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The Guilded Cage, Ch 7

Card Castles

The escape from the gathering of societies had been quick and unnoticed. While the Nibblers removed themselves from the scene the Lawgivers were so busy with the other attendees that they didn't bother with the Kobolds-- it had been a clean getaway. Unfortunately, as the days passed, it became quickly apparent that Lawgivers had obtained and acted upon some very useful information and, unfortunately for Blackscale, some of that information was related to the Nibblers' activities in the Business Quarter, and that was where his nest was active-- not exactly a pleasant result.

What started as a general increase of troops to address post-blitz fallout turned into targeted strikes throughout St Almar as the Lawgivers acted upon whatever information they'd obtained from the prisoners they'd rounded up. Crashing the gathering of organizations in the ruins of the temple turned out to net them a goldmine of useful intel, which was all bad for the Nibblers since their activities depend on going unnoticed and unaddressed.

Forced to restrict activities, the Nibblers' activites contracted, all but pulling out of the business quarter as they chose instead to bide their time and wait for the heat to die down. During that time Blackscale was able to take a little more time with his trainees and, thankfully, he wasn't pulled in multiple directions. It was a strange sense of accomplishment getting able to finally focus on activities-- Nak-Nak liked to call good coming out of bad situations 'finding the silver in the sewage' and Blackscale found the phrase to be particularly relatable.

Even as the Nibblers were resetting their activities and determining the new normal the other organizations were having issues of their own. The Pik-Zagn had one of their Sergeants captured and the grunts in attendance had been killed; most of the representatives from the Gathering Shadows had made it out safely based on what Blackscale had heard but the Lawgivers followed up a few days later with a raid on the rogue's guild in the basement of The Horn of Plenty. Blackscale was all but certain that the Lawgivers had been aware of its presence there for a long time but apparently the presence of the rogues at the big gathering was the final push they needed to raid the slum's main inn and tavern.

Out of all of the groups, it was Blackscale's opinion that the only participants who made it out as unscathed as the Nibblers were probably members of the Militia of Holus. The kobold didn't know much about the group and had only ever had some minor interaction with individuals from the Militia but their ability to pull on divine magics to take them to safety was certainly of benefit to them... as well as their allies among the Assembly who had gone with. Blackscale had no great need for a divine entity to follow; he had Vax, and Vax was a physical being, which, in his mind, was infinitely greater.

One other benefit of following a non-deific individual was that Vax was able to provide direct input to his followers without the need for prayer or omens or prophecy or whatever-it-was the gods used. No-- once the Lawgivers began their crack down the Nibblers had their marching orders, and that meant Blackscale was give a fresh set of orders and, for once, he didn't mind having to pivot his activities. After all, he reasoned, he and his nest were responsible for seeing to Majh Blackpaw... well, ALMOST all of his nest; Welkin had to be sidelined since attention had been pulled to him thanks to his broodmate, who was both a city watchman and a member of the Assembly.

Still, even short one of his number, Blackscale was able to complete his task with minimal difficulty. Since Majh Blackpaw was the commander of the city watch in the slums, the Lawgivers had little difficulty in identifying her when she'd been spotted at the gathering thus they came for her quickly. The Nibblers ha been ready for it and brought her to safety even as the inquisitors showed up at the barracks; they had entered into her office within two minutes of announcing themselves but by then Blackscale had already whisked her away.

Majh, as usual, proved to be an ally of kobolds; one of Blackscale's nest asked about Rak, Welkin's brother, to which she explained that she'd already given him the day off, sparing him the possibility of being apprehended. After that, Blackscale saw to it that the gnoll woman was guided to safety. Despite being an honorary member of the Nibbler's inner circle, she was not a kobold and, therefore, could not remain with them. Still, her apparent connection with Vax got her far further into their organization than any other non-scaled race, and that meant that she had the ability to commandeer Blackscale's control of his nest if she wanted; fortunately she didn't bother and they were able to continue their tasks, releasing Majh back into town a safe ways away from the watch house.

After that business returned to normal, more or less. The Lawgivers settled down and, by two days later, the Nibblers were starting to look at expanding back into the Business Quarter. The end result of the policing initiative by the elves were six collapsed knotholes and four dead Nibblers; by all accounting it was an acceptable loss. Happy to be getting back to the big picture, Blackscale was issuing out objectives on the morning of their first day returning to work when he was reintroduced to changing his plans: he was needed by Nak-Nak to meeting with some of the Assembly folks.

Not particularly happy to be dragged back into the mess, Blackscale nevertheless followed orders and went to join Nak-Nak to meet at the predesignated spot that could serve as a neutral ground. The kobold was particularly pleased to know that the site was not only outside of his nest's territory, but it was also unused except for meeting outsiders, thus any further information lost through the Assembly's careless activities wouldn't negatively impact the Nibblers. Although he didn't quite know why they were meeting again with Assembly personnel, Blackscale made due with following along in silence.

The reason, as it turned out, hit close to home: the Assembly group which called upon them were the very same group that included Welkin's brother. Rak, as he was called, had made constant and insistent demands to be shown to his brother. All of his words fell on deaf ears of course since Welkin was a Nibbler and Rak hadn't committed himself to the cause pushed forth by his scaled brethren. Despite being a Kobold, that still made him an outsider, and the Nibblers didn't owe him anything. Nak-Nak, however, found an effective way to gain a benefit out of the situation.

There was no way Rak would be allowed to see the inner workings of the Nibblers without pledging himself to it, but there was no reason that Nak-Nak couldn't utilize Blackscale to organize a meeting between the two siblings and Rak was therefore promised an opportunity to speak with his brother... presuming he were willing to complete a simple task on behalf of the Nibblers. It was the second time such an offer was extended to him and the initial request ended in an aborted attempt. Blackscale was happy to know that Rak was not a Nibbler since he obviously lacked the talents to get things done. That being said, however, he was still a possible option for spreading some chaos, and Nak-Nak was quick to seize that opportunity.

The Nibblers had far more resources than most of the big races gave them credit for. In fact, one of the lizard folk working with the kobolds was one of the few individuals in St Almar outside the Holy Temple who had any familiarity with potions. More than that, 'The Crone', as she was called, also had an innate aptitude with magical concoctions, which meant that the Nibblers had access to spell potions, and they were ready to test out some of their more interesting effects. The reason they hadn't done so at that point was because they needed to distance themselves from whatever might happen-- best to not let the Lawgivers know just how much power the Kobolds had.

So, after some discussion, the plan was made: Rak and his Assembly allies would give a special potion to a particularly troublesome Lawgiver. One of their number asked if it was poison, to which Nak-Nak clearly and honestly explained it was not. No, Blackscale acknowledged, the potion was not poisonous but it was, in a way, very deadly. Everyone in St Almar knew that Elves could not stand the presence of Orcs and, if the concoction was effective then the Lawgiver would be almost immediately and irrevocably turned into an Orc. The potion itself was of limited use, being specifically created for the effect of changing an Elf into an Orc, but it would definitely serve its purpose and be all but untraceable back to the Nibblers-- sewing chaos among their ranks and spreading confusion would be a fine secondary effect.

It was a fine solution and, as far as Blackscale was concerned, everyone benefited. It wasn't until Nak-Nak led him away that the full details of the plan was explained. "Welkyn will be kicked out of the Nibblers when Rak is done."

The statement caught Blackscale by surprise. "He's been doing well with traps. Why are we giving him up?"

Nak-Nak didn't even bother looking back at him as they made their way down the tunnel. "If Rak is successful then he can take Welkin off our talons-- the Lawgivers know him by name and the safety of the nest is more important than one kobold... and if he is NOT successful then we can send Welkin to him and claim it is failure for his family. That means Welkin is no longer associated with us and, if he's still alive when the Lawgivers move on to something else we can consider inviting him back... after he works twice as hard to earn his way back in."

Blackscale didn't really like the idea of taking advantage of one of their own but, at the same time he couldn't argue with results, and Nak-Nak had it planned out.