Zero Polls the People

[Zero.]

One cool Autumn evening, just after sunset, Zero can be found hunched in a chair in a back corner of the inn, a glass of dark ale in hand. She raises her gaze to scan the room. Plenty of people around, but things aren't too chaotic. Perhaps now may be a good time.

She stands, banging a fist on the table to get the townsfolk's attention.

"As many of you are aware, a few of us went to visit Baralof last month. We wanted to figure out his goal, his plans, and what he wanted from us. In short, he asked us to remove the barrier keeping him out of Holdfast, and offered to potentially give information on other Ascended in return. He wants to get into Holdfast, he wants the power, but doesn’t seem to have a plan yet. To clarify, us removing the barrier doesn’t mean he wins. It is, of course, a risk. However. If anyone has ideas for bargaining chips, we may be able to use his.... potential willingness to cooperate to our advantage.

While there, we told him we would write him within the month with the opinions of the people. So I would like to know your thoughts. What do you all think we should do with this opportunity? If you want to attempt to bargain with him, do you have any insight as to what other information or help he could offer? If we aren't interested, does anyone have reasoning they'd like to give?"

[Gull]

Gull leans over the counter and drums his fingers. "Write a letter with a lot of words that ultimately says nothing. Let him read into it what he likes and see what we learn about him when he responds. Fawn a little bit so he underestimates us. We don't want him to be in a hurry to act. Of course, no question that the barrier stays up. Tell him we don't know how to take it down, it'll help the whole underestimation bit too. Helps that it's also the truth."

[Rudi]

Rudi turns to look when Zero bangs her glass, and listens as Gull speaks. "I agree with Gull. It probably helps us that the ascended don't have a high opinion of eachother, then us taking down Godo doesn't seem like the biggest deal to him. I don't have much to add, though."

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