============================================================================== Logged and edited on 23-Feb-2006 by the Doctor ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents of Plot Room 1: The Doctor............... - 0s - Trust me...I know what I'm doing! Hayli.................... - 6m - Young elven woman. Red hair, green eyes. Tylan.................... - 1m - A lithe, powerfully built elf in leathers. Summary: Hayli and Tylan (we may retcon this to include the other PCs) venture into the town closest to the Ark. They are met by a couple of ogres and escorted to the keep to meet with the Baron. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tylan volunteers to take the lead, mostly by just getting started walking, since they're close, and their scout is injured. He keeps his swords out, but not quite 'at the ready' in case they meet one of the locals. Hayli lets someone /else/ take point from here on in. Her ribs are still sore, after nearly getting squished to death. Still, she does her best to keep pace with the others. The fields are now visible through the trees. If you continue on in a straight line, you see a low stone wall (about 5' high) ahead. On the other side is some kind of vineyard: big vines in flower, kept on big wooden trellises. A few associated wooden buildings near the vineyard on the right, then a meadow with sheep. To the left, another meadow, this one with cattle. Wooden fences surround the various meadows. More vineyards along the upper valley. A few shepherds and cattleherds (and their dogs) are visible, sitting on big rocks. They look human. A network of dirt roads. A squat wooden tower not far down, at the intersection of two such roads. You paged Hayli with 'The vines in the closest vineyard in fact look like the one that you guys just killed, except restrained and set down. You can smell it from here...the fertilizer is kinda stinky.'. Tylan wanders out into plain view, making no attempt at stealth, but always staying somewheat near a solid object in case there's more javelins involved with the meeting. He carefully doesn't say a word, just waiting to see how people react to him before Hayli wanders too far into the clear. Hayli says, "Tylan... look!", pointing ahead at the vines of the nearest vineyard. "Those vines... those are JUST like those of the thing that nearly ate me. They've /tamed/ one!" The first person to see Tylan seems to be a human peasant headed for the vineyard with a rake over his shoulder. Upon seeing Tylan, he starts visibly, then turns and runs down the road, shouting, "Strangers!" Tylan glances at the indicated vines, then nods with a frown. "I told you they might be there intentionally as security. Who knows what else might be around? Just be very careful." he adds to Hayli, before walking out into view and stopping there, waiting for the person who first saw them to point them out. Hayli steps out into view, also. She intentionally puts one end of her bow on the ground and her hand up high on the other end to show she's not intending to make immediate use of the weapon. The motion of raising her hand that high makes her wince -- but once she's gotten it up there, she looks to be okay. At the shout, the shepherds stand and turn, grabbing and loading the slings they all seem to have. They don't come closer, yet. The peasant with the rake reaches the wooden tower, where two ogres are already coming out, with their javelins and greatclubs. Tylan holds his ground, keeping his swords down, standing slightly between Hayli and the gathering crowd. He makes no effort to speak to anyone, and focuses mostly on trying to appear non-hostile. Hayli holds up her free hand, moving the arm slowly so as to not pain her sore ribs. Both to show that she's not meaning harm and to make a show of 'talk to me' -- to try and get attention off Tylan and his swords. The peasant with the rake points up the hill towards Tylan and Hayli. The ogres start stumping up towards you, boldly enough. Mr. Rake skulks along about 30' behind, while the herders and their dogs start walking closer. The ogres stop about 60' away and grunt to each other in Giant, while glaring at you balefully. Tylan remains still, swords pointed down, but hot backing off. He glances towards Hayli, then back to the ogres and shepherds. Not a friendly reception, but at least they're not throwing javelins. At least not yet. Hayli calls out, in the common tongue, "Greetings. We've travelled far and seek to meet with the locals, to establish friendly relations and trade on behalf of the people of the flying castle to your north, not far from Oerdrik's ranch." She 'points' back that way with her bow, again moving carefully so as to not aggravate her injuries.l The ogres continue glaring throughout this speech. Maybe it's just the way their faces are shaped. The humans look curious, but defer to the ogres and don't say anything. After Hayli concludes, there is a moment of silence. Then one of the ogres says, "Hnnh. Yah. Baron wantsa see yall. C'mon." He points with his javelin down the road. Tylan nods once and heads towards the ogres, letting them lead the way. Maybe the Baron will be more friendly? He doubts it, but its a hope. Hayli follows along, too. Down you go, along the road. The first ogre stumps along without a backward glance, the second one is all about suspicion-filled backward glances. The humans slither along at a "safe" distance. As you go, more humans (peasant types) join the parade, gawking, or just taking the time to slack off working, despite a couple of shouts of "Git!" by the ogre in the lead. Soon, your destination becomes apparent... Halfway down the valley side, the road becomes paved. It goes to a big stone keep set on a rock promontory overlooking the river. Tylan follows along, still armed, but making no sign of being about to attack. He doesn't say a word, trusting in Hayli to handle the trade talk and all the rest, kind of glad some of the others decided to rest, and hang back in case things went poorly. Hayli follows, too. She stays quiet for now, although she does offer a smile here, a nod of her head there, to the peasant folk -- especially the children, if she sees any along the way down the road. More ogres can be seen roving about, small bands of 2-5. Some seem to be bullying the peasants, while others are actually laboring - cutting logs, butchering cattle, loading and unloading wagons, or whatever. Some are just...roving. As you go downhill, it becomes more of an actual town, with buildings set closer together. A number of them are built to noticeably larger-than-human scale. Children are about, both human and ogre. They don't mingle, but both types also seem curious about the visitors. None come close or speak to the strangers. Hayli just keeps to following. Speaking to the baron is exactly what they were sent to do, after all. Tylan glances back towards Hayli a couple times. Ogre village with human slaves? Co-existence forced by the proximity of the dragon? He's not sure, but things do seem a bit uneasy. He keeps his thoughts to himself though, waiting to talk to the Baron. The peasantry seem on the thin side, but not actually famished. They look healthy enough, though most have a wariness to the set of their eyes, their posture. Their clothes tend to be poor, but kept mended. Tylan keeps note of this - they may well end up in conflict here if this is about slavery. Lots of things he doesn't know. Could just be typical ogrish behavior, but the humans have nowhere else to go, with the set boundary. The elven warrior does his best to keep a neutral expression and just head for that building. Hayli returns Tylan's look, but keeps her counsel to herself for now. After all, there's quite a few ogres about -- now's not the time to be picking a fight. The keep looms larger. The road slopes up again towards the gate. It's not that fancy a keep, really, just a big blocky building on top of a cliff. Two more ogres stand at the opening. There's a big ditch, and a drawbridge over the ditch. A metal portcullis can be seen, but it's open at the moment. The ogre leading you calls out, "Hai, Rudvar." One of the ogres at the gate returns with, "Hai, Sigmund. For da Baron?" "Yah." Hayli keeps following along after Sigmund, though she arches up a brow at /that/ name for an ogre. These ogres are considerbly more 'civilized' than the ones she knew from her homeland. You are taken inside the keep. Ogres, humans. The humans mainly seem to be there as servants, scurrying about in menial tasks. And there you are in a big round chamber, furnished with upholstered wooden chairs, sized from small to large, and a table of snacks and drinks - bottles of wine, honey mead, ale. Glass goblets. Pastries. Dried meats. Nuts. Rudvar sends one of the humans to announce your arrival. "Wait here!" he orders. He and his fellow stay to make sure no one goes wandering. Hayli nods, and stops to wait as instructed. She does look over what's on the table, but doesn't move to help herself -- while she might enjoy some of what's there, she's not been invited to do so and she's also mentally taking note of some of the things the Ark might be able to trade for. Tylan follows Hayli's lead as it were, staying close to her, since she's still hurt, and just watching their hosts. As he enters the keep with no aggressive action taken, he finally sheathes his swords - very slowly and carefully so no one gets the wrong idea. There's tapestries, too, on the walls. But they are all in geometrical or floral patterns. Abstract. And time passes...a minute...five...ten... The ogres wait with you, seating themselves on two of the big chairs and grinning unpleasantly at you. But again, that may just be the way their faces are shaped. On the other hand, they do not exactly engage you in friendly conversation. Hayli remains standing, ignoring the urge to sit and rest after the long walk -- she wasn't offered a seat, after all, and there's no telling if moving to take a seat would be an offense in the eyes of the ogrish hosts. Tylan has no idea of ogrish etiquette - they had ogres in their homeland, but etiquette and diplomacy was not a strong point with them. He shifts back to stay close to Hayli, and remain standing, waiting for this Baron to show up, more and more certain he's not liking the ogres. [to be continued!] ==============================================================================