Krazok nods and watches each of them sneak off.
Blienka sneaks up the road in Valisia's wake Keliza following. They move from Boulder to Boulder. Valisia scurries ahead and easily sneaks into the fort through a small hole in the wall.
Yes, creep closer, sticking to the weeds and underbrush, since they obviously don't mow the lawns here.
"Kitty no!" whispers Valisia. Cast Create Water cantrip. Splash kitty with 2 gallons of water. Kitty flee.
Blienka hears what Valisia says.
Valisia lurks around investigating the sleeping man.
You can see there is a nice looking longsword on the table near the sleeping man. A red falcon is on the hilt. His black studded leather armor is folded to the side but the chest piece that is exposed also has a red falcon on it. There is a backpack in the corner. With a few throwing axes. The man has dark hair, the starting of a beard, and in simple clothes.
"Well, he isn't doing anything wrong, so I guess I won't mess with him. "
Valisia notes the red falcon motif and the man's weapons, trying very very hard to resist rifling through through the man's backpack....
[i]"Probably only regular boring stuff anyhow."[i/] she thinks.
Is there anything else to explore? If not she will sneak back and report to the others.
After a good 5 to 10 minutes after her squeal, Valisia appears out of the fort and finds Blienka.
"There is a dark haired man sleeping in there. He has a weapons and armor with a red falcon emblem on it. He doesn't seem to be a vagabond. He has a pack and throwing axes."
Krazok is back with the mounts and Ismael.
Valisia heads back to join Krazok and describes who she saw. "Should we go in and wake him and explain who we are? Does he have a right to be there? Maybe he's a squatter or another traveler, or a bandit?"
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Blienka looks to Valisia and then to Krazok:
Either he is friend or foe. Standing out here is not going to give us the answer.
Unless there is an objection, Blienka will lead the rest of the group back to the fort to see who the sleeping man is.
Knowledge(history or local): <-- any clue about the emblem?
Krazok seems to be willing to follow and use his axe if needed.
The four of you, on or off your mounts?, with the thycline in tow head up the path.
Perception DC 15 - You see the lookout likely sees you and goes down out of sight.
Valisia will not be mounted. She isn't much of an outrider.
She will wave in a friendly manner to the lookout.
Krazok follows Axebeak reigns in one hand and axe in the other.
The group gets to the front gate and no one is in the tower. Looking through the krack in the door you don't see anyone in the courtyard though it is shrouded in shadows.
"Should we knock?"
The gate is shut and will not open with a simple push, upon closer inspection there is a board securing the gate.
Valisia did slip through in her diminutive size, the rest of you could not squeeze through. Climbing is an option DC 18, 10 feet up and 10 feet down.
"That may be seen as hostile, but go for it, let me lend you a lifting hand." Krazok says, and comes forward so you only have to climb 5 feet on this side. As he gets into position he offers another solution, "Valisia you could squeeze through, stop your spell and open the door for us, right?"
With a nod Valisia says a word and rubs her fingers together and shrinks, she squeezes through the crack from before. Becomes small again and on her tip toes lifts and removes the bar. The gate opens easily from Blieka's and Krazok's help from the outside.
Now with the group in the courtyard of the fort, two men walk towards you (no door) inside of the fort armed. The tall red head has a longsword and a heavy steel shield with the red motif of a falcon on it. The other one holds a longbow drawn with an arrow pointing at your group. They don't look happy to see you.
They don't attack you outright, which is a good sign, but no telling how long the awkward silence will remain.
"I am Krazok, one of the slayers of the Stag Lord. This fort used to be his dwelling, who are you and why are you here!" Krazok does his best not to growl but it is in his nature.
The red head lowers his blade and says with a quake in his voice, "So sorry Krazok, we have been from the West, wandering, I am Jorne Fyrestone and my friend Krafnik Thorgrappin. We did not know, just adventurers down on our luck and started to squat here just a few days ago. We cleared out the bodies. We can leave if you like, if so where would you point us for some semblance of civilization?"
Krazok snorts and looks at Blienka and then Valisia.
"Sorry it is my shame why I don't speak true from where we come from." He says and takes a moment to collect his thoughts, he motions for Krafnik to lower his bow. Krafnik follows the order. Jorne takes a seat and continues, "We are from Taldor, another. Failed attempt at settling these lands, my father led the last one and lost half our family wealth, I continue to follow in his steps. We set out 40 strong but now we are two."
In his normal growling voice he offers, "Speak true with us and fortune may yet find you. Do you have any of your maps? You can stay here and take care of the place for us." he looks at the other three of his group and asks, "That seems fair, right?"
A shadow moves behind your group then a lithe tattooed elf appears, "Greetings, I can stay here with them unless you want another ally on your exploration."
A slim figure of pure deadly grace, a beauty to most especially with the angles of a well defined elf. That physic of any elf holding the measures of 5’7” and 90 pounds of a fine delicate flowing silk. Her porcelain skin does not seem to color, though she has many tattoos of different colors about her body. There are even small gems imbedded on her body. Her hair is a white, almost unatrally white, smooth and delicate. Though her eyes look to be cut from diamonds, the one hard spot on her body.
She does not appear to wear any weapons and she wears a scantily clad red dress that does not leave much to the imagination. She holds no backpack.
A platinum collar resides around her neck with several gems imbedded on it. The gems begin to shine on there own.
He looks a bit shocked but snaps out of it quickly, "Selena! This is one of my previous allies, how is Fizzy? Valisia, Blienka, Ishmeal, Selena, Jorne, Kraf." As he says each name his free hand indicates the owner of the name.
She slowly begins to walk, obviously not liking to stay in one place for long, "Fizzy passed on. The healers could not help him." She says as she twirls a thick metallic bracelet with one finger.
Ismel, Jorne and Krafnik don't seem to care that their names were pronounced wrong, in fact they are all ogling the new female elf. Ismel puts his weapon away. Krafnik drops his bow as Jorne drops his sword.
Eye widened and not really paying attention to the elf, Valisia instead ogles her dangling bauble. "Must..have...bracelet...."
"Excuse me ma'am, can I have your bracelet?"
Immediately clamping her hands over her mouth, "I can't believe I said that out loud..."
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Blienka looks at Selena as she casually announces that Fizzy passed.
Fizzy is gone? That is very sad, I knew him briefly when I first come to these lands.
But, why are you so far south? I thought you would have stayed at Oleg's.
She then looks to the two men.
We are hoping to rebuild this fort and use it as a base to explore further south. It is fairly secure here, perhaps you would want to stay here to protect the building and begin to clean it up from the mess that the bandits turned it into.
Selena looks down at the bracelet with sorrow in her eyes as she responds to Blienka, "Yes, some kind of sickness, brother Jhod could do nothing but ease his passing. He was always so happy. I have followed your group from time to time to see if you had need of me but before you had more allies. I could still stay here and help them."
"Yes you may..." She says to Valisia but she seems to want to say more but stops. As she moves towards Valisia her movements seem jerky.
Krazok quickly throws out some information he knows after Valisia asks to have the bracelet, "Fizzy had the same bracelet, Selena will likely be joining us if you claim it."
"She may have told us more had you not asked to have it, shall I restrain her?" he asks.
Valisia's eyes widen. "Umm, why? What's going on? Restrain her?"
With no prompts, Krazok just waits. Selena walks/figits forward and offers the bracelet to Valisia.