Hunting Bandits

[BSF]

This includes a brief summary of some events that happened after Sage left.

Lord Tannerson assured that everyone serving him as assigned by the Magistrate, was able to train to some degree. Obviously, the easiest people for him to arrange training for were Ayla and Ceru. Keldorn and Oceas are problematic for differing reasons.

Tormal and Felix have agreed to serve Lord Tannerson, so he needs to make sure he receives at least 100 gp worth of service out of them for the next year. Lord Tannerson did give Felix an opportunity to show off his craft skills. Felix ended up crafting a nice rapier.

Li has offered his services as a Samurai, which is a little odd, but Lord Tannerson is taking it under consideration. In the interim, he has asked Li to serve as the leader of this little band.

Deborah has travelled down to Stormhaven and back. She is currently in Greerson, but she is not in Lord Tannerson's service, so it is unclear if she will be joining you in the future.

*****

Lord Tannerson has notified Li that he will be sending everyone out to track down the bandits that have been causing problems on the trade roads. He really doesn't expect that you will encounter any problems within his immediate domain (within the first 20 miles of the East gate), but after that you should be prepared for almost anything. Lord Tannerson checked with everyone to see if there was a need for any basic equipment. If I recall correctly, Ayla ended up with 2 score more arrows (That's 40 arrows), and Ceru ended up with some armor and a spear. It doesn't appear that most of you are competent riders, so he is not supplying horses. They would probably get more in your way than anything else and he is not quite willing to put valuable horses into your hands yet.

Li, Lord Tannerson is leaving the departure time up to you. Overall, the group has good survival skills, but Oceas has requested trail rations for emergencies. Lord Tannerson agrees with the wisdom of this, but it will be up to you to determine who carries them. Lord Tannerson is also supplying a dozen waterskins in case you need them. If there is anything else that you need, please let Lord Tannerson know.

(And if you are ready to depart before Friday night, that's great! I can get some of the narration out of the way.)

 

[Macbeth]

Li has offered his services as a Samurai, which is a little odd, but Lord Tannerson is taking it under consideration. In the interim, he has asked Li to serve as the leader of this little band.

Yeah, I had originally ment to offer the service someimte over the year while everybody else was serving, but we had a bit of a misunderdstanding, and started treating things as if Li had immediately offered his services, and I realized that having Li offer his service a little to early would actually fit with his new found want to return to the samurai tradition. I'm glad I went with having Li be a little over anxious to enter the service of Lord Tannerson, because it's helped keep him active in current events, and kept the group together.

As far as departure time, I would depart as soon as everybody is well equiped. As soon as we have equipment, Li will ask that each person take four trail rations, unless they are already heavily burdened (in game terms, over a light load). He carefully explains that "These rations are for the group, and for emergencies only. Please do not eat them without consulting with the group first."

Water skins will also be evenly distributed between everybody, with exceptions made for medium or higher loads.

Li will also ask Lord Tannerson for some type of identification, some way to prove we are duly appointed to hunt these bandits. Unless everybody has been issued clothes with the device of the gaurd, we will need to prove who we are, and anything that Lord Tannerson can give that proves we have authority (a signed letter, some type of banner, some piece of clothing or jewelery, whatever identifies an officer of Greerson) would be fine.

For the first 20 miles of the journey, Li will let everybody travel as they wish, without enforcing his authority except to make sure everybody stays within sight while they travel.

And I think that sets us up to get some narration out of the way. This Friday should be fun. I know Keldorn's itching for combat, and Li's blade could use some action too. It's been nice roleplaying without combat for the last couple of sessions, but it'll also be nice to see some combat.

 

[BSF]

Hmm, identification would probably be in order. OK, tabards for everyone with the Oak Leaf of Greerson blazoned on them. You will all be expected to wear them while on duty.

 

[Macbeth]

Sounds good. Li will try wear his proudly of course, and make sure everybodies is visible at all times. We don't want Keldorn to accidentally kill one of our own do we?

 

[injuredwyvern]

Ceru is fine with the tabbard too. I just remembered - Ceru has 2 charms of cure light wounds. These are tied to the top of his back pole and can be pulled off quickly. Heads up Oceaus, you are able to use these too, but they won't work for anyone else in the party.

As far as the rations go Sage, you might have already left the other night when we had the encumberance discussion. I, for one, am quite close to maxed out on my light load (stupid sling bullets). I think Keldorn is close too, but I don't know about everyone else.

 

[Macbeth]

Thats cool. If everybody could post their encumberence, so we have a general idea where rations need to go, that'd be great. Li can carry quite a few, he isn't carrying much, but I need to look at his character sheet to see exactly how much more he can carry. I'll post my encumberence later, and it would be great if everybody could do the same.

 

[Macbeth]

Well, Li's carrying 22 pounds at present, but I realized I'm using the weight of a greatsword instead of the weight of a naganaki. How much does a naganaki weigh?

Assuming a naganaki wieghs about the same amount as a greatsword, Li can carry another 54 pounds and still have a light load. This is more then enough carrying capacity to carry all of the rations if needed, but he will need something to carry them in. If possible we should split up that rations more equally, in case we get split up, but if worst comes to worst, Li can carry them all.

 

[Tormal]

Just before the group departs, after he has completed his training, you notice a few minor but interesting changes Tormal has gone through. Instead of continuely wearing his longcoat he only wears it when the weather demands it, or when he sleeps. Instead, he wears a sleevless shirt, the tabbard, and pants with the woven sash. It seems he removed the sleeves from the shirts he had before. Although you noticed it before, you can better see the emblem on the back of his shirt. You take greater notice to the sash as well. A black cloth sash with a picture of a wolf's head woven into the front. Lightly on the edges of the sash and the pupils of the wolf, there is a golden trim. Just on the top of the sash, before it is tucked away, you can see sewn into the sash in gold lettering, is "Olfen Dahr". He no longer wears his hat, you can see no trace of it and more of his short brown hair. Finally, he now has cloth wraps that he keeps around his hands like gloves. He still wears the pants and boots he used to and, like always, has a quarterstaff by his side.

If anyone was to ask why, Tormal would simply answer "I can move better!"

Tormal seems pretty excited to go on this mission. He has been a bit bored as of late and wants to see some excitment... but he does warn that the group should avoid unecessarry conflict. He tells the group that he has learned some new stuff, however, and if need be he is probably a bit more assistance then he has been. When Li asks the group to take food, Tormal claims he wouldn't be hindered by four of them or maybe a couple more... but he doesn't want to hold more then that because "it gets in the way."

 

[Kultar]

I think keldorn is just a few pounds under medium. I cant seem to find his character sheet right now so im not positive about his weight but I know its close to medium.

 

[BSF]

Back to the bandits and the one human you managed to capture...

You captive, wrapped in canvas, leads you north away from the road. He has to pause a few times to orient himself and you are not convinced that this guy is the smartest person you have met. After an hour and a half, he finally leads you up to the base of a rocky cliff. There are boulders and rocks of assorted sizes strewn about the bottom of the cliff and he walks east for a short distance. Finally he stops and gestures with his head toward a low rock wall between some of the boulders with some canvas over it.

"That there's our camp. 'Cept fer the hobgolins. We don't share no camp wit dem. Dey is a little bit down the hill." He gestures with his head and you can see a spot where several trees have been cut down and laid out as another wall. Canvas too covers this area. "Dey sometimes liked to eat different from us, know what I mean?" The man looks somewhat sick.

(OOC: I will assume that you will be searching the camps, so I will skip to that part right now. Feel free to ask questions, etc.)

Searching the boulder camp, you can see a fire pit and places where several people slept. One area is set off from the rest and your prisoner confirms "da boss slept der."

The hobgoblin camp below has several sleeping areas, with one set off from the others. There is a very large firepit and you can see a few humanoid skulls tossed in with the burned wood.

All told, looking through the camps, you can gather together the following items.

16 barrels of ale
12 empty barrels
1 barrel of rum
20 bottles of assorted wines
4 empty bottles
3 bolts of canvas
about 7 bolts worth of weathered canvas used to protect the camps from the elements
1 bolt of velvet
48 pints of oil
12 small steel mirrors
50 pounds of scented soap
1 spool of hemp rope (1000')
1 Merchants scale
2 drums
30 winter blankets (16 are used)
4 block & tackle
12 5 lb ingots of iron
1 crowbar
3 empty chests
6 hooded lanterns.
1 12' x 4' tapestry of a small lake, surrounded by trees, abuting a cliff with several small streams cascading into it
1 3' x 8' tapestry of a stately woman with a flaming longsword, a morningstar and a bright glow for a head. Oceas thinks this is likely to be Belmay.

There is evidence of more stuff, but it is all broken or vandalized.