I. The Stolen Lands : 1.3 South Fort : Oleg's outpost & first contacts with the bandits

Southfort

Perched on a grassy promontory, stood the ancient South Fort, formerly built by the power of Restov as an outpost in the stolen lands. In reality, it had not seen any Rostian soldier for at least a century . The building, constructed of dark wooden logs, was displaying its military origin despite a certain decay.

South Fort also know as Oleg's trading post

It had become under the impulse of an industrious settler a modest but essential trading post for the few inhabitants of the region, whether they were trappers, prospectors, lumberjacks or adventurers.

Oleg Leveton and his beautiful wife Svetlana were providing them with the material, food and manufactured goods they imported from Restov for trade in skins or gold dust.

Oleg Leveton

The ruined watchtowers encircled a brand new market hall under which ran a weekly fair that attracted many locals. The Heroes and their cortege arrived in South Fort shortly after dark and under heavy rains. They were greeted by Oleg in the light of a torch. He invited them to come in, thinking  they were the soldiers he was waiting for and led them to the big yard. The Heroes then noticed that other people had arrived and were sheltering under the hall or in the stables.

Oleg drove them to the common room where a fire in the hearth welcomed them. Inside stood a pot full of stew. At first, Svetlana remained quite reserved, but she'd soon bombard the Heroes with questions. It ensued the bitter disappointment of the couple learning that they were not the guards Restov was supposed to have sent to protect the fort. Angry Oleg left the common room to install other visitors arriving in the outbuildings and then went to bed without a word.

Svetlana still shaken by the bad news explained the terrible situation in which the couple was. A group of brigands led by an inflexible woman named Kressle, was racketeering them each and every month, dispossessing them of half their earnings and their merchandise. They threatened to kidnap Svetlana to have fun with her if they did not submit. From then on then, they had come every month during a day of market to take their toll and make sure the inhabitants who came to trade did not forget who was in charge.

Svetlana Leveton

NPC : Oleg and Svetlana Leveton (owners of South fort outpost)

Oleg and Svetlana Leveton settled in the Stolen Lands to escape the crowd and the unsettling police climate that decay the urban life of Restov. All that Oleg hoped for this outpost was that it would allows him, his wife and their future children, to live simply near the magnificent nature of the Green Belt, but still benefit to from some minimal comfort.

Oleg and Svetlana have spent the last 2 years restoring the old fort and building their trading post. They worked very hard to do so and succeeded in making of the place a meeting area for the spread out community of these wild lands.

A market day like the others : Bandits !

In the morning most traders had arrived.

Amra, a Kellid hunter living on the Kamelands who arrived before daybreak, was selling furs (wolves, yellow foxes and aurochs). He brought with him a huge piece of smoked Auroch meat which the Fort's visitors usually love.

Trappers Ketill, Maltinus, Zvekleni were offering beaver and marten furs, and elk hides stretched on trellises made out of branches.

Another, named Vigo manufactured auroch leather articles, and his wife Martizia weaved linen fabrics and made basketry. They had a disheveled and muddy little girl named Kima, constantly laughing and running around.

Prospectors Iqem Marstov, Hieronim, Zavic and Old Rolf were exchanging gold dust and tiny silver nuggets against food and equipment. Another one named Urfat, had his family with him. 3 children aged 2, 6 and 12, his wife was sick and stayed at their camp.

Woodcutters, Ezra, Vilku, Trabo, Mendell and Lothar traded the wood charcoal they made at their settlement in the Grand Forest, but also choped firewood or timber on demand. They could build honest bows and manufacture good hunting arrows. Usually, they agreed with local residents on a price, looked for a suitable timber forest close to a building place, and they'd cut the wood on site and build a cabin in a few week. Later on in the story, they would conclude a contract with Oleg to enhance the fort's walls and with Algernei the procurer, for a future brothel in the woods.

A woman living alone deep into the Grand Forest called Sarfi was selling berries, aromatics and medicinal herbs.

Bokken, a worn down alchemist, also a former military surgeon and a hermit, healed wounds and dental decay. He was also selling his home-brewed potions. During the day he would spend quite some time in Algernei's carts to take care of the prostitutes he had a lot of pity for.

Oleg was selling alcohol, weapons (mainly cutlasses, hunting spears and arrowheads), various food which came dried (meat and fruits) or in brine (fish, onions or cabbage) but also broad beans, salt and honey. He also traded some hardware such as basic tools and prospecting equipment. The general store also served as a tavern where the few travellers or more frequently local visitors came to enjoy a warm meal, a cold beer, or even once in a while a boiling hot bath. He and Svetlana raised a few pigs in their courtyard and had grown a vegetable garden to provide for their livelihood and feed their customers with fresh products.

On market day Oleg presided at an outside bar and rotisserie distributing meat slicers, bean soup with herbs and kettled beer or mulled wine. The outpost was the only island of civilisation in the entire region. The trader bought the goods and products of the locals at a relatively modest price with metal coins, and negotiated them with merchants of Restov for a comfortable mark up. This especially benefited to Algernei which therefore could get paid in cash and not in nature as it was the custom in the Green Belt.

Outside the enclosure, but nevertheless visible all the same, were stationed the 3 trailers belonging to the pimp and which sheltered the prostitutes who worked for him. He was often seen seating under a tent, busy drinking mulled wine, laughing out loud with his henchmen, and collecting the subsidies of his clients.

The atmosphere was quite rough but nevertheless very warm, and merry and pleasant. One of the prospectors even played the Jew's harp while another accompanied him by rattling bone spoons on his laps, driving two hairy woodcutters in a frenzied jig.

Happs and his friends

It was then that heavy gallop of a dozen horseman was heard. Some even entered the fort on their mounts, others stayed at the entrance to visit Algernei's girls.

A heavy silence felt on the market as Happs Bidden, a tall bandit in a rugged green cloak, and two of his men headed towards Oleg and demanded to be served. They overthrown the cutlery and dishes on the trestles, pushed the customers already installed and settled at their place, sneering. Happs ordered the two other brigands to collect their "tax". He then got up and rummaged through the stalls, spitting salacious remarks to the few women around.

As the Heroes immediately reacted and intervened, Happs challenged them to test them. Even as boorish as he was, he soon noticed weapons and armours as they were ostensibly worn. When they came to talk about colonising the stolen lands and carrying a charter from Restov, Happs shared an irrepressible laughter. He alludied that other settlers tried it in the past and would have done better to stay in their crapy home village back in Brevoy...

Heroes being heroes, it quickly turned into a quick but violent melee. The brigands who were not expecting resistance were partly disposed of, left dead or seriously wounded.

Happs suddenly withdrawn and snatched the little Kima as hostage, his knife on her throat. He then jumped on a horse and fled as quick as he was capable of. Less than a minute later, he unceremoniously dumped the child in the grass when he got confident enough with the distance he had put between him and the camp to start worrying of the extra load she represented.

3 wounded bandits survived the fight and were taken as prisoners. The question quickly arises : what to do with those fellows? Our heroes were definitely far from prepared to own the responsibility of justice...

NPC : 

Bokken the alchemist

Long serving the warlords of the river kingdoms, Bokken had officiated in all the armies of this region as a battle surgeon. Driven by the desire to save lives and the passion for medicine and anatomy, he was confronted with so much horrors that he took refuge in the Kamelandes to find some peace. But he was to face in this remote wilderness as much suffering as elsewhere. The massacre of a Brevian colony in the South particularly five years ago shocked him as he periodically visited them prior to the attack. That's why he's been so eager to take care of ladies working for Algernei as they were to his knowledge the only survivors of the former settlement*.

* This episode will be told later on in the story by Algernei.

He is looking for his brother who is according to him a murderer, without giving more explanation.

He also needs very specific plants or mineral components to brew his potions and he may make a good use of adventurers with some knowledge about nature.

He is very familiar with the river kingdoms and is not very optimistic when he learns Restov's initiative to pacify Hooktongue.

The idea of ​​seeing new settlers reminds him of very bad memories. He does not really know how to take the annexation of the Stolen Lands and especially if it's going to do any good to the local population or just trigger a new blood bath.

Amra, nomadic hunter and former member of the Tiger Lords tribe.

Amra is a lean but muscular man with a bronze skin and dark long hair. He wears delicate bone jewelry such as a large sculpted smyllodon tooth hanging around his neck. He speaks clearly Brevian but with a strong Kellid accent. Amra is clad in suede leather and furs. He wears openly bow and spear. Dwelling in the Kamelands, he lives a nomadic hunter's life following aurochs herds in the plains. He left his tribe because a new leader claimed to be the reincarnation of a legendary hero of the past. Amra was supposed to succeed to his father as a small clan chief but when the frenzy of the tribes got out of control and they got themselves a crazy man as a king, Amra just took off with his wife and kids. Amra just wants to live free and in peace with his family, and a market day once in a while is the exact level of social interaction he's willing to have.

Later in the story, some barbarian riders of his tribe will attempt to capture Amra during the Archer's Day festival and drag him back home.


Next : I. The Stolen Lands : 1.4 Stories about previous settlements and the rule of the Staglord