"So this is where you met him? I'm tempted to search him out... but no, getting back to Oleg's now it's more important than dealing with some crazy old man from the woods"
Kressle snorts and starts walking again without a word. You continue on .. a few hours later the bandits' pace slows as fatigue sets in.
"We already know the story of the man with the crow. Why don't you tell us what you have to do with him. Your dandy archer friend isn't so loyal when he isn't terrorizing people and meets real opposition. Might be worth a ride in the cart?"
"Dandy archer friend? You mean Happs? If you think I care what he has to say... I was done with him anyway.
As far as the old man with the crow .. I have as little to do with him as possible. Ride in the cart? I'd rather die on my feet than give you the satisfaction gnome."
You travel on past the halfway point. You are forced to occasionally stop and let the gnomes ride for a while .. all of the bandits exhausted at this point. Kressle forges on, trying her best not to show weakness by dropping.
Hours later you come to the northeast corner of the wood, where the trees have been cut in a swath and the goblin tracks were seen.
Hurry past, hurry past.
An hour or so later, you see the warm glow of the trading post. Lanterns have been hung on either side of the gate. Green rides ahead to make sure the other bandits are out of sight. You see the framework of a structure next to Kesten and the other guards' tents, and a small fenced area for their horses.
Oleg walks to the gate to open it wide, and steps to the side to allow Alice to pull the wagon in. "Welcome back! Success once again?" He goes pale when he sees Kressle.
As soon as the party enters the confine of the trading post, The Green Man leaves the others and goes looking for Budgie, assuming he finds him alone and out of sight from the others he unceremoniously grabs him by his shoulders and slam his back against the wall.
"Fun trick eh? Oh, you are a clever one, not lying no, I'll grant you that, but sending me after the ones who load the cargo for "him" yes? Only...you "forgot" to mention it was you.
Was it a test eh? Making sure we had the mettle to go up against the Stag "lord" before you told us about him?"
The Green Man leans in so that his nose almost touches Budgies, his voice is low and angry, almost guttural.
An anger The Green Man did not know he possessed begins to make its way to the forefront of his mind, a thick red haze settling over his otherwise so friendly eyes.
And while he cannot see it, the eyes themselves begins to look more red than green in the light from the torches.
"No more...omissions...savvy?"
Budgie makes a weird "eep" noise as Green slams against him. "Savvy indead sir err indeed sir. Heh, you got me right alright. Yes a test of sorts. Had a mind not to be pulled in any deeper. Thought you might .. my father you see .. and your uh hum well yes true. Arliss and I do happen from time to time to be the one taking the wagon to the uhm "His" fort. We get the new pass phrase from my father .. well it is delivered to my father, but he doesn't know .. no one knows but me and well Fenning did.
So .. there you have it sir .. no harm done, no sir. Good to see you're back in one piece,yes sir. No doubts, mind you, with my help and all.. sir."
"Oleg!" finding strength in Oleg's reaction. "Found someone to fight for you, I see. Your sweet wife must feel so safe now with some real men around.." she looks around "..and where is Happs .. I would very much like to see him - speaking of real men.."
With a visible effort, The Green Man manages to calm himself down.
But once he is calm again, his natural affable personality comes to the fore once more.
"Good man, I can understand wanting to protect family, even if I dare say that your family is better off without Fenning in it."
Dusting off Budgie and letting him up from the wall The Green Man looks over Budgie with a critical eye.
"I am not sure if anyone else in the party realized you were holding out on us, and as long as you do not try that trick again, I see no reason to inform them of it.
But now I want to know all you know about the so called Stag Lord, everything, no matter how outlandish or irrelevant."
"Thank you sir. I do appreciate it .. make a good team we do. My brains your brawn as they say. Here's what I have for you today, my friend .. sir. They say he's not what he used to be .. he's a drunk. He used to lead raids on small settlements and other bandits.. Then he decided to unite them. But since then he started spending most of his time out of his mind alone in his keep, sending his men out instead." sensing that isn't enough, Budgie gives it a bit of a think.
"There is one thing I heard .. never believed it but I have seen em once .. there's an old man there, and I heard once that is the one calling the shots.
Oh .. and I have been warned to stay on the path. They don't like people sneakin up on em, and they've said they have certain assurances. Wish I could tell you what that meant, sir. Never felt much like testin em."
"I caught some sleep with Green on his horse. Let's lock up the bandits and I'll watch with Oleg while the rest of you sleep for 12 hours. Oleg, do you have chains, stocks, manacles, and other similar devices?"
Furiel shows Oleg 'the loot'. "Looks like you will be getting quite the business here. Can you help us appraise this stuff? Don't worry about Kressle, she is safely in custody."
Diplomacy Oleg
"Ooh I sure do, well chains and manacles anyway. Stocks ... hadn't thought of that, wouldn't be too hard." Oleg takes a look at the loot .. "Sure I'll take a look .. and you're right. I shouldn't let her get to me. Probably more scared than I am .. and should be!" Oleg gets to work laying out the chains and checking the strength of the manacles he has on hand.
Alice is going to help get the bandits into manacles.
I can't wait to go back and visit the old man.
Furiel will try to get the gnomes to talk to him.
"Kressle doesn't seem to like gnomekind, what does she have against us? Have you been to the Stag Lord fort? I think you were listed on the manning roster we got from the Sword Lords. Your descriptions better agree with the intel from the Sword Lords I have in my dispatch case."
bluff
The Green Man considers this new information.
"In the raid we recovered some strong smelling alcohol and some mildly narcotic pipe weed, those were for him then I take it?
How many bandit groups does he have united under him now anyway? And do you know where any of the others might be?"
Slowly an idea begins to percolate in The Green Mans mind.
"With several bandit groups I bet he does not know every bandit under his command, so it might be possible to make a false delivery to the fort, ESPECIALLY if one had something the Stag "lord" wants, like alcohol and weed.
And if you also happened to have the pass phrase...?"
The gnome bandits look at Furiel curiously but seem fairly impressed "Oh .. Kressle don't like anyone .. specially men. Don't know why.. you?" "Who me? no.""We've been to the fort yes. Months ago. Never manned it. Went there to fix things." "His men are good at breaking, not fixing."
Budgie nods when Green asks if the booze and smoke are for the Stag Lord. "The only others I've seen are the Bloodbands to the east.. And I've heard of a group called the "Lost Voices" dunno where their turf is, yes sir, and don't think I've seen em, no sir. He's got others that are secret-like allies and agents, maybe those are the Lost Voices."
Budgie responds to Green's idea.."Wha? .. heh I suppose could get you in .. I suppose, sir." he thinks for a moment "If you were to go to my father's .. there is a bird cage on an eight foot high pole. Inside you should find a small note. Part of the passphrase should be inside. When they ask for it .. start with 'By the' then say passphrase followed by 'who wants to know?'"
"And if my father catches you, tell him you are .. I guess tell him you are new bluecloaks? He is old and doesn't see so well, but he'll bring big hurt if he thinks you're trouble, sir."
Rogar spends the rest of the journey riding around the group, searching for potential threats. He doesn't speak much and stays well away from Kressle. When arriving at Oleg's he jumps down from his horse, nods at Oleg's and asks him if he has any secure place to kepp the bandits untill they can decide what to do with them:"Hi there, Oleg. Don't mind her menaces. We dealt with the lot of them as we promised you we would, and it was really easy. Now there's the problem of this bandit overlord, but we'll cross that river when we'll get there. Anyway, have you got any place where we can place this scum untill we can agree on what to do with the lot of them? Personally I would just send them to Restov and be done with them, but I suppose some here would like to hang them themselves..."
Oleg thanks Rogar and tells him he is starting to see how impressive the lot of you are. He looks to Kesten who has just come from the guard camp outside the fort, he looks like he just woke up.
"I wouldn't bother Restov with the petty ones .. maybe send whoever was the leader. I'm sure they would appreciate something public for a ringleader to show the grumblers they've made an acceptable choice in you. You might not have been informed of this, but I am to send a report of the number of bandits you kill or imprison. There are other matters to attend to as well, but that can wait until morning."
"Do you know specifically where the Bloodband is? We are one group of bandits down, and I am angling for it to become two soon enough.
cut the feet out from under the Stag lord, and then sneak into his camp and end him as well.
But I am curious, why follow him if he is such a drunken sot? You've been there, you've seen him. Tell me what he is like.
Also, wouldn't your father be glad to be well and done with the bandits?"
Alice, after having the bandits in manacles, joins the talking men.
"I guess the question is, do we like the idea of public execution just to quell the words of the discontent? That seems rather harsh to me. If Kressle is to be put to death instead of taking her chance at redemption, I say we let her die with some dignity. That may be more compassion than we'd get from her, but that is also what makes us different. I, for one, would rather not give that part of myself up."
Rogar nods at Alice's words:"I agree with Alice. I don't like to kill prisoners, and I like killing them to make an example even less. If you don't want to send them to Restov, we'll need to find a way to give them a chance at honest living. If they fall back to their previous habits I will hunt them down myself. What do you say?"
Norton was listening to his comrads' talks. He had grown up in a place where capital punishment was commonly delivered. In his mind bandits, people who preyed on the weaks, deserved no honors, since they already lost their dignity with their deeds.
But he also left that same place, cause the harsh ways law was enforced. Hanging bandits would have meant to him, no less than a lawful behavior.
Spare them, show them mercy? That could have laid more close to his nature though.
But how do that cutting risks of escape and recidivism?
They surely deserved some punishment.
"Here I am the noncomforming gnome making a case for law. I would like to see Kressle executed by our (or even my) hand here publicly. She was in violation of the law and clearly has no respect for our authority, has shown no regret, and given no cooperation. She is intimidating Oleg the moment she arrives and further conspires to find our informers and 'settle' with them."
"The rest bear further discussion, but I would not let them run free until the Stag Lord is taken care of. We have intelligence on him and he has none on us. I don't want that to change."
Ta'de-win had reamined silent while the fate of the bandits was discussed. She herself felt no compassion for their ilk. But she too knew her own past with their kind swayed her opinion. But at this point she felt she could no longer hold back. "I must agree with Furiel for the fate of Kressle. As the leader of this pack, the crimes they have committed falls upon her to answer for them. We have bested her, and she has chosen not to fall in line. By the laws of the wild, it is the duty of the new packlord to determine her fate, be it death or banishment. To not face this head on is to invite dissent from the rest of the pack. It is for the benefit of the pack itself to survive."
Rogar visage gets darker and darker as Furiel and Ta'de-Win speak for Cressle execution:"I'm sorry but I must insist. I won't allow a woman to be executed like a dog. Not even one such as this Kressle. Send her back to Restov in chains if needed, but I don't want a woman's blood on my hands".
Rogar tone is calm and resolute. It seems he won't back away from his position.
Unable to contain herself any longer, Ta'de-win allows a moment of anger to possess her. "Why? Because she's a woman? And if she were a man, then what, we'd have to hold you back? Given the choice, I'd have the blood of every single bandit here on my hands, and feel no remorse for it. What people like these have taken from me, I doubt their lives would even begin to satisfy me! But I understand that my feelings cloud my judgement, and have allowed this to be decided by you all. But if it comes to it that she is given her life because she is a woman?! If you do not have the will for it, then allow me!" With this statement, Ta'de-win draws her sickle. "Well?"
"Man or Woman, who wants the blood on their hands? I surely do not. On the field of battle it is one thing, but to kill one who cannot defend oneself is too much for me to bear. I say we let her stew for awhile before we make any rash decisions."
"Well, I definitely don't want to pass our problems back to Restov because we can't make the tough decisions. They will probably execute her anyway and think the less of us. And I don't want to let Kressle go to round up another band or run back to the Stag Lord."
"I guess we can lock her up and feed her from our resources until she convinces someone she has mended her evil ways. If this is the case we need to put defeating the Stag Lord as number one priority. A symbolic act of breaking the bandits power is needed, and if we pass on executing Kressle, we need to pursue defeating this 'Lord'"
Rogar grimaces at Ta'de-Win's outburst and smiles apologetically:"I'm sorry, Ta'de-Win, I know these are criminals and I know we are within our rights to hang them here and now. I'm also sorry to hear about your loss. But I won't go back on my... code I won't kill a woman, especially not in cold blood, and if you can't see the difference between men and women.." for a split second Rogar smile changes[/i], [b]"Well I guess you'll need to learn it from someone, sooner or later..."
Lots of words coming from where the others are. I am halfway tempted to just do the deed myself and let them argue about it later.
But I doubt it would go over well with some of them.
Still, Kressle would hang if sent back to Restov, so she is dead either way.
Give her a quick clean death here I say.
Still unsure himself how to approach the matter, Norton grows worried by the escalation of the topic. So he steps in to cool spirits down.
"People, we had two very long days, and we are all tired and excited. In a more civilized place the fate of men and women would be discussed without rush. I say, bound them all to make sure they are no threat for the immediate future. We can keep discussing the matter for a while."
He then continues, trying to bring a bigger picture to the table.
"We are in a savage land, and we have been sent here to bring law and order, still we haven't decided which are the laws we want to bring. This matter is much more than just kill a bandit or a woman. We are on our own here, and we must navigate by sight. Let's take it slow."
"The laws of the wild are clear, death or exile. It is 'civilization' that clouds the issue." Ta'de-win sheathes her sickle. "Perhaps sleep will be of aid. But if she does attempt to regain control of her pack and bring it down on us, she will not be given a second opportunity. I will make sure of that myself." Ta'de-win proceeds to head off, presumably to rest.
Furiel nods at Norton's words.
"As one who had the opportunity to rest in the saddle I wanted to allow you to rest while I restrained them and guarded them with Oleg. You have have my word they will not be harmed while I watch them. I would not kill any of them myself--only if we agreed as the new lords of this land to do it. I am not a vigilante today."
"I just say as one who was picked upon by the strong, I am on the side of the weak and those who cannot defend themselves on this one. I think you do not think sufficiently of future subjects of this land when you refuse to follow the law in clear cases like this and protect their interests. The lady and I have been there where the strong did not protect the weak or put a moral code above helping others. I shudder to see now what happens here when gray areas of the law are violated."
"Sleep on it--this is not a decision to be made quickly. You can relieve me when you awake."
Furiel checks the restraints and shows the prisoners how he can set down a rock while chanting, then hit it with some acid. "Acid burns and sometimes leaves permanent scars. Be good and you will get some warm food."
Intimidate
"You all have done well, get some sleep. I will stay up with you, Furiel."
Rogar shrugs as if the matter is setled for now and there's nothing else to do:"Well, then, good night all. And... Kersten... don't exitate to call if you need any help with the prisoners"
You wake to the smell of baking bread. As you are getting up, you can hear Svetlana humming. Oleg and one of Kesten's guards are already at the table chatting as Svetlana starts bringing out breakfast, and throws several sausages on the firepit grate. "Good morning!"
"Mmm,mm sausages. Thank you Svetlana."
Furiel anxiously awaits breakfast.
When Norton gets up in the morning he knows the day that awaits him and his fellow charter bearers would be a long one.
Fighting was easy, jump in the melee, do your best and hope to see dusk. Politics, because politics it was, was a harder subject to face and master.
There was a lot in the agenda: the prisoners fate, and bound to that the institution of a provisional code of law of crimes and punishments. The goblin's marks were also a matter to not forget as well as the creepy crow guy. And this chief of bandits everyone was talking about.
Not a week in this place and stuff was already piling up.
How to tackle the problem? It was not a matter of what was decided, but more of having the whole group agree on a compromise. They had worked well together and the team could surely be effective, but they had many differences they had to sort out.
Rogar was impulsive, that could mean great passion in the moment and maybe some forgetfulness on the long term. He wasn't happy to kill a woman, honorable but foolish, as every Cheliaxian knows, women are way more dangerous than men.
Alice had more composure, but something was wrong with her: Norton had seen her fighting and was sure she wasn't completely human, that was making him uncomfortable.
Ta'de-win was hard to understand, she was a woman of the wild, her thought were far from Norton ones. She also was strongly for killing the woman, but exactly why he couldn't understand.
On his side Norton had thought about the matter a lot and an idea was shaping in his mind, but he was still unsure of how to put it in action. The bandits were hands, useful hands, they had followed a leader that had given them food and shelter. If they were to tame that land they also were going to need hands and workers.
Master Godil has taught Norton many theories on politics and leadership, but regarding practice Norton was still lacking a great deal.
"So what do we want to do today? I suggest we start mapping our new kingdom and retrace our steps back to the goblins. I don't think the prisoner issue is going to be resolved easily; so maybe we can talk about it on the trail?"
Furiel is worried leaving Kressle behind--but obviously locking her up for now seems the only compromise.
Rogar seems relieved by Furiel's suggestion:"I like your reasoning, Furiel. Just clap some irons on the prisoners and let's get back to work. We are here to tame this land, after all, and if I recall correctly we saw goblin tracks not so far from here. I'd start with those"
"The Bloodbands are to the east of our turf, but I don't believe they have a camp. They roam the plains, I believe. I know Kressle has something personal against their leader, sir. Kept it quiet though, probly due to Hruska havin been one of em. People listen to the Stag Lord - or at least I do sir, because he is the scariest thing I have ever seen. And father says even in death you can't escape his reach. Don't figure how Papa would take it, sir .. he's a bit set in his ways. "
"I was going to suggest going after another known bandit gang in the area, but that could mean more prisoners.
Not a good idea until this has been resolved.
So, if we are to talk then I agree with Master Furiel, let us talk as we move, I do not like to rest on my laurels.
I think we might start with the outlaying areas so we know them well.
Better to fight on the ground you know than the ground you do not."
As the Green Man passes by Kesten on the way to breakfast he frowns a little.
I saw him back in Restov I think, I wonder why he is here?
"Have the prisoners behaved well Captain Kesten?"
"Yes.. for the most part. The gnomes had to be separated to keep me from going crazy listening to them bicker. And I think my man Loomis may have been letting the leader there get into his head a little. I'm sending him off to the Lord Mayor to report your impressive success."
"Sound reasoning Captain, I have not spent much time in her company as of yet, but she strikes me as one to watch. She would not have risen to her position as leader without a portion of guile to back up her brawn."
Rogar moves around his horse saddling it with care. Seems like he's eager to be on the way again:"Come on people! These lands won't be tamed by chatting in the yard!"