Hello again, intrepid adventurers. While I work on getting a more acceptable format up, I've just decided to toss my short story up in pieces here on ol' ACN. So the next few entries will be dedicated to one Kai Naustvik, a kind-hearted mercenary, and his exploits before joining his current team. So, yes, this is technically a prequel to the actual Ravenloft game I'm in. Anyway, I hope it's enjoyable, and feel free to comment, as always.
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“He's going to be late.”
This private meeting room was tucked into a corner of the Frothing Mug, a sleepy little inn that was tucked away into an equally sleepy village on the western edge of Barovia. Counting those around the central table, and the armchair next to the small bookcase, there was room for five people to sit comfortably inside. Three of those seats were currently occupied: the man with the reed-thin voice who had spoken, short, balding, and just short of his middle years, sat in the armchair; a taller, younger fellow, clean-shaven and turning over a silver cross in one hand, sat at the table; and the third, a somewhat pale woman who was slender enough to look taller than she actually was, stood at the bookcase, the sheathed sword at her hip shifting quietly as she reached for one of the books on a high shelf.
“It's been nearly an hour since the kitchen started serving lunch,” the balding man continued, his hands irritably fidgeting. “Are we sure this guy is legitimate?”
“Stop worrying so much,” his female companion said as she nonchalantly perused the pages of the book she held. “Borus vouched for him, so you know that means he's on the up-and-up. He'll be here.”
“But he should've been here already!” Unconvinced, the man looked around, clearly even more nervous than he sounded. “I don't know about this.”
Giving out a frustrated sigh, the woman turned her head from her book, and glanced his way. “Look, I realize you're doing your whole 'pre-mission twitchiness' routine, but if you don't settle down just a hair, I'm going to drub you until you do.”
That seemed to do the trick; it wasn't spoken with any particular harshness, but the man gulped quietly and sat back against the backrest of his chair again, making his hands still themselves on the cushioned arms. “Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you...” he muttered half-heartedly.
Barely a second later, the door to the room opened, and in strode a tall figure, almost the size of the doorframe itself. Wrapped in a dark blue cloak, he surveyed the gathered group with dark eyes underneath a dark blue headband and raven-black hair, and then a moment later gave a great big carefree grin. “Naustvik here, at your service. So, did I miss anything?”
Kai spared another moment or two to look around the room's occupants. The team was exactly as Borus had described: a short, darkish man, probably Barovian, with the temperament of a nervous rabbit; a quiet-looking Borcan, who must have been the devotee of Ezra from the size of that cross; and a tough-looking lady, not much older than he if at all, with legs that went on forever. The last held his eyes for a bit longer, as he nodded respectfully in greeting to her.
“You're almost late,” she said as she closed the book she was holding and placed it back onto the bookshelf. Tall, heeled beige boots; dark leggings under black skirts divided for riding, with an equally dark shirt atop; slim, but clearly with lots of lean muscle underneath; and deep red hair that flowed halfway down her back. He had a bit of trouble placing her, but her accent gave him a helpful clue. Probably Richemuloise?
She turned back before he had any more time to think on it, and walked up to him, her eyes narrowing slightly in appraisal as she tilted her head slightly to look up at him. “Hm...a little darker than most of them, so there's probably something else there, but there's no mistaking the way you pronounce your Balok. You're Falkovnian, alright.” She indicated her two companions with a nod of the head to either direction. “The quiet one is Rodric, and the nervous wreck over there is Nicolai.”
Glancing towards the two men, Kai nodded their ways as well. “Pleasure to meet ya' both. I'm Kai.” His eyes then slid back towards her, and a slight grin slipped onto his face. “And you would be?”
“Rosa.” She stuck out her gloved hand, and after he shook it, she let go and pointed right to his face. “And before you say something like 'Matches your hair,' I've heard it before.”
“I was actually going to say that your eyes remind me of polished sapphires,” he said with a further grin, “but the point is well-taken.”
The smirk that she showed in response was undeniably sardonic, and she gave his forehead a firm poke with her outstretched finger. “Sly. But don't forget that you came here to work.”
“I wouldn't dream of it.” Going to the table, he received a cautious but thoughtful look from Rodric, and a glare of pure contempt from Nicolai, as he pulled out a chair. “Borus gave me the basic gist, but I'm a little sparse on details. Care to fill me in, fearless leader?”
“So that's the information we have thus far,” Rosa finished as she leaned back slightly in her chair, indicating a spot with one gloved finger on the map she had rolled out on top of the table. “The burgomeister of that town seems content to let the violence against the Gundarakites continue, but Boyar Marinescu is concerned about what might really be going on behind the scenes.”
“Hm...yeah, the disappearance of so many young men, specifically, suggests something more unusual,” Kai responded while scratching his chin. “You'd think the usual thuggery would be a bit less targeted.”
“I suppose a Falkovnian would know all too well about thuggery,” Nicolai spoke up in the same peevish tone he had been using ever since Kai had walked in the room. Rosa shot him a warning glance, which made him recoil a little, but Rodric spoke up before anything could be said either way.
“We have a few ideas about what may be happening, but until we go and check things out for ourselves, they'll remain simple speculation. Are you at all familiar with the region?”
Nodding, Kai leaned forward to get closer to the map. “Somewhat. I've ridden through a few times. The cabbage rolls they make locally are pretty fantastic.”
“Borus warned me about you, so I'm going to take that rather asinine comment as meaning you know your way around.” Rosa crossed her arms under her chest, and gave him a measured look. “I'm also going to assume that you'll be able to control your gut while we're on this mission.”
“I promise nothing.”
Rosa rolled her eyes, but there was a hint of dry amusement in her voice as she spoke back up. “At any rate, we hit the road at dawn, so make sure any business you may want to see to in the village here gets taken care of by sundown.”
The three men each nodded in response, and Kai pushed his chair back, standing up and stretching. “Well, I'm going out for a bit. I'll see you all at dinner, most likely.”
“Sundown, Kai,” Rosa called out as he started walking towards the door. “That's non-negotiable.”
“Loud and clear, Komman- er, Commander,” he said with a wave over his shoulder. And then he was out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
Rosa leaned over to Nicolai, speaking only barely above a whisper. “Tail him. If he does anything suspicious, let me know, but don't do anything rash!”
For all of his earlier nervousness, the balding man just nodded once, and eased out of his chair at the table with barely a sound, his demeanor focused and composed. “Understood, Rosa.”
This village was much like the other Barovian settlements Kai had visited in his brief time traveling. It was true that the locals seemed to be at least a little more amicable to foreigners – likely the reason Rosa had chosen it for their rendezvous – but he still caught his fair share of suspicious glances. It didn't really bother him, though; he was well enough used to that, and the spring weather meant there were lots of colorful flowers lining the buildings to take one's mind off of things, so just taking a walk through the village was pleasant in and of itself.
There was also the fact that people often forgot about their apprehension if you were willing to expend a little elbow grease on their behalf. The woodcutter whose cart had suddenly broken thawed out quite a bit when Kai helped the man carry his lumber to the village proper, and was actually engaging in something akin to polite conversation by the time the two of them managed to fix it. He had a similar experience fetching water for an old widow, as well as talking shop with the local blacksmith, whom he even wound up helping out in the smithy for an hour or so. Offers of coin were made by people for his troubles in at least one instance, but he wound up accepting stories and little hospitalities instead. Like the freshly-baked pretzel that the widow had gifted him with from her oven upon his return. Or the tale about how the smith had, as a child, wanted nothing more than to one day just sail up- and down-river fishing, until he learned that the girl of his dreams, his future wife, was absolutely convinced that she could only marry a blacksmith – a story told with much gusto and laughing over ales. Whenever someone would ask him about himself, he was just hired help, someone who traveled around working odd jobs wherever he could find them, or a similar twist on the truth; he always managed to deflect the conversation away, and they never pressed him on it.
It was just as sundown was rapidly nearing when he finally returned to the Frothing Mug. He had learned long ago that people rarely strayed out of doors when night fell in Barovia, so it came as little surprise that the common room of the small inn was lively. Of course, there was only a handful of other guests besides his team, other travelers just passing through, so “livelier than it otherwise might have been” was the proper description.
After having a short, friendly conversation with the other group, Kai went over to the table where his three partners were already located, and took the remaining seat, which happened to be across from Rosa. Rodric was lost in a book, while Nicolai pointedly didn't look his way, but she had turned her attention to him the moment he had started approaching, and drummed her fingers slightly on the table in front of her as he sat down.
“Looks like you made it, after all.”
“Looks that way, doesn't it?”
“I trust you took care of any business?”
“More or less.” The inn's lone serving girl came over, and he offered her a smile, a compliment, and a small bit of chitchat before ordering a drink, and turned back to Rosa once she had left to bring it to him. “So, bright 'n early tomorrow?”
“Bright 'n early.”
He nodded, and accepted his drink with a gracious thanks when the serving girl returned with it, then just settled in to relax for a bit, drinking mostly in silence. He could feel Rosa's eyes studying him again, but it was to be expected; very soon, these people would be putting their lives on the line with him, and she wanted to have him somewhat figured out by that time. Not for the first time, he was glad things were simple on his end; all he had to do was make sure they stayed alive. It might not be easy, but he would do it, and that was that.
Rosa still found Nicolai's report a little hard to believe. What was this man's game? From Borus's description of him, she knew he had been a soldier once, and despite his nonchalant manner, she still caught a few subtle clues – the effortless, casual gait with which he moved, surprisingly fluid and deceptive of his size, among them – that suggested he had not been just any soldier. “An officer” had been the most she had gotten out of their mutual contact; she had her suspicions, very strong ones in fact, which had been why she had sent Nicolai out to watch him. But a deserter Falkovnian elite spending his day helping out the residents of a small village for practically nothing in return? That really confused her. If she was right in her guess, there was no way a man like that would have done such menial labor, unless he was trying to fool them all into a false sense of security. But if there was one thing she had learned about Falkovnians, especially their soldiers, it was that guile was not generally in their M.O. And both Nicolai and Rodric had commented that the man seemed to be very much what he appeared. That left her with...not much at all to work with.
He seemed to be a little lost in thought as he drank across from her, so she figured it would be a good chance to try and catch him off-guard. “So, do you often work in smithies when you've got time on your hands?” The look of surprise on his face was humorous, but not very telling; if he guessed that he had been tailed from that, then he was hiding it so well she doubted even Rodric could have told. “I stopped by to have my sword examined, and Master Pavlenco mentioned that he had worked with you for a bit today.”
Kai laughed a little as he set his mug down, and rubbed the back of his neck a bit. “Guilty as charged. I have family that works in a smithy, so it's a comforting environment, I guess. And it helps me stay in shape.”
Rosa raised an eyebrow a bit at that last remark. “Somehow I doubt that you maintain that build by swinging a smith's hammer for a couple of hours once every other week.”
“Oh-ho. You've been looking,” Kai said with a roguish grin.
“Well, you're roughly the size of a giant compared to me, so it's sort of hard not to,” she replied with a shake of her head. “But, seriously, is that the kind of thing you normally do while on the road?”
Quiet for a moment or two, Kai looked down into his mug with a curious expression on his face. “I guess...I just like to help out whenever I can. People like it when you give them time out of your day; makes 'em feel good to have someone to talk to, even if it's just over a common task. Or something like that, I can't say for sure.” He seemed to catch that she was eying him skeptically, and laughed a bit as he looked over to her. “What is it? Do I have ale on my face or something?”
“You're just strange.” She shook her head again, and took a long sip from her own mug. “I don't meet many people like you on the road.”
“I'll choose to take that as a compliment. I had hoped to hear 'You're such an amazing guy, and I can't wait to get to know you better,' but you've gotta start somewhere, I suppose.” The flat look that she gave him was joined by similar glances from Nicolai and Rodric, and Kai raised his hands in a defensive manner, though he grinned widely again. “Okay, okay, I know, bad joke.”
“Oh, I found it funny,” Rosa replied in a dry tone. “Just probably not in the way you intended.”
“Everyone's a critic.”
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