As topics change, and the mood turns foul, Roan scoffs at Wilhelm's rebuttal. "My suspicions!? Maybe you should-" The mercenary cuts himself off, and steadies himself, proceeding in a calmer, but still rather clipped tone. "Wilhelm, I never said that these are my suspicions, and I apologize for my choice in... titles, it was uncalled for. I peer into the heart, the mind, and the soul. I know who's behind those red locks that you're so fascinated by. And I can say that she is a person who would much rather see the world be a good place than a bad one. But that does not, and will not change appearances. Just as you say that we should not fight Drelev for fear of appearing as though it were a hostile action instigated by the Swordlords, I council you the same in your choice of women." Roan falls silent and braces for the inevitable rebuttal, and concludes. "Do what you will, and I will support you in the endeavor. But please, think about what I've said. What if Drelev were to send a similar story to mine to King Surtova, and him to the church of Iomedae, and House Orlovsky and say that you've been ensorceled by her? That to save a noble son and a faithful of your patron that forces needed to be marshaled? There's illusion magicks enough out there to fool a few witnesses that may be questioned by your church, and bribes, lies and deceit could finish the deed. We'd have a headache at best, war at worst. And if that happened, the best we could hope for would be that it is Lady Medvyed alone who perishes, but possibly you and these lands with it, and the hopes and dreams of everyone who has put their faith in you could be turned to ash. THAT, is the fear I bring to you, not anything about her herself, but what she implies, and how our enemies could use that against us. As our leader, your actions are for your people, not for yourself. If you truly believe that Lady Medvyed is that, then do as you will. Otherwise, I'd recommend you take my offer."
Roan stands up to leave, and finishes with, "Oh, and at least speak to Skyborn. He fears for this Alliah's well-being, if there's anything you can do to alleviate this concern, you'll have done good in the world, helped your friend, and rid Drelev of a chance to do evil. Surely you can at least agree with that? My investigations are not to stir up suspicions, but to protect these people whom you've placed your trust in." And I'll continue at it, thank you very much. Hypersensitive child...
Dinner conversation is something that Dareon is good at. He recognizes, very early on, what Wilhelm is trying to do (very subtly, of course. He's going to make a good Baron) and attempts to join in on the prodding.
"Do you have any family back in Brevoy that you're going to miss, or were you...bringing them along?" asks Dareon, his head cocked to the side. "Or are you still unclaimed?" He gives a toothy smile.
Besides that inquiry, he'll start a conversation about why everyone wanted to get into the Stolen Lands, stating his own reasons as, "Oh, I just wanted to see some of the world - get into some open spaces so that I'd have somewhere to expand myself."
Lanya joins dinner and sits at Wilhelm's side. She watches and talks smalltalk with whoever is opposite or next to her.
"These Stolen Lands are a good opportunity for people that seek a second chance. A new beginning as one would say, are you out for a new beginning, seeking glory and riches or just following your lord? Whatever the case it must get lonely from time to time, we've seen the same problem with those bandits actually. No women at all..."
"Your party's goal to expulse the boggards is a fine one, but I'm concerned for you. We have Oleg's as a place of operations and means to get trade in more easily. I can't seem to remember something like that at the other side of the east Sellen River."
Wilhelm is puzzled by Lord Drelev's outburst, the man seemed genuinely annoyed at Anastacia for some reason. Anastacia on the other hand thinks he was looking for an excuse to be annoyed and she supplied it.
Only Ameon and Drelev have dinner with Wilhelm, the rest of his party camps outside the Trading Post. Lanya soon realizes that Drelev pretty much drinks whatever is set before him and she soon arranges for him to always have a full cup. Although he mentions that he has a wife and she will be joining him, he is soon fawning over Lanya. "You should come visit me when I get established. It will be safe. This is only a small portion of my force, I was merely seeing the countryside. Hook Town is where I plan to base my operation, although I'm thinking that name lacks luster."
Roan listens in silence, eating and speaking if spoken to, but otherwise staying silent and serving his function as a bodyguard to Wilhelm. Hook town... so he plans on conquering a free city to start as his base of operations. In boggard territory no less... Waging war against them is probably just a means to get his forces through unmolested. And he plans to have us help to minimize his casualties and hopefully weaken a rival at the same time no doubt.
"I agree." says, Dareon. "A swampside town deserves a glittering and glorified name." he smiles widely and looks dead-on at Drelev. He glances at Lanya, but only for a moment. He trusts her to resist the man's advances, but he also knows that men are unhappy when they don't get what they want, and he's cautious and ready for an anger explosion.
So, he means to settle bordering the Lake Hooktongue, eh? It sounds like Hannis Drelev is in for a bit of a fight. Suppressing a groan as Dareon attempts to goad Drelev further, Wilhelm considers his response for a moment before saying, "Nonsense, Dareon. With hard work and good Taldish engineering, I'm sure the Slough will make admirable land. Drain off the excess water and you've found yourself fantastic farmland." Arching an eyebrow at the wizard, Wilhelm changes the subject as he asks, "So tell me, Lord Drelev, how long a ride is it from here to the edge of your barony? I can't imagine too many good roads exist through the Slough, so it seems like it will be rather slow going. Particularly if you're travelling with supply wagons and such."
Anastacia's eyes narrow as she realizes who Drelev is. She doesn't necessarily disagree with his views on taxing religion. There are certainly clergy who take advantage of their position to better themselves. That is more a matter of individuals, than organizations, though.
The man is certainly ambitious, but unless he has a way of securing the loyalty of Hooktown's citizens, he is likely to find himself fighting an insurrection as well as the boggards. Anastacia says nothing, her advice seems to infuriate the man.
She does wonder if he is lying about the additional troops though.
Lanya nods as Drelev mentions his plans.
"I'm flattered Lord Drelev and thank you for the invitation. However I must respectfully decline, our situation here still requires me to act as a diplomat for the foreseable future. Whenever that is finished I could perhaps come visit the Hooktongue and see what you've done with the place."
With that she leaves to get back to her own dinner.
Drinking whatever is set before him hmm... either he is a drunk or polite. But it's good to know that he does so...
Bej smirks at a toast made with coffee - this ain’t Issen, for sure “May they always!” he replies.
“Say, if I’m overstepping my boundaries just say so, but where do y’all folks come from? Didn’t catch any stray bandits, did you?” he asks casually as the coffee gets passed around by the troops “We dealt with our good share of troubles down here – bandits first and foremost. I think we got them all, but you never know… hell, same thing with wargs, no less: we hit them hard, drove them home… a bit too far I reckon, several of them fled into the forest. Wouldn’t want the good folks around Restov suffering ‘cause of them.”
Bej keeps sharing “war stories”, trying to gather information on what Terrion’s men faced in the Stolen Lands.
Once the two leaders seem to have made peace, Terrion relaxes. He still keeps a heavy guard up but he seems to genuinely enjoy Bej's company and stories and soon he, several of his soldiers and his girls are enjoying the coffee. Bej gathers that their journey here has been uneventful, and he doesn't seem to be expecting much trouble. He tactfully deflects any in depth inquiries as to what their plans are.
Lord Drelev has no such tact. Anastacia believes him to be sincere in that he has a larger force somewhere. He totally misses Dareon's jibe about the town's name and merely replies, smiling. "I will think on the matter. I'm sure I can come up with a good name." At the mention of roads, Drelev curses. "You're fortunate to have the road, Wilhelm. I can take the South Rostland Road as far as Wyvern Bridge and I have it on good authority that there is a footpath on the other side of the East Sellen that leads to Hook Town. My maps have the bridge as being about 100 miles down the road so maybe 4 days to get there and then 3 days to get to Hook Town."
As Lanya leaves he actually stands up, courteously bidding her goodbye although Lanya can feel his eyes lusting after her as she walks away. He sits back down and proposes a toast. "To beautiful women." he says looking at Anastacia.
"To beautiful women.", agrees Dareon, giggling on the inside and toasting with water.
"Pharasma judges us by our deeds, not by our appearance. Women, men, young, old, plain, of beautiful, all judged by their deeds." Anastacia is not sitting at the table, nor is she holding a drink, but the toast seems to be directed at her, so she answers.
Roan grimaces at Anastacia's shooting down at Drelev's shallow, but clear attempt to patch up the previous spat between himself and her. He silently raises his glass, takes a drink, and steps outside. Having planned to investigate into the rest of Drelev's men himself, he's surprised to find Bej has beaten him to the punch. Deciding that one face of passing familiarity is better than none, Roan approaches the group, and squats down next to the group. "Mind if I join?"
When it becomes clear that the topic at hand is swapping various old stories, Roan tosses in various stories from his mercenary days. Eventually, he begins into a story of a siege that he apparently was part of the aggressors of, but a quick flicker of his eyes to the girls finds the topic awkwardly switched.
"I suppose we are lucky at that, Hannis. It's find land here and I'm eager to see it tamed. I had no notion there was a path much on the other side of the bridge. Leading south I mean. I had rather expected there was only a long and bandit-ridden path to Numeria. How fortunate for you that it's not entirely wild." Wilhelm maintains a diplomatic smile as he makes small talk with the man. Some distance away then at least. If the Slough keeps him occupied we may actually have a chance to get established before there's any clashing. Wincing a little at Anastacia's reply, Wilhelm raises his own glass in toast, "To beautiful woman, may the radiance of their noble spirits shine ever brightly." Sipping his wine to hide his embarrassment at that line, Wilhelm continues to make small talk with Drelev. An awkward and hackneyed phrase if ever there was one. Still, if I can stop some bloodshed at my dinner table I'll say worse."
Dante looks at the lords sitting and drinking, I'll not take the company of that rat if I don't have to. he thinks to himself, moving away from Drelev and outside towards Bej, Roan, and the soldiers.
"Evening lads." he says with a dry smile, pulling up a stool amidst the story telling and coffee drinking.
Listening to Roan's tale, Dante gets ready for the gory details. There wasn't very much actually heroic about heroics, and even a knight in shining armor such as he, would only have shiny armor for about a minute before it was covered in mud and blood.
When Roan suddenly stops and changes topics, At least this one has some common decency in the presence of girls.
"May I have some of this coffee?" Dante asks no one in particular, but not wanting to just take it without asking.
Rowan finishes clearing out the rooms for their new guests to use and goes to a table near the dinner conversation to eavesdrop. Upon hearing of the lordling's intended destination, Rowan remembers seeing several maps of the area back before he began the journey out to the River Kingdoms.
Working from memory, Rowan pulls out the ink pot and parchment lent to him by Dante and quickly redraws the maps he had seen before.
Sprinkling a small amount of sandy dust to dry the ink, Rowan shakes it out and puts the map away. Later, he will show it to Wilhelm so that he may have a better idea of where this lordling will be.
Actually the two girls seem enthralled by the tales of blood and gore. So much so that Terrion threatens to send them away if they don't behave. The older daughter is Tamary, the youngest Kisandra. Although Terrion is close mouthed about what they are doing here, Kisandra is very forthcoming. Their mother died only a couple of weeks ago. Having already volunteered to accompany Lord Drelev, Terrion was forced to choose between taking them along or leaving them in New Stetven. The road between here and Hook Town is fairly safe, and he plans to house them in Hook Town once they establish their base. Terrion has little to add to the conversation, he seems intent on guaging the group, although he does seem to have a head for the nuaunces of siege warfare.
Rowan draws a wonderful map, one of the best he's done. He does remember tales of a road leading from the Wyvern Bridge to Hook Town, but it definitely is not a main path. Primarily the trade down the South Rostland Road goes to Numeria and that would be considered the main road. Pitax has a road that travels to Hook Town and the East Sellen is navigable from there up to New Stetvan, so what trade exists between Brevoy and Pitax tends to use that route. But sometimes someone from Pitax wants to make the journey to Restov, so a trail exists connecting Hook Town to the Wyvern Bridge. The more Rowan looks at the map, the more he realizes that Pitax is not going to take kindly to an armed excursion into Hook Town.
Baron Drelev continues to make boisterous, if not all entirely unpleasant conversation throughout the rest of the dinner. Almost everyone present is subjected to a heavy handed attempt to convince them to join his expedition. 'I'm sure Wilhelm would not mind it if you loaned me your services' is a typical line he uses. Eventually the night does draw to a close. Hannis and Ameaon make their excuses to leave the table and withdraw to the quarters that Oleg and Svetlana have prepared for them.
Roan continues his stories of heroism and bravery for some time for the delight of the girls more than the older comrades. War is always glorious to those who've never seen it before... Though he continues to steer away from the stories that take the shine away from the subject and turn into simple and grizzly tales of butchery.
Eventually after some time, Roan falls silent and lets others take the conversation where they will for some time. Later, Roan interjects again. "Terrion? May I speak to you for a moment?" Roan leads the man a short, comfortable distance out of earshot, and offers quietly. "Look, I think we can both agree that we're not wanting a fight, but we're both looking for it and expecting it. It's probably not coming tonight, it's probably not coming tomorrow, but the fact of the matter is that Drelev was sent here to curb the expansion of Swordlord power. Let's not pretend otherwise. I can attest to you that most of us are Brevoy natives and hold little allegiance to Restov, we just saw an opportunity and took it. But that alone is unlikely to be enough to stop any potential fighting that may happen down the road. So, just know, that our leader is a paladin, for better or worse. But if there is fighting, and if anything makes you question your current allegiance, send word to me, and I will make sure that the Baron can hear your words, and that a safe haven is made for you and your family here. That's all." With that, unless Terrion makes efforts to stop him, Roan departs back to the rest and sits down, resuming the conversation.
Terrion seems taken aback by Roan's statement of what is obviously on everyone's mind. So much so that he doesn't respond before Roan has retaken his seat. He comes back to the fire, obviously deep in thought. Too late, Roan notices that Kisandra, had snuck up close enough to overhear the conversation, but as she returns to the fire, she also doesn't say anything,
Roan is initially irked at the nosy Kisandra, then chuckles as he sits down. "You sly little imp! Remind me of when I was young. I used to spend all day spying on the monks in the temple. One time, this one, Stewart, odd name for a monk, I know, but he took to throwing rocks at me whenever I came creeping up. At first I thought he must've been furious with me, but eventually, he just smiled and said 'Thanks to you, my senses are that much better. Hopefully your reflexes have improved as well?'" Roan shakes his head, bemused, and reaches out and rustles the girls hair before returning to the normal flow of conversation.
After Drelev withdraws for the night, Rowan sits down at the table and spreads out his newest map. I'm sure Dante would be impressed with this work of art... he thinks to himself before shaking his head and getting straight to business.
"I overheard some of our new neighbor's plans for the near future." he says, pointing out the route the Baron intends to take. "And I believe he's going to have a few problems. Besides the boggard threat, Pitax won't tolerate their neighbor being taken over, charter or no charter. Also, I don't think he knows all of the local routes either." This time pointing out the routes he believes Drelev had overlooked.
"I don't like the man, but he's bringing soldiers, pioneers, and their families into dangerous territory and I don't want to see them get hurt. We could offer to shelter his civilians until he gets a foothold on his territory. Also a bit of stable gossip, for all his title implies, the Baron and his companion barely know how to handle or care for a horse. He's not a true horse rider. Something to consider if you decide to hold a tournament or duel." he finishes with a chuckle and waits for any questions.
Wilhelm remains a genial host as Drelev makes his attempts to enlist his companion's services, ignoring the blunt attempts at recruitment. Make your attempts, I'm sure none of my friends will buy into your fumbling story. Wilhelm bids Drelev a good evening as he and Ameon leave, and paces for a little while in front of the fire thinking. No, not really to be trusted I think. I'll want the others thoughts.
Retaking his seat, Wilhelm listens to Rowan's insight. Nodding along thoughtfully, Wilhelm is grinning by the time the druid finishes explaining what he's found. Clapping the man on his shoulder, Wilhelm says, "Good work, Rowan. If we're to be rival pawns in the games of Brevoy, then I'm glad to hear his situation is more tense than ours. As for dueling, I don't intend to do any such thing with that man for a variety of reasons, but it's good to have such details in mind. I'm inclined to agree that we could offer to shelter his civilians, but I'm not sure he'd accept. It may be better to broach the idea to the civilians as well so they know we're friendly. Maybe a few will slip away and join us here?" Wilhelm runs a hand through his beard as he continues to think, listening to any other opinions voiced.