Archon's Curse [Pathfinder Kingmaker]

Rova 4711
They had withdrawn, evacuated, whatever one wanted to call it, Ekundayo's village via Candlemere, and traversed from the lake to Shrikewall. Or at least they had evacuated those who were willing to be evacuated from the village. It would have been a lie to say that everyone had seen sense. Jaethal had commented that the idiots may well be doing them a favor in effectively volunteering to be bait... but there were other things to do.

The capital continued to bustle and grow, filled with the clack and rhythmic bangs of hammers. Stas, one of corax's journeymen, had gained his own party of jacks to lead in knocking together more houses for the swelling population that wasn't even counting the village displacement.

The bearded man already had a lot of work to do, and if more villagers were going to have to be evacuated they were just going to be added to it. Once he was gone Eire turned to Valerie. The road problem was rearing its head again. With roads they could have theoretically spread more of the displaced, Oleg's, Loy, the Temple of Erastil, Kressel and Akiros's respective holdings.

Knocking together log cabins in the valley was the most practical solution to housing that they had while still maintaining some semblance of his ideals of centralized layout, and planning for the settlement... but with greater settlement in the valley that meant more security concerns. The greater possibility of something attracted to the dale as would prove to be the case.

Old Beldame's village simply wasn't fit for human inhabitation... there was too much that needed to be done and that would have to wait until after the spring thaw. "Kesten," And Eire had to resist the urge to default to referring to him by his surname give his ... familial troubles, "are there any other matters that need to be seen to?" besides the list that had been there before.

"The rabble rouser, continues, your grace."

The foreign bard had been stirring up trouble for a couple of weeks now. There simply hadn't been time to deal with it... or rather there hadn't been a priority to divert resources to do so up until Grigori the bard wasn't simply orating but using magic to stir up trouble.

If it had just been speeches Eire would have continued to ignore the man, but the magic had been a trip... a hint to look closer... in addition to being a criminal offense under the package of laws he had promulgated last year. Grigori was from Pitaxian spy, he had apparently graduated from the Pitaxian academy of arts before their own bard's expulsion from the institution.

... and in a sense that was where Grigori had mistepped as well. He had probably started stirring trouble up in smaller villages, of riverfolk. Regongar had recognized him as one of the leading hecklers, and the half orc had had to have been prevented from resolving the problem directly. Grigori had labored under the perhaps notion that the majority of those here would be of similar mind... but they weren't.

Shrikewall was not predominantly populated by northern taldanes of Brevoy or the river kingdoms already most of the city's population had migrated from southern Avistan drawn by the promise of better... whatever better was supposed to be....

... and whether from Absalom or Cheliax or other parts Shrikewall's residents the denizens of the baronial seat had little in common with Pitax culturally, compared to one another. They were much closer to the old Taldan empire's core than the frontier regions. Shrikewall's primary religious site was the cathedral to Iomedae not a temple to Erastil, or even Abadar... who at least would have been represented within the southern taldans major deities...

... there were other factors, but really it was religion, and culture.

You couldn't accuse a member of Iomedae's church of things like 'gallivanting around', talk of fools errands, or such without real proof. Such things were par for the course for expected of hereditary nobles apart of the sword faith. Then as if to compound Girgori's initial faux pas and lack of knowledge of Absalom, and Chelish and other inner sea views on their feudal overlords he had brought up the matter of money.

... maybe those missteps had been why the bard had resorted to using magic.

If not for Kesten investigating and assistance from the Iomedaen church carried out while he'd been away Grigori might have been assumed to just be some galtian malcontent... and Galt's revolution was condemned by the Church. It didn't matter. Grigori had entered the land on orders of a foreign power to undermine and cause the nation to fail.

... and the answer to that was as Jubilost had described it in a word 'Cheliaxian'.

The gnome didn't seem to frown on the pronouncement. Eire looked at the partial gathering. "I will go your grace." The hell knight declared.

A couple of junior clerics, all Chelish, of Iomedae also volunteered as well. Their presence reminding him that the local church ... like Brevoy's church of the inheritor to the north lacked a dedicated inquisition. ...staffed by full time inquisitors rather than part timers for the church.

That hadn't been something he'd expected to be a priority. Since hadn't requested the larger church apparatus hadn't seen the need to dispatch them. A public charge of the felonius violation of arcane acts, and misuse of mind magics would suffice. The reality of a trial though seemed forgone given he was likely to face a Chelish jury presiding over a full list of charges that would include espionage and conspiracy to insight rebellion. It would not have been considered a fair trial under modern earth standards... but frankly there was a part of eire who had every interest in making it so lawyers were a very uncommon profession indeed.
--
Kressel had come to visit, and while she wouldn't be taking anyone with here back to Nettle's crossing she would at least have some idea and thus be able to plan for resettling some of the smallfolk in the new year when hopefully dead dave was free to build. The turning of the seasons meant that the lizard folk were preparing for winter, and their less active sluggish part of the year. They would be vulnerable to to trollish attack. Celadon wasn't likely to be awash with activity during the cold months either. Still it had been a good opportunity for Kaessi to introduce the sweet teeth to the rattler, and Kressel all to consider protecting the long tail's village in the short days.

"Pitax has always spewed a lot of shit." Svetlana's half sister grunted to their most recent problem.

Apparently even before the current 'king' they had laid claim to a wide stretch north of their actual holdings... which seemed like it might run afoul of Jamandi's plans to settle baronies in the Stolen Lands. Such details were confirmed by Linzi. Internal propaganda, and aggrandizement aside, Pitax had never had the means to clear and explore those stretches of highland no man's land. Certainly not control it given the barbarian communities of Kellid that Kessil Aldori suggested had dwelled there.

"Pitax was founded by bandits fleeing brevoy,"

"And Justice's noose." Kesten added in agreement.

To that extent it was something of a surprise that the kingdom had managed to survive as long as it had... and well Brevoy wasn't that old having only been founded in 4499 a little over two hundred years ago.

Eire shook his head, "Irredentist claims aside, we will have to keep a watch. Our focus must be preparing for the winter, and and contending with the trolls."

"Tartuccio was a pitaxian spy, and there was the attack on Lady Jamandi." Kesten reminded him.

"And we will send word to Jamandi of this latest transgression," He replied, "But we must contend with the most immediate problems. That is the natural turning of the year, and the fact of the trolls, which may verywell be related. We need to bolster our defenses against them and if possible locate them, and neutralize them when we can." He had not forgotten about the purple gnome or his allegiances... but there was only so much they could do, and he needed to deal with the troll problem.

The weight growing into these feudal obligations steadily shifted his priorities. The barony... the kingdom to come was his responsibility. He had originally planned on a stone keep, he had moved to the cathedral, and the assistance of Iomedae's church in recognition of needing the apparatus of statecraft. He didn't need a castle for the barony, the hall would suffice for administration until it wouldn't, but the church provided other uses.

It had ultimately come down to the best way to institute organization, and record keeping. He had needed a work around for the bureaucracy to get crop rotation, and other farming improvements underway, and that meant literacy, and the written word. It was about economic specialization. Even though he had never been he could guess what Fort Drelev was like, at its core was by all accounts an relatively impressive stone keep that had been Hannis's first priority. Whether or not Hannis had had some starting point to build from, ruins or some such was unknown, but regardless at the core of the neighboring domain was the lord's estate.

 

Rova 4711
It had been a few days and the day of the Inheritor was still more than a week away. He was glad that Tristian was absent today's proceedings. There were realities to contend with.

Kassil Aldori was looking around, when he thought no one was watching, as Regongar leaned on his elbow idly turning the page in the book he was reading. The other half orc had been largely disinterested in the proceedings. Not that Eire could blame them, this was fundamentally the sort of thing that must have been boring. Not that Eire himself was Chelish... despite the gnome's assumption or remarks... but the Church Iomedae ... well the goddess had been Chelaxian in ethnicity even if born long before the infernal house of thrune had assumed power. Shaoyu was really the only one paying attention to the petitions, for the sake of paying attention to the petitioners.

Linzi was scribbling the minutes, Valerie was attempting to maintain a stoic expression, but Jaethal, nor Jubilost for that matter, were bothering to pretend that they weren't bored. Eire nodded to the cleric as he concluded. They were almost done. Almost. It was actually kind of a pity the sootscales weren't here they usually were enthralled by these sorts of things. The riverlands, and Brevoy were taldan colonies... in the sense that their culture was taldane. Of sorts. They shared a distant ancestry with the ancient empire and Aroden's rule... but that was a heritage long in the past... for realms that measured themselves by much much more recent events. Chelish custom was much closer, really sort of revanchist, if Eire were honest, to the empire of old. They had been born out as a separate polity in response to imperial decline even while Aroden still lived.

Autumn was now upon them. There were the trolls... and of course now the reiteration of the Pitaxian threat. The first in terms of realm management he had been, he had thought he'd been readily prepared for. The brevoy colonist had, like the riverlanders, wanted to, and had been allowed to, establish open field systems... but as a greater number of Chelish, and other inner sea migrants had allowed him to go ahead and set up the land surveys that would... were effectively enclosure policies and those farms. The erastalian church didn't want to do that preferring by tradition the open field system, and communal shared labor by people among the faith. The bigger issue was needing horses for the farms.

While still practicing the open field system, and manor dominated agriculture Cheliax had a more comprehensive administrative system, and bureaucracy and appeared to have at least some basic employment of crop rotation. That had been what he had planned his priority had been comprehensive agriculture, and construction in and around Shrikewall... but Jamandi, and Jubilost were right the road conditions were too bad. That needed to be addressed for Old Scyamore, Olegton, and Tatzlford... and for that matter the old beldame's village.

... which was another matter to consult his Chelish subjects., as well as other immigrants from the Inner Sea. The problem was that it was late in the year to really be engaged in such things. "In summary your grace, and in no small part to it being underway, Restov's petition must be considered the priority."

That meant the road that would run from Old Scyamore, to Olegton, and thus connect to the Taldan South Rostlandic road. It was simply economics. He didn't make a comment on the qualification of calling Jamandi's 'advice' a 'petition'. As an artery of trade the roadway would be important, but the trolls seemed potentially poised to cut the river link that tied them to the inner sea. That link was what was swelling Shrikewall's population, where as Olegton, and Tatzlwyrm were growing more 'naturally' from river and brevic folk moving there.

"The troublemaker my lord?" Jaethal wasn't even trying to be formal. The inquisitor of the pallid princess languidly stirred a curtain of dark hair sweeping as she moved. "Shouldn't we get on with it?"

She had the others attention as well.

At least this time she hadn't made any quips about heresy charges... even if she meant them more along the lines of what he had legally codified as 'sedition'. Eire didn't consider that word as a matter for levity... Grigori was a problem that they needed to deal with.

So much of holding court all too frequently involved repeatedly having the same conversation with different retainers who had been absent for one reason or another. It was the simple reality of of feudal governance and with Shrikewalls somewhat meager administrative capabilities. They needed more scribes, and accountants really. Eire really wanted a modern, or semi modern financial system... "Yes." He declared rising, "Bring in the accused."

Grigori of Pitax was a plump man dressed in deep purple clothes of quite good quality. He could have passed for a well off trader. His appearance, and his jewelry in particular clashed with the clothes of the native river folk. If anything his appearance only really fit in in Shrikewall where such fashions could easily blend in with the throngs of fresh off the boat persons.

"Your grace," The bailiff bowed. "If it so pleases you and the court, we seek to present the initial felony charge, under the violations of the Arcanum,"

He rested his hands on the table, "Grigori of Pitax you stand accused of the misuse of magic, and the enthralling of mortal minds by sorcery." Eire was aware he wasn't short. The great table may not have been on a raised platform as most grand halls would have been laid out, but it didn't need to be in this case.... he was at least a foot taller than the human bard even bracing on the table. "These laws were laid down in the edicts, and promulgated upon the foundation of the kingdom in both Taldane, and Draconic. The accused speaks, and reads common, does he not?"

There was a small tittering from the assemblage of people to the left of the entrance of the hall., not helped by Regongar thumping his boot into the leg of the table, as he leaned his face into his arm to conceal his own snort.

Grigori had been a busy boy. The rabble rousing was one thing, but there were multiple counts of his use of enthrall spells during those speeches. It was probably unnecessary, and probably done by Jaethal just to needle the bard, but a pair of long banners painted with the statute were brought out, one in Taldane, and the other in Draconic.

Hallit didn't have a standardized script, it appropriated the use of the Taldan alphabet, but it hadn't escaped Eire that Amiri's literacy was weak at best. It really wasn't necessary. Ignorance would have no excuse, and Grigori was basically dead to rights for as much magic as he'd been tossing around, even without other evidence. The bard had fucked himself, seemingly on the assumptions he had made coming into the Narlmarches rather than learning about what had developed since Jamandi's acknowledgement of the baronies in the stolen lands. It would have been perhaps more comforting if Grigori had just been some Galtian rabblerouser.

The hall settled, and it was clear Grigori reading from the left post, presumably the Iomedaen proscribed method of execution. That was to say, death by decapitation. Eire had included the use of hanging by authorities in his abscence, in the event Valerie was required to handle felony cases for ... a contingency planned for in cases of capital crimes of arson before the coranation.

Exile was a possibility included... but the truth was Grigori was too dangerous to let live. He was spy who had been aiming to ferment unrest. The trial for misuse of magic was a formality to warrant execution, and to explain it. If they could find out anything about Pitax, all the better... but he doubted it.

Grigori had bragged, and talked up his native kingdom in public spaces, but it seemed unlikely he really new much. If he had sent messages back to Pitax, well that was unfortunate, but Garess wasn't sure that Grigori had any contacts.

If Grigori spilled the beans under examination well, they'd see if Jaethal could convince him to give anything up, but that really did seem unlikely. The undead elf to his left stood up from her chair, and moved around to the front of the table, "What has been observed, is repeated and malicious actions against the citizenry of Narhold. Violations of the statues in public spaces, in the witness of town guards, and baronial agents."

Grigori exploded into a tirade that was more emotional than logical. It was little different than the speeches he had given in public as called about the will of the people, and how they'd been off adventuring.

There was a flicker of blue light around the hall floor.

Grigori had just made the mistake of then trying to use magic on Jaethal. Eire blinked his arcane sight away at the second level spell, as Jaethal backhanded the bard. Leaving aside that frankly he doubted Grigori had the magical potential to bedevil an elf, clearly Grigori didn't realize the inquisitor was one of the undead.

"Worthless curr."

"Your grace, the rogue."

He held up a hand to stop the commotion. "Grigori of Pitax, on the charge of misuse of magic, and the use of mind altering spells upon agents of the barony of Shrikewall, I find you guilty. Take him away from here."
--
He wondered what exactly Grigori had been playing at. The man wasn't suicidal, but it was a little ridiculous in a room with dozens of spellcasters to try and do that. It didn't seem like panic, arrogance... possibly. Grigori didn't seem to have ever been anywhere else but the river kingdoms, and brevoy... maybe numeria, and he seemed to have an awfully inflated opinion of Pitax ... especially since by general consensus it was city of less than ten thousand people.

Regongar and Jaethal rejoined them and the door closed to the solar. "Drelev, and Hooktongue Slough might be subject to similar rabble rousing," Jaethal remarked, "The slug doesn't know, but he was sent to and I quote," She rolled her eyes in annoyance, before adopting an imitation of the bard's voice, "in seeing your little nation fail. This could be related to Tartuccio." She shrugged, "What was the word you used, realpolitik." The elf managed the german pronunciation. He had described the concept of it to her and she agreed with it in principle. "The use of secret agents... and Tartuccio did seem proud of the 'rivalry'" and perhaps the little bastard had send word back before delving into old scyamore...


"He knew we were on to him, he could have gotten word back."

Eire had wondered if that might be the case. If Tartuccio had managed to relay reports...

"And there was whatever he sent through the portal."

Eire nodded to Kesten, and Jaethal both, "And of course there is the matter of land, and Pitaxian irredentism. If you can't get anything more from him, I'll deal with it." Regongar had volunteered to swing the word, but no there were expectations of justice here. "We will need to focus on the trolls, and the road north. Regongar I need you to organize an exploration to the south west we're looking for dwarven ruins. Its the most likely place to be big enough to support a 'troll kingdom'."

After the half orc had departed Valerie opined that, "Winter is coming."

"I know... we can't likely campaign before the snows come." and the truth was he had wanted to bring the lizard folk and kobolds against the trolls as a precaution... but they didn't know where the dwarven stronghold was. "even with just the trolls we had a reason to start preparing an army," Which would give Amiri something to be actual general over, "We need to marshal our forces on the possibility of another western threat."

"They would have to come through Drelev," Jaethal remarked.

"I don't think Hannis is quite as capable as he thinks he is." She shrugged, "But that is something we will need to prepare for., and that means that the three of you," As well as Amiri who had ridden to patrol in order to avoid further city boredom, "will need to contend with over the next year in your respective capacities."


--
Notes: On Character sheets. That is hopefully forthcoming I'm going to do an index threadmark, and then go through my notes on the other computer and try and slowly add the people who have character sheets done. With the exception of like Amiri, who is canonical.

As a note this is 3.5 / 3.75 / pathfinder 1^st edition. This is not second edition pathfinder. Just in case anyone is unclear. This was written (like Out of the Dark) under the nominal assumption of pen and paper's spell slots (except for unlimitted use cantrips from pathfinder) I've increasingly moved away from that use in stories. Its a pain in the ass and I know that I waffle back forth between slots and MP, but I should really just stick to using mana pools.

On that note, I did not back the 10 year kickstarter, but it started shipping to backers end of last month, and from what I'm told it does have some interesting features. I haven't seen it in person, and frankly given Paizo's prices, I'm probably not gonna buy it when it first drops at the end of october for everyone else.

But anyway, as an example of Eire's 'sheet' this was originally based of the awesome Drow CYOA, and one of the early builds was multi talented (this is gestalt), Paragon (ability stats), Draconic Ally (obviously in the posted version this is Shaoyu), Mighty Ancestor (free draconic major blood line), undead friend. What makes this build interesting is that it was Cleric 20 but the other 'class' was Erlking, which is a CR 18 fae. Obviously not final build but it does still have show up in the current story version, in both Eire's appearance and his description and mannerisms.

I need to do that post, and hopefully that will be forthcoming. As for this the simple reality is that jury trials were not normal in the middle ages outside of northern europe. They were a Germanic tradition, and were adopted into common law in england by the danelaw... and medieval law and legal traditions were not as advanced or nice as modern contemporary western legal traditions.

 

This is not definitive, leaving aside the whole issue with sticking to vancian magic, but lets get some book keeping out of the way first.

Now from Bear's CYOA options used in this there are three are really relevant, Paragon (1^st percentile level stats), Multitalented (which is gestalt), Might Ancestor (which is 3.5's Major Bloodline for free.). Now for example of those, and as an example of how this has changed over brainstorming this story's build idea I had considered since (to the best of my knowledge) Pathfinder doesn't have an equivalent to it subbing Major bloodline in favor of simply adding the bloodline class feature in from sorcerer.

We are however going to for this initial entry into this focus on Gestalt build. Eire originally was going to be a fire and sun domain Cleric as his first class. This is not optimized, or optimal. It was done for aesthetics and lore. Eire has on more than one occasion specified he has a mix of arcane and divine magic, such as in internal monologue access to magic missile. This reflects the boring, or tried and true, Gestalt of one part wizard one part cleric, that frankly probably isn't accurate since, it and other chapters on review clearly show the earlier more Pathfinder build of the Erlking / Cleric build.

So for reference sake I'm linking to those materials
Red Dragon Major Bloodline: https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm [Dragon, Red]
Erlking: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/fey/erlking/
Also here is this: Bloodline https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/co...nes/bloodlines-from-paizo/draconic-bloodline/

What I will try and do is dig through my dnd folder on my other computer and find the actual list of feats for the builds and I can already state I'm not going to include spell lists, assuming that they're even there. Feats will be the main thing to get covered. I will link to domain information for 3.5 and Pathfinder respectively
--
Regarding the others presently or at least according to a previous outline Amiri should be between 7 and level 12 this is to represent here going around killing tuskgutter and other monsters levelling up in her questing as general.

 

Rova 4711
As fall gathered its strength the colors of the leaves had begun to change, and the wind would, given last year, carry the fallen leaves into the Tuskwater, and the Candlemere. It had painted the shallows of the lakes a brilliant mix of yellows, oranges, and reds. The harvest moon had been a week earlier, the Day of the Inheritor the day before, and of course that had left him with contending with the last days of summer, and the approaching autumnal equinox. There were three months left in the year, and with too much to do.

Grigori of Pitax was a bad cut out. Maybe the scheme might have been a little more obscured if they hadn't known about Tartuccio, but how fucking arrogant was Irovetti to send one of his own nationalists... it wasn't as if Grigori wasn't just a citizen but upfront about his own home's perceived superiority. Garess had been quick to pronounce it, and the general agreement was it at least it had started as a bandit kingdom fleeing Brevoy... and it had gone somewhat straight at least, but Irovetti had to have realized that Tartuccio had been caught last year ... he had to know the Aldori were suspicious.

The possibility of that, of the Restov sword lords, turning into the Mivonese Aldori being cautioned should have been obvious... but Eire wasn't sure if Jamandi had actually warned them of Pitaxian subterfuge and espionage. Given the attack on her manor surely both Maegar, but especially Drelev should have been on guard.

He might have considered it over reading the situation, but both Jaethal, and Kanerah agreed that Irovettti's handling was as arrogant as it appeared to be to them as it was to him. Harrim just considered it a sign of hubris of men... and maybe that was all it was, he doubted it was the extent of what scheming amounted to this far from the Inner Sea regardless of how complex Qadira could be... the realm had other challenges to face before they turned and looked further west.

With the trade through the Hooktongue slough disrupted the only option was overland through the Narlmarches ... and that meant a road to Olegton, and thus for Jamandi, and the Free City of Restov presumably preferring any overland trade caravans to come to restov before their goods were sold on the Brevoy market. The Shrike river moved fast enough that it wouldn't freeze in winter, they had again taken note of that in particular last year, and that meant an all year round trade route down to the inner sea.

It placed a potentially even greater importance on Candlemere as well. It was the best use of Kaessi's time and efforts. It wasn't going to get cold yet but in a few months, the second month in the new year well it would probably be too cold to effectively work in the wilderness... but the new year wasn't exactly going to be toasty by comparison. That also wouldn't be the first snows, there was a chance they'd start getting dusted as early as the end of next month, though that probably wouldn't stick.

"Davik is our best option." Which meant pulling him away from the western frontier, and it also meant putting the undead engineer in Olegton where ... frankly he was probably going to creep people out. Oleg needed an engineer to grade the ten mile highway path south and lay it out. Qatepesh style tar paved roads weren't an option with the resources they had available, and the large flag stones they were going to use to accommodate what were effectively to Eire a variation to Roman style roads would take effort. "He would only need to be there a month or so."

Eire nodded, Jaethal was probably correct. Once they got that far though it was the roughly thirty mile track north south to Old Scyamore that became the problem. In terms of manpower. "Make it so," he replied verbally confirming. They were working both directions he wasn't sure if the primary roadway could be finished by the end of the year... and if they had to stop towards the end of Nethys they weren't like going to get done until the spring thaw began... and that would be potentially as late as Gozran depending on the winter.

A harsh winter would of course be bad. A mild one ... well there were still other regular annual things to focus on, things that peasants would have to do around their own properties, and that would cut down on the available labor pool for work besides just the shorter daylight available. That was especially true given the cultivation of fields to sustain large herds over winter in the dale north of Shrikewall.
--
If it wasn't one thing it was another. In this another was, the recent owlbear attack. Not that they hadn't known they'd been a thing... and he'd considered that, as well as Celadon's warning about the mated pair to the east.

"Now, the following is merely speculation. I do not pretend to be familiar at all with owlbears, so I ask merely to cover the possibility, could this be merely animal territorialism?" He asked, as far as he understood Beaky the Owlbear was male, "Was this one seeking to contest Beaky's presence here?" Or even territorial enough to want to drive off humans he supposed.

The former Paladin of Erastil shook his head, "No. I wouldn't think so."

He hadn't thought so, but even so. Even for an exceptionally aggressive specimen an Owlbear attacking a settlement seemed a bit much... he'd have gone so far as to speculate the monster had levels in barbarian for the damage the creature had wrought to the old Beldame's village. "Then we will have to deal with it. Any ideas?"

"Beaky's not likely the cause," Akiros decided to reiterate, "but it could have followed hunters back, even then with as fast as it was, I have a hard time not seeing it catching interlopers."

That was an idea, "Ask around all the same see if any hunting parties are missing or if they know, or have heard of anyone going missing of late." He received acknowledgement and the former paladin excused himself leaving him to contend with another mess. A rogue owlbear? The timing seemed suspect, not the least of which was it hadn't seemed to have been looking for food.

Rabies? Could owlbears contract rabies... well probably so.

There was a flash of wind as Shaoyu descended from the air above, "The rude beast has left a trail far to the east." The young dragon reported.

He paused, "You were able to follow it across the river?" The braon inquired looking out over the broad expanse of the tuskwater. "South?" He guessed.

The dragon nodded, "In the neck between the two lakes, I saw it go south past the mudbowl," Where the Old Beldame wanted them to collect, or organize the collection of black rattlecaps from, "and further south towards the little sellen."

That was absurd. He didn't know much about owl bears but it travelling that distance to mount an attack on a settlement seemed impossible for just an animal ... and they had too many other issues going on on top of this. At least it hadn't gone south along the lakeshore and attacked the lizard folk, there had been a prevailing concern that the thickskins , the long tails rival tribe, might try their luck again once more before the chill really sat in. That was a potential concern on top of the trolls, and worse was in the same 'quadrant' so to speak.

That meant there were limitations to who he could pull for this. Valerie needed to remain in Shrikewall. Kanerah, well the twins, were at Candlemere dealing with the construction there, and also the potential of a temple to the tiefling twins patron deity. Celadon needed to remain anchoring the eastern most flank with Regongar, and Jaethal was in the west at Hereford.

Eventually given a whittling down process he elected that they'd need to go quickly. That meant really Amiri was available to join him Shaoyu, Akiros, and thus by proxy Beaky. The former Paladin returned at the top of the hour, "I'm ready." Amiri pumped her fist at the announcement.

"Any missing parties?"

"That's the thing," Akiros shrugged, "Not any of our people, that anyone can recall." He sensed the but, "There were some strangers that passed through from the west, and I would guess they were hightailing it from Drelev's domain... they had something weird with them."

"Weird, in what way?" Eire inquired.

There was a pause, "He was travelling, well I would have thought they might have been bandits Drelev displaced with everything being said, but their leader had a set of barding with him."

"A knight?" He asked.

Akiros paused, then deferred to answer, "A set of barding that from the description, I think was for an owlbear. I don't know if this Eirikk is a knight, but no one seems to have seen him since he and his men went east over the river."

Bandit, or agent of Drelev, unless this was an absurd coincidence that might explain why they had a crazed owlbear to deal with. That raised the issue back to the first question... barding wasn't exactly the sort of thing bandits went out of the way to have. They were a hundred plus miles from 'Fort Drelev', and with the massive Lake Hooktongue between them as well... on the other hand Eire had to admit a young roguish questing knight might very well ignore little things like borders in favor of a prestigious mount especially if his liege was dismissive, or contempuous of that neighboring fief... so it was possible this mess hadn't been actually malicious... but it was a mess that needed to be cleaned up anyway. "Well we will need to ride quickly Shaoyu thinks its moving towards the Little Sellen River that is at least a two day ride," which meant they would most likely be gone a week if they went overland. "I want to embark for Candlemere and leave from there, but regardless we need to go tonight." Lake travel would save them some time, but the bigger benefit would be on the return trip.

 

Rova 4711
Kalikke had wished them the best of luck as she was busy dealing with the small settlement on Candlemere, and the flog of immigrants north to shrikewall. The river's trade was arterial to them, and probably very important to Restov, but he doubted that it was quite as important to the merchants in the Inner Sea. He doubted that somewhere like Brevoy commanded the market share...

...and for other causes, well the blockage of trade through hooktongue slough while a nuisance was a problem, it wasn't as important to the crusaders since their main route to Nedev was through Numeria, and the main Sellen river, or using the west sellen river , which bounded Ustalav, and Numeria.

To that end it didn't escape him that this was the farthest in the south east he'd travelled within his own domain. There simply hadn't been time or reason to explore the Kamelands after other challenges had arised. The lands south of the Gudrin river on the eastern sides of the lake had not represented a priority to explore not with hundreds of square miles in the west across the narlmarhes... so today they were riding along a distant stretch of the Shrike river, who through a confluence of geography started began high in the mountains east of Brevoy, flowed down and south of Restov along the south rostland road, the hills and highlands that diverted the kiravoy river's course added its flow down into the Shrike , and the Crooked river did the same a few miles south that created along with other facets the two water falls that prevented the shrike carrying traffic all the way to Restov, where the Thorn joined the Shrike north was the Shrike's entry into the Tuskwater was just shy of the point in the west where the Shrike exited Candlemere.

They hadn't had a reason to prioritize the eastern side of the river... even though the drake had mentioned the presumable owl bear and its mate... and there were dragons of lake silver step that he himself had warned Kressel about.

"We're almost to the little sellen." He remarked examining the hand drawn map. Akiros nodded. The former paladin turned barbarian turned bandit turned petty noble seemed to be torn in how the latter occupation should be conducted. Akiros wasn't illiterate, far from it, but with Kundal around... and maybe Amiri as well and the possibility of some Kellid tribes to the west he'd been getting pulled between predominantly Brevic Erastilian clergy (and Jhod), and a different other martial life. That Drelev had probably displaced any kellid villages ... the Kellid tribes didn't really have the economic complexity to make the shift to town or urban manufacturing from the sound of it... hadn't sat well... which of course merely another potential grievance to any conflict with the western barony. ... assuming the trolls didn't just eat Drelev. "I did mean to ask what is it you brought?" He pointed to the variety of earthenware jugs.

Akiros glanced at them. Then Amiri followed suit. "Ah," Akiros paused to consider his words, and then explained that the farms had, particularly with the new crops ... so thus clarifying incidentally he meant the baronial farms... been experimenting with malting. Mash... effectively moonshine... and by medieval standards stupidly potent alcohol at that. Apparently Kobolds knew enough about metal working to make stills if given the time of day.

It was true of course that one of the things he had sourced from his books, before it had proven unnecessary had been colonial style ciders, and rum recipes and how to manufacture.... made somewhat unnecessary by the fact that magic could provide effectively endless supplies of clean water, ut it made sense. If the food situation was stable turning corn, barley, and rye in whiskey made sense, because that would keep longer, and could be sold at a higher price at market.

That still didn't answer the question this wasn't a trip to market.

"Bait. Get the fat bastard drunk and spring up on him." It was a simply sort of trap. Using mash for hogs made sense... and probably would work for bears...

... Amiri's declaration was a mixture of disagreement from wanting to fight head on, versus recognizing that Akiros's idea was commendable for a hunting party to think of. Not that they'd end up using it for its intended purpose.

Munguk the hill giant drained another jug smacking his lips, as they exchanged looks. "He says the trolls are in the west in a ... big house in the earth."

Eire nodded he'd already cast comprehend languages , his giant wasn't nearly to keep up with the dialogue given Munguk's intoxicated state and blubbering. Munguk, hill giant or not, was simply more pitiful displaced person in the stolen lands... apparently the trolls hadn't let him stick around them. Apparently he'd been coming from the west... maybe as far as Numeria given he knew about the ruined keep and he'd passed the long tail village, "Can he show us?"

An exchange in giant followed between former paladin and the wanderer. That turned into something of a surprise Munguk could actually write... even if his handwriting was atrocious. Eire wasn't positive that he translated the blue scrawl correctly, but meant something like 'mean ugly troll-men'. He was relatively sure that was close. .. and if the map wasn't dead on... it gave them an area to narrow their search... though weather might not permit them to get up into those hills with an army. To the east there was another marker of old destroyed or mostly wrecked buildings that Munguk had seen as he wandered looking for wolf berries... which to Munguk's misfortune had just gone out of season meaning that he had probably just missed the last of them until next Gozran.

Even now as Rova's end approached and the new moon drew near the fall colors were in near full display. Shaoyu returned, and joined the conversation. Apparently the ruined buildings that Munguk had know about to the east were also known to both the Kobolds and Mites of Sootscale. At one point in the Scyamore's history there had been attempt to build ... what amounted to a colony to the south under a previous generation of leaders. It had worked pretty well until they had been destroyed... realistically by bandits... by some catastrophe in the past.

Munguk was invited to ask the Long tails for passage to Shrikewall, if he was looking for a home, exactly how well the lone hill giant would fit it in was to be seen by if was looking to brew liquor well the kobolds were working on that with the harvest as it was.
--
The owlbear was no where to be seen at the abandoned ferry post that had once been a bandit hideout, and kobold and mite colony, and its tracks continued further east along the Little Sellen's confluence.

The owlbear must have been a truly massive specimen. The trail it had left in terms of flled trees, and uprooted shrubbery became more pronounced the further east they travelled into the kamelands... and all of this was very recent ... which suggested that whatever had happened to provoke the raging owlbear had occurred in the time since summer had started. After the trolls had started attacking Drelev? Eire suspected that was probably the case... if it was then the young hotshot with the owlbear barding might have been a knight looking to impress people in a time of crisis... and might have bitten off more than he could chew. He wondered if that was the case with Drelev and the trolls, or if Harrgulka had always going to have dreams of kingship... was Harrgulka emulating what he saw from Drelev, or had he already scene Mivon and wanted to make a troll kingdom anyway?

Eire looked up at the rising projection of stones were not proper mountains but the series of stony hills were part of the geography that turned the little sellen south. From a geography perspective there a handful of them that were probably little islands left over that had once been connected to the other foot hills of hte Tors of Levenies, and while he wasn't sure from what he understood of the Kamelands layout he suspected they were about fifty or so miles from the mountains... which by dragon wing was not far at all. Silverstep was close, probably about forty miles from the supposed silver dragon ancient wyrm's foot print.

"I think there is a nest up there." Akiros reported. "There have to be caves up there. That ould be a place for a nest." The former paladin of Erastil reported starting hard at the rocky expanse, "What I can't figure is the destruction were seeing."

"No?"

"Maybe from a juvenile looking to mark his territory, but from a fully mature bear no. This is pointless destruction," and not from a fight with anyone. The owlbear had purposefully toppled trees to mark where its domain was....

So if it wasn't Beaky, "Any sign of Eirikk and his band?" He had to adjust his question because they weren't sure Eirikk was actually in Drelev's employ. Akiros was sure he had come from the Slough, and used Brevic coinage, which was circumstantial at best, and Akiros's suspicion had been bandit first. There simply hadn't been enough people who had interacted with the young adventurer to be sure of things one way or another... but barding and arrogant haughty braggart of a young bravo ... could have been either.

"Not that I've seen. Everyone else seems to have steered well clear of this," He wasn't surprised Shaoyu hadn't seen any signs of camps having been pitched. There were no signs of horses, and it wasn't going to be easy to figure out where to tie them off since taking them up the hills was going to be chancy.

... the answer though on if they were on the right track or not, was settled by a sudden bugling from Beaky and the young male owlbear rearing towards the hills. Akiros pulled his far eye and swept, and Eire followed suit lifting his otherworld's binoculars and bringing them across. "I see it," Akiros didn't understand the units of measurement but after a moment found the outcropping on his own.

Amiri was already starting up the hill without them, and Shaoyu was already following. "I suppose we should follow." The former paladin remarked almost cheekily.
--
Notes: After a significant delay the 10th anniversary kickstarter for kingmaker has finally shipped (eye roll, like I have very little sympathy for Paizo, especially for the prices they charge, and speaking of) I didn't back it (and frankly I did back the Clan Invasion battletech kickstarter, so its not like I don't have some idea for this) but supposedly the digital stuff will be available to buy come late october which is ridiculous in my opinion, but frankly I'm probably going to bum off my friend's copy anyway.

I am interested to see what all has changed and most the lore stuff from the original, but frankly while I'm intersted I'm not so interested that buying it is likely to happen when it first becomes available. So, to that end I don't see it effecting this story.

 

Rova 4711 Conclusion

Amiri was a good ninety feet ahead of them, but she also had Shaoyu in tow. Eire wasn't sure that she had seen the various litter or detritus in her haste, but it should have been hard to miss the dead horses even in spite of how picked clean they were. The owl bear had had company at some point, and "recent," Akiros grunted looking as Beaky continued to charge forward, "Looks like the cave's big enough for scavengers too."

That was lovely to contemplate, but it made sense.. even if Akiros didn't mean rats and the like. The likelihood this was an indicator of the missing hooktongue folk was high. In Brevoy it was a day or so walk between villages... some times ten miles to the next hamlet or thorpe of thirty or forty families tilling the soil. The river lands were more sparsely populated, due to less ability to keep monsters and natural predators at bay. It was doubtful that the loss of so many horses from villagers would not have made the circuit along the little sellen from the little fishing dingies that plied the course that was the main artery of travel. "Something else he asked?"

"I'd say the drake was right about their being two,"

That was a problem because he doubted either Amiri or Shaoyu were focused on that detail. That they were rushing forward to fight the owlbear who had attacked, not the potentially second one, "Is she here?"

"I don't know." The former paladin replied, and there was little further to discuss before they also pressed further into the cave. The cave was as Eire had expected an expansive limestone karst where the cave system had been formed by water dissolving material as sturdier rocks of the tor shaped its flow and adjusted its course southwards around them. It humid inside, much warmer actually than outside the cave, and there was a bed of fungus and mold as a result, the iron sabatons Akiros wore crunched bugs under foot every so often.

Amiri shouted, in a mixture of disgust and alarm right before Shaoyu bellowed, and the save was illuminated beyond the natural bioluminescence of rocks and fungi that filled the interior with the abrupt smell of superheated sulfurous odor as she expelled a blast of fire as they came down the incline.

Not an owlbear, but a Shambling Mound gave a death shudder as it rolled backwards down the hill, much of its mass incinerated as Shaoyu and Amiri moved with flaming swords to finish hacking the monstrous plant to pieces. Eire navigated around the large branch that had been severed before the fire blast, probably from Amiri's giant's sword, a particularly audacious monstrous red centipede launched itself at him, only to hit the flaming shield that incinerated the insect as it tried to strike... but Eire was more concerned about the expanse of the cave. If this had been Faerun he would have been concerned that this would have been the kind of topographical feature would have lead down into the underdark.

He had to remind himself, that this was not Faerun. Eire had seen no evidence, heard no indication that the drow were a thing on Golarion... which admittedly he had to remind himself even as they descended further into the cavern that in the original canon of the Forgotten Realms Drow had been largely unknown to the surface world... and there was no way to be sure if that was the case with Golarion, and whether or not most people avistan would have known about subterranean dark elves being a thing... but for now the owlbear was the issue. The rampaging beast first, investigation second, and then most likely returning quickly to Shrikewall to resume focus on their other issues would be the order of the day.

"We need to get them to slow down," He declared to Akiros. It didn't matter whether or not the Drow were a thing on Golarion, or not, they didn't know what all was down here, and without throwing a look back at it, the shambling mound was just proof that there were other monsters down here besides the owlbear.

"I can probably get Beaky to calm down," Akiros hedged, but without much strength to it... and that was probably fair. The male owlbear that served as Akiros's companion, and sometimes even mount, was likely to directly confront or follow the other male owlbear's scent on its own.... and there were those dead horses to consider.

Eire felt the haste sla, as he thought of it trigger, causing him to accelerate as he moved past Akiros as the former paladin gave a sharp whistle to get the owlbear's attention. "Slow down," He ordered to the two, "We don't know what's down here, and as large as the owlbear is, there are other things down here." And given the uprooted trees it was probably much stronger physically than any of them. Beaky was strong, but not uproot full grown oaks with ease strong, Shaoyu could demolish simple buildings, but the damage the larger owlbear had donw was in excess of what she could do that quickly with brute force alone. Monstrous magical beast this was, not some giant boar, "Something is not right here, and we will fight this in a similar manner to the creature at the temple of the elk." Shaoyu had been absent for Tristian's rescue against the corrupt plant monster there, but Amiri at least understood having been there.

Shaoyu reluctantly slid to a halt as the tunnel opened into another cavern, this one with a large pool of fresh water about forty feet cross and perhaps extending east west twenty or so feet, as it was fed, and moved water through an underground tributary to the little sellen. Shaoyu's pause though was short lived as an owlbear trumpeted a furious challenge and barrelled down towards them from the opposite end of the the hundred hundred foot distance in leaps and bounds as it bellowed.

It was huge.

He had expected that much.

It was also wearing what looked look well made lamellar armor. The armor had clearly taken a beating , as the leather backing of the scales showed in some places where those iron bits had been torn or ripped. A few broken arrow shafts had been left lodged in the creatures haunches largely harmlessly, though probably a nuisance.

The armor was enough to convince Eire's already suspicious inclination towards the affair that this was not happenstance. Solar rays formed in his hands as Eire twisted his fingers into invoking gestures filling the cavern with radiant natural light. Shaoyu brandished her flaming cold iron longsword at the enraged owlbear..

"I told you he was big." Akiros remarked as Amiri commented on the creature's size even as they spread out. Eire was more concerned with what he saw under his magical sight. The owlbear had been ensorcelled... it wouldn't have been the first thing he looked for, but with Grigori so fresh on his mind, and the mention of pitax... it made sense to check. The owlbear was cursed, enraged beyond all reason by a curse of rage.

The angry trumpeting continued as it met their front line. Amiri circled one way around bringing her sword into an over head swing as Shaoyu moved the other way. Akiros and Beaky moved into to support Amiri forming a loose wing as the the enraged giant snapped one way and then another left, and then right as it tried to contend with more than one target. As the left flank formed, Amiri, Akiros, and Beaky the owlbear moved to try and force them into the corner and wall of the cavern, which was a mistake. Ordinarily Eire would have focused on being in the frontline, but the opportunity was two good to pass up. The solar rays lanced into the creatures side, as Shaoyu moved to hamstring the creature before it could barrel Amiri on the far end into the cave wall.
--
Once the beast was dead, which didn't take long really, and lay slumped as bloodied mass of feathers and burned meat still wrapped in its barding there were other things. Akiros agreed that this hadn't been nature at work... someone else had a hand in this. Despite the cavern size it wasn't hard to find the body a well equipped young man. The armor the corpse wore matched the pattern and colors of the barding of the dead owlbear, Eirrik the baron presumed.

He paid little mind to the other loot once he saw the ring... because he had seen something similar too it before, and so had Akiros. "That's like the charm the stag lord had, what is it?"

"Nymph's hair." Eire replied as he fingered the woven charm of hair and tiny gems... and the source of the curse... hadn't though to look at the one the Stag Lord had had... had it too been cursed? He couldn't be sure... it was possible he supposed.

The musing ended as Amiri called that she had found more bodies. Eirikk's men were less well, ostentious, and more practically equipped their lord, but still they all had arming swords, bows, and shields, and similar lamellar armor. "Knights?"

"Armsen more likely," He replied, Eirikk's retinue were all dead surrounding the owlbear's mate. The female owlbear had been chased here, and from the pitiful hooting of a surviving cub it wasn't hard to guess that it must have emerged to face the intruders to defend its offspring before Eirikk had managed to ensorcell her mate. "Will it survive?" He asked.

The small cub protested Akiros's scooping it up even as Beaky sniffed around, "She, and I think so, Jhod might be able to help." Eire nodded, "That will not be a problem. Gather whatever we mean to bring with us." They formed a circle, and with all the material gathered they where whisked away in a flash of sunlight.

"Your grace," The Iomedaen cleric bowed as they appeared in the Cathedral of Shrikewall.

"Brother Vaclav," The baron returned place a hand on his own sword icon pendant. "Has there been any news in our absence?"

"No developments my lord, I shall announce your return," He remarked.

No news, was probably good news. Eire doubted given the recall spell that the hill giant that Akiros had befriended and who had been sent on his way had beaten them here, but who knew. Munguk had seemed especially excited of a home after having been denied one by the trolls in the west.

--
Notes: Drow are actually a thing in Golarion. They're actually even mentioned in the AP... I don't remember if they're in the cRPG offhand. I could wiki that later, but mostly this is a call back to Bear rib's cyoa. In one of the outlines for this the connection to the under dark is a thing, and a certain drow lich goddess would be showing up later... I don't know if thats going to be a thing.

As for the character sheet and why I have not updated it, a member of my DnD group, who reads this and also Out of the Dark, has suggested I stick with or use a variant of the Erlking version of the gestalt build. His suggetion is instead of Fighter, use the Magus class, which I'm somewhat resistant too because they only get sixth level magic. [His suggestion is sorcerer over wizard, which I'm not opposed to, but its something that ussually is discussed after campaigns].

Regarding Eire's recall / teleportation, basically and this is the divine version, he can teleport back to Iomedae's cathedral whenever he wants, and technically he could do it to the Temple of Elk but that would be impolite. Its a column of solar fire teleporting you into another religion's major temple, it would be rude. Nethys probably doesn't mind because it is still magic, but old deadeye is a little more traditional and propriety driven. [Canonically Erastilian mainline doctrine in relation to the Church of Iomedae is that Erastil thinks she should find a nice husband and get married.]

As an aside, I have a very early copy (that I'm borrowing) of Kingmaker and there are a couple of spelling mistakes. I believe its supposed to be Eirikk, double k, but it does vary sometimes, similarly they can't make up their mind if its Gurdin, or Gudrin. There are probably other examples, but if I fuck up, its probably because I copied it from the book while I had it opened. [I think Nyrissa's name also gets mispelled in this printing as well, but that happens]

 

Lamashan 4711
Ascendance Day loomed. It was the final Iomedaen holy day of the year, celebrating Iomedae's ascension to divinity status through the starstone. Admittedly there were other deities whose had their own celebrations of their own ascension.

There were still two final months in the year, Neth and Kuthona, but for all practical purposes the barony was preparing to settle into the winter season they would not be able to undertake any further great projects, and if they were lucky they would be able to finish the ones they had started before the end of the month.

Work though never truly stopped. The road building was the primary priority. Graded properly they could be kept easily clear of all but the worst snow, and that would be useful to keeping a line of communication to Olegton. Olegton connected to the South Rostland road, and the river as well and thus ran to Restov.... which interestingly to Eire was according to some Brevic maps often considered the northern boundary of the stolen lands... but more pointedly while Restov was considered in the Stolen Lands... so to was Pitax in the west.

... of course that meant nothing some of the maps also included Mivon as part of the Stolen Lands, reaching well past the confluence of the East Sellen and Shrike... so the exact definition of 'Stolen Lands' seemed fluid, and no one seemed to be able to establish exactly where the border was, or even why it was the stolen lands.

It was probably a useless term really, certainly a term he was leaning towards needed to be avoided in its official usage within kingdom business.

The boiling vessel for the tea was hot enough, the vessel was beginning to steam. The vessel on top of it and the boiling vessel were removed and the water added to the top vessel containing the tea leaves with a lid applied quickly.

The process of making the morning tea continued, it would be another twenty minutes before it was ready, but there were things to contend with before breakfast.

The simple process of fortification was a natural development over simple fence building. All one needed as lumber, and of course simple fences were useful for shoring up defensive fortifications the same as they were in keeping livestock in their pastures. That meant that as a labor matter even children could assist in the process freeing adults to work with maneuvering and levering sharpened trunks into place. The simple palisade was what they had the resources, and manpower to build. Harvesting timber was cheaper, faster, than relying on masonry, or ceramic manufacture... stone or brick walls. The palisade wouldn't be as durable as those, but they wanted the defenses up.

Eire suspected given what they did know of 'Fort Drelev' that either Hannis's parents had sent him the stone... very unlikely given that Brevoy built primarily wooden fortifications due to a lack of readily accessible quariable stone, or had quickly located one such source, possibly even specifically chosen his site for that reason. Whatever the case was Hannis Drelev had prioritized being able to build a stone keep, and basic curtain walls to protect his baronial seat.

The advantage of winter's approach was that it was easier to harvest trees right now. Hazel, and others were entering their near ideal time of the year to take and work into things like fences, and such... but they would probably continue to harvest and expand incrementally even into spring. It was the sort of work though with wood, making withies, and so forth, was the sort of thing Brevic settlers were familiar with for both their own farms, and for levee labor and it was really the sort of thing you didn't need skilled labor for, or a lot of tools for a fairly solid barricade.

Eire wondered if Drelev had the money to hire mercenaries... but he doubted it. Drelev though had knights, and presumably had a plan to actually organize them, and the levees of both his tenants and their tenants, and any household troops. After all Hannis had proven he could handle bandits. Even now Drelev might be doing the same thing going on across the western narlmarches, searching for the troll stronghold.

... but while he had probably been search for longer, finding the hill giant Munguk potentially had narrowed down their own search efforts.... and of course that was the problem there was no good delineation in the landscape of the territory... but from what the wandering giant had said... the fortress that the trolls had moved into was not in Drelev's domain. It wasn't even really close, and while much further south than Eire had been expecting it was not in Mivon either. If the giant's recollection of travel time, and features was correct the dwarven ruins were about twenty or so miles south of where Hereford sat, and probably a few miles north of the Mivonese border.

If those details were correct then it didn't matter how hard Drelev might have been scouring his own lands, and it also potentially explained the blockage of river trade up the east sellen river into Hooktongue slough.

"The map we recovered from the body may mean nothing." Eirikk had had a map on his person that showed Shrikewall, as well as the lair of the owlbears within which he had perished. It was absent a number of other features. It did mark oleg's trading post, but not the town. It didn't signage the old scyamore or Loy's town at the ford... all of which could be easily explained as the map having been drafted based on the time of the coronation and what Drelev knew.

"It might not," Jaethal agreed. "But the," owl "bear attack is entirely too coincidental," Especially given the lock of nymph's hair. "But no, In this case I was referring to another map." The dark haired, pale elf tossed a look towards Harrim, and unfurled a much older map. The elves had long memories, and it showed a different map of Avistan.

Not so much in the geographical features, but in the time before Choral the Conqueror, the political boundaries had been different... and of course the river kingdoms had few truly stable political entities. Pitax was only somewhat older than Razmiran, which had only celebrated its first half century this year. This map was far older and suggested that Pitax's bluster of four centuries of survival was just that. There was no Brevoy on the map, no Mivon, no Pitax, nor really any recognition of what had been. This still showed a time when Taldan was in retreat, but while Aroden still lived. It showed the Taldan frontier but also the trade routes the dwarven roads as they had once been.

"Given the description," Eire remarked leaning over the map and looking at the course of the rivers, it would be... "this one." He tapped his finger that was labelled in elven script Brozneshield fortress... and Harrim was quick to speak up, and Eire confirmed that the dwarf could come, as he had stated months and months ago. "And if this road of shields is as it appears," He stared hard at the map, "then when spring comes we are going to need to venture into the others."

Silver Shield. Gold Shield. Iron Shield. Never mind the watchtowers marked out along the road, some of them were even close enough that they could dare them to explore before the snows came.

There was a pause in the discussion as breakfast was put forward on the table, small plates distributed, and the tea set out... and of course the missives, letters, and such which had arrived. Besides of course the letter from the east, from Varnhold, that he expected there were a few others.

The locating of an elven map from when Jaethal had still been alive had been useful... but of course it wasn't the only thing on her mind. Jaethal had been subject to exile from her homeland for her crimes... exile not death... but some had considered that not enough. Jaethal still nursed that grudge of how she had died, and of course the mystery of why the Pallid Princess had reanimated her as a unique undead.

She suspected an elf had wielded the blade, which was why it was still an issue. AN elf would still be alive, and thus a threat to potentially contend with if they resurfaced... and a threat she wouldn't recognize on sight.

... admittedly with Jaethal's personality the sudden appearance of any peer from her time as a Kynonin official was likely to elicit a great deal of suspicion. This was of course a potential false alarm since Kyonin had already officially complained about Jaethal's presence. The church of Pharasma wasn't especially pleased either, and that was without them knowing about Dead Dave.

Then of course there were the other matters. Kanerah and Kalikke had a unique situation of their own... and unique responsibilities that stemmed from trade down the river into the inner sea. Kundal, and Akiros had also brought word of moving bands in the north. The kellid tribes weren't hostile but it was something to be aware of. The letter from the church of Shelyn was something of a surprise... or at least a professed representative of the Church.

Spoiler: Letter from Fredero Sinnet

https://pathfinderkingmaker.fandom.com/wiki/Letter_From_Fredero_Sinnet
...
I write these words with a heavy heart. The reason I take up my quill today will most likely upset you. Quite recently I heard rumor that a lost soul, once blessed with the mercy of my goddess, has found shelter in your service. I'm speaking of the daughter of one of the most worthy and generous patrons of the Order of the Eternal Rose, who once made the mistake of leaving our ranks. I am deeply convinced that now is the time for her to return to the path destined her by divine will.

I am now traveling to the west, to the place that's been chosen for the new Temple of Shelyn that will be occupied by one of the young congregations of our church. I deemed it necessary to diverge slightly from our path with but one purpose: to arrive in your lands and collect Valerie. May this journey be a cleansing pilgrimage for Shelyn's chosen, whose judgment was clouded by the impulsiveness of youth.

I request that you free Valerie of her vows of service to you, for fate has destined her to serve one who is above us all. Direct the girl to the trading post that's on the border between your barony and Brevoy. There I will be expecting her with my comrades.
...

Harrim grumpily harrumphed as he passed the letter further around the table. Tristian took and read it, looked a bit galled at this.

Eire reached up and sipped the dark red tea, "Valerie?"

"Your grace?"

There was a moment's pause, "Do you wish to resign?" She rejected the notion immediately, "That is good to hear," He replied retaking possession of the letter before Shaoyu decided to incinerate the perfumed document.

"He dares to threaten -"

He held a hand to stop the dragoness's snarling, "I' am interested in other details. He speaks of a temple of Shelyn in the west. That is a detail." Shaoyu did have a point, polite phrasing aside there was a rather implicit threat to words like 'expecting her with my comrades', and words like 'collect'... "Sir Fredero seems quite assured of himself "

"Sounds like he needs his face readjusted." Amiri snorted, and there was a handful of agreements with the sentiment from around the table.

Leaving aside that he agreed with that sentiment. "We have too much work to do, even without the troll situation, even without it being winter, I have little interest in being dictated terms by some knight I've never met. I would recommend you reply to the letter ,"

"He may come here." Tristian commented.

There was further bristling around the table, "Then it would best he keeps a civil tongue. If Valerie has no wish to resign, never mind returning to the church of Shelyn that is her choice. I do wish to know who we're dealing with, but that is only to address any trouble he may attempt to stir up. Know this, you are welcome here as long as you wish to be apart of the realm."
--
Notes: As with 'last year', the previous year in the story (4710) there are kingdom administrative bits going on in the background, and there are scenes that take place over the winter but in medieval society with the exception of the vikings you didn't generally do much travelling during winter, there are exceptions, and trading still happened but for the most part this was the period of the year where people hunkered down, and mostly did repair work locally rather than travel (again exceptions exist historically) and yes the norse for example waged winter campaigns because as a culture were more active in travelling, and trading during this portion of the year.

Basically though your manpower is tied up at home for the most part. Now the other part of that is also lack of infrastructure overland travel is a problem. This is why the north south axis highway to Oleg's town to Old Scyamore to Shrikewall is important, but since this is a dungeons and dragons world we will eventually get royal institutions of a magical nature. Teleportation circles (Eire has already demonstrated this with being able to recall at will to the Cathedral of Iomedae) where institutionally forces of the domain can rapidly redeploy from one settlement to another, i.e. Shrikewall to Olegton.

Regarding Pathfinder lore, guide to the river kingdoms makes the claim its four centuries old founded by bandits from Brevoy, but Brevoy is only two centuries old. It also claims its been constantly struggling with Mivon, which again only founded by Rostlandic sword lords fleeing from brevic foundations.. It also gives us the 4702 year as Irovetti arriving, and his rise to power.

As an aside for medieval defense, proper medieval fences are fairly durable. In my experience people tend to think of them in relation to cheap picket fences and less, this is the sort of thing that keeps cattle in their pastures, mostly because when most people think of cattle pastures they think barbed wire, thats a 19^th century technology, and also when think cattle farms or ranches they think wide open plains rather than the much smaller village shared pastures of the 11^th century Europe.

EDIT: I just want to point out that the CRPG does not include Drelev's domain the hooktongue slough region. The Temple of Shelyn being referenced here is being built there technically still the Glenebon heights but it makes more sense politically for the Brevic church of Shelyn to be constructing a temple in Drelev's domain than in unclaimed wilderness (the iron wraiths are dead) or in the territorial claims of Pitax. Just felt that needed to be clarified.

 

4712 End of Winter
The equinox was quickly approaching following the Rebirth Moon, another week before Erastil's church celebrated the start of planting week. It meant they were now well into Pharast, the third month of the year. Winter was but a shadow now, and it was warming considerably. The snows would begin to melt soon, and that meant in particular for the Murque and the Thorn, to a lesser extent the skunk the flood season would start as the thaw swell the rivers. It wouldn't be a problem with the Shrike. The Shrike was fast enough moving normally, and more importantly long enough while it would swell some its flood risk was much reduced compared to the others.

Still it was an important matter for the baronial council to discuss, and to plan for. The winter months had entailed significant work, and once spring arrived they would move against Harrgulka the self pronounced king of the trolls. Narhold, and Shrikewall as its capital, had continued to grow. That gave the twins something to do, and Oleg in the north as well. With the situation in Hooktongue slough the way it was the Shrike was the only water trade route into the Rostlandic plain, and that meant Olegton's connection was seeing trade caravans move to both Restov as well as to other parts of Brevoy, like Brunderton more directly north.

Restov didn't really need to worry about the competition from the latter though. Brunderton was further there was no good direct road, and it was bad terrrain overland on top of that. Trade to Brunderton would happen, but it simply compete at large with the south Rostlandic road built b the ancient taldan settlers. Beyond those two, he was interested in what trade with Varnhold might bring.

For Eire the end of winter, and the warming would, once the waters calmed would mean the greater resumption of trade ... but it also would mean the campaigning season would begin. The winter had brought more of the same really, as Drelev's complaints about the troll threat mounted. The winter meant the that nascent trollish kingdom on their doorstep had needed to raid further into the slouch looking for food.

Ordinarily in troll societies the matriarchs would expel, or even drown excess population during times of privation if sufficient subsistence could not be found. The would be troll king was attempting to make up for his shortages by launching raids against vulnerable targets. That had resulted in of course Narhold's responses. Eire suspected that Hannis Drelev probably had secured himself and his retainers inside fort Drelev and relied on fishing from lake hooktongue to continue to feed his people through the winter. Most likely, as with most herds in Brevoy, he'd slaughtered most of his herds ahead of the winter. With crop rotations, and grazing fields spread the royal herds in the tuskdale valley north of Shrikewall were able to be fed through the winter, and also were shelters by both natural, and manmade defenses.

Eire had spent the last few months doing what he could in conjunction with other clerics in building up the defenses against other potential incursions. That had been the plan for winter when most of the peasants, the common folk would be largely focused on strictly local affairs... and had been before Jaethal had found Bartholomew Delgado... or the troll Jazon.

Both of which had proven to be different sorts of complications, and ones he hadn't readily ben expecting.

... and the latter might well explain why Harrgulka had not launched an attack against Shrikewall proper... and potentially suggested a diplomatic resolution to this... Tristian was hopeful of the latter at least. Eire was prepared to give it a chance... there were kobolds in Harrgulka's service... but Jazon had not named Tartuk, or even mentioned a purple kobold among them... and he had asked after a point if there were any strange purple kobolds around.

... but no, no purple kobolds. Plenty of strange Kobolds, but to all inquiries no pitaxian spies. Increased intelligence or not, Harrgulka had named his kingdom Troll Hold ... or Trollhold ... so very inventive. The winter peace could not last though, if they were short on larder were now, from the attacks on Drelev to the west, then it was too early for a harvest to come in. They had also not seen Jazon the civilized troll for weeks, and with winter waning they couldn't afford to wait much longer. They couldn't be worrying about the troll situation, and Jamandi wanting it resolved with the weather warming, and the Thickskin tribe starting to probe the longtails.

He turned to the envoy from the Long tail tribe, "We will move to deal with the thickskin tribe once the flooding subsides." that would give them time. The old rattler acknowledged that it wasn't likely to be warm enough before then for the lizardfolk to be prepared for any large scale movements beyond their villages. "Do you think the trolls may be attacking the thickskins?"

He toyed with his instrument in contemplation, "It is possible." The lizardfolk agreed. "they push from the south lands and earlier than most years." He continued in draconic. This was simply the way court was increasingly conducted as a growing number of literati settled in homes as citizens of Shrikewall, or around the nascent church of Nethys on Candlemere isle.... and that was just human arcanists, never mind it was the language of both the lizard folk, as well as the kobolds who inhabited the vast subterranean expanse of the old scyamore.

Eire contemplated the distraction that provided them. They knew where the Bronzeshield fortress was, and though they had not made a move on it, they had scouted out a handful of other dwarven ruins on the western frontier, and much like the elven ruins that existed in the stolen lands they had the potential to create further trouble with the races who had constructed them even if there wasn't a clear line of descent. Jaethal had absolutely no interest in holding Hereford as an official enfeefment, and certainly not just because she was an elf.

... and even if she were, Kyonin probably still wouldn't have been thrilled by that development. Hereford was the better protected of the two western settlements in the realm. Hereford was also the smaller of the two as its geography didn't readily facilitate easy settlement... and if the bronzeshield was any indication, the dwarven road of shields might well facilitate much easier settlement than trying to consolidate existing villages.

All of that was getting a bit further afield... he knew they needed to move on the Bronzeshield fortress soon. Harrgulka's lack of belligerence against Shrikewall might very well have been simple military expediency but even if it wasn't they couldn't have him launching attacks from within the domain against both mivon and drelev without it causing problems.
--
Eire contemplated his possessions, and really the new room. Another sign of the development of Shrikewall that was made clear by the expansion of the council chambers as the dressed stone took shape. The truth was that the castle, magical assistance in its construction or not, was not a priority. It would take shape mostly for the shape needed to supply the administrative, and military needs of the realm.

He had been reading on the subject of the lands to the north, which histories suggested produced conflict reports. In this particular one it recorded that Rostland was a Taldan colony established by the fifth army of exploration, while Issia's origins were displaced barbarians driven out of Iobaria either by warfare or the plague who remained independent of Taldan civilization. It went on of course to suggest that Choral was himself an Iobarian warlord and had forced the unification of of both... and of course with the disappearance of Rogarvian line left the geographically distinct boundaries divided and on the brink of civil war.

Truthfully he was skeptical of the broad sweeping claims on Rostlandic history and deep cultural connections to the south. The book in question smacked entirely too much of the sort of history written for propaganda narrative. It was a bit heavy on Iobaria, Issia bad, Rostland Taldan civilized good. Still the vast span of time aside they did have proof of Taldan mines, and presumably the taldan fifth army had needed farms to settle. That the account seemed to skip over, and failed to mention the various ancient iobarian cyclopean ruins littering the narlmarches he was skeptical of how useful the account might be.

They'd been looking for resources to corroborate Jaethal's elven map. "We're prepared your grace." Valerie remarked. The former paladin would as chancellor be remaining behind in the capital. Tristian, and Kalikke would be staying at the Old Beldame's village, and Candlemere respectively.

Harrim, and Amiri would both be coming. Eire would have liked to bring Jaethal, but she and Octavia, and Regongar were anchoring the western flank at Hereford, and Tatzylford. Though he doubted it would be necessary given the effort expended to bolster their protection, scrolls of recall would facilitate evacuation to the cathedral or to the temple of the elk for care.

Linzi, Harrim, Shaoyu and Amiri would be forming his party for the trek. "And if they don't see reason?" Jaethal's question was accompanied by Bartholemew squirming in her shadow. It was not that Jaethal didn't ordinarily have that effect on people, but the firebrand trolls, which were thankfully few, who had joined Hargulka retinue had been a product of the wizard's research into trolllish regeneration. The encounter had required as a precaution Regongar and Octavia's studies to orient more towards earth... caustic acid magic. Radiant fire still bypassed fire brand resistance, though the exact mechanism of why Eire wasn't sure... but it meant that Tristian and the Tieflings could form a viable second line defense against them if it came to that... but it had complicated their original strategy of alchemists fire.

With Tartuk though to reverse engineer the process it seemed as if there were too few trolls to make a meaningful difference to the character of trollish attacks reported. Given all of the bellyaching that Drelev had been making about the plundering of his lands by monstrous humanoids one would have thought he'd mention if fire wasn't working.

"Then we will be as fire from the sky." He replied. Truthfully if negotiations failed Eire already knew he planned to summon as many reinforcements from other planes as he could before he had to enter melee. They had also gone through the trouble to find an enchanted favored weapon of Groetus for Harrim that would deal acid damage as a precaution. They had made what preparations they could.

--
Notes: This starts the end of winter, early spring campaign season that serves as the intermediary between 4712, and concludes Troll trouble, as well as leading into Arc 3 Varnhold vanishing. Part of this chronological spacing is of course to allow the kingdom to grow. This should last, this immediate period, from Pharast 4712 to Sarnith of the same year, at which point we will move into the Varnhold Vanishing adventure, but some of the following portions overlap in terms of days covered.

As for updates this week, Sunday I will be updating the Luxen contracts (the expansion) and then probably the 30th as well the same. The advantage with this, and AoE timeline (in the AH thread) is that I've got a couple updates up front, and while not as ready I can edit and make adjustments to the Out of the Dark story so that can be updated on Friday pretty easily. Unfortunately due to other issues and I keep following behind I'm behind on the Drow CYOA story of the same name which I had planned to try and resume updates for this month, and thats not going to happen. What will probably happen is if smut (you're on this site) is your thing the other misc thread will probably have some faerun adjacent stuff go up from an old flash drive, and my laptop's files.

 

Pharast 4712
Troll hold, and the bronze shield fortress it was centered upon, was closer to the border of the narlmarches closer to the east sellen river as it flowed down from lake hooktongue than it was from the murque flowing down into Candlemere. That partially explained some of their good fortune, because even as a decrepit ruin the Bronze shield fortress was an impressive structure... and Eire would have been lying in saying that he wouldn't have used it as capital, if he had known its location ... but no, Shrikewall was better positioned for trade.

Harrim morosely contemplated the ruins, and the troll hold. Harrgulka had non trolls working under him as well. He had impressed, Kobolds, lizardfolks, humans and dwarves amazingly enough... Eire was sure there were others... but that they weren't eating other civilized beings out in the open was a good sign, just as most likely Drelev had established 'Fort Drelev' on the western shore of the Lake, and potentially Varnhold where it had been raised.

The dwarf grunted. "He's coming."

Indeed Jazon the civilized troll was approaching with a party of others. Eire was not a small man but adult trolls started at eight feet and three hundred pounds. The truth was Eire had some guess as to how this was going to go, he hadn't wanted to discuss it with Jaethal, but ... he wasn't sure that Hargulka could be talked around. Jazon could probably get them close enough to open dialogue and then they'd have to work from there.

If talking worked, it worked, if it didn't then yes, there was going to be a fight. It was best to keep things simple, just to acknowledge that if things went wrong it would be a fight. The troll waved, raising a broad open hand. A gesture that Eire returned .

Shaoyu puffed out her cheeks in annoyance and looked around. A moment passed as the troll walked towards them, and she observed, "They're going to start planting soon." Interestingly she was right. It was mixed labor pool... and the humans seemed to be supervising but they were plowing the loose rocky soil similar to how the locals cut their rows.

Eire noted there were no horses, or draft animals... the trolls were making up for it using their own giant bodies to push the blows, which were large and crudely built 'supersized versions' of the sort of things he was used to seeing erastil's worshippers use to make their narrow strips.

Jazon finished making his way down the pathway that dwarfs had cut centuries earlier, and nodded acknowledging that they were farming. Winter had apparently been hard with limited larder stockpiled. All the livestock had been eaten over the course of winter leaving no livestock to plow the fields.

The trolls appetite had meant even the pigs were gone, which was a problem. Eire wanted to ask about the lizard folk, but there would be time for that later. "I take you to King Harulka."

"Thank you." Eire replied. The Bronzeshield fortress interior was in poor shape much like the interior. The abandoned halls were even more a testament to the dwarves craft. Even after probably centuries of neglect the structure was sound, even if dusty. The kobolds scurrying about weren't really trying to clean so much as make it livable to their tastes. It still left something to be desired, but it was something... it was more than simply squatting in bygone ruins

Eire had to resist the urge to ask Jazon as they walked how long Harrgulka had had them living here. It was obvious that agriculture had not been the first thing to occur to the troll king, and probably only winter and snow had convinced him that there really was something to this farming thing after all once food had started to run short. One of the issues with the long tails had been that they ate the corpses of the dead, generally because they couldn't afford to waste meat in the lean times, but as a culture simply didn't have a taboo about such due to the shortages of food.

The layout of the hall was much as Eire had expected. It was spacious enough that the dwarves had clearly intended for interior market days to be held here, rather than outdoors. Tables were absent but there was certainly space for them, and as demonstrated by the wagon that served as Hargulka's throne the room could easily accommodate them. This room had probably been intended to seat and feat hundreds of dwarven warriors and craftsmen for hours on end.

... and unfortunately the Troll King wasn't happy to receive them. Jazon had gotten them this far but the chance of peaceful negotiations seemed to evaporate when Hargulka punched Jazon in the mouth. Harrim stopped grumbling about the state of the fortress as the troll backpedalled. Eire glanced around as a precautionary measure, but there was no purple kobold to be seen... and Jazon had only ever mentioned a singular king.

There were a handful of kobolds but then were were a few others present. Eire would have guessed Hargulka must have been trying to hold audiences for his kingdom and contend with the day to day business when they'd walked in.

"Argh, Borba come here for fight!" Hargulka roared picking up his massive mallet. Eire noticed that despite probably comparable intelligence, Jazon spoke much more polished Taldane than the troll king did, occasional clipped dialect aside. "Fight borba." He made a big wind up that telegraphed the strike making it easy to dodge, which Eire did because he certainly wasn't going to try and block it... he had little doubt that Hargulka was stronger than he was, and definitely out massed him.

Amiri glanced at the trolls, and readied her giant sword, then with a look towards him gruffly remarked, "Well that was fast."

A flood of supernal heat and radiant light filled the hall. "Yes." Eire replied levitating off the ground, "I came to bring peace, so be it." The invocation finished and planar rifts formed releasing almost a half dozen hound archons into the hall wielding blazing greatswords. Trolls recoiled at the sight of the five celestial warriors, and their flaming weapons. The squad's arrival somewhat evened the numerical disparity between the trolls if they moved to engage.

Hargulka gave a bestial growl as he recovered his stand, sparing only a partial glance to the heavenly host. Eire surveyed the troll under his arcane sight, and while the troll king did have magical equipment nothing that truly stood out... certainly no sign of a nymph's hair charm as they had found on the Stag King or on Eirrikk the would be owlbear tamer. That was potentially a good sign.

"I Hargulka will tear you apart with my own hands." A straight and literal translation from giantish to vulgar taldane. A chieftan's challenge.

The supernatural heat blossomed, swelling and filling the hall as the baron floated, then flexed long branch like fingers, "You think to fly above the sky." He replied in draconic as the three feet of longsword blade glowed with the trace aura of his favored spell. A crescent wave of divine rippled off the longsword's thirty six inch blade.

The Troll King roared in bane as the vertical column expanded, but the battle was joined. Angelic canines intercepted trollhounds. A dragon in human guise bellowed in flame and fury. Amiri brandished her giantish blade. Harrim swung for a troll's knee using his new magical flail, and Linzi began to play her tune.
--
Notes: this is short, I admit that, I don't feel like writing a fight seen, but I also need to really sit down and read the other cyoa options.

I've paged through my buddy's copy of the anniversary edition (Some, I haven't read all of it), it is at best going to largely be secondary material for this story. I will mostly be sticking to the CRPG, and the first edition AP, and not making major changes to the current plot.

Additionally I'll thread mark and do minor edits (spelling, spacing) and such when I'm at my PC, hopefully tomorrow evening if it doesn't take.

 

4712 Pharast
Her blue eyes swept over the cluttered table. It was filled with arrears, and tallies and all sorts of other records of stocks, and goods, and the balance of currency. They had been waiting, delaying really, instead of focusing on the matter of the first market day, fair, of spring. Even if the trolls were out there there had been other things that had needed to be seen to.

Among the first things she and her sister had constructed was a home, or well paid for one they hadn't been involved in the manual labor. It was unfeasible, not impossible, but unfeasible, to construct something totally in the Qadiran style, in the style of their homeland and thus their home was a mix of the exterior finishings of local materials and interior trappings of home. She supposed it must have been similar to the problem the baron faced.

Though it was unfinished the baron's keep had begun with the task of excavating soil that had buried the old Taldan settlement... and then the Iobarian substructure beneath it, and rebuilding its foundations with local stone. It was slow going work to mate the dressed stone and masonry into new buildings but the hillside that had been built up by the Taldane probably for a watchtower at some point, what Eire had suggested might have been a 'broch' had been cleared away, and dug out to access the deep iobarian chamber under which had served as the main sublevel of the new keep, above which a mix of timber eaves, and concrete arches supported the ceiling of the vaulted great hall, but that wasn't what held her attention.

Kalikke was staring at the map as it shifted. It was a map, of sorts but it was also a product of arcane magic. She had seen the remnants of the incubator that had kept Shaoyu's egg warm though the dragon kept careful watch on it. The map was, its colored terrain was in three planes. The unknown reaches of the domain were simply sand. Great expanses of green sand filled the west and eastern expanses just waiting for agents of the barony carrying special tokens to explore them. It was the explored parts which rose up... little models of facets of the realm like Sorrowflow to the north east, and the capital at the center.

This little wonder had been the baron's project in the snow filled previous month, and it has altered just this morning updating to show a small yellow fortress on the surface of a hill rise. "It must be bronzeshield fortress." It certainly lined up with the map that Jaethal had been able to procure. "At least we know that they've arrived." She remarked.

The blonde wasn't reassured by the comment. Harrim had gained assurance he would be permitted to accompany any ventures into dwarven ruins that the baron delved into... and so the dwarf was there. Kalikke would have enjoyed the possibility of venturing forth, and the sweet teeth would have enjoyed the thrill of it but they at least would be able to see the fortress later... Valerie's interest was being in the vanguard of the baronial force... alongside his grace.
They were here in the event of attacks on the capital. "How frequently does it change?"

"I believe every hour." The blue eyed tiefling replied, unless the baron purposefully triggered a 'refresh' as he called it.

"Will it change if the baron is successful?"

"If this Hargulka yields?" She paused, "I don't know." Then after a moment. "He'll most likely simply recall to the cathedral, so we should know quite quickly either way. For now though there was no change other than the indication his grace had arrived at the dwarf fortress... and as the morning sun climbed higher into the sky... there was court to open... they needed to return to the hall, and contend with the business of the realm.
--

Valerie knew that there were questions circulating about when Oleg would get around to a religious center for Olegton. By this point the other communities of note in the realm all had religious anchors, at least one. Or at least Valerie assumed it was just Olegton, the kobolds and mites of old scyamore were supposed to have shrines at least, and shamans.

That made having Loy Rezbin here somewhat of a problem given the precise reason. Tatzlford had been raised on the eastern side of the ford where the tatzlwyrms den had been... thus the side his grace and the others had attacked from as it had been the direction he had been travelling. It was a small village, of about roughly two hundred families and given the troll crisis a small fort had been erected in what was the center of town to protect it citizens in time of crisis. Officially Loy was Lord Mayor of the town, but the influence his wife Latricia wielded was undeniable. The priestess of Erastil had among other things come to address planting day, but also the matter of the recently, privately, established temple to the goddess Calistria. Unfortunately not only was this the only religious matter being brought up, it was being done while his grace, and Harrim were both absent the capital.

Besides, Latricia's complaints of a scandalous new institution, and Oleg's lack of of action there were still others. The tiefling Kaessi had been given leave to establish a temple for the Church of Nethys on Candlemere, but the isle, similar to that of Shrikewall's swelling population was now contending with additional migrants and that included members of the church of Sarenrae which included Qadiran adherrents, which while Valerie suspected that Kaessi enjoyed some of the available creature comforts of her homeland she wasn't especially happen with other facets of the Dawnflower's church.


Absalom was rightly called the city at the center of the world, and it wasn't just Sarenrae's church. Nor was it just Abadar, or Nethys, or Calistria coming in the new wave of persons... there had probably been other immigrants, ones who had held to Shelyns church but with the turn of the year it was on paper. Paper, that was the development. The river kingdoms, the stolen lands included, were largely sparsely populated wilderness scattered hamlets and farming villages mostly. They still had no idea the real population of the rustic countryside, but settlers from Brevoy, and the even larger volume of peoples migrating north from down river coupled with the stock taking of the first real annual tallies of harvest, that was different.

Prosperity was a powerful draw, and Valerie understood the increase in people would draw the churches interest. The baron's membership in the Church of Iomedae, most clearly demonstrated by his directive to establish the first cathedral in the River Kingdoms had not gone unnoticed. It made her duty to the realm greater... and a potential conflict with the church of Shelyn more and more inevitable.

She reached for the tea, a non alcoholic choice she had selected intentionally, and sipped as the throng of court attendees filtered back in as the recess approached its end. Kaessi sipped the glass of wine she had liberally refilled as Valerie brooded over the letter that had been shared before the winter had set in. She would have preferred the matter not be addressed that way, but it had been... and a confrontation seemed likely in summer if not before. "What do you think?" The tiefling asked.

"Of their dispute?"

"The law is clear." Valerie replied giving her own opinion.

"That is true." The red eyed woman agreed, "And there are other considerations beside."

Valerie paused clearly stopping to consider the matter, "Octavia is an adherent of Calistria."

"Ah yes, that as well. I was thinking more about the matter of elves." There were some migrants from the south who had expressed an interest in settling in the Old Beldame's area, what would most likely become New Colton, and that included a contingent of elves from Absalom, "If we were to side in favor of Erastil not only would it be against the laws written, it create further discontent."

"if we don't, wouldn't Erastil's church have an issue?"

"Latricia will clearly have an issue," The tiefling sipped her wine, "But acceding to her request shows favoritism that really isn't warranted." She tapped, "We have options to delay. His grace, we could even delay by summoning Jhod to return, and give his input on the importance of the letter of the law."

Valerie frowned at the latter suggestion. It was exploitative... but it would probably work. "Do you have any suggestions on the issue with regards to Olegton?"

"We delay of course. They want us to make a decision because the dwarf, and the baron are absent, that would make fait accompli. Abadar's church clearly desires official dispensation." So they were to delay. Undesirable, but she didn't see another course.

"How do we do that?" The answer of course was that Garess had a report of his own related to the martial readiness of the realm to convey... which of course ultimately circled back around to the matter of faith. If Erastil's church had been better organized, then it was more likely that they could have provided levies of archers, but the hamlets were too small to effectively gather. They had been trying, but taking small clusters of men would have been ineffective, especially against the threat they faced in the trolls.

The Church of Gorrum was a major faith in Brevoy, and common in the River lands as well. It was the faith that Amiri also belonged to, but that didn't create any particular interest. Valerie doubted that there were organized churches in the land of the mammoth lords, and she had never seen the kellid barbarian woman attend a religious gathering out of anything that might have been mistaken for piety. Where Erastil encouraged self sufficiency and competency with sword and bow for self defense, Gorrum was a war god, and his church was much, more martial in character.... but even that ran into the matter of organization.
--

--
Notes: Tomorrow hopefully, I will be updating Not a Hero, which was originally planned for today, but I need to go through both my laptop and my PC for notes because that update been repeatedly delayed due to previous technical issues. so I am as a result of this updating this because, I have material in the pipeline

 

Pharast 4712
There were probably not that many trolls in Troll Hold in total. Even discounting food shortages there probably hadn't been that many trolls to begin with. Hargulka had had to knock heads together from other tribes to cobble together his kingdom, and that had included the 'fire brands' and the trolls Bartholomew had been experimenting on for research into healing potions... then there was also the other trolls... no scrags though.

Eire would have admitted he was surprised by that... it was a little odd. If Hargulka had been serious about being king he would have likely found that he would quickly have been king of ... most likely a predominantly kobold, or human realm. Trolls, and lizard folk simply couldn't sustain the population growth to people land as they could. Certainly Hannis Drelev's claims of being attacked by hundreds of trolls was clearly hyperbole, there were hundreds of trolls here, but that seemed to be the sum total.

Harrim held his flail menacingly in one hand... not intentionally so, the dwarf was really more of a grouchy resting glacier in appearance, but the magical weapon glowed under his arcane sight.

Shaoyu huffed expelling a breath of sparks. She had remained, and fought in human form, not resorting to her breath weapon

Linzi was already brain storming how she would commemorate in written word, and verse the victory here. The hound archons remained near to hand. The trolls Amiri had knocked unconscious during the fighting had reassembled themselves as she grimaced at them.

Eire surveyed the kobolds once again... but no, no sign of purple scales... as Jazon had assured them that he never seen a purple scaled kobold in his entire life. No, Tartuccio here. Eire shrugged more to himself and glanced around. "This isn't really ideal ground for agriculture." The dwarves had built it more for a trade garrison, and probably to mine. Most food had probably been shipped in from farms to the north or from the west in those ancient days.

Hargulka started to grumble that the borba had said that but fell silent.

"Its the terrain. Trying to grow grain, even with strong backs is extra work." There were crops that could be imported, potatoes, sweat potatoes other crops but the rocky soil appearance looked like it would be poor for millet... or maybe he was wrong, but certainly without much more extensive work it was going to be less productive. If Eire were to guess Hargulka had seen enough of human villages that he'd figured he could just demand that the human villagers who had been uprooted as tenants show how to farm without considering things.

There was another reason he was already contemplating matters. He couldn't have them here for more than one reason.

"You want to farm?" He asked. It was mostly rhetorical, he really expected that the trolls might fare better raising sheep, and cattle in the kamelands as their main food source, supported by agriculture but one thing at a time. Whatever the case, it was early enough that they could find somewhere and start planting on schedule.

--
They had returned in what was becoming the traditional way now. Now, was the time to see if peace would hold. Hargulka and Jazon both seemed interested in 'civilized' life in different ways, and to different degrees. Hargulka, and for that matter Munguk the hill giant, probably both could have adopted easily enough to life among the kellid tribes... and Jazon certainly would have an easier time dwelling among a cosmopolitan background... but the question was what about the others.

Hargulka had been able to abolish eating living sentients... corpse eating not so much but then the lizard folk ate their dead traditionally... and they had known about that even before moving on bronze shield fortress. There was also going to be the matter of literacy as well.... and like everyone else with winter letting go they were going to be more mobile.

He was going to have to ask what barges were available, as resettling Trobolds denizens would mean opening the baronial food stocks to feed them until they were settled...
--
It was a mistake he ended up making in the charters, transfixing in Taldane common the 'h' into a 'b'... it did not appear in the Draconic version of the document because of he had written it out as a diminutive form 'the trollish hold' of the larger 'Narlhold' referring to the larger narlmarches. Eire would have preferred if someone had caught it, and said something. The difference was minor, and didn't change the meaning or text.

"We may at least inform your mother," He informed the half orc, "That this should resolve issues in Drelevs domain." and resettling the trolls off the border ... not quite a mountain ridge, at least not compared to the tors to the east... would hopefully keep drelev from coming over the border. "At least in so far as trollish raids on his people and livestock."

"Always other trolls." Harrim remarked sourly.

Eire nodded from his seat... and the dwarf was right Hargulka if not for the food shortage had planned to subjugate trolls who lived further west to expand his ranks... yes. "We will clarify that any issues with trolls on our side of the border have been settled."

'For Now'. Harrim grumbled. Tristian was too busy with the the dawnflower's dogma of reconciliation, and temperance to contribute much... not the least of which was it was needling Kanerah who had started the morning already on the wrong foot. Though Tristian said he was from a cloistered church in Qadira it was the presence of Qadiran merchants plying the river that had started the issue.

Still those merchants carried cotton shipped from Orsirion that would be be turned into a twill... thankfully he had brought jeans in his pack... even though he had largely abandoned wearing them in favor of simply magically mending the cotton nylon blend... nylon was not something he was going to be able to reproduce, but with cotton they could make denim, even if they had to trade for the raw cotton bales.

Trade arrangements were a complicated thing.

"Trade up into Hook tongue slough remains blocked. Merchants are refusing to travel that way after last years violence," Especially not with a safer alternative route even if it didn't take them straight into Lake Reykal. Eire personally suspected given Drelev's opinions on merchants being what it was that it hadn't just been the attacks in the slough that had started to deter the trade... but he couldn't prove that.

Besides it wasn't that important. Restov wanted trade to come to Restov first and thus he wasn't going to rock the boat; no pun intended regarding whether trade was or wasn't moving at pre crisis volume through the slough. "The slough is beyond our remit." Eire remarked, "The east sellen does not touch our lands." Not when the implications were that Drelev had made little effort to prevent his subjects from respecting the territorial boundary between the two. No he was going to try and do better than that, but that would mean delineating where the Narlmarches ended on a map, but regarding the rivers, "The flood moon is in a week how are we in regards to preparations?"

Jaethal who had returned from the elven keep at Hereford nodded, "The spring thaw has already begun at least down river," the murque was already beginning to rise. "We wont really know until the rains start." Part of that was not simply the normal crop rotation, but given the terrain. It was probable that the old beldane's village would support rice cultivation, and there was enough of a migrant population to at least attempt it, but rice harvests were on a different schedule than corn, or wheat.

... of course they couldn't keep referring to it as the Old Beldame's village... so it would probably officially become New Colton. If rice paddy cultivation worked, that would diversify the kingdom's food supplies... and that was something Eire was certainly in favor of. "I understand there is a clamor regarding Oleg not having made a decision yet?"

--

Eire walked along the plateau that had been the site of the Stag Lord's fort, and who knew whatever other bandits before him... and before that probably a Taldan out post two thousand years before... and before that the ancient iobarian cyclops had had outposts here. Those structures had probably been in ruins, and buried by the time the Taldan fifth army of exploration had arrived, but the foundations and the material had remained solid. The plateau had been coined the high town to distinguish it from the laketown district of Shrikewall's shore line along the tuskwater. Down below at the lakeshore despite the brisk air men worked to bring in the catch, or check their nets for breaks... but the more important site looking into the water were the trading ships plying the lake from the shrike river's course as it moved down south.

This was in more than one way the artery, the lifeblood of the realm. The trade was vital to economic prosperity, just the immigrants into the barony proivded people for a land. It hadn't occured to him, but Brevoy had roughly the population, probably, in line with medieval England... which given their comparatively primitive agriculture made sense he supposed.

Winter was over, and though the calendar year had started almost three whole months earlier now was the time of the year where things would really begin to move again. The spring equinox was behind them the tradition planting season had begun, and thus the year was underway.

He wrapped a hand over the other, and looked over the cool waters of the great lake. Osirion the land they were sourcing their cotton from was ancient. Its 'first age' had been six thousand years ago, thus before the period of Aroden Reckoning, when most had still been eking out a hard scrabble life after the 'earth fall'.

It was Egypt? After a fashion. Eire wasn't sure how that worked, but the church of Nethys had claimed one of their prophets had lead to the foundation of that first Orision dynasty... and yet from what even Amiri had been able to describe the Osirion pantheon was that of Egypt... with other Inner Sea gods in syncretism. Saranerae's worship seemed to have been brought by Keleshite conquest which at least made sense... but it raised more questions.

There was a flash of lightning in the sky, and then thunder. The spring rains had begun. "Your grace." He was already standing preparing to walk back as Akiros approached. He wasn't alone, Kundal had apparently run himself hard, and was panting. He must have gone to get Akiros, and in turn the former paladin of Erastil had followed suit. One more thing to handle, but that was what it was to rule. A feudal overlord was expected to lead, there was only so much in terms of logistics to delegate.
--
Notes: While I am unlikely to use anything directly from it, at least not in the immediate future the old third edition Dracononomicon is probably one of the best books, or at least probably one of my favorite, books in terms of fluff and NPCs. It three hundred something pages, and its really worth a read.

So we're moving into the spring arc that is the space between the conclusion of Troll Troubles and Varnhold Vanishing, and it'll cover some more dragon stuff in the River Kingdoms/Stolen Lands, as well as some of the companion quests. This a largely spacer to finish out in snippets the winter of 4712 as we move into Spring 4712, and another anniversary of the Stag Lord's defeat ahead of the Varnhold vanish. The spring arc will probably be longer than I originally expected simply on the basis of material that probably needs to be covered in the spring instead of fall.

I'll probably had a 'feudalism' note some time before Varnhold Vanish begins.

 

Gozran 4712
'Tax fest' was a holiday of the Church of Abadar on the ide of Gozran, or a little over a week. Eire would have been lying to say he found Abadar's church involved in this matter to be...odd... The barony had a written tax code, even if it wasn't a fully monetized commercial economy it was written down. It was one thing, in the previous year for the Church of Erastil to do such as baronial agents in the north country closer to the temple of the elk, and Oleg's trading post... but part of the coming preparations were that even though she'd been late coming Arsinoe had been busy over the last year, and Eire knew that Dead Dave venerated Abadar even in his continued unlife.

The truth was with the troll troubles, and frankly even without that, surveying the domain in general, he hadn't been able to find the time to interact beyond basic formalities with the Church of Abadar or their representatives Without the emergence of the Troll threat and Drelev on the western border he probably would have been able to make more time. He would have been able to keep better track of the comings and goings within the city and maybe the expansion of the populace who venerated Abadar foremost might not have 'snuck up' on him.

That being basically the case, and the consecration of the temple of Nethys on Candlemre... the golden eyed Aasimar was look for a little more royal endorsement. Eire suspected that Tax Fest and the assistance that Abadar's church provided in such bureaucracy was how the church managed the influence across courts, and kingdoms throughout Avistan, and beyond... which in turn likely made them potential vulnerable in turn to courtly politics from those realms... and that also worried him.

"Leaving that aside," He began, "Our next priority is the sorrowflow road, and the opening of trade with Varnhold. The crooked it river flowed down from its source actually both and south, from the high peaks. The north fork flowed down into the Shrike, while the southern fork flowed a much straighter course until became a small stream that trickled into lake silverstep. It was the northern fork that gave the river its name, and the one that cut its way through a valley in the mountains that provided the most expedient path to Varnhold... but that same path would also require contending with the spring thawing, and the river being at its height.

The robed undead engineer down the length of the great table nodded, "running a road from the crossing and then a second bridge across the crook shouldn't be a trouble. It is, begging your graces pardon more a question of their end, than our labor."

Eire shook his head, "The road tie was Maegar's idea," Or possibly his wizard, "I would expect that he was plenty of reasons to want a direct route," Not the least of which would be to avoid brevic tolls on any merchants who were purchasing goods. That was not a knock on Jamandi, or Restov, or Brevoy at all... but he very much understood that trade here was a very complicated affair, and costs added up including overland travel times.

The 'Varnhold Pass' as it had been named was partially the result of the Crooked River's course, and partially the vagries of geography. It was the best option, but the road would probably be easily forty miles from Nettle's crossing in as straight of a path as they could make. "Yes, your grace, but then there is also expanding the crossing to accomdate the increased traffic."

They had had to rebuild Davik Nettle's bridge. The Stag Lord had destroyed it the same night he'd murdered the living Nettle. Expanding the bridge, and expand Kressle's hold on the north bank of the Shrike would hand in hand.

Akiros cleared his throat, "And that brings up the other matter, your grace."

"You believe them?"

"I believe they saw something your grace." Them / they in this case referred not so much to the Cheliax immigrants, but rather to the iobarian nomads journeying from the north west who had passed through Kressels domain... admittedly without incident. The steppe nomads claimed to be journeying to Numeria, but along the way had passed a bitter evil wind to the south east as they travelled.

Something about an ancient undead as they had hunted for Mastodons on their way.

Eire shrugged. "I'll pen an inquiry to Maegar on both accounts, they had to have come through the Dunsward,"

"Should we investigate?"

Ordinarily he would have said yes. "No," Truthfully the former paladin should have been focused on his own feef, and Eire was still uncertain about their western frontier. "It'll give the sweet teeth something to do, and I want to know everything we can about all the ruins. You said the tribe was passing northwest?"

"There is a gathering they're going to, I think we will see more of them riding through, other tribes."

"Then that is what I want you and Kundal to do, coordinate with Amiri." The Kellid was absent this meeting. She, Shaoyu, Ekundayo... who apparently venerated Torag... and Harrim were at Bronze shield the exploration was being seen as to what could be done... what needed to be done That was going to be another matter of religion. That was the issue with such a tide of humanity moving into a new region he was finding... the sort of thing he had underestimated severely. They had to paused from the sound in the antechamber. He started to wonder if the masons had had an accident, but it sounded more like a scuffle or other disagreement had broken, and was at risk of escalating. "I wish to know the movements in my lands Akiros, but if they are passing through peacefully then so be it." There was too much else that needed doing, "In the mean time." The baron rose, a gesture mirrored by the others.

The antechamber of the keep was a throng of court attendees Garress and Kundal both looked agitated to different degrees, and a rapid flurry of iridescence signaled that Perlivash was rapidly flying around the chamber. The faerie dragon urging the assembled to calm themselves, his message being echoed in a more calm and slower manner by a large bearded, but otherwise, bald priest of Sarenrae who probably weighed twice of what Tristian did. The slimmer cleric was already rushing to his darker skinned coreligionist to find out what was going on.

The faerie dragon seeing them buzzed forward on his butterfly esque wings doing an impressive bit of acrobatics that amounted to a mid air bow, and switched to draconic for the conversation. The bigguns perfumed git was from Pitax... and seemed as full of himself as Irovetti's previous two lackeys... Tartuccio and the bard / spy Grigori.

Tristian was back a moment later, in terms of summary his report was not much different than that of the faerie dragons. Eire strode forward, and cast a pointed look at the hand resting on the gilted, golden hilt of the man's rapier. It explain Kundal, Garress and the others belligerence at least, because Valerie immediately placed her hand on her sword. The baron raised a hand, "If you mean to make a challenge then do so." The statement was calm, but almost a dozen clerics of Iomedae fanned out to either side of them in a mix of garmets and colors. Regardless of whether they were wore red and black or white and gold or more practical field colors of gray or green all of them carried practical, functional longswords. There ranks were further complemented by clerics and members of other religions, and still lay persons beyond membership in the council.

The heavily perfumed man coughed slightly, and Eire couldn't be quite sure if it was just the powder he wore giving him a pallid look that resembled Jaethal, or if he was actually sick. Stefano Moskoni stopped himself from mussing his carefully styled, and wax dark hair with the hand he'd drawn away from the sword. "I do apologize your grace, I am Sir Serfano Moskoni, of Pitax." The knight's sarcasm dripped off the words and Eire was happy that Amiri, and Shaoyu were absent this visit.

The pitaxian noble threw a glance towards Kundal as if he expected at any moment the former werewolf might turn beserk and make to rend him to pieces. A discomfort that Stefano Moskoni explained made all the more pronounced by the apparent lack of spare arms in the Stolen lands. Stefano had been been an envoy for Irovetti visiting Restov, apparently his embassy had been there throughout the troll crisis, and on the way here he'd encountered a 'concerning number', which probably meant more than one, of Kellid horselords simply riding through on their way to the west.

Eire didn't glance to Akiros, but he didn't need to. "A similar observation has been rendered," He conceded, and before the Pitaxian could puff himself up waved towards the Aasimar, "Arisinoe would you ever so mind speaking to the matter of peaceable journy." The church of Abadar had different hospitality rights than Iomedae but they weren't that different. Iomedae's faith was a slightly more martial one which impacted social mores, neither prevented him from collecting tolls, and both encouraged policing the highways against bandits... and Stefano Moskoni did have a point. The recent crisis had stretched manpower thin.

It was a distinct possibility that people might take advantage of that.

The doors to the council room shut back behind them. "I don't like his tone."

Garress's understatement punctuated the looks circling the council... no one had liked his tone. He had planning to call Garress in anyway to speak about the textiles... that was to say the process of introducing jeans as part of a uniform to direct baronial subjects. The simple fact was most peasants wore homespun clothes and were lucky to have two sets of regular work clothes... but the denim would also help establish uniforms for the baronial guard... that would have to wait. "Nor do I," Eire agreed, and it was unlikely Pitax had anything to do with Harrgulka's attempt at carving out a trollish kingdom in imitation of the new human baronies... but Pitax might attempt to exploit it. "We will have to be on our guard." but he supposed that went without saying.

 

Gozran 4712
Taxfest, and a Pitaxian lackey aside there were countless other things also going on. There was an end to things. It always seemed that his attention was always called to investigate some new development. Eire was looking at the eastern, and very poorly defined, boundary of his domain as Perlivash the faerie dragon continued to chatter on about his kind who inhabited the area around lake silver step.

The lake was technically within his domain. It was on his side of the border... which seemed to be mostly defined by natural features like the rivers, and by the Tors... that or Restov had drawn up the charters using a crooked map and drawn a line more or less straight south from Fort Serenko on the south Rostlandic road and worked from there. He wasn't even entirely sure that Fort Serenko had been built on the Brevic side of the border when he looked at some of the maps that existed... cartography issues though were not the matter at hand.

It was not the faerie dragons that concerned him. It wasn't the alleged great wyrm who's foot had made the lake.... which he was skeptical of. It was the normal sized silver dragon population of dragons that inhabited the area... which was the reason he was contemplating a visit to the Lake. That would not be today though. "Excuse me Perlivash." Valerie interrupted, and the faerie dragon fluttered back a respectful distance ceding the floor. "Has there been any word from the Temple of Shelyn?"

Eire was ignorant of the precise contents of Valerie's response... and truthfully he had considered inquiring about the words that made it on the paper but it had not been a subject the blonde had wanted discussed... he had also considered inquiring around as to where Shelyn's church was building their temple... but he had stopped largely on the basis that it was in neither his own, nor Drelev's domain. It would have been in the charter boundaries of the Iron Wraiths, but they had disappeared without a trace.

"There has not. I have received no official communications, nor anyone claiming to speak of the Brevic church of Shelyn, or its interests." He replied. Indeed that this was a brevic church matter it was possible that there were other pressures in play, but he withheld that speculation for the moment. "This is not Brevoy, and while I do not pretend there is not Brevic influence, it is not anywhere near sufficient to change my mind." It was true, but there was also the possibility that if the Brevic branch was weighing their options ... well Valerie's family were brevic nobility and they might needle Jamandi which while still not going to change his mind would be a nuisance in and of itself. There was a knock on the door, "Well, we should return to the realm."

Arsinoe, the golden eyed cleric of Abadar, had arrived in the hall. She was not alone though, and Eire was a tade surprised at the small Numerian delegation that had added to part of those who hailed from Alkenstar in the south lands. It merely added another minor religious contingent to the equate. The small church of the minor goddess Brigh... who was apparently also affiliated with the matter of Taxfest. That was not of course the only interest in the bronze lady's faith.

Brigh was a goddess of artifice and knowledge. That ranged from metal working and stonemasons, very important to Narhold's needs it was not a particular evangelizing faith. She was worshipped by blacksmiths, and jewelers, humans and gnomes made up the bulk of her church, but there was representation aplenty of half elves and half orcs. Both of those were growing populations even if it was unlikely they weren't going to approach the human population in scale they did already outnumber gnomes and halflings.

It was rather transparent what Abadar's church hoped to gain by making such introductions. Favor. Brigh's church was interested in the developments of the realm... and being apart of such expansion of knowledge , and construction, the research and exploration, documentation to advance knowledge, and innovation... and of course he needed, Narhold needed more specialists, and that included craftsmen.

Kanerah glanced at him contemplatively, "Where will you put them?"

"Here most likely." Eire replied.

"And the Milanites?"

Milani's church... he had had considered constructing a shrine at Hereford, but, "New Colton," He replied, and he doubted there would be any issue between them and the faith of Irori who he expected would want to establish their own church. "I think that will better fit their needs," and of course it wasn't as if he intended to prohibit their continued use of the Cathedral if they were going to have their own place... well he had planned to place them at New Colton given the settlement's growth. "As for their request, I think here is what they're looking for." While he was willing to continue to permit their use of the Cathedral he didn't want to give the impression that he viewed Milani's church as just a cadet or subordinate wing of Iomedae's church

"The church of Abadar hopes for a place, or that you'll convince Oleg to permit them to build a temple." The Tiefling observed she moved long fingers around the rim of her glass.

"Or both." He agreed, "Arisnoe," The Aasimar cleric, "wheedles and deals well. She's been speaking with Dead Dave and I think her church also would like a place at Nettle's Crossing," but though it was still called that, the small hamlet was a part of the domain of Svetlanna's sister, and the fact was Kressel had more martial pursuits... she was more likely to welcome Milani's church into their small fief, and more like still Cayden Cailean. It was not a decision he was going to rush her to make. The truth was that the crossing was too small at the moment to require a decision. "How are preparations for the spring fair," the first major market day of the new year.... and really the first market day the kingdom would have to actually warrant distinction. Much as Shaoyu didn't want to hear about sheep flocks and anything related to farming they were of critical need to any feudal realm regardless of the progress they had made towards monetization.

Kesten Garress bowed, "The guard have received their new uniforms, my lord, and," The disgraced brevic noble paused stumbling over his next words, "We should be prepared for the fair."

"I am aware of the manpower shortages Kesten." Eire remarked. The guard was a formal institution but it was a capital institution and even without the trolls Kesten had in no way been prepared for the degree of immigration, the volume of people arriving from the south. Add the troll problem into that Garress's guards had been overworked over the course of the winter, and the uniforms were partially compensation of sorts. The barony providing them with spare sets of clothes was bonus that wouldn't have been common outside of more prosperous more establish realms... though for different reasons. "That will be a priority in the coming year."

Valerie's expression suggested it was more than that. The realm was expanding, and while it was perhaps not appropriate to ... go straight to kingship... much he more or less already regarded it... he was apetty king, and duke was probably a more appropriate title in the Taldan sense. "and as the realm grows, given matters with the lizard folk we need to raise a more permanent host."

Hargulka had had encounters with the Longtails's rivals... and if not for his food shortages had been looking to impose his will, and establish overlordship over the more belligerent tribe. The thick skin tribe was a thorn in the south to be dealt with as the days warmed... but the faire was first... and there was the chance that any steppe migration coming west, or one that was coming south and east from numeria might supersede that depending on details that they couldn't predict.

If anything Valerie was concerned about steppe nomad as she was at the possibility of monstrous humanoids being a threat to the realm. The reality of the faire's security was that it was likely to be fairly safe given the presence of everyone. "If anything I believe it is the opportune moment to integrate both the long tails, and now the trolls further into the kingdom," And hopefully cement peace. The old scyamore's communities were regular facets at Shrikewall... the kobolds more commonly so than the mites, but mitish crafts had begun to circulate in the markets as the small fae under the 'wolf queen' began expand their production in order to participate in the newly available markets. This was itself an important development become the silver mine was producing the silver that was minted into the silver currency by Shrikewall's mint for the barony. The coins had a hole in the middle to run a chord through which meant they were slightly larger than the brevic Link piece but was roughly the same purity and weight. The realm had had little reason to prioritize gold coin production though they had the taldan gold mines near old scyamore as well, and there were still plans to examine the hills for further precious metals.
--
Notes: So ordinarily I get quibbly over fantasy swords especially in DND, and adjacent fiction. I don't so much for Iomedae's icon, because its an icon and while a little larger than practical (In stark contrast to most sword art which are generally fuck off huge for some reason), and featuring a hilt type that is both ornate and in a style I ordinarily am not especially fond of Keren Rhinn has a very nice mostly practical sword design.

 

Gozran 4712
Part of the mystique, the masquerade of Kaessi, they cultivated that caused trouble was when there was a difference in opinions the sisters had. It wasn't just the sweet teeth. Kanerah and Kalikke had different opinions of different members of court... and different preferences on policies, but it was the interaction with the other members of court that had the potential to really endanger their apparent agreement with a servant of Nethys.

It really was quite vexing... probably to all involved, not just Eire. The baron though was unsure how to deal with the problem given the entailed divine servitor's conditions. It was a headache, and one that he was worried about... however it would have to be put to the side for the time being. Whatever the twins situation was it did not seemed to have changed... Akiros, Kundal, and Amiri had gathered with Perlivash to resume discussion on that great lake in the east of the realm.

'Silverstep' the silver dragon didn't seem to have been seen in living memory... well human living memory there were probably elves alive from the last time he had been seen. The Kellid tribes who followed the mammoth herds still kept the memory of the absent silver alive in their stories, and they recited those stories as they travelled. Merchants travelling from the east also spoke of a silver dragon in the Tors of Levenies, but one younger than Silverstep. The Kellids, and also according to Perlivash, the local faerie dragon community claimed she was Eranex daughter of the absent elder... which seemed to lend credence to the Kellid legend that Silverstep had journeyed to 'the otherworld' to be with his fae bride.

That brought them to a handful of other details. Silverstep was, while certainly a wise and old dragon, not the alleged great wyrm who's alleged foot had made the lake. He had apparently made a lair in the region, which it seemed likely he may have passed on to his daughter, but neither he nor she were apparently the only silver dragon in the region. There was no way to be sure, or know, at the moment if the other silver was kin or not.

But the details gathered from the local Kellid tribes, and passing merchants had been something that had ... probably been wise to bring to the attention. The sweet teeth were already on their way to the east... but not going far enough east to reach the lake, that wasn't their goal. They could be on a snipe hunt that would do nothing, but better to investigate the strange reports they had. "One more thing to include to my next letter to Maegar I think." He replied, and while he was grateful to know about this... whether it was Eranex or 'Silverstep' at the lake an adult dragon with twenty or so miles of Varnhold was certainly a detail that their neighbor might do well to know.... assuming of course that the dragon hadn't made herself known. "Thank you for bringing it to me." He paused to turn left to Kalikke, "Have the Sweet Teeth sent word back?"

"Nothing significant. They've charted a ford across the Gudrin river," and left a marker for other members of the barony to use it when they crossed "and are working their way east, but so far they've seen no sign." No sign of whatever mischievous or malicious presence had spooked visitors through the Kamelands. Truthfully they weren't sure what it was they were looking for... but since it was important enough to be carried by visitors it wasn't likely just scared children... but a 'bitter evil wind' didn't tell them much. The moniker 'stolen lands' was pervasive for a country as young as Brevoy, and especially Pitax. The irredentism simply didn't make sense. Brevoy was barely two hundred years old, and tottering on the brink of an increasingly likely civil war... too. Then on top of that was the local Kellids also called this expanse something that could loosely be translated as 'stolen lands'... which made more sense rather than less... they could at least in theory point to some ancient ancestral memory of Taldan expansion.

... except that didn't seem to be the case either. The Taldan tribes didn't specify out anyone, and if anything their stories spoke of a time before Aroden, before the raising of Absalom going back allegedly into the Age of Destiny.

Eire had to wonder if the ancient Iobarian cyclop might not have also called this something along the lines of the Stolen Lands as well. He thought of the cylopean ruins, but so far they hadn't encountered anything that would prove, or disprove that thesis. ... and of course there were questions how accurate of a recounting ancient claims were, how much attention should be paid to them.

He flexed a hand, and the sands changed somewhat... nothing significant, only reflecting the spring weather of the realm... but as the weather continued to warm they were going to have to focus on charting more and more of the barony. They were behind, in no small part due to the trolls, but also the untamed nature of the wilderness. His best guess was that the Iron Wraiths charter, and that of his own and Maegar Varn were roughly the same size. Not that the charter encompassing the Hooktongue was much smaller , but of the three realized baronies, it was the only that sat on a truly developed trade route. It was true that traders did come in through the Glenebon and that Casmaron traders made their way to Restov overland through the dunsward, but not to the same degree that traders had plied the now painfully stifled East Sellen river.

... and that was the other matter... "My caution to Kressle regarding silvers should apply to everyone, trade into the Slough is still being stymied?"

"That is the word." Kalikke responded.

He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. Hargulka had actually grumbled about not having thought to raid borba shipping to the west as a policy. He'd launched a couple of opportunistic raids last year, but certainly nothing that should have been significant enough to choke trade to a standstill... at least not by itself. Probably more going on... but Eire didn't have the resources to pursue it, though he'd be surprised if the merchants come from the south didn't try and reopen the passage... it seemed absurd not to given the value of trade along the river, and that it would allow direct access to Brevoy's capital and the broader waterway dominated by Lake Reykal.

... but of course there was also the aquatic dinosaurs, among other 'prehistoric' beasts, that seemed to inhabit the Slough, particularly the south. But the complaints hadn't been about monstrous plesiosaurs...

"There may simply be more trolls to the west, but certainly if there are , well beyond our borders." Jaethal declared dismissing the matter... and as with the last time this had come up, Eire felt himself in agreement. There was a border, and gallivanting into Mivon's staked territory, or Drelevs to go on a wild goose chase wouldn't have done them any good.

"And we will leave the matter be, so long as it doesn't come into the domain." and he hoped they didn't. They had too much to do. "I need to know if the tribal migrations change any further, and of course if its at risk of hostilities." They were now pivoting from the western frontier, to their eastern one. From the narlmarches proper to the Kamelands. Thankfully the rivers created natural geographic zones. The area between the Shrike and Gudrin, between the Gudrin, and Little Sellen, both in the west would make convenient administrative regions to focus on.
--
Eire took the time to prepare for the tallies. There were no major Iomedaen holidays that fell within the first several months of the calendar year. Minor observances of increasingly distant Arodenite days that had long sense lost their significance even before the death of the last Azlanti... simply had no point in being celebrated. The celebration of Remembrance day on the blossom moon was the most important, and it fell early in the month this year.

No Taxfest on the ides of Gozran had sufficed as an administrative day as they worked to tally arrears... but even it as a gather better reflected the climate of the Inner Sea rather than the Stolen Lands, but it sufficed as a perfectly serviceable period in the year to collect geld and poll taxes, especially with the recent troll troubles... and of course that had made sense for other practical reasons.

Desna was right around the corner, and that would open the market faire, and mark formal spring time pronouncements of what the realm's tax revenue would be going towards. It was not a fully monetized economy which coupled with the tax income, the distribution of the population, the lack of a developed land holding class ... well having Abadar's church around wasn't quite so bad.

Amiri stared at the ledgers, and looked prepared to bolt from the room at the voluminous records... and even Linzi looked a bit stymied.

"I'd rather a tax on property, and incomes," but that was impractical, and certainly he wasn't going to allow anyone... not that he had anyone else, leave to mint coinage for a fee. That was probably never going to be an issue, as opposed to the use of foreign currency. Then of course there were law fines, which were money paid to the coffers , but truthfully that money was to support riding judges, and and Garress's guards and associated other institutions.

... and this was where the Church of Brigh came in.

"The printing press?" Linzi squeaked jumping up.

"Yes." He didn't have time to work the magic to make the small parts necessary for a functioning steam driven press, or a paige style typesetter... and frankly he'd reiterated that that kind of speed wasn't necessary. The literate portion of the population wasn't going to consume that much written word to warrant such a complex production when a more basic linotype machine.

There was another matter as well which made a faster compositor a problem... that of posting in two languages... so a simpler machine in Taldane was the immediate compromise. A second machine in Draconic could follow suit, but probably not this year... but Linzi would be at least getting a printing press something before summer, if the Church of Brigh's craftsmen could do as they promised... and if they succeeded then Abadar's clergy were likely to be happy as well.

Jubilost wasn't so much 'happy' per se, as intrigued... though he was quick to point out that such a device would require a civil service, bureaucracy to operate it efficiently. Still two years to get to this stage, two years to get to adding a printing press to the domain wasn't a bad indicator of progress.
--
Notes: So we fooled around with the 2E kingdom building rules... and I have come to the conclusion that for the most part I prefer the original ones and on that note what will probably happen is that there will be snap shots at some point down the road of kingdom development over time

Maybe, cross posting to formatting is a bitch, I had that problem with Character sheets idea making that practical. (Posting a Jump Build is so much simpler)... we will deal with that in a couple of updates.

Speaking of updates, the nominal plan for this week is probably to resume JumpChain updates probably tomorrow, and hopefully update the Luxen contracts this week as well.

 

Desnus 4712
The Spring Faire opening also entailed the annual commemoration of the Stag Lord's defeat... or at least ran through the anniversary as it approached Rembrance day as it fell this year. The stag lord's defeat though meant little compared to other events given the predominantly immigrant population. The, anniversary of the, coronation was the following week, and of course the formal pronouncement of the barony was further later in the year.

Desnus meant a growing volume of tradesmen, and merchants coming to demonstrate their crafts, and ply their wares. All the planting was done, and thus farmers could spent time they weren't engaged in repairing, or weeding indulging in homespun crafts, and the spring market was important... and for farmers using the old methods of farming it was about now that cows began to again produce milk as pastureland became lush and green again. That meant an abundance of fresh milk, and thus cheeses, and butters, and other dairy products.

That was more important because there was a greater demand for food this spring. Not just from the swelling human population, but also to feed the trolls added to the realm. A labor force that could be put to work drawing out rotating fields with more hearty fodder to sustain cow populations in the kamelands in a milk producing state through next winter. For now though there was additional consumption for diary goods from non direct holdings.

Eire suspected that the coinage that Hargulka was using to pay for the foodstuffs... probably originated from Drelev or Minovense sources... particularly given it was largely in Brevic bits, and links as well as less commonly gold crowns, and numerian silverdisks. The latter strange currency had attracted scrutiny and then an explanation from Octavia who had explained their national origin, and so the treasury was exchanging them for equivalents in Narland's own domestically minted silver pieces. He wasn't going to object to their sources so long as Hargulka and the trollish hold didn't engage in any private wars across the border to replenish their coin stocks.

That didn't seem likely, especially not with Hargulka more focused on the actual task of at least for the moment cultivating of agriculture. The plan was to start farming, and animal husbandry and then move towards constructing more permanent settlements rather than having the trolls simply coopt existing ruins... not that it hadn't occurred to him to consider some of the Iobarian remnants.

Hargulka spending coin was good, just as a demonstration of respect for property rights, and that it showed they could be trusted to participate in the civilization they were supposed to be a part of. It was also intended to calm any lingering concerns over the situation, even though it did need to be clear that while Hargulka's people had been brought into the realm that didn't necessarily apply to trolls in the lands beyond their western frontier... or for that matter any other possible other troll tribes, or clans. It was as with most things in a feudal system, in any sort of government system all part of a careful balancing act... and one to be more complicated still.

Shrikewall had no real competition in the realm of tradecraft nearby. New Colton might eventually need to have allowances made for its market days, but it simply lacked the population or the venues to compete, though from a feudal perspective its fey denizens were making an appearance at Shrikewall for the market faire, but for the most part the gathering ground was on the high plateau overlooking the tuskwater and in the plaza that opened out in front of the cathedral of Iomedae. Fair trade and good conduct were being overseen by a combination of Garress's guardsmen and an assortment of clergy.

Official fair duties were distributed predominantly between different cloisters of the Church of Iomedae but Arisinoe and Tristian had both volunteered their respective co religionists as well, and Jhod and a contingent of the Church of Erastil were also in company. Despite having issued cautionary advisories about it Eire had personally been hoping that if any Silvers did show up they might be from within Iomedae's church, or more broadly that any visiting dragons would be members of the Inheritor's church, or at least an allied one... more likely of course were visiting faerie dragons and their presence wasn't really a surprise. There had been no sign of Shaoyu's mother for good or bad... and Shaoyu rushing through the nave of the cathedral with warning of an adult silver dragon was not how Eire would have liked to have opened his time at the fair today.

It really would have been preferable to see the half elf form in the vestments in black and red, or white and gold or any indication that she was affiliated with the church of the inheritor... but that was not the case and the dragoness wore a blue grey gown, and hood. A Silver Dragon in fealty to one of the Fae's Eldest.

Introductions were made.

Eranex daughter of Silverstep... presumably Silverstep the younger if the legend that a Silverstep had made the lake with his foot... and thus presumably were all a continuous lineage of silver dragons... but that wasn't relevant to a visit from his point of view to the present situation.

"Thank you Shaoyu, please go find Jaethal if you wind." The young red wyrmling started to protest but stopped, and then withdrew... probably to tell the Inquisitor that a cleric of Shyka was here with a coterie of faerie dragons in tow.

They took a seat in one of the second floor acloves and so began the story of what had brought Eranex to the River Kingdoms, and the Stolen Lands in particular.

Shyka the Many had sent her subject here because of a lost artifact. It wasn't like this had been Eranex's first resource either, she had been looking for allies, and the news that Restov had a potential undead problem due to followers was the missing 'Count Ranalc', one of Shyka's fellow Eldest, was something Eire knew would need to pass to Kassil Aldori and thus Jamandi.

"And, you could not locate them?"

"I could not spare much time to search for Amvarean, and none could speak to her whereabouts." The fey silver replied, "My next recourse were the human tribes, but Orsig has gathered a concerning number of allies of his own, which has forced me to look further, and further the lakeshore for aid." But time was running out.
--
Eire couldn't claim he was thrilled to have at least the servants of two of the faerie gods warring on his eastern frontier. Ranalc was missing, had been for ... a while... while Shyka had a tendency to just appear whenever 'they' felt like it. "And that is the situation as it is laid out." He declared before offering a sealed scroll to Kassil Aldori that detailed the potential threat from an apparently potent cleric of the missing eldest.

Truthfully if Eranex's report on the Ankou's allies were correct this Ebana might well be more than the Free City might be prepared to handle on short notice... but hopefully Jamandi, and her fellow sword lords could with the Church of Erastil put together some kind of handle to the problem... it would depend on how many mummies and ghasts were running around. It was all that they could do for Restov in the situation. Ebana was not the only ally the Ankou, Orsig, had gathered, and the presence of a Rusalka witch was perhaps the more dangerous threat given that fae breed's inherent immunity to natural fire.

In light of that it almost certainly made sense to send Tristian with Kassil... but the cleric of Sarenrae would need to remain here, and close at hand. Shaoyu had the advantage of the cold iron longsword taken from the tatzylwyrm's small collection of treasure. Eranex had her concerns of facing the Ankou, who's claws were purposefully made to harm other fae, and the Shae would be immune to her breath weapon on top of that.

Jaethal was right. "If what she has said is true then we will need a second party." That was why Tristian needed to be here. Any undead force in the Stolen Lands would need to be dealt with, so Tristian, Regongar, Octavia, and Amiri comprising at least part of a second force with probably Perlivash joining a contingent of Eranex's own coterie of faerie dragons and other fae That would hopefully be enough of a force to block a significant number of potentially ravenous undead that the cleric of Ranalc might have created.

Eire wanted to grumble that if it wasn't one thing it was another, but at least they had manpower in this situation to leave a potent enough force in the capital for the time being. That would once again leave Valerie in command, with Kesten and Harrim available to assist, as well Kaessi, and in all likelihood the sweet teeth, and some additional support to manage the countryside.

Perhaps the best news was that they would be able to sail basically the entire length of the Gudrin river from the Tuskwater, and thus Shrikewall docks, to Lake Silverstep.

"We have one other issue," There was a pause, seemingly for dramatic effect, "that is being overlooked related to recent events."

He turned left to face Jaethal, "And what would that be?"

"The kobolds."

Eranex was a dragon. That hadn't escaped him, but he hadn't considered how the presence of an adult silver might effect either the sootscales or the southern kobld tribes. The latter were less of a concern. They had less of a defined political organization, or at least a less authoritative one because they were less organized and smaller... but with the faire going they couldn't leave Shrikewall immediately , and ducking the kobolds would be impossible to do for the duration... which meant contending with introductions at the very least.

Not have received a verbal acknowledgement Jaethal continued to needle him about the matter for a few minutes.

"No you are correct. I am sure the sootscales must think they live in a time of myths come again." Linzi liked that turn of phrase, and the idea of interrogating... interviewing the various kobolds who lived in the capital about Eranex's visit. While the halfing was enthused by the prospect of doing that she wasn't so excited to leave the council meeting in order to go ask them questions.
--
Notes: This week looks to be increasingly stupid hence I am outline the following tentative update schedule: JumpChain (Probably PJO, not definitive), Luxen Contracts, Highland Faire Interlude, Turning Chapter Conclusion (Against the Tide), Warlord Timeline, Highland Faire 8

The other possibilities are of course this updating again because while I haven't finished Varnhold vanishings arc bout half through, I've got spare content. There are other misc Battletech stuff, there are some other things like for example a cultivator esque reinterpretation of Autumn of Empires that I've been playing around with, JumpChain SG1 resuming updates, HPGENFANFIC. It will depend on how the week progresses.