Dwarves were not made for horses. Durnim painfully dismounts from his horse following the halfling. His short legs felt more bandy than before. He rubbed his rump and stretched his arms and waist.
Instead of his leather apron and bear arms, the dwarven smith wears banded mail, a boulder helmet and a sturdy leather, multi-pocketed belt. Over his shoulder, he slings a longhammer and a heavy steel shield. At his side, a cold iron waraxe slowly swings.
After a bit of exercise and noticing a drawn sword, "So you have a bone to pick with this claw-shaped sycamore tree? What has it done to you?"
"Durnim you look a might heavy for that poor horse. I can see him thank you for getting off. haha"
Dagru stays put with bow drawn but paying close attention to the surroundings.
He also looks about the natural surrounds to see anything out of the ordinary.
Vianella notices the dwarf's discomfort after the long ride and leans over to him. "It does get better... or at least the blisters on the blisters form something of a barrier against further hardship...," she says with a wry smile before turning to watch the others prepare to meet the doom under the patch of disturbed earth.
After several moments of standing about the tree, carefully studying the disturbed earth in expectation of some unseen horror lunging from beneath it, the group is forced to accept that, for now, they are not in danger.
On the next hill over, a small herd of deer numbering about 20 casually walks along, grazing here and there as they make their way across the plain.
__________
"It's a tree." Durnim declares and asks, "why is it important?"
Rockne lets out a nervous laugh as the dwarf's question breaks the silence. "Look at us, standing around like a bunch of jack a$$e$....."
Feeling more than a little foolish for the over-caution, he strides forward and bends down to examine the disturbed earth.
"We have sat too long in the arms of safety, we must explore."
Dagru lets his guard down and prepares to ride.
"Dagru and I have buried items before and then returned later for them. Perhaps this is such a cache." Grautak dismounts Whisper and prepares to help dig.
Rockne's hand pauses for a moment, hovering just above the dirt. "Ever leave any surprises in case someone else finds it first?"
Durnim pulls out his folding chair and sits. He watches them work and admires the countryside while snacking on some rations and drinking pure water.
Vianella remains on her horse, pulling out a cloth to dab at her forehead as she watches the others try to carve out a hole in the disturbed earth beneath the tree. She glances askance at the dwarf who had just pulled out a chair. "Now that is a good idea!" she exclaimed. "I'll have to remember to pack such a thing for the next time."
After about 15 minutes of hard work with improper digging equipment, a small package wrapped in a heavy leather cloak reveals itself.
__________
After awaking from camp beneath the tree, the group continues west. The land gets rockier as you travel, with several deep ravines and crags that take some time to fully investigate.
Vianella, priestess of Abadar, upon seeing the 'haul' the others had found in the ground, mutters a short phrase, her fingers moving in an intricate pattern, as she brings forth some minor power from the Master of the First Vault. Her fingers passing across her eyes at the end, she seems to focus even more on the items found, ready to inform the others of her discovery.
--------
As the Lady Vianella Orlovdky rode her steed through the crags, she winced at the horse's awkward gait and the effects it was having on her back. Reaching back to knead a knot her back, she turns her head to the side to stretch the tight muscles in her neck. She blinks and pauses for a moment, pulling her horse to a stop. "I say... Is there an opening over there? Behind all that brush?"
"A cave? Oh merciful Torag, thank you for giving us a reason to abandon these painful animals and return to your domain," Durnim says to himself. Then, the dwarven smith awkwardly dismounts and begins his usual stretching exercises attempting to restore feeling in some of his body and remove the painful soreness elsewhere. He casts furtive glances toward the others hoping they want to explore the cave.
Behind the thick overgrown brush, the opening leads down twenty feet to a thirty foot diameter cave. The wall of the cave just opposite the entrance sparkles slightly, and while beautiful to look at, none of those gathered about the entrance can seem to put their finger on what exactly is causing it...
Rockne chuckles at Gird's warning. "What could be livin' in there that's scarier than THESE two?" he teases, pointing thumb toward the hobgoblin brothers.
The sparkling of the wall might be interesting to the academic types but the halfling keeps focused on the path ahead, wary of danger despite his joking bravado.
Durnim casts Detect Magic and then pitches a loose rock at the wall.
"Good find. What did you gather Vianella? Anything nice? Anything you might want me to look over for more info."
Dagru continues riding close behind Vianella. "I knew I should have got in there. Ah well the next one is mine."
The cave continues on a small distance before soon becoming far too narrow for anyone present to pass through. However, the glistening substance in the wall continues on and grows more prevalent as the cave continues.
Woot
Durnim studies the sparkly wall and may have remembered something.
Durnim scrapes off a bit of the sparkly wall and bites it. Then, a broad smile emerges on his face. He softly whistles to himself. "That's what I thought. We've got a healthy gold vein here. With a bit of time and tools, we can mine and mint our own gold coins."
"Today is a GREAT day! Durnim your earned your place among our team."
"time and tools, huh? Sounds good, but does any of us know anything about mining?"
The halfling likes the idea of being a rich mine owner but not the idea of spending his days digging in the stone ....
"No worries Rockne, does any of us know anything about getting rich? Probably not; but, we can hire a guy?"
Dagru starts laughing at the halfling and looks to his brother for support.
"One challenge at a time my little friend. We can handle whatever comes our way."
Vianella claps her hands together gleefully before composing herself. "Splendid," she says calmly. "It seems Abadar, the Gold-Fisted, is looking out for us. This will certainly be of great assistance as we bring civilization to these stolen lands."
"I would say," the Lady Orlovsky began, responding to Rockne, "that, when the time comes and this area has been fully calmed and claimed, we could hire those who do know much about mining to gather its contents, without fear of their being assaulted. We could use the proceeds to finance the build and expansion of roads, or even a city... We just need to determine the best location for such a thing... Although if people keep coming to Oleg's, it's likely going to build up to become one unofficially at some point."
"My father is a miner." Durnim offers. "I avoided it by becoming a smith. When we want to exploit the vein, we hire miners." He stops himself before thinking about Agna. Too late. Dammit. He starts to imagine himself returning to Bruderton to hire miners from her family's Silverstrike mine.
Rockne bristles a bit at being called 'little', but remembering just how ugly the hobgoblins are allows him to let it slide for the moment.
"So a nice find but nothing to do today. So what, we try to hide it and keep going?"
The next few days are spent as the previous, exploring the area towards the west. Soon enough, you return to the Narlmarch forest, eventually returning to the location of the bandit camp.
Dagru takes a drink from his hip flask, he gags as he wretch at the taste of the water, heavily spiked with salt.
Grautak prepares to dismount from Whisper, shifting his weight to only one stirrup, he realizes that one of the buckles of the saddle has come undone, and he unceremoniously falls to the ground!
Durnim dismounts and stretch his legs, his trousers go tumbling straight to the ground, as apparently the buckles and ties holding them up have come undone!
Gird appears just about to laugh at the ridiculous scene developing around him, when a large glob of bird droppings lands square on his head from a pigeon taking roost in a branch above him.
With his pants around his ankles, Durnim takes a tangled step and two and drops to the ground like a metal plated sack of potatotes. "Damn buckle. Need to get some suspenders, too."
After he struggles on the ground to get his pants on and secure, the heavily armored dwarf slowly gets to his feet. By then, he's breathing heavy from exertion.
Vianella chuckles at the comedy of errors that occur around her. I suppose we're lucky this little bit of bad luck didn't happen while we were occupied with the bandits or worse... She winces as she looks over at Rockne, realizing that what she saw was no demonstration of ill luck, but something else entirely... "Good ser Rockne... erm... you may wish to cleanse your armor... it seems that some... offensive words have been stenciled upon it...,"
The priestess tilts her head in thought and looks around. How could someone have done that without anyone noticing?
"Who has been messing with my gear? This drink tastes like monkey piss!"
He angrily sits atop his mount trying to think of a time when anyone could have done this.
[dice=perception)1d20 + 4 [/dice]
Then he starts looking about for others.
|
Gird remembers his time at home and the deep respect and co-operation the Medvyeds have with the Fey
Acting on a hunch Gird dismounts and looks up to the trees
"Thankyou for the amusement friends, mayhaps you care to join us and we can share tales of adventure and fun in these lands and maybe some food and drink"
Gird tries to think more about what could be doing these actions
Rockne tries to keep a straight face. He truly does. But the shear silliness of what's happening around him is too much and he starts laughing. He turns from side to side, looking to each of his companions and their own woes, each time his laughter starts to subside he looks to another and starts anew.
All that ends in a flash as Vianella draws his attention to his armor. His wide grin flips to a dark grimace immediately, and suddenly his oversized sword is in his hands before anyone even registers him drawing it.
"Who...which.......who wants some first?!?!?" he manages to sputter, spraying spittle with almost every word.
He loses some of his bluster as he notices Gird talking up at the trees. Whats the pointy-eared b@st@rd doing?
Vianella glances over at Gird. "Friends? Who are you talking to? You know who did this?" she asks. "You may want to let your friends know they may have gone a bit too far in their pranks with Rockne, here," she frowns sadly at the halfling's predicament. "At least they had sufficient understanding to avoid causing me any grief. Perhaps they have a knowledge and respect of nobility?"
|
|
Gird moves to each party member in turn and explains the following words to them, so that he's not overheard by the fey
"They are probably creatures of fey, very proficient at hiding and capable of trickery magic they can be bribed they prefer the term gifted with shiny bits of jewelry, alcohol, sugary food, and potions, but detest items made of cold iron."
"Well, let's make camp, and try to make friends then." Durnim replies through gritted teeth while suppressing an emotional explosion for being made the fool.
"Friends? FRIENDS?!" Rockne is breathing heavily now, clearly trying to keep himself reined in while making every effort not to look at his defaced armor.
Steady, there will be something to hit soon enough, don't lose it just yet.........
"Gird, would you mind telling your friends we mean them no harm." Grautak thinks for a few seconds before continuing in a hushed voice. "Perhaps these fairies know a bit about the forest and its... inhabitants. Maybe we could persuade them to share what information they have."
Unfortunately we'll have to rely on the Dandy for this one. I hope he is as good as he thinks he is with these fairy folk.
|
|
Gird approaches Dagru
"Of the things that I know of that the fey like as gifts your probably our best bet for being able to provide say alcohol or tasty food"
Gird steps away from Dagru and says to the trees
"We mean you no harm, feel free to join us in our journies."
Gird takes some of a ration and leaves it on a rock nearby.
Grumbling at the thought of losing his spirits Dagru gets down from his horse. He then goes into his horse's saddlebags.
"I keep some ale here for the evenings. Hopefully this will bring them out."
Dagru takes it over to the rock where the rations are and lay it beside them.