I shrug out a response to Imperia, "Swagger, I think."
I pause, scratch my neck, "We're adventurers, right. So, we get a mule and load it up with animal traps and suchlike. Throw in a map to a dragon's lair and you're done!"
Imperia leans to the wind-talker and plots it out for her. "No reward.. yadda yadda dangerous mission far behind enemy lines, stop. Promotions possible. Suicide missions, bashing brains. Agents from Druma, disguised, smuggling magic items, Skelt, don't ask don' tell. Magic auras stopped they all died or left it and ran we need to get it to a gnome, stop. Show that," she juts a finger at the brick, "to Storage House Bob and receive items, covert mission, our cover is adventurers, no fighting. Wait, no fighting? I missed that part. Don't they know what I do?" she asks, hollowly muttering as she re-reads it to make sure it's how she thought.
I shrug out a response to Imperia, "Swagger, I think."
I pause, scratch my neck, "We're adventurers, right. So, we get a mule and load it up with animal traps and suchlike. Throw in a map to a dragon's lair and you're done!"
Imperia blinks. "Gorvy-- That's brilliant. That's brilliant! And it can even explain the magic items we're carting around if we see the same people again. Hell, if we get all beat up and covered in blood it's practic'ly a free pass! You're a genius! That's damn smart!" She claps him on the back in congratulations, perhaps a bit more roughly than her small frame and stature would suggest she could. She's animated and excited for a moment before exclaiming "Wait, who's got the cart, then? I ain't buyin' a cart just for show if I'm the one who's got to do it and I sure as spikes on a shield ain't whittlin' one any time soon. Figure that Bob'll lend us something for our darin' heroics?"
"And what's swagger?" she whispers, off-hand. "Is that your fake name?"
Fukarth lashes another barrel of whisky into place on the wagon, and takes a wide stance, like a stubby-legged John Wayne, and strolls up to Imperia. "A swagger is the way you walk and act when you got nothing to hide and you don't plan to take any crap from anyone."
"I've got the covered in blood thing handled," he added, dropping the swaggering adventurer pose. "Adventurers, and if that doesn't hold up, deserters from the Grand High Army of Blah Blah Blah."
"We can probably all throw in for a mule. Shouldn't hurt much. maybe 2 gold each?"
"And thank you Imperia, that's very kind."
Fukarth lashes another barrel of whisky into place on the wagon, and takes a wide stance, like a stubby-legged John Wayne, and strolls up to Imperia. "A swagger is the way you walk and act when you got nothing to hide and you don't plan to take any crap from anyone."
"I've got the covered in blood thing handled," he added, dropping the swaggering adventurer pose. "Adventurers, and if that doesn't hold up, deserters from the Grand High Army of Blah Blah Blah."
"Well!" she says, pleased as she could be. "I'll keep that in mind for the next time I'm actin' up by myself."
"We can probably all throw in for a mule. Shouldn't hurt much. maybe 2 gold each?"
"And thank you Imperia, that's very kind."
"The compliments are free," she smirks, glancing over to Song. Somehow she felt like it was appropriate to mark little victories when Song was around, on account of the fact that her beauty made Imperia look uglier than homemade soap in comparison. "Call me Imp, it's shorter, less formal, you know, easier to yell when gettin' stabbed or somethin'."
"As for a mule, I'll pawn a throwing shard and have enough left over to pay that toll," she says, resting the axe across a shoulder with casual ease as she stands. "Anyone want to spend the day mule-huntin' with me? I need someone to come along or else I'm bound to make it cost more on account of my winning personality," she says, and points at her face-- half-orcs weren't entirely loved 'round these parts, or any parts for that matter.
Laughing quietly to herself, Lianhua takes a smile at her lively group. It seems that they're taking to the news of the mission all to well. In fact if anything they were taking it all to lightly.
"How about we all just focus on what's in front of us? Joking around too much is a good way to get yourself killed."
With that Lianhua begins her preparations for the mission to come.
Apart from picking up you equipment from Bob, the friendliest hobgoblin in the whole fort, there are not much preparations to do. You remember to ask him if he could spare a mule, but he evades the question, looking quite nervous. (Also, it seems that he has gotten a little fatter since the last time you saw him.)
---
The next day, you leave the fort without further ceremony, and start your long and hard journey. You travel for four days until you encounter a river, but that's not the hard part. You cross the river, but that still isn't the hard part. However, when the terrain starts to change into the nigh-impenetrable forests typical for Nirmathas, you start feeling like the hard part will be starting real soon.
Soon enough, you find a small path leading further into the forest, and start following it diligently until darkness starts to fall and you have to stop for that day. The night is unusually chilly, and you realize that you'll need some way to keep warm, unless you happen to enjoy frostbites.
At Song Lianhua's words, I begin packing enthusiastically and muttering to myself.
"نعم، ذلك صحيح، عليك أن تدرك الجيش على ما يرام. لا سمح الله ينبغي لنا أن نتعلم أن نفهم ونثق احدة وأخرى. لقد أردت دائما لمحاكاة بائسة، والناس الذين التقيت بهم مقطب."
Ka'ta does not seem particularly worried about the terrain and the changes therein. Actually, she's quite curious. She goes first, or tries to put herself there, fascinated with the greenery. Now, Ka'ta does not dive into the woods with the grace of a wild druid. She's just as awkward here as the next city goer, in fact. But she's quite enamoured of this new world she's running into.
Once they've stopped, she goes to find firewood without further comment or communication with the group. It just seems like something she should do!
Muttering about the scarcity of wood in the pigbucking forest, the dwarf sets about attempting to make a camp.
Imperia goes after Ka'ta, leaving Gorvy and Song to watch over the wagon. "Be back," she says, and plunges into the dimming woods.
"So," she says pointedly as she begins to scour the forest floor for something to burn before wickedly considering her axe, "You're quiet."
Imperia sets about finding a tree that looks like it'd not be an issue to carve up with her greataxe-- something she thought she was good at. Too long away from the lumber camp and too many distractions had left her rusty.
I begin clearing and flattening a bit of ground for a campfire.
As I do, I adress Song Lianhua, "So, what do I call you? I'm not so familiar with names from the other side of the world."
With everyone taking the time to set up camp Lianhua starts to set up her hammock between two trees as she's questioned by Gorvy.
"You can just call me Song like everyone else. It's tradition in my country for those you don't know well to call you by your family name anyways. Plus a song in this language is something which I often perform. I guess fate has a sense of humor after all."
With that she finishes setting up her bed for the night before turning back to Gorvy.
"You're pretty acute to notice something like that. How about you? Do you prefer to be called Gorvy or would something else be more appropriate?"
The trees over here are tall and have little in the way of branches; You would have to chop one down to get firewood. However, you also spot some kind of vine climbing up the trees. You don't know why, but it seems oddly familiar...
You recognize the plant as firewood vine, named so because it can be used in place of firewood if normal firewood is not avaiable.
After closer inspection, you realize that the plant in question is not firewood vine, but its close relative, called "hellvine". This is not to say that it doesn't burn, rather it burns all too well.
Imperia gestures with her axe at the vines. "Hey, firewood vines. That'll do well. I'll go get some."
She walks to the nearest vine and plants her axe in the ground, drawing a throwing shard and trying to cut the vine free from its tree.
Imperia retrieves enough of vines for a small campfire.
Ka'ta nods. She is indeed quiet. But she seems to appreciate the company anyway, pleased that they've managed to find something good to make fires with. She doesn't know anything about them, of course, but it seems like a plan to her!
With a smile Linahua greets Imperia on her return.
Though on a closer inspection of the vines her smile seems to diminish just a tad.
"Are you sure you want to be burning that hellvine Imperia?"
"Looks like firewood vine to me," she responds, raising an eyebrow. "How do you figure it's hellvine? It ain't even red. What's hellvine anyways?"
Lianhua looks to Imperia like a mother scolding her child.
"It's something you don't want to burn unless you would prefer a dwarf steak for dinner. So how about you toss it out and we find something a little more suitable? Like dry twigs for instance?"
Imperia looks confused and then indignant. After Song finishes speaking, she responds with "Dry twigs it is," and tosses the 'hellvine' to the ground outside the camp site. "Looks like we've got to head back," she says, a bit louder to catch Fukarth and Ka'ta's ear before delving back into the brush again, disappearing from the roadside.
Halfway into the brush she's scowling. Nobody was the captain here and she didn't like Song's tone of voice. Not like she was a thug at a bar she could hit and forget anyways-- best to stow her irritation and try to cooperate.
After scouring the forest floor for twigs for a moment, she sighs heavily and just begins to visit her frustration on a nearby short tree with her greataxe, chopping it down.
After a few angry chops of Imperia's axe, something falls on her head. Not a branch or a squirrel, like you would expect, but a young man and a leopard.
The man and the feline fall down with considerable force, enough to knock all three prone. However, it would seem that the assault was not intentional, at least judging from a: "Excuse me, miss," and a quite apologetic: "Grrowh?"
Imperia smacks into the ground and tumbles across the forest floor. After a moment of shock she hauls herself up to her feet, grabbing the man by the shoulders and roughly standing him up against the tree with an angry snarl.
"What the hell! Who the hell are you!? Why did you jump on me with a cat?! Who gave you gor'rum permission to leap on my head? You could've killed me you brain-blasted oaf! You stupid sack of bladed handles and leather-wrapped blades I ought to ring your bell and send you home with an autograph of my fist on your face!"
She pops her fist up, as if to strike him in the face, but abates. "Seriously what the hell! 'Excuse me, miss' he says in a dull tone after he plants feet on my skull! Explain yourself in more words than 'whoops' before I turn your teeth into a piano and play a dirge for a broken mouth on that dumb face of yours!"
She suddenly lets go of him and turns to the cat. "Who's cat is this?!" she shouts, waving her hands above her head in apoplectic fury.
Imperia stops for a moment, fuming, and then realizes her eyepatch is strapped wild across her face after the tumble. She fixes it with silent aplomb before holding out her hands, palms open and just growling "Why?!"
"Oh, I'm just Gorvy. I was thinking about names 'cause we might consider concocting a bit of a backstory, should we fall in with anyone. I'm thinking that being such a motely crew we might have met in Varisia and got the map there: it's full or ports and ruins, a proper adventuring place." I pause a second to collect my thoughts, "Seems like a good excuse for being in Molthune too, it's on the way: 'We're not from Mothune, we were just passing through.' Something like that."
I take out the map and start adding details about dragons, treasure and goblins. Hoping to make it more authentic.
"Hey, hey. Don't go throwing that hellvine away!"
I start chopping the hellvine into short lengths (as long as a finger) and packing them tightly into a bag.
"I fell from the tree because you started chopping it," the man answers calmly. "Could you please calm down? You're making Sharpy nervous. I'll even throw in a free healing spell as compensation."
He looks twenty-something years old, and has a face that could be quite popular with the ladies, should he remove the twigs and leaves from his hair. From the state of his clothings and equipment, it would seem that he has been in this forest for quite a long time- Though he looks healthy enough, and a particular glint in his pupils betrays that he knows the alternative uses of local flora and fungi well enough.
Imperia glowers at him with her single burning eye for a minute before sighing heavily. "No name?" she asks, swabbing a sudden warmth on her scalp to find that she's bleeding. Belaying no reaction, she licks the blood from her finger. "You make me bleed my own blood and you don't even say sorry? Whatever."
Imperia considers pummeling him into a bloody heap but figures that it might not do much at all other than bruise her knuckles-- and it'd be a wise idea to get this guy to the others and maybe Song could snap her fingers and make him tell her everything about whatever she wanted.
"You've got big spiked ones. The cat seemed more apologetic and he don't even know what he did wrong," she says.
"Hillfolk." Imperia rolls her eye. "Apologize, then," she says, and points to her bleeding scalp.
-
"The name's Cosme," the man answers as he reaches to touch Imperia's wound. "I apologize for climbing into trees when it was widely known that a half-orc was going to be on a rampage against the forest's trees. We won't let this happen again, will we, Sharpy?"
Apart form his smartassery, Cosme seems honest enough, even helpful. You're almost sure, however, that Sharpy is planning on stealing your food.
Ka'ta comes picking into the woods after the angry, half-orc slow and trying not to trip on roots.
"Hello?" She calls hesitantly.
"Smart-ass," she mutters. "What were you doing up in a tree? You know there's dangerous stuff out of here. At least, more dangerous than me. And hell, I showed up some restraint I think. An owlbear would've torn you up."
As his healing magic takes effect, she flinches. "Imperia," she says. She doesn't offer her hand-- instead, she dabs her scalp again and inspects her fingers with her single red eye. No blood. "Thanks," she offers.
When Ka'ta comes through the brush, she turns to her and juts a finger at Cosme. "I cut a tree down and a guy fell out on my head. With his cat. You find anything for a campfire?"
"I just got out here," Ka'ta grumbles.
"You found a what?" The Mwangi comes a-trottin' to Imperia. "You found a who?" She peers around the half-orc at the boy with the cat.
With the crashing sounds, I grab my pistol and step carefully toward the sound.
"I was just keeping an eye for trappers! I'm the druid of this forest, I can't just let people leave sharp pieces of metal lying around for the animals (or me) to step on." Upon hearing talk about a campfire Cosme's face lightens up. "A campfire? I can help, I am a campfire expert!"
Imperia narrows her eye quizzically. "I'm not sure if that's something to be proud of being an expert for. Can you help us out anyways? We're about as outdoorsy as a shed inside a barn."
She turns to Ka'ta. "His name's Cosme and he's a druid I guess, kind of like you, wind-talker. What do you think?"
"Sure, just show me where you want it done."
Imperia leads Cosme (and Sharpy) to where Gorvy had pepared the ground. The man pulls a bunch of twigs from his hair and mutters a few magic words. The twigs immediately begin to swell and grow, until they are as long and thick as an arm.
"Convenient, isn't it? It ain't every druid that can do stuff like this."
He places them neatly into the ground, then lights them up easily with a magical flame.
You spend a while around the campfire chatting with Cosme, though many of his stories sound dubious at best. The forest around you gets darker, and soon enough you go to sleep.
---
You wake up early next morning, and notice that Cosme and Sharpy are still around. The druid has apparently been collecting berries, while the leopard is happily napping in one of your picnic basket.
"Uh, sorry about that, Sharpy tends to get hungry at night. I collected you these in place of what Sharpy ate. They look normal, but I have placed an spell on them, making them much more filling." Ka'ta indeed can recogonize them as affected by the goodberry spell.
Ka'ta nods a bit seemingly at ease with the other druid quickly enough.
She sits with the other druid for a bit, asking him questions about the forests around here, and enjoys it thoroughly. Certainly more talkative than she's been with the others in the party.
She tries one of the berries in the morning with a happy sounding hum.
Imperia glares momentarily and says "Fat cat," before pocketing whatever Cosme hands her.
"Thanks for the help, tree-dropper," she says, amused and poking fun more than the simmering anger she had late last night. "Where are you off to after this? Staying around, lodging in more trees, keeping the forest safe?" She begins to roll her bedroll and pack her things, tossing them into their mule-drawn wagon to prepare for the day's journey.
With a bit of a rowdy welcome it seems that another druid had found himself within the group. With a long sigh, Lianhua gave a dissatisfied look to her comrades at just bringing someone else into their camp. None the less she doesn't openly complain.
"Well if things are resolved I guess I'm going to retire for the night."
Slipping her magic sleeves on and off Lianhua changes into a comfortable, but warm nightgown and slips into her hammock for the night.
Cosme talks with Ka'ta about druidic things for a while, then bids you farewell, telling you that he will "drop by" again someday.
---
You continue your travels along the small trampled path you found earlier. It has widened slightly since you left your camp, allowing you to travel more comfortambly. The sun hangs on right above you, the trees on your sides providing little comfort.
Suddenly, you notice another group of travellers, consisting of a halfling and two thuggish-looking big persons being led by a young woman. They seem to be just travelling without ill intent, and are not attempting to impede you in any way.
Imperia nods at the new people politely yet silently as they pass, her greataxe balanced horizontally for traveling across her shoulders and biceps.
Fukarth maintains a sullen silence as the strangers approach, keeping an eye to the forest around to look for a possible ambush.
I wave to the strangers and move a bit closer (to see if she is hot), "Well met."
The travellers further appoarch. You can now see that the halfling is apparently a priest of some sort- Sarenrae, you would guess from his red hair. The big thugs are revealed to be half-orcs when they come close enough for you to see their tusks.
The young woman leading them seems to be absorbed into her thoughts but after taking a quick glance on your group, her eyes widen and she rushes towards your group before grabbing Ka'ta in something that could be a vicious attack or it could be just a slightly more forceful hug.
"Ka'ta! I didn't think I would see you again!"
Its Rasha, your childhood friend! What a surprise!
"Uh , oh ... Oh my god! Rasha!" Ka'ta is so surprised that she momentarily forgets what they're doing here, but it filters back in before she opens her mouth. She smiles, trying to change her attitude subtly to be less military and more carefree adventurer.
"What are you doing here?" She asks, before Rasha can ask her.
In response to Ka'ta's question, Rasha starts blabbering about everything that had happened during the past few years. You learn that she had been sent to an arcane school in Cheliax when it was noted that she had talent for the arts, but all the diabolism there hadn't sat well with her, and when she came back she finally "saw the light" and defected to Nirmathas.
After about twenty minutes she finally starts winding down. "...We were just planning how we could rescue you from that rathole, but seems like that isn't needed anymore! Tell me Ka'ta, how did you manage to free yourself?"
"Well, err," Ka'ta knows that she's not much of a liar, so she tries to tell as much of the truth as she can around the inherent lie; "I worked it off, but of course I'm still not a citizen...Now I'm adventuring to make some money for that shop wanted. Make enough and I can go anywhere, you know? "
Ka'ta manages to be halfway convincing, and also manages not to look too surprised about it.
I join the conversation, "Hey, Ka'ta, don't go running off with another adventuring group."
As I draw close I offer the woman my hand, "Hi, I'm Gorvy. And what did Ka'ta say your name was? Rasha? Who are your friends?"