Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1836886" data-attributes="member: 143">Heh, it's not like there's a shortage of candidates, as Zenna and Mole noted in Chapter 249. * * * * *Chapter 254Beorna looked down at the carcass of Zarik Dhor.  Blood and grime slaked the dark surface of her mail, and sweat damped her thick hair down against her scalp.  “Tis a shame,” she said.  “He was a worthy adversary.”“He damn blasted pounded us all into next week!” Hodge said, spitting loudly as Arun helped him up.  “I kin stand,” he said, though his spittle left a red spot on the cobbles, and he seemed more than a bit unsteady as he bent to recover his axe.  “Me head still feels like a bunch o’ gnomes are ‘avin’ a party in there,” he grumbled. “I don’t think that this fellow’s appearance was a mere coincidence,” Dannel said.  “Well, he does look kinda like that black dragon we killed in Bhal-Hamatugn,” Mole said, looking up from where she was giving the corpse a good looting.A number of people had reappeared on the street, and were casting cautious but curious looks at the slain warrior.  Zenna looked down the street.  “I think that a patrol of the Watch is coming,” she said. “Convenient timing, as always,” Dannel said with disgust. The patrol was led by a familiar face, a sergeant named Skylar Krewis who they’d helped escape a riot in front of the town hall a few months back.  Surrounded with a motley band of hard-eyed mercenaries that in some cases seemed more orc than human, it was reassuring to see him at least nominally in charge. “Why am I not surprised to see the lot of you in the middle of trouble again?” Krewis said, as he caught sight of them. “If the lot of you were doing your jobs properly, this brute would’ve never gotten into the city,” Beorna said. A few of the half-orcs muttered darkly, but the sergeant kept a grip on his temper.  “Times are difficult for all of us, priestess,” he told her.  Turning back to the others, he said, “Now, who would like to tell me what happened here?” Dannel served as spokesman, delivering a summary of their encounter with Zarik Dhor.  A few locals had appeared, corroborating his account for the most part.  In the meantime the half-orcs gathered around the body, exchanging crass comments amongst themselves and generally ignoring the proceedings.  In the end there was no reason to hold them, so after sending a townsman to fetch a heavy cart to carry off the corpse, Krewis bid them go.  “Be careful,” he told them.  “Trouble seems to follow in your wake.”“We’re getting used to it,” Arun replied.  The companions moved off, Mole’s attention focused on her bag of holding, where she’d tucked her latest finds.“He had a lot of money on him,” she reported once they’d moved off a short distance from the guards.  “Gold coins, Calimshite mint, most still pretty shiny.”“A payoff?” Arun asked.  “Perhaps,” Dannel replied.  “It seems he had his own reasons for wanting us dead, but it does stretch the bounds of coincidence that he’d just appear like that.”“But no one knew that we would be there this morning, except the priests at the temple,” Zenna noted. “None of them would aid one such as that,” Beorna said.“I’m not suggesting they did,” Zenna said.  “But it’s clear that whoever our foes are, they have the ability to track our movements.”“Well then, let’s be about our business,” Beorna replied.  “We still have some answers to get from this Ike character.”Zenna shook her head.  “We’re too battered; Hodge and Arun are still seriously hurt, and you took a good pounding as well, priestess.  We should withdraw, and restore our strength before pressing ahead with our mission.”Beorna snorted.  “Bah, that tussle was barely a warm-up.”  She turned to the dwarves with a critical eye.  “You boys can’t take much punishment, eh?  Come on, Beorna’ll make it all better, and maybe we can actually get something done here, rather than waiting for the next bad guy to show up and try to kill the lot of you.”“We can press on,” Arun said.  “Only a fool would head into a dangerous situation injured, but we have healing magic of our own.”“We just replenished our wands and stock of potions,” Zenna insisted.  “We should not waste them needlessly.”“Just stay back and let us dwarves handle any problems, seer,” Beorna said to her.  “Clearly your approach to... ‘negotiation’ could use a bit of polish, eh?”As opposed to rushing in and hacking everything to bits, and getting stomped in the process! Zenna thought, but she held her tongue.  Instead she replied, “As you wish, then.  I will do what I can, but do not complain if you find ourselves depleted in the next encounter.”“Bah, those Kelemvites are no warriors,” Beorna said.  “If they offer any trouble, we’ll be able to handle it.”Those would be fateful words, as it turned out.</blockquote>

Verification