He is cloaked in shadows.

We are an owl, we are a nocturnal predator.

There's a lot of things that should balk our eyesight, at least on the topic of general figure, but "The guy is covered in shadows" should not be enough to turn him into a Conan Unmasked Villain.

But, you know, fair. is it daytime or nighttime right now then?
 
I just had a thought, but, would it be possible that if Horra is harboring dwarves, we might be able to get a complaint by the dwarves sent to us against Horra?
 
We are an owl, we are a nocturnal predator.

There's a lot of things that should balk our eyesight, at least on the topic of general figure, but "The guy is covered in shadows" should not be enough to turn him into a Conan Unmasked Villain.

But, you know, fair. is it daytime or nighttime right now then?
Unless the Shadow it is cloaked in is unnatural.

Anyone else feels like Horra is probably working with the Lurkalings?
 
...

When I say cloaked in shadows, I mean cloaked in literal magic shadows.

Nocturnal predator ain't got shit on that.


It is daytime, specifically it is evening.

Alright then, yeah, could be a Dwarf then, sorry if it sounded like I was getting prickly there, I didn't think it was a literal shroud of darkness he was wrapped in, and was a figurative one :p My Aphantasia foiling me again.

I think I'm still thinking about Hasvir, but this could be good too.

Yeah, he's seemingly got way more metal than banditry alone can explain. If he's cut a deal with another Dwarf clan to help them setting up, that might explain it.
 
Alright then, yeah, could be a Dwarf then, sorry if it sounded like I was getting prickly there, I didn't think it was a literal shroud of darkness he was wrapped in, and was a figurative one :p
Thinking back, I totally could've added a line towards the lines of 'though the sun shines bright in the heavens, the shroud of shadows stubbornly clings to the figure's malformed shape.'

Heck, I'll go do that.

Edit: did so and added a little bit of extra information.
 
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Have the Norse invented cheesemaking here?

Yes. In reality they really did rely almost as much on milk for food as we were in the previous management system (at least by my reading), but in real life the cows (and sheep, and goats) didn't give much milk in winter. The answer was, among other things, so much cheese. Cheese for days.

EDIT: The above probably exaggerates their degree of reliance on milk, taking another look, but they did eat a fair bit of cheese, and it (along with butter and skyr) is how they had milk products in winter.
 
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So yeah, looks like both avenues could give us some nice Clues. Hasvir seems to give us clues on where the Bandits are going to hit next (Which lets us intercept when they're vulnerable), while the other one might be a Dwarf involved with the metal disruption.

God, is Horra really responsible for everything that goes wrong in this fucking valley?
 
So yeah, looks like both avenues could give us some nice Clues. Hasvir seems to give us clues on where the Bandits are going to hit next (Which lets us intercept when they're vulnerable), while the other one might be a Dwarf involved with the metal disruption.

God, is Horra really responsible for everything that goes wrong in this fucking valley?
He's... directly working for the guy who's victory condition is "the Norse never advance culturally as a people". So... quite possibly?
 
Nice, so my dwarf guess was spot on.

I do think it could be worth following the stranger, because there's a chance we can scout them first and have that info ready for when we talk with the friendly dwarves. I know the conversation could be interesting, but I think getting a headstart on taking care of the likely source of the metal shortage would be great for everyone on our side.

[X] Follow the stranger
 
Nice, so my dwarf guess was spot on.

I do think it could be worth following the stranger, because there's a chance we can scout them first and have that info ready for when we talk with the friendly dwarves. I know the conversation could be interesting, but I think getting a headstart on taking care of the likely source of the metal shortage would be great for everyone on our side.

This isn't wrong but it's serious mission creep. We are here to get actionable information on Horra's crimes and most importantly proof thereof. Following the dwarf (and I do think he's a dwarf) cannot give us that. No matter what we find out and he says, none of it proves that Horra is knowingly involved with anything because Horra will just say the dwarf is lying about what they discussed and we can't prove otherwise and the courts will not take the dwarf's testimony over Horra's...not reliably anyway.

Like, if he says the time and place of a delivery we could do something about the delivery...but listening to Horra is as likely to get us that as following, and no other info following gives us actually helps with our primary goal of proving Horra's crimes.
 
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[X] Listen in

Following the dwarf would be valuable, but I think we need to secure our immediate goals first and hurt Horra.
 
Wasn't Alberich malformed? Like that was why he was okay rejecting love - he was so ugly he thought no one would love him? I don't know if that's canonical to the quest since I can't remember if that's from myth, Wagner, or some other reinterpretation.

Also I'm not sure if svartalfar and dwarves are the same thing in quest.
 
Not gonna lie, Steinarr's 'I will burn down half the valley if it means killing Horra' looks increasingly more palatable with every relevation about Horra. Especially if we can't get him outlawed.
 
The problem is that it won't actually get him, I expect, because everyone's convienently missing the fact the dude's funding bandits but you can be sure they'll descend on him with GREAT VENGEANCE and FURIOUS ANGER while Horra just skirts out of consequences like he always does.

Definitely going to need to fuck him up good to spike his planning.
 
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Not gonna lie, Steinarr's 'I will burn down half the valley if it means killing Horra' looks increasingly more palatable with every relevation about Horra. Especially if we can't get him outlawed.

Unfortunately, I'm no longer sure he can, at least not easily. Horra himself he can take one on one pretty casually, but this is more backup than I expected, all seemingly successful raiders and old enough to have families, and there are something like a dozen households. Even ignoring the women as a combat threat (which is probably fair), there are probably enough kids old enough to fight to have at least 20 people there who can and will fight us (if, in some cases, not particularly impressive ones...though not all, Hasvir falls under this category, as do the two other sons of Horra we've met...well, assuming the one we met at 12 or so survived).

We, meanwhile, have Us, Abjorn, Stigmar, Stigr, Sten, Abjorn's dad (he's a dick, but he's an old friend of dad's...he'll come), Sten, Steinarr, and potentially Halfdan, and Halfdan's two sons (Aki and his dad might also help, but maybe not if the attack itself is illegal). Can we win that fight? Probably, we're probably more hardcore on average (especially including Steinarr) but we'll likely suffer casualties, and I'd bet good money Horra flees in the confusion (maybe after throwing out some unpleasantness to increase said casualties) and gets away.

We need proof that will hold up in court and to get him to the court in question so he can't just run.
 
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Remember, apparently the people of the Valley are willfully ignoring his Shenanigans, even when it disrupts the valley, because nobody likes to even think about his bullshit.

I don't think they'd feel the same way if they knew he was a patron of bandits--but apparently whatever fuckery is afoot, it prevents people from associating him with them. We need Hard Evidence--fortunately, we should be able to put pressure on him by striking at his proxies. Trained warriors willing to put up with your shit cannot be cheap, or something he can just summon on demand.

We also haven't figured out the source of his wealth either. The banditry helps but that isn't enough to do it in itself, when his fields apparently are nowhere near enough to even break even, let alone fund this operation. After all, we're not hearing that the Valley is absolutely getting fucked by bandits, which is what would be required to sustain that amount of manpower. We're just getting some mild irritation level stuff going on. Though he might actually be trying to trigger a war as well, which'll be impaired if we can take out his bandits.

Like, by all indications though? Horra's got enough firepower here to be a Significant Power in the region, and that's assuming this is the entirety of the resources he can bring to bear.
 
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Remember, apparently the people of the Valley are willfully ignoring his Shenanigans, even when it disrupts the valley, because nobody likes to even think about his bullshit.

Partially. I think they just don't know about the black magic and banditry...they just know he's an asshole, and prefer not to think about him since they don't like being related to a complete dick.

I don't think they'd feel the same way if they knew he was a patron of bandits--but apparently whatever fuckery is afoot, it prevents people from associating him with them. We need Hard Evidence--fortunately, we should be able to put pressure on him by striking at his proxies. Trained warriors willing to put up with your shit cannot be cheap, or something he can just summon on demand.

True. Bandit hunting seems a viable plan as our next step depending on what else we discover here. Nobody can object to us doing that and it should at least help whittle down his forces, and hopefully get us closer to proof.

We also haven't figured out the source of his wealth either. The banditry helps but that isn't enough to do it in itself, when his fields apparently are nowhere near enough to even break even, let alone fund this operation.

I mean, it almost has to be trade with trolls (given the existing relationship implied by Drysalt) and this (seemingly invasive and unpleasant) group of dwarves. He's acting as somewhere between a fence and a smuggler providing things to them that they can't get elsewhere. Plus the black magic, which may have some economic uses.

After all, we're not hearing that the Valley is absolutely getting fucked by bandits, which is what would be required to sustain that amount of manpower. We're just getting some mild irritation level stuff going on. Though he might actually be trying to trigger a war as well, which'll be impaired if we can take out his bandits.

The bandits may also be targeting places a bit further afield primarily and trying not to shit where they eat too much...but really, I expect that banditry itself isn't the point. They need untraceable goods to sell to the trolls and dwarves without their buying pattern being suspicious...stealing is just a way to acquire those.

Like, by all indications though? Horra's got enough firepower here to be a Significant Power in the region, and that's assuming this is the entirety of the resources he can bring to bear.

Depends on what you mean by 'power in the region'. I brought up above what we can bring to bear, and it's actually not that much lower than his forces. Does that make us a power in the region?
 
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