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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StalkingBlue" data-source="post: 1473368" data-attributes="member: 645">Horse Trade Zorgetch-StyleAfter spending the night safely in Bendo’s camp, the group heads south with the gnome trader Jan Wym and a silent escort consisting of Moon and half a dozen youthful orcmen from Bendo’s band, who are soon sent back with thanks by Jan.  Both sides travel in growingly tense silence, what with the old gnome keeping the further stages of his journey to himself and the group quietly determined to carry out its orders to bodyguard and if necessary kill the gnome to prevent the enemy from taking him alive.  That night in camp, however, the mood subtly changes when Jan Wym’s telling of funeral rites on the River propels first Zana, then Jez into an account of their memories of their Elven friend Loren, recently killed by wolves of Erethor.  Tane, possibly feeling the shadow of things to come creep over his own soul, stays silent, while the Apari keeps watch on the edge of the camp.  Loren’s wake ends with a long silence, broken at last by Jan’s question why he – the one to be guarded! – had been excluded from the briefing for his new bodyguard.  The group initially balks, then decides to tell him the truth.  Tane even hands the coded spy letter together with Loren’s explanatory scrawls over to Jan to read.  They admit that their orders include killing Jan if they cannot help him escape, but assure him that they will do all they can to prevent that happening, even if they have to sacrifice themselves in the process.  Jan appears to be taking all this in his stride.  Although he is sceptical at first about the alleged treachery of Zoidan, he ends up trusting the group to do what is right.  He now explains that he is due to go to a place called ‘Patok’s’ in the hamlet Pechina, half a day’s walk north from the foothills, to meet Zoidan’s contact who will then let him know where the actual rendezvous for the horse trade will be.  After some discussion, the group advises Jan to go ahead with the trade.  They escort the gnome north to Pechina the next day, spotting no one but a shepherd in the distance.  ‘Patok’s’ is one of five decrepit buildings:  a single-room hovel with two doorways hung with leather curtains, a couple of roughly-hewn tables and benches and a barrel of a sour beer-like drink in one corner.  Patok is almost too terrified by the appearance of the group and especially Jez that he almost drops a bowl of the vile brew he offers Jan.  Zana (with help from Jan, who has the right kind of patience for those beasties) brings in first one, then all of Jan’s mules and her horse.  The group is reassured by the fact that the animals seem unafraid of Patok.  Everyone waits with Jan except Tane, who sneaks around the houses and finds two evidently unlived in, a third one filthy and empty.  An infant bawls in the last one, accompanied by frantic hushing sounds.  He withdraws, satisfied.  Little later Zoidan’s contact, a Sarcosan by the name of Aren, arrives to explain the rendezvous point to Jan Wym.  There is brief confusion on all sides when Aren mistakes Jez for a legate, the ‘Yellow Mother’, and is baffled as to why she hasn’t arrested the gnome herself.  Jez, mystified for almost a second too long, replies that ‘it isn’t time yet’.  Aren leaves but after a brief, feverish discussion amongst the group is fetched back by Zana on the pretext that ‘the Mistress’ wants his report.  Once back in Patok’s hovel, Aren is subdued and questioned.  He appears to know nothing about orcs, but confirms that Zoidan and nine men are preparing to capture the gnome to turn him over ‘as agreed’.  He agrees to guide the group to Zoidan’s camp, roughly a dozen miles east of Pechina.  More discussion ensues with the group considering, but in the end dismissing the option of retreat.  They send Jan Wym and his mules back into the foothills to wait with Bendo and arrange to meet him within a week’s time – if they do not return by then, he is to assume that they are dead.  By dusk they come in sight of the copse behind which – according to Aren – Zoidan is camping.  They have seen two human riders gallop west towards Pechina maybe an hour before.  They demand that Aren guide them past any sentries.  When he explains that there are likely to be outriders moving around, they kill him and move on, Apari and Tane scouting ahead on foot and the two fighters riding up behind.  Soon they spot two human riders in the gloom, who pass them by without spotting them, and a little later surprise and kill two Sarcosan sentries at the rim of the copse.  Guided by Apari, the group moves silently through the copse and comes upon Zoidan’s camp unobserved.  Apari and Tane sneak up and kill four of Zoidan’s riders in their sleep before one of the sentries can give a warning shout.  A brief bloody battle follows, in which all of Zoidan’s followers except one (who flees on a horse) are killed, one rises as Fell and is killed again, Zoidan kills Tane with a lucky arrow through the eye and gravely wounds Jez before Zana tells him to surrender, then he won’t be killed.  After a final flicker of defiance, Zoidan throws down his sword.</blockquote>

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