Troublesome Travels
Dramatis Personae:
Winry Steamgear, the Rock Gnome Alchemist Artificer
"Critical" Bumbersnoot, Winry's Dachshund Mechanimal Construct
Mara Quinn, the Water Genasi Werewolf Sea Sorceress
Steve, Quinn's Octopus familiar
Oskar Heartforge, the Shield Dwarf Werewolf Priest of Moradin
Jak Foostus, the Minotaur Monk
Carmina, the Human Woman-at-arms
Amara, the Human Noble
Sylvia, the Human Handmaiden
Gil, the Human Farm Boy
Carmina, the Human Woman-at-arms
Amara, the Human Noble
Sylvia, the Human Handmaiden
Gil, the Human Farm Boy
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Winry's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the artificer can't be everywhere at once.
***** Tarsakh 22, 1489 DR (The Year of the Warrior Princess), somewhere in the Crags
All of the damn oxen were killed by the giants, so Jak and Oskar had to pull the carts for us. The only person from the farm that was still alive was the boy- Gil, and after a little while he helped with the carts too. He'd lost his Uncle Fred in the fight with the giants, who was the only person he had left in the world; the rest of his family was killed when the giants first attacked his little community.
It was pretty late by the time we got back, and as we approached we heard shouts. I could make out calls of movement in the dark, before they realized it was us. A huge crowd gathered around us, asking what had happened- apparently the guy who had run away during the fight, made it back here in record time and told everyone we were all slaughtered- so not only did he abandon us, but he ensured no one would go out to try to find and help us.
The coward in question- Joe- started trying to slink away from us as the others repeated what he'd said, but Oskar saw him and grabbed him before he could get away. The moment Gil found him in the crowd, he snarled in rage and began to run at him, but Jak grabbed him before he could reach Joe. Oskar had two of the villagers grab Joe, while Jak pinned Gil for the next few minutes to calm him down. Once Gil was calmer, Oskar and I went with the villagers who had Joe, and we took him to the little shed he, Gil, and Gil's uncle had been living in. Oskar paid them to guard the place and I set some alarms so he couldn't escape unnoticed.
In the middle of the night, Wave and the hammer of warning woke us up again, for the second night in a row, and again there was nothing there. I was getting really fucking tired of this nonsense.
***** Tarsakh 23, farming village in the Crags
In the morning, Oskar asked Gil if he wanted Joe to undergo trial by combat, but after thinking about it for a bit, Gil decided he wanted Joe's punishment to be a lot longer lasting than that. He decided that Joe should revive the entire farm by himself; which is a hella worse punishment than Oskar's idea had been.
We packed ourselves up and hit the road not long after that. Gil came with us, he didn't really have anything left there, and couldn't stand the thought of sticking around. We were about 7 1/2 miles from River Mirar, which we could take to Luskan.
After about 3 hours, we spotted the river in the distance, along with some sort of outpost. There was a barge there, several guards wearing the insignia for Mirabar. When we arrived, there was a dwarf at the gate, and were allowed entrance to Mirabar's outpost. The girls all tried to hide themselves in the cowls of their cloaks, just in case any of the men hunting them were there. The last thing we needed was for them to get recognized here. We split up to find out how to gain passage on the barge.
Jak and I went to look for any merchants, Oskar went to find the quartermaster, Carmina and Amara hit the tavern, and Sylvia and Gil stayed at the wagon with our stuff; we did have some hella expensive gear in there. Jak and I were redirected to the inn where Quartermaster Jenkins was.
We reached the inn at about the same time that Carmina and Amara walked out, looking nervous. The men chasing them were here. Oskar had been told we couldn't get on the barge until tomorrow, so Jak and I went to bribe the asshole so we could leave on the barge that was about to head out. Quinn had taken a shine to the broken down barge at the docks, and managed to convince the owner, a guy named Steve, that agreed to take us to Luskan in his junk heap, if Quinn fixed it first.
We hurried to the barge, with Quinn telling us they'd meet us on the other side of the river after she fixed Steve's busted boat. As we hurried to get to the barge in time, the men who were chasing the girls came out and hollered to tell people to stop us- but they were too late. It took about an hour to get across the river, and about an hour after that we found Quinn and set sail for Luskan.
About three hours later Oskar spotted large carrion birds in the distance, in the direction we were traveling. Jak decided to go check it out, and came back to tell us he'd found a bunch of dead frost giants and humans. We decided to go check it all out together, and gave Steve a bottle of something to occupy himself while we were gone.
Jak and Oskar set to cutting off the giant toes, while I began identifying the magic on their skins and swords, and Quinn began gathering everything into a bundle to bring back with us. I'd just finished identifying the swords, but I couldn't quite tell what magic was in them, when we heard howls and hoof beats.
We saw a group of wolves and humans coming at us, Quinn squealed and dropped everything she'd gathered. Then the riders looking for the girls showed up. We were boxed in- barbarians and wolves to our left, humans on horses to our right- and our only hope was to get back to the barge before they converged on us, and that was a hella slim hope. I shrunk Quinn to put her on Bumbersnoot, since she was slowest, gave Gil and Amara expeditious retreat rabbits, and gave Sylvia a hummingbird to drink to boost her speed. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything for Carmina, four people was kinda my limit at the moment.
Amara yelled at Oskar to do something, so he summoned his spirit weapon and hit a barbarian. As he did, I noticed some of the barbarians were engaging the soldiers. Carmina stabbed one of the barbarians; I had Bumbersnoot trip one, I shot it with NATAS, and we ran to catch up to Amara and Sylvia- we would be sticking near them until they were safely on the ship, I hoped keeping us between the girls and our assailants would provide a decent target to divert attention from them. Quinn bitched that this isn't how you're supposed to run away, but those girls were the entire reason we were running, and protecting them was important. Jak began beating the shit out of a wolf, finishing it off with some encouragement from Amara.
The riders reached Oskar and Carmina then, and began helping fend off the barbarians. Oskar's spirit guardians killed a wolf, and his weapon another. I shot one of the barbarians, and suddenly NATAS announced in my head that she was at 75% functionality, the charged plasma bolt was available, and think F1 for manual. The battle raged on- with Quinn randomly attempting some mental attack on me- we were slowly falling back to the barge, keeping the barbarians at bay with help from the soldiers, who put themselves between the barbarians and us.
I decided to try that charged plasma bolt, and I managed to kill three of the four barbarians I hit with it. Then an alarm went off in my head and NATAS announced she'd overheated. Hopefully when she gets more functionality she'll stop overheating all the gods damned time. We were so close to the barge at this point, almost free. Quinn used that chaos bolt of hers, and hit Gil, Bumbersnoot, and I with acid bubbles. She's way too fucking reckless.
Gil set a sleet storm on a group of barbarians and jumped on the barge. Jak charged the wolves trying to surround Oskar, killing two in a single blow, then finishing off the third with a nasty punch. Oskar, now free of wolves, grabbed Carmina and began flying to the ship. Steve the captain had passed out, so I had Bumbersnoot jump onto the barge so Quinn could prepare us to leave as soon as everyone was on. One of the soldiers yelled at us to "protect the-" but died before he could finish his statement. Obviously one or all of those girls is noble in some way. Amara and Sylvia made it onto the barge, and Amara said we should try to wait for those soldiers. Quinn couldn't reach the soldiers with water walk, so she cast off anyway. We all sailed off, leaving those poor soldiers behind like fodder.
Oskar demanded an explanation from the girls, which they gave to him alone, and he refused to tell anyone else.
***** Tarsakh 26, Luskan
We reached Luskan unmolested, in record time, according to Quinn. Every single fucking night, right in the middle of the night, Wave and my hammer would wake us up to warn us of danger, when there was nothing present. I was getting hella sick of that shit. Wave's constant singing was also really grating on my nerves.
We were charged 100 gold for a trade permit, and taxed another 3600 for all of our magic gear. Captain Steve wasn't allowed in Luskan, apparently the drunkard had caused trouble before- it's got to be a fuck ton of trouble to be booted from fucking Luskan.
We went to One-Eyed Jax Inn, it was the most defensible, and debated our options for our next move. The girls were thinking we needed to head south next to Baldur's Gate, which is close enough to home for me that I could get us decent protection if we headed to the Friendly Arm Inn from there. We still needed to hit Neverwinter to turn in those stupid items- especially Wave- and get paid; and we needed to hit Waterdeep to give Jackass his balls. But getting the girls to safety was more important than that, we could always do that once they were safe.
We got three merchant class rooms, and put the girls in the middle, with Oskar and I in one end room, and Quinn, Jak, and Gil in the other- to get maximum distance on our weapons of warning. I put alarms on the girl's windows and door, to make sure no one could get in except us.
Again we were woken up in the middle of the fucking night. Oskar thinks it's got something to do with the girls- since this started after we met them. I planned to have detect magic on tomorrow night at this time, and watch the girl's room, to see if I see anything. Oskar was going to have detect evil up to see if that showed us anything either.
***** Tarsakh 27, One-Eyed Jax, Luskan
In the morning there was an envelope in the girl's room from the Coldfire Initiative, saying that we could turn in our weapons to the man at the bar. Oskar and Jak were more than willing to give up their weapons, but Quinn was a bit more difficult. By a bit more, I mean we had to yell at her, remind her she'd signed a contract, and then Oskar and Jak had to carry Quinn in. The stupid trident told me it knows the location of Lantan. Big fucking deal, it's on the map. I hate that stupid trident.
Whelm kept returning to Oskar's hand when he placed it in the box the innkeep presented for them to put their weapons in. After a few tries, Oskar dumped some ale on the hammer, and he begrudgingly stayed in the box. Blackrazor had a very loud tantrum when Jak put him in the box, it was hella funny. All that was left was Wave... which we literally forced out of Quinn's hands. We were each handed a bag of money and a box. Once the innkeep locked the box with the weapons in it, all of our boxes unlocked- except for Quinn's.
Jak got some rings that help him do more damage or something. Oskar got a dwarven thrower. I got lenses the size of Bumbersnoot's eye lenses, which would function like a lantern of revealing when installed, and I got the lightning components for a javelin of lightning... THIS IS GOING TO BE HELLA COOL!!!! I couldn't wait to get Bumbersnoot's new upgrades installed! At about this point, Quinn said her box hadn't opened yet, and the innkeep banged on the lid of the box he was carrying, winked at her, and the box opened. A sea shanty filled the air... fucking Wave was fucking back! I hate that annoying trident.
We all went shopping... except for Quinn, who had to go preach at the docks to appease her stupid trident.
When we got back, there was another message from the Coldfire Initiative, saying they'd booked us passage to Baldur's Gate, with a layover in Waterdeep, leaving at 12 tomorrow. I was a bit creeped out.
That night, shortly before the exact middle of the night, Oskar and I got up and cast our planned spells. I watched the girl's room, and detected absolutely no magic from there when the moment passed. Oskar said he got a tiny blip of evil, but couldn't determine exactly where or what it was.
All of the damn oxen were killed by the giants, so Jak and Oskar had to pull the carts for us. The only person from the farm that was still alive was the boy- Gil, and after a little while he helped with the carts too. He'd lost his Uncle Fred in the fight with the giants, who was the only person he had left in the world; the rest of his family was killed when the giants first attacked his little community.
It was pretty late by the time we got back, and as we approached we heard shouts. I could make out calls of movement in the dark, before they realized it was us. A huge crowd gathered around us, asking what had happened- apparently the guy who had run away during the fight, made it back here in record time and told everyone we were all slaughtered- so not only did he abandon us, but he ensured no one would go out to try to find and help us.
The coward in question- Joe- started trying to slink away from us as the others repeated what he'd said, but Oskar saw him and grabbed him before he could get away. The moment Gil found him in the crowd, he snarled in rage and began to run at him, but Jak grabbed him before he could reach Joe. Oskar had two of the villagers grab Joe, while Jak pinned Gil for the next few minutes to calm him down. Once Gil was calmer, Oskar and I went with the villagers who had Joe, and we took him to the little shed he, Gil, and Gil's uncle had been living in. Oskar paid them to guard the place and I set some alarms so he couldn't escape unnoticed.
In the middle of the night, Wave and the hammer of warning woke us up again, for the second night in a row, and again there was nothing there. I was getting really fucking tired of this nonsense.
***** Tarsakh 23, farming village in the Crags
In the morning, Oskar asked Gil if he wanted Joe to undergo trial by combat, but after thinking about it for a bit, Gil decided he wanted Joe's punishment to be a lot longer lasting than that. He decided that Joe should revive the entire farm by himself; which is a hella worse punishment than Oskar's idea had been.
We packed ourselves up and hit the road not long after that. Gil came with us, he didn't really have anything left there, and couldn't stand the thought of sticking around. We were about 7 1/2 miles from River Mirar, which we could take to Luskan.
After about 3 hours, we spotted the river in the distance, along with some sort of outpost. There was a barge there, several guards wearing the insignia for Mirabar. When we arrived, there was a dwarf at the gate, and were allowed entrance to Mirabar's outpost. The girls all tried to hide themselves in the cowls of their cloaks, just in case any of the men hunting them were there. The last thing we needed was for them to get recognized here. We split up to find out how to gain passage on the barge.
Jak and I went to look for any merchants, Oskar went to find the quartermaster, Carmina and Amara hit the tavern, and Sylvia and Gil stayed at the wagon with our stuff; we did have some hella expensive gear in there. Jak and I were redirected to the inn where Quartermaster Jenkins was.
We reached the inn at about the same time that Carmina and Amara walked out, looking nervous. The men chasing them were here. Oskar had been told we couldn't get on the barge until tomorrow, so Jak and I went to bribe the asshole so we could leave on the barge that was about to head out. Quinn had taken a shine to the broken down barge at the docks, and managed to convince the owner, a guy named Steve, that agreed to take us to Luskan in his junk heap, if Quinn fixed it first.
We hurried to the barge, with Quinn telling us they'd meet us on the other side of the river after she fixed Steve's busted boat. As we hurried to get to the barge in time, the men who were chasing the girls came out and hollered to tell people to stop us- but they were too late. It took about an hour to get across the river, and about an hour after that we found Quinn and set sail for Luskan.
About three hours later Oskar spotted large carrion birds in the distance, in the direction we were traveling. Jak decided to go check it out, and came back to tell us he'd found a bunch of dead frost giants and humans. We decided to go check it all out together, and gave Steve a bottle of something to occupy himself while we were gone.
Jak and Oskar set to cutting off the giant toes, while I began identifying the magic on their skins and swords, and Quinn began gathering everything into a bundle to bring back with us. I'd just finished identifying the swords, but I couldn't quite tell what magic was in them, when we heard howls and hoof beats.
We saw a group of wolves and humans coming at us, Quinn squealed and dropped everything she'd gathered. Then the riders looking for the girls showed up. We were boxed in- barbarians and wolves to our left, humans on horses to our right- and our only hope was to get back to the barge before they converged on us, and that was a hella slim hope. I shrunk Quinn to put her on Bumbersnoot, since she was slowest, gave Gil and Amara expeditious retreat rabbits, and gave Sylvia a hummingbird to drink to boost her speed. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything for Carmina, four people was kinda my limit at the moment.
Amara yelled at Oskar to do something, so he summoned his spirit weapon and hit a barbarian. As he did, I noticed some of the barbarians were engaging the soldiers. Carmina stabbed one of the barbarians; I had Bumbersnoot trip one, I shot it with NATAS, and we ran to catch up to Amara and Sylvia- we would be sticking near them until they were safely on the ship, I hoped keeping us between the girls and our assailants would provide a decent target to divert attention from them. Quinn bitched that this isn't how you're supposed to run away, but those girls were the entire reason we were running, and protecting them was important. Jak began beating the shit out of a wolf, finishing it off with some encouragement from Amara.
The riders reached Oskar and Carmina then, and began helping fend off the barbarians. Oskar's spirit guardians killed a wolf, and his weapon another. I shot one of the barbarians, and suddenly NATAS announced in my head that she was at 75% functionality, the charged plasma bolt was available, and think F1 for manual. The battle raged on- with Quinn randomly attempting some mental attack on me- we were slowly falling back to the barge, keeping the barbarians at bay with help from the soldiers, who put themselves between the barbarians and us.
I decided to try that charged plasma bolt, and I managed to kill three of the four barbarians I hit with it. Then an alarm went off in my head and NATAS announced she'd overheated. Hopefully when she gets more functionality she'll stop overheating all the gods damned time. We were so close to the barge at this point, almost free. Quinn used that chaos bolt of hers, and hit Gil, Bumbersnoot, and I with acid bubbles. She's way too fucking reckless.
Gil set a sleet storm on a group of barbarians and jumped on the barge. Jak charged the wolves trying to surround Oskar, killing two in a single blow, then finishing off the third with a nasty punch. Oskar, now free of wolves, grabbed Carmina and began flying to the ship. Steve the captain had passed out, so I had Bumbersnoot jump onto the barge so Quinn could prepare us to leave as soon as everyone was on. One of the soldiers yelled at us to "protect the-" but died before he could finish his statement. Obviously one or all of those girls is noble in some way. Amara and Sylvia made it onto the barge, and Amara said we should try to wait for those soldiers. Quinn couldn't reach the soldiers with water walk, so she cast off anyway. We all sailed off, leaving those poor soldiers behind like fodder.
Oskar demanded an explanation from the girls, which they gave to him alone, and he refused to tell anyone else.
***** Tarsakh 26, Luskan
We reached Luskan unmolested, in record time, according to Quinn. Every single fucking night, right in the middle of the night, Wave and my hammer would wake us up to warn us of danger, when there was nothing present. I was getting hella sick of that shit. Wave's constant singing was also really grating on my nerves.
We were charged 100 gold for a trade permit, and taxed another 3600 for all of our magic gear. Captain Steve wasn't allowed in Luskan, apparently the drunkard had caused trouble before- it's got to be a fuck ton of trouble to be booted from fucking Luskan.
We went to One-Eyed Jax Inn, it was the most defensible, and debated our options for our next move. The girls were thinking we needed to head south next to Baldur's Gate, which is close enough to home for me that I could get us decent protection if we headed to the Friendly Arm Inn from there. We still needed to hit Neverwinter to turn in those stupid items- especially Wave- and get paid; and we needed to hit Waterdeep to give Jackass his balls. But getting the girls to safety was more important than that, we could always do that once they were safe.
We got three merchant class rooms, and put the girls in the middle, with Oskar and I in one end room, and Quinn, Jak, and Gil in the other- to get maximum distance on our weapons of warning. I put alarms on the girl's windows and door, to make sure no one could get in except us.
Again we were woken up in the middle of the fucking night. Oskar thinks it's got something to do with the girls- since this started after we met them. I planned to have detect magic on tomorrow night at this time, and watch the girl's room, to see if I see anything. Oskar was going to have detect evil up to see if that showed us anything either.
***** Tarsakh 27, One-Eyed Jax, Luskan
In the morning there was an envelope in the girl's room from the Coldfire Initiative, saying that we could turn in our weapons to the man at the bar. Oskar and Jak were more than willing to give up their weapons, but Quinn was a bit more difficult. By a bit more, I mean we had to yell at her, remind her she'd signed a contract, and then Oskar and Jak had to carry Quinn in. The stupid trident told me it knows the location of Lantan. Big fucking deal, it's on the map. I hate that stupid trident.
Whelm kept returning to Oskar's hand when he placed it in the box the innkeep presented for them to put their weapons in. After a few tries, Oskar dumped some ale on the hammer, and he begrudgingly stayed in the box. Blackrazor had a very loud tantrum when Jak put him in the box, it was hella funny. All that was left was Wave... which we literally forced out of Quinn's hands. We were each handed a bag of money and a box. Once the innkeep locked the box with the weapons in it, all of our boxes unlocked- except for Quinn's.
Jak got some rings that help him do more damage or something. Oskar got a dwarven thrower. I got lenses the size of Bumbersnoot's eye lenses, which would function like a lantern of revealing when installed, and I got the lightning components for a javelin of lightning... THIS IS GOING TO BE HELLA COOL!!!! I couldn't wait to get Bumbersnoot's new upgrades installed! At about this point, Quinn said her box hadn't opened yet, and the innkeep banged on the lid of the box he was carrying, winked at her, and the box opened. A sea shanty filled the air... fucking Wave was fucking back! I hate that annoying trident.
We all went shopping... except for Quinn, who had to go preach at the docks to appease her stupid trident.
When we got back, there was another message from the Coldfire Initiative, saying they'd booked us passage to Baldur's Gate, with a layover in Waterdeep, leaving at 12 tomorrow. I was a bit creeped out.
That night, shortly before the exact middle of the night, Oskar and I got up and cast our planned spells. I watched the girl's room, and detected absolutely no magic from there when the moment passed. Oskar said he got a tiny blip of evil, but couldn't determine exactly where or what it was.
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