Wellby's chat with Nym

OOC: Assuming we have time. Not sure what the plan is.
Wellby is going to go locate Nym and say "I need to talk to you. Privately."

Nym, startled, looks over to Welby, as Shaill motions for her to come over.

"I don't have long," she says, as she starts to walk toward the library. "What is it that you need to tell me?"

"This may take a bit, if you need to finish talking to Shaill; nym go ahead I can wait a few minutes."
Nym hears Wellby's voice in her head "We are in a bit of a time crunch here, and I need to talk to you."

Nym waves a hello to Shaill, and furrows her brow for a couple seconds, while looking at her aunt.

"I have a bit. Let's go. Perhaps we should even take a stroll out of the manor..."

"As long as the Guard Spiders don't attack; that would be ideal." Wellby then follows Nym.

Once outside the castle, while looking around for spiders, Nym turns to Welby, and asks,
"What is it that you wanted to tell me?"

Wellby is walking round with a onyx colored wood cane with an onyx gem on top.
"Well first off congratulations on being free from your arcane afflictions." Wellby pauses for a sec
"You are now a free person with nothing to hold you down, no obligations, nothing. I am quite happy to see that happen to a person; makes me jealouse. Now without the others trying to force obligations or guilt onto you I want to know. Are you planning on staying with your aunt and helping her in her bloody coup in reviving her clan or are you coming back to the surface with us?"

Occ: I am just amused by this tiny halfling walking next to Nym with his cane, talking lke a wise old man.

"I think Shaill is going to ask me to stay. She keeps finding an excuse to talk to me, and I keep avoiding her. I really don't want to stay in the Underdark though. I don't belong in either world, but I am safer on the surface, and have to put up with Kimmiriel or deadly Drow culture.

ooc: Wellby's had a few days to think on this. Plus his background explains part of his acting.

"I do get the feeling you would be more of a pet even though you have blood relations to the head of clan; being a half elf limits it. How do you feel about Berric? Do you still want to help him reclaim rhoen from his sister?"

"Yes. I would. But what happens after that? People like me don't become heroes; we're the ones that no one likes to remember. Either I hide who I am forever, or watch the stares for the rest of my life. But the Underdark terrifies me even more..."

"Cant become a hero? Who was it that saved Phandelin from the red brands and prevented The Spider from claiming the spell forge? Who defeated the green dragon in thundertree and slayed the 2 half dragon brothers who plotted to reclaim the Spellforge? Who saved phandelin when that traitor tried to take over? You've done more than I have ever done in this group by far, even more than any normal being had done. Trust me, you are hero, even a truer hero than the others because you ask for nothing in return."
Wellby looks off into the distance
"You may not think no one will remember you when you die, but your wrong. I will. And so will everyone else you've been involved with. You have my support, my trust and my loyalty because you are my friend, and I never forget my friends. The stares don't matter as long you have people who support you. Heck I've been stared at and treated as a villian since I was born and I'm a halfling, even  people I've grown close to have distrusted me to the point that I have been spied upon thinking I am evil and corrupt." Wellby turns his face away slightly at the last statement.

Nym waits for a moment, before saying,

"Any creature that calls you corrupt, any being that distrusts you for your appearance will have to deal with me too. You are more honorable and more consistent than any member of this party. Ticket was a crazy, Lander will act on his every impulse, and rapidly change from smiling to scowling, Hanbei would betray half this party to protect his or his family's interest, and Berric, well, Berric is learning what it's like to actually lead, and he is inconsistent as ****. To be honest, I am scared of all of them, and the High Priest too. What happens when they decide this (gestures to an eldritch bolt lying in her hand) is evil?

and that wasn't me; that was Shaill. Go thank her."

Edit: to part about Berric

Don't get me wrong; I adore Berric, and I care for him.But I don't her worship him anymore. I see him not for the god king he was, but the man he is, struggling to make the right choices, while dealing with conflicts between his morals and what he needs to do. He makes mistakes, like anyone.

Oooohhhh! I love this discussion. Maybe some inspiration to be earned here

ooc: I am enjoying it myself.
"Heh wasn't you? You and her worked in tandem, even though she was more concerned with protecting herself and gaining power. She only cares bout her clan and drow way of life, she will lie and smile to berric to get him away. You made the decisions on where to go most of the time, and she only appeared when big magic was needed. The others all have their personal issues same as we do. They will have to decide how to handle it and see if it makes them better people or not. Ticier lost himself in emotional rage brought by his trauma, did you see how broken he was afterwards and to the point of his death by the intellect devourers? If he had lived, he would've reformed and started to heal with help.  Lander was having an identity crisis thanks to losing his confidence with truffle. I'm still wary of Hanbei and Simeon, though mostly due to other inconsistences.  Berric...."
Wellby gives a hollow chuckle
"I agree he is naïve, still being influenced by family. At the moment his use of his faith is as an excuse; to control his guilt and cover his own mistakes. He trusts everyone else more than me because I gave him a target to be suspicious of. It keeps his guard up. I'm the 'lesser evil' he'll barely tolerate till he has an excuse. Which allows me to question his faith and decisions and reaffirm it for him. He may wave in your direction when he complains he has 'warlocks' but in reality he looks me in the eye each time. He wont do anything to you till he 'purges' me of my corruption and at that point, he will lose everything. Even the protection I've been giving him."
"I have no reason to thank her; I knew she was only protecting herself. Letting her regain her body was my thanks as I needed that to happen to heal you."
"Me honorable? First time I heard that one. I tend to hear, 'thief!' or 'murderer!' "
Wellby points the cane at the bolt
"That is only evil if its used for evil purposes. You never made the bargain with Shaill's patron or there would've been issues. You should have more confidence. But I know you felt it, I have; that power is fading from you and going back to its proper owner; you also do not have full control of it, it will probably disappear faster than anyone thinks. Soon you will be just another half drow."
"Which will be an issue if we get into a fight, we lost a good portion our fighting strength. And some people will be concerned with protecting all the non combatants we're dragging along now. What Berric doesn't know is that there are different groupings (rankings) of Old Ones and some groups actually work to just oppose the others."

Nym had begun to walk away before Welby's speech, but by the end of it, she turns around to face Welby.

"You have been dealing with all our sh*t for quite some time. Has anyone ever offered you help, talked to you about your life, even asked you where you're from?"

She is obviously avoiding the Old One topic.

"No one has actually. Everyone's content with knowing I was a burglar and they kept a close eye on their things. Had to handle everything on my own."
Wellby leans a bit on his cane.
"Why? Do you want to know?"

"Tell me what you want to tell me. We're a team, and we should be able to support each other."

"You sure? Is a bit of a tale."
He leans back, brief smile on his face.
"To start off with I was born in the kingdom of Cormyr. Very prosperous kingdom with the world renowned Purple Dragons Unit. Anyone could be a Purple Dragon but the true power was royalty and nobility.  "
"My family was a disgraced one. No one alive in the kingdom currently knows why, but have been taught we were and continued to treat us like so. What I was told from family tradition was that we were songcrafters centuries ago. My ancestors had set out to make the ultimate song, something that could move even the gods, they used all means they could to make the song and had made six sheets for the song. My family couldn't play it but had a respectable band play it. But before they played the final sheet, they had stopped, acting as if they had finished the song. Applause and cheering had occurred, but then the band betrayed us, they took full credit for the song. My ancestors protested but when they showed the proof that the sheets were authentic, they had been switched. They were branded imposters being told it was impossible for halflings to make such moving music. The original sheets were given to a noble at the time and have such been split apart."
"So I had decided to find the original sheets and claim them. The sheets had my family's mark very cleverly hidden such that only we could spot it off the bat but difficult for anyone else."
Wellby pauses for a few seconds incase of any questions.

"oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Have you made any progress? Is there anything we can do?

"Getting to it. The sheets had been spread around and faerun is a large place. So I had joined a mercenary company; thats what groups and guilds were called there; that had the best information network. After a year or 2 I finally got a message from the groups contact in rhoen. This was about 5 years ago. It said that a nobleman there had some old music sheets on display and they could be it. It asked to go and meet him first."
Wellby's expression starts to loom dismayed
"I was able to make the trip and talk to the contact. Rhoen looked horrible, heard the queen was harsh. I was then able to scout the noblemans place see how the guard patrols were and formulated my plan. On the night of the heist, I was able to sneak in. Got past all the guards, a little too easy, and got inside. I made my way to the study and found a display case which held not one but 2 music sheets. I opened it and double checked them. They were authentic and they were the first two pages! I was so happy till I heard a scream."
Wellby pauses again almost like hes bracing himself.

Nym just stares, riveted.

"Against my better judgement, I went to see what the scream was. It came from the lords bedchambers. As I got to the door, I heard what sounded like a blunt object hitting flesh. But when I peeked in, I saw something else."
Wellby visibly shudders.
"A large monster or demon of some kind with blades for arms was in there hacking into the remains of what i assume were the lord and lady. No sign of entry or anything, but I quickly left. I was able to get off the premises unspotted and almost to what was my base of operations when I was grabbed by the city guard."
Wellby takes deep breath.

Nym gasps a bit. She remembers the guards of Rhoen, and not too fondly.

"Well as soon  as they grabbed me, they knocked me out. I woke up in a cell with my arms hanging from chains. All my clothing and gear gone. Some guards show up claiming I had murdered the lord and lady, their servants and most of the guards. 30 in total. And they were going to get me to confess the crime. I told them what had killed them and they simply laughed. They then proceeded to torture me for 2 months straight. Compared to what ticier did to the priestess, ticier was the gentle one."

Wellby rolls up his right sleeve. As soon as the cuff is rolled up, there is barley any part of the arm which doesnt have a scar of some sort. If you didnt see the body the arm was attached to, it could be eaisly mistaken for some monster's arm. Sometimes it looks like there are scars over scars. Unlike the scar over Wellby's left eye these are more 'naturally' colored scars. After a few seconds he quickly rolls it back down. The scars look like they go into his hand but the hand is covered by the gloves he wears. They also look like they continue towards his torso.

"I've had to try and get it healed by clerics, but they wont disappear, 'scars of the soul' is an apt term. Even Berric and simeone wouldnt be able to heal them." Wellby takes another deep breath.
"At the end of the second month was when I met...him."