Tiberiu backs, in shock, away from the cursing, swearing cobbler.
"I assure you sir, I meant nothing by that comment about the tongue! I know nothing of your mother or your grandmother, and I have no desire to! I just...my good man, that's anatomically impossible. I'm just going to..."
Not looking where he's going, he backs away and bumps into an elf.
"Oh, hello, I'm just going to join you for a bit. Thank you. Is there going to be alcohol soon? Good. It's been a day already." He squints up at the elf appraisingly. "We were on the caravan together, weren't we? It's...Slaynn, right?"
Uuli sees the man walk into Slaynn and address him. He moves toward the pair and waits for a pause in the conversation.
"Your father calling? Well, I suppose you'd better go then," Qorinae said, letting her slip out of his arms regretfully, watching her go. He had heard the old man calling her name, but had hoped she wouldn't. Alone on the dance floor, he sighed, and drifted off towards the stalls where the local businesses had set up shop. A pint of ale, maybe. Or maybe there was an adventure he could find. After all, the Legend of Qorinae had to start somewhere. It could be Sandpoint as well as anywhere else.
Just as he was starting to feel exceptionally low, he spotted the dwarf from the caravan. Dwarves, according to everything he had heard growing up in Mierani, liked to drink and knew all about hidden treasures. The perfect place to start.
"Dwarf!" he shouted, walking quickly to catch him up.
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Slann about to answer Tiberiu Banderosi turns as he hears "Dwarf!!!
"Yes, we've met on the caravan. We're just about to go for a drink and thought you might wish to go along with us. Myself and Uuli here that is if you accept. I also see you require some assistance on footwear. Allow me to help."
Turning to Uuli, he quirks an eyebrow.
"Friend of yours? I recongize him from the caravan, I think. I'm going to have a word with the cobbler."
Slaynn with a slight grin turns to the cobbler.
"You have fine wares and today is a festival. Let us trade and later make merry. Should we meet again sometime later in the day, let me buy you a tankard and wish each other merry. Now surely this pair looks good. How about it."
Minutes later Slaynn passes Tiberiu a pair of serviceable boots.
"We can go now. The owner was very nice."
Tiberiu accepts the boots, stunned. "You...must teach me that trick sometime. Perhaps after we've had a few more pints." He pulls them on, stretching the supple leather. "Ahhhh, much better. So, Slaynn, and Uuli, and...what was your name, friend?' He addresses the second elf, who hailed Uuli and is now approaching. "I do recall seeing you on the road into town. We all picked up the caravan around that hell-hole called Dresdale, if I recall correctly."
Uuli turns his head to the direction of the shout when he hears "Dwarf" above the noise of the crowd.
It's not just a consecration today, it is starting to look like a caravan reunion as well.
As the elf gets close to Uuli, he speaks "Hail, friend Elf."
Qorinae catches up to the dwarf and notices that the other elf from the caravan - the creepy one, who got the horses drunk and knocked out the caravan master - was talking to a Varisian he recognized as well.
"This is quite the reunion," he says, smiling, a bit thrown to find them all here. "Qorinae, of Mierani," he says, to remind them. He knew there would come a day when he would be renowned enough to need no introduction. He knew that day had not come yet. As if needing confirmation, he looked around and saw nobody stopping in their tracks on overhearing his name.
"Shall we see if this town boasts better ale than the last?" he says, brightening.
"Good to meet you, Qorinae of Mierani. I'm Uuli Stonejaw and these are my new friends, " replies Uuli.
"I so hope that this town is an improvement over the last. It is already cleaner, but I agree we need to sample the ale. Unfortunately, we have not been able to find any. If you find some, I will even buy the first round."
"Well-met, Qorinae. I'm sure we can find some ale around here somewhere..." Tiberiu eagerly scans the booths...
"Wait...is that...I can't believe it..."
The others follow his finger to a huge sign attached to the side of a cart that, even now, is trundling into the square. The sign reads, DWARVEN MEAD FOR ALL! COMPLIMENTS OF THE SPONSORS OF THE CATHEDRAL.
Cheers fill the square.
Qorinae looks nervously at the cart advertising dwarven mead. He remembers the last time....
Still, it's a festival, and there's a bouncy redhead squirming to get out from under Daddy's....
"Huzzah!" he cheers. "Our quest seems to be at an end, fellows."
Uuli takes one of the mugs from the tray.
"Thanks much, Slaynn. "
Uuli holds his mug in the air and starts a toast. "After a long journey to Sandpoint, may the Cathedral have a long and positive effect on the community and its worshippers. May Angradd look over all of us and provide his guidance on all of our days." With that, he takes a large drink out of the mug.
"Here's to that!" Tiberiu cries, clinking mugs with the dwarf and the two elves.
After going through a tankard or so of Ale, Uuli asks the group, "Have any of you found an inn that has open rooms for the evening? I was hoping to not be out of doors tonight."
Qorinae looks up at the sky, cheerfully drinking, and sighs.
"It looks like it'll be a clear night," he says, based on general optimism, rather than any actual information.
Tiberiu glances around at his companions uncomfortably...all are clearly used to harsher sleeping conditions than he.
"Oh...yes...well, of course, we could always spend the night in the square or something. Happy to be outside. Wind in your hair, smells in your...face, all that...stuff."
Uuli nods at Slaynn, "Of that, you are right Slaynn. Let us make the most of this festival while we can."
To reinforce the point, Uuli finishes the mug he has been working on and looks for a refill.
"More drinking?" Qorinae says, a bit louder than absolutely necessary. "I'll drink to that?" Suiting action to word, he polishes off his mug and lets out a long, satisfied sigh.
Qorinae finishes his mug and follows the townspeople, grinning cheerfully.
Tiberiu is somewhat less steady than he was prior to the group's reveling, but he's only had one flagon (well, ok, maybe one and a half, but he dropped that one when he slipped), so he's not too unstable. "Come on, fellows, let's proceed on to the main event! We'll want good seats."
He begins to lead the way, weaving his way through the crowd towards the podium at the center of the square.
"Finally! I knew he was going to be up to something, " says Uuli.
When the group starts moving through the crowd, Uuli says "Let me get near the front, if you would. Otherwise, I will never see anything."
"Yes, yes," Qorinae says. "We'll make sure you get a good view for the main event." Unless I find that redhead again. THAT main event you can keep your big, dwarven beard out of! His already perilously cheerful mood further buoyed by the thought, he claps Uuli on the back and zig zags up the road to the square.
Tiberiu, somewhat bored by the speech already, looks around for the source of the strange noises.
"Did you gents hear that? Those strange...sounds?" he asks, uneasily unwinding his scarf from around his neck.
Uuli turns his head toward the unusual tune and listens for a moment.
Laughter, music, everything a festival should have... but somehow, wrong.
Qorinae's eyes scan the square, looking for the source of the wrongness.
"Ohhhhhh," Tiberiu says, flicking the scarf out so that its hidden razor blades whistle through the air. "THAT's what the noise was..."
Uuli shouts "Goblins!" as he points at the one under the wagon.
Uuli pulls his shield off of his backpack and grips the haft of his battleaxe. He says a quick invocation: "Angradd, help me send these hated foes to see their maker and keep them from troubling the town of SandPoint any longer."
With that, Uuli charges toward the goblins he can see "Warriors with me!".
This is how it begins! Qorinae thinks. Shame I'm half drunk for the beginning of my own legend, but I'll make the best of it.
He reaches for his bow, looking for the singer.
Uuli charges toward the goblin that started under the wagon. He yells "AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" as he charges.
Qorinae draws his bow and takes aim at the leader of the goblins before the creature has noticed the drunken heroes.
Tiberiu dashes to the closest unconscious (but alive) goblin and places his foot on its chest, kicking its weapon away. He continues to clutch the scarf. "Can anyone hear more?" he calls to the others, straining his ears for the sound himself.
Tiberiu charges the nearest goblin with his scarf, whipping it forward, the blades and cloth whistling through the air.
Seeing his foe vanquished, Uuli looks around for more goblins. That is odd, goblins would usually attack in large groups. Seeing only 3 is not what I would expect, he thinks.