The PC's Arrive at the Trading Post

[Bella]

Date: Pharast 13, 4710 AR (Pharast = March)

The day’s high of 39 has past and the temperature is starting to get colder as afternoon turns to evening. The group’s legs ache from the second half of the days travel. The horses they had now seem like a luxury.

The weary group enters the trading post as the yellow sun turns orange. A middle-aged man hammers atop what appears to be a stable. A woman looks up as she stirs a pot hanging over an outdoor fire. The man on the roof looks at the party, shakes his head and hammers a few times before climbing down from the roof. He drops his hammer to the side of the building he was working on and wipes sweat from his brow. He then walks over to the party. The woman smiles and follows behind.

[Svetlana Leveton]

“You must be the rest of the group who dropped off the young lady.”

“See Oleg. You doubt too much!”

[ulf]

“Took three months for them to send the help they promised me.”

[Svetlana Leveton]

“Come on Oleg. Stop being so dour. You’ll make the guards feel unwelcome. They were sent to protect us."

"Don’t be so rude” she says as she puts her hand on his shoulder.

[Wedge]

If I have not done so at the time of the event, I will examine Pythia and question the rest of the party on the details in an attempt to identify what happened to her. My Knowledge (nature) and (arcana) are +9. I would also ask the Levetons if they know anything about Pythia's condition.

I will eventually want to question the Levetons about local conditions but want to help Pythia first and then get some rest.

[Bella]

Ooc: it would be a knowledge religion check. Also there is the fact fat the believe you we're sent to guard the fort which is very much not what the charter dictates. The patrol accomanying pythia was also supposed to head back in the morning. Your characters dont know this fact but what happened to her was the gods choosing her to become an oracle as described in the class summary.

The religion check would be rather high as the effects of what happened have not been witnessed by the group at this time.

Let me know if you do any thing with the knowledge that you are not here for the reason they think. They were expecting the pc's but they are expexting you to stay put and guard the fort.

Also let me know if you want to inspect pythia before you clear things up (if at all). It is obvious Oleg is unhappy it took so long to send help.

[Wakko]

"Got anything to drink around this place?"

[Wedge]

“Come on Oleg. Stop being so dour. You’ll make the guards feel unwelcome. They were sent to protect us."

"Don’t be so rude” she says as she puts her hand on his shoulder.

"Protect you from what? Are you expecting an attack from a specific source? If so please give us any details you know."

[ulf]

“From the bandits that steal all my supplies and harass everyone who lives in the Greenbelt. I knew they would send anyone” Oleg yells as he lets loose a string of curses and walks off.

[Svetlana Leveton]

“Oleg” Svetlana yells as she watches him sulk off.

“Please excuse my husband” she says as she starts to nervously wring her hands. We can’t financially hold off much longer. The bandits have taken everything from us for the last three months. I’m afraid he might do something careless if we don’t get help soon. “

She motions over to the tables close to the pot. “We were given word that you were coming. We just assumed you were here to protect the trading post. I cooked enough for all of us. Please join us. You can wash up and check on your companion in the house. It’s also warmer by the fire. “

[Wedge]

"Our charter commands us to rid this area of banditry and we shall do so. Now please tell us all you know about these bandits. How many? How armed? Any spell casters? How do they operate? Do they sneak in or attach openly? Do they take everything even if that will cause the folks being robbed to starve or do they leave enough to get by? Do they raid on any particular schedule or randomly? How are they organized? One group or several? Do you know where they are?"

[Svetlana Leveton]

Svetlana pours each party member a bowl of hot stew, making sure to keep a nice distance between her and the ranger’s cheetah companion.

As she speaks to the party, Oleg walks from the house after cleaning himself up. He sits down to eat, but says nothing.

“That’s a lot of questions. I will do my best to answer them all. Take no offense if I forget one.” She sits down and hands out some bread to the group. As she speaks, Oleg occasionally glances at her out of the corner of his eye.

“The bandits arrive like clockwork within an hour after sunrise on the 14th of the month. “ She glances up and nods. “Yes that’s tomorrow.” She takes a bit of food before continuing. When they first came the only ones here were Oleg, myself and a hunter who had been injured while hunting Tuskgutter.”

She dips her bread in the stew and lets it soak up some of the juice before she continues.

“They come from the west. I don’t know where there camp is located but it is probably no more than a day’s travel by horseback. The most likely hide in the Narlmarches. “

“The first time they came….” she pauses as she shakes her head. “I thought they would kill us. There were at least a dozen of them. Ten of them were just thugs. They were led by a cloaked man armed with a bow and a woman with two hatchets. The woman did most of the talking. She is also by far the smartest most dangerous of the group.”


She pales as she stares into her food. “She spoke of the things she and the men would do to me in we didn’t pay the “taxes” they were there to collect. When Oleg objected, she grabbed his arm and was going to chop his hand off. I begged her to stop. She laughed and ordered her men to take my wedding ring as a gift for not shortening his reach. They took all of the items we were going to trade. They told us to have the taxes ready for them next time. “


She points to a bundle lying by the house. “That is the taxes they will come for in the morning. The second time they came, only the hooded man and eight men came. The third visit it was only him and six men. I have never witnessed one of them cast a spell, but I cannot say that non of them could. I’m sorry I don’t know more about that.”

[Wakko]

"We should set an ambush if we can" mutters Kyras. "Do you have a bow I can use? I was not able to afford one when I mustered out. All I got is this sling, which I can use okay."

[ulf]

"If your really going to take on the bandits, there is one shortbow in the sack over there you can borrow. It's not the best, but it works. If you want to ambush them, your welcome to use the trading post to your advantage."

(OOC): the image of the trading post is in the files section.

[Specs]

"Well if we are lucky and they do not have any casters with them, we should be able to take them down fairly quickly. The only question I have is do we have any way to incapacitate any of them without killing them in order to extract any information on their cohorts and their hideout? And do we have the manpower to take down the hideout before they have a chance to prepare their forces for an assault?"

[Wakko]

After dinner, I test the pull on the short bow. If it's just a normal short bow, not composite, I might only use it for distance. Unless someone else needs a distance weapon.

[ulf]

"If you want one alive, make em bleed less" he says with a snort.

"As to taking there camp... Im not sure. You kids seem capable, but you don't have knowledge of the area like they do nor the numbers. If something happens to the group dimming tommorrow, it would probably be a week or two before they investigate. I'll hang the bodies over the side a few days. That would make em worry a few more days at least. Im not comfortable leaving the post undefended when you leave, but if you can at least take out the group in the morning, that would be a good start."

[Svetlana Leveton]

"Oleg. I don't want bodies hanging on the walls. It will atract bugs. It's also disgusting."

[ulf]

"They deserve nothing better. Maybe it will give the rest pause before coming here and starting trouble.

[Bella]

Normal short bow. You can use it in your ambush. We will see after that.

[ulf]

"If you really want to ambush the lot, they appear the be the the most open when they are loading up their horses with my stuff."

[Bo steal]

"You don't have to worry about me. They will never know I'm here. But I can't promise not to kill my mark on the first shot. It's what I do".

(Ooc) elven sniper

[Wakko]

Do the catapults work? Or are they just for show? Does the gate lock?

[ulf]

"The trading post used to be an outpost a while ago. The catipults are from that time. The don't work. It would take a lot of time and knowledge to repair them safely. The gates lock, but if the group coming in the morning are locked out, it would be unusual and you may loose any element of surprise. Plus the walls are wood. They would have no problem burning us alive."

[Wedge]

"I have a spell that should disable our opponents for a short while 3-12 rounds. It has several drawbacks: it could be resisted by those with strong willpower making, it is more effective against the less powerful, and it has a rather limited range. We should try to get the bandits positioned so that I can get most of weaker ones."

I would describe the spells' effects:Color-Spray

"The other spell I would recommend would enlarge one of the fighters, giving him more killing power albeit at the expense of protection. We should make sure that none of the bandits escape to warn their comrades."

OOC: might be better planning this ambush in person when we have a map to point to ...

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