“Eugh. I can’t believe I wasted all that booze on some human I can’t even talk to.”
Durosz sat exasperated, back against the wall, after opening the room window at the loss of a few new bottles of beer and snacks he had snagged. His intention was to get the messenger drunk enough to follow through with whatever plan it took to dispose of him, but it had taken more than Durosz had anticipated before the Sembian youth passed out from the alcohol. “Even worse than not being able to try any of it, the room smells like an outhouse! Can you do anything about it, Leilani?” He turned to a white-haired, mousy Drow, who had tilted her head as she looked up at him from organizing a collection of herbal items. To Durosz, the constant squeaks coming from the “wrong end” of the messenger and the stomach groans were not only disturbing the peace, but it was also making any necessary breathing terribly unbearable.
“Leilani - i - i,” Durosz complained further. Leilani continued staring at the young Drow, a fairly recent follower of Vhaeraun (at least, in Drow time). Suddenly, a large cork from a nearby wine bottle near the messenger, nearly empty, floated up to his face; Leilani’s telekinetic power lifted it up from the floor and held it up to his face. It was still pungent and wet from the rose wine Durosz had purchased.
“The only way to stop the flow of air in a certain space is to cork the source?” She offered an explanation with a dead-pan expression on her face. Durosz looked back at her confusingly before deciding that it was a great idea to follow through on and took the cork.
“…well, I suppose it’s better than nothing.” Durosz turned to the messenger and grimaced.
~~~~
“Hey. Hey. HE’S HERE.” Doriano barely managed to get a hold of his balance as he stumbled away, still in his drunken stupor, on the stony ground behind the buildings. The Cormyrian voice came from behind him, a voice that was obviously failing to try staying as quietly as possible.
“Shhhh. He’ll hear you, Edgar,” another voice replied, the voice whose attempt at hiding himself wasn’t much better.
“Tch. Firmin, do you realize how much recognition we shall get when we manage to bring this dirt bag to the first lieutenant?” Doriano turned around to look back at the ones who were giving chase; he saw Edgar, clothes disheveled, standing up regally upon the thought of being promoted.
“Imagine all the booze we could drink and all the fine food we’d get at a promotion, not to mention a go at a battle – hey, GET...COME HERE!” Firmin looked up briefly and made eye contact with Doriano for a few seconds before the Sembrian “spy” attempted to dart off. The two Cormyrians followed, but they did not have to run for very long. Doriano’s head was still spinning from alcohol he didn’t remember consuming, which kept him from running straight and proper. With an uncomfortable feeling near the base of his spine and a strange, viscous feeling down his leg, his mind was thinking about the cause of this as opposed to avoiding obvious barriers to his escape, such as the large hole filled by rain water.
“No – nooooo.” Even though the cool water was the most refreshing thing he had felt all day and the previous day, Doriano felt defeated as he was lying face down in the water from tripping on what was otherwise nothing. He was clumsily tied at the hands and tussled until he got back on his feet.
“We’re going to interrogate you, my little friend…hic,” Edgar said slowly, stumbling on his words. “You better hope we don’t do something too horrible to you, you…sneaky Sembrian messenger, you.”
“Okay! Okay,” Doriano said in a panic and in a loud, shrill voice, “Just don’t put a cork in my ass!”
This was the most hilarious thing Edgar and Firmin had heard all day. Things were looking favorably for the Cormyrians.
~~~~
“Durosz! We’ve sent the Cormyrians off to find the messenger…we made sure they grabbed him,” Sserroll told everyone in the room where Durosz and Leilani waited upon his arrival. Gryffin followed him in.
“Indeed. I’m just glad the false message has been received by agents of Cormyr without a lot of trouble,” Gryffin said.
Durosz sat in a corner of the room, staring off into nothing, as if through the floor, looking thoroughly disgusted. It was then that they realized how badly the room smelled, the stench of alcohol and…feces filling their noses. Leilani, however, couldn’t hold in her laughter any longer and began rolling around on the floor.
“…?” Sserroll and Gryffin stood perplexed, and wondered how much her mind had been put through since Pilaz had split from Leilani’s body. All she did at this was point to the now distressed Durosz as he glared at everyone and turned to face the corner. It was also then that they noticed a lone, discolored cork rolling away from him.
“What’s this – ?”
“Don’t. Don’t touch that, oh god. Don’t ask what happened, either.” Durosz interrupted Sserroll’s question and cringed. No, of course not, Durosz thought…no one outside of the room at the time needed to know how the messenger didn’t wake up through that mess, and how the cork was not the only thing that came out anyway.