Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="silentspace" data-source="post: 1234475" data-attributes="member: 14316">The paved caravan stop is about 200 feet by 200 feet.  The well is in the center.  There are posts along the perimeter, where torches or lanterns can be placed.  Beyond the posts are groves of trees and meadow.  The caravan pulls into the stop and the drivers maneuver their wagons about in a dance of orchestrated chaos.  They arrange the wagons in a semi-circle, backed up against the cliff.  The stairs down the cliff are in the middle of the half-circle.  There won’t be any patrols tonight.  Rather, the perimeter will be lit with torches, and the drivers will keep watch from their wagons.  The rear guard will be keeping watch with the drivers for the first half of the night, and the front guard will be keeping watch the second half.Darien and the front guards go ahead to speak with the centaur, but only for a moment.  It looks like they cannot communicate with them.  Not seeing the centaurs as a threat, the guards leave and head down the cliff stairs to have dinner and go to sleep.  They are heading to The Riverfolk Brewery and Inn, located sixty feet down the face of the cliff, built into the actual cliff wall.  This is where everyone will be sleeping, when they’re not on watch.As the last wagons pull into the caravan stop the rear guard heads towards the fountain-well and the centaurs.  As you get closer to the well you see that all of its basins are full.  You see the handles of pumps, but there’s little need to pump now.  The rain has topped off the basins.  The centaurs are just filling waterskins as you arrive.The centaurs resemble strongly built human males with horses as their bottom halves.  They have red roan fur, and hair falling past their shoulders.  They have fine quality composite longbows, and several weapons and bags slung over their shoulders and backs.  You soon realize you can only communicate with them in Elvish.  “Thank you Kind People. I would welcome any assistance.  I am Polindun, and this is my son Bolandun.  We were attacked by Humans, not long ago.  Luckily, we seem to have lost our pursuers in the rain.  We came here to rest a bit before continuing.  We will stay here tonight, in that grove of trees, before returning to our homes tomorrow.  These lands are teeming with bandits.  In fact, bandits usually camp on this bridge, collecting ‘tolls’.  It looks like they were driven off by the rain today.  Not that you need to worry though, I’m sure your caravan could afford the ‘toll’ or fight off the bandits.  Because I am alone, traveling with my young son, they chose to attack us instead.  I might have fought them, but because of my young son, I fled.”“Father, I am not afraid of the God-Killers!”“Please, Bolandun, do not use that term.  They are called ‘Humans’.  We Centaurs sometimes refer to Humans as God-Killers.  As Humans have covered the World, pushing out the other races, so have the Human Gods pushed the Elder Gods out, until now the Human Gods are the most powerful gods above, just as the Humans are the most powerful of the races below.  As it is in the world, so it is in the heavens, it seems.  There is no offense in the term.  It is a term of both fear and respect.”“Strangely, most creatures pay only lip service to their gods, if they bother to worship one at all.  Even the Humans, who have the most powerful gods in the heavens.”“But who are you fine people?  And what kind of aid can you give me?  It is for my wound, yes?” He had washed his wounds with water, but they are still gaping and raw.</blockquote>

Verification