4 Nuzyael 720

When Kugald draws even with Thorin and Neirin, "I guess they want to parlay. There could be more archers hidden in the woods. I suggest we sling our shields but keep them with us."

Kugald rotates his shield so it is slung over his back by the strap. He drives his spear into the ground and gestures for Thorin to do the same. "Neirin, wait here with your bow strung but no arrow nocked. If they fire on us, we will be depending on you to cover our escape."

Thorin and Kugald walk forward, hands in plain sight. They stop two good sword lengths apart from the Ibanvaalese. The ever direct Kugald says, "So, what do you want?"

TTYL

- Kerry

The taller of the two men replies "Well Daas, I thought you would be more gracious in victory. Perhaps next time my cousins will show you next you meet." the smaller of the two has a slight smile upon his face at this remark.

"But that is not what you asked, my companion and I wish to surrender to you!" the man adds.

"Gracious? Yes, I would be, had the battle not opened with a cowardly volley of arrows from the trees. A number of our men lie dead or wounded this day. That will put any warrior in a snippy mood first thing in the morning." Kugald replies.

The muscular weaponcrafter looks down on the little Ibanvaaler and smiles, wolfishly, like he would happily rip off his head with his bare hands and shit down his throat (OOC: Intimidation attempt). He takes a leisurely moment to wipe off the arterial spray, from the throat of the warrior he had nearly beheaded, from his hands. "I think you will find the Daas more than ready to meet you in battle...little man." Kugald finishes by bringing his hand to his mouth and flexing his massive biceps. He licks the blood off the back of his hand. He pauses, thoughtfully and shakes his head, "I have tasted your Ibanvaaler blood. I find it thin and weak. Too much southern softness."

"But this battle is finished."

"I accept your surrender. Drop your weapons. The Daas will be interested...to speak with you."

TTYL

- Kerry

The taller of the two men looks as though he about to retort but thinks better of it and remains silent. Both men offer up their weapons without fuss, both carry handaxes, a dagger is sheathed on their belts and the each have a shield.

Kugald waves forward Neirin, Algared and Jurri.

He speaks in a low voice so the prisoners won't hear. "They aren't carrying any food either. They must have a camp or a larger force somewhere. Madrin and I will take the prisoners back to the boat."

"Neirin, you take Thorin, Algared and Jurri and scout the woods. Do not take any unnecessary risks. Your job is to observe and report. If you come across their camp and there is no one there, or just one or two, search if you think it is safe. I trust your judgement. If you find a larger force, get a quick estimate of it's size and then report back here at double time."

"You have four fingers of the rising sun (OOC: approximately one hour). If you don't find anything by then, come back to the boat. We sail as soon as the captain is ready, but we will wait for you."

"You all fought well today. Don't tempt Sarajin unnecessarily."

Kugald gathers up the Ibanvaalers' weapons and his own spear and leads them down to the waterfront.

TTYL

- Kerry

Meanwhile, Hovik is moving faster than the fingers on a one-handed harper. The shipwright has a terrible chest wound, and Hovik calls Jurri over to help him. After a minute or two of desperate work, with Hovik's knife flying, Hovik cuts the man's trouser leg off and wraps his chest. "Jurri - hold this just like this . . . don't let that part open up again." And Hovik is off to the next.

He enlists a couple of the unwounded sailors. One of the enemy has a similar wound, and Hovik proceeds with just as much diligence. In a couple minutes, our sailor is doing the same as Jurri - and holds the life of his enemy in his hands. The other sailor is set to finding some cloth for bandages - anything clean he can find. Then Hovik sets him to washing and binding all the minor injuries. "Wash them all in cold water, get all the grit and dirt out." To the group he says, "We're not going anywhere until every wound has been cleaned and bandaged. If you want my help on the gaping chest wounds, you take my help on the scratches. That's the deal."

One of the sailors has a belly wound. It's not as serious as the other two, but Hovik treats it similarly.

Next Hovik takes a look at the flesh wounds. There is a hand, a thigh, and a shoulder to take care of. He looks at each and judges their severity. Then, after a quick cleaning and binding, he tells each of them, "We'll stitch this up later. For now, lay here and don't move. The more you move, the longer it will take to heal."

Among the enemy there is a broken nose and a pierced eye. He looks at them briefly, then tells the sailor with the bandages to add them to the list to get cleaned up.

And then it's back to the chest wounds.

Sheld interrupts Hovik to ask, "What if we loaded all our wounded aboard the 'waverider' we could have them all back in Ygesdram by mid afternoon at the latest if the wind holds" he pauses and then adds "and if the wind changes at least we will be a lot closer to home if we have to move them by land."

Hovik responds dismissively. "I'm sure they'll appreciate the smell of the corpses in Ygesdram, captain. These men don't move until I'm done, and that is going to be a while. In the meantime, you can see about rigging up three gurneys. Do you know what I mean?"

Then, seeing the captain has been less than diligent with his own wound, he says sharply. "And, by the Elkyries, you let that sailor wash that wound of yours like I told him to! Don't tell me it's just a scratch. I've seen limbs rot off from smaller scratches because they weren't cleaned properly."

"Kugald - These men are half-starved."

Jurri will assist with the wounded until sent on the scouting mission (he'll find a sailor to take over for him with Hovik's patient, or perhaps Madrin). As soon as he can, he'll join Neirin's group. If his shield is too damaged, he'll pause to collect an intact one from the loot, and maybe grab a hand-axe as well.

Before they leave, he'll point out his drum to Kugald. "If you need to signal us to return..."

Sheld nods his understanding to Hovik saying "I shall have it seen to as soon as the stretchers are done." Turning away he calls out to his master shipwright "Berkal, get to work we need three stretchers for the wounded, put your talents to good use will you!"

The shipwright nods his head turns to see everyone else is occupied and taking a few tools from the boat heads off towards the stand of trees.

Sheld then returns to have his wound treated...

Neirin counts his remaining arrows and waits for the scouting party to assemble. He would prefer to travel alone (knowing that most of these men will be as quiet as cattle tromping through the woods), but sees no reason to disobey Kugald's order, as it will be good to have company if there is another attack. He hopes that the others with him won't be inspired to perform a suicidal attack if they find a larger encampment.

[OOC]

Hi all, I'm currently away from home on vacation and online access is proving more difficult that I had hoped. I might not be able to reply to threads until I return home this coming weekend.

Neil: Neirin will lead the scouting party as Kugald has indicated, tracking back over the trail left by the attackers (on their way to the battle) to see where they came from.

Cheers,
Brian

Kugald and Madrin arrive back at the 'Waverider'. They have the sailors tie up the two additional prisoners and load them onto the boat under guard.

Kugald goes in search of the Captain. "I think these are the last two attackers. However, I asked four of the others to quickly scout the woods to make sure there aren't any more raiders hiding there. They will be back within the hour. I think it will take Hovik at least that long to bandage up all the casualties."

OOC: I am departing for HarnCon tomorrow morning. I may or may not have connectivity at my hotel tomorrow night. In my absence, Neil can direct Kugald as he sees appropriate.

Hovik shrugs. "A quarter-watch to mend these men? More like a half day."

After finishing with the most serious case, Hovik moves on to the enemy with the chest wound. After a minute he calls out to either Kugald or Sheld. "I need more hands. Send over one of the enemy men. Don't worry - he won't attack me while I'm saving his cousin's life."

Assuming Hovik gets a volunteer, he puts him to use daubing up blood and the like. As he goes, Hovik asks him a few questions. He starts with, "You look famished. When was the last time you ate?" From there he goes on to, "You had to be pretty desperate to attack these Menglanans like that. How did you end up in such a bad way?" He'll take it slowly, with lots of "hold this" and "press here" and "don't let that get dirty" instructions in between questions.

Thorin scouts with Neirin and Algared, looking for additional men, and/or cache's.

"The men appear half starved. Likely they didnt bring enough food with them, and/or foraging has been sparse. What do you think Neirin?"

Are these men Ibanvaalers that crossed the mountains?
How long have they been in Menglana?

Are they deserters?

The enemy warrior glady helps out "He is not my cousin, he is a good friend and I will gladly help you save his life, I am Ruusin Valstrom." The man offers you his assistance as best he can.

Ruusin tilts his head and says "It must be close to five maybe six days since we ate a good meal, Garin" indicating the dead archer "did his best to feed us with what he could find but it was never enough for all of us."

"We were supposed to patrol into the Kejelrain Mountain, but after three days we became lost. It was not my idea to attack you, but we are starving and Malstaar our leader" as he indicates with his head the man with the arrow through his eye "thought we might be able to feed ourselves and not be detected if we took your supplies by force."

"We wandered the mountains for quite some time, before we manage to get out of the mountains and into the hills. We were quite lost, then from the trees we could see plowed fields and thought we were safe but none of the thrans looked familiar so thinking we had gone to far south began to head north." Then with a hint of sadness in his voice "It will be a mistake I shall regret for the rest of my life. For surely now I am a war thrall."

Ruusin finding comfort in conversation given the sight before him adds "We still have no idea where we are!"

Hovik continues chatting.

"Well, Ruusin, you're probably right about the thrall part. But better a live thrall than a dead huscarl. I should know. I've been a thrall all my life."

"More pressure there. Good."

"But what were you looking for out here?"

"Perhaps you are right." he looks at Hovik with a slight smile "Perhaps it is better to be a live thrall than dead" after a pause he adds "I suppose I will find out."

Ruusin laughs "Huscarl, no not me, I am a cook!"

Ruusin shrugs his shoulders when Hovik asks what they were looking for. "I don't know, what does one look for when you are at war."

GM wrote:Ruusin shrugs his shoulders when Hovik asks what they were looking for. "I don't know, what does one look for when you are at war."

"A way to survive, Ruusin. I think that does it for this man. Stay by him and tell me if there is any change."

Next is the sailor with the sailor with the belly wound, then the hand wound, then the shoulder. Next up is Malstaar, soon to be known as "One-eye".

Hovik handles him alone. He is is usual efficient self, and he proceeds exactly as he would with any other patient. However, while he works he also talks. "In the course of your treatment I am going to ask you a series of questions. Understand that no matter how you answer I am going to treat your injuries with all the skill at my command, which I assure you is quite considerable. You may choose to tell me the truth, or you may choose to be quiet - it won't matter to how I take care of you. However, after I am done you will belong to Kugald over there, and I assure you that he is not honor-bound like I am to assure your well-being."

"Now I want you to sit on your hands and be very still for this next part. No matter what you feel, do not move, and especially don't move your hands."

"As long as you are under my care you are safe. I am the only man who can do anything for you. Do you understand me?"

If Hovik gets an affirmative response, he will ask, "What exactly were you looking for?"

Ruusin nods his head "True, Hovik, you don't need more than do you, just survive" giving your instructions to Ruusin he nods his understanding as you make to leave.

"I do not care to answer any of your questions, now." With a slight smile he adds "if I tell you, what incentive is there for you to keep me alive."

"Aye!" says Malstaar to your instructions. He tries to remain as still as he can, every now and then he flinches with pain from your ministrations.

He remains silent otherwise during your treatment but when you ask your final question he says "What ever I may have been looking for I could not see it with this hunk of wood in my eye!" he says with a hint of regret.

GM wrote:"I do not care to answer any of your questions, now." With a slight smile he adds "if I tell you, what incentive is there for you to keep me alive."

"I don't need an incentive. Keeping people alive is what I do. As I said, you are safe with me."

GM wrote:
He remains silent otherwise during your treatment but when you ask your final question he says "What ever I may have been looking for I could not see it with this hunk of wood in my eye!" he says with a hint of regret.

"Well, the wood is gone now. I am almost done. As I said I would, I ministered to you the same whether you spoke or not. But that will not be true with Kugald. Are you sure you prefer his treatment to mine?"

"It is obvious by your 'caring touch' you are no warrior and so when I tell you we were out looking for things warriors should know it will mean nothing to you." he says with a scowl "Now if you have finised, leave me be! Let your Kugald perform his treatment it means little to me now!"

Hovik chuckles. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I sure don't do this because I "care". I do this because it's the Ljarl. My code is far harsher than your warrior's code. My code would crush your small mind like a rotten fruit beneath a boot. Sarajin favors me with the power of life and death. I am his most useful servant, and of me he is most demanding."

"Kugald, on the other hand, is a rather undisciplined sort. You will relate easily to his direct ways. I am sure he will attend to you in a moment."

Hovik finishes patching him up, then finds Kugald for a private conversation. "That one's the leader. The others don't seem to know what the mission was, but I think it's pretty obvious. They traveled entirely in the wilderness, and got so lost that they still don't know where they are, even though they are on the river. They had to be looking for the pass."

"Now, it could be that the Ibanvaalers just had the idea that there might be a pass on their own. But I don't think they'd nearly kill themselves looking if they didn't have reason to believe it exists. It could also be that someone left in Froyby knew about it - but again, I doubt it. I didn't know about the pass, and I spent more time in the hills than most. Most likely, the Ibanvaalers have a spy in Ygesdram."

"Which means the Daas could be walking into a trap."

"The man's name is Malstaar. He seems typical of the type. Full of false courage. Prepared to deal with torture and threats of death. But stupid enough to insult a man holding a scalpel to his eye. He's yours now."

After several hours of work, all the urgent cases are handled. Hovik is exhausted. Not since the fall of Froyby has he had such an intense session. He walks back to the boat and asks a sailor for something to eat and drink. Then he sits quietly and ponders the fact that this morning's battle was just a tiny foretaste of what is to come. He sees Kugald, Algared, and the others looking confident and proud. And he says to himself, "And which of you will someday feel my knife?"

With Hovik now finished his handiwork, all the wounded have been stabilised as best as they can and the scouting party now returned to the main group, Sheld orders the boat be loaded and made ready to sail.

Those of the crew that are able unbeach the 'waverider' and board, Sheld soon has her underway. It is now mid morning and with the wind still blowing in from the north east Sheld orders the boat to make 3/4 sail.

Sheld takes the tiller himself as the boat now makes good time towards Ygesdram. The 'erste' continues to badger the crew with orders as he watches their every action and is continually talking to his crew and keeping them focused on the job at hand, the crew have merged into one watch as all the healty crew man the sails and watch the river ahead for dangers.

Upon returning to the camp Algared approached Kugald and Sheld and tells them what they found, or more precisely what they didn't find. He mentions that they seem to have come from the south and hills and mountains. As he speaks he raises his suspicions that "this patrol has gone missing and whatever they were doing in the hills will likely result in a belief they encountered a enemy force and been eliminated, thus resulting in increased forces being placed there to face the threat, at least that will mean the Storzar has a few less to worry about."

Once the scouting party has finished informing their companions of their discoveries Algared goes and sits with Hovik speaking quietly with as the able bodied begin loading in preparation to set sail.

Kugald looks with awe at Hovik as he bandages up the injured from the battle. "Excellent job my friend, good thing I didn't just turn you over to your former masters, no? It is good to know you will be there when, not if, I am wounded in the future."

He listens with interest to the report of Neirin and the others. "Well, at least there doesn't seem to be a larger band hiding in the woods. The Daas will be interested to hear that the Ibanvaalese are sending scouting parties in the mountains. We will let him decide for himself what is the significance."

Kugald pitches in and helps unbeach the 'Waverider' and offers his services to the Captain as a crew member, if required. He is looking forward to getting back to Ygesdram. This straight forward delivery job has proved much more exciting that he had imagined it would be.

TTYL

- Kerry (yay, I have an internet connection in my hotel room)

Hovik shrugs at Kugald's statement. A waits a few moments, and again talks privately with Kugald. "If you want to get anything out of Malstaar, I recommend you do it now, while he is still unsure of his situation. By the time we get to Ygesdram he'll have had plenty of time to gather his composure. He's a strong enough man that he'll resist any questioning by the Daas. But he is not that smart. If I'm wrong and he's just an ordinary patrol, so be it. But if I'm right and he's looking for the pass, the Daas needs to know. Your best chance to find out is right now."