Rossthaylock and Pony walked onto the grass, seemingly from inside the tree. The young Killoren stopped to marvel at it all, and then began to walk down an odd path lined with seats and strange metal baskets that were locked in place. She found some fruit in one of the baskets, and picked it out to give to Pony. Music filled the air, so she set off to find it.
Soren Ashwind was finishing his prayers on the bank of a small pond. It was the closet thing to a natural setting he could find in this city, this park. It was far too orderly, as if nature was trying to be tamed by ambitious city planners who thought that everything should have its place. The only thing he could come close to appreciating was the trash bins: at least that way the place wasn't strewn with garbage.
Kalvik Goldenmane was sitting on a park bench, quietly eating his dinner. Huddled in a cloak, he was just trying to remain unnoticed. While he had freed himself, the identification glyph burned into his arm still held the magic that could spell his doom if any one checked it. He would just lay low (as low as a 7 foot + Bugbear could), and try and find a way to get rid of the glyph.
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Soren caught a glimpse in the corner of his peripheral vision or a young woman walking out of a tree. He did a double take and then began to watch her. Was she a Dryad? An elemental? He couldn't tell, but the one thing he could was that she was armed to the teeth. His curiosity piqued, he picked up his staff and began to follow her.
Rossthaylock was walking down the path saying hello to people as they passed by, when a well dressed man greeted her back in a language she didn't know. After some verbal fumbling in different tongues, the two fond a common language, and began to talk. He offered his arm, and Rossthaylock, thinking it an opening dance move, mimicked the action and started dancing to the distant music.
The stranger offered to take her to the music, and buy her dinner. Soren, suspicious of the man's motives, drew nearer and observed him fondling a small green pouch while stroking Rossthaylock's arm with his other hand.
Seeing this, Soren suspected that the strange man was up to no good. He approached and summoned a small air elemental to snatch the bag away and bring it to him.
The elemental did as was bidden, and Soren stared the man down while opening the bag to reveal its powdery, poisonous contents. Rossthaylock backed off and asked Soren to return the bag, but Soren pressed on, intimidating the man with hard questions as to his intentions, and berating him for being foolish enough to target the very well armed Rossthaylock.
Soren told the man to leave. Rossthaylock, bewildered at the sudden spike in testosterone, bade Soren once again to return the bag. Being a gentleman, he bowed slightly, said "but of course", then proceeded to turn the bag inside out, then threw it back to the stranger, then told him to leave again.
From his bench, Kalvik saw and heard a fight brewing. A thin fellow with a staff (could be a wizard maybe?) looked to be about to come to blows with a big guy who was packing a rapier. Deciding that the big one had the upper hand, and needing a spell caster to try and get rid of his brand, he decided to help the thin guy. He slid behind the bigger guy, placed his blade on the fellow's shoulder, and recommended that he listen to the thin man's advice. Doing just that, the well dressed fellow (who as it turns out was a “talent scout” for a brothel) ran off into the dusk.
And so, the three of them were drawn together. They took Rossthaylock to see the music, and she danced while the others discussed the brand, and how they might remove it. Later, the three went to Soren's small room, where it was determined that the brand was removable, but beyond Soren's current abilities. Since removing such a brand is a dangerous thing to ask another (Kalvik took a great risk in showing it to his new compatriots), the two decided to stick together until such time as it could be removed.
Rossthaylock decided to stick with them as well. They were awfully nice to her, and Soren had promised to get her some special papers she apparently needed to travel from place to place with out hassle. Poor Kalvik could not have them, but the brand and the chain collar & lead he had on made him looked like Soren "owned" him, which was odd, because you can't own anyone.
Rossthaylock and Kalvik proceeded to get fight each other to see who was the best warrior. Kalvik won, but Rossthaylock did get quite a few good hits in.
The next day Soren went to find someone who could forge papers (getting then the legal way would take weeks, and besides, he resented the very idea of using papers to qualify one's right to exist, so fake ones were even better). He found a source for the papers, and took an offer to check out an outbreak of a sickness in nearby Falcon's Hollow (the forger's nephew was sheriff there) in lieu of payment.
While he was gone, Kalvik had began to teach Rossthaylock goblinese, and doing so very loudly (such language lessons involve lots of hitting and shouting).
Soren asked if they were willing to come to Falcon's Hollow with him, and both enthusiastically agreed. They picked up some supplies, and left the next morning, stopping to pick up Rossthaylocks papers of course.
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To be continued tomorrow. (edited for spelling)
2 comments:
hmmm I wonder what comes next? Are the dice ready?
Finally figured out how to comment. Kalvik awaits hearing of more of his great deeds!
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