**1027/10/12**

Getting the Odorless Vest made by Astrid
========================================
Tess enquired of the centaur druid, "Is it mostly manual labor that you 
need help with, or are there dangerous creatures and so forth?"

Astrid the centaur: "Mostly manual. A low lying forested area needs
clearing of any monsters in it, moving of soil to fill it in, and planting
of pine trees and care of the trees until they grow to sufficient size to
harvest. How many people do you have? The area is substantial, about 50
acres. I would estimate you would need a hundred humans to do this, over a
long period of time."

Astrid made a Odorless Vest for Tess to hide his scent. Tess got a 
masterwork black silk vest for it to be enchanted by Astrid. Aldara's
scent is not hidden when Tess wears the vest (though it will be hidden
while she is in the Familiar Pocket). Tess can still smell things while
wearing the vest.

It would be cheaper for Tess to hire say 85 people in Wendar and have 15 or 
so of his folks and those 85 do the clearing for Astrid for a year. Tess
hires 85 people from Wendar for 1gp/week for a year. Tess' tracker and 
craftsman are there to help manage people.

Tess needs to pop by about every two weeks to help deal with monsters if
required and to help manage a little.

**Cost of 4,080gp - done**

While Astrid is making the vest, Tess and his tracker have a look around 
for trouble (the tracker avoiding trouble). Tess taking a closer look or 
backing off if it seems real dangerous. The tracker finds the spoor of some
kind of giant creature. He thinks there is a nest of them. Perhaps giant 
badgers. Up to a dozen of them. Badgers can go berserk so best to be
careful. Astrid would prefer that they were relocated if possible, such as
by trapping them - 10 miles away should be sufficient. Giant badgers are 
about 6' long.

Tess did some more recon with his tracker for the rest of the day, and
memorized Sleep and Hypnotic Pattern. The badgers turn out to be ferrets.
Tess eventually manages to subdue them all. They're not particularly
aggressive. Astrid is pleased that they could be relocated. Some people
keep giant ferrets as pets, but they need to be trained. Tess also hugs
the occasional tree while he's in the forest. This part of Wendar in the
central lowlands is cold, but nice.

Wendar, a land where Mother Nature dances cheek to cheek with Father Time 
and the Fairy Folk. Wendar, a land of mysteries to discover and monsters to
slay. So similar to a frontier land, yet so overflowed with ancient 
traditions and customs that are all but barbaric. It is a nation of proud 
men and stout elves, of sages and fearless rangers, of monster hunters and 
heroes. It is a country not so different from the so-called civilised ones. 
This area is in the central lowlands. It's a low valley which is rather wet. 
Astrid intends to raise the level of the ground here and plant a cash crop.

Astrid took 8 days to make the vest. Tess spent this time setting things
up and memorizing a peasant cover to fit in in Karakandar, which is the
capital of Peshmir - a mumulkyet south of the plateau. The vest has a faint
illusion (glamer) aura.

**8 days passed**

Once Tess has his Karakandar cover down pat, he starts doing some scouting 
in Krikk's lands. Two main bits of interest: (a) would it be possible to set
up a more advanced infrastructure (roads etc.) for the villages? how good 
are there supply routes? etc. (b) trying to find out where Krikk's 
professional military are.

Krikk's territory
=================
In the meantime Madhuri and Ved, and a couple of others, have been sent to 
find out what they can about the location of the prophet/seer who saw the 
army of ice attacking Sind. Madhuri/Ved/et al. need to ask questions and 
investigate as best they can. They didn't find out anything.

There are trails leading between villages suitable for small numbers of 
carts, but transporting stuff sufficient for a large group would be very 
hard. There is no reason why better infrastructure couldn't be setup though.

Some poking around reveals some supplies head into the mountains towards the 
mercenaries, but actually go a different way. Tess will be interested to 
follow that supply line from a distance. The supplies appear to be a small 
caravan of local villagers, with no guards. They appear to be a collection 
from some of the local villages.

The military encampment is near the center of Krikk's territory.

Tess will follow along quietly, do the supplies appear to be foodstuffs for 
the mercenaries? or other stuff? It appears to be foodstuffs mainly. Plus a 
small amount of boxes which could be anything.

Tess has no particular interest in disrupting stuff for the peasants, but 
Tess will follow to see if the supplies go somewhere else ... if there is 
sufficient opportunity (no guards or limited), Tess would like a look at the 
boxes.

One night while the teamsters sit around the fire, telling tall tales, 
Tess sneaks up and opens a box. Inside are pig iron ingots. There is nothing
magical, no traps, and the boxes aren't locked. Some of the boxes have 
weapons, others have pots, arrows, etc. Basically everything a relatively 
small group of warriors need. The teamsters appear to be peasants by their
fireside conversation.

They head into the mountains. They make a small effort not to be followed 
(keeping an eye out etc) but nothing which Tess can't handle. Tess will be 
hiding as best he can on the way, assuming there may be others watching from 
above the trail for example. They move slowly enough that Tess can follow 
while hiding.

Anyway, this continues for a few days, climbing higher. You see signs of 
road works here, with parts of the mountains cut so as to not be visible 
from the air. Not to be visible by a dragon for example.

** a few days pass - say 6 days **

Eventually the wagons come to an open area with a large cave, at the base of 
a mountain. At the entrance to the cave are warriors in uniform. They greet 
the teamsters by name and seem pleased to see them. Some of the teamsters 
hand over some stuff to the soldiers, who laugh and hide it (looks like a
case used to carry bottles of liquid). The warriors don't have any rank 
insignia, they're just wearing the same type of clothes as each other - no 
specific uniform. The teamsters then all go inside the cave.

The guards at the cave resume watching, although they don't look like they 
are expecting trouble. There are 3 guards at the door. Tess keeps back for 
now, as time passes he'll listen to the guards if possible (trying to find 
out who they are), and watch to see when the guards swap etc. - e.g. any 
chinks in their watch duty over the next day or so. The teamsters left that
day with mostly empty wagons.

Over the next two days, you find the guards are changed about every 6 hours, 
always three guards. On occasion someone else comes out, to the nearby 
midden for example. On the second day, Maximus ambles out and inspects the 
soldiers. They straighten when they see him. He wanders past them, looking 
them up and down, then says something gruffly to them, before going for a 
wander. Maximus is huge - 20' long.

** two days pass **

Tess backs away slowly, Aldara will return to Tess and hide in the familiar 
pocket, if possible, Tess will keep an eye on where Maximus goes - does he 
hide well, etc? Maximus seems to be walking around, maybe looking for 
something. After a while Maximus sits down and just stares off into space 
for a while. He is about 90' from Tess at this point. Might be. He sometimes 
was looking at the ground. Tess continues backing off, hiding, slowly.
Maximus also looked at the sky. After 10 minutes he hauls himself to his 
feet and ambles back inside. The guards relax.

It's not likely that Maximus saw Tess' tracks, he didn't go near where Tess 
had been over the last day. If he was sufficiently good he might have 
anyway.

Now that Tess knows Maximus is around, Tess will be extra careful. Aldara 
will keep a watch on the front to spy if Maximus comes out, Tess is
seriously looking for alternate entrances around the place (and any places 
that they might spy out of, but are too small to enter). Tess looks around, 
and finds a huge entrance. Dragon sized even. It's closer to the top of the 
mountain. [The Seekers don't know of any of Krikk's lairs.]

The possible presence of Krikk makes this even more dangerous - though Tess 
hasnt' seen Krikk overhead at all. Tess will have a look at the top 
entrance, if he can do so without being observed in his opinion (and add in 
a good dose of paranoia to that, as he knows Krikk has some mini-Krikk 
buddies from what the others have said). There are 6 guards at the top
entrance. The ground is clearer there, which makes it even harder to get in 
unseen. Hide in plain sight would really be required. The guards are human.
In Tess' expert opinion, even at night, it's unlikely that he could get 
across the area if there is any light (e.g. moonlight), if they are actually 
watching the area. The area is just bare rock. Only two guards are actually 
looking out at any given moment, the others are just talking, etc. Tess
doesn't detect anything magical on the guards. Tess has seen 4 groups of 
guards at the bottom in rotation.

Observing from close up is tricky too, it would be better to observe long 
term from a distance, like on another mountain nearby.

Tess observes for another 3 days say, with Aldara - waiting for an overcast 
night, looking for alternate entrances, keeping an eye out from other 
vantage points - basically mixing it around a little, looking for anything 
useful. Tess finds a fissure which smells of cooking meat. It's narrow and 
twisty though, a hard fit even for Tess. Tess lets Aldara scout around the 
fissure for a bit to see if it is passable for Tess. Inside the fissure 
never narrows enough to block him, it's just a tight squeeze and c
claustophobic. The fissure narrows a bit - Tess fails an Escape Artist
check to negotiate the fissure.

Tess backs out, memorizes two reduces the next day, casts reduce and tries 
again. Reduce makes Tess 10% smaller. That is sufficient to squeeze through. 
Tess keeps wriggling along. Reduce lasts 1 minute. The smell of cooking has 
been getting stronger, and Tess reaches the bottom of the fissure. Right 
beneath him is a cooking pot with coals. No fire currently.

Sticking his head through the hole, Tess sees that the room is easily large
enough to fit Maximus. Tess gets down and starts exploring carefully from
the kitchen.

Nearby are three other rooms, all carved from the stone like this one is. 
They appear to be barracks. It's a very simple layout. There is a large ramp 
going down. A couple of dozen soldiers inhabit here from the looks of the
barracks. Further onwards is the main entry room, leading to the open cave 
mouth. 5 rooms on this level of Krikk's lair. Tess sneaks down the ramp.
They have magical flaming torches for light sources.

Aldara remains hidden to avoid leaving a scent for Mr. Maximus.

At the botom of the ramp is another large room, large enough to hold 
Maximus _and_ Krikk at the same time. It's empty currently, but it looks as
though a white dragon has spent time here (though it's hard to tell whether
it was recent or not). Off that are two doorways (both closed) and a huge 
rock blocking one way. Off the ramp is an open store room. Tess checked out 
the store room, search before entering, then Detect Magic when he enters - 
checking for any magical wards, anything magical in the room. Inside the 
store room are some boxes (like the ones you saw earlier) and an opening 
going down - which is too small for Maximus.

Tess heads down the shallow staircase from the storeroom carefully, and 
silently. After a quite a while of traveling, Tess hears the noise of a donkey 
coming the other way. Tess goes back up the stairs, as there is
nowhere to hide. Tess got back to the top, easily outdistancing the donkey 
and it's handlers. They come up to the storeroom off the ramp, and then 
unload the donkey. They then slowly go back down the stairs. They don't seem 
to be a in a rush. This is all from hearing, since Tess doesn't have line of
sight to them from the large room. The boxes appear to be supplies. Foodstuffs,
a few replacement weapons, etc. No donkey food though.

Tess listens to the other two closed doors, and the exit that is closed by a
boulder: is there any room to send Aldara through to have a look? Could Maximus 
move that boulder, or is it a Krikk only thing? In one closed room Tess hears 
... the scritch scritch scritch of a pen on parchment, and nothing from the 
other door. The boulder might be able to be moved by Maximus. It is far too 
heavy for Tess. After a while the writer comes out. It's a human male, looks 
like an officer. He locks his door, then walks over into the storeroom and then 
downstairs. 

Tess opens the lock on the officer's door. Inside is a bed, a desk, and a 
weapon rack, plus a chest for clothing. The desk has drawers. There is 
nothing magical, no traps, and no locks in the room. The papers are maps of
Krikk's territory, ledgers, that kind of thing. Tess scans through them.
The ledgers are for a few dozen people - noting their salary and so forth.
Tess memorizes the most significant map (e.g. if it has locations of this and 
any other possible lairs marked for example). It has locations of all 
the villages there. Lots of them. There are no supply routes marked on the
maps. The ledgers do mention which villagers are for taxing. Tess notes
anything else significant down on pen and paper. Tess listens at the door
again to check no one is outside, leaves, and locks the door again.

No other doors Tess hasn't seen inside, except the other door and the 
boulder "door". Inside the other door is a large pile of rags and a distinct 
bear smell. Tess escapes back out the fissure, after noting the kitchen's 
layout and opportunities for poisoning. There's only one way in and out of 
Maximus' bedroom.

Tess looks around outside again for an hour or so, backing away slowly from 
here, watching for another day from a nearby mountain, then teleport back to 
Baratkand and report to Grey.

**1027/12/15**