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.

Davik Nettle's Diary/Ledger. Info 2

The ledger continues with Davik detailing the comings and goings of many merchants and trappers. They were all happy to be able to easily cross the Shrike River, making the journey to Jovvox and Taldor much easier. Davik made even more money than expected, as news of his bridge reached the right ears in both Brevoy and Jovvox, so he calculated he would be able to fully pay back his investors in a bit less than 2 years, instead of the three he had first calculated. He goes on detailing the names of the members of the Restov Merchants Guild that had invested in the bridge.

Davik got once into a verbal fight with the trapper Breeg Orlivanch, as he was a miser and always haggled the fee to use the bridge. After that fight, Breeg told him he would never use his bridge again, and some trappers told him that he had moved his hunting area to the northern Narlmarches.

A bit more than a year ago, the merchant Rufus Seadwell told him that he had seen a group of Kobolds move into an abandoned mine to the southwest of the bridge. Davik shows some sign of worry in this part of the diary but soon is relieved after some other merchants told him that they had seen some signs of skirmishes between them and the Mite tribe that inhabited the Old Sycamore tree. According to the stories told to him by other trappers and merchants, Taldan colonists once made an attempt to settle in the Stolen Lands. They failed, but not for lack of resources. There’s supposedly some old and abandoned mines somewhere in the Kamelands, and Davik was making plans on investigating and possibly developing these mines.

About a year ago, more and more merchants and trappers started reporting an increase in bandit attacks. He explained Davik that a group of evil monks and priests of a lesser-known goddess of hatred, extortion, and spite had once dwelt on the northern shore of the Tuskwater to the south and that he was convinced they were the cause behind the sudden rise in banditry!

Also a year ago, another trapper named Timitius Bandy had paid him with an ancient medallion he said he had found in a battle sight near the western edge of the Narlmarches. He was happy to accept it, as soon after a travelling Pathfinder named Ollix Kaddar had paid him a good sum of money for the medallion and offered him to buy any other medallion he could find. He even said that he would try to organise an archeology expedition to find such a site, as he was sure the medallion was a relic from the ancient Barbarian Lords of Numeria.

Davik Nettle's Diary/Ledger. Info 1

From what he writes at the beginning of the book, Davik was an engineer from Restov (remember Brevoy is mainly the union of two kingdoms, you can check it in the blog). Some years ago, he was contacted by a group of Restov merchants who wanted to increase the trade with the kingdom of Galt (to the south of the Stolen Lands). The only bridge crossing the Shrike River was in Mivon, one of the River Kingdoms, and the tolls to cross that bridge (and the danger of having to cross the Narlmarches wood to reach it) were too high. They convinced Davik to build the bridge and paid for the expenses. 

Davik did not intend to stay in the area, but in the process of building the bridge he developed a liking for the rugged beauty of the Kamelands (the hills just to the southwest of Brevoy that the Shrike River crosses) and decided to stay as toll master when the construction workers left. As he had enough money and received a nice bonus from the Restov Merchants Guild, he kept the tolls low. 

One of the first persons to use the bridge two years ago was Nugrah, a strange mendicant druid of Gozreh who was travelling with a teenage boy of 17 or so. The boy had scar marks in his face, as if he had been burnt in a fire, and the druid did not treat him well, as he was constantly hitting him in the back of the head and calling him names. Davik asked the druid to stop manhandling the boy, but the man told him to mind his business, as "his son was a lazy boy and a retard and needs to be taught discipline if I have to make a man out of him".