Winter Wolves and an Angry Mammoth

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

The not quite Speaker lady gives us a jug that Eggy and Leshy are really excited about before we head out for the next town, Dougan’s Hole. I didn’t meet anyone named James in Good Mead, but I guess I didn’t really ask. They were an odd folk, but the bees were really nice.

On the path to the next town, some really big wolves come up, but they’re not so hungry to attack us. And they can talk! They say there’s a big mean giant that’s been hurting them. Says he takes people. Eggy and Leshy say the wolf is lying, that it’s the wolves taking people and attacking town. The wolves say it’s because of the giant, and they need our help to kill him so they can be free. That sounds great to me and Doc. But everyone else wants to go to town and find out the truth. It’s on the way, so we have to anyway. The wolves run off, but we’ll see them again when we come to kill the giant.

The town is even smaller than Good Mead was. It’s not a hole, though. I wonder if Dougan is home? Eggy starts shouting hello in the center of town. A cranky lady comes out to scold him, says she’s speaker. Eggy asks about the wolves, and she says they took two teenagers and killed them. She says they’ve been trying to get food from the town, say they’ll give the kids back. She doesn’t believe them, though. The kids have been missing a few days.

Eggy says we’ll go find out the truth and get the kids back if they’re alive. She says that we can use an empty house if we’re going to help. We put the axebeaks in the house and head to the other end of town. There’s some big rocks there. Tall standing rocks in a circle. They don’t tingle when you touch them, though. There’s the druid lady we were told about, too.

She’s trying to fix the winter without talking to the goddess. She seems afraid of her, and is interested when I say she talked to me. Says she’s heard of some elementals that could help. She means the fun little guys in the forest and we promise to take her to see them if she tells us what the things we’ve been finding are. She does, and the stone pinecone can make a magic hut! But we have to go kill the giant for the wolves and rescue the kids before we go backwards. We promise to come back.

Eggy finds tracks as we head out on foot, well snow shoes. And we follow all day and into the night. It’s a long way to that cave. The wolves had said a day past town and we didn’t leave until just before dinner. Tomorrow, then. I make a cozy little mushroom hut for everyone to sleep in. Some little wolves came to sniff at night, but they left us alone. Can’t get in my mushroom hut!

Next afternoon we find a big ice dome. Doc and I sneak up and find where the kids are. We get the rest to come up and we go in. It’s two teens and a rat man in a cage. The ratman says a big long name, but we can call him Twitch. That’s a good name. Wolves don’t seem to be around, so we get them out. Eggy wants to take them home immediately, and I guess the kids can’t help fight the giant, maybe Twitch could. But they haven’t even seen it. So we take them all the way back to town. The kids go off together, and we invite Twitch to stay with us since this isn’t his home either. He’s here to study the winter, too.

First, though, we go talk to Dani at the stones. I tell her all about my dream, and Twitch seems real interested, too. He asks me all sorts of questions. We still have to find the giant and talk to the wolves. Eggy wants to get them to team up with the town, but the town people all seem very grumpy. I really hope my Dad doesn’t live here. There isn’t even a tavern. Everyone else wants to kill the wolves, including new friend Twitch. Eggy promises to try talking to them first, though.

We head back out to the dome the next day, talking about deals we can make with the wolves. Doc agrees, but everyone else thinks it won’t work. They still aren’t home when we get back there, so we decide to go inside to wait. Has to be warmer than out here. This Huge Hairy Monster with Big Tusks comes running at us shrieking that we are to blame!

I try to tell it, that it isn’t our fault. It says we killed someone. I tell it we haven’t killed anyone in days, and that was just giants. It gets real mad at that and tries to kill it, so we have to kill it right back. The wolves show up from outside, too, and they just attack us without even stopping to talk! It’s a real bad fight, but Best Friend’s Club is strong, and we win.

Eggy starts cutting the skin off the dead (and he thinks I’m weird), so Doc, Twitch and me go exploring. We find the giant, but it’s already dead and froze in a block of ice. Doc says it was blades that killed it, not the wolves or even the big monster. We also find a big throne and Twitch says we can sit on it and make a blizzard, so Doc does. It’s a really cold throne. We keep looking and find a big fur blanket, barrels of whale oil, a small tunnel with sticky stuff in it, a table room, and a room with a dead whale and some tiny dragon people, kobalt, I think Twitch called them. They killed one of the nice elementals cuz it scared them. I get that. I killed wisps for scaring me a lot as a kid. I pick it up and Doc says we should to put it back in the snow.

We go back and tell the group what we found. Leshy makes food and then we go share it with the kobalts. They’re going to stay here tonight with us and then we’ll all leave in the morning. They seem pretty nice, if skittish. Hope the regular wolves don’t kill them out there.

Giants and Ogres and Yogi Bear

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

Eggy takes us back out to the forest, following Fef’s trail. We find a pile of mushy bodies. The very big giants didn’t like being followed, I guess. They left a big trail though, so we went a bit further before camping. The mushy bodies smelled pretty bad. The woods are pretty quiet though. Kit likes it out here, but I don’t think she likes that we’re going after the big scary folk.

Next day we get into a snowball fight with tiny ice people. They really like Kit. They bow to her and everything. Then they give me a rock pinecone and run off before I can give them something in return. Doc says they might want something later, so I guess that’s okay then. Sammy says they’re made from elements. I don’t know what that means, but they were very fun.

A little while later, Eggy says to get sneaky. So, Doc and I take the lead right up to a big hill. There’s three ways in, but Eggy wants to go in the back. So, we circle around, all super sneaky. There’s a big cave back here too, but before we can go in, some Ogres come charging up. They’re really mean, so we have to fight them.

Then the Giants come out. They’re not actually Very Big after all. They just look like big people. They are bad enough to be giants, though. They smashed Sammy right into the ground. He didn’t get up! We smashed the giants right back, but Sammy still didn’t get up! Doc! Leshy! Fix it! But they couldn’t! Saalym kneels down and starts talking to someone to help, but the gods here are dumb. So, I kneel down like she is and try to ask the Queen for help. She doesn’t help either. We must be too far away. NOnononononoNO!

Eggy’s over by the cave growling at a bear. He says his name is Yogi Bear, or something. They go inside together, but I just want Sammy to get up. Leshy and Saalym start wrapping Sammy up in a blanket, and Leshy says more prayers to useless gods. Doc and I start checking the giants and ogres. Doc’s trying to find stuff, I’m just making sure they’re dead. Full dead and full of holes. He takes their spears.

Eggy comes back out and asks what people think about tomb raiding. Doc and Saalym say that if they’re not using the stuff anymore, it’s okay. We all go into the cave. Saalym brings Sammy. There’s a bunch of animals in one of the rooms. And a big, fancy tomb in another one. We push the top off it and find a lady inside. Her clothes are tattered, but she has a stick and a pearl that people are excited about. The air feels weird when they take them, but then I hear Sammy’s voice and it goes away. I think he said goodbye. Come back, please, Sammy? But he doesn’t.

We go further in to Yogi’s den. There’s a big statue under the ice river here. Eggy wants to break the ice and get it out. Which seems really weird. But the water’s really tasty when he does. Saalym says it’s a god’s statue, Sylvanus maybe. The statue is pretty big when he can actually see it, so Eggy leaves it alone. Saalym wants to let Sammy rest by the water for the night. Doc and I go back to check on all the animals – sheep and goats and things. They’re really well fed. The town will like them, maybe they’ll give us more mead. Eggy and Leshy make a lot of noise, but they quiet down when it’s sleep time.

The Winter Goddess lady visits me in my dreams. She sounds really angry that I was trying to get my Queen’s help. Says she’s the only Winter Queen around here. Well, is she a Queen or a Goddess? I don’t think she’s really either. And if she’s bothered by me just talking to my Queen, she must be really weak.

Leshy fixes the cart here so we can carry all the stolen stuff back to town. Some lady giant catches up with us, really made. Well, her friends killed my friend, so we put her down, too. Giants are terrible people. When we get back to town, Doc and I go get drunk. Eggy, Leshy, Saalym, and Sandro take Sammy to a temple to put him in the ground and say goodbye. They also give all the stuff we brought back to the town people.

Later, Eggy comes by and asksh ush if we wants ta be Shpeaker of this weird little ton. That sheems like a teri.. bad idea, he agreesh, but they ashed. I go out to gib honeycomb to Yogi, and shom men come up with weapons. Dey wan all da townsh money and shtart attacking my friends. No! No more! Also, that money’sposed to be ours tmorow. Doc and I shtab them until dey shtop.

Saalym maksh em shay why. An yells at a lumber guy a lot. Den maksh shom go way. Lotta angry people. Doc says not my fault tho. Okay.

Nasty Dwarves and Pretty Rocks

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

Sho there we go. Inna Town Hall, and the guars were shleep. Doc n Leshhhy woke ’em. I thik they hit chother. Real bad. But nother doorsajar. Jar! Haha! Door’sa Jar.

So we shneak in dere, Real QUiet. An two javlins come flyin out at Doc! We rushhh in and theres blue Dwavses. Anda big pretttty shtatue ofa demon from a ssship. gots somma the wood shtill. The Dwavses make Shandy more gooey, so we shmash them. Theres more though. Schays they’re runnin outback.

Doc, Sandy, and me chase after them. Nice warm alcohol all gone now. It’s freezing out here. Gonna have to go get drunk again after. We follow their steps all the way to the lake. Loch? Lock? and onto a boat. Sandro says there’s no one inside, so we go in. He Hit Me! In the Chest! With a Pickaxe! Doc turned him into paste and then another one pops out of the shadows and we stab him pretty good, too. The rest of the bodies are back in town, so we drag them off there after taking their stuff. They had a map and some really shiny rocks. I got a new shiny dagger!

Eggy explains to the guards what happened. They talk about the shiny rock and the big statue. The Captain says that it’s evil magic demon rock, which seems weird to me. How can rocks and magic be evil? You gotta do evil stuff with them, I’d think. Eggy says that demons are evil so that makes the rocks evil. They keep talking, but Sammy, Saalym, Doc, and I go back inside to look at the demon statue. It tingles when you touch it, and Sammy chips off a piece.

The speaker shows up and says that some demon named Urtoo terrorized the lack or something. So they try to keep the rocks away from people. Eggy gives them back to the Speaker. The Speaker also says the Dwarves are from under the dark water, or something. Saalym says it’s not Waterdeep though. Oh, apparently Saalym and Sammy and a guard got attacked by some humans outside while we were fighting the Dwarves. The Speaker thinks the humans wouldn’t be working with the Dwarves, which seems weird, they were all there at the same time and all of them tried to kill us. The Speaker says he’ll pay us in the morning for our trouble, so Sammy, Saalym, Doc, Sandro and I go drinking again before bed.

In the morning, Sammy tells us what all our new toys do. Eggy gives me an alarm horn, but then wants me to not prank him with it, but he won’t give me anything in return, so I give him the horn back. Then he starts talking about how we all have to be nice to each other and work together, and I’m confused cuz I thought we already were? Then he starts talking about not touching stuff that might hurt other people, which is weird. Of Course we’re going to touch stuff, but we agree to make sure to let him back away from questionable things before we touch them. Sammy says we’re the Best Friends Club, now. Eggy doesn’t seem so sure, but he doesn’t have a better idea. I like friends. I don’t know if we’re all friends, yet. I’ve never had this many friends, but Sammy, Saalym, and Sandro like to drink with me, so I guess they’re alright. Eggy’s real loud though and Leshy’s just not right for an elf. Maybe we can be friends some day, though.

We go see the Speaker. He’s a bit distracted because his friend didn’t come to work today. Saalym and Eggy go run to check on her. He gives us a box of money for stopping the dwarves and giving back the shiny rocks. When they get back, Eggy says she ran away and there was a flying snake symbol in her fire. The Speaker asks us to bring her back alive if we find her in our travels. Eggy asks if we can have the Axebeak from last night, and he agrees. Apparently there was a whole sled chase and crash. We missed all the fun!

We gather everything up, get last supplies and head out. It feels good to be on the road again. That town was terrible. I even try to show Eggy how to hunt food quietly, but he’s just so noisy and working on an even bigger boom stick. We make our way to Good Mead just a few hours down the road. Saalym says we probably shouldn’t try to sell our Ale there, but she has some barrels from East Haven that need filling.

We meet a guy running out of the woods on the edge of town. He says some giants killed a bunch of guards in the woods who were trying to get the town’s mead back. Fef also has a cute little terrified fox! It’s so soft and fluffy. Eggy buys it for me. It stays away from the danger in the woods, but I will keep it totally safe. The hunter also asks if we’ll help the town. Giant hunting sounds super fun, so we all agree. Hunting big awful giants is a lot different that killing poor hungry wolves or a moose. Eggy is such a jerk, he wants to go hunt a moose who didn’t even do anything. He’s pretty big, but I don’t think even he could eat a whole moose.

Fef takes us into town and there’s this big building that’s got beehives and a brewery and a bar all together in one place! Saalym doesn’t seem to like the bees very much though. I wonder where they go to get flower stuff to make their honey? The mead is good here, not great, but good enough for this terribly cold place. The people are trying to get a new speaker since the giants killed the last one. Seems like a rough job. They tell us all about the giants we’re going to go hunt. It’s gonna be great!

Hungry Wolves and Drunken Rumors

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

Once everyone stopped arguing, Eggy picked up the cauldron and we kept exploring the caves. They were pretty boring, actually. Some sparkly pillars, some cave art, an old dwarf campsite. Eggy wants to charge people to tell them where the pillars are, he’s so weird. Saalym added to the cave art. We ended up sleeping at the old campsite. Eggy found some papers, but nobody can read them.

Doc, Sandy, Eggy and me stayed up to watch for danger. There were some growls and then some really big wolves showed up. They were really hungry. Eggy starts growling and barking at them and they actually listen to him. He puts some food in the big cauldron and lets them lick it clean. So unfair! Then he gives them more food to drag away, and they do! He says they have puppies in a den somewhere nearby. Maybe Mom was right and I shoulda learned to talk to animals.

Next morning Eggy decides to clean out the cauldron before we take it back to town. Like somehow they’re gonna know what was in it. It just makes new stew though, when he puts water in it! It’s tasty, but only vegetables. Guess you gotta add your own meat. Everyone’s really upset about the stew and they keep cleaning it out and it keeps making new stew. They’re finally satisfied, but Doc thinks Eggy is weird for wanting to carry it around instead of making a deal with the town people for it. Eggy again reminds us not to talk about the people stew from the Hag. We said we wouldn’t tell already. He doesn’t listen.

We get back to town and everyone thinks the cauldron is pretty cool. Staring at it while we go looking for the Captain at the Town Hall (where you’re not allowed to sleep). The Captain pays us for finding the fishermen after Eggy tells her what happened. He still insists the Hag killed them, but he’s got no proof! She gives us money a piece of paper that Sammy likes, and a grey bag. She says it has tricks in it. I wonder what that means? Then she takes us inside to talk to the guy in charge of the town about the cauldron.

Speaker Daneth Waylan comes to talk to us. He wants to know our story. Everybody lies again and says our caravan crashed. We talk about their winter goddess lady and Saalym tells him the sacrifices are dumb. Speaker doesn’t even know who the goddess lady is, but thinks she would kill him for trying to talk to him. Sure does sound like the Queen on a bad day, but she can’t always be mad. He says she casts spells at midnight to keep it winter all the time. That seems like a sorcerer, unless gods here are really weak that they have to keep casting a spell every day to keep things how they like.

Eggy tells the Speaker about the fights in the cave, and about the cauldron. The Speaker says he’d like our cauldron to help feed the people. I ask if he’ll stop killing people if we give it to him. He’s not sure about that, but it hasn’t been working! We ask for at least two months to find a different solution before he executes another criminal as a sacrifice. He agrees to that and giving us what we need to get our things from our crash. I seal the deal.

We head to the liv…liver… stable and get a couple sleds and axebeaks to help go get our stuff. Sammy says they’re dinos, but they have feathers. He says sometimes dinos are more like birds than lizards. So, we start riding out to our ship. It’s a lot faster with the sleds, I don’t even have to put those big “snow shoes” back on. Good thing, too. There’s a big ogre and his wolves who have decided that our ale tastes good. He shouts at us and I shout back, but we don’t know the right words. His wolves come running at us, probably looking for food like last night,. Instead of giving them food, Eggy starts shooting again. What the hells? The wolves don’t even hurt anybody and they kill a whole bunch of them. I try to get the Ogre to call them back, and he finally does when only one is left, and they run away. We coulda been good friends, he was just thirsty. Didn’t even hurt anyone.

We gather up our stuff, and even skin and cut up the wolves, and head back to town. Eggy is so strange. First stop the Thirsty Trout to sell about half our ale barrels to Nimetra, the owner. She says to talk to a tiefling named Skythan for any news from other towns or about bounties for the murderer running around. So, Doc, Sandy and I stay there to wait for him while everyone else goes shopping or something. Sandro can’t really drink, but he can pour stuff into himself. He says he can’t be poisoned either, but we give it a try, buying him more and more powerful liquor to see what happens.

Swat hapns ish, Doc n me get real drin…druk..drunk. Shandies fine. Den Skything shows up and eveyone elsh too. We get losh more dinks. Sky talksh wen he drinsh, and tellshus soooOooo much. A darf lady tellsus bout murderus den. Wans us findem. Summin bout worgs? Meby torgs? Sa torg? Den we gota see…slep…sleep.

No? Wat? Door’sajar. Hehehehehe! Door’s a jar! Ajar! Uh oh.

Fishers and Auntie

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

So, first things, apparently their winter god is a lady. I really do think they should talk to the Queen. She’d know what to do. The sleeping guy woke up. He says everyone will be real mad he’s not dead out in the field there. Says he told them it was dumb to kill people, so he got picked next to be killed. Says the winter god lady is crazy. Sounds like it might be the people who like her are. But says they won’t do it again for until the sky gets a new moon. I guess some lady named Shar takes or breaks the full moons, so another lady named Selune has to make a new one every month. This is a strange place. Anyway, the not-sleeping guy says he has somewhere to go and is going to sneak out during the execution this morning.

That was even stranger. They tied this guy in red robes to a stake in town square and lit him on fire. He just stood there and let them do it. Didn’t even move or cry or scream or everything. It made everyone real uncomfortable, him just staring at the people killing him for killing other people. Maybe he wasn’t really there, he’s got magic and everything. I wouldn’t just stand there. No way!

After, some lady with almost-elf ears and armor talks to Eggy. She says her name is Imdra something, and she’s Captain of the Guard around here. Says that wizard killed the last adventure group that was helping the town. Says we look like adventure folk. Doc asks if she knows where to get a cart, but she brushes him off. Wants us to go find some missing fishers. Like the birds? No, I guess she means men fishers. Whatcha gonna give us? She says she can give us some stuff from the dead wizard and a little bit of gold. Doc and Leshy say that it’s enough gold to probly get a cart. She also says we can loot whatever we find along the way. They ask about the wolves that tried to eat us, but she doesn’t know. Need money for a cart, so we agree to go look.

Sammy says we need snow shoes. I’ve got boots, they’re shoes for snow. But he wants us to wear these big wood and reed things to walk on top of the snow. They are Not good for sneaking. Eggy pays for mine and Doc’s. I now owe buying him something later. I don’t like it. I could have bought ours, first ship paid well enough, second ship hadn’t charged us for passage, yet. He also gets a bunch of tents, even though the lake is just north of town.

The not-sleeping man’s house is ransacked. He said we could take things, but it’s mostly been taken already. We find a fancy fishing pole. Eggy also finds some silver hidden under the floor. I guess people here aren’t so smart.

The lake isn’t far above town, so we start walking around it the way the Indy lady said to go. Find a little boat floating in the ice first. Saalym shoots it and Eggy pulls it in. There’s some fisher gear and empty bottles in there. Then some flying bird ladies come to talk. Eggy shoots at them though, and everyone else follows suit. I try to ask them about the men fishers, but Eggy kills one and the other flies away over the cliffs. Ugh! How are we supposed to find people if they just keep shooting? Saalym has a bit of a drink from the dead one.

We go in a cave. I take off my show shoes and Eggy puts them in his bag. Can’t sneak with those things on and they’re his anyway. Eggy says there’s tracks in there. Doc and I scout ahead until we find a frozen waterfall. Looks a bit tricky to get up alone, so we wait for everyone to catch up. Eggy shoots the waterfall. Ugh! His boom is way worse indoors! This makes the water mad and it attacks us. I’d attack us, too! We stop it from killing anyone, though, and there’s a mining pick and a backpack behind the water. I wonder if the water man used to be a miner and just got tired.

We help everyone climb up the waterfall so we can keep going. We find some stairs and they lead into a big room full of blood and bones. Even the bones of a giant man. Nobody finds anything but bones, so we keep going. Doc and I go down some more stairs to an even bigger room. This one has a nice hag lady in the middle. She’s cooking up a nice big stew and invites me and Doc to join her. It tastes way better than the porridge back in town this morning. There’s some dead people behind her. Must be what the stew is made from.

Everybody else gets there, but they get real mad. They say she killed the men fishers and that we shouldn’t be eating the stew. But that’s rude, you don’t turn down hospitality from a hag lady. Eggy, of course, starts shooting. Oh Man! Mom’s gonna be real mad if I kill a hag lady. So, I go look to see if the bodies really are the fishers, and everyone’s yelling at me and Doc. The lady’s gotta wisp, too, and Doc says it’s okay to kill those, there’s too many of the pests anyway. Then the lady tries to make a deal cuz something big is coming. I try to get everyone to take the deal, but they won’t, so she runs away. Eggy chases her, but it’s too late to worry about that because that big giant skeleton breaks through the wall and starts attacking people. He Hurt DOC! We smash him to bits!

After, Eggy drags back the hag lady, all dead. And everyone gets mad at Doc and me again for eating “people stew,” but I’m not people, and Saalym ate those bird people outside. They say that’s different because they were “monsters” and so was the lady. So, now I get mad, because I’ve got an Auntie who is a hag. Then Leshy gets mad and says I can’t have, but I do! She’s my Auntie and he doesn’t even Know Me! Eggy tries to stop the fighting, just asking we don’t tell the townspeople that we ate “people stew.” Fine, not going to lie, lying’s bad, but we don’t have to mention it. Leshy says we can just bring back some of their stuff and not the bodies.

Are we going then? Or we going to keep exploring the ice cave? It’s a really interesting cave.