Sergeant Bartle NPC's page

"By all that's holy..." Bartle exclaims.

He looks around the workshop in dismay.

"And here's Lord Lonjiku... poor soul. No matter what you thought of the man, that's not a good way to die."

He shakes his head.

"Gods... what do we do now?"

When someone asks about Shalelu, he shakes his head.

"No, she's left town to do her ranger thing. Scouting and whatnot. Not sure when she's coming back."

Sergeant Bartle looks at a complete loss.

"I'm so sorry, Missus Barett. I wish there was something I could do," he mutters. "Yer 'usband was a good man."

Cade pulls up to the group in the street a bit late.

Which means that the rest of the party can do something before Cade arrives if they don't feel like waiting for him.

Sergeant Bartle, I suggest you stay here with your guards. Make sure no one else enters that house. Protect the citizens and keep your eyes open and if you see anymore goblins...make sure the Gods can here that damn whistle.

"Right," says Sergeant Bartle. "We'll escort Missus Barett back to the guardhouse. I'll send some reinforcements when we get her settled. Come along, Missus Barett."

Sergeant Bartle will leave with her unless any of you have questions you want to ask first.

The Sergeant looks up from his drink as Rig emerges from the basement at a run.

"What? Oh, crap, the whistles!"

He staggers to his feet and lumbers out the door, following the group.

Bartle lets out a sigh.

"You lot go ahead. Me, I need a drink."

Sergeant Bartle goes up to the bar and slaps some silver onto the counter as he sits down. Master Tenniwar glares at him for a moment before nodding to one of his staff to pour the Sergeant a drink.

"Stay out of this, Vhiski," warns Sergeant Bartle. "You take things too personal."

"That's all nonsense anyway! We've been all over town today searching houses. And yesterday too! This isn't about you- the council really ordered us to search the whole damned town."

The sergeant waves Jubrayl back towards the table.

"So just sit back down and stay out of it. This doesn't concern you."

Sergeant Bartle looks at the tavern for a moment. Then, with a sigh, he steps forward and leads the group into the tavern.

He lets his eyes adjust to the gloom for a moment, and then steps over towards the bar.

"Master Tenniwar! Good evening. The town council has ordered us to search the town for goblins that may be hiding within the town after the raid. We need to... I'm afraid we need to search the premises."

Sergeant Bartle takes the group back to the guardhouse, and finds some whistles which he hands out to the group. He also finds a box with some pieces of chalk, and gives one to each person present.

"We're not going to be kicking in doors today, just getting people to let us search their homes for goblins. Nobody's going to be under arrest or anything. So if nobody's home, just mark the door with this chalk so we know to come back later."

He listens to the others make their pitch and then he speaks up.

It would appear that we are at your disposal good Sergeant. I do have a question...do you happen to have sentry whistles that we may use. It is my hope that we do not need such but if we encounter anyone it will come in handy when aid is needed...Two groups? Splitting your forces...ok I am fine with that. Have you a method to the search..A pattern or a general idea of what and how you want to accomplish this task. I want to limit the chance of a enemy getting into a area that we just searched.

"Whistles... yeah, I think we got some at the guardhouse. We could stop there if there's anything else you need. Lanterns maybe, if we're going to be looking into basements. If I were a goblin, I'd hide where it's dark."

"Simplest if we just do one street at a time, one group to a side. If one group gets to the end of the street first they double back along the other side until both groups meet."

"Just how many houses did you search so far?"

"Not as many as I would like. We still had to have men stand watch at the gate and the bridges - that's six at any one time, round the clock. And there's only twelve of us left. We couldn't do it if it weren't for the militia volunteers we got, but we ought to have more than that. There's a bit more than two hundred buildings in this town. We covered the big ones, like the cathedral, the town hall, the mill, the brewery, the shipyard, and so forth."

"Most of the residences still need to be searched though."

"What I'd like is for you to split into two groups and work the opposite sides of a street. I can accompany one group while one of my guards accompanies the other, so the townsfolk know that it's legit. But that's all I can spare."

I'm assuming that this is not a problem for you guys. Let me know if there is anything you want to do to prepare and then we'll move ahead.

The Sergeant looks around the room.

"I... uh... good morning. Hope I'm not botherin' ye," he says as he takes off his helmet.

"Ah... so, we began doing searches of houses yesterday eve, looking for any goblins wot could be hiding in town. I understand you had a social engagement with a certain nobleman, so we didn't bother you, but I heard that's done with."

"So... if any of you are available today, we could use your help with the searching, as we are still short-handed and a lot of us were out workin' last night."

"We got a few militia helping out, but the Constable told me to call on you. 'Specially since I heard this whole searching thing was your idea."

He looks around the room at the group.

"So what do you say?"

"Heh. Good one." Sergeant Bartle winks at Kargas.

"A little simple, that one. Didn't realize you were jokin'."

He looks Kargas up and down a little more carefully.

"Ah... you was jokin', right?"