It’s midmorning once the party finishes their preparations. The road is a hard and dusty one, and though a pack of mutated coyotes eyes the party nothing comes of it.
As the sun begins to sink beneath the horizon, the party sees a lone figure walking down the road, a gnarled walking stick in hand.
Interestingly, the figure is wearing a carved wooden mask, which Sprig and Brindle notice is a hawk. Saraon, on the other hand, realizes immediately that this is a mask of a member of the Halcyon Circle. Conferring briefly, they come to the conclusion that this is none other that Yularia Hawkdew, one of the Circle’s elders.
”A friend of yorez, Sh...Saryon?” asks Brindle, eyeing the masked traveler.
"Yes! One of my teachers, Yularia Hawkdew!" Saraon replies. He waves at her and whistles a bird-call out to her.
Sprig, for once, is rather quiet. "Ah taint' never heard of no' Band of the Hawk, yew handle this Saraon."
The kobold stays atop his rented pony and keeps his distance. When Saraon recognizes the masked stranger, the little lizard relaxes and lets go of his pony's reigns.
Yularia waves upon hearing the bird call and as the party draws closer she calls out in a stern but kind voice, ”Ebonflame! It seems the road brings us together. It has been long since you visited the Glade. The other elders have wondered where you’ve been. There is much in this world to see though, and it is our calling to see it.”
The Glade is the nominal headquarters of the circle, a small but painstakingly maintained area of greenery.
Brindle likewise adopts a more relaxed pose but stays alert and wary.
Seeing that Sprig and Brindle seem to have an eye on the newcomer, Ralrae focuses on looking past the woman, keeping his own eyes out for trouble while she - consciously or not - is distracting them.
Sprig peers from under his hat at the woman, the sun was particularly bright for his lizard eyes.
"The Glade, huh? Sounds like a place Ah'd like t' visit sometime. If yew'd allow me. Don't mind me askin', but what's a treetender like yerself doin' all the way out 'ere? " The kobold says as he cleans some of the dirt from under his claws.
Yularia waves upon hearing the bird call and as the party draws closer she calls out in a stern but kind voice, ”Ebonflame! It seems the road brings us together. It has been long since you visited the Glade. The other elders have wondered where you’ve been. There is much in this world to see though, and it is our calling to see it.”
"And a merry meeting to you too! In the absence of a great crisis to the land as a whole requiring the entire circle's attention, I've been focusing on tending to smaller ones to make things better more steadily," Saraon replies. "And I have managed to find some like-minded allies, as you can see."
He indicates the rest of the caravan.
"What news from the others?"
She nods to both Sprig and Saraon, ”It is ever my nature to find what is over the next horizon, but as of late I have heard tell of a band of mutant slavers who have set up camp near a town called Glowing Springs. It is a tragedy, those who this world has made into monsters prey upon the innocent.”
She nods to both Sprig and Saraon, ”It is ever my nature to find what is over the next horizon, but as of late I have heard tell of a band of mutant slavers who have set up camp near a town called Glowing Springs. It is a tragedy, those who this world has made into monsters prey upon the innocent.”
Saraon nods.
"We've been dealing with bandits ourselves, back at High Gulch, which has started us on an interesting path. We're on our way to the Iron Tree to deal with another group these bandits were in contact with to learn more about what they were up to, and why they seem so interested in the ghosts of the past...and their tools."
"Slavers?" Sprig spits through grit teeth. "Ah can't say Ah enjoy th' thought o' their ilk runnin' free. Perhaps we should swing down there in th' near future." The kobold's voice was ice cold, like never before.
He merely kept his mouth quiet and scowled at the mention of slavers. All the sins of the past seemed to be cropping up recently and he wasnt best pleased by it. Still ridding the land of such filth was a good thing. He went back to keepign an eye about them while they spoke to Saraon's friend.
Although Brindle’s highland tribe were too removed and too close to subsistence scavenging to keep slaves, it was a common gnoll practice, and folktales mentioned the pitfalls and perils of slaves and their tricksy ways.
Brindle hadn’t really given slavery much thought up until meeting this crew, and she was getting another uncomfortable feeling that perhaps her people engaged in quite a few practices that were beyond the pale of righteous folk. Soup was one thing, but this was getting out of hand.
Ralrae shrugs a bit. "There's many places in the world, and some of them aren't so pretty. Still, preying on innocents isn't exactly civic of them, is it? He grins toothily, and with just enough cheek to be joking - but not enough to be convincing that it's entirely in humor - he adds, "Sounds like a bunch that may have made quite the haul of property... and without any original owner to track down to return it to. I'm game for some scavenging."
”The Iron Tree? Bandits swarm around that place like moths to a light. There are dark tales it would tell.”
Saraon nods.
"Exactly. If the hunches we're following prove true, that swarming is happening for a reason, and as our group has banded together to make things better, this cannot be ignored. Perhaps our efforts can turn its final tale into one of light."
He indicates the rest of the group.
"Each of us was drawn to each other because we saw people in need and stepped forward to lend aid. On our own, our efforts were fair, but united, we are even stronger."
Sprig scratched his chin in thought. "There's gotta be somethin' there that's attracting these unscrupulous types, and Ah intend t' find out what. Certainly it can be put t' better use than whatever these bandits intend."
He looks at Saraon and back to Yularia. "This your teacher, Saraon?"
Saraon nods.
"One of them, yes. Yularia Hawkdew, the Brightwind of the Halcyon Circle. Teaching in our circle is...something of a communal effort."
Brindle can’t help yawning nervously as Saraon’s representation of their group raises her own moral attitude somewhat higher than she feels true. Not wanting to draw attention to herself the gnoll tries to smile and look selfless and samaritan.
Ralrae manages to keep an incredulous look off of his face, but has to shift away so he cannot see Saraon or his former teacher. While certainly not the individual in the group with the most ... colorful... background, he's certainly not acting out of altruism. He sees a somewhat pained grimace on Brindle's face and whispers to her quietly, "Brindle? What are you doing...?
Yularia looks off into the distance and says, ”The sun sinks low. I must make a bit more distance today, I think.”
She places a hand on Saraon’s shoulder and says quietly, ”Worldsoul guide you, though you seem to be blazing your own path quite well.”
She then turns to the rest of the group, ”A group of odd companions, but sometimes the most disparate forces can do the most good in this world. I hope that whatever lies in wait at the Iron Tree does not snuff out your light.”
Brindle nods, exhausted from pretence. She favors Ralrae with a stupefying grimace.
”Being friendly!” she replies.
"May the stars guide you and the earth hold you up," Saraon says as Yularia takes her leave.
Sprig does a little bow. "It was a pleasure t' meet you, Madam. Ah hope one day yew'll do me the honor of allowing me t' visit the circle." The little lizard remounts his pony and makes ready to leave.
The rest of the night stretches on without any upset. A three-eyed coyote eyes the party when Bas stands watch, but the burned man is able to scare it off. The party sets off in the morning, and by midday the reach their destination.
The Iron Tree is, for lack of a better description, tree-like. A large “trunk” juts out of the earth and dozens of sharp metal protrusions extend from its top, slowly narrowing and splitting like branches.
The smoke of several campfires is clearly visible, along with bare audible snippets of voices carried by the wind.
Sprig wheeled his pony into cover, creating a makeshift tether with some rope and a couple pitons. The kobold dismounts and looks over his compatriots. "Alright, this is it. We're here. What's the plan? I'm thinking w-we sneak up and take a look at what we're dealing with."
The little lizard checks over his shoulder nervously, but sees nothing.
Level 0
Open/Close
Prestidigitation
Mage hand
Ray of Frost
Level 1
Expeditious Excavation (2x)
Reduce Person
Snowball
Level 2
Summon Monster 2 (2x)
Brindle eyes the structure and accompanying folk with puzzlement.
”Ish the Iron Tree an eckshklooshiv...camp shpot...ish it owned? Can we camp therr too? Or doesh it belong to banditsh?”
"Everythin' I heard about this places was that bandits were comin' here for some reason. Ah think that dwarf bandit we captured was supposed t' meet someone 'ere. But we're here instead t' see what th' fuss is about." The kobold seems nervous but he steadies himself..
Brindle nods, thinking.
”Are we bandits? We killed those bandit-folk, and took their stuff...so?”
"We can be bandits easily enough, its not hard. Act like an a$++%*& and you own the place and you will be fine. Dont try to make eyecontact but if you do, dont back down too easy. Still getting better eyes on the place might not be a bad idea, Worse comes to worse i can mosey closer and get back im sure."
He said his voice sounding resigned. tired.
"I think it would be better for us to go in as if we were another bandit crew and see what's happening. And better that we stay together. If something kicks off, we can high-tail it outta there. Don't really want to fight everyone and their mother over there if we don't have to." Ralrae's voice is calm, his right hand holding the strap of his musket.
Sprig shakes his head, "We're not bandits, Brindle. We were hired t' get rid of those baddies, not just attackin' random people fer money. Ah think th' word for us is 'mercenaries'."
"If we're pretendin' to be bandits let's cook up some cool codenames. I think I've got one already." 'Grimm Snapjaw' smiles.
The gnoll nods along with Bas, and her nodding continues as Ralrae chimes in. Brindle’s eyes brighten as Sprig explains.
”Mershanerriesh. Ok! I like the sh...sound of that better than banditsh.”
Brindle thinks hard.
”I will be “Gnasher”.” she says, snapping her jaw with an audible clacking of her teeth.
"I suppose we could call me what Yularia addressed me as: "Ebonflame." Might be a bit too fancy, though. Maybe just...I dunno, "Dragonface?" Let's go with that."
Ralrae shakes his head at the idea of a codename. "I'm just Ralrae. Always have been, always will, and that's good enough for me."
Sprig smiles warmly, it was good to have some levity before they got themselves killed."Alright, Ah guess we're ready t' go? Lead on Bas!"
With an inward sigh he nodded to the others taking a hold of his Bardiche and making his way torwards the encampment. His gait was neither hurried nor slow, just the gait of a man on his way to something routine. He only took a slower pace when they began to get close enough to be in bowshot.
He took a glance about the camp to see if anything stood out to him as especially dangerous.
Bas sees nothing tremendously out of the ordinary for a bandit camp. Rough looking men and women sit around cookfires. A few loud conversations can be heard. Notably, a half-orc and a gnoll sit at a fire removed from the rest, talking quietly between themselves.
When the party approaches the gnoll sniffs the air before looking towards them and letting out a loud bark.
The gnoll and the half-orc, backed up by a few bandits make their way towards the party as the half-orc calls out, ”Who in Hell’re you? Been expectin’ Svedka. Don’t see any angry dwarves among ya’s though.”
The bark meant beans in your dialect of Gnoll. Nobody seemed to react to him announcing a delicious and nutritious scavenge though.
"Grimm, Svedka's locket," "Dragonface" says, nudging him.
'Grimm' looks a bit bashful. "Err... yeah about that, th' old girl ran afoul o' a coupla bounty hunters. Last thing she said was she wannid us t' take care some last business for her. So uh, yeah, 'ere w-we are." The kobold roots around and pulls out the locket Svedka carried. This can either go really smoothly or we just made a major mistake...
“Gnasher” glowers menacingly, trying to play the part of a mean bandit.
”Brükhta veklarsha-gangg!!!” she says in gnoll.
[+1 Charisma]
The orc narrows his eyes and looks at “Grimm” suspiciously. He seems at least somewhat convinced as he asks, ”Then where’s the package?”
The gnoll stays quiet, giving a huff of agreement to Brindle.
Sprig gulps loudly and somehow turns even whiter than he already was. "I-I-I think Ah h-have some ba-bad news. We were passin' through Payday an-an' Ah was at th' tables see... and Ah-ah had a Bandersnatch. N-no way that could beat me, Ah think, and Ah p-put that silver disk on th' table, get some real money, r-right? Th-the bastard jes' pulled 'is gun on me and made off wit' it!"
'Grimm' throws himself on the ground groveling. "Ah-ah messed up, Ah know, please don't kill me! Ah-Ah can point 'im out, we can get th' disk back, jes' don't kill me!"
Brindle flattens her ears and hunches a little, but also “cravenly” steps away from Sprig lest he take the brunt of any bandit dissatisfaction. Like a usual, totally not suspicious, but legitimately untrustworthy bandit/gnoll would. Rite?
"Dragonface" stands silent, waiting for the reaction.
The orc puts a hand to his forehead and says with a truly baffled expression, "I... you...what? You...you gambled it away?" He huffs and with barely restrained anger says, "What part of 'Bosses boss needs this, deliver at all costs' do you not understand? You better sort something out damn quick or things'll get ugly."
The bandit gnoll growls something at Brindle.
"I am excited. I have never eaten a talking lizard before."
Brindle growls back with a twinkle in her eyes.