Bronwyn leads the caravan back to the kingdom areas, a distant look in his eyes as he ponders how to deal with certain problems.
"I beg your pardon, my lord. I mean no disrespect, but I must say that you look rather removed from the present. Do your thoughts weigh heavily on your mind? I mean, how much worse could things be than traveling all of the way out here along bumpy roads in these awful contraptions simply to fight a magnum malum lupum?"
Carina looks to Zorestar:
When we need him, he will be there. I must say that strange icy wolf was strange. Wonder how it got this far south. Would have expected something like that in Issian or north of the Lake of Mists and Veils.
"It certainly was a surprise for me. I do believe it is a new one for my life list. Perhaps it was one of those rare migratory worgs. It is difficult to ascertain any real trends with a sample size of one. As I've often said, I consider one to be an incident, two to be a coincident, and three to be the very start of an emerging pattern. It takes four or five to really test your conjecture."
The priest begins wandering looking for the new leaders of the new land.
"It certainly was a surprise for me. I do believe it is a new one for my life list. Perhaps it was one of those rare migratory worgs. It is difficult to ascertain any real trends with a sample size of one. As I've often said, I consider one to be an incident, two to be a coincident, and three to be the very start of an emerging pattern. It takes four or five to really test your conjecture."
Hopefully it won't come to that, my friend. I apologize for the... Let's say, mental vacancy. I'm preoccupied with matters of state - namely ways we might stop further incursion like this. Apart from the wet dog smell on our castle, we were lucky that the wolves invaded Telias' hut instead of a farmhouse or ranch hovel. Innocent, hardworking people might be dead by now.
Carina looks to Zorestar:
When we need him, he will be there. I must say that strange icy wolf was strange. Wonder how it got this far south. Would have expected something like that in Issian or north of the Lake of Mists and Veils.
Shrugging as he is wont to do when the topic of the conversation falls beyond his areas of expertise, Bronwyn suggests:
Perhaps these beasts are more like us than we would like to think - or perhaps we are more like them; probably they too have come south to avoid the massing of armies and ensuing bloody war about to erupt between the noble houses.
Shrugging as he is wont to do when the topic of the conversation falls beyond his areas of expertise, Bronwyn suggests:Perhaps these beasts are more like us than we would like to think - or perhaps we are more like them; probably they too have come south to avoid the massing of armies and ensuing bloody war about to erupt between the noble houses.
"I beg your pardon, Sir! There is little resemblances between a learned man such as myself and a wild beastly animal such as the one we dispatched in our not so distant past. I admit, the nobles do have some issues to resolve amongst themselves, but I would hardly call the nobility uncivilized. Furthermore, I resent being assigned a classification related to such barbarity. Please, my good sir, let us not jumped to such absurd conclusions!"
Carina raises her eyebrow at Zorestar's remark:
The only difference between intelligent wolves, nobles, and common folk is the number of each. If there were more nobles and fewer common folk, then the later would be the sought after ones, or else the nobles would all starve. Similarly, if there were far more white wolves, then in all likelihood, most humans would be kept in pens and used as fodder.
You are currently with a small group of guards on the search for the lords. The guards reported where they went and you have attempted to follow their tracks with the help of a local woodsman.
You wish to find them because there is some chaos going on back in the major city. A mysterious man has appeared and he's being rabble rousing the civilians for sometime. He's a large fat man, well dressed in finery and have quite the charisma as he is able to sway the audience. In fact, a few times you felt as if you were being convinced that these Lords were not performing their proper duties, but you managed to shake that off, knowing full well that the nation's holyman, Jhod Kavken, would not put his trust in these people, however he has had a somewhat dodgy past that lead to his original ex-communication, though you do not know why he was and things with the church at whole have become stable with this new temple.
You are now able to see the group in the distance and they appear to be talking with a group of knights on horse back.
Lord Maegar Varn returns after he helps Telias clean out his shack and looks down at the poor souls who were victims to such vicious creatures.
"I hope the next time we meet, it is under better circumstances." he gives a soft smile to you all as a light hearted comment to try and ease the mood. "Taming the land to the east was not a easy one, but as our Centaur neighbours do not bother us, they make sure to keep away any migrating monsters from their land and inform us of anything they see on the boarders."
"I hope the next time we meet, it is under better circumstances." he gives a soft smile to you all as a light hearted comment to try and ease the mood.
"Regardless of the circumstances, my Lord, it is always a welcome sight to see you. Your words bring comfort to us regardless of the challenges that we are facing."
"Taming the land to the east was not a easy one, but as our Centaur neighbours do not bother us, they make sure to keep away any migrating monsters from their land and inform us of anything they see on the boarders."
"Well, I am glad to hear that our neighboring centaurs are helpful. If we are to help our kingdom grow, It is important that we have some groups that we can trust. I wonder if there is a gift that we could send them to show our appreciation."
As the heavily armored figure approached, it was clear he was not your typical soldier. He seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable in his heavy plate armor, although he wore it quite ably.
Over his back he had a bow made of darkwood and a full pack. The mark of Erastil adorned his buckler, helmet, and bow. As he approached, a massive ape trailed behind with intelligent eyes. When he sees your group, he nods in recognition and approaches.
"I am Elias, Priest of Erastil. I suspect you are the new lords of the lands. I have come to offer my services as a priest."
"Well met, Master Elias. I am Zorestar Lebeda, at your service. I have already been married and my wounds are all healed up, so I am not sure that I have need for a cleric at the moment. However, I always welcome the company of an educated man. Sometimes up here on the edge of civilization, I find myself missing the interactions that come from living in a city. So tell me, my friend, what brings you to this part of the world? Are you one of those fervent adventure seekers?"
Riding a skinny white palfrey and wearing dented armor and shield, Bronwyn Greenwood looks perhaps a bit disappointing as a lord. When he approaches and removes his helm, though, he shines a bright smile beneath his sweaty hair.
Well met, reverend! I am always glad to meet the brave people that follow our dream to the untamed south, but even more if it's an able-bodied good man such as yourself!
The words are almost shouted as he dismounts his horse, and without breaking stride he claps the young man's hand in a strong shake that quickly leads to a half-hug and ends up with a few gentle taps on the shoulder.
Come with us, my good priest - or should I call you Father? - and let us share a drink. This is my wonderful wife, milady Carina Stigard Greenwood. I see you met our resident scholar e preeminent gentleman Zorestar, and that giant of a man there is Sir Jameson, the Knight-General of our home.
Carina looks cross eyed at her husband before turning to the newcomer.
If he shows up in the middle of the night stinking drunk, you are going to be facing a very unhappy wife and mother in the morning.
"The Reverend seems a little shy to me. Perhaps we should select him for the job of minister of oration."
Elias responds to the good natured jibe.
"I have come to bring the strong magic of the hearth and community here. Erastil is my patron, and I am sure his blessings will be of use here. I have no problem speaking at length."
Elias begins to tell a story of how Erastil blessed a particularly inept swordsman so he could kill any normal man at a hundred paces.
He further explains in detail the fine line between the practices of the blessings of community as opposed to the blessings of law and order. "Although many deities can provide blessing of good and law, Erastil has particular strengths in the domain of large gatherings of well intentioned people."
"I have come to bring the strong magic of the hearth and community here. Erastil is my patron, and I am sure his blessings will be of use here. I have no problem speaking at length."
"Well, Elias of Erastil, we certainly welcome you and your patron. We hope to turn this land into a thriving civilization and I suspect that you will be quite valuable in such an endeavor?"
"Aye, divine and arcane magic are a useful tandem to back up sword and guile. I have found the group I am looking for. Rumors of a charter made it far north, but alas I left well after they were issued."
"Well, have no fear. This land has far more to tame than you ever imagined. Although I would love to see this place become civilized sooner than later, I find that the rate of change is relatively slower than I predicted. I was hoping to use an exponential model, but unfortunately to get a better correlation coefficient, I think a linear regression with a slope of one eighth would best model the level of civility in this land as a function of time."
Carina rolls her eyes at Zorestar's comment.
What he is saying is that we are a nation of settlers. Farmers. Woodsmen. Tradesmen. Families. But, we can only grow as fast as we gain settlers and make this land safe. Thus, the faster we eliminate threats, the faster the people will be safe.
So, as the leaders of this land, we all have roles. Bron and I are seeing that the people are ruled with good evenhanded justice. James is making sure that the realm's military is prepared to respond to any threats. And the good wizard is determining when the timely functioning of a coefficient will cause his comfort to regress slower than he predicted.
When the new priest looks away, Carina turns her head and sticks her tongue out at Zorestar.
"I beg your pardon, my lady. It is far more than just comfort I propose. I have a dream to bring education and thought to this land. Imagine a place where creative thoughts and ideas take hold and the topic of every day conversation becomes more than just about the pig that escaped from its pen or that goblin trinkets are becoming all the rave. No, let us learn to discuss matters of real interest such as the limit of a common hyperbola as the input approaches zero, the output reaches without bound both in a negative and positive direction depending on what side the limit is taken! Imagine that. No limit with an input of zero! We could certainly take advantage of such a function in our new realm!"
Carina begins to giggle at the wizard's response before turning back to the newcomer.
Don't worry about the old man. Just ask him the last four digits of pie and he will be entertained for days. And then you can go and get some apple pie and enjoy watching him pace about trying to come up with the answer.
"My lady, you are clearly mistaken. Do you not realize that pi, the ratio of circumference to diameter, is an irrational number and as such it is non repeating and non terminating? It will never end! I will clearly not spend my time calculating four digits only to find out that they were not the last four digits after all! May I suggest you make your way to the kitchens, bake an apple pie, measure its circumference, measure its longest chord, divide the two numbers and at least find an approximation for the first four digits of pi!"
If I were to bake an apple pie, I would eat it, not spend time measuring it. Perhaps if you spent more time experiencing and enjoying the world, rather than trying to trying to calculate the cumserfrence of pies, you would enjoy it more.
She pauses and thinks for a minute before continuing.
And, how would you know that pie does not have a last four digits? Until you get to the end, you will never know if it has an end will you?
One of the nation's rangers, steps forward, looking a little irritated.
"Sorry to interrupt my lords, but we were escorting the priest here because we also needed to inform you of trouble back at the nation." he pointed out, but gives a forgiving bow "A man arrived recently and he has set up a stage where he is claiming your time out here is merely a way to dodge responsibilities. So far he seems to only have a small crowd, but each day his words catch more and more ears and I fear, if left unchecked, he will start a riot. We already delt with a small riot, but luckily many of your people have more faith in you than this stranger, but he is still turning heads."
"We should see to this. !!"
Carina scowls at the information that some fools is attempting to incite the crowds.
Lets see what this goon is up to. If he is violating our laws, then we shall deal with him. If he is merely and idiot, the we shall see that his preaching is only heard by those with the intelligence to realize that it is nonsense.
Then, we must find that lost child and see what happened to him. We spent too much time dealing with those wolves, now we need to find the boy.
"I may need to speak of Erastil and the need of a strong community."