Castor nods silently, respectful of Brom's preference not to speak.
He follows the barbarian's glance towards the interrogation. "I have been feeling rather out of sorts after that argument with Rufus, earlier, so I could not get much of an impression from that man, but he seems honest enough. Perhaps facing the consequences of his actions will have shown him a better path. I would imagine that at least some of those bandits turned to crime because they had nothing else, and that they would gladly take an occasion to make an honest living."
These small men and their ideas. Sometimes so wise and sometimes...
Brom regards Castor long enough to see he's being sincere, allowing a small humorless grin to come onto his face, "Among Zhe People," and turns to look back over the wall, "a man like zhis vould fight for his life. If he vun, he vould go free. If he fell, zhe matter vas settled." He turns back to look at Castor, "In my life, I have seen vun go free. Ve have caught many."
Castor remains silent, looking for a response, but nothing seems appropriate. Various societies possess various rules, and it is not his place to judge whether The People's way is right or not. How would it feel, to be in such a position. Castor chuckles.
"I guess it is a good thing I have not gotten on the wrong side of The People." Castor looks down at his arms and hands, devoid of marks or scars, lean but hardly muscular. "I would never have stood a chance," he quips in self deprecation.
Without a word, Castor rummages through his belt pouch and pulls out his copy of the charter, reading it over.
"When I look at the charter, I always get this odd feeling. Just to think 'I agreed to follow this to the end...' Such an incomprehensible feeling, really. I have traveled a lot, but I think this is the first time I have a set path in front of me. I do not know what to make of it. I wish I knew what brought me here, why I accepted this task. What about you? What brings a man of The People on this quest?"
Brom laughs heartily and sincerely, a cleansing belly-laugh, at Castors humility, and claps him lightly on the shoulder, "Ha! Do not lessen yourself." and gestures to his recently healed wound, "In such a battle, you could have just..." and gives you a crazy-eyed look, wiggling curled fingers maliciously -his own interpretation of the powerful and unknowable arcane. He concludes his performance by switching to the role of the enraged barbarian aggressor, pantomiming great anger, and then clutches his heart as if it'd been stopped by magic and topples back against the outpost wall.
Laughing, he stands back up to consider Castor's words about the charter, and pulls out his own copy. Giving the elf an appraising look he leans in close, looking both ways and down at the others to ensure their relative privacy, "Can you be silent about a zhing?"
Castor laughs at the description.
"Oh, no, no, no. I am not 'that' kind of magic user. With some practice, I could probably restart a heart, but I could not stop it. I've always been more at my place on the rear lines, keeping the front lines strong and healthy."
Castor leans in as well.
"I will do my best. I certainly would not tattle, but I am not a good liar by any measure."
Brom gives the charter he holds a little shake to draw attention to it, "Zhe spirits led me to zhis 'charter'. A dying man gave it after I killed zhe bandit who vas robbing him. He said to come here, and zhen ve me next day on zhe road. Surely led by zhe spirits, yes?" He looks at Castor with excitement at the newly shared miracle.
"It may very well be so." Castor nods. "Fate works in mysterious ways. Peace on his soul, chance brought that man a good fellow to bestow his charter on, if what I have seen of you yet is to reflect on your future deeds."
Brom chuckles, "You know, you are not so bad, for a small man. Very good vizh zhe speaking and zhe vords. I have no time for zhe future, too many zhings happening in zhe now, yes? Ha!" and chuckles at his own odd joke.
"A commendable philosophy indeed. What do you say we rejoin our companions and see if they have found out anything interesting?"
Brom nods with a grin and moves towards the ladder, moving quickly over to rejoin the others. When he and Castor do so, ignoring the bandit, he asks the general area "Vell, vhat is happening? Does he live?"
Cappi looks up from where he's been enjoying a smoke at his cat's expense. "I vote for LIFE!" he exclaims melodramatically, pipe still clenched between his teeth as he raises a tiny fist into the air. "In earnest though," he continues, chuckling at his own behavior, "I'm pretty certain he won't return to this Kressa. So there's little concern in that. And I'm willing to wager he doesn't want anything to do with us now either... but there's a good chance he'll find a third party to toss 'is lot in with. It's how he live."
Reclining again against the side of the pallisade, Cappi takes another puff and lets it linger in his mouth as his mind searches. The name Kressa sounds familiar...
I always have to help these small men out...
Brom leans down towards Beau/Cappi, lowering his voice so as not to embarrass anyone, "You say, 'I vote for living!' or 'I love he live!' It's ok, zhe language, it is hard to be learning at times, yes?"
Cappi ponders the giants words, twisting the pipe in his mouth. "Very wise, Brom." He adds, squinting his eyes. "I love he live, then." He restates with a smile. "Has a ring to it, it does."
"Well of course he's going to live, the question is how we make sure he doesn't go back to banditry." Winifred comments on Cappi's outburst. "You are probably right that he won't want much to do with us though."
Well he is gonna have to stay with us or Oleg, his choice, until we deal with his camp. There is compassion, and then there is unnecessary risk.
Brom pats Cappi's shoulder, having to stoop a bit to do so, and then stands up straight, happy he was able to help out. When he hears the bandit will live, he has to work hard to keep a frown from showing up on his face. When Karse suggests a squire, "I vould not like him so close to his friends vhen ve attack. Vun shout from him could ruin us."
Theod shakes his head at all the back and forth about what to do with the bandit. "I'm all for him not causing further trouble for us while we deal with the rest of the bandits, but what do you all care if he goes back to banditry? If he does he'll eventually face another group like us and likely end up dead and if he doesn't why do we have to control what he does. I say we lock him up until we deal with the rest of his lot and then let him on his way. Worse case we take him up to the border and drop him off. Or if everyone is so dead set on controlling him then why don't we just build our own little prison to stick him in until we can turn him over to some authroities?" Theod shrugs "I mean the guy seems genuine enough."
Worn out of all the bandit talk, Castor sits by the piled loot and busies himself with counting the coins, only partly listening to the discussion.
When Brom comes back from his little talk with Castor, Hadin walks to the huge man. He seems uneasy, and ashamed.
I want to apologise to you. I didn't want to be rude or to hurt your feelings when i said you may be the pride of your people. For me, it was a good thing...
Brom waves off Hadin's apology before the man can finish, "It is nothing. You are a good friend."
Thinking they are done with the prisoner, having the description and map the bandit drew, Brom starts to tie him up again. "Ve vill be visiting your friends. If you have lied, ve vill know it and I vill kill you myself." Brom drags him to a hitching post in the shade and ties the man to it, perhaps a little roughly, but doesn't cause any real damage.
Returning to the others, "So, vhen do ve attack? It is two days journey to zheir camp... zhat means ve have little time. I say ve leave immediately to put an end to zhem." He looks around at the others, an eager look on his face.
Since is is two days to the camp, this group will not be late for two days. If we leave in the morning, we could take them by surprise. If we wait, then this group will be missed and they will be more prepared.
Brom purses his lips, "You zhink ve try to hide as bandits?" and looks down at his large frame doubtfully.
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”Yes, and no. At a distance, any scouts would only be able to see our rough numbers, and that some are on horseback and others are not. By the time they are able to determine that there are those among us of a clearly different size than those that left, it will be too late for them. As we saw today, we can cover that distance fairly quickly when we need to, especially with Dendarial’s arrows leading us in.” replies Will.
Winifred, we will need more intel on the camp. See if you can find out the number of men there, any precautions for its defense, and its general layout.
Theod sighs in relief that the prisoner was finally taken away and nods at Will's suggestion. "A very good idea I say. Perhaps those of us who know how to try and stay out of sight can scout ahead and have a runner or use some magical means to relay info to the others?"
"Certainly not a bad idea," Castor agrees, leaving the coins be and standing up. "We had better be careful, however. We do not know what to expect from those bandits. There might be more to them than what we can handle."
Surprisingly, as the bandit is drug off and tied to the post, he doesn't offer much in the way of resistance. Either he knows he is outmatched and has resigned himself to his fate, or he is comfortable with the way the discussions have been going that surround his future.
Kurgan agrees to stay back with Oleg and Svetlana, keeping an eye on them as well as the prisoner, and doing what he can to help bring things into order around the post.
"There were twelve in the group that came here today. From what our hosts have said, there have never been more than twelve. However, They also made mention of this band being led by a woman...
who was not present this time..." Rufus trails off as he contemplates what is known & what is suspected.
"Food & safety are what's valued first in these parts." He begins, looking to the rest of you. "A bandit band, strong enough to not be worth others trouble but small enough to not be worth a nation's trouble fits both needs well."
"The 'Stolen Lands' as you Brevic's like to call them haven't had anything larger or longer-lasting than a bandit gang since the First Taldan Expeditionary Force. Could well be that this 'Stag Lord' as they call him is simply trying his own luck."
Brom nods, "Ve have days of travel to solidify zhe attack. Ve vill be planning to leave at first light, yes? Zhis vill be good!" and the barbarian retrieves his weapons, including his new bow and arrows. "I vill be outside." he states to the general area and moves outside the walls of the outpost to practice.
To anyone watching, he's pretty awful, his 'practice' mostly consists of putting his back to a tree, popping out from behind it with a shout and launching an arrow into space without a hint of aim, but no doubt murdering the imaginary bandits. Much of his time is spent climbing trees to rescue an arrow, or combing through deep brush to locate one that'd been lost. He appears to be having a marvelous time, if not very effective for training.
"Then perhaps it's time the stag lord's luck ended." Winifred adds to Rufus' statement. "The more bandits there are, the more work we have cut out for us sure, but I believe we should suspect that there will be more there then there was here, if they value safety so much then they would not have half or more of their group away for nearly four days, regardless of the gain, we should be prepared to face an army, likely with an easily defend-able location. The closer we can get without being noticed the better." Winifred contemplates, seemingly thinking aloud, "It's likely that such a bandit group would recruit new members on occasions." Winifred turns to the bandit now.
"How did you join the bandit group, is there somewhere that they look for recruits? If they believe us to be bandit hopefuls, we might have better luck infiltrating their defenses."
They don't get it...
At least she's to ask some useful questions.
Rufus shakes his head, but refrains from interrupting Winifred as she attempts to inquire further of the captured bandit.
"It is true that a single bandit camp may not be worth concentrating all of our resources on. What do you propose then, Rufus? Should we, perhaps, send a smaller scouting party, while the rest of us begin exploring the area further?"
Acknowledging Castor's words, Rufus walks away from Winifred's inquiry of the captured Bandit. Once of sufficient distance to prevent either conversation to interfere with the other, he turns.
"As ideas go, that one's not bad. Both will need to be capable of woodscraft...
a talent I myself do not possess, unfortunately."
"We would need to have either a ready means of communication, which we don't."
"Or a specified rendezvous place & time, which we could."
Hearing Rufus, Hadin says simply
I am a carpenter. I need to be useful to my community in time of peace too. What do you have in mind?
Cappi raises a diminutive hand as the group continues to debate the next course of action. "If you're toying with the idea of sharpin' these guys, you should make use of me... seein' as I actually am a rover, rather than a swoddy." He turns to Rufus, "No offense."
"Also, not sure it's anything new. But I've heard of a group o' high pads that fly a panter on their canvas, a stag. Likely associated with the Stag Lord if I still know how to reasonably put two and two together."
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Following the group making plans, Will chimes in, ”Hadin, I believe when Rufus said woodscraft, he meant the ability to survive in the woods, live off the land, know how to navigate, and the like. Carpentry is a worthy profession though; can you make any items of war? Spears, bows, or staves? As Rufus said, we have no way to communicate between multiple groups, so having a meeting location and time makes sense, and here would be the most sensible location. Something else I’ve noticed, is that we are heavy on martial prowess, but VERY light in terms of spellcasters. From what I’ve seen, only myself, Castor, and Tshaliba can cast anything, and only me and Castor can cast any curative or support magics. If we are to have multiple groups active at once, it would make sense to split Castor and myself between the two.”
At Will's mention of spellcasters, Rufus develops a sour expression. Which quickly clears as he interjects briefly. "The Lady isn't just pretty you know..." Nodding back in the direction of the lady Lebeda.
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Will’s eyes roll at the snide comment from Rufus, ”Sorry. I based my statement on what I’ve observed, and I haven’t seen her cast any spells, except to perhaps bewitch the mind of our Bandit. Do you know if she practices more offensive or support magics?” taking a moment to count to himself, ”Either way, if we plan for two groups, that leaves one support caster, one other caster, and three to four martial fighting types. Unless the others have skills that I haven’t seen.”
Outside the walls, Brom has started throwing knots of wood into the air, and trying to knock, draw and shoot the falling pieces before they hit the ground. It is becoming quite dangerous out there.
"I agree with Will; better to spread the healing. My magic is at its most useful when assisting a striking force, rather than a skirmishing one. It may be in our advantage if I were to accompany a group with significant melee force."
Outside the walls of the post, the wildlife of the area seems to have vanished after two stay crows found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, pierced by random arrows flying through the air. In all likelihood a spectator might have seen it as a display of prowess with the bow that Brom was attempting to train with. He knew better...