Grendal nods in response to the last statement Sir Garret makes.
You have more sense than I had been told. We will stay for now and slay trolls in the name of the Gorum.
Luscious who is clearly becoming more and more agitated is no longer able to hold his tongue.
Grendal I must get that blade back. If we stay here and battle trolls the thieves may get away.
Grendal scowls at him,
The thieves likely wouldn't have even taken the blade if you and Vors hadn't been harassing the girl so much. I think she did it out of spite to make you look a fool. If you must go, then go. Take a Paulo and Rygere and find you sword. Vors and I will stay here with Harald and Lester.
Luscious nods,
Thank you Battlefather. We will ride out at once. If Gorum is with us we will catch the thieves quickly and return to aid in killing the trolls.
Grendal shakes his head.
I highly doubt that Gorum will be with you in that task.
With that Luscious and two of his men get up and depart. You hear them ride off.
Theodric:
You make a leap for the ladder and try to scamper up as quickly as you can (bow in one hand?)
The troll takes a swipe at you as you climb.
Troll Attack of Opportunity:
Damage:
You feel the troll's clawed hand rake painfully across your back. The force of the blow nearly knocks you from the ladder. You manage to get to the top however.
Meanwhile Brandor's son fires an arrow at the troll
The shot just grazes off the troll's rubbery hide. Brandor and Brother Agron hastily shut the born doors and bar them.
The troll is still focused on you, and does pay any attention to what they are up to. It looks up at you in the hayloft. It's ugly face is mad with rage. It reaches up with its long arms and grabs onto the edge of hayloft and tries to pull itself up.
Strength Check
It flails awkwardly for a moment, trying with no success to do a pull up. Then a plank gives way and the troll falls to the ground, landing prone on its back.
Firing an arrow at the troll and then leaping from the loft to secure the door.
10th arrow
damage
Acrobatics to reduce falling damage
Rando sidles up to his brother, and whispers in her ear. "Brother, do we need to send someone with them? Who knows what they might do to the two once they find them."
Why in blazes would I bring them to Albercroft keep? The crime they committed was in Redstone. When I find them I will bring them to Redstone.
Torrin
You suspect they are being truthful about the sword having been stolen.[/ooc]
Theodric
Your 10th arrow doesn't penetrate. You rush to the door of the hayloft and leap out landing in the mucky pen below. You grab the piece of wood that bars the door to barn and slide it into place. At the same time the pigs in the pen come rushing over to you and start dumping against you. They snort, nuzzle and sniff at you. It would almost be comical if there weren't an angry troll inside the barn trying to kill you.
Bah, these people are not your vassals. They are foreigners, and they are not your concern. I'll be passing through Eel's Crossing when I take them back to Redstone. If you are here and still alive I will let you have a word with them.
He doesn't wait for a response, wheeling around and stalking out the door with his two guards behind him.
Vors and Grendal say nothing. They merely watch the exchange with interest, seemingly wondering how far Sir Garret will push it with his cousin.
Theodric
You trudge as fast as you can through the pigs and the mucky pen. You reach the wooden fence and climb over. Just as you finish climbing the fence you hear the troll bellowing, and then its body slams into the doors, as it tries to get out of the barn.
Troll Strength check:
For the moment the door seems to be holding, but you aren't sure how long that will last.
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Garrett follows his cousin out the door, "Luscious, this is not negotiable. You will take the prisoners to Albercroft Keep, or you can turn around, return to Redstone, and explain to your oh so understanding father how you managed to lose Grandfather's sword. I am not telling you this as family, but as the heir to Hawkhaven. Make no mistake you are not in your lands cousin, you will abide by our rules or you will leave."
Luscious looks at you and stalks over to his horse.
Cousin if it weren't for Redstone acting as a buffer between Hawkhaven and Galt , your lands would be overrun with rabble and agitators, and you know full well that your father continues to rule at our graces. Don't antagonize me today cousin. I'm in no mood for it.
He reaches his horse and prepares to mount. His two men stand near him, hands on the hilts of their swords.
Theodric.
You can see that Brandor has put the torch on the ground in front of the barn door, and the doors are starting to catch fire. He doesn't look happy about the prospect of burning down his own barn, especially with his milk cow inside. You see Brother Andor comforting him and his son standing beside them with another arrow ready. It will take some time for the fire to really get going though.
In the meantime the troll again slams against the rear barn door.
Strength Check:
The doors bursts into splinters, and the troll staggers out. It immediately sees the pigs in front of it and they bolt. It slashes one with its claws.
Pigz. Pigz is so yummy!
For the moment it seems to have forgotten about you.
Atayos spoke, stood grimly next to Garrett and addressed his ward quietly.
Theres clearly more to this tale of a sword theft than meets the eye; in particular, the woman's eye. They are hiding something- perhaps they abused more than just the woman's eye. Misdirection could serve as a useful tool here. Acquiesce to your cousin, but mislead him- buy this pair time to settle into your father's keep. That way, we can ensure we have time to look into this ourselves and seek justice.
as Torrin watches the entire dialogue he shifts nervously against the wall he has placed himself against. there is much to ponder and find out. he only wishes he had brought Thomas along with. Thomas could have gotten him much of what is misunderstood in all these situations.
"unfortunatly we do have the right to hold prisoners among the ruiling party's lands before they are extridited out. so unless you are talking about starting a war with family then I would find that you are stepping a bit outside of your jurisdiction"
diplomacy try and keep the peace while allowing both parties to save face by putting out the rules of the land.
cantrip message to Brandor: This fight is lost. I am sorry. Let's go while he is distracted.
Luscious looks towards Torrin and then Garret as he rides off.
I'm not here to start a war, at least not today.
Oppara eh? That's a long way from here. They won't get far.
The he and his two guards ride off.
Atayos said nothing but was immensely pleased his ward had taken his advice.
I suppose its time to hunt Troll then, my lord.
Theodric
What's your plan for the wife? She's just had a baby, she's not in much shape for an overland trip. She'll need help.
Theodric
You set out with the family in tow, following the creek eastward back towards the Cerwen farm. Brandor helps his wife a little ways and then you take over, followed by his eldest son and then Brother Agron. This two sisters and other brother manage to keep just fine, and the midwife carries the new baby.
Meanwhile the barn starts to burn more and more. You don't see any sign of the troll. It seems content for the time to feast on the pigs.
The Cerwen farmstead is only about a quarter of mile from where you are, and soon you see several peasants approaching you. They are men that were at the Cerwen farm helping to bury the bodies.
One of them addresses you.
What's going on? We saw smoke.
Theodric
The peasants mutter among themselves for a moment obviously very concerned. One of them pipes up.
Lord I'm the only one around here what has a horse. I can loan her to you if you like. But I'll warn you, Nelly, she's an old draft horse, not great for riding. She don't much like anyone on her. My farm's a little to the east of Cerwen farm. Should we go fetch her?
They don't seem to want to go towards where there might be a troll, so they help Brando's wife and head back towards the Cerwen farmstead.
That sounds good. Let's go. I will leave her at the manor house when I arrive
Some time passes, as you wait for Theodric and the scouting party to return. You notice over next couple of hours that more and more families are coming to the Eel's Crossing from the countryside with what belonging they can carry. They claim that they have received word that it is not safe to stay in their homes and that they should seek refuge in the village. Kelden Stirling quickly becomes quite occupied with trying to figure out where to house all the peasants.
Vors and Grendal keep to themselves, tending to their horses, weapons and armour and generally making ready for battle.
Eventually Theodric returns. He looks a little worse for wear and is riding an old draft horse that is clearly not his own steed.
You still haven't heard from Sir Garth and the house guard, but you expect/hope that they will be reporting in soon.
Theodric dismounts the old horse, and says get this horse to the stables! Gentlemen we have trolls! He continues and joins his family and their retainers. After a quick stop to take care of his wounds.
Wand of CLW for
Wand of CLW for
"Need more healing, Theo?"
I am good. Thanks, Rand. I was at the farm delivering the baby with Brandor, don't worry cousin, I t wasn't my baby. Where was I? Oh yeah, then I fought a troll through the farm, trapped it in a barn, we burned the barn, but he escaped and ate some bacon. We ran and I brought all the peasants to the manor house for protection. Right, O, and I am almost out of ammo.
I knew I should have went troll hunting, Rando thinks to himself. "How close do you think the troll is? Was it following you? We have to deal with this threat now."
Vors and Grendal walk over from tending to their weapons to see what Theodric has to report. You note that Grendal carries a massive great sword- the favoured weapon of servants of Gorum.
Vors looks at Theodric:
You survived a fight with a troll? The gods must have been with you.
Grendal scoffs:
Bah, he fought the beast at range. A true warrior would fight it up close. When the first troll falls to my blade I will be looking it in the eye.
Keldan looks to Sir Garret.
Lord, I mean no disrespect, but do you think it is wise to go after them. Perhaps we should remain here and fortify our position. Surely they will sooner or later come to us, and we would have an advantage fighting them from the earthen ramparts.
Grendal jumps in before Garret can respond.
Sir Garret is right. We should take the battle to the trolls. If we engage them here there will be too much risk to the small folk. This is a task for warriors. It is a warrior's duty to protect women and children. A warrior doesn't endanger them when he doesn't have to, and a warrior doesn't hesitate to take the fight to the enemy.
@ Rand Probably having still having a side of bacon.
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Keldan looks to Sir Garret.
Lord, I mean no disrespect, but do you think it is wise to go after them. Perhaps we should remain here and fortify our position. Surely they will sooner or later come to us, and we would have an advantage fighting them from the earthen ramparts.
Grendal jumps in before Garret can respond.
Sir Garret is right. We should take the battle to the trolls. If we engage them here there will be too much risk to the small folk. This is a task for warriors. It is a warrior's duty to protect women and children. A warrior doesn't endanger them when he doesn't have to, and a warrior doesn't hesitate to take the fight to the enemy.
"Grendal is right, Keldan. There is too much to risk by allowing them closer. That being said, Grendal, we must not get too far from here, should we need to fall back to defend against attackers from another direction."
Grendal speaks up again.
Trolls tend to be more active at night. If we make haste to where they lair before dusk, we can deal with them before they become a danger.
"Let's go, then. After that troll eats its bacon, it'll probably be looking for something else..."
We probably should bring some things we can set on fire to deal with them. They heal up fast.
"Keldan, do you have any extra torches lying around? If Theo says we need fire, we could use all you have, I'd guess."
Keldan nods,
I can round up some torches and maybe even a small keg of lamp oil.
About this time you all hear horse hooves, and Sir Garth and the other 5 houseguards come riding into the Stirling Manor house coutryard.
Sir Garth looks down at Sir Garret from his mount and says,
Sir, we followed the troll's trail easily enough. It leads another few miles to then north. There is an old quarry up there. There's a sort of "U" shaped ridge that encloses the quarry. It's speckled with small caves. It looks like the trolls are lairing up in there. We didn't investigate too closely though.
As we were leaving we ran into Feldar. He'd been scouting things out more closely. He says that there are six trolls altogther, spread out among a few of the caves. He said that all but one of them was currently resting. I guess one had gone out to do some day time hunting. Feldar's gone off after that one. He told us he could handle it, so we left him to it.
"Ive got several torches and flasks of oil, so I'd supply everyone else, Keldar."
He turns to face Sir Garth. "Do you know where Feldar has gone looking for the troll? He'll need help as soon as we can get there."