Anya listened to the man's concerns, clenching the back of her teeth as he talked of his hopes. "I agree... never mind the rumors about him, that kind of talk does no good."
She took a small sip of the sour wine she had poured herself earlier. "But enough about him, father. What are you thinking about this sudden influx of people? Honestly, I would consider this region not quite safe enough for colonization yet."
Anya nodded, considering Bergan's point. "I understand, Bergan. It would probably be best if you kept to the squat. I'll still talk to her, of course, but showing her your "best behaviour" is probably doing much more than I ever could."
Anya considered the implications of their actions. "We should focus on the Priest's errant for the time being. We need support here. With a little luck we'll have an ally in the priest."
Alanddra listens to Father Kavken's story mostly in silence. Then when Anya speaks Alandra nods her head in agreement. "I think we should look for the shrine too."
"If i remember correctly, we also have the job for that hermit.The one which gave us the potion for Bergan"
Bergan's particulars
Bergan speaks to Lev and Anya later, in private. "I will need some funds and equipment if you wish me to stay here while you are gone. I will also need something to defend myself with, since the knife I have is purely for working purposes and wouldn't stand up in a fight. Will you give me an advance on my pay so I can at least make a go of things while I'm here?"
For all
Lev sits and eats quietly at dinner, listening intently to the conversation without remark. He is well aware of his limitations, after all. He nods thoughtfully at Anya's suggestion of mercenaries though he was a little concerned about the cost as well.
"Of course. I had intended to see if you might want to make use of any of the weapons we have recently removed from the bandits but perhaps it is best for you to buy what you need separately."
Arianna will walk around the makeshift village trying to puzzle out the crest she had seen on the crate.
Knowledge (local):
Intelligence check:
During the day she will stop at the 'bar' and talk to the proprietors and patrons, just trying to find out more about them and their hopes and aspirations
Diplomacy check:
Before dinner Arianna will visit Milos and purchase a new quality weapon. and chat with the merchant and his family about coditions on the roads.
During dinner Arianna will keep her own counsel and listen to the conversations going on around her. After dinner she will seek out the gaurdsman who had warned her of the mercenaries looking for her. If he is not on duty she will ask him to join her for a drink or two (if he is on duty she will ask him to join him after shift).
Once at the bar she will purchase a bottle of whiskey for them to drink. During the night she will steer the conversation towards Garess and his men's feelings toward him. If she gets the feeling of discontent or even ambivilance she wil put forward her proposal "Listen my friend, your employer worries me. I'm afraid he will put himself in a postion took ride my coattails and and take credit for my deeds. What I propose is something I do not ask lightly, I need someone on the inside who can keep me in touch with what the man is thinking." she pulls a small pouch out of her bodice and places it on the table "Here is a small stipend, to help you fill out your pay. Take it and do what you will."
Diplomacy check:
After a big evening of enertainment and careful talk, the party retire for the night, again forced to bunk down in whatever tents they have since Milos has already aquired the rooms for he, his daughter and Alannah.
The next morning is spent bartering for goods and looking more thoroughly through the small settlement outside. They aquire more horses from one of the refugees. "I plan on settling near here, no need for my horses no more"
Captain Garess is conspicuous in his absence, having taken one fo his men and ridden "out on patrol" early in the hours before dawn. No one can remember seeing anything about that type of action on his charter. His absence at least gave them some breathing space to make any enquirires they were after though.
Arianna
The crest turns out to be the Garess family crest, but you remember seeing one of the men hunting you wearing it. Whether he was an outcast mercernary or whether the two houses wer somehow linked, it made her very nervous indeed to realise so many folk from that region where nearby.
Arianna only
Anya did not waste any time. She paid Bergan's retainer for five weeks forward out of her own pocket, giving the reformed bandit a encouraging smile. "Don't you worry about it. Together with what Lev offered you, I'm confidant this should last you over for this next expedition?"
She felt somewhat apprehensive about the captain's absence. Even with the chance of a fortunate accident, he probably was going to come up with some new devilry. So she decided to set her own wheels into motion as quickly as possible. Creating facts was better than waiting and reacting. So Svetlana and Oleg were next on her agenda. "Hey, good folks" she greeted them, and gently went over their plan to retain Bergan in the squatter's camp for the time being. She tried to cushion the decision as much as she could, putting her most diplomatic face on.
Diplomacy:
Lev's stony face is thoughtful as he considers the significance of the Captain's departure. "I'd give a great deal to know what he's doing out there." He pauses and almost smiles. "I wonder if there is a way to foist the fey bastards off on him?"
"If there is one, the boy is the key. They seem to have taken a liking to him, and maybe yet linger around from time to time. If we can spare a few more minutes, we should talk to him."
Anya finished her travel preparations even as they spoke, but had privately already settled on a quick detour towards the boy - but then it occurred to her. She froze. Grinned. Turned towards Lev. "Lev, this is our chance. We can establish our 'Road Guard' right here and now. He's deserted his post, in a manner of speaking. We just care so much for the outpost that we had to provide protection where he obviously failed."
Lev nods curtly. "Very well. But we should be careful that this doesn't blow up in our faces. What would you have us do first?"
Recognizing the opportunity both for more firmly establishing their positions and giving Anya a clear leadership role, he waited to respond to his sister's instructions.
Alandra is also concerned about Garess' absence, but still glad he is gone. She spends the morning working on her shrine, and making her rounds among the folks in the camp introducing herself, in case anyone needs her services.
"We will need to find some trustworthy men who would do the job. I hope Oleg knows a few trappers or woodsmen who live closeby and wouldn't be averse to it. These could be officers. The rank and file we can recruit later on, but we'd have our structure in place more or less before Garess can react." Anya replied, her mind racing. What had been more or less abstract plans were coming true much quicker than she had expected, and even though she knew how important caution was, she also knew that right now, everyone was looking towards her for choices - and mistakes.
She nodded towards Lev, glad to have him on her side in this - recognised his aid in a way. "We shouldn't delay our expedition to the shrine for much longer, but we can't let this pass us by. While the cat's away, we mice do play"
"I'm not at ease with his absence too;i had to be much more involved in his schemes than i would have liked...and i'm not talking of how much of my body he saw or touched"
Alandra
Within a short time of having set up her shrine, Alandra finds a few of the women folk gathered to hear her words. The young priestess is used to this from her time in Restov. More than others, the women of a community understood death and her fickle ways, and many of them paid homage to the goddess in the hopes of keeping her attention away from their loved ones. Strangely enough, it wasn't fear or loathing they showed to her celrics, but a deep respect for one willing to interceed with death herself on their behalf.
Kevken notes the sermon in progress and stops to watch a moment, his face lined with a smile of satisfaction. After Alandra has finished, he approaches her and congratulates her on taking the step of providing the women folk with some comfort and religious focus.
"Pretty soon you'll be able to settle down and marry, so the folk here will have someone permanent for their cares. Certainly that would suit you more than traipsing this wild land." He reacehd out and gave her a fatherly pat on the shoulder before turning to leave and help with the camps chores.
Arianna
Arianna finds the man she is looking for at his station near the gate. He looks a bit disgruntled, and when she questioned him on it he admitted it was because he had been left to "baby sit" while the captain and old Thom had gone riding to investigate some rumour one of the trappers had given them.
"The plan"
Oleg greets Anya's plan with some hesitation. "This is a risk, m'lady, no doubt. None of the trappers herabouts are willing to fight, particularly in anything political. It's the reason most of 'em hunt these regions to start with. Milos knows some folk though, he could get some down here within a week, if we have the cash to fund them. It's what I would have done myself had I the funds initially."
For a moment, the merchant rubs across his face as the worries of the last few weeks come to the surface. "Then there's teh matter of the Captains charter. The swordlords themselves have hired he and his men for this job, I'm not sure where we stand in trying to replace him with sellswords of our own. I trust your judgement though Lady Anya, so I'll approach Milos and organise it before he leaves."
As for the boy, there is no sign of him around the camp this morning. Svetlana said he often wnadered the fields nearby with his wolf, and she wasn't too concerned. "The first time he went wandering I nearly went into Hysterics" she stated with a bright little laugh. "But he came back with flowers for me and a wild pigeon the wolf had taken down. Now he goes nearly every day. He's safe enough, though he'll be sad he didn't get to say goodbye before you left."
"Oh, really. What rumor would that be?"
Anya smiled when Oleg mentioned the man's charter. This little bit of thinking was a secret favorite with her, and if it swayed level-headed Oleg, it would probably hold water against the cursory-at-best interest Restov would take in this matter. "Well, this is the beauty of it, Oleg. We are tasked with securing this land from banditry, while Garess is tasked with protecting your trading post. If we call our men the "Road Guard" or "Land Wardens", or something along these lines, we're only slightly expanding beyond what we were originally tasked to do. That doing so makes Garess more or less obsolete, well... that is his own tough luck. But it should ensure your customers and suppliers pass unhindered - by any party"
Svetlana's story about the child's wanderings only further proved that the boy was touched by the other side... all the more reason to pursue his aid - another time, though.
Alannah was content to remain in the background, observing the group's dynamic. It seemed Anya was prone to plotting, scheme within scheme, something typical of nobles....an odd thought that...she must have heard someone say it somewhere once.
Over the last few days she'd been blessed with a reprieve from the agonizing headaches and the dreams, something that was always welcome. She took the opportunity to try to understand her new allies, their motivations and goals.
An intersting group this one.
"Pretty soon you'll be able to settle down and marry, so the folk here will have someone permanent for their cares. Certainly that would suit you more than traipsing this wild land."
Alandra is too shocked at this to reply, the thought of marriage having never entered her mind. Then she thinks of something else:
Did he just hit on me?
Alandra
The young guardsman snorts in disgust at her question, obviously frustrated "Captain didn't bother to tell me what it was, but I heard he and Thomas talking about some nest of Fey nearby that had caused us an issue when we travelled here. Not more than the odd prank or two mind, but it put the Captain out of sorts." He spits coarsly on the ground near his feet. "Hope he don't find 'em though, the young lad and his wolf seem kinda keen on the fey folk around here. Don't think he'd like it if teh Captain brought a couple of em back as trophy's"
The plan
With a final nod, Oleg agrees to the plan and organises to hire mercenaries through Milos' connections. He leaves to oversee the final preparations as the party gets set to head out and explore again, casting a single worried glance at his wife as he does so.
Back to the Greenbelt
With a final look at the trade post and the tent squat beaside it, the small party again set out to complete their charter and explore the lands of the south. The weather was fine, and most of them were in fine spirits as they left Oleg's behind them.
Lev's eyes widen at the news of how the captain has been plagued by Fey. "I suppose the two of us have something in common after all," he murmurs softly.
He begins to wonder if perhaps confrontation was not the best way to resolve the matter. He shrugs and prepares himself for the day's journey.
Perception check:
Perception check:
Perception check:
Ride check:
Ride check:
Ride check: [dice]1d20+2[/dice
Ride:
Ride:
Ride:
Survival:
Survival:
Survival:
A few short hours of riding brings the party to the edge of the woods nearest Oleg's. Arianna's keen eyes pick put the tracks of two mounts having passed through the area not so long ago, heading into the woods. Surpisingly, it is Anya's survival skills that places the tracks as less than an hour or two old.
It is very likely that this is the spot that Captain Garess and Old Thomas came into the woods in search of the Fey nest they had been told of.
Although tempted to meddle in Garuss' affairs a little further, Anya decided to suggest to move forward. She knew that the captain might make things messy unchecked, but winning the priest's favor was more important than to react to his every twitch
"I have had enough of Garess for the days to come, i'ld say skip following him for now"
Alannah nods quietly, agreeing that focusing on the goal at hand seemed the better idea to her.
Arianna looks longingly at Garess's trail and mutters to herself "Too bad, it would've been a tradgedy if our 'good' captain and his man were set upon by bandits while out here all alone. Some other day, then." She yanks on the reins and follows the others off into the forest.
Having skirted the section of woods where Garess and his man have entered, the exploration team move deeper into the Narlwood, as it is known. The first days exploration passes easily enough, with a section of woods and plainlands now searched and added to their maps. Without Mawj, the scouting takes longer, but Lev is comfortableenough in his role that soon the elf's absence isn't such a burden on the group.
Bunking down that night, they are surrounded by the sounds of the woods, filling more and more with life as the spring weather warms. The night is uneventful, barely even disrupted by scavenging rodents or night birds. The lack of the Fey pranks is a welcome change to some of the company, but may mean that Garess was successful in finding their nest.
Half a days travel deeper into the woods the next day brings teh group into a large glade. A standing pool of fresh water marks a place where many forest animals would converge for drinking and the game trails are thick in the region. As the group starts to move across the clearing, to water their own mounts and refill water supplies, Lev's hand suddenly rises and holts their progress. Taking a large stick from nearby, the ranger pushes it into a clump of nobby rush grass and a loud crunch follows. Looking up at his sister, Lev warns "Traps, quite a few that I can see."
Perception DC12
Perception DC15 (as for DC12 plus)
If you made the DC 15 perception
Survival or knowledge arcana DC13
Perception
Survival
Alannah's eyes narrow as she takes in the surroundiing area.
"Be careful," she says quietly, "there's a kobold nest somewhere nearby based on the number of traps around here. The little bastards are tricky as hell."
Perception check:
Survival check:
Lev nods in agreement with Alannah. "They've had control of this area for a while, it seems. Perhaps you should all follow me. I should be able to lead the way through the traps without too much trouble."
Lev moves in front of his horse and carefully guiding the beast by the reins begins to make his way through the trap littered ground, using his ability to track the movements of the kobolds as well as his keen eyes to make safe passage through the glade.
It takes quite some time for Lev to safely lead the group through the glade, and when they have finally gotten throgh, the only have just enough time to complete a brief exploration of the area before having to bunk down for the night.
The sounds of the woods that night are no less than the night before, though the frog calls from the waterways and glades in this section are much louder than yesterdays forest.
It is during Arianna's watch when the kobolds approach. The young rogue clearly hears their yipping voices from some way off in the forest, even over the sounds of insects and frogs calling to each other. They sound as if they are trying to approach stealthily, but Arianna's senses are too keen for them. She predicts she has a few moments before the creatures see the camp fire in which she can act.
Clad only in a light shift Alannah rolls out of her bedroll with the fliudity of one used to acting before fully awake, her hand intinctively grabbing her bow as she stands, stringing it.
As her mind catches up to her body she qquickly betls her quiver to her waist and readies hersef, bare feet apart in a wide grounded stance, arrow nocked, sharp eyes combing the campsight for thefirst sign of an enemy.
Init
Elsbeth rolls out of her bedroll,her mood under her feet "Again!!!! How much i hate being awaken in the middle of the night to fight, and with this Calistrian scanty nightwear as only dress; damn, i have everything on show"
She quickly reaches for the wand and the dagger, then leans just out of the tent to see what the situation is, without completly exit from the tent yet
Arianna will spend the two rounds waking the others and quietly informing them of the imminent attack. On the third round she will fade off into the forest and wait.
Stealth check:
Iinitiative:
Alandra grumbles something about never being able to get a good night's rest out in the wikderness and crawls out of her tent. She starts praying to Pharasma.
Hearing the cry of alarm, Lev stands and grabs his greatsword, striding out into the campsite in his bare feet.
"Kobolds?" He doesn't wait for an answer but moves away from the fire and to the side of the camp where he can find some shadows to wait in.