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You are the 'eyes and ears' of the Kingdom. I am, for better or for worse, its mouth." "The Mouth, indeed. I have no idea what you're talking about. I see and hear for no one, but myself. My presence is by William's and Ophelia's request, that I assist on their expedition in the Greenbelt. Should he, since our sister has left, grow tired of my presence than I will make my way back to Stoneclimb with the next available caravan. I promise you this."
We have encountered the gnomes again, these people seem to get under all of our skin. They are not pleasant and are demanding. They also have such a hatred of the kobolds that I fear we may not be able to include them within our borders with out bloodshed. I have devised a plan, though it is a bit longer term than what I would like. I will speak with the council about it, but I feel that the the gnome’s must be either incorporated with us or they must be moved on. "Brother, what were you thinking? About the gnomes that is. My own solution involves gagging Marshal Kenver and Grand Diplomat Geoffrey whenever we meet anyone, but I doubt you openly approve of that. You do realize that between the two of them, they've effectively gave the gnomes almost every piece of information required to siege the kobolds? I could've just given them our map as well."
Great Stuff on the maps! OOC: Thanks Turin! I've seen one or two other examples in my search for a "clean" greenbelt map and snatched a few ideas here and there. I like the traditional symbol map method, but figured I would go detail-crazy since it was in photoshop anyway.
Nathaniel’s Perspective on Events from 3/20/11:
The Plan:
We found the Stag Lord’s fort, Kenver and I spent a portion of the day briefly scouting the area from a distance, then went back for a closer look during the evening. The odds seemed fairly decent, but getting into the fort was another story. We decided to head back to Oleg’s to retrieve previously acquired loot from the Stag Lord’s men and hoped to disguise ourselves as one of apparently many groups operating in the area to gain entrance to the fort. This took us an extra 3 days, but was well worth the effort. The Entrance:
Mingo and Kenver’s bear companion were stashed away inside barrels and given a phrase that would tell them it was time to initiate combat, the rest of us were to play the part of bandits. Once we entered the fort was as we had expected, a bit under-manned with barely enough men to rotate in and out of guard duty, plus or minus a few. We entered, were greeted and accepted, despite using what we thought was an old pass-phrase and began to help unload the supplies. The Execution:
William and I dealt with the horses and wagon, then found ourselves casually mingling with the bandits who were intensely occupied by a game of cards, one I shall have to learn to play later. This is where the circus began. Kenver folded almost immediately under pressure, reminding me of something along the lines of a Shiver addict going through withdraws, babbling loudly and suspiciously threatening any bandit who spoke to him or went near our supplies. Around the same time Geoffrey spotted a large, blood and bone ridden cage where a foul smell was eminating, and decided to investigate with a lantern. It seems most bandits know what is in the cage, so this was a bad thing. This immediately alerted most of the bandits as apparently a fella named Jim had done this once before... once. The owlbear inside the cage grabbed Geoffrey’s arm and began trying to remove it from his body, through the bars. William and I jumped up from the card game and did our best to assist, but Geoffrey managed to wriggle free with minor injury before we could replace his arm with the dried ham hock I snatched off the wall.
The Conflict:
I’m really not sure what happened next, but combat with the bandits ensued... all of them. Eventually the owlbear joined the melee only to be aburptly re-caged, but not before defeating Kenver’s bear. This was about the same time the Stag Lord staggered around the corner (after defeating Mingo) and began firing quite possibly the largest arrows I’ve ever seen, through the crowd. The Clean-up:
After defeating the bandits and quickly tending to the wounded, we explored the rest of the fort. Mingo stumbled onto a trapdoor that lead to a basement treasure vault of sorts. We had heard rumors of a crazy old man chained in the basement, so we began search, then he found us. Wildshaped as a badger clinging to the ceiling he began unleashing a variety of minions upon us. We spread out to make it more difficult for his swarm to attack us, this is when he turned the floor to mud and then sealed Kenver into a small section of the basement with the swarm. A few well thrown weapons and a couple of arrows later he fell from the ceiling revealing his true form. After defeating the old man we found a few pick axes in the weapon section and spent a few hours freeing Kenver from his premature entombment. The Conclusion: Now that we have the Stag Lord’s fort and it’s plethora of contents, it seems we might have a new base of operations. There is the matter of reporting to the Swordlords and I suppose we could see what the undead ferryman wanted with the Stag Lord’s corpse now as well.
Nathaniel's Thoughts... It's been almost 3 months and while some things are getting easier, others remain difficult, I'm definitely more well suited for an urban lifestyle. Family:
Friends:
Bokken on the other hand had little difficulty with the thought and almost appeared to accept it as something of a challenge when I asked if he could "poison" some of the Stag Lord's absenth we acquired. Having drank of that vile mixture he was distilling and then the combination of the two, I have doubts it could get any worse. Oleg and Svetlana are the step-parents I never wanted, friendly folks, but a bit patronizing at times. I wonder at what point will we find ourselves no longer welcome as this foster home, just a matter of time. Sven and Emily are of little interest to me. I've had thoughts of seeing how far Emily could be swayed, but it appears Geoffrey has similar plans, so I've decided to seek entertainment elsewhere. Likely for the best anyhow as Sven is something of a pet project for William, he would definitely not approve. Soldiers:
Faeries:
Kobolds & Gnomes:
Bandits:
I'm unsure why these men blindly follow this Stag Lord when it's obvious that we pose a greater threat and have posted promise of payment for the use of their less unscrupulous skills, if any.
Day 35:
As we observed the huge sycamore tree we had noticed an ocassional little blue humanoid creature, apparently known as mites, scurrying about it's gnarled roots. We, as a group, were feeling a bit undecisive as to how to handle the situation and I had a few ideas of my own which I know my brother William would likely disapprove.
We had previously heard mention of the sycamore tree and it's inhabitants from a repentant bandit named Evan. He explained to us that the mites had recently ransacked their supplies and also made away with some of their ill-gotten gains and that if the ring was found in their camp, it was likely the mites had grabbed it. As we formulate something of a plan and discuss options, a messanger from Oleg's approached and told us our sister Ophelia's condition is worsening and Oleg thinks she should be relocated. Obviously a polite way of saying she's too much trouble, untrained Oracle powers causing the havok in her general vacinity, coupled with the typical trouble a young child gets into. Honorably, William volunteered to ride back to Oleg's and then escort her home to Stone Climb, easily a two week journey round trip.
Day 37:
Once William departed we changed the plan and decided we would just leave the sycamore tree for another day. We headed West to further explore the countryside, finding what we had been looking for, for quite some time now, a large amount of fang berries in a depression. We set up something of a base camp, then Kenver and Mingo began to tackle retrieving the fang berries which seemed a bit more difficult that we had originally thought. Little did we know, fang berries bushes have large thorns, which cause significant injury to those not being extremely cautious. I did my best to direct my companions until I lost sight of them from camp, where I was watching the horses and Geoffrey, or Prax as he calls himself these days, was enjoying a smoke before joining our friends.
Mingo came out complaining about spiders, covered in both green ichor and red juice. Kenver came out looking like he had fought with a large house cat and lost, also a healing potion short. Kenver's bear, Rip-Paw came out looking well fed and unscathed, other than berry mustache/beard. Prax suffered little to no injury, but spent much less time fighting the thicket. The horses remained safe and sound under my watchful eye. Kenver determined that the berries would likely need to be fresh for potion brewing, a glance at the map told us that we had to head back to Bokken's the next morning to make our newly imposed deadline. Day 40:
While at Bokken's he gave us a discount on his wares for 2 months time as we brought back twice the requested amount. Unfortunately we were broke and had to visit Oleg's to sell some of our acquired loot and finish a few transactions. While at Oleg's we found three more requests on the community bulletin board and we did eventually return to Bokken's to purchase another case of his magnificent fang berry potions, sadly he would not also give us a discount for buying in bulk. He mumbled something about 'Not valid with any other offers... reading the fine print... get out.' Day 42:
After resupplying we head Southwest, taking what I've come to call Rip-Claw road due to our frequent traffic, through the area we met the kobold moon-radish gardeners and then through the former bandit camp where there is a crossable ford in the river. Heading for the area Northwest of the previous fang berry depression, we come across yet another, but much smaller thicket of them and marked it on our map. Being a bit nervous since our incidient with the bandits I decided to look around for any possible tracks, finding only a large spit-hoof track... water, berries... meh, probably another Megaloceros .
About midday we heard loud snorting and russling in the nearby foliage, when out nowhere a large boar skewered Mingo's horse, which bucked Mingo off and ran panicked into the fang berry bush ending it's life. It was likely for the best as we would've had to put it down after it's initial injury anyway. The rest of the horses spooked as well, though I managed to ride mine to safety before it to decided to run. Our pack horses were later discovered dead , but all of our gear still accounted for. Mingo pounded the boar's flank with his earthbreaker resounding with a definite *CRACK* of broken ribs. Tuskgutter, the name the locals gave this beast and in fact one of our quests from the bulletin board, in turn gored Mingo launching him back a short distance and leaving him unconcious. Prax announced he was going to attempt to subdue the beast to train as a mount as it took a chunk out of Kenver. I positioned myself as best as I saw fit providing opportunities for my allies to strike, though was unsuccessful at landing an attack of my own. If memory serves, Rip-Paw landed the killing blow. Resting, healing and recovering horses took the remainder of the day and most of the next, but we survived. I never thought I'd admit it, but I miss being in the city, living in the wilderness is difficult. I'd rather be ordering from a menu than being the one on the menu. Day 44:
Once again deciding it was in our best interest to return to Oleg's deliver Tuskgutter. Being three horses short and dragging a large boar carcass proved to be somewhat tedious, but we made it to the outpost without any additional problems. We used the reward for Tuskgutter to pay for three new horses and then I once again had to insist we split the money amongst ourselves, these people have little to no concern over financial accountability. I can understand a Barbarian and a Druid not caring much about money, but I can only assume Prax is just being lazy and would rather not carry it himself. Day 46:
A day or so later we head Southwest, once again down Rip-Paw road, finish mapping the area where we defeated Tuskgutter and headed North. While doing our daily routine Mingo reports in that he has found some sort of ruins, we gather everyone up and follow him there. We tied the horses up outside the ruins in hope that they would be okay and we would not have to track them down or replace any the next day. The ruins consisted of a slightly overgrown glade surrounded by standing stones (columns), a large stagnant pool and the remanents of what use to be stairs leading to the mouth of a cave.
While inspecting the area we heard a loud, echoing growl and then the source made itself known as a large bear with antlers appeared at the mouth of the cave. I immediately had a thought, the bear greatly resembled the Kaylor family heraldry, but refused to respond to two attempts at a greeting, once in comon and once in sylvan. The bear approached growing increasing more menacing, but not attacking, it seems the more we spoke, the angrier it got. I moved into a more strategic position and suggested that maybe it needed healing as it had obvious signs of something resembling the mange. Kenver attempted soothing the animal, but did not succeed. He then attempted to heal it with a spell, the sound of his casting seemed to provoke the bear into combat almost immediately. We defeated the bear with with only a few of us getting moderately injured, it's shape shrank down to that of an old man who looked to be at peace with how events had turned out. His body then withered and turned to ash right before our eyes. The area around us began to instantly flourish and spring to life, the pool became crystal clear and Kenver instructed those who were injured to drink of it, there wounds miraculously healed shortly thereafter. Kenver believes Erastil has divine influence over this grove.
I have an idea, but... *gives you a look, then shakes his head* nah, nevermind.
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