Sunday, January 15, 2012

Davik Nettle's Diary/Ledger. Info 3

The ledger continues with Davik seeing increasing travel across his bridge. Apparently, the boggard tribes of the East Sellen River (a river going through Lake Hooktongue and the Hooktongue Slough, west of the Narlmarches) had been more active of late and were increasing their raids on the merchants travelling between Brevoy and the River Kingdoms.

This meant that increasingly more merchants were using the Shrike River instead of the East Sellen River. Davik was thrilled! At this rate of business, he would soon repay his debts and would be able improve the bridge... maybe even attract more people and fund a small village!

Soon though, the bandit activity in the area increased even more. The merchants still favored Davik's bridge, as the route was still safer now than Lake Hooktongue (if bad luck brought an attack, better to be robbed and beaten by bandits but retain life, than captured and eaten by boggards), but more and more merchants and trappers were expressing their frustration at the situation.

The ledger continues for 6 months or so, detailing many name of merchants, trappers and even adventurers. He also describes the visit of some agents of Brevoy. They did not say much, but apparently they were exploring the area with eyes on expansion of the kingdom (Davik notes in his diary that he knew from his parents that there had been at least one attempt in the past by Brevoy to claim these lands). Davik requested that Restov should send some guards to patrol the area and get rid of the bandits. The agents said they took note but could not promise anything.

A week before the last entry in the ledgers, Davik received the visit of some dangerous men. They told him he was now under the "protection" of the Stag Lord, the new ruler of these lands. They explained him with all sorts of menaces that he would have to pay taxes, 10gp a day, if he wanted to keep using the bridge, and that they would come back every month to collect the taxes. Davik was infuriated by their demands and their extortion attempt and set his hounds on the bandits. The cowards ran away, and Davik enjoyed that night a nice cup of wine with his trout stew to celebrate that he had valiantly defended his prized bridge...

The ledger continues for another week, in which the activity was normal (between one and three travelers per day) before abruptly stopping.

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