After some careful inspection of the found objects Tobin reaches his conclusion on their worth and the group makes their plans to go rest before tackling whatever awaits in the room to the left of where they entered and the corridor straight ahead, especially as it's been a hectic time for them all.
Tobin:
The bottles definately contain potions, the liquid is pale green and on close inspection he finds a small 'R' etched into each bottle bottle.
The pearl is smooth and flawless, it even appears to have a slight gentle glow about it.
The ring is also stunning. Tobin has heard stories of magic rings that allow the wearer to float or fly, perhaps this is one of them.
All in all he's sure they're worth a lot, but probably more if he can work out what magics are on them all.
Kessel assists Darie if she needs help on the journey back to camp. Kessel had thought to wait till they returned to camp before asking but the curiosity was getting the better of him:
"What did we find Tobin?" he finally asks the halfling ridding on Yorick's stout back, "anything you think we could sell to buy some supplies?"
"What did we find Tobin," he finally asks the halfling riding on Yorick's stout back, "anything you think we could sell to buy some supplies?"
"Certainly, if we can find the right buyer," Tobin replies. "The ring and pearl we found in all that beetle mess are both exquisite, and must be worth a fair bit. They're so fine and well-preserved, though, that I wonder if they might have some magic about them - can you tell if that's the case, KC? Anyone?" As he asks, he holds the ring up so it catches the light. "If so, that would make them even more valuable! Or something useful we'd want to keep, like these goggles. I've still got those little statuettes we found earlier, too, which might fetch a decent price. Do you want to go back to Diamond Lake, then, in order to trade for these, or just back to our little hidey-hole?"
Diamond Lake,
"We should find out how valuable they are, first" Darie added, meekly. "We don't want to be the stupid farmers taken for a ride by the city folk, do we?" She smirked, somewhat weakly. Her head was still paining her, but had settled into a dull throb instead of the lances of pain now.
"When we get safely back to the old mine office I'll give them a look over. I do know a bit about magic baubles. We can't sell anything too gaudy or anything that has any symbols or might be recognizable, at least not until we've finished searching the cairn. We can't risk having one of the mine owners, or worse, adventures, realize there's an unexplored mine hidden in the hills around Daggerford. We can't risk the competition."
Kells has been a bit silent since finding the bodies, but finally speaks "Before we go back, I would like to take these remains upstairs for a burial. I think that there is enough loose rock from up where then snakes were we can give them a decent burial. If these Seekers are as unprincipled as you say, K.C., it may not matter a spit in the wind, but I would feel better giving them a true 'final home.' Once we get back to our palace, I may be sleeping for a week. That brown mold still has me exhausted."
Kells will gather up as many of the remains as he can carry and hall them upstairs to near where the snakes were and construct a make-shift cairn within a cairn for them. He doesn't hold it against anyone else if they don't want to deal with the dubious corpses.
Kessel first makes sure Darie is comfortably resting outside of the cairn before he offers Kells his assistance. The bodies in the bug lair will likely need to be pulled out with ropes because carrying them up the shaft would be long, tedious, and dangerous work. Kells would likely need to do the heavy lifting/pulling while Kessel secures the bodies below.
Kessel also makes sure that they retrieve the crushed adventurer that Kells took his magical chain mail from, this was one of the first body that they discovered, and the one Kessel had insisted on burring. Kessel does suggest that they move the bodies outside the cairn though, he has no intentions of digging graves for them, but Kessel insists on allowing the bodies to return to the earth. He'll likely suggest covering them with rocks outside of the cave.
Kessel thinks long and hard about his life and his religion during the task. When they begin to move the stones Kessel rolls up his sleeves for the dirty sweaty task and he instantly sees his tattoos. He remembers the wilds of his childhood, the ramblings and wanderings of his youth, and he can't help but feel the simple joy of being close to the earth again . . . even if it is to bury the dead. The Druidic language returns to him (he never really lost it but he lost the courage to speak it in the strange and alien city) and as they place the final stones over the bodies Kessel's voice almost automatically speaks an ancient prayer in that equally ancient language.
'Return to the earth,' he whispers.
Darie lay down, and tried to rest a little bit. Her headache had begun to dull and fade into annoyance rather than head-splitting agony. She wanted to get better, but felt a little guilty of slacking off while the men worked their asses off for the tombs.
Kells readily accepts the suggetion to bury the bodies outside. With every trip back in to get more rubble for the small cairns he gives a small sigh as he looks at the snake corpses. He doesn't bear them any ill will, they were just doing what hunting animals do, but they still make him a bit uncomfortable.
He stands and smiles quietly as he and Kessel get the last stones fit. "You were Seekers in life. I hope your souls find peace in the Here-After." He hoists his hammer over his shoulder and wipes some dirt from his face (in reality only smearing it around more). "Ready to tromp back?"
The trip back is utterly uneventful, which is probably a relief to the new adventurers after their days of horrific encounters.
Darie went through the last of her rations on the back trip, putting away the heavy waxed cloth she had kept the cheese and hard sausages in somewhat sheepishly. "Could we at least sell a few things so I can buy a little more food from my share?"
Kessel looks off into space for a moment before turning back to Darie as though her words just reached him.
"I feel odd," Kessel says, "you know I'd forgotten what it's like living out here in the wilds, I feel as though part of me is awakening from a long sleep . . . we won't starve. I feel the wilds flowing through my veins. I think I can find what we need from the mother to survive."
Kessel blinks and gives his head a shake and he glances down at his tattooed arms before rolling up his sleeves.
"Also," he quickly adds, "I'm convinced that there's food to be found in the cairn itself, perhaps tomorrow I'll find out if it's edible. Let's look at these items and see what I can figure out."
Despite being bone tired, Kells spends an hour or two cleaning his armor and hammer. He dotes on it and buffs all the bug bits off. Afterwards, he takes some prayer time and falls into a deep sleep. In the morning, he goes and gets a drink out of the froggy well and decides that that is his first order of business. "I want to drink and not taste toad. I will scour the stones and scoop out gathered mud in an effort to clean the watering hole.
Kessel does a circle of the small clearing, checking for traps, then looks for a small stream to wash up in. The cairn was dusty, and burying the dead was hard sweaty work, Kessel could simply use a cantrip to cleanse off the grime, but with the particular mood he's in Kessel suddenly feels necessary to bathe in clean water.
A paladin-propelled frog comes rocketing out of the well, followed by a muffled and echoing voice "You are evicted. Out of here!" The frog lands in a tussock of grass and hops off indignantly.
Having found no traps and cultivated his link to the natural world Kessel finds a nearby stream that seems perfect to bathe in. The stream is possibly a little far from the mine office and cairn to always trek to to retrieve water but is perfect for when the group (or just Kessel if he keeps the discovery to himself) fancy a refreshing wash.
Kessel;
Kells meanwhile does a good job cleaning out the well, the frog he 'evicts' hops off into a shadowy copse of trees with a wounded croaking sound.
Elian;
Of particular note to the half-elf is how Kessel has flourished in this brief time, the dark bard gaining a connection to nature at a stunning speed. As the human man finds a natural stream to wash in it becomes evident that it isn't just Morra that has the gift of the divine link to the natural world in her family.
Moving around the area surrounding the mine office Elian is caught offguard as he spots a frog hurled at highspeed in his general direction. The amphibian lands with an upset croak of pain nearby.
Not long after the frog is flung an odd trio approaches the mine office, one of whom he recognises as Grond, the oddity that is the local dwarven druid..
Grond, Thane & Grishnak:
After days of drinking and waiting the trio hear a lot of rumours about two bands of adventurers who have made their way out of town and to explore the neighbouring cairns lately. One of these groups contains members matching the descriptions of Kells and Tobin. Be it through boredom, curiousity or just plain drunkeness the three decide to head out into the wilds outside the town to see what's been keeping the new 'adventurers'.
It takes some time asking questions, travelling and tracking but the three eventually find the cairn the group must be investigating and from there follow some tracks to what appears to be an abandoned mine office. As they approach they hear a yell from a voice Thane recognises as Kells' "You are evicted. Out of here!" and shortly after they see a small amphibian arc through the air and land.
Heading towards the mine office comes a trio, two dwarves and a halforc, in conversation with one another. A conversation which stops as the frog is thrown by the paladin. As Kells looks up from his task cleaning the well he recognises one of the dwarves as Thane, the man working with him in looking into the local mines.
Tobin meanwhile, having come to look into Kells' yelling spots the trio and recognises Grond, a local druid who often helps his family with their crops.
Kells scoops the last blob of froggy tinged mud out of the well with the satisfaction of a job well done and starts to clamber out of the well. As he's about halfway out, he sees the trio walking down the road. He brushes back a few errant strands of hair as he stands, leaving an algae green streak of color across his forehead. Usually very neat, the young paladin is coated in muck, slime, and bits of duckweed. He looks soaked to the bone. "Hullo, Thane! Who are your companions? What brings you out this way?"
Grond's dark wild hair is matted and tangled with clumps of dried earth in his untamed beard. His left hand and the left side of his face bares the fresh pink scar remaining after his enduring some sort of burn. He smells strongly of earth and sweat since it has been a long streach between rainfalls. He wears simple hide armor and carries a wooden shield with the emblem of Marthammour Duin carved into its front, and a fat headed warhammer hangs at his belt. Upon seeing the paladin he pipes up, "Aye ye must be Kells, Thane here been tellin' us good things about ye. I bein' Grond Aardde and I be lookin' for a Halflin' goes by the name o' Tobin. Rumors down in Daggerford be sayin' he might be travlin' with ye. His kinfolk have be worrin' since he ain't been home timely." The dwarf marches straight up to the paladin offering his hand in greeting, not the least bit concearned with the latters unclean nature.
Kells stretches out his arm to take the dwarf's offered hand, statling himself with its dirtiness. He pauses to self-concously wipe the grime on his shirt, but then doesn't hesitate to grasp the dwarf's dirty hand with a solid, if damp grip. "Fair day for the meeting, friend. I'm Kells HearthFlame. And, aye, Tobin should be about somewhere."
Elian observes the newcomers quietly, and waits in the outlying brush to see events unfold until Kessel returns.
"I suppose that must be a testament to my ability to avoid honest work," Kells laughs. "I've been cleaning frog juice out of the well to make it more palatable. Probably move on to a little rubble patrolling next, to shore up some of the sagging walls. Before you know it, we'll be able to call this place a hovel!"
|
The half-orc enjoys the company of his newfound friends greatly. He's always had a misapprehension about the stout folk, given their ancient enmity with his father's people the orcs. He is pleased to discover that these two individuals are unusually open and friendly.
"Hi, I'm Grishank," he smiles shyly. Unfortunately his tusks make it look like he's grimacing.
|
"BWAAHHHH"
"Well you have a couple of sturdy hands to help you with that part now. What are you doing this for?"
"These are two guys I meet in that stuck up town back yonder, the only ones that would take my challenge in a drinking game. BWAAHHHH!! Good folks these two are!! Grishank may look evil with those teeth of his, but hes a good one non the less!!"
Kells chides himself quietly for staring in dubious judgement of the half-orc. he was casting doubt on Grishank based on appearence alone. Bahamut's draconic visage could be considered as beauteously terrible if one did not know the purity of the Platinum Dragon's soul. If Thane was willing to vouch for him, Kells would give him the benfit of the doubt. He offered the half-orc his hand. "Greetings. Kells...HearthFlame, at your service. I'm looking to buy into a mining concern here and raise the prospects of some of the good down-trodden miners. I'm taking a couple of days to get my bearings and find people I can trust in to point out who are the good townsfolk and who are the dubious ones."
Darie remained quite apart from the newcomers, lips pressed tightly against each other. The young woman, quite good-looking, just stood away about ten feet at all times, arms crossed before her chest. She did not so much actively turn hostile, but instead... just clamped up tightly.
Kessel striped down and sunk into the water. He allowed the water to wash over him. The water was cold but Kessel couldn't feel it. Everything he'd experienced in the last five years washed over him. There was doubt, fear, and sorrow in those memories. There had been joy once, but his final failure had caused those memories to fade . . .
Here in the wilds he felt he could easily shed his city cloths and return to the land . . . but what remained here? Daggerford was a scare and a blight on the land. Nogwier had fought and railed against the corruption of nature for years . . . but it had been a pointless task (much like fighting the tide) and the druid had grown old.
His sister would likely take Nogwier's place.
There had been a huge world out there. The city, the music, the food, the people . . . these were hard things to give up. Music still ran through Kessel's veins, as did the roar of a crowd, a druidic priest would have to give that up though. There was a duty to the land and music couldn't stand against the factories and forges, nor could it stop the mining and toiling underground.
What was he? A bard or a priest? How could he lead people when he didn't even know where he was going? Kessel stood and climbed out of the water and stepped onto the shore. Kessel closed his eyes and held his arms outstretched as if awaiting the goddess' embrace.
"Chauntea give me a sign," he whispered.
.
.
.
The forest was silent.
Kessel opened an eye, hopping that there'd been some sort of visual clue he's missed, but there was nothing. He let out a small sigh.
"Nothing easy, eh Goddess?" Kessel muttered, then an easy smile appeared on his face as his goddess made her presence known by her simple silence, "I suppose you know better. But one can't help but be envious of those religions that have clear and certain oracles and chosen ones."
A cool breeze suddenly blew across the water and chilled his naked wet form. Kessel found himself shivering.
"Fine," Kessel snapped through clenched teeth as he struggled to pull on his small cloths, "message received. No mocking the goddess. The mother knows best. I shall continue on my current path until you give me a sign to do otherwise."
Kessel quickly dressed and made his way back to the camp. There he discovered more strangers. It seemed more people had stumbled across their little camp. Kessel quickly scanned them over, no one looked familiar, and hopefully that meant Zereta had gotten word back to his sister. With any luck that meant no one else from Bronzewood lodge would be coming looking for him. It didn't seem likely but Kessel could always hope.
"Hello everyone," Kessel says as he steps into camp, "I take it you know these people Kells?"
"Well, I suppose I'm in the best position to offer introductions. This is Thane [indicating the clean dwarf], Grond [indicating the very natural looking dwarf], and Grishnak [indicating the half-orc]. Thane has been a solid friend of mine for many years. And these are my companions Darie, who is not nearly as stern as she might present herself, and Kessel. I'm sure Tobin is around here somewhere, as well, but he very well might be hidden by the verdent weed growth."
"And actually, Grond is looking for Tobin on behalf of his family."
Elian leaves the cover of the surrounding foliage, reveiling himself with his words.
"Kessel Coby, I bring you tidings from your sister. Your message was received and she is glad that you are well. She send you her protection in the form of a strong arm and a keen eye.
I am Elian Oakspar, member of the Green Warders, Protector of the Bronzewood Circle, and you may consider yourself under my protection."
The half elf nods to Grond and makes a small bowing motion, the willow leaf pin at his cloak an open dispalay of his badge of office.
Hearing a familiar voice, Tobin clambers up through the broken roof of the building's upper floor, where he's been poking around. "Grond? Is that you?" he calls out. "What are you doing here? I don't suppose you've brought any pipeweed from the farm, have you? My supply is running dangerously low," he says, patting a bulging pouch dangling from his belt.
Darie looked at what looked like a happy reunion with a bit of apprehension, and remained solidly apart from it. She was hungry, still a bit exhausted from her earlier exertion, and generally feeling none too well.
The elven druid (or whatever he was) struck a nerve with her especially. Just the kind of men her family had always warned her about. On the other hand, Kessel was also a songsmith, wastrel and generally untrustworthy person, and he turned out alright, as far as she could tell.
Hearing a familiar voice, Tobin clambers up through the broken roof of the building's upper floor, where he's been poking around. "Grond? Is that you?" he calls out. "What are you doing here? I don't suppose you've brought any pipeweed from the farm, have you? My supply is running dangerously low," he says, patting a bulging pouch dangling from his belt.
There ya be Tobin, yer ma's been worrin' were ya run off to. What be keepin' ya from headin' home? It not be like ya to send yer ma off to market alone."
Kessel blinks
Kells looks quizically at Elian then at Kessel. "You're gettine your own bodyguard?"
"Good, your reaction is much more reasonable that morra implied it would be."
"Morra of course knows that I am a fully grown man capable of defending and taking care of myself," Kessel says to elven ranger. His eyebrow seems to twitch ever so slightly.
"I stand corrected. You are just as irational as I was warned. No matter, my duty is to keep you alive."
"I'm irrational?" Kessel sputters, "I was gone for less then a week and she sends people to find me and now body guards to protect me? Is it too much to ask to be out of her clutches . . ."
Kessel takes a deep breath.
"You know what? Fine. You want to be my body guard fine. Morra has this effect on people. There's no point in arguing with you you'd never listen to me anyways as I'm sure she has you convinced."
"There ya be Tobin, yer ma's been worrin' were ya run off to. What be keepin' ya from headin' home? It not be like ya to send yer ma off to market alone."
"Ah, Grond," Tobin replies with a grin, "you know Ma Longbottom is a worrier. She worries when the goats wander round the back of the barn to find better grazing! And she was going to market on her own long before I came along - I'm sure she gets everything done quicker without me bending the ears of her customers. As for what I've been up to - look, I've found myself a fine new home!" Tobin spreads his arms wide to indicate the ramshackle building below him. "More importantly, I've found some kind and trusty new friends. You'll love them!" In his excitement, Tobin steps forwards and almost falls from the wall. He regains his balance, however, and chuckles at his own foolishness. "But what am I shouting at you from up here for? Give me a minute, and I'll come down!" With a wave, he jumps back into the building.
"Aye, ye be speakin' plain about yer ma." Grond calls out to Tobin as the Halfling disapears into the structure. While he waits for Tobin to reappear on the ground the dwarf kneels down and runs his hands in the dirt to feal the earth and licks his thumb to taste the soils vitality currious as to the land potential to yeild.
Darie looked towards the halfling, and pursed her lips. "If it was my land, I'd just drive a few goats through the area. Its an old mine area, and there's probably all kinds of nastiness in the ground." She almost immediately regretted the words, but they were out.
"Aye lass, the land be givin' lots o' gifts. This plot might be good for growin' or it might be good for diggin' wealth. Just might be all it's good for is grazin' goats and that be a good gift too in this Dwarfs mind. Your lookin' a bit on the ragged side, come sit down and lets see if we can be gettin' some food in ya."
"Then it is settled. It is a plesure to meet you all," Elian greets the rest of the group.
Kells smiles warmly at Thane, but it never completely lights up his eyes. There is an undertone to Kells voice that is usually absent...there is something menacing there. "No, friend, no time for retierment yet. There are many works to be done in Daggerford to lift the miners from the meager existance they serve at the heels of tyranical overlords. I hope to find good people who I can trust to aid me in smashing this cartel of inequity. Smash it like the hammer breaking stone."