[WFRP] The Bloody Crown XIII

[-Sentinel-]

"Might be best to send a few people back to Ravenskird with the horses," said Elsa. Aside from needing a lot of water and fodder, the beasts would be of limited use in rugged terrain, and might behave unpredictably if attacked by a pack of wolves.

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

Sieghard grit his teeth. He wanted to press on but struggled with knowledge that it likely wasn't practical.

"Say we send the men and horses back," he said, "If Mala was alone, it'd be one thing, but can we even take on a pack of wolves with just a handful of us?"

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I asked before, but never got an answer. From what we've seen following their trail, do we have any way to estimate the number of wolves under Mala's control?

I see three options. Simple one is just turning back and leave empty handed. I don't like it, but it's an option. For the other two we send the Thorns and horses back. After that, either the rest of us push on until we've no choice but to turn back or alternatively we give up on killing Mala for now and maybe Urgrim alone can track her to at least get an idea of what she's up to. She gets to live, but we won't be caught unaware if she shows herself again.

[Thragka]

Urgrim shook his head. "Wouldn't like our odds. Although, Magister, maybe you could scare a lot of them off at once," he added with a shrug. "But even a handful of them would be enough to trouble us. Can't say I like the idea of the slates being turned on us, and being harried all the way back down out of the Teeth on limited supplies." He looked back down at his provisions, redoing his mental calculations, but not coming to any new result.

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With three of us, I think Urgrim's supplies only give us one more day advancing before we'd have to turn around.

I don't mind Urgrim continuing on his own, but as you say it would be without the expectation of trying to kill Mala, unless we get really really lucky somehow.

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"Seems like there's not much choice then," Sieghard grumbled, "Not enough supplies to carry on with the full group and the horses, not enough men if we send some back." He turned to Jarla, Elsa, and Tatiana. "Sorry ladies, but it seems I've dragged you out here for nothing."

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Well, if it's 20+ in the pack, we can't take that at less than full strength, so it rules out sending just the Thorns and horses back and pressing on. Even with the additional crossbowmen, that would be a rough fight. The PCs could hold for a while, but the NPCs would fare much worse and the numbers are just too big to keep us from being overwhelmed. Your call to make whether Urgrim wants to keep on the trail, I'm not making that decision for you.

[Thragka]

Urgrim grunted. "'Less you have something else you'd rather me be doing, I'll go another few days after her. If I can catch her, at least we might get a reckoning of what she's up to."

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Assuming no contention, Urgrim will continue tracking the wolf pack until the afternoon of the eighth, at which point he'll turn back. I'll give you rolls for an extended Follow Trail test.

Vorhexen 5th: Follow Trail 54 - (1d100)[10], Fortune - (1d100)[42]
6th: Follow Trail 54 - (1d100)[11], Fortune - (1d100)[55]
7th: Follow Trail 54 - (1d100)[60], Fortune - (1d100)[26]
8th: Follow Trail 54 - (1d100)[36], Fortune - (1d100)[48]

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

Sieghard considered the offer for a moment. "Alright, nothing too risky though. We know she's up to something. If nothing else, we may still be able to find out what."

[LCP]

4th Vorhexen - Sieghard, Urgrim, Elsa & Jarla

Tatiana looked a little disappointed to be turning back, but kept her own counsel. Most of the Thorns looked relieved.

---

Bezahltag, 6th Vorhexen - Sieghard, Elsa, Jarla & Ludo

It took two days for the party to make their way back to Ravenskird, travelling faster for not having to search out the trail of the wolves. Jarla could tell Countess was glad to be out of the wind - and for her own part, it felt good to see a town again, even if the town in question was only this muddy village on the marsh.

OOC:

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Haven’t heard anything from LeSwordfish in a while - Ludo may need to be on autopilot for the time being. I’d assume by Bezahltag he’s sent off what he’s sending to Abdul, and remains in Ravenskird waiting for you guys.

---

Angestag, 8th Vorhexen - Urgrim

Following the pack higher into the Teeth, Urgrim’s progress had been slow but steady. The slopes were treacherous, and the wind held in the west, keeping its savage cold - but there was no slope a wolf could scale, nor weather it could endure, that could not be matched by a determined dwarf. Pitching his tent each night in the lee of the rocks, Urgrim kept his axe sharp and his eyes sharper.

The wolves left fewer tracks on this stony ground, but still there were signs of their passage. Urgrim had ranged across the Teeth once before, with Thrunrik, and could recognise when the shaggy goats and ground-nesting birds that made the heights their home seemed more scarce and fearful than they ought. Here and there, he found scraps of those that had not been wary enough to evade the hunters. Some nights, he heard the wolves howling across the hills - still keeping ahead of him, moving north.

By Angestag, they had led him into the high crags, skirting around the shoulder of the peak the Dwimmulsons called Skallig Graz. From here, you could see clear over the foothills to the Pale Waste, the western horizon lost in its white haze. The wind was blowing straight from the desert, and carried the taste of dust and grit.

Dipping down into the shelter of a rocky gully, Urgrim found the most unmistakable signs yet of the pack’s passage. The bodies of seven or eight goblins lay scattered around the ravine, their black rags torn and their bellies opened by sharp teeth. They had been armed with weighted nets and crooked spears, but there was not a single wolf carcass to show for their efforts - most of them looked as if they had died running.

OOC:

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I’m just taking your first tracking roll here - appreciate the extra rolls, but I think something like this is only worth breaking up between points of interest/decision points, not necessarily day by day. If you want Urgrim to do some forensic work around the gobbo massacre I’m happy for you to use your 2nd roll, or roll fresh, whatever you prefer - just let me know what kind of info he’s looking for.

[Thragka]

Urgrim – Agnestag, 8th Vorhexen

Urgrim looked over the grobi corpses in the gully with silent equanimity for a minute or two.

"Hrmph," he declared. He remained quiet for another thirty seconds or so, motionless except for scratching at his beard. Then he sighed. "Eugh," he opined further, but walked forwards, rolled over his sleeves, and began methodically examining each cadaver, nose wrinkled the entire time.

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Cool, in that case I will indeed use the second day's roll to examine the goblins. Urgrim in particular is looking for any wounds that look like they weren't inflicted by wolves on any of them. He'll also pat them down to search for any small belongings. If they've any stolen dwarven trinkets – or, gods forbid, any dawi scalps or teeth – he'd want to take those effects back to the Dwimmulhold so they can be correctly honoured.

After that, as planned, Urgrim turns around and heads back to Ravenskird over the coming days.

[LeSwordfish]

The chaos of tax day had been cleared away by now, with Ludo having dispatched the goods north. He could tell from the expressions of the group that their hunt had been unsuccessful, and after getting the news, explained his own news to Sieghard. "We've covered the taxes for Sforza but will be a little short on our own payments this month, unless you're willing to dip into your own money. Ingwald reckons some of the folks out around the edges of the forest haven't paid much attention to that sort of thing in a while, which is probably why we came up short. We probably want to do another tour round there and let them know what you'll be expecting."

[LCP]

Urgrim, 8th Vorhexen

Every grobi in the gully bore the marks of teeth and claws - Urgrim could make out no sign of more civilised weapons. Like the sheep in the shepherd's pen, most had been partly eaten, although the wolves had not been as thorough here. Perhaps they were not as hungry after their feast of mutton - or perhaps goblin-flesh was not to their taste.

Searching through the dead things' blood-stiffened rags, Urgrim found nothing that looked like it might have belonged to civilised folk, except a few grubby old human coins that one of them had threaded onto a leather cord around its neck, seeing more value in the shine than the silver. Scraping the grime from one with his fingernail, Urgrim saw the smoothed-down profile of a crowned head, and some crude lettering in the human script. It didn't look like Sforza, or any umgi king of these parts that he knew - perhaps Skorgrund would recognise it. Apart from that, the goblins had a few bags of their own kind's loose teeth, a little wyvern-shaped charm made from a couple of dried bat's wings tied to a whittled bone, and a tattered knapsack full of some kind of fungus rations. The wolves had got into it, but had clearly turned their noses up at the contents...

OOC:

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I reckon this kind of thing is more Perception/Search than Follow Trail, but a dice roll is a dice roll and it'll pass either way! The necklace of coins is worth (1d3)[3] schillings.

You're currently at around hex (8, 12); if you want to take a direct route back to Ravenskird from here it'll probably take you around 3 days (I'd ask for a Navigate test but your 3rd roll'll cover that). Will have to see where the others look set to be on the 11th before moving on to then.

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"I'll handle the folk who think they don't have to pay their share," Sieghard said. It would give him something to distract from the fact that Mala still lived.

"Sforza wanted us recruiting until we're back up to full strength, but if we're short of paying the men we already have, I don't know how he expects us to enlist even more."

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Sieghard is heading back to Painford to check in on things there and compare Ingwald's notes with Hanna's and get a better idea of who has and hasn't paid. After that he'll make the rounds to deal with the tax evaders.

[LeSwordfish]

Ludo looked distinctly uncomfortable at the prospect of recruiting. "We took half the young men of the reaches away and... most of them didn't come back. I don't know how well it will go to march into town and ask for their younger brothers as well."

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"We stopped Nahorek," Sieghard replied. "If we hadn't, there wouldn't be a town with any younger brothers left. The cost was high, but the Reaches only survive because of it."

"It's a moot point anyways. We don't have the funds."

[-Sentinel-]

"Sorry ladies, but it seems I've dragged you out here for nothing."

"...So that's it?" said Elsa in disbelief. "Chase is over?"

This had been Tatiana's opportunity to show what she was capable of. Elsa was not sure what to tell Sforza now, especially after choosing this assignment over the one with Carraciolo in the north.

"Is there any way I don't come back empty-handed from this trip?" she asked, an edge of bitterness now in her voice. "Any task at all you can give me?"

[RossN]

Jarla

Jarla looked unhappy at the waste of a chase but nodded at Sieghard's words. "Well so it is. I should be back in Savonne now; I do have a job there. Elsa do you want me to escort Tattie back home or are you keeping her in the field?"

[-Sentinel-]

"We're returning together," said Elsa. "Tatiana is untested in the field. A thousand things can happen the first time a wizard casts a spell in a life-or-death situation, and I need to be by her side if and when that time comes."

"Sorry, Tattie," she said, disappointment plain in her voice. "You'll get another chance to prove yourself."

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"Is there any way I don't come back empty-handed from this trip? Any task at all you can give me?"

"I can try to come up with something in Painford," Sieghard said. "Maybe something with No-Nose's dogs. They're no longer half-crazed, but they're still far from obedient. I doubt there's anything we can do to test her in combat, though." He paused. "Or you could just lie. Say we found her and drove her into the Teeth but she gave us the slip while we were dealing with her wolves. It's not as though he could prove it false."

[LCP]

Jarla saw the look on Tatiana’s face as Elsa spoke about the need for her to be supervised. A life lived largely alone hadn’t made her very good at hiding her feelings, even if she didn’t speak them often - and she was clearly chafing at being treated as being in need of babysitting.

---

Sieghard & Ludo, 7th Vorhexen

Sieghard and Ludo arrived back in Painford late on Konigstag. The work on Sieghard’s manor was proceeding apace, with stone walls already rising up under Hegalun’s watchful supervision. A good number of trees had been felled along the north road, some for the construction, some for shipping north with Sforza’s taxes, and a number of the workers Sieghard had brought from Savonne were sitting around among the stumps, huddling close to a smoking fire. The Downlanders and the villagers still seemed to keep apart in their own cliques and clans.

At the one barracks-hall that was still in use by the Thorns, they found Hanna, who corroborated Gustaf’s story. Hanna didn’t have Ingwald’s letters, but she could count, and was sharp enough to guess what most of the Thornwooders’ goods might fetch at market. It was clear that if they wanted to meet the demands out of Savonne and keep the Thorns in the fashion they were accustomed to, they would have to squeeze people a little harder.

OOC:

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You said Sieghard will be going round to try to find the defaulters - can I get some details on that? Most importantly, will Sieghard or Ludo still be in Painford on the 12th, when Urgrim’s likely to get back?

---

Jarla, 8th Vorhexen

Two days on the river road brought Jarla back to the south gate of Savonne, and the sights, sounds and smells of the city. Two of Norten’s men were on the gate, and bowed their heads as she rode past.

The South Market was crowded with people. Drawn by her fine clothes, a man leaning on a crude wooden crutch held out a bandaged hand to Jarla, begging for anything she could spare. Far beyond the teeming market square, the towers of the castle reared above the city, the tiny squares of Sforza’s black-and-gold banners just visible on the parapets. The winter wind was much less fierce here on the plain than it had been in the hills, but still it was strong enough to make the banners stream, and make Jarla button her riding-jacket up tight. It would be warmer inside those stone walls.

OOC:

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What are you guys’ plans now you’re back in town? On any timescale you like.

[-Sentinel-]

4th Vorhexen - Wilderness


"I can try to come up with something in Painford," Sieghard said. "Maybe something with No-Nose's dogs. They're no longer half-crazed, but they're still far from obedient. I doubt there's anything we can do to test her in combat, though."

"That would be a good way to put her talents to use," mused Elsa. "Dogs would be a useful addition to the Thorns, for tracking and to help keep watch when making camp. Perhaps the Thorns can use them to hunt game for the people during winter."

In addition, she had finally mustered the courage to try to apologize to Hanna, and she did not want the opportunity to slip away before she lost her nerve.

---

7th Vorhexen - Painford


"You should go get acquainted with the dogs tonight," Elsa told Tatiana encouragingly as she dismounted. "I have other business to attend to. If you think you can make headway with them, given enough time, I could even leave you in Painford for as long as you think you need. Don't worry, the people here are used to wizards in their town."

She did not believe her apprentice needed to be told to be careful around the dogs. Amber wizards were supposedly well attuned to animal emotions; if Tatiana sensed danger, she would be sure to get out of harm's way. Giving her a bit of independence was a bonus.

And now comes the hard part.

Wishing she could instead go chasing after the wolves in the Giant's Teeth, Elsa watched and waited for an opportunity to talk to Hanna alone.

[LCP]

Elsa, 7th Vorhexen

Tattie had been quiet on the journey back to Painford, even by her standards. Now she looked at Elsa with frustration in her eyes.

“How do you mean, ‘make headway with them’?” she asked. “What is it you want me to do?”

~

Hanna was bunking in the same barracks-hall as the other Thorns, and seemed to spend little time out of their company - besides which, she and a good number of the others seemed to avoid Elsa as if she was a leper. If she wanted an opportunity for a private chat, it was clear she was going to have to create it herself.

---

Marktag, 12th Vorhexen

Urgrim, Ludo & Elsa

It was a little after noon on Marktag when Urgrim returned to Painford by the Ravenskird road. The weather was icy cold, but the skies were still clear, and the trees cast sharp shadows in the pale sun. Inside the palisade, the village rang with the creaking of ropes and the squeak of pulleys as Hegalun and her stonemasons oversaw the raising of the tall beams they had cut from the forest.


Sieghard

Finding the defaulters in the tangled backwoods of the Thornwood was a slow business. With no good map to guide them, finding the homesteads buried in the forest was not trivial to begin with - and then there was the matter of sifting those who had paid from those who had not. As they wound their way further south-west, they found the latter more frequently - and more often than not, had to resort to the implicit threat of force to extract the Prince’s share. Some of the defaulters protested that they had already paid - that Sieghard’s reckoning was incorrect, or that his tax-collectors must have taken the tithe for themselves before returning to Painford.

By Marktag, they had worked their way to the far edge of the forest, down near where the Caerfort road emerged out into the hills. The total value of the goods they had collected was something like thirty crowns, by Sieghard’s reckoning - and with the amount of ground they had left to cover, he doubted they would find another twenty. One of their last stops was at the homestead that had been burned by Magog’s orcs. It had now been partially rebuilt, and was occupied by a grey-bearded man with a hard face and unimpressed eyes who called himself the brother of the deceased. Whether that was true was anybody’s guess.

When Sieghard and the Thorns asked to come inside, they were flatly refused. When they told him they were there on the Prince’s business, the man shrugged his shoulders and remained blocking the doorway, arms crossed.

“His high and mightiness ain’t ever done anything for me,” he said, in a gruff, gravelly voice. “Didn’t do nothing for my brother, neither. This is my home now, and I say you aren’t comin’ in.”

[Thragka]

Urgrim, Ludo and Elsa – Painford, Marktag 12th Vorhexen

Urgrim glanced at the construction work not without interest as he he came into Painford, but didn't stop to nose around. He had far more interest in satiating some simple corporal desires. He went directly to the Hostel, plonking himself into a chair with a satisfied sigh unwarranted by the seat's rudiment.

"A serving of something hot, with meat," he asked of Gavril. His stomach rumbled theatrically. "Actually, make that two servings. And a strong drink – spirits, if you have any, or wine if not. I'll take a bath after the meal, please, but no rush with the hot water." He passed the man two shillings for good measure. "Keep the slag."

~

If Ludo or Elsa didn't come across him in the common room of the Hostel, Urgrim sought them out after his bath. "Sieghard's off on other matters, I take it?"

"I'd no more luck catching up with the pack after parting ways with you," he recounted. "They weren't sticking to any territory – seems like they kept pressing on, just snatching prey where they could. I must have nearly crossed the middle ridge to the western slopes before I had to turn back. They were leaning to north, as well. If they headed back down towards the lowlands at the last point I had their trail, they'd be heading right out into the worst part of the desert. Right for the Red Pyramid, by my reckoning." He frowned and shrugged. "Doesn't bode well – but there's no way we can catch them, if that be their destination."

When the discussion moved on, he passed the necklace of coins he'd retrieved from the dead goblins to Ludo. "Take a look at that. Thought you might find it int'resting. A relic of the last umgi lordling who had enough clout in these parts to get his silver minted."

[-Sentinel-]

"How do you mean, 'make headway with them'? What is it you want me to do?"

Elsa had thought Tatiana would like a chance to do what she did best. Perhaps she had been mistaken in that regard. She suppressed a sigh; what did she know about raising young girls? She had signed up to be a magic teacher, nothing more.

"Those dogs used to belong to a bandit," she explained. "He kept them in cages and trained them to be aggressive. I've been hoping you could befriend them. The winter will be hard, and dogs would be useful for hunting."

She shrugged. "I brought us back here to avoid wasting our trip. But we can go back to Savonne whenever you like, if you'd rather resume your training."

---

Elsa and Ludo


Reasoning that Ludo must have his ear to the ground for that sort of thing, Elsa sought his help to gather any Thorns who complained about her behind her back and get them someplace where they would not be overheard, such as the woods. Things would be awkward enough without involving outsiders.

"Is there some excuse you can concoct? Like something they need to see, or a task? If you just tell them I want to apologize, they'll never agree to it."


OOC

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No guarantee Elsa will still be in Painford on the 12th, so I won't have her take part in that day just yet. That will depend on what (if anything) Tatiana can do about the dogs, and whether Elsa makes things better or worse with Hanna.

[LeSwordfish]

On the twelfth, Ludo was resolving a minor dispute between Gavril and Steffen relating to Gavril's daughter, and gratefully sat down for an ale with Urgi after ensuring Steffen would neither be married off or run through with a spear. He took the coins gingerly and turned them other with his fingertips while thinking about what Urgi had said.

"Reviving Nahorek was a big deal before, including a dragon's tooth, calves blood... it took Klammenberg ages to gather those. Even if there's something special about the Pyramid that would let her, Mala couldn't bring him back, surely... It's over a day's march to the pyramid through the open desert, too."

He shook his head. "Nothing we can do if she's gone that way. Could send to the Raven Hills and Last Water warning about her, but she's gone all the way there barely meeting another soul, there's no reason she'd go through town on the way back. Might not even need water, I heard the Arabyans sometimes drank camel's blood when crossing the desert.

He inspected the coins. "I don't recognise them, but you'd be surprised how many of the lords did their own minting. Though, mind, not many that wore a crown."

Ludo and Elsa
"It's not going to help anything to lie to them," Ludo pointed out. "It'll be easy enough to gather all of them that are in town together, and I'll do what I can to mend things, but false pretences won't help."

"You want to do that now? The patrols are here tonight, and Ingwald's back from Savonne: everyone's here except those who went with Sieghard. But I don't know that I could pick out specific complaints... some are quieter about it but you're not popular with any of them... I tell a lie, Petar is still fond of you since you saved his life with that spell. We had to get him to stop showing the handprint to the children to freak them out. But he's hardly going to argue your corner after what you said."

[-Sentinel-]

"Alright then," said Elsa, a bit taken aback to hear that so many of the Thorns still disliked her, "you don't have to lie. Just... do your best to put them in a state of mind where they'll at least listen to me?"

She paused. "I appreciate it, Ludo. I really do. You saved my life at the trial, and I feel bad to ask another favor of you. But know that you can ask anything of me."

Why do I feel even more nervous than before our last faceoff with Nahorek?

[Thragka]

Urgrim and Ludo – Marktag, 12th Vorhexen

Urgrim nodded along with Ludo's analysis between spoonfuls of food. "More or less what I was thinking. We can't catch her, and setting out to follow her will be another ordeal in itself. I've gone to look upon the Red Pyramid once," he said in a low grumble. "I'll not go haring off again without much consideration."

Urgrim shivered, and took a sip of his drink to send a sort of warmth coursing back through his veins. "It just rankles me, to feel like we're on the back foot again, against whatever the Jackal's coven still plans. This time of year ... the Witching Night's been a foul occasion for the Reaches, these past few years. Can't help but feel we've not seen the end of all this yet."

[RossN]

Jarla, 8th Vorhexen

Jarla dropped a a schilling in the beggar's palm before setting off back to the keep. She'd have to check in on Mouna to make sure no problems had arisen that required her attention, then visit Irene to pay court to her mistress. After that she intended to follow up those actors Sieghard had mentioned.

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"His high and mightiness, weren't the prince when the orcs burned your brother's home," Sieghard said, "And the first thing he did when he entered these lands was butcher the green brutes who did it and hunt down the ones who fled. You're talking to the man who lopped the head off their leader."

He gave the man a moment to respond, then added.

"You can open the door for us and we can talk about the tax you owe like civilized folk or I can kick the door down. I'll give you to the count of ten to decide."

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Exhausted, but I'm back. I'll throw an untrained charm test at the first part about being the ones who dealt with the orcs. If that works, disregard the part after.

(1d100)[16] vs 27
(1d100)[83] Reroll

If that fails, intimidate for the ultimatum that he opens up or we open for him.

(1d100)[14] vs 71 (Menacing)

[LeSwordfish]

Ludo and Urgrim
Ludo didn't have anything to say in return to that, except to nod morosely.

Ludo and Elsa
"No time like the present," Ludo said grimly.

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Not sure how you want to play this but will let you take the lead. Ludo can Assist on any tests.

[LCP]

Jarla, 8th Vorhexen

Back at the castle, Jarla found that Mouna had kept the world below-stairs ticking along perfectly smoothly in her absence. Above-stairs, she'd barely had time to change out of her dusty riding-gear before Irene found her.

"Jarla, my dear," she said, "where have you been? I feel like I haven't seen you for days."

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I'm not intentionally trying to slow you down here, but when you say follow up with the actors, what do you mean by that exactly? Sieghard got word that they'd headed up to Alvarran right?

---

Sieghard, 12th Vorhexen

The man stepped back despite himself. He didn't appear to be armed, and even if he had been, his chances against Sieghard and the accompanying Thorns wouldn't have looked good.

"That how it is, then?" he said, still trying to put some challenge in his voice. "Give us what's yours or we'll take it anyway?" He spat into the corner. "You lot aren't no better than the orcs. At least the fish knight left us alone."

"If you've come here to rob me then it don't look like I can stop you. But I ain't going to help you, that's for sure."

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"The fish knight left the greenskins alone too. How well did that work out for your brother?" Sieghard replied, running out of patience. "It ain't theft, it's tax. It pays them-" he gestured to his men "-to kill orcs and worse so they aren't rampaging about the land butchering folk. Everyone else pays their share, you don't get special treatment."

"Start grabbing whatever looks like it'll cover what he owes," he told the Thorns. "If he doesn't want to pick and choose, I don't see why we should be any pickier." He turned back to the man. "Tax day is the first of the month and you'll bring what you owe to Painford. We ain't taking any more than that this time, but if we have to march out here to collect again, you'll be paying extra for my men's time. Understand?"

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So much for the charm attempt.