"I've never heard of them working with people... the implications would be... bad." Kesten darkens at the thought and is bothered by it quite a bit. He perks up at the thought of money. "Well Oleg wanted the head, and I've heard their hides can be quite useful as armors or cloaks. Suppose we can look into it...." He stops as he sees Arkady failing quite spectacularly to get the skin and bones off the beast. "Or not I suppose." He waves off Anton. "Oh I'm fine, damn thing didn't get through my plate. Good thing I was wearing it on watch." He looks toward the rising sun with a smile. "Well...since it seems you're all up... now where to?"
"Yes, a good thing. I suppose there are others about that we can eventually recover for Oleg or ourselves." She shakes her head sadly at Arkady's efforts. "I suppose we should set a couple of our most stealthy watchers within sight of the fort and keep the rest of us further away but within running distance. I have a spell prepared that will let them whisper to us from afar if they see anything."
"Let us set them up, then, and find a place where we can both be near them and keep an eye on the water. It would be good to see if there is any boat traffic."
Arkady cleans himself off and stows what's left of the head in a sack.
As Marcus settles himself near the fort with a Message spell in effect, you wait out the day. You see that the fort seems to have three men on the walls at all times except the night, when the watch goes to only two, though the men seem rather lax and concentrate their efforts on the road leading to the fort. There is no boat activity and no one seems to enter or leave the fort in that day. At one point in the late afternoon Marcus finally gets a good look at the infamous Stag Lord. A powerfully built man in dirty forest leathers wearing a face concealing helmet with large silver stag horns upon it. He is followed by a proud standing, wiry sort of clean shaven man with bright blue eyes who seems to be a lieutenant of some sort. They stop by the watch and the Stag Lord seems to ask a few pointed questions of one of the men, when he responds in the negative, the Stag Lord strikes him, then continues to strike him as he falls to the ground, until the man wails in pain. This seems to please the Stag Lord, who then leaves calmly, leaving his man on the floor. The lieutenant watches passively through all of this.
"He sure seems like a pleasant fellow." Kheldor says drily. "What's the plan?"
"No kidding. If we can figure out how to get someone out of there or into there we might be able to sow some more discord. Otherwise we either wait him out or take the gamble that his threat against Oleg's was a bluff and explore a bit more before coming back here."
Anton looks over the scene in the distance.
Anton is impassive as the Stag Lord beats his man. "He does seem to rule by brutality, some men expect nothing else, they see it as strength not weakness. However there needs to be a basic fairness to it, if he beats them for telling the truth, he will win only lies. He men are likely opportunists or totally desperate, they may look for a better deal if we can offer one."
After observing the night watch, Anton says, "The men at night are very lax, harsh discipline but lazy leadership. It may be possible to sneak around, off the road, but be wary. I'm not sure it would do any good, I'm no expert at climbing walls, certainly not quietly. Still something to keep in mind."
Anton looks at Kata, "Without more information we cannot gamble too much that the challenge given was a lie; though I believe it is a lie most like. It would be the innocents at the post that would pay the price, not us. Still if no one shows up soon, the bluff will be called."
"Marcus did you see any sign of them receiving supplies or going hunting? They don't seem the type to lay in siege supplies."
"Better a sentry with bruises than a sleeping company with cut throats," Arkady observes dryly. "Or so my father said. The Stag Lord may have good reason for beating the man, but he seems to enjoy making them suffer. That is more than duty demands. Discipline enforced by such fear is brittle, and it may be if we can kill him, his men will scatter. I am thinking that we watch for another day to see if anyone else arrives, and if not we consider trying to gift him the wine we have. Can we come up with a good way to do that?"
Arkady thinks a little more. "Usually there are more night watchers than day watchers -- two men at opposite corners of the fort could watch in day, but they would need more than that at night. Do they have sentry dogs of some sort? Or geese? Or some other watcher that is not visible at night? Perhaps, but most likely they are just careless. If they have no sentries on the back wall at night, it might be a route in. I am afraid that neither Anton nor I are good at climbing or sneaking, but perhaps we could wrap ourselves in blankets and rig a rope ladder for the back way? I wish I knew how many men were in the fort, though. It cannot be many, or at the least they would have hunted for game today. I still think he is bluffing. And if not, his men have not yet arrived, and a swift strike now might be successful." He sits down to think about it, gnawing on a cold sausage and occasionally sketching plans of the fort in the sandy ground.
As the group begins to turn in for the night, a noise is heard from the bushes. "Pssst... friends! Talk?"
Kata starts for a moment when the voice comes from the bushes. "A kobold? Looks like only one." She gets back to her feet and leaves her hands hanging by her side. "Little one, come out where we can see you. What word do you bring to us?"
Anton turns and sees the small dark Kobold.
He does a quick look around to see if there are others about.
Perception
if he does not see an ambush, he proceeds as follows.
He sits down on the ground, reducing his intimidating height. He says quietly, "Yes come little one, no one will harm you if you come in peace."
Diplomacy to reassure the small Kobold.
Diplomacy
Arkady looks up quickly from his seventeenth frustrated sketch-plan. "Indeed, a kobold. Scaley one, dragonson, do not lent Anton alarm you. We hear you speak, we have peace for now. Come and share our food and fire."