"Nicely done." Ghere left it open who he was speaking to, gathering up the bundle of loot and calling Librand in. "So, are we happy with our day's work, or do we go looking for the other kobolds?"

Brak comes trotting out to join his compatriots, "Huh... another half-orc, eh? Male of the species. Give us a moment to have a look see. But yeah back to barracks. Mission's complete?"

Rurik jumped down out of the window and joined Ghere and Brak. Drawing another javelin from the elongated quiver on his back, he glanced about and cautioned, "'Ware, these big bastards oft have a gaggle of little bastards tagging along with them."

Raising his voice, he called out to the Halfling scout who was somewhere nearby, he felt certain, "Damn-fine shot Librand! Ye surely got us started off on the right foot."

Then, addressing the question that Ghere had asked and Brak had already responded to, Rurik added, "Aye, my vote would also be to return to the barracks once we gather up any additional spoils of battle. We've done well, but have taken a few wounds and have expended some magicks. In my opinion, we're better off re-grouping and returning after a good rest."

"Brak, I think that we should take our dead Stone-Brother back with us, so that we can provide for a proper death-ritual. You and I can fashion a make-shift carry-all for him using a cloak, methinks."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:25, Thu 29 Oct 2015.

Well, that was rather anti-climactic as fights go. The arrow surprised Daddy quite a bit; then the dwarf hurtling out from the house launches a heavy javelin that ends up severing a main artery of the leg. There's barely time to blink and try staunching the flow of blood before Daddy collapses in a sorry heap.

Daddy turns out to be a big, nasty looking and soon-to-be quite dead half-orc. He has a hide armour in remarkably good repair and a fine (as orcish weapons go) battleaxe, as well as a canvas sack full of groceries. Alas, all his money seems to have been spent on carrots, lettuce and similar treasure.

There are half a dozen corpses still in the house - or at least what remained of them. The dwarvish one is not recognizable, but the style of bears-braids would suggests he came from one of the holds in the Dragonspine mountains to the north.

XP:

12 kobolds * 25 = 260
1 halforcish Mommy = 100
1 halforc Daddy = 100
bonus for being entertaining = 150 per character

=265 XP per character. This should put you on level 2. Feel free to chat and so on, there will be no more combat. Once you're done here, don't forget to account for the head bounty and so on. See y'all in the Barracks or Campfire thread.

"Well then, if you don't object I would like to give those corpses to the pyre? It does not sit well with me to leave them to rot or for the remaining kobolds."

"Ye make a good point, Ghere," Rurik replied with a nod.

OOC:

I have to admit that OOC, I am unfamiliar with Dwarven death-rites. I would assume that given their affinity for stone and earth they would bury their dead, but I don't know that for a fact. Can any one help me out on this point?

Depending upon the answer to this question, Rurik may still wish to carry the mortal remains of the dead Dwarf back to the civilized portion of Phlan, so that he can be given the proper rites in accordance with usual Dwarven practices.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 19:26, Thu 29 Oct 2015.

what's the difference between a dwarf wedding and a dwarf funeral?

One less drunk. *rimshot!*

A cursory googling points to http://frc.proboards.com/thread/8705 which seems rather useful.

"Cover me then if you would." Ghere set to work, laying out the dead (kobolds as well as others) in neat rows, hauling wood from the nearby ruins into the shell of the building and tipping the cauldron out to add those parts to the mix.

Raising his head, he made a short prayer. "Tempus, these men and women died in battle. Take them to your side and let them know eternal war." Stepping forward, he set a torch to the pyre then turned away. "Right, let's go."

"By the Great Beard, I can't agree with burning a Stone-Brother on the same pyre as a gaggle of foul Kobolds and a couple of unclean Orcs," Rurik grumbled as Ghere set about building the pyre. "Besides, our people believe in interrment in the earth with a stone cairn set atop the grave, if the family's ancestral crypt is not available."

Rurik set the remains of the dead Dwarf over to the side, atop a blanket that had been spread out on a wooden table-top from inside the house. "Brak, if you will carry one end of this, I will carry the other. I propose that we take our Stone-Brother's remains to the shop of Erudin Strongarm. He should know how to go about interring the remains of our people with the proper dignity and honor, in accordance with local procedures and customs."

OOC: Although the Campaign Background does not specifically say, I am assuming that Erudin Strongarm (the local smith) is a Dwarf (the name certainly *sounds* Dwarven). If that is not the case, DM, please let me know and I will edit. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 04:32, Fri 30 Oct 2015.

"Aye, I've got the other end. If we can't find a proper dwarf to assist in the rites we'll just take care of it ourselves," Brake said taking up his share of the burden.

"Don't forget we need those heads to claim the bounty," he calls out to Ghere.

"Got that covered. Although really, I am not sure that pissing off whatever gods kobolds have is worth the minuscule bounty. When we were proving ourselves was one thing, but now I say we just ignore the bounty."

"Ignore the bounty!?" Brak sputters, "Did you take a blow to your head when I wasn't lookin?"

"Don't bullshit me Brak, you didn't even bother to collect your share last divvy."

Rurik grinned at Brak. "It seems like Ghere has mistook us for something other than Dwarves. Of course we want to wring every last copper out of these misbegotten, ill-favored little piss-ants."

 While the team set about building a pyre for the dead, Librand retrieved his arrow and javelin from one of the orc corpses. "Sure, sure. Happy to contribute, boys." he responded to their calls and compliments.

 Giving the bled-out corpse a once over, he scooped up the sack or assorted produce and chose the cleanest looking carrot he could spot and helping himself to a snack, hoisting the crude looking orcish chopper over his shoulder as he walked back to the house. "Any of y' gents keen on 'is?" Librand asked around a mouthful of carrot as he gestured to the battleaxe.

In reply to Librand Silver-Eyes (msg # 64):

Rurik held his hand out for the javelin that Librand had retrieved. "I'll take that, lad. Thanks."

When the Halfling asked about the big axe that the male Half-Orc had not had a chance to ready before he was struck down, Rurik looked a little skeptical. "That seems a mite large for the likes o' ye, lad. Are ye sure that appeals to ye?"*

OOC: *The DM has described the male Half-Orc's weapon as a "huge axe" (Msg. # 43), which I took to mean a greataxe (a "heavy" weapon, per the PHB). If that is not the case (and the weapon is, say, a battle axe) Rurik (IC) will be interested in looking at it. :)

"I don't think he meant for himself Rurik" Ghere said amused. He turned to Librand. "We normally put the loot together in a common pile and take equal share. Anybody wants to claim out of that, well we have priority of course. Since some of this stuff needs Identifying, that will be tomorrow. Work for you?"

In reply to Rurik Ironhand (msg # 65):

It is, in fact, a greataxe.

 Hearing Ghere's explanation on how they would split the spoils, Librand nodded and dropped the (for him) over-sized axe near their accumulated pile. He paused for a moment to chew on the carrot some more before setting down the sack of vegetables as well. "Sorry. Got a bit eager, I guess." he said after swallowing the bite.

 "So...y'think these two were jus' runnin' this place like some tavern fer all them scaley buggers? Most of 'em look pretty starved." Librand asked of no one in particular, sitting aside to finish his carrot while the burly mercs handled the bodies and heavy lifting.


OOC: My apologies, it was described as a "fine battleaxe" in post #53.

"I think that this was the kitchen. A kobold, given its size, needs half a pound of meat or one pound of general foodstuffs per day. Their ration was probably half that given how starved they were, a humanoid corpse has about 110 pounds of usable meat, times six, doubled for veg, and this meal was expected to feed approximately 2600 kobolds. That is for a daily meal. If we assume that they are starveling because their meals are irregular, say four days, you can't hang meat for much longer than that, we still have 800 odd kobolds eating off this. Where are they?"

"Given kobold habits, probably scattered in small camps throughout the ruins. I suspect we haven't seen the last of them."

 "Uh-huh..." Librand absently agreed, making it obvious the halfling's attention wandered as Ghere started calculating the approximate total. "Lots more kobolds, got'cha. Guess I will need more." he added, glancing at his full quiver of arrows. He resumed eating the carrot he had taken, now with silver hued eyes surveying their surroundings in case more of the beasts showed up.

nb: Ghere's calculations, besides being wildly optimistic about usable meat, fail to account for the two halforcs, and other visitors.

"Well, fire is going nicely, let's head back."

After Ghere and Librand had gathered up the spoils of battle and Ghere saw to seyting fire to a pyre to burn all of the corpses save that of the dead Dwarf, Rurik nodded to Brak across the table top where the body was stretched out.

"Ready, Brak? Let's lift him up on three, and be on our way."

"One, two, three . . ."

Brak grunts his agreement as they heft the dead dwarf and head back to the barracks.