Her sword in hand, sharpened and oiled, the runes along its length catching the mid-morning light, Hildr nods her head in agreement. "Let's be off then." As she exits the tavern door, you can hear her mumble petulantly, "We might even make it to Escobert by supper."

Even by the time Irisviel has joined the others in the common area and they're heading out the door, she still isn't quite awake yet. She perhaps didn't drink as much water as should have before letting sleep take her, nor did she exactly have restful sleep. Still, she's physically up and walking, though perhaps not ready for complex tasks yet. As they step through the tavern's threshold and into the sunlight, she reflexively winces, cupping a hand over her brow to shield her eyes. "Not prepared for that." She mumbles meekly, eyes towards the ground as she follows the others to the keep.

Gallant seeing his two sleep deprived friends and laughs to himself. “What have I done to be surrounded but such great people once again!” He thinks to Himself. Gallant picks up his Lute and his rapier from behind the bar and he gives a nod to Eliza, “Thank you, once again for your amazing service.” And he turns to his party, “Let me play a little song to help the time pass a bit quicker.”

Crannoc wakes before dawn as he he always does and takes a jog outside the town gates, getting a feel for the nature around him.  The plants and animals rising for the day, some animals going dormant.  Trying to center himself.  Glad that he limited his ale intake the previous night and drank water.

He returns to the Dragon's Roost refreshed and ready for breakfast.  Thanking the gracious den-mother Eliza for providing them shelter and food.

As the party sets off (a bit later than he expected) to meet Nighthill and/or Escobert, Crannoc shares with the others his observations from last night.  "I am not well familiar with leaders of big cities, but in the Silvanus' world, pack leaders are often ruthless, possessing a killer instinct.  Willing to sacrifice others for the greater good.  Or sometimes for their own good. I did not sense any of that from the governor.  Nor did I sense any false pretenses."

Hildr hears in the bard's mellifluous notes the first stirrings of the party's own epic unfolding. This Gallant, he is our skald.

It's a fairly short walk over to the keep, which is situated atop a high hill overlooking the rest of Greenest. A single guards mans the main gate, as you approach he looks up to your group. After a moment's hesitation he waves you in, calling. "Escobert! The mercenaries are here!"

A mountain dwarf beneath a tangle of bright red hair turns around in the middle of the yard, wooden practice sword in hand as he seems to be leading some kind of drill for a ragtag militia looking group. After a few quick words to his trainees, he tosses the drill sword to one of them and jogs over to meet you as you enter the keep.

He waves his hand as he joins you, "I'm Escobert, castellan of the fine keep you see here." The keep's walls, you can see several small structures. Notably you can see smoke rising from a small forge next to the south wall, stabled horses along the east, and what is most likely a barracks along the north wall. The southeast corner is occupied by the keep's main tower, rising about the walls. "Governor Nighthill said he spoke with you last night. Mentioned you might have some questions for me."

"Come, we can talk while I take you to him." The dwarf says, motioning for your group to follow as he leads you towards the tower. "So I take it you're wanting some more information on our little Sunless problem?" He prompts.

Crannoc waits a moment for others to reply to Escobert, but when no one speaks up right away, he chimes in, addressing the dwarven castellan.

"Thank you for the honor of your welcome, defender of the herd.  May your territory remain peaceful through strength.  I am Crannoc Greenthorn and the others can introduce themselves, or be introduced by a lovely song I have heard Gallant here sing like the finest wolf on a still, moonlit night."

Taking a moment to compose his thoughts in his head, he continues.  "I think my companions will have many questions for you.  My first ones relate to your ranging to the tower they apparently use as their den.  Can you tell us all you know of the Sunless so that we can aid in the defense of the pack here at Greenest?  How far to the tower?  What type of tracks around it and how many?  Is the area around it cleared or can we approach while hidden under the cover of trees and brush?  Entrances and windows?  And if you could sate my curiosity, do you know why they call themselves the Sunless?"

Crannoc pauses.  "And since I know packs of animals are known to feint to draw attention away from the main attack, is there a chance they are doing the same?  Trying to thin your defenses for a raid on Greenest itself?"

Hildr is impressed with Crannoc's strategic acumen, but perplexed by the nature priest's zoomorphism, for lack of a better word. Are we not immortal, godlike beings? He speaks as if we are mere beasts ourselves. And yet, the comparisons he draws are often apt.

Building on Crannoc's questions, Hildr asks the castellan about the foes' number and makeup, preferred weaponry, fighting styles (ranged vs melee), and tactics (mounted or not, night or day attacks, etc.), as well as the possible presence of siege weaponry, and so forth. She wants to know anything and everything she can about the enemy. "And what of these 'bloodsucker beasts' that Nighthill spoke of? Tell us more about them—and above all about Calavaz himself. Is he coward hiding behind a bow, or does he fight like a warrior, face to face?"

The castellan glances over his shoulder at Crannoc, pausing as if unsure of how to respond to his strange way of referring to things. "Well met Crannoc, and thank you. Peace is all we hope for really." As you all speak, he leads you into the tower itself. You can see the ground floor has been sectioned into rooms along most of the circumference, the central open area seems to be a simple dining area, with a large table and several chairs around it. Escobert takes you to the right, up a spiral staircase. "Now to move onto your queries...The Sunless were more than your average highway nuisance twenty years ago. Used to be you couldn't leave the town proper on any trail except the Uldoon without expecting to get robbed. Got so bad most farmers just started carrying tribute for them whenever they have to come or go. Suppose that's part of the reason things ended as they did. Resentment builds."

"The tower itself is about two days from here, northwest. We've got a map of the area that has the lesser roads you'll need to get there. The tower itself sits atop a pretty steep slope, rocky terrain and the like. There's only one narrow path, and the base of the hill is surrounded by a thicket of this damnable tangleweed. It's thorny, and the barbs will poison you. To make it worse the hellish plant is more alive than usual. Swear I've seen the vines lash out at people before."

"I didn't take a look at the ground for tracks. I'm not too good at differentiating anyway, I'd probably see a horse track and think bear. The tower only has one entrance, and plenty of arrow slits around it. There's windows, but they're all about three-quarters the way up." The dwarf laughs at the next question, concerning the origin of their name. "When they first started terrorizing the area, they spread this rumor that their "real" leader was a vampire. So people started calling them the Sunless. After most of them burned alive, we never saw heads or tails of this vampire though."

"The last time they tried to attack the town directly, Calavaz nearly died, and most of his men and women did. He's a fiend, but he's not stupid. He won't make that mistake again."

"They usually carry whatever weapons they can find. Spears, swords, crossbows. They're a group of bandits, not an organized militia or army. They're brazen enough to rob people in the light of day. Usually block the road first then come up from behind. Hard to know exactly how many there are, maybe two dozen?" He chuckles, "no. They do not have a trebuchet or anything of that manner. Again. They're bandits, not an army."

"Those are another rumor,"  he says in response to the question about bloodsuckers. "Some farmer's son said he saw a cloud of bats flying around the tower swarm an elk that was stuck in the tangleweed. I didn't see anything of the manner when I went for a look."

"Calavaz will fight you face to face, pretty nasty fighter with that curved blade of his too."

Gawain lets out a low whistle upon hearing the state of the group's hideout, this wasn't going to be easy for them. "Sounds like this isn't going to be a simple case of waltzing in and cracking a couple skulls to put the fear in them." He comments. "A tower with a single entrance, on the high ground, surrounded by impassable terrain? We'd have better luck waiting for them to come and go to pick them off a few at a time."

Gallant speaks up with his own questions, "Do we know if there are any Arcane users in their ranks? If you were us how would you approach these bandits? Do they like to party?" 

"Never seen 'em use magic last time, can't imagine they've bought out a mage of some kind now." The dwarf says with a shrug, he looks over his shoulder at the bard with a furrowed brow at his further questions. "Party? I can't say I've ever been invited to one by them." You stop at a level that's about midway up the tower, standing before a door on a small landing. He knocks once or twice on the oak door, and you hear a muffled "come in!" He opens the door, and you see Nighthill standing over a desk filled with parchment and notebooks. The governor looks up, "ah! Excellent, you already found Escobert! I trust your questions have been answered?"

By the time they've made it to their destination up the stairs, Iris has made it through her morning grogginess. "Nice to see you again Governor." She says with a slight smile. "I think their curiosity has been sated for the most part?" Glancing at Gawain, she quickly adds. "And I think we have the beginnings of a plan on how to deal with this." 

Crannoc inclines his head respectfully to Governor Nighthill in greeting.

"I agree with Gawain.  This is as if a big cat wades into the deep swamp to hunt a crocodile.  We are working against the terrain and against nature rather than with it.  The plan of waiting for them to come out and ambushing them to start with may work best.  But if we do force our way in, and there is no way to hide from watchful eyes at the tower windows (meaning no way to surprise them), might it make sense to..."

Crannoc's mouth twists as if tasting rotten flesh.  "... to use a tactic that has been used against my friends in the Misty Forest.  I do not like it, but could we set the living tangle-weed ablaze from cover and distance to remove its threat?  The fire would give away our intentions, but if they already see us, it may not matter.  We would need flasks of oil and I could use my telekinesis to deliver it and the..."

He shakes his head and returns to himself.  "My apologies.  I am getting ahead of myself.  We will find a way, by Silvanus' wild grace."

Gawain is a bit shocked to hear the suggestion come from the half-elf. The thought had crossed his mind, but even he found it...unsavory. "I don't think we need to be so drastic out the gate. Even if we burned away the tangle-weed, their numbers would still be too great for us to overcome in an assault like that. But that may be helpful after we've reduced their number...Though I hope we don't have to resort to such a tactic." 

Gallant stocks his chin "What if we lure them into the bushes as a tactic, potentially calling the head bandit out for a one-on-one fight and ambush him?" 

The governor raises a questioning eyebrow at Escobert as Crannoc suggests setting the tangleweed ablaze, in response the dwarf shrugs. "It could work. It wouldn't be that simple though. This isn't some dry brush, and we've had decent amounts of rainfall this season. You would need to nurse a large bonfire to really get it going I imagine." After a few thoughtful moments, he gives an affirmative nod. "We have the supplies to do it though, if that's a path you decide to take."

Nighthill clears his throat, moving from around his desk. "Well we leave the strategy in your hands anyway, so long as you do no harm to Greenest and the surrounding farmlands." One by one, he lifts a hefty coin pouch off his desk and hands it to each of you. Inside each is ten platinum pieces and thirty gold pieces. "That's for the Fairweather job. You can pick up your first payment from us a week from now."

"And of course, if you need anything directly related to the job, let us know and we'll find a way to provide."

In response to Gallant's suggestion, Escobert chuckles, "If you can figure out how to push Calavaz's nerves and get him to make a stupid brash decision like that, I'll be impressed. I hate to admit it, but he's no fool."

"So that's what saving for two months looks like." Iris says, peeking inside the coin pouch. She quickly ties it to her belt, looking to the others now. "So do we want to go check out this tower from a distance, see if we can catch them in transit?"

"That sounds like a good start."

Gawain turns to Escobert next, recalling something he mentioned on the trip up the tower. "You said you had more detailed maps of the area, mind showing us where can find this tower?"

"Oh, right. Governor, if you would please?" Nighthill nods and opens a drawer behind his desk, pulling out a large rolled up parchment. He unfurls it on the desk, smoothing it out while Escobert waves you over. It shows the Greenfields in greater detail than any map you've seen, mapping out the smaller trails that lead into the farmlands. He traces out a path from Greenest to the northwest, where the tower is marked. "Like I said earlier, should be about a two day journey at an easy pace. Shouldn't be too much trouble, unless you get lucky and run into some of their crew yourself."