Once in complete control of the fort, the characters decided to wait until the mercenaries that the Stag Lord had tried to gain for his cause arrived. Kii had sent a letter to his cousin in Jovvox so that, just before departing, he would tell the mercenaries that the Stag Lord was no longer in possession of the fort, but that nevertheless they would still be offered mercenary job by the new owners, the characters, as soon as they arrived. Also, they did not want to leave Akiros alone with Dovan and Falgrim Sneeg before they fully trusted him and had some other guards to help him with the prisoners.
Interrogating the bandits
Several days passed uneventfully and the adventurers used the long hours to rest, recover from their wounds, explore the area surrounding the fort and interrogated the captured bandits. Cardot used a Zone of Truth to interrogate them, to make sure they did not lie.
When told about the reward that Kesten Garess had offered for him, Falgrim Sneeg said that he had repented of his banditry ways and begged not to be handed over to Kesten. He said he had not killed anyone. His crime had been posing as a guide to some prospectors from Restov and stealing their horses and money during the night leaving them stranded in the middle of the Kamelands. One of the prospectors had been a nephew of Kesten, and when the group of prospectors became lost in the wild, he had fallen in a gully and broken his neck. He was very sorry for what happened to the nephew, as his intention was only getting horses and enough money to travel to Pitax, where he wanted to start a new life, but he was robbed by a group of the Stag Lord's men and worked as a guard in the fort in fear of being murdered if he did not comply with his orders... When questioned about Dovan, he confirmed Akiros stories: Dovan was a creepy sick torturer and enjoyed having his way with the prisoners the bandits captured to be ransomed, to the point that he had "accidentally" killed several of them, something that had angered Akiros... the Stag Lord was too occupied getting drunk to care much about some murdered prisoners.
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| Falgrim Sneeg - taken from Kingmaker Paper Minis |
At the beginning, Dovan tried to resist the Zone of Truth when he was interrogated by Cardot, but he finally confessed that he had enjoyed having his way with some of the prisoners, specially with a certain blonde that was accompanying a merchant. He said his only regret was not having fled the fort when the characters proved they had the upper hand. He begged also for being freed, but while in the Zone of Truth, he could not explain why.
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| Dovan from Nisroch - taken from Kingmaker Paper Minis |
One night, Cardot had a quiet conversation with Akiros with some wine. The man was obviously troubled by his past. He told him that he had been a paladin of Erastil in Taldor, far to the west, just what his parents had always wanted for him when he was a kid. Sadly, he had an affair that had turned sour, although he did not develop this part of his story, and he had run away. In his travels, he had met the Stag Lord and decided to join his band of misfits, as he also believed himself to be one.
Soon he came to regret his decision, as many of the bandits proved crueler than necessary, specially Dovan. He had been waiting for an opportunity to redeem his many past transgressions and thanked Cardot and the group for giving him such an opportunity. He was sure he would never be able to feel proud for what he had done in Taldor, but maybe he would be able to find sense in life by helping tame the wild Stolen Lands.
About the Stag Lord, Akiros said that when he arrived at the fort, the Stag Lord already had his helm. Some of the older bandits told him that he had found it a year before in an ancient Iobarian tower somewhere near the Tuskwater Lake (this is the lake near the fort). They also told Akiros that the Stag Lord had visited the tower after receiving some strange dreams from an extremely beautiful woman... After some of his drunken stupors, the Stag Lord would order the bandits around him to prepare for certain events, with an uncanny ability to detect certain threats to the bandits... He would mumble something about proving himself worthy to the beautiful woman in his Dreams and that she would be his Queen when he carved a kingdom out of the Stolen Lands.
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| Akiros Ismort - taken from Kingmaker Paper Minis |
Unexpected visitors
The group had left some of the kobolds to man the towers, but they had fallen asleep, so they were surprised by some loud bangs at the gates requesting entry. It was a group of five bandits who had come back to the fort with some stolen goods, apparently oblivious to the fact that the Stag Lord was no longer in command.
After a short combat, Akiros convinced the bandits to surrender themselves to the group. He said that, out of the five, three could be employed as guards, as they were only people fallen into banditry due to bad luck, but that the other two should be sent to Restov for trial.
The Trapped Thylacine
Now trusting Akiros, the group decided he had enough help and left him with the three new guards, Mikmek and four kobolds while they sent the other four kobolds back to the Sootscale Caverns.
They then departed the fort to explore the western area which their charter ordered them to map. They had also heard rumors that that would be also the region to find the Tatzlwyrms.
While they explored an area of forest to the north of the fort, they heard a series of quick, yipping barks come from a clearing. They approached the noises to find an open pit, once covered with branches, and now occupied by a hungry and aggressive Thylacine. Gam'el'gar offered food to the creature and calmed it as much as he could; the group then helped place some fallen logs and branches in the pit, and after a couple hours of hard work, the animal finally escaped from the pit. When offered food again by Gam'el'gar it approached him warily and cautiously gobbled everything that was given to him... after some minutes, the animal turned and trotted away, giving a final quick glance over its shoulder to the elven ranger.
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| Thylacine - taken from Kingmaker Paper Minis |
(to be continued)
XP:
- 100 (exploring the Stag Lord's fort hex)
- 100 (exploring the Trapped Thylacine hex)
- 250 (employing some of the bandits as guards)
- 600 (freeing the Trapped Thylacine)
Total this session: 1,050XP
Total campaign: 29,575XP
Loot:
- 100 gp in assorted coins (approximately 40gp, 500sp and 1000cp)
- trade goods, miscellaneous adventuring gear and tools. Its value is not enough to make an extra BP, but they complete the almost 2 Building Points found in the fort's cellar.
Time Passed:
- 7,5 days.
The time now is 30th Gozran (April), in the evening. The group is camped near the pit where they found the Thylacine.
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