#bergen_county

"Sorry. Brekke."

"Not anyone...?" Kerri gives her a look. "You're Dagmar Hammerstrike. There are songs about you."

She snorts. "One song. You joust one car, and that was a lot of extenuating circumstances..."

"You underestimate yourself, Dagmar. Your Chief is right, I heard a song near the minstrel's competition about you."

Dee thinks it over, "Obviously I think Dagmar IS special, but it is also possible the balor wanted to get closer to winning one of the prize horses. "

"There's plenty of big Balor trolls that'd be less fuss to hire as muscle, is all I'm sayin'." She frowns. "Wanting one of the horses, maybe..."

"You may have an opportunity to find out more. He's imprisoned here at Caer Falken. He tried to frame his stablehand. I've had her released to my supervision. I don't think you'll get an honest answer from him, but I think you might from her."

"Begging your pardon, Bar.. Chief, but could we maybe show you the horses BEFORE She does that?" Dee inquires

"Of course, yes, but...Dagmar, I knew you'd be upset if you found out tomorrow that we didn't tell you about this today."

"I... sure..." Her hand drifts to her mouth, and she bites on the calloused knuckle of her thumb.

"Yeah. No. Sure."

Kerri gently takes both hands, as if no nailbiting had begun. "He was caught. He will be punished. In fact, he's already suffering from voices only he can hear." An encouraging grin. "Show me the beautiful horses."

Dagmar allows the redirection. "Okay. Okay. This way."

Kerri follows Dagmar's lead.

The stable master smiles as they come into view "Welcome back, Dames. And Baroness" He bows low, "Baroness, you'll be pleased by these three horses. Each worthy"

Dagmar explains the three. "There's the warmblood, Shae's Truth. Jumper, smart, lively. Handsome fella. Stallion. Would be good for breeding, if we chose."

"The big one, the Friesian, is Great Jax. That's a warhorse, for certain. If I didn't have Star, if I was, like, a full-time martial knight..."

Kerri nods, letting Dagmar's expertise take the lead.

"Also a stallion. Sure he'd be one hell of a stud, too. The closest equivalent to Stormwake, if any horse could be said to be like another."

She clucks her tongue, coaxing over the large cream mare.

"Either of the stallions, you could make a lot of money on stud fees. Or breed Star, if she takes a fancy."

The mare trots over, and seems to stop, then makes gentle haste and nuzzles dagmar

Kerri's mind drifts back over the advice she got from Nadeen as she considers each horse.

Lady Ohmsford was trained to help in therapy, and it appears she senses Dagmar was recently stressed

She runs a hand along the mare's nose. "This is Lady O. She's a draft cross - she can fight, if she has to. She's steady. But she's also been trained as a therapy horse."

"A steady, calm horse is good for children, or scared folks. If.. we've used horses for search and rescue, before, and..."

"Oh she's a pure blood, a newer breed to be sure but her papers are good" The Stablemaster says "BEST line might be Shae's Truth if you want oldest and most champions"

"A therapy horse? Interesting."

"And there's Ylva..."

"So...Lady O is the one you're considering?"

"I... see, I thought... I mean, maybe she might be the best fit?"

Dee is admiring Shae's Truth, the agile stallion much like her own Moondancer in some ways

"For what we are, not lookin' at lines and breeding and flash..."

"I detect a 'but' coming?"

"She is a good horse, good pedigree and all that. Healthy, too."

"But we have a mare. And... and sorry, sweetie, but I don't know if you'd be a champion jouster."

She sucks a breath in over her teeth. "But I also think I'd be a lot worse off if I hadn't met Blueberry when I did. When I didn't trust anyone."

"Hmm. That's a quandary." She looks back at Great Jax.

Jax is indeed the most like Stormwake in attitude, a true war horse, and, it seems with protective traits

"I'm happy with Star. I want what the Lodge needs."

D'Lorean frowns at something, "Baroness? May I?"

"Yes?"

"Two mares is NOT an obstacle really, a stallion, of quality mind, could be brought over to breed with either mother and produce a fine off spring. Obviously with Star and Stormwake it already happened. Now , breeding is NOT what Dagmar was looking for, but it's pretty clear to me Lady Ohmsford is her favorite. She brought up good reasons why even if she's not the best jouster... and the Stable master says she DOES joust, you might want her in a childling heavy area." The satyr continues "I know the Baron is not your favorite person but I bet he might be able to advise no matter WHICH horse you pick. Dagmar fought for your hold today, HER Hold too, but she's got her favorite, an while she is willing to bend to the greater need, I think all things even, going with her favorite would be a worthy thing."

(Perception plus Empathy for Kerri and Dagmar or best guess)

Kerri listens and nods.

/roll 8 explode

/roll 5

"I am more than happy to accept Dagmar's choice...if she'll state it clearly rather than hedging." An amused look at Dagmar.