Tove shifts uncomfortably. When the group had set out to find Bran's killer, it seemed like it was going to be a fairly straightforward task. But the man they had found was no bandit. No lunatic outlaw. Just a simple frontiersman, the kind of man she'd sworn to make this land safe for.
An uneasy feeling sits in Tove's stomach as she glances at the rest of her companions, looking for some sign that they feel the same.
Breaking his silence, Raz turns to the slayer and asks,"you know a lot about fey, I gather. What do you know of a queen nyrissa? A fey we encountered had said she is coming, before he turned invisible and ran away. Since we are poorly equipped to deal with invisible creatures, there was naught else we could do."Raz asks, trying to gather information about what the gathlain had mentioned earlier.
Breeg spits on the ground at mention of Queen Nyrissa. "Can't say that I know too much about her other than the cries and comments from her "subjects" as I put an end to them."
Looking around to the rest of the party (that he can see), he asks, "Are we done here, or do you have more you wanna talk about?"
I look to the huntsman, "What sort of cries and comments do her subjects make? Are they frightened of her, pleading for her help or using her name to scare you?" "I would like to get a feeling of this royal visitor, before she arrives. Maybe then I would be better suited to arrange for peace and an alliance of our people?"
I seem to be reverting to my old self a little bit more as the conversation goes on.
Breeg shrugs, "Mostly the second one I suppose...I guess I've heard a bit of both."
Tove regains some of her composure and a stern look crosses her face.
"You mentioned that the fey had stolen people away, specifically children? Was it anyone you knew?"
Breeg nods.
"Yeah, someone I knew and drove another someone I knew to madness and suicide." he says with a distinct mixture of anger and sorrow.
"You all seem to ask a lot of questions...who'd you say you were again, and why are you here?"
We are envoys from the swordlords of restov, charged with exploration of this region. We were moving through the area and saw your house.
"I'm deeply sorry for your loss. As my companion said, we are envoys of Brevoy. Our goal is to make these lands safe for those like you, which naturally requires us to be a little inquisitive."
Tove softly tries to justify the questioning.
"Thank you for your trouble. Please, if you find yourself seeking comfort or guidance, we have recently uncovered a shrine to Old Deadeye in a grove about a six hours trek due south of here. It is being tended by a friend of mine, Brother Jhod. Gather anyone else you know who could use our Lord's light too. If you go with my blessing you will be welcomed there."
"Fair enough, I suppose." Breeg says. "If I find myself in need of a bit of religion, I may just take you up on that offer."
Looking pointedly at Breeg Torsten asks "There was a man born of fey and human who may have crossed your path. Bran the Wolf Arrow he named himself. Something happened to him and I would know what that is."
A scowl crosses the face of Breeg. "You call that piece of filth Wolf Arrow or whatever else you want to, but its name wasn't Bran. Bran disappeared a long time ago."
Locking eyes with Torsten, the slayer continues, "What happened to him? I found him and killed him...and don't be fooled, Wolf Arrow was an example of what the fey leave behind when they steal a child from this world...I know that for certain."
Fingers tapping a still fairly-new pouch filled with packets and odd lumps Torsten responds, "No matter where he came from the Bran I knew was a good man. Surrender and an honest knight - not I! - will judge you for your ill deeds. Fight and I think this war with the fey will end for you. Not every man is a hero though he may think himself so."
"Surrender? Why would I do such a thing? If you think that I am repentant or even the least bit sorry for putting an end to that traitorous bastard you are sorely mistaken." Breeg growls, raising his bow again.
"Are you telling me that you count yourself on the same side as the damned fey?" he asks.
Tove grips her staff tightly, her eyes close as she clenches her jaw. What?
"Wait!" She turns to face the wizard. "Torsten please, we all liked 'Bran', I'm sure. But we knew that man for less than a week! Can we truly claim to know his intentions? What if he really was working for the Fey Queen?"
Somewhere in the bushes, Ivo quietly covers his eyes with his hand and shakes his head. Arguing in front of someone, showing that your team isn't even on the same page? It's going to be a long trip.
"I saw no sign of this, Tove. What did Breeg see that made him call Bran traitor? Was it no more than his tail? Could it be any more than that we have done already, disarming those foolish traps? I should need more to hang a man and carve words into his body.
"That there is some powerful fey out there with designs on this land seems so. Still we should not turn a blind eye to those who would kill on suspicion."
Torsten stops, breathing heavily.
I carefully step between Tove and Torsten, I look at each of them briefly. "Friends, while you both make compelling points in this debate, I think we should discuss this in a calm manner. Tove is correct we hardly knew him and his allegiance could have been towards the Queen. However Torsten also makes a fair point, to go to that level of desecration some evidence must have been available." I look at them both again before looking at the hunter and speaking to him directly, "I would greatly appreciate it if you could share your evidence with us, so that this can be settled peacefully."
"The boy named Bran was taken and replaced with that thing called the Wolf Arrow." Breeg says through gritted teeth.
"And before you ask how I know, Bran was my grandson...my daughter was the one who took her own life, driven mad by grief and the reminder of that freak left in her son's stead. She tried to love him as her own, but just couldn't...he betrayed everything she stood for."
Tove's heart sinks as she hears Breeg's testimony. She feels a deep sadness for the man, and his losses. The pain of losing family to the mysterious forces at work in these Stolen Lands is something Tove knows all too well.
"I'm so sorry for your loss Breeg." says the priestess. "Your family will be in my prayers tonight, and every night until the people of this land sleep safely."
Breeg nods in the direction of the priestess, acknowledging her comment.
"Is that enough evidence for you? Let us leave this man in peace, these woods are torment enough for him already." she says quietly to Theodore and Torsten.
Jacobus nodded at Tove, "Agreed. Let's get going."
---------------
I shake my head, "I Too, am extremely sorry for your loss." I think for a few minutes before asking another question, "So Bran wasn't born with the tail?" "Interesting."
Breeg is just about to close the door to his shack when Theodore asks one last question.
The man pauses briefly before saying, "Have you not been paying attention, boy? Bran was my grandson...he was stolen and replaced with the thing that called itself the Wolf Arrow." His statement finished, Breeg closes the door and pays you little mind, leaving you to your own devices.
The party departs the immediate vicinity of Breeg's shack to avoid any unnecessary confrontation with the man if nothing else.
You travel an hour or so east, back toward Oleg's, and settle on a campsite for the night. While the rest of you set up tents and find comfortable spots to set up your bedrolls, Rufus lumbers off in search of whatever game he can find. An hour or so later the wolf trots back into camp with couple of rabbits in his mouth - not nearly enough to feed all of you, but at least it will supplement the rations you purchased from Oleg.
The night goes by uneventfully and you wake to a misty morning. If the weather were warmer it might even be a bit muggy, but given the early spring morning there is a bit of a chill in the air, but that should burn off by late morning at least.
As Rufus returns with his freshly caught food I give him a big fuss, so that he knows even finding this is good, but also glad he didn't get caught in one of Breeg 's traps that we failed to notice. I wake a little earlier than usual and spend some extra care on my appearance, trying to make yesterday seem like it never happened.
Torsten is still grumpy after meeting Breeg resulted in moral complexity. "To the east lies land we have not mapped despite being all but in the shadow of Oleg's broken towers. Shall we correct this then head to the kobolds for trade before returning back?"
Torsten is still grumpy after meeting Breeg resulted in moral complexity. "To the east lies land we have not mapped despite being all but in the shadow of Oleg's broken towers. Shall we correct this then head to the kobolds for trade before returning back?"
Jacobus bit into one of the rabbits and wiped his chin, "Yes, let's finish exploring closer to home and then head back out on longer trips. That was the plan, right?"
The party breaks camp and heads off to the east. A mere forty-five minutes into the day, you exit the forest and find yourselves back in the easily traveled plains. Other than an abandoned farm house, a house that based on your best guess has been empty for years if not even a decade or more, you find little of interest during your exploration.
Night approaches fast, but if you wanted to press on, you suspect you could make it to Oleg's not too terribly long after dark.
- no
Ivo surveys the setting sun and looks over the landscape with some sort of melancholy - gnomes are famously fond of pastoral forested hills, and some parts of the Stolen Lands fit that description perfectly. Finally, he turns away from the riot of red colors in the sky and says, "If everyone wants to press on through the night, I'm willing to try."
Deciding that it is better off to press on for an additional hour or two, the group continues on toward Oleg's.
When you arrive the gate is closed, but you are greeted by Kesten Garess and his men none-the-less. "A bit late to be still traveling, isn't it?" Kesten says with a grin. "Welcome back." he says moving toward the gates of the trading post, and calling out, "Open it up, these folks are probably tired and hungry."
Apparently Alton has drawn the lucky lot to be on gate duty and remain inside the outpost.
Hearing the commotion, Oleg himself comes out of the house. "Well what did you all find this time out? Anything of use?"
Caught by some conflicting emotions Torsten stammers incomprehensibly for a noment before deferring to others to tell the tales of our adventures.
"Some grave news this time Oleg. It seems that these lands are claimed by a fey Queen, Nyrissa, whose realm bleeds through from the First World to overlap with the woods west of here."
Tove looks solemnly around at the others.
"The Fair folk may be looking to reclaim what they believe is their rightful land. And it appears as though our former companion Bran got caught up on the wrong side of the fight... If he was not planted among us by the Queen from the start."
Oleg looks rather concerned. "Just the woods, or do these fey claim out further?" he asks, obviously concerned about his own holdings.
”It’s hard to get a straight answer from a gathlain, but supposedly the entire region we call the Stolen Lands were ‘stolen’ from her realm.” Tove says bitterly.
Oleg makes a displeased face and simply says, "I see..."
"Well more than enough time to talk about in the morning. Come on in and get you some rest."