"I'll take it easy on you the first hand."  David smiles at Marik.  He runs his fingers across the copper a few times before tossing it into the center of the table.  The last game was not kind to David and he did not forget.  The cards are dealt and David waits for the others to look at their cards before picking up his own.  He did know a few tricks here and there after losing so many hands as a young man himself.

Zach picks his hand up and shuffles the cards around a bit.  He frowns and looks across first at David and then Marik.  With a grin he lays down two hands of three cards.


OOC - There are two ways to do this.  2x D20 rolls per round (longer) - or 1x d20 roll for the whole game  (Shorter).  I don't mind.  Depends on if you guys think you can stretch out an NPC chat ...
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 09:20, Fri 17 Feb 2017.

David barely keeps a smile from touching the corner of his mouth when he sees Zach frown.  But then David frowns himself a bit at Zach's good fortune before laying his own hand down on the table.

OOC: I'm fine with either option.  With my current slower posting rate than normal it may be better to go with one roll for the whole game, but if others don't mind the wait between posts I can go 2 rolls a hand.

Marik grabs his cards and begins looking at them, still trying to figure out the best strategy to play them. He'd been hoping for more of a game where he could bluff his opponent's and draw them into a short con, but this game was enjoyable enough to pass the time.

I'm fine with a single die roll

Zach looked hard at his hand and spread the cards wide, only to realise that his enthusiasm was misplaced.  He had misread the cards in his first hand, it wasn't  three sixes -  it was two sixes and a nine.

Then he glares at the deck "Damned Cards"
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 09:20, Fri 17 Feb 2017.

The deal passes on and the game continues.  While every one wins a few hands the fates seem to favour Marik.  In the first game, he is the first one to seven points, David gets the second, and Marik takes the third again.

Zach counts his coins and scowls.  "That is probably my lot gentlemen ..."

"Are you sure you don't want to play one more hand?  Win back what you lost so far to the youngin'?" David jokes with a smile.  In reality he wanted the man to stay.  Of the three of them David realized he had a better chance at winning against Zach than Marik.  The kid the slick.  David gave him credit for that, but he had been conned enough to know when he had been gotten.  If Zach was out then so was David.

Svetlana, helped by a group of new settlers, makes hot flat breads and hot soup.  A large pot of water has been set to heat alongside the soup.

OOC:  Those of you with NPCs at Olegs can feel free to chime in, if you want to.

Borric is sitting by the fire, still somewhat dishevelled drinking a cup of herbal tea.  The upcoming wedding has clearly been a subject of discussion for those helping out there, and they are interested to know more about it.

” Yes.  I was invited to a noble’s wedding once.  More to make up the numbers than anything else I think.   The ceremony itself was quite boring, the bride and groom signed contracts and exchanged rings in a fairly plain room at the temple of Abadar.  All the details had been worked out in advance, of course, by the families.  Something to do with making sure that everyone knew who had what and who was taking what money and goods into the marriage, setting up the dowry  and things like that.  The poor bride and groom had little to do with that planning, it was all done between their family lawyers.  Or so I understand.

Mind you, the wedding reception afterwards was much different.  All the important guests were there in their finery, and as they came in they threw a handful of coins into the wedding chest to help the couple get started.  The wealthiest guests made sure there was a platinum piece or two in their hand full of coins and few even dropped a couple of gemstones in there.  Then there served a meal.  At that one there was a table for the most important guests while the rest of us ate from a buffet and made small talk.  They even sent some food out into the streets so the ordinary people could celebrate with the couple as well.   It didn’t last for all that long, but it was some of the best food and drink I have ever tasted …”

Borric seems almost unaware of the oohs and ahhs that the settlers make as he talks of dowries, platinum pieces and gems – but some of the women get starry eyed at the thought, while others just shake their heads, perhaps remembering their own, much more mundane, weddings.

Andalon joins Adoven and many of the others at the campfire at Oleg's trading post the evening thay they arrive en-route from Fort Stag to Restov. He has promised to tell Adoven about their adventures at the Orcy Ring and Fort Stag.

"The last time we were here was just before Henry ordered us south to secure the ring fort we had discovered on our previous scouting mission. When we had found the ring fort - it must be at least a fortnight ago now - there was only one person there; a villainous halforc bandit who had not responded to our calls of greeting when we entered what appeared to be a deserted fort. The place consists of a wooden palisade around a small hill beside a river. There is a watchtower on top of the hill and a warren of tunnels and caves beneath the hill. Well, that villain had attacked us by surprise in those tunnels and very nearly killed Cyrus before we managed to slay him instead.

"So it was several days later before we finally arrived to secure the ring fort. We had already anticipated that the band of bandits who live there would have returned by then, and we were not mistaken. Still, we had no real idea how many they would be, so we crept around behind the fort at night and managed to enter without being seen. We would not have known how to do it if we had not already partially explored the place before. The details, though, must remain our secret for the time being.

"Anyway, we had gotten inside without being detected but that was as much luck as we could really hope for. The bandits were wary of being attacked and had set up lookouts on the walls and tower, so we were discovered as soon as we stepped out inside the fort. There was a bloody battle against the bandits and their strongest fighter - another halforc brute - while their leader, a human wizardess called Lavinia - hurled her magic against us from the safety of the lookout tower up on the hill.

"The turning point of that battle came when Cyrus finally managed to slay that halforc fighter. Half of the remaining bandits fled out the gate of the ring fort, led by a woman named Kressel - a formidable fighter in her own right, and we were able to concentrate on defeating the wizardess in the tower. Fortunately, we prevailed and the ring fort now flies Henry's flag. It turns out that the wizardess Lavinia was mother to those two halforcs and two others already killed in previous battles by Henry's people. Together they were the backbone of that band of bandits based at the ring fort, hence its nickname of the Orcy Ring.

"Well, that was the first part of our adventures concluded successfully. But we learnt more about the main leader of the bandits in this region from the prisoners we captured in that battle. The main bandit leader is known as the Stag Lord, based at another fort beside the lake south of here. Of course, when Henry learnt those details he brought us reinforcements and instructed us to capture the Stag Lord's fort as well.

"This time we knew less about Fort Stag than we had about the Orcy Ring, as the Stag Lord trusted very few of his bandits and no one could tell us much about what we would find inside. We knew it was located atop another hill with high wooden walls around an old, ruined, stone building with three lookout towers and a very strong gate guarding the only entry to the fort.

"Nonetheless, Henry had entrusted us with an important mission and were determined to do our utmost to make it a success. Again we crept up to the walls of the fort under cover of darkness, scaled the walls and launched our assault inside. Once again the bandits had set a number of guards on watch and we were detected soon after we entered the fort. We fought a number of the bandits up on the walkways and lookout towers first but the real battle came when we got down to ground level. The Stag Lord was a deadly archer but the ferocious owlbear he unleashed upon us was just as deadly a foe. Many of my friends suffered terrible injuries in that battle before we finally defeated first the owlbear then the Stag Lord and the last of his bandits. I must give thanks to my lord Abadar for the blessed healing he allowed me to bestow upon my friends during that battle, and the gifts of Erastil delivered by his priest, our friend Rook, or we should not have succeeded.

"After that battle there was one more foe to take care of, as we had heard there was a mysterious, nasty old man who dwelled in the cellars beneath that fort. One of the prisoners from the Orcy Ring believed that old man to be the real mastermind behind the Stag Lord and his bandits. I suspected he might be an evil priest and I expected we would face hordes of undead monsters down there. I was wrong. Instead the old man proved to have some sort of mastery over earth and stone. We were met by traps in the floor that shredded our feet, a great swarm of poisonous spiders, a summoned monster of solid rock with fists of solid stone and another rock monster hanging out of the ceiling that hurled gouts of molten magma at us! That was a fearful battle as we hardly knew how to fight such strange abominations. Fortunately our resources of magic, steel and muscle proved enough to overcome each of those deadly foes. The magma monster was the last to fall and as it hit the ground it transformed back into that evil old man; dead from the arrows that had dislodged him and the fall that broke his body on the floor.

"That was the end of the battle for Fort Stag and, at last, victory was ours."

Adoven scribbles furiously taking notes. "WOW. Sound like enough to make an excellent epic. I'll either call it 'Henry and the Heroes' or '' The Stag Lord's Doom ''. That last foe sounds like a druid of enormous power If he were able to transform like that. But why would he act that way? Don't they normally have their own code of behavior? Sounds like a bit of mystery as well. Excellent!  Now THAT'S  the kind of question to keep an epic firmly in the minds of those that hear it. You'll be among the first to hear this when I get it written,I promise. I just hope my prose is equal to my music."

Cyrus had listened to the telling of the story and though Andalon had done a wonderful job telling the story of their grand adventure, he noticed the man had left out all mention of his own role in the battles. He'd done far more than healing and Cyrus interjected, "A more appropriate title would be 'A Chronicle of Abadar's Blessing' as I fear my cousin-to-be mentioned far too little of his role and his deities role in keeping us all alive."

Aris'ta, much as she always has, keeps a quiet vigil in a corner of sorts, if that is really what it could be called. Her eyes are keen to the others, and she listens with intent to the story being told. Between all that has happened in the last few days, it is hard to say the dark elf has been herself. Caught up with the duties that presented themselves, and never one to enjoy a long ride, she has felt more or less drained of mind, body, and spirit. But having a moment to 'relax' allows her to feel more herself and she manages somehow, even at her distance, to feel a part of the group.

For her part, she keeps quiet and lets others do the talking for her. She has nothing to really add, though she does note that there are new faces to the mix to increase her discomfort level.

"I think that The Stag Lord's Doom might be a perfect title for that ballad," Andalon agreed wholeheartedly. "There is another part to the tale that I neglected to mention. After the victory at the ring fort Henry first sent us to check out the remnants of an old bridge across the river downstream from the ring fort.

"All that is left of the bridge is a single rope spanning the river, which is about 350 feet wide at that point. Pipre managed to climb a short way across, which gives us reasonable confidence the rope should be strong enough to support us, at least one at a time.

"The real problem is that the bridge is haunted! There is a bell and a sign on this side near the bridge that says to ring the bell for service with a price of one copper per person to cross. As we had no idea whether the place was still in operation we decided to ring the bell to see whether that message was still true. Instead the spirit of Davik the bridge builder rose up out of the waters a few hundred feet downstream and walked upstream to us. I mean he actually walked upon the waters of the river! When he came close his stench was so foul that some of us were physically overcome with nausea. As he approached he was saying, "Throw the Stag Lord's body into the river that I may look upon his death, or join me instead." I managed to turn him away by calling upon the power of Abadar but then we had no way of knowing whether he would return if someone tried to cross on the rope of the old bridge. Pipre gave that a try and he didn't return immediately, but when we tried ringing the bell a second time he returned once more. We thought to destroy him with arrows and spells but he seemed unharmed by anything except Vik's enchanted blade. He came right up the cliff at the river's edge to confront us before Vik struck him and his body and weapon dissolved into water and flowed back into the river it had come from.

"I don't know what form of undead it is but I believe it probably cannot be destroyed entirely by anything we have at our disposal and will always return when the bell is rung. The problem is that we don't know what else will cause it to return. If one of us is halfway across the river when it returns then even if it doesn't attack them its stench would probably result in someone being overcome, losing their grip, falling into the river and drowning.

"Now that the Stag Lord is dead some others of our company have been sent to throw his body into the river there, in hopes that this will finally allow Davik's spirit to rest in peace and allow the bridge to be reopened. I don't know the outcome of that mission yet, as we left Fort Stag before it was completed. I will leave that to you, Adoven, to finish that tale when news of that mission's outcome finally reaches your ears."

"You might be right about the old man in the cellar being a druid. We found a wooden holy symbol of Gozreh upon his body. I have no idea what the link was between him and the Stag Lord – or even which one was truly the master there – but I have no doubt he contributed to that bandit lord's hold over the surrounding area for so long."

When Cyrus made mention of Andalon's role in those adventures the young priest looked quite embarrassed.

"I only did what my lord Abadar gives me the power to do. Rook did the same with Erastil's blessing. Every one of our companions played their part in those victories. So much blood was spilt by our friends that it was almost more than Rook and I could do to keep them all alive. Cyrus was always at the forefront of every battle and bears more than enough scars to prove it. Vik was always close beside him and the skill with which she wields her two blades is thrilling to behold. Arista's arrows found their target more times than I could keep track of, especially when the darkness meant no eyes but hers could even see the foe. Valoria's spellcasting kept the wizardess at bay in the tower and Pipre's alchemical bombs proved tremendously effective against many foes, particularly against that swarm of poisonous spiders when our weapons of no use against them at all. Percy was the only one of us able to get up the watchtower to actually come to grips with the wizardess. Zorah and her animal friends provided our only view inside Fort Stag and she threw herself into the battle there fearlessly, too."

Cyrus smiled at the man's humility, "I can see you have many talents that will make you an excellent priest of Abadar, cousin. A fine storyteller.  A man who sees the best in those around them. A man who heals and forgives when wronged. I'm honored to be your friend Andalon." Holding his mug of ale aloft he says, "To more days on the road together facing off against the unknown! I have met few I'd rather have with me than you, all of you." He says making eye contact with those present. "We are alive by the grace of Abadar and Erastil, and by the training of each of you. Valoria is most grateful you've all managed to keep me alive and out of pits long enough to set off on Restov for this next unique journey that she and I are embarking on. I am honored to know that you will all be there to send us off!"

After the toast Cyrus takes a seat and nurses his ale quietly for a moment in revery. His mug empty, he stands and joins the group again, as he gets a refill of his beverage and eyes a bowl of the soup.

The water heating by the fire had obviously been for Henry’s use - because when he appears by the fireside he has washed the away the dirt from the road and dressed in some clean clothes.

Once Henry is present, Svetlana starts to serve the bread and soup and a couple of the women helping her come around with pieces of cheese and some thin sweet onions.  It is not the most filling meal you have eaten, but it is hot and freshly prepared – and even that is a change from some of the food you have eaten recently.  As you are eating, Henry raises his tankard towards you all.

”I would like to thank you for the work that you have all done.  You, along with your colleagues, have cleared the bandits from this land, and in doing so  you have made places like this, Trade Post, safe for decent people like Oleg and Svetlana to live in.  Tomorrow we ride for Restov, where we will witness the marriage of two of our number – Cyrus and Valoria.  However,  according to Sir Ferdinand,  I am also to receive a Patent of Nobility in the rank of Lord-Dominus and, am told, will be appointed as the administrator for this region.  Together, we will go on to secure the whole of this land for the children of Oleg, Svetlana, Cyrus and Valoria.  And I promise you that, while it is within my powers, you will be well rewarded, according to your station, for everything we achieve!”

He nods towards Oleg, who has been hovering in the shadows, who fetches out a case of  local Restov wine and starts pouring for those who want it.

assuming pipre is around for this:

"Sorry, station? Forgive this backwater bumpkin but what does that mean exactly? To be rewarded according to station?"

Sir Ferdinand smiles at Pipre’s question and moves forward to speak softly. As he moves forwards he catches Henry's eye and nods. 

"Really it comes down to how rich you are," The Knight says softly, "Some people, normally those that inherit their wealth,  think it means whether your parents were noble or not.  But in practice, poor nobles tend to get less reward than wealthy commoners.    And you my dear, judging from the jewellery that you wear, are one of the wealthiest people out here." 

“You've already seen it in action,” he continues quietly, “back at the Staglord's Fort.  You all got big bags of gold, while Lolli and Alex got smaller bags, the stay at home guards will get  better  gear and a few coins ... while the folks here get a couple of glasses of wine.”
This message was last edited by the player at 08:00, Wed 06 Sept 2017.

Vik drank her wine and toasted at the reasonable times

"If I had a copper for every time I was described as 'thrilling to behold' . . . I'd likely have four coppers, if my math is right."

Andalon grins at Vik and flips a copper piece towards her.

"And worth every penny!" he chuckles.

In reply to Andalon de Lebeda (msg # 222):

"Many thanks Andalon, I shall spend it wisely when we reach Restov!"

Vik caught the coin in the air and put it in her pouch, smiling impishly.

"Ah, but Sir Ferdinand, rewards also go to those who can play the political game. Knowing whom to aid with what enticements, in exchange for what favors, has been a part of court life since the first monarchy was formed. We may not like it, but it's a political reality" the pessimistic but intelligent bard pointed out.

Aris does little more than smirk watching the interplay. She has never really been one to join in such things and is more content to watch.