Stone Quarry Supply Run 23/05/17 Rholor's Book Chapter II
May 24, 2017 17:35:08 GMT
mattwilkin, Leocanto, and 2 more like this
Post by Nuno (Rholor) on May 24, 2017 17:35:08 GMT
A Quest for Knowledge and Prestige
A book by Rholor Vuzehk
Chapter II: A Qworysome Escort
It was a nice sunny day when the due date of the escort I had signed up for arrived. I was feeling very confident on this one "It's just a simple supply run" - I thought.
Apparently nothing in Kantas is what it seems, 5 minutes into conversations with Bettia, the owner of the caravan and the quarry, the one who hired us, at the Four Fair Winds tavern, she started talking about these little blue creatures that attacked her last caravan. Clearly this wasn't as easy of a job as I expected it to be... specially because Derkla, Bettia's second in command got her job after his former occupant met his untimely demise by the hands of these creatures.
Well, nonetheless, I felt a bit more confident, Galen, Leocanto, Rhakir and Grandfather had also applied for this job, which means I can assume moderate competence from this ragged squad. As for the rest of the adventurers, Moth looked a bit obtuse but he seemed capable of combat at least, while Rhy was in Leocanto and Galen's good graces.
Bettia also introduced us to her "guard" team, Clive, Trox, Sath and Gastrek were their names as I later found out but their leader and spokesperson was Sarah, a human female, slightly uneasy on the eyes. I immediately questioned their abilities, compared to our group they didn't look very capable and I was afraid they would hinder our fighting skills if the occasion for such savagery were to come. Her response left me feeling suspicious, she didn't give me a straight answer, choosing instead to question my own abilities in return. AH! As if... I, Rholor, praised cleric of Selûne needed ro prove myself to another human being.
Regardless of my unease, we set forth westbound trying to brave path through uneven terrain and extremely unsafe places for carriages but with Grandfather helping the front wagoneer finding a suitable path, we were able to make good progress during the first day.
While we camped for the night, I was taking the second watch of the night alongside Rhy and Sarah, when I hear the faintest snoring, no... more like a deep breathing but not of an adult. I convened this information to Rhy and she promptly investigated it, by now she had been proving herself rather competent! I'm very happy with the turns this journey is taking.
To everyone's surprise there was a little human girl, named Zelia, smuggling herself in one of the wagons. Sarah immediately started lashing at her, scolding her for sneaking in the caravan, apparently this wasn't the first time she had a little escapade. I decided to intervene, I know what it feels like to be young and wanting adventure and knowledge and having your metaphorical legs cut off. Sarah, which for some reason, didn't like me very much already, didn't like my approach the tiniest bit and dumped the responsibility of taking care of the child on me. This was preposterous... This wasn't part of my contract... but I took the task valiantly and made sure it was accomplished. The poor child was only sneaking around because she wanted to visit her mother that was working on the quarry. I lent her my sleeping equipment and slept on the floor for the rest of the journey.
I spent the next day trying to entertain Zelia as best as I could! None of my research projects and revision dissertations were entertaining her so I tried a bold move and tried to teach her elvish! To my own surprise this kid was a natural, she picked up so fast, about 3-4 hours in she could easily cycle through the basilar stones of the language.
Around this time, Rhakir noticed some weird behaviours from Clive, one of the guards, apparently he had an interesting side job for some extra money, smuggling some alchoolic beverages and some spell scrolls to the quarry alongside the essentials we were carrying on the wagon. This did not interest me the tiniest bit nonetheless, there's nothing intrinsically morally wrong in it so I decided shut my eyes to this.
At this moment, 1 or 2 hours after high noon, as I gaze upon the sky to appreciate the nice weather we've been granted for the journey, I spot some blurs of blue movement on the hills around us. Could these be the infamous Blue Bandits, the Xvarts, we've been informed about? I hastily ask Rhakir to spread the word throughout the caravan that an ambush might be imminent.
As expected, few more minutes go by until we reach a strategic choke point, a small wooden bridge across a river, wide enough to only allow one wagon to cross it at a time. "This must be it, this must be where the bandits will strike." - I think to myself.
As this thought races my mind, an evergrowing rustling and twigcracking noise echoes from within small pockets of dense forest on either side of the choke point.
"The bandits!" "Get ready!" "Get the wagons across!" "Stand your ground!" and similar shouts start spreading throughout the caravan, having predicted this, I help Zelia up onto a wagon and cast a protection magic on her just to be safe.
As the fight develops, we manage to hold our ground long enough to get the wagons across, eliminating a big portion of the bandit horde in the process, Rhy and Moth, the two adventurers I had met the day before proved themselves to be very reliable. Galen and Grandfather were struggling quite a bit, but with the aid of my Faerie Fire spell and Leocanto's numbing lullabies we were able to hold the upper hand. Moth was having a hard time understanding the concept of retreat in his mighty rage so I had to preemptively Command him to follow us so the retreat would be successful. Funny enough, crossing the bridge was enough to deter the nasty blue creatures, they are as cowardly as they are ugly, or so it seems.
After a few more hours of journey tending to our wounds, we managed to safely reach the quarry. Zara, the female dwarven foreman, cordially receives us and thanks us for accompanying and saving the caravan. Everything was fine up to this point, but of course there was more, this random story about a dwarven ghost in a cave, that the miners immediately sealed. Of course, but OF COURSE, everyone thought it was a good idea to go meet a ghost, injured, exhausted and unfed. Of all the people in this journey, the one I least expected to think this through was Moth and SURPRISINGLY, he was the only one using his brain and staying outside. I just stayed with him preparing dinner. What a nice cook he is... uses "unusual" ingredients... but still a nice cook!
Of course it wasn't long before I heard weird noises from the sealed room with the ghost, AND of course my morality commands me to go in there and try and help, Selûne damn you sense of responsibility!!
After inadvertently "forcing" the ghost, named Ror, to summon a couple of traps, including iron bars and baby purple dragons, we managed to acquire a puzzle that might yield the answer to a sealed door that invites dwarves in as long as they know the password.
Finally, after speaking to Zelia's mother, I managed to get a nice refreshing rest and we started our journey back the next morning. Sarah made sure we took a different route to avoid the bandits and so we did, taking one more day than what we planned. As we were approaching Daring Heights, a few miles South to Southwest, we found a little shrine. But of course it ended up being a cursed shrine, Moth nearly got cursed to inhabit the shrine as a ghost, but everything went better than expected and he got a beautiful Sapphire.
We finally got back to Daring Heights, in desperate need of a good bath and monetary compensation. Bettia gladly offered to pay us extra for our excellent job in protecting the caravan without any casualties.
This has been a thrilling week, in a few days I set out to investigate a curious grove where animals are affected by an evil curse... not feeling too good about this one.
It is all for now,
Rholor
A book by Rholor Vuzehk
Chapter II: A Qworysome Escort
It was a nice sunny day when the due date of the escort I had signed up for arrived. I was feeling very confident on this one "It's just a simple supply run" - I thought.
Apparently nothing in Kantas is what it seems, 5 minutes into conversations with Bettia, the owner of the caravan and the quarry, the one who hired us, at the Four Fair Winds tavern, she started talking about these little blue creatures that attacked her last caravan. Clearly this wasn't as easy of a job as I expected it to be... specially because Derkla, Bettia's second in command got her job after his former occupant met his untimely demise by the hands of these creatures.
Well, nonetheless, I felt a bit more confident, Galen, Leocanto, Rhakir and Grandfather had also applied for this job, which means I can assume moderate competence from this ragged squad. As for the rest of the adventurers, Moth looked a bit obtuse but he seemed capable of combat at least, while Rhy was in Leocanto and Galen's good graces.
Bettia also introduced us to her "guard" team, Clive, Trox, Sath and Gastrek were their names as I later found out but their leader and spokesperson was Sarah, a human female, slightly uneasy on the eyes. I immediately questioned their abilities, compared to our group they didn't look very capable and I was afraid they would hinder our fighting skills if the occasion for such savagery were to come. Her response left me feeling suspicious, she didn't give me a straight answer, choosing instead to question my own abilities in return. AH! As if... I, Rholor, praised cleric of Selûne needed ro prove myself to another human being.
Regardless of my unease, we set forth westbound trying to brave path through uneven terrain and extremely unsafe places for carriages but with Grandfather helping the front wagoneer finding a suitable path, we were able to make good progress during the first day.
While we camped for the night, I was taking the second watch of the night alongside Rhy and Sarah, when I hear the faintest snoring, no... more like a deep breathing but not of an adult. I convened this information to Rhy and she promptly investigated it, by now she had been proving herself rather competent! I'm very happy with the turns this journey is taking.
To everyone's surprise there was a little human girl, named Zelia, smuggling herself in one of the wagons. Sarah immediately started lashing at her, scolding her for sneaking in the caravan, apparently this wasn't the first time she had a little escapade. I decided to intervene, I know what it feels like to be young and wanting adventure and knowledge and having your metaphorical legs cut off. Sarah, which for some reason, didn't like me very much already, didn't like my approach the tiniest bit and dumped the responsibility of taking care of the child on me. This was preposterous... This wasn't part of my contract... but I took the task valiantly and made sure it was accomplished. The poor child was only sneaking around because she wanted to visit her mother that was working on the quarry. I lent her my sleeping equipment and slept on the floor for the rest of the journey.
I spent the next day trying to entertain Zelia as best as I could! None of my research projects and revision dissertations were entertaining her so I tried a bold move and tried to teach her elvish! To my own surprise this kid was a natural, she picked up so fast, about 3-4 hours in she could easily cycle through the basilar stones of the language.
Around this time, Rhakir noticed some weird behaviours from Clive, one of the guards, apparently he had an interesting side job for some extra money, smuggling some alchoolic beverages and some spell scrolls to the quarry alongside the essentials we were carrying on the wagon. This did not interest me the tiniest bit nonetheless, there's nothing intrinsically morally wrong in it so I decided shut my eyes to this.
At this moment, 1 or 2 hours after high noon, as I gaze upon the sky to appreciate the nice weather we've been granted for the journey, I spot some blurs of blue movement on the hills around us. Could these be the infamous Blue Bandits, the Xvarts, we've been informed about? I hastily ask Rhakir to spread the word throughout the caravan that an ambush might be imminent.
As expected, few more minutes go by until we reach a strategic choke point, a small wooden bridge across a river, wide enough to only allow one wagon to cross it at a time. "This must be it, this must be where the bandits will strike." - I think to myself.
As this thought races my mind, an evergrowing rustling and twigcracking noise echoes from within small pockets of dense forest on either side of the choke point.
"The bandits!" "Get ready!" "Get the wagons across!" "Stand your ground!" and similar shouts start spreading throughout the caravan, having predicted this, I help Zelia up onto a wagon and cast a protection magic on her just to be safe.
As the fight develops, we manage to hold our ground long enough to get the wagons across, eliminating a big portion of the bandit horde in the process, Rhy and Moth, the two adventurers I had met the day before proved themselves to be very reliable. Galen and Grandfather were struggling quite a bit, but with the aid of my Faerie Fire spell and Leocanto's numbing lullabies we were able to hold the upper hand. Moth was having a hard time understanding the concept of retreat in his mighty rage so I had to preemptively Command him to follow us so the retreat would be successful. Funny enough, crossing the bridge was enough to deter the nasty blue creatures, they are as cowardly as they are ugly, or so it seems.
After a few more hours of journey tending to our wounds, we managed to safely reach the quarry. Zara, the female dwarven foreman, cordially receives us and thanks us for accompanying and saving the caravan. Everything was fine up to this point, but of course there was more, this random story about a dwarven ghost in a cave, that the miners immediately sealed. Of course, but OF COURSE, everyone thought it was a good idea to go meet a ghost, injured, exhausted and unfed. Of all the people in this journey, the one I least expected to think this through was Moth and SURPRISINGLY, he was the only one using his brain and staying outside. I just stayed with him preparing dinner. What a nice cook he is... uses "unusual" ingredients... but still a nice cook!
Of course it wasn't long before I heard weird noises from the sealed room with the ghost, AND of course my morality commands me to go in there and try and help, Selûne damn you sense of responsibility!!
After inadvertently "forcing" the ghost, named Ror, to summon a couple of traps, including iron bars and baby purple dragons, we managed to acquire a puzzle that might yield the answer to a sealed door that invites dwarves in as long as they know the password.
Finally, after speaking to Zelia's mother, I managed to get a nice refreshing rest and we started our journey back the next morning. Sarah made sure we took a different route to avoid the bandits and so we did, taking one more day than what we planned. As we were approaching Daring Heights, a few miles South to Southwest, we found a little shrine. But of course it ended up being a cursed shrine, Moth nearly got cursed to inhabit the shrine as a ghost, but everything went better than expected and he got a beautiful Sapphire.
We finally got back to Daring Heights, in desperate need of a good bath and monetary compensation. Bettia gladly offered to pay us extra for our excellent job in protecting the caravan without any casualties.
This has been a thrilling week, in a few days I set out to investigate a curious grove where animals are affected by an evil curse... not feeling too good about this one.
It is all for now,
Rholor
