CH. 8: Proving Worth

[TristenC]

[Ooc: Haahque should not know that name, only Gobax]

Well met, ladies Grubnick says, returning Yvette's bow. Please, call me Gobax Redbug. Well, we have a couple of others to pick up before we reach our destination. Shall we be about it?

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra watches Arulia leaves, and sighs softly. Forgetting about her food at the moment, she picks up Norris' half and takes it upstairs to him.

[djhyland]

As she steps into the inn, Arulia can't help but stare. Even with the coming of the Dragon Queen's armies, it is unusual to see a minotaur in Haven, much less one as white as this one. Surely, his coloration is not common amongst his people...

Tearing her eyes away, Arulia strides purposefully to the bar. It would be rude to keep staring, after all--moreso than she already has been, anyway. Taking a stool next to the kender, she nods politely to him and waits for a lull in his discourse.

[BishGada]

Tulbas stands between his sister and the draconians. He then looks at his father and the warriors in the front line. 'Surrender?' he thinks to himself. 'I was sure they will murder us without thinking twice.' Then he waits to see how things would develop. In those mere moments memories of better days come to his mind. When he played with his friends around the trees. Crafted artifacts and seek knowledge with the elders. Evil always find its way to corrupt what is pure and beautiful. What a shame. And now all is lost. Their future is gone. And he can do noting about it.
This feeling of despair is known to him. It hurts him and he can't shake the feeling that his memories of the attack are more distance then some event that cause this despair. One name come into mind... Raetmal. And with that a huge weight on himself. Raetmal is dead and he is guilty in that. But all the thoughts are mixed and reliving the capture in the forest becomes the dominant memory again.

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Arulia, Gobax, Felran and Ne-Chanz (High Hand Inn, Common room)
"And I was like, 'Slamacow! That was tops!" the kender exclaims. When Arulia sits next to him and nods, she catches his eye and he immediately stops speaking. He turns toward her on his stool quickly, almost losing his balance and falling off. After waving his arms a bit, he grabs the bar to steady himself. "Oh, it's you!" he says. "I remember you."

Arulia remembers now, when she was led to Kendra after she nearly died in the sewers, she was with a blonde woman and a kender. This is that same kender.

"I'm Pen, remember?" he asks. "That old man flew into the heavens with Darga? Wasn't that totally rhombus?"

At this point, the door swings open, letting in a burst of cold air. Several people enter, including two gnomes (one male, one female), three humans (one male, two female) and a goblin. All of them are armed.

The goblin scans the room, and stops upon seeing the ginger half-elf and snow white minotaur, who are still eating their breakfast quietly.

Kendra Greylock (2527 Market Street, Greylock's Gorgeous Gems)
Kendra carries the food upstairs, where she finds Norris has woken up and just finished dressing and grooming himself. He looks surprised to see her. "Kendra...did you...make breakfast?" he asks. "I don't think you've ever done that before," he admits.

Tulbas Erogund (Unknown location)
"We will surrender..," Tulbas' father states, "if you promise that no harm will come to us."

"Oh, I promise," says the draconian leader with a toothy grin. Not that it mattered. There were too many of them. The elves didn't stand a chance of winning anyway. Soon, the whole group is disarmed and rounded up into a series of caged wagons. Fortunately, Tulbas is placed in the same wagon with his parents and sister, so they are not separated.

"What will become of us now?" asks Tulbas' mother with worry.

"As long as we are still alive, there is still hope," his father replies.

[Haahque]

Haahqae's voice is one of the first to be heard upon entering. He's talking to the goblin. "Brrr, sure is cold out there, it's like we somehow climbed to the top of the mountain while I wasn't looking. Anyways, you said that you had a couple more people to meet here? Are they strong?"

[TristenC]

Grubnick nods to the Minotaur,There they are. They both claim to be able fighters and I'd say the big one looks quite strong wouldn't you? Let's go say hello and get our introductions in.

Grubnick leads Haahque and Gregeddin and whomever else follows over to the Minotaur and red-head. Gentlemen, this is Haahque our 'pass-holder' He will introduce the others by name only. and perhaps you two would like to make your own introductions.

[spyguy1503]

Ne-Chanz looks at Grubnick. "Are they... on our side?" "I'm Ne-Chanz. This is Felran. You can probably guess our races. Both rather talented fighters, but I'm better." he says, nudging Felran. "Now, what do we kill today?"

[TristenC]

Hah, s much as can be. I'll vouch for Haahque and Gregeddin personally. He lowers his voice a bit before continuing, As for killing, there is a nest of snake-men cultists holding their Elven friend. They'll be expecting us. I'm going to grab my gear.

Grubnick will head to his room and gear up, aiming for no encumberence.
[40 lbs or less: Ar, shield, mace, sling, knife, sling stones=35 lbs.
Amulet, components pouch, small pouches w/ flint& stl, bandages Lg pouch w/ 2 oil flasks in rags, key and papers]

[HorizonsDream]

"Well, it probably isn't very good," Kendra admits. "And it has gone a little cold now, but it is kind of a peace offering. I have some stuff to tell you, and you aren't going to like it."

[BishGada]

Tulbas listens to his father and tries to cheer up his sister and himself, "You hear that Maelana?" he whispers in her ears while holding her shoulders firmly, "Father says there is hope. Just try to avoid attention." But his sister keeps sobbing, not lifting her head to look around even when there is a commotion of new troops arriving.
The wagons are loaded and moved on. They were so close to escape. What will become of them now? The people are all quiet but one can see the fear in their eyes. In the folowing hour more captives are added to the caravan. There are about eighty of them. Tulbas recognizes them all to belong to his village. More than fifth of the village population which only brings up the dreadful question... What happened to the rest of them?
After a long while they emerge from the tangled forest to the main road, and merged to a long stream of other caravans holding captives from various places and species.
Tulbas curiosity arises. 'Who are they? Where do they come from? Will all of us be kept together?' He can see humans, kenders, even one wagon with dwarves... 'What are they planning to do with all of us?'
The long caravan moves slowly on and on. The people fear diminishes as boredom and hunger takes its place. Some fall asleep. But Tulbas knows the worst is to come. He doesn't trust these draconians. Their promises worth nothing. Once he get a chance he will try to convinve his father to flee. Preferably in small groups to increase the chances of some of them surviving.

[djhyland]

Arulia smiles warmly at the kender, genuinely happy to see him again. "Pen, of course! I do remember you!" she says as she looks him up and down. "It looks like you've recovered well from your...expedition. How have you been?" The smile falls away from her face at his mention of the dwarf. "I am sorry about your friend...Darga? I wish I could have done something to help him."

Arulia turns towards the door when the cold outside air hits her. Although the people entering appear to be an odd sort of group, the fact that they are all armed makes them dangerous. Her instinctive reach for her mace leaves her hand empty, but Arulia keeps a nervous eye on the newcomers and hopes that they don't start any trouble. After a few moments where they do nothing more aggressive than speak quietly with the minotaur and the half-elf, though, her curiosity overcomes her good sense and she approaches their table.

[JadedDM]

Haahqae, Arulia, Gobax, Felran and Ne-Chanz (High Hand Inn, Common room)
Gobax heads upstairs to swap out his gear, grabbing his weapons and leaving behind some of his less necessary items.

"I am called Gregeddin," the bard says to Ne-Chanz and Felran, pronouncing the 'dd' as 'th.' "Think of me as the dashing and charismatic leader of this motley crew." He offers them his hand in turn. "A minotaur, eh? You're quite far south. I've heard stories of your peoples' battle prowess and look forward to seeing it for myself in person."

"I'm Ismene," the female gnome offers. "Goodness, I've never seen a minotaur before. Are you familiar with the story of Kaziganthi de-Orilg, friend of Huma Dragonbane? Is it a true story, do you think? Did Kaz really exist? I love your white fur. It must be really useful for camouflage in the snow," she babbles on.

This just leaves the two women. "I am Yvette and this is Xyleena," she says casually and with a lack of interest.

Xyleena, however, scowls at the sigh of Ne-Chanz. "My parents were slain by minotaur pirates. I'll be keeping an eye on you," she promises.

Meanwhile, back at the bar, Pen talks with Arulia. "I've always been a fast healer. You have to be in my line of work," he states matter-of-factly. "Anyway, I've been doing well. The occupation makes things tough. The soldiers don't like it if you want around with a weapon, even if you promise to keep it sheathed. Then again, they don't really like it when you're a kender, either. Oh, yes, poor Darga. Well, I don't know if he was a friend. We sort of just met that night. But he seemed like a nice guy..." He sort of trails off when Arulia stands and starts to approach the table where the party is.

Kendra Greylock (2527 Market Street, Greylock's Gorgeous Gems)
Norris frowns. "Something I don't want to hear? Something worse than you joining the army that occupies our city? What could possibly be worse than that?" he asks.

Tulbas Erogund (Unknown location)
The caravan suddenly comes to a stop. It's not clear why, and even the soldiers seem confused. Tulbas manages to overhear two of them speaking from his vantage point in the cage.

"New orders just arrived. We need to pull out."

"Pull out? Why? We're winning!"

"It's not clear. Something about the forest changing. Some spell the elves must have used. Apparently the Highlord is dead, murdered by her own men after she cut out her own eyes. Everyone's going mad. It's not safe here anymore."

"By the Dark Queen...what are we to do with these prisoners?"

"They'll just slow us down. Go get the archers. This won't take long..."

[HorizonsDream]

"I march out of the city tomorrow," Kendra says with a sigh.

[spyguy1503]

"Um... yes, I am a capable fighter. Yes I am white." He turns to Xyleena. "I can promise you that I am no pirate."