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"Ye gods, elf! You plan on blowing up the place? That is without a doubt, the singular most dangerous thing anyone has ever asked for. But since you seem to assume I am a walking shopping cart, I can tell you that all of that will run you 600 gold. Gold up front. As always."
"Oh. Oh, that is nice, dear." Oleg tries to smile but all he can see is a reduction in his monthly profits. Thankfully for him, his distracted wife doesn't notice his reaction!
Oleg swears at everyone. "About bloody time you durn fools got back! Yer stuff been sittin' here for days!" He drops a brewkit, a finely crafted elven branching spear, and a brand new shiny cure light wounds wand on the ground. "Take it! You've been clogging up my storage room."
"Ok, one magic happy stick to be ordered. That is 750 gold. That type of expense, I want the money up front. Pay up, pay up." Diceros, if you wouldn't mind please subtract 125 from everyone or take some money from your party fund. "Komelands? You must be reading something wrong. The KAMELANDS are a wide area of hills to the south and east of here."
Oleg turns to Diceros. "Getting downright crowded. Though I will not complain about the guards. Wonder if I could set up a new shop further south though. Maybe I am a little too close to the Brevoy border, here..." "One masterwork crazy spear...check. Uh... what do you call that thing? Hey, anyone else want to place an order? I got one crazy spear, one brewers kit. What else? It will take a week to get it."
Oleg looks around uncertainly. He certainly doesn't want you blowing up one of his few buildings. "Just make yourself a table from some scrap lumber and set it up over there in the corner. Don't even think about using my house for that."
"The kid is right, we all thought you were dead. You lot were gone for.... twenty days? No one has ever gone that long. Looks like you lost the old man and picked up an old woman in his place. Couldn't you find a young warrior instead? Heh heh. Anyway, here is all the stuff you ordered. I was about to send it back to Restov." Arlen: a scroll of peacebond, reduce person, forced quiet, ray of enfeeblement, and summon monster I. Total should be 125 gp, which I deducted from my gold in the spreadsheet. (Arlen is paid up) Brokk'r : two cure light wounds potions (100 gp, I don't know if you paid, please go back and check...) Ike: studded leather for pygmy (don't know if you paid) Rai: alchemist kit (don't know if you paid)
"Well if you really wanna get that bounty, you best look in the woods-- the Narlmarches. That is where the hunters have reported getting attacked, and boars live in the woods, ya know. Where in the Narlmarches? Wherever it wants to be!" To Diceros, he says, "Let's do some measurements. Can you get him to stand still? Girth... length.... Couple of straps here.... Yeah, I know a guy in Restov. We'll get er done. Anyone else? Who wants something special?"
"Tuskgutter? Bwa ha ha ha! You don't find Tuskgutter, big barbarian. He finds you! Bwa ha ha!"
"Ok, so I have an order for a buncha scrolls from the old man. Strange order, but I can get it done. And you, master dwarf, you want potions of healing which is a good and normal request. How many? And in the standard strength? That is 50 gold pieces each."
Oleg snorts and coughs into his hands when Arlen gives his word as a librarian.
Oleg is all too happy to tell everybody what happened. "So you see, after you left, the bandit woke up. Seeing you all gone, he did his best to berate me and insult me. Of course, he was stuck in the midden and I just ignored him. But then he started to insult Svetlana, so I decided to throw rocks at him until he passed out again, and then I slit his throat." Oleg starts to whistle happily.
"No worries here, druid. Kesten Garess here, a captain of the guard in Restov, just arrived this morning. I'm sure he and his man will provide ample protection for the trading post. Of course, he arrived too late to take these bandits in custody." Oleg smiles up at the bodies hanging from the walls. Apparently, that was his handiwork and he looks pretty proud about it.
Oleg drags the unconscious bandit over to one of his middens, throws back the grate on top, and drops him in, and lowers the grate again, and this time locks it. "Out with the trash, and all that. If you want to ask him more questions, I'm sure he'll wake up by tomorrow. I'll plan on sending word to Restov, again, and will ask them for some guards. AGAIN. He can stay in there until Restov decides to come pick him up." "Now..." He claps his hands... "Back to business. I'm a trader; thats what I do. Sell me your stuff, and then get out of here. Don't you have a wilderness to map?"
"Oops."
"To the victor goes the spoils! Collect everything, and feel free to sell me what you wish. I have 500 gold on hand right now to purchase what you don't want. " "If you want anything special to buy, just let me know, and I'll place an order back to Restov for it. It will take a week, but I'll get it." "But why am I telling you this now! Let's punch the bandit some more!" He does.
"Ha ha! Ha! I'll be jibbered. You lot took them out so fast, they barely knew what happened!" Oleg comes running up with rope. With Ike and Sigurd holding the bandit leader, Oleg wraps him up and ties the rope tight. He is chuckling the whole time. "Not so tough now, are you? Take my wife's wedding ring, will you! Ha!" Oleg spits in the man's face and then cocks his arm back and punches him right in the mouth.
Oleg looks at Ike oddly. This guy has a lot of enthusiasm, but... still something off about him. But he responds to Rai,"Yes, you can get on the stable roof easily enough with the ladder, and that would it be close enough to where they park their cart to throw a bomb or two. Bombs! I love it. Maybe I underestimated you fellas. You would have to lie prone so they don't see you, of course. We need to make sure that they don't see any of you, or they might not even enter the fort."
"Aye, keep the rhino in the stable. I've no qualms with that plan."
Oleg looks at his wife in annoyance. He doesn't want full time guests, but on the other hand... their presence would be useful. "Fine. But hold your horses, Svetlana. Let me tell the tale my way." "They first visited us three months ago; not too long after we arrived in the first place. There were a whole bunch of 'em, probably ten in number, led by a cloaked man armed with a bow, and a woman who carried two small hatchets. They lit torches and threatened to burn down the place and... take Svetlana and do things to her back at their camp if we didn’t agree to hand over all of our few measely furs and trade goods we brought with us. What choice did we have? We handed it over. Then they pulled Svetlana's wedding ring of her finger; an old family heirloom, worth quite a bit of gold. Laughed the whole time, those bastards. And then they left, and we figured that was that." "But then they came back. Every two weeks since. They don't take everything from us, anymore, since they know that this would merely make us pack up and leave. But they always want their "taxes", a bit of this, and a bit of that. We have given up resisting... ever since that one time they pinned me down and the hatchet woman threatened to "shorten my reach". Now we just leave the gates open, hide in our house, and they grab their taxes and go." "Since we stopped protesting, they have been sending fewer and fewer men. We haven't seen the hatchet woman in a month, and that cloaked man comes with just a few goons. And now they will show up again tomorrow, morning, most likely. Your timing is quite... lucky. Maybe Erastil himself is looking out for us." "This is what I think. We leave the gates open, all seem normal. They will leave a cart here in the courtyard, and go into our stores and start taking what they want. Sometime in here, you jump out at them! We have rope, we have a barrel of oil... a longbow, two dozen arrows... a scythe, a hand axe... You are welcome to use it all to set a proper ambush. Since you are doing the fighting, you decide for yourself how best to spring the trap!"
Oleg grabs the charter and begins to read it. His frown turns into a scowl, and he shakes his head. Exploration means colonization follows. I left civilization to get away from civilization, gadnabit! But there is nothing he can do about it. He hands the charter back to Arlen. "If you are here to explore, you will face the bandits soon enough. Let me tell you what we have been dealing with."
"I'm not saying anything until they all agree to help! You are too trusting of strangers, Svelana. Hmph. Was looking forward to eating that stew all by myself."
Oleg eyes everyone suspiciously. Especially Ike. There is something weird about that one.... "Not sure what you are talking about, academic pursuits. There is nothing academic about having bandits rob you and destroy your work over and over again. But you, strange one, think you can take out bandits? Hmph. Trained guards from Restov, that is what I wanted. And I get academics? Ha! Joke is on me." |
