Gus points to areas 1 and 4 on the map, using prestidigitation as he does to make those areas glow with a green light, these are known or suspected ruins, and here, pointing to 2 and 3, making them with a red C using prestidigitation, are caves Mr V would like a report on.
Dawn suggests, "Maybe we should start with locations 2 and 3 first, since those are closest to the edge of the swamp, then work our way in to the deeper locations."
[ OOC: Going by memory of the map. Could we have in posted into a Discord Maps channel for future reference? ]
Bree pulls out the map and lays it on the table. Gesturing to the indicated spots on the map she says
"These are the main locations that we need to investigate. However if wee see anything of interest to the mission we should also check it out."
With the assistance of the two attendants, the map is folded out to its full length. One by one the knights at the end of the table, starting with Sir Jory, get up to take a closer look. Several of them murmur amongst themselves, some nod, others shake their heads, but their expressions are all effectively the same - they really don't know what they're looking at. The extent of their expertise ends at the ridge down to the marsh. Feydon, however, stands up examines the map with surprising interest. Almost immediately it becomes clear that he knows what he's looking at.
"Well that's wrong, those ruins are over here," he points to smaller, middlemost set of 'known' ruin locations, indicating a location just south of their marked location. Bree, Geren, and Gus are able to notice that his eyes keep straying to a location that is otherwise unmarked shortly to the east of where he relocated the ruins. "Otherwise, this looks pretty accurate. There are definitely ruins in these two question mark areas. And they usually are populated by lizardmen. Not always - we wiped the tribe out in this location a few years ago, but they tend to come back and dig in like ticks," he spits. "There's another cave over here as well," he adds pointing to a spot on the ridge directly west from where the eastern leading path hits the ridge.
The knights look at each other with mixed expressions, some dubious, others seemingly impressed.
Sir Jory frowns - Feydon's knowledge is a tough act to follow, but he has something to add, clearly. "Er, well - I can't speak to the areas of the marsh as well as our.. guide here can, but I can say that both the locations where the paths terminate into the ridge are good places to climb down. With some rope and some pitons, or a climbing kit, its really no difficulty at all getting down there. In theory, we can climb down anywhere along the ridge, though those are the only spots that carry virtually no risk of accident or injury. So, I'd recommend starting either with you #1 location, or you #4, then sweeping to the east or west, respectively."
Feydon snorts. "Respectively," he says, mimicking Sir Jory's nasally, knightly tone. He sighs. "I don't care where you start - in fact, we could just jump off the ridge at the cave opening here, at your '#2' spot. It's not that high there - the water is also quite shallow there. There's no way it's going to have lizardmen in it. That said, jumping down into the water will make a ruckus. But that could just as easily work to our advantage - surprise them, if there's anyone in the cave there, they'd be pretty ******* shocked to see 8 armed adventurers suddenly drop from the sky right in front of them. If we do it assuming there's going to be Lizardmen there, we'll be ready, and they won't be," he points out.
Sir Jory scoffs. "And if there's hundreds of lizardmen in that cave?"
Feydon blinks. "It's maybe 15 feet across - there's not going to be hundreds of ******* anything in that cave. At least, not right at its mouth, close enough to hear or see us," he retorts. "I don't know how deep it goes, I've never gone in any of these caves. I've never had reason to. But I've seen them from the outside enough to know that at most there might be 7 or 8 lizardmen close enough to see us."
"Or hear us. Or hear the sounds of battle ensuing," Sir Jory adds.
Feydon shrugs. "**** them, let them come. The more the merrier. Are you afraid of dying, knight?" Feydon asks, coldly.
Sir Jory starts to answer but Feydon sits back down with a grunt, waving him off - he clearly doesn't care to hear anything more he has to say.
Here is an update version of the map with the adjustments made by Feydon, and the recommended places to climb down the ridge (and back up), with the latter marked by the yellow arrows.
Gus marks the new cave as mentioned, the spot where the ruins "should" be and a red question mark on the site Feydon kept looking at. The glowing marks and big C's for caves are gone now.
Gus marks the new cave as mentioned, the spot where the ruins "should" be and a red question mark on the site Feydon kept looking at. The glowing marks and big C's for caves are gone now.
(OOC: his reluctance to answer DOES tell you something though - it CAN'T have anything to do with finding Redeye's phylactery, or gathering information on his forces, or keeping you alive, as those are the tasks he's bound to assist you with. If that spot on the map has something to do with any of those things, he'd have to tell you even without your asking him)
(ooc: Anticipating your desires to sell the unwanted things, and to fully fix the Half-Plate as well as resize it, I'll assume you use the chance before dinner to go into the courtyard and engage the smiths before they close. You could see they were about to on your way to your rooms).
Dawn and Geren move out of their rooms and look into the courtyard, seeing the smiths still working, but clearly wrapping things up for the day. You exchange glances and briefly discuss your goals and plans with each other, then, Geren, looking at the attendant that is posted outside your rooms, instructs him to have the groups horses led into the courtyard so that unloading them for sale or trade will be possible. The attendant nods his understanding, and disappears. Hnefa steps out of her room, and offers to help with the unloading.
The three of you walk up to the two smiths, operating back-to-back with regard to their forges - essentially, it is a single forge, with a divide in the center, and two openings that can be accessed by each smith. One is clearly a dedicated armorsmith, and the other a weaponsmith. Exchanging glances, Dawn engages with armorsmith, while Geren goes to the weaponsmith - given that most of the equipment are weapons.
The armorsmith, a human male of about 45, offers his greetings and stops pounding on the sheet of metal he'd been pounding on when you approach.
"So - you're with the 'bandit killers' then I take it? My thanks to you for getting rid of those crazies," he says, nodding and catching his breath. "How can I help you?"
Showing him the suit of Half-Plate and explaining your desire to have it refit and fully fixed, he nods. "Aye - I can do that. It won't be ready before you leave though, I'm afraid. But it'll be here for you when you get back. I'll just need... heck... let's just call it 45 gold for the labor, aye?"
Hnefa arrives with the other suits of armor and places them down. The smith looks at their poor condition and starts to shake his head, but before he can say anything, Dawn begins to cast a chain of Mending's on each. His eyes widen. Not that's he's never heard of that ability, he's just never seen it done in person. He watches with interest as you mend them to the best of your ability. Once finished he looks at you, a little confused. "You... want to sell these then, I take it?" Seeing you nod, he looks them over with more scrutiny. "Well... I suppose I can see these suits of chain being worth 12 gold maybe. We'll call it 25 for the pair. That's more than what most smiths would give you, but Nayeli told me to give you a good deal. " Looking at the scale mail, he frowns. "For that... 8 gold I think is fair." Then he blinks. Then when he sees the two shields, he starts to add up their value, then stops. "Ah, heck, why don't we just call it even with the plate repairs, eh? If that sounds fair - is there anything else, you need?" Dawn will note there are full suits of nearly every type of metal armor on display around his workshop, and full suits of several light armors as well.
Dawn says, "There's one other thing I need. For the current mission we need to be quiet, but this armor is a bit on the noisy side. Do you have any quieter armor I could borrow using this armor as payment and the Half plate you're repairing as collateral? Maybe a breast plate? Or a chain shirt?"
"Sure, I don't see why not," the smith says. "Take your pick." He's got both breastplates and chain shirts, and there's one of each that'll fit you.
Dawn says "Thank you very much." She selects the breast plate. "I'll bring the scale armor to you as soon as I change out of it."
She then heads off looking for a place to change armor.
Dawn notes that really the only place in the small, crowded keep is the room she was given. She has time to change and return with the armor just in time before the attendants arrive to fetch you to dinner.
Gus studies the map, trying to look like he knows what he's doing, What if he's right? Scaling down the cliff into water would indeed put us at a disadvantage. Would it be better to consider climbing down between caves 2 and 3? Might help us approach either cave by sticking close to the base of the cliff or maybe it would allow us to make our way southwest and survey cave 2 from that point?
Gus studies the map, trying to look like he knows what he's doing, What if he's right? Scaling down the cliff into water would indeed put us at a disadvantage. Would it be better to consider climbing down between caves 2 and 3? Might help us approach either cave by sticking close to the base of the cliff or maybe it would allow us to make our way southwest and survey cave 2 from that point?
Feydon leers at you, seeing through your attempt to look like you know what you're doing. "I didn't say 'scale down into the water' - I said JUMP. It's a short ridge there. Nearly half as high. Probably something to do with the erosions from the water underneath it. It forms a ramp downward as you come up it on the ridge, you'll see. And by jumping, we make it down instantly. No disadvantages to that whatsoever, wizard-boy. You know what DOES have a disadvantage? Spending half an hour hammering pitons into the ridge in full view of everything in the marsh for half a mile around, or more. We'll be sitting ducks if we CLIMB down. So... I say we JUMP."
"Feydon, you keep looking at that spot. Is there something there we should know about?"
He snorts, and takes another sip of diluted wine. "There's a LOT of things you SHOULD know about, rabbit-woman."
(OOC: you can command him to tell you if you phrase it specifically, and if at least 3 of you ask - I'll add Hnefa as a fourth to make a majority).
Bree glares at him.
"I'm a HARENGON you hairless ape..."
Feydon laughs. He catches himself before it goes on for long. It may be the first time he's ever heard himself laugh. Like, laugh, laugh. He seems confused for a moment by it. Like he just sneezed for the first time or something. Then he gets over it, and just smiles at you, ever so briefly.
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Bree pulls out the map and lays it on the table. Gesturing to the indicated spots on the map she says
"These are the main locations that we need to investigate. However if wee see anything of interest to the mission we should also check it out."
Gus points to areas 1 and 4 on the map, using prestidigitation as he does to make those areas glow with a green light, these are known or suspected ruins, and here, pointing to 2 and 3, making them with a red C using prestidigitation, are caves Mr V would like a report on.
Dawn suggests, "Maybe we should start with locations 2 and 3 first, since those are closest to the edge of the swamp, then work our way in to the deeper locations."
[ OOC: Going by memory of the map. Could we have in posted into a Discord Maps channel for future reference? ]
"Well that's wrong, those ruins are over here," he points to smaller, middlemost set of 'known' ruin locations, indicating a location just south of their marked location. Bree, Geren, and Gus are able to notice that his eyes keep straying to a location that is otherwise unmarked shortly to the east of where he relocated the ruins. "Otherwise, this looks pretty accurate. There are definitely ruins in these two question mark areas. And they usually are populated by lizardmen. Not always - we wiped the tribe out in this location a few years ago, but they tend to come back and dig in like ticks," he spits. "There's another cave over here as well," he adds pointing to a spot on the ridge directly west from where the eastern leading path hits the ridge.
The knights look at each other with mixed expressions, some dubious, others seemingly impressed.
Sir Jory frowns - Feydon's knowledge is a tough act to follow, but he has something to add, clearly. "Er, well - I can't speak to the areas of the marsh as well as our.. guide here can, but I can say that both the locations where the paths terminate into the ridge are good places to climb down. With some rope and some pitons, or a climbing kit, its really no difficulty at all getting down there. In theory, we can climb down anywhere along the ridge, though those are the only spots that carry virtually no risk of accident or injury. So, I'd recommend starting either with you #1 location, or you #4, then sweeping to the east or west, respectively."
Feydon snorts. "Respectively," he says, mimicking Sir Jory's nasally, knightly tone. He sighs. "I don't care where you start - in fact, we could just jump off the ridge at the cave opening here, at your '#2' spot. It's not that high there - the water is also quite shallow there. There's no way it's going to have lizardmen in it. That said, jumping down into the water will make a ruckus. But that could just as easily work to our advantage - surprise them, if there's anyone in the cave there, they'd be pretty ******* shocked to see 8 armed adventurers suddenly drop from the sky right in front of them. If we do it assuming there's going to be Lizardmen there, we'll be ready, and they won't be," he points out.
Sir Jory scoffs. "And if there's hundreds of lizardmen in that cave?"
Feydon blinks. "It's maybe 15 feet across - there's not going to be hundreds of ******* anything in that cave. At least, not right at its mouth, close enough to hear or see us," he retorts. "I don't know how deep it goes, I've never gone in any of these caves. I've never had reason to. But I've seen them from the outside enough to know that at most there might be 7 or 8 lizardmen close enough to see us."
"Or hear us. Or hear the sounds of battle ensuing," Sir Jory adds.
Feydon shrugs. "**** them, let them come. The more the merrier. Are you afraid of dying, knight?" Feydon asks, coldly.
Sir Jory starts to answer but Feydon sits back down with a grunt, waving him off - he clearly doesn't care to hear anything more he has to say.
Here is an update version of the map with the adjustments made by Feydon, and the recommended places to climb down the ridge (and back up), with the latter marked by the yellow arrows.
Bree noticing where Feydon keeps looking, asks
"Feydon, you keep looking at that spot. Is there something there we should know about?"
Gus marks the new cave as mentioned, the spot where the ruins "should" be and a red question mark on the site Feydon kept looking at. The glowing marks and big C's for caves are gone now.
He snorts, and takes another sip of diluted wine. "There's a LOT of things you SHOULD know about, rabbit-woman."
(OOC: you can command him to tell you if you phrase it specifically, and if at least 3 of you ask - I'll add Hnefa as a fourth to make a majority).
(OOC: you mean like this?)
(OOC: his reluctance to answer DOES tell you something though - it CAN'T have anything to do with finding Redeye's phylactery, or gathering information on his forces, or keeping you alive, as those are the tasks he's bound to assist you with. If that spot on the map has something to do with any of those things, he'd have to tell you even without your asking him)
"Maybe that's where he had a base," suggests Dawn.
"Sure, I don't see why not," the smith says. "Take your pick." He's got both breastplates and chain shirts, and there's one of each that'll fit you.
Dawn says "Thank you very much." She selects the breast plate. "I'll bring the scale armor to you as soon as I change out of it."
She then heads off looking for a place to change armor.
He looks you in the eyes and sneers. "Had, indeed."
Dawn notes that really the only place in the small, crowded keep is the room she was given. She has time to change and return with the armor just in time before the attendants arrive to fetch you to dinner.
Gus studies the map, trying to look like he knows what he's doing, What if he's right? Scaling down the cliff into water would indeed put us at a disadvantage. Would it be better to consider climbing down between caves 2 and 3? Might help us approach either cave by sticking close to the base of the cliff or maybe it would allow us to make our way southwest and survey cave 2 from that point?
Bree glares at him.
"I'm a HARENGON you hairless ape..."
Eltra still eating, spits out his wine he was sipping on at Bree’s insult
Feydon leers at you, seeing through your attempt to look like you know what you're doing. "I didn't say 'scale down into the water' - I said JUMP. It's a short ridge there. Nearly half as high. Probably something to do with the erosions from the water underneath it. It forms a ramp downward as you come up it on the ridge, you'll see. And by jumping, we make it down instantly. No disadvantages to that whatsoever, wizard-boy. You know what DOES have a disadvantage? Spending half an hour hammering pitons into the ridge in full view of everything in the marsh for half a mile around, or more. We'll be sitting ducks if we CLIMB down. So... I say we JUMP."
Feydon laughs. He catches himself before it goes on for long. It may be the first time he's ever heard himself laugh. Like, laugh, laugh. He seems confused for a moment by it. Like he just sneezed for the first time or something. Then he gets over it, and just smiles at you, ever so briefly.