Posted on 2007/04/07
Next day, after the final clear up, Joe tries giving Nipper the combat style commands rather than the working commands and is pleasantly surprised at Nipper's obedience to them. So this is the reason that none of the usual ways work with him!
He goes to pass this information onto Alun and sees in passing that his gigantic rat has been placed to one side of the pile of normal ones. Alun takes the news with raised eyebrows and mild interest. “I was just coming to look for you, actually,” he says. “Someone wanted to know who managed to kill the dire rat with nothing but a knife.”
Joe squares his shoulders. “It was two knives, really. I got lucky.”
A rough voice says from beside the wall, “That would be one in the side and one from in front?”
Joe looks over and sees a short blocky fighting man standing there. His armor looks more expensive than what the ordinary guards wear. “One was thrown. Sir.”
“You throw knives?”
“Yes, sir.” Joe hastily adds, “But only knives, sir. I'm no fighting man, to handle swords and axes and such.”
“Well, let's see you throw.”
“Now, sir?”
“Now.”
Joe swallows hard and looks round for a suitable target. The fighter walks across, picks up the dire rat's body and slaps it down on top of a chest high wall. “Let's see you hit this again.
Joe takes a deep breath and eases out two knives. He forces his body to relax and hurls the first knife, following as quickly as he can with the second. He hits the rat both times and the second hit knocks the rat off the wall. He runs to pick it up and bring it back.
The fighter examines it and nods. “Very nice. What's your name?”
“Joe, sir. Joe Wood.”
“Joe Wood. I'll remember that.” And with that, the fighter walks away.
Alun sighs with relief. “Thank the gods that's over.” He shakes his head. “He does a fair job, but having the Captain of the town guard over here in person is not something I want too frequently.”
Joe swallows hard as he retrieves his knives and tries not to worry about coming to the Captain's attention…
Posted on 2007/04/12
Two days later, Joe is carefully working Nipper on a lunge rein when a parcel arrives for him. Joe realises that no-one is going to bring it anywhere near him with Nipper on the other end of the rein - they have too much respect for Nipper’s hooves and teeth - so he brings Nipper in and takes him back to his stall.
When he opens the parcel, he finds a single masterwork dagger inside, but no sign of who sent it or why. Asking around, all he can find out is that it was brought by one of the many errand boys and he didn’t wait for a reply to go back.
It’s the best dagger that Joe’s ever seen. He can’t see anything peculiar about it other than the quality, so he decides to keep it.
When he also hears from Alun that there is a possible buyer coming to see Nipper tomorrow, Joe decides to go back and attempt to give Nipper a hard enough work out that he won’t play up during the visit…
Posted on 2007/04/19
Joe is busy preparing Nipper for display when he hears his name called. Going back out into the yard, he discovers that Alun is ill and wants him to stand in and show Nipper to the buyer.
Joe hastily cleans up under the stable pump and scrambles into borrowed smart clothes. Nipper is led out at reins-length by one of the other grooms just as a chubby, well-dressed, halfling swaggers into the yard and looks round expectantly. Seeing Joe - and Nipper, the halfling swaggers across and looks Nipper over. “This is the war pony?” he asks.
“Yes, mister,” Joe replies. “Fights anything you point him at.”
“Hmph. Healthy?”
“He’s never needed a healer’s attention,” Joe says.
“No,” someone in the cluster of grooms mutters, “that’s us, when we go near him.”
Joe bites his lip to stop himself laughing and gives polite attention to the halfling. When the halfling requests it, Joe gives him a leg up into Nipper’s saddle and hands him the reins.
As he steps back, Joe notices - too late - the wicked gleam of mischief in Nipper’s eyes…
Posted on 2007/04/25
During the first circuit of the yard, nothing happens. Nipper steps out at a neat walk as if he was the best trained war pony in town.
The mischievous glint is still in his eye though, and Joe crosses his fingers behind his back as the halfling reverses direction and kicks Nipper into a faster speed. Nipper tenses as the halfling’s heels connect, and then charges straight for the muckheap. Right on the edge of the heap, he skids to a stop and flings his head down and heels up.
The halfling cartwheels through the air and lands face down on the top of the muckheap. Nipper prances away, making sounds that can only be described as snickers.
There is a general intake of breath, but before Joe can decide what to do, the halfling has picked himself up in a fury. “You call that a trained horse!” he yells, apparently not noticing Nipper edging up behind him. “You can be sure that you will hear from father about this!”
Nipper chooses that moment to try and take a bite out of the halfling’s hat. The halfling scrambles out of the way just in time and bolts out of the yard, covered from head to toe in manure.
Joe sighs, changes back into his own clothes, and makes a start on trying to catch Nipper so that he can untack him and take him back to his stall…
Posted on 2007/05/04
When Joe finally manages to get Nipper back to his stall, he shrugs into the padded coat before he risks coming close enough to untack the pony. Nipper stamps impatiently on the straw as Joe lifts off the saddle and takes it out to rack.
He has to stretch up over a pile of worn out saddles to reach the right place, and just as he sets Nipper's saddle down, the whole pile comes tumbling down on top of him. He lies there for a moment with the breath knocked out of him and then slowly clambers out of the heap. As he picks up the nearest saddle to stack it back in the corner, he notices a stone that has clearly fallen out of the tackroom wall.
Sighing, he puts the saddle down and goes to see if he can fit the stone back in its hole. On a closer look, the hole seems to go much deeper than one stone could account for, and when he squints in, he sees something hidden at the back of the hole…
Posted on 2007/05/09
Joe reaches into the hole as far as he can and catches hold of something wrapped in tattered leather. He pulls it out and unwraps it to find a complete set of masterwork leather-working tools inside. He looks quickly round, but the room is still empty. Hastily stuffing the tools into his belt pouch, he rams the stone back into the mouth of the hole and piles the old saddles back in front of it.
As he grooms and feeds Nipper, Joe’s mind whirls with all the things he could hide in that hole and he wonders if anyone else knows about it. He is about to go back for another look when the questions start coming. It seems that everything people would have gone to Alun for, they are now coming to see Joe about. It isn’t long before Joe’s mind is whirling in quite another way, and he thinks wistfully of the nights when he would just curl up outside town and not have to worry about anything.
He is still wondering how Alun copes with it all as he does the final inspection after settling the horses for the night. He doesn’t have the lantern Alun uses, so he carries a torch instead.
The smoke seems to unsettle the horses all over again, so he has to make the choice between actually taking a good look at everything, and taking a more casual look that doesn’t undo all the evening’s work.
He compromises by keeping his distance from the horses, but looking carefully into all the corners. He is just about to turn for bed and stub out his torch when, out of the corner of his eye, he catches a glimpse of a strange shaped shadow…
Posted on 2007/05/16
Joe turns quickly, trying to see what is in the shadows, but doesn't spot anything. He turns back to the job in hand, pricking back his ears to try and hear anyone moving behind him. Stubbing out the torch, he moves towards the sleeping loft, but ducks into the shadow of the piled hay rather than climbing the ladder. He stands very still, straining his ears to catch any sound, but all he can hear is the sound of horses settling down. Only an odd sense of duty towards Alun keeps him standing there - he’s not going to let down the man who gave him his first adult tools.
He’s about to give up anyway when, by the faint light leaking through from the market square, he sees five small figures creeping into the yard. They advance along the edges of the buildings and the horses move restlessly, occasional hooves hitting stall walls.
Joe tenses and reaches quietly for the first of his knives, but he doesn’t dare risk climbing the ladder and expose his back to whatever these - people - carry as weapons. Unfortunately, all the reinforcements are up that ladder too. Unless - a picture of Nipper’s hooves crosses his mind, but he shakes his head. He can’t get to Nipper’s stall fast enough to make any difference. Two of the figures are closing in on him, and he can hear them whispering, “He’s up that ladder, I saw him go,” and “You grab him, I’ll do the questioning. I want my tools back. That fat priest had no right…”
The pair pause just short of the ladder. Too small to be adults, too tall to be halflings or gnomes, too thin to be dwarves. Children then. But dangerous ones. He can see a dagger glinting as they rush forward. He steps forward to meet them. “Want something?”
They are moving too fast to stop, and Joe manages to trip up the one with the dagger before whirling to grab the other. “Well?” he asks and waits grimly for a reply…
Posted on 2007/05/24
The child still standing edges warily away from Joe’s dagger and snarls, “That priest gived you my set of tools and I want them back. You going to give them me freely, or-”
“Or?” Joe repeats, shifting his dagger from hand to hand and trying to keep one eye out for the child he tripped. This sounds - as far as he can tell - like the boy who tried to run off with his sack while he was busy at the fire.
“Or I’ll call in my help!” The boy edges further round.
“Help? What help?” Joe remembers the other three figures that slunk in with these boys, but doesn’t take his gaze from them. The fallen one is climbing back to his feet, and what little light there is glints off his dagger.
“You can’t expect to shame the Thief Lord’s son and not pay up for it - not ‘less you’re a fool,” the boy sneers. “Are you a fool?”
“Not as much as you,” Joe snaps back and punches him hard on the chin. The boy drops in an unconscious heap and Joe tosses him brusquely into the piled hay before turning on the second boy. “You’ll follow him if you don’t talk. What’s the rest of you doing to the stables?”
The boy swallows, but Joe reaches out and grabs him by his collar. “Talk. Or eat my fist. Make your choice.”
“Not much!” the boy gasps. “Not much. Just some smoke. And spread the muck everywhere so’s you’ll fall in it like he did. That’s all…”
“I see.” Joe shoves this boy down on the piled hay too, takes away his knife, yanks a truss cord down from the hook and ties the boy’s wrists and feet together. Then he is off and running across the yard to Nipper’s stall.
He can smell the first whiffs of acrid smoke as he makes the turn into the stables and yanks open the door to Nipper’s stall. “Nipper!” he hisses under his breath. “Come on, Nipper, fighting!”
Nipper’s head comes up and he makes a dart for the entrance. Joe wrinkles his nose at the smellof smoke and hears the first frightened whinnying from the other horses, but he doesn’t have time to stop. With a knife in each hand now, he runs back out into the yard and tries to spot the remaining figures before they can do any lasting harm…
Posted on 2007/05/30
Joe looks quickly round the dark yard and wonders if he should start shouting for the watch, but a drift of smoke sets him coughing instead. He moves into the faint breeze to try and get out of the smoke and suddenly sees a pool of light ahead. He stalks towards it as quietly as he can and sees a pair of halflings bent over an open lantern, trying to light a thick grey stick with flint and steel.
Then, beyond the halflings, Joe sees the lantern light glinting off Nipper's eyes as the pony minces forward. Joe stalks forward to the edge of the light, waits for a brief moment and hurls one of his daggers. The nearer halfling shrieks with pain as the dagger hits him in the back and drops the thick stick. His companion throws himself aside just in time to avoid Nipper's teeth. The knifed halfling staggers towards Joe pulling a club from under his cloak, makes a wild swing that scrapes across Joe's knee, and falls in a bleeding heap.
Joe steps over the unconscious halfling and suddenly sees a third cloaked figure lurking in the darkness. He hurls his second dagger, but misses as the grey stick begins to spurt smoke into the air, blocking any clear view of the new arrival. Pulling out his masterwork dagger as quickly as he can, Joe moves forward to flank Nipper's target. Nipper, meanwhile, swings round and lashes out with a hoof, catching the halfling on the hip. The halfling clubs him back, but the blow only skims Nipper's shoulder. Joe feels a thud through his padded coat and looks round to see that the third figure has produced a short sword - and handles it like an experienced fighter.
Joe thrusts hard at the second halfling and catches him in the neck. Blood spurts out and the halfling collapses beside his colleague. Nipper wheels to meet the third figure and tries to snatch the hood of the cloak.
As the figure scoots out of the way, the hood falls back to reveal another halfling. He hisses, “That's the demon-horse! Get it away from me!”
Joe looks closer and sees a startling resemblance to the halfling that tried out Nipper. This one is thinner, and slightly taller, but he has the same swagger about him and the same design on his well-made clothes. He grins, “Oh, I don't think so,” and takes a cut on his ribs for his trouble. He adds, just as the stick finally stops smoking, “He's not called Nipper for nothing.”
Nipper's teeth clash behind the halfling thief and the halfling flinches away, giving Joe an opportunity to attack. The halfling winces back towards Nipper, who knocks him down with a hoof and stands on him.
Joe, hearing more commotion from the other side of the yard, snatches up the lantern and runs back to see what is happening now. The lantern light reveals bits of manure scattered everywhere and he tries not to slip on any of them. To his relief, the commotion is caused by the other yard hands coming to find the source of the smoke. He tells them what happened and one of them runs for the guard, while the others go to stabilise the halflings and ready them to be taken away (and Joe levels up!).
Looking again at the lantern, now he has time to think, he realises that the lantern - for all its good light - isn't putting out nearly enough heat to be a normal lantern. In fact, it isn't giving out any heat at all…
Posted on 2007/06/06
Experimentally, Joe tries to blow the lantern out, but the flame doesn’t even waver. He looks at it again and shrugs. If the priests and people like them can make water appear in thin air, they can probably make flames that don’t burn anything. At least he won’t have to worry about it breaking if he drops it.
He takes a moment to check the boys he left in the hay and finds that the one he tied up has managed to get his hands in front of him and is trying to wake his friend. Joe rests one hand threateningly on a dagger and the tied boy shrinks far enough away from the ladder that Joe can scramble up without risking being hit. Once in the now empty loft, he moves quickly to his own crate and rummages down to the bottom for the strange toolset that the priest gave him after he caught the boy the first time. He swaps them for the leather tools he found hidden in the stable and slides quickly back down the ladder as someone starts yelling his name.
He says curtly, “Stay there,” and as he turns away and runs towards the shouting, he hears the boy mutter, “Like I have any choice about it.”
As he arrives, breathless from all the running he’s been doing, he sees at once that the problem is Nipper. No-one wants to go near him. Shouldering his way through the crowd, Joe plants exasperated hands on his hips and scolds Nipper into a stare as near submission as Nipper ever gets, before grabbing a handhold on Nipper’s headcollar and walking him firmly back to his stall. He even gives Nipper a cautious pat before he leaves him and walks back to the fight area to reclaim his daggers.
He finds that two of the three halflings have survived, if barely, and the watch is arriving to cart them away for questioning. The halfling with the sword and the fancy coat is one of the survivors. He wakes up and begins to swear feebly as the guards dump him into the cart.
Joe is reminded of the boys in the hay and, without saying anything, he slips quietly away to deal with them. The one he punched is now cradling his head in both hands, but he looks up and glares as Joe comes within reach. Joe studies him, considering how he would feel if someone had take his set of tools away and finally comes to a decision.
Slowly, he pulls out the strange set of tools and holds them out. “These what you came looking for?”
The boy grabs for them and Joe steps back out of reach. “That a yes?”
“Yes!” The boy grits his teeth and cries, “They’re mine! I had them off my da. That priest had no right to give them to you…”
“What will you do if you get them back?” Joe goes on, still holding them just out of reach.
“Whatever. Please?” The boy stretches futilely towards them.
Joe crouches down to stare him in the eyes. “Right. If I give you these, you get right out of here and never come back, understood? And if I catch you round here - or after me - again, I’ll thrash you so hard that you won’t sit down for a month. That goes for both of you. Understand?”
The boys nod sullenly and Joe unties the tied boy and hands the punched boy the set of tools. Both of them quickly slide down from the hay and scuttle out into the night. Joe watches them vanish into the dark and hopes he has done the right thing…
This game is DMed by Heros_Backpack from the wizards.com boards. He holds the copyright to all content.
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