Diplomacy check successful!<br/>Innkeeper DIBS: +1/-1/0/+1<br/><br/>The stew was warm, hearty, and delicious. "Twas a blessing if you don't know what happened," the innkeeper said as he poured a few more frothy mugs and passed them off to the barmaid to be served, "The old Count Scarlet died during the winter leaving behind his two young daughters. You can guess what happened next: inheritance dispute. One-time vassal Baron Black claimed that the lordship was rightfully his, quoting a marriage some generations back to support his claim. The case went to the duke, who basically said that he cared not which name won as long as they bent their knee to him, and would they please hurry and finish up before spring so as not to interfere with the spring planting. You can guess what happened next, civil war. Black convinced the majority of the knights that his side was the winning side and bribed those on the fence. The poor girls didn't have a chance, they had a few loyal retainers but all their father's allies were taking their sweet time sending reinforcements. Their only hope was to hole up in the ancestral Scarlet castle and wait it out until someone finally sent help... but the Baron ain't known for his patience. He bribed someone inside the castle to open the gate on the night of the solstice, stormed the place and slaughtered all the loyalists to the last man. Rumor has it he's going to marry the elder daughter soon to solidify his claim, and dispose of her once she bears him an heir..."<br/><br/>"...Now where was I? Oh yes, the tower. Near the end the Scarlets' retainers had a plan to smuggle the girls out of the kingdom through these very mountains. Black found out, though, and sent a force to capture Eagler's Eye to prevent just that. The tower burned during the fighting, and it turned out to be for nothing anyways - the next day news that Castle Scarlet had fallen arrived, and the soldiers were recalled. Eagler's Eye has been sitting up there in that sorry state since then, until now I guess. But something's stopping the work, though the sergeant's trying to keep it clamped down." The innkeeper lowered his voice, "the others mentioned something about monsters in the tower..."<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Sergeant DIBS: 0/-1/0/+1<br/><br/>At Krysia's interruption, the soldiers looked up at her: an older man with the grizzled look of a veteran hardened by years of experience, and five lads including the sick one who looked like peasant boys just come of age and levied into the army. The grizzled sergeant took her silver dagger, looked down its edge, and gave it a spin in his hand. "Tis a blade for werewolves and vampires to fear," he said as he handed it back to her, and added, "I've only seen woman witches before, never a woman witcher. A strange choice of attire to dress up like a witcher, lass, is this some new way to advertise your father's blades?"<br/><br/>"Hold on," one of the younger soldiers interrupted, regarding Krysia with suspicion, "I've been to Treford before and the blacksmith has no daughters, only a son." Fortunately, Krysia was able to explain that she wasn't from Treford, but rather from another town a similar distance away, whose local blacksmith did have a daughter. The soldiers seemed satisfied with the lie.<br/><br/>Bluff check successful!<br/>Sergeant DIBS: 0/-1/+1/+1<br/><br/>The sergeant said, not unkindly, "Unless your mother is also a healer you should move on, as you can see we're trying to take care of our ill comrade here."