Something gets Ryubi up in the middle of the night and he decides to take a stroll as a citizens watch sort of thing around the perimiter of the Fort looking for new tracks of bandits or other oddities. He likes this idea and begins doing it every night that he can.
(He casts true sight and invisiblity while on his night patrols)
For the most part Ryubi sees the usual business of the fort at night, with merchants and craftsmen gone to bed and the noise of chatter and logging on hold. Globes of light move past him, carried by soldiers on watch, and he is challenged now and again when someone heard what they could not see.
Near the end of one of his nightly wanderings, as a mist rolls off the lake, he hears from the traders' tents a child crying, and someone comforting it, hushing that the bad people are gone and won't be brought again by the fog.
On the whole, at least he can rest comfortably knowing that long walks are good for one's constitution.
Rumor has it in Fort Wayfare that a woman showed up at the barracks looking for Captain Tunnings in order to report on an attack on the road that occurred on a misty morning and started with arrows, rather than threats or demands. She claims she should have died, but was saved by a Lana Poetr and her husband, Daniel. The few traders still holding out on getting their goods back murmur in their tents, perhaps feeling luckier than they did the day before.
The body of the fallen was dealt with in a perfunctory way by militia, and after the local fashion. It entered into their care wrapped in a shroud and slung over Sir Daniel's white horse.
For several weeks after this incident, things returned to normal on the lake road. After the last firsthand report had seemed to indicate a sudden increase in aggression, soldiers were spared from Wayfare to extend patrols along half the Center road's length. This is welcomed by those who were fearful, and a source of complaint by some caravans simply trying to get on with things without inconvenience on top of the already considerable risks of the road. The last of the traders at the Fort who had lost cargo were forced to write off their losses or increase them by staying, and finally moved on. Fishermen spend the time of relative quiet repairing their old vessels or building new ones -- some simply logs lashed together to get fishing again as soon as possible.
Though no one personally aided a certain gnomish mage's apprentice, who had told passersby of a bandit-fighting plan gone awry and the loss of his master's tools, his errors were summarily corrected by adventurers who met the animated devices on the road. Unfortunately for the apprentice, his master's tools were never recovered, and he was dismissed and left behind when the mage continued on.
Mari joins Fort Wayfare's militia, having knowledge of basic weaponry, a background of following orders, and "nowhere to be". There is grumbling from a few quarters at this, most audibly the young soldier named Kant, who pointed out that she'd failed in her last guarding job and her employer was dead. Kant, who had already been disciplined by singlehandedly dealing with all the excrement of the herd of cattle that had moved inside the Fort, was sent east on a busywork investigation near Lake Dantuc.
The lull ends with the death of a handful of militia on the lake road. A caravan, unmolested by any who might have been responsible, hurried on to Wayfare to gossip about the scene. When investigated, fellow soldiers found their comrades had almost certainly killed one another, as the ground was torn from their melee and their bodies had fallen in the grips of one another. Their weapons were collected and wagons used to cart the dead back to the Fort.
Kant returns to Wayfare to address reports of more banditry activity on the route to Lake Dantuc (which itself seems to be having a problem with elementals), which smaller caravans took at times for the security of passing through the fort when they could not hire their own guards. They are done extorting supplies and coin from passersby, apparently, as their leader had been flushed out and dealt with after whittling down their numbers over time. When discussed off-duty at the tavern, he certainly does not turn away a drink that assumes his involvement, which grows the more he has. After an hour or so he has declared the lake (Splendor) attacks completely dealt with...
*Passing by the town, and hearing about the exploits of Kant, the gnuman nods and says to himself *
- Oh i know that one will get far, yes sir, I am glad that he finished with those bandits, Somehow i am glad that he was around, if we had not his help, probably we could have more trouble than the small trove of bandits we found while looking for garlic, I'll have to thank him personally for the exclelent job he is doing -
*With this the man continues with his bussiness thru the town*
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Topic: *A report in Fort Wayfare* (Read 2249 times)
