"The fort was easy to take once they opened the gate. If the gate was not opened it would have taken a lot more to take it and a lot more injuries." Turning to Bal and Neenah, "You both assisted us in taking this place even if it was causing the zombies to attack you instead of us. Every bit helped us take this fort. I am of mind to keep it as a place we can stage from and with our friends help turn it from a bad memory of bad people and turn it into a place where we assist out Fey friends. And make good memories."
"Now all we need to do is rest and heal. Lets skin the owlbear and cook the meat after we give shares to Grizzly and Whitefang. I am sure it will feed us all. The skin can bring in some more gold. Once we are healed and the treasure divided we can discuss what to do next. What do you all think?"
Zork replies to Theaton, "You're probably right, but just think what would happen if the zombies weren't there? It would be easy to cause a distraction and start climbing the walls. There would need to be a small army doing shifts to properly secure a place this big from all sides."
Zork also suggests taking the skull of all the strange creatures to Oleg since he is into that kind of thing.
After tending to his wound and taking a bit of a rest, Mykael goes looking for the grey haired man who assisted the in fighting the Stag Lord and taking the fort. He wants to find out more about this man and how he ended up with the Stag Lord.
Everyone looks to the scratches that cover Bal and Neenah and the Azata fly over to heal them. They thank their healers and Archival.
"I am Akiros as you heard him say," The grey haired man points to the mangled and stripped body of the Stag Lord. He fumbles for the silver stag skull hanging from his neck and tugs it, snapping the cord. "And this is not my true badge of office." He begins breathing heavily and his face twists, the scar over his right eye pulsing red, as he tries to crush the amulet with one hand. When he releases it, the shape is bent and some blood trickles down from his hand.
He looks back up at Mykael, focusing on the sword and breastplate. He produces a second amulet, worn under his chainmail; a silver sword with hilt blazing like a sun, Iomedae's holy symbol. "This was once my badge of office, but… " He falters unsure of whether to continue.
Mykael’s eyes narrow as Akiros produces the amulet depicting the symbol of his goddess, and his hand instinctively goes for the hilt of his sword, though with conscious effort Mykael takes his hand away. Thinking back to when he found the armor, Mykael recalls the bandits telling him a grey haired man gave up the armor and the sword to them. Perhaps Akiros is that man, but why would a servant of Iomedae give up his sword and armor to be in the company of these bandits?
Is this man a traitor, someone who has forsaken his vows to the goddess? Perhaps there is more to this man’s story though, and so Mykael reserves judgment for the moment.
“I see” he says eyeing the amulet and then looking at Akiros intently “you said it was once your badge of office, but no more…why?”.
Zork whispers to Mykael, "I would not trust anyone that would betray their own so quickly. He might be a man of himself. We need to take him to Oleg bound."