When Auric comes down for breakfast he is accompanied by a handsome blonde man dressed in the style of the court with a signet ring and other jewelry to match. The young nobleman pats the hulking paladin on his armored shoulder and leaves him to eat while continuing alone to the charter holders. "Good morning," he says with a charming smile, "as you have, no doubt, guessed I am Alexei Orlovsky."
When his introduction is met with blank stares he continues, "I'm sorry, did Auric not present you with our charter amendment? His first allegiance is to Ragathiel but he's been gracious enough to serve me also for the past several months and we were named together in the amendment. In any case, I am Alexei Orlovsky of Restov. It's a great pleasure to meet you all and I look forward to working with you. I apologize for not making introductions last night but I had a significant amount of personal correspondence I needed to complete before I would be ready to leave the outpost."
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Cassandra stays in the bunkhouse for only a few minutes before she can't take the silence and sitting still. She grabs her things and heads out the gates, heading south into the wilds, aiming to get as far as she can before having to turn back for dinner. She seems less troubled by the time she comes back, a pair of rabbits over her shoulder. She turns them over to Svetlana or takes them for herself.
She is mostly quiet through dinner and busy's herself with taking care of her gear before going to bed. In the morning, she stares at the body of Falgrim Sneeg for a moment. "Oh. They were doing the here?" she asks of no one in particular. Her surprise doubles when Auric comes to breakfast with a friend. She stares at Alexei, confused, and leans over to Korinne. "How long has he been here?" Once her initial shock is gone she greets him though a bit awkwardly. "Hi. I'm Cassandra and I'm...different. Though since you know Auric maybe not that different. I'm a Skinwalker." As explanation, in case he didn't know, she shifts, gaining some wolfish features to her face and growing long, deadly claws. She gives him long enough to take it in then shifts back. "And no, its not contagious," she says, glancing over at Vallen.
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"Wow," Alexei answers Korinne with a grin, "you must have been a truly formidable baker to have been chosen for this work."
He does a surprisingly effective job of acting unfazed by Cassandra's startling transformation. "I'm different too," he tells her, placing a hand reassuringly on her shoulder, "I mean, I don't have the ability to do that but my tutor, the swordlord Mykhail Aldori, used to say that I have a bit of celestial blood. Plus, working with Auric has demonstrated how potent it can be when such unique abilities are put to good use; I look forward to seeing yours in action, especially since he'll have to stay here at Oleg's for a while."
Vallen is enthusiastically eating a sausage speared upon a fork. He lifts a hand, gesturing at Alexei in neutral greeting. They had already met on the way to the outpost, and the dwarf did not find much in common with the noble-born. As such, his breakfast was made priority.
Hold on a minute says a voice from the side of Oleg's rough but comfortable dining area.
Strolling over you see a somewhat short young human woman. She wears makeshift goggles and is pretty tanned and slim from all her time outdoors. Her dark hair falls shoulder length and is tied back into a sensible pony tail. She's wearing a really brown duster over her light armor.
Some of you might notice her expression, which seems to be one of good humour, or the tone of her voice which is light and amiable; Maybe her saunter which is the gait of someone at least somewhat proficient on a horse.
Some others might instead focus on the pistol which is slung across her hip.
Heard you all talking about a charter? Is that one from Brevoy, I was heading up there myself to see if I could get one. I'm figuring you folks already in on that business?
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Vallen glances over with little interest at the woman's voice, mid-bite into another thick pork sausage.
Yet, the sight of the pistol at her hip causes his eyes widen to the size of Taldean platnium pieces, and he quickly swallows and inhales to begin asking her questions about the gun. Alas, in his excitement the dwarf had not finished chewing properly, and a bit of meat gets painfully lodged in his trachea.
Doubling over at the table, Vallen drops his fork and starts coughing and beating his chest with a balled fist, dislodging the offending fried offal with great difficulty. Laboriously wheezing over the life and death struggle, the buldge-eyed dwarf takes a moment to collect himself and dab his mouth with a handkerchief. By Torag's eternal fire I thought I was a goner... That pig must have been cursed by Droskar and took its moment for revenge.
Jenya scratches her head with one hand while the other rests on her hip as she looks at the dwarf spewing food all over the table.
Begging your pardon but the other dwarves I met were less excitable folk. she says when it seems like he has avoided dying You alright?
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Vallen waves a hand at the woman to dissuade her concern. Yes, yes... I'm fine. More importantly, where did you get that firearm?" He says hoarsely, swinging his legs over the bench, becoming completely fixated on the device. "Did you make it yourself? Where did you get your schematics? What firing mechanism does it use? I have been tinkering with ways to protect powder from atmospheric moisture by using a sliding catch and incorporating it into the pan, but the differences in the required hardness of steels is too great. Most of my trouble has stemmed from properly forge-welding them together- the frizzen will break off after being struck by the flint at the pivot point. Of course I could use adamantine but that isn't very economical is it? It doesn't grow on trees! Now, by the Blessing of Torag I have already had the foresight to strengthen the barrel using pattern-welding techniques and hope to apply that to the...."
At some point Vallen had drawn a beautifully crafted pistol (its stylized firing mechanism lovingly acid etched and sculpted to look like Torag) from its holster, and was alternating between wildly gesticulating with it and pointing out various improvements he has made and tested with increasing amounts of technical jargon and metalugy.
"What's a firearm?" Cassandra asks, leaning over to Korinne again. Neither of them appeared to be on fire.
Jenya whistles at the dwarven craftsmanship of the dwarf's pistol. She pulls her own pistol out. It by contrast seems like a merge of the lightning scarred bark of some old tree and metal that looks more like reformed cutlery rather than anything forged to be a weapon.
Still the marked wood is finely polished and what looks like the moving parts of the gun are clean and clear. Its handle rests comfortably in Jenya's palm, a closer look shows that it seems like it's so particularly shaped that it can really only fit comfortably in the girl's hand and no one elses.
It was half made by a gnome weaponsmith in my home town south of here. Jenya expalins He couldn't get it to work so I took a crack at it and a whole heck of a lot of tinkering later it only stops working about one out of twenty times! My ma's an alchemist so that helped with figuring out how it's supposed to go. The mechanical parts are important of course, but I find it's the mix of powders that makes the real difference, that and maintenance. No matter what kind of pan you use the soot in the barrel needs to not be there. During the day I yank the pistol up and then jerk it down every time it fires when I reload. Keeps soot from building up too bad until I get a chance to do a proper cleaning. Thinking of modifying the relaod mechanism so it'll shake out even more soot everytime I pack another bullet in... But I figure we can talk about that later
As to your question. Jenya nods at the hooded woman Firearms are like crossbows, 'cept, real short range, the bolts they fire cost so much gold to make that you would not believe, and they're incredibly incredibly loud.
She scratches her head again Not a lot like crossbows then now that I think about it
She grins at everyone else around the group's table
This here's 'Misfire' she motions towards the pistol before placing it back in a leather pouched sized for it dangling from her belt. And I'm Jenya, Jenya Poole, please to meet you all
Vallen casts a discerning eye over the pistol, and comes away dumbfounded. "Is that... you've driven a rivet straight through the pan... no, that's not possible, you can't... how... how does the barrel not fly apart when you shoot it?" He gapes, looking down at the artful masterpiece in his hands, then back to Jenya's apparently functional junker.
"Mix of powders?" The dwarf scoffs loudly, clearly disagreeing on her approach. "I know enough alchemy to make my own gunpowder, but I haven't seen much room for improvement there. Powder will always have soot, that's just how flames function unless magic is involved. No, this is an engineering, design, and metallurgy problem- you're on the right track modifying the reload mechanism, chasing alchemy is a dead-end road."
He turns his head to Cassandra, giving a nod in agreement. "They're like crossbows, except they use fireballs to launch hunks of metal. Goes right through most armor."
He strokes his beard in thought. "Yes, we will discuss this later. I want to see how Misfire uh... does not misfire... I am Vallen Silverclasp, priest of Torag and hired architect for the settlement these humans are planning. As for the charter, well, I'm new here too, so I can't help you much."
Vallen strokes one of the braids of his beard as he answers Korinne's question. "It's not really an exciting story I suppose. I learned the basic principles from another craftsdwarf. So Akenstar is the only place in the world that manufactures firearms on a large scale, and they guard their molds and schematics jealously, right? Well the Sky Citadel Dongun Hold, which is technically still a vassal to the High King of the Dwarfs, supplies Arkenstar City with a lot of raw materials and provides a lot of fine smithing work in the form of locks and the like."
"Well several years ago one of their expert gunsmiths at the citadel was asked by the King to bring this knowledge to Highelm and disseminate it for the better good of dwarfkind. Brought their whole clan, all thirty of them, across Nex and the Obari ocean to get here! King must have offered them a fortune."
"Anyway, 3 years ago I chosen to be one of the few to learn how to make these devices and study them due to my engineering background. So while Arkenstar's mass production secrets remain as such, we at Highelm have the expertise to produce high quality single firearms such as my own. They will certainly replace crossbows one day, I'm sure of that. I'd say one day a single huge firearm, operated by a small team, will be deadlier than even a 10 wide and 4 deep row of Dwarven Defenders."
Internally Cassandra scoffed at the idea of fireballs shooting hunks of metal. Why not just shoot the fireball. Seemed silly really. Then again, she hadn't seen him use it so she had no idea what to expect. She looked between the two of them and had to admit though, that she agreed with Vallen. Her's looked like it would perform much like its name implied. "So they're load and expensive? Why use it?" She was skeptical that it could 'go right through most armor'.
Hah, the gnome that tried to build Misfire didn't have any schematics whatsoever from anyplace I can tell you that for certain Jenya grins at Vallen Anyhow maybe the trick is to tackle the problem at both ends. Alchemy to build better bullets and powder and differently engineered guns to fire 'em. Something like paper cartridges but more reliable instead of less.
Then Jenya hesitates and says Hey if you all are looking for another partner then you mind if I tag along since you're all officially signed up and whatnot? If it don't work out then I'll be on my way with no hard feelings.
Hatch sort of leans in on the conversation, clearly interested but not quite well-socialized enough to eavesdrop without making things feel a little uncomfortable.
Tamric says, "So, I'll be taking the news back to Brevoy, and hopefully we'll have an update from them on the nonce. Where are you off to next?"
Hatch uses this excuse to open up his rough map and say, "Well, there's some space west of the forest that we haven't explored. A few bits in the far southeast as well. We left enough food at the fort for them to hold out for a while, we should get more and then go stock them up again."
Vallen spreads his hands in offering to Cassandra. "Hopefully we won't have to use them, but a demonstration should convince you. Id be happy to show you their power once we're in the woods."
He sighs and looks at the presented map, pointing a fat finger towards the west. "Looking at your notes, it would be most efficient to go west and then circle back towards the southeast. West first I'd say."
Alexei shakes the new woman's hand. "I saw Vallen's contraption at work on our way down; I'm sure having a second one on our side will be beneficial. Welcome."
After the dwarf weighs in on their course of action he answers, "that sounds like a wise plan to me, unless the original charter members know of some reason not to? And, perhaps we can get Oleg pack up a few of these delicious sausages for the road."
"Actually, we need to head back to he fort soon. We didn't leave enough food there to last more than a few days unless Vance did some really good hunting. And its a two day trek. So..." This was going to be awkward for a while. Carinna and Telmarni were leaving and three new people were joining them. Two were added to the charter and sent from Brevoy. Were they getting some attention down here? How much was Tamric telling them?
Vallen sighs. He was expecting to survey the land after they were sure it was tamed, not wandering about unexplored territory with limited food and ex-bandits. I guess Torag has helped me through worse... at least there IS food...
The dwarf saddles up his small warhorse Nelly, giving the girl an affectionate pat on the muzzle. The mare was specially trained for this journey to not be spooked by gun shots, which always made him wonder if she was actually trained or just deaf.
With great effort the priest heaves himself into the saddle- it was obvious to anyone he was not a skilled rider, and unsurprisingly for a dwarf preferred to have his boots on the ground. Keeping up with humans was far too difficult without a few extra legs to make up the difference.
He leans over the pommel of his saddle, shifting to find a comfortable position in the stirrups. "Well, lead the way. Westward, aye?"
Vallen rectifies the situation- "The fort is to the south, aye, but I thought we were exploring to the west. Whichever way really, I'll see it all eventually."
Thought the fort's not in a fit enough state to fend for itself right now Vallen. Seems like we need to get there to make sure everything's on the up and up down there before heading out explorin'
One surprise to Vallen is, while his mount is blase about gunfire, she's definitely not blase about Cassandra. Any time the poor horse gets remotely close to the shifter, she starts to whinny and buck, and becomes extremely panicky.
Eventually you are able to settle on your order and, once resupplied you set of in a roughly southern direction toward the fort on the Tuskwater.
You pass the hills near where you killed the giant trapdoor spider, and on to the shallow cave where you found signs of some prior habitation that had been abandoned. There you set up your first night's camp as darkness falls.
You camp in the relative shelter of the shallow cave (area L on the map).
This is an abandoned gold seam!
"Actually, it's south of here," Korinne chirps as she begins to load her horse Aggie for the return trip. "But now with the bandits pretty much taken care of, the trip there should be a lot safer!"
Hearing this, Cassandra looks up to the sky and says a silent prayer followed by, "She didn't mean that. It's not a challenge."
At seeing Vallen's horse react negatively, Cassandra takes a few steps away. "I'll need to be at least 30ft ahead of you...and you can't approach on a horse unless you are a really good rider. I've ah...never been good with animals."
Vallen quickly becomes frustrated with Nelly, as his attempts to calm the horse repeatedly fail. "Now come on, why are you acting up? You're a brave one, you can't be getting scared by a werewolf that doesn't mean you any harm, eh? She even looks human!"
His pep talk does little good, and eventually he is forced to fall back from the line, away from Cassandra. "Ech, 30 feet, got it. I'm not great with animals myself, which is why I'm lucky Nelly is usually so well behaved."
------------------------
While camp is being set up in the cave, Vallen suddenly stops filling up a cooking pot with divinely created water and begins staring at the wall.
He walks over and puts his hand on the sparkling quartz, an inquisitive expression passing over his face. "By Torag... I think... Hmm." The dwarf suddenly reaches down to a two foot long black metal bar on a belt loop and pulls it out, taking it into both hands.
He twists the Traveler's Anytool in the middle, causing it to snap at an invisible seam. Several more complicated twists and adjustments and he now has a hammer and chisel. "Alexei, I need a hand over here for a moment. Catch this quartz when it falls."
After securing another set of hands he sets the tip of the chisel against a dark quartz protrusion, and with the skill of a master artisan, breaks the whole chunk off the wall in a single precise blow. Ushering Alexei over to the firelight, he takes a good long look at it before taking out a knife and scraping the surface. The dark portion seems soft and dents under the pressure of his steel blade. Vallen begins to smile widely, touching his holy symbol.
"This is an auspicious sign. You tall folk have recieved the blessing of Torag, I'm certain." He points a stubby finger at the darkest portion of the quartz, which is a deep, uniform, and unassuming yellow. "I'm no miner by trade, but there's no mistaking it. That's gold you have in hands there, Alexei! Now, it's trapped in the quartz so it's difficult to extract without a good quantity of mercury, but get a few knowledgable Dwarfs in here and they'll be casting bars of the stuff before you can make breakfast. This could also indicate a seam of native gold nearby, and by Torag they'll sniff it out."
He grins and leans back, rubbing his hands together thoughtfully. "I'll send a letter to House Gaross when we return to the trading post, have them send us some stout miners to start expanding this place."
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Later, after giving thanks to Torag for the blessing of gold he bestowed upon them, Vallen takes a crack at identifying the magical items the group has been carrying around.
Jenya keeps her own horse, Murkey, away from Cassandra seeing how Vallen's reacted to the woman.
She passes a critical eye over the mine
Weren't built by dwarves. That's for certain. Looks more like drunk gnomes decided to dig a hole for a laugh.
"Gold?" Cassandra asks looking over Alexei's shoulder. She then looks around the unassuming cave and shakes her head. "And we were going to use this place as a hidden shelter or something." For a moment she ponders the idea of letting the kobolds do the mining. They already lived in a mine. Did they even now how to? They really needed to come up with someway to solidify that non-aggression agreement. But House Garess was probably better at it. Dwarves even more so. Doubt they'd like kobolds. Then a thought comes to her. "Hatch. Don't make a note of this. If people knew gold was here we'd have a hundred more bandits to deal with."
Hatch dutifully scratches out the note in his notebook.
Vallen spends some time switching back and forth between excitedly examining the gold flecks in the quartz and examining the magical items carried along by the team.
Stag Helm - magical, properties unknown
Stag Lord's bow - +1 composite longbow (mighty 2)
Leather armor - +1 leather (cosmetically, this has no shirt or breastplate; it is a leather hooded cloak, pants, boots, and gloves)
Magic longsword, magic rapier - properties unknown
Also there's a magical amulet that I forgot to put on the list, so I'll give you that one for free; amulet of natural armor +1.
Swag bag updated.
Maybe not so badly built but abandoned soon after it was started? Jenya muses Musta been serious if gold's involved. We'd better be careful with it, whatever we decide.
"Eh, it's abandoned for a reason, this isn't gold you load up in a cart and expect to sell. It will need to be refined, and refined well." Vallen comments while inspecting the magical auras of the various weapons and armor.
He starts to get frustrated by the magic items, not recognizing the auras. "Blood and thunder! Who made these items? I've seen goblins make paintings with more clarity than this jumble of ley bending." He mutters, giving the a boot from a set of leather armor a good shake.
Strangely, an amulet pops out of the boot and clatters to the floor. "Oh. That explains a lot. Hmm, I've seen one of these before, toghens up your skin." The dwarf says while picking up the amulet.
"Well, this stag bow or whatever is magical, and so is this leather armor. And the amulet of course. I can't figure out the rapier or longsword or this weird stag helmet. I'll try again tomorrow unless Korinne wants to try at it."
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After Vallen gives up on the helm takes a look at it. She had no way of knowing what it did but it still looked fascinating. "It's a shame we don't know someone that can alter these. I think this might look pretty nice if it didn't block the face. And remove the teeth. No stag I have ever seen has fangs." They reminded her of a hunter who told stories of a giant cat with fangs as long as swords. She rolls the helm around in her hand, tests its weight and looks to see if the mask is removable. She sniffed it to see if any bad scents lingered but magical items never stayed dirty. She slips it on and wraps her cloak about her in a mysterious manner. "So how do I look?"
Hatch says to Cassandra, "Spooky."
You pack up, since there's no reason to stay longer - you can't get any appreciable gold out right now anyway - and continue on to the fort.
No strange encounters befall you and you arrive at the fort late in the next day. Kavalina and Telmarni are very grateful to see you, especially when you unload food supplies.
The fort is still a wreck - that will take months to remedy - but the front gate and courtyard have been cleaned out a bit, the remnants of the dead owlbear removed and the cage cleaned out, and the semi-habitable spaces neatened up a bit.
Telmarni says, "Once it became clear that everyone would starve if they didn't cooperate, most of our captives became very helpful." Then she frowns. "Where's Carinna?"
Hatch says, "Carinna got an urgent letter from home! She has to go back to deal with some kind of political problem with her uncle."
Telmarni looks annoyed and says, "She couldn't bother to come tell me herself? Well, I guess that's what you get from a foster-sister. I'd better go look into this as soon as possible."
Notably, the while the bandits that you've captured are still a ragged and sorry lot, Akiros seems to have cleaned up a bit; he appears to have regained some of his missing luster. You can see, here and there, evidence of how he could be a leader of men, when he has his full confidence.
"What's next for your project here?" Akiros asks. "We need direction, a sense that we are going to prosper rather than just living day to day." He seems to have taken seriously his responsibility of looking to the welfare of "his people," the bandits of the fort.
Hatch replies to Akiros, "Well, we have some more exploring to do... but there are some new charter holders and I think there's a lot to discuss."
Rapier: +1 rapier
Stag's Helm: This striking helmet is crafted to resemble the skull of a mighty stag. Although made from bone, the antlers and helm are as strong as metal. When worn, the helm greatly enhances eyesight and hearing, granting a +2 competence bonus on Perception checks. In addition, once per day the helm may be called upon to enhance any ranged attack made by the wearer to make an insightful shot. Activating this ability is a free action, and once activated, your next ranged attack against a target within 30 feet is made as if that target were flat-footed against you—this allows a rogue to gain the benefit of sneak attack with this shot. If you don’t make a ranged attack within 1 round of activating this power, the insight fades and is wasted for that day.
A worshiper of Erastil who wears this helm may utilize the insightful shot ability up to 3 times per day.
"Akiros, is it?" Alexei asks, smiling and extending his hand, "my name is Alexei; it's a pleasure to meet you, and I assure you that this fort will prosper. My associate, Vallen here, is better suited to talking with you about plans for work on the fort, but I can tell you that it will become a hub for people and goods moving through the area. It will take time and hard work to get there but, when we do, there will be prosperity for you and for your people."
Jenya introduces herself as being from Jovvox in Mivon. Jus' figured you all might need some help and your leaders were kind enough to bring me along to see if I'd be of any use.
She looks around This place needs some tender loving care that's for sure. But you can't beat where it's situated. You could make it a great watchpost, or the center of a brand new community. What do you folks reckon?
"Actually, I think Carinna wants you to help," Cassandra say trying to placate Telmarni. "It just seemed really urgent so she went ahead. If you and Kavalina want to head back to Oleg's we can take over here."
Group pow-wow: Cassandra looks at over the thrown together palisade walls and poorly constructed buildings. The Staglord obviously didn't care much about this place beyond having a defensible position. "I think it needs to get back in working order before we decide that. That will take longer than it will for us to finish searching the area." She asks Hatch to pull out the map and goes over it for a moment. She looks at the little bit they had to the east and the lower third of the forest they had to the west.
"I can scout this area and be back in a couple days," she says pointing to the east. "You and Vallen can work up a plan to get this place headed in the right direction in that time." Jenya seemed like she might now quite a bit about construction so maybe she and Vallen could work together to make a plan that Akiros could follow through with. He seemed more..himself, or at least what she figured he used to be like. That was good. "If I run into anything I'll head back. When that's settled we can head west to finish mapping the area west. Also, I think I saw a wagon here. Maybe we can get some of the people here to head to Oleg's every so often to keep them supplied. Auric could see to its saftey."
Vallen walks through the front gate and into the courtyard, and turns in a full circle. "Wow." He says as he completes his turn, putting his hands on his hips. "This place is a dump."
The dwarf sighs and goes to inspect the crumbling masonry. I'm surprised more humans aren't killed by roofs falling in on their heads.
Whipping out his Traveler's Anytool, he twists and pulls on the contraption to make a set of chisels, hammers, and spacers, quickly getting to work on scraping lichen off of a poor, neglected stone. "If you want work, there's plenty to be done around here. I could use some muscle and I'll teach you a thing or two about upkeep." He comments, still listening in, though he has to raise his voice to be heard over soft scraping noises.
"In the long term, we should use this as a watchtower. The people building it did a half-arsed job, but they were no fools on considering the geographical placement."
The priest seems to be in general agreement to Cassandra's plan, much preferring to stay at the fort for the time being and concoct a plan for fixing up the fort for these humans to follow. "I agree whole-heartedly Cassandra. Jenya and I can have them working in no time."
Well now, that helm is interesting. Jenya says inspecting it a bit closer Ugly as sin though, and never got a comfortable feelin' from Ol' Deadeye. Hate to see it go to waste so I'll take it if no one else wants it..
Jenya spends the next few days giving advice where she can. Most of it is repeated reminders to Vallen that humans tend to be taller than dwarves.
"Wait. What?" Cassandra looks at the helm again. "You mean this thing was made by, or at least made for, a follower of Erastil?" She tilts her head to the side and tries to imagine it on someone's head again. At first she only saw the Staglord and his deadly bow wounding Carinna badly. But then she remembered that Erastil was sometimes depicted as a stag-headed man. An actual stag. Not this toothy incarnation. Though it looked ugly and was worn by an awful man, it still held divine power so she could not judge. It would also explain why they didn't die. The Staglord was no true follower. If he'd gotten three shots they'd probably all be dead.
"I want it," she says confidently. "I mean, I think it should be worn by someone who will use it for what it was meant for. Furthering the will of Erastil." She looks at it for a long moment then over at the former bandits. "Uh, just not here or at Oleg's. Not until it can be altered."
--------------------
"I've traveled several miles before on a broken leg. Pretty sure I could make it back." Cassandra puts up only token resistance before agreeing with Korinne. It would go faster that way.
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The group splits responsibilities...
Cassandra, Korrine, Vance, and Hatch head east to explore. The first day out they find a lot of rugged, hilly terrain, covered in very small rocks and scrubby brush.
A little after noon while exploring the area east-ish from the fort, Vance holds up a hand and hunkers down. He points and whispers, "Got movement up ahead - there, in that cleft." He points to a rocky cleft about 120' away, with some rough brush cover. You can barely make out something serpentine nestled in the cleft, with beady eyes and a pretty big body (not just a rattlesnake or something like that).
Akiros accepts Alexei's hand and shakes it with a very firm grip. He says, "M'lord, though we are naught but malcontents and ne'er-do-wells, this little band will be loyal for the second chance they have been given. For me, personally, this is a chance at... redemption. Perhaps a way to find a new purpose, even if I can never atone for my past misdeeds. I am eager to see it through."
He gestures for Alexei and company to follow him through the fort.
"Building something greater was not the agenda of this band," he explains. "Rather, the Stag Lord took this place because of its defensibility and its distance from civilized lands, as well as its proximity to ready water. But no mind was ever set to turning it into something more than this half-wreck. Truth be known, the Stag Lord said he had been visited in a dream by a strange, dark woman, who told him that he was chosen and that she would be his consort. I am no dream-teller or soothsayer, but I think he believed this perhaps a bit more than was prudent. He abdicated responsibility to the dream that promised to give him what he wanted, and thus lost sight of the need to make his dream become real."
Akiros gestures to the somewhat-organized stores and says, "One thing is for certain: We must have regular supplies if this fort is to remain here. But in the long term, few of the men and women here relish the notion of trading the life of a bandit for that of a soldier. So you must decide, is this place worth keeping? What is to be done with it? What can be gained?"
"Perhaps this can be a new attempt at taming this wilderness, but if it has no purpose then it can be left to the past. That is not my decision to make," he says with a shrug.
Meanwhile, the other brigands are alternating between watching from the towers (Jex and Dirty Jeb) or dealing with the business of clean-up and organization as directed by Jenya and Vallen.
Topper Red, with his resplendent bushy mop of red hair, has removed his tunic and seems remarkably wiry and tough, and he makes light of the work as he moves rocks:
"I met a wolf-woman from Luna
Who lived in a human lacuna
Am I wolf or a woman?
How much beast in my human?
But her woman still smelled like a tuna."
This precipitates some laughter from a few of the bandits who get the gag, and confusion from those who don't, along with an exasperated eye-roll from Sally Hightower, who is busy checking inventory of food supplies.
Fat Norry, sweating profusely, is helping to clear out rubble and says to Vallen, "What's the use in all this anyway? This stone had to be carted in from somewhere else - there are no quarries like this anywhere around! Unless you have a lot of money that you want to waste on this... abandoned ruin, there's no good way to really repair all of this. Even with your magic, you can't just... make new rocks out of the air! Er... can you?"
Vallen tilts his head at the strange limerick, eyebrows furrowing. Lacuna? Must be some kind of fishing shack. There are far too many human cultures, can't keep track of them all and their constant changing.
He shrugs and returns to his work placing his hands on some old, cracked stone. He had been instructing the reformed bandits to pick up pieces of rubble and hold it to the broken stonework for him to magically weld back on. As Norry puts the stone in place Vallen lays hands on both halves at the crack, calling on the blessing of Torag to mend the broken stone from which the Forge Father created at the planet's beginning.
"Norry," Vallen pauses briefly, musing that was a good Dwarf name, before continuing- "It's the principle of the matter. We should all take pride in our work and its form. This is your home, don't you want it to be well cared for? Sturdy and of boastful quality? A fort is the epitome of form and function. If the walls are crumbling, would you feel safe under siege? But if the walls are clean and strong, well, that will give attackers pause. In addition, this can serve as a base of operations for taming this land, a bastion of law in the chaos."
He chuckles at Norry's question, though one day perhaps he could fabricate "I cannot simply make stone unless Torag were to bless me with the knowledge and power to do so, but I can fix the worst of this and give you all a framework to continue improvements. There is plenty of fine lumber to be harvested from the forest, and wood can make a decent reinforcement to stone."