Kingmaker: Here Comes the Cavalry! (IC)

[Sithis]

Alistar

Had been taking his relaxation VERY seriously. But his nap next to the fire pit was interrupted by the arrival of yet another new scent. He gets up with a grumble, making his way to the gate to see the...catman? "Well, that's something different. And you say you have a charter? What, are they just giving those out to passersby now?

[Morbis Meh]

Brin was fixated on the catman who called himself 'Dar'somtething or other' Mr. wobbles is a better name... she walks up to him staring at his fur and says in a meek voice "May I pet your fur... I like cats, I used to have one... it would make my day."

[Steckie]

Roqoan

Roqoan wanted to say something about what they had done here, but suddenly Brin starts asking the new guy if she could pet him!
What the hell is going on?
"Ahem. We're taking out the bandits here. Took out 4 of their lieutenants already. Their leader is holed up somewhere in the south, we're probably going to explore the north a bit more before we take him out. But first we're escorting those traders and kill some undead for them.
Alistar's a werewolf and our tracker, Brin is able to use her bow and castrate a fly from across a field and Maple uses a gun to spread the word of Sarenrae. I use magic.
Let me give you a welcoming hug."
Roqoan opens his arm and gives Dar'Tsavi a big bear-hug. While holding him he whispers something in in his ear, making sure Brin can't hear him.
Dar'Tsavi:

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Let her pet your fur, but don't try anything else. You do NOT want to compete with me.

[Lost Demiurge]

Later in the day, a familiar cassocked figure makes its way out of the sea of grass, and walks through the gates. Father Jhod smiles at you as he rests on a bench by the firepit, sorting through a pouch of herbs and roots that he's evidently gathered from his trip.

"Ah, welcome back!" He smiles, as he puts the various plants into smaller pouches. "I trust your trip was successful?"

Oddly enough, the back of his cassock seems to have glitter on it, spelling out weird looking runes.

SYLVAN or LINGUISTICS 20

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The runes translate into "GOPHER GUY!"

[Chained Birds]

Maple

Maple addresses Kresten with her needs of new ammunition for her Slingstaff, as she ran out of Bullets not too long ago during the zombie killings.

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10 Smoke Bullets for 100gp

After hearing a commotion outside about a new charter bearer, Maple presents herself to the new recruit; after giving Kresten the amount of money that would be necessary out of her own pocket. Still wearing the child's dress she was temporarily given, she bows daintily.

"Greetings to you, I am Maple Leafsinger, Mortal Sword to Sarenrae. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance."

She eyes the Catfolk for a bit.

"I don't have to think hard on a nickname for you."

She then chuckles at her own thoughts.

[Sjurd]

Dar'Tsavi turns to Alistar the lycanthrope and gives a disdainful sniff. After listening to Brin and a hushed whisper from Roquoan, he smiles and leans in toward Brin and raises an eyebrow. "Of course you may pet me. You can pet me anywhere you like."

He nods in greeting to Maple. "Greetings. I do not prefer nicknames, myself. After all, if a lover is to shout your name in the dark of the night, or an enemy to whisper your name with his dying breath, wouldn't you prefer they get it right?"

[Steckie]

Roqoan

Everywhere she likes? Roqoan would probably like this guy, and his sense of humor, if only it wasn't Brin that was going to pet him.

"Ah Father Johd, you're back. Yes, our trip was succesfull.
It's been so succesfull that we need to ask for your help again in translating another journal. We have no idea what language it is, but since you helped us so good last tim we hoped you could do it again."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"Too bad. Everyone gets a nickname. There is Archer Brin, Caster Roquan, Doggy Alistar, and... Hey where are the other two?"

Maple glances around at the others with a confused look.

[Morbis Meh]

Brin reaches out with a gloved hand and slowly moves it across the top of Dar's head, a small smile forms at the corner of her lips. Taking her hand off of the catman's head she offers a small bow "Thank you for this kindness, it has brought a fond memory out of the dark." She looks to Maple and sighs "Do not worry about the names, though they are rather unoriginal at least they aren't insulting."

[Lost Demiurge]

Father Jhod nods, and holds out a hand. "I've taken to keeping that one in my prayers, since you've no one of your own to cast it. Let me have a look at the book and I'll see what the Horned Lord wants me to see."

He squints at the new arrival. "Ah, hello. Forgive me, I've not seen one of your race before. Where do you hail from, stranger?"

[Chained Birds]

Maple

With puffed up cheeks,

"Well, I could come up with both original or insulting names for people if I wanted. So just be glad I'm using simple ones."

[Steckie]

Roqoan

Roqoan pulls the journal of the Duergar from his backpack. "Here it is, i hope it has some usefull information."
He's still keeping an eye on Brin and Dar'Tsavi, just to make sure.

[Lost Demiurge]

Jhod smiles, puts on a pair of ancient spectacles, and settles down by the fire to read.

Five minutes later he's twisting his lips in disgust, but he continues.

Finally, he shuts it with a sigh. "What a thoroughly wicked person. I hope that he won't ever be a problem to you again?" He continues without waiting for a reply.

"This... Duergar, Vargan, was exiled from his clan for worshipping a foreign god, Asmodeus. He fled to the surface and westward, ending up here, in the Greenbelt. There he found several bandit gangs, including a few with nonhuman members. He killed the weaker ones and started uniting the more monstrous bandits under his authority."

"Then the Stag Lord showed up. Evidently the man was strong enough that Vargan didn't like the odds of taking him head on. He also speaks of someone behind the Stag Lord, an old man that the Stag Lord confers with on important decisions. He speaks that the few bandits who planned treachery were found out with ease, through unknown means. Ever since then, Vargan's been keeping his cards close to his chest."

"Interestingly enough, it seems that the Stag Lord's main band is holed up to the South, in a ruined Monastery that was once sacred to the evil goddess Gyronna. He speaks of ghouls and zombies that rise out of the hill when people set foot in the wrong places. The Stag Lord tasked Vargan with finding a way of breaking the curse, but Vargan's been looking for ways to control the undead instead. He figures that might be his best bet at a coup, using the undead as fodder for the first wave before directly attacking. Vargan thought that there might be ruins in the west of the Narlmarches related to the time when Gyronna's faithful were strong here... But he was having trouble getting over that way, due to Kressel's band staking out the only good route there, and the local fae being hostile to bandits."

"He also mentions something about being annoyed with the local kobolds, and sending one of his best mercenaries, Tartuk, to take care of it. He figures that Tartuk will eventually betray him, but by that point it won't matter as the Stag Lord will be dealt with once and for all. Or the Stag Lord will be too strong from the completion of the Equinox ritual, and it'll be a moot point anyway."

[Steckie]

Roqoan

Nodding from time to time when he hears Jhod say something he already knows, Roqoan listens to him intently. The journal has a lot of usefull information.
An old monastery is the Stag Lords fortress and there's an undead threat on the hills around it.
There are apparently also ruins in the west. Wich is good, since they need to head west anyway to check out that werewolf.
But suddenly, Roqoans looks up at Father Jhod. "Wait a minute, what ritual? What is an Equinox ritual and why would it give him power?
Is there something written about the ritual in that book or do you know anything about it?"
Roqoan searches his memory to see if he knows anything about it.

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Knowledge Arcana: (1d20+12)[27]

[Lost Demiurge]

Roqoan can't recall anything about an Equinox ritual. Most seasonal rites are tied to the powers of nature or divinity.

Father Jhod shrugs. "There's nothing else in this foul tome about the Equinox ritual that I can find. If it's referring to the autumnal Equinox, that's going to happen in about three months. It's usually a holy day of contemplation for the faithful of Erastil, but I doubt the rite they're talking about has anything to do with my Lord."

[Sjurd]

Dar'Tsavi gives a small flourish and bow to Father Jhod. "I am Dar'Tsavi, humble rascal." He listens intently to the report from the journal, shaking his head in disgust. "Such is the darkest of villainy. We must destroy this Stag Lord before he is able to complete his ritual. By any means."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"How awful. But we don't have too many leads as to where the Stag Lord is. Unless we can get a divination on these Stag Lord Emblems to see if we can trace them to their source... But I have no idea how we can do that!"

Maple twirls around her gun a bit to amuse herself.

[Morbis Meh]

Brin looks at Maple with a raised eyebrow "Were you not just listening? The journal says that the main force of the Stag lord is in a ruined temple to the south, that is at the very least a start. More importantly, how ling until the equinox, I was hoping we would have time to prepare but if the duegaer was afraid of the Stag Lord going through this ritual then I think we shouldn't delay."

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Yes, this does give us a bit of a deadline. If only we knew when that deadline is...
Anyway, we did already promise the traders that we would escort them. And that old guy will give us cheap enchants if we do so. If there's some sort of ritual, we may need the edge that the enchants give us to win.
So perhaps it's better to first do what we promised and after that open the hunt on the Stag Lord."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

The twirling of her gun gets a bit out of control as it smacks her in the face. She picks it back up and rubs her nose a bit.

"Oh well, I guess that is really all we've got. I'd really like more information as south is pretty general... But it seems like we did promise to aid the traders so best use this opportunity to get better stuff to combat the forces of evil at work.
Maybe Doggy Alistar might know of this equinox, as it sounds like something that has to do with the moon or something. And you know... Werewolves know their moons..."

[Sjurd]

Dar'Tsavi nods, satisfied with the conclusion of the conversation. "Then we go south, and cut off the Stag Lord's right arm. When can we leave?"

[Sithis]

Alistar

Alistar bares his teeth in a snarl are Dar'Tasvi for just a moment, right up until he happens to catch a glimpse at Father Jhod's back. He looks at it for a little while as the others talk, as if he's not really sure what he's seeing. And then he approaches Jhod, "Uh...Father? Did you realize that something wrote "Gopher Guy" on your back? In Sylvan?

He makes a derisive, huffing sound when he hears Maple say something about werewolves and the moon. "Where did that association even come from? It's never been true about my kind!"

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Knowledge: Nature - Do I know anything about an Equinox Ritual?
(1d20+7)[14]

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I'm hoping the Equinox Ritual isn't another name for the Sanctum Invocation.

[Morbis Meh]

Brin looked at the Catman quizically "Didn't you hear Roqoan? He already signed us up for escort duty, albeit he didn't confirm it with all of us per se but nonetheless when we're in a land that you're trying to tame it's best to follow through. Though I would like to know when this equinox is happening so we can draft up a rough time schedule of where we will be; also Roqoan, do you know how long it would take for us to escort these uh colourful folk to their destination?"

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"The old coot said something about a hundred miles, give or take. I don't know how fast those carts can go, but i bet it's going to take a few days."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

Aside to Brin,

"Does anyone truly listen to Roquan?"

Grinning,

"So! When did they say they wanted to leave?"

[Morbis Meh]

Brin sighs then mummurs to Maple "I have learned from experience is best to just let the pretty ones who like to talk, talk. The rest of us can just quietly nod and smile then work out the actual logistics behind said plan."

[Lost Demiurge]

"Er," says Father Jhod, "Well, as I said before, if this equinox ritual involves the autumn equinox which is the next one coming up, that's in roughly three months. Gods only know what they'll be doing to build power until then, though."

Alistar thinks that something sounds familiar about Equinox rituals. If only he'd paid more attention when he was learning his trade...

When Alistar mentions Jhod's glitter, the old priest squints back, surprised. "Wait, what?" Tugging on his cassock until it twists around, he eyes the letters, then laughs heartily. "Ah me! of COURSE there are fae in the woods. This is pixie dust. I imagine that they saw me digging for roots... Gopher Guy... Hm..., well, at least they were in a mischievous mood. Could have been worse."

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Three months? Sounds doable. If we spend about a week, maybe two, escorting the traders, we've still got two and a half month to find the Stag Lord and kill him.
We can head straight to the south after we're done escorting the traders. Explore everything on our way to make sure we don't miss that old monastery.
Father Jhod, do you perhaps know the location of this monastery? A rough estimate would already be usefull."

[Lost Demiurge]

Father Jhod purses his lips, and cracks open the journal again, scanning it quickly.

"About the only thing I can see, is that the journal says the Stag Lord's lair is on the shores of the Tuskwater. I seem to recall that's a big lake down south somewhere."

[Morbis Meh]

Brin breathes a sigh of relief At least we have some breathing room... Though who knows how long it will actually take before we find the place. She looks to the eccentric priest and bows "Thank you for your help, we wish you a good day. I look forward to a day where we can have a simple chat about the more pleasant things in life over tea but at the moment we have more pressing engagments to attend to. Come on Roqoan, let's hold up your end of the bargain."