Looks like it's time to find that half elf and ask him some questions
Feeling welcomed by the crowd at Burl's, Kelgan will take the time to privately, personally, thank Burl an his nephews that helped make the distraction a success.
He gets to know the regulars and keeps his ears open for anything that could lead them to the fop.
Caspian attempts to pick up extra coin encouraging his dwarven friends to drink more and better at the local taverns.
Caspian attempts to pick up extra coin encouraging his dwarven friends to drink more and better at the local taverns.
Jaegr lets Caspian encourage him to drink more and better at local taverns to boost his self-esteem.
Kelgan reccomends Burl's Distillery. Great liquor and great atmosphere.
One evening at Burl's Distillery, the old hill dwarf complains, "Been near on two weeks since the, ah, unfortunate events you were part of, sonny, and I see no great magician here to re-open the gate. Yeah, I know they're still puttin' the tile back up, and a month or more before it's ready even then..." he leans forward, "but I chafe to get the fires back up and the stills running at proper steam. Making do with mundane fire isn't fit for craftsmen such as I am!"
You've heard the same sob story for a week, but the liquir is still good. Caspian has brought in heavy dwarven trade with his bagpiping and stories of the events at Forge, which the local hill dwarf immigrants are eating up. He's told a hundred different variations of the same story, and never lacks for coin. Burl is thinking of adopting him.
Jaegr still thinks of hill dwarves as something like hillbillies compared to the austere, civilized halls he hails from, but at least he's learned to drink whiskey without spitting it out his nose.
Cricket is... well, Cricket. He recently came floating in, smelling sweetly of some kind of plant that not even you've ever heard of, You're guessing it probably provides some sort of serene, spiritual effect by itself, but when combined with alcohol it makes the small goblin even less comprehensible and more sloppy than you thought possible.
Kelgan is in a good mood, having just finished carving himself a new set of teeth after his last pair met their untimely end in the recent catastrophe.
"Burl, you could brew a fine batch out of green tomatoes and old socks. Of course, I can see how crafting that liquid gold draught might take a tad more oomph, but the Forge'll be back up'n running before you know it. Soon, you won't hardly remember when it almost blew us all to Hell."
He plinks the wooden chompers into his mug to let them season a bit and inquires quietly, "any word from Corlan? Now that things have settled down, there's still the traitors in the Watch to be found, and I could use his contacts here."
Caspian continues to re-tell the tale of the Bargest and his horde, the way he slung a stone knocking the crown from the bargehsts head, and creating the opening for Jaegr's killing blow....telling the tale as if they had planned it that way all along...
This is interupted by the lyrical and musical song
Moves like Jaegr!
Given the view of halflings as second class citizens, more than a few dwarves are convinced Caspian is Jaegr's henchman or lackey. Caspian laughs it off and tells jokes about who does the heavy lifting and everyone knows halflings are lazy and obese.....
Cricket attempts to dance lasciviously to "Moves like Jaegr" but ends up falling on his face.
Blzzrt!
LOL!
Caspian stops mid-tune as Cricket hits the floor, flopping face-down and arse end up!
"Hoe-down!"
Caspian then starts playing the gnomish square dance tune on his bag-pipes.......
[Cricket passes out and snores in time with the bagpipes]
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Jaegr sits back and enjoys himself for maybe the first time since leaving home. As he watches the goblin make a fool of itself once more, and Caspian play that weird song, he reminisces about all of the things he has seen so far. The barghest, the jailer, the strange green stones, and all of the events in Kaiserberg. He glances down at his newly forged armor, made from the ceramic plates of the exploded forge. Even after all this time, the heat from the forge could still be felt, keeping him comfortable no matter the weather or temperature. Why had asked to put the symbol of their god on his armor?
His thought begin to drift to Rim and what he was actually supposed to be doing up on the surface but he quickly shifted his thoughts to his traveling companions. The dwarven society was stricter and more ordered than the surface. He would have never guessed he would travel with a hill dwarf, a goblin, a hobgoblin and a kid. At least his traveling partners could not get any stranger than they already were....
Kelgan and Jaegr -- both technically dwarves (and fighters, no less), but night and day different in demeanor and personality -- sit back and watch the small creatures at play. Caspian, always willing to see an outsider's point of view, is not only the goblin's closest friend besides Wyvurn, but is also going so far as to spend long nights at the cemetary, trying to teach himself to speak with the dead. You assume he feels sorry for them, because it must be lonley lying in the ground all the time with nothing to do and no one to talk to.
Speaking of Wyvurn, no one has seen the scarred, taciturn hobgoblin for days. Perhaps he is on some mission of his own, but, tight-lipped as he normally is, no one has any idea what that errand might be.
You all feel a bit of electricity in the air, as if something interesting is about to happen. Almost like the calm before a summer storm, if you will.
After the dwarves had drank themselves into a worshipful stupor, and Cricket had been half-drown in the water trough just outside of Burl's Distillery, with the added indignity of at least 6 peices of soap. Caspian decides his life could be worse, he could be Cricket....
No one notices Caspian leaving the area, his bagpipes under one arm and a book under the other, his small backpack on his shoulders and his floppy bare feet smacking the cobblestones.
Caspian went right out of town passing the guard and giving him a small cut of the night’s tips. The road out of town was much less to see than the city itself, but Caspian knew the graveyard was the perfect place to practice the song he had found in the old book.
Caspian read the cover of the scary book one more time…."Tales of necromancy and undeath" The book itself had been a disappointment, but carefully hidden within the book on a folded scrap of parchment, glued into the book was a tune that seemed to be an ancient funeral march, that had places that began the march, that turned the march and even with mark-time march.
Caspian imagined that this song went with the funeral procession that was full of circumstance including times when the pall-bearers would march in place. He thought perhaps this was how dwarven kings were laid to rest. It was alot of speculation upon his part, though he never got around to asking Jaegr about the music.
In his mind he could hear the music, but he so much wanted to play this tune, one that he had already named….."The Dead King"
Caspian laid the book on the top edge of the parchment holding it in place atop a tombstone that was nearly at his eye level.
Caspian placed dancing lights in the air above the tombestone selecting a dark blue or violet hue to fit the mood and to move with the music. It also helped to read the music, even with the fullness of the moon bathing everything in a soft glow. The lights helped him see the music well, he raised the bagpipes to his lips and blew the first lonely note……
Tsarok:
You came to the first human city -- a stockade much like the bullywigs might build, but taller, stronger, vastly more imposing -- made of a type of stone that, with a start, you realize is actually baked mud! There, your feathers of parley, carefully arranged and displayed, are ignored, and disgusting things with artifical shells and long, stringed dart-projecting tools swiftly break the rules of parley and hold you captive. They are shocked to find that you can speak, and confused because their tribal elder, whom they refer to as "His Grace" -- is not there to pass judgment. So they send you south, to the most bizarre sight you have ever beheld.
The City of Kaisersburg sprawls along the banks of the Great Star Lake, its buildings as tall as the trees and its walls of baked red clay catching the evening sunlight from the west, across a tongue of the waters. Lights and fires shine from all places inside, as if the Great Spirit had taken the foxfire from all the marshes in the world and placed it there for your wonderment.
Caspian:
Caspian takes in the full wonder of this being before him and decides to run through his introduction of himself in all the languages he knows to see if this creature can speak....
He runs through them all looking for any sign from the creature that it knows what he is saying....
Tries, Common, Halfling, Elven, Celestial, and finally Draconic.....
His mind is spinning of what dumb excuse he will give the guards, that he had found a slimy egg and kept it in a pond til it hatched and he fed it every night till it's legs grew and it is a beast of burden for when the trails get wet and he must keep some things dry. He was very glad he had already tipped the guard on his way out of the city....
As he tries the langages he offers...
"I am Caspian and you have found safety and ears that listen and eyes that see."
Tsarok had little to do but reflect on his mistakes during the great journey south, largely ignoring the retinue of armoured humans that arbitrarily dragged him from place to place with little explanation behind it. It was youthful foolishness that had driven him to follow the Croaking Ones, and doubly so to expect anything but hostility from those who would tread so happily upon dry land.
It was no wonder that such savages would reach first for their strange shell-throwers before listening to wisdom, he had decided in retrospect; his people's stories of humans always depicted them as warlike and vicious conquerors if not placated. That they had ignored the feathers of parley was an unforgivable crime in normal circumstances, but perhaps they had never been blessed to learn the ways of the world at large, secluding themselves inside their bizarre buildings of mud-brick and wood-block.
And yet--the marvel of this place the humans called "Kaisersburg" was almost enough to make up for the offense he had suffered at their hands all this time. The lizardfolk's eyes shine in awe and wonder; surely a magnificent sight such as this meant that they had arrived in the lands of the leading tribe of humans.
Before he realises it, a strange, small human (A child? he wonders) apparently liberates him from those he had been captured by with little more than some choice words and a smile. Tsarok stares at Caspian in some confusion, not responding even to the questions he understood for some time. How could such a small child wield such power?
He must be the child of the great elder here, he decides finally. I must treat him with respect.
"Greetingsss, honoured one," Tsarok finally responds, golden eyes staring intently at Caspian. He seems to only very occasionally blink. "I thank you for your mercy. Humbly, I give you my name; I am Tsssarok, He of the Sssummer Ssstorm." He clasps his clawed hands together and nods, still not breaking eye contact. Shockingly, the lizard-man seems to speak quite good Common, although it is heavily accented, with accentuated, hissing sibilants and particularly harsh consonants.
"I mussst ssspeak with the tribal elder. It isss thusss why I wear the feathersss of parley: the Hopping Madnessss, it comesss!"
Kelgan:
Caspian bows.
"I am Caspian, self-appointed Minstrel of the great Dwarven Kingdom Burl's Distillery. No army is greater than that of Burl's! I can get you audience with Burl, King of the Distillery. The Dwarf king and tribal leaders and elders can better decide what to do."
Caspian frees the captive from any bonds...
"You came far o yer own choice, so I assume you'll not run away now."
Leads the lizard over to his backpack....
"Would you like something to eat or drink?"
"Please tell me more of this hopping madness."
Caspian begins playing a low tune of mood music to better hear the tale......
Tsarok is not sure what a "minstrel" or a "distillery" are, but if this Distillery possesses a King and an Army then it must be an important role to play indeed. He nods in acquiescence, happily letting the child-minstrel loosen his bonds.
"I would eat and drink if you would offer," Tsarok responds as humbly as he can manage - although the meagre scraps he'd been offered since becoming a prisoner had left a gaping cavern in his stomach.
"The Croaking Ones - we call them vrakutar," Caspian can piece together this more-or-less piecemeal Draconic word to refer to bullywugs - frog men or there abouts in direct translation. "For many seasons we have fought against their incursion, hating their tortuous kind. But many more have migrated into the swamps this season. They killed many kin, pushed us back from our sacred lands. And they come now - the Hopping Madness comes now. I have seen their spears and their tracks in an abandoned human village. It will not stop until it has swallowed all things."
Caspian offers a full water skin to get things started. He passes over a chunk of meat, a hunk of cheese and a loaf of bread to the starving lizardman.....
Caspian takes in the story...
"I will be truthful the dwarves might listen, and make preparations but the humans 'big-folk' might neither listen nor care, for they are arrogant and ignorant and believe themselves full of power and safe from such lowly creatures behind the walls of the town."
Points at the walls for emphasis.....
Jaegr: Caspian's been gone for quite a while now; you sort of miss his pipes! Kelgan and Burl seem to be deep into one of their conversations. Cricket is still passed out.
After Cricket passes out and Caspian leaves, Jaegr loses himself in his thoughts for a bit. After a short while he isn't willing to face some of the introspection that would come if he continues to look inward so finishes his ale in a big gulp. He moves over to Kelgan and Burl to keep himself distracted. As he approaches their conversation slows to nothing so Jaegr plops his mug down and says good night to Kelgan. Before leaving he will look for the least stained part of the goblin and grab the goblin and leave back to where they are staying.
When Jaegr makes it back he will plop Cricket down to sleep it off then go to say good night. Finding it strange that he hasn't returned and still not ready to be alone in his thoughts, Jaegr will head out for a walk to see if he can find Caspian.
Kelgan approaches the group of rogues, the Openers, that's he's been warming to since the raid.
"Fellas, you know me. I need some eyes. Lots of them. Looking for the fop that did for Kullen and his boys. I hear he's still here in the city. Ties to the canaries, too. I've still got some of the bottles that so recently lit up the watch. Find him for me, and they're yours."
One of the older guys, a hefty, one-eyed rogue who'd be an outlaw biker if there were such a thing (you suspect he's maybe 1/8 hill dwarf, somewhere back in his parentage), says, "Don't need to look, man, I can tell you those guys have left. Someone told me Balvora, but I'm guessing all the way back to Hylore. The stooges who whacked out the rest of Kullen's gang afterward all went into Aramni, they say, and the devil-lovers there can have them."
One of the other men spits at the name of the city of Hylore; all of them spit at your mention of the word "canary."
One of the younger guys asks, "Are the elf-chicks in Hylore as hot as people say?" Which starts a long discussion among the humans that you find a lot less interesting than they do, even if it's not 90% exaggeration or outright fabrication.
I that Jaegr will come to the cemetary (per Kirths post that everyone Caspian has been going there) and find Caspian feeding a lizardman cheese, meat, and bread.....
Tsarok nods, happily wolfing down the food provided. The meat suits him just fine, and is the first thing gone, but he certainly curiously tries the other things. The soft yellow meat has a strange texture and a pungent scent, but the flavour is very unique. Bread is a thing he has tried before - largely because it had been liberated from some human settlement somewhere - and he likens it to eating leaf litter. Still - the child-minstrel offered him it, and out of respect he consumes it.
"The humansss do not underssstand many thingsss," he agrees mid-bite. "They hide in their mud-brick hutsss and remain ignorant to make up for their lack of ssscalesss." Tsarok pauses a moment, eyeing up the thoroughly scale-less halfling. "I mean no offenssse, honoured one."
The news that the humans would likely not care does cause Tsarok to wilt a little. His hopes of materialising the might of the human-kind seemed impossible now.
"Where isss the Dissstillery?"
Caspian watches the lizard man eat, and listens to his question.....
He points to the city....
"It is a kingdom within a kingdom, one of many held within."
Caspian pulls out a pet pass and explains it to the lizardman....
"This is a paper of magic, that makes the lowliest guard afraid to question the authority of the duke, it is the Dukes word this paper represents."
"This says you are supposed to be in the city, and that you are not to be harmed."
Tsarok takes the pass in both hands, staring at it with some awe. At least, he does so until a few moments later once his eyes flash with light, seeing into the magical realm ; the lack of magical aura was quite a surprise. The lizard-man pauses a moment, one eyebrow ridge arched, but decides not to say anything else. He simply smiles and thanks Caspian profusely for the gift.
The poor child has been deceived. Perhaps even all of the humans here. But if he thinks it is magic... we will say it is magic.
"Isss the Duke the great elder of thisss land? Your tribal ssstructure confusssesss me," Tsarok admits, slipping the pass into a small, crocodile-skin leather sack tied around his waist. "But no matter. I thank you greatly for the protective charm, honoured one."
He then follows Caspian into the city, eyes wide at all the sights that would await him there.
Caspian heads towards the gate, having noted for his own information the lizard's use of magic.
"The Duke leads the humans. Dwarves respect the Duke, but have their own structure. Is peace between all."
"The pass means you should be accompanied by any citizen of the kindgom at all times, not that you should wander about alone in the unfamiliar. Possibly your customs and ours will not match."
Caspian plays his bagpipes as he gets within earshot of the gates.....
[Cricket drools on the floor.]
The guards at the gate grab their polearms and aim their crossbows as they see Tsarok approach, but they recognize Caspian and become confused. Watching carefully to make sure he's not being forced to open the gate for a hostile horde, they examine the pass carefully, examine the lizardman, and grudgingly open the gate.
"Take that thing straight to the zoo," one of them says to Caspian, "and tell immediately if it gets loose. The last thing we need are people being eaten by a baragoon."
And with that, they open the gate...
Tsarok is in awe. Wide streets, paved with more brick, with bustling open doors, smaller wooden structures, and so on, on both sides -- fountains, food stands, goods of all description on open display -- a thousand sights and smells that wrinkle the nostrils and baffle the imagination. The tall buildings leave a straight path ahead, but between them to the sides are passages and spaces, a maze which you would become lost in within a few turns and perhaps never emerge from. There are more bipedal beings than you have ever seen in one place, all walking about on various errands or sitting about eating and drinking. There are many humans; and some things you recognize as hill dwarves; and a number of wood elves with their buckskins and feathers -- you have seen their kind before once from a distance, but never so close. You have also been told those races war ceaselessly with one another, so the three together here, not killing one another, is a new thing. This place is like a hive of bees, wasps, and hornets all somehow sharing a queen! Looking more closely, you notice a few of what you can only assume are halfbreeds as well: elf-humans, elf-goblins, and you know not what else. You're not sure how a goblin could discover and fertilize a human's eggs -- do they steal into each other's nests? -- and, after a moment, decide that it's best to wonder about other things for now.
Most of the beings in the city carry weapons, but Caspian seems unworried, and strolls along the broad main street with great familiarity. That street, you notice with some alarm, stretches as far ahead as you can see, until it's obscured by the number of tall buildings on either side of it. The noise is terrifying -- all creatures talking at once, and some singing, shouting, all the movement...
Caspian offers a short rope to the confused looking "baragoon"....
"If you hold one end and I the other, it will keep you from getting lost."
He then leads on to Burl's Distillery....
As they approach their destination, Tsarok is surprised to see many men and hill dwarves building a giant mound out of what appear to be clay slabs. You wonder if giant stone termites will come to live in it, or if it serves some other wondrous purpose unknown to you.
Caspian sees your interest and comments, "Jarnell's Forge. It blew up not too long ago -- me and the others at the Distillery saved a bunch of people! Would you like to hear about it?" He might or might not launch into an epic telling of the tale...
You encounter Jaegr, leaving the distillery on some errand -- possibly to find you! His shock upon seeing the lizard-man is obvious, even on his normally expressionless stone-like face, with his mouth hidden by his beard. (Jaegr -- you've never seen anything like it, except maybe a kobold).
Jaegr upon seeing the reptillian humanoid doesn't know what to say, all he can think of is... "I don't know what that is, but it ain't coming with us! What have you gotten yourself into now?"
"This is an emissary from the tribes in the swamps, a lot of what your seeing is just a bad haircut. I was taking him to Burl's to get cleaned up. He has reports on an over population and hostile batch of bullywugs...including wiping out some human settlements."
Points over towards Burl's......
Smiles broadly at Jaegr...
........"wanna come with?"
Jaegr sighs, "Well if I don't, who knows what kind of trouble you'll get into, and who'll get you out of it if I am not there?"
Jaegr opens the door to Burl's and follows the pair inside.
Caspian walks up to the bar, which he likes because it is the right height for dwarves.....
Caspian knocks twice on the bar and begins singing.....
"Knock knock went Caspians rock....The barghest bent over...Jaegr took over...."
He stops suddenly.... "A work in progress..."
Looks for Burl to make an appearance.
Tsarok tries to pay attention to Caspian's chatter as they wander through the streets of the city, but he's too busy gaping at pretty much everything he lays eyes upon. His senses are in disarray at the chaotic storm spreading out before him.
The click-clack of his claws upon the brick streets, that strange feeling of hard stone rather than the soft purchase of earth, was hard to get used to, and Tsarok found himself walking with a peculiar gait because of it. The chatter of a thousand conversations occurring at once, many in languages he'd never heard of was like being in the centre a locust swarm. He clutches his spear tightly in one hand and the proffered rope in the other, his mind completely overwhelmed by the sights before him.
His nervousness manifests in the occasional unwilling crackle of static electricity about his body. Sharp-eyed viewers (such as Caspian, perhaps) may notice the parley feathers have shifted in location, all sticking up and out like a starburst.
And then there was Jaegr, obviously displeased to see him. This one... was a dwarf as well, right? Perhaps he was a follower of the King-Elder? There was something about Jaegr that smelled familiar - of earth and rock and of places far from the bustle of this strange place - which made Tsarok believe he could trust the man... perhaps.
"Greetingsss, he who sssmellsss of the earth," he says, although his wavering voice belies his nervousness. "The honoured one ssspeakss the truth. Sssee my feathersss; I come with wordsss, not with war."
He follows Caspian into the Distillery, and is immediately taken back by the odd smell of the place. It was... bitter. It reminded him of the scent of yams left to rot in the water for a week.
Burl is quick to grab a mace as the lizardfolk comes in the door; seeing Caspian and Jaegr come in as well, he puts it back down. Looking at Cricket on the floor, he sighs and says, "First a goblin, now a baragoon. Gods know you'll be bringing in the Tarrasque next!"
Shifting his gaze to Caspian, Burl asks, "Well, then, does it drink?"
"Only water so far, I gave him a hunk of meat, a chunk of cheese and a loaf of bread, though he ate it all....I am not sure he liked any of it.."
"I also told him you are the king of this kingdom, but it sounds like some serious trouble is going on in the swamps. He tried to tell the humans and got himself taken prisoner. They were bringing him in, but I offered to bring him in."
"Not sure a pet permit would get a tarrasque into town, but given the chance I would attempt it!"
Caspian declares loudly and then smiles sheepishly......
Tsarok frowns, feeling it somewhat obnoxious the way people were talking about him rather than to him despite standing right in front of them. However, this was not his place, and he had no right to question the... rather strange social norms of humans and dwarves. Especially since this was apparently their tribal leader.
I had expected him to be a human... Tsarok glances side-long at Caspian. Perhaps he is the child of another lord... the Duke he mentioned?
"Greetingsss, King Burl," the lizard-man says with the same clasped-hand nod that he had given Caspian not too long ago. "My thanksss for allowing me into your landsss; it is an honour to be in a place ssso..." Tsarok glances around, grasping for a single positive word about this 'Distillery'. "...angular."
Before Caspian can stop him, Burl addresses Tasrok directly. "I'm no king -- I'm a master distiller!" he says proudly. "A talking baragoon is something else -- would you like a drink? And what's your name?"
He pours some nearly-colorless liquid into a small, transparent container, apparently intended for that purpose, and pushes it across the counter to you. The liquid smells to you like it was squeezed from the decaying stalks of the most acrid skagweed plants.
Bluff DC 15
Caspian thinks Burl should have played along, or at least determined whether or not this was a fire breathing baragoon, before giving him the strong stuff......
Caspian simply shrugs his shoulders.......
"Well he's closer to his goal than he was likely to ever get on his own!"
......
Points at the lizard....
"He's got no idea how anything works....he's decked out for peace and all they see is 'war paint' and a grim visage, an he can't figure why he's getting attacked!"
Smiles at Burl
"An nothing clears confusion like the products distilled here at Burl's master of distillers!"
One of the "Openers" who habitually hangs around the place, who seems nonplussed at the arrival of the lizard man, nods at Caspian's last quip. "In vino, veritas," he says (or its equivalent, in Draconic).
Bluff..to sense motive
"Burl he's pretty smart even knows a bit o magic, he can figure out how humans operate, an can even maybe get a treaty up, sides this one has the best chance o any lizardman I ever met!"
Caspian
Adding Diplomacy:
You get the feeling that if Tsarok refuses it, Burl might take that as a rejection and/or act of hostility. Drinking it, and offering something in exchange, would probably cement his support. Caspian can't necessarily articulate all that, but his ability to sense Burl's motive, and his overall skill at Diplomacy, allow him to assess the situation with an exactitude that none of the others can probably match -- despite his low rolls!
"One for Jaegr and I as well!"
Caspain accepts the shot and places coins upon the bar.
He sits down by the lizard and explains
"Normal custom."