Hovel works for me, as it isn't a place you can sleep 8- so a small lay over not a base of operations so to speak.
Working on the first post for the IC to get us started with the group RPing and mingling. Need to start that bond that will hopefully end in you being an adventuring group. Here is what I got so far...
[sblock=Opening]
The crackling fire was all the noise that could be heard coming from the small camp area nestled between a huge boulder and a thick copse of trees. Evidence that this area had been used for such a purpose before was evident, and a good spot it was indeed. Not only did it hide the light of the fire from evil eyes, but blocked the wind should it turn cold at night. But it was not any outside element that worried the merchant Javin this night, it was the others that he and his cart driver (now sound asleep) shared the fire with. An odd group to be sure, and how all of them came to be together an even odder tale none he would tell it to will believe.
It started when the dwarf Emmyr Anvilforge sought the merchant out looking for passage for him and his mistress, the Lady Rebekah and her companion... Gwylla. Javin had head her address the other half-elf as Gwylla during their trip north. The dwarf was a stubborn one (as they all are), not taking no for an answer even when Javin insisted he had no room on his cart for three passengers and their luggage. But the dwarf suggested he just by a second cart, that his lady wanted to leave as soon as possible, and Javin was the only merchant who was leaving quickly enough and heading in the right direction. The money he offered was to good to pass up, doubling the profit for the entire trip.
Well the cart was a good ideal as Javin was already thinking of leaving some things behind in the one overloaded cart he owned at the time. The buying of a new cart and the addition of added passengers for whom he didn't know led to the hiring of two more people of the strange group that sat around the low burning campfire. Templeton was the only person to voulenterr when Javin inquired after a man capable of handling a wagon and team. Although not someone he would have chosen, had he been given a choice, the man handled his team well and never complained or hinted at working harder than what he was being paid for. Then there was the dragonborn, a blue dragonman at that! Javin was worried about maybe needing some added protection during the journey, and of course he saw the weapons before he saw who was carrying them when he approach Hexrios Verad about employment. The dragonman was planning on leaving Enstrad and had no particular preference as to which direction to travel, so Javin convinced him to sign on for half of the journey and if Hexiros wanted to continue on with him from there he could. But without the money from Lady Rebekah neither of those two would even be here right now.
And then the strangest of all strange things happened just an hour ago.
Javin was about to pull off the road and head to his favorite rest spot (where they all sat now), when he noticed three people, and a giant frog?!, standing in the middle of the road as if they were waiting for the merchant train. An old crone lifted a gnarled cane aloft and spoke loudly, "Turn back! turn back Javin Mertall! For only capture and death await you and your company upon the road ahead!"
An absurd notion if ever Javin had heard one he thought remembering the encounter. And indeed he had told the old woman that many times over as she stood absolute to block the road with her two companions, and giant frog?! It was the level headedness of the Lady Rebekah that won through as she suggested they weren't traveling anymore today anyway, and could discuss the dangers ahead over dinner, at the very least.
And so they had "discussed" all through dinner, although Javin would have called it an argument for sure. It seemed the old crone Rana the Green had traveled far with the half-elf sailor Captain Blackpearl (thee Captian Blackpearl), and a human wildling girl named Aridha to stop Javin's caravan all based on a dream!
He was hardly sure what was going on, but Rana was sure that somewhere along the trip tomorrow the caravan would be attacked and everyone either captured or killed outright. But she was so vague on everything but the fact it would happen tomorrow that again the poise of Lady Rebekah won through.
"Then travel with us," she said setting down her plate barely touched. (You'd think the beans were cooked insects by the way her face paled when she looked at them.) "It would only be for a day and if we are attacked, your swords would strengthen ours, thus bringing a chance of changing the outcome of this... vision."
Rana had excepted, and so three more strangers (and a giant frog?!) were added to the five strangers already in Javin Mertall's company headed towards... Wait how had she know Javin's name?[/sblock]
So I'm on the fence about it, but didn't wish it to be overly long. I just wished to have the party gathered, it agreed upon they would work together, and a spot where you all could RP. I don't have great insight into characters yet so I'll post this up this evening (EST) and will accept any changes anyone wishes top make/add - see you all in the IC tonight.
