Alister nods at Piotr's suggestions, glancing at the others. "I'm willing to trade precious items for my people's lives. But I won't speak for everyone. Let's hope it doesn't come down to worms." He quips at his brother.
"I can write a letter for you to carry to Restov. I am finishing another to sent to Varn. I had thought that Roslin might be well enough to deliver it to her father personally, but I have my doubts. One of you might need to go in her place. And if we can get any help from the forest fey, that would be good too, though they're recovering from their own losses. We did help save them."
"I thought we might throw our efforts into rebuilding one or two farms with winter crops. Turnips and onions maybe. It won't be enough, but it'll be something."
It's Autumn, the month of Lamashan (October).
"Who should I speak with about hunting and foraging? What town or towns would benefit most from my assistance? Are there any that won't be taking up the plow?"
Alister considers Kernithar's question and then points to the southern part of the map. "You might try here, the lizardfolk village of Hashaask. The lizardfolk are sharp hunters themselves, and we fought off a will o'wisp to free them. Their lands were attacked, but might still be able to sustain them with hunting. If you're willing, I can send you with a letter of introduction to help you get them back on their feet."
"Just, uh, stay away from Candlemere. Just in case."
"The plan makes sense, and I have no problem selling whatever we have if it will help feed people. Send me to Varn if Roslin can't make the journey, or to the Fey if she can."
"Even with magic, I doubt there is time to harvest a crop before winter, so gathering what nature provides is going to be our best way of filling pantries. We should focus on hunting and fishing to supplement what we can buy. Master Flott can help with the former, I gather, and I suggest we organize & supply Stagfell's fishing folk to maximize what we can pull from the lake."
"Thank you, friends," replies Piotr. "We need to preserve the lives of as many people as we can. Selling something that we might use in the future to ensure that we have a future seems reasonable."
Piotr turns to Alister, "I would be more than willing to carry a letter. It should not take long to deliver it in Restov. As for taking what we can from nature, we should also look to the forests. Our people need shelter and we should be able to gather some nuts or late-ripening fruit, too. Though such groups of harvester may need guards, in the creatures and fey are still agitated."
"Those carrying messages appealing for help should leave soon. What else do we need to discuss?"
"I can seek an audience with the Fey of the forest on my way to the Hashaask. I have had dealings with them. I believe your letter of introduction would be required for any great effect, although offering aid in these times will likely not be turned away.
After time in Hashaask, I could also head due North to Tatzlford, but that may be my limit if I am to provide sufficient aid. Both of those towns are near a river and I can teach them some useful netting techniques."
"It is possible that some of the churches that have wide following across the neighboring nations might be able to draw additional aid for us if we were to approach them separately from the nations themselves." Mikhail adds in as a suggestion.
"Good thinking. Ok, I'll get set to writing letters. One for Kernithar to the Lizardfolk. One for Piotr to Restov. One for the Church of Abadar. Perhaps another one to the Church of Erastil about Jhod. One to Varn and one to the fey, though I expect they would prefer an emissary rather than words." He nods, rising to go check on Roslin.
**************
He knocks on her door. "Roslin? It's Alister, just coming to check on you."
The Barony of the Sword Marches is slowly recovering from its ordeal. The winter of 4715/4716 saw many die of cold or simply leave for cities like Mivon, Pitax and Restov. Sir Andrad Aldori of Restov sent supplies such as blankets and food. It wasn't nearly enough, but it was generous, nonetheless. Maegar Varn and the residents of the Nomen Heights had little to give, but give they did. Their help was marginal, but did raise spirits where it arrived. Hunters and trappers sent meat and furs while farmers in Varnhold sent small packages of wheat meal and dried vegetables. For many in the Sword Marches, it was all they received.
The Church of Abadar was happy to sell you supplies in exchange for the riches of the Fellnight Realm - at elevated prices to account for the danger, of course.
The city-state of Mivon sent encouraging words and an invitation to travel south and settle in their lands. Baron Drelev sent word that he had his own hands full with the fallout of your invasion and had nothing to spare. Galt executed the messengers you sent, as traitorous tools of the retrenchant bourgeoisie.
In the Spring of 4716, many of the barony's farms simply went to seed, but by the midsummer many city folk had gone to work the abandoned farms. Times were hard and learning to farm is very difficult, but the promise of being first in the food supply chain made many long for the life of a farmer. Slowly, things began to return to a semblance of their old selves, albeit with a much poorer barony.
By the fall, a few settlers had even returned to Tatzlford and begun to set it aright, though they were mostly city folk and no longer retained the connection to the Fair Folk that had characterized the leaderhip of Loy and Letricia Rezbin.
In the last two years, no whisper of the Fellnight Realm or strangeness from Candlemere has bothered the folk of the barony, though it turned out that pockets of spriggans remained in the Tors of Levenies, the mountains to the east of the Sword Marches. For whatever reason, the ritual you performed in the Fellnight Realm did not reach far enough to draw those villains back to their mistress. Still, they are few and seem content not to descend into settled lands.
A: I would focus on the church and building civilization in the area. To help with this I would open up a clinic through the church and turn my time as a field medic to good use as a traveling doctor.
B: I would go to Piotr and talk to him about starting schools for children in the growing kingdom to teach literacy and important skills need for the kingdom to flourish.
C: I will spend time with Roslin working to build up the religious institutions in the lands.
D:I will approach Orandes about joining Piotr and myself in forming a school as he should have a great deal of knowledge to share with the people of the kingdom. I ask that he journey from town to town with me to
A: Piotr focuses on the economic development of the kingdom, trying to rebuild what was lost with Rhoswen's attack. That would require establishing markets to seel what the new farmers require and roads to take their excess production to market. Perhaps a great trading house in Stagfell to assemble carvans between Brevoy and the River Kingdoms.
B: Piotr had very much the same idea - establishing schools to teach basic literacy and numeracy to as many as possible, and to identify gifted students who can be tutored further.
C: Piotr will take an apprentice, should any child be inclined to study wizardry.
If not, he would find someone willing to be the active, managinpartner for a trading business.
D: Piotr walks the area outside Stagfell, letting Corb stretch his wings and getting some exercise for himself. One fall afternoon, he follows the river upstream until he comes to a shallow pool where he comes upon Limnaes swimming. He apologizes for disturbing Limnaes, but she shrugs off his presence. Piotr surprises himself by initiating conversation with the fey, finding himself fascinated by her different understanding the natural world.
A week later, he meets Limnaes again, this time at a small waterfall on the river. Limnaes describes how the river looked when she was last at this spot, obviously long ago before the river wore away at the stone to create the falls.
The visits get more frequent and the conversations more intense as Piotr's friendship with the naiad grows. Friendship is what Piotr calls it, of course, since he still misses his late wife. But it does grow intense, so much so that once the water warms in the following summer that he begins using water breathing potions so that he can swim with Limnnaes and explore the depths of the river.
It isn't a romantic relationship, not really, but more than friendship. So much so that Piotr remains distant from everyone but his companions and his students.
Alister, Aristu and Kernithar?
Kernithar spent the two years living amongst the Lizardfolk Hashaask. He split his time there with the village of Tatzlford. In Hashaask, he led hunting parties on multi-day hunts to new locations, well hidden in the Narlmarches. In Tatzlford, he showed the fishermen new techniques of luring and hooking, teaching them how to use the river’s curves and bends to their advantage and increase their bounty. Both efforts helped a little to stave off hunger for those two places, but he was confident it prepared those who survived for a better future. He enjoyed the earth-mound homes of the Lizardfolk over the wood and stone of Taztlford. It reminded him of the treed cities in Kyonin.
Bi-weekly trips to report in to Stagfell, found him engaged with all of the leaders of the Sword Marches more, but he found himself more often meeting with Mikhail. He made for a good sparring partner and they discussed the defense of the Sword Marches at length while exchanging sweat and blows from training swords. Kernithar shared with him insight into the less civilized parts of the Narlmarches, identifying good areas for patrols or supply lines in the event of another invasion. They even discussed tactics for themselves if there were ever to meet foes together
During his time in Hashaask, Kernithar befriended the village Shaman, Kenelm. His influence was crucial in helping the Lizardfolk there understand the benefit of not overhunting the surrounding areas. The Shaman’s hut was most removed from the “civilized” part of Hashaask, which put Kern at ease. He stayed with Kenelm while there, and the two often shared silent meals together overlooking the river, just enjoying the company of another wild spirit. When they did talk, they spoke often on the duality of nature and the need for good and bad to exist together. They spoke of the benefit of bad things and the downside of good things. How there is evil residing in the followers of Iomedae and good in the hearts of Asmodeus worshippers.
After learning of the Songbirds of Rhoswen, Kern sought them each out for the sake of curiosity, but mainly just observed. He wanted to see how they appeared different from others after being freed from such a curse. Chatting with Orandes specifically struck his fancy, as the half-elf could go on at lengths about the various planes of existence. Kernithar grilled the old half-elf on the aspects of the Planes and how best to subsist as a creature from the Material Plane. It had been a long time since Kernithar felt like a student and surprised himself with how much he enjoyed Orandes lectures and tutelage. Kernithar also wanted to understand if forces of the Shadow Plane could wreak havoc on and affect those on the Material Plane. What did that look like? How did it manifest? What could be done about it?
A - Initially, Aristu throws himself into the survival of the people of the Sword Marches. But once the threats from starvation and lack of shelter wane, he turns his focus to finally making a home for himself in Stagfell. He pays for a house to be built at the edge of town - near a grove of trees. The house is modest - he can always add onto it later if he outgrows it. Within the grove, he consecrates a small wild shrine to Gozreh, and here he plants the silver seed given to him by the dryad, Tiressia.
B - On at least two occasions, the fey have made mention of the connection between the Sword Marches and Alister (first Shyka the Many, then Tiressia). Aristu begins to research this connection, seeking information wherever he can find it, and with his brother's consent, performing magical experiments to test the form of the connection. Aristu does his best to recruit the Old Beldame to help him with this.
C - Aristu seeks out Tyg-Titter-Tut and together, they set out to find their missing friend - Sir Perlivash.
D - Because of his relatively brief imprisonment in a songbird's body, Aristu feels a connection and a responsibility to the other ex-songbirds. He makes sure to regularly touch base with all of them - using magic if needed to communicate, and seeing to their needs where he can. Once he catches on to the bond growing between Eristhea and his brother, he does his best to encourage it (inviting the two of them to dinner in his new home; giving the two of them more time to spend together by taking some of the duties of leadership off of Alister's hands; making sure that Eristhea knows where to find a great repository of embarrassing tales from Alister's youth; etc).
Alister had a headache. He sighs and drops the report from Tatzlford. It was on the latest set of buildings there were constructing. He had warned them about encroaching too much into the forest already, but it didn't seem like they were paying much mind. "The problem with an independent people is that they like being independent." He grimaces and slumps in his chair, closing his eyes for a moment.
Eristhea walks in and frowns at Alister. "Problem?" she asks.
He looks at her and shrugs. "When isn't there one?" He sits up and smiles. "I thought you and Anya were working on sums. Give up that easily? Piotr will be disappointed."
"Actually, with the right motivation, she takes to it quite well. We're already done with the lesson and halfway through the next one." The elf walks behind Alister and rubs her hands through his hair, her bracelets clinking against each other. "You see, I found that if you just frame the numbers in terms of rabbits, she's quite skilled at determining the answer. The only problem is that she likes addition more than subtraction." Her mouth smirks as she moves her hands and begins rubbing at his temples.
Alister groans at her touch. "How did you know that was what I needed, Thea?" He revels in the massage and feels his headache begin to go away.
"Because I am a mystical sorceress with dark powers," she says in a deep and foreboding tone. Then her voice returns to normal, the elven accent prominent in her Taldane speech. "And because you were slumped in the chair with your eyes closed in pain."
He sits in silence for minutes, allowing her to ease his pain. Finally, he reaches up and pulls one of her hands away, kissing it. "Thank you. That always seems to help." Alister pushes himself to his feet and once again marvels at Eristhea's ageless beauty. "So where is our little mathematician?"
The elf smirks again, crossing her arms and giving him a level look. "Where else? Rabbit warrens." Alister snorts and takes her hand to go find Anya together.
Piotr had been taking a turn in the recently formed school, teaching the basics of arithmetic and reading to the children of Stagfell. As an entertainment, he would cast some cantrips to both keep in practice and see if any of the children were particularly interested. One of the children, an orphaned girl brought to Stagfell from a ruined farming settlements, had an intuitive grasp of magic and copied one of his cantrips.
Sylvia Reston is 8 years old and the sole survivor of her family. In addition to her lessons and chores at the orphanage, Piotr started providing weekly lessons. When it became evident that Sylvia was both gifted and keenly interested, Piotr made arrangements to adopt her and began teaching her both magic and how to run a business and the financial aspects of the kingdom. Even better, Sylvia was the only other person who Corb would permit to remove the remains of his meals from his roosting place.
In the short, hard years since the Fellnight Invasion, the heroes of the Sword Marches have been busy on many fronts.
Mikhail and Piotr have busied themselves with the intellectual life of the barony. Together they opened a school in Stagfell to promote basic literacy. A few farmers sent their children to learn, but many of the merchants and dock workers of Stagfell made sure to secure seats for their children.
Meanwhile, Mikhail also founded an academy and convinced the aged half-elf Orandes to lecture there on the nature of reality. The redoubtable warrior also founded a popular clinic at the Temple of Abadar and with Roslin Varn, rode to many of the outlying settlements to teach and promote religion. From time to time he coordinates with Kesten Garess in the establishment or repair of watchtowers along the major roads.
In addition to helping Mikhail found a school, Piotr also founded a trading guild. It began as a simple counting house and warehouse but has since become the Company of the White Stag, which trades up and down the Little Sellen river to Jovvox and Mivon, as far west as Pitax and as far east as Varnhold.
Piotr took on an apprentice, the 8-year old Sylvia Reston. In Sylvia, Piotr sees not only the future of magic in Stagfell, but an echo of the family he once lost long ago. Speaking of family, Piotr has formed a close friendship with the beautiful naiad Limnaes. The two are both lonely and scarred by their pasts, so they make an unusual pair. Limnaes is usually shrouded, for Piotr’s benefit because looking her full in the face has left him speechless more than once despite being strong-willed.
The ranger Kernithar slowly becomes one of Alister’s advisors. The elf is always on the move, intimately familiar with the Narlmarches and an occasional friend to the forest’s fey as well as a friend of the lizardfolk of Hashaask (or as the call themselves, the iruxi). He becomes particular friends with the iruxi chieftain Kenelm and a student of the scholar, Orandes.
After spending several months working on a garden, Aristu dedicated the garden to the god Gozreh and plants in its center the silver seed given him years before by the dryad druid Tiressia. In the Spring of 4717 the seed grew into a beautiful sapling of a kind of tree the sorcerer had glimpsed in the First World, but never anywhere in Brevoy or the River Kingdoms. Pale and smooth of bark, it had soft green leaves that shed a fine silvery radiance from dusk to dawn and was visited from time to time by fairies out of the dark wood who danced laughingly around the tree before disappearing whence they came. Folk called it the Dusklight Tree and it became a thing of wonder, much visited by travelers.
On the equinox the naiad Limnaes made a rare visit into town and sang a song of growth and fullness and plenty to the tree. That summer there were good rains and many of the livestock gave birth to fine young animals. Many of the young wives of Stagfell also conceived and were with child.
Alister, now generally recognized as a Baron, but still generally known simply as “Sir Alister”, worked tirelessly on the defenses of he city and the barony, helping to design and build watchtowers from the Narlmarches to the Tors of Levenies. In the Spring of 4717 Alister married the elven noblewoman Eristhea in Aristu’s garden with all the notables of the barony in attendance, as well as Sir Andrad Aldori from Restov and Maegar Varn of Varnhold. The two officially adopted Anya Mitchell as their daughter during the same ceremony. The feast to celebrate the wedding featured jugglers from Mivon and a pair of clockwork knights from Pitax.
While all this goes on, Aristu disappears from the city without warning, traveling first south to visit the Old Beldame and then the dryad Tiressia, then north to his old friend Tyg-titter-tut. Together, the two of them search for news of brave Sir Perlivash, the faerie dragon.
In the early morning hours of their wedding night, Eristhea rises from the bed and brings a carved wooden box to a drowsy Alister. ”I have a wedding present for you,” she says. The box contains a beautiful green jewel, carved with the butterfly emblem of Desna on one side and a sigil on the other (a crystal surrounded by briars). After a moment, Alister (trained in heraldry), notices that it is the Royal sigil of Kyonin.
”It is a dreamstone,” she says, with a smile. ”And it has been in my family for centuries. The one who bears it needs little sleep and in the hands of certain people, it has power over dreams. You are always saying that you wish you had more hours in the day. Well, now you do.”
”No, give me that,” she says, putting it back in the box matter-of-factly. ”It will put you right to sleep and this is my wedding night.”
The Old Beldame laughs at your questions and sends you on to Tiressia. The dryad is cagey and clearly reluctant to answer. ”I am gifted,” she says. ”Or cursed, to see things that might be. It is an age of lost omens, they say, so perhaps it means nothing. But sometimes when I look at your brother I sense the land itself, and not just your Sword Marches. The land.”
She sighs. ”Once, long ago, I saw the Great White Stag,” she says. She means the mighty herald of Erastil, a demigod whose appearance is always an omen of change. ”It was striding through the trees like a ship through calm seas, unhindered by branch or root. I could feel its power, the way you feel a storm before you see it. Alister is like that. I can’t explain it, but he is somehow bigger than one man alone. I fear for Eristhea and Anya. They are wedded to a storm.”
She shivers and looks at you directly. ”Keep him safe, Aristu. Don’t let him do anything dangerous. I sense that he and the Sword Marches share the same fate.”
”I know you spoke to the Eldest of Time. What did he say about this?”
”If anyone can answer your question more clearly, Aristu, it would be one of the Eldest.”
Tyg-titter-tut is overjoyed to find that Aristu is going to look for Sir Perlivash. ”Finally!” says the little cricket-bodied fey. ”He’s my bestest friend and he’s probably lost and alone!”
”Unless!” she gasps and puts her hands to her mouth. ”Unless he’s got a girl dragon on the side? You don’t think....” tiny tears well up in her little eyes.
Eager the little grig may be, but she has no idea where her friend may have gone. But after a season of searching, she and Aristu encounter a red-breasted robin who tells the sorcerer that she saw a little winged dragon way off east, near Lake Silverstep the year before. He was looking for something, but the bird didn’t bother to find out what.
Traveling to Lake Silverstep, Aristu learns a little about the large lake. Named after the legendary dragon Silverstep who disappeared centuries ago, it is the primary source of water for the Stolen Lands, from which the Gudrin River flows westward. It draws from numerous streams falling into the lake from the steep tors to the east. Because of this, the eastern side of the lake is a locale of great beauty, featuring numerous waterfalls and cascades, with willows, reeds, and lilies laid over great canopies of moss. Numerous caverns lie beneath the eastern falls, and legend has them filled with gems and silver.
Tyg-titter-Tut finds a brownie named Oswald who tells her and Aristu that the region was once home to the god-like Silverstep, who disappeared centuries before, following a faerie lover into the First World. Oswald remembers seeing Sir Perlivash. ”He was here. Maybe three years ago? During the invasion of those damned spriggans. He was asking about legends of Silverstep the dragon. He said his friends were in trouble and he wanted to find Silverstep to help them. Never saw him again.”
Try as they might, that is the last sighting of Sir Perlivash that anyone in the Lake Silverstep region knows of. He has simply vanished off the face of Golarion and eventually Aristu and Tyg return to the west, downhearted.
”I hear you still have no army,” the old man cackles. ”Survived two invasions and still you have no warriors. Armag will eat you up like these buttered rolls! Soft-landers never learn!”
Once you sit and order some ale, the man continues. ”I am Victor Alanovich and I have the honor to be the emissary of the Swordlords of Restov. I have a message. My masters bid me to say that the relations between Issia and Rostland have become very bad. There has been some fighting, and war is expected. Sir Andrad bids you remember Restov’s past aid.” A native of Rostland himself, Mikhail knows that Issia and Rostland were two nations forged into the present day Brevoy by the warrior-king Choral the Conqueror three centuries ago, who controlled dragons and burned those who stood against him. But the line of the Conqueror is gone and the Regent in New Stetven styles himself a prince. Restov and Rostland chafe under his attempts to control them and Brevoy is a powderkeg awaiting a spark.
”Since you have not seen fit to field an army, I bring you a new offer. The Nomen centaurs have become violent and territorial, raiding Rostland and burning farms. They are a thorn in the side we cannot permit should matters come to a head with New Stetven. I have conveyed this offer to Varnhold and now I convey it also to you. If you can drive the centaurs out of the Stolen Lands, or somehow secure a treaty with them that guarantees peace on Rostland’s southern border, the Swordlords have promised a sizeable reward.”
Another winter has come and gone and the timbers of new hall are being raised where Alister and his family will live. Alister is sitting in his brother's garden. The sun is shining and the Dusklight tree is dark. Aristu is watching Anya chasing butterflies while Eristhea lays with her head in her husband's lap, reading.
Mikhail, Piotr and Kernithar have followed Kesten Garress and Roslin Varn into the garden. Eristhea sits up and sets aside her book, regarding the newcomers with large eyes.
"Lord," says Kesten, "There may be a problem."
Roslin cuts him off. "There's something wrong in Varnhold," she says. "I've received no word from my father or my brother in several weeks. I sent a man with a letter, but he hasn't returned. I've just met a man whose brother went to Varnhold and is days overdue to return."
Kesten speaks up. "It may be bandits again, Lord. Or these centaurs we've heard of, causing trouble. I can send a scout..."
Roslin cuts him off again. "A scout's no good if it's bandits. Or centaurs. He'll just be captured or killed. This is why we need real soldiers."
"I want to go," says Roslin to Alister. "I want to see my father and I'd like you to send Mikhail and Kernithar with me."
"Sir, if we but follow the route to Varnhold, I'm confident I can pick up the trail of anyone that has gone wayward. For better or worse."
Alister frowns, looking up from his wife. "You haven't heard from your father in weeks? And now we have others missing? Piotr, the White Stag Company trades out to Varnhold, have you had any shipments disrupted?" He considers that for a few moments.
"The Centaurs were causing your father lots of problems. If they've been attacked, we may need send a relief force." You can see the concern of something like the trolls or the spriggan army cross his face. "But we don't have anything like that ready, unless..." He looks around at the others. "Perhaps we should go investigate it ourselves. Kesten can defend the city in our absence. If it's nothing more than bandits, then we pay your father a visit. It's past time we visited to pay our respects. If it's more..." His mouth makes a worried quirk.
Kesten can defend the city in our absence.
"Well, we don't have enough real soldiers," states Piotr.
"Hiring mercenaries, even the sort who normally guard caravans, would not be a good fit. Besides, the soldiers would need competent leaders and information before sending them off. The first priority is gathering information and, as Roslin says, a single scout is no better than continuing to send couriers. We need to send a group - ideally, a group who can survive and deal with unexpected threats."
Piotr pauses before continuing.
"So, do we go ourselves or seek out a party of adventurers to do this for us?"
Aristu shakes his head, "Who - outside those gathered here - do you know well enough that you'd trust them to guard Roslin's life?" He looks over to Alister. "We should go."
"Excellent. I will prepare a kit for the road. Shall we meet here at dawn before setting out?"
Let me know what preparations or good-byes you want to make and we'll hit the road.
How are you getting to Varnhold? Check out Slide #2 of the maps. There are three viable routes:
1) You can go by road to Leveton (Oleg's on that map), then east to Nivatka's Crossing and south to Varnhold. This is the most comfortable route.
2) You can follow the Shrike river north to the road and then proceed as above.
3) You can cross the Shrike river and ride overland to where the Crooked River leaves the Tors (the hex west of Varnhold) and proceed through the mountain pass. This is the fastest route. There is no road, but horses can make it through the pass if led through the highest part. The pass is just below the snow line most of the year.
"Do we need to make a grand procession through the kingdom?," asks Piotr.
"Show our faces, reassure people and check in with Oleg. If we go that way, I am tempted to jaunt over to Restov for news and ensure that supplies will continue to come to us."
Piotr waits for reaction to his companions, willing to take a faster route if they wish.
"It sounds like we should make good time, but it would not hurt to try and be seen by the people to let them know we are paying attention to their needs." Mikhail says.
"I am fine with whatever choice, but this does not seem the occasion for a parade. If we take the most direct route through the wilderness, I will ensure our way is not lost. The mountains may not be kind to your equine friends, but there are passes that will suffice."
Kern's eyes flit between the few before focusing sharply on Aristu and Alister.
Alister frowns. "Which way would your messenger have gone, Roslin? Likely the fastest way, though it could have killed his horse. Possibly along the Shrike if he was being cautious, but definitely not via Oleg's." The baron still referred to Leveton with the simple name of the man who they first met in the Greenbelt.
"If we follow the Shrike to the Crooked River, we'll be able to visit a few farms and the Kobolds. I think that's enough. If something has happened to Varn, we should find it out quickly and not be holding parades." He looks to Roslin and nods. "We'll find your father. Hopefully in good shape and we can all enjoy a drink together."
"True, Alister," replies Piotr. "And it is easy enough to visit the settlements along the road between here and Oleg's, while we should check in with the kobolds."
"Let's take the fastest route," states Piotr.
Aristu nods in agreement with the others. "It is a matter of urgency, so the most direct route is best."
Before leaving, Aristu looks to see what the shops of Stagfell can offer him in the way of healing scrolls.
Aristu, Stagfell is too tiny a town for magic shops or anything like that. However, there is a merchant, Ludmila Sventirova, who makes frequent journeys between Mivon and Restov, being sure to stop at Stagfell since it has become the home of heroes. She specializes in potions, but usually has a few scrolls, too. She arrived in town two days ago.
Her wares include:
Four potions of invisibility (20 gp ea.)
Two potions of Leaping (21 gp ea.)
Ten lesser potions of Fire Resistance (45 gp ea.)
Thirty potions of moderate healing (50 gp ea.)
Two potions of Quickness (90 gp ea.)
Four potions of Flying (100 gp ea.)
Three scrolls of Floating Disk (4 gp ea.)
One scroll of Knock (12 gp)
Nine scrolls of Phantom Steed (12 gp ea.)
One scroll of Circle of Protection (4th) (70 gp)
A wand of Obscuring Mist (160 gp)
A second trader, a newcomer from distant Tymon, is the dwarf smith Buorn. He offers swords, axes, mauls and daggers as well as an assortment of knives and shields.
His wares include:
Nearly any sort of nonmagical simple or martial bladed weapon (except for those with an ancestry trait.)
In addition, he offers the following:
A +1 striking disrupting bastard sword (1,270 gp)
A +1 striking returning trident (1,560 sp)
A +1 striking cold iron longspear (5,782 gp)
A +2 greater striking flaming battle axe (12,505 gp)
Oops. All the prices for the weapons above are in silver pieces, not gold pieces.
Let me know when you are ready to proceed.
Aristu lets Madame Sventirova know that he is disappointed in her lack of healing scrolls, but he lets her convince him to buy one of the moderate healing potions. He hands over 5 platinum coins.
Mikhail gathers his bag and checks in on the school and church before moving to meet the others.
Piotr purchases some scrolls that may prove useful, encouraging Ludmila Sventirova to continue visiting Stagfell.
Once he stores the scrolls, Piotr is ready to travel.