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Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2021 11:36 pm
by Squid
Wraith

"Agreed. Let's see what the trolls are up to."

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2021 5:06 pm
by GreyWolfVT
Grax chuckles "Yeah that's what I was thinkin, I'd like ta take a crack at some trolls."

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 12:36 am
by tibbius
Next morning you set out from the town of Bittercreek, leaving its salty inhabitants just as you found them.

You have your minds fixed on the Trollbridge that carries the trade route over Gasping Chasm. You've heard of it before, but avoided it on your way north to investigate the Ancient General's Tomb - you took the arduously muddy lowland toll-evading route.

Do you do anything in particular on your way south through the mountains?

You notice that Elzarune has vanished during the night.

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 1:31 am
by Rex
Sealgair

Sealgair will look/sniff around and see if she can find Elzarune's trail.

Smell [1d6] = 6 [1d6] = 1 [1d6] = 3

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:16 pm
by GreyWolfVT
Grax wonders where Elzarune got off to in the night.

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2021 2:45 pm
by ybn1197
Before long, Elzarune returns to the others. "My most sincere apologies my friends. I needed time to think on my own. The business we left behind us unfinished at Bittercreek has me concerned. While I think we did the right thing as any involvement we took would only be temporary, it still does not sit well with me."

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2021 9:42 pm
by GreyWolfVT
Grax grins glad to see Elzarune again "Yeah I agree wit ya. But dunno what we coulda done. We aint union reps er nothin."

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2021 7:25 pm
by tibbius
Going to assume you re-provisioned etc. before leaving Bittercreek.

"Still," says Elzarune's armor abruptly, "it's a terrible situation there, the workers being exploited and so on. Though, who knows, you only heard one side of the story ..."

The armor has a pleasant soprano voice. On its chest, the engraving has changed to the face of an elfin woman of indeterminate age, wild-haired. The face's lips move as the armor speaks.

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2021 3:41 pm
by ybn1197
Elzarune back-pedals, nearly falling onto his backside. "What the hell?!"

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2021 3:42 pm
by Rex
Sealgair

Sealgair leans in and sniffs the armor. "Umm, whats this?"

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2021 7:41 pm
by tibbius
The armor giggles. "I'm Nuala Smith," it answers. "Maker of this armor, died of a broken heart, now I ... haunt it, I guess?"

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2021 9:06 pm
by Squid
Wraith

Looking at the armor in disbelief, "Nuala, I'm pleased to meet you?"

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:08 pm
by GreyWolfVT
Grax eyes the haunted armor "Eh? So...yer haunted armor then?"

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 7:08 am
by Rex
Sealgair

"Haunted armor, strange."

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 12:10 pm
by tibbius
"Well, don't mind me so much, I'm just along for the ride," says the armor cheerfully. "Sometimes I speak my mind, is all. Also, if there's a dangerous situation, I tend to glow a little. Or hum. I get nervous before battle." The face pouts. "Try to get the dings out, is all I ask. Anyway - I'll let you be now!"

The face dissolves into a static scene of four people battling with some sort of shambling rotten abomination in a room filled with haybales.

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 4:21 pm
by ybn1197
Elzarune looks down skeptically at the armor he is wearing. "I'm hoping the dangerous situation she refers to is more like a preternatural sense. But at least, I think, the depiction is of us in the barn." He pauses a moment before saying "I suggest we keep moving. I doubt the troll will be polite enough to wait for us to slay him."

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 4:45 pm
by Rex
Sealgair

"Trolls are never polite in the stories for sure."

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:16 pm
by tibbius
It takes more than a week to traverse the mountain trade road toward the troll bridge.

Along the way, you encounter wayside inns each night. The road is moderately busy, and in each smoky beer-scented common room you encounter merchants and travelers, boisterous or quiet. After the first couple nights you begin to discern "types." Here was the lone swordsman with the enigmatic mien, there the eloping forbidden lovers, there the contented merchant with his or her mule train trooping the road, and here again the simple worker family relocating in search of better opportunity. Most of the northbound ones complain about the steep toll on the troll bridge when you ask them; most of the southbound ones are concerned whether they'll have coin enough to pay.

Each evening as you get closer to the bridge, the complaints and concern grow more poignant.

The morning before the bridge, you wake up early and eat a light breakfast. Then it's on the road again, with travel-aching feet and weary backs under the gradually lessened load of your gear.

About mid-day you reach the Gasping Chasm, where the near-constant wind between the cliffs sends up a heavy wheezing sound. A shallow arch of tight-fitted stone spans the gap of more than a hundred yards. The bridge is about thirty feet wide. Scaffolding hangs from one side of it, and a couple of trolls appear to be working on the scaffolding. A trollgate stands at the foot of the bridge. Three trolls lounge on hefty Adirondack chairs next to the gate. There is a queue of travelers waiting to pay the toll. You are twelve or fifteen back in the line.

What do you do?

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:31 pm
by GreyWolfVT
Grax "So uh what exactly was tha plan? We gonna pay tha toll or just attack them trolls eh?"

Re: 3. Bittercreek (action)

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2021 6:35 pm
by Rex
Sealgair

"Maybe we go through the line and see what happens when we refuse to pay?"