"Hello, eh, Al?" Karon manages to interject before the dwarf prattles on about so many different things any normal person would have a hard time following the conversation. "Say, wha...? A bandit in a feather cloak who you gutted like a fish? Hm. No, can't say I've heard about that exploit. But, you know, clearly that eh, event might make for a good story, probably. Might need a little work on the details, I guess?" he says, trying not to insult the almost incoherent dwarf.

"And no, I'm not a bandit," he says, not really wanting to give out too many details. "But, you know, we've all got a past," he says in a slightly guilty voice.

"I never said we would have to kill him, Albrecht," Lathan says, shaking his head and smiling. He gives the dwarf a friendly pat on the back then turns to face Karon. He looks at him cautiously, obviously sizing him up. "I'm Lathan. And if Lucien and Antia think you should join us, I'm fine with that. Besides, one of the other guards took an arrow to the throat during the ambush, so I doubt he'll be accompanying us on the last leg of this trip."

That's a dangerous one, that elf, Karon thinks to himself as he watches the interaction. In his previous line of work it had been a survival skill to read people to know who would hesitate and who would slit a man's throat without giving it much thought. Not that this elf reminded him of someone who he would put in the second group, but he was probably closer to that than the first one.

"An arrow to the throat? Sounds bad. But Lucien didn't go into much detail," he says, eyeing the other elf. "He certainly didn't mention ambushes and people dying. Not that I'm a stranger to either. If you need someone to bolster the ranks, I could be that someone, I guess. But that would sort of depend on what you are up to, and why."

"Glad you're on board, mate." He flinches at Lathan's friendly pat and looks around confused, seemingly unaware of where it came from. He gives his shoulder a good sniff, then shrugs and turns back.
"Whelp, Bob'll leave ye tall'ns with yer talky talk. As I said, I'm a simple scout n not be knowin the finer points o' things.
Have no fear of doin's; me mates r all good folk, we're all just tryin to help as best we can. 's allbouts I knows anyhows." He'll leave the table in search of food and ale to let his friends have some peace so they can adult without distractions.

Seirye returned with the barkeep in tow, a slightly disgruntled look on his face. He was carrying a tray with five wine goblets on it.

"Just here, this table, thank you," she said to him as the two of them arrived back at the group's table.

She looked around the group, doing a quick count of who was already sitting there. "Ah," she realised, looking a little embarrassed. She turned back to the barkeep for a moment and placed a coin on his tray as he was putting the five goblets of rather good white wine down on the table in front of those who were already sitting there.

"And one more please if you don't mind," she added politely.

"One more ye say, your ladyship, I'll have it brought to your high table in but a moment," he replied mixing a friendly tone with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

Seirye missed the sarcasm completely but was torn between correcting him on his mode of address and establishing what was going on with the group now. Albrecht was getting up leaving her confused as to how many drinks she had needed to procure. She looked at Albrecht. She looked to Karon, a typically awkward smile struggling to form on her face. Practice was clearly not making perfect. She looked at Lucien. She looked back at Karon.

"Greetings, I am Sierye, second-born of Vaeril Lathilar, student of the arcane, sage, mystic detective, slayer of bandits, and sometime aspiring candidate for an associate professorship at the Vault of the Sages at Silverymoon..." She didn't bother to ask if he had heard of her. It wasn't the Half-Orc per se. It didn't appear anyone had ever heard of her. Her tiny spider crawled out from her hood and onto her shoulder raising it's forelegs for a moment. All it was doing was sensing it's mistress' mind and her attempt to be friendly but it didn't understand a warm greeting any more than it's mistress did. It retreated back inside her hood. "... and you are?"

"The name is Karon," the broad-shouldered half-orc replies to the awkward elven woman. She clearly isn't very comfortable around him, that's for sure. "And I'm afraid I haven't got any more names or titles to share," he adds.

"I suppose Lucin told you I used to be a bandit a fair way from here. That much is true, but I've left the bandits and that sort of work behind. Your companions tell me you could use someone with my talents. Al over there said something about a bandit leader in a feather cloak, but I must confess I didn't really understand all that well what he was trying to say. Perhaps someone else could try to explain what you are planning to do, and how I could be of assistance there?"

"Right now, we're escorting some trade goods from Milborne to Count Parlfray's keep," Lathan answers Karon. "We traveled here down the river the last couple of days and will be making the last leg of the trip tomorrow morning. There's been a lot of banditry in the area lately, and we've been hired to make sure the goods make it where they need to go.

"As for the 'bandit leader in a feather cloak,' we were attacked by a group of bandits on the river. We managed to kill or capture most of them, but their leader managed to fly away with the help of his cloak. That's all we really know. The captives wouldn't talk."

"Hmm. That sounds like something I could help you with," Karon says, sniffing the goblet of wife brought by the barman with a look of appreciation on his face, before taking a small sip. "Ah, this is excellent," he says politely to Seirye. "Thank you very much."

He then turns back to the problem at hand. "Honestly, I'm not from around here and know neither the route nor the local bandits. But if you want me along I can  make sure that should some bandits try something stupid, a goodly number of them won't live to regret that mistake," he says darkly.

With the situation with Karon apparently handeled, Lucien relaxes a bit back into a somewhat more reserved attitude. He also takes one of the wine goblets from the server and notes the man's general dissatisfaction. He manages to avoid cracking a smile at Albrecht and otherwise stays out of the conversation as the other introduce themselves. One word Albrecht said reminded Lucien of an earlier train of thought. He sits back in his seat and thinks as he sips his wine.

Six of Count Parlfray's men-at-arms arrive in the morning to accompany the party the rest of the way to Parlfray's keep. They take charge of the two captives, who have gone wholly amnesiac. Neither Count Parlfray's men nor anyone in Thurmaster has ever seen the captives before; they all agree that the men aren't from Haranshire.

Parlfray's keep is about 10 miles away.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:08, Sun 24 Sept 2017.

Karon is up at dawn the following morning, breaking his fast with a lot of porridge and dried beef. He then takes his time to get his armor on, asking the others for assistance tightening straps and making sure his chain mail sits just right over the thick gambeson.

The half-orc doesn't appear hung over in the least, mostly because he only had a couple of pints of ale and that glass of wine. When the others arrive he seems eager to get going, and admits it feels good to have some semblance of a purpose again after wandering around aimlessly for the past few days.

Lucien has a comparatively small meal to start the day. The elf if already downstairs by the time Dawn arrives having needed only a few hours of meditation. He eats as the group waits for the Count's men to arrive and, once they do, takes up a place in the marching order from which he can watch the prisoners and the cargo as they make their way to the keep.

Lathan, like Lucien, is ready to go before dawn. He lets the count's men lead the way to the keep, pacing alongside the caravan with his bow at the ready in case of another ambush.

Seirye joins the group in the common room at dawn having completed her preparations for the day ahead, the almost religious ritual by which her spells are committed to memory and the arcane power summoned within her. She doesn't say much as she eats and drinks while pouring over her book, updating it as she deems worthy, appreciating that even the little details could be significant at a later point.

Once they set off she finds a place in the middle of the column and strolls along, very relaxed, while eating an apple.

The trip to Parlfray's keep is uneventful. When the caravan arrives at the keep, Count Sandior Parlfray, a wooly-haired human in his early 70s, comes out to greet them. Upon seeing the prisoners and hearing about the failed ambush, he goes pale but makes no comment. He makes sure the guards are all paid for their services--50 gold pieces each--and offers to let them stay at the keep for the rest of the day and overnight.

Count Parlfray's son Lyntern, a large, muscular young man of about 18, watches the party carefully for quite some time. Once they are alone, i.e. once Count Parlfray has left them, Lyntern approaches them. "Did you really drive off a group of bandits near the Thornwood?" he asks, wide-eyed. "Man, I wish I could've seen that!"

Karon keeps to himself but watches with interest the interactions at the keep. At least the count pays a reasonable sum to the others, so they are not selling themselves too cheap, he thinks. Although it's hard to estimate what's fair since he doesn't know the time it took them and the risks they had to take.

The bulky half-orc tries not to get noticed overly much by the excitable youngster, who apparently is the count's son. He looks strong enough, but pampered. Karon figures he might be his age. But, unlike him, humans develop slowly and this one probably hadn't killed anyone yet. He lets the others deal with the count's son, drawing his sword and idly running his whetstone along the edge.

Lucien is not feeling a particularly generous mood after the interactions with the Count. The man clearly knew something he wasn't sharing and the elf suspected that the offer to remain at the keep might be more than generosity. Still, he informs the others of his opinion that delaying for one evening probably won't affect the next stage of their journey. Essentially, he is willing to stay the night if they are despite the fact that the day has only just begun. He can take the opportunity to continue practicing his spells.

Once the group is left alone with the Count's son, Lucien sizes the boy up. By the time he was this boy's age, Lucien was already world weary so he finds it difficult to empathize with the lad's excitement. For the sake of appearances however, he wears a conspiratorial smile.
 "Oh yes, killed a few and captured all the rest save for their leader. Hardly the stuff of legends, but not a bad story. The area seems to be rather rougher than one might expect. Your father clearly is concerned enough to pay for relatively large forces of guards." With any luck the lad might reveal more than his father.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:10, Fri 29 Sept 2017.

"I'd love to get out and explore," Lyntern sighs. "Things are usually so quiet around here.

"Yeah, there's definitely some bad stuff going on in the Thornwood, from what I hear," he continues. "I'm sure that's why he hired you.

"How long have you all been doing this kind of work?"

"Quiet's a good thing," Lathan says to Lyntern. "And I've been doing this kind of work long enough to know that."

He looks at the young man sternly for a moment, then asks, "What kind of 'bad stuff' in the Thornwood have you heard about?"

Seirye remained quiet and as inconspicuous as a golden-haird, silver-eyed High Elf could be amongst these parts. From the side of the group she regarded the conversation and the Count's son with her typically emotionless face. More muscle and an eagerness for a fight, she thought, I trust the Count has a spare. Still they might gather some useful information from him, something other than frivolous gossip. Seirye doubted that he would be aware of the things that would interest her, arcane matters, scrolls containing lost spells, artefacts long buried in tombs waiting for the right sage to appreciate their significance. She chuckled to herself at the thought that the count's son might not even be able to spell words like arcane. What kind of education is it that puts swordplay above developing a love of ancient languages.

When the count's son mentions something bad going on in Thornwood, Karon moves a little closer and listens carefully. This could be something innocent, or perhaps even a sign that his former friends might have migrated to fresher pastures. And that could be a problem. "Are you talking about more bandits in Thornwood or something else?" he asks the young man.

Lyntern leans in towards Karon and Lathan and says in a hushed tone, "Bandits, for sure, maybe something more... I know something about a ruined place in the Thornwood where those who attacked you might be hiding out."

"Well that sounds promising," Karon says carefully. He suspects he knows what might be coming. The count's son will want to come along. And probably get himself killed. "Perhaps you could describe the way for us? Or draw us a map or something?"

Lucien seems to be considering the talk of the Thornwood before he speaks up; he is perhaps of a similar mind to Seirye in regards to the boy's aspirations. "Does you're father's territory extend through the Thornwood? Or is it merely adjacent? We might have some time to investigate matters in the wood on his behalf." The elf keeps his tone neutral, not implying anything by his words.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:22, Sun 01 Oct 2017.

Al contented himself to let the tallfolk handle the talkies. He simply listens and waits while they discover what they need.