Kingmaker: Here Comes the Cavalry! (IC)

[Chained Birds]

Maple

Maple bows in turn to the priest,

"Likewise. Though we are of different faiths, I'm glad we can both contribute to the ideals of liberating these lands from evil. For great justice, we shall no fail!"

She leaves to check on her drying clothing; maybe have Roquan help her in drying it with some magic (prestidigitation).

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Our end of the bargain. I did ask all of you first you know.
Well, apart from Fae'l and Lux who i can't seem to find anywhere.
I still have no idea where they've gone, it's a bit annoying. I know they don't have an official charter like us, but they've still been part of the group for a while. Although, since there's now apparently seven of us, it might be an idea to split up the group and get more done.

We could ask Fae'l and Lux to help out the Kobolds.
Fae'l is some sort of seer or oracle, so she migth be a good choice as the Kobolds temporary shaman. And Lux could help protect the lair from possible attacks while we're busy with the Stag Lord.
We promised to protect the Kobolds, but if we're busy in the south we wont be able to quickly react to help them.
Anyway, we'd still need to ask them first if we can find them."

Roqoan waves his hand to call a little bit of wind to dry Maple's clothes.

[Lost Demiurge]

And so the team moves out. The Sczarni are happy to find they won't be waiting after all! "We'll give yas two hunnert apiece once we're over da bridge. Jus' get us dere."

The caravan of roughly nine wagons heads west and north, following the worn tracks of the old trade trail.

[Steckie]

Roqoan

Roqoan mounts the horse he's been using. He really should start thinking about a name for the animal, it's been a good animal and it should get a name. He follows the wagons, trying to stay somewhere around Barn Owl's wagon to make sure the old coot doesn't get killed. He still needs to enchant their stuff, so he can't die.
"Well, a few days in the saddle can be pretty relaxing as well.
Or a few days running around through the woods in wolf form, like Alistar."

[Morbis Meh]

Brin takes rear, she personally didn't care for horseback riding, to her all animals were generally stupid and usually smelly. She scans the horrizon, arrow knocked to her bow, it may have been the start of the trip but better safe than sorry. She knew Alistar would take the lead, roaming out front in his wolf form just out of the horse's scent range. She looks out to the sides of the road scanning with her keen eyes for any and all possible danger.

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perception (1d20+12)[20]

[Chained Birds]

Maple

With gun's per-loaded, her pistol holstered to her side and Hackbut strapped to her back, she rides upon Apples. Her armor and clothing doned, and a sack full of Svetlana's less-parishable quizine, Maple seems to beam in the sunlight with her Slingstaff raised high into the sky signaling her readyness for the ride ahead.

"Our ride against the evil forces nears, so let us make sure these fine people get to where they want to go safely!"

Maple is obviously in high spirits, as they head out.

[Sithis]

Alistar

While Alistar would have loved to have just kicked back for a few days, a run through the woods turned out to be fairly relaxing as well. Enjoy the walk didn't stop him from keeping his eyes open and his nose down.

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Survival (+4 because using scent)
(1d20+12)[31]

Perception
(1d20+8)[25]
Edit: Alistar sees/smells everything forever!

[Lost Demiurge]

The caravan is slow. The Sczarni seem on edge, and start at every shadow. The first couple of days pass easily, and soon you're drawing level with the old abandoned watchtower where you once fought Sneeg. The troop plans to spend the night camped around it.

Alistar

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Your nose has picked up a few things over the last couple of nights. The scent of the wolfpack in the area, though they've been cautious enough to stay clear of the wagons. Rain on the wind. And also, something strange... Odd bright scents, part bug, and part reptile... Scents that are in one place one second and gone the next. They turn up every morning, and fade with the dew. You're fairly certain that something's moving around the camp at night, and it's by no means human.

Tonight there's a fat, gibbous moon and no clouds. If you want to find out whatever it is, it'll be your best chance.

Roqoan

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On the first day, Barn Owl pulled you aside. "Arright boy. What do you want magicked? Tell me now, so I finish before t'bridge. Coz we ain't comin back this way no long while."

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"Memories..."

She twirls her handgun out of the holster.

[Morbis Meh]

Brin tips her ancy tri cornered hat at the tower as they pass by, it had been an interesting journey to say the least but Brin wasn't sure if she wanted to stay. She quietly yearned for the monastary but was unsure if they would take her back with blood soaked hands.

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Well Barn Owl, i think i have the list right here." Roqoan says while pulling out a paper, on it stands the items that need enchanting and the estimated costs of it. "The thing is, we can pay you in gold or in items. If you only accept gold, we can't get all the enchants we want to have done.
We have a lot of items we can give you, we accept half the price of a shop for them, just like when we sell at Oleg's.
Here's the list"

Longsword +1 (2000 gp)
Shortsword +1 (2000 gp)
Belt of Giant Strength +2 (2000 gp)
Cloak of Elvenkind (1250gp)
Brin's bow +1 (2000 gp)
Slingstaff +1 (2000 gp)
Total: 11250 gp

Items we can sell: 12036 gp, half of that is 6018 gp

[Sithis]

Alistar

The wolf simply trots over toward the tower. He spends a moment sniffing around before making a huffing sound and continuing on.

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In wolf form, Alistar finds the best hiding spot he can that lets him watch over the caravan. Then, he waits.

Stealth: (1d20+7)[9] Edit: Why do I even try stealth rolls?
Perception:(1d20+8)[20]
Survival: (1d20+12)[25]

[Lost Demiurge]

"Eh." Barn Owl looks bored. "Lemme see whats you got, kid." He looks over the things Roqoan has to trade, and nods. "Okay. Dese, den."

ROQOAN

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He takes 5500 GP worth of items, and if you don't have EXACTLY that much, he'll take the remainder in gold.

"Fife days we got to der bridge. Fife days, an so I can do de Cloak of Elvenkind and two more items on yer list, any two. Choose now, an' choose wissely."

-----

While Roqoan dickers, the rest of the caravan grinds to a halt, and the Sczarni start setting up for the night. Sciotto frowns at the empty tower. "Huh. The toll man, he'sa not there. Worrisome. We always did good trade, an' rates were low. Mus' be that damn Stag Lord freak we keep hearin' about that got him."

The nine wagons form up in a loose circle, and a bonfire is built. Sciotto shrugs. "Anyways, I leave it to you how you wanna set uppa da watch. Been doin' fine these last few, but de way from here on... Usually more dangerous."

His gesture encompasses the surrounding plains, and the dark wall of woods to the south. Takes a minute at full run to get to those woods. You know that distance very, very well!

ALISTAR

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You are having trouble finding a good spot to hide. The tower and the half-building ruin around it might be your best bet.

As you go around the circle, you notice something odd. The ninth wagon, the one on the end of the rough circle, is a bit farther away than the others. There's also different people tending to it than there were a day ago. They share a similar scent of nervousness, with the past caretakers, though. They're worried about something.

Also, while you're thinking about it, your wilderness experience is telling you that wagon is improperly placed to maximize defenses. It's not carrying a family, as the other wagons are doing. And it's too far back to be a good supply wagon, you'd want one of those right up BY the fire. Caravans like this don't usually waste an entire wagon's worth of carrying space without a reason...

[Chained Birds]

Maple

Maple will try to find the old cannon that the bandits used against them and will also try to find any ammo for it. She figures that a cannon can really be useful to ward off adversaries (Except against Goody, Goody Adventurers like herself ) if she can get it working properly.

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Perception (Search): (1d20+6)[24]
Knowledge (Engineering): (1d20)[11] or Take 10/20 if able

[Morbis Meh]

Brin does a backflip off of the horse in a smooth and practiced motion, why? Well her short legs were stiff and backwards were the only the they could move effectively and she could at the very least force herself to stretch out her legs or face the humilation of falling. She looks at the caravan leader and replies dully while snapping the tendons in her neck "I'll take midwatch, my eyes are better than theirs in the pitch black of night and I am a hell of a lot quieter than most." She gazes towards Maple and begins to feel a sense of worry as she notices the eery smile of the tiny lass.

[Steckie]

Roqoan

"Eeuhm, the cloak and two others? Well, i guess i'm going for the enchantment on Brin's bow and the giant strength on Alistar's belt."
Roqoan dismounts from his horse. He stretches his legs and his back.
"Come on out Iago, time to fly around a bit." He says while summoning his raven from his arm. The bird jumps out of his flesh and onto his arm, he walks up to Roqoans shoulder and pecks him in the nose. It's obvious he's a bit annoyed with all this trudging through caves where he can't fly. "I know, i know. But you can go scout now if you want to, just come flying back if you see anything."

"I'll take the first watch."

[Sithis]

Alistar

As the caravan begins to come to a stop, the wolf wanders off into the woods. A few moments later, Alistar returns to catch the end of the conversation about the watch. "You mind takin' the last watch tonight Maple? The scouting today's got me kinda worn down."

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Alistar begins cautiously approaching the ninth wagon, hoping to perhaps hear or smell something of interest.

(Dunno if you want me to just keep rolling checks, but here's some more if you do.)
Stealth: (1d20+7)[12]
Perception: (1d20+8)[18]
Survival: (1d20+11)[16]

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"Sure Cannon do!"

As maple goes on with her search.

[Lost Demiurge]

Maple finds no cannon in the tower. Upon recollecting the assault, she remembers that Sneeg used a musket, pistol, and bombs, but no cannon. Huh. Well, stories always escalate with each telling...

She does, however, find some odd chalk drawings in the tower's main room. They look like children's work, and display dragons, centaurs, and frowny men getting shot with arrows. These weren't here the last time. There are a few odd runes scattered here and there as well.

[Chained Birds]

Maple

"Could have sworn that bandit had some stuff around here somewhere... Well at least my search wasn't fruitless."

Maple searches for Roquan so he can examine the drawings and stuff.

[Steckie]

Roqoan

Roqoan walks around the tower, looking at the ruined buildings around it. He's glad there's nobody that stole their tower. He still wants to man this tower with people loyal to him, but it's been difficult finding people.
It's probably because these lands are so sparsely populated.

Ah well, at least they have a Kobold tribe that's friendly to them and the people at Oleg's. The hunters. Father Jhod. That crazy alchemist. Perhaps this group of traders. All in all, that's a decent group of contacts considering the time they've spent here.

He walks back to the wagons. He doesn't see Maple and Alistar around. "Hey Brin, have you seen the others? Wherever they are, this tower sure brings back some memories. Do you remember that crazy dash at the tower we did to do an assault on it?
Hard to imagine it's only been a few weeks...."

[Morbis Meh]

Brin looks up at Roqoan with mild bemusement "Since when has it been my responsibility to look after everyone else? Also why do you think that I wouldn't remember the events of last two weeks, yes I had a brief episode of delusion but as a whole my memory is as sharp as it has always been. As for your suicide rush that nearly got you and Alistar killed well that was poor planning on your parts, though I did get this rather handsome hat out of that ordeal. "

[Lost Demiurge]

The moon rises, and the shadows grow as night falls. A few Sczarni sit poking at a fire for a bit, then turn in and let Maple take the first watch.

Meanwhile, Alistar slinks toward the far wagon. The grass rustles though, and as he moves a thin Sczarni man peers out of the wagon, and looks around, freezing when he sees the "Wolf" moving in. He waves a hand inside, and a thickset, burly Sczarni comes out. They shut the door carefully behind them, and the thin man pulls a club, while the burly one pulls a crossbow. "Iron shot." Says the thin man. "So get gone pooka. You ain't gettin' her back so scram."

He keeps looking around, like he expects Alistar to be a distraction...

[Sithis]

Alistar

The wolf sits for a moment and regards the two men. Iron? Are they expecting some kind of fae? He gives the men a canine grin before swiftly resuming his human form.

The transformation only takes a few seconds, and as soon as it finishes Alistar resumes his grin. "Good evening, gents. I just came over here to see why this wagon was set up in the wrong place. But now you have me wondering who "her" is, and what I might be that I'd want her back. If you have anything you want to share, now's the time to do so."

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At this point, I'm assuming they would recognize Alistar as "one of those guys that were hired to guard the caravan." So hopefully they won't see him transform and immediately go into kill mode.

Also, see if I can make an intimidate check to cow them into telling me what's going on here. (I figure seeing Alistar tranform for the first time would be fairly intimidating.)
(1d20+7)[19]

[Lost Demiurge]

They practically jump back when Alistar transforms, and a crossbow bolt goes humming past his head. The thin one smacks the thick one without taking his eyes off of the werewolf.

"Sorry, sorry. You don't tell us about this stuff, people overreact. Ain't that right, Strix?"

Strix is reloading the crossbow, eyes wide open.

The thin one shakes his head. "Y-yeah." He sounds less certain than he did a minute ago. "So... Uh, listen. We mighta pissed off some fae, too. Got a prisoner against trouble. Tricksy things, fae, so we're makin' sure she don't bolt. That's all."

SENSE MOTIVE DC 22

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He's telling the partial truth, but there's things he's omitting. He's frightened by you, and worried you and your friends are gonna jump the caravan out here and leave them for dead.

[Sithis]

Alistar

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I need a 20 to get this sense motive check, so probably not gonna happen.
(1d20+2)[5]

Also, Knowledge: Nature check to see if I know exactly how screwed they are if they pissed off a bunch of fae. Also, to see if I remember any other pertinent information.
(1d20+7)[27]

Edit: Well, I can't sense motives. But I apparently remember ALL the things!

"So wait, you're not just expecting problems with undead, but you're ALSO pissed of a bunch of fae? Anything else we should know? You haven't pissed off any dragons have you? Maybe made some bad deals with a bunch of devils?" He shakes his head in exasperation. "What kind of fae did you even piss off anyway? And what in the hells made you thinking holding one hostage would HELP that situation?"

The big wolfman sighs (though it sounds a bit like a growl). "Alright, listen. We've been hired to protect you people, we can't do that if you don't tell us what's going on. So is there ANYTHING ELSE that we might need to know? Something that might cause me to have been smelling weird bug..reptile...things over the last few nights?"

[Morbis Meh]

Brin watches the exchange between Alistar and the dolts, she chuckles at their reaction to Alistars transformation. At the mention of fae Bring sneers, she hated the little buggers, they would always get into her garden and destroy everything... She looks at their reactions and calmly attempts to discern their motives.

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sense motive (1d20+12)[24]

[Chained Birds]

Maple

Yawning, she hears some commotion going on in camp. Though her evil detection skills are saying to ignore it.

She spends some of this time on watch working on her pistol twirling, though she can't help but wonder if people are as interested in the skill as she thinks they might be.

"I wonder if this would make me look cool?... *sigh*"

[Lost Demiurge]

The thinner man spreads his hands. "Hey, you didn't tell us you was werewolves, so I reckon we're even. We didn't piss off no tough fae neither, just some'a the small ones is all. They been testing, probing. But we figure, eh, if you're as good as Oleg says, they ain't gonna get past you."

ALISTAR

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Honestly, it depends on the fae. Fae come in two varities... Seelie and Unseelie. Unseelie fae will hunt and torment mortals for fun, so pissing them off could be as simple as not dying when they want you to. Or fighting back. But they're lazy and kind of cowardly, so if you fight hard enough or escape well enough, they'll go target someone easier. Too, they usually can't stand each other, so killing one won't get other unseelie riled up... Well, unless they want to use it as an excuse...

Seelie fae are more on the nonlethal end of the spectrum. If mortals annoy them, they'll prank and torment them, but usually let them live in the end. They're a bit more motivated than the Unseelie ones though, so it's not always enough to fight well or run fast. And if you KILL one, then every Seelie fae for miles and miles around will hear of it, and they will hate you forever.

Also, with that good a breadth of natural knowledge, Alistar can place the insect-like smell that he's caught now. It's probably grigs... They look like cricket centaurs, about the size of cats. Very good at hiding. Very good archers. Can play music that makes people dance. Very fragile, though, more of hit and run types.

Odds are good they've scouted the caravan quite thoroughly...

----

And as the shadows lengthen in the night, a strange note invades the chirping of the crickets throughout the long grass....

PERCEPTION DC 31

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There's movement in the grass to the north. Slight, and hard to see, but several very small things are sneaking toward the camp.

PERCEPTION DC 16 if you are next to the fire, (if you are away from the fire, then do not roll.)

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Heh, this'll be fun! I'll get back to you...

[Steckie]

Roqoan

It's night and Roqoan is in a deep sleep.
So he probably doesn't see or hear anything about fae.

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A bit confused here, are we all awake?