>>5366793>>5366788>>5366535>>5366376>>5366307>>5366305>>5366184>>5366175>>5366145>>5366049>>5366857“Enter,” you rely, granting the herbalist the permission she seeks.
There is a quiet jangling of chain but, to your surprise, when the female dwarf enters, it is without an attendant—she holds her own chains.
“Where isss your minder?” you demand.
“Everyone is very distracted,” she says, a half-explanation. “They’re all busy preparing for…”
“For our attack on the Dwarvesss,” you finish.
The Herbalist gulps, and nods.
“Shut the door,” you command.
She does so, and then approaches you where you sit, cross-legged, your elven moon-blade in your lap. It is your most typical meditative posture these days, bringing you a martial flavour of focus.
“What are you planning, sir?” she asks.
“Thiss isss most unsssubtle ssspycraft,” you teasingly hiss, drawing a small blush and a furious shake of her head.
“That’s not what I’m doing!” the Herbalist protests.
“I know,” you acknowledge. “You are here to try to conviccce me, one lasst time, to sspare your kinfolk… To not exxxterminate and enssslave them.”
Davora the Herbalist says nothing.
“It iss a fool’sss errand,” you sigh. “Their fate cannot be changed.”
“Do you… Not value what I have to say at all?” she asks quietly.
“Quite the contrary,” you say. “A dwarf’sss insight… YOUR insssight… Iss immensssely valuable. If you can aid in thisss effort, I imagine you will expedite our victory, perhapsss force a dwarven surrender… And thuss sspare many livesss.”
Davora hesitates further, but slowly nods.
“I… Thought something similar. I have a plan that I think will work, to lure them out of their defensible positions and to somewhere where you can more easily… You know, um, CAPTURE them. Alive.”
“Eassier ssaid than done,” you note. “When one sside fightsss to kill, and the other to wound or capture, the sssecond faction isss at a disssadvantage.”
“But you are the Dragonborn Champion, right?” she asks. “The hero of the, um, Master Race? The conqueror of the mountains? You can surely manage anyway?”
Davora has many virtues, but subtlety is not among them. She is altogether too earnest, direct, transparent. When she approaches you, squeezing her elbows together to accentuate her speckled bosom, poorly feigning awe and innocence in an appeal to your pride and lust, you nearly burst out laughing in spite of the distinct aesthetic appeal. You stifle a snigger, and she looks a little hurt, before sighing and dropping the entire act.
“Please, sir, if you let me… I can lure them out into the open to come ‘save us’… Me and the other dwarf girls. And some of those herbs you collected, you know… When you went to see the um, Worm Queen? Those are sedatives.”
