Tha.....sun'llcomeout......to mar row...."
Just waiting on Daddy Warbucks over there...;)
Arooooooo!
Looks like Elgan; Pip to buy their stuff.
The purchasers went off separate ways; the town doesn't seem too murderous, merely rough and tumble during daylight hours anyway; Hnoss said to meet at a certain tavern and then off on this dragonquest.
"fatten up, men...the food's good here...might be the best food we get in our bellies for a while."
She's dressed in elfin chain with a bearskin cape; a helm with eagle wing devices sits next to her on the table. Golden hair braided, sipping hot cider.
Those who have bought their gear slowly trundle in to join her at a table.
When the group's assembled, then we're off, trudging into the snowy forest.
"How goes the buying, men?" she says to everybody, and nobody in partickilar.
"How goes the buying, men?" she says to everybody, and nobody in partickilar.
<Tenser is pulling a sled with a keg of vodka. Stig, clad with a new fur lined cape in a Valhalla embroidery is following unsteadily, with his left hand over his eye and in his right hand a frosty mug of hootch.>
Out of Stiggy's earshot,
<Tenser is pulling a sled with a keg of vodka. Stig, clad with a new fur lined cape in a Valhalla embroidery is following unsteadily, with his left hand over his eye and in his right hand a frosty mug of hootch.>
"How goes the buying, men?" she says to everybody, and nobody in partickilar.
ROFLMAO!!!
"Well...", Altai answers Hnoss. "One is probably never ready to face a dragon. However, we are as well prepared as we can be, methinks. Stig certainly seems ready."
Out of Stiggy's earshot,
** spoiler omitted **
"Oh, most definitely. And, additionally, he keeps the brewers of the multiverse fat and happy."
She's dressed in elfin chain with a bearskin cape; a helm with eagle wing devices sits next to her on the table. Golden hair braided, sipping hot cider.
Those who have bought their gear slowly trundle in to join her at a table."How goes the buying, men?" she says to everybody, and nobody in partickilar.
“Oh ... good ...” says Beldan, blushing slightly, having momentarily forgotten how beautiful the woman was, and suddenly, obscurely, wondering if she wore elven chain underwear beneath her mithral tunic ... and how might that look ... then he’s distracted by Stig and Tensor’s arrival and has to stifle a laugh.
Elgan goes shopping, apparently he likes to bargain,...
<Still pulling the vodka sled, Tenser marks nearby snowbanks with curly yellow dog signatures.>
<Slumped into a snowbank. Shouting.>
"Tenser! Empty!"
<Half muttering to himself or talking to whoever will listen... Stig pokes at the new fur lined cape and remarks:
"Aam tellin' ye. Since Ah donned thes cape aam havin' a heel ay a time gettin' dead wrecked."
Two surly, greyish skinned dwarfs walk buy.
One says, "loooosh!"
the other;
"hey, dude.....nice cape."
just the.....stiggy....walking along with one hand over his eye, and tenser with the vodka on a sled...
I've been laughing about that s+%@ all day at work.
"What are you laughing about, Heath?"
Are you f&$@ing serious?
How can I possibly explain this s@*@?
... tenser with the vodka on a sled...
Two surly, greyish skinned dwarfs walk buy.
One says, "loooosh!"
the other;
"hey, dude.....nice cape."
<Stig waves at them from the snowbank, apparently unable to right himself.>
"Dwarves! By Moradin Ah've riched civilization. A wee bevvy fur ye laddies! <Pauses> Alas! <Stig looks around for a moment> Nary a guest tankard te be had... so... errr... jist pit yer heed under th' spigot aside me dogs erse."
<Seen only by Stiggy.>
"Stiggy ye useless drunken sack ay jobby, yoo'd best sober yerself up ur yer gonnae be a dragon's lunch shortly. Althoogh honestly 'spikin that's a guid deal farther than anyain ever expected ay ye."
<Talking, as far as anyone can see, out at the stars in the sky...>
"Buck ye. An' Ah shoods hae tauld ye 'at years ago. Gang buck a goblin ye crass whoor'."
<Looks down toward his belly.>
"Ah jobby Ah hink i've dreich myself."
Beldan whispers to the others “Uh ... should we do something? He’s worse than usual I think.”
"Aw, come on , Stig. Here, let me help you up." Altai tries to pull Stig to his feet, but fails to even budge him; instead, he directs Claw to lift up and carry the dwarf. While the golem cradles Stig, Altai discreetly cleans the dwarf up with a Prestidigitation cantrip.
just the.....stiggy....walking along with one hand over his eye, and tenser with the vodka on a sled...
I've been laughing about that s@#~ all day at work.
"What are you laughing about, Heath?"
Are you f@@@ing serious?
How can I possibly explain this s@#~?
called in at other job; be around reeel late; maybe 5-6 hours from now; if at all; I'm very sleepy....
"Aw, come on , Stig. Here, let me help you up." Altai tries to pull Stig to his feet, but fails to even budge him; instead, he directs Claw to lift up and carry the dwarf. While the golem cradles Stig, Altai discreetly cleans the dwarf up with a Prestidigitation cantrip.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz
"Excellent. Let's get going then." Altai helps himself to a shot of schnapps from the barrel as the party marches into the snowy wilderness.
“Anyone need some of these dragon-bane crossbow bolts? They would only sell them in bunches of fifty .... damn extra-planar salesmen ...”
sheeeesh!
I'll get this thing rolling tomorrow.
She asks, "Are we ready? It's a ways to go....I'd like to get underway."
shudders a bit when she looks at the McStiggster.
She asks, "Are we ready? It's a ways to go....I'd like to get underway."
shudders a bit when she looks at the McStiggster.
"I'm ready!"
Beldan shifts his position, doing a very poor job of shielding the fat, sleeping dwarf held by the flesh golem from the woman's view.
"Let's go."
The little group trundles off into the wintry forest.
Elgan:
Here feels like a chancre, or scar tissue. A forest on the edge of doom. The interconnecting strands of All Life hang tattered in the clawlike limbs of the sparse, winterdead trees.
The place looks bleak; grungy snow over a peat bog; interspersed with sallow, sickly seeming winterdead trees, crisscrossed by icy rivulets.
Everything seems mostly iced over, though, in the peat.
The only signs of (faunal) life,.....a vulture here. A pair of ravens there. There is no road; Hnoss dangles a magnetized piece of iron out every once in a while to gauge the direction.
The first sign of death:
a good-sized tree, about 100 yards ahead, on the edge of a clearing that in warmer months would be a pond,....hangs three corpses from it's able branches.
Huzzah!
Check out the bodies. Did they die from hanging, wounds, acid, something else? So far as a casual examination from a distance can tell.
Two from hanging for sure.
One has a lot of arrows in his chest. About 36.
As well as hanging.
They look equipped with chain shirts; which are rusted into a state of uselessness.
they're frozen; been dead a long time.
Somewhat preserved.
"Dragons don't shoot people with arrows. I guess it has some smaller servants."
Hnoss draws steel and readies her shield.
"You know, they've been dead for a while."
You can sense.....magic all around; it's like background noise as opposed to a spell or magical thing.
A background necromancy.
This whole place is like one great big low grade necromantic spell.
The three hanged men, though, don't register particularly anything.
Hnoss nods; answers "how long is long enough?"
“I wonder if it’s dragon cultists that got them, or just some other unfriendly local?” asks Beldan, looking around.
Two ravens sit in a tree; they caw at Beldan.
About 100 yards away, something smallish and four legged, running through the woods....