2. A battle (re-)enactment

That same night, I try to ask around about the blue elf who is acting very suspicious, but no one seems to know her in truth. Her name is Leedara, and she arrived the previous day, and she claims to be a performer that knew Ispin. However, I do not think that is true. I will have to check with the Brass Crab whether she had a room reserved here, like all of Ispin's friends that were invited.
 
The next morning, we wake up to the bustle of the fair getting set up. We wake up and notice that Sterling is not around. We just assume that he slept in after a night of lots of partying. Who knew, when he mostly seems so coy. Maybe we make him uncomfortable! I'll need to follow up on that. In the inn, we find ourselves being talked to by Derrit. He wants us to help him carry pies to the Thornwall Keep. They are Beklin, and he wants to become her squire. Since it means breakfast and Sir Beklin, we help. At the same time and place was another friend of Ispin's, a centaur woman named Thalassa. She volunteered to help, but I wasn't sure if she would have some sort of saddle bag for the pies. Either way, the pies are delicious,
 
Derrit also asks us all about where we came from. I tell him I come from a small village by Brushbrook, to the west. As we talk and walk, I again notice the contraption on top of the keep. I'm pretty certain it is a gnomish invention, but it really unlikely to be a catapult, which is what I first believed it was. I ask Derrit, and he does not know more. Personally, it seems that there is a lot that Derrit does not know, but hopefully he'll learn more things as he grows. Anywho, he does mention that the inventor is one called Than, and I should ask him if I have any questions.
 
At the keep, we see a lot of excavations going on. This whole place requires a lot more upkeep, but I suppose that it would expensive. I hope it remains standing for a much longer time, or actually gets renovated sometime. We arrive and Belkin greets us, taking us to her library. We finish breakfast there, and then Waah decides to go look at the books. I didn't even realize she liked books, so maybe I need to find some for her.
 
Belkin tells up that Ispin used to love the kingfisher festival, which I hope is for better reason than him just liking his town's festival. His love was for the battle reenactment, and she asks if we will participate in the reenactment to honor his memory. I tell her I will, and everyone else decides to join. Again, Sterling should be here, since I think this is something he would have enjoyed doing. Then she grabs a box and brings it back. She tells us that Ispin would have wanted us to have this, since we are friends he loved much, and that we traveled all the way here for his funeral. It is a round green shield - actually, it is Ispin's Green Shield! Wow. I remember him telling me how he was given this shield by a unicorn in the Darkened Wood.
 
She gets back to the reenactment, since Mal will probably be using the shield when he participates. Apparently the only rule is that we cannot use our real weapons, only the wooden ones. This year, some of Cudgel's friends will help represent the invading forces.
 
As the conversation dies down, I ask Beklin about Ispin's "friend" Leedara. She has never heard of that name, but Ispin did know a lot of people. I'll have to keep my eye out for her. I smell trouble. I also ask about the contraption atop the keep, and Beklin tells me that Than calls it a gnome-flinger, and it is some sort of transportation device. She encouraged him to build it here because it does look like a siege weapon, and she hopes it continues to discourage an attack on Vogel. I tell her I'll keep an eye out for Than, and I hopefully will get a chance to ask him more about it.
I also ask her for recommendations about what to do around town, and she recommends we go see the main points of the town - festival in the center, Mayor's house, market, etc.
 
We all leave Beklin and her friends to their festival preparations. Later on, at the festival, the mayo officially starts the celebration off with a speech. We all walk around, and I do not see Leedara. Waah seems so happy here, since she says that no one has been anything but kind to her. I tell her to enjoy the day and celebrate by buying herself something, but she says she has no money. It seems she gave it away to the farm boy guide that we helped out yesterday on our way here. I sigh and give her a steal piece (if that is the equivalent of a gold piece), and tell her she can only use it for stuff for her. Off we go!
 
Mal, Thalassa,and Waah decide to join the fishing competition, and they end up in the mayor's team. Each person has to get the most amount of fish, and the person with the biggest length of fishes wins! I hope to help my "team" by relieving some of the other teams of any "extra" bait they may have, but everyone is watching. So I content myself by cheering them on. Until this grumpy jerk of a man decides to stand beside Mal and complain about everything. He is annoying, so I ask him to go somewhere else to make sure that team 2 was not cheating. He comes with me. Waah seems to be just standing there sometimes, instead of fishing. In the end, our team tied in first place with another, but the Mayor had the biggest string, so she won! What fun, and she even got a trophy!
 
The celebrations continue and we all walk around and enjoy the beautiful day and festival. Soon, it is time for the parade, and everyone gathers at the village circle. The goal is to start the parade, and once we get to the top of the hill, we'll meet the "soldiers" and the "battle" will start. We parade, and the reenactment starts. Except that Mal tells us that the soldiers have actual weapons, not their designated wooden ones!!
 
What a mess. We are at the end, so most of the parades and re-enactors are running towards their deaths! I look for Beklin or the Mayor in the crowd, but I cannot see them. There is a ring of fighting all around me, so I cannot get out of this hill to look for them, either. What to do?
 
Soon some mercenaries start to approach us, and a battle begins. They are on horses, and they try to trample us! Out of the corner of my eye as all this goes on, I catch a glimpse of Mal healing himself! His enemy sees it too, and gives the mercenary pause. It may have saved his life in two different ways! We get rid of the mounted riders after a tough battle. But then a large ogre heads towards us with 4 more mercenaries! Oh no. As the orge charges towards poor Thalassa, who gallops away and pulls out her bow. We keep at the fight, more bloody by the minute. At some point, Arinona points her finger towards one of these jerks. I hear a bell, and his head explodes! We finally drop the ogre as the battle dies down. We look up, afraid of another wave of reinforcements, but it looks like there are no more. We do see some retreating mercenaries, but also coming this difference are Beklin, her friends, and the Mayor. They all also look like they had been fighting. The Mayor thanks us for our help with the ogre. My friends all scramble to help the wounded, and I look a surviving mercenary. I want answers!
 
As the village watches Mal help the injured my healing them, he becomes the talk of town. As I find an unconscious mercenary, the mayor tells us that we will interrogate them later. We all go rest before reconvening. Somehow, after the rest, we all feel stronger, like this battle made us toughter. (We level!!!)
 
Derrit later comes to collect each of us, since Beklin and Co. want to consult with us about what to do. I keep looking for the blue elf, but she is nowhere to be found. I take a peek at her room, and it looks unused. The windows are all shuttered from the inside, and there is NOTHING of interest. I should have gotten her yesterday!
 
We gather in the main room, and the Mayor leads a discussion, with many villagers around wanting to know more about what happened today. Around us, people who are injured are having their wounds tended, and the prisoner is being held and guarded, and bodies are being recovered. And now that all that is under control, she wants to know why the mercenaries betrayed Cudgel. That would be awful to be betrayed like that. Mal offers to heal the captive, and when they ask about this healing, he shows off! He holds his symbol of Mishikal out, and demonstrates. To great stunned silence. He explains that he was visited in his dreams by Mishikal, who warned him that Takhisis had returned, and therefore it was her turn to return and help us. Mal has been chosen to herald her return. Cudgel finally says that she does not think that the captive is worthy of divine intervention, which is a great point. There is another villager who speaks up for Arinona, saying that they witnessed great magic from her, too.
 
We decide it is time to bring the captive in and ask him questions. I am chosen to lead this interrogation, with Arinona's help. The mayor tells us that she expects no harm to happen to this traitor-murderer, so I guess I can't scare him proper. But I do let him know everything that I can think of that I would like to do to him, and he starts talking to us. Gregonis, the traitor ogre, had planned on killing Cudgel and taking over the regiment. He had some sort of mysterious meeting in the woods, and came back with a chest full of gold. He used that to bribe his mercenaries, with the intent to kill the militia, sack Vogler, and then take over. He does not know who Gregonis had met with in the woods.
 
We decide to look at the money that Gregonis used to pay this man, and it is true! A steal piece is stamped with the symbol of Takhisis. Those damn creatures and the evil they are bringing upon this already blighted land!
 
He tells me that right now, there are still some people left over in the mercenary camp, the people who would turn on Cudgel for money. She tells us where the camp is, and tells us that she will go there to check on this man's story, and also to deal with the ones that stayed loyal to her. She does not want us to join her.
 
I remember that this man sitting here is a fuck face that decided to betray Cudgel in a brutal attempt to take over a small village in memory of Ispin. I punch him, since I do not want to hear anymore right now. The Mayor and Beklin seem very disappointed, but frankly, they need to grow a spine! Either way, they continue to talk, and Beklin wants to know more about this meeting in the woods. She suggests scouting the woods, which seems crazy. If the ogre was traipsing around in the forest, does she want us to walk every inch of it searching for... a hole where he dug up the treasure from? But we agree, and I guess Thalassa knows a lot about the woods and will be able to make this more efficient. We go look for vestiges of a meeting that happened 2 days ago in the forest. After we rest a little, of course.
 
Derrit will be our guide to the forest, since he knows how to get there. He leads us west for about one hour, and we see more rolling hills and forests. Maybe we would be able to search a whole forest like this. We keep searching for clues, and finally find some boot prints, along with some reptilian claw prints. These could easily belong to the same creatures that we encountered on our way to Vogel. That is not a good sign.
 
We decide to keep following these tracks, and after almost a full hour of hiking north, we find ourselves with a beautiful top view of a rolling valley. In the distance, we see hundreds of low fires, casting a red glow on red tents. There are also patrols around that area. We have stumbled into an enemy camp. I'm speechless! We need to go back to Vodgel. We decide to march back there as fast as we can, since we need to warn everyone!