Meeting the Mercenaries
As the characters approached the fort, they were stopped by some of the armed men, who asked them what their business was at the fort. When told that the characters were possible future employers, the soldiers took the group to meet their leader, "Captain" Wesley.
Wesley's tent was easy to find, as it was the best of the whole camp and had two guards at its entrance. As they approached, the characters heard giggles and laughter. They introduced themselves to the guards, who called out their presence to the occupants of the tent. A few minutes later, a middle-aged bald man sporting a big mustache came out of the tent, with a sensuous young woman of long silky black hair by his arm. He presented himself as "Captain" Wesley, leader of the Foolhardy Wolverines, and the young woman as Lily Teskertin.
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| "Captain" Wesley |
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| Lily Teskertin |
Cardot, who was wearing now his best tunic to impress, immediately started talking with the lady and seemed to forget the leader of the mercenaries... apparently he had missed the advantages of civilization during the long trip in the wilds. Lily Teskertin seemed to enjoy his conversation, and proved to be interested in his travels... apparently she was a bit of an scholar, and asked Cardot questions about different topics.
"Captain" Wesley did not seem bothered by Cardot's behavior (he even smiled when Cardot replied to the nicknames he used to name them by calling him every now and then as "Sergeant" Wesley) and started talking with the rest of the group. He said he had been waiting to meet the adventurers, explained that he had received an offer of employment by the Stag Lord and by a strange gnome of difficult name (Kii's cousin) and that he was interested in the offer, if the pay was good and the prospective employers worthy. Kii answered that they were tired from their exploration trip in the Narlmarches, so they agreed on meeting the following day in the fort.
The "Rushlight" Tournament
The following morning, the PCs met with the mercenary leader and some of his mercenaries. Wesley told them that before offering his service to a prospective employer, he always wanted to make sure of their worth. He had served with success in Mivon and Galt (his country of origin, and where his family and children were living), and he would not offer the support of his mercenary band to anyone, specially as it seemed the land in the area seemed empty and ready for the taking...
As he was a fan of the Rushlight Tournament that King Irovetti organized every year in Pitax, Wesley proposed each of the characters to have a small contest with some of his best men, so that he could see the material they were made of. At the beginning, the characters were not very happy to feel themselves tested by a newcomer, but Wesley and his little army could prove dangerous if left free, so they decided to comply.
Am tied in the archery contest with the Foolhardy's Sharpshooter, "Eagle Eye" Jones. Gam'el'Gar was able to beat the brawny "Big Bear" Carla at the log axing contest by a smart use of his abilities, because Carla proved to be the stronger lumberjack. Kii surprised the "Captain" by solving four riddles posed to him; specially the last one was quite devious. In the last contest, several soldiers, Am and Cardot participated in a drinking contest. After drinking 10 flagons of ale, the contestants had to run a course filled with obstacles... Am, even though he ended up quite drunk, managed to finish first, but more importantly, Cardot beat "I saw it" Jack in the race, even though he fell several times to the ground and took a bit more time than needed to clamber up a knotted rope made very slippery after so much ale...
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| The Archery Contest |
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| The Fourth Riddle |
All in all, everybody had much fun and "Captain" Wesley was impressed enough to offer more soldiers for the same salary. After some more negotiations, "Captain" Wesley agreed that the Foolhardy Wolverines would maintain a contingent of 35 to 40 men at all times, in exchange for 500gp per month. Most of them would stay in the fort until further notice, but they were also charged with patrolling the area where they had found the gold mine and scare away any prospectors that they saw.
That night almost everybody got quite drunk, but Dovan and the other bandit prisoners could not escape because Kii made sure they knew he would be observing them the whole night.
Back to Oleg's Trading Post
The following morning, the PCs set out with the Kobolds, some of the mercenaries and several wagons transporting the bandit prisoners, the Tatzlwyrm heads, the Stag Lord's body and part of the loot the bandits had stored in the Stag Lord's fort.
They took the opportunity to explore the area along the Shrike River as they made their way to Davik Nettle's Crossing and also spend some time meeting Chief Sootscale and supervising the kobolds' silver mine; apparently they had been making good progress and some of the kobolds had even started wearing "human" clothes, although they still were very undisciplined and their mining techniques rudimentary.
At Davik Nettle's Crossing, the characters threw the Stag Lord's body to the river. They saw the ghostly apparition of Davik embracing the corpse and felt an explosion of ectoplasmic energy course through their bodies, and an almost imperceptible sigh... then the ghost looked at them and grinned with its horrendous toothless mouth before disappearing in the river, hopefully forever... Moments later, Davik's ranseur washed up onto the shore at the characters' feet, a final gift from the ghost.
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| Davik Nettles |
Their arrival at Oleg's was quite the event in the area. The rumor that they had defeated the Stag Lord had already reached the trading post, and many people wanted to see the adventurers who had rid the area of its banditry problem, even if only temporarily. They cheered and greeted the adventurers as heroes and many of them expressed personally their gratitude during the following hours.
Svetlana was happy to see the adventurers again, and even Oleg smiled a bit when he saw the Tatzlwyrms' heads. Kesten Garess seemed also to be lifted from his morose mood when Falgrim Sneeg descended from one of the wagons. The captured bandits were all escorted to the storage pen at Oleg's, to await trial. As they were pushed into the storage hut, most of the merchants and trappers booed them and some even threw them rotten vegetables.
An invitation by the Aldori Swordlords of Restov
Finally, an agent of Restov's swordlords, Lorin Kaven, was also waiting for them at Oleg's. He had been sent to confirm the death of the infamous bandit. After the characters showed him the head, he considered that, together with the obvious reduction in banditry attacks of the past weeks, the characters had indeed satisfactorily completed the task set to them by Restov.
He handed them the promised money reward and told them that they were expected in Restov at the Academy of Aldori Fencing in one week. There they should ask for Tamarie Echoes. He also advised them not to be too conspicuous while in Restov; there was no need to be extremely secretive, but it would be better for all those involved if the group did not attract too much attention while in Restov.
XP:
- 400 (participating in "Captain" Wesley contest)
- 400 (hiring the Foolhardy Wolverines)
- 100 (exploring the Sootscale Cavern hex)
- 100 (exploring the River Crossing hex)
- 400 (solving Davik Nettle's haunt by throwing the Stag Lord's body to the river)
- 400 (defeating the Stag Lord and reducing the banditry activity in the area)
- 400 (giving the Tatzlwyrms' heads to Oleg)
- 100 (exploring Oleg's Trading Post hex)
Total this session: 2,300XP
Total campaign: 34,675XP
Loot:
- ranseur +1 (washed ashore at Davik Nettle's Crossing after the characters threw the Stag Lord's body to the river).
- 5,000gp (reward for slaying the Stag Lord).
- 600gp (given by Oleg for the Tatzlwyrms' heads).
- A document signed by Kesten Garess offering four masterwork weapons of the characters' choice for delivering Falgrim Sneeg alive. The weapons must be ordered and collected at one of the best smith in Restov, an old friend of Kesten.
Spent:
- 500gp (1 month salary for the Foolhardy Wolverines).
Time Passed:
- 6,5 days.
The time now is 12th Desnus (May), at noon. The group is at Oleg's Trading Post.
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