Posted on 2008/07/02
Joe wanders the horse lines for quite some time before he finally settles on an elderly, but still sound, grey mule and begins the long haggle to buy it. He eventually manages to find a compromise price between what he wants to pay and what the mule's owner will take and counts over the coins. He also manages to buy a slightly rickety cart and harness and get both cart and mule back to his new home. He stows the cart in one of the open stable bays and settles the mule into the second stall opposite Nipper. Nipper promptly sticks his head over the stall door to see who the newcomer is.
“Nipper…” Joe warns him. “Behave…”
Nipper snorts in Joe's general direction and contines to stare over at the mule. Joe watches for a few minutes to make sure that Nipper is going to behave and then heads upstairs for a quick meal and an early night.
First thing in the morning, he jumps out of his new bed, gulps a bite to eat and heads off to find his first hire as an independant carter. Seeing the long row of carts, he realises that the busiest time of the year - harvest! - is coming up and there is plenty of hiring going on. He won't even have to travel far to work.
He gets a job towards the end of the hiring, transferring crops from field to barn and sets off promptly to start. The farmer gives him a dry look when he arrives and starts explaining very slowly as if Joe is a town boy.
Joe grins wryly. “I'm farm-bred, mister. I know the harvest-ropes.”
The farmer looks him up and down. “Then why aren't you still on your farm?”
“Milord took the farm back,” Joe says and bites off the addition “when my father died.”
“I see,” is all that the farmer says, before sending Joe off to the field for his first load.
Joe makes it easily from field to barn with his first load of sheaves and by his third trip, he is starting to settle into a routine for the day. As he turns the final corner of the lane, though, he hears a low snarl coming from the hedge and looks from the cart to see a wolf staring back at him with bared teeth…
Posted on 2008/07/10
Joe stares back at the wolf as it advances slowly, snarling, one leg dragging slightly with each step. It tries to leap onto the wagon, teeth and claws raking just short of Joe's midday food before it falls away again.
Before it can gather itself for another jump, Joe slides a dagger free and hurls it. The dagger slams home in the wolf's shoulder and it falls. Joe is just about to retrieve his dagger and drive on when the wolf staggers back to its feet and lunges for him, teeth sinking into Joe's leg and hauling him sideways.
Joe just manages to stay upright. He drags out a second dagger and stabs dep into the wolf's neck, kicking it off as it finally slumps and dies. He grabs the body before it can slide off the cart and shoves it under the driving seat to skin later. He thinks he can probably get a half decent fur off it, even if the neck area is a bit tattered.
Cleaning both daggers and tucking them back into their sheaths, he finishes the trip, binds up the bite in his leg with a clean rag and goes back for a fourth load.
“Had some trouble?” the farmer asks when Joe returns with that load.
Joe shrugs and glances quickly at the makeshift bandage. “Not much. Not really.” He grins and shrugs again. “Nothing to interfere with work. And talking of work…” He turns the cart in preparation for another trip.
“Not much?” the farmer repeats, looking straight at the bandage on Joe's leg.
Joe slaps at a fly and shrugs. “Something bit me. That's all.”
“If you say so.”
Joe grins again and drives out of the yard towards the field. Yes, he thinks, kicking the dead wolf with one heel. Something bit me…
Posted on 2008/07/23
Joe finishes his day's work, glad that he doesn't have to do much walking on his bitten leg. He's just waiting for his pay when he overhears one of the other hirelings telling a third one, “That lame wolf is about again - I saw pawprints in the lane. Better count your chickens.”
Joe straightens as they pass him and says casually, “Got a rogue beast out here?”
The other two hirelings look at each other and then shrug. The taller of the two, says after a minute, “There's a lame wolf hangs around the farms at times. It goes for chickens and such because it can't hunt properly.”
Joe raises an eyebrow, remembering how the wolf attacked him and then shrugs a shoulder. “Bounty on it?”
“Maybe. What's that to you?”
Joe shrugs. “Got a living to earn. Brought in rogues before. Might do it again.”
“I see.” The hireling looks Joe over. “I thought you were a teamster, not a bounty hunter.”
“I am a teamster,” Joe says wearily. “But I'm also not one to pass up a bounty if it comes running in on its own feet”
“Oh, I see.” The smaller hireling grins at Joe. “No official bounty then. Just a lot of gratitude.”
“I guess I can live with that,” Joe says, as he finally gets his pay and pockets it. He limps outside and fishes the dead wolf out from under the cart seat. “If this is the wolf you mean?”
The hirelings whistle in surprise. “That's the one…” one of them says warily.
Joe just shrugs and shoves the dead wolf back under the seat. He can get a decent pelt off it, and that will pay him that bit extra for the bite. He grins at the two hirelings and swings up onto the cart seat, leaving them to stare and whisper as he drives off back to town.
Once home, with the mule settled in its stall, Joe skins the wolf and cleans his bitten leg under the stable pump before re-bandaging it with a clean rag. He cares for Nipper before limping up the stairs and feeding Bramble and himself.
After another night's sleep in his own bed, Joe takes the wolf skin down to the furrier who gives him a full 2gp for it.
Later that day, he is mucking out the stalls when he hears a tap on his new gate. Going to investigate, he finds a boy not much younger than him standing there.
The boy swallows several times before mumbling, “Be you the one what killed the wolf?” and looking nervously at Joe for an answer…
Posted on 2008/08/02
Joe looks at the boy for a long moment before he says, “I might be. Why?”
The boy swallows again, and says, “'Cause if you are, me grandda has a message for you.”
As Joe looks at the boy again, Bramble comes bounding down the stairs, one end barking loudly and the other wagging furiously. Joe puts out a hand to catch her and says, “You'd better come in and give me that message then.” He leads the boy into the stable yard, keeping clear of Nipper's stall and leaving one hand clamped on the scruff of Bramble's neck.
The boy gulps and follows. “It's only that me grandda thinks there be another rogue out there - out near us. We - we keeps losing animals - an' then me da went to look and he ain't come back. Me grandda, he says you're the best chance we got.” The boy stares down at his feet. “We ain't got lots, but we can let you have some feed if'n that's any good…”
Joe smiles grimly and turns away to slip a headcollar onto Nipper.
The boy hurries after him. “Will you help? Or you just going to walk off like our neighbours done? They says they're 'too busy' to help, but they got more folk than me and me grandda have!”
“I'll be right with you,” Joe tells him. “So you can just wait and show where you think the problem is.” He runs upstairs without waiting for a reply and pulls on leathers, covering them with his coat and shrugging on all his daggers. As an afterthought, he tucks one of the healing potions into his pocket. Calling Bramble to heel, he locks the upper door and runs back down to the waiting boy.
With Nipper on one side and Bramble on the other, Joe jerks his head towards the gate. “Lead on.”
The boy jumps up and half runs out into the town. Joe stops briefly to lock his gate on the way out and follows him through the streets and out of the gate into the surrounding farms, nodding brusquely every time the boy stops and looks back at him.
Finally the boy stops beside a straggling hedge and points on into the trees at the edge of the forest. “Me da went in there.”
Joe nods and loosens his daggers in their sheaths. “Well then,” he says. “I'd better go and look there then, hadn't I?” Without waiting for a reply, he calls Nipper and Bramble close and walks in under the first trees…
Posted on 2008/08/08
As Joe walks further into the trees, he begins to wish that he had thought to bring his lantern with him. The close-crowded trees throw everything into shadow apart from white streaks of spiderweb in the lower branches.
Bramble presses close against Joe's leg and Nipper, for once, isn't trying to rebel against the leading rein. Joe takes a deep breath, loosens the knives in their sheaths and keeps going, one eye looking out for danger and the other for tracks.
He finds footprints soon enough - from several people by the looks of things - scuffed into the dirt and piled dead leaves. Bramble snuffles them and whines uncertainly. Joe reassures her and cautiously follows the tracks even deeper into the wood under ever thicker branches and more webbing.
Finally, he sees a clearing opening out ahead of him, but just when he is about to quicken his pace, Bramble whimpers. He stops and bends to see what is the matter. As he gets lower, he spots 4 people in the clearing ahead. Two thin men in leather armour, boots and helms are winding thick ropes of webbing around a third, stockier man in ordinary clothes. The fourth man is shrouded in a dark green cloak, but metal gleams from armoured ankles as he stands over the other three.
Nipper flares his nostrils and pulls back to the end of the rein. Joe breathes curses at both Bramble and Nipper as he struggles to keep them in place and quiet. “Nipper, you blasted pony, what's the matter now! They're only men - you've bitten men often enough before. Starting with me! Don't get a conscience on me now, you wretched animal!”
It takes some time before Nipper stands still again, although his ears are flattened back and the whites show on the edges of his eyes. Bramble seems to be a little braver, although she is pressed hard against Joe's side.
With the animals finally calmed and obedient again, Joe risks easing closer to the clearing. The stocky man looks to be dressed like a farmer - so is probably the boy's 'da'. And he isn't going to be going anywhere unless Joe can somehow get him out of that webbing.
The thin men finish winding the webbing around the farmer, straighten and walk stiffly away, looking thinner than ever. Bony, is almost a better word, Joe thinks, as he tries to spot a route round the edge of the clearing that will take him close to the farmer without being seen. Then he gets a clear look at the thin men and sees that they are not just bony - they are literal bones. Just bones, walking around like people!
He gulps and swallows down an urge to retch. Bramble pushes a comforting damp nose into his hand and he strokes her absently. Nipper's ears flick briefly before flattening again and his head goes up.
The man in the cloak swings round suddenly and stares straight at Joe's hiding place. Joe freezes to the spot, but this is a real human, not walking bones.
The cloaked man stares for a long moment and then points at Joe, ordering “Come here!”. And before Joe can stop himself, he finds himself running obediently straight out into the clearing….
Posted on 2008/08/14
Joe finally comes to a stop right in front of the cloaked man, just in time to see him push back his cloak, draw a wickedly spiked mace from a hook on his belt and slide a shield onto his arm. While the weapon comes out, the man calls “Get them!” across the clearing at the walking bones.
The bones pull curved swords from sheaths across their backs and advance on Bramble and Nipper. One swings its sword at Nipper, one swings at Bramble. Both miss as the animals scramble out of the way into the clearing. Bramble snaps back at the skeleton attacking her but her teeth catch between the leg bones. Backing away, she somehow manages to pull the leg out from under it, so that it falls. Nipper slams a hoof into the other one and bones crack noisily, but don't break.
Joe shakes his head to clear it of any lingering stupid ideas - like running out into the open - whips out a dagger and stabs at the cloaked man. His dagger glances off metal armor and he curses, ducking quickly as the mace hammers towards him.
Nipper's bone man swings again, only just misses Nipper and falls backwards over Bramble. The fallen bone man climbs to its feet just in time for Nipper to stomp on the second one's head, crushing the skull.
With another curse, Joe changes the direction of his stab, cutting upwards towards the unprotected face and managing to slash the cloaked man's cheek. The attack takes him too close to dodge, though, and the man's mace catches him in the ribs. As they circle, he sees the remaining skeleton chasing Bramble as she backs rapidly around the clearing, snarling. Nipper, on the other hand, is chasing the skeleton. He catches up just as Bramble manages to grab a leg bone and pull the skeleton to the floor again and stomps across the skeleton, bones crunching under his hooves.
Distracted by the sound, Joe's next stab only skitters across the man's shield and he has to duck fast to avoid another thump of the mace. Nipper ambles over and chomps happily on the man's shield arm, earning a stream of swearwords from the man. Bramble tries to do the same to the man's legs, but is foiled by the man's armor.
The man twists and tries to bring his mace down on Nipper, but Nipper simply moves round, snickers loundly and chomps harder on the shield arm, earning a scream of pain. When Bramble's teeth sink into the back of the man's knees, he gives another cry of pain and crumples, leaving an opening wide enough for Joe to dive in and cut his throat to finish him off…
Posted on 2008/08/23
Joe straightens from the fight, cleans his dagger and sheathes it before looking carefully round to see if anything else is there. All he can see is the tied up man and the remains of the 2 bone ones lying in heaps inside their armour.
With a sigh, he walks warily over to the tied up man and looks him over, finding that he's barely conscious. Joe shrugs and after several tries, manages to snap the webbing, letting the man slump to the ground once he's untied.
While he's waiting, he looks round at all the stuff left, and nothing to carry it in and then remember's the man's cloak. He can wrap the stuff in that. He unfastens the cloak pin and shoves the body off the cloak itself, revealing a crossbow and quiver hidden against the man's back. He unfastens them and drops them in the middle of the cloak, adding the mace, the curved swords and the shield to the pile before emptying the bones out of the leather armour. He tosses the bones gingerly out of sight into the trees and stacks the armour on the cloak.
The man's metal armour might also be worth something, he decides as Bramble goes bouncing off after something. He works each of the many straps loose in turn and piles it slowly onto the cloak. As he does so, he finds a pouch of coins that had been hidden inside the armour and slips that onto his own belt for safety.
As he turns round to see if there is anything else, Bramble bounces back and drops an arm bone at his feet. With a shudder, Joe picks it up and hurl it away into the trees, only to see Bramble start to chase delightedly after it a second time. He yells at her, calling her back, and eventually she wanders back to him, wagging in a puzzled fashion.
“Leave it alone!” Joe tells her, and she flops dejectedly down on the ground.
Joe sighs, checks again that there isn't anything else to do and walks across to see if the tied man can move yet…
Posted on 2008/09/12
Joe finds that the tied man can move, although slowly and stiffly. Wishing he had his own rope, Joe hunts around for a substitute and eventually uses a bit of the broken webbing to tie the bundled armor onto Nipper's back.
Nipper grumbles about it, but eventually subsides when Joe grumbles back at him. Calling Bramble away from the piled bones yet again, Joe helps the tied man up and half carries him out of the clearing and down the path through the woods. Joe's bitten leg soon begins to throb under the strain and his bruised ribs ache fiercely, but he keeps going, eyeing the slowly fading daylight and wishing yet again that he had thought to bring his lantern. When the pair and the animals finally emerge from the woods, twilight is quickly taking over. Ahead of them, Joe sees not only the restless movement of the boy but also a taller, stiller and shaggier figure.
Despite his aches and pains, he reaches down to the nearest knife with his free hand. Bramble stiffens beside him, a slow snarl on her lips.
Then the boy cries “Da! Grandda, look! It's Da!” and Joe lets his hand slide off the knife hilt. He hands the battered figure of the tied man over to the pair and finds himself the study of sharp grey eyes buried in wrinkles.
The boy's grandfather smiles slowly. “More about you than there seems, ain't there, lad? I told my own lad there you'd be the one to do the trick if anyone could.” He nods to Joe as equal to equal. “I seen a few of your kind around before now and I've few doubts I'll see a few more. Get you going now. You've not long before the gates close.”
Joe takes the man at his word and heads off towards the town as fast as he can. He makes it to the gates just as they are closing, but the guard looks at him, grins, and deliberately turns his back just long enough for Joe, Nipper and Bramble to slip through 'unnoticed'. Joe mutters his thanks and heads through the streets for home.
When he finally reaches it, he peels the bundle off Nipper, rubs him down, and trudges up the stairs with the bundle. Tomorrow, he thinks, will be soon enough to sort out what he will take to sell where…
Posted on 2008/09/20
Joe starts the day still stiff and sore with assorted bruises and spends some time simply pottering about and loosening up before he drags the bundle over to the table and begins to thoroughly sort through it.
The leather armor is old, battered and not in very good condition. The curved swords aren't much better. On the other hand, the man's mace and crossbow are much better made, nearly wasterwork quality, and the shield, although well used is also well made. The metal armor is far beyond anything Joe has ever seen before - he knows plain breastplates from seeing some of the richer fighting men and chain shirts are common among the higher ranking guards, but this - this combines the plate and the chain in one set of armor.
The cloak is also fine quality, made of warm dark-green wool and embroidered with a pattern of interlocking rectangles along the hem. Joe fingers the cloak for a long time and then decides to keep it as a reminder of the first time someone came looking for him to help them. After a brief peek into the money pouch that turns into a stare at the gold inside, he decides that he can also afford to keep something so fine, rather than sell it. The rest of the stuff though, he bundles into his own sacks and takes to the market to hawk it around the various stalls and shops.
The old dwarf who buys the strange armor pays in gold and some other, stranger coins which he claims are more valuable than gold. Joe isn't convinced, but eventually gives in realising that just the gold will keep him fed and housed for a long while. The mace and crossbow just keep adding to the incredible pile of wealth and Joe can hardly believe how much money he's being given for them - he's almost certain that he's being given too much, but he can't judge by how much either.
He does pocket all the money, deciding that if they want to give this much away for nothing much in return, then more fool them. At least the leather armor goes for a fair price - that much he can tell, and the swords don't fetch more than the handful of coins he was expecting either.
As a treat, he splashes out and buys a chunk of good sausage, a large fruit pie, a bag of apples, bread, cheese, and then looking down at Bramble, another chunk of real meat rather than scraps. As he is paying for the meat, movement catches his eye and he glances round just in time to see a small child pulled away by its mother and hear the hissed, “What have I told you about petting adventurer's animals…?”
Posted on 2008/09/27
Joe winces at being called an adventurer, but counts out the money for the meat anyway. Bramble sits down beside him with a thump, her tail swishing against the ground and her eyes staring after the child - now being whisked away by its mother.
Joe winces again and heads for home, making a mental note to try and look more ordinary next time he goes to the market - he doesn't want to be mistaken for an adventurer a second time, especcially when he is nothing of the sort!
As he eats, he thinks back to all the things he wished he had in the woods and decides to arrange them ready in a pack he can just snatch up if he ever has to do something like that again. Sorting through his bare shelves, he pulls out his backpack and adds to it, rope and alchemist's fire, a healing potion and an old sack, a handful of dried food and one of the tindertwigs.
He glances up at the lantern on its hook, but decides that it can stay there for now - he can always grab it if he needs to.
Just as he is finishing there is another knock on his gate and he goes down to find the boy and old man from the farm there.
The old man looks at him and smiles. “Reckon you forgot the feed we said we could provide you.”
“Reckon I did,” Joe says. “But I reckoned you didn't need the extra cost. I was born on a farm. I know what it means to be down to feed and no money…”
The old man smiles slowly. “Boy, when I say we can give something, I don't go back on my word, neither.”
Joe looks at him, seeing the slight slant of the wrinkled eyes for the first time and and the slightly elven tilt masked by the shagginess of the eyebrows and hair. He raises an eyebrow and the old man shakes his head. “Not as much of that blood as you might think. And far less in my great-grandson there.” He nods at the boy. “So. Will you let us in?”
“Of course,” Joe says, and hastily steps away, pulling the gate open as he moves.
The two walk in, and Joe sees the old man's eyes widen and then narrow as he looks around….
Posted on 2008/10/04
Joe swallows and tenses as the old man looks slowly from side to side and then up the stairs at Joe's front door. An equally slow smile curves the wrinkled face. “Well,” he says, “you certainly have a nice little corner here.”
Joe squares his shoulders. “Well, sir, I like it.”
“And earned it, I'm sure,” the old man says turning and giving Joe the same slow stare as the house. He holds out one hand. “I don't believe we were introduced, boy. My name is Tom Brook, but my own boy there calls me Grandda Brook.”
Joe takes the hand and is slightly surprised at the strength in it. “Joe, sir. Joe Wood.”
Grandda Brook's smile widens slightly. “Sahiya told me you were handy with knives as well as words.” A green glint flickers in his grey eyes as he turns away. “You have a pony too, don't you,” he adds before Joe can place the faintly familiar name. “I'd like to see it.”
“This way,” Joe says, half pointing, half leading the way. “In here.”
Grandda Brook nods to the boy, who starts to bring in a small pile of fodder, and then follows Joe over to Nipper. Before Joe can warn him, Grandda Brook cups both hands under Nipper's muzzle. “No you, don't, you little demon. Keep your teeth to yourself.”
Nipper gives him a startled look and then submits to Grandda Brook's inspection, with its accompanying half heard mutter. Joe stands back and stares as Grandda Brook brings Nipper under control, but as the old man's hands run down Nipper's front legs, Joe can almost swear he sees another spark of green under the man's fingers.
“Been treading on something hard recently, has he - your pony?” Grandda Brook asks, straightening slowly.
Joe thinks of Nipper stomping on armoured skeletons and smiles. “You could say that.”
The old man nods. “I thought he might have. He's a touch of a bruise around that hoof, if you want to keep an eye on it.”
“How do you know?”
“That's for me to know, and lads like you to guess.” Grandda Brook's smile curves out again, making him look far more human than elf. “I was handy with such things even when I was a youngling much like you. Much like you, I would think.” He takes Joe's hand in both of his. “You'll find a deal of trouble, I reckon. And a deal of other things. Plenty to find in that forest you rescued my grandson from - and no trouble from adventurers either. There's very few adventurers that can be bothered by a common forest and a few spiders. I'll bid you a good day.” He nods to Joe and turns away to the gate.
Joe stares after him and swallows hard. An old man, who seems to know him, but who he's never met. A man who mentions someone called 'Sahiya'. Joe can't remember ever meeting a person called Sahiya.
Then as the old man leaves, he looks back, his shaggy hair flying out around his head for a moment, almost like a grey-white mane and Joe remembers another white mane - but on a pegasi, not a person. That was the pegasi colts' mother - and her name was Sahiya…
Posted on 2008/10/11
As the last of the harvest rolls in from the fields, so does bad weather. Seemingly endless rain pours down day after day, sometimes on its own, sometimes accompanied by a cold wind. With the roads turning to sodden mud, most travel is suspended and Joe finds that no-one has any use for him as a new teamster - even the older teamsters with regular routes and pre-planned hires are doing less.
He falls back on stable work, but with less travel there are fewer animals coming into town and no more awkward ones. The regular stablehands can already handle their usual beasts and with jobs scarce, they tend to look at Joe more as a threat than a help.
Joe finds himself relying more and more on the coin he 'retrieved' from the man in the forest, even as he resorts to his old trap-setting ways - with limited success. Even the animals seem driven into hiding by the rain.
As Joe squelches home from yet another fruitless day of trapping, he remembers Grandda Brook's words. “Plenty to find in that forest you rescued my grandson from - and no trouble from adventurers either. They don't bother with it…” Joe sighs, deciding that it can't be any worse than the woods he's been trying - and maybe, just maybe, if no-one else goes there, there will be animals to trap….
This game is DMed by Heros_Backpack from the wizards.com boards. He holds the copyright to all content.
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