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She offers you some tea (that smells like what a sewer wishes it could smell like) and small talk, but after a bit, she feigns that she is quite busy. You take your cue to leave. Giant list: You can only make out a few words, but you think that one word, the Giant term for 'pearl,' rings a bell. Also the word 'butterfly.'
She grabs a bag of loose coins and tosses them in your direction. She then starts writing a list. "Bear in mind, a few of these ingredients, such as the flesh of a ghoul, and swamp mud, you will likely have to go into the Desolation to find. The coins are for the items that you can buy in Gundrun." She finishes her list and hands it over to you. "I hope that you can read this...," she says expectantly, "it's the only language that I know how to write in." Giant, you can read Giant, right?: If not, make a Linguistics check to try and figure it out.
"Oh, it's no problem, hidden one." She cocks her head to one side, looking at you in that (tasty meat) appraising manner you saw yesterday. "I can always use some alchemical ingredients for my potions of course. It is rather hard for someone like me to just walk into Gundrun and ask. There are, of course, my sisters to assassinate."
Macavity clears his throat and asks, "Mama Grimm, are you there?" The bear on the left lets out a huge yawn, mouth strectched wide enough to bite your body in half, easily. The other bear looks non-plussed, as if you were the morning meal. You do however, hear a groan from the back of the darkened hovel. "Oh heavens, why can't anyone let Mama Grim sleep?" You see her hobble out from the darkness, turn to a cauldron and, with a flick of her wrist, light the wood underneath. Within seconds, the place is filled with dim light. You see that this was in fact a mausoleum, crevices carved out along the rounded walls, four deep leading up the walls. Most are still filled with the bones of the dead. She looks over to you and you see an attempt at a smile. It is not a pretty sight. "Oh, it's you. The one who wishes to be hidden. For you and your friends, I'll get out of bed for. What can I do for you?"
Mama Grim says thanks, but the inn is too small, not so much for her (although it is), but for her bears. She trundles slowly back to her hole in the ground.
Visibility is down to 15' atm. Quickly dropping to 5'.
Once you managed to get Gurg into his pavilion tent, and his 'entourage' into their tents, you find yourselves with the swamp hag, who introduces herself as 'Mama Grim.' She is the Camp's apothecary, and as such, can offer you some potions for use while in the Desolation. Most of her spells are nature based (i.e. control and influence animals, barkskin, etc.). She does reiterate her desire to see her cousins, who live somewhere behind the walls of Tsar, brought low. Regrettably, she does not remember much of the layout of the city, however. She never entered any buildings "Many were already occupied, and few like to see such a beautiful, powerful woman as myself," Grim states at one point. Also, it has been at least a couple of decades since she had been there. "...long before that terrible tar dragon made its home here," she notes.
It is as she starts telling you about how terrible the dragon really is, when you start to feel something scrape against your skin. You swipe at it as the wind starts to pick up, and realize you have scraped powdered bone off of your cheek, some of the powder having jagged, rough edges to the crystals. You hear a few people start to scream The formerly clear skies are shrouded now, looking almost like a fog is rolling in. You see a horse, looking bedraggled already, clopping in from the north, when it starts to get buffeted by the winds and powder. It whinnies and is visibly pushed to its right along the road. What do you guys do at this point?
"Before the Siege? Wow. We would like to go into the city. Would you be interested in sharing any information about the city or the surrounding area? Also, what's your trade? Maybe we could bring you business." Macavity starts a bit surprised and ends trying to find a way to make a relationship."Thank you, m'am. You lived here long?" Macavity asks the hag."My cousins and I have lived here since before the Siege. Although they live in what's left of the city, while I ply my trade here." She has a look of malevolence about her when she mentions her cousins, but when she looks down at you (she is slightly over 9' tall), she does so with some kindness, the kind that you might see from a little old woman . "I believe that, in your tongue, you would call me an apothecary. As for the city, well..." She leaves off for a spell, cajoling and issuing commands to her bears to move the unconscious giant along to his tent.
"Thank you, m'am. You lived here long?" Macavity asks the hag. "My cousins and I have lived here since before the Siege. Although they live in what's left of the city, while I ply my trade here." She has a look of malevolence about her when she mentions her cousins, but when she looks down at you (she is slightly over 9' tall), she does so with some kindness, the kind that you might see from a little old woman .
"Bull, Snapper," She points at the sleeping form of Gurg and says, "Fetch." The bears go over and, gently, begin tugging on the ropes. Together, they are able to begin dragging the giant forward. The hag then starts calling out for Father Death.
The hag's skin changes, more or less instinctively, and for a moment, she becomes almost transparent. By will, her skin changes back to her 'natural' green. "Oh well," says the hag, in almost a baritone voice, "him and his sleep back there." She points back to a section that is a few dozen feet past the wall that you were earlier perched on. |
