You ask Rist about the herbs you found. It turns out that they are Nightsbane herbs themselves, which neatly saves you having to buy any. Rist doesn't bother charging for the information; you would have found out upon reaching Pilemurk anyway.
[Negotiator: 11+4] You spend a few minutes haggling with Rist over the value of your mutual supplies. He isn't interested in the pickled swedes, but you eventually arrive at a bargain you are happy with; your furs and one of the hunting knives in exchange for about eight days' worth of beef jerky, the book on camouflage (
Predatory Beasts in the Velvet Jungle by Torn Washworthy) and 8 copper pieces. The coins are stamped on one side with a badger and on the other with three barrels, the mark of the Gilded Confederacy. The coppers aren't much, but they should do for small purchases. One copper is roughly a day's labour for a farm worker, if you judge it right.
Rist waves you farewell and invites you to drop in on him should you visit Mudcups in the next few weeks; he will be arranging business there before his trip to Waterhills. He and his guards take a fairly wide berth around your own wagon and set off along the river. You continue your own way, propping your new acquisition open in your lap and guiding the mule with a free hand.
The book is mostly a bestiary of various types of predatory creature in the elven jungles; tigers, lizards, predatory birds. The author does go into some detail on the subject of their camouflage tactics, though. You would not have expected orange and black stripes to be a good disguise in a green and brown jungle, but Washworthy explains that the shades and patterns are more important. He references how some elven hunters would deliberately line their bodies with mud in a similar way to blend. You aren't sure you'd go to that extreme, but you take home the lessons about stillness and motion in stealth and perhaps a thing or two about dangerous animals in the process.
Your skill with Animal Handling and Stealth has improved.You arrive at Pilemurk about an hour before dusk. [Luck: 9] There are a few small rises near the village to set up camp, though nothing that gives you ideal coverage. You pick one at random and set up camp there. Once you have a campfire going (thank darkness for that fire piston!) you draw your hood a little closer around your face and take stock of the village.
Village is a fairly appropriate word; the settlement is essentially a cluster of huts and houses around a central square, ringed by a palisade. There are a handful of surrounding fields where the marsh has been drained to support crops, but most of the nearby land is devoted to growing ranks of spindly grey herbs. Pilemurk is the deepest into the marsh humans have settled, partly due to the inhospitable nature of the landscape and partly due to the constant threat of goblin incursion. When you were last here, five months ago, the town was half deserted and the palisade was a wreck, barely held together after years of raids.
The last five months have been very kind to Pilemurk. The palisade has been repaired and strengthened and the houses are now filled and lit up by candles and lanterns within in preparation for the night. You can hear conversation and a touch of singing even here from the stables, which seems to have been converted into more of a drinking hole than before. There are even a few tents set up inside the palisade in answer to the housing shortage and you can see the embers of a recently dampened forge next to a barge moored to the bank of the river - a travelling smith has set up shop here to cater to the visiting adventurers.
Oh, and you can't miss the quaint spikes all along the palisade, either. Each one sports a handsome goblin skull. One or two still have bits of flesh on them. Looks like the citizens of Pilemurk might have held a grudge or two.
[Stealth: 11+2+1(Dusk), Athletics: 11+2] As dusk is preparing to settle on the town you approach the palisade. There are a couple of guards (really, peasants with spears) at the town gate, but it takes little effort to clamber over the wall and drop inside the village. You take out your writing kit and scribble a note in Goblin instructing adventurers looking for work to approach your wagon in twos or ones (any more and you won't talk), then head to the town square to post it.
[Luck: 4] That's when you notice the gibbets. There are four iron cages in the town square, three of which have occupants, all goblins. One is starting to rot and you can see where the carrion birds have already plucked out an eye. Another looks emaciated and close to death; his skin is taut against his bones. The third has fresh welts across her skin from recent beatings, but the effects of starvation are only just starting to sink in. She looks to be in fairly athletic shape, though when you near her she spits at you and starts cursing you in Goblin, presumably taking you for a local human.
You don't recognise either of the living goblins, so they must have been slaves or from the lower ranks. The gibbets are all solid iron and appear to have decent locks on them, though the inhabitants are not chained or manacled. The starved one might not make it, but the fresh one could might yet.
Or not. You know this form of execution well, you've seen it practiced often enough. Multiple prisoners are chained or gibbeted outdoors in a public place, some captured more recently than others. They are left there day and night without food and water, though usually they will catch a sip or two of rain to avoid dying of thirst. One by one, prisoners begin dying of starvation. Each night another dies until there are only two left. Both of the remaining prisoners are desperately hoping that they will die first, or that another person will be condemned before that happens.
They hope this because the night after the second-to-last prisoner dies, the bogeymen will take the survivor.
Of course, you could always just ignore them and leave them to it. You have, you suppose, until one of them dies to make a decision.
Vitality: 3 (Heavy bruising, bound leg wound. Slowly recovering.)
Full
Status: Cautious
Kills: 2 human hunters.
Inventory: traveller's garb & hood
1 plain iron hunting knife
1 -iron quill knife-
1 writing kit
crude maps
1 medical kit (+4 to medical checks, 4 uses remaining)
a fire piston
1 day's Nal meat
8 days' beef jerky
1 jug of strong spirits
5 sprigs unknown herb (in packet)
8 copper coins (Gilded Confederacy - badger / three barrels)
In the Wagon
1 lantern (w/ 3 pints of oil)
8 snares
3 bear/man-traps
ragged, formerly fine black clothing
several jars of pickled swede
Book - Predatory Beasts in the Velvet Jungle by Torn Washworthy
Expert Administrator
Proficient Historian |
Proficient Law Scholar
Skilled Geographer
Competent Negotiator |
Competent Persuader |
Competent Liar |||
Competent Judge of Intent |
Adequate Dodger ||||
Adequate Leader
Adequate Knife-Fighter
Novice Wrestler ||
Novice Athlete |||
Novice Wound Dresser
Novice Stealther |||
Novice Animal Handler |
Dabbling Butcher |
Dabbling Forager
Dabbling Pump Operator
Dabbling Biter |
Dabbling Suturer
Languages: Perfect Goblin, Fluent Human, Broken Dwarven, Poor Elven
Contacts
Rist Easespices - A gregarious Dunish trader operating in the Mudcups area.
Author
Topic: Goblin (Read 13537 times)