bravenewworld | The Queen of the Citadel

[The feed from the Warp Band flickers and focuses briefly on the face of an unhappy looking young man with his hands bound behind his back before it rotates back around. A severe looking woman is seated upon what seems to be a throne...]

What a curious device. I can see the use though. Am I speaking to the people of Union and Caldera? I am Frea, Matriarch of the Valkyrie tribes of the Citadel. Some of my girls said you gave them a run for their money. Good. It keeps them on their toes.

Anyway, here’s the deal. I've got… about twenty of your people. They’re getting a bit homesick and I don’t really want to keep them. Fact of the matter is, I've got a bit of a situation and they were ripe targets with all that food they were carrying. There’s an enormous Pokémon that’s been thrashing around our territory and burning just about everything it can get to. It’s driving the game away and has messed up a few of our tribes already. My people need food, and this sucker doesn't seem keen on leaving. So here’s my thought. First, I’ll return your people and their equipment to you. Can’t give back the food, already got eaten, sorry about that. If you can help us drive off this Pokémon, though, we can work it off. You scratch my back, I scratch yours, you know how it goes. We've got some things you guys might find interesting and valuable, but I can’t exactly part with any of it while I have an enormous monster of flame and steel beating down my door. Sound good?

[Those who have penetrated far enough into the Rolling Plains have made visual contact with something interesting. Far to the north at the end of the plains, there is a single tree, enormous in size. Frequent flocks of large flying types with mounted female riders can be seen coming to and fro, and the more keen-eyed among you can see that there appears to be an entire city built into the tree. The tree itself, clearly this “Citadel” Frea mentioned, seems to touch the sky, not even fully visible due to the cloud cover.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Little girl we're not ransoming them. We'll release them as soon as you have people in the area to take them back. As a show of good faith. Or do you want us to set them loose in the plains while that Pokemon is around?

Good faith would have been not kidnapping them in the first place. Or do your people make a habit of attacking first and asking questions later?

They aren't Valkyrie and they were in our rangings. You should be grateful we brought them back instead of leaving them to get eaten.

Edited 2014-07-26 19:24 (UTC)

That's true, but that hardly makes up for having attacked them in the first place. And implied threats are hardly the best way to engender feelings of goodwill or trust. I'm sure many people are asking themselves why we should help you at all after the way you've just treated us. They wouldn't be entirely unwise to suspect that your true intent is to obtain our assistance with the promise of a later reward only to use us as cannon fodder and then attack and loot us again after the larger threat has been dealt with. You've shown yourselves to be perfectly willing to employ underhanded tactics already.

Nobody said you have to help us. I'm offering to work it off if you do. If not, well, we'll see where this thing goes once it's done with us.

I can't say I'm not still suspicious of you, but...

[Lenna sighs. She's angry, but in the end, daddy taught her more than just how to stand up to bullies. There's also that part about being kind and offering help to people in need.]

It would be just as wrong to leave people in danger. You're right that this Pokémon could pose an even larger threat to more people if it's left alone.

Be suspicious all you want, but you probably wanna come get your people one way or another.

Yes, you're right. The rest can come after everyone is safe.

Agreed. We've bigger Magikarp to fry at the moment.

The Queen of the Citadel

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