All gathered around Stephenath, Theol and Erleothir the tension quickly vanished with the firm, but quiet tone of voice of the Magician. Theol couldn't help himself and tried to convince Stephenath to request the help of the Monastery instead. But Stephenath choice was already made. For good or worst, he will trust Huldrak's judgement. Once again.
"Guess who rolled"Stephenath look turns to him while he replied quickly to this silence inquiry:
- And Master Kai of course my Lord. Smiled nervously Theol.
-Prepare the Valtariol and inform Franklin of their arrival. I'll inform them of their mission. Don't forget to load the boat with all of what they'll may need.
- but...
- All of it...
- Yes... Brother Stephenath. May Ishir protect the cargo. And them of course. And you, I expect at least one of you back to bring the dogs back!
The fading sound of his voice walking down the stairs provided a visible relief to Stephenath who could now inform without disturbance our adventurers. Offering them the information they would need, and that he was interested in providing. For the pirate the 100 gold pieces were the best one of the day, while the dwarves smiled widely when they were informed about the sledges and the full equipment within. It would last one month. Giving them enough time to go back in forth and rescue the emissaries. Otherwise they would be stuck in Ljuk for the winter. Very long months in a place without friends and nothing else than ice. As far as Stephenath knew, Dark Raven the Kai Master escorting Kilithanin, the Sommerlund emissary, was about to be sent back to the land of the Dark Lords to be interrogated. For him, it didn't make sense that Kzutooa, the Brumalmarc (the King)of the Ice Barbarians could make such a move against the free people. Neither a good man nor a bad one, he was a cunning ruler and a hard man. But not a stupid one. He knows that he can't live without the goods Kalte can't provide, but he knows he can ask for an high price for what his land can give. Such as minerals and the access to Ikaya for our scholars to study it. Something was wrong and thanks to Huldrak who intercepted Marghal before he could retrieve Dark Raven all the complot was discovered. Your mission is to recover Dark Raven and Kilithanin at any price. Then you'll have to cut a deal with him, or his sucessor in a way to maintain peace and access to Ikaya.Words were useless and the hot blooded Company men and woman couldn't hide their thirst for a new adventure. On their way to the Valtariol, the boat which will take them to Ljuk in 13 days, one last warning was given. Franklin is the captain of the boat, and the only one whom can be trusted. But he will only let himself known at the end of the trip. He has his reasons. So be aware to respect his will. Once in Ljuk listen to him. He'll know what to do.
the Valtariol"
Shortly in the Valtariol the large trade ship which would be their home for 13 days seemed to be a floating village. Franklin acknowledged their arrival, sent them to their cabins and started to do his captain job. As the night came down, all went to bed, except Alast who roamed the deck while Mulchanor was cleaning both his gun and Gus' canon. In the middle of the night Alast came waking up all the company with important news. This time he got some information about the superstitions on board. Wether dwarves nor women were welcome aboard. They'd have to take a bath at the first sunlight to break the superstition. Red haired person should hide their hair as long as their live in the boat, this concerned the 2 dwarves, whose protuberant facial hair could be a problem for the whole trip. Walking on the back on the ship should be done with the right foot first. A silver coin under the main mast was a sign of good omen. Griselda only reacted when he informed her that the sight of a naked woman would lift the mariners spirits and break the imaginary curse believed by the mariners. Slowly they when all to bed for a couple of hours. None of them remembered to awake in time and the sun was already high when they came up on deck. Only Franklin was looking at them in a strange way, for adventurers they awoke quite late.- You really don’t understand what is it to be a mariner, don’t you?
Their first day came by at the end with them taking turn not to fall asleep. During the night the wizard staff fell on the floor, but Erleothir who was on guard caught it fast enough to not awoke all the others. For a while he stood near a sleeping Lightning without knowing what to do with the staff. After a short night Mulchanor awoke everybody and got Griselda falling on him after he pocked her. Broking something it seems. They all needed to take a bath and be naked as he referred once again with a slight grin too Griselda. This part was not in her initial plan. Going up the boat properly hiding their colored hairs the dwarves and Griselda took the seawater shower, and Mulchanor silently removed Griselda top. She reacted fast but considering his dwarf size her arm just passed above him. Nevertheless, he reacted and tried to avoid the hit and hurt himself. His self inflicted wound was hurting him
On day three the visibility was drastically down due to the bad weather, but as they were under deck it didn’t seem to bother them. A fisherman boat was nearby, strangely quiet. Alast tried to get closer, but the captain wasn’t really interested in it. None from the company tried to convince him other way. Day four wasn’t really important to mention but as day five rose from the dark a new challenge was blooming.
Oh ! there are a few corrections to do according to my notes and the Mage's ;)
ReplyDeletefirst, don't forget that wes we received all the necessary equipment but Theol did manage to sell a tent to Lightning who couldn't remember what he had in his back pack ( he then found out he had already one in fact... but the new one is for two and he promised to share it with Griselda, who, for sure, had no tent ;) )
The mage also asked if we could have time to walk around on the way to the harbor (though we had go as unnoticed as possible and we were already late, the two prisonners might die any day !)
Then, the first night, Alast had some troubles waking his comrades first and if we all tried to stay awake the second night it was because we woke up to late to shower and we couldn't miss it another time or the mariners would really be influenced and get moody.
The staff fell on the first night. On the second, Alast fell asleep during his watch (but I don't remember who woke him).
There also is the question of Gustavius willing to go and see the doctor and Lightning planing on paying him a visit too as he can't heal himself and his sickness is a form of handicap.
and can anyone remember when, why and what were the consequences of Erleothir "ones" that day?
Come on, you make it look like I keep throwing "ones" all the time. But euhm...I only had 2 natural ones that day.
ReplyDeleteI think you should also put something about the current morale level of the mariners. I remember +1 for the silver coin, -1 for me getting to the back of the ship with my left foot first (natural 1), +1 for the shower the dwarves and amazone took, +1 for the (half-)naked woman.
If you want to put all superstitious acts together, then you forgot a few:
*singing woman for morale increase (by the way: Griselda did hum at her shower, but that could not be heard while the mariners started shouting when she flashed herself).
*spilling red wine for morale increase
*black cat for morale increase
*spotting a dolphin for morale increase
*killing sea scavenger for morale increase
*dogs on deck for morale decrease (maybe a note that we took care of the dogs as well while they stayed below deck)
*flowers on board for morale decrease
*cutting hair/nails for morale decrease