Posted on 2010/01/31
As Midwinter draws close, Joe decides to take the holiday off - apart from looking after the animals of course. He wanders the market between local hires, looking for reasonable deals on food and ends up with a holiday meal of chicken, onions, carrots and potatoes, ale and apple pie. Bramble gets some of the chicken. Merry and Nipper get carrot instead. A trip to the crowded temple and a libation of ale takes care of the gods too, just to make sure that the next year stays good.
It seems as if the rest of Freetown is taking days off too - or at least the part that wants delivering done - because there isn't much work around leading up to the year. Joe passes it quietly, cleaning and tending the cart, mending and patching the worst remaining tears in his rescued clothes, cleaning and tidying his house and yard, training the animals as best he can.
Several days after new year, Joe is sitting in the hiring line, about to give up for the day when he sees a possible customer approaching. He scrambles quickly to his feet as the halfling in the working clothes pauses and runs her gaze down the scattering of carters. Her gaze settles on Joe and she checks a piece of parchment before she heads towards him and scans him up and down.
“You're the lad that goes to Dasil?”
“I've been there, yes. You have a cargo for me, Craftmistress?” Joe sighs inside at being called a mere lad, but isn't going to let that rob him of work.
“I have a cargo for Tidemouth. Some of it has to be picked up in Dasil, and I dare say you know what that means.”
Joe nods curtly. “Means the forest. You pay me for it, and I'll brave that forest. You won't find others that will so easily.”
The halfling nods back. “Pay in rations as well as coin, start in two days. Tidemouth will take you a week's travelling.”
“Deal.”
“West road to Dasil - you've been there before, I know - then take the southern road out of Dasil to Tidemouth.”
Joe fixes the directions in his mind just nods. “I'll be there…..”
Posted on 2010/02/14
Joe turns up at the gate at the appointed time, complete with dog, pony, mule, cart, animal feed and one sack share. He has to wait while a partial load of ropes, cloth bales and kegs is placed in the cart and a bundle of rations is handed up to him. Then he is free to go and he heads off through the cold crisp day towards the forest and Dasil.
From memory, Joe knows that it will take him a day and a half to get to Dasil, and that there is a good camping place halfway, so he aims for there, while batting Bramble's nose away from his rations. The day passes quietly and Joe reaches the camp spot in time to set a few snares for fresh meat and skins. When he has set them, fed the animals and lit his fire, he sits down to investigate his payment rations. He finds oatmeal and dried peas, a wedge of hard cheese, a string of small onions, a twist of herbs and a smaller twist of salt, a packet of dried fish, another of dried fruit, a bunch of carrots, and a small loaf of bread.
Joe grins with delight. Far, far better than any rations he would have bought for himself. He sets up a pot of fruit and porridge to simmer for morning, cuts himself some bread and cheese for now, and starts peas soaking for tomorrow.
He wakes early, checks his snares (nothing) and runs trhrough the morning chores with a shiver and a grin. It is good to be out on the road again, despite the weather. By late morning, he is rolling into Dasil to stop outside the dwarf's smithy and wait while she loads coiled chains into the remaining cart space.
At last, she waves him off and Joe heads contentedly on down the road, stopping in time to set up snares each night and even managing to catch a few rabbits and a couple of squirrels. Then, on the 6th night out of Freetown, Joe returns from setting up his snares to find Nipper nose to nose with a wyrmling dragon…
Posted on 2010/02/28
Joe freezes instinctively for a moment before he cautiously takes a step backwards. His foot slips on a patch and he falls, making enough noise that the dragon's head whips round. Wide green eyes stare out of a greenish yellow scaled face as the dragon sees Joe - and freezes. Nipper lowers his head to nudge the dragon towards Joe while Bramble barks a welcome to Joe and bounces over to land squarely in his middle.
Joe gasps for breath and pushes Bramble off. “You're getting too heavy for that,” he says between gasps, “and I need to move…”
Bramble whines and prances back towards the dragon and the camp. Joe climbs slowly back to his feet, tensed to grab a knife or dive for cover if he has to. He has heard so many stories about dragons, but all the tales claimed that they were big. This one isn't much bigger than Bramble was when he first got her, and seems much shyer.
Nipper nudges the dragon again, and it looks at him for a moment before curling its tail round it's toes, looking up at Joe and saying in clear Common, “I've lost my Mamma. Have you seen her…?”
Posted on 2010/03/20
All that Joe can say is, “Uh, no….” while his mind races frantically trying to think of any way that might possibly get him out of this. What do you do with a baby dragon when the parent is roaming around? You leave 'lost' baby birds and animals well alone for the parents to collect, but this one can talk….
“No,” he says at last. “No, I haven't. Will she be looking for you?”
The dragon hangs its head. “She's always looking for me.”
“Perhaps…” Joe swallows hard and tries again. “Perhaps you'd like to stay here while she's looking?” He can smell salt seawater somewhere nearby. “Do you - uh - like dried fish?”
The dragon pulls its tail tighter around it. “Don't know…”
Joe sighs, finds a strip of dried fish and offers it to the dragon before he starts pease pudding cooking for himself and Bramble. The dragon takes the fish and cautiously chews one end of the strip. It thinks about it for a long times and then adds, “I like.”
“Good.” Joe sighs with relief and begins to eat as well, still watching the dragon with one eye. Bramble gulps hers and curls up against the dragon's side. She clearly doesn't see any problem with it, and neither does Nipper. Joe does his best to take his cue from those two and get some sleep, but somehow the tales still get in the way, and he wakes often to make sure he hasn't been caught and eaten.
Joe finally wakes one last time and finds that it's close enough to dawn that he can get up. He crawls out of his bedding and starts the remains of the pease porridge warming up. As the sky lightens, he spots a bronze-haired elvish woman walking down the road towards him and looks hastily over at the baby dragon.
For a moment the dragon looks as if it is still sleeping. Then its head shoots up and it jumps to its feet, crying, “Mamma!”
The elf swings round and stalks swiftly across the verge towards Joe's camp. “Where did you get a dragon from, human?”
Joe squares his shoulders. “He found me. I came back to the campsite and there he was. If it concerns you, lady.”
“It concerns me very much,” the elf replies. Her shape shifts, blurs and reforms into an adult bronze dragon. “Very much indeed…”
Joe stumbles backwards as the wyrmling races past him, babbling in a language that Joe doesn't know. The adult dragon listens for a time, then her head comes up and her gaze focuses on Joe. “Human,” she says, “you must come with me…”
Posted on 2010/04/19
Joe shakes his head and backs away. “No, no thank you. I have goods to deliver, animals to care for. I don't do no harm, I don't need to be anyone's dinner, dragon lady…” His back hits the side of the cart.
The adult dragon sighs. “Humans!” She looks at Joe and puts her head down. “It is not usual among dragons for care to go unrewarded. So, human, come with me. You are not a shark, to taste good going down a throat.” When Joe still doesn't move, she clicks her tongue in exasperation and her head whips forward. Joe finds himself snatched up in her mouth, then tossed up to land on her back, bruised and winded, but otherwise whole. Before he can recover, she launches herself into the air and all he can do is hold on.
After one look down, Joe decides he'd rather just cling on with his eyes shut. He keeps them shut for several minutes until the dragon stops moving and he finds himself in a cave. There are piles of sparkly stones and statues on the floor, stacks of armor around the edges (in some cases looking as if the wyrmling used them as teething chews), tapestries strung at odd angles, tunnels leading off into darkness and loose piles of coin here and there. The whole place smells like saltwater and old fish, but Joe decides not to anger the dragons by mentioning that.
The adult dragon looks at Joe and then around the cave, her claws dislodging coins and stones as she moves. “What to give you…”
Joe also looks round, but remembering the tales of what dragons like, he nods at the nearest tapestry, one that shows racing horses. “That's kind of a nice picture – and I like horses…”
“And they'd be better off in human hands? You do have equines as I recall.” The dragon flips the tapestry off its hook and drops it into Joe's arms. As he rolls it into a bundle, (and levels up!) the dragon points him to a side tunnel. “That will take you back up to the surface…human…”
Posted on 2010/05/16
Joe is level 5.
Joe scrambles through the narrow tunnel with his arms full of tapestry and eventually finds himself climbing out into a hollow near where he had been setting his snares. From there he makes his way back to the camp again, packs the tapestry away and starts harnessing Merry and Nipper, while grumbling under his breath about the dragons making him late.
Eventually he gets underway, heading down the road to Tidemouth. The last stretch of road runs parallel to the cliff top and Joe can see, hear and taste the sea washing away below him. He grimaces at the taste in his mouth and moves on quicker, finally reaching the town at dusk. The streets are full of all kinds of races, but most of them seem to be rather smaller than human. He recognises dwarfs, halflings, gnomes, a few goblins. A lot of the buildings seem to match the residents for size and Joe decides that his first task is to find somewhere human sized to stay. He can unload tomorrow.
After asking a few directions he finds his way to an inn called the Anchor Chain which caters for taller people. He pays for stalls, a bowl of fish stew and a pallet space to sleep in. The place is full enough to keep Joe wedged into his seat and he listens to the talk as he sips the last of his small beer. There seem to be two main topics of conversation. One concerns the handful of druids stalking the streets and the other concerns a problem in the area.
At that point, one of the drinkers turns to Joe and says, “Didn't you come in down the cliff road?” When Joe nods assent, the drinker frowns. “The cliff road isn't safe…” He leans closer to Joe and half shouts in his ear, “There are dragons haunting that road.”
“Really?” Joe says, thinking of the pair he had met. “I'd never have guessed…”
“You had no problems?”
Joe shrugs. “It was a quiet enough trip. I didn't see any dragons overhead.”
“Then you were lucky. Don't risk it again.”
Joe nods, but doesn't commit himself. The dragons hadn't hurt him, nor had they warned him off. The adult one had even said that humans didn't taste good. Besides, going round the other way would take extra time and need extra rations for the same pay…
Posted on 2010/06/05
After a breakfast of fried bread and smoked fish, Joe heads out to deliver his cartload of goods, though the size of most the people in Tidemouth make him feel as if he is wading through crowds of children. A few humans, half-elves and half-orcs stick out of the crowd around him, and he spots a few shaggy-coated druids here and there.
Finally though, he finds his way across town to the harbour warehouse. Or at least, one of the warehouses - the goods one. There is a matching warehouse opposite it that is just as clearly set up to hold living creatures, although there doesn't seem to be anything there now. Joe eyes the pens and the racked collars, leading ropes and manacles while wondering if this is what has brought the druids into town. Meanwhile, the chains, ropes, bales and kegs are unloaded from his cart and his pay is tossed up to him.
“If you aren't straight off back,” the halfling in charges says, “my cousin could use a reliable carter to move some goods across town.”
Joe nods, thinking he might as well get as much work out of this as he can, while he's here, and the halfling gives him directions. Joe works his way around the harbor and up towards the cliff-top part of the town. Finally, he locates the halfling business beside a rather shabby set of stables and hitches the animals to a post while he takes himself inside to report for work.
When he comes out again, there is a gnome looking Nipper over, clearly unafraid of his stamping hooves. As Joe opens his mouth to call a warning, the gnome says over her shoulder, “I thought you said you didn't have any warponies, stablemaster. There's a good one here.”
Another, deeper, but more familiar voice rumbles from the main road, “Found yourself a mount yet, Shamua? You've had long enough, surely,” and Joe looks round to see Yakk looming through the entrance, looking bigger than ever in the crowd of small folk…
Posted on 2010/06/23
Nipper's ears flicker at Yakk's voice and before Joe can get to him, Nipper's head snaps forward and his teeth close on the back of the gnome's coat. Nipper's head comes up, dragging the gnome off her feet and then Nipper swings far round as his tether will let him and dumps the gnome at Yakk's feet with a rude noise.
Joe mouths his own curse as silently as he can and hurries the last few steps to the little huddle. The last time Nipper was as bad as this to someone, the thief lord's men attacked the stables in revenge. Out here, he doesn't even have the other grooms to back him up. They don't even know him - why should they ever believe that Nipper was just a pain?
Then Yakk laughs out loud and the fear eases a little. “Shamua, I believe you've met your match! You should know better than to approach a creature with so little caution. Learnt your lesson this time? This one could do much worse to you - I've seen him in full action.”
The gnome scrambles to her feet and rubs her bruises. “Serves me right for not paying enough attention, I suppose. I will certainly not be forgetting soon.”
Joe cautiously unhitches Nipper and braces himself to pull Nipper away from the confrontation. “I'm sorry, ma'am. He can be a little demon sometimes…I've tried to break him of it, but he only obeys when he wants to.”
“A demon?” Shamua echoes. “I have heard many and many a tale of a demon horse these last few months.”
Joe hides his wince as best he can and wonders if that story will ever stop following him around.
The gnome, Shamua, sighs and shakes her head. “I will have to keep looking for a mount - and for other things.”
Nipper's ears prick up as she moves away, pulls free of Joe's hold andsnakes his head forward to grab a mouthful of Yakk's coat. Yakk turns fast, his massive hand dropping to knock Nipper away. Nipper whinnies and yanks hard on the coat in the direction of the harbour and Yakk pulls the blow, grabbing an ear instead and lifting Nipper's head so that their gazes meet.
“You know something, pony, don't you?”
Nipper tosses his head, lets go of Yakk's coat and snorts.
“Well,” Yakk says, “let's see.” His hands cup Nipper's head and he stares into the pony's eyes for several minutes. “Carter,” he says finally, “I would like to borrow your animal for a few days. You will be compensated for his absence….”
Posted on 2010/06/18
Joe's ears prick up at Yakk's words. They want to pay him for not getting bitten, trodden on and generally hassled by Nipper for few days? “Sounds good to me,” he says. “The real question is 'how much'?”
Yakk chuckles and shakes his head, before digging into a pocket and coming out with a small pouch. “I know – you have your living to earn. This should cover it.” He tosses the pouch to Joe who weighs it in one hand and then looks in, to find 3 days wages in decent sensible silver lying there.
Joe promptly tucks the money out of sight. “It should cover it, if you bring him back in decent condition and on time. I don't have a riding saddle for him though, just a pack saddle, which I own, and his halter and lead rope.” He removes the saddle and packs as he speaks, and loads them into his cart. Nipper was only on long term loan anyway and needed to earn his own keep, as well as the feed he ate.
The gnome Shamua steps forward, grasps the rope cautiously and leads Nipper away after Yakk. Joe watches them go with one hand and on the coin pouch. Then he sighs, shrugs, and starts to pack the halfling's goods into the cart for transport across town. The transport goes smoothly, and so does the journey back, until Joe realises he's still going to have to pay for Nipper's stall. He still has a couple of days' work to do shunting goods though, so that's all right. He won't be wandering around at a loose end like some useless adventurer….
Posted on 2010/08/15
Everything seems to go smoothly over the next day and a half except that the inn seems to serve fish at every meal. Back at Freetown, fish is only ever part of the expensive meals and every time Joe sits down to a Tidemouth meal part of him wonders how much he is going to get gouged for his fish stew, fish pie, fish roll, fish pottage… It doesn't stop him eating it though - all the loading and unloading makes him hungry and it seems as if every dwarf and halfling in the area has decided to pick now to get in the way of the cart. He even has to cough up the full fee for Nipper's stall.
Joe does see something like human sized shackles and chains as he loads the sacks and crates, but decides it's better not to know if the halflings are enslaving humans as long as they are going to pay him well rather than enslave him personally. He's found he rather like being in charge of his own life. He does invest in a small keg of salt fish to take back in his share slot and sells off the odds and ends he brought up as his 1 sack share.
Joe is just heading back from the second day of carting goods across town, when he sees the huge figure of Yakk looming close to the inn. With a sigh of relief that he can probably get out of this fishy town without having to leave Nipper behind, Joe turns down the alley to the stables with Merry and Bramble trotting on either side of him. He turns the corner to see that Nipper is already there, and being put into his stall for the night.
Joe tethers Merry to a rail and walks cautiously forward to check Nipper over. There seems to be a mischievous light in Nipper's eyes, which Joe knows from experience is not going to be kind to a tired carter who wants to avoid too many bruises. He sighs, and Nipper snickers back at him.
As Joe shakes himself and moves warily closer again, Nipper tosses his head and says, “What? Did you think you'd got rid of me for good?”
Posted on 2010/09/01
Joe just looks at Nipper. “All right, you pain in the neck demon-pony, how long have you been able to talk?”
Nipper looks right back and snickers. “Still going to feed me?” just as Yakk rumbles “About 18 hours…non-stop.”
Joe comments dryly, “Non-stop sounds like Nipper, he's always up to something.” He eyes Yakk as he sets out Nipper's feed and then gets out of the way. “Do I owe you anything extra for this talking beast.”
Yakk shakes his head, tiredness clear in his tattooed face. “Your beast had information we needed. The speech is payment for that. He insisted on it.”
“He would. Pain.” Joe backs out of the stables. “You eating here or elsewhere? I've not seen many places big enough for me, let alone…” He bites off the rest of his sentence and backs further away.
“Let alone a 7 foot square half-orc?” Yakk rumbles. “You might be right there. I've a camp outside the walls that suits me better.”
“Well come in and eat, it's a long way to the edge of town. There'll be space enough, I reckon, if you don't mind fish.”
Yakk blinks in surprise and then chuckles. “You're a strange one, young carter, but you treat your animals well. I'll take you up on that, it's been a long time since someone actually wanted my company - aside from Smash, of course. Most find me - hm - a bit large for their liking.”
“Large is all very well, but it just means you get caught in bigger webs,” Joe retorts. “Then little folk like me have to come and cut you loose!”
Yakk chuckles again. “Lead on then, young Carter Wood. Boldness makes for better company than fear.”
Joe looks back at Nipper once and then braces himself and walks back into the inn with Yakk looming behind him. They cram into a corner table, eating a spicy fish soup with oatcakes, and not talking much. Eventually, Yakk nods a thank you and straightens. “I must be going. I have a dragon to track down first thing tomorrow.”
“What kind?” Joe asks quietly, thinking of the baby on the road.
“Bronze.”
“You want the cliff road then.”
Yakk stops and leans down. “You've seen them?”
Joe nods.
“Show me where?”
Joe just smiles tightly, and says aloud. “I leave tomorrow. If you want something taken along that route, make sure I have it before then…”
Posted on 2010/10/03
Joe buys some rations to take with him and saddles Nipper as usual, refusing to be put off by the verbal grumbles that now back up the stamping and bared teeth. In fact, he grumbles back, “Shut up you pain of a pony. You're not the only one who carries a pack all day you know, and at least you're built for it!”
Nipper shuts up as soon as Joe leads him out into the open. Joe looks at him and then grins. “So you're playing that game? Well two can play dumb…” He tethers Nipper to the cart and goes back in to settle up the remaining bill, wincing at the memory of all the fish they serve there. It isn't as bad as instinct makes him feel though, even though he has to hand over quite a neat stack of silver pennies. Yakk hasn't shown up with anything to deliver either, so Joe simply harnesses Merry to the cart and heads for the town gate and the road home, with Nipper sulking alongside.
Less than an hour outside Tidemouth, Joe finds a massive horse and rider waiting for him. He scowls at Yakk, but the huge half-orc gets in first. “You said you'd deliver something and you knew the way. Well you can just deliver me.”
Joe snaps back without thinking. “Sorry, I don't have a large enough to wrap you up in for plain delivery. You'll have to work for it and ride.”
Yakk throws back his head and roars with laughter. The leafy tattoos on his cheeks move with the sound, as if there was an actual breeze in them. Finally Yakk stops for breath. “You,” he rumbles, “are one brave young human. I'm big enough to break you over my knee.”
“Yes, you make a nice big target,” Joe retorts, refusing to show the fear that flashes through him. He drops his hand to the nearest knife. “And I bet you still squeal when a knife hits you in the guts.” He tosses his head in exasperation. “Oh fine. Come along as long you're prepared to pull your weight. Your very hefty weight.” He looks Yakk up and down. “It isn't like I could stop you riding down the road here. I don't claim to own it, like some.” And with that he flicks the reins and drives on, leaving Yakk to keep up as best he can or fall behind. Much to his annoyance, Yakk keeps up easily, with Smash sauntering along level with the cart, although after one snap by Nipper, the pair stay on the opposite side of the cart….
Posted on 2010/10/03
Joe is not greatly surprised when Yakk vanishes into the forest the moment there is work to do setting up camp. Joe just mutters, “Adventurers!” under his breath and gets on with the work. He is mildly and pleasantly surprised that Yakk returns with fresh meat, fresh greens and a cord of firewood. Shortly after that, a pot of stew is simmering over the fire and flatbread baking on hot stones beside it.
Yakk looks up and rumbles, “So where are these dragons you said you could find?”
Joe shrugs and points straight down into the cliff.
Yakk scowls, leaves bunching around his tusks. “Is that all?”
“No,” Joe says flatly. “There's a tunnel. Comes up in the forest, but I'll need daylight to find it.”
“Didn't see any evidence of dragons in the forest. I thought they were sea-lovers.”
“Maybe they are,” Joe retorts. “But if they dress as humans, they'll need a human sized method of getting out, won't they?”
Yakk scowls for another few minutes and concentrates on flipping the flatbread with the tip of a sickle. Eventually he shakes his head. “You have an answer to everything. I hope you have an answer to the dragons frying your head off for interrupting them.”
“Well,” Joe replies after a moment, “since Nipper can now talk enough for two when he wants to, that makes me kind of redundant, doesn't it.”
“Don't be so certain,” comes Nipper's voice from the pickets. “I still need someone to groom me and fetch food.”
Yakk and Joe look at each other, smiles twitching, then away. Eventually Yakk rumbles, “In the morning then,” and moves to dish out the stew…
Posted on 2010/11/07
Morning comes all too soon as far as Joe is concerned. He chokes down a breakfast of flatbread and dried fruit, tends the animals and then reluctantly retraces his own passage through the forest to the exit point.
“Here,” he says shortly. “You first.”
Yakk peers into the tunnel and then stoops low to enter. Joe follows, grateful to be small enough that he can just walk through it without much problem. It winds more than he remembered – and then a flash of light breaks out in front of them and a voice hisses, “Sssooo, what have we here?”
Yakk moves slowly forward again, hands splayed out from his sides. “Friend,” he rumbles. “Friend, not foe. Put your lightning away and listen, I got news for you.” He adds something in a different, more gutteral language and the dragon answers in the same one.
Joe edges round the discussion and tucks himself into an out of the way crevice in the wall, trying to stay away from any lightning that might end up flying around.
A claw pokes him in the backside and a small voice chirps, “Hello again.”
Joe jumps and spins round to see the baby dragon standing there. “Oh,” Joe says. “It's you again. I hope you're not lost this time….”
Posted on 2010/12/12
The baby dragon giggles nervously. “No, not lost Mamma again. Not yet anyway. Want to see something? She's busy with the big guy.”
Joe looks over his shoulder at Yakk and the adult dragon, but they are deep in conversation, heads together and rumbling voices serious. “Ok…” he says slowly, “what's this thing you want to show me?”
“Down here.” The baby dragon scoots off down a side passage and Joe hastily follows, until they come out in a cave that seems full of carved teeth. The baby scoops out a relatively small one, carved into a dagger with a slim hilt and plain handle. “That's mine,” it says proudly. “From my egg tooth. It came out with a really good balance.”
Joe takes the tooth, draws it, hefts it and agrees. Not that he'd disagree with something that still had teeth like this in its mouth. He might get an even worse bite than he does from Nipper.
The baby giggles again. “For you. For the fish. Mamma never brings back anything like that. And you didn't have to feed me. The tapestry is Mamma's payment. This is mine - but don't tell her.” It looks pleadingly up at him.
“I won't,” Joe says, tucking the dagger inside his shirt for safe keeping.
“Thank you. You're not as bad as Mamma likes to make out humans are…” and with that, the baby dragon whisks round and bounces back up the passage to the main cave.
Joe follows before he gets lost again and arrives just in time to see Yakk slip something into a belt pouch. Joe scowls, but then the knife knocks against his ribs to remind him that he is getting something out of this other than wasted time after all. “If you've quite finished, let's go,” he grumbles at Yakk. When the half-orc nods, Joe stomps his way gratefully back to the surface and the kind of camp he knows best….
Posted on 2011/02/13
As soon as he reaches the camp, Joe begins to pack up. As far as he's concerned he's wasted quite enough time on dragons. Now he's going to have to hurry to get home in a decent time. He does take a moment to shove the new dagger into the bandolier with the others, but other than that, the cart, the animals and his packs take precedence. He climbs onto the driving seat and flicks the reins to start Merry moving. He stubbornly leaves Yakk to catch up up on his own - or not as the case may be.
Yakk doesn't follow so, five days later, after encountering nothing worse than backchat from Nipper, Joe pulls into Dasil. There isn't much for him to offload there, but it's late and the lodgings are maginally better than the ground beside the road. The food is certainly better, and Joe takes full advantage of it to restock his rations.
He sets out early next morning after a breakfast of bread and honey. As he heads out the forest closes in around him, as it always does on this road. It seems to be even quieter today than usual, though Joe puts that down to all the tales he's heard in Tidemouth. Then, half a day out of Dasil, Joe rounds a corner to find 4 adventurer types standing vaguely in the middle of the road. Joe hauls on the reins, yelling curses at the top of his voice and finally slews to a halt half off the road.
Joe turns furiously on the group. “Just what do you think you're doing! This is a road, not a blasted inn where your sort stand around telling stories at each other!”
“Uh.” The nearest, a haughty looking half-elf, looks blankly round. “Oh.. Ah. We got, uh, lost. We don't, um, remember the way back to town. We can, um,” he pats himself all over until he finds a belt pouch, “pay?” The 3 humans with him nod in agreement.
Joe glares at them. “Oh very well. Just to get you off this road before you cause a real accident. But you'd better pay good.” He gestures curtly for them to fall in behind the cart, wrestles it back onto the road with a little help from Nipper and sets off again.
That night, he doles out scant rations all round in an attempt to make them go 5 ways. He asks a few curt questions but when the only answer he gets to everything is 'We don't remember' he soon gives up and rolls into his bedding instead with his knives to hand and Bramble guarding his back….
Posted on 2011/03/13
Joe makes it through the night without incident and sends Bramble to lick the adventurers awake. The assorted cries and curses assure him that she is doing her job very well. Joe still keeps his knives close at hand as he divides up the remaining food and makes sure that Merry and Nipper get a decent feed as well. He bolts his own share - a small piece of bread and a few pieces of dried fruit - and then sets to packing everything securely in the cart before supervising the adventurers to make sure they only take their share of the food.
Finally Joe swings up onto the cart seat. “Come on then. Let's get moving.” And without waiting for a reply he herds the adventurers down the road towards Freetown. When they turn the last corner and Freetown comes into view, Joe pulls to a halt and holds out his hand. “Payment, if you please. Right now.”
The spokesperson absently hands Joe the belt pouch. Joe blinks at the weight and then tucks the whole thing out of sight. “Thank you. I don't suppose you know where you're going when you get there?”
The four look blankly at each other. “We don't re-”
“You don't remember. Surprise surprise. Is there anything you do remember?” Joe watches them look at other again and rolls his eyes to the heavens in exasperation. “Ok, fine, I'll show you where to go. Then you really are on your own.” He heads through the gate and winds his way through the familiar streets to the guardhouse, pulling up by the door and jumping down from the cart. He ushers the four adventurers inside, growls to the guard on the desk, “This bunch of idiots were loose on the road. They remember damn all and they're your problem now.”
Then he closes the door behind them, climbs back on the cart and heads for home…
Posted on 2011/04/03
Joe finally reaches his own house, unfastens the gate and hooks Merry and Nipper to rings in the yard while he cleans out and rebeds their stalls. Eventually he gets that finished, and the equine pair groomed, fed and settled. He unloads the cart, unlocks his own front door and dumps his travelling gear just inside before heading back out to the market for food and firewood.
Still hungry from ekeing out rations, he settles on bread and butter, cheese and dried apple rings, a don't ask pie and a chunk of good sausage, beans, onions, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, flour, and a dozen eggs. A bundle of firewood bought from a woodcutter completes his load and he trudges back to his house with it.
He puts some beans to soak for tomorrow, stows the rest of the food on shelves and settles down to a meal of pie, bread, cheese and a few apple rings. When he's finally satisfied, he stretches and begins to unpack. His one sack share is tucked into the back of the cupboard for now, where he can get at it to trade, and travel-stained clothes and bedding tossed in a pile for washing later. He makes up his bed with the spare blankets, hangs the tapestry on the wall nearest the sitting area, and tidies the rest of his gear into its usual places. As he does so, he comes across the pouch that the idiot adventurers paid him with. Looking inside, he sees only stupid gold coins rather than anything useful and with a sigh of exasperation tosses it into the chest where he keeps such odds and ends. The last oddments are packed away and Joe wanders downstairs to settle Nipper and Merry down for the night, before rolling himself into his own clean, comfortable bed.
Next morning he wakes early, breakfasts on a thin slice of sausage and a pair of hard boiled eggs and takes himself off down to the hiring line. The hiring line brings no luck and no jobs - most of the hirers seem to have settled on regular hirings of the same people in Joe's absence and there is nothing left over for a lad like him. He has to head home empty handed and spend the day selling his one sack share and doing his own laundry and cleaning.
Much the same happens on the next two days, but on the fourth day after Joe's arrival back in Freetown, he returns to his house to find the brown guard, Alek, waiting for him…
This game is DMed by Heros_Backpack from the wizards.com boards. He holds the copyright to all content.
Here's the original thread, complete with comments from other posters.