Into the White

[Wildgeist]

In that momment Wildgeist comes closer to his two friends.

What's the matter pals??? Why all this noise about some fur.....
And then Wildgeist remains silent as he inspects carefully the strange looking woman....

[Scorer]

"Merchant, that is... Always looking for business opportunites..." Ameretat follows along.

[Sallera]

"Hey!" The young woman looks up at Henri indignantly. "'m not a thief! 'Less you think people centuries dead are gonna complain.

...well, it turns out they do, sometimes, which is how I ended up like this." She performs half a shrug with her injured arm. "But that's beside the point. I lost my blades and my pack, and I din' wanna sleep in the snow. Anyway, this your stuff then, merchant-aspirant?" The wagons abruptly slide to a halt, forcing her to grab the crates for balance.

"What's all this, then?" Olain, having apparently registered that the windblown chatter from behind him contained an extra voice, approaches from the front, glaring sidelong at the newcomer. "What's she doing in there? Were all of you sleeping on the job last night?"

The woman sighs, sitting back on her heels with a look of resignation and no apparent desire to take the initiative.

[Wildgeist]

Believe me boss.... I'm as surprised and starttled as you are about our "new friend"...
Meanwhile Wildgeist discretely grasps his axe´s hilt.

[hustlertwo]

Henri shamefacedly regards Olain. Well, the important thing isn't that she snuck in unnoticed than it is that she didn't sneak back out with your merchandise. So mission accomplished, right?

He then turns back to the battered interloper.

Stowaway is better than thief...but still not quite right. Tell us why you're here, and why we should care whether you freeze to death or not.

[Scorer]

Ameretat whispers to Henri and Wildgeist "Did Olain explicitly said anything about not letting stowaways? I thought we were hired to fight monsters and thiefs... not as door keepers..."

[hustlertwo]

It looks like someone already went to the trouble of fighting her for us. All we need to do is find out what brought her here, and then see whether Olain wants her left behind, clapped in irons, or welcomed aboard.

[Sallera]

"I told you, some dead ones objected to what I was taking. Bein' dead, s'kinda hard to make them... re-dead, and so I left my blades in one and my pack on the floor behind the rest. Wasn't tryin' to be a 'stowaway,' either, was just tired, and you din' bother to wake me up when you left. You're headed the wrong way for me anyhow. That's another couple hours I've gotta walk like this..."

"You won't be walking anywhere if you try to do it with those blades. Two or three stacks of furs you're holding in that hand, and if you've left your belongings in whatever foul ruin you were looting, your lack of weapons is little concern of mine." Olain frowns imperiously up at the woman, thieves and potential thieves evidently receiving a rather different mien than his norm.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that!" She grins suddenly, reaching into a concealed pocket inside the waist of her leathers and retrieving a small triangular ruby. "I din' keep the loot in my pack. You're off to deal with those tedious barbarians, right? I have it on good authority that this" - at which the gem, along with her hand, abruptly bursts into concealing flame, which dies down after a few seconds, leaving her untouched - "should be worth about the price of a pair of smallswords, to them."

[hustlertwo]

Henri shudders involuntarily at the repeated mention of the undead, and begins to look a bit dazed, as he talks to the woman without actually looking at her.

You have my sympathies for having to deal with the walking dead. I've tangled with them as well. You were not unfortunate enough to encounter one of those foul necromancers as well, were you?

He then snaps back and notices the mysterious stone in the woman's hand.

An interesting trinket. But what barbarians does she refer to, Olain? I feel that this one may know more about this job than we do, and that needs to be rectified.

[Sallera]

"Necromancers? Nn, don't think so. The dead ones had the look of bein' dead for a while. All dry and... papery."

Olain sighs. "'Barbarians' isn't really the best term for them. It's the tribes of the north she means; they're the source of most of the furs up here. Very skilled at gathering them." He looks up at the woman, somewhat less belligerently now. "I doubt they'll give me more for that firestarter than a pair of fine duelling blades, though. You can have one for it."

"One?" She looks indignant again, the expression seeming rather natural on her. "Even blades this good are a lot more common than something like this gem. And it gets more useful the further north you go." Muttering something in a language you don't recognize, she digs through a series of tiny hidden pockets until she turns up an engraved silver ring, and tosses it to Olain. "There. Older'n you or I, an' not tarnished at all. I'll give you that and the gem for both blades and enough food to make it back to Seurd."

The dwarf catches the ring easily, inspecting it carefully before nodding. "A deal, then. I'm Olain."

"Oh, um, Nina." She hands him the gem more carefully, and he carefully tucks both pieces into a vest pocket before moving over to the other wagon to collect the food. Nina turns back to you, still sitting in the wagon. "Um. I don't suppose any of you have any proper bandages? I'd kinda like to wrap these up tighter before I start walking again..."

[hustlertwo]

Henri takes the belt from his old outfit of clothes and tosses it to Nina. I am Henri. Here's for your bandages, and this is to speed your recovery a bit.

He lays a faintly glowing hand on Nina's most grievous injuries, and invokes the name of St. Esmeralda to aid in her healing.

(Cure Minor Wounds).

Is there anything else you require? You're now a customer instead of a stowaway, so I feel obligated to offer some assistance on behalf of our employer here.

[Sallera]

"Uh, don't know if this'll be much use... aah!" Nina closes her eyes and hisses softly as her torn flesh wriggles and shifts underneath the wrappings, aligning itself in a fashion more suitable to unbroken healing at Henri's touch. "Thank you!" She hops down from the wagon with a genuine smile, handing Henri his belt back and buckling the blades onto her own. Now that she's standing, you can see she's little more than a girl - even if her strange legs didn't sink into the snow as easily as the caribou's, she would barely come up to Henri's chest. Olain brings her a satchel of food, and she turns to leave immediately, the minor magic evidently having eased any fragility in her wounds. "I'd better be going. Glad I met you all, though!"

Olain waits only until she is out of earshot to shake his head slowly, with a mutter of "Bloody delvers."

[hustlertwo]

Henri stares at the receding figure and then turns back to his employer.

I hope she's OK. But there's no sense delaying any further; if she needs anything else, she knows where we're headed. But hey boss, at least you got a couple of trinkets out of it. Now that she's gone though, I'd still like to know more about this pile of swords here. It might be my orcish side's poor memory, but I could swear we signed on to help guard a fur caravan. Not an arms dealer. Which seems a bit more hazardous.

[Scorer]

"I ain't no half-orc, and still don't remember such..." says Ameretat with a confident tone.

[Sallera]

Olain turns back to you, eyebrows raised, before fluttering his fingers in the general direction of the wagon. "Ah, all that? I was sure I'd already told you I was carrying metalwork, the last time you asked. The far northern tribes don't deal in coin much, and I must trade something for the furs, yes?"

He shrugs expansively, extending both palms to the side and upward. "If it's the source of that particular pile of edges that worries you, I got them from dealers in the port. Plenty of people will sell an perfectly serviceable weapon simple because it looks old or fragile, but the tribes as a whole tend to put less value on appearance."

[hustlertwo]

Henri shrugs nonchalantly. Well, guess it doesn't much matter at this point. Even if we were inclined to quit over this, which isn't the case, we'd still need to stick with you just to get back to civilization. So shall we drop the matter and continue on with the journey? Assuming there's no more sneaky surprises in this cart, that is.

[Scorer]

"That's a wise precaution", says Ameretat as she registers the cart to prevent further surprises...

[Sallera]

There are no more stowaways in either cart, and your journey resumes without further incident. Thick flakes of snow begin to fall around midday, slowing your progress slightly, but after a couple hours the weather clears, and even the wind drops a little. Unfortunately, you get little time to enjoy the change before another surprise pops up - literally, as two elves seem to emerge like rabbits from the snow not ten feet in front of the wagons, startling the caribou into a halt. Both are dressed in ragged white fur-lined clothing under equally dilapidated studded leather armour, and they have bows half-drawn and pointed in your general direction. Matching cloaks that are nearly invisible against the snowy backdrop answer the question of how they remained unseen, and both have a ragged patch on the left breast of their armour where an insignia might once have rested. Even physically, they look alike enough to be brother and sister; both have the same light brown hair, narrow eyes, and soft features.

"Yield or die," the sister says moments after arising, a fierce grin on her face.

"Ah, of course, what she means is, you clearly have some very valuable things there, so..." the other adds with an affable smile.

"...yield or die," she finishes, smile unwavering.

Spoiler

Show

If you're planning to fight, roll initiative.

[Scorer]

"Is there a way we can discuss this in a civilized fashion?" says ameretat in a diplomatic gesture...

Diplomacy
(1d20+3)[20]

[hustlertwo]

Henri's lips pull back over his pointed teeth in an uncharacteristically aggressive gesture, though he attempts to keep calm long enough to see if Ameretat's silver tongue can stay the interlopers.

Choose your next words carefully, brigands; a wrong decision might make them your last.

[Sallera]

The sister starts to finish her draw, but the brother raises a hand, drawing a silent glare. "I suppose these wagons might slow us down a little, and that could be problematic, but their value is high. What else do you have to offer in exchange for your peace?"

[Wildgeist]

As Wildgeist hears the "brothers" he wispers to Olain trying not to speak very loud neither to let them see his mouth.
Have you ever encontered them before??? Shall we accept their request or shall we "start with our service"???
And then Wildgeist stares carefully both elves trying not to get flatfooted if any attack comes from them aswell as searching for any noticable weakness or illness in both of them....

[Wildgeist]

@DM

Spoiler

Show

Trying not to let them see me speaking:
Hide:(1d20+1)[7]

Searching for weaknesses or ilnesses(don't know if any of my knowledge rolls are usefull, if not just ignore them):
Active spot:(1d20+2)[20]
Search:(1d20+2)[15]
Survival:(1d20+4)[23]
Knowledge Dungeon:(1d20)[9]
Knowledge Geography:(1d20+2)[7]
Knowledge Nature:(1d20+2)[22]

[Sallera]

"What, give them the wagons? Not a chance. There's two of them and three of you, so if Ameretat can't talk them down, you'll do what you were hired for," Olain mutters back out of the corner of his mouth, not moving an inch.

[hustlertwo]

I have one thing to offer you. Henri hefts his flail. This is my most prized possession. And if you leave us in peace, I won't introduce it to your pretty elvish faces at a high velocity.

[Scorer]

"As you can see, my friends here look eager to fight, and let me tell you, they're tough... They're almost as good as me, and I would have no interest in stopping them... However, I always beleive any situation is a business opportunity. So let's find a win-win solution. What exactly are your needs?"

[Sallera]

"Hah, you hear that? He thinks we're pretty."

"I wouldn't trust his taste, Shan. He looks a little green."

"That was horrible and I'd shoot you for it, if it weren't simpler to shoot him instead."

The brother clears his throat, looking somewhat abashed, before turning his gaze back to Ameretat. "Anyway. What we require is wealth beyond measure, and quite frankly, none of you have the look of experienced soldiers such as ourselves that might stop us from taking it. If you haven't a better offer than what's in these wagons, then I suggest you leave them here and go home."

[Wildgeist]

@ DM

Spoiler

Show

Rolling Inittiative although I intend not to look like suddenly going to attack them, just want to be prepared for battle.
(1d20+2)[14]

[hustlertwo]

Henri once more calms himself, not wishing to succumb to his baser urges to lash out physically. He points to the female. Shan, is it? If you survive to look back on this day, remember: you had a choice. You chose poorly.

Without any further warning, Henri utters an ancient curse and pries open the door to the deepest level of Shan's subconscious, unleashing the horrors contained.

Spoiler

Show

Cause Fear, DC 14. Shaken for 1 round if she passes, frightened for (1d4)[4] if not.

.

[Sallera]

Spoiler

Show

Since you were all well aware that hostilities were potentially imminent, no one gets a surprise round. Initiative from Henri and Ameretat and actions from Wildgeist and Ameretat, please.

Initiative for the elves: (1d20+3)[21]