"You're right, he does look like her. Quiin whispers back to James before the other boy jumps up and puts his foot in it. Quiin's eyes go wide as James interrupts two angry adults.
Vorin, too, looks confused. To the other kids, he asks, whispering, "Do dads yell like that a lot?"
When James gets up, however, he's on his feet in an instant as well, ready to backup the other boy in his offer of help... or serve as a distraction if it comes to running from angry adults.
Emoheria slurps her chowder noisily until the foreign man bursts t]in through the window.
"Where are you going, Almos?" she asks, as the boy next to her started to stand up. "Do you know who that is? Do any of you know?"
"I know she's letting me stay here as long as I help around the Inn. That's enough for me." He replies as he gets up to stand by Jimmy.
While Foxglove is looking at the scene with his head cocked and an indecipherable look in his eyes, the old man turns to the kids who approached. "Stay out of this!" he hisses. "I've heard of you brats, do you feel important because you can swing a stick at goblins? You should keep your nose out of things that don't concern you."
"You don't concern me, Fùqīn" says Ameiko, poison in her voice. "And I won't have you insult me or my guests under my roof. Get out."
As soon as the older man turns on the kids, Isaac is there, putting his body between the angry man and his friends. It was impressive that he covered the distance as quickly as he did and now locked blank eyes on the old man's face.
"I don't like this," Empheria says quietly.
Suddenly, the shouting and the taunting become too much for her. She starts sobbing, and she runs away to the door to get away from the scene quickly.
"If you don't know why this concerns me you are not important or care enough about here. You have been asked to leave and I suggest you do so." He says with more confidence than he felt. For an added flair he muttered under his breath to get a little magic going. Ghostly serpents curled around his limbs and breeze rustled his clothing.
Vorin doesn't seem too concerned at the man's response. He's been called a brat too many times to really care. He stands there full of confidence. He just gives a little smirk, like 'just try to catch me'. "Our noses belong here more than yours does."
The fact that Emmy starts to cry, however, has him first spin to face her, and then back towards the man. This time, his red eyes hold as much loathing as a nine-year-old can muster. "You're a bully, you don't deserve to have a family."
Then he turns to run after his friend.
Ameiko's father looks at your group with venom in his eyes, then back at the innkeeper. "A gaggle of uncouth children, fit clientele for this disresputable business you chose to run."
He then spits something in his foreign language, something that makes his daughter gasp, before storming out of the Rusty Dragon. Ameiko looks angry and sad at the same time. "Almos, please prepare a sign to hang on the door, saying No ******** allowed."
Foxglove and most of the customers laugh at the levity and somebody clap on the woman's shoulder.
James' fists relax back into hands. Somehow it all worked out. "Not uncouth. I'm very couth." he mutters at the closing door, then turns to Ameiko.
'Someone should check she's okay.' he realises, then looks around at the customers' levity. 'Something's happening' he decides, but is unable to work out what adult code is at work.
"Of course, Miss." He says as the little magic trick fades and he hurries off to find some paint and something to write on.
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"Ms Ameiko, what's a '********'?" Isaac asked, not recognizing the word.
James sniggers. He starts to tell Isaac something, then looks across at Ameiko and falls silent.
Ameiko chuckles at Isaac's question. "If you lot are old enough to carry weapons, you're old enough to know some swearwords and insults. An ****** is someone who thinks they have the right to tell people how to live their lives. Tomorrow I'll teach you about an evergreen like ****."
As the innkeeper returns to her pots and pans, Foxglove walks nonchalantly to you, cleaning his mouth. "Things can get colourful in this town, yes? Now then, I've arranged with Master Hosk to have some ponies for you, and we can go hunting small game. Rabbits, pheasants, I hear the woods are rich. Do you have some hunting weapons?"
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Andi gets really excited about a trip to the woods! She has snuck out several times in the past to commune with nature but never in a sanctioned trip with an adult.
Looking around the woods, she feels a sense of belonging... as if this is her real home. She talks a big breath of piney air. "This is great, Licorice. I wish we could just set up a house out here and stay in the woods forever."
Refusing a weapon, Andi opts for a string and springy twigs. With a proper setting, such tools can be more useful to catch a rabbit than a spear! It just comes to her, as if it is something she is a master of, but in truth this is her first time setting such a trap.
First, Andi examines the ground and finds a small game trail worn in the grass.
Then she sets us several traps up and down the area...
Finally, she sits back and spends her time listening to the birds and watching Licorice do some hunting of his own.
When the day has passed, Andi has an impressive brace of coneys. 11!
"So that's all?" Empheria asks Ameiko, having had an opportunity to calm down. "He was just being a ****** and telling you how to live your life?"
The trivial things grown-ups argued about never ceased to amaze her.
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Though Empheria was clearly far more intrigued by the ponies than by the prospect of hunting, she followed with her old sling in hand, but she hoped to make the trips more interesting.
"Mr. Foxglove, can I please try to shoot the birds with fire? Please please please please with a cherry on top? I promise I will try my best not to burn anything else."
After the hunting, Empheria admires her six pieces of game, and wonders why she had just killed them.
Vorin returns along with Empheria, relieved now that he sees she's okay.
That relief turns into a look of fear at the talk of going hunting. "In the woods?"
Still, when the man offers to buy him (and the others) hunting weapons, he can hardly say no. He follows along to the fletcher's, not saying much. Once there, he forgets his nerves as he looks through the weapons, a grin on his face.
For a few moments he looks over the crossbows, especially the smaller and lighter ones. As if something was wrong, but he just can't place it. Shrugging it off, he turns towards the bows. "I want one like Shalelu Andosana uses!"
His nerves grow as they approach the woods, and he almost doesn't go in. Except, Vorin being Vorin, he refuses to be seen as a coward, and does indeed follow.
After a bit, when no elves come out of the trees to say, 'We thought we got rid of you, freak!,' he starts to relax.
Of course, Vorin can't take his time and shoot properly. Every one of his shots has him trying to make a show out of it, so he ends up missing most of them as his theatrics scare off the animals. Still, he catches two.
There is no jealousy at all as he sees that Andi and Empheria came back with so many compared to him. "We'll all have lots to eat!"
James' opinion of Foxglove had revised completely. From the guy who'd let his dog get hurt he'd become the man who was helping James become a real warrior.
His scorn as Andi uses a stick and string instead of a bow is quickly buried under awe when he sees how quickly her snares bring in food.
Carefully holding his new bow - a bow! He took aim at target after target. Vorin's fancy moves seemed... problematic, if cool, and James found himself unable to shoot for nerves.
When Andi brings up her third rabbit he shakes his head 'just go for it.'
Soon he starts to catch up, and as the day draws to a close his score matches hers.
While he does well with the bow, he figures he might as well set some snares as well. His combined total almost matches Andi's.
Isaac does not really participate in the hunting, he does follow after the others and even takes the occasional inaccurate shot but mostly the odd lad seems intent on making sure nothing was hunting them as well.
While he worried over his current inaccuracies lately Almos decided to get a feel for his new light crossbow. With everyone getting at least some he figured he wouldn't feel bad if he couldn't get any game.
Much of his confidence was returned despite one pheasant somehow had only been stunned and nearly knocked him off his pony.
Quiin joins the others in their hunt, but declines to kill the creatures himself, absorbed in his own thoughts rather than others for once. He does take Foxglove up on his offer of a new bow though, practising with the unfamiliar weapon on tree stumps as they move through the brush.
- "Oh, fire in the forest? Only if you are sure that you won't set fire to anything, young lady!"
During the hunt, Foxglove spends some time getting to know James, asking about his family and his hopes for the future.
"My, but you are talented!" he finally cheers as evening approaches, impressed by your catches. He has managed to catch four rabbits himself, thanks to the work of his large dog more than any other.
"I guess we're going to eat a tasty stew tomorrow if we sell these to Madam Kaijitsu. Let's get back before it's dark, though."
The return to Sandpoint is quiet and uneventful, and after your bounty is complimented and your bellies are full, you go to sleep dreaming of adventures.
The morning after, there is a voice running around the town. Shalelu has returned.
Shalelu Andosana is a mix of a bounty hunter, a survivalist and a mercenary. A tall, blonde elf with light blue eyes as piercing as her feared arrows, she's something of a legend to the local populace, with tall tales going around: it's said that she scattered a warring tribe of gnolls with a single arrow, that she forgoes riding because no horse can keep her pace, and that her step is lighter than a halfling's.
Her visit to Sandpoint is unexpected—she last passed through town only a month ago and wasn’t expected until the last week of autumn.
Vorin slips away from the orphanage early in the morning, wandering around as he brainstorms tricks to pull on Ameiko's father. The more embarrassing, the better.
He doesn't make it very far in his plans before he hears about Shalelu's return, which blows them from his mind. A very short time later, he's running to find his friends (Andi especially), greeting each with an excited, "She's back!"
Not that he's ever really talked to her directly, but he has a particularly strong sense of hero worship towards her.
Quiin catches sight of Shalelu as she enters town, and is lost for some time staring at her as she walks straight past without giving him a second glance and daydreaming in a way the greatly disconcerts him as he snaps out of it when she walks out of sight.
"What the hell Quiin, get it together!" he mutters under his breath.
After hearing the rumors of Shalelu's return, Empheria tracks her down outside. She finds her just as she is passing by Quiin.
"Hi Shalelu, remember me?" she interrupts. "Whatcha doing here again so soon?"
During the hunt, Foxglove spends some time getting to know James, asking about his family and his hopes for the future.
James' hopes for the future are easy enough to extract. Dreams of playing professionally are recognised as dreams, but James has a plan to become a fighter rather than a farmer. He quickly starts to ask the more worldly Foxglove where the best place to become such a fighter is.
James is typically reticent about his family - there's enough judgement in the town against his father, and his sister's mother. But Foxglove has played his cards well - James regards him as a friend - and soon the entire story spills out.
James starts to run, then stops. 'Not a little kid anymore' Carefully he checks his sword and bow are stowed correctly, and tries to walk calmly forward. Every now and then he subconsciously skips a step.
Shalelu's horse, a lean chestnut mare, is indeed at Hosk's stables, and asking around you quickly find out that the elf went straightaway to speak with Mayor Deverin. The large oak with a branch just over the mayor's office looks tempting...
Shalelu's voice is dry and slightly coarse. "...in a farm just south of Mosswood. Hadn't I been there, they would have killed everyone, and they still managed to burn it down, stealing who knows how much food. It's rare that they go this far. Not to mention that some of them were quite beat up, from the attack on Sandpoint, I assume. Again, rare that they would raid before having fully recovered."
A voice that you recognize as Sheriff Hemlock's asks a question as Shalelu stops speaking. "And what do you-"
"No clue." is Shalelu's terse answer. "Usually goblins are pernicious little runts, like weeds that bite, but they are disorganized. And most of all, the fact that the five tribes are working together disturbs me. Goblin tribes don’t get along unless they’ve got something big planned, and big plans require big bosses. I’m afraid that someone’s moved in on the goblins and organized them. And judging by these recent raids, what they’re organizing seems like bad news for all of us."
"Holy ******* ****" curses Mayor Deverin. "Father Zantus said the raid was aimed at stealing bones from a crypt. Possibly worshippers of the Mother of Monsters. Those-"
"Kids? I've heard the Mosswood goblins speak about "shortshanks"" interrupts a coarse, dry voice that you recognize as Shalelu's "I thought a tribe of halflings passed by. I'd say they made quite an impression anyway, are they local children?"
"Yeah, good kids" answers Sheriff Hemlock "brave and crafty, if somewhat weird. I wouldn't be surprised if they became Pathfinders, or bounty hunters, or maybe something like you, Madam Andosana."
You hear a chuckle before Sheriff Hemlock speaks again.
"From what you say, the situation could take a turn for the worse. I'll head to Magnimar and get some real soldiers to guard the city for the next months, until the extent of the goblin threat can be evaluated. In the meantime-"
"In the meantime" interrupts again Shalelu, deadpan "I'll sniff around Shank’s Wood, Brinestump, Mosswood, Devil’s Platter, and other equally unpleasant places. I know you'd like me to guard the town, but the sooner we find out who's directing the goblins, the sooner we can eliminate the threat. But now I need a drink, a bath and a bed, in that order."
As Shalelu exits, the Sheriff also heads out, and the room goes silent.
Soon thereafter, Shalelu exits the town hall and looks around herself. "So, how much did you tiny ones overhear?" she asks, addressing nobody in particular.
After they are told where Shalelu is, Vorin says, "Thank you!" He is immediately off, back to that tree to climb up once again. Not letting his failure the previous time deter him, he once again tries to make it look easy.
He goes more serious as he listens, though his eyes brighten as the sheriff suggests they may become Pathfinders someday, and he glances to the others.
Once Shalelu comes back out, he climbs down, answering honestly, "The goblins burnt down a farm near Mosswood. And everything after that. Are there really five tribes of goblins?"
Empheria tumbles down the tree as soon as she tries to ascend, but she stands back up and waits.
"I didn't overhear anything!" Empheria complains. "Could you please tell me what I missed?" she asks, smiling hopefully at both Vorin and Shalelu.
Quiin climbs a couple of feet but, looking up, thinks better of it and jumps back down.
When Shalelu comes out he nods seriously after Empheria asks to hear more, trying to look grown up and sensible.
James hadn't intended to climb the tree, but once everyone else started it just seemed the natural thing to do.
When confronted he does his best to look innocent. "Overhearing is impolite." he adds virtuously, implying innocence though still not able to bring himself to actually outright lie to Shalelu.
Sadly after a pause he undermines his innocence. "So is talking about people behind their back."
"Adults do that to kids all the time, I don't think they think it counts," Isaac said, still hanging from one of the lower tree branches, his short legs kicking in the air.
Vorin looks to Emmy, and says, "The same goblins that attacked us burnt down a farm. Five tribes are working together, and someone is organizing them."
He gets a thoughtful look, however, as he says, "I guess that's the 'longshank' that the goblin said told them to attack us so they could go to the graveyard."
He makes a confused face, though, as he says, "But how could anybody organize goblins? I can't even organize my stuff and it can't walk off!"
"That's a good question. Walk with me, you lot." says the huntress, heading towards the Rusty Dragon. "Goblins are mischievous, unruly pests, and they only follow those leaders who show strength and ferocity enough to rule them with an iron grip. If really it was a worshipper of Lamashtu -that's an evil deity also known as the Mother of Monsters- there may be danger. That's what I'm going to investigate. And yes, there are five tribes: Birdcrunchers, Licktoad, Seven Tooth, then the Mosswood and Thistletop goblins, who didn't choose tribe names. But what I wonder is, what makes you curious? Some would say that this is grown-up business, that you should go play Whistleball and not worry."
Isaac looks at her and grins nervously, his attempt at seeming nonchalant at her words only serving to reveal the distinctly frightening teeth he has in his head. It is, perhaps, something like being grinned at by a goblin except without the manic glee and the fact that his teeth were all obviously well taken care of, just not human. Humans did not have that many canines.
"Because we met one of the goblins. And because we found out about the Mother of Demons!" Empheria explains excitedly. "And I don't know how to play Whistleball anyway."
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"Licorice says that none of the adults we know seem to be doing anything about these goblins! Except you, of course, Mrs. Shalelu Andosana. But we are here now! We are a big group, we have... talent... and we've all taken down goblins. Licorice takes them down faster than almost any adult. Give us a job!"
Vorin nods agreement with his friends (and Andi's cat). Then, he adds, "It's our town! And... And fighting the goblins was the first time I ever felt like I..."
He pauses for a moment as he struggles to find the right words. Finally, he resorts to, "Like I'm not a freak."
Quiin looks at Vorin, not sure how to process that last comment. He himself has felt like a freak for most of his life, but killing things definitely didn't make that go away. He is conflicted, but still definitely wants to help his friends. Also it looks like spending more time with Shalelu is possibly on the cards, which may, possibly, maybe, sway him a little bit. Or a lot.
"We can help Miss Andosana. We have shown our skill."
As he gets close to and talk to Shalelu for the first time, his powers activate again.
"Ah, no, I'm not taking yet up this responsibility." is quick to answer Shalelu. "You have talent, yes, but you are still a bit too green for my taste. And I work alone, I've got no need for squires. What I can do, however, is speak to Hemlock, old Ilsoari, Daviren and Ameiko, convince them to teach you the trade. You, for example-" she tells James "are definitely too excited about that sword. You have to learn its weight, rather than treat it as a crutch: it's your arm that swings the sword, and your heart that moves the arm. You need to practice. And you-" this time she points at Empheria "I remember you having trouble controlling your magic. It's your greatest asset, you need to trust it and not let it be a liability, and you need to be prepared for cases when it may not be enough. As for you-" now it's Vorin's turn "worry too much about the color of your skin and hair. Yes, people may treat you as a freak, but to hell with them. You are defined by your actions."
At these words, she also shoots a glance at Isaac, but doesn't add anything else. As you get to the entrance to the Rusty Dragon, she opens her shoulder bag and draws a handful of small, plain wood whistles.
"I'm going to eat, sleep and head out at dusk, hunting for Longshanks. I know you will just go ahead and look for trouble, so at least I can have you be marginally safer. I want each of you to pick one of these, and agree on a signal to come to help. And remember that it's okay to run if you are overwhelmed."
Vorin looks more momentarily surprised, but then smiles as that advice sinks in. "I'll try not to."
As the whistles are handed out, he takes his and looks it over curiously, bringing it to his mouth and giving it the gentlest puff of air to hear the sound. Then he looks up again, smiling, and gives a quick nod.
James is torn between resentment at being told he's swording wrong and delight Shalelu knows who he is and apparently considers himself a contender.
When he's given a whistle he happily picks the closest and stuffs it into a pocket. "Sure. Like a real patrol. And practice. Teamwork, too. I know that from Whistleball."
"Ooh, we're picking a signal to help?" Empheria gushes. "How about this?" she asks, playing an improvised tune on the whistle and then looking to Shalelu for confirmation.