Hung is pulled back to the current reality and looks around, no more drums, no blood, no oysters, just G studying her book and it seems the fog is clearing little by little with the rising sun still very low on the horizon. It’s going to be a hot and humid one today, the air is already thick. Without saying a word, Hung decides that it’s time to get going, goes over to Malkey first, and leans in real close to his ear, “Wake Up!” his voice booms.
Malkey, easily triggered in his paranoia, pulls his dagger and flails it around at his friend, “I’ve killed a man for less!” before realizing it was Hung. “So sorry man, we’re good right?”
Hung stares him down as he sits and eats a ration after the gnome attack. Going back to the fire he lets Sai know, “He’s awake…. And needs dagger practice.”
“I see that,” Sai says as she starts to pack up her things and looks over at Malkey. “Maybe you want to sharpen those? I mean it’s a good thing that they weren’t but you know.”
Malkey doesn’t respond and instead sends Nutbag to take a lay of the land, but he doesn’t see much even though the fog is receding quickly in the sun's rays. He sees enough of the road to see there isn’t anyone around but them. They all pack up and start down the road to Alfield.
Not long on the road, they hear wagon wheels behind them, it’s the first time since the Wuyan Gates that they have seen anyone come from the south. They look and they see a dwarf, with extremely long wavy red hair braided high on her head, an equally brilliant beard, a pock-marked, and freckled face, and pale skin. She’s tall (for a dwarf) with a beefy build and has an edgy but pretty face and 2 piercings in her left ear.
“Hey there where you heading to?” Sai asks as the stranger comes into speaking range.
“Oy, I’m off to Alfield!” She pulls up and stops alongside the group.
“Alfield? We’re heading that way tooI, what brings you there?” Sai asks in a friendly manner.
“I’m coming up from Nicodranas, my family had some mining in our history so i figured I’d give it a shot with the ore veins in Alfield, and if that doesn’t work out, I’ll head up to the Herethis Mines. Just making my way,” the young dwarf responds.
“Do you have any gnome in you?” Malkey asks with a devilish grin.
“No, can’t say that I do,” she says a bit confused.
“Want some?” he winks.
“I don’t think I caught your name, I’m Sai” she interrupts Malkey quickly...
“I’m Odette, Odette Darmoor. Pleased to meet your acquaintance.” She smiles, “Well, since we’re headed the same way, perhaps I could give you a lift. Mind I can’t take all of you, but some to pick up the pace a little bit.”
“That would be great!” G and Sai say at the same time. They make their introductions, “... and the man that was trying to hit on you, that’s Malkey.”
“Oh if he hit on me I wouldn’ta felt it anyway. Look at ‘im, he’s so scrawny.” She looks at Malkey with distaste.
“Someone needed to say it,” G laughs with Odette. Sai, G, and Malkey jump up into the cart while Hung walks alongside. Malkey took it as an opportunity to sit next to the young dwarf.
They start off and Malkey wastes no time, “So, how you doing?” and they have a one-sided flirtatious chat as Malkey continues to confuse her with innuendo; and with all his talk about hoes, just figures him to be some kind of gardener. Eventually, in the late afternoon sun, they see the small farming town of Alfield ahead. It feels like it’s taken them forever to get here, but they’ve finally made it!
Along the main thoroughfare past the empty guard house they see how small the town really is and if you blinked riding through it, you’d miss it! They pass townsfolk going about their business, a quaint inn called the Candleglow that is a tad run down, the sign definitely needs a new coat of paint and the hinges on all the shutters and doors are rusted, but you can’t help but notice the wonderful smells from some freshly made meal coming from the establishment. They then pass the Ruddytop Butchers with venison and ham hanging from the meat hooks.They pass the Broad Barn, which seems to be a typical small-town general store. Directly ahead they see On the Wind Stables and directly across from that is the Feed and Mead. This inn looks much newer and more splendid than the Candleglow, but no good smells are coming from there. A little bit outside of the town in the distance, they also see what looks like a small jailhouse.
As they pull up to the stables Odette pipes up, “OK, I’m off to take care of me horses and get me rest so I can see who I need to speak to about my mining endeavors.”
“Thank you very much for the ride,” Sai politely responds as she jumps off the wagon.
“Yes, thank you; it’s very much appreciated,” G adds.
“If you’re around where we’re around, you’re welcome to join us for dinner,” Malkey offers.
“If I see you I will,” she smiles.
Sai gives her a gold piece, “Here, you know; for the horses maybe some extra apples or something.”
“Oh, of course, they’ll love that,” she takes the coin, flips it in the air with her thumb, and catches it in her pocket with a wink of recognition to Sai’s generosity.
Malkey reaches out for her hand, “Maybe we can talk a little more about farming later.”
Sai grabs him by the scruff of his neck, “OK, let’s leave the poor lady alone.”
Malkey points to the broad barn, “Hey maybe we can stop in there and I can get one of them hoes I was talking about earlier … get it? …. Broad Barn.”
“You’re encourageable,” Sai mutters as they turn and are approached by a half-elf in clearl Crownsguard insignia.
“Welcome to Alfield traveler’s I hope you fared well on your journey here?...” he looks at each of them very curiously. “Fared well?... on your journey here?” he asks again looking expectantly at them.
“For the most part,” G responds looking at everyone else a bit confused about the odd manner in which he was asking. “Uneventful, calm.”
With a clear sigh of relief he continues, “So glad to hear it. I’m the Watchmaster of this fair town. Watchmaster Bryce at your service should you need anything. Do not hesitate! I’m mostly down at the Salttrench jail.”
“Do people usually have issues coming into town,” Sai asks also now curious at his prior mannerisms.
“Oh, don’t worry yourselves about it. We had an issue recently but as of this morning, thank goodness; it’s all cleared up,” he tells them.
“Thank goodness for sure, what happened?” Sai inquires persuasively trying to get some information.
“I’m sorry miss, I don’t want to disclose that, it’s still under investigation,” Watchmaster Bryce’s face turns serious and he straightens up just a little bit taller.
“I can understand that,” she concedes.
“Not in this town anyway, it’s a bit broader than that,” he prattles on and trails off.
“Oh, that means people died,” Malkey says pointedly but gets ignored.
“I’ll take my leave now, there are two inns in town, this one here; I’m not sure if you’ve heard but about 20 years ago we had a really large … fire and … we’re just recently fully rebuilt. Take your pick, enjoy yourselves!” he says as he turns on his heel and walks away.
“Do we need anything specifically?” Malkey asks his companions.
“I need to eat that meat,” Hung proclaims seriously.
“We know that ig guy but …” Malkey starts to say as he watches hung turn and start heading towards the Ruddytop Butcher’s and the fresh meat he saw in the window. They all start to follow.
“I also would like to eat,” G adds picking up her pace as they head past the broad barn to catch up with Hung.
A broad human wipes the blood onto his apron and then removes his gloves, “How can I help ya?” he asks.
“I think we’ll probably get something to eat, what were you guys looking for,” Sai turns imploringly to her companions.
“The biggest steak you have,” G says her mouth watering already.
“You’re a butcher, you just cut it you don’t prepare it right?” Malkey asks confused.
“Correct sir,” the butcher replies.
“So why don’t we go to a place that cooks it unless we want to carry raw meat around,” Malkey reasons.
“I do have some salted beef over there. Venison jerky over here,” the butcher continues.
“Are we setting up camp somewhere?” G now really confused as to what’s happening next.
“Nah, we’ll find someplace in town,” Sai assures her. Hung walks over and grabs a rack of meat off the shelf.
“Whoa buddy, 5 silver for that full rack of ribs,” the butcher points out.
“We’re staying in town, we can get fed,” Malkey pleads to Hung.
“Have you smelled this?” Hung asks pushing the meat under Malkey’s nose.
“Yeah,” Malkey nods and pulls away.
“I want,” Hung states.
“Do you if you wanna eat raw meat,” Malkey shrugs. Hung settles for the entire rack of venison jerky instead putting the rack of ribs back down.
“Hey now, could you leave some for the rest of the town maybe?” The butcher tries to rationalize with Hung.
“Can you afford all that?” Malkey adds purchasing some for himself. Hung rips it in half putting half of them back.
“2 gold for that,” the shopkeeper resigns. “That’ll still last you a while.”
Hung looks straight at her and shoves it all in his mouth in one chomp tasting the earthy, gamey, salty, pepper-corny, spicy flavor of the jerky. “Hung is happy. We should find shelter”
They go back out in the street and decide to go to the Candleglow Inn to match their humble selves.
The Candleglow
It’s been a long day. Cheato helped Bryce alter the runic manacles of Crute and Durmas. Utilizing high intellect and arcana skills they made it so the prisoners could not leave the confines of a specific location, their businesses, without alerting all the guards. This way, the town could still carry on as normal. After all, the economy of the town is just now stabilizing since the fire. Fawna also had a busy day, it seems medical attention was indeed needed for the lunch rush as people came looking for their ‘stew’. They tried to lock the door and keep them out but they were able to get inside and ended up trashing the place who else was there to clean up but poor Fawna. The two friends decide to take Thadeus up on his offer of free room and board and head to the Candleglow, much busier than they had last seen it when Daughtte was with them.
They soon feel the day melt away as bright-eyed children come to them wanting to hear a story from the heroes. Cheato regales the tale of the bandits on the road as Fawna listens just as intently as the children though she was also there, she doesn’t mind his embellishments at all. With a child in a head lock and a small flame coming from his free hand Cheato can be heard saying, “And that’s when I took out the bandit captain… You're going to tell us where you put the drugs!” while four strangers enter into the inn.
“That’s where the party’s at,” Malkey elbows Sai who had a look of shock on her face. “They’re hanging with children and drugs!”
Fawna feels something turn inside the egg when the small stranger spoke, she definitely didn’t imagine it this time. She looks down and has an overwhelming empathic sense of joy that washes over her and she knows it’s not her that’s feeling it, but her charge; the egg. That egg is happy to be near the group that just entered.
Sai looks incredulously at the wizard with the child, “Do you make it a habit of torturing small children?”
“No, “ Cheato says letting go of the kid and shaking a ferret out of his sleeve. “I was just telling a story of how Cheato de Russo and 2 and a half ladies saved the town.”
“Wait a second, I wanna know more about this half lady, he said 2 and a half!” Malkey leans in.
“My thoughts exactly,” G chimes in curiously.
Cheato points over to Fawna who was no longer interested in the story and was sizing them all up and looking straight at them in slight shock or amusement.
The strangers look at the blue tiefling a bit confused until they realize the large egg she is holding. “Ohhhhh, not breakfast.” Malkey nods.
“No, Fawna laid it,” Cheato states matter-of-factly.
“No, that’s not what happened,” Fawna pleads.
“Tieflings lay eggs,” Cheato affirms.
Malkey leans over to G “It’s ok if you want to get after them, they’re liars, tieflings don’t lay eggs.”
“My thoughts exactly, I want to know what kind of egg that is!” G concurs.
“So you guys torment kids and steal them too?” Sai asks.
“No! We just saved the town!” Cheato shouts happily.
“Who’s egg is that then!?!” Sai asks exasperated.
“Fawna’s.” Cheato repeats.
“Where did it come from?” Sai asks Fawna.
“From my mother,” Fawna responds in a soft voice barely above a whisper.
“Are they your sibling?” Sai inquires.
“I believe so … maybe?” Fawna replies as she feels the egg move inside, almost as if it’s laughing.
Cheato butts in, “Who are you all to come up and question Fawna about her egg?” They start to squabble lightly as Hung and G watch on the sidelines. “There’s not room enough for two parties of adventurers for one town!”
With that they do take a look at each other and notice, that he’s right. They are moreso the adventuring types than townsfolk or farmer’s.
“How do you know I”m not a merchant? Maybe I would like to sell you some of my wares.” Malkey says indignantly.
“What are you selling?” Cheato asks with a side-eye, “Horses?”
“Clearly not,” Malkey says looking around him incredulously for non-existent horses.
“We’ve just arrived,” Hung says taking another bite from his handful of jerky.
Thadeus walks up, “Would you like me to push these tables and make room for everybody? Your food isn’t done yet and I could just take your order now?” Everyone responds positively while Sai reluctantly does the same and Thadeus joins the two adventuring parties into one.
“Do you have ale?” G asks and Thadeus nods. “Oh please yes, a big pint.”
“We have Von Brandt Ale, are you familiar?” Thadeus asks.
“No,” G responds “but I look forward to trying it!”
“It’s from Trostenwald, just down the way down south,” he says proudly.
“Thadeus, I would like ale,” Cheato says with an exaggerated wink.
“Do you have a twitch?” Malkey asks.
Thadeus seems to understand, “Ok, I”ll get ya some.”
“Yeah, me as well,” Malkey lifts a finger.
“You know what, just make it the whole table,” G calls out.
“I’ll just have water,” Sai interjects.
“Whaaaat? Fine,” G says a little disappointed then brightens and quickly adds, “I’ll take hers.”
They sit and chat and discuss how there were bandits in the town and how Cheato saved the day, though with much less exuberance than with the children. Hung puts together that this is what Bryce the Watchmaster was talking about with the trouble they had had just yesterday. They tell how Daughtte was sent over to Zadash with the bandit captain to do some undercover work for the crown. Then Cheato wants to hear about them, and Sai spills the beans, “We’re actually just passing through looking for a friend of ours named Jenna, have you seen her?”
“Can’t say that I have, but I have connections, tell me a bit more and I”ll put out feelers,” Cheato offers.
Sai describes her appearance and continues, “yeah, she’s going through a hard time right now and we just wanna make sure she’s ok.”
Cheato looks a bit suspicious before Hung accidentally confirms his suspicions, “That doesn’t sound like the Jenna we know. The one we are looking for is ….”
“So you come in here, insult Fawna about her egg, call me a child hurter. You're lying to me, I’ve offered to help! Listen, I’m so bored, I need something to do so please, just tell me what’s going on,” Cheato begs.
They whisper amongst themselves before Sai finally speaks up, “Excuse us for being a bit apprehensive, we’ve just met you.”
“With his need for excitement, unless he wants to, you know, have a good time with me…” Malkey starts.
In gnomish, Cheato asks, “You swing that way?”
“He finally found his match,” G says slapping the table and taking a swig of her ale.
Malkey responds in kind, “You offering?”
“Pay?” Cheato asks raising an eyebrow.
“Pay, no I don’t need to pay for this, look at this,” Malkey gestures to himself.
“Yeah, I’m looking,” Cheato nods tilting his head a bit.
“Well shit if you’re going to be rude about it,” Malkey pouts then deflects. “Man, being jealous is a hard place to be.”
Thadeus breaks the tension by bringing the drinks and taking the orders. None chose the soup and sandwich option and instead chose the meat and potatoes entree. G was licking her lips at the sound of it. Fawna catches Thadeus’ attention and lets him know that the meal is going to be on her this evening. This catches the group in surprise and a chorus of thank yousfriend and appreciation make their way around the table to Fawna.
“Free meals always taste better!” Malkey’s attention shifts.
“Free anything is better!” G agrees!
They eventually get their meals and book their rooms, one for the ladies and one for the men before going into deeper discussions. “So you guys are looking for a wizard?”
“Yes, a girl that tends to attack and kidnap people once in a while,” Sai says.
“So not a frind?” Cheato asks.
“We’re just gonna share kidnapping information now eh,” Malkey complains.
“Let me give you guys a bit of information okay? We just busted a ring of people selling suude, ok. Do you know what Suude is?” Cheato levels. They all seem to understand that he’s talking about drugs, “Yeah, and that’s a wizards drug.”
“Do you guys see a lot of wizards through here?” Sai asks. Cheato then tells them all about the scam that Durmas and Crute were running getting the townsfolk addicted to Suude to pay off their loan from the Gentleman and how the whole town was going through withdrawal. They then told Cheato and Fawna about Jenna and Trostenwald’s wells that were being poisoned; and Cheato connects that Jenna is from Rexxentrum.
“Oooooo OK, you guys are fucked up in some shit man!” Cheato exclaims. “That’s a high-level wizard you’re talking aobut! She’s from the Cerberus Assembly, she’s one of the upper levels of government! I spent a good chunk of my life studying there so …”
“You studied at the academy?” Malkey asks intrigued, “So you’re a wizard? With a book?”
“Yes, I have a book,” Cheato says then slows his speech, “I can read.”
“Good on ya’” Malkey nods taking mental notes as he downs his third pint. The meal comes out and smells delicious. “So since we’re just laying it on a table, yeah she is the person who may or may not have taken me to a dark pit and left me for dead chained to a wall,” Malkey elaborates by showing the manacles still around his wrist. “That’s where these two wonderful people found me and got me out of a hole.”
“Well I for one aren’t for anyone going around poisoning wells plus I need something to do, I’m down to help,” Cheato proclaims.
“Yeah definitely I”m sure we could use any and all help,” Sai concurs.
“Well, we’re heading north at the moment to hopefully find out what’s going on for me, g also has some questions she wants answered, and then after that we’re headed to the northeast into the Kryn Dynasty,” Malkey tells him as he thinks about the lore they found in the temple and the gems they need are in Rexxentrum and Irresor is Jenna’s last name. He thinks he’ll keep that information to himself for now.
“What kind of egg is that?” Hung asks disregarding the conversation at hand.
“I think a tiefling one,” Fawna suggests with a shrug as she feels it move again.
Malkey is intently looking at the egg, giving it a really good look and as he does he feels a warm burning sensation in the pit of his stomach, and it’s hard to put his finger on except maybe a feeling of kinship. His dry skin patches start to itch with his discomfort in that feeling. He leans in and gestures for everyone to move in closer. “That’s a dragon egg, it’s not normal to walk around with one of those in public. Henceforth we shall not mention again very loudly because people might get scared and or try to steal.”
The table goes silent for a moment as the weight of what he says can be felt in the air. By this time the evening crowd at the inn had already started to disperse. “Hey little man what are you referring to,” G asks quizzically.
“That what she has is valuable or scary depending on who you’re talking to,” Malkey points out.
“It’s valuable,” G says compassionately. “Not scary,” she adds shaking her head in disappointment. Fawna takes note of the black dragonborn lady in the purple robes that is giving her charge the same comfort and care that Fawna herself would give it. ‘Why does it like that strange little man so much though?’ she thinks to herself.
“I don’t mean morally where ‘everything has value and worth’,” Malkey mimics “I’m saying like actual money.”
Their meal is delicious as they drink and chat into the evening. Hung stands up and looks at all of them silently before going to stand by the fire and stares into it. As soon as he was out of earshot, G leans in, “We must help him find his parents,” She says with a bit of worry in her voice.
“Yeah,” Malkey sighs. “That’s why we’re headed over to the Kryn Dynasty.”
Sai gets up and goes to her friend by the warm fire, seeing it flicker in his dark eyes that are intently gazing into the flames. “Hey, you ok?”
“I’m realizing I have to find out where I come from. The only ones that can tell me are my parents. You come from the water, The dragon comes from the egg, the little guy comes from the earth, I don’t know where I came from,” Hung hangs his head.
“First thing tomorrow, maybe we can ask if anyone has seen any orcs come through here. You never know,” Sai reassures him.
“That man that was threatening the child with fire, should I whip it out to him?” Hung asks.
“No, no, no, no,” Sai stammers. “That would not be … maybe right time and place, he might not consent to that. Put that away. Maybe not quite, we still have questions and that dragon egg now…”
“How much farther do we have to go?” Hung questions his friend.
“Over the mountains, once we get past the mountains then it will be safe to have that out as much as you want. Just let it all hang loose,” Sai reassures him. Hung looks back at the fire thinking about all fo this while back at the table Malkey is trying to get everyone to drink. Cheato, Hung, Fawna and Sai abstain leaving Malkey and G head to head.
While it’s been established that Malkey can hold his liquor better than your average giant, G didn’t seem to have the same level of experience in that area to keep up. Before long she was slurring her words and repeatedly saying, ”I jus… keep thinking t’ myself… what happenened to me? D’us anyone know wha’s happenin me? what ssss going onn, whyyyy is this happeninining to me? The room just keeps going in circles now…”
Malkey tries to explain to her and sees that’s not going to happen and relays her story to Cheato and Fawna and making sure they understand, “... she’s now a friend and the gist of it is, if you hurt my friends I’m gonna kill ya’ and it’s gonna hurt, like a lot. They’re a little bit too trusting. Just figured I’d let you know.”
“Cheato is invincible!” Cheato announces. “Won every fight I’ve been in.”
“Cheato talks in the third person?” Malkey asks.
“Sometimes when he wants to get a little emphasis on it,” Cheato explains.
“Oh, Malkey does that too on occasion,” Malkey emphasizes.
“Yeah see, just gives it a little flare,” Cheato excitedly shoots a shower of sparks in the air on the word flare.
Not to be outdone, Malkey shoots a firebolt towards the ceiling igniting the rafters of the Candleglow.
“Fawna, get it!” Cheato shouts!
“It wus not the dragon,” G drunkenly adds.
Fawna gasps and her protective instincts kick in and she looks over at the flames and with a flash in her eyes she puts out the flame as Malkey hurriedly mends the charred wood back to its original color. Thadeus runs over, “What the heck is going on over here?” he exclaims!
“It was beautiful,” G says giving it a round of applause.
“I’m so sorry about this, we were just going to bed um,” Sai stumbles on her words completely caught off guard by what she just saiw as she gestures and rounds everyone up to go to bed, fun’s over. “Aren’t you all ready to go to bed? Come on, it’s been a long day.” She goes over to G to help her up, “Come on, let’s go get you tucked in.”
Thadeus starts closing up hoping to push them along. Cheato looks at Sai helping G. Interesting, you don’t see dragonborn very often, and now he’s seen two black ones. Interesting.
Before retiring, Malkey confides, “So are you guys coming along with us tomorrow?”
“Nothing better to do, do you guys have horses?” Cheato asks.
“No, we don’t have horses!” Malkey says thinking they’d already covered this.
“I was thinking about going to the stables to purchase some horses,” Cheato affirms.
“They may have wagons there too,” Sai offers.
“Wha I wuld do fur a set of wings ri’now.” G moans sleepily as Sai leads her up the stairs to the room. Hung falls asleep by the fire and Malkey realizes he’s not going to be able to get him up. He decides to leave his Nutbag behind on the ceiling to alert him if anything happens and they all retire for the night. Fawna and Cheato sit up for a little while discussing what exactly a dragon is.
They all eventually make their way up to their rooms to find wash basins with fresh water and a bar of handmade soap ready for them. They don’t think about it often, but they have indeed been travelling for quite some time and hope they haven’t offended anyone with their odor. They finally take their rest and wake up in the morning refreshed and head downstairs to find that Thadeus has already prepared your meal and has a buffet style spread out, “On the house!” Perhaps its in his own interest to get you all out of his inn as quickly as possible.
Malkey sneaks up to Hung to try and startle him awake just like Hung had done to him the other day and stands on a chair next to him right by his ear and yells, “Hey, get up!”
Hung growls as he awakens and Malkey says, “Yeah, it’s no fun is it.” Hung growls some more but then his nostrils are filled with the smell of eggs and bacon.
They discuss about going to the stables to buy horses, “I know a guy,” Cheato puffs his chest out. “Do you have enough money for horses?”
“I’m more of a pony man myself,” Mlalkey points out.
“Let’s see how much it is first,” Sai says as they head out towards On the Wind Stables with Cheato leading the way and talking about Mr. Mugwuggles the 17th.
They enter the stables and Cheato booms out, “My man,” to the black dragonborn working there. Durmas gives him a glaring look while Sai, Malkey and G all notice that he has runic manacle on his ankle. This must be what Cheato was talking about helping Bryce with. He does not seem happy. Malkey walks up to introduce himself and shake his hand wanting to show him that it’s ok to have manacles it’s not something to be ashamed of in the least.
The black dragonborn stabelmaster looks a little confused before looking over at Cheato, “So he’s got you too eh?” Durmas says as he shakes Malkey’s hand.
“Got me? What do you mean?” Malkey asks just as confused.
“I’m stuck here, can’t go anywhere but here,” Durmas starts to say.
Cheato quickly cuts him off, “Oh, he was helping get the Suude through the town. He was part of the reason these townspeople were getting addicted to Suude.”
“Ohhhh, the town drug dealer,” Malkey understands now.
Durmas looks at them with shame in his generally disgruntled manner before asking, “How can I help you anyway?”
Cheato addresses Durmas in draconic, “Look, let me level with you. I know you don’t like me, and I don’t like you; but we’re trying to get out of town. The best way to get out of here the fastest, is with some horses. Actual horses. Give us a good deal, and I’ll be out of your hair.” Malkey finds that he’s able to understand this somehow, without ever studying it.
“You want me, to give you a break?” Durmas scoffs.
“Well,” Cheato snaps back exuding some intimidation, “It would be a shame if more Suude happened to show up here and I happen to tell Bryce about it.”
Malkey and G the only others that speak draconic join in with a chorus of, “Oooooooo…” and watch intently at the interaction between Cheato and Durmas. Sai looks around confused and Malkey whispers, “Don’t worry it’s getting good, I’ll fill you in in a minute.”
“Alright, so what we have here is this riding horse, this draft horse, two mules and a pony in our rentables. If you’re going to Zadash you could rent them and return them there at our other location, but if you;re going anywhere but Zadash, you’ll have to purchase as we don’t have any other locations anywhere else.” Durmas explains.
Cheato looks around at his new companions and thinks to himself, ‘They are all rather large, he and Malkey seem to be the smallest. hmmm.’ He takes out a paper and quill and starts doing some equations distributing their weight around to figure what would be the most efficient way for all of them to travel.
“We could just take them,” Hung suggests but Malkey quickly defuses that statement.
“Here’s the rundown, so you could do your diblly dabbily maths stuff and be on your way because I just want you outta here and I never to see your face again. No offense. Mules and the cart are 8GP for each mule and the cart is 35G and can carry up to 400 pounds. The draft horse is 50gp and he can pull the cart himself otherwise you’d need the 2 mules to pull it; and the riding horse is 75gp. Feed for them is 5cp a day for 10 pounds.”
“You know, he can’t leave here. We could have him bring everything out like we’re going to buy them and we can just go,” Malkey suggests to Cheato in gnomish.
Cheato shakes his head, “No, he’s part of the infrastructure of the town, I gotta pay.”
“Oh, so we want to be good citizens is what you’re saying,” Malkey sighs.
“Well they needed him. If it were up to me he’d be locked up and away,” Cheato responds in gnomish.
G has never seen another dragonborn here in the Dwendalian Empire let alone a black one like her. In her curiousity, she approaches him wanting to find out where he’s from. He doesn’t have a tail so he must be from the Ravenite clan which is the same as her.
They discuss amongst themselves and decide to take them all the two horses, the two mules, the pony and the cart for 196 gold total which includes a month of feed. “So if we all pay 32 gold and 7 silver, we’d be able to do this,” Cheato concludes. Everyone pays their portion and they purchase the offered lot.
“I’ll get them ready for you, please wait outside,” Durmas says as he busies himself getting it all ready for them.
G approaches him and quietly in draconic asks, “Excuse me, uh I was just wondering; is there a message you would like me to send to anyone about what’s going on here?”
Longing and sadness washes over his softening face with this question and with the sight of this black dragonborn kin in front of him. “You don’t see many of us around, I never experienced life in the clan actually. My beginning was tragic, but I’d be willing to hear news. Where have they gone?”
“Yeah, I’m looking for answers too.” G looks down, disheartened as she was hoping for something solid from this.
“Well, you know where I’ll be,” Durmas responds sarcastically as he looks around his stable confines. “Let me know if you find anything.”
“Yes, anything of importance, I’ll be back,” She assures him.
“Or, send me a message. I’m interested in finding out what has happened to our people,” he says as he continues readying the animals and harnessing the cart.
Cheato decides, “Aha, here’s what we’ll do; Malkey you’re on the pony. Sai and G on the Mules, Hung on the Riding Horse and Fawna and I will be on the cart.”
Cheato gets on the cart and picks up the reins, Hung jumps up onto the riding horse leap-frogging over the horses hindquarters and into the saddle with finesse and ease. Sai helps Malkey onto the pony, and Sai and G mount up on their mules but have a hard time singing their leg over and hop around for a minute before Hung rides over and leans over helping them up. They start their journey, Hung and his horse connect deeply and they easily start out on the trail. Malkey’s pony keeps trying to bite at Malkey’s feet at every chance it gets, and every time Malkey’s mage hand is quick to smack it on the other side so it’s a cheeky back and forth as they start off. Once on top, Sai feels alright but you all can tell it’s definitely G’s first time riding. She is stiff, her scales are prickled with an obvious lack of confidence being up so high and moving on a large animal. Cheato and Fawna follow up the rear on the road to Zadash and Cheato smacks the reins, “Go, onward!... Forward please!” the horse doesn’t move.
Fawna seeing the struggle, leans forward and whispers to the horse politely, “Excuse me, can you move forward please?” The animals ears prick up and it tries to look at the source of the voice but it can’t with the blinders on its eyes. Fawna feels something is happening within her. She doesn’t hear what the animal is saying, like her mother told her she should, but she’s starting to maybe feel what they’re feeling? She’s not sure, but maybe? Right away the horse and cart lurch forward in a fast trot.
“Onward, yes aha! I have done this!” Cheato exclaims as Fawna chuckles to herself and they all head out in the morning light to Zadash.
***If you'd like to listen to the audio of this session, click here!***
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