Birthright Tuornen Chapter 3

[Lord Skybolt]

"So, Cormac where do think we should go ?" Gunnar asks of Cormac as the rider away .

[JMaytr]

CAER HAES

"I never said we should poison them, Commander. Forgive me if I misspoke. I'm a simple backwoods scout, despite my blood. I have no fine words or courtly manners. But if I had an army, I'd lead it out the River Gate and storm our foe like the songs of old. I yearn for the glory of combat. But we don't have an army. What we have is a duty to protect this city, and His Grace," he adds with a slight dip of the head. "With cruelty, if necessary."

"Whatever we do, we must not let them sit in luxury while they invest our city. Good gods, even the jester sees the truth!" he says, gesturing to Filbert.

"They have healers out there somewhere, sorcerers as well no doubt. But where? What do we know of their siege camp? If we are too weak to strike, at least we must scout their positions, find where they are weak, and exploit it with no mercy."

"Braedonnal is right; I will not poison or otherwise use foul tricks to wage this war. I was loathe to use your burning oil Captain, but I understand that need and when the enemy employs fire elementals, it is only balancing. Haelyn, good god above, would frown on an unhonorable approach.

"The healers they likely have come from their merchant church, which I suspect pays for their troops as well. If they have magicians, we must capture or kill them. Captain Renn is right, we need their position scouted. To that end, I suggest that we here, take the battle to them this night. We will scout in, the four of us plus Fhylie the sword, prays be, and deliver them a fierce blow. A night time raid on their resources plus an attempt to capture or defeat some of their captains, their nobles."

Devlin shakes his head for a moment.

"Six of us would be better than five. At the moment, we only have four. Braedonnal, do your best to locate Fhylie and bring her here at once! If she has a loyal priest or champion that she can bring along, make it so."

Devlin dismisses hotspur to locate Fhylie.

"We should steal their supplies, yes. But with only few of us we could never carry as much as we need. Stealing a wagonful might be noticable. without adding poison, we could remove the foodstuffs by simply destroying them...hmmm. They could always get supplies again, meaning we need to destroy the line. Sink a couple of ships...

"Captain Renn, Filbert, I will assign you two the task of absconding with, or obliterating their food supply and sinking of an Alamien vessel. I engaged pirates on the field, its a possibility one of those military units are mercenaries. If they were to lose their ship, or even their captain, they may just break."

Devlin summons a guard and tells him to retrieve good ale, fruit, and dried beef for the war council to chew on.

"When Braedonnal returns I will continue with the plan."

[Adam]

Cormac stands in the spurs and shouts towards the departing Huntsman. "Mebbe two warnings are better than one. You roust the men you know, we'll ride South to this Count, whoever he is an' warn the folk we see along the way. Try not to get yerself killed before we get back."

He turns back towards Gunnar and nods in the direction of the road. "He's can take care o' himself, I'm thinkin'. An' I'm worried folk along the way are gonna get wiped out if we don' warn em these gobs are comin'. Let's ride."

He lightly taps his spurs into the horse and heads in the direction Gunnar indicated would lead them to the Count.

[Lord Skybolt]

With those words Gunnar heads in the direction of the where he thinks the count should be with his garrison of troops hopefully and to warn all they see of the goblin army coming from the north .

[ewancummins]

WAR COUNCIL, CAER HAES-

Braedonnal moves to carry out the duke's orders.

A page brings the food and drink that Devlin has ordered.

[ewancummins]

NORTHERN FOOTHILLS

THE HUNTSMAN--- RIDING NORTH

Gentle winds from the mountains sweep over the grassy, sparsely wooded hills, carrying the scent of wildflowers, crisp pine needles, and hints of some musky smell.

The Huntsman rides towards the snowcapped mountains, wary of goblin patrols.

...

As the sun climbs and the Huntsman gets into rougher, higher country, he hears whispery voices, the crunch of footsteps, a low growl from just beyond a stand of evergreens. Whatever is making the noises--that growl sounded a lot like a wolf--- it doesn't sound far away. If he rode away now, he might be able to avoid encountering the thing or things beyond the trees. The noises seem to be getting closer...




CORMAC, GUNNAR, AND DIETRIC--- RIDING SOUTH


The gentle breeze at their backs, the three men ride their tired horses into a temporary logging camp; timber lean tos, work benches of split trunks, and sawdust scattered to soak up mud along the trail. ( The main camp lies further down the trail, Cormac and Gunnar may recall. )A few of the of the dozen or so lumbermen in the camp pause in their work of hewing and dragging wood to gather round the riders.

A big fellow with a bushy red beard addresses Gunnar-

''Sir… welcome to camp. Care to dismount and have a drink, something to eat? “

[ewancummins]

ENDIER-

Roald stares at Dominia for a moment before nodding and pulling out the key to the chest and unlocking it.

The woman approaches her chest and smiles. "Hello, old friends. Good to see you. Now if you don't mind, Roald, I will take this to my room and change there. After that supper is on me." She reaches for her chest, closing it, and begins to carry it.

...


No one moves to stop Dominica.

After she has deposited her things in her room, and changed her clothes/equipped herself, the party has supper in the common room.


Inquiries about mercenaries reveal that most of the sellswords based in the city have gone north to fight for Duke Carilon. Some of the rest are mostly engaged by an outfit that's trying to log the verges of the Spiderfell; or maybe open trade with the monster-king called the Spider. Accounts differ in details.
But there are of course some local ruffians and out of work laborers who might be hired to carry spears.
Talk in the crowded common room centers mostly on the war to the north, and how it has affected and will affect the river commerce. Dominica and her escorts do not hear many strong opinions as to the relative justice of either side, or passionate sympathies expressed one way or the other.

Asking around, Dominica also learns that-

• Forces of more than twenty are banned within the city walls without a special-- and expensive-- license from the city, but small gangs or individuals may be freely hired as guards. The Guilder who rules Endier has declared a sword-tax, which will go into effect any day now.
  
  A cellar rat-kiling match (terriers versus bags of rats) will be held this evening across the street, under a bakery. A lot of 'tough guys' will be in attendance. Could be a good place to hire bully boys, but it might also be unsafe. Robbers and all...

And then she notices that her coin purse has been slit. It's empty, cleaned out.

[ewancummins]

THE SATELLITE LUMBER CAMP

Another of the lumbermen, a thick-necked youth with a peach fuzz beard, tells Dietric and Cormac.

"We just cooked some flat cakes. We can make a few more, if you are hungry."

[steveflam]

[quote="ewancummins"]ENDIER-

"Roald, please excuse me" she whispers to him. "I've been robbed believe it or not. My coin purse has been slit and is empty. Last person robbing me is pushing up daisies somewhere."

Dominica rises from her seat and follows the route her thief took. Roald can tell she is not in a good mood at all.

[ewancummins]

Dominica spots the girl standing in a shaded alley behind the inn, arguing with a greasy haired obese man. The fat guy holds the slender girl’s right wrist, her fist yanked up near his rubbery mouth.
“Two-thirds. Open your fist, stupid bitch.”
The girl shakes her head. “I get half. That was the deal.”
The man, moving faster than his bulk would suggest, clamps his other hand over her right fist and pries one of her fingers free-then bends it back till it breaks with a wet pop. The girl whimpers and twitches, coins spilling from her injured hand to clatter against the cobbles. The fat guy shoves her back into the alley.
“I’m taking it all this time.”
He loosens his rope belt and steps towards her. She crawls back out of sight into the alley, sobbing. “Please, no…”

Rubber-lips laughs.
“Shhh---I don’t want to share the loot with the city watch—or share your body. C’mon, I’ll be quick, little finch…”

[steveflam]

Steal from me, will you.. is Dominica's first thought and she is furious. Observing the interaction, she realizes the man deserves the same fate the girl does. Dagger in each hand she moves silently. Once at the lip of the alley, she slips in and fast as she can throws a dagger at the man as she runs for the girl.

[ewancummins]

Steal from me, will you.. is Dominica's first thought and she is furious. Observing the interaction, she realizes the man deserves the same fate the girl does. Dagger in each hand she moves silently. Once at the lip of the alley, she slips in and fast as she can throws a dagger at the man as she runs for the girl.

The fat man turns at the sound of Dominica's feet pounding the cobblestones-- just in time to get nicked by her flying blade- a shallow cut to his flabby right arm.

He curses, jerking a sap from his belt, raising it to strike at her as she darts past him into the alley...

[steveflam]

"You really picked a bad time to meet me like this, you fat pig."

Dominica slashes at the fat man with her other dagger.

[ewancummins]

His blow misses Dominca's head and instead smashes into the rough timbers of the building corner.

"Gah!"
He drops the sap. A quick sideways glance shows Dominica that the fat man has got a nasty looking splinter stuck between the first and middle fingers of his right hand.

[ewancummins]

"You really picked a bad time to meet me like this, you fat pig."

Dominica slashes at the fat man with her other dagger.

She cuts him again.
He turns to run, but she draws her shortsword and stabs him in the back. He sinks to the cobbles with a moan and falls face-down, blood oozing from a wound above his belt.

The serving girl screams, crawling further back into the filthy alley.

Reese appears in the mouth of the alley, silhouetted by the sunlight.

''Lady Dominica! Are you alright? Roald is coming, I think..."