Back with the Burner Worm situation
Okay, this... you should try to kill them- you should try to kill most of them. Keep a couple smaller ones alive in... a stone container? Or something? Live Burner Worms might lead to figuring out a cure faster. (If you can avoid them torching everything)
So you call for the Workers while directing a Suncrawler to go to the Burner Worm mass and see about... pulling out a couple, killing the rest.
Grabbing live Worms proves tricky; in the first place, the heat is intense enough for the Suncrawler's jelly flesh to noticeably evaporate as it reaches into the mass. In the second place, the two Worms the Suncrawler first grabs apparently die to the poison in its flesh, because they go still shortly after first being grabbed and when the Workers first show up one daring Worker simply grabs the two Worms directly and-
Cold? Cold??
-not only doesn't get burned but makes it clear the Worms aren't giving off heat anymore.
So it's a bit lucky the process of working through the rest of the mass is going so slowly, as it gives you the opportunity to send a Worker to retrieve your spear from the carriage, so you can use it to try to pull a Burner Worm out without poisoning it to death. The spear itself is entirely steel, and thankfully doesn't heat up enough to become soft, so this works without hurting the spear's utility... though you do have to drop it after the second Worm; the heat goes up the pole.
The Workers themselves actually grabbed a jar for long-term containment of Scuttlers; you'd asked them to make some kind of container, but they'd spent a minute talking with each other, and apparently settled on simply grabbing the Scuttler jar, which was about the right size, made of stone, and had a lid. (Also made of stone) They did collect some twigs and other things as part of making a makeshift storage to transfer what Scuttlers had been in the jar, so they did make something in the end, but not the Burner Worm jar.
The other Burner Worms die pretty easily to the 'let the Suncrawler poison kill them' strategy; even as their kin were dying right next to them, the survivors remained slithering around inside Petra's armor, apparently oblivious. It wasn't until only a couple Burner Worms were left that this changed; at that point, one Burner Worm exited the armor and beelined for you, the other Worm following closely in your wake. They weren't exactly swift, so you weren't in any real danger, but it was still alarming and you ended up having the diminished Roller rush in to finish the job.
Looking closely at the Burner Worm bodies, at last able to see the full body of one, you're left with many questions. You can't find eyes, ears, or indeed any obvious orifices; they remind you very much of an oversized earthworm, though flattened a bit (Somewhat like a snake), and their surface reminds you most closely of one of the severe burn scars Abandonne's old smith had. (The story of how he got it was his favorite 'youthful misadventure' to share, even though it was simply him being careless one day as an apprentice to the prior smith) A closer look shows very fine... hairs? You're not sure, but they're short, almost transparent, and surprisingly stiff to the touch, and cover much of the Burner Worm body.
Your initial attempts at having the Suncrawler kill the Burner Worms involved tearing at their flesh with the bones of its hands, which was slow and ineffective work but did result in gashes. Burner Worm blood turns out to be a pale pink fluid; with a touch of nausea you realize you recognize the color from the 'candied bread', giving them an odd glossy look that helped set them apart from other breads. You never really spent much time around hunters, fishers, butchers, and so on, so you don't really know if what you can see of the Burner Worm insides is atypical for an animal or not.
Once you're recovered from the chase and all this is wrapped up, you make a mental note to have a Boulder crush the remains into paste and then cover the whole thing in dirt and rocks, just in case, and head off to deal with the remaining soldiers.
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Speaking of
Well. You'll... give this 'accept their surrender' thing a try then? Cautiously, to be sure, but not unkindly.
"How about this; I have my troops make some space, send in my harmless Gatekeeper, you pass your weapons to them, and once that's done then we can all relax and have a nice chat?" You decline to mention the Gatekeeper's paralytic bite, but otherwise this seems a fair outcome.
There's murmurs, uneasy glances at the Boulders, at you, and at each other, but ultimately one soldier says, "We agree to these terms."
So you smile a little more widely as the Boulder ring takes a few steps back in unison, not enough to create a gap to safely run between but far enough back the Boulders aren't almost in reach to attack. The soldier whose face you can see most clearly is clearly unnerved by this, but after the Boulders stop moving you can see the soldiers lowering the points of their weapons. So you nod to the Gatekeeper, and it obligingly swoops in, taking the swords one after another and holding them with its four armpits-
Clean. Clean. Clean. Clean.
-and its antennae dancing and glowing as it checks for Burner Worms and finds none. Huh. How curious.
The soldiers clearly notice the glowing and don't like it, but they don't say anything and you're not sure how they could possibly know what it actually means so in the end you aren't terribly concerned.
Once that's done, you direct the Boulders to adjust their formation so the soldiers are only half-encircled, with Rollers at the ready to maneuver some of them if the soldiers do make a break for it. Some of the tension drains out of the soldiers (One less so than his peers, but still), and they cautiously adjust their own formation so as to all be facing you. One soldier -the one you're pretty sure muttered something about not actually being allowed to surrender- looks pretty mutinous, but still.
Then you step forward and seat yourself in the grass, two Suncrawlers dragging themselves forward to flank you, and you say, "Please, sit! If you'll not attack, we'll not attack."
"I think we would all be more comfortable standing... Dame Sabrina. The armor, you see," the soldier who originally called out to you hurriedly says.
You shrug. "Suit yourself." As you've worked up a bit of an appetite with all this excitement, you ask a Worker to bring up a container of Scuttlers. "So I have many questions, and I'm sure you all have plenty yourself, but my first question is quite important: why are you selling Bu- Brandstifter flesh to peasants in the Freelands?" Oops, hahaha, trying to be nice, not let on how angry you are about Estvalee being wiped off the map!
As the Scuttler jar arrives and you bite very violently into a Scuttler to vent that anger away from the men in front of you, you take in the immediate responses of these men; lots of confusion, the mutinous-looking man looking especially mutinous- "Blasphemous witch," -and either not realizing you can hear him or not caring enough to be adequately quiet, and... well. Mostly just confusion. Hmm.
A different man -the most bearded of these men, who was originally facing away from you- eventually says, "I- I don't wish to offend? But that- that can't be happening." His hangdog expression makes it clear he expects to be struck down for calling you a liar.
And. Well. You are a bit miffed. But no, no, not that miffed, certainly not at someone who... probably isn't directly involved, given he doesn't think such a thing could be happening. So you bite off (crunch) the urge to snap at the man, think through things... and there's really an obvious response to that. "And why would that be, sir?"
Mutinous Man is the one who responds instead. "Blessings are earned, fought over, passed out only to those who suck up to Königin Leonie's court or her thrice-damned puppet church." You note how the other men cringe and lean away from Mutinous Man but don't speak up in disagreement. "They would never be sold for anything less than a princely sum, and certainly not to unworthy Dominated peasants." More cringing, more leaning away, but still none of them rebuke the man.
Hmmm. You put a pin in this thought for the moment; if they are lying, you can't tell, and if they're honest, they can't answer your questions on this point. "So it's not actually standard for Commoners to have... Brandstifters in them," you say, intending it as a question and finding yourself delivering it as a plain fact.
The men are all shaking their heads, and the man who first called for surrender says, "The priests say it will be so someday-" That was Ada's horrifying utopian future, you remember. "-but only once the unworthy are weeded out, Teufel's servants banished, and all that remain are the chosen."
Mutinous Man mutters, "Leonie's chosen suckups, sure," which you ignore because it's not anything different from what he said a moment ago.
You crunch down on another Scuttler, ignoring how the men all look aghast again, rolling this info around in your head. This isn't really at all like what you'd been envisioning the Common Lands to be like. You still need to put a stop to Neustadt shipping out Burner Worm 'candied bread', but you'd been imagining the city as... all being in on this awful plan. Yet here are soldiers, and they seem unaware.
Hmm. You gesture broadly at the uncomfortable-looking group. "So why were you willing to surrender, anyway?" You're still confused by that.
Even the mutinous man looks confused, though it's the beardy man who speaks up. "When the alternative is dying futilely? Is that even a choice?"
You don't disagree with the idea, but... "Petra clearly disagreed."
You're not really surprised when Mutinous Man's expression goes back to surly, he spits to one side, and he speaks up with a sneer. "The Heiligwachtmeister wanted more blessings."
You stare blankly for a moment, food entirely forgotten for several seconds as you try to come to grips with the words you just heard. "I'm sorry- more? More Burner Worms?" You remember after a moment that the Commoners call them Brandstifters, but before you can correct yourself-
-the man who has spoken least so far interrupts your thoughts. "There are greater blessings reserved only for... a select few." He glances sideling at Mutinous Man here for some reason. "Or so the priests always say. Supposedly many in the capitol are so blessed, but I have never seen such myself."
Okay, that's vague, unhelpful, and rather worrying. What would be a 'greater blessing' than a bunch of Burner Worms? You're not sure, but the very idea fills you with no small amount of dread.
So you change topics; "Okay, I only have three final questions for all of you: firstly, were you assailed by the Storm Beasts sometime in the last weeks?" There's brief incomprehension, but after a moment someone says something about 'Sturmmonsters' and suddenly they're all nodding. (And looking a bit confused) "Okay, thank you. Question two! How would Commoners... clean up a pile of Brandstifters?"
You're not really surprised when they collectively indicate that a 'blessed' individual (Preferably a priest) would go in, load them into a cauldron, and haul them back to be passed out to others. Sickened, but not surprised. More interesting is that they speak of this as a hurried process, as if it would be undesirable to wait. Not terribly helpful to you, though.
"Okay! Last question: if I just... let you folks go, what would you do? Hypothetically."
Beardy man is very confused and asks, "You're not going to ransom us back to Neustadt?"
You blink a couple times, eat another Scuttler, and say, "I'm considering my options, but- would Neustadt even pay such a ransom?"
There's some awkward shuffling. Mutinous Man looks more mutinous. "My family has disowned me, and I assure you my martial prowess is not valued enough for the Bürgermeister to spend any of their money on getting it back, even if they weren't the bishop's patsy." Once again, you note how the other men wince and lean away but don't say anything. You're getting the impression they don't disagree but think you shouldn't say such things aloud. Or maybe they just expect you to smite him for being so blunt? Ada seemed afraid to openly disagree with you, as well.
Beardy man smiles weakly. "I'm sure it wouldn't be much from the perspective of one such as yourself, dame Sabrina, but my family would certainly pay if what you asked was within their means."
The man who first called for surrender looks embarrassed as he says, "I have... a family connection to the Bürgermeister. They would pay the expected amount." He glances sidelong at Mutinous Man as if he expects the man to make a remark, but no such remark is forthcoming.
Lastly, the quietest man says, "Probably not for me," with no other explanation beyond looking very, very sad to admit so.
Hm. Okay, interesting, but not your original question. "I'd still like to hear what you'd do if I simply let you go. Would you run off to warn Neustadt, for example?"
The response from there is a bit chaotic, but the overall picture is that they'd go home, report to their superiors, etc, exactly as you suspect. The only wrinkle is that Mutinous Man makes a bitter remark suggesting he doesn't actually want to go back to Neustadt but doesn't see himself as having a choice.
Hmmm.
[]You'll accept their surrender more properly, have the Workers tie them up, and come back to this topic after... whatever happens with Neustadt tonight.
[]You'll explore the idea that they could perhaps defect -they don't have Burner Worms, one of them seems to want to defect, and none of them seem all that devoted to 'the cause'.
[]You'll try ransoming them to Neustadt after all; you're not sure you want to attack the city tonight given all you've learned, and why not get some money out of Neustadt's coffers? It might hurt their operations somehow.
[]Write-in. (If you want to just ask them more questions, you can do that, but I'm only letting that last one more update; still got to get to Teo and Ada, and if Sabrina goes after Neustadt tonight she'll want to do so as early as feasible, not spend all night playing 20 questions with these folks)
