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As his smile widens, Rory's gaze crawls over Cecil from head to toe. After a moment, he gives Cecil's shoulder an appreciative squeeze, sending a most uncomfortable chill up the leery man's spine. "My, you are possessed of a most excellent bone structure. You would be very popular at the Necropolis."
Rory's hand remains on Cecil's shoulder as he turns to the other man at the table, "So, Bill, what can you tell me about this tower?"
"The tower eh? Don't really know, never been there meself you see, just saw it from a distance and you know...it looked wizardy. If ya want to go there I'd say you could go up the river past tradesmeet and head west once ye get past the snail caves."
With a final squeeze of Cecil's shoulder, the darkly robed man turned away and strode through the bar back towards the stairs to the lodging above. A loud belch stops Rory in his tracks, apparently originated by a rather fierce and proud dwarf in well crafted armor.
"Pardon me, sir Dwarf. Are you available for a contract?"
"I suppose I am. I was just on my way to gather some supplies and head out myself when that oppressive sky persuaded me to patron this fine alehouse here. I suppose with another few drinks in me I could brave it, and some company might be useful. How good are you with an axe?"
I'm all for fast forwarding to our departure tomorrow. I plan to purchase a Pickaxe, 10' of Rope, two bottles of Hard Booze, and 5 days worth of food. By my calculations that should total 3.3 gold, leaving me with 3.9 (3G, 9S)
EDIT: Whoops, I guess I need another canoe as well, so I'm actually at 19 silver.
Weather is odd this close to the barrier, clouds and wind doesn't move as it should. This morning you are greeted with fog and drizzle to commemorate your departure. A small group of bored people show up to wish you luck and make sure you haven't stolen anything before you go. Then you are off, carrying what suppolies you have and heading for the hole. You reach it in about two hours, a line from horizon to horizon where no grass or trees grow and a marker pointing to an area that theoretically, will not kill you if you cross. The river can be seen ahead, shallow here but you have been assured that is grows deeper as your progress beyond.
With the inevitable misunderstanding under his belt, Throgo pushes Gilgamesh, and Cecil to go down to the carpenter to pick up the boat so they can be off to ADVENTURE!
Rory's looked about with red, sleepy eyes. "Must adventuring always start so early in the morning?"
After the horrifying probably-a-master-of-the-arcane releases him, Cecil politely excuses himself and goes up to his room.
A few minutes later, someone in the alley alongside the inn might see a perfectly good shirt being tossed out of a second story window with the aid of a pair of crossbow bolts used as tongs.
Throgo's knock the next day is met with a shout, the sound of a chair tipping over, and several stumbling footsteps. There's a mighty slam as the door is heavily booted outward to reveal a bleary, red-eyed Cecil, who roars "You'll never take me alive!" and shoots a bolt about two feet over Throgo's head and into the door across the hallway, where it impacts with a Pbrrr-brrrrr-brrr-brr-rr-rr.
"Oh, it's you," Cecil says haggardly, shouldering his crossbow. "I was expecting someone else," he explains, lamely.
Though he didn't get a wink of sleep last night, Cecil has the presence of mind to pick up some supplies on his way to the boatcrafter's. A Gold piece's worth of cheap trinkets for possible trade or bribery, a plain but serviceable dagger, two dozen feet of sturdy rope, enough food and watered down wine to keep the group from starving or dehydrating for a week, and a tent for himself (and a child-sized one for Throgo if the beastly creature bothers him enough about it).
As a last minute thought, he considers making a deposit at a moneylender. No need to wander into danger with dubious strangers while weighed down with a sack of gold to worry about losing. He might even be able to get a preferential rate if he mentions he's going into the wilderness and might not come back!
Cecil is able to find a skeptical banker in the town who is willing to give 3% interest rate after examining Cecil's lack of upper body strength.
At the barrier
Rifke : As you trudge through the whole in the barrier it becomes evident the barrier is weaker here, but not entirely gone, your movements are resistant as if a wind is blowing against you, as you go on it becomes painful, like sandpaper going against your skin but the feeling passes quickly as you emerge on the other side.
"So, friend Dwarf, I must say that I do not remember most of what occurred last night beyond our meeting. When I awoke I found this dangerous implement in my bed, which I suspect belongs to you." From beneath the folds of his robes, Rory reveals a sizable axe... which he immediately drops with a weak squeal of pain from the passage through the weakened barrier.
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow OW! You couldn't have warned me about that?"
After meeting up with his fellow travelers, he whips out his copy of Bill's map and examines it again, thoroughly.
"Looks like we should just start heading North, and then take a turn East once we reach... where ever this bit is on the map? I don't think we want to make an unexpected trip through the 'foothills of despair' if we can avoid it. Sounds dangerous, or depressing." He carefully rolls up the map and stows it away in a leather scroll case for safe keeping.
"If there's any other adventuring parties heading out this morning we might be able to share the road for a few miles. Safety in numbers, you know. I expect if there's any roguish, bandit elements they would set up their ambushes close to the fort so as to catch fully-stocked explorers on their way out and exhausted returning explorers laden down with treasures."
He sounds like he knows what he's talking about.
"I don't seem to remember ever owning an axe..." Rifke says, putting a hand to his chin. With a shrug he picks it up and tosses it into the canoe he is dragging. He then continues off along his path.
"Yes.. ahem... well then, best not dwell on where that thing came from then. What shall I call you, sir Dwarf? If you gave me your name last night, I am afraid the drink you provided erased all memory of it."
The four robed servitors silently follow, skeletal hands the only portion of their bodies at all visible.
Throgo is actually expecting some sort of ambush on the way back. Although people weren't supposed to be allowed through, Throgo was sure that some gold had swapped hands to allow for a few unauthorized trips through the gap in the barrier. Still, the fact that Cecil knew this was all the more reason to stick close. At least he had a friend/traveling buddy who knew how the world worked. Mostly.
Throgo takes a close look at the map. "Well, a trademeet sounds like a bunch of people who are trying to dispose of some junk they've accumulated over the years and want to make some silver in the process. And it looks like its near the river bank. So, I guess we'll know it when we see it right? Then, we just edge around the swamp and we should run into the temple. Seems simple enough."
When they make it to the river, Throgo jumps up to the front of the canoe and takes a seat, looking closely at both of the riverbanks.
"Wait. Where are we? Where are we going?"
He turns to his companion.
"Do I have the map or do you?"
On the boat.
As you talk the current begins to grow stronger, meaning you have to paddle less and less as time goes on, the morning passes uneventfully until a little before noon, when you see a man fishing from the river, as you get closer the size of the man becomes evident, while not as big as a giant he is still far larger then any normal man, he appears to be napping as he fishes and has not noticed you yet.
Rifke squints towards the man in the distance.
"Thats not a bad idea. Since we aren't rowing much anymore a pole and some line would be a nice thing to have." He scratches his beard. "Rory, my eyes still aren't quite accustomed to these outdoor environments. Can you make out any more details about this fellow on the beach?"
Throgo starts picking up his things and is waiting for Cecil to run the boat aground.
"What do you even catch in this place," he mutters. "Zombie carp?"
Throgo mentally sighs. Surely he couldn't be this dense...
Throgo continues pleading, "Right, but if he lives out here, he may some neat things to see around here! And he's HUUUUUUUUGE! Come on, isn't that neat?"
Throgo's incessant whining finally getting to the scholar, he arranges for the canoe to strike land, a polite distance from the big fishing fella.
Roused from his daydreaming, Rory studies the scene for a moment. The steady beat of oar upon water continues as the young man idly fingers the hem of his robe. "Well, it appears one of the indigenous peoples is doing some sort of fishing, and our fellow adventurers are going to go ashore and greet him. I do hope it's not one of those vicious troll creatures, or theirs will have been a rather short journey."
Rory casually gestures forward. Immediately the rhythm of rowing oars quickens as the dark mage's servitors increase their pace.
Team Monk visiting
The giant looks up towards you as you get closer and smiles. "Ahh yehs, trahvelors finally. Ah've been waiting for someone to come by. This is a toll river, and you'll need to pay tha toll to keep going."
"What's the big idea? They didn't have to pay a toll," he says, suspiciously. "On who's authority are you collecting tolls, anyway? I want to see your papers."
Sorry for being unclear, the other canoe is still behind you guys.
Throgo jumps out of the boat and hurries over to the fisherman. In a single breath, he blurts out "Hey, hey! How you doing? Catching any fish? You live around here? Know any neat places to see around here?"
"Oh, don't listen to him! You're not a highwayman, right? I mean, if you were, you'd either hiding in wait to mug someone or you'd be pretending to need help to lure in some sympathetic rubes who aren't expecting the knife you have hidden behind your back, right?"
He also turns a bit to the side to obscure the crossbow at his waist from the Giant's view. No need to raise any stakes until they really, really need to be raised.
"No ah'm not a highwayman, dis is just my part of da river, I kin fish here and collect tolls, juss how things are. Where are you frum anyways." The giant begins to eye the party suspiciously, realizing something is not quite right about you.
"Oh, us? We're from outside the barrier. We're here to look around and find adventure!" Throgo pauses and realizes that he's a bit short on money. "So... how much is this toll, anyway?"