Bander half laughs when he hears Peregrine fret over crushed things. "Don't worry." He chuckles knowing she meant the large fellas. He then almosts drops a vase. He places it back on the shelf.
"Bander, perhaps you should look with your eyes and not your hands." suggests Slam.
Bander freezes stunned, both hands are full. A small curio in one hand and an oil lamp in the other, "I was admiring the carving . . .and brasswork." He holds each up in turn as he speaks but has them mixed up. He places both down. He looks away suddenly at something else "hey what's this?"
"You definitely read the wrong kinds of stories, Kali," comes the amused voice of Peregrine from the room she'd gone into; emerging, she side-steps Thalasi, places several pouches and boxes and sets of clothes on the table, then moves into one of the rooms opposite. "Master Slam, are you a thief, that you should be skulking about as the lawful authorities search for you to reclaim your stolen goods? Or are you a messenger, holding information critical to your army's success as evil forces try to find you and prevent you from a successful mission? Both of them are outnumbered and pursued, but one is righteous, the other is not. Are you thief or messenger?"
There is a muffled, heavy thud from the other room, then a grunt; a few moments later, Peregrine emerges with a backpack that's clearly well-stuffed. Ducking into the last of the four rooms, she rummages around for a few moments, then emerges with some wrapped-up food. It doesn't take her much longer to put her things together, stuffing some things into the backpack, a few others into a sack -- and then the sack into the backpack -- and putting on what are clearly traveling clothes. A heavy red cloak (one that clearly proclaims her membership in the Orders of High Sorcery as a Red Robe of Lunitari) goes over the lot, though she does grunt with effort as she hoists the backpack, then sets it back down on the table.
"So. Has anyone been watching?" she wonders. "Master Slam, what is your ultimate destination?" Though her eyes lack their usual warmth, cooled by what she sees as his prior petulance and failure to see things as they are instead of as he wants them to be, she is clearly still ready to help the ogre out.
Having disentangled himself from a hanging garland of drying herbs, Maddok makes an effort to assist Peregrine in carrying whatever supplies she had prepared. In addition to the assumed violence, he demonstrates experience with lugging heavy things around for others.
When she dons her red garment, Maddok cocks his head in surprise. Between the display with the lights and the red cloak it was clear there's more to the woman than meet the eye. "Red wizard", the bull rumbles in understanding. "Make hobgoblins go away? Boom!"
The dark-haired woman smiles wryly at the minotaur. "Afraid not, big guy," she replies. "Not today. Today all I have are fix-it spells and such."
"I am but a humble servant of the Gods. They speak, and I obey."
Slam shrugs, and then adds "I will feel better discussing our destination when we are on the road."
Bander looks at Slam, "The old gods speak to you? What do they say? What's their voice like? Are they speaking now? Can I listen in? I mean never heard a god before. Have they cleared up why the went skedattle in the first place? That would clear up so much." Bander continues like this for some time a jumble of questions and wonder.
I do not think that now is the time to have a discourse on the finer points of theology, unless you would like to have it with the Fewmaster. We should be off, perhaps to the land of Qualanesti the elf suggests
"Whoa, an elf kingdom. Are they as uptight as humans? I mean toward Kender?"
He looks around, "Are we ready to go yet?"
As Peregrine packs her stuff for a journey, the hobgoblins pass by her house, frustrated that the group is not in the inn.
The elf nods.
Bander moves to the window and looks out.
"I think the hob-gobs missed us. They are heading past us away from the inn."
We should not be here if they circle around says the elf.
Kali opens her mouth to jibe back, but her expression falls as she sees the vestments of a Red Wizard. The last time she'd seen someone wear them, it had been Dale as he was shouting defiance and pulled under by goblins. She shakes her head pulling herself back to the present, but the mirth had been doused for a while. The spell on her eyes and skin fades, but her hair and armor remain darkened, oddly fitting her mood.
"He's right. We can't hide here forever. If we have to pick a direction, we could go to Haven and find our destination from there,"she suggests.
We should not be here if they circle around says the elf.
Bander looks up a the elf, "You think?" Bander addresses the room, "The elf's not wrong."
He looks back at the elf. "I'm Bander. Bander Drunkensquirrel." He nods politely.
"I don't think any of us disagree, Bander, but we still need to decide on where to go," Kali says. "We should probably know each other's names. It's far more polite than going 'Hey, you!' I'm Kalisuel, but most of the people that know me call me Kali."
Peregrine works her way through the others, coming to stand behind Bander and peek past him, down towards the generally-shrouded ground. "Good eyes," she complements him. "Eyes and ears." Looking back at the others, she glances between them, then nods. "Peregrine Stoup," she introduces herself, then agrees, "We should go. Maddok, will you carry my backpack?" The minotaur had, after all, been helping her already, and he was amazingly strong; the forty-five pounds that would heavily burden her looked to be a thing of casual ease for him.
Shaking her head a little, she glances towards the mantel and the candle holding the light; for a moment it's clear she's considering extinguishing the spell, but then shakes her head and leaves it; if the little cottage in the trees is investigated, it'll give an illusion of someone being inside, and delay someone for however long it takes them to tromp up and down the stairs.
"Bander, come, I'll get us to the ground, then you can scout ahead." She hesitates, thinking of the geography of the town, which way the hobgoblins came (and thus where their reinforcements are, to the east), the other road out of town (to the south), then shakes her head. "At least at first, the south road is out -- that would be the logical destination. West, towards the lake; we can circle around, one way or another, or borrow a boat and go across."
Looks like the kender isn't the only one adverse to 'borrowing' things at need ...
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Thalasi -- while wearing your wizard's robes isn't strictly required, it's at the very least strongly encouraged by the Wizards; those robes mean power, and I always had the impression that they often gave pause to people considering starting something. Plus, you have a fancy, crystal-topped staff which, unlike the staff of Mishikal, does not conceal itself. (Peri's 'half-staff' is somewhat like this, albeit with mystic symbols and writing carved onto every square inch.)
Your staff is pretty much legendary, with its description being as follows:
The Staff of Magius is a smooth wooden staff tipped with a bronze dragon's claw that grasps a pale blue crystal globe.
It is a 'revered artifact', which (IMO, at least) strongly suggests that anyone who hits a KS Arcane DC 15 (at most) should recognize it. So Peri, at least, would have reason to strongly suspect you were a fellow Wizard.
Once on the Krynn firma Bander moves to the shadows.
He does his best to find cover and shade. He stays close to the tree checking for foes or busybodies. Once secure, in his mind, he waves the others down and points a path in rough keeping with Peregrine's suggestion.
Bander leans against a tree waiting for the others to make it closer. He seems pleased knowing an adventure is afoot. He pauses a moment and picks up several of the large seeds and stashes them among his things.
"If we can find one that'll hold our large friends," Kali says as she pulls out a cloak from the sack her clothes are in and fastens it around herself. "We might have to settle for around." She pauses as she begins to pull the hood up, thinking about something.
"I know a little about sailing, but not enough to fool myself into thinking that I know how to sail a boat. Do any of us actually know how to navigate on the water?"
Once they start moving down, Kali once again takes up the rearguard, hoping that she won't being having to fight off chasing hobgoblins.
Do Vallenwood trees have seeds in the fall? I read a delightful write up about them and their big flowers. The seeds are edible and used in Solace cooking. It didn't say but I imagine the seeds large acorn type seeds.I presumed that they produced nuts on par with their own size:
... one of the kender-fist-sized nuts of the vallenwood trees knocks off the wizard's staff and bounces off the elf's shoulder.
... so maybe 2-3" across? Acorns are edible, but only after a whole process; I was imagining more of a walnut sort of thing, myself. ;)
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Also, keeping an eye peeled for tromping hobgoblins:
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Once Kali and the rest are on the ground, Peregrine nods to Bander for him to go ahead; a slight smile flits over her lips as she sees him apparently-absent-mindedly pop a few of the vallenwood's nuts into his pouches. Well, she thinks to herself, they are dual-purpose -- a nice hard thing to throw at a hobgoblin's head, and a snack for later if you don't have to throw it.
"I don't," Peri concedes to Kali's question, "but I know the theory, and the lake isn't that big. Put the oars in the water and pull evenly, you know? Don't tip it over." She shrugs and follows quietly after the kender scout.
The elf replies to the kender I am Thakasi Erevorth, devotee of Solinari and a wizard of the white robes kenderkin. My white robes are under my cloak as humans tend to hate and distrust even those wear rhw white robes as well as elves.
Slam moves to the tree itself and begins climbing down, knowing that most ropes wouldn't hold his weight.
"I hope it's that easy," Kali says as she falls back to watch the rear.
The elf replies to the kender I am Thakasi Erevorth, devotee of Solinari and a wizard of the white robes kenderkin. My white robes are under my cloak as humans tend to hate and distrust even those wear the white robes as well as elves.
Being address so formally is odd for the Kender. Even coming from a respected family in Looit he rarely was addressed in a way that communicated so much dignity. He straights himself up and fidgets with the braids that frame his face a symbol among Kender that he is of some station. If Kender recognize such things at all. He smiles. "Good to meet you Thakasi." He leans in, "White robes are for the good ones right. Not sure why Peregrine is in the red robes. She doesn't seem that shifty." He continues the quiet conversation. "So the uptightness is all humans."
The White robe raises an eye brow when the mentioning that there is a red robe.
Thalasi, kenderken, not Thakasi. Solinari is the god of good magic, of protection and divination.
[00c] lol [/ooc]
You see the hobgoblins waiting by the bridge out of Solace.
"Hey, why are we stooooh boy that's not good,"Kali whispers when she notices the group pausing and tries to see what is going on.
"So, any ideas on how to get past without him going all 'Argh, me shploon!' on us?"
[b] I tend not to use the magic of Nuitari so I cannot put them to sleep, all I can do is lightening bolt them but that might be more trouble than what it is worth {/b] comments the elf.
He looks toward Peregrine and Kali, "Where are we gonna find a boat?"
He looks out at the bridge and the bank on this side of the bridge for which way looks best to move toward to avoid the hobgoblins.
"I guess we can try to go around them. If you think we can get a way to cross the water. He points right and left of the bridge as he talks indicating the choices.
Bander gulps at the expression of the wizard's power. "Not gonna lie. I kinda want to see that." He looks back toward the village, "But I think it might be flashy and they might . . . scream bloody murder."
Peregrine doesn't seem surprised at Thalasi's revelation of his status as a Wizard of Solinari, but her eyebrows lift at his commentary about lightning bolts. "Clearly," she murmurs, "you and I need to work together on a few things."
Seeing the torches of the hobgoblins waiting at the distant bridge, she nods firmly. "Figured. Come on, let's go find a boat."
Okay. I'll see what I can do. I thought you would be heading south, I didn't realize that you were headed west. Across the lake is red dragon army territory. I'll have something set up as an encounter for you there.
Okay. I'll see what I can do. I thought you would be heading south, I didn't realize that you were headed west. Across the lake is red dragon army territory. I'll have something set up as an encounter for you there.
"Lightning might well set the tree on fire."
"Don't forget the thunder. We should probably not do that and just head for the lake," Kalisuel says.