After a good meal, but not stuffing themselves, Durgan and Sessativa lead Zork a mile south, before beginning to scour the forest. They are still carrying the gear on person and horse.
Out of Character: Horses for each if Zork can spare…
You head south to the meeting place to meet the messenger from Lady Estari. As you approach the location you can see a few armored figures and a figure wrapped in a white cloak. As you get closer the white cloaked figure leaves the armored figures and heads you way. The figure removes her hood and you can see it is the messenger. She approaches you with her hands out in the open and you can see she has no weapons.
When she gets closer to you she greets you.
"Welcome friends of Estari. Sorry for the secrecy but we had to make sure there were no other spies around that we did not know about. Lest go meet with lady Estari." With that she turns and leads you towards the armored group. You can see there are men and women in armor there is six of them. One of the women has on well made and cared for full plate armor her helm is winged and the visor is down. They all have plate armor with full helms and visors down. The messenger heads towards the lady in full plate and bows before her. "Lady Estari your friends from town have arrived." She then steps to the side and stands on Lady Estaris left next to another armored lady. Another lady in armor stands to the right of lady Estari. The three males stand closer to you with two to your left and one to your right. The males have a hand on their long swords but do not seem ready to draw their weapons.
Zork observes all and comments, "Nice to see you my lady you have quite an outfit of protection here… expecting any others besides us?" He then let's Durgan do the talking.
Durgan bows down low and begins where the last update left off. Back in town Zork had noticed a suspicious guard as we left for the tower. In the tower we found notes and a portal. We were attacked not long after, then returned to town where Sessativa chased a shifty guard. Your office wa under guard control and then their door got knocked in, leading to this meeting.
Durgan wants to strike now if the lady can, so that the townsfolk do not get used to the new authority.
The female guard to her left removes her helmet and you see that it is Lady Estari. "Sorry for all of this but as you know not many can be trusted except a few trusted companions that I have known for a long time. I can not as yet go against the council as in their ranks sits one who would remove the Earl. The only thing stopping him is the earls forces and the earls trusted advisors. One such adviser is a wizard of great renown. It is her I need to get to so something can be done. Thus the reason I wanted to meet you here. I wanted to make sure you were not followed or that they had not gotten to you." She nods to those around her and the relax more visibly and even remove their helms. You can see they are some of the ones who first lead you in to see Estari. "Now if you do not mind we can go to your stronghold and there we can discuss matters a bit more." She will begin leading the way back to your hill fort. Once inside she will follow you to a place where you can talk.
Zork is surprised by these latest events and calls up his advisor apart from this meeting calling up for double the number of troops for a future campaign but the excuse is really to protect the fort. He also asks for the cost of mounted catapults that can hurl fireballs at those coming up the hill.
At the hill fort Durgan relays his concerns, "Removing the wizard will be wise, as they could easily turn the tide of battle alone. They are also capable defenders at any time of day in short bursts.
"I disagree that we need to wage an all-out war to get what we want. Shouldn't we use a surgical strike against the wizard then the baron? How many loyal supporters does he have, as opposed to paid lackeys? I feel most nobles are just after the money."
Lady Estari will say, "We do not want to take out the wizard as she is a close personal friend of mine and she is not the problem. The problem is a local councilman who has grown too big for his briches but he is well guarded by the town guard and his own personal guards. HE is not a person to take lightly as he has some knowledge of the darker arts.
I know that he wants to rise higher and if is able to over throw the earl then we will be facing a even bigger challenge. I think he may be gathering his people close to him for now as he knows I have not been captured. HE fears me due to my command experience as well as my previous exploits when it comes to fighting with sword and shield. There are not many who can defeat me."