"Excuse me sir!" Spriggy called out to the semi-drunk man. Normally he wouldn't get involved, but the journey had been uneventful thus far, and he did not like how unreasonable the man seemed to be while dealing with the dwarves. "If you are truly itching to fight, perhaps you could let the pony cart pass and we could spar a little?"

Spriggy drew his rapier and gave it a couple of casual swipes through the air. He didn't really want to fight the guy, but thought he might be able to distract him long enough for the dwarves to get past. And even if he did end up in a mini brawl, at least the guy seemed like he might not have the best balance at the moment. "Do you have a name?" he asked the drunkard, trying to keep the man's attention.

---

Probably a parley roll? Using the prospect of a fight as leverage. Either as a lure or as intimidation. Whichever seems more appropriate.

22:16, Today: Spriggy Glompgut rolled 9 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 6,1.  Parley with drunk guy.
On a 7–9, they will do what you ask, but need some concrete assurance of your promise, right now.

Kharla purses her lips as she considers the situation; drunk in a pub or wandering a city street was something she was familiar with.  Such easy marks but usually little coin left in their pouches.  But drunk on the road in the wilderness....well she was a city girl but she'd always just assumed one wouldn't go tromping around the woods sloshed to the gills.

08:09, Today: Kharla rolled 5 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,3.  Discern Realities.
- makes sense to me, probably to ward off the cold and had a little to much
- is that XP?

"Someone woke up with a burr in their smallcothes," she smiles to the Dwarves, clearly implying the woodsman.  "How did this start?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:12, Thu 28 Jan 2021.

The hunter looks at Spriggy, before snorting. "What you want to do? Pick my teeth, or fight?" He raises his meaty fist. "If you're a man, show me your hands! Gelnien's gonna show you how to fight!"

If you want to fight, you'll have to make a choice: either fight bare handed with your STR, or use your rapier and your DEX. Either way, you'll have a +1 to your roll for his intoxication, but your fist will do -1 damage, as he's drunk enough to ignore the pain of punches.

The dwarves breath a sigh of relief as someone reasonable approaches them. "That he does, lass." The leader of the dwarves shakes his head. "We're just on our way to Chestnut Hollow, trade some coal for their silver. But when this man saw us he turned red as a tomato, and started accusing us of taking all the road! We can defend ourselves from bandits, but we don't want to start a fight with a random rube!"

He sighs, and offers his hand. "I'm Brom, son of Dougal."

OOC: Yes, Kharla gets an XP for the failed roll!
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:05, Thu 28 Jan 2021.

Since he wasn't truly trying to battle the man, Spriggy humored Gelnien and sheathed his rapier. The scrawny elf held up his fists before him, leaving plenty of space between the two. "Let's be clear about this. We are in a brawl to see who is the better fighter. The first to land a good blow on the other is the winner. Agreed?" Even as he spoke Spriggy bobbed back and forth lightly, but made no move to close the distance between them. Instead he tried to lure Gelnien further off the road and onto unsteady ground. He definitely did not expect to win the fight, but winning was not his goal. He risked a glance toward the dwarves and was glad to see Kharla was over by them taking care of things while he kept the drunkard distracted.

---

Spriggy isn't trying to do any real damage to the man and will happily concede the match if Gelnien lands a good hit. But here is a hack and slash roll for when it becomes relevant. The +1 will balance out Spriggy's -1 from Str.

14:09, Today: Spriggy Glompgut rolled 5 using 2d6 with rolls of 1,4.  Hack and Slash Gelnien.
+1 XP!

Glenien laughs as he avoid Spriggy's punch, before striking back with a somewhat soft punch, for someone his size.

Spriggy takes 2 points of damage (before armor, of course), and Glenien waits to see if you stay standing after this 'devastating' blow.

Even though it was only a glancing blow, Spriggy stumbled backward in dramatic fashion. "That is quite a right hook you've got there. I may have gotten myself in over my head here. One more hit like that and I may have to forfeit!" Spriggy did a couple of bobs and weaves, then went in for another strike. Perhaps he was focused too much on his showmanship though...

Regardless, he figured one more round would give his companions and the dwarves all the time they would need.

---

Another strike, another miss. +1 XP! I'm going to level up fast at this rate. If I survive...
14:05, Today: Spriggy Glompgut rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 1,3.  Hack and Slash two, electric boogaloo.

The hunter laughs as he gleefully punch Spriggy once more, eager to see the elf stumble under his 'mighty' blows.

Blows that still only do two points of damage. I'm starting to think he's more drunk then I thought...

"Greetings Brom, son of Dougal," Kharla favors Brom with a nod and a smile, then winces visibly as Spriggy leads with his chin, "I'm Kharla and these are my companions Istvan and, ouch, Spriggy."

"Don't go so easy on him, Spriggy.  Show him what you've got!" she turns and calls to Spriggy briefly before facing Brom again and smiling, "He's fine."

"We're actually on our way to Chestnut Hollow ourselves," she continues, "Understand they've a bit of a problem since the earth shook a few days ago and the bodies of their deceased they chose to plant in the ground rather than burn in a pyre began to rise up again.  Haven't seen any Dark Elves here about, have you?"

"Can't say we have." Brom says. "Nor did we hear of problems with their dead. But knowing how those of the Ghostwalk feels about buried bodies, I can't say I'm surprised they don't like talking about it. Ichiro told me their graveyard is the main reason they decided to exploit the silver vein that was found there."

As you speak, the other dwarves encourage their pony to keep moving, hoping to be far enough from the hunter that he won't care about them anymore.

"I am showing him what I got!" Spriggy called back to Kharla. Unfortunately "what he had" was not at all impressive...

Once again, Spriggy greatly over exaggerated the effect of Glenien's punch and stumbled backward. Panting heavily, the bard held up his hands in a gesture of surrender, then wiped his scuffed chin. "Alright, alright, I think it is clear who the better fighter is here. I give up. Where did you learn such smooth fighting skills anyway? Does everyone from around here fight with such skill?" Spriggy hoped to steer the fight into a conversation rather than an active brawl. Maybe even learn a thing or two about the area, if he steered it delicately enough.

Glenien laughs at Spriggy's surrender. "That what it takes to survive here!" He stumbles to a rock, where he seems to have left his back. He pulls out a bottle and take a swing, before tossing it to Spriggy. "Here! That'll give you some hair on your chest. You gotta be tough these days, what with all those refugees eating all our food..."

You're reminded how the wars and skirmishes in the midlands have brought a large number of immigrants to the province. With the protection of Death Forest, and a strong alliance with Loward Down, the countries of the midlands haven't tried attacking the Province of the White Sword, giving it the image of a peaceful utopia. Of course, with so many mouths to feed, and little farm land, that lead to a severe famine in the last few years.

Things have mostly settled now, thanks to a lot of fishing, but old grudges dies hard it seems.

Now that that seems to be settled, Istvan walks up to the dwarves. "Hey there-- Istvan Vanoson here, cleric of Nnnnoric? If you know what I mean? Eh? Mm?"

He briefly shows them his holy symbol (a little onyx pendant of a crescent moon).

"So um... any other hints about what we can expect up ahead? Anybody got any thoughts?"

Brom raises an eyebrow. "Noric? I didn't expect to meet one of his cleric here, but it's always good to see one who remembers the Ancestors. As for what's ahead, the road is usually safe. Few people visit Chestnut Hollow, other than the few traders like us. They don't like dealing with strangers, in case they find out about their dead."

Spriggy took a swig of the offered drink, doing his best to swallow as little as possible. "Well, you definitely qualify as tough. I'm sure you'll be good on food for a while. I should probably get back to my friends before they head off without me. Thanks for the spar."

Spriggy did his best to excuse himself politely and head back over by the others. He didn't necessarily agree with Glenien's sentiments on refugees, especially considering he had been given refuge himself as a boy, but he also did not want to give Glenien any excuses to turn their friendly spar into an outright fight. He had gotten himself roughed up enough already.

He returned just in time to catch the dwarves' reply to Istvan's question. "So you already knew about the people of Chestnut Hollow burying their dead instead of cremating them?" Spriggy asked, quietly enough that he hoped Glenien wouldn't also catch his words.

Kharla nods as she listens to Brom describe Chestnut Hollow but his earlier comment nags at her.  Finally she asks him, "I know that mining silver and burying bodies both involve digging but other than that I can't think of a connection.  So why would Chestnut Hollow's graveyard move them to exploit the silver vein?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:20, Mon 01 Feb 2021.

"Silver veins are rare this far north. Most of them were found long before they could drift all the way here. Once it was spotted, the Czar wanted someone to exploit it." Brom explains. "That was a chance heretics couldn't pass up. So the whole community agreed to move here, so they could follow their belief in peace, without the church breathing down their necks."

Glenien is soon left behind, as you walk besides the Dwarves. You have to slow down to keep pace with your new companions, but the companionship is nice.

OOC: The drink does wonder to soothes Spriggy's pain, healing him for 1 hp.

Spriggy noticed as they walked that his fresh wounds were not bothering him as much. He didn't feel as chilly anymore either. Whatever Glenien had given him was really working wonders. He just hoped he didn't experience any downsides...

The elf listened carefully as Brom spoke, since any detail could prove to be important for their mystery. He had yet to make any important connections other than the obvious, but he kept everything in mind just the same. "So am I understanding this correctly? The silver vein was found in the same location as the graveyard? And the town of Chestnut Hollow sprung up solely to exploit the silver vein?" If the graveyard was older than the town itself, that could be an important clue. But it could be just as likely that the graveyard was constructed later, taking advantage of the freshly churned earth in the spots that had already been mined. Which could also be an important clue.

"The reverse I think," Kharla answered Spriggy, "The silver was discovered and the people saw an opportunity to move out away from the eyes of the church.  So they founded the town of Chestnut Hollow and soon were burying their dead as they pleased.  They were happy, the Czar was happy and the church was oblivious."

"That's right, miss Kharla. They wanted a safe place to live their belief, and like our Dwarven ancestors, they found it by digging a hole." Brom says with a grin. "I can only wonder what happened to them though..."

As the sun starts to sink into the Mistshroud Ocean, you see the light of lamps up ahead of you, along the road. "We're almost there. Chestnut Hollow is right ahead."

Spriggy nodded in understanding as Kharla and Brom clarified the situation. It even seemed to jog a distant memory somewhere in his brain. Probably from a tale he had overheard about Chestnut Hollow while working as a tavern entertainer. He shared what he had remembered with his adventuring companions.

---

I would like to use Spriggy's racial move:

"When you enter an important location (your call) you can ask the GM for one fact from the history of that location."

As far as Spriggy remembers, the town is pretty calm overall. Their mine was rich enough that they didn't have much issue during the worst of the famine. Of course, that created some friction with jealous citizen in other parts of the province, but Chestnut Hollow kept to themselves enough that few people even heard about what happened to them.

As you get closer, even with what little light remains at dusk, you can see the village does look quite well-off, with painted walls and clear windows. Though you notice the street seems pretty empty, even for those last hours of the day.

"Quite empty around here..." Spriggy commented. "You don't think their graveyard troubles manifest specifically at night, do you?" The bard was suddenly walking faster than he had been a moment ago, eager to get inside before full nightfall hit. Maybe he was overreacting, but he would feel much better once he reached the inside of a well-lit establishment.

"Is it always this quiet?" the newest of the Phoenix Blades asks aloud as the village draws closer.  Kharla watches for candle light in windows or villagers on the street, looking for any signs things may not be well for the inhabitants.

21:38, Today: Kharla rolled 3 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 1,1.  Discern Realities.
- What a quaint village, so peaceful!  Unless you don't think that was a good time to use that skill, Kharla will take another XP.  Wow, what a roll

"It's very tranquil actually," she shrugs.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:43, Wed 03 Feb 2021.

Istvan, anxious, looks around carefully...

(07:53, Today: Istvan Vanoson rolled 8 using 2d6+2 with rolls of 5,1.  Discern realities.

What is about to happen?

Note: if NOTHING is about to happen, OR if you feel like it's dumb of me to have rolled for this immediately after someone else tried it (or both), then just ignore this I guess.)

While Kharla walks confidently into the village, while the rest, Brom included, are more worried. "The citizen usually go to bed early, but not that early..."Istvan realizes the village boarded up, like it's planning for an attack. There's no damage around, so they haven't been attacked yet, but they're expecting one.

Brom leads you to the village's tavern. He knocks at the closed door, until someone opens. "...Brom? Is that you?" A large woman opens the door. "Come in! I forgot you were coming to trade this week... Get in quick!"