Chapter 1 - Beginnings

[Megamieuwsel]

From the windy mountainpass a man and his mule travels down to the gates of Brinnar , the fortress-city on the boreder of the Hyathen Empire.
6'3" tall and entirely clad in purple silk clothes , including a broad-rimmed flat-top hat , he doesn't seem to care wether he'd be seen or not.
"Your buisness , sir?" The heavy-musceled Gate-guard inquired.

The tall stranger takes off his hat and makes a courtious bow , sweeping his hat so ,that it just doesn't hit the ground.
"Megamieuwsel is the name , good man. Master of the arcane arts and undoer of evil. My traveling lead me far and wide and now I'd like to regain some vigor , shamelessly profiting from the utilities , set up in your fair city to that purpose. May I enter , or doth thou cast me out , to sleep amongst the wild wolves and monsters , that might be lurking in the shadows , just outside view of your magnificent walls?"

A puzzled look crosses the guards face.
"Ehh, say again?"

"Sigh... Got an inn in this jumble of bricks? I'm tired and hungry and looking for a place for the night."

"Sure ; The " Dragon's Hangover" is in the third street on the left. No messin' around here , or your stay will be in the cellars of the garrison. Good day sir."

[Cadogan Trahem]

As the figure clad in purple silk clothes moves into the city a rumble can be heard just over the horizan as a merchant convey approches the fair fortress city ahead. The Guard turns his attention to the approching caravans, seven caravans in total. Two strong horses pull each caravan and one guard clad in breast plate rides silently alongside each.

As the first caravan approches into talking distance is crawls to a hault as the Garrision Gate Guard approches the first driver.

"Your buisness , sir." He asks again for the second time in the past few moments in his life.

"We bring supplies and goods from across the realm," The man says. "We travel from city to city selling our goods to local merchants." He explains at the guards confused glare.

"Very well, what have you to delcare?" The Guard says taking out a pad and ink pen.

"Twenty One Horses, Seven Guards, Seven Caravans, Seven Drivers and Four Others." The Driver says and watches as the guard drots down the notes.

"Four others?" He questions.

"Aye, Two Women and a child we found along the road, and a blind man who asked if we could give him a helping hand." The Driver explains.

The Guard glances down the line of caravans spotting the two women and the young child, clearly of the same family. 'Dreaded Tuskers' The Guard groans using the local term Tuskers for "Orcs" as he eyes the frightend faces of the three. 'Will they never cease to destroy the hopes and homes of the weak.'

A Silent nod of agreement is all the driver does.

"Where is this blind man?" The guard looks puzzeled.
"Oh he is back there. Somewhere, most annoying chap if I do say so myself." The Driver explains.

"Hey! Hey! I heard that!" Comes a cry from the rear of the troop as a middle aged man stumbles off the rear caravan and nearly falls face first into the dirt road. Standing barely 6ft tall the mans clothing is stylish but well worn, wearing a pink shirt and blue pants his eyes are covered with a length of white cloth. He grabs around the back of the caravan for some time before finding his favourite 'seeing' stick.

"I'll have you know im hardly as annoying as this man claims!" The Man walks forward swinging his stick wide infront of him hitting first the caravan then nothing, the caravan the nothing, the caravan then a near by guard in the shin who had just dismounted. Obilivious to the curse as the guard now moves around hopping on one leg holding his other high to his chest in a comical fasion. The Blindman stops to reconcider his course for a second, then moves directly towards a caravan.

"You fool! Stop!" a near by guard cries but its too late, a deafening thud is heard and the Gate Guard shudders and moves forward down the line to find the man laying flat on his back grumbling about 'how inconciderate people just leave caravans parked everywhere these days.'

The Guard lifts the man to his feet.

"State your bussiness Sir." He questions.

"My Bussiness? Well.." The man begins to ramble on about seeking adventure and proving himself a worthy person and how the blind have been descriminated against through out the ages. This carries on for a few minutes and the guard lets out a long winded sigh.

"Ok, Sir."

"But you see I really..." The Man continues and the guard is forced to grab him by the shoulders and shake his wits about him.

"Sir!" The guard nearly cries at the top of his voice.

"Why yes?"

"What is your name Sir?"

"Cadogan Trahem of Oakendale Shire."

"Thank you Sir." The guard moves down the road towards the gates and motions a young private forward leaving Cadogan to say 'you're welcome' to nothing but thin air.

"Private, take this Trahem fellow to the Dragon's Hangover and make sure the Inn Keep knows about his condition and special requirements." With a quick salute the private rushes up to Cadogan.

"This way Sir." He takes the man by the arm. "And err.. sir, if you dont mind me asking, why are you wearing Pink?"

"PINK!?! I'll have you know this is Rosey Peach! Atleast.. I was told it was..." was the last think the gate guard heard as the man and his private walked through the gate and into the city.

[cappucina]

Cappucina is trying to work her way up to the bar counter, but there is quite a crowd. There always seems to be a good crowd here at the Dragon's Hangover. She tries to push her way through all the legs in front of her, but this is far too frustrating. She is tired of being jostled by the customers who don't bother to look down before they take a step. She spies a sturdy looking fellow, takes a few steps back, and runs right at him. She jumps, grabs his sleeve, kicks off against his shin, and in a few steps has scrambled up this guy and perches on his shoulder. "Thanks." she tells him. She starts hopping nimbly from one shoulder to the another headed right for the bar. One last jump from one last shoulder, and she lands with both feet on the counter. "The usual." she pipes up in her squeaky voice. When the bartender gives her an odd look, she laughs and tries to keep his attention so he will serve her before all these other people she just climbed over.

Then she smacks her forhead in an exaggerated "I'm so forgetful today" whack. She squeaks out, "Oh that's right. I just got here today! Do you have any rasberry brandy? Or not that then how about a nice lambic? And hey, excuse me, but what do people do for fun in your wonderful establishment? You know, dart games or dice or what not? You got a bard coming to sing tonight? Any entertainment?"

[Cadogan Trahem]

The usual bussle of the Tavern draws to a quiet mutter as a strange pair of men walk through the door, a City Guard arms in arms with a man dressed in a Pink shirt, the guard sits the man down on a stool and quiet walks over and mutters something into the Keeps ear before the keep nods quietly and approches the man.

"HOW ARE YOU TODAY SIR?" He screams at the top of his lungs.

"Egads Man! Im Blind Not Deaf!!" Is the reply and the chorus of laughter around lives on the moment before going to a quiet mutter again.

"Very well Sir, what would you like?"

"Like? Well.." The man goes on about a list of things he would one day like, including world peace and a farm of his own.

"Sir! Sir! Thats all good and well, but what about a drink?"

"A Drink? Why on earth would I want a Drink in this.." the man sniffs the air. "..This... This... Where Am I? This place smells like a pig farm!" Another Chorus of laughter follows.

[Gralhruk]

A heavily muscled dwarf grins at the newcomer's remark, his broad face showing large white teeth. He stands and clears a path to Cadogan moving humans, tables and other objects with equal ease.

"Aye, but smells can be decieving. The ale is better than what you'll find the swine drinking!"

The short dwarf utters a bark of laughter at his own joke and downs some of his drink. He puts a rough hand on Cadogan's elbow and steers him toward the bar.

"Have a drink on me, friend. Gralhruk is my name."

[malimax]

Having only just come to the city malimax inters the Dragons Hangover.
Entering the crowded bar malimax yearns for the taste of ale. The road has been long and the trail dust is thick in his throut. The humiliation of walking about the land instead of riding is only worsened by his lack of monitary funds. Sometimes good doesn't pay that well.
Quickly malimax touches the holy symbal hanging from his neck. "Forgive me pelor for my impure thoughts of monitary gain." he mumbles under his breath as he makes his way towards the bar.
Reaching down to stuff his belt pouch deeper into his wastband he silently curses to himsef "These places seem to breed the very vermon that would make off with a mans purse given the chance!"

"Hey there good man an ale if you please" awaiting his ale malimax leans with his back against the bar surveying the croud reaching out with his fealings, searching, for any evil that may suround him.

[Crito]

A few minutes after the last of the caravan has passed through the gates, a lone figure rides up on a cart pulled by a small, sorrel colored horse with blond main and tail. Crito, a small young man with raven black hair and dark brown eyes, hums a lively tune as he reigns in the horse in front of the gate. He brushes a lock of hair back from his eyes and addresses the guard.

"Goot day, sir. Can you direct me to a reputable Inn, pleass?"

The guard gives Crito directions to the Dragon's Hangover. Eyeing the jumble of pots, pans and other assorted equipment in the back of the cart, the guard warns Crito, "You'd better get yourself a license before you do any peddling around here, lad."

Crito sighs. "And I supposs it vill cost me, eh? Vhere do I get dis license?"

The guard chuckles. "Of course it'll cost. See the clerk in the town center. It won't be that bad." He waves Crito through.

"Vell", Crito says, "I vill get da license. You need anythin' fixed, buckles, harnesses, vhatever, you come see me. I gif you goot price. You got mice? I haf goot mice traps."

Crito flips the reigns and clucks at the horse. He starts humming the tune again as he heads into town. May as well get settled at the Inn first, grab a bite and then see about that license.

He eyes the Dragon's Hangover with a bit of skepticism. Reputable? Well, doesn't look like much choice around here. He hitches the horse to the rails outside the Inn, ties down the canvas tarp over the back of the cart and heads inside to make arrangements.

Inside the place seems friendly. Lots of laughter. Some customer, apparently a blind man, seems to have just told a good joke from the way people are looking towards him and laughing while another customer, a dwarf buys him a drink. Crito smiles and heads over to the innkeeper.

[Megamieuwsel]

In a dusky and grimy alley Megamieuwsel trods along the filth and refusal of the town's households.
It's not , what one could call "the well-off side of town" , he's in; Cracked walls , rotten wood for doors , creacking windows and , if one cared looking up , roofs of disputable weather-resistance. The folk , scurrying around , doesn't look too rich either ; rags and tags and filth being their latest "fashion-statement".

"O great! Praise my marvelous direction sense! Got me completely lost again.
Well , that and my astounding recall..."

A bitter smile crosses his face ,as he pats his mule on the neck.

"Fair lady ," he adresses a plump matrone , interrupting her , doing some household-chores , involving a bucket of human disposal, "I was directed to the fair inn , called "The Dragon's Hangover" , but unfortunately , I lost my way. Could you , from the kindness of your heart , tell me where to find this locale?"

"Information eh?" cackles the fat hag "That's five gropers for starters and I'm cuttin' ya slack , for being new here in this hellhole."

She spits to the side , releasing some brownish goo , she's been chewing on previously.

"Well , that and b'cause you're kinda good-lookin'" she adds with a wink.

"Ehh.... gropers? Excuse me , but what are these? I'm rather unfamiliar with that name. Are they some sort of coin?"

"Some sort of coin? HAHAHAHAHA... What else do you think , slumpy? Gotta feed that good-fer-nuthing man of me somehow. Life's hard down here , y'know..
I'm talking five of those nice shiny , round , good-fer-a-munch copper pieces and add one tho the price for that extra info , cutie-pie.
Now hurry , man. Ya want to find that inn or not? I haven't got all day , y'know."

"Six coppers total it will be , mylady , let's see...."

Rummaging in his pouch , Megamieuwsel is unable to lokate the required six coppers amongst the few golds and silvers in there , so he just pulls out a random coin and hands it to the woman.
A golden Obool...

[Megamieuwsel]

"Sorry madam , I don't have any smaller. Nothing bigger either , I'm afraid. I hope you'll settle for this one..."

The woman's eyes bulge to the point of nearly dropping from her head , seeing this big golden disk , resting in her grimey palm.
Recomposing herself quickly , she slaps the tall man on the *ahem* "lower part of his back" and with a broad smile , she cackles:

"Wowsers man! Not only did ya buy yaself the info , you'd get a save-pass and one of my sons takin' ya there as well.
OK boys! ",she calls over her shoulder, "Let go off ; no muggin' of this one today."

Two gargantuan ,unshaven and heavily muscled men appear seemingly out of nowhere. Their faces aren't exactly showing the brightest of minds , but one could dispute , wether they needed that , taking the big , two feet long knifes in their hands.

"See [i]this[\i]?" the woman shows the Obool to the ugliest of the two , "This gentleman just made sure , we got beef on the table tonight. Now , YOU go and show him to tha draguns hanguver and make sure no other buggers kick his junk , gottit?
Laddy here show ya the way , sire. Wish ya a really good day."
And with those words , the hag turns her back to Megamieuwsel , taking the other thug by the ear , into a house.
"And you are to go with me to the market , young fella. you're to carry the stuff and...."

The ugly , and admittingly rather unwashed , giant exclaims:
"Me lead. You follow."Then turns around and starts walking.

{{OOC.-DUH! had to cut the post in two....-OOC}}

[cappucina]

Cappucina is aware that the bartender's attention has wandered and is paying no more attention to her numerous questions. Actually, he is wandering, right out from behind the bar toward the front of his dark, musty smelling establishment. In fact, the whole crowd has turned around to observe the newest two patrons. One is a guard. Guard! Aw fiddlesticks. Cappucina still standing on the bar, ducks down behind the heads and shoulders of the crowd. She observes from cover as the bartender, Her bartender!, goes to cow tow to authority.

In fact, all of the attention of the crowd soon becomes focused a blind man and the guard. The blind guy has a bit of an attitude. Interesting. He also wears a pink shirt and this gets Cappucina thinking.

While everyone is distracted, she jumps across the counter to the shelves and pulls herself off a pretty bottle of something dark brown and sparkly. She finds a sort of clean large glass and pours the sparkly liquid all the way to the top. She then returns the bottle where it came from.

As soon as the bartender looks like he is returning to his duties, Cap scoots down off the bar and into the crowd legs with her cocktail. She weaves her way through the sea of legs and toward the man with the pink shirt. She doesn't have to go far before she runs into him as he was on his way, led by a dwarf, to the bar. She starts tugging on his sleeve. "Excuse me. Excuse me! Here is the drink you ordered Sir. Our very finest! A double or a triple beverage perhaps. On the house." she squeaks as she maneuvers the glass into his hands.

Now that she has his attention, she asks him some questions. She pipes, "Excuse me. Excuse me again sir! You are blind right? That must be troublesome. And you are a traveler right? Like me? But, I go places to see the sights. Why do you travel from place to place? And you travel alone? How can you trust strangers you meet and then depend on for food and shelter in all the new places you go? Can you tell a gold coin from a silver coin from a copper? They are all the same size! How do you know if someone trys to give you the wrong change? How do you keep your own coins straight so that if something costs two silvers you don't by mistake give over two golds?"

[cappucina]

The Dragon's Hangover is a busy establishment tonight as several caravans have entered the city during the day. A continuous trickle of people in those caravans have asked the gate guard about where they might find an inn or a drink. This guard directs them to his brother's establishment for a 10% kickback. He always adds that this is the only place in town.

It's located on one of the dirtiest streets in the seediest part of town. The regulars are a bunch of skuzzy looking thugs and drunks. There always seems to be a pickpocket or two in the crowd, looking for an easy mark.

The establishment itself takes up the first floor of a two story building. The tavern is large and made of wood and stone. At the far end is a long dark wood counter with a half barrel sink and shelves full of various bottles, mugs, and glasses behind. Thick brown water fills the half barrel. It is a makeshift sink. The brown water is the dishwater, and it hasn't been replenished for quite some days and has a sludge and muck on the bottom one ince thick.

One one side of the door to the place are some small tables with two, three, or four chairs around them and a fireplace. On the other side is a lone long table with over a dozen chairs around it. On this side of the room are also some dartboards with room for a game and along the wall a staircase leads to the upper floor and guest's rooms. Between the stairwell and the end of the bar counter is a door to the kitchen. Most noticible of all the various decorations in the place is the strange chandelier. It is made up of hundreds of huge horns and bones and extends from one end of the long room to the other. Candles and lanterns are placed among it in a random fashion, casting light here and there, in the otherwise dark and dank practically windowless room.

Two men sit smoking strong, cheaply grown and poorly dried stinkpipeweed in large rounded pipes. They don't talk or anything, just puff and puff. The smoke from these noxious stinkpots has evaded the air and permeates everything. There are thick blue lines of smoke hovering just at 6'3" off the floor, swirling about at exactly this height from some strange combination of air pressure and draughts. This thick swirling smoke is visible from underneath, anyone standing with their heads in it's eyes start to water and ache like crazy. And sting like mad. Shorter customers don't get bothered that much by the smoke.

[Cadogan Trahem]

Cadogan is suprised to find himself being ushered through the crowd by a small fellow with a rather deep throaty voice introducing himself as Gralhruk.

"Thank you thank you!" Cadogan exlaims as he finds himself sitting on a bar and Gralhruk ordering him a drink he doesn't want but he continues to smile and nod politely. Before long a squeakly little voice jumps upon Cadogan.

"Excuse me. Excuse me again sir! You are blind right? That must be troublesome. And you are a traveler right? Like me? But, I go places to see the sights. Why do you travel from place to place? And you travel alone? How can you trust strangers you meet and then depend on for food and shelter in all the new places you go? Can you tell a gold coin from a silver coin from a copper? They are all the same size! How do you know if someone trys to give you the wrong change? How do you keep your own coins straight so that if something costs two silvers you don't by mistake give over two golds?"


"Arggh! What Manner of Beast are you! Back Back!!" Cadogan swings his favourite 'seeing' stick back and forth... rather too high to hit the Halfling infront of him but just high enough to hit a few heads and drinks around the bar.

Its not long before he has composed himself and he gradually moves the stick lower, and lower, and lower. *Tap*

"Ah! Found you." He mumbles. "Now.. what was it you wanted?" The halfling goes into a flurry of questions.

"Slower! Slower!!" Cadogan taps the halfling on the head with his stick. The halfling recites the questions one by one. Cadogan nods, smiles politely and answers.

"Aye, im blind but troublesome nay. I like to travel yes, but sights are not one of the reasons I do so." chuckles from around the tavern follow. "I travel to prove myself just as capable as any man!" A Round of Huzzahs roar through the bar. "Alone I travel, but not by choice, you see no one really seems to stick with me long." Cadogan frowns. "They dont seem to like me much."

"Food has been a problem, but so long as I can locate a road I can locate a town, and once I locate a town I can locate an Inn or Market and once I locate and Inn or Market I can locate Food! Rather simple you see." The bar falls silent.

"Err... well anyway moving on. I can feel the difference between coins, their shape, size and weight are all different you see, not so much different that you or even Gralhruk here can notice, but me, I can tell the difference from experience." Cadogan explains, and much to his amazement he hears people all around him fetch coins and fiddle with them trying to see if what he says is true no doubt.

The halfling pulls Cadogan's seeing stick away from his hand and replaces it with a glass so fast that Cadogan is struck with true terror. He jumsp to his feet before he stumbles around the bar blindly trying to locate his stick (which is strung to his arm by a peice of leather) screaming.

"Im Blind! Im Blind!"

[Cadogan Trahem]

Its not long before Cadogan is settled down by Grulhruk and the Halfling fellow and a Big Fellow trods through the door followed by a man clad in purple. The bar goes quiet at the two new entries before a Sentry comes charging through.

"Tuskers! Tuskers! They've breached the North Walls! Every able man To Arms! To Arms!" Before he charges out the door and down the road screaming the same warning as he goes.

The bar jumps into life, as every man, and some women jump to their feat and draw their weapons and charge through the door, leaving alone the Dwarf, Halfling, Purple Clad man, and the Blind man who had entertained the bar for so long.

"Oh Tuskers!" Exclaims the blind man, before turning to Gralhruk and whispering. "who or what are tuskers?"

[Gralhruk]

"Rakhâs!. Orcs!"

The dwarf spits the words out distastefully, his face plainly showing his feelings for the beasts.

"Town's been having trouble with them, tryin' to loot where they can. Looks like they're back. The guard's been sayin' it's nothing, but I'm thinking there's somethin' bigger behind it. They're a bit too organized, workin' a bit too well together for my liking."

[cappucina]

"I'm Cappucina. And you are?" she asks the blind man and the Dwarf after she introduces herself. Moments after the introductions, someone starts shouting for Tuskers. Cap can't see through all the legs as she is on the floor again. Quite a lot of people are named Tuskers, because most of the patrons stream right out the door. "I don't know anyone named Tuskers. It is a nice sounding name though. Tuskers. Hey! A free chair!" Cap drags it over to stand on.

Cappucina is a female halfling. She has chin length straight thick black hair, black eyes, a little round nose and a small but pointy chin. Right now, a large handful from the front and top of her hair is pulled up and held together by a band right over her forhead. The result, it looks like she is wearing a hair umbrella as the last two inches of ends spray out in a neat circle.

[malimax]

"well now the quiet is some welcome,no?" Malimax says to the small group left in the bar as he picks up his mug and walks towards toh group. "I do say I have seldom seen quite a sight as what is now before my eyes!! A blind man who trusts Dwarves to lead the way yet has been missled on the very collor of his shirt. A halfling who as far as I could tell has yet to steel anything from a blind man. And last but not least you fine fellow in purple." extending his hand in the common handshake of the land malimax talks directly to the man in purple " The name is malimax son and worshiper of Pelor, new to town as you might tell, could I buy you a drink and possibly bend your ear good fellow" (OOC; use class feature detect evil on the charcters in the bar. concentrate first on the man in purple) "After all I see no need to rush off in chase of what is most certainly 90% panic and 10% tusker do you?"

[cappucina]

A halfling who as far as I could tell has yet to steel anything from a blind man Cappucina hands go right to her hips and she starts stomping on the chair she stands on in a terrible pout.

"Hey! Heeeyyyy! Sir. I am offended by your comments about Dwarves and halflings. You must be biased toward the shorter races. Also, mister, it's rude to stare! Didn't your dad Pelor raise you to have manners?" (said to Malimax with a shake of the fist as he does his detect evil inspection of them all).

"Do you think we should help with that Orc attack or what?" asked of everyone left in the tavern.

[Crito]

Crito doesn't even have a chance to get his food order in before some guardsmen runs in screaming something about "tuskers". In a flash, the Inn is practically emptied out except for the female staff and patrons plus a few stragglers, including the blind man and dwarf, who appear to be out-of-towners like himself.

The strangers are drifting together, starting to make introductions. The dwarf explains to the blind man that "tuskers" are orcs. A man who introduces himself as Malimax comments that there's no need to rush off.

Crito looks at the array of weapons and armor being carried by most of the group.

"Da... Ya, no need to go rushin' off right away. Anyvun need blades sharpened? Armor straps or buckles repaired? Crito's my name. I fix. I do goot work, gif goot price. You be ready for tusker orcs, right?"

Crito lifts his mug in salute to the group.

[Cadogan Trahem]

Cadogan jumps to his feat.

"been missled on the very collor of his shirt!?" His face goes bright red and turns towards the sound of the man who spoke the words. "Missled! Missled! I'll have you know this is Rosey Peach! And i'll hear nothing otherwise!" Cadogan pauses for a moment and visually calms down, raises his seeing stick and pokes about, casually tracing the outline of the man, from arms up shoulds and over head before going back down again.

"You're...errr.. Alot Larger then I would have thought." Cadogan lowers his seeing stick to his side.

"I'll have all present know Im quite a capable man!" He raises his finger to his chin for a moment. "And to prove it..." Cadogan reaches down and feels for his back pack. Finding it he undoes the strap and feels inside pulling out what at first appears to be a large metal dinner plate, a large metal dinner plate... with straps? He ties the straps onto his arm.

"And to prove it, im going to find me some... err.. Tuskers!" He grabs his backpack and secures it before putting it on, he reachs down to a pouch on his side, reachs in and pulls out some items too small for someone to see and begins to speak in a strange, almost inhuman language (Spellcraft check DC 17 - Extended Mage Armour) before there is a quick flash of magical energies. He stands idle for a moment to make sure his spell is in place before heading in the general direction of the door. Pausing once he has found it.

"Care to watch?" He has a smug little smile on his face, but truely is scared out of is wits, if it wasn't for his shaking voice, hands, legs, and well most of him, you would assume he was actually brave.

[malimax]

"my loud voise and strait ahead speach have once again given the wrong idea" malimax sayes as he pulls his longsowrd from it's sheith "Ralley around the blind man one and all!! Let these tuskers feal the power of the dwarven axe! Come along little one, I have no hatred for the shorter races , only respect for quick hands and clever minds. Warriors one and all feal the power of Pelor (ooc: aura of courage) al you prepare for battle." Malimax heads for the door, but as he does so he passe close enough to the blind man to give him ample opportunity to follow in his wake. Giving the blind man opportunity to be led without making it appear that he would need any such help.

[Gralhruk]

"Well, I'm not one to stand around and watch folks get butchered but defending the town is guard work. Let'em earn their pay, I say. No need to go running off to defend us, Cadogan, I can see you'd make a dangerous foe."

He takes another drink and thumbs his axe thoughtfully. His voice drops to a low grumble, barely audible.

"Why not trust a dwarf to lead? Power of a dwarven axe. Bah, I'll show you the power of a dwarven kick in the behind. Humans, always running off first and asking questions later . . . "

He trails off, muttering curses in his own language. A quick tug and his axe pops out of it's belt sheath. He deftly catches the heavy thing with one-hand and lobs it over to Crito.

"Here you go; I'll double your price if you can improve the edge on that. Hasn't been the same since I dinted ol' Marek's helm last week."

[Crito]

A half-second too late, Crito grabs at the flying axe. Jamming a finger painfully into the haft, Crito watches helplessly as the heavy object falls straight down on his foot.

"Ach!"

Luckily, only the blunt part of the axehead struck his foot. Crito shakes his hand and, muttering, bends over to pick up the axe. He examines the fine workmanship of the masterwork item with a critical eye.

"A find piece of work. I make sharp, you slice hair into t'ree strips wit' it." Crito grins at Gralhruk. "My stone is outside. Come, ve sharpen and maybe ve see vat goes on out t'ere."

Crito carries the axe outside to his cart, trying unsuccessfully not to limp. He unties the tarp and pulls a miniature, table-top sized whetstone wheel device into position at the edge of the cart bed. With a quick glance to see where Gralhruk is standing, Crito turns his back to the dwarf and utters a few strange words with a quick gesture. He presses the miniature pedal once to get the wheel moving and saying something in his language that sounds like a command, he fills the water trough in the device, picks up the axe and begins the sharpening. The wheel continues to spin on its own.

Working diligently and carefully for a few minutes, Crito brings the edge to the peak of sharpness. He stops the wheel with his hand, again speaking a few words in his native tongue, and hands the axe back to Gralhruk.

"T'ere you go. Goot as new. I usually charge t'ree coppers for t'at. You vant to go test it out? Maybe ve see vat t'e blind man is doin'."

Crito looks to see where the commotion is, trying to spot the others from the Inn. Once he and Gralhruk start moving away, the stone sharpening device slides back into the middle of the cart and the tarp seems to tie itself back into place as the Unseen Servant does its bidding before silently slipping off to follow Crito.

[Second Talon]

As the two peer back at the inn, they spy a man walking up, wearing a long sleeved white shirt noticeably too large, a dark green cloak and matching hat with a large white feather shoved into the band, and simple brown pants and boots. On his back, under the cloak is obviously a pack of some sort, to which a large wooden shield and quarterstaff have been strapped. A dagger sits on his left hip, while a club hangs from his right, and a small pouch sits above it. The man is yelling loudly, and it takes you a moment to figure out that he is conversing with his hand.

"..No, I don't care what you think! ........ Really? Well same to you, buster!!......... Aww.. don't be that way......... Look, is this the place? Well? Is it?"

He raises his arm, palm open and facing the sign for the Dragon's Hangover.

".. It is? Finally!.. about time I found this place....... No, shut up, I was not lost, merely exploring. Seeing what there was to see. Now quiet, you."

He then shoves his hand into a pouch on his belt, and tilts his hat up, nearly dislodging a large white feather stuck into the hat, and revealing an odd sight. The man's hair, pulled back into a ponytail, and his beard are both the same green as his hat and cloak.

Throwing open the door, and startling a paladin that was just about to open it, he strolls inside and just begins speaking to no one in particular.

"I am Second Talon. .... someone's supposed to meet me, right?"

Looking at the very confused faces of the other patrons, Second's bright and happy smile slowly melts away, and the man looks as though he is on the verge of tears.

"Guess not..."

Suddenly brightening up, he remarks "Hey, you guys'll work anyway. So... how is everyone?"

[cappucina]

"Anyone want to follow?" Hooo yes I want to watch the blind man fight orcs with his seeing stick. That would be something new. Cap follows the blind man to the doorway of the tavern and is all set to go out to watch him fight along with Pelor's illmannered son when she gets distracted by the Dwarf. He can't seem to make up him mind whether to go or stay and ends up hiring another fellow to sharpen his ax. Cap ends up following those two instead and watches with interest as the ax is gone over carefully and the unseen servant tidies up. Maybe I'll have to introduce my unseen servant to that unseen servant. They could get to be good friends! They both have so much in common. Both unseen. Both servants.

Baskets and pouches and large wrapped up packages fill the tin tinkerers cart. Conveniently, there is also a large tarp covering the whole interior from anyone else's prying eyes. Cappucina is under that tarp among all Crito's professional belongings and starts to rummage. The most intersting (to her) thing she finds is a beautful green felt bundle with a satin ribbon holding it together. She unwraps it. Inside are tiny tinpunched stars, trees, and other various figures. Each figure has patterns of hundreds of tiny punches visible when light is shining through them. Cap has seen these decoratations on the fancier lanterns people choose for finer homes and sometimes just hung in front of windows as free standing decoration. She peruses through the various figures, picks the one she likes the best, and shoves it in a pocket.

She crawls from under the tarp down under the wagon quick like a spider. From under the wagon, she looks all around to make sure no one can see her, then slipping from shadow to shadow she makes her way back into the Dragon's Hangover unnoticed by all who remain.

She walks up to the accented tin master and starts tugging on his sleeve until she gets his attention, "Excuse me! Excuse me Sir! Is this for sale?" She pulls out the decoration and gets ready to haggle.

Her attention is immediately distracted by the latest newcomer to walk into the bar. Crikey. His hair is green! She puts the tin decoration into her belt pouch in the middle of the haggling and wanders off and over to the green haired man. "Excuse me sir," she tugs on his sleeve, "Did you know your hair is green? It must be hard to go unnoticed if your hair is green. You can't just slip into a crowd and dissappear when your hair is green can you? Or, say, someone with green hair breaks a law and the guards are looking for a guy with green hair. They will stop you for sure. You have to always be real careful not to get into any trouble I bet, with green hair you can't get away with much? Is that right? Why is it green like that?"

[Cadogan Trahem]

"Gralhruk you say these Orcs have been causing problems? Too much organisation you say? Interesting indeed." Cadogan thinks aloud from the door way.

"I thought Orcs would stick to small nomadic tribes... and only attack human farms on the outskirts of any major city, and always at night." He swings his stick around trying to locate a chair and when he does he sits down and continues.

"So why I wonder, would these Orcs attack a major fortified city... in the middle of the day?" Cadogan reaches up and scratches his face. "And from what we've heard they have larger numbers, or else I doubt the guards would alert the locals and spread panic." Despite the cloth across his eyes, its obvious Cadogan has become quite composed in rational thought.

"Interesting, Interesting. Interesting Indeed." He mumbles to himself. However his concentration is broken as a city guard stumbles through the door, holding a bloodied sword in one hand he cradles a deep wound that has cut right through his breastplate. He takes a few steps and stumbles to one knee.

[Kelemyn]

Elanor looked around the shop. Where was that strange sound coming from?

"Ssssh-wheep! Ssssh-wheep!"

It was soft and muffled, a sort of hissing chirp, almost sounding like a cricket or tree frog but not quite. It came from over there.... no wait.... over there: the tall hutch with the glass doors, the one that had all the feathers and nests and eggs in it.

Eggs. My goodness, had something hatched?

Elanor stepped out from behind the counter and made her winding way over to the hutch. It took her a couple of minutes to find the right key to unlock the glass door; of course she remembered to disable the alarm.

Sure enough, the sound was closer now and less muffled, but still soft. She swept her eyes over the collection of nests on the shelves; only a few of them actually had eggs in them. There was nothing going on in the merkling nest - whew! that was a relief! Those eggs were supposed to be dormant anyway. And the desert turtle eggs were still intact also.

Then she remembered the darter eggs in the little gold basket. Yes, the sound seemed to be coming from inside there. She carefully lifted the lid.

Inside were three miniscule eggs, each a different color: green, rose pink, and cream white. It was the green one that had hatched.

"Ssssh-wheep! Ssssh-wheep!"

The hatchling hissed? chirped? more insistently now. It was a tiny writhing mass of green scales and feathers trying to break free of its shell. Gently, Elanor lifted the creature with a finger and delicately pried away the pieces of shell. Then she deposited the little darter into her palm.

The glistening snake body sqirmed and wriggled, while it tried to unfurl its downy wings. In a couple of minutes, the wings were dry and the little air snake folded them back against its back and proceeded to coil itself around one of Elanor's fingers. It was about 6 inches long, with emerald green wings and back, and a pearly white belly. It looked at her, still chirping piteously. It was hungry.

"My goodness. What am I going to feed you? I wish Caledon were here...."

She quickly replaced the bits of broken shell in the basket, closed up the hutch, and reactivated the alarm. Then she ran to the back room, cradling her little treasure close to her breast. Where was that book on magical beasts Caledon had been trying to get her to read? She had to figure out what this thing ate, and quickly!

[Crito]

Crito looks at the halfling with a raised eyebrow as she appears holding one of his decorative trinkets.

"Of course, it's for sale. But I'm not supposed to..."

Before he can finish, Cappucina has already moved off to confront a another newcomer to the Inn, babbling about the color of his hair. Crito moves over next to her. He throws a quick glance at the newcomer. "Yes, nice hair." He taps Cappucina on the shoulder and holds out his hand. "T'at'll be 5 silver."

One of the city guards stumbles through the door, badly wounded. Crito frowns, forgetting about the trinket for the moment. "Somebody should help t'at man." He hurries over and helps the man to one of the chairs. "Vhere are t'e healers around here?"

[Second Talon]

Looking down at the halfling, the green haired man starts to answer, but is interrupted by the wounded guard's entrance.

"Well, little one.. You see, I have it because... Oh dear, a wounded guard!"

Immediatly pulling his backpack out from under his cloak, tangling his arms for a moment, he digs around inside until he finds what he is looking for. Carrying what is obviously a healer's bag, he rushes to the guard, now sitting in a chair, thanks to the help of another man.

"Hold still there, fella.. I should be able to fix you right up. Now, lemme take a look in here..."

Peering into the wound, he then looks up and meets the pain-filled gaze of the wounded man. "Boy, I don't envy you at all.. This is going to hurt. A lot."

Looking over at the man who helped him to the chair, he says "You there.. Hold this man down, willya?"

And without waiting a moment longer, he pushes his fingers into the wound, digging out the few bits of metal that have somehow gotten into the wound, ignoring the guard's screams and his frantic attempts to get away from the crazed Druid.

Reaching into his healing bag, the green haired man pulls out a bunch of leaves, then stares at them in amazement.

"Oh wow.. I have Shimba root leaves... I though I was out.. These little things work Wonders on pain. Amazing. Now where's that needle and thread..?"

He sets the leaves on the guard's lap. Through eyes nearly shut with pain, the guard manages to notice this action. Grabbing them, he stuffs the lot in his mouth and chews. Almost immediatly, his jaws slacken, his eyes grow dull, and he stops thrashing about.

"Ahh.. needle and thread.. here we go... wait, where'd those leaves go?" A quick glance up at the guard's face answers Second's question before he finishes it.

"Wow.. I've NEVER seen anyone take so much at once... a leaf or two usually does it... boy, he's going to be useless for a week or more.."

Shrugging, the druid begins sewing the wound shut. "So, who or what are these Tuskers, and anyone else wanna go and see what's going on with the guards?"

[Megamieuwsel]

Megamieuwsel , weary and hungry from a hard days travel , is rather dissapointed to find the kitchen closed , because some stupid orcs decided to celebrate his arrival with an assault on this town.

"That means No supper , I suppose?" , he adresses "Laddy" , only to find the big guy has disappeared in thin air. Probably off to defend the town.
Or loot some shops , whatever...

Not immediately knowing what to do , he just stands there and watches the somewhat chaotic banter and actions of several weird personages around him.Most of all a blind guy , that somehow managed to get himself a protective Aura. Another arcanist?

Ok , I can just take a chair here and wait till things either calmed down , or I can ...

His thoughts are cut off , as a townsman staggers by , trying to keep his intestines in.

"Somebody should help t'at man." and "Vhere are t'e healers around here?" come from the pedlar with that ridiculous accent.

Stepping up to them ;"Eww! that doesn't look too good! Unfortunately , healing is not my prime quality. One of the very few , I might add , by-the-way.
Where'd that so-called [i]Son of Pelor[\i] gone? Those church-chaps tend to be good at stuff like that...."

Megamieuwsel intended to say more , but a loud *CRRRAA_AASHHH!!!* from the direction of the Gate ,through which he entered town , interupted him with the rather prosaic "newsflash" , that the "Tusks" are now within the walls , and the time for smalltalk was over.

Whipping up a pair of finely cured leather gloves , purple ofcourse , and donning those while speaking out some archaic syllables , a blue hue surrounds him for a moment and then dissipates without any visible sign.

"If anyone can help this man , than do so , but do it quickly. The orcs will be here any moment!
Patokkel! Here , boy!"

Another *crash* is heard from the stables and the observant bystander might notice a wooden stable-door transport itself through the air for several yards. Would he inspect it closer , two hoofprints can be made out rather clearly at the point where all the cracks in the door originate from.

[Kelemyn]

Elanor is looking through a thick book with the words "Pestermin's Guide to Magical Beasts" stamped on the cover in gold letters, when cries are heard outside in the street. She frowns, marks her place in the book, and heads for the door to take a look outside. Treasure - as she decided to name the baby air snake - is still squirming around in her hand, and still hungrily chirp-hissing for all he is worth.

Looking out the window, she sees several of the town guard running in the direction of the gates. She opens the door and hears people yelling "Tuskers! Tuskers!" and knows the town is in trouble. Her first priority has to be to protect the shop of course.

Caledon has all kinds of magical traps and alarms on the premises, mostly designed to protect the place from being burgled. But the very nature of this rough-and-ready town demanded that he also put in place some measures to protect the property from invasion.

Elanor speaks a word, "ILUZHN", and the store front seems to change: the windows appear to be boarded up, grimy, and lined with cobwebs; a post with chipped and faded red and white stripes on it hangs beside the door; the sign outside is transformed. Caledon's Magick Shoppe now appears to be Caledon's Abandoned Barber Shop.

She returns to the back of the shop to get her short sword and leather jerkin, hoping that she won't have to use them. Then she pulls a small, black cloth-bound book out of a drawer in the counter and opens it. Picking up an inkpen, she quickly scrawls a note:

Caledon - Orcs attacking the town. No sign of them yet. Will keep you informed.

Then she tears out the page, crumples it in a ball, and tosses it in the direction of a basket clearly intended for wastepaper. Before the balled up page hits the can however, it vanishes.

"Ssssh-wheep! Ssssh-wheep!" goes the little hatchling.

"I know, I know! Hold on a minute. I'm working on it....."

She turns back to the book on magical beasts, keeping a wary eye on the front door.

[Cadogan Trahem]

Cadogan listens intently as all the commotion goes on around him. He listens to the man in purple for the first time and nods grimly before standing.

"Im no healer, But I -can- throw a spell or three.. Provided I have a spotter that is." He lets the sentence linger as an open invitation for someone to aim for the Mage. "Just.. don't stand infront of me.." Cadogan raises to his feet.

[Kelemyn]

Well, it turns out that, according to the book, the little guy's main source of nourishment is nectar. The section on air snakes - also known as darters, in certain parts of the world - shows a drawing that reminds Elanor of those little birds she saw once in the Garden of the Priestess back in Avalon. They flitted about from flower to flower, hovering over the blossoms and sucking up nectar with their needle-like beaks. Evidently, adult air snakes fed in a manner similar to that.

But Treasure was just a baby, and he didn't have a mother to bring him the food that he needed. There was just Elanor here to tend to his needs.

"Poor baby! Let's see what I can find for you........ No nectar, I'm afraid, but I think Caledon has some honey around here somewhere. I'll bet you'll like that."

**********************************************

She had experimented with honey mixed with various amounts of water, and finally found a formula that seemed to appeal to the little air snake. His little green tongue flicked out repeatedly to lap at her finger dipped in the honey mixture. After a few minutes of continuous feeding, the tiny creature seemed to heave a contented sigh and, coiling around Elanor's finger again, fell into a deep sleep.

Now she would go see what was happening in the street again.

[Gralhruk]

Gralhruk tests the edge of his axe on a hair plucked from his beard and utters a short bark of laughter.

"Well done Crito! I think this'll do just fine."

He moves back to the bar where a wounded guard bursts through the door and a man identified as Second Talon -

What kinda name is that?

- begins healing him. As that is going on a stranger in purple shouts that the orcs will be here any moment. The dwarf sighs and drains the last of his mug. He looks around the near empty bar and spots Crito. He heads over to the tinker and digs into his pouch, handing six coppers over to the man.

"I said I'd double yer price and there it is. Looks like I'll be testing it out sooner rather than later, though, so I'd rather settle my score now in case I don't see you."

He looks at the blind man, who has just declared his intent to start slinging spells.

Note to self - don't get in his way.

"Well, looks like we're in for some fighting whether we want to or no. I'm for the street; I've no desire to get trapped in here and likely burned out. Seems we've got a healer and a few spellslingers."

He looks pointedly at Second, busily tending the wounded guard.

"Can he fight?"

[Second Talon]

The man looks up. "Well, not in his condition. I doubt he could tell you his name at this point. But, I can fight, among other things. I think I've done about all I can on such short notice. He won't bleed to death, at least. Provided he's left alone, he'll be fine. So.." and he stands, picking up his shield and pulling the club off his belt ".. which way to battle, eh?"

[cappucina]

Blind spell slinging, green hair, purple robes, Dwarfy axe hair splitting, presumptive Paladin, and a tin worker who may or may not have forgotten that something of his that was never intended for sale is now in Cappucina's possession... so many questions swirl and whirl about in Cappy's halfling head.

But, these darn Tuskers are interfering with her chance to get to know some new and interesting characters by killing the villagers. Why, just now, the guy named after a cardinal number was about to explain his green hair to her and then had to stop to heal a wound. Bother!

Cappucina yells to the blind man Cadogen, "Stick around in front of the tavern, Cadogen. You tell me what you are going to cast, and I will tell you where to cast it. I'll be right behind and above you."

Cappucina casts spider climb, runs out the front door, turns and crawls up the side of the building until she reaches a nice alcove with an eave to hide under.(Hide roll 26) From this vantage point she will sneakily toss her darts and holler directions to the blind mage.

A few of the other patrons stand ready in the street right out front of the Dragon's Hangover. One of them is that there Pelor's son. It is a good thing they got themselves together as a troop of orcs turns the corner chasing down two badly wounded guards. Uh. Oh! "Cadogen, here they come on your right! They fill up the street. But there's town people in front of them too! And the building are wood so don't fireball!" Cappucina shrieks.

(That's 10 orcs by the way. They carry those orc axes and look big and nasty. Since they are trained and organzied, I would think that they might be level 2 warriors or level 1 fighters and have a few more HP than the standard orc. Ready?)

[Gralhruk]

The dwarf whistles tunelessly as he heads for the door in his rolling gait, arriving there with surprising quickness. The massive axe is balanced on one shoulder and he answers Second while craning his neck to watch Cappucina scurry up the side of the building and start yelling down to Cadogan in that squeaky little voice.

"Looks like there'll be plenty of fightin' right outside. Good for nothing guards. Why listen to the dwarf? It's just a buncha orcs . . ."

He holds the heavy door open as cover while he assesses their attackers -

Good, no bows.

- then moves opposite of Cadogan, so that the blind man is between him and the inn. From here he can defend the man, plus it will be easier to get out of the way of any spells he might cast. He waits patiently, figuring it best to let the magicians work their magic first.

[cappucina]

Cappucina starts giving Cadogen nonstop directions. Her voice is getting higher and higher pitched as she is talking faster and faster. She is trying her very best to be helpful.

"5 paces to your left is Crito's cart. It's wooden and covered. Still attached is his horse. Try not to kill anything with an area spell that way or a fire spell or you will kill his horse and ruin his stuff. Now the Dwarf has moved right in front of you. Uh Oh! Careful with your touch spells, OK! One of the guards trying to reach safety is down, but there is still another in running toward you. The street you are on is about 15 feet wide. Now the two people who just came out behind you aren't orcs. No, don't turn that way. Turn around...turn around. More! Stop. You were facing the wrong way for a second. Stay facing that way. Don't worry about that movement behind you, those are some of the people you just met in the tavern. I Repeat! No orcs behind you! The Orcs are about 50 feet away now and running up to you. They will be all around you in a sec. 10 of them and a guard and a dwarf and some others. I'll tell you when! The Orcs are almost to you. Almost right there in front of you. One big one has singled you out! He is charging you. Looks like he is going to aim his ax right at your head! When I say duck, you better duck. OK?"

Cappucina's voice is practically sounding like a mouse squeak by the time she finishes these words. She coughs and tries to clear her throat so she can yell, "Duck!" loud enough for Cadogen to hear.

[Cadogan Trahem]

Cadogan listens intently and moves around trying to get ahead of the cart and horse so he is more or less in the middle of the street. "This should slow them down." He reaches down on the ground and finds a small road pebble. Utters an Incantation and everything goes dark, then light again, as people can see a ball of darkness flying through the air over the towns people and towards the general direction of the Orcs.

"Run! Silly Fools!" Cadogan screams at no one in particular as he hopes his Magical darkness was enough to slow and confuse the Orcs long enough to clear the street of innocent bystanders.

[Kelemyn]

Peering out the shop window, Elanor sees that a small crowd has gathered down and across the street, in front of the Dragon's Hangover. And then, from the direction of the town gates, come a horde of orcs right on the heels of two badly wounded guardsmen.

"I guess I'd better get out there," she says out loud, pretending to talk to Treasure, but of course she is really just talking to herself. "I might be able to help one of those guards."

She slips out the door, locking it behind her and speaking the command word to activate one of the shops traps: "UMBRALEO". Then she quickly crosses the street to join the others in front of the inn.

There is a sqeaky little voice coming from the eaves of the building, seemingly calling directions to one of the people standing below. But Elanor doesn't have the time to wonder what that is all about as the orcs are drawing nearer, and one of the fleeing guards has now fallen.

She is surprised to see a man in a pink shirt step into the street and begin casting a spell. Darkness descends on the area, causing gasps of fear all around, but then the light returns, and the area of darkness moves towards the "tuskers".

Now it is the orcs' turn to be surprised and judging from the sounds coming out of the darkness, they are indeed. In a few moments, by ones and twos, they stumble back in to the light, waving their hands in front of them as if feeling their way.

The injured guardsman manages to reach the group by the inn, panting from the exertion and clutching at a severe wound in his shoulder. Elanor pulls him over by the tinker's cart and begins to tend his wound.

[OOC: convert READ MAGIC to CURE MINOR WOUNDS and cast on guard. I would think that the orcs are now 'surprised', and some of them might be running back towards the gates.]

[Megamieuwsel]

Heheh..... That blind guy sure nows how to "even" the field....

Stepping out of the door and "hopping" on the driver-seat of the cart "Mister Purple Target-Practise" spreads his cloak in a theathral exhibition and shouts to the orcs:
"Well , well... Afraid of the dark? No more fear , my small ones ; daddy's gonna make you some LIGHT!"

A small pellet shoots from his hands , to land amongst the orcs , where it expands to a three feet wide globe of searing flames.
As if guided by his pointing finger , the sphere immediately goes after the nearest orc and engages it in an "intimate hug".
The Orc , aperantly not the affectionate type , can't apreciate his "hot" date and staggers away from it , while trying to put out his burning jacket and howling in pain from the scorched and blistered patches of exposed skin.

Megamieuwsel points toward the next orc and the sphere follows suit.....

[Crito]

Crito helps hold the wounded guard still while the green-haird man does his first-aid work. His wounds closed, the bleeding stopped, the man is helped by Crito to lie down in a comfortable position, while chaos begins to erupt around him. Stable doors are flying through the air, the halfling casts a spell right in front of everyone and runs up the outside wall into the eaves of the building.

Gralhruk thanks Crito, calmly droping off 6 coppers in his hand and hurrying off with the green-haired Second Talon to join the fray. Crito smiles and follows the purple-clad Megamieuwsel out the door, both head for his cart.

Crito is surprised as Megamieuwsel jumps up on the wagon and with a showy flap of his cape, begins to sling spells at the orcs.

Ah! What a wonderful place. It seems one can practice one's art right out in the open!

Crito moves behind his wagon, ready to protect it, but trying to keep out of sight of the orcs. He gives a wave of his hand toward the advancing horde of orcs and speaks a single word, "spats."

All but the largest orc stumble for a moment. Three of them tumble to the ground, dropping their axes, and lie there snoring.

[Second Talon]

As Second strolls out the door and into the street, he pulls a large oak leaf from his belt pouch and stares at it while he mutters under his breath. Satisfied at something, he shoves it back in his pocket, only to find he's walked out halfway to the Tusker's front line. Three lie fast asleep, another seems to be engulfed in flames, and still another runs desperately from a large ball of fire that chases it merrily.

With a shrug as a Tusker's axe descends toward his head, he uses his club to bat the blade aside, and slams his shield into the face of the orc, causing it's nose to spurt blood. Realizing his mistake, he tries to cover it by rapping the orc on the head with the club, but that only seems to make the Tusker angrier. Yelping, Second turns around and runs back toward the inn, narrowly avoiding the axe of the bleeding, angry Tusker.

(Used spell Shillelagh)

[Gralhruk]

Several spells later and Gralhruk is getting bored. Finally, one huge brute breaks through the barrage of magic aimed his way and charges. Par for the course, he opts to attack the green-haired healer instead. That one manages to bloody the orc's nose without getting himself killed but it is clear that the beast has the upper hand.

I do believe I heard my name.

He takes a short hop forward, axe cocked, and launches an arcing blow. It clips the orc as he moves to follow Second, and while it isn't the cleanest blow the dwarf has ever struck, it is sufficient to drop the wounded brute in his tracks.

[cappucina]

Cappucina readies a dart and aims it several times. Each time, her target is either swallowed by a darkness bubble, engulfed in a flaming sphere, falling asleep, or killed by a fellow patron. "Oh well!" she shrugs to herself. Then she turns her attention back to Cadogen. "Looks like the orcs aren't going to make it all the way up to you. They are being driven off!"

Behind Cadogen and near Crito's cart is the nice lady who tried to help a guard. Cappucina sees something so new, so interesting, so lovely, wrapped around this lady's fingers that she gasps and almost looses her perch on the eave. Lucky for Cap, the spider climb is in effect for a few more minutes and her feet sort of stick to the wall. She puts her darts away and climbs down from the eave to right above the doorway. It truly looks like the orc attackers have begun their retreat. Some of the patrons are not interested in chasing them back to the city walls, and after standing around some moments in the street, they return inside to the Dragon's Hangover for a refreshing beverage. Cap pats them on the head and tells them "good job" and "well done there with the ball of fire" and "I've never seen a shield bash like that one" from her perch over the doorway.

[Kelemyn]

The injured guardsman gets to his feet and starts looking around as if he isn't quite sure what happened. He thanks Elanor without hardly looking at her and then draws his sword, following after the retreating orcs.

Elanor shrugs and then turns back towards the Magick Shoppe. She notices that there are a lot of interesting looking people going back into the inn.... Could it hurt for her to go inside and have a mug of cider? She thinks about it for a moment, then decides the shop can spare her for fifteen more minutes or so.

Just as she is about to step through the doorway, she looks up and right into the shining black eyes of a halfling woman clinging to the outside of the inn like a..... well, like a spider.

[Crito]

With the excitement over, the guards rounding up the remaining tuskers and clearing away the bodies, Crito heads back towards the doorway. He hears a shrill voice from overhead commenting on what has gone on and he follows the eyes of the local woman standing next to him in the doorway. Sure enough, there is the halfling woman from before. Hands on his hips, Crito grins up at her, "I belief you vere about to buy somet'in' from me?"

[Kelemyn]

Elanor glances over at the man standing almost under the doorway with her.

"Are you the tinker then? I saw your cart over there..." She stops and sticks out her hand in the man's direction. "I'm Elanor. I, uh- oops!" She looks down at her hand as she notices the man staring at it, and remembers too late that she has a tiny green winged snake coiled around her ring finger. Treasure is awake now. He is alertly watching the tinker with his beady little snake eyes, his green forked tongue flickering in and out of his little snake mouth.

"Sorry about that..." She looks like she doesn't quite know what to say next. "Um, I work down the street at Caledon's Magick Shoppe," as if that should explain having a little snake on one's finger. "You should come see us some time."

[cappucina]

"Excuse me. Excuse me lady! Oooooh. What is that? On your finger?" Cappucina swings down from her perch over the doorway to hang in front of the blond lady, blocking her way into the Dragon's Hangover for a moment, before dropping back to the ground. Crito catches up to her and asks her to pay him. She is a little dissappointed about that, but hands him over the silver she owes him while she listens in on his conversation. Now, she knows the snake lady is named Elanor and she works in the magic shop. "Are there more of those in the shop?" she asks her.

[Kelemyn]

Elanor eyes the little halfing woman a bit warily.

"Not exactly," she tells her, stepping back a pace, although she does hold out her hand so that the woman can easily see. "He's a little air snake, newly hatched about an hour ago. We have a couple more eggs, but I think it was just a fluke that this one hatched. It wasn't supposed to." As an aside to the tinker, she adds, "We sell the unfertilized eggs as spell components, you know.

"Anyway, I was going to go in for a mug of cider. But maybe I should get him back to the shop. I forgot for a minute that he was with me, and I really don't know how he'll react to being outside."

As if on cue, the little snake suddenly uncoils itself from around her finger and takes flight, hovering in the air directly in front of the tinker. Elanor makes a grab for him, but he easily darts out of her reach. Then the little creature does the strangest thing. It flits down to the tinker's hand, spins in the air frantically for a moment as if searching for something, then hovers contentedly over the man's ring, and...... changes color! Just for the briefest instant, the little snake goes from brilliant green to pale lavendar.

Elanor snatches him back just then. "That's it. I'm definitely taking you back to the shop. I didn't even know you could fly yet!" As she walks down the street, she calls over her shoulder, "Feel free to come visit me! I'm right down the street!"

[Cadogan Trahem]

Cadogan listens intently to the new Halfling. Talking about her Magick Shoppe, and spell components! Of Course he need those.

"Wait Wait! I need some spell components!" He says as he tries to jog in the general direction where the Halfling was going, instead he runs into Crito's cart and ends up on the ground and grumbling something about carts and inconciderate people parking them anywhere these days.

[Crito]

"Tinker, t'at's me." Crito says with a smile. "Elanor, vhat a lovely name." He starts to reach for her outstretched hand but then stops and stares, blinking, at the tiny green snake staring back at him from Elanor's finger.

Crito stands there with his hand still halfway in the air as Elanor explains and Cappucina drops down to start asking questions and pay Crito for the trinket. He gives Cappucina a little bow of thanks.

He's startled when the little flying snake darts away from Elanor and begins flitting about him, heading straight for the ring of magical protection around his hand.

Ah! It senses the magic. How useful.

Elanor snatches her little pet back out of the air and starts heading back to her shop. The blind man comes hurrying over towards them, calling out about buying spell components. He runs straight into Crito's cart.

Crito can't help but let out a laugh, though he quickly stifles it. The man could have hurt himself. He runs up to Cadogan and helps him up. "Here, sir, let's all go to t'e shop toget'er." Crito offers his shoulder to Cadogan for him to grip as they make their way to the shop behind Elanor.

"Elanor, after ve see your shop, do you t'ink you could help me see about gettin' t'at vendor license the guard told me about?"

[Kelemyn]

As she hurries back toward the shop, Elanor hears a commotion of clanging metal behind her. She turns back to see that someone has blundered into the tinker's cart and sprawled, face first, onto the street. With her hands full of a whirring, squirming air snake, she can't really make a move to help the poor man up, but the tinker does, and the man is soon back on his feet. They both follow her across the street and down a few shops.

She gets there first and quickly speaks the command word that disables the security measures. The illusion of the abandoned barber shop with its dusty, boarded up windows fades away, and is replaced by a neat little shopfront. Merchandise displayed on shelves can be seen through the sparkling clean windows, and a sign hangs outward over the door which reads: CALEDON'S MAGICK SHOPPE. There is also a small, hand-lettered sign stuck up in the lower left-hand side of one of the windows which reads:

Shoplifters will be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of my
magical abilities!
- Caledon


"Come in, come in!" Elanor tells her visitors. "Caledon is not in at the moment... He'd be the one to help you with that vendor's license, Mr.- what was your name again? I'm not sure I caught it before. Anyway, he made all the arrangements when we first set up the shop, although I think he went to the town hall. It's down the street and around the corner. You should be able to find it easily enough.

"I have a couple of things to attend to in the back. But you can look around all you want." She peers at the man with the seeing stick, and raises an eyebrow. "Er, do be careful. There are a lot of delicate, expensive items on some of these shelves. Caledon is selling off some of his collection. The items in glass cases need a key to get at. But just let me know and I can show you anything. Excuse me please...." She smiles and ducks behind the counter into a back room, the little green air snake still cupped in her hands.

[cappucina]

Cappucina watches as Elanor walks up the street toward her magic shop. It's a good thing Crito follows her. She doesn't want him to see what she is about to do. She hides under his cart and chants and waves her arms about for a few seconds. Then she cups her hand over her mouth and starts to whisper instructions to the air. She whispers, "Follow that lady there. Note, anything she touches or says as she goes through the magic shop. I want to know everything she does. Like last time, remember, when you watched for the combination to the Duke's safe? Just like that only magic words and stuff. Come back and write down what you saw."

The unseen servant rolls its eyes at Cappucina. It thinks to itself, "What a terrible little thing you are. Always summoning me up to help in your scheming stealing ways. Never summoning me up for anything pleasant - like a good kitchen scrubbing. I have feelings, I have hopes, I have dreams! But, no, it's always about you and what you want. Such a selfish nasty halfing." The unseen and unheard servant shuffles off bitterly after Elanor and does as it is commanded.

[Megamieuwsel]

Still playing with his "Fiery Balloon" , Megamieuwsel notices the blind mage's collission with the cart a little late to be of any help.
He does ,however , hear the female voice under it giving instruction to someone.

A quick jump brings him on the ground and with an even faster move , the halfling is caught by her top-knot.

"I don't think , that lady would take kindly to any attempts of pilferation , let alone her employer."

Letting his grasp on the halfling's hair go , he continues:
"But I forget my manners , as if I , like you , wouldn't have any at all. Let me introduce myself; Megamieuwsel is the name. Master of the Arcane Arts and Undoer of Evil. I don't think I caught your name , nor the one of that invisible creature , you just sent off...."

Towering above the girl , his cloak billows , as if a storm is emanating from under it....
(Prestidigitation)

[Kelemyn]

Almost as soon as Elanor had re-entered the shop, Treasure had gone into a frenzy of flapping and wriggling. It was all she could do to keep a hold of him until she got to her room in the back. When she releases him, he flies around the room madly a few times, finally coming back to hover by the door, his attention firmly fixed on the brass knob. He is clearly interested in something out there in the shop.

"Well I have customers now," Elanor says in exasperation. "I don't have time to figure out what's going on with you." She picks up a small bottle and eye dropper from the chest of drawers in the corner of the room. This is the honey concoction she had made earlier. "Are you hungry again? Come here, little guy.... My goodness, you learned to fly so quickly!"

She feeds him a drop of the honey mixture and then takes a liitle box from the top drawer of the chest and closes him up in it. "Sorry about this. I'll let you out in a bit." She puts the box in her pocket, and then goes back to the shop.

She walks quickly over to the counter and opens the little black book again.

Hmmmm, no message from Caledon. Either he's waiting to hear more from me, or he hasn't checked his Journal yet today and didn't get the message about the orcs.

She begins to write on a blank page:

Caledon - Orcs driven off. Nothing to worry about.

Then, as before, she tears out the page, crumples it up, and tosses it towards the waste basket where it promptly disappears.

She looks up with a smile and speaks to the two men in the shop. "So, is there anything in particular I can help you with?"

[Cadogan Trahem]

"Ah, Yes Yes! Indeed I do." Cadogan says, unfortunately to the near by Statue. He reaches into his component pouch and feels around for a bit "I need some Bat Fur, and either a Piece of Coal or a Drop of Pitch. Wouldn't happen to have them?" The Mage continues to speak and smile at the statue.

[Kelemyn]

"Over here sir!" Elanor calls out to the odd man talking to the statue of Ydrig and the Snake in the corner. "We have bits of coal suitable for use as spell components - a small bag for only 5 coppers. And we have fur from three types of bats: your typical Fruit Bat, which is fine for most uses; Three-toed Cavern Bat, which works especially well in Potions of Flying; and Giant Arctic Bat, which is very rare and difficult to come by. The Fruit Bat Fur only costs a few coppers."

[cappucina]

"My name is Cappucina. My invisible friend is Unseen Servant. I have standards you know. I would never steal from a nice person. But, I just like to know things. I just might go in there some night when the shop is closed and study and memorize stuff that might come in handy someday. And find out how to get one of those little flying snakes that goes all colors around magic. I've snuck into places lots of times and not taken anything. It's how I met Unseen Servant - he was cleaning up while I was in my last magic shop and I rescued him from his dismal nightly job. Now, he just gets to do fun stuff with me!" Cappucina explains.

"I like your stormy purple robes! And, I can't believe you spotted and grabbed me like that while I was hidden! You move fast." Cappucina darts into the swirling cape and plays around with it.

It starts to rain.

"Let's go inside. Come on!" she shrieks as she darts inside the Dragon's Hangover.

Another customer exits the Dragon's Hangover shortly after Cap runs in. It is a dwarf with a long beard saying goodnight and heading home now that the Tuskers have been dealt with.

[Second Talon]

Second Talon looks about the street, hands on his hips.

"Well, that was fun.. kinda wish I'd gotten to bop someone with this.. oh well."

He hangs his club back on his belt, and watches a lady with a snake on her finger enter a shop, followed by a few others.

Shrugging, he walks back into the tavern, sits down, and then loudly remarks to no one in particular "Anyone remember why I came to this city in the first place?"

[WhoNAN]

Night begins to fall outside the tavern, and from the staircase at the side of the lower level comes a very young blond woman, human, about the age of 17 wearing a fire red cloak... she walks quietly down the stairs and without a second thought walks out the front door.

About a minute later another woman maybe a year older with long light brown hair, wearing a forest green cloak does exactly the same, appearing very similiar in facial features to the first... and walks directly out the front door.

With another minutes passing another woman with a similiar visage and two more years on the last walks down the stairs, this time in a beautiful midnight Blue cloak... and her hair set a blaze with the Red of embers woven in a splended braid reaching the top of her head. She reaches the bottum of the stairs and pauses to look behind her to watch a man walk down behind her.

He is young, about four years older than the red headed woman. With hair of dark brown, tied back behind his head in a pony tail that hangs just below his shoulders. He wears a storm grey suade vest, tied together down the front, a black rope-knoted belt ties around a set of matching loose trousers. Covered at the bottum with black straps of leather tied boots that approach mid-shin. And a satchel fits diagonly over his abdomin with a single strag. His well toned arms are absent of any clothes minus matching wraps to that of his legs on his forearms, and two intricate tattoos, one on either shoulder. Although most intrigueingly it is in his face that a certain fire burns... his eyes a silvery grey, much like clouds before a storm, ignite his gaze down to the woman below.

He approaches her, takes her hand, and proceeds to kiss her gently on one cheek, whispering something in her ear... with which she turns smiles back and walks out the door, pulling her hood over her face before exiting.

The man walks to the bartended and is shortly served a large glass of clear liquid... a short discussion insues and he points briefly to the band of interesting characters that remain in the corner of the bar. He sits still, drinking the beverage in large gulps, further discussing things with the now apparently jovial bartender.

[Cadrius]

The sun's last rays kiss the landscape turning the mountainous terrain into a reddish-gold landscape. The shadows lengthen until they become gaunt representations, dancing and mocking the living things to which they are attached. It is at this time that a tall, muscular man approached the gates of Brinnar.

"What is your business here sir?" inquires the guard with the suspicion alloted to a stranger approaching a mountain town at dusk. Especially a border town that has been having problems with orcs.

"My name is Cadrius and I seek lodging," the tall man says with a formal tone in his barritone voice, "I would not wish to spend another evening in this cold."

The guard slowly looks the man up and down noting the bands of metal covering his torso, upper thighs, and sword arm. Leather and chain protect the rest. A large round metal shield is slung over his back with an apparent familiarity. Last, but certainly not least he takes in the hand and a half sword worn at the man's belt.

His gaze sweeping back upward, locking with the newcomer's glacier blue eyes the guard inquires in a low voice, "We won't have any trouble from you, will we?"

The man shifts his hand away from his his belt and the deep blue cloak parts a bit to reveal the pommel of his blade. On it is a simple symbol, a lightning bolt ensnared with a clenched fist.

Noting this the guard nods and signals for the gate to be opened for this one.

"Welcome to Brinnar, Cadrius," he mutters as the tall man strides into the town as the day continues to die.

[TheDruid20]

Wandering in shortly (no pun in teneded) after the man with the grey eyes, is a short well armored young man. His shield painted bright green with the symbol of an overflowing cornocopia, is almost as bright as his blond hair. His rosey face is obviously well fed, but not fat. He is obviously carrying more then his small frame was ment for, however he does so with glee and little difficulty. He walks up to the bartender and request a place he can sit. Setting himself up at a rather large table for one, he spends about ten minutes in deep prayer, then he opens his hand as a small feast appears before him. The feast is enough for one, but conatins many rare and exotic foods. "Thank you Protector and Provider" he says. (I took liberties witht he create food and water spell... I choose one good meal as opposed to 12 bad ones think its fair)

He eagerly digs in. Occasionally stopping to talk with a waitress or bus boy. Or anyone else who approaches him.

[Megamieuwsel]

Having moved into the Inn after Cappucina , our friendly neighbourhood-spell-slingin'-purple-clad-Megamieuwsel starts to say; "So maybe now i'll be able to catch some supper. I'm sta....."
Then he notices the three woman descending the stairs and leaving the Inn.

"Uhmm... Ladies! Wait a minute please! Can I have a few words with You?"
And out in the night he goes....

[TheDruid20]

Watching the man in purple behave like a horny half orc, Thed Rui'd the 20th comments rather loudly, "And I bet if he gets them pregnant he wont even marry them. Thank Yondolla's children there are enough good people to clean up after his mistakes."

Returnign to his meal Thed turns to his large array of deserts and then has one then two then three of them. Looking at his finished plate, he calls a serving wench over hands her a copper and has her clear his plate. Then he lights up a night long pipe, and wathces the antics of the patrons.

[Megamieuwsel]

The door opens and Megamieuwsel is seen wandering in again , a puzzled look on his face.
Upon reaching the counter , a gold is slammed down...

"A hearty meal and a wine please..."
As the barkeep returns the change , one could hear him mumble ; "Dang! they just vanished in thin air!
And all I wanted , was asking them the adress of their couturier.... That was some real craftsmanship they wore. Maybe that guy over there knows , he seems to know them."

Just as he turns toward the silver-eyed man , a waft of pipesmoke reaches his nostrils...

"MY GOODNESS , MAN! What the hell are you smokin' ? Dried Bugbear-hair , or what?"

Waving with his hands , in an attempt to get rid of the noxious fumes , the halfling's pipe brings forth, he grabs his wine from the counter and moves over to "mr Silver-eye".

[TheDruid20]

"Well I do say, so few manage to guess the secret ingrediant. Would you preffer I switched to the pounder giant testical blend? Or maybe the elf placenta version? Honestly now its a shame when a mature obviously well mannerd man like yoru self cannot enjoy a fine pipe. Coem sit, I can give youa few tips with those ladies you tried to woe. Maybe next time you will get it right."

[cappucina]

The lone little dwarf departs the Dragon's Hangover unnoticed what with all the distraction of three lovely ladies to gaze at - no one bothers to pay any attention to the one that is really hoping nobody pays any attention. Getaway clean! The dwarf's gait makes a noticable change from one of caution to one of carefree joy. She rolls along on her stubby bowlegged limbs and strokes her long beautiful black beard absentmindedly.

The little dwarf passes the tin tinker's cart and gives the horse a good tickle under it's chin and continues on, up toward the magic shop mentioned a few moments ago. The dwarf sings to itself merrily although quite a bit childishly, "I'm a dwarf. Fa la la. A dwarf me be. Hee hee hee."

After one block and around the corner the dwarf starts to look puzzled. She thought that magic shop was right here along the shop fronts beyond the Dragon's Hangover. She starts to pull at her beard with some aggravation. If the magic shop is actually further away than she figured, then drat it all, Unseen Servant is out of range. Curse that meddling Mega and his purple robes too! She shakes her fist at the darkening sky at the thought that her perfect plan had not gone so perfect at all. She searches farther up the street until she's found the shop. It is definately too far away for the servant. She backtracks until she is back in range of the spell and calls her servant to her.

After a moment, the air all about the dwarf looks and smells a little different. The air shifts slightly and then it smells slightly soapy. That means Unseen Servant is back! She gets all excited again and says, "Do you like my disguise? Isn't the beard a good touch? Come on! Let's go to the shop. It may be we can still figure something out!"

The dwarf races to the shop with Unseen Servant in tow. She jumps up the steps and rattles the doorknob. Locked. She cups her hands around her eyes, presses her face against the window, and peers in. Dark and closed.

The dwarf is dissappointed. She rarely breaks and enters the first night in a new place. Looks like she will have to find something else to keep her occupied and entertained. She will have to wait until tomorrow to learn all about the magic secrets. Cappy heads back to the Dragon's Hangover with her head full of so many different plans to choose from for getting into that magic shop tomorrow or tomorrow night. One of those plans is just being a plain old customer - but that plan is immediately disgarded as too boring.

The little lady dwarf with the long luxurious black beard reappears in the doorway of the Dragon's Hangover. She takes a seat at a table in the corner and observes the clientele. She grumbles to the green haired man at the next table, "I was in here earlier. I recall you came in because you owed a halfing named something or other 'cheena' some gold - 10 pieces - and you were to meet her here in one hour to pay up." Her voice sounds strained and strange and has a squeak in it now and then like she is getting over a bad case of laringitis.

[WhoNAN]

The young man in grey turn to face the enthusiatic patron to his left... bringing his eyes to land on the man, but now instead of the Silvery grey they appear as purple as the mans clothes.

"No doubt they sewed the garments themselves."

He pauses for a moment.
"But they won't be interupted tonight."

Motioning towards the little halfling in the corner... "And be it known that anyone who would attempt such a thing would solely answer to me."

His eyes glance back at the bartender, as he finishes his second glass of whatever he is drinking... and the stout man hurries to fill it again, as he listens to the conversation intently.

"What has brought you through here? Not much to be seeking in these parts?" He diverts the attention of the conversation back upon the Purple clad man.

[cappucina]

Cappucina liked being the Dwarf but her time for the changing spell was running out. Nobody messes with ale drinking dwarves siting in the corner of the tavern. From this disguise and this vantage point she could just watch and watch all the fabulous characters in the Dragon's Hangover. And boy, there are some real nutcases in here. She has a feeling that she will have a whole lot of fun if she sticks around for the rest of the evening, and of course, she's got a good idea of who to avoid and perhaps might even get 10 gold in an hour if that green haired guy's memory hold out. It doesn't seem likely though.

The bearded lady Dwarf silently bows her exit to those paying any attention and exits the Dragon's Heart.

Cappucina makes a reappearance about 10 minutes later reentering the bar.

[Megamieuwsel]

"They sewed 'em themselves? So beauty and skill do combine after all. You think they'd be interested in making me a new set of garments? "

Looking into his pouch and esteeming the pityfull amount of cash in there , he continues with a somewhat less cheerfull face ;

"When my financial situation has improved , that is. I dont think , they're overly phylantropic....
But to the point of my presence in this little hamlet: I fancy this only another stop along the road on my way across this ridge.
You know , a few months ago , back in Ishtavar , I stumbled across some old tomes relating to an artifact called Gargeltje's Goggles. From what I managed to understand , this artifact is capable of negating any bad inflictions. Either inborn , inflicted by man , or even GODS.
The directions to it's whereabouts though ,were vague at best and what I got from it didn't appear to be a walk in the park.
All I got was : Beyond the realms of men , in the deepest dark of the granite dragon's shadow , a place , forsaken by men and forbidden by the almighty lies in eternal darkness. There it be the shrine of Gargeltje slumbers....
Then the text became rather blurred ,exept for the phrase : ...the MURP.... I have no Idea , what a MURP is , though.
I tried to gather some able men around me , but somehow no-one seemed eager to venture there....."

[cappucina]

"Excuse me! Excuse me Sir! Sir Mega! What's a granite dragon? Who was Gargeltje? What are bad inflictions? Do I have one? Do you think his little goggles will fit me best?" Cappucina is all over the purple robes in a rush of tugging and pulling for attention.

"Beyond the realms of men? Why that's no problem for me! I'll go. I might go." Cappucina sings out in her high squeaky voice.

[WhoNAN]

The man listens intently to the odd character about the Tomes... upon the arrival of the Halfling, he offers his hand to bring her up to the stool between the two men.

"Usually a persons afliction is one that is set upon by their own mind... and it is a matter of perception really.... but indeed it sounds interesting."

He downs another half of a glass of the clear liquid.

"Have you come to any conclusions of this riddle?"

He continues to discuss the matters with the man and the Hlafling woman... ingoring completely the question about the tailoring of garments.

[Cadrius]

It is after darkness when the door to the tavern opens and a tall, armor-clad man strides in. He closes the door quickly shutting the night's chill and avoids the inquisitive glances from some of the other patrons.

Quickly finding a table in a dark corner the man unfastens the clasp of his deep blue cloak and draps it over the back of his chair while resting his sword and shield in a chair next to him. Cursing himself for arriving so late in the evening the man quietly orders an ale and a small bowl of stew.

The ale is cold and the stew isn't much warmer than the temperature of the room but it quiets the rumbling of his stomach and it did not cost very much. With an increasingly shrinking purse Cadrius could not afford to live as well as he used to. However he does not allow thoughts of the past to invade his consciousness, not now.

A border town was frequently a good place for a man to lose himself, or hide from his former life. Cadrius had a strong arm and needed coin so he figured that he could be of use here especially after overhearing the problems with "tuskers." This manner of beast sounded suspiciously like an orc. Those were breed of creatures that he had dealt with all too many times in the past. He smiles grimly, perhaps he would be able to lose himself here. Die fighting an unknown and uncared for cause, not for any deity or king, just to taste death's sweet embrace.

[TheDruid20]

Originally posted by Megamieuwsel
Beyond the realms of men , in the deepest dark of the granite dragon's shadow , a place , forsaken by men and forbidden by the almighty lies in eternal darkness. There it be the shrine of Gargeltje slumbers....


None to casually evesdropping, "You humans, there are many lands you have forsaken that other races still live safly. Might I suggest trying one of those before your bound off into hell on a clue. YOu knwo I think I have heard of this Gargeltje. Yes .... yes... he was my great grandmothers second broth. odd fellow always getting into other worldly things and had horrible eyesight. He would walk into a wall without his glasses on. But that surely couldn't be the same person."

[Second Talon]

The green haired man rubs his green beard thoughtfully.

"Beyond the realms of men in the deepest dark of the granite dragon's shadow. A place, forsaken by men and forbidden by the almighty lies in eternal darkness. There it be the shrine of Gargeltje slumbers..."

"Hmm...deepest dark of the granite dragon's shadow.... There any mountain ranges around here? Ones that look like.. oh.. a dragon, perhaps?... or maybe..."

He grows silent for a moment, then speaks again

"I have heard legends say that the King of Dreams has a castle guarded by three beasts.. one of which is a dragon. Supposedly, they sit outside the door, like statues... 'Beyond the realms of men'.. The Dreamworld, perhaps...? It is said that the King of Dreams is more powerful than the Gods.. perhaps.... perhaps not.. If he is stronger, than this would be a land forbidden to the 'almightly'. Perhaps there is where this shrine lays? In the spaces men travel while they slumber..."

Glancing about, noticing everyone's odd stares at the strange man, he looks about innocently.

"...What?"

[Cadogan Trahem]

Meanwhile back in the Shoppe...

"Ah yes Indeed, Fruit Bat Fur sounds perfect!" Cadogan exclaims having corrected his orientation without so much as mentiontioning his error. He takes off his spell component pouch and gives it a quick toss towards where he estimates the counter to be and suprisingly it lands right infront of the halfling.

"Please fill it up for me, Coal in the left-left pocket and fur in the left-down-left pocket." He fiddles around in his pocket for a while and produces a gold coin feels it about in the air and sneers as he returns it to his pocket and produces yet again another gold coin, again he frowns and digs deeper finally pulling out a silver. He wades forward nearly knocking over several items and finds his way to the counter and places the coin down.

"Its the smallest I have im afraid. Will there be much change?"

[Kelemyn]

"Yes sir, here's your change."

Elanor hands the blind sorceror a few coppers and his pouch, after packing up his newly acquired spell components as requested.

"And now Gentlemen, it really is a bit past my normal closing time." She begins to shoo the two men toward the front door, helping Cadogan manuever through the shelves and display tables, and thus avoiding too much damage done to the merchandise.

"But the shop will be open tomorrow morning at 8 sharp, if you find you need anything else. Good day!"

[WhoNAN]

The grey clad man turns to the Druid... "I like the way you reason..." his eyes this time flaring green to match the mans hair.... and then in a brief instant his concentration breaks elsewhere...

"They're in trouble..." he speaks suddenly.... grabbing his staff he leaps to his feet... and sprints out the door...leaving it wide open to let the chilled night air flow in like water through a broken dam.

The bartender almost drops the mug he's holding.. and stairs at the patrons.... "Well don't just sit their! Go help the man."

-----Down the street a ways------

While Elanor is closing up shop, a man comes flying by in a dead out run towards the closest gate of the town. In her mind can be heard....

There is trouble... please help.... to the East near forest.

And then the voice is gone.

The figure in Grey approaches the gate while the guards seem to be laughing at anothers joke... startled they stumble to their feet.

[Megamieuwsel]

Remarkably quick of understanding , Megamieuwsel concludes that the "They're in danger"-remark mr. Shifty-Colour-Eyes made , is dealing 'bout his future seamstresses.
There you have it ; It seems I won't be able to eat in this hell-hole......

Gulping down his wine and tossing aside the glass(which , purely by incident lands straight in the mug , the barkeep was holding), he storms out of the tavern in persuit of Whonan.

Once on the street , a sharp whistle emanates from his lips , resulting in a balking reply and the clatter of hoofs as Patokkel catches up with the spell-slinger.

There is trouble... please help.... to the East near forest. resounds in his head as he sees Whonan storm past the Magic-Shop-departing crowd.

[Crito]

Crito thanks Elanor for her time and helps lead Cadogan out of the shop. Crito is about to suggest that he take Cadogan back to the Inn before he goes over to the town hall when suddenly a grey clad man goes running by. Shouted words echo in his mind, There is trouble... please help.... to the East near forest.

"Did you hear that?" Crito asks Cadogan. "Oh well", Crito shrugs, "Come on, let's go see who needs help." Mumbling to himself, "I guess I can get that license later", Crito waits a moment to see if Cadogan's hand remains on his shoulder, so he can lead him after the grey man.

"I guess we'd better hurry". Crito takes off at a trot towards the east.

[Cadrius]

Cadrius had just finished his small meal and pint of ale when the steel-eyed man burst from his stool and out the door. The oddly dressed man in purple pants shortly followed him. This draws a frown from the somber man. The idea that "they" were in trouble didn't sit well with him either.

As the bartender declares that the others should aid the staff carrying man Cadrius looks down at the pommel of his sword, resting in a chair next to him. He seems to stare at the well worn symbol of a fist clenching a lightning bolt.

He shakes his head and whispers quietly, "No, I will not do it, not again."

He grows quiet for a second as he continues to lock his gaze on the sword. At last some sort of conclusion seemed to have been reached for he closes his eyes and whispers, "Damn you."

He leaps to his feat, the chair squeeling as it is thrown back behind him. He grabs his shield and begins buckling his sword to his belt as he makes his way out the door only to see the man in purple pants hauling a mule along down the street.

He shrugs and makes a fast pace after the others toward the gate.

[Second Talon]

"Heads need a bopin', eh? Why not?"

Second rises, grabs his pack and quarterstaff, and dashes out the door, trying to secure the pack to his back and his staff all at the same time.

As the voice thunders in his head, he slows his run for a moment, stops, secures his belongings tightly, then dashes forward as fast as his legs will carry him.

The Forest.. to the East! Aww, flip-flam-flooze-bas-a-pam-bam! Hope it's not those Wyverns I noticed there. Then again, they seemed hungry.. maybe something was taking their natural food.. like.. Tuskers... Oh flip-flam-flooze-bas-a-pam-bam-a-dam-a-nam!

[Kelemyn]

WHAT was that?

A voice in her head? She stops, her hand still on the key in the lock, and looks around the shop. Of course there is no one there. It really was a voice in her head!

Trouble? On the east side of town? Should I go?

She supposes it will be all right to leave the shop again, just for a little while. She really will be glad when Caledon comes back tomorrow, and she can have a little more freedom again.

Just then, she hears another voice in her head; a lisping twitter, high pitched and whiny. It reminds her of a cranky toddler in need of some warm milk before going to bed.

"No-o! Sss-stay here! I want food! Feed me, feed me!"

"Is that you talking to me, Treasure?" Elanor asks out loud. "I didn't know you could do that!"

"Out! Me out! I sss-stuck in here! Feed me, feed me!"

Strangely, it almost seems that she can feel the little creature's hunger and claustraphobia. It makes her feel kind of dizzy. And queasy. Was she going to have to listen to this voice in her head all the time now?

"Look little guy," she tells the tiny snake. "I'm going to go outside to see what is going on. You'll just have to wait for a bit." The little box in her pocket starts to buzz with the sound of frantic flapping. "OK OK! I'll let you out, if you promise to stay close to me. All right?"

"Promis-sss-e!"

Elanor steps out of the door, locking it behind her, and reactivates the magical security systems. Then she starts walking toward the east side of town with her sword drawn. A tiny flying snake circles over her head.

[TheDruid20]

hearign the weird mans comment about help, "By the Matriach we must go." Standing up he makes a small prayer toushed his heart then seams to get stronger. Heavinghis pack on his back like it weighted nothign . The once owerburdened halfing runs after the oters as if he was wearing his birthday suit.

Catching up, "Who is in trouble?"

[Gralhruk]

Trouble, eh? About time.

The rugged dwarf follows the others at a short distance, his rolling gait unhurried, axe balanced easily over his shoulder. He whistles softly as he walks, eyes scanning restlessly from side to side, almost unconsciously, for anything out of the ordinary.

[WhoNAN]

As the better half of a dozen people fling by the guards... they seem to give up on figuring out whats going on... and simply stand and look puzzled.

You see a light much like a bullseye lantern running ahead, and figure it must be the odd man from the tavern... he is traveling in the direction of what is more distant, but appears to be a large fire of some sort, too large to be a normal camp fire, but too organized to be wild or out of control.

The night air is picking up and it nips at the heals of the interesting assortment who heeded Whonan's calls for help... as you approach closer it appears to be a bonfire burning in the middle of a neatly organized circle near the edge of an ominous wood. To your amazement there appear to be 4 or 5 dead orc's with thuroughly torn flesh.

The Grey clad stranger is standing looking upwards at the night sky... as the breeze suddenly dies... you hear a low growl...

"Not them..... THAT!" Whonan says calmly. Directed, as could only be assumed, towards the stampeed coming up from the rear. The Redheaded woman comes to stand next to him, from where she was kneeling next to the lady in Green, who remains focused downwards..

As you look up you see a huge reptilian of sorts, with massive wings and a hidieous spiked tail ending in a barbed stinger, poised to swoop back down at him. The air picks up once again as its wings beat heavily and it dives like a bird of prey upon the helpless.

[TheDruid20]

"By a hot meal what is that thing?!?!?!?"

[Cadrius]

As Cadrius runs past the guards with those others who heeded the grey-clad man's call he avoids their stares. He had promised that they would not have any trouble from him. It turns out he might've been wrong.

The air is even colder than it had been when the man first arrived at the tavern. It did not caress his skin as a gentle summer breeze would, instead it took the nails of its fingers and dug a path across his face.

His boots scrape against the dirt as he slides to a stop about ten feet behind the man. He quickly takes in the situation, noting the woman still kneeling, seeing the large winged beast with a wicked tail.

Without a second thought he draws his long blade in his left hand and unslings the metal shield from his back and moves to stand protectively in front of the the man and women. He waits for the beast to descend.

Once it comes within reach the man gives an inarticulate cry and barrels forward holding his shield in front of him. The beast's maw snaps down at him but the razor sharp teeth deflect harmlessly off of the steel protecting him. However he is not so lucky with the tail as it snakes around and scores a hit on his shoulder.

Poison shoots from the barb and into his veins coursing through him. The night air seems to crystalize as his body reacts to the foreign substance. The beast snorts in apparent glee as it connects with the human. Things begin to move in slow motion as it travels through him.

His head shakes back and forth and the world begins moving rapidly again. The air loses its solidity and he shakes the poison off like a dog shakes the rain from its coat.

He collects himself enough to heft his blade in an arc at the beast scoring a decent blow upon it's midsection leaving a slight gash. The once noble paladin squints his eyes as he finally rejects the last of the poison.

Glaring over his shoulder he growls sounding rather similar to the beast that he is currently engaged in mortal combat with, "What are you waiting for?! Get the women out of here!"

Why cannot I simply die and be rid of this mortal coil? Why do you torment me?

[Cadogan Trahem]

Cadogan led by Crito comes stomping down the street passed all the people and out of the city. Soon enough they stop and Cadogan looks confused, he heard the voice but still has no idea whats going on. And then he hears it. A Horrid high pitch screech and the weak willed Mage begins to shake, only few creatures can make such a sound and none of them Cadogan liked to meet. Thinking quickly he makes sure his Protective spell is still in place before tuning his ears into the screech. He begins the resite incantations never quite completing the spell, but waiting for the right momment, when he feels that the creature is within reach he begins the spell. The words leave his lips like a song and his hand movements are precise and it doesn't take anyone long to realise he is performing Elven High Magic, for a human this is strange indeed. (Spell Craft 17 Enlarged Burning Hands)

Finally he stops speaking and the air around him buzzes with energy and he places his thumbs together and fans out his fingers in the direction of the Beast.

"Gurthar a' i' 'ksher!!" He Screams.
<Death to the One of Evil>

And flames errupt from his fingers, in 20ft long and 20ft wide Semi-circular area of fiery hell. The flames miss the people infront of Cadogan, as he was aiming towards the air and the beast is engulfed in an instant of flame only to emerg a second later looking only slightly annoyed at the intrusion of the Mage.

[BigRedRod]

...Minutes earlier "BigRed" Rod had stepped off the Sara Jane in search of a meaning. The crystal he had found on that last boat had done something to him. As he emerged from the docks Rod encountered a large crowd of people running towards (or possibly away from) something, curious as ever he followed...

"Whoaa, that be one big beastie"
However it's attention seems elsewhere with someone attempting to fight the beast head on and a mage of some sort tackling it with a sheet of flame
Slowly walking around to put the Wyvern between himself and the unfortunate man it was attacking Rod raises his crossbow. With a small amount of thought Rod manages to condense a bolt out of ectoplasm and load the weapon
Edging closer so that he stands no more than 10ft from the creature Rod fires the crossbow.
The bolt strikes the creature in the back with a satisfying thud, the wyvern screeches and turns towards Rod

Damn, I was hoping he could keep it's attnetion
The pirate drops his crossbow and draws his well-used rapier.

[cappucina]

Cappucina was going to stay around the Dragon's Hangover while everyone ran out to see to the danger warning. She leaned against the doorway and watched all the big people run toward the gates while she wondered what she was going to use for entertainment now. Then that lady with the little snake ring also rushes toward her from up the street, heading after the crowd running for the gates.

Cap nearly dances up to her calling, "Elanor. Excuse me, Elanor! There was talk in the tavern about putting together an artifact search for these amazing little googles that will solve all your afflictions and fix all your problems or something like that. The man in purple named Mega has two leads on where to look. Somewhere in the dream plane or maybe at this nice halfling's mother's brother's place. Do you know where that is? I think the big guy is going to go, and this new guy with silver eyes, and the dwarf will go, and this big fella who hasn't said but I know he will go cause he's the type, and the guy with the green hair seem interested, and the tin tinkerer might go and some others and Me!"

Cappucina is really huffing and gasping for breathe, trying to keep up with the human lady's stride and talking nonstop. She slows down to a more manageable pace now that she is through bringing Elanor up to date. "You should go too and bring useful magic stuff!" she hollers at the shop lady's back as Elanor's outruns her. Then she takes a look around at where she is. She is on the edge of town and where the guard post is. "Oh hello there." she calls to them as she jogs by the guards and toward the ever larger fight in the forest. She knows exactly where it is because a sheet of flames she just saw and the clash of steel she can hear are both pretty good clues.

Cap nears and goes into stealth mode. She moves silently and hides among the trees and bushes and the shadows. Only people with amazing luck or who are just as stealthy as she is have a chance to see her. She creeps a bit more forward and watches. She's not going to get involved in this fight unless it is truly necessary. But, if the big guys need help, help will be on its way.

[Megamieuwsel]

It got steel , it got heat ...
Now let's add a few more ingredients to the mix...

While grabbing a small flask from one of Patokkel's saddlebags with his right hand , his left index-finger points at the creature's head , releasing a thin line of icecrystals.

"I-icecream-ma-a-an , ring your bell.."

Before the ray hit the target , the flask was thrown into the mix as well.

To the observant bystander , a rare commodity given the situation , a fine example of a natural phenomonem(sp?) revealed itself;
Overheated lizard-skin , suddenly cooled down below zero in a small spot act's rather funny: The unequal expanding and shrinking made a four square inch separate itself from the rest.
Not really spectacular , but nonetheless funny.

The other missile proved more effective towards defeating the monstuosity; Upon impact , it spilled it's content over the creatures wing , rapidly "biting" holes in them , to the point , where said appendages no longer provided the nessecary "lift" for the Wyvern to stay aloft.

Schreaking in pain , it lands amidst the rag-tag "Army-Of-Weirdo's", flailing the remnants of his wings wildly.

Megamieuwsel himself doesn't really get the chance to enjoy his little succes ; One of the beast's appendages hit him on the head and our friendly-neighbourhood-fashion-statement most ungracefully hit's the ground as a result of that.

....and now his hat is dented too.....

Patokkel , sturdy and brave he may be , can't take the frightfull sight of the raging reptile any longer and runs off in blind panick , into the forest.

[WhoNAN]

The Redheaded woman turns on the spot, putting her back to the beast, and a massive blue arc of electricity shoots forth from her towards the nearby woods... Right over the hiden halflings head. Lighting up two massive figures with amazing shock. Three more orcs come bounding out of the woods, two still connected by the shocking electricity and a third more ornatly dressed charging straight at the Brunette and the fallen girl in red with a huge axe raised high.... when the grey clad man spins, his eyes emiting an intense light, directly stairs down the Orcish leader... and he stops dead in his tracks... apparently forgetting what he was doing momentarily.

The Wyvern unable to fly, bucks ferociously.... charging the purple man in an attempt to bite him in half.

[Kelemyn]

As Elanor trots by the Dragon's Hangover, a little figure darts out in to the street towards her, calling her name. It's that little halfling she'd seen earlier clinging to the eaves of the inn. And she's talking a mile a minute!


"Elanor. Excuse me, Elanor! There was talk in the tavern about putting together an artifact search for these amazing little googles that will solve all your afflictions and fix all your problems or something like that. The man in purple has a lead on where to look. Somewhere in the dream plane. Do you know where that is? I think the big guy is going to go, and this new guy with silver eyes, and the dwarf will go, and this big fella who hasn't said but I know he will go cause he's the type, and the guy with the green hair might go and some others and Me!"


A couple of times Elanor tries to interject a reply into the halfling woman's stream of talk, but she can't get a word in edgewise. Who are all these people she's babbling about? Man in purple? Guy with the green hair? Oh wait.... they were there when the orcs were attacking, weren't they?

They had reached the town gates by now, and there was quite a commotion going on outside: Flames leaping up, people yelling and screaming. Here comes the man in purple now; the tinker and the blind sorceror are there already, as are several others. Then she hears the halfling shout after her:

"You should go too and bring useful magic stuff!"

What? Was that some kind of invitation? Hmmmmm... she would need to know more about it, of course, but it was certainly an interesting proposition. Somewhere in the Dream Plane...... Elanor stops running and slowly turns around.

"What do you know about......" Her question trails off. Where had the halfling disappeared to? She peers into the shadows under the trees and- there! She catches just a glimpse of the small woman, the light from the flames flickering on her face. There is a bellow of pain from some creature up ahead, and Elanor decides that it might be a good idea to join her talkative friend in the shadows.

Or is it?

With a flash, what looks like a searing bolt of blue lightning shoots overhead, briefly illuminating the halfling in her hiding spot. Elanor sees three orcs charge out of the woods from just beyond the startled halfling, and she freezes in place. Luckily, they don't seem to notice either her or the small woman as they run by in the direction of the others. Elanor dives for cover, just as the largest orc stops dead in his tracks.

She ends up sprawled alongside the halfling woman in the shadowy undergrowth. Elanor gets to her knees, breathing a sigh of relief. "By the way, I don't believe I caught your name, Little Sister....." She says in a low voice, smiling a bit awkwardly.

[OOC: By the way, I rolled to see if I spotted you Cap: my spot +6 versus your hide +14, and I won! Can you believe it? And i was just about to post when WhoNAN added his little bit with the lightning bolt thing, and I had to amend my post! LOL ]

[Crito]

Crito lets out a low whistle at the sight of the creature. "Vhat t'e hell is t'at?!" He watches in admiration as several of the men from the tavern, including Cadogan the blind man, attack the beast bringing it crashing to the earth. Unfortunately its fall seems to have knocked out the purple clad sorcerer.

Just then more Orcs come crashing out of the forest. Crito isn't sure what to do at first, but the grey clad man seems to be handling the Orcs and Crito sees the wyvern start to make a move for the unfortunate Megamieuwsel.

"Letayooshchi kislotni." Crito flings a hand forward, sending out a shaft of green colored light, aiming at the wyvern. Unfortunately, the creature lurches at the wrong moment and the acid arrow slides harmlessly by.

[OOC: How do we know how much damage has been done to a creature like this? It doesn't matter with my miss, but I have no idea how I could have figured out the appropriate result if I had hit.]

[BigRedRod]

Rod looks around
so much happened so fast...
Seeing the Wyvern coming down on the purple man, Rod charges the creature, he brings his rapier around and thrusts but the wyvern lurches strangely and avoids his attack
After avoiding the attack the dragon strikes the pirate with a wing, knocking him to the ground

[Cadrius]

Cadrius shakes his head an growls a second time. The beast was attacking the others rather than focusing on him, and the woman still seemed to be down as well. He is not happy.

The man's breath comes in slow but deep, each exhalation creating a small cloud in the chill night's air.

"Turn around you bastard," he says cooly and launches a swing at the beast's wicked tail. The sword strikes true and leaves a large gash where the steel had travelled.

His ploy definitely aroused the beast's attention for it immediately spun about nearly hitting him with one wing as the deadly jaws snap down toward him. They do not find the flesh that they seek however, only the metal of his shield.

He notices the rather large amount of arcane energy being set off around him and is a bit uneasy, but for the most part it appears to be centered in the bushes nearby and the upper part of the beast.

[cappucina]

Cappucina is starting to think she might have to help just a little bit because that winged thing is still snapping its tail and clawing and biting everybody that is supposed to go look for the little goggles with her.

She pulls out her dagger and is about to be very brave, when all of a sudden a huge bolt of destructive magic sizzles over her head. She knows at least one person in the fracus spotted her and the shop lady saw her from her right, as she was lit up for the moment. Her cover is blown, but for just a second.

Then, two orcs go charging by. Cap already has her dagger poised for a throw and there is nothing she likes better than to stop a charging enemy with a good throw. It's so easy when they leave themselves open like that, running blindly past. Cap thinks as she nails one orc right through the throat, he stops dead in his tracks for a moment, and then flops face down either dead or on his way to dead.

Someone else comes crashing the other way while Cappucina isn't prepared. She jumps around and grabs for a dart, knowing by the sounds she is too late. Then Elanor dives into her hiding space with lots of noise and starts talking. On one hand, she is pretty glad it is Elanor and not some orc about to kill her. At the same time, she wonders if this lady knows how to move a little more quietly.

"My name is Cappucina. We shouldn't talk now. I'm trying to be sneaky. You can stay here, it is a good place to hide. I'm moving closer to the fight." Even Caps whisper is a high pitched squeak.

[Second Talon]

Skidding to a stop in front of the majestic beast, Second barely even notices anyone else there.

Those scales.. Such raw, natural beauty.. What the?

Spells are suddenly slung at the creature. Swords and axes flash, biting chunks out of it's flesh. At first, it's true, the creature was attacking. Now, however.. it's just trying to get away. Far too weak to fly, it hisses and bites at anyone who draws near. Then orcs appear.

"EVERYONE! BACK AWAY FROM THE WYVERN!"

As the others, confused, stop for a moment, they too notice the lizard is backing away slowly, no longer interested in a fight. The orcs keep pushing onward, but for now, the Wyvern is alone.

With a wry grin, the man adds "Let me speed this up a bit.."

Drawing out his large oak leaf, he begins chanting. Within moments, insects begin to appear, swarming forward from the Druid toward the Wyvern. The Orcs dodge out of the way as the large beast watches the insects close in, eyes widening in horror as the they begin biting at it's ankles. With a final hiss of defiance at the crowd, the beast turns and dashes back into the woods, weak, but not too weak to survive.

"There.. wasn't that a much nicer way to end it, rather than killing the poor innocent thing? GACK!" Second ducks just in time to doge a blow from an orc that drew near, and he pops back up, grin on his face, never seeing the other orc behind him. One swift swing to his knee, and the Druid is down on the ground.

(Summon Swarm! And AoO's to boot!)

[WhoNAN]

The Orcs hurtle by the hidden halfling and Elanor, not noticing them at all.... Cappucina's Dagger however noticed the right orc perfectly as it scores slashing open what could only be a vital blood vessel. The arc of electricity shifts from the fallen orc to the stunned leader, who begins to writhe with the surge.

Whonan makes his way to the kneeling womans side... the young blond woman very badly injured is coming to very slowly still aparently in a state of shock. He places his arms around her holding her head to his chest... her wounds close as he falls backwards, the Grey vest soaked in red blood pouring from new wounds on the mans side.

The Wyvern storms off, making a great slash at one of the Orcs which distrubed it to begin with, tearing its face slightly on its way by.

The Orc in charge now infuriated but slightly demoralized raises his massive axe again to swing yet another time at the fallen Druid.

((Biocurrent still flowing to Orc Guard 1 and Orc Leader, Orc Guard 2 is down, and Guard 1 took damage from the fleeing Wyvern... Manifested Empathic Transfer upon Blond girl.))

[TheDruid20]

Thed Ruid just tries to keep from getting stepped on in the mess, but soon as Megamieuwsel falls he runs to the mans side touches his head, "My Yondolla heal you my friend" heal 17hp.
Standing up he yells something in halfling, then hurls a sling stone at the beast. It hits the beast soundly.


OOC: If the wyvern is as per the MM I hit and did 4pts of damage.

[Gralhruk]

Hopeless cases, that must be my special talent.

A wild looking dwarf strides in just in time to see the wyvern flee and the green-haired druid drop. He unhurriedly moves to guard the fallen spellcaster, dodging the axe aimed for him. He retailiates with an axe swipe of his own, more to keep the brute back than anything else, and the orc easily dodges it. They circle each other, looking for openings.

[Second Talon]

The green haired man picks himself up, spitting out dirt and grass, muttering to himself "..stupid stupid stupid....tripper..". Glancing about he watches him whirling a sling and firing at the retreating wyvern.

Rearing back, he lunges forward, and delivers a punch across The Druid 20's face, screaming "DO NOT ATTACK RETREATING ANIMALS!"

He then moves toward the orc engaged with the dwarf, always trying to keep the orc between the Dwarf and himself.

[Kelemyn]

Elanor's mouth snaps shut as Cappucina admonishes her to be quiet. Well, she guesses that makes sense, although she doubts that the large, winged creature - is it some kind of dragon? - is going to be paying much attention to either of them. It seems to have plenty to keep it occupied just at the moment, and in fact, it appears to be turning tail, and beginning to move off.

Of course, there are still a few orcs milling about. Cappucina took care of one - a nifty piece of work - but there were a couple more still standing. Were there injured people up there? There was so much confusion it was hard to tell, but she thought she saw the green haired man fall to the ground. Perhaps she had better follow the halfling and try to get closer to the fray. Quietly, of course.

[BigRedRod]

Rod stands up carefully checking that he wasn't too baldy injured
Looks like we saw off that creature. Just a few of these bloody orcs to deal with

Rod notices the orc leader crackling with electricty and writhing in pain, he sees the man in grey is staring at the orc intensely.
So many people, so many strange powers

Heh, this shouldnt be too difficult

Stooping down to pick up his crossbow. Rod walks up behind the orc leader, and , taking careful aim with his rapier, strikes the orc. The rapier thrusts into the back of the orc, causing severe damage to it's internal organs, bleeding heavily the leader collapses

[Cadrius]

Watching the beast flee in pain and anger Cadrius cannot help but feel a slight twinge of regret. It may have come here seeking easy prey but it definitely got more than it bargained for. It was not something he wished to kill nor something he wanted to die fighting. It simply was not fitting.

Turning around he examined the situation recognizing the orcs is various conditions, be it burned, crispy, or just slightly charbroiled. Two were in stasis and one was currently circling with a dwarf.

The tall man shrugs and nonchalantly moves toward the pair engaged in a most deadly dance. He could simply strike out over his head, but having dealt with dwarves in the past Cadrius knew of their pride in battle. He also could have simply struck those orcs that were held, even though he did not like the look of the electricity arcing around and over them, but he was not a cold-blooded killer, not anymore. He scowls as another man buries his thin blade into an orc's back.

So instead he calmly wipes the blood from his blade and examines the puckered wound on his side where the creature's tail had struck him. Satisfied that he was not in any mortal danger he calls out to the wild looking dwarf, "Do you require any assistance dwarf?"

[Megamieuwsel]

"Brrrr!
Did anybody get the number of that donkey-cart?"

Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs from his mind , Megamieuwsel rises to a sitting position.
A few random grabbing moves with his hands retrieve his hat and the sorry conditionit's in...

"OH MY FROG! LOOK AT MY HAT! My taylor's gonna KILL me , if he sees this. "

Furiously leaping to his feet , he looks left and right , in search of the reptilian "hat-molester" , his eyes ablaze with rage.
Alas ; the lizard isn't there anymore .

"Hmpf... The blasted creeper took a hike , the coward....
Now what to do?
Hmmmm..... AH! I know!"

Keeping his right hands close above his mutilated hat he utters some unintelligeble word and with a soft green glow , the observant bystander , unavailable as usual , could see it "un-dent itself and that little tear close invisible.{{OOC.-Mending. -OOC}}

"There! As good as new!
Now , how's the rest doing..."

[WhoNAN]

The remaining two orcs last only for a short second longer with the group closing in around them, and no large winged distraction.

"Everything seems to have calmed... perhaps the Wyvern was hunting the Orcs which invaded its wood... but mistakenly cuaght some bistandards in the process."

Whonan makes quick work of removing the bodies of the Orcs from near the campfire. The two guards seem to be wearing leather armor, and had greataxes in their possession. The Chief Orc wears a crowned helmet that is well decorated. He has a small rough looking bag that hands at the side and what appears to be an "out of place" map case tied to the belt, much too refined for the Orcish tastes most likely along with the crown a spoil of war. All of their things are well stained with blood.

The wind kicks up a bit and the fire roars, as the scent of insence is now slightly noticeable coming from the fire... upon further examination of the area, the intent of the circle and fire become a bit more evident, the women must have indeed been performing some sort of ceremony. They now are huddled together, comforting the youngest who is visibly shaken by the bloodshed.

[BigRedRod]

Looking down at the Orc leader on the ground before him Rod reaches for the bag. He has a quick rummage, finding a small number of gold coins, a little food and a large amount of knuckle bones. Claiming the coins he throws the bag on the campfire and sits down, quite overwhelmed by the past few minutes of intense combat
His body aches from where the wyvern struck him
Heh, i've been on land for over an hour and I still haven't had a drink

Sitting up Rod watches the others

[Gralhruk]

For an answer the dwarf splits the Orc's head open like a ripe melon, dropping the foul beast with a spray of blood (alot of this)and brains (not so much here).

"I think I got this one," he grunts to the tall human, "Thanks for the offer, though".

He sketches a quick salute with his axe. He kneels by the fallen orc, carefully wiping his bloody axe on the beasts ragged cloak. He stands and tests the edge again, catching Crito's eye as he does so.

"Still sharp, friend!"

He sits by the fire and hauls a flask from his belt, taking a quick drink. He notices Rod and offers the flask before setting about oiling his fine axe.

[BigRedRod]

Rod Nods and takes the offered flask, he takes a drink and hands it back
"Many Thanks"

Noticing the mud on his jacket and trousers from when he was knocked to the ground Rod sighs
Oh well, I suppose I can get it off later

Looking at the rest of the crowd after the short battle, Rod absently pokes the fire with a stick

[Cadrius]

Cadrius nods and says, "I suspected as much," managing to avoid most of the spray of gore.

He glances over to the trio of women two consoling the one who had been down. She did not appear to be severely wounded and seemed to be in capable hands. If not he could always see what he could do, perhaps the old combat medic training he had received years ago might still serve him.

Momentarily the throbbing pain located in his side he bends down and picks up the crowned helmet and the map. A puzzled expression crosses his face as he tries to imagine from whom they had taken these things.

With his thumb he wipes a smear of blood off the front of the helmet and reveals a symbol. His eyes widen in surprise as he makes out a griffon grasping a rose in its talons. Unconsciously his other hand reachs up and traces a faint symbol of the same flower running across the guard of his sword.

He stares in thought at the meaning of finding such a thing before unrolling the map. He frowns as the map is not in perfect condition and he walks over to the purple panted man and the one in a gray cloak saying, "What do you make of this?"

As if suddenly realizing his breach of ettiquette the man snaps to attention his already good posture becoming perfect and says in a formal voice, "My apologies. My name is Cadrius, I trust you all are well after that battle."

[Kelemyn]

With the dragon-thing gone, and the orcs dead, Elanor approaches less cautiously. There do indeed seem to be injured folk here, although it is hard to tell what has happened to whom, and which of those bleeding need help the most. She notices that the three women huddled together near the fire seem to be badly shaken, and she tries to offer some comfort. The blonde woman is crying softly, but as Elanor approaches, she shakes her head and looks over at the man in gray. Elanor can see that fresh blood soaks his clothing. She stands and moves toward him.

"Can I help you? I have some skill in healing..."

The tiny air snake hovers over her shoulder, near her ear.

[WhoNAN]

OOC: AHHH, Did it again... Editing to account for other posts.

The brunette woman Shrieks in horror as Rod throws the Garbage on their sacred fire. She stares at him very crossly with growing anger. Her older sister steps in and quietly speaks to her... "The circle has already been tainted, it is no use to us now anyways."

The brunette woman attempts to shrug off her upset mood. The grey clad man walks forward to where the others are seated, grasping the map .... "May I take a quick look"

"Thank you for heeding my call. Let me introduce Ember, Jasmine, and Annastania.... for it is their aid you were truly coming to." As there names are called the three women give a respectful bow in order from eldest to youngest. When the man finishes Ember steps forward... "My sisters and I thank you for your help... we did not expect to be caught in the clash of Orc and beast as we were."

Whonan opens the map e with a motion, studying it by the fire light. An expression of discovery comes upon his face... and he holds it directly between him and the flames as hidden markings begin to appear and shine through the parchment. He rolls it up, and hands it to the man that spoke of the artifact. "I might think this could be of use to you."

The women meanwhile speak a few words to each other privatly and then begin picking various things up from the area and carefully storing them away in a bag, and case. The last thing they pick up seems to be pieces of a split gem pulsing with a strange glow. Anna holds the glowing crystal in her hands after her sister placed it there in amazement. Jasmine also hands a piece to her older sister and finally one to Whonan. "At least we finished this portion of the ritual." She smiles and they all go to sit with the others... The wounds of the Grey clad man now oddly closed, with only a bit of blood stains to hint where they were.

Whonan speaks to the kind lady offering him medical attention. "Thank you, I believe I am alright now though."

[Cadogan Trahem]

In all the commotion of the battle Crito's attention turned away from Cadogan for a mer moment only to turn and find the mage missing. Now with the Orcs stopped and the Wyvern gone and Cadogan still not in sight it becomes apparent something is not right.

To everyones amazement the Mage appears on the edge of the woods where the Wyvern had just retreated, its Cadogan alright and he looks less then healthy. His body is covered with blood and every step must be a pain no doubt. His shield arm has been mauled and he is bleeding fast in his hand is his little morning star, covered with blood also. He drifts blindly towards the group, stops short and falls face first into the dust. Giving a little cry of pain as he does so.

[cappucina]

Cappucina stayed hidden for the rest of the fight. She has already retrieved her dagger. Flitting over to the body like a shadow and then finding a new place to hide. No one saw her and no one sees her now.

She is about to step out of her hidey spot when something catches her eye. She freezes, her eyes become little slits, everything 'happy go lucky' about her is no longer evident and now she looks more like a hungry alley cat stalking some feathered prey. She watches carefully, very carefully, as the big split green gem is passed out among the three women and the man in grey. Each sister tucks her piece away quickly, but Cap has noted where each piece ended up. One tucked deep inside a hidden pocket, one in a pouch now inside a shirt, and one gone away in a pouch around a neck.

She then gathers herself together and wiggles her way through the shrubs and bursts out from the foliage and into the clearing around the fire. She weaves her way through all of you around the fire asking, "Everyone OK? No one dying? I saw the whole thing from there," she squeaks and points to her first hiding place. She stops when she's gotten next to Cadrius and looks up and up and up at him and gives him a shy look of admiration. "I am impressed with everyone. I think that if we all wanted to find an artifact that we could. Do we have a map now? Let's form a group and think of a name. We'll be famous throughout the lands for slaying orcs and beasties and finding artifacts soon enough." She smiles at all of you happily. "We will need a leader and a treasurer. I nominate myself as treasurer!"

Just then Cadogen appears, stumbles up from his chase and collapses. "Eek! Cadogen! We've got to help him!" Cappucina shreeks and starts tugging the well armored fighter with her toward the fallen blind man.

[Kelemyn]

Elanor sees a figure stagger out of the woods. It's the blind mage! He appears to be badly injured, but makes his way towards the group, collapsing in the dust just as he reaches them.

Elanor kneels over him, quickly taking a small kit out of her pack. She opens it to reveal rolled up strips of soft cloth, numerous bottles and jars of ointments and salves, and small intstruments. As soon as her hands touch the mage, he feels something flow into him, something soothing and comforting. She works to stop his wounds from bleeding, then she cleans them and bandages them with the strips of cloth.

[OOC: convert DIVINE FAVOR to CURE LIGHT WOUNDS: heals 6 points.]

[Cadrius]

Cadrius frowns as he is tugged along by the halfling toward the heavily wounded man. He did not have anything on him that would help wounds like that. A ripped shirt makes a good bandage, but it means little when one is in such terrible shape. Fortunately a young woman gets there first and produces a very professional looking medical kit.

"Easy little one," he says, "I do believe she has everything under control." As he says this he notices that the bleeding almost immediately stopped after the bandages were placed on. He blinks once and then says, "An astounding job madam healer."

He bows formally and then goes to one knee next to the wounded man, "How are you sir? Did you have a run in with that beast as it fled?"

He still clenches the mostly blood-soaked helmet in his right hand as he talks to the man. It is only after the wounded one opens his eyes and does not look directly at him when spoken to that he suspects a form of vision impairment.

[Cadogan Trahem]

Cough "All I..." Cough "..Remember was being picked up by sharp blades.." Cough Cough "...And incredable pain, somehow I managed to get my morning star and hit whatever it was. Apparently it doesn't like food that fights back." The mage attempts to make a joke, but the sarcasm doesn't seem to go well with the people around him.

[cappucina]

As Elanor ministers to Cadogen's wounds, Cap moves up close and watches. While Elanor kneels and rearranges the bandages, Cappucina gently picks all the leaves and twigs out of the nice lady's hair. "Did you do that with magic?" she asks.

[Kelemyn]

"I guess it's magic. I really don't know how I do it," Elanor confesses to Cappucina. "Something just flows out of me like that when people are hurt.

"Is everyone here OK now?" she asks, looking around at all those assembled.

[WhoNAN]

The three women sit crosslegged around the fire, as the odd man gives them each a bit of food and water from his satchel. The eldest two looking over the others, only recognizing the woman tending to the injured man. The youngest is still enthralled by the gem in her hands.

"So what do you make of it?" Whonan asks the Purple clad man, reffering to the map.

"Seems those orcs plundered a Party with the same intentions as yours, aye."

[Megamieuwsel]

"Hmmm.... the markings on it don't make any sense to me this way.
Maybe........"

Stepping up to the fire , Megamieuwsel holds the scroll in front of him close enough to be heated , yet not so close as to scorch it.
The heat works its own magic on the piece of vellum and new lines appear on the scroll , completing an elaborate depiction of a vaguely dragon-shaped volcano(which can be deducted from the column of smoke arising from it) next to a huge waterfall , which on its turn plummets into a valley that lies in the shadow of the volcano.
Even though the depiction is in back-and-white only , the artist managed to make it look like one particular spot in the overcast valley appears to shine like silver in moonlight.

"There we have it , gentlemen.
AND ladies , ofcourse...
Another clue to further my quest for Gargeltjes Goggles , cleverly hidden with the old-fashioned trick of writing in acid.
Now , where is this tableau located?
And ," turning around to scan the area , " Where's that darn mule of mine?
PATOKKEL!!! Where in the name of lady Bureaucratia are you , you darned donkey!"

A short silence elapses , only to be broken after a couple of seconds by a distant :Hi-Haa and some unsure hoofbeatings growing louder...

[Cadrius]

The tall man raises his eyebrow creating a series of ridges on his forehead. He then shrugs and says, "If that is true then you have an incredible gift madam."

"Is everyone here OK now?"

Once hearing this Cadrius quickly covers up his wound by dropping his right arm down to his side. He continues to clean off the crowned helmet with his right hand and a spare piece of cloth.

He looks over and observes the purple panted man go off about the map found and the acid etching. Once he starts yelling for what could only be the mule he had been with earlier Cadrius sighs and resumes cleaning the helmet by the fire.

[cappucina]

Cappucina sees that there are more people hurt, the tall man for one, but that not all of them want to be healed. She doesn't understand the motivation for this at all. But, she keeps quiet on the matter.

Cappucina takes the chance now that everyone is recovering around the ladies' fire to introduces herself to anyone she missed before - while she was spying on the magic shop or pretending to be the dwarf. She introduces herself to Cadrius, "I'm Cappucina. You are very handsome. Maybe you wouldn't be so sad if you found the right ladyfriend. The next spell I was going to learn was for seeing invisible people, but I don't have to learn that next. I could maybe learn a spell that shrinks or grows people." She seems to think it important that you consider all possibilities. When Cadrius doesn't seem too interested, Cap makes a mental note to go to a beauty shop tomorrow and get a more attractive hairdo. It must be the topknot.

She introduces herself to the other halfling. "I'm Cappucina and Yondalla must be proud of you for how you used your healing today!" She tells him in an aside, "You and I will really be a help to these big folks I think."

Cap looks around, everyone else has met her and she's met them. Except for the sisters. Cappucina thinks that the women are a little strange, so she approaches them cautiously. "Excuse me. Excuse me ladies. Hello! I heard you are sisters. Real life sisters or some witchy type sisters? I bet your mom was happy that you all had diffferent hair color so she could always tell who was who, because otherwise you look quite alike. What were you doing out here with the fire. Why was it sacred? Is this guy your brother (she asks pointing to the grey man)? Is he nice or not?, Cap really needs the answer to this question so she knows whether or not she may steal away his quarter of the emerald. She doesn't steal from nice people, so Elanor and her shop are safe. S'okay, she's got a feeling Elanor might help her learn a spell or two and she has found lots of better things to pocket. Lots of shiny green sparkly things.

[WhoNAN]

The redheaded woman pauses for a moment to take in the small woman addressing them.

A "Yes?" and "Hello..." were feeble attempts to respond in turn to Cappucina's inquiries while she was talking... after that Ember simply sat until she finished.

"These are my sisters, born to the same mother... we have been called witches before however.... and we were indeed performing a Ritual of bonding here tonight... but as you saw it got cut a bit short." Jasmine interrupts... "Its a long standing tradition, you see... a very complicated process, and yes a very sacred one also, it strengthens our bonds to each other, and sanctifies our power." Finally Anna cuts in.. "I was finally ready." Ember looking proud of her youngest sister speaks confidently "Today was Anna's birthday, today she became a woman, and the final link." They all turn to look at Whonan... the youngest blushing immensly... where he sits seemingly wrapped up in another world. Jasmine looks back at Cappucina, "Whether he's kind or not, he would want you to decide that for yourself.... thats just the way he is." speaking as if he wasn't even there.

Whonan's eyes, twinkling and dancing with the firelight that so instensly consumes his attention, stay fixated straight forward, however he speaks addressing certainly the young Halfling woman. "Their mother took me in when I was still just a boy... I owe to her almost everything I know.... she is a very great woman." For some reason this makes Ember a bit uneasy, almost visibly jealous, however Whonan continues... "And who might you be? I haven't seen you around here before." his gaze finally straying from the fire, to meet Cappucina's... where she can now fully see his quiet smile, highlighted by the fire dancing off his dark etched features.

[Cadrius]

Cadrius blinks in surprise as the barrage of conversation from the halfling woman.

"Er," "why than-," and "Well," is what he manages to stammer and slip into the conversation before she is off leaving the tall man feeling a little bashful after receving a compliment from a halfling. The words actually bring a touch of color to his cheeks and a slight smile to his mouth before it flees before his somber state once again.

"Pleased to meet you Cappuchina, my name is Cadrius," he finally says once she's moved onto another person to speak to. He sighs but his step seems a bit lighter as he approaches the others by the fire.

"Are you ladies well?" he asks stepping fully into the firelight, "I noticed one of you were down during the fight and I feared the worst."

His gaze flicks back and forth between the women and the gray cloak, listening intently to his story. He nods a bit perplexed and a bit disturbed by the accusations of witchcraft but he shrugs and lets it go. He had no right to judge anyone anymore.

[Kelemyn]

Elanor listens to Ember's explanation of the fire and the ritual with fascination. Is it witchcraft then? She is intensely curious about magic in all its manifestations. She has to wonder about the three sisters, especially the youngest.... "today she became a woman", says the oldest, and then they all look at the gray cloaked man. My goodness! What was going on around here? Elanor shares a grin and a wink with Cappucina.

"Well, if my services are no longer needed here, I'll be heading back to the shop." Treasure is beginning to squeak and hiss hungrily again, but has been relatively well-behaved the whole time. He darts back and forth over Elanor's head, occasionally zipping over to inspect the glowing gem in Anna's open hand, but returning in an instant each time.

Elanor turns to the halfling woman. "Cappucina, come by my shop tomorrow if you like. We can talk some more about those goggles you mentioned before.

"Good night everyone!"

[BigRedRod]

Rod looks at Whonan and listens to his explanation of the sisters
Finally he finds an opening and adresses Whonan while approaching and sitting near him
"Your power, It's not magic is it, No I recognise it. I Think it's something like the power that hasbeen gifted to me so recently."
Rod looks at the sisters, his face is oddly inquisitive,
"Do you have similar powers? How did your powers develop"
Rod smiles
"Sorry, I hadn't seen another with powers similar to mine, neither had the crew by the speed with which they trhrew the gem overboard and then dumped me at the nearest port"

[Crito]

Crito is relieved to see that everyone is safe, especially now that Elanor has tended to those with the worst injuries. As she bids everyone goodnight, Crito decides it's a good time for him to head back to the town hall and take care of business. He gives a wave to the group, who mostly seem intent on some map they recently discovered, and follows Elanor back to town and into the hall where he arranges to purchase his vendor license.

[magfrump]

upon making it to the town hall, crito sees a large, striking human, apparently fascinated with the door. this makes it problematic to pass, as the figure does not appear to have noticed crito.

[Cadrius]

Satisfied that everything is in order and that nobody is seriously wounded Cadrius nods to the others and says with a brief salute, "It has been a pleasure and an honor protecting you. Good Evening."

He makes his way back to town much more slowly than he left it. Keeping his right hand over his wound as the blood slowly clots. He arrives back at the inn and makes his way inside and resumes eating the remnants of his cold soup.

[Second Talon]

Second bounds back into the inn, still a bit annoyed at everyone's bloodthirsty "Kill it now" attitude against the wyvern. Sitting down at a table, he watches everyone for a while, looking for anything of interest.

Noting the bleeding man, he says "Hey fella... you alright?"

[BigRedRod]

BigRed heads back to town still wanting to find out more about his power but realises that night is drawing near and he hasn't slept for a long time.
He finds a suitable inn which contains one or two of the people he saw fighting the wyvern and rents a room. Then he sits quietly with a mug of ale weighing up what to do with the rest of his life and watching the other bar patrons

[WhoNAN]

Whonan sits calmly as the others fade back to the city. In response to Rod's query he simply replies.. "Perceptive..."

The young blond woman becomes more calm and confident as time passes... she nods to the young man interested in her status. "I'll be fine. But I do appreciate your concern."

Whonan stands to see the others off... and stops Rod for a moment... "We will talk soon... for now, rest, with confidence in only yourself." The features of his face alit with life, obviously not tired at all, and very much alert... drastically in contrast with the others who seem to be weary. After the others leave for the town the four odd strangers remain seated at the fire, and their presence nearby fades from the tired minds of those they met that night.

[Cadrius]

The dark haired man nods saying, "Yes I am, thank you for asking. That beast delivered quite a blow."

He pauses to check his wound and as he suspected the bleeding has already stopped. It is still puckered on his side, but it would heal in time.

He pauses to take a draw from his ale before saying, "That was wise about not attacking the beast. Apparently it got more than it bargained for with us."