Seaward Play Report 2

K29 15 Midsummer

Dearest Ursula,

I begin this missive at what is called the “Patrol Camp”, the last regularly if intermittently, visited site on the Old Road to Skull Mountain. I am stealing a few moments before taking to bed to tell you of the startlingly fast change in my, well, our, circumstances since my last letter. It is odd since leaving you and then the company of Fat Silas to once again think of myself as part of a partnership.

I told you of our successful mission to the rebel’s Freetown, and how we returned to Oldbridge with valuable information, experience, and, well, valuables. On our return I sought more information on my new sword, learning that it has powers yet to unlock if I can just find the right commands. In addition, foreseeing that with our new renown we would be travelling in somewhat loftier circles, I secured for myself robes and accoutrements suitable for Court. Soren took the opportunity to design for himself a Coat of Arms, and graciously provided us tabards to wear. It is a savage image, a “Wolf Among the Fold” he calls it, a ferocious wolf’s face half obscured by the rent visage of a ram. Bill and Merrin were polite in accepting theirs, I believe being willing to humor Soren as long as being seen as a true Company results in greater opportunity for glory and wealth.

Thinking of our planned trip to explore the rumors we had heard of such adventure and glory to be had in the Stone Hills, Soren and I also acquired equipment to enable us to camp more comfortably, hopefully giving Bill and Merrin one less thing to… remark upon when travelling. Bill and Soren upgraded their arms and armor, and Merrin took the opportunity to continue his training with his woodsman’s guild. I, less glamorously, decided to be practical for once (never fear, your influence remains dear sister) and purchased a mule to carry our new equipment. Since it is my first mule, I named it MuleOne, or Mulon for short. An agreeable beast overall and seems to get along with Nickers. To answer your inevitable question, yes, I will wear a hat when you meet it, so you can tell us apart.

Thus equipped, we waited only for Merrin to return from his training. He came back not only deadlier, if that be possible, but with news that offered opportunity closer to home, or Oldbridge anyway. The young Baron of Esber was having a hunt, and had invited those of stature to attend. We decided that Soren’s nobility, however minor, and or own exploits qualified us as such and we set out for Esber.

The hunt was a success, but had a purpose beyond mere recreation. The Baron’s people were being preyed upon by bandits, who he suspected were stragglers from the defeated “army” of Freetown. They seemed to be hiding in the Briars, near the Patrol Camp. He could not afford the time and men to send a punitive expedition after them and was seeking out adventurers to end the threat. He offered a reward and recommended to us men of his sometime employ. Once again dear sister, we were offered a chance to distinguish ourselves on a task that might have gone to the Dark Moon, had they not had larger concerns. Apparently, every Midsummer they go to Skull Mountain, that fearsome place which only they seem to dare explore.

While we prepared, further news arrived from the Baron, the bandits had taken hostages, two men and a maid. That settled the issue, none of us could leave innocents, however vile their origins (those being Soren’s words) in durance… well, vile. On the day before Midsummer, with Merrin leading, scouting for signs of bandits leaving the road, Soren, the redoubtable Brother Cuy, also better armed and equipped due to Soren’s patronage, Bill, myself (disguised as a mage by my Scholar’s robes) and the mercenaries set off to the Patrol Camp. On arrival Merrin sought to find any sign of activity at the waterhole which makes Patrol Camp one of the few habitable places in the Briars. None was found. We resolved to set out the next day down the large trail which headed East into the Briars, leaving the Sergeant and his men to guard our camp. Indeed the Sergeant proved his value that very evening, saving Brother Cuy from one of the smallest yet deadliest residents of the Briars, a poisonous spider called the Bright Blue. Truly an evil place.

That night, Midsummer Night, we were awakened by Brother Cuy and the watch in time to see a glow from the direction of the Mountain, and then two actinic beams of light rose from those glows meeting near Luna in a large explosion. As if something had been near the moon, then wiped from the sky. Brother Cuy led us all in a prayer of victory over evil, which brought us a feeling of peace and a sense of hope.

On the morrow we set out, once again with Merrin in the lead, his redoubtable talents having proven themselves in our prior expedition. The Briars quickly lived up to its reputation, a hot, oppressive entity, not a simple forest. Strange noises arose from off the path, strange sights appear and vanish in the corner of one’s eyes. There is life, both benign, as the small herd of goats we came upon on the trail, and horrific, as the “tangle wood” tree which was preying upon one of them as we arrived. We gave that maleficent… thing a wide berth and continued on. For all that Soren sees himself as our leader, Merrin is truly the man to have in the lead, as he found a bit of discolored brush concealing a small trail leading off into the Briars. Exactly the kind of concealment a group of bandits might contrive; yet lack the discipline to maintain. Setting down the trail I joined Merrin to apply my own talents, and the dwoemer of my sword, to the discovery of any potential traps. Easily discovering and disarming some simple deadfalls we found the trail ending at an arroyo, with a cleverly built sod hut built into the hill on the opposite side, a hut with a guard seated in a mantrap between two gates. A hut which likely contained our goal, the bandits and their hostages.

This was where your little brother’s less formal schooling once again came in handy, I was able to stay concealed, watching the guard sleep, until he was woken for water by what must have been one of the hostages, a young man. The brute did manage to stay awake until relieved, but his replacement proved no more disciplined quickly nodding off in the heat. Seeing an opportunity, and leaving my compatriots out of sight behind me, I crossed the arroyo to get a better look at the guard and the defenses. Here I must offer a bit of an apology, for the Briars are not all evil, at least not anymore. I don’t know how they managed to move so silently, but I found myself surprised by a small convoy of Snyads. I will have to tell you more about that meeting later. The sleeping guard could not be reached by any weapon we possessed without opening the gate, and I didn’t believe even I could do so without waking him. Fortunately, the gate itself was only tied shut with withies and could be easily opened at need.

As Silas always told us, what you can’t go through, you can often go around, however the compound was encircled by a fence, and having killed one of the Bright Blues myself during my initial surveillance, I had no desire to bushwhack through the Briars to the gate I saw at the far side. Fortunately, the stout halfling had further advice for his young charges, what you cannot go around, you can often go over. Now, climbing the gate or fence was no better a plan than trying to open the gate, but the sod house? That was a vulnerable point. There were no windows facing the arroyo, an easy climb would gain me the roof, the ability to see the interior of the compound, and give me the literal drop on the guard. Sentry removal was also one of Silas’ lessons, though he felt actually killing a guard unnecessarily was… inelegant.

I returned to the party, who had waited with Merrin prepared to rain his death across the arroyo if needed, to lay out my plan. Merrin and I would make the climb to the roof, I would eliminate the guard and Merrin could cover the approach of our comparatively loud armored companions.

It went off without a hitch, the climb was easy and no other guards were in evidence outside the hut. Bill and Soren made the crossing while the guard slept, as they reached the gate I slipped over the edge and eliminated the bandit. Bill checked the interior windows of the hut and then he and Soren crashed into the room with Merrin covering. The three remaining bandits quickly surrendered, and the hostages were rescued, a bit mishandled but unharmed. We gathered up the bandit’s equipment, buried their former companion in the arroyo, and returned to the patrol camp with our captives, the rescued hostages, some of the stolen supplies from Esber’s farmers, and the ill-gotten loot they had liberated from their own defeated army as our own reward. In addition, a small trinket which always points North was found. Merrin was, of course, the natural recipient. He has never led us astray, and now he will be even less likely to do so. We also made note of the curious fact of such a homestead in such a hostile place. Something to ponder in the future.

The mercenaries were pleased with the foodstuffs with which we returned and their Sergeant, who had seen unbelievable things in his time, and told tales of fantastic battles under the Mountain with the Dark Moon, said he was impressed by our own little company. Offering to help us get best value for the bandit’s gear in Esber and stating he would be more than willing to work with us in the future at the same preferential rate the Baron had secured for us. Brother Cuy ministered to the captives, who must be solid and resilient folk to survive living next to the Briars. They quickly set to showing their gratitude by preparing a veritable feast. The young man we observed bringing water to his captors, by the name of Cosmin, in gratitude offered to serve our company for a year as a laborer and porter. But perhaps not just in gratitude my dear Big Bear. He shows the spark of adventure we both know so well. He says he aspires to be a guardsman one day. I intend to ask the rest of our Company if we could perhaps train him as a man-at-arms in our service in furtherance of that goal. Though it strikes me that he may have thought “guardsman” was the limit to which he could aspire and after travelling and fighting with us his horizons may expand. I do hope he is more tolerant than Merrin of Soren’s unfortunate inability to recall names.

Brother Cuy showed his indomitable grace and faith by also taking the confession of two of the bandits, whose hearts were perhaps not as hardened as their unrepentant leader. Their fate is sealed, a man who chooses to become an out-law has cast himself beyond earthly mercy, yet as we know from the story of my namesake, who repented in his last hours and achieved salvation, they may yet find mercy in the world beyond.

Which leads me to a thought that haunts me as I sit writing this letter by candlelight. Though I have strayed near unto darkness in my association with Silas, performing acts of which I am now not proud, I have never before killed a man, nor elf, nor gnome nor any other creature than those born of evil. I hate the goblins, I still awake in terror remembering the night you hid us both, the night our parents died. The memories are those of a babe, their stench, the guttural speech, the screams. When we were brought to them, after you saved us somehow, Father and Mother taught me that all creatures need redemption, and even those of evil can come to the light. But still, I killed a human being in cold blood today, because he stood, worse, slept helplessly, between me and my goal. I think I too will seek out Brother Cuy tonight.

I will finish this letter on our return to Esber tomorrow and give you more of the details of our adventure and what advice our Gnomish advisor was able to offer. Keep me in your prayers.

Postscript…

Sister, I send this letter incomplete with a merchant fleeing Esber for the North. We returned not to a hero’s welcome but to a city readying for war. The people and livestock are being brought inside the walls and our mercenary escort has returned to the Baron’s service. Calls for reinforcements have been sent out and the Count is coming with troops from Oldbridge. We turned over our captives and settled what business we could, but now we wait for word for how best we can serve the Baron and our King.

Pray for us all, I will write again when I can,

Your loving brother Dismas