Season 1 - Episode 5: On the Trail of Alma

[Eevans]

When the Old Man of the Cave approached Hiker and healed his wound, Hiker was amazed, confounded, and generally happy. Hiker looked over his shoulder at Mr. Dwarf and smiled. Twas true that he indeed felt stronger now than when he received the wound. Of course, this was all relative to rest, healing, and other factors completely lost on Hiker...so what he took out of it was exactly that which was suggested by Nivek ... your wounds will make you stronger ... Hiker mentally noted this important truth to his minimal lexicon and returned to the new practice of practicing which Karl had so kindly showed him.

"Thank you kind sir," Hiker said to the Old Man after the healing, "if'n we was at my home my Mama would surely be givin' you some of the finest grub you could find, is there anything I might do ta help ya? I could tidy up the cave for you, Mama says a clean home is important lest you get them critters crawlin about and that aint right."

[SmootRK]

During little breaks in the day's activities, Nivek retrieves the Amulet found amongst the Goblin Shaman's belongings. He does his best to inspect for any markings, runes, or other identifying marks. Does it seem to have any tell-tale signs of enchantment? Nivek, confers with the old man, "Have ye any skill with regards to items with magical properties? We found this amulet upon a goblin shaman, and was wondering of its significance?? Could this be of help to us, or is it just a trinket to be sold off?" He looks to the druid inquisitively.

[JoeCarr28]

"Yes, there looks to have been a skirmish of some sort at the site where we saw the scrap of Miss Alma's clothing. There was the corpse of a body and warg there too. Do you know of anyone in these woods aside from yourself and Barnaby that would be out to kill goblins?"

"Hmmm ..." (thinking) " ... well, the only other guests in this part of the wood are a group of humans who live on the other side of the hill from the goblins. But they have been there much longer than the goblins and haven't caused me any trouble so far. I think that they are probably a group of bandits using the forest as a hideout, but as far as I'm concerned they keep themselves to themselves and are generally respectful of the forest and its citizens. I imagine that they would be only out to kill the goblins if they thought there was some profit in it."

Once the old man has had time to answer, Tannen then asks whether he knows anything of a tower along the coast

"I don't know, it's possible, but I've never been up there. North of the forest there is several miles of treacherous marshland before you reach the coast. I'm not aware of any known safe route through. If the goblins have some way of navigating the marsh then that would be worrying. More to the point, how would you plan to make it through the marsh to the tower yourselves?"

During little breaks in the day's activities, Nivek retrieves the Amulet found amongst the Goblin Shaman's belongings. He does his best to inspect for any markings, runes, or other identifying marks. Does it seem to have any tell-tale signs of enchantment? Nivek, confers with the old man, "Have ye any skill with regards to items with magical properties? We found this amulet upon a goblin shaman, and was wondering of its significance?? Could this be of help to us, or is it just a trinket to be sold off?" He looks to the druid inquisitively.

The old man takes the amulet from Nivek and inspects it, turning it over in his hand. "It's an interesting shape, and looks quite old, but it's not really my field of expertise. You'd be better off showing to someone more learned in divine or arcane lore."


Doughbert: HP 5/5. No '0' level spells remaining today.
Hiker: HP 9/9.
Karl: HP 8/8.
Nivek: HP 7/7.
Paladin: HP 4/4.
Tannen: HP 9/9.
7 am, 28th day of Harvestide.

[JoeCarr28]

"Thank you kind sir," Hiker said to the Old Man after the healing, "if'n we was at my home my Mama would surely be givin' you some of the finest grub you could find, is there anything I might do ta help ya? I could tidy up the cave for you, Mama says a clean home is important lest you get them critters crawlin about and that aint right."

(Looking worried) "Errr, no thank you lad ... I like my cave just the way it is. You stay away from my things, you hear?"

[Iain_IF]

Paladin, feeling much better, tries to play with Barnie the Bear. First, he'll try to play Ride the Bear. When that doesn't work, he'll play Sing Songs with the Bear. After a suitably short interval, he'll play Run Away from the Annoyed Bear!

Once some of his excess energy is gone, Paladin will collapse in a heap behind Tannen and mention a few things.

"We have some money now; we could hire the banditos to give us a hand with the goblins or at least to hunt the goblins for a bounty. That might help clean up Barnie's woods. Plus, they might be the source of the crossbowman who killed the goblin," he begins. "Also, I don't remember any signs of marsh stuff in the caves. No mud, reeds, or other things that might indicate they were regularly going to and from a marsh. Of course, it was pretty dirty in there, so who knows."

Paladin turns to the hermit. "Do you have something that will make the wildlife around here not want to eat us? I mean besides my best friend in the world Barnie?" asks Paladin. "It would make our lives and the lives of predators in the forest easier if they didn't try to eat us when we wandered around. The humans shouldn't normally be attacked by wolves, but we short folk are the right size for a snack! Plus we smell delectable! Well, except for Nivek; he smells like dirt." Paladin wiggles his nose.

[JoeCarr28]

Paladin, feeling much better, tries to play with Barnie the Bear. First, he'll try to play Ride the Bear. When that doesn't work, he'll play Sing Songs with the Bear. After a suitably short interval, he'll play Run Away from the Annoyed Bear!

Barnaby is happy to indulge Paladin's playfulness. As Paladin expects, 'Ride the Bear' is largely unsuccessful. 'Sing Songs with the Bear' also proves to be a rather one-sided exercise. When it comes to 'Run Away from the Annoyed Bear' though, Barnaby is only too eager to participate. Finally, Barnaby comes up with a game of his own - 'Nurse the Bite Wound' - in which he gives Paladin a 'playful' nip on the upper arm (1 hit point damage), just to remind the halfling that his favorite game of all time is 'Leave the Bear Alone'.

Paladin turns to the hermit. "Do you have something that will make the wildlife around here not want to eat us? I mean besides my best friend in the world Barnie?" asks Paladin. "It would make our lives and the lives of predators in the forest easier if they didn't try to eat us when we wandered around. The humans shouldn't normally be attacked by wolves, but we short folk are the right size for a snack! Plus we smell delectable! Well, except for Nivek; he smells like dirt." Paladin wiggles his nose.

"After your help with the goblins, I'm happy to loan you Barnaby as a bodyguard if you wish to explore the woods further. Besides, it's a useful means of me keeping an eye on you."

"You're right about the stinky dwarf though ...", the old man says, casting a black look at Nivek, "... that's probably why he's so grumpy."


Doughbert: HP 5/5. No '0' level spells remaining today.
Hiker: HP 9/9.
Karl: HP 8/8.
Nivek: HP 7/7.
Paladin: HP 3/4.
Tannen: HP 9/9.
7 am, 28th day of Harvestide.

[Eevans]

(Looking worried) "Errr, no thank you lad ... I like my cave just the way it is. You stay away from my things, you hear?"

"Ok," Hiker shrugs and turns his attentions back to his newest and bestest friend, Karl.

Hiker and Karl continue to "practice", honing their skills with dagger and hammer (at least thats what Hiker has to work with). Further, Hiker continued to work on other important aspects of being a good fighter, things like "war face" (Hikers menace was not great as yet and looked a bit more like agony than menace, but it was something compared to his normal blank stare). Then Karl introduced "proper fighting stance" (rather big words for just standing there holdin' yer weapon Hiker thought, but Karl knew stuff, so Hiker listened) and of course "keep the shield arm high", though Hiker had yet to attain himself a shield, instead he began to use his hammer as a blocking mechanism in his "shield arm/hand" whilst his dagger was used to stab forward or slash. Karl had suggested this as an alternative since Hiker would often need 2 hands to use his bow.

After a good bout of "practice" Hiker sat down to munch on some jerky and a solid swig or two of water. He didnt want to bother Mr. Dwarf or Sgt. Tannen (Hiker had taken to calling Tannen Sergeant as Karl did.) and he did not understand the Half Men at all, although he was amused at the way the one Half Man continued to harass the Bear when it was obvious even to Hiker that the Bear totally and completely hated him.

[SmootRK]

"You're right about the stinky dwarf though ...", the old man says, casting a black look at Nivek, "... that's probably why he's so grumpy."

Nivek snorts a "Hrumph" hearing the comment while he attends to his chores, but otherwise ignores the antics of these 'less serious' races.

[OOC] unless anyone has issue, Nivek will go ahead and wear the found amulet, at least until such a time as we can either figure out if it is magical (or we can realize its function). Since it was on a Shaman (cleric) sort, my best guess is that it might have a function to assist a cleric. I will happily turn it over to whomever it best serves if we can figure out a different function. Of course, if it is non-magical then we can sell it off.

(assuming above is OK with everyone), Nivek puts on the amulet, taking care to notice if there are any tell-tale changes.

[Iain_IF]

Paladin pouts at Barney. Don't like that game so much, he mutters. So, off to the bandits with our money and the bear then?

[JoeCarr28]

(assuming above is OK with everyone), Nivek puts on the amulet, taking care to notice if there are any tell-tale changes.

You don the amulet, but there are no immediate changes or effects and so you carry on with your chores. However, you slowly start to develop the unmistakable sense that the Forge Lord is in someway displeased by this action and you begin to feel your spiritual powers waning ...


Doughbert: HP 5/5. No '0' level spells remaining today.
Hiker: HP 9/9.
Karl: HP 8/8.
Nivek: HP 7/7. 2 '0' level spells remaining today - wearing the amulet seems to have caused you to lose one.
Paladin: HP 3/4.
Tannen: HP 9/9.
9 am, 28th day of Harvestide.