Kelvar again speaks a word of Infernal, sending his axe flying forward to again strike at the sailor. He then advanced forward to the ladder to climb up.
Once again, she focuses on charging her blade and strikes out at the sailor.
If he drops, she will step up to the other one.
Rose marched up the stairs and shook her head in disappointment. "I said kill him, not cut him. I gave you your chance. Nighty night."
The Doctor continues to inch closer as he fires on anybody still alive.
Talia carves up the wounded sailor and he drops to the deck. The Doctor's bolt nicks the last man and Rose finishes him off. The battle is won. All that remains of Thorn's command regarding Kargeld is his ship.
Kiliketz hovers in the air above the deck. "They are dead. I will take this ship back to my master as he would want. You will know where to find me should you need this favour."
There is also the chest of Kargeld's. The key is on Kargeld. There is a small silver statuette of a nude mermaid worth 50 gp and 115 gp in loose coinage clatters around the sea-chest. A wooden crate labeled ‘emergency rations’ contains six fine bottles of whiskey worth 10 gp apiece. A second, larger wooden box within the chest hold Thorn's gold, neatly stacked. All of it is now part of your payment for this mission as Cardinal Thorn said. Besides his key, Kargeld himself had masterwork hide armour, a masterwork great-axe and 2 throwing axes. The sailors each had studded leather, buckler, short sword, shortbow and 20
arrows.
"Give us a minute to offload this stuff and dump the bodies and it's all yours. How are you planning on moving the ship, anyway?" Rose asked Kiliketz.
"My brother will soon find me. It's lucky for you that you didn't stay and wait for him to come back. They will have been looking for me ever since. I will tell him of your change of heart and he won't come after you." It seems like the written proof of their territorial control that Miriketz was to bring back had nothing to do with anything being on paper. Possibly he is bringing more elemental servants with him.
Kelvar pulls out the wand to heal those wounded up. He will include Timeon in that.
”Don’t forget the ivory and Kargeld’s seal pelts.”
Kelvar walks over to Marvin, planning to heal him. Once he gets over there, he stops, finding that Marvin’s wounds have proved fatal. ”It appears Kargeld and his men will not be going alone into death.”
Kelvar removes the iron circlet from Marvin, as well as the Asmodean unholy symbol. ”Best not to leave these behind to wash up on shore and be found by a random traveler.”
He then sets about off-loading what they were taking with them. ”Would leaving the bodies help sell your deception, Kiliketz?”
Iron Circlet
Unholy Symbol
Masterwork Quarterstaff
Mithral Masterwork Shirt
Light Crossbow(+ bolts)
Traveler's Any-Tool
165 gp
As you stab the wand into Timeon he shouts and wakes from his shock induced unconsciousness. "I killed him..." He is shaking from the battle and almost has to be carried to a boat. "Yes yes. Leave the bodies. I will see to cleaning up my Master's new ship. What is her name?"
"You did good, Timeon. One less dirty pirate in the world." Rose smiled.
"The ship's name was the Frosthammer. You can call it whatever you want though." she said to the Mephit.
"The Frosthamar. That will be perfect." Kiliketz seems to like the irony in the name. He follows you to shore once you have taken everything. "If whatever you are doing manages to weaken Talinguarde, I'm sure my Master will see the strategic choice I made in letting you live. But if you die and I never hear from you, he will not care anyway." It's a strange farewell Kiliketz gives, revealing what he will tell his Master about what happened here. The crafty little mephit will certainly use what has happened here for his own increase. He hovers around until you turn to leave and then returns to the Frosthamar to wait.
-----
You are close now. Just a few miles from here sits the small market town of Aldencross and less than a mile from there is the watchtower of Balentyne – your goal. Already Sakkarot’s horde gathers and prepares to move. Within two weeks, they will be in a small valley north of the lake awaiting your signal. Fire the rocket into the air at just the right moment and you will take the first step towards claiming vengeance against Talingarde. Destiny has taken you here. Destiny has given you a mission. There is no doubt that the future of this green and pleasant land lies in your hands. But an errant thought enters your mind. You could go to that town right now and warn them of the plots of the sinister Cardinal Thorn. You could give yourself up and face the justice you deserve. You could turn back from the horror and the slaughter that you are going to inflict upon these Mitran sheep. This is that moment. This is the turning point. After this, there is no going back. Could it be possible to gain redemption?
Words of Cardinal Thorn: The bugbears are mighty warriors but poor siege engineers. You will infiltrate the tower Balentyne, keystone of the Watch Wall, kill its commander and open the gate for Sakkarot’s horde.
You have 2-4 weeks to weaken Balentyne by killing or sabotage. A direct assault against a full garrison would be unwise and a way into the watchtower should be gained. You should have a story or reason for staying in Aldencross during this time. If you or your plans are discovered, ravens will fly, calling for reinforcements, making Sakkarot's assault all the more difficult if you manage to still pull it off.
0
The journey to Aldencross from the lake shore is a short and uneventful one. Your arrival in the small sleepy northern town is unnoticed. With your iron circlets, disguising yourselves should be no challenge.
Aldencross is a market town and it is not rare for smaller traders to come from all over to peddle their goods here. This will not be seen as suspicious or anything unusual. Adventurers bound for the savage north are not unknown. Frankly, the idea that a band of Talireans would conspire with bugbears to break the Watch Wall is unthinkable to the common folk. You will have no trouble moving freely within the town to start. Aldencross is a fine place to buy supplies. There is an alchemist in town who sells all manner of potions. There is a scribe with a fine selection of scrolls. In the market place are found the random magic items that a town of Aldencross’ size(small town) usually has for sale. Normal equipment is available in abundance. Aldencross is a soldier’s town so there are numerous smiths who make arms and armor. They’re eager for some side business to supplement their contracts to the crown.
Though Aldencross is a sizeable town, there is only one inn that caters to travellers -- “The Lord’s Dalliance”. It is a pleasant enough place with strong drink and adequate food. In the evenings there are often off-duty soldiers and even the occasional watch captain. Dancing girls and comely bar maids ply the soldiers eager to earn a share of the king’s gold.
"I never thought I would see this place again. When can I see my family?" Timeon asks. "They will be very happy to see me. They live that way, next to the Mott's house."
"Very soon, Timeon. We just need to get ourselves some rooms." Rose said. "Have you thought about what you are going to tell them?"
Kelvar gives Rose another tap of the wand to heal her up.
For entering the town, Kelvar decides that being disguised as merchants is the best overall cover. He himself takes the guise of a merchant’s guard, thinking the cover better for him than himself being the lead merchant. The Doctor or Rose would make for a better face.
”Indeed. You will be able to see your family soon.”
The Doctor eyes Timeon as they approach and then enter the town. I should perhaps look into a sleeping draft of some sort. If we're not careful, he'll run off while we sleep and ruin all our plans. When they get relative close, he disguises himself as a merchant, playing off his bookish looks and vanity eye glasses to play up his role as record keeper of the business. While he had no doubt his noble baring would allow him to pass himself off as the owner of the business, he had been told that his sometimes difficult to hide distain for his lesser was a tad...off putting. Which wouldn't work well for their current mission.
"Once we've settled in, I wouldn't mind taking a look at some of the wares this town has to offer. I'm hopeful that now we're in a place with some measure of civilization that I can find some formulas that might be useful to us. Since I don't think it'll take weeks for us to ply our own wares, if asked, we could say that we're waiting to rendezvous with another group that's supposed to bring us goods to carry South for trade."
"We can talk about that later." Rose said giving Timeon a sidelong look and emoting to the Doctor to draw attention to the young squire's presence. "I've been on a boat for weeks. A room, a bath, and a change of clothes are the very first things on the agenda."
Talia wears a coat from one of the sailors. One without too many bloodstains. Being without cold-weather gear would seem strange. On the way in, she looks around for any sign of monks or a monastery. Her talents could easily pass for their works, but it would be an easier deception if there were none nearby.
At Rose's comment, "We should make sure that we find a secure place for our valuables first. We don't want anybody walking off with them."
Where do we put Timeon while we talk? If left alone, he'll run home.
"We have Kargeld's chest. It's sturdy. We can chain it to the bed in one of our rooms and fill it with whatever we aren't going to be lugging around." Rose suggested.
"I guess I didn't think about that. I won't tell them about you. Just that Sir Balin was killed..." he pauses to think, "By an Ogre! But I escaped and came back here. I could tell them you brought me back safe. Then they will reward you. And you could let me go?"
"Timeon, haven't you been listening to anything I've told you? You can do anything you want as long as you are willing to accept the consequences. Ideally, you should try figure out a way to get what you want without consequences."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about before we went to speak with your family. You're my squire now. I figure they'll probably want to meet me, but you probably don't want to tell them what you've been up to in the last few weeks. You're carrying around an Asmodean holy symbol, and you've been spending time with pirates and bugbears. I doubt they would think very highly of you for that."
"You aren't our prisoner, but you going back to your family puts them in a lot of danger. You know that, right?"
"Perhaps, Timeon, it's best if you don't see them just yet. I'm sure that, soon, it will be alright for you to do so. In the meantime, perhaps we should temporarily hide you?" Kelvar takes out Marvin's iron circlet. "This will allow you to change your appearance. Perhaps you should adjust yourself to have an appearance closer to that of Lady Rose - we can say you are her nephew, and this will allow us to keep you safe. What do you say?"
"I really want to see them again. But I don't want them to be in danger. Please don't hurt them. You haven't come here to hurt them have you?" He seems more scared now. His family are the only people he has that care about him. You also know he would be recognised quickly here so disguising him is wise. With a short time to show him how to use the circlet he is able to conjure any disguise imaginable and for a moment his fear for his family disappears in the wonders of magic. "I never knew something like this existed. I had no idea how you changed your look like you did. Could I grow wings with this? I want to fly." He does however create the exact disguise you tell him to, especially if his family is brought up again.
"Why would we want to hurt your family, Timeon. We've been helping you every step of the way. Why do you think we are your enemies? When Mitra abandoned you, who picked you up and got you back on your feet? Who'd teaching you how to be strong now that Sir Balin is dead?" Rose asked, her voice full of sympathy. "If you want to fly, that circlet can't do it, but there are other ways. I could help you learn that."
"You gave the bugbears weapons." He says timidly, "I think you want them to fight Talinguarde. But why? If they come here my family might get hurt." He hesitates at the thought of Mitra abandoning him when Rose mentions it. But it seems he has been thinking about it when he says, "Maybe... if I can protect my family... I can be forgiven."
"Maybe, yeah." Rose said, ignoring the issue of the bugbear weapons. "Let's go to the inn and clean up from the trip. Then we can go see your family."
Tapping his head thoughtfully, the Doctor begins to form his disguise. He starts at the bottom with comfortable boots made for walking. Because that's what they're gonna do. And one of these day those boots were going to walk all over Talinguarde. Tucked in to those boots were a pair of thick, dark pants held up with a simple belt. Above that he added a simple white, cream, button-up blouse, but he forwent any sort of neck adornment, opting instead to just leave the top button undone. Shivering in the cold, he added a long-sleeved undershirt underneath it and a dark vest with a simple pocket watch tucked into one pocket over it, and topped the whole thing with a heavy, knee-length jacket. All the clothes appeared a bit worn, but well taken care of. Not the most fashionable outfit, but I guess the goal here isn't to turn heads....
Done with his clothing, he began to alter his appearance, adding some extra girth and rounding out his face in an attempt to give him more of a jolly, appearance. He lightened the color of his skin, hoping that with the extra weight would give the appearance of someone who tended towards a more sedentary lifestyle without being completely inactive. His hair became a dirty-blonde color, cut short and neat, and he gave himself a short, well trimmed Van D@+@ beard. He aged his face a bit to give the appearance of someone in their early to mid fourties and turned his eyes a light blue-gray color. He tucked his vanity glasses into a pocket, first transforming their frames from a relatively narrow, rectangular shape to a round frame. Finally, he put the finishing touches by adding a few ink stains to his right hand.
Now done, he gave a spin. "How do I look?" he asked in a slightly deeper, rich tone. "I'm thinking of going by the name 'Nicholas'."
Kelvar set about making his appearance that of the veteran merchant's guard. He aged himself a few years to look around 30, and added a scar to the left side of his face. He made his complexion more ruddy, and gave the appearance of stubble on his face. He changed his eyes to a greyish-blue, and his hair he adjusted to a brown so dark it was almost black, cut short - long hair was something a foe could grab in battle, and no guard would wear his hair long. His armor was already a well-made yet dull metal, appropriate to a merchant guard, so he mostly left it as is. His weapons did not bear any sign of his deity either, so he had no worries there. His clothing he made take on the appearance of plain wool pants and a simple linen shirt, with a thick wool coat over top - all of it plain and unadorned. He made sure his holy symbol was tucked away, and by the end of his transformation, he was yet another bland merchant's guard whose most memorable features would be a gruff, somewhat crass manner and the scar on his face.
"A most fitting look, Nicholas," Kelvar said, with more of a growl in his voice than normal. "I shall be called Andrel."
===================================================
Upon arrival at the Lord's Dalliance Inn, he lets Rose and the Doctor handle negotiating the hiring of rooms for them while he looks about the clientele in the room. Once they have rooms, he will place his belongings in them - keeping any incriminating items with him, of course. He will then return to the common room to enjoy a meal and have a drink or two, as well as buying drinks for others as well.
The Knight of Alerion and her squire, a rare sight to see a woman as such but no less accepted amongst their ranks, The Merchant and his walking boots, The veteran Merchant's Guard with the scarred face and their simple Traveling Companion taking some time away from her monastery. The guards on the road into Aldencross barely look at you as you walk in, only a respectful nod is given to Lady Rose as she passes. You easily find your way to The Lord's Dalliance and organise 2 rooms for an extended stay. The Lord’s Dalliance was once a brothel. This is common knowledge about town. When the Mitran regime of Markadian I came to power, many such venerable institutions shut their doors by decree of the king. That was almost eighty years ago. Since then the Inn has reinvented itself and returned to profitability keeping it’s vaguely risqué name. Among the patrons today are a couple of off-duty soldiers. Kelvar easily gains their audience with his offer of drinks and spends hours in their company. Their loosened lips speak of a raven, "I hear a raven arrived at the rookery last night! I bet it carried important news though I know not about what." The rookery is Balentyne's connection to Talinguarde. Certainly disabling it in some way would hinder their ability to call for aid if they began to suspect an attack.
Rose introduced herself to the innkeep and attended to paying for their stay. "I am Dame Rosemary. If you have any concerns that need to come to my attention, please feel free to approach myself or Nicholas the merchant. We will not need cleaning or laundry service during our stay. Those things are part of my squire's duties, so please don't trouble your staff."
"This is my first time in Ballentyne. I'd like to make a good impression. What do I need to know to keep from making a fool of myself around here?" she said with a self-effacing smile.
Sister Tessa of the Monastery of His Eternal Dominion will wander about the streets, familiarizing herself with the layout of the streets and looking at the signs to note anything that night be of interest. She will keep a count of the soldiers and guardsmen she passes. Likewise, she will listen to the conversations as she strolls along, hoping to catch something juicy.
The Innkeeper, Bellam Barhold, is overjoyed to have a knight staying in his lodgings and assures you that everything shall be as you desire. "I doubt such an esteemed person as yourself could ever make a fool of herself. I'm sure once they learn of your presence that invitations to audiences will be delivered here. I myself am brother to Captain Samuel Barhold. Tomorrow night he will be joining me and my family for dinner here. Perhaps you would do us the honour of joining us. My brother works tirelessly in Balentyne and rarely leaves the keep. Indeed he lives there solely and keeps to him self when not on duty. He is a good man of course or he would not have risen to Captain but he doesn't give much time to life outside his job. It is enough to do to get him to visit me every week." He chuckles a little at the last.
-----
Sister Tessa notices the roughly circular shape of the village, with the majority of the people's residences on the outer circuit and any businesses located along either of the two streets that intersect it. There are all the normal businesses one would expect, tailor, general store, butcher, grocer, smithy, carpenter's, etc. There is also an apothecary, a scribe's shop and a souvenir shop dealing in all sorts of trinkets and odds and ends. You can overhear the villagers talk of the standard daily gossip as they go about their afternoon, watching children play, preparing the dinner meal for their families, nothing they tend to talk about has much to do with Balentyne except for talk by a couple women about their husbands not getting enough time out of the garrison to spend with them. 2 guards patrol the 2 main streets together and another 2 patrol the outer circuit. 2 guards are at each of the 4 entrances to the village, watching the road. A further 4 inhabit the stone tower at the eastern road that leads to Balentyne, making a total of 16 guards that are in town on duty at any time.
"That sounds wonderful, Master Barhold. As long as my duties do not draw me away, I will be there. Thank you." Rosemary smiled.
After taking some time to see her things put away in their rooms and change her clothing, she sat down with Timeon.
"Alright, let's discuss your family. What do you think you should tell them?" she said.
The Doctor plasters on his best attempt at a jovial smile as the innkeeper does his best at flattering the "knight". Once he acquires the keys to their lodging, he goes about searching the room and finding the best place to at least pretend to hide their goods they meant to sell. Anything truly valuable would remain on their persons of course, but that didn't mean he wanted their other things to be needlessly stolen.
When she has a moment away from Timeon, he addresses Lady Rose. "Any thought to what your 'orders' should be? I could try to draft something up using that ship captain's documents as an example. Hopefully you won't need it, but if you join that captain for dinner and he's as married to his work as he sounds, they might come in useful."
Kelvar continues chatting with the guards and buying them drinks.
But he learns nothing new.
"You are a friend who I owed a favor and I wanted to travel anyway, so I agreed to accompany you here as protection, and as an excuse to get my new squire some road experience. I don't think it needs to be more complex than that. Drafting orders would just get in the way." Rose said.
The Doctor shrugs. "Suit yourself." Then, not wanting to have everybody split up immediately without first forming a plan, he waits for all their group to reassemble and find a private place to talk, first making sure that Timeon would stay put at least long enough for them to finish the conversation in private.
"So, what should our plan be? Obviously we need to gather intel, but we should perhaps have some coherent strategy to make sure we don't duplicate effort. In addition to that, we should probably sell some of what we brought with us, if for no reason other than to maintain some kind of cover about why we're here. I'd also like to look into what kind of scrolls we might procure that might come in handy."
Once they are together, Kelvar says, "I agree. We should sell the ivory and seal pelts at the very least - in addition to maintaining our cover, it gives us more disposable cash to use if needed. As to gathering intelligence, I think we'll be able to learn quite a bit here at the Inn. It seems that soldiers come here to drink when they are off-duty, and soldiers always talk over drinks. It would also be helpful if Rose's guise as a Knight of the Alerion got her an invitation into Balentyne - that will allow her to get an idea of the layout of the place."
"I've already managed to learn that the rookery is Balentyne's key to communicating with the rest of the Watch Wall. Eliminating it will hamper their communications. We also know about Captain Eddarly's affair with Captain Mott's wife. I'm sure that if word was gotten to him so that he could catch them in the act, it would, at the very least, result in the two hating each other, if not more. That could cause division within the ranks, and hamper their effectiveness."
Before the discussion got started, Rose sent Timeon away to think about what he wanted to tell his family. "Take your time. Go downstairs and get a bite to eat." she gave him a couple silver coins. "When I'm ready I'll come down and we can go see your family."
"Starting with selling the pelts and the ivory is a good idea. It might give us an opportunity to learn more about the area. Gossip can be very handy."
"After that's done, we can work out our plans and buy any gear we need for it. Wiping out the rookery should be an early priority. We need to cut off communications."
"I'm actually a little worried about going into Ballentyne to meet people. A fort like that seems like it might have a few Mitran paladins. They'll know Kevlar and I for what we really are."
"Don't worry about that. Our Lord has granted me a means to avoid detection."
"Praise be." Rose smiled.
"I agree. A merchant would be expected to sell goods and look for items of value to return with." She continues on with other issue. "As for the rookery, we'll need to locate it. Then we can decide how best to take out the birds. Perhaps the Doctor can make a poison that is less obvious. A direct attack would cause suspicion."
"Since it seems that the men here are motivated by lust, we should use our advantages. Obviously Dame Rosemary is quite the catch with her beauty and highborn breeding. I will look for people who aren't aiming quite so high."
"Yes, I was also thinking of looking for poison for the birds. Preferably something slow-acting as we'll likely have the time, and it'll be less suspicious. Though I suppose that will require us to sneak around if it requires multiple small doses. I made need to find a new source of poison though, as I'm not sure what I have on me is enough."
"But yes, it sounds like we're agreed that selling our wares should come first. Perhaps two of us could do that while the other two try to find the rookery?"
"Timeon said he was in Balentyne once. Perhaps he can tell us where it is?"
"What do you want me to tell them? I'm just your squire now instead of Sir Balin's. They will sad to hear that he died." Timeon gladly takes the coins and heads downstairs.
The two rooms the innkeeper gave you are next to each other, halfway down the hall. There is no connection between them but there are not many travelers and most of the rooms up here are empty.
"Doctor, why don't you and I see about selling the wares - you as the merchant, I as the guard. We'll move the ivory first, and then the pelts if we have time. Otherwise, we'll move the pelts tomorrow, and we can see about purchasing some other supplies then as well."
"What do you want me to tell them? I'm just your squire now instead of Sir Balin's. They will sad to hear that he died." Timeon gladly takes the coins and heads downstairs.
A bit later, downstairs, Rose sat sat down to talk to Timeon.
"Yes. Did you know that Balin and I knew each other? We were close for a while, so I suppose it is fitting that you become my squire after his." Rose smiled. "I'd love to meet your family, if you don't mind me joining you."
"Alright then. Perhaps if don't end up spending too much time haggling, we might take a look for the local apothecary to see what it has in stock currently. I don't suppose either those soldiers you were chatting up happened to mention where the merchant district was? Or perhaps the Sister's walkabout happened to pass by it? If not, I'm sure the inn keeper could give us some directions."