Gathering Herbs and Tales
Eighth Day of the Tenth Month 293 AC
The clearing the raven's sharp eye directs you towards is about what one might expect, an irregular patch of grass among the moss-shrouded giants of the forest, cut by a small stream tumbling downhill towards the sea. What you had not expected was the forager herself, a red-haired girl counting perhaps twelve or thirteen years dressed in patched green cloth and rough leather, picking out mushrooms and digging for roots on the edges of the forest.
Likely your spies had simply not paid any heed to her youth, knowing neither childhood nor old age themselves. For a moment you wonder if she is perhaps not with the bandits at all but simply strayed here from the nearest village, but dismiss he notion. The construct scouts are far too skilled to have erred so badly and even just looking at her she seems at ease here in the deep woods, like one not so very far from home.
Still, no matter her courage before the beasts and perils of the woods you doubt she would take well to you walking up to her in your true guise and you see no reason to frighten the child. Whatever sins her elders may have committed she is not to blame for them.
Thus you take on a seeming that has served you well many a time and poorly only once. Dywen servant of the old gods and, not so incidentally an hermit who seems as though he has nothing worth stealing, steps out from under the eves of the forest. You clear your throat loudly, causing the girl to jump and whirl about. "Where'd ye come from?" she asks indignantly, probably at the notion that an old man walking with a staff managed to sneak up on her.
"Here and there. I've been to many places before finding myself in these woods and I do not wish to bore you with the tale," you say with an apologetic smile.
"Oh... er... you should know it's not safe hereabouts, gaffer, there's wolves and bears about," she lies, poorly. Likely as not she is worried that you might meet another of her band who would waylay an old hermit on the off chance they might have something worth taking.
"Bears and wolves?" you ask concerned. "Well then, you shouldn't be out here all by yourself surely."
"I know me way about..." she trails off and shakes her head so abruptly one of her braids threatens to come undone. "What the hell, you don't look like an armsman nohow. My folk have a camp near here. You help me gather up truffles and mushrooms and I'll introduce you, so you can sleep warm tonight. Deal?"
"That is very generous of you...?" you pause.
"Oh right, names," the girl says blushing. "Name's Lilly. What's yours?"
"I am Dywen, a traveler and servant of the Old Gods," you reply as you begin to hold up your end of the bargain, carefully picking though moss and liverwort, looking for edible mushrooms to add to the girl's basket.
"The Old Gods, do you know a lot about their magic? Is it true they give you magic powers if you hang up the entrails of your enemies in the branches? That's how Dran says that's the Dragon King got his magic, but pa just says he's touched in the head to try and hanging's the way to go."
"The gods of wood stone and stream do grant boons to those who spill blood in their name yes, though from what I have heard dragons are magical enough without even that," you reply cautiously. "Who have your folk been hanging out here in the woods?"
"Traitors, cause we're the Dragon's Claws." the Lilly says firmly. "We hang all the traitors we catch, save the ones who ain't so bad who get a chance swear new oaths to the dragon and stay with us. Thems that swear falsely get even worse than a hanging." The pride in her words fades at the last word, clearly not wishing to dwell on whatever
worse is.
"Then it seems I will not be able to partake of your hospitality," you sigh. "I have many oaths hanging on these old bones that will carry me far from here."
The girl is quick to reassure you: "You ain't no lord's man looking to pinch us out of our sweat and blood, like the one that drove pa and me from our village, or some merchant growing fat off the spoils like an old blowfly. Things were different in the Old Dragon's time, I heard told. The lords took less 'cause the King wasn't trying to make the lion in the west even more stinking rich. Old king Aerys know his sort and sent him packing with his tail between his legs, and that's why he snuck his son in the Kingsguard to him. When the Young dragon comes, he's gonna take all that gold and spread it to the smallfolk."
You look down to your work, lest the bitterness in knowing that your father is somehow being redeemed in the eyes of these poor folk show through even for a child to see. For a while you keep to that, only speaking up to identify sheep sorrel and wild ginger alongside the mushrooms
"Are there many Dragon's Claws out here in the woods?" you ask as the girl stops to take a drink from her water flask. The question would be likely counted suspicious by a more alert member of the band, but the girl already counts you a harmless old man with interesting tales to tell.
"Three hundred in all spread out over six camps," she answers. "I've only been to visit two others myself, but I still say ours is the finest. Heard told that one of the ones up north has a witch who lays with goat-men in the woods," she adds voice dropping to a scandalized whisper.
If rumor can be trusted the witch can barely work magic of the second circle, though that would be enough for veils and glamors against armsmen with no magic of their own. Otherwise, Lilly does not know of much magic in the woods besides vague tales of a 'mad tree' that's been driving woodcutters off near Mistwood keep.
As you finish filing the basket you consider how to approach the outlaws. They aren't anywhere near as disciplined as the Lads and they have more than their share of innocent blood on their hands, then again that is true of many already in your service.
How do you approach the camps of the Dragon's Claws?
[] Write in
OOC: I'm feeling somewhat conflicted about this update. It was fun to write, but I recognize that it might be too much fluff for information you guys had already guessed. Hopefully it's enjoyable though.
