutenants attend these accounts impassively, giving no indication of whether they might be impressed, suspicious, or otherwise.

There is a modest pause after Fried finishes before the elf Captain raises his voice:
"And what say you?" he intones, bringing his steely gaze upon Karl, "Is there yet more to tell of this endeavour?"

"No, I think what they said about covers it," Karl says. "I can't think of anything to add, and I wouldn't want to waste your time prattling on."

LOL! Karl absolutely lays on the charm

The Elf Captain and his lieutenants consider these explanations momentarily...

Right O. Words have been spoken.

Halemmír asked for: your name, your business, and an explanation for the loot.

Zem provided: no name; hinted at operating as a fighter out of Manfried's camp; implied briefly the loot was goblin gold.

Leudigar provided: no name; described operating as an self-appointed fighter for Ket; gave a detailed account of the Hezmog action and that the loot came from snake women.

Fried provided: his name; supported Zem's view on the business and added the opportunistic looting element; identified the loot as snork treasure.

Karl provided: no name; no business; no explanation; other than by conceding to whatever the others said.

So only Fried identified himself. Zem and Karl were identified indirectly. Leudigar remained unnamed.
Zem left open the possibility of acting on Manfred's authority; while Leudigar steered it toward self-appointed "freedom fighters". Fried implied "looters" too.
Zem and Fried talked about "snork loot" while Leudigar said it came mainly from snake women.
Karl added almost nothin at all!

What is the elf Captain to think of all this?

Preliminary, individual reaction checks:

ouch...

Halemmír says something curt in elvish to his troops, who jump to collect the goods and bundle our poor heroes into captivity once more, as the Captain strides away.

"We shall get to the root of this," one of the Lieutenants assures our heroes, before he too is lost beyond the clatter and bustle of the body of elvish soldiery moving our fellows back to their secure accommodations...

Final group reaction check:

2d6=6 adjusted by -1 for sum of individual checks = 5. That's a negative reaction folks, and by just tha one foul pip.

The implication is that Halemmír will detain you longer, until he has fresh or independent intelligence that satisfies him. Until then, you are a potential risk he can keep a lid on

The main question is: how long will that take? Let me think about that... I'll probably throw a few more dice for it.

Of course elven sense of time is pretty odd