Harkon woke the next day, there was a pounding on the front door. "Mister Battlestar?! Mister Battlestar?!" A voice called from the other side of the door.

Harkon walked up to the door and opened it, staring down at the portly man who looked a bit green.

A bit of snow on the porch that was colored yellow from vomit, the rest of the snow was stained red with shredded bodies of the bandits from last night. "Hello there, I'm Bernard, I'm the mayor of hearthstone down the road, it's a pleasure to meet you Mister Battlestar sir, Might I come in?" He asked, wringing his mitten covered hands together.

Harkon grunted, moving out of the doorway, the man shuffled in. "Thank you, thank you, you know you snore so loud I thought there was a bear in here hahahaaaaaaah!" The man screamed as he saw Pado laying on the floor in front of the fire that's long since gone out. the bear raised it's head and looked at the still screaming man, and then laid it's head back down.

The village leader finally stopped screaming and just when he took a deep breath to continue, Harkon put a massive band over the entire bottom half of her face, his fingers wrapped around their entire head. "Shush." He said.

The man wheezed heavy panicked breaths into his hand. Harkon waited for his breathing to slow and then released his mouth. "W... wh- why is there a bear in here?" The poor man said, then looked outside. "Is that why there's dead men outside?"

Harkon answered as he walked into the kitchen. "They were bandits, they tried to rob me, Pado took exception to that."

The man inched toward the large man, not taking his eyes off the bear for a second. "Mister Battlestar, the emperor has requested I get you acquainted with the area and people, I'm not so brave that I would deny the emperor himself."

Harkon looked at the small man, then huffed. "Let me get breakfast, where is nearest river." He asked.

The man blinked. "Uh, there's one up near the mountain, it's thirty leagues west from here." He said, confused as for what was going on.

Harkon nodded, his large dark brown beard scruffing his fur coat. "Come, we ride."

Pado got to his feet, and walked outside, Harkon followed avoiding the puke puddle deftly, the village leader hesitantly followed.

Harkon lashed the bear to the massive sled. and got into the coach seat. The village leader reached out a hand and was grabbed by the scruff of his coat and put him in the coach next to him. "Sit, don't fall out."

The village leader was about to ask what he meant but Harkon whistled, and the bear rushed through the snow, the village leader... started screaming again, though luckily snow quickly filled his gaping mouth. Harkon focused ahead away from the rising sun, after about fifteen minutes they came to a river with a large waterfall coming from mountain. he hopped off the sled and unbuckled the polar bear from the sled, he looked back at the village leader who was covered in snow, he followed as the polar bear walked into the water. the bear caught a large red salmon almost instantly, then Pado put the salmon into the back of the sled. Meanwhile Harkon was grabbing sticks from and hacking them off with a hatchet, after he had a pile of them and a bit of twine, he took his buck knife and cut off the smaller weaker branches their pine needle covered branches falling to the ground, he then proceeded to cut it down into a good enough size and repeated the process several times and tied the twigs together, into a funnel, then made a second funnel. after a few seconds and tied the funnels together, and tied the fish trap to a steak where he then put it into the water and planted the steak on the shore.

After an hour he'd easily made at least three more, he cut the salmon in the back of the sleigh with his hatchet and hacked three bloody chunks and out it into the fish traps.

He looked over to the bear who had at least five salmon in it's massive maw, it happily trotted over to the sled and set the salmon inside.

The village leader brushed some of the snow off of himself and shivered. "Sorry, I wasn't expecting it to be so... quick it should have been an hours walk, Shall we return to the village?"

Harkon casually lashed the polar bear to the sled and got up into the coach. "No, is time to cook."

The man looked terrified at the prospect of another sled ride.

Harkon put the big palm of his hand on the man's shoulder, and whistled, the bear brought them to his home and to his credit the village leader didn't panic... as much.

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they walked inside and Harkon started another fire where he started roasting two of the salmon, while Pado ate three others.

The village leader looked at him and said. "We really should go, the... people are eager to meet their new Baron..."

Harkon grunted, but continued watching the fire as the salmon roasted.

The village leader put reached into his pack "I uh, brought you a gift... mister Battlestar."

Harkon looked at the proffered item, a small doll. "My daughter made it for you, in the hopes that you would be a better baron than the last one." The village leader said.

Harkon took the small rag doll and frowned at it, it was a basic rag doll but it's small red dress was immaculately made, the hair was cotton yarn and red as the dress. "Is of good make, you must be proud."

The village leader sighed and smiled. "Yes, she is quite the little crafter."

Harkon tied the doll onto the side of his belt. he put the salmon onto a pair of plates and he started eating.

Harkon finished his meal while the village leader was still eating his meal though he seemed used to something more... refined. "Don't worry, I'll uh, finish when I get home." The Man said, not so discretely shoving his plate behind him toward the bear who eagerly ate it up in two bites.

Harkon ignored that pointedly and gestured for him to come over to the sleigh, they moved out not five minutes later toward the village. the village leader holding his puffy hat on his head as he called out old landmarks. "Right up there on the mountain is the Barrow, it's an old ruin filled with undead, Wights, nasty bit of business, they consume people's souls, leaving them to rise as undead wights themselves, we actually had to bar it off to adventurers because they started to overcrowd the ruins."

Harkon grunted, and they continued through the gate to the small village, it was a relatively quant place, a few people waved from their porches or in the streets and the village leader hopped down from the sled and scooped up a young blond girl in a little red fur coat. The girl waved her hands in the air and giggled. "Higher! Higher!"

Harkon stepped down from the large sled unlashed Pado which got a few uncomfortable looks from the villagers, all but the mayors daughter that is, who wriggled from her fathers grip and launched herself on top of the large white bear and said, "Getty up big horsy!"

Her father rushed over to grab her but the bear lumbered away slowly but faster than the village leader could run, soon the village leader was chasing the bear in circles, the bears tongue slops out of the side of it's mouth, yeah, he knows what he's doing, and Harkon smiled under his bushy beard at the sight, the girl was laughing and waving her hands at her dad. "Come and get me daddy!"

Bernard huffed as he chased after her. "Olivia get off of that bear right this instant." But Harkon sensed a smile on Bernard's face.

Harkon let out a short sharp whistle and Pado stopped in his tracks, allowing Bernard catch up and take his very disappointed daughter back.

Bernard walked with his daughter and lead Harkon through the village.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joseph looked at the emperor from his place in the throne room. "We're a man down damn it, how do you expect us to keep the elves lands from them."

Emperor Hadrian sat back in his throne. "You're a resourceful party and a powerful one at that, there shouldn't be a problem here, Joseph, you were chosen by the goddess to bring our empire to new heights something that hasn't happened in hundreds of years."

Terisa smiled. "Well, legendary tier barbarians don't just grow on trees."

Gaerith mumbled. "Thankfully."

Terisa put her hands into her pockets. "Can't we just find someone else to fill the role or some other role? I saw a nice healer who seemed rather promising."

Joseph sighed. "Just another herbalist, according to the emperor, there hasn't been a proper cleric since the gods left."

Hadrian got up. "Enough whining, Battlestar can be replaced easily. And even now he's being useful still, he'll be taking care of the savage northerners whether he knows it or not. As for his replacement." He gestured one of his royal guards forward, the gold plated golem marched forward. "Here, it's one of three, enchanted by the first emperor and more powerful than the three of you combined, it will be your fourth party member." The golem raised and slammed it's massive halberd to the ground.