Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 9456826" data-attributes="member: 6696971">XP/LOOT* 1404/4 = 351 xp apiece.* One character gains a level 8 or lower magic item.[HR][/HR]Keep in mind when you read the below that the PCs won the last conflict. So that cements that Johan 100 % didn’t set up the caravan or facilitate the bandit attack. He’s absolutely innocent of that particular charge.[HR][/HR]A little ways down the trail to the south, Nimozaran sits atop Hat Eater, speaking quiet, inscrutable utterances in the alien form of communication known as Deep Speech while the horse absently hoofs the ground and chuffs.  Below them Johan kneels over the boy, inspecting his chest wound recently dressed by Lief.  But its more than that.  The boy's left upper arm is fully exposed, revealing an amateurishly rendered tattoo of a person tilling soil and an angel emerging from the row as it ascends skyward.  Johan has his thick coat off as well as the jerkin underneath, tearing the latter into pieces to create a makeshift sling for the boy as he has a secondary, non-life threatening, injury of an injured clavicle (its a miracle he could even hoist the crossbow he had in his possession).  With Johan's upper body fully bare, one can clearly make out the same tattoo on the upper left arm of the young man.The boy briefly comes to and groans, but offers a smile of solace when he sees who kneels over him.  "...Johan," he meekly says.  In return, Johan cradles him gently.  "I'm here, Alvi...its ok...you're going to be alright.  Rest."The boy, Alvi presumably, falls into slumber.Johan, detecting the crowd gathered around him at this point, speaks over his shoulder in an assertive, leader-like tone unlike his typical affectation; "if you give me the horse, I can take him back to Fallcrest.  Ressilmae Starlight of Moonsong Temple, should you know him, is both wise and compassionate.  He has cared for us (he clearly says 'us') in the past.  I believe he will help Alvi."He nestles the boy's head on Johan's own pack and stands.  "I promise to make haste and return to you swiftly.  Make clear your trail into the wild and I will follow it.  I swear it.  I owe you.  Deeply.  For multiple things now.  I will not abandon that debt."[HR][/HR]Lets let this develop and see where this goes.  What does each participant say (with the background of Hat Eater chuffing and hoofing, crickets in the bush now making racket, and Nimozaran mumbling in Deep Speech to the night)?[HR][/HR]LIEFLief comes close, ostensibly to look at the boy's condition, but when he turns his face it's inches from Johan's."You need to answer some questions, I think." He holds up one clawed finger. "How in the world are we to believe you aren't working with these killers." A second finger. "And what is this faith you two share?"[HR][/HR]JOHANWhether its shame, exhaustion, or something else, he doesn't meet Lief's gaze.  "I don't believe you're from Fallcrest, at least not past-wise...like two, three, four years back?"He cranes his neck toward Vorn's position but, again, doesn't make eye contact.  "But you are...and you know things...and people.  Do you remember what used to be Old Man Miller's Farm east of Fallcrest's Wizard's Gate?  Few miles out I reckon?[HR][/HR]VORN"I know it, yes," Vorn ansers, his eyes narrowed. "Grim business."He looks to Lief. "Old Man Miller, along with his family and his farmhands, were all found butchered. No one knows why or by whom... there didn't seem to be any motive. Nothing was stolen, the farm and its crops were left untouched. Folks have said it was some kind of sorcery... some fell ritual or conjuring. But no one knows. Since then, the farm has been abandoned to fall into ruin. No one wanted to assume ownership of such a place. Most folk think it's cursed, or haunted."He turns back to Johan. "I'm not sure what this has to do with banditry... but you're obviously connected to this boy. And yet I don't think you're in league with the bandits. I want the boy to get help... but you need to explain yourself." [HR][/HR]JOHAN"Ok.  So you do know.  Well, do you know about this?Alvi and I were two of those farmhands.  Hell, the whole lot of 'em who turned bandits now were.  Old Man Miller took on a lot of kids without homes in Fallcrest.  Said 'if you work me three good years, son...I'll see you on your way.  You'll learn a lot of skills and I'll take a good chunk of what you created in coin as a nestegg for your future.' That's what he said.  And he held true to it.  So many kids went through there with nuthin.  Came out three years later with hope...with prospects...with a future."He now makes eye contact with Lief, Vorn, Starn."Like you said it.  Somethin' terrible happened on that farm.  We saw it.  We tried to get Lord and Lady Markelhay to do something.  Avenge our lost.  Avenge Old Man Miller.  Reimburse us for the work that he could no longer reimburse us for."He looks hard now."What do you think they did?"[HR][/HR]LIEFLief doesn't like this implied slander of the Markelhays, people who, while worldly and fallen, showed real bravery in their dealings with Kamroth."We are all of us weak. Please continue with your story, not the Lord and Lady's."[HR][/HR]STARNStarn interjects; "The Markelhays are good people, but there are many demands on them. Here, I will write you a letter. Take it to the Lady, she will be favourably disposed. You can mention us to the priest, Starlight, as well, we are well acquainted."To the others; "Regardless of the past, it's obvious the innocent must have care, which we are in a position to give. So, yes, ride back to Fallcrest. Return to the caravan camp as soon as possible. It may take us some time to track down the others, but we will at least get their story, if they are willing to talk. Perhaps some good may still come of this mess."Turning back to the boy, Starn asks the other pressing question; "Who is the woman on the horse who was determined to hang you?" Starn deliberately omits any indication he knows she is a shape changer.[HR][/HR]JOHAN (to Lief)"Its told, mostly.  Amros Kamroth bought out nearly every other farm save for Old Man Miller's.  They were all expert-like.  Weren't taking on any hands like us orphans in exchange for skills and future pay.So most of us had nothing at that point...down months or years of work with no return on it...with no help from nowhere...with no prospects.I tried to convince everyone to join me volunteering for Fallcrest's militia.  'Tried.'  Well, in the end...they went their way...I went my way.  They were kids...I mean, they are kids.  But now they're killers and thieves...angry at the world and bent on carving something back and surviving, I guess?"He nods back up the trail toward the campsite where the ambush happened.  "I froze when I saw their faces.  That is what happened back there.  I made eye contact directly with Alvi here.  He was like a little brother to me.  I took care of him.  But he went with them in the end rather than signing up with me."Absently and quietly, he reiterates, "I just...froze up...couldn't do my duty.  Folks got kill't."[HR][/HR]JOHAN (to Starn)He takes the letter from Starn and mounts Hat Eater with crumpled Alvi in front of him."Thank you sir," too humiliated and downcast to make eye contact."I don't know that lady.  She runs an outfit out of Fiveleague House.  Professional-like.  I guess that was the first time they'd lost anyone and any cargo on their watch."[HR][/HR]And with that, off Johan goes into the cold night upon Hat Eater, making hard for Fallcrest, the small form of the injured Alvi in front of his riding position.</blockquote>

Verification