OOC Chatter, Roses and Thistles
Subject: In the hall
Melani joins Rennik in the hall, waiting for the rest of the group.
OOC: As a charcter Melani will have no problem with the mages staying, since she is not too fond of mages, but as a player I too must express my concern over having no clerics or magic users in the group about to go do battle with an undead army. But what the hell, who wants to live forever.
Mark
From: Scott
Subject: Re: In the hall
Neener, neener, Rennick's got a GIIIIRLfriend!
From: Mark
Subject: Re: In the hall
Check out the Sake River poll, I have the character most people want to sleep with. Luckily she is CG so she might make it to all of them. :) She loves the adoring fans.
Mark
From: Karl
Subject: Re: In the hall
Don't forget you are traveling with an army of some 200 soldiers. And considering that Nesalin has a very capable wizards' college, it would be silly to think they won't have clerics and mages of their own. So, unless you 4 plan on striking out on your own, you will hardly be without assistance.
From: Mark
Subject: Re: In the hall
True but better the MU you know than one you don't.
Also, why should we get all the fun with the undead? And the witch. And the half orc guy. And the fallen Paladin. And what ever else Slash has in store for us?
Mark
From: Dan
Subject: Re: The Butchers Bill; The Price of Heroism
Aww, heck. I'm going to miss playing with you guys. There are some solid turns being passed in. 'Course, I'm not relinquishing my spot on the mailing list so I can still feel like I'm cool.
Kick some undead ass for me, Brothers!
*bows out gracefully*
~Dan
From: Karl
Subject: Re: The Butchers Bill; The Price of Heroism
We're going to miss you, dude. Sorry you got hacked to pieces.
From: Scott
Subject: Re: The Butchers Bill; The Price of Heroism
Yeah. Total bummer. Now, there won't be any crazy godbotherer trying to kill us all with inaction, or trying to drive our characters insane with riddles.
I'ma miss Cadfael soooo much.
:-)
From: Mark
Subject: Re: The Butchers Bill; The Price of Heroism
Cadfael we hardly knew ya.
Just curious, was this planned or did Ty just tell you that Cadfael was killed?
Mark
From: Scott
Subject: Re: The Butchers Bill; The Price of Heroism
OOC: The following takes place on the previous night, in respone to Rennick's comments to Pensive about his elven ranger friend. Sorry-- I had moved on, but Ty pointed out that this might be a good place to clear up some misunderstandings.
IC: Pensive's face burns a little bit when the halfling male begins talking to him in rapid elvish. It takes him a moment to realize that the halfling is speaking high elven-- the language of educated, skilled elves. Elves that knew their heart's home. It takes him another moment to realize that he's talking to Pensive as if they have a mutual friend. In the torrent pouring out of Rennick's mouth, Pensive catches a name-- Elbereth Gwendellion.
When Rennick pauses for a breath, Pensive blurts out, "Beg pardon, Rennick." Pensive's elvish is. . . markedly different from the Elvish Rennick is speaking. Even those that don't know the language can feel the difference. The language Rennick speaks is fluid, musical even-- the Elvish Pensive speaks has a slower cadence, and is rougher. There's fluidity in it, to be sure-- but nothing so songlike as high elven. It's the same tune, but Rennick plays it on a fiddle, and Pensive plays it on a reed flute. Pensive smiles at that thought-- something he'd have to write down.
Pensive says, "I'm sorry, Rennick-- I don't know anyone by that name. I'm. . . well, I'm not from Huss."
Pensive is keenly aware of the other man's gaze, watching his lips, hearing the oddly accented syllables of the Elvish Pensive learned on the rivers and in the slums and little trading towns. Judging him, and his past. Pensive smiles, a curious thing on this elf boy's face-- it looks like it belongs, and yet it is obviously a stranger there. "I'm a Thistle, see?" Here, Pensive rolls down the collar of his shirt to show a small tatoo on the back of his neck in the shape of a violet Thistle bloom. "Low elves, they calls us," he says, and his accent becomes rounder, slightly more . . . wild. "Ain't much of a pedigree, as them goes, but it's blood, and that's enough, as they say."
The confusion that Pensive had felt a moment before had now fixed itself to the halfling's face. Promise says softly, in Common, "But whatever I am, I am glad to hear that you have met Elves here. I have not, though I've searched. . ."
He swallows. He had searched and found none. None. The smile only touches his eyes this time. He clears his throat. "I'd like to meet them," he says simply. "Sometime. I'd be . . . honored, really. Where did you meet this Elbereth?"
From: Ty
Subject: Moving on
Hey, Mike? When you get back into town, if you get a chance to do a follow up Garyth turn, that would be fabulous. Then I can write up the next turn.
From: Matt
Subject: Re: The Butchers Bill; The Price of Heroism
OOC: Well then, while we wait for Mike, Scott and I can talk in the past. :)
Rennik cocks his head a bit at the way Pensive speaks. The words have a funny sound to them, even more of a difference than his and Melani's dialects of halfling. His name is a human one, and the words have a disregard for structure that the humans are known for. This elf may be more human than Rennik had thought, and so he again grows somewhat wary.
"Elbereth was not from this island, either, elf friend. He was leader of a party of rangers and scouts that were exploring this island. The jungles and forests here are different from those of the mainland, and he was training his men to adapt to new territories and unknown plants and animals."
"He took me in when I was wandering aimlessly in a blind search for revenge, and taught me to control my anger, to refine it. I learned some of his skill with bowcraft and tracking, and much of his skill with a blade - if only how to defend against it with my axe."
"I do not know of his past life, other than that he was born on the mainland and was only staying on this island a short time. We traveled the forest rim and the human settlements along its edge, but he was called suddenly back to his home. I was asked to join him, but my quest for vengeance was too important."
"He told me he would return to explore the deeper jungles, and I have much to tell him of what I found there. That is, if there is even an island to return to..."
From: Scott
Subject: Re: The Butchers Bill; The Price of Heroism
The halfling-- Rennick, must remember names now-- answers him with a guarded edge in his voice. Pensive wonders why. So bold, this one, and so wary.
Pensive doesn't try to hide his disappointment at learning that Elbereth is nowhere that Rennick knows. "Oh," he says simply, frowning a bit. "I didn't have naught to do with no soldiering elves," he says, in low elvish. "I doubt. . . well, I don't think that we would have had much to say to one another. The Thistles and the Rose don't grow in the same soil, as they says."
Though they both have thorns. They said that as well, and who should know better than Pensive? He rubs the thistle tatoo self-consciously.
Thorns and crowns both.
He winces a bit as Rennick speaks of vengeance, a quick little flutter of his eyelids. The halfling had opened up so easily, given him so much information about himself. Maybe he wasn't as guarded as he believed.
Pensive says softly, "Vengeance is a lonely, long path. The few that find the end are never the person that they walked the first steps as. And the end they find is so rarely the one that they expected." He sucks in a breath, and says, "The path is not," he pauses, swallows, continues, "That is one path I have not walked."
From: Mike
Subject: Re: Moving on
"Mission is gone."
Garyth stares at the elf. He feels an immediate pang. It seems their little fellowship was dwindling. But it was the right thing to do; Promise needs to be taken to safety. Garyth glances back at Cadfael's corpse. It was definitely not safe here.
Garyth's gaze lingers on the body for a moment longer, then he turns away. "It's past time we were leaving. There's much to be done." He looks up at the two mages. "Good luck," he says. He swallows down the lump that is rising in his throat. "Bring him justice."
With that, Garyth starts to walk back to the staging area. "Come on," he says over his shoulder to Pensive.
OOC: Sorry for the delay. I seem to have come down with some sort of flu or something. I feel like crap.