City girl that she is, Kyrie has little to no idea what radishes look like, so she keeps an eye out for whatever else in habits this particular patch of the Stolen Lands.
It takes about half of the day but you eventually spy a clearing filled with the little green tops of radishes. However, it is what else you find in the clearing that really makes it stand out. Five kobolds lay about in the noon sun, baskets filled with radishes beside them along with a fair number of tops with no radishes left attached. They seem to be drowsing, and have yet to hear or spot Cal on point.
"Well, this complicates things." Sia notes quietly. "I wonder if Svetlana knew the radishes were claimed by someone already. I would prefer to negotiate. Hopefully they won't mind just sharing, but I somehow doubt that we'll get away without at least a trade."
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Gorax looks at Sia, with a certain amount of deference, it seems she is confident in her understanding of these creatures. "I've not seen these creature a'fore, so if we're gonna trade with them, I guess they're gonna be friendly creatures, so I'll stay back a bit in support. I'm not much one for doing that sort of thing, give me a fight and I'm OK. So what we gonna trade with them?"
"Just stay ready in case it turns out they don't feel like negotiating," Kyrie murmurs, drawing her bow without actually aiming at anything in particular yet.
"I don't know Sia, those things don't look like they'd want to negotiate. I'll back you up, but if it starts going bad they'll meet my steel" Estruven says.
Sia nods. "Right. Just because they can manage to live in civilized society doesn't mean these will even bother to try." That said, Sia begins cautiously approaching, leaning on her staff like a walking stick.
While Sia and Estruven approach the Kobolds, Kyrie starts circling around the edge of the clearing, staying concealed among the trees so she'll have a firing angle if the kobolds decide to pick a fight.
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Gorax, draws his sword and puts on his shield, "Well, there's no point in being unprepared", he thinks. He then follows Sia and Estruven at a respectful distance, , trying not to look to aggressive, trailing his sword behind him. He watches the creatures, waiting for something to happen, for good or ill, but ready to charge if required.
As Sia is making no effort to conceal her approach, the kobolds spot her as she enters the small clearing and spring unsteadily to their feet, screeching in alarm. Grabing their crude spears and shields they face off towards the woman and her heavily armored escort.
Kyrie nocks an arrow and takes aim, ready to let fly at the first Kobold that attempts to attack Sia.
Sia looks a little shocked at just how immediate and violent their reaction is to being disturbed. She holds up a hand placatingly. "Wait, wait a moment," she says, backing away a few steps to try to make it clear that she isn't hostile. "We just wanted to talk. There's no need for this to get violent unnecessarily."
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Gorax raises his sword, mapping out in his minds eye how to charge into action if the creatures don't respond to Sia's friendly overtures. Adrenaline starts to pump round his body, the muscles of his arms become more defined, his eyes focused and staring at the distant beasts, but maintaining his cover in the woods. Best keep outta sight, let them have a surprise if things get nasty. He tongue wets his drying lips at the thought of combat.
Estruven stands firm, readying herself if the creatures continue to advance despite Sia's attempt at diplomacy.
By their expressions, the kobolds don't appear to understand Sia, but they don't rush to attack. Instead they stand their ground uncertainly, but guardedly. As though ready to fend off bandits waylaying them on the road.
Sia pauses, but switches to their language, realizing that they don't actually speak common after all.
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Gorax relaxes slightly seeing the lizards take a defensive stance, and not reacting in a way that would immediately threaten Sia. He listen to the strange words being exchanged, he was sure he recognized it as the language of wizards. It sounded like, hmmm, yes he was sure they called it draconic, but he didn't understand a word that was said.
Cal stays back and to the side, leaving as clear a firing lane as possible to the most threatening-looking kobold, but he does not make any overt hostile actions to spoil Sia's attempt at diplomacy.
The kobolds all look back and forth muttering softly in their own language. After a short time one of them takes a tentative step forward. Either the leader, or talked into acting like one.
Sia thinks about the things in her and the rest of the party's packs before she looks back to the kobolds.
The kobolds talk amoungst themseleves again for a while, a bit of a disagreement seeming to form. Seems some of them want the gold, some want the radishes, and some just want to kill the intruders on principle. In the end, the leader silences the rest and turns back to Sia with a koboldish shrewed expression.
Poor, poor Sia. The Arcnamirium's cafeteria and dormitories were, in the tradition of all school eateries, filling but not particularly tasty or exotic. And even when she did go out on the town to have a meal, she never exactly prepared it for herself.
As for a bookish noble daughter learning the skills needed at home, forget about it - there would always be servants to do that, right?
While she might normally extrapolate out that a reasonable rate for a staple food can't possibly be that much, this isn't an ordinary staple. And scarcity means expensive.
The kobold gets a shrewed expression at Sia's words and looks down at the four baskets of radishes filled to overflowing around him. motioning for one of the others to pick up a basket he walks cautiously about three steps towards Sia.
He speaks in a harsh and rather doubtful tone.
Sia easily pulls out twenty Brelish coins - that had originally been intended to pay for more potions than were available - and shows it to the kobold.
Kyrie tenses as Sia pulls out the gold. There's something about the Kobolds' expression that makes her nervous - or maybe she's getting overanxious because it's her friend that's the center of attention if anything were to go wrong. Either way, she keeps a careful eye on their movements...
The kobold looks at the gold with interest, and more than a little surprise. It seems he didn't think that Sia actually had the money. He gives a motion with his spear to a spot on the ground between them. Indicating that she should deposit the money there.
Once that is done, he nods to his compatiot with the basket who walks tentatively forward to place the basket in front of Sia, his eyes and spear focussed on her all the while, before running back to join his fellows.
The leader eyes all of the visible intruders and motions off with his spear in the direction they came.
While his tone has a note of finality, there is a rather pleased look in his eyes.
Sia bows slightly.
She turns to Gorax. "All right. We've got the radishes. Let's go before they change their minds."
Kyrie lets out a relieved sigh, lowering her bow again and circling back to rejoin Sia in the woods. "Nice work," she offers. "How much did you get?"
The hasty retreat goes un-molested and as far as anyone knows, the kobolds remain in the clearing gorging themselves on yet more radishes. Or perhaps they just return to their drowsing. But there is no sign or sound of them following. It's probably just as likely that they're trying to decide whether to tell their chief about the gold.
Sia looks back over her shoulder, a little winded by carrying the raishes. "Got enough for a stew, at any rate. Let's get these onto the donkey and finish looking around the area. After that, we'll need to decide what to do tomorrow."
"So far, I think we're good on supplies, and the radishes will probably keep for some time, so I'd like to loop a bit further west and get some more real exploring done before we head back to Oleg's again, if that's okay with everyone else."
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Gorax, governed more by his stomach, says "You know, those radishes may last a bit longer, but the fresher they are the better they will taste. So going back to Oleg's definitely has its attractions. I'd certainly be more than happy to set off there now. or to make it quicker we could head in a north westerly direction and circle round to Oleg's."
It doesn't take long to get back to the horses, secure the radishes, and head out again. As you ride out to continue exploring the area, talk returns once again to what to do tomorrow.
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Gorax, still uneasy on the saddle looks across at Estruven as she sits comfortably on her steed. Maybe one day, he thinks. But feeling cheery after their little escapade with the radishes, Gorax speaks, "Estruven, say where'd you think we ought go now. Shall we go North-West and sneak up onto Oleg's place and surprise them with our radishes?"
"I think Gorax has 'im good idea. Let's head back t' Oleg's, but let's finish up a'splorin' this area 'fore we go. The radishes'll keep for a few days."
"I'd rather go straight North for a bit first, then due west to Oleg's," Kyrie suggests after studying the map of the area. "At the rate we've been going, we'll likely be trekking further and further away from Oleg's on these trips, and I'd feel better knowing there aren't any unpleasant surprises at our back..."
Estruven ponders Gorax's question. Before she can answer Calath and Kyrie chime in with two good suggestions. This group is diverse, but as long as we're not trying to kill each other it has it's bonuses.
"I agree Calath. Kyrie is correct. We can head towards Oleg's, but we don't need to make a bee line for it. We need to clear out and familiarize ourselves with as much land as we can out here. We should even try to do a small zig zag pattern if we can. Anyone know how long that would take?" she says looking back and forth to Kyrie, Calath, and Sia.
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Gorax gets on his horse, as they set off on the zig-zag pattern back to Oleg's following Estruven's route. He whistles as he rides to the tune, 'Always look on the bright side of life', thinking Things are going well, that Kyrie has the right idea, make sure we can have a clear retreat. Maybe she's not so bad. Swetlana's gonna be right happy about those radishes. Even this horse seems to be behaving today, this riding is getting easier, hahaha!
Sia looks over the map. "At our current pace, Kyrie's route will get us back to Oleg's, I'd say, about mid-morning the day after tomorrow. I guess we can spend the rest of the day getting re-situated and figuring out a new exploration plan. Personally, I'm a little more inclined towards clearing a path back towards Restov. It's more or less bandit territory, which makes the merchants have to swing around. If we make sure there's nothing hazardous in that area, it may be possible to set up a more direct route between Restov and Oleg's, on the way further on into the Kingdoms and along safer trade routes overall than they need to use now.
Erm, after the bandits themselves are cleared out, of course."
Kyrie nods at Sia. "Sounds like a plan. Let's go, then."
"Sounds good Sia. Let's working on clearing a path to Restov." Estruven mounts up and starts heading in the direction of Sia's suggestion.