Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sirus]

Keyleth sketched a lazy sort of salute and resumed corpse-hauling.

[Blade Master Model 42]

Eventually the bodies were all moved and the team had hunkered down for the night. The night was quiet and clear, and the stars shone down on the fort in the night. Apart from the owls and bats and bugs, the guard detected nothing during their shifts. Soon, day broke, and with the sun came Jack's orders to pack up and move out. Moving quietly and with Keyleth and Ria scouting ahead on their mounts, Jack led the strike team to the nearby village. It was a small collection of earth and wood constructed buildings, with a few structures made primarily from stone.

As the team approached the village's wall, unguarded and ungated, it was possible to see stragglers slamming their doors shut or hiding behind buildings.

"Not much of a welcome service." Jack's voice was thick with a Govitian accent, indistinguishable from a native speaker from the southwest of the country. "I assume they think we're raiders. We'll need to convince them otherwise."

[Caellath]

"I guess we ain't looking very harmless either." Abelard commented with a slight flex of his arms.

If anything, he was probably the one who looked the most like a bandit of the bunch.

[Powder Miner]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lucette was quick to the draw on the snark.
:"Because if there’s anything any good raider group has to have with them, it’s a maid, right?"

[Lucus Casius]

:  "I dunno.  If I was a raider, I'd probably wanna keep a maid around for one reason or another."

Ria hopped down Vali's back, patting the neck of her steed as she peered curiously towards the village.


:  "So, whatcha wanna do?  Just go talk to them?  Shout 'hey, lookit us, we're not raiding you?  Now come on out and give us your food and useful valuables?'"

[Ochita]

Elanee spared a brief glance towards Abelard, before shaking her head and looking at her patched robes.
  "We could always flash the gold we acquired around.. Maybe? I doubt raiders would walk into a village flashing money around..."

[Sirus]

"Might turn the villagers into raiders themselves if they're desperate enough."

[Blade Master Model 42]

"If those bandits have been harassing these people enough that they hide at the first sign of visitors, I doubt that'd be a problem." Jack rubbed at his temple. "It seems to me that the most sensible approach is going to be to tell them we stumbled across the fort while traveling and seeking shelter, and found it in the state we left it. Tons of dead bodies, almost exclusively male. Who knows, they could have turned on each other. Power struggle gone wrong, who's to say? We weren't there. Ideally they won't commit us to memory." Jack passed the walls and moved to the nearest door. "Hello? Excuse us, we don't mean to intrude, but we're in dire need of supplies. We've had a rough journey from the west-"

The door opened, just a crack. Behind it was an old man. He looked Jack up and down before opening the door a little wider. "Ah, sorry about the cold welcome my boy. We've been having some trouble with local bandits for a few months now. It'd be best if you were on your way as soon as you could be."

Jack feigned surprise rather convincingly. "Bandits huh? Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. I'm sorry you've had that misfortune fall on you. I might have good news for you though. Do you know where they're based?"

"There's an old fort east of here, in the path through the mountains. Wait, if you-"

"Yeah, we passed it on our way here. It was crazy, we went in seeking shelter and there were bodies everywhere. No uniforms or anything either. They might be your bandits."

The old man's eyes started to tear up. "Oh son, don't go getting an old man's hopes up."

"I could be wrong. But maybe send a hunter that way, get him to confirm it. Anyway, we're happy to spend some gold here. If those bandits do turn up again, having some on hand might get them to turn away."

"Well, we don't have much, but I suppose we can offer what we do. Will you be staying long?" The elder turned back into his home and rang a bell he kept there several times. Through the rest of the village, people began to emerge from their homes.

"I wish we could, but we're in an awful hurry. We really need to be back on the road as soon as we can be."

[Ochita]

Elanee breathed a little easier as the negotiations went well, offering an awkward little wave to the villagers who were now leaving the buildings.
  "Right. Well, its unlikely that they'll have a comprehensive tome shop, but I'll start looking around in case there is."
And so, Elanee started looking around the buildings for anything that looked like it could be a tome shop.

[Caellath]

"Time to restock, I guess." Abelard then left towards the place that looked the most likely to have booze.

[Twinwolf]

Michael dismounted his horse, giving a hand to Lucette to help her off.

"Could we talk when we get a moment? I have some things to ask you. In private, preferably."

[Powder Miner]

Lucette accepted his hand to get off of his horse, and then she landed with a slight fluffing of her dress. It was then that Michael spoke, though, and the pursing of her lips and tugging downwards of the corners of her lips suggested that perhaps she had an idea what he was going to want to talk about -- and that she wasn't looking forward to it.
:"...damn. Yes, we can talk, Michael."

[Twinwolf]

Michael led them into the village, after hitching the horse. He found a bench in a quiet part of the town and sat, gesturing for Lucette to have a seat if she wished.

“So, it’s probably obvious I have questions. That said I don’t want to pry too much. Not going to ask for your whole life story - I think I’d need to earn that right? That said, first thing I want to know is, why did you hire yourself out as a maid with those sorts of skills? I’m sure you could have found other lines of work, with how well you handled yourself.”

[Lucus Casius]

:  "Hoi, dragongirl.  C'mon.  Know you picked up a new stick back there, but you can at least bring your guy along and have him talk the local smith into getting me a new spear.'"

[Sirus]

"I don't see why you would need my help for that" "dragongirl" muttered. Still, she followed along without argument.