Tales of Faerun

[GrueMaster]

Tak'we swallowed some breast meat before speaking to Dunsam. "Tak'we iss from the sandss of the Shaar, the homeland of all thri-kreen. I, I have not been there for many moonss now..." He had a sad posture for a brief moment, before switching topics to his scythes. "You like thiss one'ss scythe?" *Tcktck* "Thiss one spent ssome time trying to make it. It is no gythka, but it will work asss well."

 

 

Dri stifled a yawn; she had enjoyed the family reunion (and the chaos she helped create), but the night was beginning to wear her down. "Hey, Weyland, Arland? Are you two staying here for the night? If so, would you mind if I stayed, too? It's pretty late, but I don't feel like going back to the inn without you guys."

[Flipout6]

"Yes. I'll come along." Annette answered Rhaine instantly before Marie could even process the question.

 

"What? No! We can't run off on mother!" Marie vehemently denied.

"Mother has friends, she won't be alone." Annette responded calmly.

 

"And we're the only family she has in Westgate!" Marie continued.

"I want to go and help." Annette looked her sister dead in the eye, showing that there would be no convincing her otherwise. Sybille looked at her approvingly.

 

Marie stared hardly at Annette for almost a full minute, before sighing and caving in. "If Annette, goes, so do I. I have to help keep her safe. It's my responsibility. Even if I think it's not a wise decision on her part."

"You sure you want to do this, Annette?" Sybille asked Annette, more for the sake of asking than actually needing to know the answer.

 

"Yes."

 

"Then it's settled. I'll talk with Gertrude in the morning. Don't worry, I think she'll be fine with it."

 

On that note, the dinner began winding down. Dunsam talked animatedly with Tak'We about weapon preferences and his own liking axes over scythes while Annabelle supplied dessert and drinks, but soon it was getting quite late. Soon, when everybody was feeling full and tired, Dri brought up the question of staying overnight.

 

"Yeah, we're staying." Weyland and Arland answered simultaneously.

 

"Yeah, they're staying." Dunsam and Annabelle said simultaneously in response to Weyland and Arland's responding simultaneously.

 

"I guess I'll meet the rest of the group tomorrow, eh Rhaine?" Sybille said to the Doomguide.

 

"I still think Weyland took my mug." Arland pouted to himself.

 

"Ma, we got a guest bed?" Weyland asked Annabelle.

 

"Yep. We have a bed for Arland, too, just for when he came back. Upstairs, first door on the left."

 

"Looks like I'm sleeping in the inn after all." Amendale shrugged.

 

"Alright. Dri, guest bed's yours."

 

"But then you've got nowhere to sleep." Dunsam noted.

 

"I'll make do." Weyland answered simply. He caught Sybille shooting him a knowing, cheeky look from across the table and pointedly ignored her.

[AurianaValoria1]

"Well met to ye both," Dagny said a little hesitantly after seeing Aera pull back her hood. She could have sworn there was fur on that woman's face...

 

"As for meself," she added, sliding off of her stool, "I am going to bed now, before I start seeing worse things than tails and fur. Take care with the ale, I think there's somethin' in it."

 

The dwarf slowly walked towards the inn stairs, resisting the urge to turn back and make sure she did see what she thought she saw.

 

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As the meal wrapped up, Rhaine listened to the sisters discuss the prospect of joining her group. She was pleased to hear that all three would be coming along with Weyland. Nodding to Sybille she replied, "Yes. I will forewarn you: there are some interesting people in our party. People...and creatures...whom you may not be used to seeing. Trust me when I say that they are all goodly folk. Until then, good night."

 

Turning to Dunsam, Annabelle, and Arland, the Doomguide added, "If we do not meet again, gods bless you all."

 

With that, she rose, left the Grey household, and returned to the inn, not at all noticing that Arva was at the bar with a strangely furry woman. Her thoughts were occupied with what she wished to do the next day, especially discussing their next leg of the journey with Shalena. Aodh fluttered over and landed on her shoulder as she ascended the stairs - shortly behind Dagny - and proceeded to her room at the end of the hall, across from Nawen's.

[josh900]

Tannin followed Nawen up to her room, giving only a passing glance at the events unfolding at the bar.

When he entered her room he smiled at her question. "Maybe I've just grown fond of you and wanted to do something for you. I'd much rather do something with it than sell them anyways. Don't really need the coin, I've got enough back home to buy a small kingdom, why anyone would I have no idea, too much work running one. No I'd rather make something useful with it and gift it to my companions, well..... the ones I like anyways." He joked with a wink.

"Now then, arms out to your sides please, you're not ticklish are you?" He asked as he unrolled the measuring rope.

[Deleted6317247User]

"Is that so?" She asked quite surprised to hear about the riches Tannin kept at home. "You must have had a lot of adventures before you joined Rhaine. I'd love to hear some if you'd be willing to share," she said and later added, "and if you're thinking about saying that it's quite boring, we could always make it more interesting." In her past experiences a some people were unwilling to talk about their adventures because they would bore anyone who'd listen.

 

She stretched out her arms to the sides and stood still, "I'm not ticklish. I think." The last person who tried to tickle (or at least that's what he claimed he tried to do) ended up with his nose broken, but Nawen thought it wasn't worth mentioning.

[Quintatas]

Xundus awoke a few hours after he went to sleep. The drow stood and stretched, eying his equipment, which was sprawled across the bed.

 

After a few minutes of waking up and stretching, he decided he'd go for a stroll, or maybe just sit at the bar. He threw on his red cloak, but left the rest of his gear on the bed, except for his rapier. Just as he was exiting the room, he looked back thoughtfully at his bed. He grabbed his shortsword, which was lying on his bed, and cut off the corner of the blanket, fashioning it into a half mask. Perhaps he would take a look at the city. Without thinking, he equipped the rest of his gear, including his second, less obvious green-gray cloak.

 

The drow remembered his early days in Ched Nasad. He had freely tortured and killed his prey, indulging in the twisted pleasures many drow took part in. He gazed longingly at his rapier. Perhaps it would be worth experiencing again...

"No, damn it!" he said to himself. I've sworn myself to the service of Selune, he thought.

 

It would not do to break that promise.

[tokyobiohazard]

After Dagny excused herself, Arva proceeded to flirt with Aera, and was having a bit of success, as her shyness was wearing away slightly.

Mid-pickup line, he spotted a pair of shiny black wings framing a head of red hair, and snatched up Aera's wrist, not wanting to lose such a lovely lady.

Meanwhile, Aera was panicking as the elf held her wrist, barely having time to duck as he pulled her through doorways, then down a hallway. She was nearly tempted into changing forms, but reeled it in long enough for Arva Ivaebhin to crash into the door a winged elf shut in his face, apparently not realizing the mad dash for her was taking place.

"Rhaine Alcinea, open that door if you've missed me at all!" Arva shouted at the door.

A very thin, figure-lacking girl with short-cropped blonde hair and golden eyes then poked her head out of a door down the hallway. She was positively radiant to Aera, who was momentarily and inexplicably stunned by her beauty, "Hey Arva! Who is that?!"

Aera's wrist was released, to her relief, at the cheerily explosive voice, and the girl ran down the hallway in her bare feet. The short girl hugged Arva around his waist and his face broke into the delicate sort of smile one only sees on the face of one in love, which confused Aera to no end. All she could do was stand dumbfounded as he leaned down toward the girl and kissed her forehead.

"Hello, Ianthe," he mumbled.

[GrueMaster]

Dri began to protest at first at Weyland's giving up of a nice bed, but she knew the man would be stubborn about it and instead quietly accepted it. "Thanks, Weyland. Goodnight, everyone." She gave a tired wave and went upstairs and inside the guest room. Hesitant to start removing her armor, the girl paused where she stood, then relaxed after considering at whose house it was she was staying the night. Come on, Dri. Someone would have to be stupid to come in here. With that thought, she stripped down to her underclothes and fell asleep peacefully in the soft bed.

 

Tak'we continued chattering about weapons with the clutch-father of the Greys, describing all of the various kinds he had used over the moons, but placing particular emphasis on thri-kreen gythkas and their advantages over most softskin weapons. He liked Dunsam, who seemed to appreciate a lot of the same things that the thri-kreen did, and spent the rest of the conversation talking about such.

 

=====================================

 

A ghostly figure of an ancient man formed soundlessly in the bedroom, but remained hidden, instead waiting patiently for the Doomguide and her old companion to settle things first before revealing himself. There is time enough, he thought to himself before grinning at the irony of that statement; there wasn't much left in reality.

 

But, one must use what he can...

 

And so the venerable figure "sat" invisibly in a chair by the window and simply watched until all was said and done...

[josh900]

"Over fifty years worth." Tannin said as he began measuring. "Not that there's any way to tell honestly, there are places where time doesn't exactly work the way it does here so it can make keeping up with that sort of thing rather difficult. I'm not even entirely show how old I am anymore." He said casually. "And as far stories go, only a few of them are boring, the problem is that the memorable ones are so outlandish that I doubt anyone would believe them. That and most of them are rather long winded so unless you want to be up all night listening to me prattle on it's probably for the best I don't." He laughed. "You know how I get, could talk for hours nonstop if someone lets me. Blame my father, from what I've been told about him he was a mouthy fellow, never knew when to shut up. I don't really remember that much about him so I can't attest to that." He said with a shrug as he produced his magical quill and a piece parchment and began to write down her measurements.

[Flipout6]

Amendale left the house with Rhaine and walked quietly with her back to the Inn. When he got there, he couldn't help but gawk at the scene unfolding before him. He recognized Arva, but decided that now would not be a good time to disturb him and instead rented a room and went upstairs to bed, happy not to be sleeping in a hammock aboard a ship.

 

Back at the Greys' household, Arland, now drunk, shambled off to bed. After stripping down to his underclothes, he slipped under the blankets the same bed he'd slept in before circumstance had forced the Greys from Westgate. How it survived the farm being burned down and years of neglect he didn't know, and he definitely didn't care. It felt to him like nothing bad had ever happened, and he fell asleep with a small smile on his face.

 

Weyland, meanwhile, looking for somewhere to rest, took a spare blanket and pillow and set up shop on the huge couch in the family room. It was made to fit Dunsam and two others, so he had no problem finding enough space to sleep, even if it smelled faintly of bacon and beer. It took him about an hour, but he fell asleep.

 

A scuffle from outside his room disturbed Amendale. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and donned his shirt and pants before looking outside the door.

 

"What's going on?" He asked. When he saw Arva and Ianthe, as well as the same tiger-woman from last night, he raised an eyebrow. "Well, you two, long time no see!" He greeted Arva and Ianthe. "Where've you two been?" He looked up and, seeing the tiger-woman's bewildered expression, he shrugged and asked, "You know these two? They used to travel with my friends and I."

 

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Weyland woke up before anybody else in the Grey household, yawned, and rubbed his neck. He stretched languidly and stood up, decided that he was hungry, and raided the pantry for food. In minutes, he had porridge and bacon on the go, and the spell began wafting throughout the house. This smell awoke Arland, who shambled downstairs, still with his mug in his hand, and sat down at the table.

 

"Hurry up and cook it before the bacon fiends flock to this domicile and assault us with unparalleled bacon-lusty depravity." He said, still drunk from last night. His suddenly extensive use of semi-sophisticated vocabulary caught Weyland off-guard, and he nearly spilled the whole pot of porridge on himself.

 

"Remember that you grabbed Sybiille some gear as a gift. Give that to her today." Weyland reminded him.

 

"I will. Thanks." Just like that, the intelligent Arland was gone and replaced with the stupid one. Weyland sighed with relief. Everything was back to normal.

 

"What was that about armor? And I smell bacon." Sybille declared as she came down the stairs wearing brown pants and a white short-sleeved shirt.

 

"I got you some stuff from a dragon's hoard left over from this scow of a dragon that Tannin and Amendale took out."

 

"Who's Tannin?" She asked, puzzled.

 

"The resident chatterbox." Weyland answered.

 

"I'll give it to you later." Arland told her.

 

Sybille grinned. "You're sweeter than you let on sometimes."

 

"While the sincere intentions of your compliment do fill my being with warmth and gratitude, I must regretfully inform you that such noble intentions are exclusive merely to those particularly close to myself metaphorically speaking." Arland replied casually, and both Weyland and Sybille looked at each other like the world was ending.

 

"What?!?!" They both asked, incredulous.

 

"Idunno. Must be something in the beer this mug gives me." Arland replied casually. "Don't worry, I'm not that smart."

Edited January 28, 2014 by Flipout6