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00:42, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Part 6 - Ever onward.

Posted by Dungeon MasterFor group 0
Aarnr Foultongue
Player, 283 posts
Human (technically)
Cleric of froggin' Bowbe!
Mon 25 Mar 2013
at 13:42
  • msg #83

Re: Round 5 Roundup

"Thou earned a place in the sagas thyself," Aarnr also congratulates Aramil. "That was froggin' well done.  Big apple-john wasn't it ... wonder if he has a friend ?"  The priest eyes the stairs with interest, though when he rises to retrieve his sword it is with difficulty.

"Thou too," he looks upon the priestess with new eyes. "Strumpet thou may be, but thou have also the heart of a lion !" he praises her.  "Thou would not be disgraced in the company of my people !"

"Best we not move Fergus ... an' if he does die this night then how better than surrounded by the bloody corpses of his foes ?  We must give Bowbe first choice of their arms in payment for his aid in the battles we have won this night."

"Someone go up there and see if thou can find the reeky lich-staff and trappings," he orders the uninjured. "An' bring us food and drink that we may feast !"
Erista
player, 231 posts
Mon 25 Mar 2013
at 22:34
  • msg #84

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Erista stands up from the rubble and looks at the fallen ogre with a satisfied smile.  After a moment, she realizes nobody has the faintest idea what she'd just done... and only a moment after that sees Fergus and Eilieen, and doesn't care.  "Alright," she agrees to Aarnr's proposal.  "I'll go have a look upstairs.  You better keep those two alive 'til I get back," she warns.

She turns and starts climbing the stairs, quietly.
Dungeon Master
GM, 284 posts
You're trying what?
Hahahahahahaha!
Wed 27 Mar 2013
at 10:31
  • msg #85

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Erista makes her way up the stairs, making no more noise than a falling snowflake.  Which might, perhaps, be unnecessary, considering the awful din that everybody else was making just a moment ago. 

Downstairs, preparations are made to spend the night in the tower.  Orc-fouled and crumbling it may be, but it will, at least, provide shelter and a little protection.  Those who had remained outside make their way in to view the carnage...
Bilfro Gabbins
player, 27 posts
Where's my book?
Death Unseen watches!
Wed 27 Mar 2013
at 10:59
  • msg #86

Re: Round 5 Roundup

"My precious!"

With utmost haste the scrawny man ambulates towards a specific location with the room, avoiding the centre of the room with a suspicious glare.

"I do in earnest profess my dire yearning to uncovering my holding in what would be regarded as an unsullied state," he mutters rather loudly.  Reaching out with his Stick formerly known as Spear he lifts up and attempts to move aside various rugs and blankets.

"May the powers that be have preserved my chronicles and scribblings throughout this most miserable occurrence!"

He soon retrieves both staff and pack, immediately opening the latter to search its content.

"Oh dear oh dear oh dear...."
Aarnr Foultongue
Player, 285 posts
Human (technically)
Cleric of froggin' Bowbe!
Wed 27 Mar 2013
at 13:46
  • msg #87

Re: Round 5 Roundup

The priest glowers at Bilfro.

"An' thou has to decide what thou are to do with the flap-mouthed, guts-griping haggard," Aarnr reminds Corian as he casts about for something to use to wrap about the bloody gash on Fergus's pate.  "Thou can enslave him or sell him ..."

To his certain knowledge, any prisoners that the foe had taken become the property of the victors and are counted amongst the spoils.

"What of thou," he asks Eilieen gently. "Lion or no, thou bleed well, an' neither of us has the strength to berate the gods to bestow their gifts.  But I may bind the wound for thee ?"
Corian Barade
NPC, 57 posts
A young gentleman
in need of assistance.
Wed 27 Mar 2013
at 15:27
  • msg #88

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Corian takes Aarnr's question with all the seriousness the priest lends it.  He ponders for a moment, and glances at Bilfro who seems to be poking through a stack of soiled orcish bedding (though, for all the mage knows of the domestic habits of goblinoids, the orcs might have changed their bedding this very morning, and that could be the clean stuff).

He looks back to Aarnr, "You are, indubitably, correct.  The man is our slave to do with as we please.  However, I would mention that he did seem to cast a mighty spell which helped in felling the ogre.  A spell so mighty that I have, in all honesty, never seen its like before today.  It is my belief that he has, through his part in the victory, in fact earned his freedom."
Eilieen
Player, 253 posts
Cure light wounds!
Cure light wounds!
Thu 28 Mar 2013
at 11:28
  • msg #89

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Heartened by both Aarnr's healing of Fergus and his unexpect compliment - though 'strumpet' unsurprisingly receives a raised brow - Eilieen settles back into a daze for a long moment, her head spinning, her wound a dull, pulsing heat in her side.  "Stay alive," she agrees rather dumbly with Erista's suggesting, nodding her head.

A good plan, that.

With the further discussion, she rouses herself.  "No slaving, please," the priestess weakly protests.  "We freed the man, it would hardly do to remove said freedom."  She glances down at the wound.  "I do bleed, don't I?" There's a touch of wonder in her tone.  "Well.  The clothing can hardly be ruined further, I suppose."

Focusing herself, she blinks several times at Aarnr.  "Ah.  Yes.  Binding of the wound.  Indeed, Aarnr, I would request your aid in that."  Another pat to the other priest follows, this time upon the shoulder.  "Very kind of you...we shall have to berate our gods on the morrow."  Shrugging out of her cloak, she glances down at her gown in some dismay.  "Well that I am used to baring myself before others," she states with a certain weariness.  "'Strumpet' indeed, though I have not earned the reputation of my peers."

With a few whimpers and twitches of pain, she manages to divest herself of the upper portion of her gown and pull up the shift beneath to expose the wound.
Oswald Osbourne
player, 124 posts
Thu 28 Mar 2013
at 20:23
  • msg #90

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Ozzy stands silent in the doorway, his wide eyes blinking in disbelief. He had arrived in time to see Aarnr wound the Ogre and then watched as first a rainbow of color appeared, and then Aramil cut the monster down. Aramil? His travelling companions never ceased to amaze him. Pulling notepad from his pocket, he begins taking notes while the scene is still fresh in his memory. Occasionally he glances up from the scribbling to look toward Fergus and Eileen, both wounded, one more seriously than the other. He quietly hoped the big farmer didn't die today, but he had a feeling he would lose more than one friend before he made it back home.
Aarnr Foultongue
Player, 286 posts
Human (technically)
Cleric of froggin' Bowbe!
Fri 29 Mar 2013
at 07:29
  • msg #91

Re: Round 5 Roundup

"He's your fobbin' prisoner," Aarnr replies disinterestedly to Corian, his tone suggesting his own options would involve blunt instruments.

Lacking the delicate sensibilities of the civised world in general, and having been forewarned of the libidinous proclivities of those who follow Zadastha, the priest is in no wise surprised or perturbed by Eilieen's casual baring of her flesh ... indeed all his concern is centred upon the bloody gash in her hip caused by the orc's axe.

The wound is indeed a bad one, and once more the priestess rises in Aarnr's estimation, both that she earned it by her bravery and now suffers it stoically. "I'm going to have to teach thee to froggin' duck," he tells her blithely but with good humour.  "Were it not for the gifts bestowed by the spleeny gods, I'd sew that up ..."

"As it is ... I'll wash and wrap it and thou will gleepin' well do naught this night that'll make it worse !"
Colwyn Akbar
NPC, 71 posts
It's a trap!
No problem
Sun 31 Mar 2013
at 13:28
  • msg #92

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Colwyn enters the tower and wrinkles his nose in disgust, "It's stinkin' worse 'an that place what Bilfro were locked in."  Then he laughs, "Maybes tha's meanin' as not all the stink there were comin' from 'im."  He grins at Bilfro, to show that this was just a little light-hearted banter.

The smell, the filth, and the blood do nothing to deter the rogue, who starts searching the room...

Bilfro is going through the pack that he had found.  Taking items out, examining them, and setting them carfully aside.  He does seem familiar with them, even going so far as to clutch one book to his chest, turn his eyes upward, and sit there in that posture, smiling for a moment. 

Colwyn completes a quick circuit of the chamber, "Fer thiefs an' murderers, they wasn't 'avin' much stuff.  Jus' blankets, rugs, rotted meat, cheap beer, an' wine what smells so bad as I wouldn' be given it ter me worstest enemy's ugliest brother."  Drawing his sword, he approaches one of the dead orcs, and uses the tip of the blade to move aside its ragged tunic.  "Them's 'avin' no end of louses an' ticks though."  He flicks the blade, and angles it upwards, a purse hanging from the tip.

"Least one of the buggers were 'avin' some savin's by the looks of it."
Bilfro Gabbins
player, 29 posts
Where's my book?
Death Unseen watches!
Sun 31 Mar 2013
at 14:31
  • msg #93

Re: Round 5 Roundup

"I must express gratitude that the olfactory sense is the first to yield in an unending assault upon it!"  Bilfro certainly sounds relieved as he answer Colwyn and then retreats to a place with more light and air circulation to continue his study of his reclaimed belongings.

"Great Scotty, I must peruse the state of my paraphernalia with unmitigated expedience!"

He sits down and carefully examines one item at a time before painstakingly placing them back into his pack as if doing a jigsaw puzzle.  One item gets placed aside, however, a bar of soap.  He pats his lovingly before turning to the last item.  A large, expensive looking book.

As before he turns his eyes upward but this time more pleading than smiling.  With an audible gulp he opens the cover of the book.  He stares intently into it for several moments.

"AAAAEEEEIIIII!!"

Holding the book in both hands in front of himself he shoots up as if he had just seated himself upon something rather painfully, er, painful, eyes as wide as whatever any spectator may consider wider than humanly possible.

"Blasphemous and uncouth motherless progeny of lower and questionable subspecies!" he shouts in an outrageous tone, lifting the book towards the sky, still staring at it.  Then he plops down on the spot, looking more dejected than a puppy that received a kick instead of a pat on the head.
Erista
player, 233 posts
Sun 31 Mar 2013
at 16:18
  • msg #94

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Erista prowls quietly about the Ogre's chambers...
Aarnr Foultongue
Player, 288 posts
Human (technically)
Cleric of froggin' Bowbe!
Mon 1 Apr 2013
at 06:35
  • msg #95

Re: Round 5 Roundup

"Stop thy fen-suckin' sheep-scarin' racket !"  Aarnr bellows.  Perhaps if he'd understood Bilfro's barrage, he might have enjoyed both the valiant attempt at insults and learning of the implied damage to the assumed spellbook ... but as it is, the priest is rightly concerned that the noise will disturb his patients, not to mention curdle the cheap beer.
Eilieen
Player, 256 posts
Cure light wounds!
Cure light wounds!
Tue 2 Apr 2013
at 13:10
  • msg #96

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Eilieen sits silent as Aarnr bandages her wounded hip.  It's uncomfortable, but better that than bleeding.  She accepts his commands with good grace, bowing her head in agreement.  "Well that I DID learn to duck, Aarnr.  Certainly a skill worth developing...and I do promise not to aggravate the injury."  Her smile is weak but true.  "Better that than suffering under the needle."

An ugly thought; it would leave a scar.

"The morrow will bring relief for Fergus, and our other injured.  Including yourself."  The priestess sighs.  "We merely need to live through the night.  Of course, foul as it is, an ogre's den is likely a decent place for that, safe from immediate invaders."  Her lips twist into a thoughtful moue.  "Though I hope his relatives do not drop by for dinner."

Her lips twist further at Corian's mention of lice.  "Goddess," the priestess sighs.  "Safety or cleanliness?  I suppose the one is already far gone...I shall require the purchase of new clothing at the next town, in any case."  Her eyes turn to Bifro as the old man cries out; she winces at Aarnr's rejoinder, though the priestess agrees with the spirit of the command.  "What on earth is he on about now?"
Corian Barade
NPC, 58 posts
A young gentleman
in need of assistance.
Wed 3 Apr 2013
at 13:28
  • msg #97

Re: Round 5 Roundup

"I believe that is probably a spell book." Corian answers quietly, "And I would surmise that the orcs have damaged it in some way.  Perhaps they have defaced the pages, or simply torn them out to use for kindling.  In any case, if they have made the book unusable, then they have robbed poor Bilfro of his magic."

The mage thinks for a moment, then tries a different explanation which might work better, considering his audience.  "Imagine that, as a priest, your god suddenly stopped answering your prayers... " a glance at Aarnr, "or started ignoring your demands, now matter how profanely you couched them.  You would suddenly lose your ability to heal people, or ward off dark powers."

"With his book destroyed, Bilfro has no access to magic until he can replace the lost spells."


Colwyn, meanwhile continues searching the bodies, punctuating the activity with the occasional brief pause to crush assorted ticks and lice.  "Don't want these crawlin' on us while we's sleepin'." he explains to Ozzy, "More as we's killin' now, less as we'll 'ave ter fight off in the night."
Eilieen
Player, 258 posts
Cure light wounds!
Cure light wounds!
Wed 3 Apr 2013
at 18:55
  • msg #98

Re: Round 5 Roundup

"Oh dear," Eilieen whispers.  "Poor Bilfo."  It sounds absolutely miserable - working one's entire life to master the discipline, painstakingly assembling a book of spells, then having a bunch of orcs use it for toilet paper.  Horrid.

She screws up her sharp features in concentration.  "If only I had a prayer to cleanse such a book.  But if it has actually been physically defaced, torn or shredded...I know not.  I will meditate on this - perhaps Zadastha might provide me with insight upon the morrow."

OOC - Guess I'll be looking through the spells to see what I can find... :)
Aarnr Foultongue
Player, 289 posts
Human (technically)
Cleric of froggin' Bowbe!
Thu 4 Apr 2013
at 06:37
  • msg #99

Re: Round 5 Roundup

"The gods of magic have rejected Bilfo for his failure," Aarnr nods his understanding of Corian's explanation.  "The foamin' flapjack must try harder to be worthy."

"He could scrub the hell-hated book in well-water," the priest suggests, "perhaps that would make them heed the gabble-mouthed ruttock."

"An' unless this 'meditation' thou speak of involves sittin' on thy pleasingly-proportioned posterior and not fobbin' shifting, thou're not doing it !" the healer informs his patient, fixing her with a steely glare that brooks no argument.

"Now ... lest thou wish for Bowbe to deny those claims I make of him, we needs gather up the arms an' armour from these feckless curs," Aarnr points to the corpses of the orcs and ogre to show just which feckless curs to which he is referring, "an' pile it up so the god can take his earned portion of our spoils.  Come, thou skinny, patch-bearded wastrel, thou can help - if thou cannot hold thy head up before thy own gods, then thou might at least give mine his due !" in his own way the priest attempts to cheer Bilfro up by getting him involved in the task (or else is just sick to his back teeth of the snivelling).
Oswald Osbourne
player, 126 posts
Thu 4 Apr 2013
at 09:10
  • msg #100

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Ozzy snickers in the background, clearly enjoying the drama? comedy? He is unsure of which at the moment, so he spends his moments watching it all play out. When Aarnr gestures to the fallen and suggests collecting their gear, he walks over and begins the arduous task of disarmoring a corpse. He keeps his ears open as he searches the bodies, still half-interested in Bilfro and his own personal loss. He says to the old man, " Don't worry, stick with us and we'll have a new tome of spells for you in no time! I believe I heard mention earlier of  the 'effects of the mage Eralion.' - mebbe' we'll find what you need then." He nearly topples over in the effort of loosening one of the shoulder straps on the cadaver, catching himself just in time. He adds, " Don't despair. There is always Hope. An old paladin friend of mine was found of reminding me that Hope never disappoints. This too shall pass, but Hope springs eternal." When the buckle finally ends up breaking loose, the little bard ends of falling on his arse anyway.
Erista
player, 235 posts
Thu 4 Apr 2013
at 15:40
  • msg #101

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Erista stops herself before she starts whistling softly.
Dungeon Master
GM, 286 posts
You're trying what?
Hahahahahahaha!
Fri 5 Apr 2013
at 17:53
  • msg #102

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Corian and Colwyn assist in gathering what they can and, under Aarnr's direction, piling it all in heap near the stairs.  The orcs's arms and armour are not exactly the finest, and their coin is pitiful in its lack of quantity.  The ogre, having just awoken has only a filthy loincloth, and its huge weapon. 

Ozzy rises, rubbing ruefully at his rump and regards the section of floor where he had landed.
Oswald Osbourne
player, 127 posts
Fri 5 Apr 2013
at 21:48
  • msg #103

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Ozzy gets up, rubbing his backside painfully as looks down to see what it was he had landed so abruptly on. " HEY!" he shouts, trying to get the others attention as he points to the floor near his boots, " There's a trap door here under all this trash!" Once informed, he reaches down to try and lift the portal.
Aramil
Player, 113 posts
Sat 6 Apr 2013
at 09:02
  • msg #104

Re: Round 5 Roundup

<Backpost> After the shock of actually taking down the ogre Aramil moves in slow motion and seems a little spaced out. Moving on instinct rather than through conscious thought the half-elf starts to gather wood and prepare a fire for cooking food. There is lots of rotten wood to choose from and he soon has a warm fire going. He helps get the wounded to a nice cosy place, well cosy for the room and then starts preparing dinner.</Backpost>

Listening to the discussions around him, Aramil smiles at the social chasms that exists between certain members of the party. Aarnr's assumption at the Balfo's status as a slave and how Corian deals with it. As the conversations continue he chuckles to himself, mainly at the old man's complete ignorance of his stand within the group. His head rises as his little friend notices the trapdoor, but he continues working, knowing the group will need some food to prepare for the trials that await them tomorrow, or tonight if they are unlucky.
Aarnr Foultongue
Player, 290 posts
Human (technically)
Cleric of froggin' Bowbe!
Sun 7 Apr 2013
at 06:25
  • msg #105

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Spoils gathered, food being prepared, injured seen to.  In Aarnr's view, all is right with the world.  He even forgives the half-man's outburst in that the trapdoor promises even more excitements than the day has thus far provided.

"Thou stay there !" he instructs Eilieen with mock-sternness as he himself rises, taking up his sword, and joining the minstrel.

"What do thou think ?" he inquires of Ozzy. "Did the rancid curs use the cellars as prison, or for storage ..." he pauses, thinking, "... or perhaps they breed vermin ?"
Oswald Osbourne
player, 128 posts
Sun 7 Apr 2013
at 08:06
  • msg #106

Re: Round 5 Roundup

Ozzy's enthusiasm wanes as Aarnr lists off possible uses for the chambers beneath the cellar door. The thought of what 'vermin' could be possibly bred by the foul orcs makes his skin crawl and he loosens his grip on the pull handle, letting it drop with a dull thud of noise. " Ver-vermin? I dunno' ...mebbe' we should wait for some daylight. Do vermin sleep in the daytime?" he says, taking a step back from the trap door and eyeing it as if it might explode forth with all the horrors of hell.
Eilieen
Player, 260 posts
Cure light wounds!
Cure light wounds!
Mon 8 Apr 2013
at 12:49
  • msg #107

Re: Round 5 Roundup

"I move not at all," Eilieen promises under protest, unsure of her current state of irritation with Aarnr.  Setting aside the matter of his help with healing, she cannot but consider his description of her body.  On the one hand, 'pleasingly proportioned posterior' (while having an attractive alliteration) is the sort of thing she would hear back at the Temple, just before unwarrented advances ending in her having to beat someone over the head with a handy crozier.

On the other, for Aarnr it's high poetry and a compliment mostly devoid of licentious tone.

She settles on the latter, and obeying the healer; it's comforting, for once, to be the one not rushing about trying to cook and clean.  Though, gods above, she could use a bath.  Nothing can save her clothing, sadly.

"I do hope there's some gold," she mutters.  "I am in dire need of a new wardrobe."
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