Sylvia took a moment, nodding a little before grabbing some writing supplies from nearby and in quick, crude but legible script, wrote down all the information she had attained. "Hmmm...very well I will inform the others of my decision regarding you when I have finished speaking with your friends. In the meantime you will be housed in the storage shed still bound. I suggest you reflect on your situation and your decisions and circumstances that led you to here. When your time for trial comes I will have more personal questions to ask, those will contribute to your living or execution." She spoke in a rather neutral tone letting off she neither cared nor was to concerned with Tanya's life.

Before anymore could be said Sylvia had opened the door and let Sordin escort her to the holding space, which as she had said had been adopted as the storage shed. She took her seat again, taking a second piece of paper and carefully jotting down all the important notes pertaining to the bandits.

Tanya remained quiet and downcast as she was returned to the holding cell with her unconscious comrades. She was not looking forward to waiting through another trial to find out her fate.

Sylvia had time while waiting for the rest to regain consciousness, so she slipped out a bit. She spied the stag skull amulet on the pile of loot and asked if she could take it, or at least borrow it for now.

As predicted, Stefan, the man mauled by Ramathu, regained consciousness after a time. At first he started to thrash about on the ground, but he quickly found that to do so was pain. He meekly accepted the escort to the interrogation, flinching once on the way when he stepped out into the yard and spied Ramathu sitting and eating.

He could scarcely be older than Sylvia herself, having the look of a youth accustomed to his own invulnerability with a delight for demonstrating his superiority. Lacking these illusions, he answered the questions quickly and without need for persuasion.

His answers lined up with Tanya’s, and he even added the detail that the bulk of the shipments sent south to the Stag Lord comprised of booze for the leader himself.

“They say he’s no ordinary man. I didn’t believe it at first, but after spending enough time in this forest, I’m not so sure. They say they call him the Stag Lord because he has the head of a monstrous stag, horns ‘n’ all.”

Sylvia sent him away with the same response as the first and waited for when the next awoke. She hoped it was this Niko next. She wanted to save Happs for last.

As it happened, she was both right and wrong. Niko woke in the next hour, but to the healers’ surprise, the badly wounded Happs regained consciousness almost the same time.

The leader groaned and muttered a continuing string of crude curses, a few inventive ones mixed in. For his part, Niko was sullen and silent.

Happs had to be dragged to his feat with a refreshed string of curses, but Niko came willingly, despite the baleful looks he gave to anybody who met his eyes. The lieutenant finally lapsed into a sullen silence after a few moments, forced to wait standing outside the door to the hall while his subordinate was questioned before him.

Nikodim, as he named himself, had a thick black goatee. He answered all the questions with short, sullen responses that lined up. When questioned on the matter of the Stag Lord’s appearance, he snorted derisively, flashing a cruel grin.

“That boy’s good with a knife, but he’s a damn fool. I’ve seen the so-called ‘Stag Lord’ with my own eyes, once, from a distance. He’s a man much like any of us. I figure he wears the helmet to make himself look more fearsome. I think he’s a damn fool, too.”

At last, it was Happs’ turn to sit in the big boy chair and tell mother what he knew. He took his seat as he had done everything since regaining consciousness, with a curse. He was a fairly strong man, and visibly very tough, covered in numerous scars. He glanced at Sylvia and licked his dry lips. He spotted the stag amulet hanging around her neck.

“You’re wearing my badge.” He observed bluntly while Sylvia let him get comfortable, so to speak.

Sylvia smirked and toyed with the amulet a little bit, her mind settling on the information she had been presented earlier. "As of this moment and until further notice it is a trinket, a necklace have you, and it is mine. Before we begin with our little meeting allow me to introduce myself. I am Sylvia Serpentborn, I know your name is Happs but your last I don't." She stopped playing with the amulet and sat in her manner she had with the rest, the tented fingers and only the eyes.

"Before we begin Happs let me put forward some things you should be made aware of. Firstly, you can walk away from here with your life or you can die here this day. This will be determined by your cooperation now, and a number of factors. Secondly I do have questions to ask you and you in turn can ask some. If I answer them or not remains to be seen. But I expect you to answer mine." She lowered her hands and was smiling in an honest friendly manner, no coy smirk, no devilish grin. "Your a smart man Happs. But you also almost set me on fire and caused a great deal of grief to me." She showed the minor burns she had and the scorched section of her hair she would trim out later. "But yet here you are still breathing." Her smile faded slowly to be replaced with a look of anger.

"I don't like it when someone throws an explosive flask at me." She smiled again, less friendly but still friendly. "But we can work past that in the time we have now. Be a good man and we can get along fine. Cross me and, well you don't wish to know." She said with a light air of wimsy. "SO let us begin, shall we start with something simple to break the ice? Tell me your last name if you please. I would also like to know roughly how far your camp is, and if you keep all the collected goods you aquire there." Sylvia said, her voice cheery and friendly.

Happs pressed himself against the back of his chair when the smiling charmer suddenly turned unfriendly. Within the moment, she was all smiles again. He had been confused by her kindly manner a moment ago, but now he was thrown off by her rapid and violent mood swing. Clearly, this was a sign. Women are crazy.

He glanced at the door, as if looking for salvation, or worrying whether his former comrades could hear him from here. He cursed again to himself with a small, pained smile pulling at his lips.

“Damn. You’re almost as crazy as Kressle, you know? Maybe crazier.” He looked down, and for a second it looked like he was going to need some encouragement to speak up. “Name’s Bydon.”

“You know you’re a pretty little one, girly. I bet if you wanted, you could have a whole lotta men eating out of your hand.” He winced as he shifted slightly the wrong way, provoking a pang from his cracked ribs. “I bet whoever this bastard that Kressle’s working for would treat you real nice. Maybe even with your gift you could end up running the show—a whole lotta men would follow a girly like you.”

The way his eyes ran unchecked, it wasn’t certain whether or not he was referring to Sylvia’s magic when he said ‘gift’.

Sylvia frowned and raised an eyebrow watching where Happs' drew his gaze. "I'd prefer if you kept your eyes above my chest line. Last man who stared lower spent the next week vomiting out my poison and I'd rather not have to have the doctor perform open chest surgery to fix your ribs. Especially in these not so sanitary conditions." She leaned forward onto the desk and tented her fingers resting her chin on them making her face the center of attention, or at least hiding her chest a little. Sylvia didn't mind being ogled on occasion but right now she would prefer to have Bydon's attention on the conversation and not on the non-existent chance of getting into her pants.

"I'll assume Kressle is the one you answer to, that you play second fiddle to so to speak. Although I'd assume with your...position... you do a lot more then just bark orders. But lets not get into that yet shall we? Your underlings made mention of someone, or somewhere, the goods you collect go. Would you care to enlighten me?" Sylvia said sweetly, her voice only having changed slightly when mention of the puking and poison and surgery had been said. She toyed with the amulet hanging around her neck a little.

"It has something to do with this, I know because I can put two and two together. Based on some information, and the fact that you as second had been the only one carrying an object such as this. So please save yourself some trouble and forget about any form of lying it won't do you any good with me dear." She said again sweetly but with under-hinting tones of 'I can tell if I'm being bull s***ted, and I don't like it.' mixed in ever so slightly.

[Backpost - end of combat]

Aria gave a smile as she curtsied to the surrendering woman, "Of course," She said, "One must always be aware of their limits." She tilted her head a bit, examining the cut on her arm, the pain starting to get to her through the adrenaline, "You dance well too. Perhaps we can dance again some time. Without blades preferably."

Aria chuckled, offering the woman her hand.

~~~

Aria sat leaning against a table, her gaze tilted upward towards the morning sky, sitting with one leg crossed over the other. She rubbed her arm absently, where the lingering pain of the cut from her skirmish earlier remained. That was a good dance. Unfortunately, she never did get the woman's name. Was best to move on to the interrogation, which wasn't Aria's best suit, so here she was, sitting outside.

She hummed to herself, before feeling whiskers poking at her elbow, "Hi Marie, what are you up to now?" She asked the cat, looking down on the bench.

Marie gave a meow, looking up at Aria with wide eyes.

"Already? Well okay. We did get up early." Aria chuckled, pulling out some cat-worthy food from her pouch and holding it out in her hand for Marie.

As the cat ate, Aria's mind wandered a bit.

She wondered how they were all doing inside.

((The following has nothing to do with Sylvia, this is merely to introduce her little friend that will be paling around with her afterwards. Details: She aquires a viper familiar at level 3, Owen has sanctioned me to aquire it before hand as a companion of sorts till it becomes the familiar.))

Through all the chaos and confusion, a snake had managed to slither his way inside the gates of the fort. The forked tongue flickered out rapidly and if facial expression could be expressed the poor thing would look confused. It had picked up a scent it vaguely recognized and had followed it to here, but now there was to much going on for the little guy and he had no idea where the memory was.

A viper slithered around the ground heading in sporadic directions, but it picked up another scent, prey. It focused on this one and followed it to the seated Aria and her little feline friend. The viper saw the small mammal but the larger one next to it made him hesitate to strike. Instead he approached, curious about these two, they shard a special bond that made the memory click a little, bells and whistles went off and he needed to investigate further.

He slithered up onto the seating platform the big one was on with the small one beside. It slowly approached, tongue flicking rapidly as it came right up to the small furry mammal. He pressed his face against the furry ones and flicked his tongue over it, tasting and registering the heat signature. It wouldn't strike and it showed no signs of aggresions, just curious observation.

The words ‘vomiting’ and ‘poison’, and then the whole spiel on opening his chest seemed to appeal to Happs’ more rational side.

“Hells if I know. Kressle never made me follow the shipment and I never cared to volunteer. I just know they were going south to whoever this ‘Stag Lord’ bastard is. Never even met the man. Niko thinks he’s a bloody fool, but Niko thinks everybody who isn’t him is a bloody fool.

“All I know about him is that Kressle gave me that shiny trinket there when she made me her lieutenant—said it meant I was a ranked officer. Reckon the shape makes it official or something. All it really meant was I was in charge when she wasn’t around. ”

Sylvia nodded slowly and stopped toying with her little amulet then quickly writing down what she was told. "Is that all my dear? If so then perhaps you would like to talk about Kressle some, who is she, why is she in charge and how often does she see this 'stag lord.' " Sylvia said with contempt clearly unimpressed by the whole second in command and officiers and stag lord bit. She had a feeling one way or another he was the key to ending these attacks, but she would deal with that bridge when it came to. Now she wanted the dirt on this kressle lady, the one in charge of these bandits.

“Kressle’s the leader of our camp at the Thorn River crossing. She was before I showed up. She says she’s got banditry in her blood. She’s damn near crazy like you, too, and she knows the woods well.

“She doesn’t personally leave the camp to meet with the ol’ bastard often, but I hear he personally put her in charge of our camp.”

Sylvia leaned in and rested her chin on her hands staring long and hard for a good few minutes. "Alright I belive you on that, any other useful information you can give me? Specifically any vulnerabilities or anything you know about Kressle we may be able to use against her as leverage, or any secret or food entry points into the camp?" She asked in a slow neutral voice. She didn't wait for a response to her first before posing her last set of questions she would be aloud to freely ask. "And, lastly, and because you have been the most cooperative of the bunch. If given the chance to repent and walk away a free man, would you truly take it? We will be placing each of you on trial later, and I'll know if your lieing."

Happs’ gaze was beginning to drift and lose focus. The sound of Sylvia addressing him brought him back to attention for the moment.

“Heh, if you try to go up against Kressle, it won’t be as easy as jumping us. Kressle is ruthless when she hunts, girly. As soon as we don’t show up, she’ll call the whole camp back to base and they’ll set a double sentry.”

Happs leaned back in he chair, woozy and staring at the ceiling with that permanent scowl of his.

“I can’t go back to Restov. Besides, I’ve come to like the outdoors.” He gazed up at the timbers, thoughtful (or perhaps semi-conscious) for a moment.

“I don’t really have a choice, do I? Your man Leveton out there hangs us all, or has us working off our sentence for him.

“I don’t fancy the idea of being at his mercy, but I fancy a rope around my neck even less. I’ll do i—urgh.” Happs doubled over in his chair with the latest pang from his battered body. He was sweating and breathing heavily.

“You might want to be quick about it, girly, or you’ll have to pass judgement over my body.”

(Before anyone panics, we’ve discussed it and the penalty for repentant banditry is not ‘freed on the spot’, but physical labour or whatnot and eventual release when they’ve served their time. Also before anyone panics, he’s not dying again, he’s just in a butt-ton of pain right now.)

---

“We shouldn’t have to fear an attack on the Post right away,” Oleg said. “We’ll have our own guards from Restov in a few days’ time, besides which, the bandits are a bunch o’ cowards in any case. They shouldn’t be here before the guards, but it’ll only be a matter of time after that before they come knocking.”

He sighed to himself, looking around at his fort, still standing. Half of his surliness seemed to lift with his worries about the fort. “In any case, I wanted to give these to you all. It’s not much, but you’re welcome to stay at the Post anytime. Svet and I’ll even throw in free meals.”

Oleg placed a small sack of coin on the table and the three potions from his stockroom. “Ye really helped us out of a tight situation there. If those buggers back in town hadn’t sent you I’d still be waiting for my own guards when they showed up.”

(Potions are 2xCure Light Wounds and a potion of Shield of Faith (+2))

(Oh, and futher note, all six horses the bandits brought are placed in the stables. You could probably use them, though I don't know how well they might react to your many various animal companions (what do we have now, a snake, a cat, and a young gorilla?) (namely in terms of the weight of that last one).)

Syvlia stood up and took her notes with her, on her way past Happs she patted his shoulder gently giving him a sly smirk. "Don't underestimate me Happs, after all you did and look at you now. No hard feelings? You forgive me for blasting you with magic, and I'll forgive you for almost incinerating me." She leaned down and whispered into his ear, her eyes altering slightly out of his sight to resemble snakes slightly. "Goodluck at your trial, the paladin will be your judge, and I the quessstioner." she said adding a hiss to the 's.' Afterwards she exited quickly, her eyes normal as she nodded to Soridn. "Put him with the rest, he might pass out but he won't be in any serious trouble so don't worry. As soon as everyone else is ready we can begin the trials and have Oleg put them to work."

Sylvia exited the building, letting the cooler air wash over her and relax her as she scanned around the fort. Paper in hand with all the information she could gather on it, labelled as bandits, or personal for the trials.

((I'll wait to aquire the snake till Aria has responded if even minor.))

"Put him with the rest, he might pass out but he won't be in any serious trouble so don't worry. As soon as everyone else is ready we can begin the trials and have Oleg put them to work."
The babbling of the girl was more then enough to finally snap Lloyd's composure.

"You had better shut yourself up before I do it for you! And it wont be a temporary relief of your babbling either! You are not in charge, and I will make sure you never are! So stop giving all these orders and trying to run the show!"

The glare Lloyd made it known to all that it was no idle threat. It was a promise, and one that the young man would soon keep.

"Last night you made the whole situation confussing by altering the password - this done AFTER inviting yourself on my own little walkabout! Then you push for this whole stupid plan of fighting the thieves here where we have the most to loose: if it was not for Ortlieb's efforts, the whole fort would have burned down! Furthermore, you showed the most lethal force, and you focused it on the leader which we had decided to capture ALIVE! You not only cast aside the logical plan that both this orc of the wilds" Lloyd points to Ortlieb at this, "and I had presented, but you also fell away from your own stupid plan, letting your emotions and desire for vengeance cloud your mind! AND THEN you have the gal to demand solo time with the prisoners, promising gods know what for information; information that only you have deemed important - I can only imagine what you asked, considering how insightful you have been up to this point. And now you are trying to give orders to others! I will no longer remain silent on this issue! I do not expect to be the leader in this situation, but I would sooner go to the abyss and be at the mercy of a demon then follow under your command!"

Lloyd turns to Ortlieb. "You have shown the most competnace out of all of us. You know how to fend for yourself in the wilds, and have your wits about you at all times: this was proven when you quickly rationalized the danger of the stable fire. Furthermore..." Lloyd turns his head so he can see Sordin with this next statement, "You do not have an overwhelming sense of morality to inhibit you from making clear-cut decisions! I will work with this group ONLY if you take the responsibility of leading us. I am here to survive, and that will not happen if anyone else leads out..." Loyd bites his lip at this point, "including myself."

Sylvia's eyes twitched and again then resembled snakes. "Shut yourself up you useless wretch. I didn't see you do anything but make sure the bandits survived our attack. Furthermore I used no more force then need be DESPITE almost being incinerated. You chose to hide and wait and let us do all the grunt work, I didn't see you jump at the chance to talk with them. If you want the information I gathered then here take it you ungrateful cowardly little pustule!" Sylvia roared and tossed the notes at Lloyd, she then stepped up to him and with barely a breath of space between them she breathed very slow and spoke very clearly to him.

"I won't put up with your stuck up, self righoutess attitude, I never said I would lead I never volunteered for it. I only stepped up to ask the questions and get the information we have. If you have any others go ask them yourself fool. Oh, and as for your threat, go f**k yourself. We have all shown nothing but patience for each other and we have all got along just fine. You so far, are the only one who has had any problems. As of right now, you and me, we aren't friends, we are not going to be, and we never will be until you stop acting like a baby without his bottle. Stay away from me wretch." She stepped past him bumping him roughly with her shoulder as he she went to take a seat at the table.

She was furious and the visible shaking of her body and the hissing breathing, the serpentine eyes showed this all to well. Her opinion of Lloyd had dropped lower then that of cattle dung, she had all the information previous stored in her head should he wreck her notes. She turned to Aria and offered a small smile, her hand instincively reaching for the snake that had happened by, it slithered up her arm and rested there, its tongue flicking Sylvia's face lightly.