"Don't be disgusted, Tara," laughed the elf, "for as long as they may have lived among the sea elves, twas but a twinkling. Little they know of the long centuries till some cruel barb puts an end to us. And we have naught to delight in but music... and tales."

Beijor lept up on a stump. "Wagers? Of course, wagers! Are not we here upon a wager? Place we not our very lives in the balance of fortune? Are we the less earnest for it? HA!" His falsetto sang out, "'My sister and I might shed blood for this place, maybe they will call it Livingwater!' And so the wager, and so the purse to be won."

He paused a moment... "Do we think poorly of this royal scion for saying so? Of course not! A wager stated is but Canto the First; the coin a bond. It is the beginning of daring adventure; triumph... or defeat. And that, Tara, is why you should reserve your disgust for the disgusting, not the fair folk. After all... few could question the desire to share such a lovely bed. Least of all you, eh?

"But since elfen wagers seem to be misunderstood, here's my own." He pulled out a coin between two slender fingers. "I wager our Ice Princess will restrain herself long enough to enjoy the dragon's demise before she finally follows through on her threats, for however gilded her armor she is laid bare by words."

Palm outwards he held it, smiling. "To keep in security, if you wish."

The bard's tirade was the first she really heard from him and it surprised the instinctive cleric. Seeing the raised and incredulous eyebrow on Tempest's mirror image of her own face, she decided to intervene before her sister chose to vent her frustrations on him.

As much as it pains me to say this, Beijor is right. Please do not judge an entire race on our story. The small undersea kingdom we were born in is still besieged everyday by Sahuagins and they have learned to be paranoiacs and xenophobic. Those are very unwise traits, that I can't brush an entire people with.

She bowed slightly to the elven bard.

Thank you for putting in perspective what could indeed be misinterpreted. As for your bet, it is certainly more savory than the one we were subjected to. While I will not take it, I will leave to my dear sister to uphold it or not.

She shot an amused glance at Tempest, knowing her aversion for smooth talkers.

She let the comments on her sharing Tara's bed slide ... she did hope that the wizard was sincere in her affection, her own injured heart looking for mending.

She could only hope.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:48, Sat 02 Apr 2022.

Grog looked around at all the people standing and having idle chatter, telling stories and the like. It had barely been a day since they had held a funeral for the last person the dragon had decided to kill, and nearly several others as well. "Now is time for kill a dragon. Not is time for stories. We not does kill a dragon, then dragon does a kills instead. After kill a dragon, then is time for stories."

"Well, fair enough," said Tara.  "I won't judge them.  But I am, at the very least, saddened by how they treated you, regardless."

She nodded at Grog.

"...and we have enough to worry about with that dragon, in any case," she added.

Telric finally removed some of the more important lookingborgans from raw creature. He stored them away in his bag, and then activated a small device that looked a little like a tiny forge bellows. Except it produced clean smells, mostly to drive away the stench of his dead monster surgery.

"So...we are resting then?" He asked, wiping down his hands from some form of greenish fluid.

Sskith recovered what arrows he could, and drew up near Lenelle.

"You ssssee the way of thingssss."

He asked her, gesturing first to the Bullywug and then to the dead behemoth.

"You ssssee how the sssstrong claim thossssse beneath them. Force them to sssserve, to worship."

He glanced at Sprinkle as she finished her tale.

"She sssspeaks of judgement of the blood for choicesss made, and judgement of the heart when there wassss no other choice, wissssdom."

He touched his own chest.

"Ssssshe isssss wise."

He needed Lenelle to see, but he wasn't sure he had the words for it. The Bullywugs and their false god were the key to it, the key to these Scaleless understanding.

There were many types of Gods, and even more types of false ones.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:47, Sun 03 Apr 2022.

Tempest glared at Beijor...her sister recognized the look in her eye as she looked at him. She turned to him and spoke slowly and evenly. "This is your first and only warning. You mention myself or my sister in that reguards again and i'll cut your head off, fill it with oil and use it as flare." She stepped up to him, her eyes cold.

"I have lived, i have survived - and protected my sister by being who i am. Call me an ice princess and you'll find out how cold i can be....elf!"

She turned, still feeling fury aimed at her former sparing partner and sister's former 'fling'. perhaps some of the anger was not justified aimed at him

...but it felt good.

"Yeah, way too many of us just to fight one little old dragon. We should definitely fight each other first, make it more fair." Jennet starts fumbling around with his coin purse. "Ooh! We can take bets on which one of the new guys die first. I'll start, 100 crowns says it's Tara. Sorry, Wizard Lady, but there's no loyalty at the betting table."

"The minotaur guy looks pretty tough, so maybe we ought to make sure he survives... but then he's got to fight the dragon with one hand tied behind his back. Fair's fair, I don't make the rules."

Sprinkle bristled when Jennet started to make bets on who would die during the fight with the dragon, picking Tara as the first victim.

Is that supposed to be humor? Well I don't find it funny. I will do my utmost to make sure everyone survives... except the dragon.

Giving a smile and wink to the small wizard, suddenly a 15 foot long shark appeared out of thin air, lunging at Jennet, maw showing rows of very sharp teeth, disappearing as it was about to chop on the half-orc.

Now THAT is funny.

Telric raised both eyebrows at the sudden shark creature, but quickly realized without sound or scent it was indeed an illusion. He had seen similar creatures on his sea voyages...and they where indeed a multi-sense experience. One he would not wish to repeat.

"We are all one crew, yes? Mayhaps we should recall the speedy end to the flase frog god was because we struck as one crew?"

Lenelle listened quietly as Seth spoke, giving him full attention -- even without the familiar facial expressions, even through the hiss-inflected words, sensing he was communicating something important to him.

"Yes, I do see it.  Have seen numbers of examples, during my life."  She paused.  "I think there is more you could say on this?  I know there are barriers; but they will grow smaller with time, if we keep working at it." She paused.

"When I was a child, there were fables -- that spoke of dragons with hides of brass, silver or gold.  They were not tyrants...but had hearts that matched their shining scales."   She was unsure how to put her question in a way that would make sense, but tried:

"The fables made it sound that they were different by color, by birth.  But, wouldn't a dragon choose good or evil -- just as we do?"

Beijor met the genasi's glare with a grin. "Quite right, one crew united! Though we have one who'd push on," he gestured at Grog, "and our Neighborhood Warlock would have us rest. So perhaps less united than... meandering in a vaguely similar direction.

"Sprinkle, your calming words didn't seem to have much of an impact on your sister. And here I thought she was attentive to you! I'm beginning to question my willingness to wager even a farthing on her good decision-making."

"Jenet, you offend me," sighed Tara.  "The notion of betting on one of us to die suggests that you have an incentive to let us perish.  Now, how am I supposed to trust you?"

It was a serious question; at least Simon, for all his sometimes pointed commentary, never proposed that kind of thing.  And what did that say about Jenet?

"We are the pathssss we walk."

Sskith said simply, closing his eyes and giving a long blink.

"And the path shapessss usss to, molds ussss."

He added, looking to the two Genasi, and then to Jennet, all of whom had shared some of their pain. He knew enough of shadow weaving that he had not been frightened by the appearance of the shark, though he had no talent for the anything such as that. He could pull the shadows about them, but could not shape them into new forms. He had seen the trick of it before though, and respected the craft well.

"Sssome who have walked a path for a long time, even if not by their own will? They will sssstrugle to walk another. It is all they know. Some of usssss.... choose to walk a new path."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:26, Mon 04 Apr 2022.

Sprinkle listened to the bard and approached him, glad of her shark prank, that Jennet certainly deserved. Tara was asking him a serious question and she was curious to hear the answer. But she would try to cool down the friction between Beijor and Tempest first.

I do not control how Tempest acts, Beijor. I do see the wisdom in your words, even with the bards they are sometimes laced with. You have heard our story, can you understand why it is difficult for us to relate to others? That partner of hers that tried to bring me to his bed on a wager, he was a charming smooth talker with quite the way with words. And I just told her he betrayed her over what she has most precious, me. She needs to process that anger at the moment.

I will not ask you to like Tempest, she can be quite the stubborn moray eel at time. But can I ask you to understand that you remind her of a very dark time in her life? She is very protective and takes it as a personal failure when I am hurt.

She gave a shy smile to the elf.

I do thank you for your disguised compliment about anyone wanting to share our bed. But, again, it did hit a tender sore in our hearts. As for Tara and me, please respect our privacy. This is new to me and I am...

She turned from the elf, her blue cheeks becoming purple.

Forgive me...

Trying to keep some sort of decorum, she went to her sister and whispered to her.

Jennet comes to the same conclusion as Telric... but only after shrieking, slipping on the wet swamp floor, and sinking under the brackish water. A few seconds pass by before comes up again sputtering, and laughing.

"That's a good one! Who did that? 'fess up, because if we're not going to all die today, I'll pay you half my wager for making my point."

"Sincerely, Miss Tara, I apologize. I just wanted to remind everyone that we've got bigger problems than each other right now. I want to go back to Deadwater with the same number of friends I started with... any way you wanna read that. And a hunnerd silver wouldn't be enough for me to let any of you die; if I cared about money that much, I wouldn't have bet at all."

"Besides, I'm not real smart. Smart money would've been betting on myself, like someone just proved. Someone I owe fifty silver."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:32, Mon 04 Apr 2022.

"It's accepted," said Tara.  "Let's all work together here, and forgive any mistakes.  We have a greater foe to fight than any we've faced before-- even after that monstrosity."

As the group bickers and argues, Simon finds a shaded spot, and sits on the ground, his back to a tree. His brow furrow a moment as if concentrating.

[Telepathy "Nimbus, stay alert, fly in circles above us and watch for any creatures that might prove dangerous, from land or water.

"I strongly recommend that everyone takes the time to rest before we move on...best to be fully healed and fully prepared.

I expect the dragon will not fall down nearly as easily as this frog-god."

The warlock then pulls a book from his pack, and sketches the froghemoth.

Lenelle left Seth, to go and sit down next to Simon.

"Perhaps I wasn't paying enough attention," she ventured, "But I don't remember seeing you draw before.  Is that a hobby, to relax?  Or is there an arcane reason you're doing that?" 

Tempest looked at the elf, hearing the whisper, her eyes darkening as the words whispered echoed in her ears. It was that point Sprinkle stepped in and calmed her down - she always could help her see reason.

She looked at the elf. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that. We have a job to do, so for now, lets stop talking and get moving." She looked at sprinkle, taking a breath, then Tara, nodding, she finally looked again at Beijor. "You say that again, and you will wish you didn't...and i wouldn't push my sister either. I tell things how i see them, but you upset her, then even i can't save you."

Tempest made her way over to grog and nodded to him. "Let them rest a bit big man....then we can carve up some dragon."

With the consensus seemingly to take a rest after that fight, Sprinkle watched Tempest walk away to cool down, then at the elven bard, hoping those two could at least maintain a working relationship now. Beijor really did act like that sea elf eel, and it was no wonder her sister had taken a dislike to him.

Finding a shaded area, she removed her armor and started to magically repair it where the pressure of the froghemoth's tentacles had crushed it enough to break her rib. She would still feel that pain for a while, but at least her armor had prevented the worst and saved her from being pulverized. Her work done, she looked over her companions.

Jennet had taken the shark prank in good humor and she was glad for it. He had apologized to Tara for his irresponsible comment and she was happy with it. Despite his offer to pay, she declined to reveal that the illusion was one of her gifts. She had used them openly at the funeral, before that dragon pissed them all off, and she seemed to remember that the half-orc had come in right after her display was over. Well too bad for him... she liked pulling pranks and if she could keep her powers secret a little longer, she might find the occasion to use them again in a playful way.

Sliding to Lenelle and Simon, those two were discussing something a little further away, Simon with a book on his lap, writing something in it.

Telric had broken out a smoking pipe and was drawing the smoke into his lungs. Sprinkle wondered if that was the pipeweed he had told her about, and she looked at him for a moment, curious. Grog for his part was pacing, eager to go.

The cat woman was nowhere to be seen, and she started to worry until she spotted her, keeping watch. Seth was seemingly doing the same thing, but it was hard for Sprinkle to read their expression, not used to see such faces.

That left Tara, seemingly satisfied after getting her apologies from Jennet, and Sprinkle scooted over on her spot to leave some space for the wizard beside her.

Tara sat down next to Sprinkle with a sigh.

"...I'm not good in these situations," she said, taking out the patchworked book she carried.  "For now, let's just rest a bit and be ready."

She read over her notes, feeling her powers recover somewhat as she did so.  But she leaned on Sprinkle as she did, taking comfort in that closeness.

OOC: Arcane Recovery time.  I"ll regret not being able to recover that 3rd level slot, but I can refill my 1st level ones, at least.

Simon chuckled, as he held the book so Lenelle could see his sketch.

"As you can see, my drawing skills are lacking! I get no relaxation from sketching, but if I manage to return home, I will want to add some of the things that I have seen on my journey to the library's collection...the reference collection, not the art collection!

While these creatures may be common in this area, there are far fewer swamps in my homeland, and certainly none of this size, so this beast might never otherwise be catalogued."

Nimbus flew overhead keeping watch for her master while the group set up camp. Emotions stirred between between Beijor and the Twins like the hot winds that spread wildfire. Hopefully, their feud wouldn’t burn the party’s mission to the ground…

End of Chapter 2