Rashemen - RP Thread

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Happy to see a happiness in the man's smile, Karren smiled back.

"His name's Lachlane. Glad you asked, actually. And yes, though he'll begin to grow soon, little Lachy has been quite small all his life. And, alas, the little one doesn't speak yet." Karren smiled, watching the halfling as he nodded. Her mind wandered as she tryed to wonder the last time someone had actually said something nice about her son.

After a moment, she shook her head and left the daze, remembering what she was doing.

"I'll get you a big plate of sausages, yes? And anything to drink?"

 

"Sausages sound very good, and I'll have some ale like that wide hairy person over there was drinking, just not as much."

Sepp pulled out one of the large chairs and hopped up into it. Then he looked at Jex.

"Thanks, Jex. You told the Priestess that you were on a long journey. Where are you going?"

Now that he was sitting, he had a chance to really look around the tavern. It wasn't really like he had imagined a big person place would be. Everything and everyone was so BIG. Spying on big people from a distance didn't really give him a sense of how tiny he was. Even putting both his feet into one of their foot-prints after they were gone didn't impress him as much as sitting in this big chair, in a room full of big people did.

But here he was, waiting for a plate of sausages in a "tavern". It was almost like he was a person in one of Pa's bedtime stories. It would make a good one too, braving the weather, speaking to a big person, eating sausages, if only it didn't begin so terribly with the charred bodies of Ma, Pa, and Drell, and Gesed who knows where, and little Sepp all alone with Black. But he had met Jex, and the nice lady with the baby, and the Priestess hadn't burned him to a crisp or turned him into a fish, so things weren't so bad.

A warm presence suddenly surrounded him. He felt a strange sensation as he was pulled from his body. In an amazed voice he asked, "Ma?"

Then his body slumped gently into the chair.

[ June 16, 2005, 03:10: Message edited by: Scot ]

 

Nakia stepped into the tavern. Looking around she decided it was much like any other.

Most of the patrons were locals but there were a few who where obviously from elsewhere.

Seeing a small person slumped in a chair she moved closer. Near him was a very wide dwarf apparently passed out at the table, also, a tall person and a woman who might be a local priestess. She studied the group carefull, then took a seat at a table near them and waved to the barmaid.

 

"AAAAAAIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Pain ripped through Sepp's entire body. He was freezing. He felt worse than when Gesed had bet him that he couldn't swim across the ice-filled river like the big people they had been watching. He'd won that bet, but wished he hadn't. He started shivering uncontrolably.

How long had he been away? It felt like an age, but the sausages weren't here yet, and Jex was still across the table from him.

Was it just a dream, induced by sleep deprivation and grief over his loss, or had Ma really come back to him to give the message? It would be a lot less scary if it had been just a dream.

Finally his body stopped shaking.

"Excuse me," he told the people around him. "I must've fallen asleep and had a bad dream. Hope I didn't disturb you."

Then he noticed a new person in the general area, she was just a little bit bigger than Drell, but he'd never seen her before. Maybe she was one of Ma or Pa's sisters. Maybe she was here looking for them. He got off his chair and went over to her.

"Hello there. My name is Sepp. What's your name? Do you know my Ma and Pa?"

 

"Greetings Sepp. My name is Nakia. I be sorry but I don't know anyone here. I am but just arrived. Mayhap you can advise me as to things here. I would not like to get into trouble because of mine ignorance."

Nakia jestered to a chair and called to the barmaid:

"Me and me new friend could use some service, Miss. Dost thee have honey mead? If not the local ale will do."

 

"Nice to meet you Nakia. I've only recently arrived here myself, but I'll introduce you to the few people I do know. This tall person over here is Jex. That woman is Priestess Alinys Trannyth. The woman with the baby is Karren and her baby's name is Lachlane. Karren is bringing me some sausages and ale. I hope they come soon because I'm really hungry."

 

"Hold on, Sepp what happened there? You said something about your ma and you went real still and all of a sudden you awoke with a start. What happened?" Jex questioned looking at the two halflings.

 

Nakia had noted Jex's strange coloring and pointed ears. She smiled at him but turned to Sepp and said, "Mayhap I have something to keep you for a bit til Karren can bring the sausages."

With that she pulled out some honey cakes from a bag and offered them to Sepp and anyone else interested.

"These are quite good and even good for ye." She then turned her attention to the priestess. "Mistress, prehaps you could help me as I am new here. A nobleman hired me to travel with him to his estate not far from here. My contract finished I be free for other work."

 

"Honey cakes?" Sepp asked as he grabbed one and popped it into his mouth. "Mmmm! These are good. Even better than Ma's lichen cakes. Thanks, Nakia."

Then he looked at Jex. "I'm not sure what just happened to me Jex. I hope it was just a dream, but I'm afraid it wasn't. My Ma came and got me." Looking at Nakia he added, "My Ma, Pa, and sister died a few days ago. She took me to a horrible placed called a "fort". Some really nasty creatures had Gesed, that's my brother. They caught him out in the hills with our goats. They ate most of the goats, but for some reason they're keeping him and not eating him. Maybe he doesn't taste very good. Ma told me that the Priestess here would be able to tell me how to get to the fort."

"Actually, I hope it was all just a dream and Gesed is waiting for me back in our cave with the goats, but somehow I don't think it was. If the Priestess knows about this fort, and can tell me how to get there, I have to go find Gesed. He's all that I have left of my family, well, except for my dog, Black."

 

Hearing Jax's words, Nakia reaches out a hand and gently touches his arm.

"Sepp, I be sad for thee. Were be the others? We both be halflings and halflings have big families."

She sits quietly for a moment, her thoughts going far away. Then she gives herself a little shake.

"Sepp, I be your family too, even if far related. I be what the big folk call an adventurer and have a good bit of experience. I will help you as best I can."

Turning again to the priestess, she asks, "Mistress, dost thee know this fort and where it be?"

 

Halflings. Nakia had said, "We both be halflings."

Though he had never heard the word before, it somehow felt right. He and his family, and Nakia, and apparently many other people like them, were about half as big as big people. It made sense, and it felt great to have a special word to refer to himself and his family.

"There are no others," he told Nakia, "except for the goats and chickens. I lived with Ma, Pa, Drell, and Gesed, that was all of us. Drell and Gesed and I often wondered whether Ma and Pa had any brothers and sisters of their own, and of course we knew that they each must have had their own ma and pa, but they never ever told us any about them. Maybe one of them was a brother or sister to one of your ma or pa. Then I'm glad to know that I have more people in my family. And I'm glad for your help, somehow I feel that I will be needing it."

 

"Strange. Halflings usually stay in groups. Thee has a mystery but thy brother is most important right now. Dost thee have some fighting skills? Halflings are naturally good with thrown weapons. Bet you used rocks to kill small game or chase off critters bothering the goats.

We're not strong like dwarves and only a few have magic skills. Our best defense is in our ability to move silently and use shadows to hide."

Nakia sticks out one of her feet, unshod but not bare for it is covered in thick hair.

"Now we must find this fort and get information. These critters that took your brother what are they like?"

 

Jex sat back quietly, his thoughts drifting back to his own family that was lost to him.

"I don't know of the fort, but I have a feeling you'll be needing my skills and my weapons. Especially if it comes to battle."

 

"Aye, Jax, I be thinking thee is right. Also, this young halfling needs friends to help him learn to survive in a world that is not always friendly, in truth sometimes down right hostile. This priestess be strangely silent. We needs find someone to give us information."

Meanwhile a serving maid had plunked down some ale on the table. The sausages still hadn't turned up so Nakia pulled out some more cakes and then took a sip of the ale. A slight frown crossed her face and she sighed.

 

Sepp looked at Jex and Nakia gratefully. "I thank you both for your help, and accept it whole heartedly. And I do know how to fight, Pa made sure of that. Whenever we least expected we'd be waken up in the middle of the night, or our goat shearing would be interupted with an "attack drill". Pa and some snowmen Ma would bring to life would be attacking us, and we would have to either run away and hide, or fight back depending on the odds. Sometimes Pa would make himself bigger so we could learn how to fight against big people. He wanted to be sure that we were always ready in case something bad happened. After a few years Gesed and I thought that Pa was just crazy, because nothing bad ever did happen, but it was fun learning how to fight."

"He taught us to use the short sword, dagger, hand axe, staff, and sling. And of course I use my sling all the time for hunting food. One time I even used it to kill a winter wolf."

"And Ma taught us how to ask the Earth Mother for help when we need it. I can heal a little, tangle things up in the grass and roots outside, and when you take a little bush bark and ask it to become part of you, your skin gets really hard, that winter wolf couldn't even get his teeth through my skin when I had tough skin like that."

"Let's see what all I've got." Sepp got down on the floor and started pulling things out of his cloak.

"There's my staff, dagger, hand axe, sling, bag of rocks." He put three tubes of cured goat bladders next to his weapons. "These are Ma's special drinks. These two for if you get hurt really bad and that one will make you bigger. Let's see what's in Pa's special bag."

He took off his cloak and took a small leather bag off his back. Opening it up he dumped it out on the floor and an amazing amount of stuff fell out.

"Wow, I didn't know that Pa kept so much stuff in his bag. Let's see what we've got here. Here are the burning rocks I was out collecting before this all started," he said, pointing at several large shiny black rocks. "Here's the food I put in the bag, four dried goat legs, five cheeses, Ma's lichen cakes, and three water skins. Hmmn, this looks nice, a lot better than the wooden swords Pa made us to practice with," he said as he picked up a belt with a short sword and a dagger attached to it. He drew the sword and a fine blue glow shone from it. "That's handy, I can use that to see in the dark."

Next he picked up a shirt of fine metal. "This isn't as heavy as I thought it would be, it's a little big, but it fits well enough," he said, slipping it over his head.

A small leather case with strange symbols embossed on it caught his eye. "I wonder what's in here?" He opened it up and found many odd, small, metal and wood tools. Taking one out he said, "Oh, I get it, you use these to pick the meat gristle out of your teeth."

Lastly, he picked up a larger leather bag. "Oh my, that's heavier than Pa's bag ever was." Reaching into it he saw it was filled with shiny, round pieces of metal. He picked one up and examined it. It was flat, so it wouldn't make a very good sling bullet. It was too small and light to make a good pounding tool or mallet. It wasn't sharp on the edges, so you couldn't use it to cut things. He took a few more and showed them to Jex and Nakia.

"I've been able to figure out what all the stuff in Pa's bag is for, except for these little metal pieces. Do you know what they're for?"

 

Nakia stares at Sepp and his possessions in amazement.

"Ayee, thee is not the simple farmer boy I thought. All this and magic abilities, too!"

Reaching out she touches the small leather case. "May I examine it?" At Sepp's nod she picks up the case then puts it back down.

"Sepp, that be high quality lock picking tools and the case bears the symbols of a powerful Thieves' Guild based in Athkatla. Your tale gets more and more interesting but doesn't solve our problem as to were the fort is. Afraid I don't know what those strange metal pieces are."

 

"Hmmn, now I think I know where Pa got all the ideas for his bedtime stories. Some of them were pretty wild, but maybe they were true."

Sepp strapped the belt with the short sword and dagger on it around his waist, then started packing the other stuff back into Pa's bag. When he was finished and the bag was back around his back, cloak thrown over everything, he gave a sharp whistle. In a few moments a black dog came running up to him.

"When Ma took me to find Gesed, she was in her spirit, not her body, and so was I and everyone we saw. So I don't know exactly what the nasty creatures look like in the flesh, but they had black spirits with fire burning inside them. I think the fort was in a general northerly direction from here. Maybe if we get close enough to it Black here can pick up Gesed's scent. He knows him well enough."

"As soon as we get some good food in us I think we should make our way north to find that fort. Who knows how long those creatures are going to keep Gesed alive, and what they're doing to him in the meantime."

 

Nakia nods her head and manages to get the attention of a serving maid. Soon various dishes are on the table. She tastes different ones and settles on a plate of sausages, onions and peppers. After eating she goes go over and speaks briefly to the bartender.

Returning to the table she says, "Barkeeps know lots of things and this one agrees with you, Sepp, that there is a fort north of here. Maybe two/three days travel time. If we need any supplies now is the time to get 'em. Thanks be to Yolanda that Halflings can cook a good trail meal. If it be okay with ya'all let's get what we need and be on our way."

 

Having picked a little at the food but not eating much. "I'm prepared, I have a pack in my room with everything that I'll need for on the road. I agree with Nakia, we should be leaving soon." He answered as he stood to go to retrieve his equipment.

 

"Great! I'm ready too. Once again I want to thank you both, Jex and Nakia, for helping me do this. I feel much less afraid about what I have to do knowing that you two will be with me."

Sepp finished his plate of sausages and gave a few to Black. He rearranged his bags and belts and hefted his staff in his hands. It was a little heavier with the metal shirt he was now wearing, but he'd carried half a deer for three days once, he was sure he could make this journey too.

"Okay, lets go," he said.