Update #12 33 days until ship arrives
Frederick König translated Entreri's message.
Frederick wrote a message in response, asking Entreri to pronounce the letters on his translation sheet. Within an hour, Frederick simply read words from the translation sheet rather than writing a new message. Frederick stayed in the forest with Entreri overnight, not wishing to endanger his people by bringing a hostage.
The next day, the two of them conversed in the natives' tongue.
"Why can you not explain to your superiors that we are no threat?" Frederick enquired.
"Our society is centred around honour. You have killed more than thirty of my men, and Lord Akar will not let that go."
"Then explain to him that you must sometimes put down your honour to do what is right," Frederick responded.
"I cannot. He already dislikes me for my tolerance of the peasantry - if I put down any more of our traditional values," Entreri paused, as though remembering some tragic event, "he and the other Lord of the Kingdom, Lord Bruenor of Castle Tinilith, will expel me from the Kingdom."
"Then refuse to be expelled, with force if need be. From what I understand, the peasants should prefer you over them."
"Ah, but the peasants are not fighters."
Frederick gathered his thoughts, considering how he could respond. "Where I come from, if the commoners do not like the decisions of a leader, and the leader refuses to back down, they will oppose him. I have seen farmers who have never before lifted a sword be more than a match for bandits. If you care strongly about something, you will do whatever it takes."
And the two of them sat there, contemplating what they would do next.
Myles Luttrel was recovering. He had been tended to non-stop, and could now move around in a chair equipped with wheels. The outer walls of the fortress were outfitted with stones and it was now stable enough to begin constructing floors. The gates were now reinforced, and featured a portcullis in addition to thick slabs of stone - melted and then moulded into shape.
Aiten Javenkis felt terrible for what he had done. There had been a chance to make peace, but his need to kill in addition to the suggestion of The Shadow ensured that an attack would go down. The next morning, Aiten packed his things and headed towards the pilgrims' base, intending to surrender and have them do to him whatever they wished. For too long had he thought only of himself. He had killed over a hundred people in his lifetime, never feeling a thing. But when he had his arrow trained on Myles, something happened in his brain. To the people of the future, it would have been referred to as a release of oxytocin in the brain of a psychopath. To the people of these lands, it would have been said that Aiten Javenkis' heart grew.
The Shadow came back saying that Lord Entreri had been taken by the savages, and that in two days they should attack and rescue him. Aiten said nothing, fearful for his life. Every man present, save for Aiten, heartily agreed.
When Aiten reached the pilgrims' base, he dropped his weapons and put his hands on his head. Myles came out in his wheeled chair to see what was happening, and his heart nearly stopped when he saw Aiten. He stared into the man's eyes and, instead of seeing a heartless killer, he saw a very sad man. He requested that some builders build a cage to keep him in until he could be trusted, and so it was built, with Aiten put inside.
Aiten tried to talk to Myles, but the man did not have his translation sheet and did not understand the spoken tongue of the natives.
Aiten wrote in the sand on the bottom of his spacious cage, and motioned to the building Myles was in. Myles came over and inspected the writing, trying to remember what was on his cheat sheet. It read:
Myles, trusting the prisoner, let him demonstrate what he was going to do and, after agreeing to it, Aiten was brought - at swordpoint - to the makeshift operating table.
Myles was given anaesthetic for the operation and when he awoke, he felt almost no pain at all. He was able to stand, though he walked with a limp which Aiten assured would go away in a week.
That night, the mercenaries attacked. A man standing guard on a tower was the first to die. While scanning the trees, he took an arrow through the left eye.
Aiten, unable to sleep and with a clear view of the tower, saw the man fall backwards over the wall, and the man in the tower across from him immediately after.
He started shouting a word which he had assumed meant attack in the foreigners' tongue.
The settlement exploded into action. Within minutes, there were armed soldiers standing behind the gates and archers looking for targets on the dark beach.
As though a single mind, the natives charged at the same moment, rushing towards the wall. A couple were shot down, but most made it to the edge of the wall - out of reach of the archers. Strong and agile, most of the mercenaries simply climbed the wall, gripping gaps between the stones lining it.
As the first native jumped over the wall, the gates were thrown open. Most of the natives, fearing shots from the archers should they reach the top of the wall, jumped down and ran to the gate.
The native who crossed the wall first ran inside the closest building, a residence. Three soldiers followed him inside. But the native didn't care. He lit a torch and dropped it to the ground, the flames hungrily licking the wood floor, and jumped out a window to land on the main street, where battle was frenetic.
A few natives had died, but most of the casualties so far had been to the pilgrims.
The Shadow, sneaking around the walls and entering the camp from the ocean, saw Aiten in the cage. Coming up from behind, he held his torch to the wooden structure until it caught fire, then ran. When Aiten realized his cage was on fire, an entire corner was blazing.
Their numbers halved, many pilgrims began to flee. Some, namely Uthag, Myles, Patrick, Frederick and Gunter, fled into the fortress, closing its doors shut behind them. Frederick, who had spent the last several days building the fortress, led them down to an underground passage, and they paused to catch their breath.
As the pilgrims who had not fled were killed, attention was drawn to the trapped Aiten. Many mercenaries went up to his cage and spat at him.
Hearing screams, Frederick König and Entreri rushed to the settlement to see several burning buildings and the gates wide open. Entreri was not scared to fight these men. He now knew that he should do what is right, not what is tradition. As he walked in through the gates, the mercenaries flocked around him, asking questions such as "Where were you?" or "What should we do next?". Entreri looked at the Old Man, the wisest there, and gave his orders.
"Cease the attack, put out the fires and tend to the wounded foreigners. This is not the way."
The Old Man looked at Entreri contemptuously. "You call yourself a Lord? A real leader would have directed us in battle, not cowered in the bushes!" Cheers of agreement erupted.
Entreri stared at the Old Man. "I seek not to do what is tradition, but that which is right. We
can make peace with these foreigners, if only we would try."
The Old Man swung his staff over his head, intending to smash Entreri's skull. Instead, his staff hit naught but thin air.
Entreri thrust himself to the side, stabbing one mercenary with his sword and another with his dagger. Using the wounded men as boosters, he leaped over the throng of mercenaries and ran to the other side of the burning building.
Down the road, behind the mercenaries, Frederick found Aiten screaming for help. Frederick swung his sword at the cage, cutting through the weakened wood as though it were ribbon and grabbed Aiten, pulling him out of the smoky cage.
As he left the smoke, Aiten began coughing.
"Th-cough thank... you...
Entreri hid behind the edge of the burning building, and when the first mercenary came around the corner, he slid his sword into the man's side, then thrust his dagger into another man's heart.
As more mercenaries neared him, he ran around the other side of the building, narrowly avoiding being hit by flaming debris. Entreri sliced his sword across the neck of one mercenary, and swung it around to lop off of the arm of another before sprinting out the main gates and into the forest.
Frederick König helped Aiten to his feet, then walked him over to his weapons, which were in a neat pile outside the bonfire that was once a cage.
A mercenary noticed them and ran towards them, then flew away from them with the help of an arrow.
"Now we run, archer," Frederick whispered, and the two of them ran to the ocean, around the wall and into the forest, meeting up with Entreri.
In the sand between the wall and the forest, a body lay staring at the sky, though its eyes saw nothing. Lord Akar, Ruler of the Kingdom, had been shot by one of the archers.
697134002 +1 Weapon Skill
Sag the Pilgrim +1 Building Skill
Jake +1 Strength
Andy +1 Constitution
Arogon +1 Building Skill
Sag the Native +1 Intelligence
Spyboticsguy +1 Weapon Skill
LS13 +1 Senses
Decisions for Pilgrims
1: Head further down the tunnel; it opens up into the mines and you could escape from there
2: Hold your position
3: Exit the fortress and search for survivors among the carnage
Decisions for Mercenaries
1: Head out to search for Entreri and kill him
2: Search for survivors and kill them
3: Other
Decisions for Aiten
1: Suggest that the three of you head to a village in the Kingdom where Entreri had mustered support when he was overthrown several years ago
2: Suggest that you look for survivors in the settlement
3: Flee Frederick and Entreri