Welcome to the campfire. Anyone eating beans will be made to sit in the dark.

Petronax hangs his helmet off his armour and kneels by the fire, bashing rock-hard buccellatum biscuits with one of his many hammers on a fire rock. He sprinkles the chunks into a flat bronze patera and dumps in a handful of bacon-lard. After this he starts cutting up bacon into strips, a look of serenity on his face, it's obvious to everyone he finds camp life and routine relaxing.

"You know, when I first came to Balazar I wasn't impressed but the place grows on you. It's nice and cool for marching and it's well-watered. It reminds me a bit of Tarsh back home. But what gets me is that it seems kind of deserted, like this place is empty and has been for a long time."

He throws a chunk of Scylax who's been waiting patiently and then throws another, larger chunk to Sarkalor's dog.

Washing his hands he continues "it makes me wonder why there's no farmers here. It looks like good farm land. What do you think Orestes, would you drive a plough through here? raise the tall barley?"

Orestes is sitting on a rock near to Petronax, his cuirass resting on his lap as he slowly polishes the smooth metal, removing the days grime. His body shakes a little in amusement "I'm not sure I am the best judge of that, I tend to take life rather than give it. Besides not sure I could tolerate the lack of excitement."

He puts the breastplate down and looks up at Petronax. "Thinking of retirement already? This is a young mans game after all." A small grin tugging at the side of his mouth.

Looking up he grins "you bet! A young wife, a job building things and I'll hang up my armour in a trice. What about you Sarkalor, are you working towards anything? I guess Takazar  you will away back to your people once you've completed your vision quest or whatever secret thing the godi do. And you Nicomeus, what is it you want from life? Home and hearth or more horizons and excitement? Votlung, what is it that the hunters want, would they tolerate new peoples here, tilling the earth?"

"I am working towards my next day, and that is plenty enough for me." answers Sarkalor while looking dreamily at the horizon.

"The land is good fertile soil, lots of flat farmland. But that also makes it too open. Its too close to the redlands to settle. Its a dead end for trade."

"Despite that its certainly a better prospect than the deathtrap for the legions that Dragon Pass is. Im suprised more retirees dont settle here. I suspect its more to do with the fact its a fine place for poor folk to settle , but has little wealth to attract the attention of those already rich"

Takazar smiles at Petronax's question "Elkoi was the first king of our tribe. Perhaps then we come to see to it that you do not defile his tomb. Perhaps we come to speak for you if you wake his spirit. Perhaps we just come because the spirits tell us to. What is important is that we come."

Petronax looks over his bowl at Takazar. "Takazar, it's only fair you know we intended to loot the tomb, we've sworn an oath to do so."

Takazar considers a moment and then asks "And the purpose of this oath? You do this to enrich yourselves, or is there some other reason? The spirits sent us to that rock, they did not tell us why to go."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:58, Sun 02 Apr 2023.

"Yes," says Petronax bluntly. "We are men without means, without any way of securing a future. One day our sword arms will grow weak, our eyes dim and then we will be cast aside to die in penury."

He shakes his head "ill it is when a man must plunder the dead to secure a life."

Sarkalor looks at his mates one after the other. "You are right, Petronax, it is our aim, and the reason we started to look for this tomb." he adds "But fate may make that we find wealth on other ways along the way. Or that we find another purpose. Or that we discover more than wealth in the tomb." He looks at Takazar directly now. "In a way, we are in the same path as you are, even if our initial purpose was different."

"wealth is better in the hands of the living than the dead. Spirits dont have to earn a crust to eat every day."

"according to my tutors - spirits come in all sorts , but the only ones normally associated with locations or guards are either Locus Genii - spirits of a location like nymphs etc or Guardians bound to a spot specifically to protect it. Normal spirits are generally unconcerned with the trappings of the middle world. "

"Of course - the tutors pardon my expression dont know squat about the real world. "

Takazar smiles at Nicomeus "Normal spirits eh? There are as many normal spirits as there are types of animal, of plant, of man, troll, elf, broo even. Then there are normal spirits that your tutor have never heard of, so with your last statement we agree."

"To the list of spirits bound in this world to certain locations you can add ghosts of course, and tombs tend to attract the type who tend to meet bad endings and not accept their fate in that."

More generally he adds "We are interested to learn why the spirits had us wait at the rock. We shall accompany you."

In reply to Petronax (msg # 4):

" What do we want ? A weighty question!"

Pauses to think.

"Specifically now. Peace! (laughs) To be away from the institutionalised greed and savagery that is the deathbed of honor. To raise arms in Battle is one thing, but grinding the defeated under your heel for a few coppers ....... is no place I want to be. SO what do i want - space, to think. ... There is space enough here, for the moment. (lapses into deep reflection)."

Petronax rans his hand over his stubbly head and starts to put on his headwrap.

"Well, let's think back on the oath. From memory it was "we as a group should journey to take this treasure and undertake to swear solemnly on our gods and ancestors that we shall all profit equally and all equally face the risks and trials involved in getting it. We should swear that we will uphold each other's health, welfare and futures on this task and that betrayal should invoke the wrath of the black killer. While on this task our clans, our peoples and our religions wants should be set aside as much as we can." Unfortunately, that's a pretty comprehensive oath. Worse, we swore on the Black Killer as the oath-keeper. Despite what I and my ancestors think of him you all know he takes oaths seriously. If we violate the oath we face his wrath. What is there to do? The Black Killer doesn't take oaths lightly."

"The devil might be in the details. What treasure are we talking about here? We don't even know what we will find!" answers Sarkalor in a somewhat sarcastic tone.

"Im not entirely sure something about either a giants treasure or a giant treasure hoard. "

Petronax stretches out his feet to the fire and puts Scylax on his lap, scritching the little dog's ears and thinking moodily.

"Remember that night the big monster lizard tried to wear my tent as a hat?"

"Cant really forget it - the sight of the beast is firmly etched into my memory"

"In a situation like that we really need a preprepared plan. Against a beast like that - magic might work as a distraction, or we sacrifice a riding beast and flee while it settles for a free snack"

"Well . . .what I was thinking was, now hear me out. A beast like that would be worth a literal fortune in the empire. Not the big one maybe but definitely one of their eggs."

"What would the egg be used for? A big omelette? Or to hatch?"

"Is it some kind of circus thing?"

"To hatch, I assume. I imagine with some creative minds it would end up in an arena or trained as a warbeast of sorts. It would be worth a good price as an egg, more when hatched."

Petronax slaps his knee "absolutely! We all know that some imperial bum-kisser would kill to gift one of these to the local sultan and make him look good in the games. If we did this right we could get some of those bastards start a bidding war."