As twilight approaches Paul moves from the surrounding wilderness with an easy, swinging stride. A small sack is slung over his shoulder and he’s carrying his musket by the barrel in his left hand.
When he gets to the camp he lays the bag by his gear and quickly makes a small camp fire. When it’s burning bright, he takes from his pack a small messkit and fills one of the medium pans with water from his waterskin.
Then he takes from the sack some small wild onions that he found, as well as some other leaves (sage, chicory, and some sorrel). He rinses them off and tosses them into the water in the pan and pulls out a large rabbit and begins to clean it.
As the water begins to simmer he adjusts the pan so it doesn’t boil and instead causes the leaves inside to soften and thicken in the water. Soon the rabbit is cleaned and he begins to toss small chunks of the meat into the pan until it’s nearly full; then he puts a lid on it and lets it all stew together for a while.
Cleaning off his hands and tools he stretches out his long legs and gets comfortable, enjoying the pop and hiss of the fire. A sudden thought grips him, and he swings himself up and gathers the remains from the rabbit and walks over to Cur and offers the beast the bones to gnaw on, if the dog, and the dwarf, are both agreeable.
He comes back and watches the stew simmer. When it’s cooked to his satisfaction he takes out a small wooden box and adds a bit of salt to it, then ladles a large portion into his bowl and digs in with relish.
As he’s eating, he looks up and glances around, noticing the others.
His eyes search for the young Miss Ayreth. When he sees her he leaves the food by the fire and walks over to her.
”Evening, ma’am,” he says, tipping his hat.
”Well, like I said – I did a bit of hunting earlier; I didn’t know if you had food in your kit, but I reckoned that there’s plenty to spare if you’d like a piece.”
As he waits for her to answer, he glances over at Bart and Gii.
”Oye,” he says, calling to them, too ”I got some grub here that’s fresh and hot, if you’d like any,” he says to them with nod.
”If not, it don’t make no never mind.”
Then he looks at the other folk who are newcomers to the camp.
”Evening – name’s Antairis,” he says to them amicably.
”If any of ya’ll are interested I got some fresh food for any that’d want some,” he adds.
He turns back to Ayreth.
”Just let me know your preference, ma’am,” he says with a nod, then heads back to his gear and gets comfortable, enjoying his supper.
"Thank you, friend Paul. I will take you up on your offer."
You may notice that Ayreth is quite carnivorous in her eating habits.
If Paul noticed her eating habits, he doesn't say much about them. Apparently he's seen a lot of - styles - of eating on the trail, and doesn't seem phased by rough table manners...
As he continues to eat, he looks at her.
"I got some more rabbit I ain't cooked up yet, wasn't room in the pot. Planned on stewing the rest when I'm finishing with this bit here..." he says as he pauses to take a spoonful of the broth.
"If you like your meat more... rare, let me know - I can do it proper for you; just tell me how you like it," he says with a nod.
He pauses, and gets a pot and fills it with water and sets it to boil, tossing in some dried leaves into it.
He looks up and studies her.
"Reckon it's best to offer food and drink during a meal..." he says, letting the sentence hang for a moment as he thinks of something, then shrugs.
"That'll be done soon enough, if you want a sip or two of it - tea's from Minkai - 'course, the folks back there call it cha; I got a bit of it off a corsair who was in Absalom last summer - but he called himself a wako," he says with a distracted voice as the water simmers.
"Anyhow - if you want food and drink, I got both to offer," he says, turning to concentrate on his food as the tea comes to a boil, his eyes veiled as he studies her.
Hi there! First off, I want to say a great big thanks to everyone who put forth character submissions and especially to those who participated in our RP activity. It was really cool to get a flavor of how you each Rp your characters.
That being said, I'm going to go ahead and officially close recruitment. Right Hand and I have enough to start making a decision, we just have to discuss it amongst ourselves. You all had interesting characters, so it's gonna take some thinking. We'll have the final decision tomorrow morning.
Thanks again to everyone, and happy gaming!
Paul turns his gaze from the young lass near him and glances at the others.
Wonder how many of them are coming all the way to the town and how many are just passing through…
He slides the pot of boiled tea away from the fire and leaves it to cool a bit, his eyes hardening as he thinks of the mission before him.
”Reckon there’s a bit of work to do when we get there,” he mutters to himself.
Leaning back he stretches out his legs and looks above at the stars and tastes the wind absently.
He swings forward suddenly and takes a cup and dips it into the tea, then lifts it to his mouth and sips it; the drink hot and rich as he contemplates what is to come.
He takes another sip of the tea, then he leans forward and puts the cup aside. Swinging himself to his feet he gets up and moves away from the camp and the others into walks quietly into the darkness of the surrounding wilderness.
As he looks at the stars above, he reaches into a small pouch hanging from his belt and takes out a strangely made silver coin.
He raises it up and catches the starlight on the silver surface and mutters softly.
”Glacadh leis an tairiscint airgid… Is féidir le mo Cinniúint a bheith go maith…”
”Accept this offering of silver.”
”May my Fate be good…”
Then he stoops down and buries the coin in the earth.
Bartholomew was near enough to the camp that their conversation kept him company long after the sun had set and the stars had written. Alar lay beside him, as always, and Bart has his head leaning against the side of the creature. Despite Alar's muscle the young lad had always found it comfortable. For the first time since he had walked over to the group, his goggles were back on his forehead rather then over his eyes, and they sparkled with stars much like the ones in the sky above every once in a while.
Alar, to allow Bart to sleep a little better, and to make it harder for them to find, had shrouded his form in dark shadows. The creature looked up into the night as well alongside Bart, something he did often, as he had little need for sleep. The stars that made up his form, even dark as they were, always felt a bit... better when under star light. It was hard to describe, and in truth the Lion wasn't really keen on trying. Bart probably could have. He was a lot better with words. But Alar would wait for a better time to ask him to try. For now, he was content with the silence and with the nearness of his friend and brother.
The pair both longed to join the group around the camp fire, but they knew the dangers and would rather not risk it. Soon enough they might have to, too be able to get the information they were searching for, but Bart said he had a plan and Alar was willing to trust the clever boy on this. So they lay their together, watching the stars until one of them fell asleep, leaving the other to watch over him.
With little to do, Paul returns to the camp.
He sees that Bart has not yet returned to camp and wonders about that.
He looks over by the campfire that he made.
He notices Ayreth still sitting by the fire and he returns to his gear and flings himself onto the ground near her. Turning to look at the others near the wagon he studies them for a little while.
”I reckon we’ll have to see what Fate’s got in store for each of us,” he muses softly to himself.
He considers everyone else after their brief meeting, then sighs.
"Well, I'd say my piece direct to the others, but everyone seems to got their own business... still, it was good meeting new folk, at least for a little while," he mutters.
Then he turns back to her.
”I don’t know what’ll happen next, but either way you slice it, I reckon it was nice meeting you, too, ma’am,” he says to her with a nod.
Thanks for all the great rp (and work on your characters). GM Left Hand will be announcing the successful players tomorrow.
Exciting!
Good night from me.
Let me ditto again Right's thanks for all of your participation. we appreciate all the work you did on your characters, and the Rp was very fun.
After several hours of discussion last night (I'm in Pacific Time/California), Right Hand and I have made our selections.
In Alpha by character name:
Ayreth
Bartholomew Grayson
Blue Heron
Doctor Gii
Paul Antairis
Yuki Tsune
Again, thank you all for your participation. It was a difficult decision with so many interesting back-stories.
The discussion tab is now open, so if everyone selected can Dot, we can finalize your characters and get ready to start!
Oh well, guess I'll have to try harder next time....