Turn 124
Crystal frees the gypsies with the help of the messenger, Laban examines
the cave with no luck, Whisper, Stella and Edo decide to heal the
wounded gypsies. Suddenly from the top of the hill, several people
approach. An elvin male, and gnome male approach the wagon where Crystal
(the short female) stands. "Er, excuse me lady... you'd not mind a
tellin' me what's goin' on here, would ya." the gnome (Keldar) asks in a
friendly voice. At the same time, the most beautiful male elf(Cole)
Crystal has ever encountered arrives on the scene, and dismounts his
horse, speaking to Crystal "What has happened here?" before turning and
attempting to aid the people, but appearing frustrated by his inability
to do so. From inside the cave, a male elf (Whisper), a female 1/2 elf
(Stella) and a human male (Edo) approach. Looking up, you see several
more people descending the small hill.
Keldar, the gnome, stand with a big smile on his face, slowly rocking back
and forth on his feet, awaiting an answer of his earlier question
Whisper frowns, as usual distrusting strangers and stays back, holding his
bow in the "ready" but not the "ready to fire" position.
Crystal says in Keldars general direction, but without
looking up, "Oh I killed a giant back there. He was
holding these people to eat them or something." She
stands up and catches sight of Cole. "Hi...I'm
Crystal..who are you?" she murmurs....then snaps out
of it "Um and with me are Edo, Laban, Stella,
Whisper..um...i think thats about it. Labans poking
around in the cave looking for bats or something." She
then looks back at Cole "You don't know how to dance
by any chance do you?"
For the first time you see Cole blush and he replies
quietly,"yes, actually I do." looking away bashfully
he tries to be of further aid to the injured gypsies.
Wulfgar looks around the clearing, stopping his gaze on the dead giants body
and hearing the woman's claim to have killed it seemingly by herself with no
help from the others he raises an eyebrow. He walks to the body of the
giant and inspects it, then looks at the woman to see what she carries on
her person. He looks at each of the others around the camp to see what they
carry.
Letting her curiosity get the better of her, Kay rides over to where Wulfgar
and the giant are and takes a good look at the corpse. "I can't believe this
guy did all that death! I know giants can be mean and all, but this?", She
looks around, expecting to find some more tracks, "You'd think there would
be more of these guys around.."
"Do you make it a habit to doubt a stranger's word in front of his face?"
asks Edo, taken aback by the sudden appearance of nearly a dozen newcomers.
Most of his face is hidden within the cowl of his robe as he leans on his
rune-carved staff. "If you will excuse me there are injuried to care
for...." he says as he starts for the group of captive gypsies.
Kay looks around to see who he was talking to. "Doubt? Who am I doubting
here? I just road over here to see this giant and maybe help out these poor
gypsies. I don't think I'll be much help, as I'm more experienced in making
pain, not healing it. So, what exactly happened? Besides the obvious? Were
you traveling with these gypsies? Or did you just happen to be in this area
at the time?"
Barbaxle rides his horse down to where the gypsies are and starts looking at
there wounds. He then turns to the group and says "Give me one of those
wineskins that we filled up back at Heron (I think that was the name of the
town). It looks like these people could use some of that stuff that we got."
After all the gypsies are free and wounds healed, Barbaxle will ask "What
happened here? Are you just a group of adventurers that stumbled upon this
beast." *Nudge giant with his foot*
After the story is told he will introduce himself "My name is Barbaxle
Forrester, it is a pleasure to meet such a brave set of souls as yourself.
We are on a mission from the King to map out the area and find out why
things have been going wrong in his land. I think that we are getting close
to an answer to his questions."
The gnome looks up and Edo. "Sir, if ya don't mind m'askin', Are you a
wizard? I'm a wizard meself ... mostly. I
am gifted in the arts of illusion. Yourself?"
You notice that the gnome' voice gets higher and faster as he gets excited
at the prospect of finding another mage.
Sighing internally as he rides up, Gareth watches the party scatter into
helping (good!), becoming side-tracked by personal interest (not so good),
and aggravating relations between the parties (again not so good). In a
friendly manner, the knight dismounts to indicate a greater parity between
the two groups and to prevent neck cramp for the observers. "I do believe
that it was not Kay's intent to doubt your word, good sir; rather, she
wisely wishes to examine things beyond the superficial to ensure she has the
true, and not the seeming, state of things. On another venue, my training
as a knight would make me wary of strangers hiding their faces, but I choose
to journey more deeply into introductions and meet the person, not the
image." The friendly warrior motions towards another man [Barbaxle] and
makes a drinking motion, followed by a nod towards the gypsies.
Widening his smile to include the approaching male elf and female half-elf,
the human stretches his neck to loosen his slightly over six foot muscled
frame, flipping a ponytail of bound-back black shoulder length hair between
hilts of cross-shoulder-sheathed longswords. Warm, but searching green eyes
set in a ruggedly handsome face play across the eyes of those before him.
Seemingly satisfied, the paladin reaches across an azure surcoat emblazoned
by a golden hawk with wings outstretched and stretches forth a de-gauntleted
hand.
"Hail and well met. I am Sir Gareth Arr, knight to King Arion of
Dragonmeyr, and follower of Pikahl. We came across the incident scene some
miles back, struck forth to free any who lived, and avenge those who died in
such a brutal ambush; glad we are to see that the fell creature has been
defeated and the rovingfolk rescued. My time with Cao [a motion indicating
a gypsy man among the party] has enriched my understanding of the arts and
the world, and this land would be poorer for their absence. Well and done."
Gareth takes the time to gesture to each person of his party and offer
his/her name. "Might we have the pleasure of your names, as well, to record
such service to the people of the land?"
Crystal appears very annoyed at all these people
suddenly appearing. "My name is Crystal, i'd tell you
the names of these gypsies but they probably all died
while you were introducing yourselves." Crystal then
goes back to laying out the wounded and helping Edo
take care of them.
After Barbaxle hears this he will look at Crystal and say "Don't worry I
have something special that will make all these people fell well again. You
shouldn't be to hasty to snap at people. We all work well as a group here,
we all know our roles that is what has kept us alive to this point." He will
then continue to give each of the gypsies a drink from the waterskin.
Turn 125
To see the story of the reinforcements, click here