Piper's got her staff back. Hopefully she makes better use of it this time. Poor short buff hero, whose name I can't remember, already down. He'd probably be ok if Burke hadn't broken his magic steroid potion.

I do wonder who the 5th hero on their side is.

Damn, hero battle royal!

Pablo is still a diplomat and most heroes wouldn't harm him but would only want to capture him. Wouldn't that mean that he could waltz now in any group of heroes and make demands especially since he has now a high ranking hero at his side that none of the heroland heroes know is actually rogue? I think there are plenty of options on the table how to play this card...

Ok, what are the bets that Burk is going to be the first to get out?

@Sporf might be the guy with the wood sword

Dammit Barry!

@Zet Right! Pudu was chosen because he was one of the few who would participate in the assassination. Unfortunately Pablo doesn't know this...

@Zet

Icy Queen has actually been rogue before this incident even began, so it won't quite work I don't think.

@Sloss I think it's nightshade to be honest - he lost his powers for a chunk of time after all.

@Zet

Except even before all of the Eddstadt incident happened, Icy Queen had a bounty on her head. Page 1382-1383 for refresher.

@Sporf Nightshade would appear the obvious candidate.

1) He's a friend of the icy queen
2) He likely only followed the orders of Vonny to avoid suffering her fate
3) He knew what was going on with the contracts and Vonny
4) So when his powers return he must realize that the contract enslaving him is gone
5) He must have a huge grudge against the Eddstat executives who were ultimately behind enslaving him with the magic contract

and

6) Conservation of detail. He's one of the few Eddstadt heroes we've been introduced to that aren't already on their side or were recently incapacitated by Burk.

@Sporf, the Nightshade hero, of course! He's friends with the Ice Queen, he was friendly with the party, his power must have returned by now.

Pidu has one trick that they've mastered. It's a useful trick, but it's also a known trick that's only as powerful as he is. In the hands of someone as powerful as, say, Burk, it would be an incredibly dangerous trick. In the hands of Pidu, it's only really dangerous to those already on Pidu's level.

As for what Pidu's level is, I suspect he's Elite Shader level. High enough that he can hold his own as a Hero, but low enough that the real Big-Hitters & Authority don't care about him being a greedy little *insert swears* that's exploiting his position.

You all have made a good case for nightshade. My only concern on him is that he did know more about the contracts than he let on. He was working directly with the cat and seemed happy to do so. He even tried to to trick Burk into signing the contract. All of his interest in Burk seemed to stem from him thinking Burk was under cover. He did point Pablo in the direction of ice queen so it does make sense that he would help over Skystroke but I'm still curious as to his role in this whole mess.

@Zet, Pablo just escaped a murder attempt while in "protective custody". And before that, he escaped another cover murder attempt, and then a brazen kidnapping attempt in broad daylight. He knows his status doesn't protect him anymore as long as the executives are running the show.

In those circumstances, surrendering to the Herodrop heroes in the off chance that he could turn them against the executives would be pretty reckless.

But on the other hand, Pablo has a habit of doing this kind of ballsy moves, so... I guess we'll see? ^^

I'm not sure if Nightshade is an actual ally, he seems out for himself (re: new voting incentive). But I think Icey Queen believes he is an ally.