Almost directly after Friday Kavell nodded.
"We have had...dealings with that thane's men before, We already planned on having words with him about it, so this coincides with our travels anyhow.
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"Just once I'd like something to go simply." Haru says, grumpy because... well... reasons.
"He's got his fingers in a lot of pies, then," Valeria mentioned, "he's suspected of stealing a sword from a man named Snaevald. Not just any sword either; it belonged to Ameiko's grandfather."
"Well then, me most definitely have business with him. It seems he's in the habit of taking things...and people, that don't belong to him, and needs to be taught the same lesson his men were." Kasha says decisively.
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"He has our sword. He has our guide. Anyone else think he's stealing our idea for himself?"
Uksahkka chuckles. "Sounds like Asvig's not going to be enjoying his position much longer."
Her face turns serious. "But don't let your guard down. He's got quite a few men who've sworn their swords to him, and his wife..."
She shudders. "...if I never meet her again, I'll die a happy woman. She's almost as bad as he is, if you can believe that."
"Snaevald mentioned that there were rumours about his wife being a witch," Val remarked, "think she could be? Or just really good at making the most of those rumours?"
The tracker looks into her drinking horn and finishes downing its contents with one great swig.
"Well, she's got the attitude down if nothing else."
"But don't let your guard down. He's got quite a few men who've sworn their swords to him,"
"Quite a few less now."
"Well t least we'll go in expecting we might have to deal with magic as well as muscle." Kasha adds.
Uksahkka nods. Then she blinks.
She starts to look sheepish. "Er... actually, Asvig's home is to the southeast. A couple hours walking, but one hour riding. The farmstead's lightly forested with a few marshy hills."
"...Gozreh's breath, I must've been more drunk and bruised than I thought."
"It sounds like Asvig is likely to be a formidable opponent. We may need a little while to prepare properly before heading there." Kasha says thoughtfully.
Uksahkka finishes off her drink and stands up. "Agreed. But... please don't take too long." She says, visibly worried.
"There's a shrine of Shelyn in the Fire Quarter. I'll meet up with you there, once you deal with Asvig." With that, she makes her way towards the Hunting Serpent's doors.
"We won't" Kasha says to Uksahkka as she get's up to leave. "We'll see you there when we're done."
After she leaves, the shamaness turns to her companions. "So if some of you want to get back to... down time..I'm sure I can help Sandru unload the extra gear and equipment and gather anything we need to be prepared for dealing with this bastard."
"Best we look into Longthews tomorrow, when we're fresh and ready," Valeria suggested.
"Agreed. You all can go back to taking the night off." she says with a smile. We can take care of stuff. Is there anything anyone needs specifically?"[/b] Kasha asks.
Friday happily bows to the Shamaness in thanks.
The rest of the party returns to their rooms while Kasha takes Sandru out to go shopping...
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The surrounding Ice Quarter is home to a wide variety of shops, and as such it's not hard to find enough vendors willing to buy whatever Kasha & Sandru wish to pawn off.
While they're offloading their loot, one of the vendors, a squat, bulky dwarf with blonde hair, a well-braided beard and an eyepatch, gives Kasha a once-over. "You be the ones that came in with that weird lot, aren't ya?"
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When you return to your quarters, you find Shalelu sitting up in bed, half-dressed.
"What was that all about now?" She asks, sliding on one of her socks.
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Ameiko is still sound asleep by the time you get back.
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Kelda greets you as you come back to the room the two of you share. "Well, that didn't take you as long as Kelda thought."
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Zaiobe is reclining on the bed as you return. She hasn't bothered to put her clothes back on yet.
<So, what's the news?>
"A person that could help us get over the Crown has apparently been either kidnapped or killed by this Longthews, in addition to everything else he's responsible for. So we're going to go pay him a visit later." Friday sends back, taking a moment to enjoy the scene of the Harpy on the bed.
Friday smirks but doesn't laugh. "Yeah, I do."
"Yes." Friday immediately responds before moving over to kiss Zaiobe.
"That's not the kindest description but I suppose it's pretty accurate." Kasha replies.
Valeria was glad to see that her absence hadn't woken Ameiko and it wasn't long before she was undressed and cuddled up to her again.
"well i couldnt keep Kelda that long from my sight... I dont suppose you want me to meet your family or anything... instead of..."
He began blushing quite obviously.
Kelda shrugs and leans against the wall of the room. "If you wish. After all..."
She smirks at you and glances over your shoulder. "...others probably won't be going anywhere."
"Well, not sure what else to call a caravan that lets a hob, a devil-girl and a winged lady travel with them." The dwarf shrugs. "No offence intended, of course."
"Couple of my customers have been asking about you lot."
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"Really? Anything specific?" Kasha asks intrigued.
The dwarf wrinkles his nose. "Who the lot of you are, where you come from, what your business is here... things like that."
He leans in, his voice dropping to a whisper. "The ones askin' weren't exactly the most upstanding of folk, if you get my meaning. I'd watch my step here, if I were you."
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind and let my friends know." Kasha whispers back with a nod."Any of them have anything to do with Asvig Longthews by any chance?"
The dwarf shakes his head. "Not that I know of. I don't know who you've managed to piss off, but they've been quite discreet in asking about you."
"Thanks." the shamaness says as she completes their purchases, slipping the dwarf a few extra gold for the information.
The night passes uneventfully as Kasha & Sandru return with their purchases...
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Fireday, 26th of Desnus, 4715 AR
A light snow is falling outside the windows as the party awakens for the day. The clouds overhead are a somber, sullen grey.
Having enjoyed a peaceful night's sleep filled with pleasant dreams, Kasha awakens early in the morning. Sitting crosslegged on her bed, with Sly curled up before her, the shamaness communes with her companion, together reaching out to the spirits of nature and perhaps inspired by Spivey, the spirits of the heavens.
Drawing strength and power she meditates for an hour, contemplating the power she would need for a day that would most likely see battle. As she finishes, and opens her eyes she pads over to the window rubbing her shoulders as she does and looks out seeing the light snowfall outside. Whispering a chant in sylvan, the air ripples around both herself and the little weasel, the chill of the northern air fading to a vague awareness that it was what would normally be considered cold.
His eyes opening on instinct at a certain time Friday very reluctantly maneuvers out of bed and from the woman he is holding as he quietly gets dressed and armed.
Normally, it takes a while for Valeria to wake up. This morning, though, the feel of something warm near her did enough to get her brain ticking over until sleep decided its shift was over. Confusion reigned as she wondered why she was in bed with an attractive Tianese woman before her memory got to work and last night came back to her.
Blushing slightly at the memory, she had an idea and carefully slipped out of bed and dug out some spare clothing from her backpack - just a sleeveless top and a high-slit skirt (she figured her usual trick of wearing light clothing in cold weather would be extra-effective this far north).
Once dressed, she headed downstairs to see about getting Ameiko some breakfast-in-bed.
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As usual; Leo and Maxim had already been awake for a while, the latter now heavily swathed in a number of thick coats after what was no-doubt an early morning shirtless run through town. Valeria sometimes felt bad for her little brother, especially when he had to down some of Leo's "home remedies" for curing colds and the like - sure, they may have been amazingly effective against such mundane sicknesses, but they were made from some pretty bizarre and unpleasant ingredients.
The two had just been walking into the inn as Valeria finished coming down the stairs. No sooner had they walked through the door than a trio of rough-looking sorts about Valeria's age - who'd evidently been there for an early breakfast - caught sight of the two and immediately ran screaming from the tavern, one throwing himself out a window in his haste to escape.
Staring wide-eyed at their backs, Valeria didn't even look at her brother as she walked over to him. "What the hell?" she asked simply.
"Lil' Maxie here handed 'em their asses is what happened!" Leo said, laughing proudly.
"They were harassing a couple of girls we ran into last night," Maxim explained, "I tried to convince them to leave but then they grabbed their axes and then..."
"An' then the first guy gave this stupid overhead swing at him and Maxie broke his arm!" Leo was still laughing heartily as he remembered how smoothly Maxim had redirected the strike before driving his hand into the outside of his elbow.
"I only dislocated it!" Maxim corrected.
"Hold on," Valeria asked, "you beat up three Ulfen hunters with your bare hands so badly that they'd run screaming at the sight of you?"
"Gah; bunch a blowhards, really. All bark an' no bite." Leo explained before walking past Valeria to the bar. "Anyway I'm starvin'."
Valeria shook her head at her uncle's behaviour. She stopped her brother for a moment with a hand on his shoulder. "Hey; if they were planning what it sounds like they were planning, you did the right thing."
"Thanks, I just wish I didn't have to hurt them that badly."
Maxim was a contradiction at times to Valeria; he hated having to hurt people and even refused to kill, but he loved the fighting techniques he was studying and was determined to use them to protect people as much as possible. She'd always joked that he'd missed his calling as a paladin. But she was still proud that he hadn't lost that sentiment.
"Well, maybe next time they'll listen when someone tells them to back off. Anyway; I'm with Leo, I need food and coffee."
Once the party has re-equipped themselves with their newest purchases, it's off to the farmstead of Thane Longthews. They pass through the streets of Kalsgard's Stone Quarter as they leave, the ringing and hammering of blacksmiths and armourers hard at work accompanying them as they reach Kalsgard's southeastern gate.
Snow continues to fall upon the party's heads as they leave, and a harsh, icy wind blows past them as they go along. By many Ulfen standards, such a day is rather mild, but the stormy grey clouds gathering above threaten to change that for the worse. The weathered grey-barked trees offer some shelter from the snow, even as they're buffeted by the winds. The ground beneath them feels frozen and hardened.
After two hours along the winding road through the marshy forest, they find a curious pair of wooden posts. These posts are topped with expertly-carved lion heads, if the woodcarver in question had never seen a lion before. Painted gold and topped with a layer of fresh snow, they look identical to the arm-rings of Thane Longthews' men.
A series of runes are carved along the lengths of the two posts.
Her magic protecting her from the effects of the cold, Kasha nevertheless keeps the voluminous hood of her cloak up as they trudge through the snowy marsh and frozen ground. As they arrive at the wooden posts, the shamaness can't help but chuckle. Despite the impressive quality of the woodwork, it was obvious that the crafter had never encountered a lion. Studying the runes on the posts she frowns.
"There's some kind of conjuration magic attached to these. It might call up something to defend against intruders." she says before briefly chanting in sylvan, a soft glow emanating from her eyes.
"Not weak magic either. Be careful and ready fro something to come out of nowhere." she says, keeping her eyes on the enruned posts.
"Conjuration, then?" Valeria asked. Despite the cold still not being quite severe enough to bother her, she'd elected to wear actual pants under her dress just in case the weather turned. That and she wouldn't be surprised if any mages in Longthews' employ would use cold magic just for some sort of psychological impact. Or for just embracing a cliché.
"Guess we can be sure there's at least one mage at work around here. Xel, you want to see what you can see?"
"I really wish you'd stop treating me like I'm your personal eye in the sky."
"Well I could give you a wand to carry, but then the bad guys'd be liable to shoot at you."
"... fine."
Still quietly grumbling, Xel took off to scout ahead.
"Wait... there's another rune... or what's left of it." Friday calls out to the others as he points down to a specific area of dirt.
A modest-looking farmstead stands in the distance, some 60 feet away from the wooden posts and over a marshy hill. There are several patrols of warriors moving around the house in groups of three. A plume of smoke is coming from a chimney in the roof.
"Is this a good rune or a bad rune?"