Almaric’s Tale - The Base Camp (aftermath)
Almaric wastes no time in returning to the footlockers and after a quick double-check, opens both with his shield up in case anything goes off - never trust a wizard or an assassin.
Upon opening the right footlocker, Almaric can see that it contains some clothing and personal items, nothing of any immediate value or note. He does, however, find a pouch containing thirty four platinum pieces and four bloodstone gems.
Inside the left footlocker Almaric finds clothing for a woman - Tar-Gallin obviously valued her freedom more than any of her possessions. A leather item he initially thought was a small book, are actually thieves’ pick tools. A pouch holds twenty four gold coins, a silver necklace and a silver ring inset with an opal. He notices some items dumped behind the footlocker including bloodied leather armour, a short sword, and a pouch that contains a small empty vial of some kind.
After searching the footlockers, Almaric moves to the tables and the map, he can see that the thing is very old. It does not look like parchment, but some sort of animal skin. The writing is not like any he has seen before. Most of the map displays the forest, but it somehow seems different. However, the main landmarks are there including the stream and two lakes. The strange writing appears in many places, but one passage appears to point to a location, close to his current position, along a roadway just to the south-east. Almaric knows the map has some value and a sage will surely pay gold for it.
Rolling up the large skin, he looks for something that he can store it in and quickly slips the cover off one of the cushions to fashion a makeshift sack. He quickly places all of his looted items inside.
Now that the large tent has been searched, Almaric goes outside and sets about the other two tents and the pockets of the three brigands.
Inside the north tent Almaric finds six bedrolls and some other personal camp items. After a thorough inspection, he does not find anything of interest.
Within the south tent are another six bedrolls and some more personal items. At first glance a single bandit appears to be sleeping but on closer inspection, Almaric realises that he is dead. He obviously died in his sleep, his short sword lies untouched in its scabbard by his side.
A search of all the dead bandits uncovers a total of forty-four gold coins on their bodies. Aside from their armour and weapons, they have nothing else of interest. Thinking of weapons, a cunning thought goes through Almaric’s mind and a sly grin appears on his face.
Leaving the camp, he returns to the fork to the west and hides all his loot. Running back to the burned-out tower, he grabs a dead Kobold and carries it back to the tents - making sure the camp is still deserted before entering. He dumps the Kobold near to the brigands bodies and puts a brigand sword in its corpse.
Going over to a tent, he cuts a piece of material big enough to wrap the map in, hoping that it will protect it from the swim he’ll soon have to make.
As soon a he’s ready, he takes a burning brand from the fire and sets fire to all three tents, making sure the flames are well established before he leaves.
Almaric then runs back to the water, collecting his loot on the way and wrapping the map up in the tent material before plunging into the water and swimming back under the fog to, what he hopes is, safety.
Once again the slight moment of panic as his lungs feel like bursting but then he breaks the surface beyond the fog and into clear air.
Wading ashore, he recovers his backpack and drops onto the ground with his pack and makeshift swag bags in his lap. Glancing back across the water he can just make out the faintest of wisps of black smoke rising above the fog wall from the vicinity of the wizard’s base camp.
[/OOC: Almaric is injured. He is on 6 of 9 Hit Points. Almaric still has MIGHT, LUCK, FINESSE and AUTOMATIC SUCCESS bonuses available for use at any time.]