Northlands Campaign

You see her shoulders shake with a laugh at your comment, then she turns back into the house and begins preparing a platter with more of the food that she had served you.  "I'm not sure what sort of food the horse people normally consume, but hopefully she can make do with what's here."  She picks up the laden platter and begins to head again for the door.  "I'll be right back to refill your plate as well."  As she reaches the door, she pauses to let Arn through.  "Just grabbing my overalls to throw some fresh straw down for her," he says as he heads over to the wardrobe.  "Anything I can do, Papa?" Arin asks, eagerness in his eyes?  Arn glances over, "you be already dressed for bed, so you stay in the house."  The look of disappointment on the little one's face, causes Papa to relent, "alright, c'mon then, ye can stuff a grain sack with some fresh straw to make a pillow for our newest guest."  The boy's eyes light up and out the door he goes on Arn's heels.

At your mention of food, you see the women turn back inside and move off.  Arn looks thoughtful, as if looking for an excuse to avoid additional labor, but his good manners win out, "I'll see to getting some fresh straw outta the loft so we can get you set up proper then."  He turns and heads back inside, and you hear him speaking briefly to someone there.  He no sooner is out of sight than the woman is coming out with a large platter laden with chunks of meat, bread, cheese and vegetables.  She holds it out to you, "I hope this will do.  Never met one of your kind before so not sure what you prefer to eat.  Its been off the fire for a wee bit too, if you prefer it warmer though, that will take a few moments."  Just as you are looking over the offering, you see Arn come back outside, heading for the barn with a lad of maybe 8 on his heels.

Kina sits on her haunches and thanks the woman for the plate of food.

"We eat the same as any human, just more of it." she laughs lightly. "It smells wonderful, and it's quite warm enough. I've been eating cold field rations all day, so this is a positive feast!" she says, then her eyes follow over to Arn and the child, and she clicks her tongue.

"Oh my goodness, he didn't have to do anything for me." she says, and reaches into her saddlebag with her free hand to retrieve 5 gold pieces.

"Please accept this for your hospitality. I'm sure Arn wouldn't, but we'll just keep that a secret between us, yeah? Maybe the boy could be surprised by a new toy." she winks.

Chesterfield sits up perfectly straight as they get close and he begins talking in a very different accent, "Aye, who em I? Who ah you? I tell yea to let me free thas instant or..." His face trails off and stares into the distance before suddenly screaming at the top of his lungs, "LET ME FREE!!!!!!! I'M A MADMAN!!!!!!!" Deception: 20

She blushes at your offer, but shakes her head and waves your hand away.  "Anything less than what we're doing would be shameful.  Keep your coins for someone truly needy.  We have all we need here.  Wagons come with the things we cannot get ourselves in exchange for our surpluses of food.  We appreciate you offering but we cannot accept coin for just doing what's decent."

As you sit upright, you captor tries to move back, seemingly confused by the sudden change.  His foot catches on a bundle near your feet sending him sideways and out of the wagon, landing first on the top of the rear wheel which propels him forward.  A moment later, a simultaneous crunch, scream and bump of the wagon belies he didn't get out of the way in time.  You hear panicked voices from the front and the wagon is brought to a near immediate halt.  Both men rush back to their injured cohort, who's screams are near loud enough to wake the dead.

Roll a Medicine check for each, with advantage.  OOC:  There is only a single ox, but study enough to handle everything you want to do.  To the northwest, you see the gap in the Lands End mountains, indicating you not far from the eastern edge of the swamps.  The nearest town will be Moorsedge.  Its a small hamlet, but you think they should be able to hold the two men until they can arrange transfer elsewhere.

Bethann stops and smiles at the offer, "Arn is just cleaning the old straw from the spare stall for her, then will need to throw new straw down from the loft.  I'm sure he would appreciate an extra pair of hands.  An extra pair of eyes on the little one to keep him from underfoot wouldn't be a bad idea either."  With that she heads out the door with the food.

Kina nods her head and puts her coins away.

"I yield to your generosity." she says, and happily digs into her meal.

"I'll try not to be a bother as much as I can and be on my way. I do, however, have to ask just one thing... and that's if you've seen anyone strange come by here... perhaps people wearing heavy robes.... or wearing masks?" she asks.

While they are distracted Chesterfield is going to try and scooch over to his pack and loosen his bindings with one of his daggers. He is also going to give a quick glance to see how many figures there are total. Perception: 8

OOC: Also, I'll roll whatever I need to for freeing the bindings.

"Hmmm," she puts a hand to her chin and tilts her head just a bit, as if deep in thought.  "Stranger than thou?"  She gives you a wink and a grin.  "No, things tend to stay quiet and normal around here for the most part.  But DEFINITELY haven't seen anyone in any kind of get up like your describing.  Why do you ask such a question?"  She seems genuinely concerned by it.  As she says that, you see another figure coming out of the door of the farmhouse heading to the barn.

Roll for Sleight of hand to manipulate the dagger.

You head outside, hustling a bit to catch up with Arn, and looking over towards where Bethann is talking with a young girl.....errr, not a girl, but what you figure must be a centaur.  You've heard tales of their herds in Lariket, but have never seen one before now.  The shock of realization of just what or who she is causes you to slow for a moment, at which point you then hear mention of robed and masked figures.  Not wanting to draw any undue attention just yet, you continue on to the barn to assist with the straw.

Sleight of Hand: 23

Kina is about to dig in when she puts her utensils down, taking a breath.

"I don't mean to alarm you, but that's why I'm heading to Moorsedge. These people have been kidnapping specific targets to be indoctrinated into servitude to... something. Several people from the Shire have already been taken, and they attacked me too. They're not terribly clever, though. Whatever enchantment they're under makes them very single-minded. They were each carrying a map that puts their destination within the swamp and each also carried a list of names. If you don't know anyone on the list, you don't need to worry yourself." she says, handing over the list of names for her to look over while she eats with a gusto that might make the woman worry that she's going to bite the plate in half.

You have little issue finding one of your daggers in the bundle of your supplies near your feet, and quickly have the bindings on your ankles undone.  A brief glance at your captors show they are still busy with the unfortunate's arm and you flip the dagger around to apply the blade to the ropes at your wrists.  "Glad I spend time keeping these things sharp," you think as it moves through the first strands like butter.  As the final ropes fall away, you notice they are helping starting to help the injured man to his feet.

You have no trouble stabilizing the men, but neither seems strong enough to be on their feet for more than a few minutes at a time.  You think to yourself, "wouldn't be comfortable, but they will all fit on the back of that poor beast, but given his size, doubt he'd even much notice them."  To the northwest, you see the gap in the Lands End mountains, indicating you not far from the eastern edge of the swamps.  The nearest town will be Moorsedge.  Its a small hamlet, but you think they should be able to hold the two men until they can arrange transfer elsewhere.

Rolf stops for a moment just as he was going to take a bite, "Nah, we don't see many travelers here.  We get supply wagons every week or so to bring us what we can't make ourselves in exchange for our surplus crops, and of course the occasional prisoner transfer heading to the mines in Undercity.  Nothing other than that really, though."  He takes another bite and continues, "but we have been a bit concerned about the world at large last year or so, though, seems like the number of prisoner transfers has been increasing.  What be the news of the world?"  OOC:  This surprises you, as you have seen no evidence of any changes of late, and definitely nothing to tell of an increase in prisoner transfers for hard labor in the mines.

She takes the paper and looks it over it over, a look of concern crossing her face, "Goodness, gracious, my dear, at least you seem to have escaped uninjured!"  She glances up at you, then back to looking over the names.  "I don't know any of these people, and haven't heard of anything like this at all!"  She refolds the parchment and hands it back to you.  "Sorry I can't be more help on this, except to tell you that the Moors can be dangerous.  I have never been there, but folks know well of its reputation.  Few that go in ever come out, and of those that do, they refuse to talk about what they saw."