Disclaimer: I own neither Fate nor the Pathfinder Kingmaker CRPG.
"For Mental Communications"

'For thoughts'

"Do you have everything dear?" Svetlana asked which Hakuno nodded, "I do have a request… if you encounter the bandits again, the one with two axes has my wedding ring… and if possible can you be gentle with her? Show her some mercy and I'm sure that she will help you."

Hakuno nodded again, thanking the older woman for her hospitality and began to leave the inn spotting Amiri and Oleg in conversation away from their cart.

"The boar should be here… old Vekkel tracked it… as big as a bear!" Hakuno could only hear bits and pieces as she approached, "Ah Hakuno!"

"Yeah we'll take care of it. We are way better than the local wussies." Amiri waved Hakuno over, "Got a job for us when we are in the area I'll let ya know."

Hakuno nodded, as the two joined the rest of their group they parted ways from Oleg's Trading Post with the goal of Thorn Ford.

Hakuno could feel eyes watching her, Robin had assured her that there was nothing in the area but Hakuno couldn't shake off the feeling that they were being followed.

They were a day away from the place marked on the map, the supposed location of bandits given to them by both Amoriel and the Nymph. They were setting up camp while Hakuno practiced her Light spell.

The magic of this world felt weird to cast, more complex than just feeding an item her Od, she just had to repeat the spell's name, feed it Od, and depending on the spell wave her fingers in the right way and sometimes feed her Regalia which acted like the 'components'. Some spells would require actual materials but most would just rely upon her catalyst.

Hakuno took a glance around the area, noting nothing out of the ordinary, "I'm tellin ya I left the damned utensils in this pouch!"

"Ugh fine! The bandits ought to have some, just now we have none to use tonight."Linzi mumbled, doing a quick inventory check.

"Robin! Have ya seen anything?"

"Hmmm.." Hakuno watched as Robin carefully looked at one of the poison vials that Bokken made, "Something seems off…"

Hakuno shrugged, "Maybe they fell off on the way here?"

"No no! I remember exactly! You sure we aren't being followed Robin?"

"I'm sure, I checked the area out before we got here, and checked again before we made camp." Robin put down the vial of poison. "Perhaps it's a fey?"

Hakuno mulled the words over, Fey are tricky that much she knows, "Maybe we can leave an offering to leave us alone?"

"Would be best, we can leave some gold out to see if they take it." Valerie noted as she grabbed their dwindling funds.

"Yea, would be best. Damn fey… making me look like an idiot." Amiri mumbled as they finished setting up camp.

There were no more tricks from the mysterious fey, they found their utensils on their cooking pot the next morning during the little amount of time that they were switching watch shifts.

Hakuno could have sworn she heard giggling.

"Found the bandit fort, coming back."

Hakuno waited a moment as Robin appeared and the entire group got together as they attempted to stealth their way.

With Hakuno's inexperience and Valerie's heavy armor it made for a weak attempt though, Hakuno had hoped that the rushing river would be enough to mask any sounds they made.

Robin stopped them as she could faintly hear voices.

"We can't fight Restov Kressel! Leave their messenger alone and follow your orders. Have you burned down that old shack yet?" Hakuno could hear the voices.

"We can hear ya you know!? Step out of the shadows!"

Hakuno looked to Robin as he nodded and used his Noble Phantasm and hid slightly away as the rest of them came out of hiding.

"So you must be the messengers from Restov? I am Akiros Insmort, right hand of the Stag Lord, I prefer to do things face to face if you understand. I think we should talk." The man held his arms open showing he didn't have his weapons in hand.

Valerie stood protectively in front of the group as Amiri held the hilt of her blade taking glances around, Hakuno nodded slowly.

"So you are the one who leads this merry band?"

"What do you want to talk about?"

"I'm sure you heard many stories, but I think I will cut to the chase, despite what anyone may think my commander has as much right to this land as Jamandi Aldori, we are not a part of Brevory. We want the same thing as you, the ownership of this land." Akiros began pacing as he continued.

"I personally forbade Kressel's people from harming Oleg and his wife, Restov is too far away to be able to effectively control these lands and I don't want to lose any of my people, so please leave the Stag Lord be and leave in peace."

Hakuno mulled over his words, "You know he is right, we can just leave. We are far enough away from Restov that we should be able to just pick a direction and go. Find a nice house, ya know just relax?"

"You can't be serious?" Linzi began, "No matter what you say Akiros, the Stag Lord is not a fit ruler, neither are you. You can barely control your own gang. You seem intelligent so why not work with us. Tell us where he is and let us take control of this land."

Akiros shrugged, "A valiant effort, but no. I won't turn traitor that easily…"

"I won't cut out your throat, for now at least. I won't kneel to some Restov upstart! Why make peace? Are you naive? Or did Svetlana say something…" Kressel shouted, a face full of agitation as she glared hatefully at the group

"Is it so hard to believe I don't want to fight?" Hakuno stated. "We have fought enough."

Kressle seemed taken back by that, and she lowered her hand as she put down her twin axes, "I see… Why should I trust you?"

"My leader here, she is a strong woman. She may be young, but she has a good sense of character, and at the least," Valerie paused for a moment, "If we wanted either of you dead Robin could have taken you out."

Hakuno watched the bandit sigh as she tossed something into their direction which Valerie caught, "Here, give this to Svetlana. Do whatever you want. I won't stop you. If the Stag Lord won't fight ya personally then we chose the wrong leader… I won't help you, but I won't interfere. Just know this, there is another band of adventurers out and about, my boys last saw them on the way to an old tomb to the east. Place always gave us the creeps."

Hakuno nodded as Valerie passed her a ring, 'Must be Svetlana'swedding ring.'

And with that the bandits quickly picked up some packs and left, Hakuno was glad that they left without a fight, she was getting tired of fighting.

"Ah I see… Diplomacy is certainly a good thing." An older robed man who sat on a log near the fire stated, his hands bound, "Would you kindly untie an old priest?" The old man showed no sign of being injured and seemed calm for someone bound.

Hakuno nodded as Robin appeared with one of his daggers and cut him loose, "Ah much better, I will say those scoundrels were certainly a pain. They wanted me to take them to heal their wounds!" The old man spat on the floor, "Not a chance! I am on a holy pilgrimage not to be led around by some upstart bandits!"

Hakuno sighed, one thing that she noticed about this world is that the people tend to talk a lot more than what she worked with on the Moon Cell.

'Then again… I didn't really have much time with my friends did I? I was always just struggling…'

"Have you seen a temple dedicated to the Elk God since you have arrived?" Hakuno shook her head in the negative, "Ah a pity, I have seen visions from my god of an ancient shrine. If you find it please tell me. I only know it is in these lands. I should be fine to make it to the trading post… Once I can get some rest I will gladly repay this kindness. I must be off now. Come find me if you are ever in need of healing."

Hakuno watched the old man leave the way they came. "Should we follow him to make sure he will be ok?"

Robin shook his head, "He made it this far, he should be fine in the woods. We saw very little on the way here."

Hakuno nodded, "Should we find out what Tartuccio is up to?"

"Yeah! Whatever that no good lying man is up to, it can't be good!" Linzi nodded quickly.

"Ancient tombs typically contain some items of power, it would be best if we quickly made chase. This land has had a multitude of adventuring parties and attempts. Who knows what he could find here."

Hakuno agreed, she didn't care much for the gnome. He annoyed her, that was true, but the time away from him just made her view him with a bit of pity… 'But then again he was a spy that helped assassins in to kill a lot of people.'

"I agree, Master, we should follow up on this lead. We don't have much left to check out other than the house. Akiros mentioned that's why Kressel and her gang were here. I'll look to see if they left anything to point us in the right direction."

After a quick look through camp they found a note informing them that they just had to follow the Thorn Ford upstream and it would be there.

Hakuno paused in thought, 'I think it would be best to check up on Tartuccio… The house can wait.'"Let's head east."

Hakuno could certainly feel the eerie vibes given off from the half sunken tomb. The tomb barely was only halfway out of the ground, most of it seemed to have been destroyed from time.

"This tomb seems ancient… Who knows what is in it."

Amiri grunted as she opened the door to the tomb, the sounds of voices echoed reaching them. Hakuno strained her ears to try and listen in on their conversation.

"Boss ain't going to like this."

"So? He is paying us good money to look through this shit, and all we gotta do is hand him whatever weapons we find. We even get to keep the rest! Look at all this jewerly!"

"Still… We haven't even found a weapon yet? Think he got the place mixed up?"

Hakuno glanced at Robin "Take a look, see if he is there otherwise we can probably leave."

"Aye Master."Hakuno and her team stayed near the entrance, just barely in the cave to use it's natural darkness to stay hidden.

"No sign of him Master. There is another exit though, I will find the way around. Let's leave these guys here. I think I spotted some tracks."

"Understood.""We are leaving, Robin found his tracks leaving this place." Hakuno whispered to the group, who nodded as they resealed the tomb.

Hakuno watched as Amiri lifted a large log and placed it against the entrance, "To make it hard for them."

Hakuno just sighed.

Robin was growing tired. Servant's didn't need rest, but he could feel the call of the Sandman lulling him. He yawned loudly as he followed the tracks left by the gnome and his companions leading him to an old dried up gully.

Robin paused as he noticed the tracks he was fairly certain where Tartuccio's meld into claw marks.

"Well… Ain't this a surprise." Robin examined the footprints, he didn't fully know this land's list of Phantasmal Beasts but he was fairly certain they had to be small, perhaps Lizardmen?

"Kobold tracks?" Robin nodded, makes sense they would use a different name, Lizard people sounded off to him.

Robin led the group to continue down the path that the lone track used, and signed in annoyance as the path ended leaving the only way to either scale the cliff or backtrack for quite a while. Taking into account the sun, he realized they didn't have much sunlight left.

Robin flex his muscles, "Stay here, I'll bring down a rope." Robin did a running jump towards the gully's wall and began to climb.

Robin grunted as he drove a piton into the ground and then found a much easier route for them and the horse cart on the other side of the gully.

'Oh well.'

Hakuno breathed out a sign of relief at getting up from the gully. She was growing exhausted from the constant traveling. She idly noted that they should begin to set up camp soon, but hearing voices in the distance told her it would be a bad idea to do it at the moment.

"Dragon! Glory Dragon!" Hakuno sighed as she heard Tartuccio's loud voice.

"We know! Miteeesss under the old sssycamore! They have shiny magic treassssure! Very ooooldd!" One Kobold? Stood on a rock wearing a skull helmet with feathered poking out from behind it. Laughed maniacally as he watched the rest of his 'kin'.

Valerie grunted as she got into a protective stance in front of Hakuno.

"Kobolds, not dangerous individually but they tend to group up in greater numbers, they can be a real scourge on the quickly listen to whoever is the strongest." Valerie whispered to her.

Hakuno nodded, "Leave the lizards alone ya Bastard face us like the man you are supposed to be!" Amiri shouted as she hefted her oversized bastard sword.

"Gah! You four again! Tribessssmen don't listen to them! You lot!" He pointed at four of the kobolds that saluted him, "Kill them! Rest runnnn!"

Hakuno sighed as he watched them run towards the towering tree in the distance as four of the kobolds charged at them "FOR TARTUK!"

"Robin follow and pester."

"Understood."

"Amiri… have fun?"

Amiri leapt forward with a feral grin as her body glowing slightly red. She smashed the flat part of her blade into one of them, sending him flying towards another, who stumbled back to catch his comrade.

Hakuno had decided this was a nice place to rest, the Kobolds where already using it as a sort of base, and as long as Robin set up a few traps on his way back they should relatively be safe until morning.

Hakuno nodded to herself, liking the idea of a rest as she began to unpack their belongings as Valerie stoked the fire pit into giving enough warmth for the night.

"Need any help Amiri?"

Amiri grunted as she grabbed the broken sword that one held and crushed it in her grip, "Nah these guys should run off soon." Amiri kicked one of them and she noticed the fear in their eyes as they all began to run away.

"See told ya."

Hakuno nodded as she motioned for Amiri to clean up the corpse, and she grunted as she began to burn it. "Too close to the tomb, don't want any undead to pop up."

Hakuno sighed as she tried to keep the smell of burning lizard out of her nose and finish setting up the tents.

"Set up some traps, and come back soon."

"Ya know Master… Your a real slave driver ya know?"

Author's Note: Well, next chapter should be a bit longer, have a lot planned for it and I do eventually want to get out of Act1 So i'm going to be doing a bit of skipping some encounters, some will get switched around and some others will replace it from the Table Top as I found a good source of all the Kingmaker books and found some of the encounters to be good.