Kingmaker: The Stolen Lands [Gestalt]

Game Master Æroden

This is really VERY good! And Fizzwiddle Glockefleffor XXII would never deign to wear a leash or a muzzle, unless it is appropriately stylish!

Then he buries his head into the batter again, before popping up I bet these taste even better cooked!

He looks around hopefully for a cooked waffle.

"He is wearing leash, don't you see his scarf?" Alexandra laughs before turning to Fizzy, "Now, Fizzy my pet why don't we give the dwarf back his iron and perhaps he can give you a.. waffle? Did I say that right, from Dwarven it sounds so much stranger." She muses distractedly.

"What would you be doing out in this part of the world, Master dwarf? And what is you name? I am Alexandra Von Ravenstein, soon to be lady of these lands. These are my assistants, Fizzwiddle the XXII, Viklop the Captain of his guard, Fionn my noble protector, and Captain Stonefire, the Captain of my guard." The fellow she points out as Captain Stonefire is another Dwarf, clean shaven without beard or head hair. He looks away from the dwarf at camp and grumbles something under his breath.

You should try one Lady! And you forgot Rekkla the Fuzzhealer of the Fizz

Fizzy walks to the dwarf with the bowl of batter and holds it out, still salivating.

Hw bout a cooked one!

Bærn glares at the gnome, and says in a gruff voice, "I hadn't gotten around to cooking any yet. Nor will I until tomorrow, now. Hmmph."

After speaking to the gnome, Baern turns to the woman addressing him. "My name is Bærn Steelskull, of the Steelskull Clan. I am here at the behest of a contact back in Brevoy.. apparently, there is opportunity to be had in exploring this land. I was told a group from Brevoy was already sent here in advance, and I came here looking to meet up with them and join them, in hopes of offering my expertise in religion, smithing, brewing, and, " he takes another glare at the gnome before continuing, "Cooking. I am a priest and missionary of Torag - God of the Forge." He takes a moment and notices the beardless, hairless dwarf. "By the gods, what happened to your beard?!"

"I am disgraced my brother. It is no concern of yours." Captain Stonefire begins quietly before growing angry almost without cause. He turns away, pulling his horse past the camp and looking into the distance.

"Oh never mind the Captain, he just gets like that sometimes. A little sunshine and he'll be fine." Alexandra smiles and Captain Stonefire groans rather loudly at the thought. "Regardless, I believe we may be the group you were waiting for. We travel from Brevoy to claim these lands. If you would like to assist us you can, but currently we travel to end the bandits reign over this area. Prove yourself useful and we shall take you with us, agreed?" Alexandra continues smiling, it seems to be her default setting, however she seems very serious about claiming the land to be hers.

Well it would be a shame to let this go to waste...

Fizzy drops his pack and immediately pulls out his baking supplies.

1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13

30 minutes later Fizzy pulls a lopsided cake out of his dutch oven.

Hmm. Perhaps a bit too much flour.

Fizzy proceeds to eat, after cutting a slice for both Viklop and Rekkla.

The reward of the Fizz!

Rolling his eyes, Vik still takes the slice of cake and actually enjoys it. He looks over at the ratgirl and winks.
"Maybe the benefits of being part of 'the fizz' are not so bad!", he chuckles.

"Hrrm.. just keep that one away from my food stores, " he jerks his head towards the Gnome. "Bandits, eh? Bandits ain't good for nothin'.. and I've heard of 'em troublin' this area. So sure, I'll help ye. My contacts sadly did not give me much details on the group.. 'sept that there were mostly humans amongst 'em. How helpful that was, considering nearly every blasted person in this land is human.

He walks over and begins packing up his camp - keeping a wary eye on the Gnome, lest he take anything that doesn't belong to him. Afterwards, he speaks to Captain Stonefire in a low voice, in Dwarven, "En liten sol være å hjelpe en vanæret dverg, eh? At menneskelig tilsynelatende ikke vet det første om dverger. Selv om jeg ikke vil snuse i hvorfor du er vanæret - som en geistlig av Torag, kan jeg muligens se deg forløst fra hva forårsaket din skam. Ingen bror må stå vanæret om han kan bli forløst. La oss snakke om dette mer etter banditter er tatt vare på."
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Just a quick explaination of the dwarven language - I'm simply using Google Translate for it, using Norwegian as the language. Hope it doesn't bother anyone, as I'm sure its butchering the language XD

I am highly insulted Mr. Dwarf. I would never steal something so important as a food store! Perhaps a nibble here and there, but a store?! Ridiculous. I couldn't possibly pick it up without the walls collapsing!

Captain Stonefire smiles and responds quietly.

After this, Alexandra throws a nasty look at the Captain, but quickly relents and shakes her head. "That's what we're afraid of Fizzy, we like our walls uncollapsed when possible. I say, Geoff, how close are we to the camp now?"

I named our bandit, btw. if anyone opposes this let me know, I just got tired of saying 'bandit' and figured in two days of travel I'd have asked his name

Fionn trots up, and quickly dismounts and walks toward the stranger who seems to mean no harm, and extends a hand.
Cara Dwarf! Bealtaine do féasóg ag fás go deo agus do cupán riamh tirim!

I do the same thing but with old Irish as elvish. I use that as a Phrase in elvish to signify I am a friend of dwarfs, unlike ignorant kin. So even if you don't know elvish you may have heard it before.

Upon being addressed by the half-elf, Bærn's left eye noticably twitches of its own accord. Bærn himself seems to be doing his best to keep himself calm as he attempts to the best of his ability to make a friendly smile at the half-elf. "Aye.. humans.. not one of the best races to be seein'.. eh knife-ea.. er, friend." He reaches out reluctantly to shake the half-elf's hand, then quickly draws his hand back after a quick shake.

Turning to the female human, who seems to be in charge, Bærn asks, "So, bandits. When do we leave to find 'em.?"
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Tis nothin' personal Fionn. If you've played Dwarf Fortress, this behavior would be very understandable. :X

"Well I feel we may have a few more hours of sunlight left before we set camp. We shall wait a moment for you to pack your camp up and proceed until it gets too dark to travel, then we can make our camp and we'll find them tomorrow morn if I'm not mistaken." She smiles and will then cast Light on her bridle, keeping it active for the rest of the night until we set up camp. It seems odd that the human is so keen to keep traveling in the dark, but after sometime she does grow tired and agrees to make camp a few hours down the road.

Fionn pulls out his pipe and loads a bowl, and shakes his head.
Stupid xenophobic inbred cave dweller.. Great, just what I needed, someone to but heads with
Fionn turns away from the dwarf, and heads toward Vik.
Hey Vik, teach me something about swordsmanship? I'm a lance expert but my sword could use some work, I must admit.
Very understandable, I'm assuming your cavern raised and I'm city bred, so he's used to both sorts of drawfs. Oh great, another thing you could chide stonefire for is being an elf-friend XD

Rekka observes the madness and begins to understand what Vik was shaking his head about. Still, she seems curious anyway, twitching her nose at Vik's cake with a soft chitter that might be laughter.

"It would be an honour, Fionn. Once we have set camp I will draw the practice circle and we can commence with the training."

"While you're at it you might be able to help the twins with their form. I've found them sloppy of late." Alexandra chimes in bemused to which both twins audibly groan and roll their eyes.

The Captain speaks up in their defense, "And which end of the sword are they supposed to be holding, m'lady? Last I check you were no more a swordsman then I am a pixie." He lets out an uncharacteristic laugh at the top of his voice before grinning and saying, "Or should Master Viklop remind you of your lack of skills?"

Alexandra looks confused and moves her head back and forth between Viklop and Captain Stonefire. "Wait, have we met before dear swordlord?"

You show me great kindness Viklop, it will not go unnoticed. I shall humbly be your student, and endearingly be your friend.
Fionn bows to the swordlord. Shy at first to ask the swordlord for his assistance, Fionn is humbled by this great man.

Vik grimaces at the question Alex asks.
"Indeed we have. I was you sword teacher when you were younger. You showed your disdain by shocking me and then leaving the practice room."

Turning from Alex he is slightly embarrassed by Fionn's reaction.
"It is my honour to teach you, and any others who are interested. I hope to open a new school once this wilderness is brought under the control of the Swordlords."

Geoff, tells you, "the camp is but through, the forest there, stay on the road and you will find it soon enough, remain on the road and the only traps you will have to worry about are in wagons or bandits themselves. I will not camp this close to them."

"Sly use sword?" says sly who is behind Rekka, looking at her predatory, which stops for the quizzical question.

Fionn looks at the lizard mans hands, Does he have thumbs? If so Fionn responds as such
My friend, all who have passion for the sword, bravery, and goodness of the heart should learn swordsmanship. I'm sure we could find a blade sized to you.

Captain? Perhaps you can train me with my hammer?

Fizzy hefts his Gnomish Hook Hammer

Rekka finds a place to hunker down and observe. She's not good with any of those weapons. Humans and gnomes and half elves sure are strange!

He does have thumbs, claw thumbs but thumbs to be sure. "Passion for... sword?" Sly tilts his head from one side to the other, pouting his lips, he forgets what he was doing and comes around Rekka to question Fionn further.

In response to Fizzy, "Oh right, dinner!" He looks around, but not fully around to see Rekka again, side tracked again.

Fizzy wanders over to Rekka later that eve.

Fuzzhealer! Your first lesson. To heal the Fizz is to become the Fizz. He says meaningfully.

Then he holds out a piece of cake to Rekka.

"Now where was that tastey morsel that I saw earlier, it was about my size... no bigger, furry and scrumptious looking."

After giving Rekka the cake, Fizzy takes the last piece to Sly.

Geoff addresses the group, "Thank you all for trusting me, may I have a weapon to protect myself?" Actually I don't think I will need one, I hope to see you all at Bokken's Ravine, good luck. Instead Geoff, gets up and heads towards his horse.

Rekka nibbles politely on her cake. For now? She nibbles and watches, whiskers twitching as she observes The Sly. She chitters, maybe laughing. She seems to enjoy the cake.

I do not believe you get to leave on your own schedule. You wait until you are given permission.

Fizzy snaps at Geoff

sorry meant to spoiler that. Fizzy is working the Sly. He already has a soft spot for his Fuzzhealer

Go ahead and spoiler it, quick before someone sees it, and point out who you are talking to... Sly or Geoff?

[ooc] The comments to Sly have been spoilerd as being in Sylvan. Also pointed out where he talkst o Geoff.

Sly takes the cake, nibbles... takes a bite... takes two more bites... next thing you know the slice is gone. "This is better than fresh kill anyways, Yum!"

"Well if you are going to make camp here, let alone sleep you have all written your death letters, I for one will not sleep within less than an hours ride from the North Camp with you lot." He moves to his horse, does anyone get up and stop him?

Wait you a minute or you won't have to wait till your sleeping for death. Sit and speak. Do you believe a night raid is the best option, Geoff? What's going through your mind, for I cannot claim the mind of a scoundrel.
Fionn goes after the bandit, ensuring that he won't escape. Bastards blade is drawn.

Geoff doesn't want to fight, but wants to be off. He stops and comes back hoping that if he tells the information in a different light, they may just let him go. "Well honestly I have only been a scoundrel for about three months. I don't know what kind of raid would be best, one where you kill Kressle would be great, she is evil. As I have said go to where the trees come together as a V and go north for about 300 strides, there you should find a road, take it west then south, this will lead you into the camp. At most there should be two dozen bandits, though more likely only a dozen at any given time. If you can quietly enter and kill the sentries, you should be able to kill most while they sleep. The reason I want to be off now, there is a possible raid party about, they normally don't do much at night, sometimes go looking for campfires, they like to drink and goof off when away from camp. During the day is when they are most active."

Rekka chitters thoughtfully to herself as she finishes her cake. Then she cleans her whiskers with her small paws in a very rat-like fashion.

"Would it be prudent to set up an ambush for them then? Light our campfire here and try to lure the wandering ones out?"

"Lighting a campfire in bait and hoping for a nibble could work - but are you all willing to forgoe your sleep for the night? If we get a catch and take out some bandits, the ones left at camp might realize they're gone, and we will lose out on our ambush of the camp itself. Plus, we'll be dead tired and too close to them to get any sleep."

Baern walks around examining the area as he says this, looking for a good spot to ambush, if the group does decide on it."Now, I don't know much of the information given to you about the camp, I'm only using the information I've heard about it so far. From what I gather, it might be best for us to simply rest here the night - no campfire - and then move to the camp and try and ambush it tomorrow night, or however soon we get to it. I'm assuming that the camp would be well guarded, and I think it would be prudent to get the jump on them - rather than a small wondering group of them. Though, if we take out the wandering group.. there will be less bandits in the camp.. which is also a bonus. Honestly, I'm fine with whatever the group decides - makes no difference to me, as a fight is a fight."

"My thought would be to move on from taking care of any wanderers straight to the camp before they have time to notice they're missing. That way our approach to their camp may be in part disguised as any wanderers returning. But if sleep in a concern," Rekka shrugs and tucks her paws into her cloak, "Then that may not be viable." She seems content to have given her thoughts, nose twitching curiously to see what the others might think.

"I can handle a bit of lost sleep myself - its no concern to me at all. I'm simply assuming some of our more.. ah, frivilous, companions might want it. I'm still fine with whatever the group decides.. a little lost sleep is nothing to me." Bærn grins and pats a part of his backpack lovingly. "Especially with all this coffee I packed."

Vik will take out his sword and start cleaning it while he listens to the group. He nods in agreement with Rekka and Baern and their ideas.

"Night gives us a clear advantage. I cannot speak for Rekka, but I know that most of us can see fine in minimal light. The only member of our group who might suffer would be Viklop, so we'll have him carry the torch with the low-light fellows. I can make my way to a sentry or two but I need someone who can see in the dark to take out any others." While normally joyous and frivolous as it was put, when the talk of tactics begin Alexandra grows unsettlingly cold. She peers out towards the camp before turning back to Geoff.

"A deal is a deal, head back to Bokken's, we shall come retrieve you soon." She'll wait for him to leave before she continues. Then she says, "I believe an ambush may be our best option. We'll set-up a dummy camp with the guards and swordlords to one side. Then, when they come to strike we shall set out from a ways away and ride them down. I'll stay at the camp with Fizzy, Viklop and Rekka. Baern, I'd like you to go with Fionn and the guards to be the ambush group, between you and Captain Stonefire you should see them coming and be able to intercept them from behind as the ride up. Viklop you'll be on first watch, followed by Fizzy and then myself. All in favor?"

So second watch. Ok. With that Fizzy pulls out his bedroll and flops down on it, rear in the air and is snoring almost immediately.

going to be gone most of the day so bot as needed.

Vik thinks over the idea of carrying a torch into a night-time battle and shudders.
"Maybe if we had some magical light source that could be delivered into the bandit camp before we attack. Or maybe I can call out this bandit leader and challenge him to a duel. Perhaps seeing their leader defeated would give the other pause and help break up these bandits?"

"I debated that idea, but how much honor do you think these bandits have? Your challenge would most likely be met with arrows and crossbow bolts, which would be upsetting." Alexandra frowns and furrows her brow, before letting out a short chuckle at Fizzy.