The Great Adventure!

It really didn't sink in until some ways down the road. I just killed someone! But that wasn't what really scared me. It was the fact that I didn't feel anything for them that really got to me. I hadn't thought about it until I was lookin around for someone to talk to and saw some of the people who also had apparently never killed anyone either. They all either had blank stares on their faces as if staring at something no one else could see or they looked about sick. Why do I not care? I didn't really feel like talkin anymore.

 

"Bandits!" I yelled, whipping out my pistol as fast as I could! As soon as they saw it two of them charged at me. I aimed and fired. A perfect hit right between the eyes of one of the bandits! The force of the impact toppled him over in under a second. I turned and smiled towards the ladies, knowing that they would be impressed by such finesse.

I then laid aim at the other bandit, lining it up perfectly for another flawless shot. But what in blazes! My gun was jammed! Pulling the trigger did nothing! In my rage I threw the pistol on the ground and kicked my Half-Ogre on the shoulder. The beast groaned, but atleast I had his attention. "GET THEM YOU BIG OAF! PROTECT YOUR MASTER!" I yelled in desperation as the robber was comming ever closer. It took a second or two for my bodyguard to understand but when he did it was a sight to behold. The huge beast charged forward with his axe razed while I galloped off to safety.

The look on the bandits face just before he was cleaved in two by Leopolds two-handed axe was priceless. As the fight ended I brushed off and looked down at the two corpses. Eeeuhh! they're filthy! I wouldn't touch them even if my life depended on it! I turned around and yelled to the others:
"I say! Gents! if anyone of you would like to rummage through this filith your welcome! They have nothing I need!" I then made my way over to Leopold who was standing over the corpse of the other bandit. "Good boy, heel!" I cracked my whip and the lumbering half-ogre joined me at my side ones again...

 

When Ari joined me she had a rather queasy look on her face. It was obvious to all that perhaps she had not had as much experience as she had claimed. She was definietely competent though and not a bad force mage either, like myself. With a little more experience she would be fine.

I gave her a warm, friendly smile and then looked over to her fallen bandit. It seemed for her to miss out on any spoils so I quickly looked him over for her. I left the mace, which was badly rusted and scooped up the 40 odd coins he had on his person, before removing the red barbarian armour and a dagger from the body. I also retrieved Ari's arrow.

I gave the loot and the arrow back to Ari. "It's not very nice the first time is it?" She seemed a bit embarrassed. "Don't worry. I was the same myself when I killed my first person. It's not the same as wolves and rats that's for sure, but it gets easier. Just don't get to enjoy it and you'll be fine. If you feel bad about it then you've got nothing to worry about." She nodded and gave me a weak smile. "One other thing. If you've killed someone in justified fight then you've earned the right to keep any possessions they might have had on their person. It won't do any good gaining experience if you've got no money for equipment. Other than questing it's the only way we adventurers can make any money!"

I looked around when Roxton invited everyone to partake in the spoils. Ari didn't seem keen to join in so I made my way over alone. I wasn't interested in the spoils myself. I'd had my fair share this time around. What appalled me though was Roxton's treatment of his bodyguard. Noone deserved such treatment!

I made my way to nearest bandit. I ignored the chopped up one. My stomach was strong enough to take that sort of thing either. Blood I could handle, but the trailing innards made me gag. I bend down over the whole bandit and quickly found what I was looking for. I left most of the loot for the other people trying to pick over the bodies and made my way over to the half-Ogre. I grabbed the half-Ogre's hand and placed in it the coins I'd picked up, before closing his fingers over the money. "Here. That's for you and you only. Your 'master' gave up his rights to those spoils." I smiled at the big guy and he seemed a little bewildered.

On my way back to Ari something caught my eye. I picked it up. It was Roxton's gun. The firing pin was bent so it must have jammed when he pulled the trigger. I checked the embedded gems. They were cheap and the gun was badly made, but it would fetch a reasonable amount of money if the person I sold it to didn't know much about guns. I stuffed the gun in my pack, making sure noone saw me. Hell, if Roxton doesn't want it, then it's open pickings. Bet he wished he's taken that flintlock now!

When I got back to Ari she had regained some of her colour and she was looking rather more healthy. We stayed together as we started off again. I threw the occaisional scowl over at Roxton, who was prancing along with a great air of superiority. Why do we need him along anyway? I realised something. Roxton was now unarmed!

I looked around our party. The mood had changed. Some people, like myself, were coping fine with the incident, but more than half of our number were newer at this than they were letting on. We travelled on in sombre silence.

It seemed like an age before it began to get dark. Tarant was now long behind us and we were well out into the countryside. We came across a nice open stretch with a small river running nearby so I suggested we stop. It was ideal camping ground and the clear landscape would give us plenty of warning should we be bothered during the night.

The group was soon set up and the tents were pitched. I'd made sure that the tents were arranged in a ring, with Ari's and my tent inside the ring. Ari and I stowed our belongings in the tent and then made our way to the campfire in the centre of the ring of tents.

Everyone seemed to have recovered from the fighting now and were feeling a little more secure now that we were set up in an encampment. After checking the fire and settling the embers I decided to cook dinner. After all, if one of the women didn't do it then it was either not going to get done or it would be burned beyond recognition!

 

After we made camp, I felt like talking again. I looked around for someone to talk to and headed over to Ari. She was the only person I had really talked to and she appeared about as new as I.

She didn't appear to quite be over today's ordeal. It still bothered me that I felt nothing over the man I killed, but I had managed to put that aside."How are you doing?", I asked. She looked kind of upset. Her new friend Kat had gone over to cook and I thought she might need someone to talk to.

 

I ordered my bodyguard to tend to my horse while I sat down by the campfire. He always seemed to enjoy being around animals, not surprising really, him not being much more then an animal himself...

As I sat down I dug around my coat pockets in search for my cigar-case when I realized that my revolver was nowhere to be found. "Blast!" I said to myself, remembering what I'd done with it.

Being without a weapon in a group of potentially violent commoners wasn't really an ideal situation. Not much to be done about it now tho... I thought, as I finally found my silver cigar-case. I opened it and took out a small thin cigar, which had probably cost more to me then what these pesants make in a month.

Striking a match against the heel of my boot and lighting the cigar made a few people look over in my direction. I nodded towards them so as to not to cause a fuss and put the cigar in my mouth. Without a weapon I would have to lie low for a while, luckily I still had my bodyguard.

Soon I was puffing away on the only decent company to be found in our little camp, adding the aroma of class and culture that had been lacking from my life for several days now...

 

I was busy cooking. I bent over to smell the stew when I inhaled the most revolting smell. Tobacco! I didn't have to look very far for the culprit. Why am I not surprised?

Grabbing the wooden spoon from the stew I made my way briskly over to the rock, where I leveled the spoon at Roxton, splattering his jacket with mutton gravy.

Ignoring the spluttering noise he was making and trying to keep the irritation from my voice, I began to give him a ticking off. "If you wish to smoke those things then would you kindly do so outside the circle of tents. Not only is it bad enough to smoke tobacco when someone is cooking, but I for one do NOT want my clothing smelling of that weed!"

He seemed to ignore the warning in my voice and just stayed put, making weak protestations over the condition of his jacket. Getting fed up, I tried to shoo him off with the spoon, giving him another liberal coating of mutton gravy. "If you don't move this minute then you can forget about eating tonight. It's hard enough cooking for a party this size without having to worry about pretentious, useless morons like you!"

By now I was getting rather worked up. If it wasn't bad enough for him to be unarmed and useless, now he was going out of his way to be annoying!

Having managed to get Roxton to move, I returned to the fire and the mutton stew. Grumbling to myself I proceeded to smell the stew and then taste it. Hmm.. needs another few minutes.

 

I didn't want to pretend. I had been very shaken up by the skirmish. It hadn't occured to me that this was dangerous; it was just going to be a great adventure. Now I knew that people could get hurt, and even with my magicks, die. I'd talked to Kat a bit, but she'd gone to cook. I stayed near my tent, pretending to check on my things. (Which I didn't have that many anyway.)

Phoenix came over to me, attempting to chat, and asked me how I was. I tipped up my chin, putting up my shield of haughtiness. "I'm fine. Do you have something important to say, or are you just trying to chat?" I didn't want company at this point, I just wanted to sleep. I wanted to go to sleep, and wake up when I was a real, full fledged adventurer.

 

"I'm fine. Do you have something important to say, or are you just trying to chat?", Ari said.

"Hey sorry, I just thought you might need someone to talk to after today. Guess not. If you change your mind I'm right over there.", I said then turned and started stiffly back to my tent.

 

"What a miserable harpy!" I grumbled, as I quckly left the campfire to make sure I would not suffer any more of the dispicable womans wrath.

I got my silk handkerchief out and started to brush of as much of her vile concoction of my clothing as I could... It didn't really help.

I swear, if we had still been back in Tarant, I would have had her thrown in chains and sent to the Isle of Dispair for such insolence! Had she forgotten who I was?! One does not treat a Roxton with such disrespect!

Still, She was a woman. A Lord must in these times appear the gentleman. I desided to let her behavior slide. Needless to say, had she been a man I would have given her a good trashing!

With my temper somewhat cooled, I made my way over to the winged fellow who was sitting quietly at the outskits of our camp. Sure'lly he would not object to me smoking. Indeed, if his transformation was continuing in the same fast pace, He would probably be blowing his very own smoke soon...

I laughed to myself as I sat down next to him and made an atempt to spark a conversation.

"An odd twist of fate, wouldn't you agree Sir? You and I, a cupple of seasoned adventurers on an expidition with only fickle women and frail children as our comrades in arms."

I made a short pause and blew some smoke rings out in to the cold evening air.
The winged fellow said nothing. He just stared in to the darkness. It looked as if my atempt to get a stimulating conversation to go with my cigar would fail. I got the impression that he did not like me very much. Then again, I didn't find him very interesting either. Nevertheless, I tipped my hat to him and bid him a good night as I extinguished what remained of my cigar under my boot.
I then walked back to the campfire, hoping that the irritable wench would have some form of food ready. I was getting rather hungry and that devilish stew she had thrown at me was sounding more and more acceptable.

 

I sat away from the tents watching for wolves and keeping an eye on what my fellow adventurers, if they could be called that, were doing. I hadn't spent much time with my companions so I didn't know most of their names, but I saw one woman tell that fool Roxton off. There's no way to forget who he is, and if you ever did, he'd remind you whenever he spoke. After his confrontation with the woman, he went off and sat with our leader and tried to start some conversation. They were not far away so I listened to what Roxton was saying. "An odd twist of fate, wouldn't you agree Sir? You and I, a cupple of seasoned adventurers on an expidition with only fickle women and frail children as our comrades in arms."
Upon hearing his remark, a fiery rage rose from within me. With a thought, a flame rose in my hand and I debated whether or not to use it on him. A frail child am I? How dare he utter such a thing? But no, I drew in a breath and let it out, at the same time extinguishing the flame in my hand. He'll get what's coming to him sooner or later. I don't need to waste the effort to deal with him myself With that thought, I turned my attention back to the others in the camp and to whatever dangers lurked in the darkness.

 

[OOC: Trying to get TGA going again![/OOC]

I crawled into my tent, not feeling very well. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the vision of the person I killed out of my mind. How his eyes were so blank. I closed my eyes, falling into fitfull sleep before I knew it.

I dreamt of the people in the group. Of my new friend Kat, arrogant Roxton, Jonathon, the dragon half-elf, Phoenix, and all the others. Their faces flashed before me, and I saw a person, lying dead, his face obscured. I screamed, then woke up. I was in a cold sweat, but otherwise fine. Kat was sound asleep, and I opened the tent flap and slipped outside.

The night was frosty, with a pale moon and stars smattered across the sky. My breath came in icy puffs. I knew that we were going to Stillwater, but I wasn't sure where it was, or how long it would take. I wondered if Jonathon would become a full dragon before we reached there. I sat on a log, thinking, not noticing the world around me.

 

[OOC]
Good going Snow! I was dying to get back in to Roxtons shoes!
[/OOC]

I got some stew from the pot haning over the now simmering campfire. It wasn't really that bad, But I still remembered to give give our cook a few snide remarks. She deserved it after interrupting my moment with the cigar earlier.

After the meal we all retired to our tents. I of course would never allow my bodyguard to sleep in mine, I ordered him to sleep outside as you would with any animal. I went fast asleep but was quickly awakened by a scream comming from one of the tents. Blasted children... How is a man suppose to get any rest? I certanly wasn't going to bother myself with it. I put the pillow over my ear and tried to get back to sleep.

 

The girl had seen me… that must have been why she screamed…
I hurried away from the camp as quickly as I could, making as little sound as possible. A hard task for a dwarf, but not entirely impossible.

I had caught up with group a couple of hours ago, and where on a sharp lookout for the one called; “Luinil�, the mage from the ally… he was among these men and women, who where apparently being lead by a “Half-dragon� or something similar… Whatever it was though, I did not worry about it… He looked fairly harmless, but you never know with people who look harmless…

I caught my breath in a bush when I was sure I was not being followed, this was turning out to be trickiere that I had thought… and why, oh, why had that silly girl been looking at me just when the clouds disappeared… leaving me bathed in moonlight, properly looking like some sort of monster, with all that mud and twigs in my beard.

It didn't work out perfectly, but still, it could have gone a lot worse…

"Oh no..."
I felt my pocket… a sudden cold wind made my insides turn… I had dropped the watch…
Now, I could only pray that they didn’t find it…

 

[OOC]
Nice re-introduction there VerZrev, but you might want to edit your post a little bit. Snowy screamed before she went outside and thus you couldn't have mistaken yourself as being the source of the scream.

Perhaps the scream froze you in place and so when she exitted the tent you thought she might have seen you... anyway, you can work something out I'm sure.
[/OOC]


The meal went well and and soon everyone was fed and feeling sleepy. Even pompous Roxton begrudgingly ate my stew, although he made an obvious point of appearing displeased with me. I ignored him completely and just got on with serving everyone else.

When I served Ari she was looking tired and pale. I wanted to hug her and comfort her, but she just seemed to want to be by herself. I also had more people to serve.

The evening was drawing on by the time I had everything cleaned up and packed away and I was feeling rather tired myself. Everyone just seemed to defer to me and I wondered if it was just because I appeared to be the most experienced adventurer in the group. Even Jonathon just left me to organise everyone.

I stocked up the dying fire before heading to Ari's and my tent. On the way I noticed Roxton's half-Ogre bodyguard sleeping rough outside his tent. Once again I felt anger towards Roxton but I wasn't going to disturb the half-Ogre. Waking him up now would only add to his distress.

I reached my own tent and opened the flaps to find Ari already asleep. She still looked strained, even in her sleep and the darkness and I knew it was her first kill that was bothering her. Unfortunately, apart from what I'd said before there was nothing more anyone could do for her. She would either accept it and let it go, or it would break her and she would never fight again. I hoped for her sake that it was the former.

I secured the tent flaps and slipped out of my clothes, folding them into a neat little pile. Putting my boots and belt to one side I snuggled down into my bedding roll, enjoying the sensation of the warm, soft fur lining against my naked body. Pulling my little pile of clothes under my head I used them as a pillow and let myself drift off to sleep.

It must have been very early morning when I awoke. I wondered what had woken me but then I shivered and looked around. Ari was gone and the tent flap was open. I grabbed my cloak and drew it tightly around me, securing it with my belt, before leaving the tent.

I found Ari fairly quickly. She was asleep, huddled against one of the large logs surrounding the fire place. The fire was getting low again but the dawn was just breaking and the sky was beginning to lighten in the east.

Ari still had some clothing on but she felt cold to the touch. I gently woke her and sat her up, hugging her and stroking her hair reasurringly. She shivered and I managed to convince her to come back to our tent with me. She made no effort to resist and I led her back. On the way back something caught my eye in the moonlight and I picked it up and pocketed it.

Once back in the tent, I put Ari to bed again where she could get another 2 or 3 hours sleep before she had to get up. I redid the tent flaps up again and dropped my robe again. It clinked as it hit the floor and I remembered the object I had picked up. I removed it from the pocket and pushed open the tent flap just enough to let a shaft of moonlight in. It was a watch. A broken one.

I was just about to put it away when I felt something on the cover. I looked again and could just make out an inscription. To Ed, from y…r friends in the gen....en's club. Gentlemen's Club? Must be Roxton's....

I put the watch safely away and tucked myself back into bed. I probably ought to give it back to him in the morning. That's the second thing he's thrown away this trip already. He really is quite careless!

With that, I closed my eyes and tried to make the most of the two hours before sunrise.

 

I was jerked awake by a scream. I quickly jumped out from under my covers and made my way out of the tent (I always slept in my underwear in case the need arose to leave in a hurry). As I exited the tent I thought I saw a small shape scurrying away from the tents. Probably just my imagination, but that scream was real.

I began looking around for the source of the scream when I saw Ari coming out of her tent. Probably had a nightmare about today, any sane person would. But in that case, why do I feel fine?

I thought about going back to sleep but I really didn't feel like sleeping anymore. I pulled on the rest of my clothes and stayed outside enjoying the crisp night air and thinking.

 

I stretched my arms. I had slept surprisingly well, dispite the hard ground and the screaming during the night. I sat up, still keeping my legs covered by the blanket. I heard some noice outside, others had apparently also awakened.

Rummaging through the saddle-bags which I had taken in to the tent to make sure that none of these pesants would steal any of my belongings, I found my flask. I undid the cap and tipped the flask in to my mouth. Ahhh.... There's nothing like Caladonian Brandy to start the day.

After I had put away the flask, I scratched my chin. Hmm... I'd better shave. One has to keep up appearances... As I took out my gold-plated razor, an idea sprung to mind. This wasn't one of those small new-fangled razors on a shaft, oh no. This thing was as large as a respectable knife. It would do quite nicely as a weapon if need be. I would have perfered a rapier, but one takes what one can get. As I quickly got rid of the unwanted hair growth and got dressed, I stuck the razor-blade in to its protective casing and then in to my coat so that no one would see it.

Comming out of my tent, I ones again stretched my arms and looked up against the sky. It was a rather nice morning actually. I took a step forward and almost fell over my sleeping bodyguard. I gave him a good kick in the gut to wake him up.

"Wake up you big oaf and tend to the horse!"

He groaned and put his hands where he'd just been kicked. As he opened his eyes I could see that they where filled with rage. They train them well, but I could see that this one wasn't going to take much more of this treatment. At least thats what he tought. His eye's scanned the surounding area. He looked as if he was searching for something to strike me with. As his eye's stopped on a rock about the size of my head, I realized what was going on. In a split second I whipped out my razor and held it against his neck, First making sure that no one was really looking in our direction. "Go ahead old boy, Give it a try. I'll cut your throat before you even manage to lift it!"
He quickly retracted his hand to make it clear that he wasn't going to go for the rock. The rage in his eye's had been replaced with fear. "Thats right... good boy. Now, tend to the horse!" I removed the razor and pocketed it as my bodyguard staggered to his feet and started to move towards where the horse was tied.

After this early morning excitement I was ready for a hardy breakfast. I walked over to the campfire where several of the other members in our party where already sitting. I felt almost cheerful this morning, knowing that I ones again had a means to protect myself and that I had made sure that my bodyguard wasn't about to create more mischief. At least for a while... All in all a very productive morning, and I had only just got out of bed.

Comming up to the campfire, I tipped my hat to the company sitting around it. "Good morning ladies, gents. So... What was all that awful racket about last night? Did one of you ladies get a nightly visitor?" I blinked one eye at the young man (Phoenix) who was sitting next to the elvish girl. "Good show my boy. I certainly did not expect you to be such a scallywag. Hehe, good show indeed." The woman who had poured stew on me the day before didn't seem to think my comment was in good taste. I quickly turned my attention towards her. "And good morning to you as well my pretty. Would you mind serving me some breakfast as well? I'm quite famished even tho I only slept last night." I ones again blinked at the young man. "This time I would however appreciate it if I could have it in a bowl. I don't have that many clean shirts left you see." I gave her a smile that would have made most women melt. She didn't seem impressed...

 

Breakfast

In the morning, everyone got up, and made themselves breakfast. With the exception of course, of the useless lump that calls himself Roxton.
He was trying to get breakfast from a girl who obviously despised him.
I walked into the breakfast area and informed Roxton that if he could not feed himself that he would not be a necessary part of this trip.
I also decided that since those giant wings sticking out of my back had stopped hurting, I would see if they could do me anything, so I walked away from the area where people were having breakfast and proceeded to fall on my face several times. Maybe the muscles haven't finished developing

 

"Good morning ladies, gents. So... What was all that awful racket about last night? Did one of you ladies get a nightly visitor? Good show my boy. I certainly did not expect you to be such a scallyway. Hehe, good show indeed.", said Roxton. He obviously was referring to me and Ari.

I scowled at him but he turned away, so I tried to burn a hole in the back of his shirt with my stare. I realized I had one of my knives in my hand and quickly put it back in its correct spot. Turning to Ari I said, "Sorry about that. And don't worry, no one believes him, everyone knows he is a fool.

I turned away, hopefully before Ari saw me blushing. She WAS very pretty and Roxton's remark had made me, ah, think of certain things.

 

[OOC] Could you all please refrain from taking off ?... I’m currently discussing with Flink about the storyline... (It won’t work if you leave the camp for the next couple of hours) [/OOC]

 

I was awakened the next morning by a man's voice. "Good morning ladies, gents. So... What was all that awful racket about last night? Did one of you ladies get a nightly visitor? Good show my boy. I certainly did not expect you to be such a scallyway. Hehe, good show indeed." There was no mistaking that it was the voice of Roxton, only he was so rude. It seems that his only desire in life is to annoy everyone he meets. If he really wanted to impress the ladies, he would know not to be such an ass. I was still angry about what Roxton had said last night to Jonathon, but I decided to relax and ignore Roxton. Sooner or later something would happen to him and it might just rid us of his remarks.

I climbed out of my sleeping roll in my underwear and grabbed my cloak. Pulling it tightly over myself, I walked out of my tent with what I hoped was a friendly smile. A few steps away from my tent I noticed some marks in the dirt. They looked too big to be an animal that wouldn't have awakened the whole camp, so I assumed it was a person. But my tent is a the edge of the camp, there's no reason anyone would have been out this far. My smile was replaced by a look of icy determination as I scanned the rest of the ground for tracks. I saw some leading towards the center of camp, but they also led away from our area. Following the tracks away from the rest of the group, I found them leading to a bush. Judging by the number of twigs and leaves on the ground, it appeared that whoever it was had hid here. My main instinct was to go off in search of our mystery guest, but I stopped. This group isn't all worthless. Sure Roxton gets annoying and is near worthless in a fight, but some of the others would be helpful. Besides I don't konw what it is I'm looking for, I might need their help when I found whoever it was.

I made my way back to the fire and sat on a log near the rest of the group. Telling the whole group won't help me and will just scare someone. The woman who had cooked appeared to be someone who would actually be able to help. After helping myself to some breakfast, I considered how to go about discussing it with her. It's times like these that I wish I was a bit more social. Maybe an opportunity will come later today. After deciding to talk to her when she was alone, I continued with my breakfast.