"The name is Woden, welcome aboard...I suppose..."
As much as a new team member is appreciated, would it hurt to have another woman on this team?? Since his chances with Gird are nigh abysmal.
Huey stared the each group member for a moment, judging them hard inside of his head. "Hmph, let me get my stuff." He mumbled, going to fetch the stuff pile which was unneatly in the corner. A backbag and a bit old looking halberd.
"What are you guys up to now?" This could have been a good question before actually joining this group.
Gird snorts in disgust and turns away. "To tell you the truth, I don't even know anymore...now, if you all don't f***ing mind, I have to see a man about a god." Gird walks out the door, radiating disapproval.
"We're mainly explorers," Oomlowt said. "Perfectly legitimate and government sponsered explorers. We travel around making maps and killing spiders."
"I... Think we're supposed to search the surrounding areas? At least that's what we've been doing."
Garhan looks at the rest of his team, in case someone was actually on a different quest.
Huey shrugged, ignoring the paladin. "Sounds good enough for me, then..."
"Great, fantastic! Welcome the f&*@ aboard!" Woden grumbled angrily.
Clearly he isn't happy about another male member of the team, and he's lived long enough to know the tell-tale signs of a woman's time-of-the-month. This day simply gets better and better.
"I feel so welcomed. It really warms my cold, cold heart." He said calmly, scratching his chin lazily.
Garhan felt bad about Gird and Woden being so unwelcoming.
"Oh no! We... We're really happy to have you aboard! Honestly!"
Calanthe rolled her goat eyes, making Garhan feel even worse after he saw the eyerolling.
"Or at least... I am..", the tiefling mumbled.
Mammals could be cold blooded? That was a new one.
"We're normally not so... brooding," Oomlowt said to Huey. "We had a rough journey... lost an ally."
"That is unfortunate", Huey replied without too much emotion in his voice, but trying not to sound totally emotionless. If he really was going to hang out with this... interesting group he probably shouldn't make himself too hated. At least just yet. He dropped his backbag to the floor and leaned lazily to his trustworthy halberd.
What Gird didn't tell her fellows was that she was just using the Priest as an excuse to wander the Trading Post, on the hunt for fine man rear.
Naturally, she was very upset when a balding, middle-aged man came up to her, wearing simple, but robust clothes and bearing the holy symbol emblazoned on her very shield.
The man bowed before saying, "Hello Paladin, I hope your efforts are fruitful?"
This is going to suck.
Garhan felt awkward in this silence.
"Uh... Do you guys want to... See if Oleg has anything to eat or... Something?"
Yes, dining with people totally strengthens your bonds with them!
Also maybe some of Garhan's teammates would remember they had items to trade to money if they saw Oleg? Garhan didn't want to give up on the spellbook he couldn't use though, it was nice to read at night.
"Food sounds excellent," Oomlowt said, then turned to Huey and explained, "Eating is something we do quite often."
Gird stifled a groan. She actually hadn't really dealt with another member of the faith before; she did her best to avoid them when and wherever she could.
"It uh, goes great, I guess. I am totally helping the poor farmers and giving them all my hard earned coins." Wincing, Gird tries again. Only this time, try not to sound like a whiny child!
"I mean, my efforts are fruitful. And yours, I guess?" Oh gods, help me out here. Ant god, even you, just help. Gird smiles, and returns the bow.
The sorcerer lifted his eyebrow a bit. "Oh really? Well, at least we have something in common, then."
Garhan's mood seemed to lighten up, it was visible from his face.
Yes! This cool new guy did like eating!
"Let's go look for Oleg then!"
The tiefling waved his arm and marched out of the guesthouse, looking for Oleg.
The priest sidesteps Gird's question, instead coughing and saying, "I'm glad things are going well with you, I'm Jhod Kavken and getting directly to the point, I have a request."
He doesn't wait for Gird's response and instead goes directly into an explanation.
"I have heard that there are a lot of abandoned temples to Erastil in the Stolen Lands, and if you see any, could you let me know where they are? I would like to restore as many as possible. There is one I have in mind especially, but it seems to be guarded by large bear, although based on the tales, there is something that isn't right about it."
He looks Gird in the eyes and says, "Will you do this, as a fellow member of the faithful?"
All she had to do was look for some abandoned temples? Score! Gird almost sagged with relief. She could do that!
"Yeah, sure, I'll keep my eyes open! Nice seeing you, may you have many children with a single, well-endowded woman and all that. I'm afraid I have to go, but I'll be sure to keep my eyes open." Gird waved, backing away before turning around and looking for one of her fellow adventurers.
Follows Garhan lazily, dragging his belongings with him, looking very cheerful and energetic, as always. Like a boss.
It doesn't take long to find Oleg, as he is standing in the middle of the Fort, and turns when he hears his name, "Eh?"
Meanwhile Jhod looks a bit confused as Gird does the closest thing a beefy half-orc can do to scurrying.
And suddenly there Oleg is!
"Oh, Oleg! Hey! Long time no see!"
Garhan waves to Oleg, all cheerfully. It's pretty easy to please this guy, isn't it?
"How have you been?"
Oleg turns to face Garhan, "Much better now that I have those guards. And yer help with the bandits was much 'preciated. Why are ya here, anyways? Don'tya got a forest to explore or somethin'?"
"We came here to..! Uh... I think we came here to trade some items? I think. I don't have any items I want to trade but the others do. But! Huey here wants to join our team! And I think it would be a splendid idea to celebrate this with a shared meal! So I wanted to ask you if you had any food at hand. Do you?"
Smooth.
Garhan made cheerful gestures as he spoke, it was very clear he'd cheered up a lot after his idea of food had been accepted.
Gird looked around and spotted Goat Boy, chatting with Oleg. It looked like they might be talking buisness? Frowning Gird went over. While Goat Boy could be annoying, he did try hard and Gird didn't want him to get stiffed by the trader.
...crap. When did I start caring? Blaming her hormones, Gird stands by Garhan's shoulder, attempting to look menacing without being threatening.
Oleg shrugs, "If ya want a meal, you'll hafta wait. Svetlana isn't always cookin' ya know. But I can go tell her ya want a good meal. And then we can talk business."
Oleg goes and does just that, and when he returns he says, "So, ya said some o' yer party had items ta trade?"
Gird nods, figuring Oleg won't try to rip her off. "Yeah, we have a ring and a dagger. I think that's it. Anything else, Goat Boy?"
Garhan shakes his head to Gird.
"At least I don't have anything to sell, and I doubt you'd have either."
Spellbooks and firerods are too cool to be sold, you know.
"We have some boar skins too," Oomlowt said. "I'd kinda like to turn one into a cape, though..."
Oleg harumphs and says, "Well, let me look at your wares and I'll see what price I can give ya. And as for turnin' somethin' into a cape, I can't help ya, but Svetlana might be able to, ya could ask her."
It pained Oomlowt to give up his incredibly expensive dagger, but the prospect of trading it for many shinies was very tempting. He reluctantly placed it on the counter, his only consolation being the impressive amount of money it was sure to rake in.
Woden moves forward, pulling the ring out of his pocket and placing it on the table with the dagger, "We also have this ring."
Oleg looks at the small collection of wares before looking up, "So, how much would ya say these're worth? I can always go appraise 'em right now, but it'd take a little bit."
"This dagger..." Oomlowt said before pausing to think of an appropriate price for such a priceless gem. He wanted to get as much for it as he could, of course. "Well, in all my years as a bandit, I have never seen such a fancy weapon. Surely its monetary value is beyond measure, but I could part with it for 100 PP."
Sense Motive:
Oleg squints at Oomlowt for a second before saying, "Well, it does look very nice, probably a masterwork weapon. Unfortunately, I don't got the coin to buy it. Yer gonna hafta use it yerself."
He turns to Woden, "And that ring, what's it worth?"
Woden says, "I never heard, but I think Oomlowt figured it out."
The fairly worthless ring? Hmm... might as well try to get something for it. "Oh, I'd say it's roughly two GP."
Sense Motive Check:
Appraise Check:
This time Oleg stares hard at Oomlowt before saying, "Let me have a look at it."
He goes off into another building for a few minutes before coming back out, "I'm not fer certain, but I'd say this ring is worth much more than 2 gold. It's silver after all. My best guess would be it's worth about 63 gold, but I could be wrong."
Woden is staring at Oomlowt suspiciously, and I'm sure Gird is too.
Oomlowt's jaw dropped. "It's made of silver???" he gasped. So many shinies - so many shinies! He felt faint!
Oleg nods, "Yep. I dunno how you missed that. But I'd be willin' ta buy it if yer willin' ta part with it."
He looks over at Woden, who stands there a moment before nodding his head.
He needed some reward for bailing his fellow adventurers out twice.
Congratulations! Woden is now the proud owner of 63 GP!
Garhan had sat down in the ground a little distance from everyone else, he figured the selling of things would take a while, and since he didn't have anything to sell, he felt like he didn't exactly have to stand there.
He was just sitting in the ground, leaning to one of the buildings and looking at everyone from a short distance, smiling.
Calanthe, who was lying next to Garhan, let out a really "harrr-umph"-sounding sigh.
Garhan turned his eyes to the goat.
Calanthe spoke:
"Well I am pleased! Everything is going nicely for once and we just got a new member to our adventuring party! And he seems like a nice person!"
Calanthe raised an eyebrow.
Garhan's smile turned into a frown. "Don't be so mean! They are my friends!"
Garhan bit his lip and made a fist. "Why do you have to be so mean? Would it hurt to be a little happier for me? I know you don't like them, but I do."
As Calanthe finished her last sentence, she got up, shook her body, and walked off. She'd be back by the dinner, there would be wine. And she could really use some wine.
Garhan glanced at the goat walking away, then shifted his eyes back at the rest of the gang, and sighed.
"Stupid goat", he muttered.
...And to anyone not understanding goatspeech this conversation probably seemed pretty weird.
After a good meal, some tales of past heroics (which may or may not have been apocryphal, depending on the teller), and a truly embarrassing scene from a drunken goat (you would hate to be the keeper of that thing), you all finally get some rest, waking up the next morning refreshed and ready to do your duty for the Swordlords and for your own selfishness.
What do you do?
Oomlowt looked at his new dagger in awe. What a priceless treasure it was. Perhaps, should he be fortunate enough to settle down and raise a clutch, he could pass it on to his heir like the humans do? Such familial tradition was not part of kobold culture, but it was the kind of thing Oomlowt would have liked to take back with him after his exile in the human lands.
At the very least the knife was pretty. He should give it a name. "I shall call you... sting," he said. "Wait, no, that sounds dumb. I shall call you... Durendal." Yes, Durendal. Durendal would lead him to victory.
"Ready to go, Woof-" Oomlowt caught himself before he finished the sentence. The dog wasn't with him anymore. He had to remember that. With a dejected sigh, the kobold leapt out of bed to join his companions on their journey for fortune and glory.
Garhan was sitting around outside on the yard on some barrel, he had already come outside to commune with Calanthe about today's spells and yesterday's bad behaviour and whatnot.
The tiefling waved his legs around and stared at the guesthouse door, waiting for the others to come out.
Huey dragged himself out, looking as energetic and excited as always. He gave Garhan a lazy glance before placing his halberd's non-pointy end against the ground and leaned on his trustworthy companion, yawning loudly.
Oomlowt scurried outside in his slightly crumpled suit and waved a scaly hand to his comrades. "Good morning Garhan and Huey!" he said. "Ready to continue our exploration?"
Garhan waved to Huey and Oomlowt threw them a little smile, getting up from his barrel.
The palm of his hand was itchy, so Garhan scratched it.
Wait... Did it look different from usual?
...
Nah.
Garhan walked over to the stables to kick that silly drunk goat up again.
"Sure, why not." Huey replied, yawning again. He snatched a nice looking hay from the ground and placed it between his lips. It tasted terrible, but at least it wasn't the most bad tasting thing he had chewed.
Woden, who had decided to release his anger of his new team mate through silence, had overcome his anger and joined his comrades outside.
"Good morning everyone..."
Garhan joined the others with a very dissaproving-looking goat.
"Good morning, everyone..!"
He said, cheerfully.
Oomlowt's head darted about. "Have any of you seen the grumpy paladin?" he asked. "We're going to need her to come along, aren't we?"
"Oh, we absolutely can't leave without her! That'd be horrible!"
Garhan nodded.
"...But that being said, I haven't seen her all morning."