Alexander looks up at the creature on the ceiling with a smirk. With a wave of his hand, he causes grease to appear on the ceiling.
Radomir takes another swing at the wolverine on the ceiling
Radomir strikes and hits the ceiling wolverine.
Soren misses with both of his arrow. Apparently it is difficult to fire straight up.
Alexander casts Grease.
But the wolverine clings tenaciously to the ceiling.
Andrea misses with her spear.
The Ceiling Wolverine appears to be doing something and then suddenly a swarm of rats appear on top of Radomir and begin biting at him.
But they miss.
As the odd creature tries to do, well, something, Thaliar sees an opportunity to attack the beast.
Radiomir swipes with his polearm
Eduard, seeing that things are a bit crowded, will simply take out his crossbow and attempt to fire.
Soran lets fly another arrow.
Did that thing just puke rats all over Radomir? What in the nine hells were they keeping in their basement?
Radomir hits the ceiling wolverine yet again and it snarls at him.
Soren connects with his arrow.
Eduard also connects with his bolt.
The wolverine casts something upon itself.
Andrea picks up her spear and throws it at the wolverine
RAdomir takes another swing at the wolverine.
Eduard will once again attempt to fire his crossbow.
Soren fires away again.
Despite the ceiling wolverines attempt at preserving his own life, the successful hits from Radomir, Eduard and Soren still do enough damage to finish him off.
The wolverine falls from the ceiling and turns into the body of an old man with unkempt grey hair, wearing ragged druidic robes and not carrying anything.
Your search of this room will reveal the following:
The majority of the
wealth kept here consists of mundane trade goods like
pelts, furs, tobacco, iron, bronze, miscellaneous weapons
and armor (none masterwork or magic), and miscellaneous
adventuring gear and tools worth a combined total of 6,850
gp. In addition, one chest contains 4,500 cp,
2,052 sp, 894 gp, and 21 pp, while a large bag
contains 2,900 gp in various pieces of stolen jewelry
An excellent find. I believe that with the death of this last threat, the bandits are effectively destroyed and this area of the greenbelt is free of organized dangers.
Alexander frowns as he looks down at the body before them. What an odd man. I can see why they kept him in a cellar. He looks around after they account for all the loot. Now, shall we clear out the rest of this base, gather what they have, and see what we want to do with the survivors?
Alexander shrugs and smiles, Maybe we should find the horses before whoever is left decides to run away on them.
Indeed, the horses will be excellent for transporting prisoners and wealth. I suggest we take them back to Oleg's for judegment. We can gather up the bandit's equipment as well.
Andrea wil help assit with gathering the bandit's equipment and loading it onto the horses.
Radomir will help with the prisoners.
The group can take its time clearing out the dilapidated fort and loading all the loot that it finds onto the bandits horses and then marching the prisoners by foot back to Oleg's trading post. You will get back there by the end of a second day of uneventful travel.
Oleg meets you all by the open gate, obviously surprised by the addition of men, horses and gear.
"Welcome back my friends. It looks like you lot have more than just survived the dangers of the forest. Tell me, who are your prisoners?"
The Stag Lord will no longer trouble this area. We have slain him and captured his men. His fort is empty of threats and we have a nice haul of valuables. I guess we will need to find out who will be able to deal with our prisoners.
"I'd say hard labor should suffice for the penitent. Those who refused to lay down their weapons already died by our hands anyway." Thaliar looked around at the outpost.
"Say Oleg, ever thought about having this place expanded? I'm sure these men could put up a new, larger palisade for you."
Alexander rides up and dismounts in front of Oleg, Indeed, it was a fine outing. We destroyed the bandit's camp and lord and come with plenty to sell and men for you to put to work. He waves his hand back at the extra horses, pack mules, assorted goods, and bound men trailing behind the group. Let me know if any of them give you trouble.
How have things been here? It looks like you've been working hard building up this fort. We might have a small town sprouting up around it soon! The tall man chuckles and slaps his horse's neck. We could use some sleep, but I'll get to work on an inventory of things before that. He pauses and frowns, The stable is going to start getting crowded. We'll have to build you a new one.
Alexander strips his own horse down and takes care of the mount before moving on to unpacking everything. He leaves the handling of the prisoners to Radomir and the others, but he does make a note of seeking out Kesten and Father Kavken before moving on to taking inventory of their stock.
When he has a spare moment, he examines the rings they found. (Both the white-gold band and the plain iron ring. Though I don't believe the second was actually magical.)
Oleg shakes his head slowly in surprise. "I guess I should stop underestimating you lot. You lot surely seem to accomplish everything you set out to do."
In response to Thaliar and Aleander's comments: "Expanded? This place? Well yes, when we first headed out here I had dreams of enlarging this place and making a bit of civilization in this wilderness. Those bandits had me thinking I was never going to accomplish anything out here though. Always stealing everything we had, running off or killing any help I could get. Maybe now that you guys guys are here, we can actually accomplish something."
Oleg will assist with with getting the horses and mules situated, helping to enlarge the coral temporarily until more permanent works can be done.
We might want to sell some of the horses, perhaps send any equipment that Oleg can't purchase back onto a caravan.
Interesting, Alexander says as he turns the ring over in his hand. A ring of protection. Should be quite handy.
Kesten! The man yells as he sees the other noble. How have things been here? We've found a few more to add to your work parties. I'm sure you can find something for them to do. He smiles. I trust everything has been quiet? Watch out for the big one. He's strong. Rather simple, but strong. He'll probably work quite hard if treated well. And I'm guessing he'll keep the others in line if you can convince him to trust you.
Thaliar turns to look after Alaxander when he sees Kesten, "And leave the big man his toys, I secured those as well."
"I don't think we should sell the horses, or the mules for that matter. They might come in useful later. You never know when we'll lose one to a rabid owlbear or the such." As he speaks Thaliar starts to unpack his bag, carfeull removing the samples of owlbear innards he had taken. "Oleg, did you ever hear anything about interested parties for the owlbear eggs?"
Eduard just walks around taking notes in his journal and thinking to himself. He listens as the other speak and seems content to wait.
It seems likely that someone other myself could better use the ring, but barring other takers, I would take it.
Alexander chuckles, I could use the ring, certainly. Though if I do, I would think my share of our other treasure, by right, should be significantly reduced. I feel like I've reaped significant rewards already. He shrugs and turns as Thaliar speaks to Oleg, Yes...about those eggs. Any luck?
No claims other than a potion.
"Yes actually, those eggs now have a new home and I have a bag of money waiting in my cabin for you in return. I can fetch it here in a minute."
Kesten looks over the prisoners that Alexander points out, though he doesn't seem too convinced of their usefulness. "You have certainly done a good job of capturing the scum of the forest. I'm not sure how well they will respond to some hard labor, but starting tomorrow we can put them to work on clearing some trees from around the fort. All this talk of expansion is all well and good, but first we need to make the room for it."
"Good. Now lets just hope they won't be used by the next Staglord." The last part was said with a smile.
Thaliar then turned to Radomir, "Since we're back here, could you hand me back the elixir I gave you? If you're not using it I might as well recycle it."
So, a question on my mind is what do we do now?
Well, we still have plenty of land to survey. We can also go back to the fort, clean it out a bit, and perhaps use it as a forward camp when we're out in the field and want somewhere to sleep. He chuckles, Seems like a nice place to fish too.
Oleg! I'll get started on that inventory. How much do you think you can buy this time? We've got quite a bit of arms and armor, but also random trade goods and jewelry. He smiles goodnaturedly, And I'm sure if you've gotten some interesting adventuring gear, we could work out a trade or two.
Alexander sighs as he looks at his tally, We have a large amount of trade goods. I'd like to sell off our random gear and jewelry to you straight up and then maybe work out a deal where you keep the trade goods here and sell them. We can work out a price for them ahead of time and if you sell them for more, well, that'll be good for you. He smiles good-naturedly.
Alexander rolls the ring over in his hand again, Unless someone is steadfast against it, I think I'll keep this ring. I'd like to avoid what happened with the Stag Lord in the future. His tone is light despite the request.
You are welcome to the ring.
Alexander sighs as he looks over at the new prisoners. Kesten, how is Happs doing? He frowns and his hand drops to rest on his swordbelt. They will be given the same choice as he. They can be marked and serve, or they can hang. I expect that none will have the courage to accept their fate, but I have been surprised before. Before moving over towards the men he makes his way toward Andrea and says, Take the large man, Auchs, aside. There's no need to treat him as one of the others. Just a simple man being used, that one.
Radomir! Set up that stump, we have work to do. He walks over to stand before the five prisoners. Bandits in this land are hung by the neck until dead...typically. But this is a new land, and we are building a new world here. You, like the bandits before you, will be given a choice. He pauses and looks each man in the eye. You may choose death at the end of a noose, or you may choose to serve. His hand drops and rests on the hilt of his sword. Your hand will be maimed and you will never properly hold a bow or weapon again. But you will live. It will be painful. Let this pain remind you of the service you owe.
Rebuild what you have worked so hard to tear down and perhaps, one day, the gods will forgive you. With that, he draws Happs' old knife and turns it over in his hand, awaiting their decision.
Andrea leads Auch's aside before the proclomation was made. This way, you will be put into a jail with your toys and must stay there because you were a bandit. Andrea puts Auchs into any room that can be secured.
Alexander - Kestan replies to you that Happs has been getting along ok. He tends to be a bit surly, but adequately performs any task that is asked of him. He hasn't tried to runaway from the fort or cause any trouble, so he thinks that the man might be on his way to being successfully rehabilitated.
Auchs will follow Andrea into the prison cell and play with his toys while the sentence is being carried out on the other bandits.
All of the bandits will agree with the cutting off of their fingers as an alternative to being hung until dead. Though clearly none are particularly happy with their fate. During the carrying out of the sentence, each bandit tries to be braver than the others and take the amputation with as little noise as possible.
Alexander waves his hand over the dagger and watches his magic clean away the blood. Well, that's done with. Take care of those hands, we'll see to it they don't get infected. He cleans the rest of himself in the same manner and returns to the others.
Soren, after dinner we should look over the maps and notes we have. I think we could use a few days rest...to make sure these men don't give our friends a hard time...then I'd like to head off and finish our work.
Soren nods.
Good plan. I have few things to make, as well, if Oleg finally got the supplies in. Some of it's hard to find.
Nibble
Andrea will help sort the various items for sale and tuck her money away. She does place an order for a Handy Haversack, since those items are always useful.
Alexander makes sure to put aside some time to speak to the priest. So, Father Kavken, how goes the restoration? Been finding your way out there okay?
Andrea checks the maps. So how about we head south and then south-west for exploration?
Alexander nods, I was thinking of finishing our mapping along the border first, but working our way down to the river headed east out of the Tuskwater would also be fine. I believe somewhere around there, if Soren and my calculations are correct, are the limit of our charter.
I think either direction will work. Perhaps head past Bokken's and stop in to check on him? We can map out a little further that way, head south...then start filling in this area here, he says, as he points to the area east of the Fort. On the other hand, there's quite a bit more forest to the west. And I'd like to explore around the temple a bit more. I'm worried about Father Kavken heading out there on his own. The forest might be less a few dangers, but mysteries remain. He frowns slightly in thought, Perhaps one of Kesten's men could start going with him. Until we've finished our work, at least.
Radomir cleans his bardiche and strings the fingers onto a grizzled necklace which he dangles from the end of his bardiche, like a banner. It will be a reminder to those who oppose us.
He ponders, his brow working into a deep furrow as he tries to think. we should establish a routine, train those who will work for our cause, and enslave... He shrugs, his mouth working into a rueful grimace...indenture those whom we cannot trust with weapons to work our lands.
Looking at the map he shrugs. It would be unwise to leave the wild forests unexplored. Dangers always lurk in the darkness beneath their eaves
Alexander nods, Soren, any opinion? It's your map...where would you like to go next?
I say we visit Bokken, and then work our way south and then west towards the temple. Start with something familiar, so we have a place to fall back to if needed. Also, he may need us for something, or vice versa.
Agreed.
Father Kavken responds to Alexander's query. "I've put in some work at making the place livable and to re-consecrate the temple. So far I have been getting there and back without much trouble, though that may change soon. Apparently the, uhm, "bear" your group killed was ferocious enough to keep anything else from wanting to make a home near the temple, but with it deceased now, things may change. Perhaps if I can get enough faithful to make pilgrimages here, then I will be able to convince a couple to serve as guardsmen and guides for the temple."