The two females made their preparations to drag the bear to town. After they had finished, it took them a couple of hours to reach Skalavik. It was located between two rivers with a wooden palisade between them protecting the town. There was a tower on each side of the single gate through the palisade. The gate was still open and two guards were standing in the way for anyone who wanted to enter. More guards were in the towers. The streets beyond the palisade were free from snow and there were some people moving about.



[OOC: Though making a travois is a good plan, what do you use to tie the pieces together? A hempen rope is about 1" in diameter, from what I can tell. I didn't see anything else on your character sheets. I didn't find a mechanical difference in speed from using a travois or just dragging the body. But that could be because I'm not used to 5e yet.]

Sigrun is amazed at how strong the small woman is as she helps her set up the lines by which they will pull the carcass across the snow. She speaks quietly to her horse, using the last moments of her Speak to Animals spell to explain what the plan is and elicit the animal's understanding if not its willingness to be a beast of burden.

OOC: I realize that the minimal amount of butchering Kar is doing, the actions with the ropes, and all will have taken much longer than the 10 minutes of the spell's duration, but as soon as the bear was dead and they discussed hauling it into town, she would have told the horse that its help would be needed. Hopefully, that was in time. If not, she will just speak to the horse in plain old Norlander and be kind to it as they hitch up the ropes for it to pull.

"Never did get your name, by the way," she says as they survey their jury-rigged harness arrangement. "I'm Sigrun Goll. A skald."

While working, and she is working almost as hard as the horse Kara doesn't seem to be inclined to chat, but when they get to the village she lets go of the rope and steps around the horse team well before they trample the guards, addressing them casually as if her clothing wasn't still ripped up and covered in blood of various types.
”I am Kara, we are here for the festival and would appreciate directions to whatever facilities will allow me to butcher my own prey without to much complaint, you may also want to check for more bears this one was only about an hour's fast walk away.”

"You should go to one of the butchers," one of the guards said. "They are the ones set up for that." He pointed out where they could find Magnus Grimarson and Aardes Zrasashi. "They are both guilded so that they can sell the meat in town. You should consider seeing one of the furriers too as they could do something with that fur."

"This is bear country," the other guard said. "So there are a few bears about. They're normally nothing to be concerned about."

The guards stepped aside so that they could enter.

[OOC: I just realized that I forgot to have them step aside so that you could get in.]

Settling into the length of rope again Kara tightens it around her shoulders so she doesn't generate to much friction and leans into the line, taking up enough of the weight to allow the horse to pull ahead again, as they pass the guard she nods to them briefly but doesn't try to make much of a conversation about it.  ”Thanks.”

Searching out the butcher first she tries to keep them on the bigger roads and or paths, but the ones that still have ice and snow rather than slush and mud.

There was no ice or snow on the streets. It almost seemed like the townspeople removed it from their graveled roads. They followed the directions they had been given and were soon enough outside one of the two butcher shops in town. A large man stepped outside and looked over them. "Well, well. How can I help you?"

Kara loosens her lead rope enough to speak more easily.  ”I was told this was the place to go for a convenient place for me to butcher this bear, and perhaps sell some of the meat on commission for the festival.”

"I don't recognize you, so I'm assuming that you are not a member of the guild. That means that you cannot sell anything directly to the people of this town." He stepped out into the street to investigate the bear and make sure that it was what it seemed to be. "I can give you five gold for the bear or you can rent a space inside for 2 gold and butcher it yourself. Afterward, I could buy whatever pieces of meat that I like the look of."

Kara doesn't seem surprised that there is some sort of local guild system, nor concerned by it.  She pulls out two pieces of gold and hands them to the butcher.  ”That seems fair enough. You got any particular space I should use for a big animal, or just whatever I can find?”

He accepted her coin. "I'm Magnus Grimarson, welcome to my establishment." He called for some apprentices and they all helped out in carrying the heavy beast to a place where she could work. "Einar, attend her." And one of the boys nodded and approached. "This will take you some time, so Einar here will stay with you after closing." He then looked at Einar again, "Come and get me when she's done, so that I can get a look at the meat." And then he looked at all of his apprentices. "Depending on how good she is, we might have a lot of work to do tonight, so expect to be called back."

Kara takes a second to introduce herself, still not quite accustomed to needing to do so for whatever reason.  While the help of the other people is important, it is a lot less so than they expect, even without the ropes and horse it is more than obvious that Kara is doing more work to move the bear than any one of even these strong young lads.

”Name's Kara.”

Then it is on to the grisly work of butchering and she remains quiet while she works, clearly familiar with her own tools, but also able to adapt to the options provided by the space she removes the pelt in as few pieces as possible then digs into the process of finding the best cuts for use as food, and setting aside any less desirable bits in easily searched categories for anyone who needs them for other things, except for the claws, she keeps all of those herself.

Sigrun continues to assist the halfling in hauling the bear's carcass to the butcher's yard and then stands by her horse, praising it for being so strong and willing to help as Kara unties the blood-soaked ropes. Listening to the conversation, the skald is struck by the fact that the halfling seems almost chatty with others, but has yet not given her her name -- she knows it because she has introduced herself to the guards at the gate and to the butcher, both within moments of meeting them. But she has not spoken it once to Sigrun.

Deciding that it's probably not worth making an issue of, she will ask the butcher where she might find a tavern with enough trade to welcome a skald. When she gets directions she will say goodbye to Kara.

"You should get those wounds looked at, Kara," she adds as she leads her exhausted horse in the direction of the tavern the butcher recommends. "I hope you recover quickly.

"I'll probably sing some verses about the bear attack in my performance tonight, so you may want to avoid the place. You know, with you being so touchy about my singing."

She chants the first verse she's been composing as they trudged through the snow, striking a pose, gazing at the sky but keeping an eye on the halfling as she sings to gauge her reaction.

In lands of old, where yarns unfold,
Comes a tale of valor and courage bold,
Of a bear attack, near a wooded glen,
Where a brave defense did surely begin.

"There are three taverns and an inn in town," Magnus said. "Any of them would welcome a skald, but there are more of you here during the festivals." He then explained how to find The Split Rock Inn, The Earthy Reindeer, The Green Dragon, and The Grim Sentinel.

Soon the two men and Sigrun had left the butcher shop and Kara continued dealing with the dead bear. The teenager that had been assigned to her was over two feet taller than she was. And easily four times as heavy as she was. But nothing compared to the bear, obviously. He assisted her in the process of turning the corpse into a carcass and the carcass into pieces of meat ready to be sold.

The room was filled with the peculiar scents of death, blood, and exposed flesh. Smells that most would stay away from, if they could. But Kara wasn't most people. The butcher and his minions were still going about their chores too. The apprentices looked at her and the bear every so often. Some clearly jealous of Einar for the opportunity to help butcher a bear. Something that seemingly didn't happen very often. If that was because bear was a rare delicacy or because no one wanted it was difficult to say.

"Can you tell me about how you defeated the bear," Einar asked as they worked together.

Kara doesn't easily open up, but after a few hours of capable assistance she must have figured Einar had earned a little bit of leeway, even credibility, although calling what she offers a detailed explanation would be quite misleading.

Setting the blood soaked butchers knife aside she lifts the still blood covered morning star to show the young human. ”I just kept hitting it with this, eventually everything stops fighting if you hit it hard enough.”

"You must be so brave," Einar said. "Have you traveled far?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:03, Thu 22 Feb.

Kara pauses briefly to answer the question asked, but not for long enough to distract herself from the work at hand. ”Probably not as far as this bear, I have traveled a bit, but not as much as others.”

"So why come here," Einar asked. "I'm sure there must be many more interesting places."

Kara doesn't even need to slow down in her chopping to answer this one, the answer just rolls out fully formed almost as if it had been given to her by someone else in much the same way. ”Every place is interesting to go to, only staying in a place becomes uninteresting.”

"What other interesting places have you visited," Einar asked. He continued to work with her, but he seemed more interested in her stories as if he had never left town.

[OOC: Feel free to invent whatever places you like outside of Nordland]

It takes a while for Kara to answer, her thoughts clearly focused on this bear and not thinking to quickly about the past. ”The places are all about the same, what is interesting is the events, or in this case the creatures.  This is my first bear but a few packs of wolves and more snow leopards than is really appropriate have tried and failed to make me their lunch.”

The hours passed with Kara in her rhythm butchering the bear. Skilled and careful slices. And then, she was done! It was late. Very late. But she was done. She wasn't clean, but she was done. It had been a long day.

[What do you do?]

After such a long time working Kara almost seems surprised to be done with the work.  Turning to Einar when it becomes clear they are headed their separate ways. ”I presume I can leave the organization of the shop to you?  I will return some time tomorrow to finalize the exchange with your master, see that he knows to expect me.”

With that taken care of Kara sets out in search of something that passes for nightly lodgings and offers a way to clean up some of the blood still covering her, not all of it from the bear

"I'll sort everything," Einar said. "And I'll talk to Master Magnus. You can trust me!"

Kara found a place to stay at Splitrock Inn. As well as a place to wash.

"Welcome to the Splitrock Inn," the proprietor told Kara as she approached the bar. "THE ONLY PLACE FOR FOOD, DRINK, AND REVELRY THAT MATTERS IN THIS LITTLE TOWN OF OURS. ISN'T THAT SO?" Cheers filled the inn and mugs were being slammed repeatedly into tables. "How can I help you?"

Having talked to Astrid for a while, she arranged for a place to stay and the opportunity to wash herself.

[Let me know what lifestyle you want to maintain for the next 24 hours. It will determine your living quarters, what you'll eat, and whatever else the Player's Handbook says is covered by your chosen lifestyle. And you need to deduct the cost of that lifestyle from your cash.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:02, Mon 25 Mar.