At this, Gird's brow furrows, but instead of shouting at the tiny midget lady, she turns to Oomlowt. He's always better at explaining things without shouting and hitting people. "I'm going to take a piss. You explain, Oomlowt." Gird stomps off to behind one of the buildings, then pulls down her armor and heals herself. She doesn't want to show weakness in front of the new recruits.
Oomlowt felt proud that Gird trusted him to do the talking by himself, even if it was a somewhat awkward task. "This land is dark and full of terrors," the kobold explained, "And we have lost four allies to it already. The Swordlords did not exaggerate the danger of our task. If you lack mettle, now is the time to return home. This quest is not for the faint of heart." The kobold took a moment to clean his glasses before staring down the two newcomers with a reptilian smile. "But if you have courage, valor, and stout hearts, join us. Together we will tame this land and be welcomed home as heroes."
Dariya listens to Oomlowt's story carefully.
"Well! Sorry to hear about your friends. It's a truly sad story."
She pounds her chest with grand motions.
"But fear not! I did not come here to die right away! You can count on me, uh... Uumloot, was it? In fact, I have already gained a bit of a reputation as a hero!"
After hearing the kobold's story, Raido kneels down to the kobold's level of sight.
"Hey now, I'm sure your comrades were pretty brave people, right? But I don't think ya need ta be worryin about us now. We wouldn't be out here if we didn't know the dangers of the land now, right?"
The tengu stands back up, moving his hands a bit, "Besides, in the event a risky situation happens again, you can count on me to fix ya'll right up! Ya got ma word on it." He says with a big smile plastered across his beak.
Meanwhile, Raido's hawk familiar, Hiba, flies over to the building Gird has ducked behind, perches on the roof and begins to stare her down.
Thrae leans back a little with her arms crossed over her chest. A lot of stuff is going on that she doesn't necessarily care about.
Dead people? Who cares, I would have ate them.
Tiny human? Where? Oh, wow I almost didn't see them.
Chill tongu... teng... g... bird guy? Wow, he has a stupid hat.
Thrae continues to quietly make fun of people and chuckle internally.
"Glad to hear it!" Oomlowt said with a broad grin. "And it's Oomlowt, by the way. Oomlowt Schwaa. And my friends are Thrae," he motioned to the gnoll, then gave a nod in Gird's direction, "And Gird. We'll be glad to have you with us on our quest, Dariya and..." Oomlowt looked at the tengu and furrowed his brow. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name, sir."
A braggart tiny human, a strange bird man, a shifty hyena lady, and a belligerent half orc. Oomlowt was in the strangest aventuring party ever - and it was wonderful.
"The name's Raido my scaled brotha, Raido Ohwashi. Raddest druid this side of the River Kingdom. And this is my familiar Hiba~." He motions to his shoulder but nothing is there.
He looks around all over, not visibly concerned, looking for his familiar.
" Ooooooyyyyy. Hibaaaa. Where'd you dun get to ya rascal?"
Hiba, who is still perched on the building near Gird, looks over to Raido and lets out a loud screech to indicate where his is, and unintentionally scare Gird.
Gird flinches, and notices the hawk. Eyes widening, Gird snarls. She's about to draw her bow when she registers the earlier voice. "Hey, d*ckwad, is this your f*cking bird?" Not waiting for an answer, Gird hurries from behind the building and back to where Oomlowt is standing, never turning her back on where the hawk was. You're being stupid, Gird, it's a hawk. The dumb thing can't even f*ckin' scratch you... Gird steps behind Oomlowt, which is really pathetic, once she thinks about it; like hell he's gonna be able to protect her.
"Isn't it great? Bird man and bird sidekick!"
Dariya laughs.
"These two are a lot of fun!"
Thrae rolls her eyes, "Fun... Heh, not the word I would use."
The bird looks tasty though.
Oomlowt simply wondered whether calling Raido a birdman was racist or not.
Hiba flies off the roof and returns to Raido's shoulder.
"Ah man...I'm sorry bout that miss. I didn't mean to make ya mad or nuthin. Hiba's just a bit of a troublemaker, promise it won't happen again, right?"
Raido puts his hands up the whole time to assure he meant no harm, meanwhile Hiba had been locking eyes with Gird the entire time.
"Yeah, whatever. Just make sure the damn bird minds it's own business, for it's own sake." Gird stares at the hawk, then, after a moment, grins. It's not very big, and now that she's had time to acclimate, Gird doubts she's going to be scared of it. Assuming she could grab at it, she could easily snap it's neck. She turns and looks at the bird man (No wings, so not scary. Just ugly), sizing him up.
"So... you have pets. That's cool. Pets are cool." Oomlowt glanced downwards and shuffled his boots in the dirt. "Keep a good eye on 'em. It's rough out there."
"Ah, you must be mistaken!"
Dariya motions her hands at Oomlowt.
"Lockjaw is not a pet. He's my warsteed. We charge to battle together! And he's more than capable of taking care of himself and me."
Right now, as the wolf is just laying on the ground, drifting into sleep, it doesn't look all that much like an intimidating mount.
"But hey..! So Oomlowt, Thrae and Gird... Have you mapped a lot of this area yet? I'm so eager to go out there adventuring! I just want to know if you've already done most of the work..! I won't forgive myself if I've missed out on all the fun!"
"Dogs are the best war steeds," Oomlowt mused quietly, before returning to the subject at hand with forced enthusiasm. "We have made some progress in mapping out the Greenbelt, but there is plenty of work left to be done. Your assistance will be most valuable."
Stepping into the conversation, Gird flashes her most charming smile. Huh, who knew she could actually look...nice.
"As my friend Oomlowt said, we would be more than happy to welcome such experienced travelers such as yourselves to our party. However, the two of us have some things we must discuss, relating back to our dear departed comrades. If you'd just pardon us a moment." Gird pulls Oomlowt aside, murmuring in his ear, "We never hammered out the division of loot, and honestly, I don't feel like sharing our hard-earned spoils with these guys. I know I picked up some stuff that you could use, and also some stuff that I know nothing about. Later, we should examine it and bring it to Oleg."
As she's speaking, Gird surreptitiously lowers her hand to Oomlowt's back, healing him. She doesn't trust that half-drowned cleric's healing any more than she trusts that half-drowned cleric, which is to say not at all.
"I agree," Oomlowt whispered. "We earned our current wealth through blood and tears. These newcomers do not have a claim to it. We'll have to give them a cut of our next adventures, but what we have is ours and ours alone." The kobold smiled. "And thank you for healing me. I feel fit as a fiddle!"
Dariya shrugs. Eh, Oomlowt and Gird really must want to talk alone.
The halfling turns her attention to Thrae.
"So Thrae..! What's your business here?" Dariya's question could sound rude if it wasn't accompanied by a genuine smile.
"You don't see a lot of gnolls travelling without other gnolls around. Are you just really adventurous or something?"
Eh, her questions might've been rude... But she didn't seem to care about that.
Oh sh*t, I think the tiny human is talking to me.
Thrae looks down at the halfling and is only able to catch the second question. She crosses her arms to look cool and says, "I don't work well with other gnolls, and I usually don't stick with anyone for a long enough time." She chuckles a little at the thought of her sacrificing practices, "But I met these two a while back and" fake smile incoming, "They seem like good people, you know? Plus, they're the best of the best, so I think my cleric work will come in handy."
"Ah, I see..!"
These two must be great if they've been able to impress a gnoll!
...Or then Thrae is lying.
But Dariya might not be thinking about that. Why would Thrae lie? Would it really benefit her in this situation..? Ah, better not think too much about that.
Things will work out better if you trust your team mates after all. Socializing might help with that.
"Cleric, huh? What god do you worship, then?"
Thrae gives a smirk and turns around, showing a large Hanspur symbol on her cloak.
Dariya can't see it, but Thrae has a pretty proud smile on her face, "I worship Hanspur of course, the best of the best!" she might have shouted that last part, but she doesn't really care.
Thrae turns back around and huffs proudly. She would ask if they worship anyone, but once again, she doesn't care.
"Ah! Hanspur! Okay!"
Hanspur... Is about... Rivers, right? And rats? Ahh... Okay?
Dariya's not really all that knowledgeable about gods, to be honest, she cared more about herself than gods, but it's best not to tell a clergywoman you don't really know who their god exactly is.
"I pay my respects for Gorum. He's a pretty cool guy, my kind of god. "
Raido stared at the symbol on her back questioningly, he wasn't super versed in all the gods, but he knows when he sees something silly.
"...But ain't Hanspur sum kinda rat? But rats usually drown in rivers, right? That or they'd smell pretty dang bad comin out of em. Hahaha...I made a little joke."
Raido keeps chuckling like an idiot, while Hiba rolls his eyes at him.
Overhearing the others talking about gods, Oomlowt raised a fist in an uncharacteristic moment of religious fervor and shouted, "Hail Calistria!". Since he'd never been particularly devout, even back when he worshiped Lamashtu, it wasn't the most zealous proclamation.
Seeing as how others were declaring their faith, Gird manages a "Hip hip ho-f*cking-ray, Erastil. Ia Ia, Erastil f'tagn."
Thrae jerks her head to Raido and glares at him with a burning fury, completely ignoring what the Half-Orc and Kobold said.
Congratulations Raido! You are now #1 on Thrae's hate list!
She clutches her hands into fists tightly and says, "Are you... F*cking talking sh*t... about my GOD..."
She walks up the the Tengu and harshly grabs him by the collar part of his cloak and pulls him in for a low whisper,
"Listen here f*cker, say another "joke" about Hanspur and Ill be roasting you on an open fire."
Raido remaining level headed, or I guess out of it, in this situation keeps a smile on his face.
"Ahh, I'm sorry bout that sis, didn't mean to offend you or nuthin...I wouldn't really roast me though, I wouldn't recommend it after the places I've been, right? Although maybe getting rid of my feathers, washing and then roasting could be good. It's better to have you food cleaned, right?"
Hiba promptly pecks at his head and screeches into his ear, the universal hawk sign for "You are a f*cking moron."
Oomlowt looked to Gird. "Should we... intervene?"
Gird shrugs. "Probably. It's really f*ckin' hilarious though. Seeing Oomlowt's expression, Gird sighs and walks over to the tengu and the gnoll. "Alright, break it up, break it up. The bird's an idiot, Hanspur's a bad*ss god, we know." As she says this, Gird stares down Thrae. This here, this here is master diplomacy.
Thrae huffs angrily and just shoves him to the side, "He's f*cking retarded, my gods. And you bet your *ss my god is the greatest."
She crosses her arms again, this time she just looks like a stubborn child. She doesn't like it when people are unaffected by her intimidation.
Gird nods. She'll take that. None too gently, she helps Raido to his feet. "Better be more careful 'bout what you say 'bout the gods, 'specially in front of their followers. Just between you and me though, say whatever you want about Erastil." With that, Gird moves to rejoin Oomlowt. "Crisis averted."
It looks like it wasn't actually a good idea to start talking about religion.
Geez, who would've guessed that?
"Uhhh... Mmmm yeah..."
Dariya mutters by herself and scratches the back of her head. It would probably be the best for everyone's general welfare if they changed the subject.
"Oh! Hey! Umm... Have you guys eaten yet..? I mean, we could all probably eat breakfast and then actually go out there to explore the Greenbelt? Yes? Unless you had some business to get to? Just, a hearty breakfast is the most important thing of the day. You can't kick people's *ss without a hearty breakfast..! And I'm all about kicking *sses."
She accompanies her speech with grand hand motions again.
She must be doing it because she's so short and she wants to attract attention.
Probably.
Gird grunts. She thinks she likes the tiny human. "Yeah, food sounds good. And me and Oomlowt can slip off later to talk to Oleg about our dead comrades, while you all socialize."
"Eating is a past time we can all enjoy!" Oomlowt said. "I have full confidence that after eating some delicious bread we will all be the best of friends. Let us devour the slain flesh of lesser beings together!"
"That's the spirit!"
Oomlowt sure talked funnily but he was probably talking about eating like, chickens and stuff, not lesser humanoids, right? Not that Oleg would have tiny humanoids available for breakfast anyway...
Dariya trots over to Lockjaw, who's trying really hard to sleep even with all the commotion, and scratches behind the wolf's ear.
"I'll bring you some breakfast too after we've eaten!"
The wolf seems pretty happy about being scratched behind the ear.
Tensions are high when Oleg wakes up to see Garhan, Woden, and Huey gone, and a Gnoll in their place. A Kobold was more than enough for him, without a Gnoll Raider from the Southern River Kingdoms. The dramabomb that followed was hilarious and horrible. You should have been there.
Hospitality is a little more hap-hazard this time, even with your explanation. The meal is not quite as hearty as it might have been [though Gird and Oomlowt don't notice, a week or so on the road will do that to you], and Thrae is just avoided as soon as she is given her meal [which is the same as everyone else].
After that Oleg meets with Oomlowt and Gird to discuss the current situation in more detail. You fill him in on the specifics of your fallen comrades end, and although he thinks it's a little silly that they died for a tribe of Kobolds, he believes it was a wise decision. Better to have a tribe of evil [he makes sure to add generally to that description] humanoids allied with you than actively working against you, especially since your description of their home sounds like a silver mine. He'll be sure to send word to the Swordlords so you can get that reward of 800 GP.
He also tells you that he has received word that the last charter has reached its destination in the Hooktongue Slough, a swamp to the West of the Greenbelt. He then tells you to keep an eye on the Gnoll. Even is she may not worship Demons, or whatever the hells it is those monsters pay tribute to, she should not be trusted. Especially with all the stories Oleg has heard about worshipers of Hanspur. He pointedly warns you to stay away from the Sellen River when she's around.
When asked to identify your red crossbow bolts, he can't give you much. He thinks they might be magic, but dammit Oomlowt, he's a shopkeeper, not a wizard.
As you rummage through your lootsack, he asks if you've found a pearl wedding ring, and when you say it rings a bell and pull it out from the Kobold's reward, he is visibly overjoyed, rushing into his home, presumably to give it back to Svetlana.
Then they both come back out, and Svetlana is holding a boar-skin cloak, complete with a tusked-hood. The two thank you both profusely, and tell you that you both officially have 1,000 GP store credit with them.
You chat amiably about things for a while afterward, and once Oleg leaves to clean, Svetlana leans in and gives you a quest!
Source: Svetlana Leveton at Oleg’s Trading Post
Task: Oleg’s been under a lot of stress lately, and
Svetlana would love to cook him his favorite meal
(moon radish soup) to help him relax. Unfortunately,
moon radishes are relatively rare. A patch grows
about 16 miles south of the trading post.
Completion: Bring Svetlana a basket of moon
radishes.
Reward: Svetlana is ready to pay a 250 gp reward
to anyone who can bring her enough moon radishes to
make soup.
Quest Counter:
- Tatzlwyrm Head for Oleg
- Bandits in the Hills for the Swordlords
- Gird was asked to find that one temple for Jhod
- Magic Juice for Bokken
- Moon Radish Soup for Svetlana
Additionally, there is a new wanted poster:
Source: Wanted poster at Oleg’s Trading Post
Task: Every Greenbelt hunter has a story about
Tuskgutter, each wilder than the last. Whoever
manages to kill the ill-tempered beast will get a
nice reward from old, retired Vekkel Benzen, who
lost his leg to the monster pig a year ago.
Completion: Deliver Tuskgutter’s head to Oleg’s.
Reward: Vekkel has promised his masterwork longbow
and six +1 animal bane arrows to whoever can kill
Tuskgutter. He also promises to share the head
cheese he plans to make out of this trophy.
Finally, it's time for some XP rewards, although, only for Gird and Oomlowt since they were the only ones who participated. Total XP Earned for all the quests completed, as well as allying with Sootscale and killing Tartuk are: 3,200 [600+600+1,200+400+400] which divided amongst you two brings your total XP up from 2076 to 3676 XP!
Everyone else will have a base XP of 3,450 XP because I said so.
It's time to get exploring again! Which Hex do you want to go to next?
Map
After buying enough crossbow bolts to fill up his quiver, Oomlowt donned his new boarskin cloak with great pride. He had left his home branded as an outcast and a race traitor, but now he was a mighty warrior. Perhaps someday they would sing songs about him. It had come at a great cost, though, and so he decided the cloak was also something of a solemn promise to his fallen comrades. The enemies and murderers of his friends would be humbled and slain, just like this boar. This he promised to the fallen.
"Well," he said, "I think we did right good by bringing that ring back to Svetlana. So which adventure would you like to pursue next, my hearty comrades?"
He made a mental note to shoot something with those red arrows at the next opportunity. If they were magic, he'd like to see what they do!
Raido scratched at his chin, this was the time for him to start contributing, but he better pick his words carefully.
"Mmmmm...well findin those radishes seem mighty easy, right? Much easier soundin than that Tuskgutter fellow. Then maybe we could head into the woods, right?"
"Hmm, y'know, I think I remember finding radishes a while back," Oomlowt said. "Yeah, that's where we met that beautiful kobold lady! Wait, did I just say that last part out loud?"
Thrae snorts at Oomlowt's statement, "Then let's go with what the bird said.".
What? Come up with her own ideas? Thrae is too lazy for that right now.
After an eighteen hour hike, during which Dariya proved to be an even louder companion than you feared, you make it to the radish patch, and collect a satchel of the spicy roots. Unfortunately, it is nightfall; so you set up camp, and rest for the night [I doubt Thrae was ever trusted on watch alone].
The next morning you set out back to Oleg's arriving late in the afternoon with the radishes. Svetlana is surprised, but is glad that you brought them back fresh. As promised, she gives you 250 GP to split amongst yourselves.
In addition, you receive 100 XP each for completing the quest, bringing your totals up from 3676 XP and 3450 XP to 3776 XP and 3550 XP respectively!
After being politely asked to make camp outside the fort, you rest and set out the next day for actual exploring, moving back through the woods with the radish patch, and west into the woods proper at the begining of the third day of exploring you come across a river, its banks thick with brambles and other sharp foliage. You follow it South for a bit until you find a path alongside a creek that branches into the river proper. There is an abandoned cart about 60 feet from the river bank and up the trail. It looks like there might be the glitter of gold coming from the cart, but it's hard to tell.
What do you do?
Gird stops and looks around. "Well, this sure as hell looks like a trap." She looks around, trying to detect anything out of the ordinary in her surroundings.
Dariya is itching to finally actually do something. Fetching radishes isn't really heroic and fun, even if she's been able to tell everyone about her awesome adventures for a few days now, which is of course good. But she feels like she should probably... You know, actually show everyone what she can do instead of just talking about her past heroic deeds.
So when Gird stops, suspecting a trap, Dariya's face lights up, and she grins.
"A trap? Yes! That sounds good!"
Dariya holds up her trusty flail in heroic manner.
"Lockjaw! Onwards! Let's bust this trap!"
Lockjaw lets out a grunt-like howl, and charges at the cart, his rider laughing stupidly by herself.
"Does... does she know what a trap is?" Oomlowt asked his companions. "I mean, you don't usually run right into them, right?" He looked to his allies in concern before aiming his crossbow at the cart. If anything jumped out after their friend, he'd be ready to shoot it.
In the face.
Gird tries to grab the wolf as it goes by, but misses. Swearing, she draws her sword instead and watches the wolf approach the cart. This isn't going to go well...
Dariya's closing in to the cart, riding Lockjaw.
Does she see any bandits yet? Only a god - I mean GM - would know.
Wow, I'm adventuring with idiots.
But what else is new?
Thrae pulls out her trident just in case; carts in the middle of nowhere usually don't mean good.