28. May 30, 2016

Recognizing that we need to “sell it” to Baronet Holstgaren (why he needs to give up the Crown, why he needs to convince the Duke not start a war to regain 200 miles of land, why the dwarves and a unified human front is needed in about 3 years), we agree to “infiltrate” Baronet Holstgaren's party. Otherwise, Kaerg's plan is to kill them all in a rockslide and dig out the crown, anyway. Our plan is to wait until they are underground, then join them, and try to convince the Baronet, persuade him to assist.

We ask Kaerg about the “funerary stash” we found in the dwarven city, hidden in a compartment. Kaerg explains the stuff belonged to the town mayor, the stuff was gifts from the elves for a peace treaty or alliance. Kaerg says that if there are heirs to the mayor, they'd belong to the heirs, but in the meantime we can have them. Bel responds she would be honored to hold them in trust for the heirs until they come forward to claim their possessions, just as the Baronet Holstgaren has been holding the dwarven Crown in trust for Kaerg all this time.

We meet up with about 35 dwarves in one edge of the complex. They seem to have killed some Kirenwelden people (they're in KW livery) who were back here in this section of the underground complex.

Bel casts Speak with Dead privately to get information from one of the corpses. The dead man tells us that the person in charge of the underground dwarven dam/complex is Colonel Wilhelm Ryken. The Baronet's party is expected to arrive “tomorrow” for sightseeing. Approximately 3 dozen are in his party. He is expected to stay for 2 days. Approximately 100 soldiers are in this complex, their mission is to guard the complex. The dead man has been here 5 weeks, he was replacing other soldiers. To his knowledge, there are 4 levels to the complex, there are 3 exits to the surface, 2 underground tunnels leading elsewhere, their barracks are underground, the soldiers mainly congregate at the top level. The soldier did not know there were dwarves here until moments before his death.

The dwarven scouts return, stating there are 80 to 100 soldiers here working on the river machinery to try to make it functional. The scouts know there are 3 entrances/exits that KW is using to get in/out. The dwarves came in by a half-dozen secret passages, but those are blocked up again to remain secret.

We convince Kaerg to let us try a diplomatic approach, rather than drop a rockslide on the baronet. We recognize that the four KW guardsmen who have now been missing for about 12 hours will be a problem to explain away...hopefully we can talk to the Baronet in person to explain.

The Infiltration

We approach a guard outpost. With a lovely natural 20 roll for their reaction to us, they assume we are part of the Baronet's tour and got lost immediately. We agree and ask to be escorted “back” to the Baronet's party, and mention that we were separated from some of the other ladies and four guardsmen. We join the tour, and the Baronet is talking and leading the tour, he is very knowledgeable about the dwarven artifacts in the area. We mill into the group with the bored courtiers at the end, whisper a question about when refreshments will be served, and when a halt is called to eat we pretend to be looking at a relief on the wall and the Baronet himself walks over and starts talking to Bel about it. She nods a lot, and the courtiers stay away so they don't get sucked into the monologue. :-)

Honesty is the Best Policy

We reveal that there are dwarves who want to reestablish their sovereign nation, reveal that we are representing them to request a meeting, and ask if he'll come. He's like a fanboy at first, agrees to walk with us, quietly talks to one of his guardsmen, and slips off with us. We lead him down, explaining more and reveal the truth about Prince Kaerg, and that the dwarves want to be treated with dignity, as equals to the other nations, as a sovereign nation again, and will need a representative to the humans to help establish the relationship. He starts asking more pointed questions, and starts resolving to focused diplomatic leader. Says he might indeed be willing to return the crown his family has kept for these hundreds of years, to enable the dwarves to regain their sovereign nation of Sirtegaard.

Baronet Holstgaaren's Negotiation with the Future King

We take Baronet Holstgaaren down to Kaerg, and he addresses him in dwarven. For about 30 minutes they roar in dwarven, negotiating. We watch Therin's body language, and he goes from tense to relaxed as things progress. When it's done, the Baronet tells us that he and Kaerg have hammered out basic terms. The Baronet will give Kaerg the dwarven crown, and Kaerg will mint him a new one. The humans on Sirtegaard land will have 2 years to relocate. The Baronet will sell the proposition to Duke Conrad, to convince him he wants to give up the land to the dwarves and have them as allies.

Kaerg is in favor of creating a distraction that would probably end in soldiers being killed to get them out of the complex while the dwarves take it over, but the Baronet thinks it will be better if we pretend to take him hostage and tell them all to leave to ensure his safety. The deal is, Kaerg told him we're Conrad's half-sisters and we will need to reveal ourselves and be the ones taking Holstgaaren hostage, to be most effective. The Baronet thinks this will end without bloodshed, and he'll continue negotiating terms with Kaerg for 2 or 3 weeks and then “be released” and go back to Conrad at the capital to report. We personally think that Conrad will be halfway to the complex at that point, but we'll see. To save lives, we agree to pretend to take him hostage.