[IC] Obligations of Blood

[Forsaken]

Looking towards Magda he says Its nothing I’m unharmed. Just three goblins who were trying to steal from us it seems. He says while pointing to the three dead goblins.

[Twelvetrees]

Magda's brow scrunches. "What did they think was worth stealing?"

She scurries over to the bodies of the goblins, checking to make sure that they are dead. Blood pools at her feet, starting to smear the bottom of her boots, although she doesn't seem to notice. Mumbling to herself, she pulls a candle from beneath her cloak that glows with a steady white light.

Without turning around, she raises her voice. "Were there others? Do we need to worry about more sneaking in?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Magda will make sure the goblins are dead and then partake in the time-honored tradition of looting the bodies, looking for "interesting stuff." The candle isn't lit, merely glowing from the light spell she just cast.

[Forsaken]

Spoiler: Ooc

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He kinda stabbed all three in the throat confirming there deaths first before lighting the torch lol. Also he has a torch lit you don’t have to use a spell.

Seems as if they were stealing eggs. One of them were dropping something on the ground trying to lead a hog away. I’m not sure if they are others I’m going to do a quick patrol around the area. I don’t think there will be more then these three but I am going to check regardless. He finishes while scanning the area with his eyes letting Magda use his torchlight to loot them easier.

(Waiting until she goes inside or follows him since he won’t leave someone in the dark alone especially since there were goblins around.j

[Twelvetrees]

Spoiler: OOC

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I needed an excuse for looting.

And I'm using the spell so Magda has her own light if anything else happens. It also has the handy effect of emphasizing that there's something strange about her.

Magda tucks the glowing candle back into her thick cloak. "I'll come with you."

The night air blew coldly about her, making her teeth chatter and her hands shake. The village needed serious changes to prevent scavengers like the goblins from being able to enter as they pleased, but Magda didn't know anything about how to organize that sort of effort.

Niss would know. Niss always had ideas. Arturious seemed to have ideas too. That was good.

[Forsaken]

Seeing Magda hands shake and chattering teeth he looks at his blanket he discarded before killing the last goblin. Reaching down he picks it up and passes it to her. Okay. Let’s do a quick sweep of the rest of the mead hall and grain mill then head towards the village.

Spoiler: Ooc

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Patroling the mead hall then the grain mill then heading towards the town for a quick loop.

[Mark_Elderfire]

In response to Arturious:

Ulber was almost appalled and his face showed as such. "These flowery words may just save us from a garrison of soldiers marching through our walls and usurping everything we're trying to accomplish here! And I for one sure am not going to take the blame for any of this. Last time my father actually spoke to me was when I a child. We shouldn't be held accountable for what happened behind our backs. But you don't have to sign, I was just giving you the curtesy since you all have been given equal power. I have no plans on taking that from you because I'm only here because it was the right thing to do. If I hadn't gotten that letter, same as you, I'd still be in a library copying old scrolls. So I'm sorry you feel so responsible for what happened here, but now's the time to make your own family name. Hell with this title alone you could go marry a Baroness or something!" Ulber just shakes his head and rubs his forehead in disappointment as he walks away to finish out his plan.

A final, "I'll be back." is heard before he is out of sight.


_______________________________________________


Hours Later...

Ulber finally arrives back at the Mead Hall, seeing Magda and Art making their way towards it. The harrowingly long mission of chasing down a bird and sending out his message was not without complications. He was no animal tamer and he wasn't the best when it came to the lay of the land. But what he had managed to accomplish was tying his letter to the bird without getting too many scrapes on his face. However as soon as he did tie the letter, the bird had slipped from his hands and off it went through the air. He didn't point it in a direction, so who knows where it went. He could only pray that it ended up in the hands it was meant for.

Ulber obviously notices the blood on Art and quickly talks through the chill in the air "My god man, you mentioned goblins nearby but I didn't think they'd already be here!" His mind began racing over what could happen even as soon as they leave Sudak. So he inquires from Art, "Any idea on what weaponry these people have? We could always leave some family here to keep watch after we set off for Derbent or Kerch tomorrow."

He then turns to Magda so to not leave her out of the conversation, "The guy in charge of the fairgrounds hopefully shouldn't send his goons to mess with us now. You should have seen me trying to catch a bird!" Ulber laughs for what seems like the first time in many months.

[sarge67]

The group searched the dead goblins, their hands cold and stiff. They each wore rags and cloth tied over their feet in makeshift shoes. Around their waists were worn leather belts with make-shift sheaths with a dagger in each. They had belt pouches with 23 Copper pieces in each sack. One had a letter of instruction

Spoiler: Letter

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Take all of their food reserves and that hog can feed them for a month, get that or kill it and poison the meat. That fool Jarl Warren wont even find out about my actions for another month and by that time we can chase these peasants out of here and claim the mine for ourselves. Master JS

[Twelvetrees]

Mead Hall

Back in the warm mead hall, Magda passes Arturious his blanket. "Thanks."

She turns and nods to Ulber. "No goons. Good. Was the bird hard to catch?"

Whatever his response, she walks past him and dumps the goblins' daggers on the table. "If they need weaponry, we found these." Looking around and finding no sign of her sister, she heads into the lords living quarters and sees her sister asleep on the bed.

Well. That was something. Of course she slept through goblin shrieks. Magda doesn't say a word, just reaches into her cloak and pulls out her brightly glowing candle, tossing it onto the bed right in front of her sister's nose. The copper coins are dumped with a clatter into the chest with the gold and when her sister wakes, Magda will pass her the letter.

"Goblins snuck in. Arturious killed them. They had this."

[Forsaken]

Arturious takes off his armor when he returns from his round. Grabbing a bucket of water an a cloth he cleans it throughly. Looking to Ulber, and Madga he speaks. It seems that someone is trying to claim these mines. JS most likely stands for the steward especially with the mention of Warren. I’m not going to jump to conclusions but judging from the town conditions it’s safe to say the fighting force will be small if none at all. There’s a few options available to us. One is I say back in this town alone and try my best to reinforce it until you scout out the remaining villages. Gallen was going to start Quarrying in the mine soon due to me giving him a pick axe. I don’t want one of our craftsmen to be injured or die. This steward also confiscated his tools.

Two we split into a three groups. Two heading each to a separate village to quickly find out the situation there. If they have extra troops relocate some here and try to reinforce all three villages as quickly as possible. While the last group holds out here in case of attack.

Three I can try to travel as quickly as possible and take a portion of the gold left behind to temporarily hire a large band of mercenaries, or adventures to guard our towns and hunt down the goblins for us.

Regardless of which options we choose we will have to move quickly. I think all plans have some valid points for each of them he puts on his armor again while washing his face quickly using another cloth to dry it off. He looks onwards to the group wanting to hear their thoughts.

[Metastachydium]

The combination of sudden light and noise wakes Niss, and she rolls on her back with a pained expression on her face. Why would you… Upon hearing what Magda says about the goblin attack, she freezes mid-sentence. Oh. She sits up slowly and with all the grace of someone who would really rather sleep a bit more and takes the letter from her sister. Wonderful she mutters. Turns out I'm even brighter than I've previously thought. She then stares at Art somnolently as he presents his take on their situation.
Right. she says as Art stops talking.I'll readily jump to conclusions at this point. Our main problem is called John Steward. This also sets our priorities We must first deal with this guy. She pauses for a moment to stretch clumsily. Now, we know he has lackeys and he wants our quarry, right here. Unless the other villages are full of beautiful people living in prosperity, which I doubt, visiting them would only be useful to us inasmuch as we can learn whether Steward has designs for them or not. What I mean is that visiting them can do more harm than good, especially if we have to, you know, split up to do so. she makes a few vague gestures and closes her eyes for a second. Y'see, we cannot spread out too thin. Not with Steward's goblin army or whatever all around us. And we absolutely cannot afford losing our one and only professional soldier. She pauses again and points at Art. That, uh, that would be you. So please don't ride intio the sunset all alone. Or stay here on your own, trusting that the smelly, fat peasants will, uh, stand their ground. She exhales loudly. So. How about we try and ask around a bit more, see which village may be of use to us now or in danger or whatever, and then we split in two groups, at most and if it seems it might be worth the risk. You stay here, we'll leave, say, Hilde, she's a good shot, and Hannes with you, pay handsomely to your elven friends to join in and that's already, uh, five. We know they are after our food supply, and I can help you focus your efforts even further. Once the sun comes down, uh, I mean up, I may try to check out their tracks, see where they came from. That could help, I suppose. She stretches again. And then, the rest of us can move out and check a village or two. I'd postpone the full tour, though. Niss stops abruptly and rubs her eyes. Another thing. she says suddenly. They are after the foodstuff now, but we have other, uh, resources to protect as well. The thing is, we'll need our money real bad now, and Steward knows where we keep it. So. I can try to put a new lock on the chest if, you know, my head clears up a bit. Or we could find another, safer place or whatever for it.

[Twelvetrees]

Mead Hall

A look of confusion comes over Magda's face "The goblins died quick. There were three, not an army. They snuck in, too, so even the peasants probably scare them."

She looks back and forth between Arturious and Niss. "What's Sudak got that we need to protect right now? Food? Get the elves to guard it. Unless Steward is real close, he won't know the goblins are dead for a while."

It seemed simple enough to Magda. Much like picking herbs, you looked to see what was around you before you started. Sudak was like beetroot. She wanted to see what the other villages were like.

[Metastachydium]

Niss makes a defensive gesture. What Magda said made a surprising amount of sense. Look, I'm half asleep, so feel free to ignore me. It's just that I'd bet Steward has more than three goblins under his, uh, command and we don't know how frequent their visits are or were, as the case may be. She sighs. This place might be a dunghill, but it is our dunghill. I wouldn't just, you know, leave it to lie about unprotected when danger lurks around.

[Mark_Elderfire]

Art's plans sounded fine. All but leaving him behind. Even Magda was talking a lot of sense. But he address Niss first, "You should definitely get a new lock on the chest if you can. I'm sure a dwarf with a pick axe is at least a good start to defending this place, even if he is in the mines. Daggers are better than nothing in the hands of these villagers. But you are right Art, we don't want to risk losing any of our experts here. So yeah asking the the elves to guard would be great." Ulber stops to rub his neck before turning to Art directly and continuing, "I do prefer the second option. No its never a great idea to split up but i think it might be in our best interest. What you say, you and I travel to Derbent and the girls can check out Kerch. I'm fine either way though."

[Forsaken]

Listening to their statements Arturious pauses and thinks. We can travel Ulber. If these towns don’t have troops to defend instead of coming back we can head to a larger city afterwards and hire troops. Oxen are too slow. Hopefully this Sudak have some horses.

As for the Steward he is too dangerous to pursue at the moment. We don’t know if he has ties with the orcs in the mountains as well. What if he left their with a wagon and the tools. Explaining the tracks the elves saw. If he has Goblins. Orcs aren’t that far off. He wrote he wanted the mines and I think have strong orc warriors mining will be easier then Goblins. He already has payment for the looking at our low coffers.

We first should stabilize the villages with some guards before going after the steward. If we don’t have to worry about the home front it will make hunting down and reclaiming our lands easier. The elves aren’t warriors though but they might be able to track as well.

Lastly if we are splitting up I recommend dividing anything sellable here into two groups one for us the other for you. That way if we need to head to a larger city to hire guards we can sell them off and fully supply the rest of the town.

[Metastachydium]

Yeah, well. Niss says with a pained grimace. Almost forgot about the orcs. And, for that matter, the bandits that Galen fellow mentioned. She looks at Art shaking her head slowly. I'm glad that you can take three goblins in a heartbeat, without breaking a sweat. I truly am. But the thing is, I don't think I can do that, and while Magda is really good at what she does, well, this is not what she does either. I wouldn't feel safe travelling in a small group and, as a matter of fact, neither should you.

[sarge67]

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully, the most distasteful experience being the crows of the rooster long before actual sunrise. Gradually movement from the town began to take place.

The smell of eggs, salted ham, and baked bread being cooked from the Tavern/Inn. The female voice from the previous evening singing softly as the notes carried through the village.

[Twelvetrees]

Mead Hall

Rolling to her feet from her place by the fire, Magda yawns and stretches, joints popping. She smacks her lips, takes a swig of water, then catches the scent of food wafting in from the tavern.

Squinting for a second, her face scrunches as she recalls that there were a couple of wounded elves who Arturious had asked her to take a look at. They ought to be interesting.

She makes sure she had everything and then walks out the door, calling out to her family, "Getting food. Going to poke at elven wounds."

Tavern/Inn

Magda shuffles into the tavern and immediately looks around for the elves. She'll get some food while she's there, especially if she needs to wait.

[Metastachydium]

Niss's been lying flat on the bed with open eyes for a while. As Magda departs, she calls after her sister. Could you perhaps ask them if they want free money for being on the lookout for a few days?
Shortly after, she gets up too and kneels down by the less than neat pile of her belongings to find the lock and her tools. I'll try to change the lock on the chest as quick as I can and then I might take a look at those tracks outside. She looks up for a moment as she carries her things over to the chest and addresses the others. You know, I woke up early and I've been thinking. Steward's note confirms that Warren should be on our side, so it would probably be wise to send him a letter as well so that he knows what became of Stonecutter, Longshore and especially Steward. We could use some help, I suppose. She sits down before the chest and begins working on it as she speaks.

Spoiler: Skill check?

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I have no idea what I need to roll on this or what the DC of changing a lock to a pre-made one could be. For now, I'll make a Craft (locksmithing) check and hope the best.
(1d20+5)[9]

[sarge67]

Spoiler: TAVERN and INN

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Dealvyn and Saernal were sitting at the table they used the previous day. Both of the elves owned thin chiseled facial features with sharp angles in the jaw and cheek bones. Both had forest deep green eyes and straight blonde hair that fell to their shoulders. They both had lithe builds though an astute observer could see Dealvyn slightly heavier. The two elves wore a hardened leather vest with a gray tunic underneath, brown leather pants, and high boots.

A short, thin human lady with curly red hair and blue eyes and a smile arrives at their table with a large tray with plates of eggs, bacon, biscuits and jam, and a bowl of berries. She held the tray with an arm and a tea pot hanging from her fingers as she served the early morning meal.

[Twelvetrees]

Tavern and Inn

Magda sits down at the elves' table without bothering waiting for an invitation, scraping a chair back. "My sister wanted you to know we could pay you to keep a lookout over Sudak. You interested? Also, Arturious said you had injuries. Where?"

She eyes the food, then asks the woman with the tea pot if she can get the same.

Today was a good day. Wounds to see to and fresh food instead of trail rations.

[sarge67]

Dealvyn listened to Magda speak when she requested the same breakfast. The young human lady smiled "On the way darlin"

The elf waited for the cook to walk away before speaking up "My brother suffered deep cuts to the crown of his head and a second deep wound to his right shoulder. But you are going to pay two bee keepers to defend a town? Against what? Orcs? We don't have much of a chance against orcs. Now that Dwarf your friend scooted off yesterday would have a better chance or we can if you bring him back here."

[Metastachydium]

[Mead Hall]
The lock should fit, but something's not quite right. Damn. I'm supposed to be good at this. Niss mutters to herself as she gives a task a second shot.

Spoiler: Skill check

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(d20+5)[24]

[Twelvetrees]

Tavern and Inn

Magda waves a hand. "Keep a watch, not defend. Warn folks if you see trouble. Didn't know you were bee keepers, but unless you've got hives, this is a chance for some coin to keep an eye out."

She looks at the wounded elf, searching for bandages. Everyone loves to complain about cuts to the head. Magda figures he's up and walking about, then he's doing fine. Standing up and circling around the wounded elf, she gets uncomfortably close to stare at the top of his head.

"Hmph. Deep cuts?" She abruptly jabs her finger into the wound. "Does that hurt?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Casting cure light wounds when she jabs him.

Hit points restored: (1d8+4)[10]

[sarge67]

Dealvyn stands up and begins to unwrap the bandage around Saernal's head wound, a deep gash with a deep purple bruise around the cut. "This is not an imaginary wound." as the elf steps to the side.

Magda's spell though not completely healing the patient, was able to heal the majority of the wound leaving a slight discoloration on the skin.

Dealvyn continued "Yes, we are bee keepers and we also collect syrup and berries to brew a few brands of brandy, whiskey, and wine. We'll keep watch, but only if you bring that dwarf back."

[Metastachydium]

Much better. Niss packs up her tools and the old lock and rises with a triumphant smile. As she washes herself hastily, she briefly considers following Magda to the tavern, but ultimately decides against that. She's not that hungry yet and there's much to do before they can set out for next village. She puts on her boots and, with some difficulty, her armor. She loads the crossbow, fastens a case of bolts to her belt and exists the mead hall, heading for the site of the night's battle behind the building. Once there, she crouches down and begins to examine the tracks the goblins left.

Spoiler: Survival check!

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(1d20+10)[20]

[Mark_Elderfire]

I'll try to change the lock on the chest as quick as I can and then I might take a look at those tracks outside. She looks up for a moment as she carries her things over to the chest and addresses the others. You know, I woke up early and I've been thinking. Steward's note confirms that Warren should be on our side, so it would probably be wise to send him a letter as well so that he knows what became of Stonecutter, Longshore and especially Steward. We could use some help, I suppose. [/SPOILER]

Ulber groggily replies to Niss as he himself rolls out of bed, stretching his limbs and getting the kinks out much like if he had gotten stuck at a library through the night, "Yes I could do that. Perhaps later though. Must ready the wagons for our trip."

After fully waking up and going over his spellbook he only grabs some rations to sate himself as he leaves the mead hall, whist waving good morning at Magda and the elves. He heads straight towards the stables to take stock of what horses we had. Ulber could only hope they find faster steeds than their oxen, the swifter they can make it as a group the better.

[sarge67]

Spoiler: Tavern and Inn

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The lady returned to Magda with a plate of eggs, bacon, biscuits and jam, and a bowl of berries. A moment later a mug of milk and hot tea. "Enjoy the meal sweetie." as she headed back to the kitchen.

Spoiler: Stable

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Ulber snacked on his rations while leading the oxen to the steering bars on the cart harnesses. A sparkle of light mostly covered in a pile of hay caught his eye for a moment before disappearing in the shadow of the stable (sun stopped shining on the item)

Spoiler: Edge of Town

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Niss began at the chicken coop, slowly tracing the steps of the goblins. Both sets led to the northwest edge of town where the third set meets. This spot was where they broke off from each other. Niss looked at the area, low unkept brush piled up for about ten feet in length. Further west was a tree stump with vines covering much of the base. Had a person traveled another 100 meters, they would reach the edge of the mountains with a thin tree line along the ridge.

[Twelvetrees]

Tavern and Inn

Food arrives at the table and Magda busies herself with stuffing her face. Around a mouthful of food, she manages to get a few words out. "Looks imaginary to me."

Spoiler: OOC

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My intention was for Magda to heal the wound before it was uncovered. This dialogue makes less sense if she must wait until they unwrap it to heal him, but I'll still stick with if I have to.

A minute or two passes. Magda continues eating. The food is delightful after days of nothing nothing but trail rations and she is more than willing to savor the taste of it. For a town the size of Sudak, the tavern's food is a wonderful surprise.

Eventually she sits back and responds to the request to bring the dwarf back. "I'll talk to Arturious." She immediately heads for the door.

Spoiler: OOC

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Making sure to pay for the food, then looking to find Arturious.

[Mark_Elderfire]

Ulber was not new to the phrase, "needle in a haystack," but his curiosity got the better of him. He ties the oxen up to a couple stalls before pulling out a sunrod. Striking the sunrod's tip to light up the stables he begins to search the pile of hay for what had caught his eye.

Spoiler: ooc

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Search check: (1d20+5)[15]

[sarge67]

Under the pile of hay was a smaller pile, a short sword, a sack with four gems, An accounting book, a blue dress with dried blood, and money pouch with 7 Silver pieces.