"if you can go in undetected and thin the herd, per se, that would be advantageous. Although it would be pretty dangerous going in with backup being on the outside of their walls. We would have to scout their defenses before coming up with a solid plan. As for when, I think as soon as we are rested and supplied we should move out to begin the scouting." Raz responds to both Bassius and Terri turning to the other members for weigh in.
"I think we should all enjoy a night of Svetlana's fine cooking here at Oleg's before heading back out. Besides, that will give us an opportunity to let us get to know our new companions better."
Dayana intently listened to Raz and Terri's plan. "Sneaking into this brigand's lair and doing away with his cohorts in a surprise assault is a prudent stratagem. If I was made invisible and entered their camp I could enchant many of his men into a slumber, which I imagine would make their throats all the more easier to slit."
The sorceress had heard the stories of the horrors committed by Stag Lord and his men and was more than content to wipe out the whole lot of them with such "dishonorable" means. The bastards deserved no less.
Dayana shrugged. "But I believe Garethane makes a point. Plans are best formulated over a fine meal and in a more... secure place. Shall we go?"
"A hot meal and a soft bed sound really good," Terri says, "I can even entertain everyone while we wait, unless Svetlana needs help with the cooking. Just let me get Placid here comfortable and I'll be in there."
As supper is being prepared, Terri pulls out her fiddle and begins another song, but as the bow slips and she nearly drops the instrument, she decides she's better off without it and hands it off before using just her feet and voice to liven up the trading post with a few songs ranging from whimsical to bawdy.
The evening goes on as the party plans their course for dealing with getting into the fort and dealing with the Stag Lord. Svetlana serves up a rather tasty roasted boar with root vegetables and fresh bread. Between the party, Kesten and his men, and Oleg's own healthy appetite, the food is all consumed, along with the better part of a keg of ale.
The song and dance provided by Terri livens up the place and is greatly appreciated by Svetlana.
One of Kesten's men, Kev, looks as if he has intentions of approaching Dayana, but thinks better of it seeing her spend so much time with Raz.
Morning arrives, seemingly earlier than it should, after the previous night's festivities and you find yourselves packing up your gear and getting ready to head south toward the Stag Fort.
After stretching out the last of her sleepiness and washing up, Terri gets herself and Placid ready to go. The others finder her in a chipper mood as she passes whatever time she needs to wait practicing with her sword, a dully gleaming blade that looks almost black in the sunlight. Her moves are more like dancing than swordplay as she works through some basic forms to warm up.
Tove makes use of the time after her morning prayers to give Ros a thoroughly good brush in Oleg's stables. Always in a better mood after a night with the Levertons, she hums along to the melody of one of Terri's songs as she works.
As the group travels, Terri asks them about their exploits into the Stolen Lands while trading tales her own adventures over the past couple of years. When the night comes, she cooks the evening meal then spends at least an hour after supper practicing with her sword and learning its weight. Her practices often turn into impromptu dances under the stars. In the mornings, she cooks some breakfast to help wake everyone up with the smells of pan-fried sausages and toasted bread with butter.
After making their preparations, the party heads out. The first day is uneventful, as you make your way back to the Thorn River camp. When you arrive you see that the camp seems to be occupied, or at least that's what the small campfire and tent would tell you.
Just as you are coming up on the small camp, a voice familiar to the veterans of the party says, "It's time to do the bastard in, right" smiling a wicked grin.
"Looks like you all had a few additions and subtractions since the last time we talked." Kressle adds.
Dayana had spent ever evening enjoying Svetlana's meal (such as it was) and Terri's songs. The girl was quite a talent for one so youth and her songs reminded her of her lost love, Napaiai. The thought nearly brought a tear to Dayana's eyes while she listened, but the sorceress refused to show such "weakness" out in the open, especially in the company of some many people she hardly knew, so she suppressed the urge.
Beyond that, much of the night was taken up by talking to Raz, learning the names and stories of Kesten's men and those others she hadn't already meet at the trading post, and avoiding being hit by those that looked on the verge of being bold enough to ask.
In the morning Dayana went through her routine ministrations while also preparing herself for the journey to into the wildness. Practicality demanded that she wear something that would survive the rigors of trotting through the woods and marshes of the Stolen Lands, but that didn't stop Dayana from wearing a deep-green tunic and fur-lined mantle that she considered a pragmatic yet still stylish compromise for the perilous task ahead of her.
After that, Dayana hopped on her Bogatyr and made her way to the Thorn River camp along with the others. As they traveled to the camp she also made sure to ask her cousin about the other major figures in the area that were also gunning to remove the Stag Lord. Thus, when they finally reached their destination she had some knowledge of this Kressle character and the group's colorful history with her.
"Quite, right," Dayana declared, meeting Kressle's grin with her own as she got off Bogatyr and formally introduced herself to the former bandit. "Dayana Medvyed, cousin to Raz over here and your newest ally in ending the Stag Lord."
All too happy to be off Placid for the day, Terri hops off the horse and stretches out her back some before grinning at Kressle.
"That's the idea," she says in a cheery tone. "The name's Terri Riverrun. Pleased to meet ya!"
She holds out one hand while the other rests on her hip. She figures if the others trust this woman, the least she could do was give her the benefit of the doubt.
Kressle ignores Terri's extended hand as she regards the remaining original members of the group. "Ok, so you've added a fancy lady and a kid. Who's the elf and the Abadarian?"
"I trust all these new additions are capable? Gods know I don't wanna go in there havin' to baby-sit." She says before muttering under her breath, "At least I knew what the halfling, the other Abadarian, and the boy with the goat were capable of..."
Bass raises his visor and nods curtly, looking rather skeptically at the rough-looking woman. "I am Bassius Vibulus, a paladin of Abadar. As for my capability, I did not survive a journey from the Gilded City of Oppara to Restov without being able to take care of myself." Looking quickly at his companions, he adds, "And on another important note, since you seem to be assisting us in clearing out the Stag Lord and his men, I assume there is some kind of arrangement made for your services?"
Kressel laughs, "Yeah, you could say that there was an arrangement made...I'm here to hold up my end of that bargain."
"Would you care to test me for yourself," Terri asks, a little miffed that this woman couldn't even practice some basic courtesy. "Maybe a quick sparring match would put your fears about my ability to take care of myself."
"It'll be fine. We have a plan," Ivo insists.
Somehow the way that the gnome delivers this seems sinister rather than comical - a strange situation, coming from a gnome.
"Feisty." Kressel says with a grin. "She'll do."
"A plan you say? Perfect, better than just running in headlong and hoping for the best...assuming of course that is not the plan."
"Either way, let's get some rest and head out early in the morning. Maybe we can push on and rest an hour or two from the fort."
Bass shifts slightly in his saddle. "We should probably camp as close to the Stag Lord's hold as we dare. The less we have to travel, the easier it will be to enact a plan based on fine timing."
Dayana narrowed her eyes at Kressle. "Do not mistake my fanciness as weakness, my dear. Terri is not only new arrival willing to show her worth if needs be. Make sure to remember that before you make another ill-formed assumption."
Dayana turned away from the former bandit without even a backwards glance. She returned to mount Bogatyr and set her eyes on Bassius. "Risky, but you are right that the closer we are to this brigand's base the less time we'll waste on travel and more can be spent on scouting the fort's perimeter."
The sorceress looked towards everyone else. "What does everyone else think? Rest here, or move ahead?"
"If you wish to ride in the dark, then I shall rest here and enjoy the entertainment," Terri remarks dryly. "Besides, you'll miss out on a hot meal. If everyone's find with me using some of their rations, I'm more than happy to cook something up. I'm not as good as Svetlana, though. That woman could put Hestia to shame."
As she cooks, she outlines the plan for Kressle.
"The plan is to have a couple of us sneak in under a magic veil of invisibility. I figured that I would go, as would Ivo since he seems to be rather adept at making sure bad people catch a case of dead from what I've been told. I was planning on going with him to help and to charm any of the thugs that we run across that are still awake. Once we're inside, we could open up the gates or go about and make sure everyone sleeps really well for the rest of eternity. That part really depends on what we wind up facing, though it seems you may be able to help us divine those very things. I know Dayana expressed her thoughts that she would be better than I as far as incapacitating the guards go."
She tastes the stew she has simmering away and looks up to the sky while trying to separate the flavors.
"Hmm, needs some salt and smoked pepper..."
"So, Kressle, what are your thoughts? Do you think this has a chance of succeeding?"
While Dayana doesn't notice as she haughtily turns her back on Kressel, the rest of the party very obviously notices Kressel's hand slide down to one of her axes before forcibly moving her hand away.
Kressel thinks about the plan for a bit before saying, "A night attack? Not a bad call. Stag Lord should be well into his cups by that point." while nodding approvingly.
"What does mister shiny paladin think of this sneaking around and murdering people in their sleep bit?" she asks the group as much as Bassius himself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
You awaken to a drizzly morning, really only raining enough to be annoying, especially given the tree cover in the morning. By mid-morning, you have exited the woods and are into the rolling hills that run alongside the Thorn River. Unfortunately, the rain picked up the pace as had the wind making for a miserable day of travel.
You push on beyond the normal dinner hour by a couple of hours to arrive at your chosen campsite, only hour or so shy of the Stag Lord's fort.
"Dammit. Rain makes invisibility a problem. You leave a noticeable halo in the rain," says Ivo. How he knows this is unclear.
"It has the night to pass. Besides the idea was to sneak in after a group paying tribute, was it not? I doubt they'll be entering in the middle of the night," Terri observes as she helps set up the camp. Despite the lack of light, she manages pretty well. She wishes she could see the moon and stars, but such was a life on the road. Sometimes you got to enjoy beautiful nights, and other times you had to find a way to laugh despite the rain.
"Now, are you going to be a sour pickle or are you going to help me get these tents set up so we can stay dry and still be able to talk to each other?" The young woman grins at Ivo, hoping that her cheer will help him find some of his own.
Bass turns to Kressle as the party sets up camp, and says "In answer to your question from last night, though I do find 'murdering people in their sleep' quite dishonorable, it will be an effective way to defeat the Stag Lord. Were he an honorable foe, I would demand we fight with honor. But he and his men have engaged in extortion, rape, and murder, preying on the peasantry and standing in defiant opposition to both legitimate political authority and the free flow of commerce. It is against my code to personally act in such a manner, but I see no evil in my companions using such a stratagem against this debased foe."
"I can see the rain being an issue, and if all the bandits are well in their cups that makes this all the easier. I think it best to wait the rain out, and if we see them sending out a foraging or pillaging party that makes it even easier, less manning to eliminate, then we can wait till they return and finish it once and for all" Raz says to the group, "does anyone have an issue waiting out the rain and seeing if we can strike when they are minimally manned to make our job easier, assuming we dont have to wait for days on end? Raz looks around the group looking for input, before helping set up the tents to shield from the drizzle at least a little bit,
It had taken Dayana some time to get used to idea of setting camp, but after a few days in the wildness of the Stolen Lands with no maids to attend her, the task began to become increasingly normal. In fact, if she was being honest, she began to enjoy the strange freedom of being forced to perform such labor.
As the sorceress set up a tarp to serve as her shelter from the upcoming rain she began to softy hum to yourself as she bounded the tarp's ropes between two nearby trees. She was lost in her own little world for sometime as she did her busywork, but would break out when she heard her cousin's voice.
"Waiting out the rain in the event it doesn't break overnight is the right call. Ivo is correct right that invisibility and rain do not mix, but more than that, though, it is unlikely that any of the Stag Lord's minions would be willing to ride out of their camp in the middle of the rain. No. We wait for some of their numbers to leave for their daily allotment of debased banditry and we use that literal opening to get Ivo and Terri within the fort's walls. After our invisible assassins do their work and open the gates, well," Dayana smiled coyly, "That's when the rest of us come in and finish off whatever remains."
Dayana let her words and prospect of victory sunk in for a few sseconds before was forced to bring up the unpleasant possibility of failure. "Of course, that is if everything turns out well, she looked towards Ivo and Terri intently, "I am more than confident in your abilities, friends, but in the event that you are caught during your infiltration we are going to need a backup plan for getting past those gates."
She turned her gaze towards the rest of the party. "Any ideas for a Plan B?"
"What if we get everyone into the fort," Terri asks. "We could try posing as bandits coming to supplicate ourselves before the Stag Lord. I could still make two of us invisible so that we don't arouse too much suspicion, but what have we got for a gift? I'm sure they'll be expecting one."
Kressel asks, "Have any of his men escaped you in the wilds? Are there any others that may have alerted the Stag Lord, or perhaps, more importantly, Akiros to who you are and what you mean to do? I know I haven't been back to the fort since the first time we met."
"You'd have to ask them. I wouldn't know," Terri says, indicating the ones that had been at Oleg's when she arrived.
"Mmm. Well, we may just have to risk it regardless. If you hear my pistol shot, you know that things have gone awry," says Ivo.
Dayana took in both Ivo's and Terri's words before speaking. "Unless one us has an assortment of rags and leathers that could make for a decent disguise I don't such a... disparate group such as ourselves could all pass as bandits," she said well whisking had towards her own fine clothes. " If we are fortunate and the bandits are unaware of our party's appearances than I think it would be better pretend to be sycophantic merchants trying to pay for protection than rowdy bandits attempting to join the Stag Lord."
"But what merchants would go around without any goods? If it's the nice dress you're worried about, I may have some clothes that will fit you, or we could do a little tailoring. I hear that distressed damsel chic is all the rage this year in Restov," Terri jokes, chuckling for a moment before she realizes no one else is laughing.
"S-sorry. That wasn't in good taste, was it," she apologizes as her cheeks redden and she looks away from the others.
Tove wracks her brain and answers Kressel's question.
"None have escaped our justice who did not repent for their crimes. If they have in fact returned here let their souls be twice-damned in Hell."
She has no intention of giving anyone in the fort the chance to recognize them however.
"We tried to act as bandits once already, it didn't go too well. I still think we'd do best to avoid announcing our presence this time."
"Yeah... I agree with Tove, I think they will be especially on the alert for that sort of thing again," says Ivo.
"I'm fine with trying to sneak in. If stuff goes wrong, I throw a smoke bomb and try to escape back into the woods, maybe pick one or two of them off along the way. If it goes right, I cut the Stag Lord's throat inside his tent with nobody the wiser, and then we wrap up the whole gang."
He uncrosses his arms and stands up from his position leaning against a tree and says, "Time's a-wastin', though. If nobody has any better ideas right now, then I think we've hit our limit and we need to pull the trigger, so to speak, and start this operation. Risk is part of the game."
"Right, so Ivo and I sneak in then let the rest of you in after taking care of the guards on watch," Terri says, breathing an internal sigh of relief that no one took offense at her gaff.
Garret is of two minds but ready to go. "Would you like me to stay with the rest of the team or swoop onto the central tower to slay our foes with arrows from on high? Both approaches appeal to me."
Bass finishes saddling Emperor Stavian and then picks up his helm "It would be better to my mind if you were to get on top of the tower, Garethane. If Ivo and Terri become endangered, I will ride through the front gates first, and challenge the Stag Lord to combat. I highly doubt he will return the challenge with honor, but it will allow the rest of us to engage them on our terms."
The party has done its best to keep their camp secluded and away from prying eyes, waiting for the opportunity to head for the Stag Lord's fort.
It is mid-day when a smallish, group of ne'er-do-wells passes, obviously heading for the fort. Seeing their cue, Terri and Ivo sneak off after them while Garethane takes the shape of a bird of prey and heads off in that direction himself.
The group of bandits arrives at the gates and you hear a voice call out, "Alright, I recognize you lot. You know the drill. Who in the Nine Hells are ya?"
One of the bandits responds, "By the bloody bones of St. Gilmorg, who wants to know."
Satisfied with the response, the guard opens the gate allowing the six bandits, and unknowingly Ivo and Terri, in.
Looking around you see a small, dusty yard that separates the palisade from the inner structures. The ground here is hard-packed, barren earth. Dozens of barrels lie stacked against the inner wall of the palisade, each with a wooden or metal bucket sitting nearby.
By your best count, there are nine bandits - one in particular looks to be in charge - within the fort, beyond the six that you just snuck in with. Your thoughts as to who is in charge quickly change when you see a monstrously large man, walking about with a bottle of some sort of liquor in his hand and stag skull helm. All the other bandits do their very best to stay the hell out of his way, only the one you previously thought was in charge dares to speak to the man.
You fly in and land on the roof of one of the fort's towers, well before the party of ne'er-do-wells, and you assume Terri and Ivo, arrive.
Eventually, the group of bandits arrives at the gates and you hear a voice call out, "Alright, I recognize you lot. You know the drill. Who in the Nine Hells are ya?"
One of the bandits responds, "By the bloody bones of St. Gilmorg, who wants to know."
Satisfied with the response, the guard opens the gate allowing the six bandits in.
Looking around you see a small, dusty yard that separates the palisade from the inner structures. Dozens of barrels lie stacked against the inner wall of the palisade, each with a wooden or metal bucket sitting nearby.
By your best count, there are nine bandits - one in particular looks to be in charge - within the fort, beyond the six that you just snuck in with. Your thoughts as to who is in charge quickly change when you see a monstrously large man, walking about with a bottle of some sort of liquor in his hand and stag skull helm. All the other bandits do their very best to stay the hell out of his way, only the one you previously thought was in charge dares to speak to the man.
Bass, Raz, Dayana, and Tove nervously sit within earshot of the fort, waiting for their companions to give the word that the time for attack had come.
[spoiler=Team Illiad (Terri and Ivo)]
Terri looks for a place for the two of them to hide. Her spell only has a few minutes before it unraveled and time is quickly growing short. She squeezes Ivo's hand to reassure herself that he was still there and begins silently making her way to a likely hiding spot.
Ivo keeps low and quiet. Given his smaller stature he keeps his eyes open for a crate or barrel where he might be able to hide.