Kingmaker Chapter I: Stolen Lands (ChaosLord29)

[Moranica]

As the battle, or slaughter as some might call it, is ended, Renna looks at the only remaining bandit. Here furious gaze locks onto his, but is quickly blocked by Tharas. The man is dragged off, and Renna decides to follow.

"If his knife won't do the trick, my magic surely will. Start talking, now!"

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Renna aids in Tharas intimidate check. (1d20+2)[5]
Should it fail, she will cast Charm Person on the bandit. DC 15 will save.

[Down Comforter]

As Tharas walks out with the prisoner, Kit calls after him "It's Kit. Non-priest sounds so very... formal." She looks at Svetlana, "do go on ahead. We will have a word with those two," she raises her voice so those outside can hear, "and not harm them."

With that, she allows Svetlana to herd her out the door. She walks over to the pair interrogating the secured bandit. "There's no need for violence here, is there?" She looks pointedly at the bandit. "At least on my part... Now then, be a good man and tell the heavily armed man holding the knife what he wants to know."

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Diplomacy
(1d20+7)[9]

[Sriseru]

As kit comments on Rashka's strength, she replies "Where I'm from, strength is necessary for survival."

She then follows Tharas and the prisoner outside and watches as the others try to interrogate him.
Rashka turns to Kit. "Speak for yourself."
She then approach the man and says "Tell us what we want to know, or I will make you pray for death."

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Intimidate: (1d20+5)[12]

[Zuh1]

Talo lets the others go without to "question" their prisoner. Still catching his breath, he maintains a respectful distance from the harried couple of hosts, letting them step into the other room for some alone time. However, he enters shortly thereafter. "We'll take care of these tonight," he says, gesturing to the bodies, "but like you said, there's more where that came from. Course if they have been coming here often, they must have beat a well worn track. Come first light and I can be out on the trail to hunt these sorry bastards done. We'll speak soon, I hope. Any information you might have will help find the ones behind all this."

He then steps outside and sees the others surrounding the prisoner. It seems like they have their hands full, so he only whistles for his horse, which approaches and allows him to begin unsaddling it in silence.

[ChaosLord29]

The bandit seems either too scared, too tight lipped, or too dumbfounded to respond to the progressive attempts by Tharas, Renna, and Rashka to interrogate or intimidate him. He even begins to snivel at one point and seems close to going back into shock when Renna decides to use her spell. The thug's eyes glaze over for a moment before he shakes his head and then looks up at the trio with a winning smile.

"No need to threaten a new friend," He replies, smiling, "My name is Retton, and me and the rest of the lads came here from our camp to collect Oleg's tribute in return for our continued protection. It's a pretty nice setup, we figured he and his woman were to cowed to require much pressure, but then today he got to talking to Haaps about guards from the city who would be arriving soon. Is that you all?"

[Down Comforter]

Kit squats down to eye level with the bandit, "Well we're certainly not guards, now are we? It's quite the clever scheme you and your lads have got going there. It's possible that our group might be interested in joining you lads, but we've no idea where your camp is or who the leader is. Mind filling us in?"

[King Tius]

Sprig stares blankly as the tall folk make all kinds of threats to the prisoner. This wasn't exactly her area of expertise. Not wanting to be totally useless, she stows her bomb components and rolls up her sleeves. Starting with the dead men in the bedroom, she begins searching the bodies for anything interesting. She'll take gold and any notes or other curios but is uninterested in their weapons or armor.

Taking 20 on the search check.

[Moranica]

Renna grins a satisfied laugh, then eyes the others with an I-told-you-so look. Ignoring the prisoner, she tells them.

"See, there are more ways then the hard way. ..... you got one hour."

Then she turns around and walks away, looking to make Oleg and his wife relax after the battle.

[Sriseru]

Rashka eyes Renna with a slight smile. "Yes, that's very useful."
She then turns her attention to the prisoner. "Well then, friend, would you mind telling me who was the leader of this little party of yours?"

[DaedalusMkV]

Tharas grunts, then stands up and walks away. Wordlessly he begins hauling the corpses out of the house, laying them out in a row outside the Levitons' house. He throuroughly checks each man's corpse, looking for good steel weapons and armour, money or anything that might be of use to him, before heading back inside to grab the next body.

[Zuh1]

After leaving his saddle inside and tying Ned to a post, Talo begins to help Tharas with moving the dead bandits. He seems to want to keep his distance from the enchanted man, as if uneasy around the magics that have clouded his mind. Instead, he listens carefully for any clues the prisoner might divulge to one of the companions.

[ChaosLord29]

Retton seems a bit confused as Kit mentions joining their band of thieves, but nods along, still listening intently. "Well, hey no reason we can't split the loot in this place, and considering what happened to the rest of the boys . . . ", He looks over somewhat morbidly at the remains of his other friends, "I'm sure we could use more than a few recruits. It's obvious that you can handle yourselves." he fidgets with his hands a little bit, as if wondering why he's still bound. He looks hold up his hands towards Rashka as she questions him.

"Haps, the feller with the longbow you . . . " He shrugs, "Well, he was in charge of shaking down Oleg and his wench of a wife. There maybe a dozen of us or so back at the camp, and Kressle's the boss around there."

As the others search the bodies they manage to find a pair of flasks of alchemist fire on the man who was once Happs, along with his bow, and an interesting silver amulet. Between him and the three other bandits (not counting the one still asleep), there's a nice pile of rough but serviceable hear.

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Loot:
1 Composite Longbow (+2 Str)
2 Longbows
2 Shortswords
1 Dagger
3 Leather Armor
60 Arrows
6 Trail Rations
Silver Amulet
55gp

[King Tius]

Sprig holds the two flasks aloft, peering into them with squinted eyes. "Fascinating" she mutters, going so far as to sniff them both thoroughly before affixing them to her belt.

"Seeing as this is Alchemist's Fire, might be best to let an Alchemist take care of it."

[Sriseru]

"Thank you." Rashka replies to Retton before heading to the corpses outside.

"Find anything interesting?" She asks as she walks up to the body of Haps. "You three should probably stay clear."

Rashka then draws her sword and decapitates Haps' corpse, puts his head in a sack, which she then stuffs into her backpack.

[King Tius]

Sprig steps back and looks at Rashka with a look of absolute shock. "Why wouldn't you do that outside? Who is going to clean up all this mess?"

[Down Comforter]

"Thank ya friend. We're going to head out there to make sure the others are at rest, but we will speak again." She makes sure that the bandit is secure and sticks him someplace safe. Kit walks out just as Rashka cuts of the man's head. "And what in the nine bleedin' circles of hell are you doing that for? He was well and dead, there's no need to desecrate the body!"

[DaedalusMkV]

Tharas coughs, then responds to Rashka's question. "Bows, mostly. The rest is poorly-forged junk. A good sum of gold to split as well." He watches impassively as the Orc decapitates the corpse, and seems slightly startled by Kit's objection. "Hmm? It is a simple trophy. I would not take a skull from one so low, but there is glory to be gained from showing proof of your kills, just as a hunter might display the head of a bear or the antlers of an elk. Their spirits will not miss such fragments, for they departed at their death." He looks down at the corpses again. "If you desire one of your own, best act. I will build a pyre for them, so they do not return for vengeance." Putting his words to action, he begins searching for the small bit of deadwood and tinder necessary to construct a makeshift pyre.

[Down Comforter]

Kit crosses her arms. "A trophy is it? There be a difference between taking the horns of a buck you take for food and leather and cutting the head off a man you've killed! Regardless of whether the former owner be gone to the beyond, it's a disrespect to mutilate them so; makes us no better than barbarians."

[Sriseru]

Rashka smiles at Kit. "That's the point. To disrespect and be barbaric towards your enemies." She turns to Tharas. "And it's not a trophy. I took it because I want to demoralize these bandits. I want to inspire fear in those bastards, it'll make them sloppy. I will use their own dead against them, if it gives me even the slightest advantage! We will annihilate them and make them an example to all who would oppose us!"

She chuckles slightly and turns to Kit. "So, when should we head for their camp?"

[Down Comforter]

Kit's eyes widen, "You're a lunatic. We came here to tame this land, not make it worse. Chopping people's heads off so that you can kill more people a little faster will turn the locals against us in fear, when we could turn them to support us."

She stands up straight and looks the orc in the eye, "and we are not killing the bandits, especially with such... tactics," she scowls, "until we talk to them first."

[Sriseru]

"Me? A lunatic? Hah!" Rashka scoffs.
"I do agree with you though, to a certain extent." She eyes the paladin. "We should give them a chance to surrender and we should attempt to gain support from the locals. However, with a caring hand and a protective shield must also come an unforgiving sword. We must show the bandits of these lands that we will not tolerate injustice."

[Down Comforter]

"We will not tolerate injustice, but we must not stoop to their level or we are no better." She glances at the orcs bag, "I have no qualms with ambush, deception and the like in times of war, but desecration of the dead for the purpose of intimidation is too much. We must maintain our honor."

[Sriseru]

Rashka looks like she's about to say something, but then just grunts.
I'm thinking like an orc, she's not... and these are human lands...
"Very well." She starts. "We'll try it your way."

Rashka reach down into her backpack, take out the sack, and grabs the head.
"What a waste of a perfectly good head." She utters while tossing the head to its deceased owner.

[Down Comforter]

Kit's face softens, "Thank you for understanding. If worse comes to worse, we may have to try it your way, but I would hope that it doesn't come to that." She wanders over to the laid out bodies and picks up the compound bow, testing it's strength. "Tell you what, we stick with the no-heads approach and, with some time, I'll make you a bow that can make use of that strength of yours."

[Sriseru]

Rashka gives Kit a slight smile. "I would very much appreciate that. You have a deal."

[ChaosLord29]

During Rashka and Kit's their discussion regarding the fate of the bandits, Oleg and Svetlana begin to busy themselves with the cleaning up of their cabin home, righting furniture and assessing whether any damage has occurred to their office and store room. Eventually, Oleg emerges from the house to regard those assembled outside, Talos, Tharas, Rashka and Kit. It's his first time seeing most of them assembled in the same place with time for reflection and he takes the most of it. In return, you are all given a moment to take in the sight of the man who runs this last vestige of civilization on the edge of the Greenbelt. He isn't terribly tall, but has quite a girth to him, clearly the evidence of long hard days working to repair this very trading post. His rough hands mark him as a craftsman by trade, but their is a coolness to his eyes and about his rugged countenance that suggests a sharp mind, tempered as a trader and merchant.

"I take it then you all are not the guards I sent word to the city for?" He asks, with a bit of a smirk, the first positive emotion you've seen from him yet, "All the same, I can't thank ye' all enough though for rescuing me and my wife. As I said before, these brigands have been making off with my entire stock as 'tribute' for the last few weeks. I would've done something sooner but for Svetlana's sake and as you saw . . . " He trails off and spits on the ground in disgust, "I don't reckon any of these scum are deserving of a decent funeral, but if you're willing to give them one, I'll only say that there's room in the middens for them. Otherwise, I won't have them buried on the grounds of my home. Either way, Svetlana will have some dinner ready for you all in a few hours, and I'd like to discuss a little business myself over it. The beds in the long house are yours, free of charge."

With that, he makes his way over to the small shed you saw and produces some tools; spades and picks, to assist with any burials, before tending to his own business of taking stock and inventory.

[Moranica]

Renna listens to Oleg and nods.

A bed and a meal would be nice. We've been on the road long enough, and to have a battle to finish.... yes, food and rest.

As for the bodies, I don't care much for burying. Either way, the land will reclaim that, which was always theirs. Burying, burning or just letting it rot, won't change a thing.

[Zuh1]

Talo had asked the Charmed bandit what landmarks there were near the hideout before the time was up, then stayed silent throughout the debate over the decapitation. When Kit mentions making bows, his ears do perk up, but that could wait.

Though when Oleg suggest burials, he offers his thoughts, "The crows and wolves will be undertakers enough for me, and for these men I say the same will do. The difference between a good man and 'scum' can often be as simple as not knowing where your next meal will come from, being desperate enough to go blind to right from wrong. I can ride out a ways to leave them for the wilderness to take, if no one has any objections. And I look forward to sampling whatever food your wife may offer. Here." he presents the rabbits he had killed earlier in the day, and since removed from his saddle, "if you'd like them you can have them."

[DaedalusMkV]

Tharas, meanwhile, begins constructing a makeshift bonfire a short distance from the post. "We burn them. Corpses given to the Pyre do not return for vengeance; left to the environment... It is much less certain. There is also less worry of attracting predators or monsters." Short response given, he returns to his task. A little bit of deadwood here, a bush there, a little of Oleg's firewood near the center and he should be able to reduce the corpses to ash, as is proper for enemies killed face-to-face.

[Sriseru]

"Alright, if we're going to stay here for a while and rest, I advise that we put someone on watch until we leave." Rashka suggests. "Once these bandits realize that their men won't return, they might send a scout, or even an armed party, in search for them. We need to be prepared for that.
"Should this happen, we need to keep them from reporting back, that'll keep the enemy blind and unprepared, if we're lucky."