We set out early the following morning not even having any time to practice, and we made good time, arriving at the camp well before nightfall and without encountering any difficulties. The slower advanced party having arrived a few hours beforehand and done a good job of enlarging the camp for its temporary influx of people.
Upon arriving I inspected the camp and finding nothing wrong I retired to the large tent they had set up for me. I expected that they would use my plain travel tent or the fancier one I used at all my tournaments I attended but instead they had brought what I assumed was the one my brother used when undertaking hunts that lasted for more than a single day.
It was a bit extravagant for my taste but that withstanding it was well built and I had seen ones much worse in my day. When I was settled in, I had my squire invite Erdal, Hector Barker, Rantham Sikra, Perrin Thireau, and Hasculf Magne for a meeting.
Hector was a light cavalryman in the service of the barony who had been in charge of the camp and the patrols operated from since it had first been set up nearly two weeks ago. Rantham was the leader of the additional light calvary I had hired to accompany me home upon hearing of my brother's death. Perrin was the Barony's Bowyer and fletcher whom I had ordered along on this trip since he had been born hereabouts and knew the area well. Hasculf was in charge of the nearby toll booth and thus was also aware of the area.
The only others present at the meeting were my two bodyguards and Kerem Nedal, my Valet.
"Alright everyone you are no doubt by now aware of the stated reason for my presence here. Well, it's all hogwash but before I tell you the real reason, I must first swear you to secrecy on pain of death if you should reveal it to anyone. Now anyone who has a problem with that well I'd ask you to leave?"
"No." they all replied, some taking time to think it over, others doing so automatically.
"That being the case I must inform you that we are not here to find the lost mines of Kincarn thought it would, of course, be a bonus if we did, not that I think that is a possibility after all if they ever existed hereabouts or otherwise they would have been rediscovered long ago.
No the reason we will be searching the area is to locate a bandit camp, that I am reliably informed has been set up in the area. Unfortunately, my informant is only privy to its existence and the general location, not the actual one. However, we have developed a list of possible hiding spots which we hope some of you in attendance might be able to add to or know someone else who could do so, any questions?"
"I have one milord, was your informant sure it was in the border area and not elsewhere, my patrols haven't turned up anything and while we were looking for individuals crossing the border and not some kind of base I think we would have stumbled across it if it was here.", asked Hector.
"He was sure enough or at least that was the information he based his report on so it is possible he was feed false information but I think it unlikely. That means we're going to have to launch an even more in deep search of this border and if that turns up nothing we'll just have to widen the search area."
"Has anyone made you aware that one of the locals has gone missing.", stated Hasculf.
"Who, when, and where?"
"A shepherd by the name of Michael Fouts milord, ten days ago his wife got worried when he failed to turn up with his flock one night. She sent their son looking for them and while most of the flock were located where he usually brings them about a mile or so away from the entrance to the forest but no sign of him could be found. Everybody assumed one of his sheep had gone missing, he had gone searching or it and managed to get himself injured in the process or perhaps lost and then ended up dead, so a search was called.
When they didn't find him after a few days they just gave up on him. It's happened before elsewhere or, so I was told thus everyone other than his family has just written him off. It might be nothing but supposing he encountered these bandits they might have killed him off-hand and buried his body somewhere or taken him captive."
"Worth looking into, if the bandits had nothing to do with it, we should at least try to find the body for his family's peace of mind if nothing else. Anyone have anything else to add no matter how trivial it might appear or how fanciful you may think it.
"Now that you mention it my grandfather once told me a tall tale about his father coming across a drunk old man who claimed to have been searching for some kind of treasure using a map he had discovered. But according to him all it led to was a small, flooded hole in the ground with some skeletal remains at the bottom of it and what he presumed was some type of weird-looking rock. I remember spending the next few weeks after hearing that tale searching for it but all I ever found was some animal bones and a rusted old dagger."
"Interesting but is it in any way relevant to the task at hand.", asked Erdal.
"Probably not but interesting none the less, the current plan is to divide into four groups and assign each group its own search area. Mine will search the flat land near between the river and just past the toll booth, Rantham the hill country, Hector the less dense parts of the forest and Erdal the rest of it."