The Inn of the Pilgrim's Rest
The party wake up in the back of the carriage. As before, Seska and Alina wake first, and Taduz wakes last. Each is wrapped in a heavy wool blanket, which is tucked top and bottom tightly around them. It takes some difficulty to untangle from the blankets, though they're not tied tightly.
Upon exiting the carriage, you find yourselves in a small village, by an inn. Inside this new Inn are Roderigo, Pierre, Bojan, Vida, and Danukas. Roderigo says to Bojan, "And there they are. I suppose I'll be getting the coach ready to go, then. Fill them in on our day's events, please?" Bojan nods to this, and Roderigo heads out to the stables.
Bojan starts out by mentioning that after sunrise, the mortals had to wrap everyone in the wool blankets to get them from the inn into the coach. And they couldn't remove the blankets without exposing you to sunlight as they left the coach afterwards. They'd decided to all follow along, and then drop all but Roderigo off at this village where they could wait for you. They brought all of your mounts with them, just in case.
"But, just outside of town, we… had some trouble. We forded a stream, and then just around the corner there's a tree fallen across the road. When we stopped to move it, out come these brigands. They come at Pierre and Roderigo, who was riding first, not thinking there was any other in the group. Myself and Danukas came up after, and that tipped the scales. There was four of em, which would be a tough fight for any normal group on a coach like that. With four of us, and trained soldiers all of us, we had little trouble with four half-starved brigands. We kill't one right off. Two more of 'em run off. And the last one got hit in the leg and couldn't run. That one says to us, 'There was only supposed to be one of ye!'. We boxed him in the ear a bit, and he shared as how he was put on this job by another. Rich looking' dandy, who gave 'em some wooden stakes and told 'em to expect us. They even knew what the coach looked like."
He chuckled. "Sounded like my old chum Lothar, when he described the dandy, too. But lucky for us, they decided they'd just rob us instead of kill everyone and burn the bodies. They had a couple of deadfalls set up to drop trees onto the coach. It's strong, but it would've cracked like an egg and the sun'd've burnt you down to crisps."
"Roderigo looked the man in the eyes and told him to sleep. We tied him up and then we put him in the carriage with you. Figured someone could use sorcery to find his secrets or somesuch." He points to a man sitting at another table, staring intently at the fire. Closer inspection shows that he's tied to the chair, hands and feet. He has a crude bandage tied around his leg, and several bruises on his face. "Meet Jozsi."
"Roderigo suggested that you all might be a bit hungry, and said he'd love to have some time to question him, but that you couldn't bring the man to where Claudio is holed up. He'd be able to show that we were all together on the way up here. So you'll want him to not survive. It's no worse a fate than the local magistrate would grant to a highway brigand anyway."
"We've got Lord Gedeminas' wagon and team around back, plus our own carriage and horses M'lady. Oh, and the healer's little ass. We didn't know what to do with all of Sabine's dogs. In the end, we decided to leave 'em, only they just got up and started following the coach. Quiet as never you mind, just pacing along. They'd stopped at the stream to drink, or they'd have likely overrun those brigands before we'd even gotten our swords out. Pierre tried to get them to track the two what ran, but that big one… Szolt… just glared at 'em all, and none of 'em would leave the coach at all. So we just came on this way, instead."
Roderigo comes in again, brushing imaginary dust off his hands as he does. "Team's all rigged up again, and the coach is ready to go when you are, Lords and Ladies. The Inn of the Lion is just a couple miles up the road, though it's up the hill a fair slant. Now that it's dark, you can approach and address Claudio and his ilk about what happened."
He walks over to Jozsi, smiling pleasantly. Then he suddenly pounds the bottom of his fist down onto the bandaged part of his leg, making the man scream out. Roderigo's smile is suddenly more wicked than pleasant. "You'd best take what you can from thisun's mind before you take his life's blood. There's little time left."
