Dismounting her horse and finding a good spot to tie it off, Valeria follows Bokken inside and takes one of the offered tankards, "Thanks," she responds, shooting the man a smile as she sips the beverage.
Torod takes the offered drink. He stands there and turns a circle taking in the alchemist's home.
Perception Take 10 for 21 total.
"That is a deep shame, that your brother allowed his anger to poison himself and his family. Kinslaying is one of the greatest of evils in Erastil's eyes."
What do I know of fangberries
Knowledge Nature
"If we come across any, we will be sure to gather some for you." Torod assures him.
Valeria finishes her drink and sets it back on the table. "Thanks for the hospitality."
As she stands, she continues, "Sir, we are out here trying to get an idea of the lay of the land. Our map shows the basics of what to expect, but we could use some details of what is actually here. Any help you could give us would be greatly appreciated."
"You never said. You did call him a bastard, though." Torod tries to be helpful. "And that he slunk off to live in a tree."
"Yes, well, thanks for the help, and again for the drink. We better be off, if we are to find a good camp site before nightfall," Valeria says, moving towards the door as she does so.
Torod finds a place in the yard or just outside of it to set up his tent and build a fire.
After the group rides back through the gates of Oleg's, Valeria dismounts and calls out, "Oleg, Svetlana, we found something!"
She then rummages through their things until she produces the ring, handing it to the couple. "To be fair, Torod and Asta did most of the work for it."
"Nonsense," Asta says as she flicks a speck of dust from her sleeve. "We all rely on each other out here."
Torod resupplies and gets settle in for the night. He expects to be here for only a day or so before going back out again.
Oleg is patching another hole, a pile of fresh lumber is stacked nearby......
"I got those cold mountain Morningstars in, came yesterday with the lumber."
"What did ya'll find?"
Smiling as he rides upto Oleg's trading post, Andrei throws one leg over his horse and ties it to the hitching post.
Oh well, we recovered your wifes ring to begin with. We also found a large field covered in bones from a giant spider, but he won't be causing any more problems. We ran into a weird hermit and we also spoke with a mite. All in all a good scouting trip. Andrei finishes with another smile.
"I thought that ring was gone for good, you have earned some more coin, lads and lasses!"
"We are very happy to be able to return it to you."
"His name was Bokken. He said you do business with him."
Andrei nods at Torod's words. He seemed a bit off kilter, but harmless enough. He also mentioned he liked some sort of berry? Torod, you seemed to be familiar with them. Perhaps Oleg knows where we can find some.
"Well first we have to settle your reward."
Oleg pulls out his ledger finds your entry and adds the reward amount to your store credit.
You each also receive a cold iron Morningstar.
"If thar be fangberrys, they are into tha greenbelt away from the immediate area..."
"He makes real potions so being off seems to be working for him."
We only ordered one cold iron morningstar. Also, note that Torod can't use it in any case.
"Well whoever wnats one can have one, an the rest will go into my inventory."
Valeria looks over one of the weapons, taking a few practice swings with it.
Feel's okay...just not the same as a sword though...
"A well made weapon, but it just doesn't have the same feel as the blade I've grown accustomed to. I will wait for my blade to get here."
After a few hours of helping Svetlana work around the outpost, Valeria returns to her stuff at her bed in the guesthouse and sharpens her blade. She then straps the scabbard to her belt and heads up to the walkway along the wall, and looks out over the plains to the south in silence.
Torod checks in with Paster Kavken. He complains that Asta is too soft hearted. "She made nice with the mites and spoke about being friends with the kobolds too. She is a powerful, intelligent, beautiful woman, but she is naieve when it comes to humanoids."
Oleg nods his head slowly not certain what Torod is talking about.....
"All the other orders should be in within a week or tenday, depending upon tha weather."
"Excellent!" Asta says. "Well, then. Any other little jobs that need doing? And have there been any more signs of bandit activity? How has our, ah, 'guest' been doing? Is she cooperating? No attempts at escape?"
Noting Oleg's confusion, Torod explains "We came across some mites, small, homely, trouble-making fey. We had a prime opportunity to run them out of the area, but made friends with them instead. Their mischievousness runs more to the wicked and we'd be better off without them to cause trouble."
Torod is obviously not happy with the Kressel situation, but says nothing. He treats her with a basic level of politeness, but tries to stay away from her when he can.
Sitting at the table during the evening meal, Andrei listened more than he talked. As he does so he picks up on the non verbal cues of Torod, as he eyes Kressel and Jhod. Frowning to himself, Andrei sipped at the soup that Svetlana had made before putting the bowl down.
I seem to recall that when I arrived there was some talk about what to do with you miss. And now you sit at the table armed. What changed while we were gone?
Valeria comes down from the wall as the meal is being placed on the table, taking a seat in silence. She hadn't even noticed that Kressel was armed until Andrei makes note of it.
It is apparent that something is bothering Valeria.
Really Kressel, you want to change? What made you want to give up the life on a Bandit?
____________________
"Jhod, you are either crazy or," Torod looks over at Kressel, "very firm in your faith. Just understand, I fully expect her to fail. When she does fail, I will be there to make a permanent correction in her actions. Until such time, I will do what I can to keep her away from me."
Valeria rises as well, mentioning as she does so, "I'm not all together hungry right now, I'll go lend a hand to Kressel..."
She tends to her dishes to save Svetlana the trouble, then moves to the stables.
Valeria nods to Kressel, gives her horse one last pat, then walks out of the stables. She heads back to the table.
"Just had a talk with Kressel, and I, for one, believe that she has told Jhod the truth. She said she would tell us all she knows about the Stag Lord's organization tomorrow. But until then let's stay off her case, okay?" she concludes her talk with an emphasizing look towards Torod.