[center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center][table][row][/row][row][cell] [h2][color=6ecff6][i][b]Hugh Caphazath[/b][/i][/color][/h2][i][b][color=6ecff6]Half-Elf, Monk (Way of Shadow), Level 3[/color][/b][/i] [color=6ecff6][i][b]HP:[/b][/i][/color] 24/24 [color=6ecff6][i][b]Armor Class:[/b][/i][/color] 17 [color=6ecff6][i][b]Conditions:[/b][/i][/color] Zone of Truth [color=6ecff6][i][b]Location:[/b][/i][/color] Darenby, The Infamous Pear [color=6ecff6][i][b]Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=6ecff6][i][b]Bonus Action:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [color=6ecff6][i][b]Reaction:[/b][/i][/color] N/A [/cell][cell] [right][img]https://i.imgur.com/4a0uP44.png[/img][/right] [/cell][/row][/table][center]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━[/center] Hugh felt a note of tension leave him, as the largest among them stopped visibly considering her weapons. It made plenty of sense for a self-proclaimed knight and/or soldier to be twitchy, but he also found himself disappointed by her at least somewhat reluctant acquiescence to the Cleric’s demands. Kathryn’s claims were neat and all, in line with his assumptions, and fairly exonerating if true, but… how in the hell was he supposed to be sure that she was telling the truth? After all, it was the Cleric’s spell, and they only had her word to go off of. Victoria’s far chillier response, cloaked within a thin veneer of civility, was far more satisfying to behold. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if many at the table had picked up on the undertones of her deceptively pleasant statements, which was a shame, because the poisoned social well that was the offered food was glorious to behold, like seasoning atop the overall message. Her overall response was satisfactorily devoid of any new information. Whether that was because she had been truthful before or because she had managed to resist the magic was a mystery however. And one of her last statements... [color=6ecff6]“[i]‘Everyone has to be at their best’[/i], huh?”[/color] Hugh eyed the behemoth of a woman, who appeared to keep eyeing her empty mug somewhat forlornly. [color=6ecff6]“Oi, soldier, Kathryn was it? You’re slurring a bit. Far be it from me to tell you what to do with yourself, but… Might want to slow down, so you don’t have to put up with a hangover tomorrow.”[/color] He shrugged, sipping his tea. [color=6ecff6]“Never fancied the poison myself, so I can’t empathize. But mind your limits, eh? We’ve got a job to do.”[/color] At Kosara’s interjection, Hugh snorted derisively into his tea and casually flipped her off with his free hand. [color=6ecff6]“Tell you what, [i]Pest[/i]. Out of courtesy, I’ll leave it up to your own imagination where you can take your platitudes and shove them. You don’t have any room to patronize me, when the Cleric is the one out of line here.”[/color] He rolled his eyes at her calls for more beer and scoffed, [color=6ecff6]“And I rephrase: don’t encourage her. The last thing we need is hangovers being a bother in front of the client… Tch’, I don’t even want to [i]think[/i] about how much alcohol it would take to get someone that large fully drunk.”[/color] He sighed, as Kathryn enthusiastically responded to Kosara’s thoughtless goading. His left eye twitched at the tale of how the pale tiefling supposedly obtained her letter. If true, it was about in line with what he’d come to expect from her, whimsical and flighty absurdity. Assuming the veracity of the claim, it almost quite literally lined up with his first thought upon obtaining his own letter: that these absurd messages might as well have been tossed freely into the wind at random. Naivara’s response was measured, almost like she was tasting each word before she spoke it. The elvish lilt to many of her words was expected; the fact that they were colored by almost overly formal -[i]High[/i] even- elvish was a bit more surprising. He hadn’t even slightly taken her for someone with potentially noble heritage before, but then, appearances could be deceiving… The fact that she had a specific name to give, much like Kathryn, was encouraging, but equally baffling in combination with her own specific method of letter acquisition. If true, then he could still fairly safely assume her letter was a fake. She was, after all, pardon the pun, apparently incredibly [i]green[/i] to investigative work, not the sort that the Sheriff would have reached out to actively… unless the letter was meant for the individual that foisted it off onto her? It was a similar tale to Kathryn’s… even his own to some degree, he decided, as he polished off the rest of his pie and took a sip of his tea. To this day, he’d yet to discern how that utter fool had obtained the letter to begin with. Much like Kosara, the likes of him would only be hailed for this task by a fool, so Hugh could only assume that the foolish young noble’s father had been responsible. Perhaps it had been an attempt to teach him a lesson, to give the naive idiot some perspective on the real world? Whatever the case, it was unfortunately Hugh’s problem now. Though he’d not said it in so many words, he’d chosen to accept the lad’s last wish, to accept a dying man’s contract. And Hugh Caphazath did [i]not fail[/i] contracts. It was a matter of professional pride, a standard, a line in the sand. It kept him grounded, kept him focused, gave him a goal, a direction in life. If he abandoned a job at the first sign of trouble, then what kind of Bounty Hunter -person, even- would he be? If he allowed personal feelings to affect his job performance, then how could he have pride in his work? More than that, if he chose to abandon this job, he would be making his first exception, except… Would it end there? After throwing away his oaths so easily simply because several of this number were the most odious individuals he’d ever had the displeasure to speak to, would he stop there, or would he throw away his pride on every future job the moment they became inconvenient for him? No, he was better than that, better than [i]them[/i], but he apparently couldn’t say the same for the Cleric. In fact, her response to his perfectly reasonable grievances made his blood boil. Leave the table? Was she actually serious right now? And further, she implied that anyone who had the [i]temerity[/i] to be rightfully incensed at her offense was implicitly lying or untrustworthy! [color=6ecff6]“You must be [i]joking[/i]. That is entirely beside the point. The one in the wrong here is you, and the fact that you didn’t drop your spell [i]immediately[/i] tells me all I need to know about you.”[/color] He scoffed at her placations. [color=6ecff6]“The one in control of the spell is [i]you[/i]. The only middle-man is [i]you[/i]. We have nothing but trust in you to go on when it comes to determining the veracity of each-other’s claims, and your actions let me know just how much your word is worth.”[/color] He smirked wryly, glancing at the Bard. [color=6ecff6]“Quite frankly, the blatant [i]necromancer[/i] among us is looking more trustworthy than the Cleric, and I can’t even [i]begin[/i] to start with how ridiculous that concept is… No offense,”[/color] he dryly shot Victoria’s way, before turning back to Marita. [color=6ecff6]“All I’m hearing are excuses and justifications. Having a supposed partner for a job cast hostile magic on me without provocation or warning? I’ve never been so [i]insulted[/i]! You’re so fucking lucky I made a [i]promise[/i], or I’d have gouged your eye out! And myself aside, I can only [i]begin[/i] to describe how badly that could have gone. What were you even [i]thinking[/i], doing that to a group of other adventurers, who you don’t even know? The reaction from nearly any other group would have been, to say the least, [i]volatile[/i]. You got so [i]lucky[/i] that it’s unreal, and I can’t even begin to fathom what convinced you it was a good idea in the first place.”[/color] Slugging back a swig of his waning tea supply, Hugh shot Marita a look of pure derision. [color=6ecff6]“I don’t give a shit who your precious god is, nor should I need to. As for your little backstory, I couldn’t [i]possibly[/i] care less. Those aren’t excuses for a lack of even the most basic courtesy, and that’s coming from someone who had a most likely objectively [i]worse[/i] upbringing. Quite frankly, I was a borderline sociopath before I left my old life behind and became a bounty hunter some… [i]six(?)[/i] years ago, and unlike you, I didn’t do it just because there was no other option. I made that choice of my own free will, had an attack of conscience if you will. I accept my mistakes. I acknowledge my faults, and I [i]don’t[/i] pretend like they give me carte blanche to act as I please and fuck with other people’s minds.”[/color] His glare was acerbic. [color=6ecff6]“At the end of the day, talk is cheap; only actions have any bearing on how I perceive anyone’s true worth or character. And your calls for unity ring hollow in the face of your own actions.”[/color] He pointed at her, eyes narrowed. [color=6ecff6]“Make no mistake, on a technical level, I can function in a team with you. I can fight beside you and do my part to resolve this contract in as equitable a manner as possible, but…”[/color] He scowled. [color=6ecff6]“I despise arrogant people, who refuse to learn from their folly, and I hate more than anything else those that think they have the authority -the [i]right[/i]- to strip the basic fundamental right of self-determination from others… no matter in what [i]form[/i] or for what [i]reason[/i]. I won’t forgive you, but I’ll tolerate your attack this once in light of your ignorance. However…”[/color] His expression closed off, as his body gave a final shudder of revulsion and rage. [color=6ecff6]“Understand [i]explicitly[/i], that if you [i]ever[/i] cast anything that isn’t healing magic on me again without my permission… Then you better [i]pray[/i] to your god that you never make the mistake of sleeping near me, because you most [i]certainly[/i] won’t be waking up again.”[/color] He rolled his jaw and sipped the dregs of his tea, smiling coldly. [color=6ecff6]“I rather hope that our positions are now [i]transparently[/i] clear, Miss Barbel, because I normally wouldn’t even bother with a [i]first[/i] warning. You’re really quite lucky that I honor my contracts so strictly. That said, I’ve no intention of allowing someone with your demeanor to slander our reputation by proxy; for all our sakes, I do hope you plan to do [i]better[/i] with your position going forward. Despite perhaps initial appearances, I absolutely despise taking up troublesome leadership roles, but if needs must… I am greatly experienced at exactly that.”[/color] He shrugged. [color=6ecff6]“Just don’t prove me right, hmm?”[/color] As he polished off the last of his drink, Hugh couldn’t help a small upturn of his lips, as he slowly reconstructed his composure, steadily adapting his mask to the pressure of the magic. The vile spell had done a number on his mind, to his center. Certainly, he’d said more than he’d have ever preferred in any other circumstances, but then again, he’d never had to put up with someone as abjectly horrible as this Cleric. Honestly, what kind of supposedly “good” person ever needed to have such grievances explicitly spelled out for them? It was like dealing with a child with too much power and too few morals, which was somewhat ironic considering the presence of Kosara… and himself. It was abjectly baffling that someone like [i]him[/i], a murderous bounty hunter of all people, had to be the one preaching about basic morality to a [i]Cleric[/i], but these were strange times. He glanced at his prospective compatriots thoughtfully. The Mind-Rapist and the Pest were annoyances, but they were objectively manageable ones. He could [i]tolerate[/i] them for this mission, if barely, but that would have to do. Naivara, Kathryn and Victoria were all far more palatable to their own degrees, and no-one was more surprised about the last one than Hugh. Honestly, despite his words to the Cleric and their implications, he had every intention of laying the social groundwork for a potential coup from day one. He would not allow an arrogant fool to ruin them so early. Quite frankly, there was nothing worse than a bad leader, and these greenhorns didn’t deserve to be led to their dooms by such. It was a genuinely baffling thing, he considered, to find that he cared.