Lilja smiles. "Very astute of you, wise friend. Yes, the very same incident that called good Snorri into service tonight, is one that has replayed itself over and over to the poor people of Grabenhorst. I, for one, am tired of it, and its time that those responsible are brought to justice!" She throws a brief angry glance at Hrafn, who mistakes it for a cue to speak.
"With all due respect... adventurers...", he says with a sour look on his face, "the council has this well in hand, and young Lilja here has had a few too many drinks."
Lilja stands so that she is looking down on the smaller man, before speaking. "Do not make false accusations, man. Your precious council has failed us at every turn. What are they doing now, as another child is taken into the night? More meetings over wine and bread? Plotting another fools excursion into the frozen wastes for a magical cup? Bah!"
Hrafn backs away from Lilja's attention, nearly tripping over a bar stool. "This is an outrage! You cannot speak to me that way, I am a council member! This will NOT go unreported, I can guarantee you this." Gathering his robes around him, and perhaps even his dignity, he turns, and promptly leaves the Inn.
Lilja shakes her head, and turns back to the party. "I must apologize. The council is an arrogant body that has ruled this town for far too long. If it weren't for Snorri and his loyal guard, they'd long ago have driven us from this place." She picks up a goblet from the bar and takes a drink. "Water", she says to answer the unspoken question.
"Now where were we. Ah yes. A hands worth of moons back, the first dwarven son was taken. At first many thought he had simply gotten lost, much to his father's embarassement. He never returned, and it was clear that something else had happened. As the searches were called off, another son was taken, and then another. Including tonight, 9 have been taken. Everyone has a theory, but it boils down to this: there is a hidden organization out there targeting dwarven children, and this will continue until they are found out, and stopped." Lilja takes another drink of water before continuing.
"The problem is that the miners are very secretive, and so we rarely get good information as to where these incidents occur." Lilja smiles briefly, "... but these villians made one mistake. They let one of the boys escape, who managed to return to town with a story. He was confused and dizzy from the drug they used on him, but I'm confident he saw enough to know this: the boys are being taken to a cave in the mountains. The villians wore hoods, so the boy was unable to identify them in any way, but he swears there were scaled hands on his arm."
Lilja passes her eyes over every member of the party, including Rhiannon who has quietly joined the group. "You are an interesting group. Not what I imagined would come to help, but you are here just the same. If you would be interested, I have a small task for you."
