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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zad" data-source="post: 3381240" data-attributes="member: 90">Frozen Elegy - Chapter 2Frozen Elegy – Chapter 2OOC Notes: Exp TBD.This Week’s Adventure:Bryon pulled his cloak closer around him as he got down from the dilapidated cart. A broken-down cart for a broken-down horse he thought, and wondered how many more seasons he could keep each going. Of course, at the rate things were going, he’d be dead from starvation of killed on the road long before the horse or cart became an issue. Anna came round the other side of the horse as he lead it towards the open field, and put the feed bag the horse’s snout. Of the three of them, the horse looked the happiest. The couple secured the horse and cart without a word – they’d been married and traveling far too long to have much new to say – and went inside the inn. Neither noticed the lingering signs of blood in the field that the rain hadn’t quite washed away.The inn looked to them like it always did. Bryon and Anna traveled every spring and fall, selling their spices and herbs at communities around the edge of Cauldron. They couldn’t afford to sell inside Cauldron this year what with the taxes and all, and they were just hoping to make enough to scrape by. If the inn was suffering, it wasn’t much noticeable. There were the usual number of caravans parked in the fields. They’d arrived late in the day, so the common room was largely empty, save for some scruffy looking types at a table near the fire. “There you are,” grunted the innkeeper. “I was hoping you’d be making it. Wife says the mutton ain’t the same without the seasonings.” Bryon managed a wan smile. “Same as always. Ain’t much else a man can do.” Then Bryon actually heard what the innkeeper said – not “when” you’d make it, but “if”. His brow furrowed. “What’d make ya think we wouldn’t be by?”“Oh, heard of some troubles on the roads is all,” the innkeeper lied badly. “I’ll get you some dinner,” he said and went to the kitchen. The night and meal would be part of whatever bargain they struck in the morning for spices. The couple sat down, and had food and beer soon enough. This close to Hollowsky, the beer would always be good.“I’m telling you it’s was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, I and I don’t give no nevermind to what you think,” one of the men said loudly. He looked like a trapper or local woodsman.“Yeah, well you ain’t seen the same measure of fightin’ that I has,” the other said. “I seen heroics in the wars, I have.” The second man was old, grizzled and almost certainly inflating his past deeds. “But you ain’t wrong about one thing – it was amazing. Not wrong at all. That was a battle yes sir. We can thank the gods that this inn wasn’t another Lucky Monkey.”Until the words “Lucky Monkey” Bryon and Anna had ignored them. It was loud talk from men who likely as not spent too much time alone in the woods and was scarcely worth attention. But by now word of what happened at the Lucky Monkey had spread to all those who traveled for a living, and if something happened here, that was worth asking after.“Not something you should even say out loud – not something to be said at all. Thems were good folk at that inn. Fair and honest they were,” Anna said. “Just cause some bear or somethin’ came round here, no reason to be sayin’ that.” Anna thought they were just talking, but Bryon was already suspicious from the innkeeper and listened to the response carefully.“Bear?!? Ain’t no bear what filled the field out back with blood and made a pile of corpses big as a barn,” snorted the first man over his drink. After a moment he looked at them squarely with a realization. “You ain’t heard, have ye…”“Ain’t heard what? Some tall tale at a roadside inn? Fair’s to say I heards ‘em all,” Anna said.“A week ago, this very inn was attacked by a horde of beasts lead by a creature not man nor beast. Would have killed everyone here, were it not prevented,” the old man said quietly. There was fear in his voice, and Anna knew it wasn’t some tall tale after all. “You don’t believe us, you ask Gus.”Bryon looked over at the innkeeper who was clearing a nearby table. Gus looked back at him, then hung his head and went back to the kitchen. Gus didn’t want to say it but there was no doubt it was true.“So what happened?” Bryon asked. “Well…” the first man started, then was cut off by the older one.“It’s a long tale, friend, and it’s late, and we needs to be going,” he said.Bryon scowled and smiled at the same time – a talent he inherited from his father. Poor as they were, if there were attacks on the road, they needed to know. And they might be able to trade the story for a drink just as these two were trying to. “Fine. A fresh beer is in it for you.”The two came over to their table. The older one said he was Griff, and introduced the other man as Dennis.Griff did most of the talking and there was enough fear, respect, and awe in his voice to make Bryon believe most of what he said.“A week ago yesterday, we both happened to be here. Now the road’s been quiet lately. Caravans were getting attacked here or there, some travelers with wild stories and such but enough people seen entire merchant trains destroyed as to give it weight enough. So it was quieter than it should be, but still folks here. That day, a small train rolled in – Lady whatsername, with just one cart.”“Knowlern – that one what owns the brewery in Hollowsky,” Dennis supplied.“Yeah that’s her. Came in her with another girl and a whole lot of guards. Strange crew too. An illumien, and two women.”Dennis was now fully enjoying his new beer. “Full plate armor those two. Nicest what I ever seen.”Griff just rolled his eyes. “Now mind you I didn’t think nuttin of it at the time, but I wouldn’t call you wrong if you said I shoulda. The Lady went upstairs, and that was that.”“Till the middle of the night,” Dennis piped in.“Quiet and drink yer beer,” Griff growled. “In the middle of the night all manner of fuss starts up. There’s howling going on outside, and one of them guards that was upstairs goes charging outside. I can hear shouting and barking and I goes to the window.”“Which goes to show you how dumb he really is,” Dennis added then hid behind his mug.“What I seen, I ain’t never gonna forget. First I see a man standing there, but he ain’t no man. He’s white all over, with a long head like some kind of lizard. There’s blood all over him and he’s got the head of a guard in his hands with the neck freshly snapped. Lookin’ in his eyes was like looking in the eyes of the devil. Behind him, there were all these beasts. Dogs sort of but some walked upright. Dozens of them, tearing at whatever was near ‘em.”“Dozens?” Anna said skeptically, having reached her limit. “I reckon you can’t even count that high.”“Maybe not,” Dennis said. But they did. When it was done. Ask Gus,” then he yelled “Gus! Tell ‘em! Dozens!”Gus was at the bar. He sighed. He was scared of this story scaring people away as it spread. “Dozens. Four score in all.” Gus didn’t mention the ones that ran off at the end.Bryon and Anna fell silent. Griff went on. “I wouldn’t believe it if I were you either. They was like kobolds almost but more feral. And they would howl at you and freeze you solid like a white dragon. I could see a score were biting and circling around someone – someone out there was trying to fight ‘em back. It was them.”“Them? Who’s ‘them’?” Bryon asked. “The ones what came in with Lady Knowlern. Turned out it was the Blue Tyger Legion,” Griff said, waiting for that to sink in.Since the flood season, the word of the Blue Tygers had spread around a fair bit but a lot of it was a far cry from the truth. Bryon started to put it all together, muttering “Two women in armor, illumien…”“Exactly,” Griff said. “And if you think those girls – and they were naught more than girls to these eyes – if you think those girls are all for show, I am here to tell you that you are wrong. Those dogs were swarming one of them and she was whipping her halberd around crackin’ the skull of one after the next. They charged in more and she kept felling them like they was stalks of wheat.”“The other girl…”“Elishabeth,” slurred Dennis.“… she came round the back. I seen one of the others right behind her – archer of some sort. They came round ready to attack but they waited, real smart like. They had one of their boys - an elf – he was sly. He poked at the hunter, got him all mad like, and then ran back towards the other two and that hunter followed him right into their line. Elizabeth and the hunter locked up good and fought hard. She started cutting him left and right.”“She was beautiful,” Dennis moaned. “She had this big curved shword, and danced around like there was mushic playin’ that only she could hear.” Dennis promptly fell on his face on the table.Griff just rolled his eyes. “The dogs swarmed around them but she just ignored them. She and the archer and the elf, they stayed on that hunter and they made him regret that night, you bet they did. They was biting and breathing cold and all that, and still they ignored them and fought the hunter.”“The other girl, she was still killing dogs. Every time she opened a hole, more would surge in. Now me I’da been trying to get to my friends, but she just fought more and more of ‘em. But she wasn’t alone, no sir. Magic started coming from upstairs from a window. That little girl who came in with the Lady, she was a mage of some kind and she was hurlin’ fire and destruction down on those things. The illumien was down on the ground throwing explosions around too. But that other girl, she was getting bit and breathed on and her halberd was caked in frozen blood and she still kept killin’ ‘em.”“I look back to the hunter, and he’s just parried that girl’s sword. He comes in to strike, and she turned it back on him. She lured him in then knocked him to the side when he went for the kill. Then she just turned around, away from him. Wasn’t til I saw his head hit the ground behind her that I saw her blade, the edge behind her along her arm.”By now, Bryon and Anna were transfixed. “Now the dogs – they didn’t run. They kept on fighting, and the Blue Tygers, they obliged them real nice. They killed every last one of them – didn’t lose a single one of their own either. And they didn’t stop until this place was safe.”Griff took a long pull from his beer. Anna recovered first. “I see what you mean about the Lucky Monkey.”“I reckon,” Griff said, acknowledging the vague apology. “But this time they were here in time to stop it. And I ain’t never seen nothing fight like those girls or their friends. I hear tell those things were attacking a lot of caravans – killin’ everyone and everything. Folks said that they saw bodies staked into the rock, skinned and salted like a spring pig. I tell you what, we are all better off since the Blue Tyger Legion came through that door.”“Ain’t that the truth,” Gus added quietly.Dennis stirred briefly, yelling “I luv you Elishabeth!” then collapsed back to the tabletop with a snore.Loot:Ivory token with symbol of TiamatBackpack of human skin – backpack of resistance +1 (seriously)5 adamantine arrows10 cold iron arrowsa broken bow (more of a clue than loot really)</blockquote>

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