Richard is content, for the moment, to provide overwatch while Fost interrogates the captors.  He keeps a steady eye on them with his bow at the ready should he see any suspicious activity.

Brother Loran stepped up next to Fost, his torch illuminating the men before them more clearly.

Crouching slightly in a soft gentle voice "dear child walk over to me you are amongst friends now and my companions will not allow anyone to hurt you anymore." with that he held out his hand to the child

Illumination brings greater detail to the forms as Brother Loran steps even with Fost.

The knife ear is just that, an elven male in heavy leathers, twirling the end of his strung-up short bow along the stone floor; his short cropped sand-colored hair is mostly hidden under an archer's cap, and his features are entirely disapproving.

The man opposite him is a burly fellow in light mail, with a broad girth and like stance; honestly, if he weren't over six feet tall, he could be mistaken for an oversized dwarf. His hair and scruffy beard are dark, and his bushy eyebrows sit atop a permanent squint. The man is holding his shield on his arm, but is carrying no weapons. The adventurers see that he has a sword at his belt and a two-handed spear on the ground at his feet.

The man in back is human, but almost as thin as the elf, as his tailored duster almost looks too big for his frame. His hair is long and stringy, making him appear sickly, although the sharpness in his eye disavows any notion of weakness. He wears an unstrung bow on his back, but seems to have no other weapons on him.

"We didn't mutilate them or anything. Just hit 'em 'til they were down," the warrior answers matter-of-factly. To Fost, he appears to be a soldier, with a soldier's mindset and discipline - more than just a brute with a longspear. He likely served as a footman for some lord. "Our orders were only to take the boy."

The rogue in the rear holds his hand to stay the lad when Loran calls him, and his compatriots glance back in that direction. "He goes nowhere 'til we get out of this place. Not going to give up our leverage 'til we're safe," the rogue counters.

"First smart thing you said all day," the elf quips, to which the rogue responds, "Piss off!"

"We don't know the name of the one who hired us; our contact is some apostate mage named Fenwithe," the warrior continues. "I overheard one of his lackeys say that it was some high lord - a teyrn, even - who wanted the boy. Don't know why, though. I only knew he was some lowly bastard who was a favorite of Arl Eamon."

"There's an old estate further north, along the shore, abandoned since the end of the rebellion, where we were supposed to meet him two days ago. I doubt he stuck around."

OOC: On the map, EA is the elf, HM is the burly human, and HS is the thin human.

Now that he got a better look on these men Fost's alarm bells in his head began to ring again.
These three had defeated four trained soldiers of Redcliffe and also killed one of the gisnt spiders.

Fost tried to assess their foes.

That shield prevented the huge fellow to employ the spear so he would be much more likely to draw his blade. He would loathe to meet this foe one on one so dispatching the other two would be priority one.

The elf seemed to pose the greatest threat. Simply because of his attitude. He had completely lost the knife-ear reference as relating to an elf. And he did not favourably remember their last encounter with an elf, Sexta.

The last looked might actually be a mage instead and having seen his own friends in battle he winced at the prospect of fighting this group.

Fost frowned as the boy was held back and his grip on his shield hardened.
"Orders, huh?", he said to the warrior, "Looks more like a mercenary job. No honour in being mercenary, you should have stayed and served your lord as a soldier."

"Still, let's agree on this: not murder but battle.", he acknowledged.

He tried to see if these men were injured. Why had they not killed the other spider.
"How many in the mage's entourage? And how and when did he hire you?"
To him an important detail as it would allow them to assess how Fenwithe may have learned of the transport.

"Listen, I'll be blunt. I would really be very annoyed if we let you men get away now only to have to fight you as you still work for this Fenwithe."
"You have to give us something apart from the boy to get some confidence that there won't be trouble between us soon."
"If we let you go we must be convinced that you leave this area for good."

The more he talked the more Fost actually hoped that the elf would lose his temper and battle commenced. He had no personal issues with them but as with the spider he hated to leave a threat at his back. On the other hand neither was he a killer nor did he crave for carnage and any fight not started was a good fight in his opinion.

He shrugged.
"Or you leave all your gear and weapons behind so you don't pose a threat to us as we leave this cave ourselves."

Puzzledly he remembered a detail.
"Wait there. What ever made you think we were darkspawn?"

The warrior shakes his head at Fost's judgment of him. "Honor is of little use when you're starving," he growls.

The thin man in the back answers the question about the apostate, his hand still staying the boy. "Two men with him when we met him Lothering, but I always felt like he had more than that available to him. We were known to be looking for work, so he found us."

Before they could give an assurances or make any promises, Fost asks the darkspawn question. It doesn't take skill in reading people that all three men are visibly shaken at their mention.

The archer answers, his tone suddenly non-hostile, "As we were taking the road north, there were a half-dozen a hundred yards or so ahead. He -" he points at the warrior "- recognized them immediately, and we pulled off the trail before they noticed us. Thankfully, we had enough time to get the supplies off the cart and string it up, and we shooed the mounts off.

"We'd periodically hear noises filter in from outside, but they never came in, or else all you'd see are our corpses."
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:20, Mon 08 Feb 2021.

If Fost had an empty hand he would have scratched his head as he thought things through.
On 17th Bloomingtide the Arl had sent out the boy.
On 19th they were ambushed, presumably by at least 7 bandits. The soldier had seen two, maybe three, attackers fall before he succumbed to his injuries himself. It looked like his comrades were able to dispatch others so only these three had remained.
On 21st they had set out to search for the boy. On the very day the ambushers were supposed to hand over the kidnapped lad to their employer Fenwithe. Only, they never made it to the meeting. After the ambush they had noticed the darkspawn and retreated and hid in this cave,  fought one of the spiders and had not dared to get out again, fearing either, or both, the spider and the darkspawn.
Today was the 23rd.
And Fost had eliminated the one thing that may have hid the entrance to the cave: the cart.
He realized that he had no idea what time it was, was darkness already closing in? Were darkspawn already standing at the entrance?
This message was last edited by the player at 12:07, Sat 06 Feb 2021.

Brother Loran looked at the man holding the boy " I am a servant of the maker not a warrior I am here to keep the boy safe ....at least allow me to check the boy for wounds, even a simple cut could fester in a cave like this"

He took a step forward " I will willingly tend to any wounds you might have also, what you have done or how you lead your lives is of no concern to me, you will be judged by the maker at the end and have to answer to him for your actions."

He took another slow step forward not wanting to make them anymore nervous than they were already " my companions are here to bring the boy home safely but if there is darkspawn at large it might be adventageous to all if we put aside our mistrust for the time being and work together to get us all safely out of this situation."

Fost nodded to the warrior.
"Aye, there is that.", he agreed to the opinion about the worth of honour in regard to the daily needs of survival.

He listened to the one holding on to the boy and had to nod again but did not comment further as the discussion turned to the darkspawn.

He registered the elf's change of attitude and approved. It spoke of truth rather than a misconcepted ruse.
"How come you recognize darkspawn?", he asked, intrigued despite better sense.
He had only heard the most basic rumours and tales about them.
He mused.
"Half a dozen? Travelling by day?", he said, clearly concerned and barely able to suppress a shudder.

Then he looked baffled at his friend's offer to the three miscreants. He did not exactly agree to the view shared that the Maker was the only one to judge men's actions but that was Loran true to his nature and Fost just shrugged.
"Darkspawn in the area, bad news. We need to learn more and warn the locals."
"Better still: do something to prevent harm to innocents."
"What exactly do you suggest Loran? Looking out for the darkspawn, find and fight them? Together?"
Surprised by himself, he learned he did like the idea. But to be honest, he had not the slightest idea what they were messing with.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:36, Sun 07 Feb 2021.

Brother Loran turned his head to Fost just for a moment he stopped to allow the one holding the boy to decide if he would be allowed to check the child over. In that moment he replied to his companion "our priority is the child's safety, if these gentlemen would assist in at least getting the boy a goodly distance back to the chantry and safety I would suggest we could at least give them 24 hours head start before we need to report them to the guard." he looked at the men in front of them " that is if you lend your sword arms in protecting the child"


"after all that seems to be the best offer you will have placed before you today .....the alternative is we fight and we still take the child but you will end up in front of the maker sooner than you wish......my companions weren't just sent  after you because they had nothing better to do.... you might have heard of the foreign mage and his witch they captured less than a week ago....I assure you these men are not to be messed with.... I have seen them in action I assure you you will come off the worse for it.....Now can I please check the child for injuries the sooner I do the quicker we can all be on our way and the less likely hood of running foul of darkspawn" He put just the right amount of edge in his voicce just like the mother superior did when she was lecturing him in the past....hoping it would at least get them moving out of the cave, away from the spiders and closer to home

News of Darkspawn was certainly an unsettling bit of news but that didn't change their mission at all.  He keeps his bow aimed at the bandits before speaking, "If this news of Darkspawn is true, perhaps if we do cooperate we all stand a better chance of getting out here in one piece.  Are you willing to work with us?  Nevertheless, our mission is still to bring the boy back to the Arl and we intend to complete our task.  Should you cooperate we may be persuaded, as has been mentioned earlier, to delay our return to Redcliffe for a day before we complete our report.  The choice is yours."

Fost almost smiled but managed to keep a straight face.

Nifty Richard had laid a ruse about their plans after leaving the cave claiming to take Alistair back to Redcliffe rather than escorting him to Bournshire as commanded.
By thinking ahead Richard had probably nimbly evaded any further troubles along their way.
Fost silently applauded his quick-thinking friend.

Richard raised another interesting point: doubting all this talk about darkspawn. Then again, the trio seemed honest enough in this particular case. Indeed they had been rather forthcoming in answering their questions, so Fost had a feeling the darkspawn were out there for real.

---

rolled 17 using 3d6+2 (3 stunt points) with the AGE System with rolls of {3}, 6, 6.  PER - Intuition ? Empathy ? Discern Lies ?
This message was last edited by the player at 07:18, Wed 10 Feb 2021.

The thin man considered the brother's words, and, after a glance at the elf, lowers his arm and allows the boy to go over to Loran.

Meanwhile, the elf and the warrior seem to confer with each other silently, trading expressions that are hard to decipher in the dim light.

The warrior says, "There was a cave near my village when I was a boy. A few of us were stupid enough to explore it, and we stumbled upon a nest of them. If it weren't for the timely arrival of a pair of Grey Wardens, we'd've all been taken.

"This group we saw near dusk," he continued. "I think the noises we heard were usually near dusk or at night."

The warrior pauses, then adds, "If it means we can go our own way, with our own gear, when we're done, we'll help you against any darkspawn out there." The elf doesn't seem very keen on the idea of cooperating, but he doesn't voice any protest and eventually just shrugs his shoulders.

Fost was a bit absent-minded as he pondered what he knew about darkspawn. Of course, not having first-hand experience he did not really know much as to the actual threat level they posed on a personal level. What chances did he himself stand to fight such a creature from the dark beneath the surface and be victorious ?
So he was quite impressed with the huge fighter to have seen them. Then again, he had mentioned that was when he was a boy, so the man obviously also had not fought them.
And that was well, for it meant that these surges were rare.
Or was it ?
Considering what he had learned during growing up, mostly from the Church, he realized that darkspawn rising were a dire matter and his earlier instinct and first reaction to try to protect the innocent was strengthened as he contemplated just where they were.
Naturally, he had not really been in this region before, he had ranged further to the west and maybe this was the furthest east  he had ever come, at least according to his memory. So he did not really know if there were many people in the area who might be threatened.
But that might even be worse, for if not for these three in this cave, no one would have learned of the threat until it were not a dozen, but many dozens overwhelming the region.

Fost found himself slowly shaking his head.
"We need more than that. And with 'we' I don't mean just us", he indicated his friends, "but all of us."
"Darkspawn are a dire affair, I'm sure we all agree. If you have repeatedly heard them each night since you were stuck in this cave, they obviously scout out the area. I have no idea just how intelligent these creatures are or whether they are just mindless brutes. But if they scout on purpose, that purpose can only be a preparation for a larger attack."
"You may be mercenaries and I don't blame you for this for fate is fickle and one never knows the paths one needs to take. I sure would never have expected to become the Arl's Man half a year ago, never. But that was the path before me and I had to tread it, willingly. And I have not regretted it since."
"Even so, I call on the goodness inside everyone. Be it faith, be it conscience, be it honour, be it survival... or be it money."
"I call on you to help all of us, every man and woman in this area, to learn the purpose of these darkspawn, seek them out and defeat them if possible. Or return with knowledge to the nobles of the area to prepare for a larger threat that we can not handle ourselves."
Fost eased up on his stance, lowered the shield and blade and stood upright.
"Do this and not only will you be allowed to go, with all your equipment, unmolested, but I will do my all in my power that you will be recompensed for your effort. In coin, if that is your wish."

---

rolled 11 using 3d6+2 with the AGE System with rolls of {1}, 3, 5.  COM.
Darn it...

OOC: For the eloquence of your speech, I'm granting you a +2 on your check, for a total of 13.

The three men look at each other, volumes being spoken in their expressions. The cave is eerily silent for several moments as they consider Fost's proposal. The warrior's gaze hardens slightly, and the elf shrugs. With a satisfied nod, the warrior turns back to Fost and the others.

"Godfrey, Dinn, and Trip," he says, pointing at himself, the elf, and the thin man in succession. "We'll help you find and destroy these darkspawn in exchange for you lot forgetting about our part in the boy's capture." Dinn and Trip both nod their heads in assent, although the frown on the elf's face shows he's still not happy with the whole arrangement.

"Speaking of the boy," Dinn wonders. "Are we taking him with us on the hunt, or are we taking him back to Redcliffe first?"

"Darkspawn are no laughing matter."  Richard begins.  "We should return the boy first as Darkspawn hunting is no place for children.  It falls to us explore the area and determine the exit these Darkspawn use to encroach the surface.  Each of us" Richard gestures to all the others present "must do our part in eliminating the Darkspawn threat or, if the threat be too great, return and warn the others to prepare for the coming battle.   We must not fail, we shall not fail!"

As he finishes his speech he turns to the three others, "We shall not forget your aid in this.  Let us go now and return the boy before it gets dark and we have to fight our way out.  It might prove wise to pick up extra supplies while we are back in civilization."

Brother loran checked the boy out for injuries then taking his cloak off wrapped it round the child.

Reaching into his pouch he handed the child some dried food and a sip of water

"It's decided then. Work together to drive off or fight any darkspawn in the area, then we should probably find a way to get in touch with the Wardens, right? They handle darkspawn issues, although... they might already be in the area, if the legends tell us anything." He idly adjusted his hands on his staff, thankful that he didn't need to loose any spells against these gents.

"I am Fost."

"Redcliffe is too far. We may never find this particular group again and they might cause too much damage until we return."

"You were safe in this cave for a couple of days. If we finish off the spider we could use this as a base of sorts. Picking up our gear to be hid here."

"We could try to find a farm or hamlet to put the boy there."

"But honestly, I think he's best protected staying with us."

"Loran, what do you think? You are no fighter, you could protect him out of the melee."

Trip chimes in, "The boy can hide in the back of the cart if we bring it with us."

"We let the donkeys go, Trip," Dinn quips. Trip mouths "oh," as the memory returns to him. To the others, he suggests, "Your archer and I will hang back, too. A second line of defense for the boy."
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:21, Mon 22 Feb 2021.

The elf's answer seems to satisfy Loran, and the group heads out into the web-lined chamber. They approach the alcove with the lair, finding that the spider still seems to be hiding within it. Godfrey offers to try to flush it out with his long spear, but also is happy to let the sharpshooters deal with it.

OOC: What is your approach? The spider is difficult to see through the opening, giving it not inconsiderable concealment (especially since you lads don't really have an idea of how big it is inside...remember, it sits high in the alcove, partially against the wall and ceiling, there may be a vent or chute within where it's hiding).

Options include (but are not limited to) using fire to melt away the webbing to give you a better view, letting Godfrey poke around inside with his two-handed spear, or having the archers and mages attempt to shoot at it from a distance (if they can find it within).

"Let's not waste arrows at this point. We already hurt it severely, it should be no problem to finish it. Still, you bowmen keep ready un case there is a nasty surprise."
"Fire, set the net aflame, we have no idea how deep this passage goes."
"Ready Godfrey?"

Brother Loran took the boys arm and kept him close his staff out to ward off any attack a prayer on his lips

Richard nods at Fost and again nocks an arrow and prepares to fire should the spider be revealed.

Godfrey nods his assent and Trip, borrowing the torch from Loran, prepares to widen the opening to the spider's bolthole. Godfrey nods, and Trip begins to melt away the webbing around the hole.

A jet of liquid webbing lances out at the thin man.

OOC: Okay, gents, time to roll for initiative! (Once initiative has been set, I'll roll for the spider's spitting attack and we'll start combat rounds.)

rolled 18 using 3d6+3 with the AGE System with rolls of {6}, 4, 5.  DEX (Initiative).
This message was last edited by the player at 07:46, Wed 03 Mar 2021.