Jibril snatches the gun and shoves off one foot to her feet and off Tar'lak. Tar'lak rolls to the side on all fours and he just pants heavily as he looks up at Kane.
Kane is humanoid looking despite his towering 9 feet tall stature and lanky style frame that hides a rippling layer of muscle and abs with a barrel chest that
is chiseled and hugging against the strange suit he seems to enjoy wearing. Kane's androgynous face has notable masculine features but he could be mistaken for a tall muscular woman if he ever had breasts and the sizable bulge in his dress pants didn't make it more obvious he is packing heavy. Tar'lak is confused by this man as Kane reaches up to brush a stray black hair quill over his shapely ear and exposes three earrings with a Seer Stone in one, his eyes pierce into Tar'lak soul but they did not glow as it did for Jibril and he doesn't appear to be radiating black smoke or hints of darkness around him like he was before.
"Who are you?" Tar'lak growls, impatient.
"I am Kane" Kane answers bluntly.
"Then you are the one i came to see" Tar'lak replied, eyes hovering his face.
"You have questions, I have answers" Kane states, "But let's be clear about something, neonate"
Kane crouches down until he's on one knee as he rests his elbow on his knee while grabbing his hand and he settles on the position.
"I have plans for the two of you. If i ever see you two with a gun in either of your hands again" Kane snaps his fingers and the G19 reappears inside his hands, "I won't be happy with you. These are MY weapons. These are MY people. They carry MY cargo. You are just along for the journey to ensure i get what i'm due. Are we clear?"
Tar'lak just nods, Jibril too.
"Now then" Kane snaps his fingers and the world goes greyscale as the night turns to a grey blur with the white moonlight shining through the trees and the small clearing they find themselves in. Kane goes over and lifts the dwarf off the ground and sets him on his feet. Brushing off the dirt and grime the dwarf had, he hold his hand on the dwarf's head and a burst of magic infused into the dwarf to where he slowly opens his eyes and he suddenly stops frozen in time. Kane smiles and looks back to Jibril assuring her: "He'll forget what he saw, no worries"
Tar'lak: "Why am i here"
Kane: "Interesting you say that, Child of Ashen, why ARE you here?"
Tar'lak: "Answer the question"
Kane: "It's just how Draco explained it to you, you are my key to Wraithmarsh in settling a deal. One that doesn't involve the genocide of your entire species and leaves your tribe live in prosperity"
Tar'lak: "You can't have the Hollows, it means more to us than it does to you"
Kane flicks his finger against Tar'lak's forehead with a loud THWACK.
Kane: "Wrong! It means more to me than you think. You think it's a pile of rocks and wet dirt and marsh wetlands filled with insects and dead spirits, think your ancestors and loved ones rest there to protect you. Please spare me the tribal talk, if i was dead I wouldn't care about the living when my problem is more the fact that i'm dead. The Hollows as you so plainly state sits on the largest deposit of crude oil and diamonds. As greedy as you may think of me, the diamonds are currency for us and only serve to push my agend. Earthly wealth means nothing to me, but the people i need to do the work i need do value it. Which means i must make them happy to make me happy. Quid Pro Quo. The oil in the wetlands is valuable to me for many reasons, namely it need it to create my empire and further speed up my plans of world conquest."
Tar'lak: "Conquest? All for this over oil!?"
Kane: "Yes, little man, it matter greatly. Now here's the problem: your tribe holds the area and they are going to die very soon. Slavers are coming and Shurifon isn't very thrilled about having their lands ravaged by thieves and murderers, lizardfolk included. With war coming in two months, Shurifon will fall and when that happens Fjornia will swarm this side of the world like locust. You figure out the rest on your own."
Tar'lak: "What do you want from us? We are just scavengers!"
Kane: "Yes and they are also very much neutral compared to the other uncivilized tribes unwilling to listen to reason. My minions have informed me that you are the son of the chieftain, I wish for you to speak on my behalf and get him to broker a peace between the tribes. If the tribes come together and leave Wraithmarsh or leave the NCR unopposed, we'll take what we need and we won't have issues. You can have the Hollows but we will desecrate the whole area to mine what we came there for, that is unavoidable. If we gain what we need from Wraithmarsh, NCR will repay the Ashen a hundred times over as payment for services rendered. I'm desperate for this and we must hurry before time runs out."
Tar'lak: "What you ask of me is impossible"
Kane flicks him on the forehead again, Tar'lak holds his forehead.
Kane: "Wrong! It is improbable, not impossible"
Tar'lak: "I don't understand"
Kane: "You have knowledge of what we Canaanites are capable of. Use it to scare them out of their homes, threaten them if you have to. Reptiles such as us are stubborn and hard to move once we are set on something, if you don't act and take charge you will bring down the entire world upon you. I'm trying to help you and your tribe save you from a impending doom"
Tar'lak: "By threatening to kills us and take our sacred land!"
Kane: "It is a quick and merciful death. Look to Slaven Claw tribe, the White Scales, the Red Fangs, the Minsk tribe, they're all enslaved, eaten alive, turned into trophies and their children are made into leather for some noble's undergarments. Do you think for a second the humans and the elves care about your lives? No. What i offer you is a choice, give me what i want and i will save your people. If you can't, I promise to make their deaths quickly it is the only kindness i can offer them despite their interference with my work. All i'm asking for is for you to try and help them see reason."
Tar'lak: "What choice is that? Either way, we die"
Kane holds up a finger: "But it is a choice. One choice has a chance of giving you freedom and your people a chance to live through the war by sacrificing your lands to fuel my people's needs. The other choice is sacrificing your people for the sake of some patch of land that will not matter for generations to come in some vain attempt to keep traditions alive and a superstitious faith blinding your people to the reality that the world is growing and maturing. Either your adapt to survive the new changes coming or you die choking on your own children's blood starving to death and must resort to cannibalism. Everything in Wraithmarsh is dying, Ashen, your people will die if they do not flee an settle elsewhere. You rely on Shurifon to fulfill your needs, without them, you'll perish weeks before the end of the war."
Tar'lak thinks to himself.
