"Well, yeah. I just glossed over that part since it's kind of violent and gross. Still delicious, though." She waved a hand dismissively at the subject and continued smiling. Nothing was going to bring her down.
I don't know. I've never really hunted anything except a deal at the market."
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Aldern (*) Foxglove laughs at what you've said. "You have the right idea between you! And hunting deals at the market is a valuable skill itself, but rather a different thing. Come! To the stables! Do you have horses? If not? I will purchase one for you!"
He takes you to the stable next door, where Calin can jump in and do his day job to help those of you who don't have horses acquire one. (Everybody now has a light riding horse!)
Mounts taken care of, you mount up, and the four of you plus Aldern and his three manservants all head out towards the Tickwood forest. The ride out takes about half an hour. At the beginning of the ride out, Aldern regails you with tails of the Magnimar high life. But, before long, he says, riding alongside you on his horse, "But! You are the heroes of the day. Tell me, where are you from? What brought you to Sandpoint? How long have you been fighting goblins?"
()
"Born and raised in Sandpoint, but I help beat the goblins out of town everytime they try to come into it. I own that to my parents who perished in a raid by the foul creatures."
"You're an orphan too Selaros? That's too bad. It can be a rough life," She said, and turned to the others to give them her brightest smile. "But nobody says life is easy and that makes having friends even better. Am I right?"
"Yes fate was against me, the guard should have wiped the danm tribes out completely, but they always seems to return and trive again wihtin a very short time of being bannished from the area. But I do give thanks that I met Agustianna and she helped me survive on the street, even in the toughest times we had only ourselves to rely on by then." He responds to Mary
Sizma keeps quiet on the ride and ignores the question.
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Aldern Foxglove smiles and nodes sagely at what Mary says. "As the pretty elf says, life is often not easy, and having friends is often the best way to do it."
His gaze lingers on her briefly before he gestures with one hand (his other hand on the reins of his horse) to include all of you. "And it is you, my friends, that I have to thank for my being alive today!"
You continue on towards the woods.
My father... is from the city, my mother was studying the ruins. I came out here to finally meet him a few years ago...but he had passed on.
He added to the conversation but kept his eyes peeled while they hunted. From his understanding boars could be dangerous beasts
Mary never thought herself as pretty, or did she ever really consider it. The whole idea of attraction was lost on her entirely. Her mind was on living and having adventures to share with other orphans. Not everyone is as crazy as she was, leaving the orphanage at her age and she wanted to be their hero. After all, she does wear a mask and a cape. The thing is, she just doesn't have a secret identity. Everyone knows who she is.
"Ah, yeah! I think I've seen your Augustianna, Selaros. Is your relationship like a brother and sister thing, or what?"
Then Mary turned her smile to Aldern Foxglove.
"It was our honor. Now, how are we killing this boar again? I think someone mentioned a spear. Maybe we can use a sleep spell?"
Selaros thinks carefully about how to reply to Mary, not because it's hard to answer her but he is not himself totally sure how to classifi it. "Hmm that's a very good question Mary, I wouldn't call it a brother sister relationship, but I wouldn't know how that feels like I was afterall a only child. I would probably call it a thing with two stray cats licking each others wounds and keeping each other safe and secure."
"I think he best way to hunt for boars are with spear or crossbows to bring them down in a safe way. Sleep spells can be unreliable or maybe not hold long enough to finish the hunt."
Mary stared at Selaros for a second and then she suddenly tipped her head back and had a mighty, loud guffaw.
"Licking cats has got to be a euphemism for something," she said and covered her mouth to stifle any other giggles that threaten to escape.
"I can assure you that nothing of that sort is going on, I think you may have a dirty mindset Mary." Selaros responds somewhat dumbfounded of what she said. "I never thought it sounded like that to others, I thought it was a good metaphor for two people keeping each other alive and well on the street. I am clearly not a student of philosophy." The last part he says grinning.
"I dont get it?"
Mary shrugged and rolled her eyes and smiled. "I don't get philosophy either. As for my mind, I'm sure it could use a scrubbing."She winked at Sizma. Now was not a good time for an explanation.
It was all he could do to not snort with laughter when Mary made her sly insinuation. Not that there was anything wrong with the two of them well being more than friendly. He had thought they were a couple to be honest. He was red to his half pointed ears though mostly because he couldnt help but think of Tessa.
Boars won't skewer themselves.
He said riding forward a bit more to keep his red face from drawing too many questions.
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Aldern Foxglove listens to your banter with a smile, and chuckles at appropriate places. On Calin's words, he says, "Indeed! The hunt is afoot!"
You spend much of the day tracking a boar, and eventually a flurry of action begins as one of Aldern's dogs catches the scent, and you go after it. Before long, you've brought down a rather large boar, with all of you contributing but Calin bringing down the decisive killing blow.
You head back to town, where Aldern turns the boar over to Ameiko, who promises a feast tonight. After a chance to clean yourselves up and rest if necessary, you find yourselves back at the Rusty Dragon perhaps half an hour before sunset, enjoying drinks with the promise of boar meat for dinner shortly.
Let me know if you want to have any further conversation or interaction with Aldern Foxglove and Ameiko. Also, Selaros, will you make your rendezvous with Shayliss this evening?
He did his best not to appear too proud that his final blow felled the beast, after all he felt he had some small advantage, between the elven militia training, and his better trained mount, it was natural he was in better position for the killing blow. Depsite the darkness of their gathering he was glad to have found these interesting individuals... after all he spent most his days at work not really socializing.
Maybe soon he could work up the courage to speak with Tessa...
Selaros will try and see if he can help Shayliss as promised with her pest problem before, he is to return to the Rusty Dragon for dinner. Expecting to have to fight with some rats, he holds again with the cleaning and decides to wait untill after he helped her.
He goes to the general store with all his equipment on looking ready for a war or skrimish. Glaice at the ready he greets her "Good evening Shayliss, should we take a look at the pests so you can be free of the rats nesting in your basement?"
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While most of you are probably somewhere near the Rusty Dragon, Selaros heads over to the Sandpoint General Store. In the waning light of twilight, he sees the form of Shayliss Vinder outside waiting for him. She gives him a sultry smile as he approaches, and takes his hand.
"Yes... to think, I have a Hero of Sandpoint helping me with the rat problem my father won't believe me about!"
Shayliss leads Selaros into the store and down the stairs to the basement. He doesn't see any rats. Indeed, as he's looking around, he looks back to see that Shayliss seems to have slipped out of her bodice, and has he turns back she slips into an embrace with him. "Just come with me over here," she murmurs, as she starts to try to guide him to where he sees a cot set up over by the side of the basement....
Let me know how you proceed.
Selaros looks around the basement rying to pick up any sign of the rat problem. Not finding any sign that rats can even get inside the basement he turns around to adress Shayliss. "I don't see any sign of...."
He is intially stunned by the sight he turns to see and his voice cuts off by shear suprise at first. He just stands there almost paralyzed a few moments then he slowly raises his hand... and breaks the embrace by shoving her away from him. "What in the nine hells do you think you are doing? If you had hoped to fool me, you have indeed fooled yourself indeed for I will not partake in this. What you are suggesting is only meant for people who share a heart and my heart is already longing for someone els'. It seems to me that my help is not needed here with any kind of rat problem, it's only your selfish needs that mattered to you right!" Selaros has not noticed he raised his voice, to not risk further insulting her he turns away and walks to the stairs to leave the store not waiting for an answer.
For some reason, Mary looks around and blurted out, "Hey, what's Selaros up to you? He isn't here."
Sizma looks to Mary and shrugs, "Beats me."
"I bet he's off with that woman, what was her name? Oh! Yes! Augustianna!" She giggled and smiled brightly and leaned into Sizma to share her joke. "He must be off with her licking her wounds."
He was indeed near the Rusty Dragon.. right beside it in fact mucking stalls. He could clearly hear the ... words of mary and for the moment was glad he hadnt mentioned his ... interest in that pretty young lass who worked at the Pixie. The other half elf must have been raised by sailors or something!
"Yeah," Sizma says sticking out her tongue.
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As Selaros pushes Shayliss away, at first she looks very hurt, but then as he says his piece, she starts to look angry.
As he heads to the stairs to leave the basement, he sees a door open at the top, and Ven Vinder, the father of Shayliss and the proprietor of the general store, take a few steps down.
"What's going on down here? What's all this shou..."
He suddenly stops as, a few steps down, he sees his daughter in her skivvies. His face turns red as he looks back towards Selaros and says, "...What...!?!"
Shayliss, her eyes brimming with tears, cries out, "Father, Selaros tried to take advantage of me!"
Let me know how you proceed.
The vigilante part of him takes over as he hear footsteps coming closer to him. As the door opens Selaros quickly looks up preparing to get attacked at any moment, but quickly sees is the store owner and lets go of the glaive before he is noticed
As politely as he can he tries to reason with Shayliss' father to avoid a catastrophy "I'm very sorry for my yelling sir, most of it was out of sheer surprise. You see Shayliss came to me earlier and asked if I would help you with a rat-problem here in the basement, some times often you closed to not tell the customers about it. I came here just a few moments ago and was lead down here, where I started to look for any hole they could come in through. I couldn't find any entrance for such pest to allow it to snack on your goods, and when I turned to tell your daughter she had taken her clothes of and started embracing me. I told her off and that was the yelling you heard, for which I once again apologizes."
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Ven Vinder's eyes narrow. He regard Selaros for a few moments before his angry glare turns to Shayliss.
His daughter immediately sees the way the wind is blowing.
"Do I now have to worry about the judgement of BOTH of my daughters?!?" the man explodes.
"But father..." Shayliss starts to say.
"Quiet! I've heard what they whispered about you. I always thought the whole 'town flirt' thing was just jealosy. But I've been blind!"
He turns to Selaros and takes a few deep breaths to calm himself before saying, "I'm sorry about this, and thank you for not taking advantage of my daughter. If you ever get a chance to try to talk sense into my other daughter...."
(Aside: Selaros knows -- as it's not that large a town, and it's been talk of the town -- that Katrin Vinder has been in a relationship ("shacking up" is Ven's word) with Banny Harker, the frugal proprietor of the Sandpoint Lumber Mill. Ven is not happy about this, and evidently has been fuming enough about it that he wasn't really paying attention to the shenanigans of his younger daughter.)
He trails off and shakes his head before restarting. "I apologize. I will deal with this from here."
He moves aside to let Selaros exit.
(Once Selaros gets back to the Rusty Dragon, the whole party will be reunited for the feast with Aldern Foxglove, with Ameiko and her crew having prepared the boar that you guys took down this afternoon.)
Selaros walks towards the Rusty Dragon a little surprised he walked out of that one unscrathed. "Guess my reasoning isn't as bad as I thought, maybe I should practice it more often, through diplomacy at the swordpoint is more fun."
He sits down at the table were the others are "Sorry I got a little sidetracked there, I went to help someone with a rat problem, but it turned out my help wasn't really needed in any way I could help, so that was kind of a defeat for me."
"Sooooooooo. You say your date went south," Sizma giggles.
"No date, thought it was work I had to do, couldn't find any pests in the basement. But any way lets eat I'm starving, couldn't get a good rat to cook so the boar will have to do." he says with a wink towards Sizma
Restraint is hard for this half-elf, but she tried her damned best not to just dive into the food and have her way with it. On the street one just doesn't keep to decorum because that could lead to your food disappearing, likely by some stray animal with sharper teeth. However, here she is amongst people above her station and she thought she'd give having a manners a try. So, when the food is ready and all the polite proceedings have been met then she'll jump in with gusto.
"Yahoo!"
Date? Pests?
He asked completely confused. He didnt realize Selaros was well seeing the shopkeeper's daughter. Good for him though if he was. He did his best to keep somewhat quiet.
Can I ask you girls a question? what sort of things do girls like for like.. you know presents?
It was a good thing he was a bit more into his cups, or he probably woudnt have asked.
Stopped at mid chew to glance at Calin. Slowly a smile grew on her face.
”That depends,” she said after swallowing the morsel down. Since it wasn't thoroughly mashed it took a little bit of effort pushing it down. ”If this is someone you just met and you want to get her attention just try a drink and a conversation. However, if she is someone special and you've known each other I'd say that jewelry is nice. Not clothes. Don't do that, you'll get your butt kicked. Or, maybe soap, but be careful with that one, she might think you think that she's dirty. “ Wisp had a nice way of explaining things even if it sounded more like she was prattling on and on. ”Does that help?”
"Mary isn't it also important to give her something that's Calin in a gift, instead of just any gift? I mean we can give him a lot of advice but in the end I say it has to come from himself and from the heart." Selaros adds to the conversation.
"Not really," she replied to Selaros after a short moment. "I mean, yes and no. It should be something that tells her that he thinks about her. It should be simple and not too intimate unless Calin and this girl have some kind of relationship already."
"Too many bad relationships to tell you what worked."
The Wisp absolutely adores that the men in the party have love interests and will gladly illuminate them on the inner workings of a woman's heart. She'll even debate them if it means helping them towards getting any ounce of romance and will gladly volunteer as a wing'man' if it were ever needed. Though, she does argue that it is a bad idea because she's a woman. Their prospective partner might find that intimidating and there is the possibility of jealousy.
"There are two ways you can do this. The first way is the best way. Women look for a man that is strong, passionate and has a heart. It doesn't even have to be in that order at any given time. It can change by the second," she drank some more and slammed her empty mug down with a happy sigh. After complimenting the beer she dared to continue. "Sure, we do look at you whether you are a hottie or not, but by the end of it all as long as you got those three things you're a winner. But, if you're an ass, which you are not, just figure out what she likes to drink and get her drunk. Got it?
Selaros listens intendly to Mary's statement, any kind of advice would be a good help for him. Of course he first have to be brave enough to share his identity with Agustianna and possible his new friends. "I think the first way, has the best chance for a good outcome. I'd always said that the heart is what really matters the rest can change from one woman to another. Passion can be good but in measured steps that doesn't dissaude the one you choose to woo." he responds and finishes the last bit for boar from his plates before he settles back in a relaxed position.
"Well, if you need me, I'm heading over to the bar and getting a drink. We need to figure out what's next on the agenda and I think a good drink will help with that," says Sizma as she gets up from her seat and begins to walk over to the bar, "Anybody want anything?"[/b]
"I'll join you for some mead if you don't mind. A nightcap can help one sleep better." says Selaros walks with her to order a mug.
Wha...what if she is a .. working girl?
He asked half sheepishly unsure how to get further into detail.. though at the mention of the drink he nodded vigourously.
Yes, lets get a good stiff drink, my treat
He offered following Sizma to the bar
"Well if she is one, she didn't do a good job of wrapping poor Solaris in her web," she coos sauntering over to the bar, "What do you got for hero of Standpoint?"
he chuckled and nodded to the sorceress and wry smile on his lips.
I didnt mean the shopkeeper's daughter... i meant well the young ladie who caught my eye. She work's at the Pixies Kitten and well I er.. well you know.
He said somewhat stumbling over his words.
"Well aren't you a hopeless romantic. Bards would have a field day," Sizma laughs.
"Well let's hope the bards writes us all a good ending to this adventure. Without destorying Sandpoint as some bards like to add much more drama than needed." Selaros responds laughing slightly
Mary loved watching them and seeing Calin nervous had her giggling. It was so cute watching him squirm with uncertainty.
"Pish! Just ask her out and don't worry about those things," She said to Calin.
"I wonder why they like you Selaros, you must have something they want in a man," she leans over to him a bit before nearly dying of laughter.