Project Point: Team Longsword

Serandis: You do not appear to be being followed.

The door to the warlord's house is opened by the warlord himself, who gives you all a smile. "Welcome back, please come in. I presume you are responsible for the retreat of the blight from our fields?"

"We did destroy the necromancer that was poisoning the land," nodded Adaliza, "but I am afraid the threat is not over just yet." It was probably impolite but the urgency of that matter had to excuse bad manners. "Here is what we found in the necromancer's lair." She shared the content of the letter with the Warlord.

 ((OOG The letter is above in case anyone needs a recap of it :) ))

"It seems like there is a much larger plot and it involves your nation's capitol. But what of this town called Bastion, I do not know of it. Do you think there is a threat there?" She will pause for a moment and continue with one more question, "And have you ever heard of this Avaestasi, Herr Warlord?"

Any trace of a smile vanishes from the warlord's face as you share the letter and your suspicions. "Bastion is a fort to the northwest, along the road between here and the city of Atur. It's vital to keeping that road open, with the Karrnwood to the north and the Ashen Spires to the south. It sounds like thanks to your actions, there is no longer an additional threat here, but if Bastion was attacked, it certainly would have diverted many of our forces there to hold the fort. Leaving it open to whatever is being planned in the capital." He frowns deeply. "I have not heard the name the Avaestasi, unfortunately." He taps his arm thoughtfully before blinking and looking up. "Oh. Serandis, a letter was delivered here this morning. It's addressed to you, and there's an Elvish seal." He hands Serandis a piece of parchment with a golden seal on it.

Serandis:

"For me?" It was strange to Serandis that a letter would arrive here for her, so she was surprised and taken back. She slipped the letter into her pocket and nodded her head, "Thank you, Warlord. I hope this has nothing to do with the shipments we were supposed to discuss. It's strange how that duty fell to the wayside during my time here. Some things begged more attention.What will you do now? We could use some rest, much needed rest."

"Yes, we can discuss that shipment immediately at the conclusion of this conversation. My apologies for the delay because the DM kept forgetting. You are also welcome to rest here--I will tell Virian at the Gold Dragon to give you free room and board for the night. As for what I'll do now..." Warlord Karlach frowns. "It is clear that there is some kind of threat against the capital, one they must be warned of. However, it seems clear to me that any messenger bringing such news may be subject to further attacks on the road, so that this group can keep news of their plot secret. I would go myself, or send guards, but with the level of turmoil in Teryk right now, none can be spared." He sighs. "I am afraid I would ask more of you. Could you bring this message to Korth for me? I will of course pay you for the handling of the blight either way, but if you agree to do this, I will also give you each a Kundarak bank note allowing you to withdraw 500 galifars from my account in Korth. Not to mention the likely gratitude of the crown should you be able to inform them of this." His eyes are serious. "This news must get to the capital as quickly as possible, and I think you are the best hope for that."

"Did you say 500 Galifars apiece?" Serandis living coin to coin on this trip that the prospect of actually making a real profit was very tempting to her. "I'm in."

Adaliza glanced at Serandis with just a hint of frowning but then somewhat ceremoniously bowed her head slightly. "We will be honoured to help you".

"Are the roadways to Korth safe to travel? Might we acquire a carriage for such a  journey?"

The warlord smiles a little grimly. "The roads are normally as safe as you can find this far from a major city, but the blight has made it difficult for Orien to get near us to do their usual upkeep lately. Which also means we don't have any Orien carriages in town right now. I'm afraid you'll have to buy horses or walk until you get to Bastion, where they will likely have other options."

"Not sure we can afford to buy horses, but if someone can rent us animals...? After all, the message is urgent."

The warlord nods. "Try the Vadalis stables to the east of town, they provide most of the animals here. I'm pretty sure you'll get a discount too, after what you've done for the town."

"Thank you, Herr Warlord. Now that we have that business spoken of, can we talk about these plants I have for your community?" Serandis will walk over to his desk and pull out her supplies of covadish. "Now, this bag has made sure that they stay in perfect shape from my travels from amalndornya. Excuse me, my motherland."

The warlord nods. "All right." He checks the stock, then nods, satisfied. "All as it should be, thank you." He hands Serandis a black leather bag. "I'll make sure this gets into storage where it's supposed to be. Thank you very much."

Once the goods and the money changed hands, Adaliza wished the Warlord a good day and went with the group to the stables.

"I wonder if we need to rescue any of these 'horses' we're going to see.  I've not heard of many Pegasus, Unicorn, Centaur, Kelpie, or Hippogriff offering to let creatures ride upon them."

(Sorry, the day was significantly busier than anticipated and I just made it onto DDB)

You arrive at the small Vadalis stables, where a redhead is tending to about half a dozen horses. "Hello, I'm Lady Tiria d'Vadalis!" she greets you all with a smile, giving you a wave with her Mark of Handling-covered right hand. "Are you here for mounts?"

"We are, Lady d'Vadalis. We are here for some mounts, the Warlord informed us that this would be the best place to find them. He suggested your establishment after thanking us for helping put a stop to the Blight."  Serandis will smile, with her mask put away and her tattoos showing proudly.

"Ah yes, we have quite a few horses here, all bred to be the best, of course." Tiria smiles. "How many will you be wanting?"

It would be interesting to see if the stable-owner took the hint. So far there was no indication of it but Adaliza did not push. "Four." She looked at Citron. "Maybe three? We did not mean to buy them, only to rent. How much would it cost?"