Cautiously, those of you that wish to represent the party move forward to the clearing.

The campfire you saw glimmers of still burns, surrounded by sitting logs.

A man in chainmail sits, over which hangs a pot of stew.

Kalandra sits on one of the logs, her hands are tied behind her back and her ankles as well. He's seems to trying to feed her the stew.

"You're sure, dear? I put enough salt in this time..."

Behind him are four mounted warriors wearing chain mail and carrying shields and lances. You see no sign of the archers.

The man looks up - a fellow with a red beard and crooked teeth.

"Ah, you have a Knight leading you! Lovely!"

He stands and bows.

"Please enjoy my meager lodgings! I do have some rabbit stew ready, shall I serve? Perhaps a bottle of wine to wash it down? Then we can begin negotiations...
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:21, Wed 19 Feb 2020.

Brother Brodd follows Einhard to the meeting. "Are they treating you well Kalandra?" Brodd asks her, not paying much attention to the bearded soldier.

Kalandra spits the soup in the direction of the leader. "They're sort of boring. And this one thinks he's hilarious. They have rooks under that black of their shields, making them fallen Braunstein's finest. Lastly, they are definitely fixated on a nearby ogre."
Kalandra blinks a few times. "That's my full report."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:10, Wed 19 Feb 2020.

Cautious of the other party's intentions, Gorn follows those headed to the meeting but stops at the edge of the woods, bow in hand with a notched arrow. He pays very little attention to the events by the fireplace, instead his eyes are scanning the edge of the woods as well as the actions of those on horseback. "Lances aren't of much use in these woods so they are merely there to intimidate. Where are the rest of them" he thinks to himself.

Brodd nods. "Where are your friends?" Brodd asks the leader, "there are more of you."

"Oh, they're around. I assume you have snipers as well. That's how these standoffs usually go...very well or very messy. Let me get to the point..."

He lifts up Kalandra's boathook.

"No pun intended. Now, why someone carry a boathook unless they have a boat? That's an unusual thing to haul with you up a mountain range, isn't it? Unless you have a boat. Which is the most plausible way you got up this high after the floods..."

"Why would you want a boat in the woods?" Brodd asked. "That's a boathook? I wondered what she carried when we found her in the woods yesterday. She has been with us less than a day."

Manaku shoulders his bow and slips the arrow back to his quiver. He follows Einhard and Brodd to the clearing but remains silent letting Brodd and Einhard do talking for now.

He pulls the ribbon out of Kalandra's hair and uses it to wipe off the stew she spit on his armor.

"That's the point, Brother. We want to get out of these woods and sail as far away from the chaos north of us as possible. Give us the boat and in return you get your little comedian back. If you really want her back, that is. We might even leave a couple horses behind depending on how many people we can fit on the ship."

He leans in.

"And in return, we won't tell any of the Barons that you're working for the Druids. They've wanted that gnomish dam destroyed for centuries. People call me a bandit and a brigand, but I've never killed a peasant! But here you are..."

He points to Brodd's symbol.

"A man of the Solar Faith? Drowning farms and villages wholesale? Who's going to pay your tithes now?"

He shakes his head in disgust.

Brodd looks with concern at what the man says, "Many farms and villages were drowned? We didn't know that. Einhard, you have anything to add?"

Leohart remains behind with his comrades who don't venture to the clearing, his eyes scanning the foliage, and a wand in his hand.

Amalrik stands at the rear, looking rearwards. His sword is out and held across a shoulder with one hand. Visible, but not immediately menacing. He only mutters in a low voice Knights with others hiding about and talking knights at that. Theres something fishy here'bouts.

The foppish one joined the conversation at that point, lute in hand as he approached the parley.

"Hello all, fine evening is it not? Harald the Herald I am known. Hail and wellness to you!" He approached the fire and attempted to warm himself, seemingly oblivious of the concerned looks on both sides.

"Seems like there's some misunderstanding here. I'm a bit of a scholar of history myself, and I daresay this isn't the first time two well-meaning groups have arrived at an impasse. No, certainly not the first. The thing is, this particular story affects US. Stories, tales, ballads, they're all wonderful to listen to, inspiring and so forth, but here we are tonight with our blades and our bows... Yes, we've certainly got to sort this out."

"Now our side has been struggling just to stay alive for some time now, that's the truth of it. There's a flying manticore in the region that seems to plague our every step, no doubt your lot has seen it, but it drove us beneath the mountain. There were no druids, in fact the very last of the gnomes is one we've rescued from an icy entombment - poor fellow still suffers I'm afraid."

"The dam you speak of was in total disrepair and, in fact, broke when we tried to escape the mountain. Having no idea what the dam even was nor what the consequence might be other than our own survival, we, admittedly, did the region a great harm..."

"Fine."

"Your lot, you say, wish to depart the region safely and quickly. You've blacked your shields to protect yourselves in this time of trouble, we can certainly appreciate that. Pointing the finger at us for having harmed folks is a bit hypocritical considering you all ransacked a village in order to get supplies..."

"Fine."

"Let's settle upon an agreement which costs neither of us anything. Why don't you come back to the river, board the ship you suppose is there, and we drop you off at a safe location? To be honest, the reason we stopped at yonder dock was to investigate your handiwork on the village. If you accompany us back without a fuss, we'll notify the King as to the need of the villagers, and we'll all be on our way happily downstream!"

"But if you're heart is set upon further violence this evening or upon the morn, then I propose each side choose a champion and we do this honorably, Knight versus Knight, the defeated acquiesces to the triumphant!"

"That seems to be an amicable solution, I might also add the release of Kalandra, we've grown fond of her...what say ye?"

Alietra did not advance to the clearing -  there were plenty others who had better credibility, not to mention far better manners, than she did.

Even without being much of a tactician, it only made sense to her that a band this size would post snipers for such a meeting.   She strung her short bow, and began trying to see if she could spot any of them.    And if she in turn might have a clear shot.

Spot them while being stealthy, it went without saying.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:36, Thu 20 Feb 2020.

Jarvak stood near Leohart and had his shield out.

Coughing for a second, he bent his head down.

Ah.. that’s a great plan but... the boat is gone.  It’s not on the dock anymore. When I looked back as we were coming in the woods it was no longer where we left it - an I tied such a good knot too! If you all go quickly you may find it downstream.

But wait - before you go - who burned that last village and what happened to all the people?

In reply to Jarvak Amendola (msg # 16):

]

In reply to Harald (msg # 13):

The man watches without expression as the bard struts in and goes on his exposition.

"Are you...are you finished? Fine. So you've got a minstrel and a tumbler. You could have passed yourself off as wedding entertainment.

So you took a mission without knowing the whole story. Understood. And Mister Dwarf, I doubt anyone in your party, even a lanlubber such as yourself, is so stupid as to not weigh anchor when you arrive in port.

As for the manticores, yes, everyone in this region knows about them. Particularly bad now being their mating season.

And WE are not the ones who raided that village! In fact we were telling people to follow us up here when the floods came! Normally it's some tourist trap for pilgrims to the Sun God - the local version, not the faceless one the Imperials brought with them - it's nearly abandoned most of the year. I don't work for orcs and I sure as hell don't work for minotaurs.""

He tosses Kalandra's hairband back in her lap.

"We call it the Gingerbread Man rule. Don't work for anything that might find you tasty."


"I suppose..." He stands slowly. "You'll want to rescue the peasants and take back Castle Braunstein from the monsters. Well, best of luck with that."

He offers his hand to Einhard.

"Do we have a deal, Your Lordship?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:07, Thu 20 Feb 2020.

In reply to Alietra (msg # 15):

[roll d6]

" As a show of trust, release Kalandra first."

"Of course.

He pulls his dagger from his waistband and slices the bonds on Kalandra's ankles, then frees her wrists.

This message was deleted by the player at 16:29, Thu 20 Feb 2020.

Still not trusting this unknown group Einhard waits until Kalandra is near before offering his hand...

"I am bound by a code of honor, however...those who do not abide by the code can be dealt with severly as dishonorable adversaries...

I don't think that will be a problem with our arrangement."

Einhard hesitates...

"By the way I didn't catch your name...I am Einhard."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:17, Thu 20 Feb 2020.

In reply to Einhard (msg # 24):

"You can call me Clark, good Sir. Now if you would...please lead us to our ship."

This message was deleted by the player at 17:50, Thu 20 Feb 2020.

OOC - You're right, I never put it back on the mule, Pock has it.

The gnome steps out from behind a bush, holding the bottle with both hands.

"Now you may find this hard to believe, but this is a magic bottle...and the ship we're using folds up into this bottle!"

Clark looks down at the gnome, then back at the horsemen, who all start chuckling.

"This is one of those gnomish pranks? An illusion maybe?"

Clark looks back to the Knight.

"This sounds more like fairy-tale magic! Sir Einhard! Do you vouch for this little man says? You ALL sailed here using a bottled boat?"

"Yes we did. shall we take it out of the bottle here? Or would you rather take it out in the water? Break the bottle and the magic is surely gone."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:59, Thu 20 Feb 2020.

Manaku remains quiet, standing at the back of the group in the clearing. He tilts his head to one side again, as is his habit when he sees something curious or amusing, and stares the leader of the others wanting to see how he will react to Pocks claim about magical ship-in-the-bottle.

Alietra rolled 2 using 1d6.  perception.

In reply to Alietra (msg # 33):

"Don't be absurd, no one can sail on a bottled boat...

You take it out first."

Einhard thinks about the what he said for a minute.

"Really, I don't know how it works but yes that's how we got here.

It's better if Pock explains.

You just have to really careful with it."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 20:32, Thu 20 Feb 2020.

Dwarghar stares aghast at how easily his companions throw away priceless artifacts of great wonder. He shakes his beard - he had of course tried.

I’m not a sailor but I thought the anchor is for when you don’t have a dock to tie to. He mumbles but of course nobody listens, they never do.

Dwarghar begins wandering away from this insanity toward he knows not what.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:54, Thu 20 Feb 2020.

Amalrik stays in place. Boats in bottles. Mating manticores. Dams under mountains. Privately though, he's glad Harald is here to make music of this tall tale. He moves about, a moving target is harder to hit as he scans the rear regions.

Kalandra stands and lets her hairband fall from her lap as she does. "I suppose I should be grateful to you for helping me with a new hairstyle direction."

She walks over to the side of the people who somehow bargained her release. "Thank you."

Turning back around, "Could I get my pole back, too? Since we're all doing the honorable thing." She smiles.

Two of Clark's horsemen speaks up.

"I know a bloody trap when I see one! You get us all on the boat and then your magic stops us back in the bottle!"

"And then you shake the bottle and we're stuck in a blizzard!"

"No, that's a snowglobe! That's totally different!"

"Hmmmm, okay. I guess they want to stay here and ride."

Clark examines the pole.

"Isn't this technically part of the boat...?"

" Unfortunately in our haste to rescue our comrade, several things escaped my notice.

I have been reminded that we also crew the boat, even though, tituarly, I am the leader, I am not a sailor.

I am more at home on a horse.

This why the bard suggested we take you back with us.

Perhaps we can work together to come up with a solution?"

Harald smiled like a cherub, "Well no Sir Clark, I've hardly even begun!"

The minstrel, as it were, began strumming gently on his lute as this parley began to crumble around them.



Harald's finger slipped, hit a wrong note, and nearly broke a string. So much for that idea... he thought as he picked up the melody once more.

If Sir Einhard didn't continue destroying their leverage in this negotiation, other opportunities were bound to present themselves.

"With swords and shields they win the field,
but upon the water weapons won't yield...
For those whose bodies are bare and free
are the ones most suited to the moaning sea..."

He plucked his lute and raised his voice. Time for the fallback plan had arrived.

"So follow me, my metal-clad friend,
and bring in all your sneak-ling men,
we'll tread the path to yonder stream
there to shed your metallic gleam!"

Like the pied piper of legend, he began to leave the camp along with whatever weak-minded fools he could enthrall.

"We'll take up ropes and hoist the sails,
we'll man the oars and bind the rails,
Your men, fine sailors they will be,
upon the deck, oh they'll be free..."

The suggestion, first subtle, now came by way of command as the bard led his prey toward the stonework docks.

"Come now men, come follow all!
Toward your freedom, away from walls,
And into the river your weapons discard,
For you'll no longer need them sayeth your...
most...
humble...
bard...
..."


OOC: Obviously this will take some effort to pull off, but I'm going to be unable to post until tomorrow afternoon and didn't want to miss out on the festivities... I realize there are saving throws and so forth, but hopefully it will at least affect the scene somewhat.

Song of Enchantment - 2HD of persons per level [so 4HD of persons total, starting with Sir Clark and hopefully others will just follow his lead], Save vs. Spells or drop what they're doing and follow the bard as long as Harald's playing.