A Forgotten Campaign

[Bloodrose]

Solo Endeavor

"No, thank you. I've had quite enough for one evening." Teric pushed away the offered bottle of spirits, leaving the small crowd that had gathered around his table to consume the fiery liquid. Rather than continue drinking, the old warrior took a long draw on his smoldering hand-rolled cigarette, which lay nearly forgotten in the ceramic dish at the edge of the table. The cloying odor of burning smokeweed filled his nose as the taste dried his mouth, and with a deep breath Teric drew the warm smoke into his lungs. After briefly holding that warmth deep in his chest, the warrior's chest sank and the grey haze billowed out his nostrils in a cloud of smoke.

"That stuff will kill you." The charming young red-head nestled against Teric's shoulder said, but it was not concern in her voice. Instead there was a playful nudge in her tone, that when accompanied by the devious glint in her eye stirred up emotions in Teric that hadn't been stirred in a long, long time. She's young enough to be your daughter, by far. A more pious man might have thought, but Teric Bloodrose was not a pious man. Not by any real stretch of the questionable moral fiber he touted as a blade-for-hire of bygone days was he pious, and as such was not above turning away beautiful young women who sought his company.

"More dangerous things than dried plant matter have tried." Teric retorted just as playfully, tapping the ash off in the clay bowl. "And yet here I am, as alive as ever."

The small crowd of patrons gracing the Starlight chuckled, drawing interested glances from the loners lingering at the bar and in the dark corner tables of the establishment. Most, day laborers and shopkeepers unwinding after a long day's work, had found their way to Teric's large table by the fire. There they enjoyed the company of the personable mercenary, sharing drink and food and smoke, listening to stories of past battles and forgotten campaigns. It was a pattern that had repeated itself the last couple of nights, and each night the crowd grew a little larger, and little louder, and a little more interested in a history lesson.

"Tell us about one of them." Erik, one of the regulars chimed, swilling back a shot of liquor. "One of the more dangerous things, I mean."

The small crowd clamored in agreement, raising their glasses and rapping their palms on the table in a dull roar until Teric finally settled them with a small wave of acquiescence. "Alright, alright, alright." The old warrior grumbled as he shifted himself fully upright in his seat, freeing himself momentarily from the redhead on his arm. "Keep it down and I'll give you your damn story...not that it's a story really. More of a chapter taken from the pages of history really..."

[Bloodrose]

'I opened my eyes to behold the drab, grey sky that was the typical Fiorairan morning. In most parts of the swamp the monstrous trees that made their home here would have blotted out the sky with their canopy, but the trees above our campsite were long dead and devoid of foliage. It was an odd spot for a campsite really, but Darren Toll said that sleeping under the open sky was better than skulking in the depths of the swamp...

"Get up you lazy louts!" Darren said in a shrill whisper. Like most Handlers, the guys that mercenary companies sent along to ensure the job was done properly, Darren was a squat, paranoid little man. He stood nearly a head shorter than anyone else in the group, a fact that could be attributed to his distinct lack of a neck. Strutting around the camp in his studded leather, his boots squelching in the mud, Darren's head rotated between his shoulders as he glanced around worriedly.

"Shut yer mouth." Came a familiar reply from the other side of the smoldering campfire. The voice belonged to Colin McGrath, a brusque fellow blade-for-hire and warrior from the highlands of somewhere or another; he never said where.

The three of us had been wandering the swamps of Fiorair for two days, tracking a goblin warlord that had been causing trouble for the early human traders trickling into the port of Talmhaidh. Its name was Gul-dagath, or some other ridiculous beastly name; the kind of name I can't be bothered to remember if they can't be bothered to come up with a decent moniker...'

"Is this story going anywhere?" Gregory, one of the day laborers that had begun to frequent his evenings at the Starlight, interrupted. It was a playful, drunken interruption, as opposed to the rude and impatient kind, but it was an interruption nonetheless. As such it was met with derisive complaints from the others gathered around the table for the story.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Teric interjected into the loud fray of calls and jeers being tossed around amongst the group. His gaze shot momentarily over to Sloan, the bartender, but the bald man stood behind the counter washing a glass as if nothing were happening. "Keep the noise down you kids, unless you want me to stop?"

That last statement shifted the volume of the group considerably as the inebriated chiding directed at Gregory dissolved into cries and pleas for the story to continue. "No, please! Continue!" They begged. Teric calmed the noisy Starlight patrons with a reassuring wave, settling them back into their drinks and bringing the volume down enough to continue with his story...

'Like I was saying,' Teric continued, 'we had been wandering the swamps for two days...'

[Bloodrose]

'...looking for goblins. The blighters could have been anywhere really, but we were using the borders of the draconian city of Suthainn as a reference for our search. Draconians and goblins don't mix well, so we were spared the horror that would have been searching the tree-city, and left instead to search the rest of the swamp.

That morning marked the beginning of day three, and like each other day we packed our meager supplies and began a half-assed survey of the surrounding swamp lands. Darren, being the brilliant handler that he was, decided that the best way to search the marshy bogs was to move in a grid like pattern through the area, criss-crossing through the fog and mud until we stumbled upon Gul and his nefarious minions.

Sounds like a splendid idea, right?'

Several people nodded as their alcohol-impaired minds grinded through the concept of dividing a swampy bog into checkerboard-like sections and searching each. Their minds didn't quite stumble upon the key problem with that idea...

'Well it's a terrible idea.' He corrected the group.

'The problem with searching a swamp, no matter what your strategy, is that you are in a swamp. The only dry and stable ground to be found are these narrow raised trails of earth that jut up between murky black ponds. Foul smelling fog is visible in every direction, and how far you can see through it is directly dependent on the time of the day. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of little streams, puddles, and mud pits connect the dark, stagnant water that breeds all sorts of evils. Trying to search in an organized grid pattern under those conditions would have required us often wading waist deep in ancient pools of muck, bugs, snakes, and the Goddess knows what else...

...and I can tell you right now that Colin, myself, and not by any stretch - Darren - were willing to do that for the modest paycheck that accompanies killing a few uglies.'

It was around this point, as he paused to take another draw off his cigarette that Teric started to realize he was losing his audience. While he might not have been one to tell a story as well as the next bard to walk through the door, he was just as adept at reading his audience as any. A few blank stares, an increase in the number of people pouring themselves refills on their drinks mid-sentence, and the slightly bored expression on the face of his red-headed companion all informed the old warrior that it was time to cut to the chase.

'Now all that said, I’ll spare you the lengthy part of the story that involves almost another full day of pulling my boots out of the muck...'

[Bloodrose]

'The beast's cave was like a great, black maw opening up out of the swamp, threatening to consume any who wandered near it. Almost as soon as we had laid eyes on it we knew that we had come to the right location; the grisly totems of animal skulls, severed arms, and goblin war-banners were a dead giveaway. Even from a distance you could just make out the chattering and in-fighting of the ugly green vermin as it emanated from the cave's mouth.

Darren, Colin, and I - covered head to toe in foul smelling swamp muck - hunkered down a couple dozen paces from the entrance to Gul's lair and waited. Since all the baddies were hiding out underground, and none of us were really archers anyways, there wasn't much to do in the way of picking off enemies from a distance. I think in hindsight Darren realized right then and there that bringing along Johnny the Bow or Mr. Ballista would have been a capital idea. Why go toe-to-toe with a small army of goblins when you could just pick off their war chief from afar and be done with it?'

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up." One of the faces in the audience that Teric didn't recognize spoke up. "There is no way there was a guy named 'Mr. Ballista', you made that up."

"I most certainly did not!" Teric retorted, feigning indignity. Am I ever going to get through this story without getting interrupted by another drunk? He thought in the background, staring down the man with a mock-evil eye. "If I remember correctly, his actual name was Armaldale Sprocket, or something ridiculous like that. He was a curious fellow - half man, half gnome - and unfortunately for him he inherited the ghastly gnomish trait that causes them to constantly tinker with things that aren't broken. He got the name Mr. Ballista because he was best known for his crossbow; a ludicrously complex, steam powered behemoth made of Talymer and steel. The thing could fire a Mythril bolt the size of a chair-leg through stone at half a league."

"No way." Someone whispered, but the tone in their voice was more wonder than disbelief. "What ever happened to him?"

"Same thing that happens to all gnome-ish types." Teric replied grimly. "He was tinkering again. Designed himself a special projectile to cut through trees, but when he went to test it he stood a little too close to his target..." Teric slammed his open palm on the table, BANG!, startling everyone within earshot. "Great big oak tree fell right on top of his head."

"Now!" Teric continued, raising his voice before anyone could jump in with more questions. "Can I please get on with the story, sans any more interruptions? Hmm?"

[Bloodrose]

'"We can trap them at the mouth of the cave." Darren was saying. He had this smug look on his face that was typical of Handlers when they think they've stumbled upon the perfect idea. It was the kind of look that made a man glad that Handlers were basically along the ride; watching to make sure everything was done according to contract. "They'll be bottle-necked."

"No offense, Darren, but that idea is awful." I told him, giving Colin a knowing look. The highlander had this haunting half-smile on his lips, and his dark eyes were laughing behind his fierce gaze.

"Da ye know how many blighters are in dere?" Colin drawled in his strange accent. I had never been able to place it, and since the man refused to talk about where he was from, I never had any clues to help me.

"Bottle-necking the enemy is certainly a fair idea." I picked right up before Darren could get a word in sideways. "The problem is that there is only three of us, and who knows how many of them. We might be able to hold them for a couple of minutes, but if they managed to break us by sheer weight of numbers, then we're dead."

"And I dinae plan on dying." Colin interjected. "Dis ain't no Citadel here - no Ai'Brone around to raise ma bones if they fall."

During our combined assessment of Darren's plan, our Handler's smile had slowly been twisting into a rotten scowl. He just sat there in the muck, glaring at us with a 'if you know so much, what do we do?' stare.

"So what do you professionals think we should do?" He said at last.

"Smoke them?" I thought out loud, looking back to Colin to see how my peer would react to my suggestion. The highlander shrugged, pursing his lips as if trying to think of something better. "Wait until they go to sleep and light a fire at the mouth of the cave. If we fan the smoke into the cave then maybe a few of them will suffocate before the rest wake and come out to skin us alive..."

"What happens if the cave opens up underground?" Darren asked. It was a surprisingly intelligent question coming from the likes of him, and it brought up several dangers. The amount of smoke required to actually suffocate anything in the cave was directly dependent on how much open space there was to fill - and one had to take into account that smoke rose to the top first. The whole space would need to be filled to kill anything sleeping on the floor. Multiplying the flaws of the plan was the fact that if any other opening to the cave existed, then the smoke would simply escape and bugger the whole plot...

"Then we bottle-neck them at the mouth of the cave." I replied calmly, doing my best to ignore the shocked, angry, and all together amusing look that crossed Darren's face when I recommended his original plan.

"I'll find us some tinder." Colin piped up as he slithered back away from the cave, headed back in the direction we approached from. It would probably be a few hours before the goblins settled down for the night - and that was assuming they didn't plan to go out raiding tonight...'

[Bloodrose]

'Several hours later found us standing under the teeth at the entrance to the cave, Colin and myself huddled at the corners of the mouth while Darren fanned the fire where the tongue should have been. Finding dry material to start a fire in a swamp is no easy task, so I had been surprised by the armloads of dry, rotting fuel the highlander had lugged back from further in the swamp. With that fuel, after the din of goblins shouting and arguing beneath the earth quieted, we built our fire directly in the center of the cave opening. On top of the fire was stacked a fair amount of wet, green saplings that smoldered and gave off great billowing clouds of black smoke as they tried to burn.

"How much longer do I have to do this?" Darren was whining, quietly. He stood behind the fire, flapping his cloak up and down to blow as much smoke as he could down into the cave. "My arms are tired."

"Ye fan until we're dun here." Colin hissed back at him. Colin and I had both ditched our cloaks as well, waiting in only our armor with our weapons in hand. The highlander had a sleeveless chainmail shirt to protect his torso, while I had opted for a lighter boiled leather cuirass. My fingers were gripped so tightly around my longsword that my knuckles were beginning to turn white...'

"How old were you?" The red-head on Teric's arm interrupted. While having to pause the story for the umpteenth time to address a question from the crowd, the old warrior tried not to let his frustration show since it was his female companion who had asked.

"Oh, let's see..." Teric mumbled as he thought back. "I was still with the Iron-Fist Company then, so it was pretty earlier on in my career. I must have been twenty, twenty-one when all this was happening."

"So you can remember the story, but you can't remember how old you were?" Gregory, the same day laborer that had complained about the pace of the story earlier on asked skeptically.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Teric asked in response. "It's hard sometimes to celebrate your birthdays on time when you're travelling all over the continent working. Days, weeks, and months blend together into one blur after another as you fight your way from battle to battle, and a man starts to worry less about how old he is at the time and focuses on when the next fight is going to break out."

That explanation seemed to placate most of the crowd, as a lot of heads started nodding to one another. A few shrugged their shoulders, as if to say "who cares?" and more drinks were poured. The bottles were starting to get close to empty now, and Teric's forgotten cigarette had burned itself down in the ashtray.

Looking around, Teric noticed for the first time that the Starlight was virtually deserted but for the listeners gathered around his table and a lone man sitting at the bar chatting with Sloan, the bartender. Outside it was completely black, but that didn't really help to tell Teric what time it was...

[Bloodrose]

'It seemed like we stood there forever, waiting with the sound of Darren's flapping cloak in our ears. Our Handler's breath wheezed in and out of his lungs as he tired, and standing over a smoking fire trying to breathe certainly wasn't helping the man. His arms and face were covered in a black, sooty mess that was streaked with rivulets of sweat...

"Can ye hear'em?" Colin spoke quietly from the other side of the cave opening. He held a shortsword in one hand and a hand axe in the other, and he had position his body so that he could lean his head into the cave and listen. "I think de is stirrin down there, trayin to figger whats goin on."

After he said that I strained my ear closer to the cave to try and have a listen of my own. For a few minutes all I could make out was Darren struggling to keep his arms waving and the crackling of the fire. Slowly but surely, however, I began to make out the sound of confused goblins. There were a few vulgar sounding shouts, and the rattling of metal echoing up out of the underground, and as the noises grew more frequent, they grew closer...

"Look out!" Colin's shout was too late for Darren, as a volley of goblin arrows came hissing out of the cave. A few of the ugly, barbed shafts clacked harmlessly off the various rock formations lining the mouth, but a few found their way out into the open. These whizzed by harmless for the most part, but a couple found their way into Darren's cloak, and one struck the Handler in the shoulder.

"Sonofa!" Darren squealed as he dropped his cloak and went reeling backwards, his hands grabbing for the shaft lodged in his flesh. With his shout came the battle cry of angry goblins, and a gaggle of the hideous green monsters came rushing out of the cave behind the volley of arrows.

Goblins, for the sake of giving you an idea of what Colin and I are up against at this point, are not the most competent foes. They stand shorter than a man, and typically weigh about 5 stone. They wear their oily black hair long, and it tends to stick in their faces more often than not when they are swinging about wildly with their rusty, neglected weapons. Imagine, if you will, an ugly green child of 10 or 11 years with a rusty axe; that's your average goblin for you.

Now, that's not the say they aren't dangerous. Goblins are notoriously unpredictable, and usually they have the advantage of overwhelming numbers. Standing there at the mouth of the cave, I could make out about a half dozen in the first wave - far less than I had actually expected...

I skewered the first unfortunate bastard in the belly with my sword as he rushed straight at me. One strike on my side and out of the corner of my eye I could make out Colin making a first strike of his own, and already there was black, sticky goblin blood all over the place. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that goblins might as well be made of liquid on the inside, because as soon as you stick one they start spraying and spilling the stuff all over the place. It gets on your weapon and on your hands, and unless you keep your grip, you're going to lose your weapon.

Falling back a couple of steps to yank my sword free, I ducked under a goblin who decided to use his falling comrade as a springboard to leap over my head. He hit the ground behind me on his feet, and still ducked I swung back and caught him behind the knee before he could turn around. His garbled screams mixed with Colin's very audible swearing and the jabbering of the other goblins to culminate in the battle-noise that always seemed to get my blood pumping. Fear, adrenaline, and courage coursed through my veins in a strangely intoxicating brew - steadying my hand as I turned to address a third foe as he stupidly chucked his axe is a wildly inaccurate throw, and didn't even get a chance to engage him before he disappeared back into the cave.

The wounded goblin behind me was trying to stand, a move that resulted in his lower leg breaking apart at the knee and more screaming, so I put the blighter out of his misery by removing his head...'

Pausing for breath, Teric noted with some satisfaction the enraptured and eager stares of most of the men in the crowd. The red-head on his arm was looking a little queasy at the graphic descriptions of warfare, but that queasiness was only causing her to huddle closer and grip his arm tighter.

'So with two kills to my name, and three for Colin by the looks of things, we started pressing back towards our original positions at the mouth of the cave to try and keep our foes bottled up. Another goblin fell to Colin's axe as the highlander cut a swath through those standing in his way, and for a second it seemed like we would easily push the goblins back beneath the earth and contain them...

...That was until the most fearsome roar I had heard in a long time came bellowing out of the cave like a dread wind...'

[Bloodrose]

'Gul-dagath came roaring out of the cave like a juggernaut, his big meaty arms crossed in front of him like a battering ram. He plowed through Colin and I as we tried to hold the bottle-neck like we weren't even there, knocking us aside and to the ground. Catching that grunt's shoulder in the side of the head had knocked me for a bit of a loop, and I took a second on the ground to collect my senses before attempting to stand.

"Come on ye bastard!" I heard Colin shouting. Gul skidded to a halt a few paces short of where Darren was laying like a useless pile of cow shit. Sure, he had an arrow in his shoulder, but an injury like that shouldn't stop a man from helping out when everyone's lives are on the line.

There is no way that thing is 100 percent goblin, I remember thinking as the hulking beast turned to address my highlander peer's taunt. Gul looked more troll that goblin, standing a good two feet taller than his closest comrade - who was scurrying back to the cave like the other few remaining goblins. Gul's arms were like tree-trunks, covered in hideous black tattoos and pale, jagged scars. Two yellow-green tusks protruded up from his lower jaw, giving him an ogre like presence as well, and I was forced to wonder just what kind of amalgamation we had found ourselves up against...

As I rose to my feet, Colin made his move. Three quick bounds carried the highlander across the distance between man and beast, and his sword swung for a meaty chunk of midsection while Gul seemed eager to punch back in retaliation. As it turned out, Gul won, for as soon as Colin was within the beast's reach the highlander was flying back just as quickly with blood dripping from a flattened nose and broken jaw.'

"All that in one punch?" Someone in the crowd asked.

"Well," Teric was tired to trying to get them to stop, so he just answered the question as quickly as he could, "you have to take into account that Gul's fist was about this big..." He proceeded to hold up his hands and indicate an invisible object slightly smaller than a human skull. "You get hit with something like that, and you're not walking away with just a black eye..."

"So what did you do then?" Erik asked, directing the conversation back to the story. Mentally, Teric thanked the man.

'So there I was, the last one standing against the hulking behemoth. Darren had snapped out of his wound-shock enough to begin scurrying away like a rat. Obviously he wasn't going to be any help, and Colin was also a bit indisposed. He was a fierce warrior and all, to give him due credit, but when you have a broken jaw and your nose has been inverted into your face, you aren't too quick to jump back in the fight.

I am in horrible trouble, I thought miserably....'

[Bloodrose]

'At that point I would have sworn to any man's gods that Gul could read my thoughts, for as soon as I contemplated the awful predicament I was in the beast turned to face me. His blood-red eyes were just beady little marbles stuck in his thick, oddly shaped skull. Ragged strands of grey hair stuck out from his scalp in oddly angled tufts, giving him the single more ghastly appearance I think I've ever had the misfortune to gaze upon. He lets out another of the terrifying bellows that seemed to literally shake the ground beneath my feet, and I nearly lost control of my bowels right then and there...

"Come on!" I shouted back at him, determined to bolster my own confidence as well as show the beast that I wasn't afraid to stand and tangle with him. I don't really know if it worked, for I think I was just as scared and he was just as confident in himself, but I had said it anyways...

Gul charged me then. Swinging those great big arms of his in wide reaching haymakers he came storming on, grunting wildly. I was forced to backpedal away or stand and get my skull caved in, so I beat as hasty a retreat as possible without tripping myself over the still warm corpses of the goblins behind me. Gul was right on my trail, pushing his advantage, but that eagerness to follow ended up being the greatest boon in my favor.

As he charged me, Gul quite literally stomped his wide, hairy foot right down on a rusty axe one of his dead followers had been carrying. By whatever stroke of fortune the weapon had ended up in the much, blade facing upwards, just so Gul his crash his foot on it and essentially severe his own foot in half. The beast let out the most blood-curdling screech of pain I've ever heard, collapsing to the ground as is wounded appendage collapsed under his own weight.'

The small crowd let out a joyous cheer as they heard the great beast of the story falling injured for the hero to finish off in quick fashion. Toasts went up, the last of the liquor was poured, and a very tired looking Sloan glanced over in hopes that the story was finally coming to its conclusion.

'Not wasting the only opportunity I was bound to get against the beast, I ceased by backpedalling and lunged forward, throwing myself into harm’s way as I leapt atop the fallen Gul's chest and plunged my sword downwards for the bull-like neck beneath the screaming jaw. Gul's right arm came up to try and swat me off like a fly, but the monster's counter was to slow to stop the point of my blade from skewering him right in the bulbous Adam’s apple on his throat. I was still knocked clear, but the rich, black lifeblood came rushing out of Gul's neck like a geyser, and the monster could only twitch and gurgle away the last moment of his life...'

"The end." Teric smiled, taking a half bow was still seated as the tired and inebriated crowd cheered and laughed and patted each other on the back as though they were all a part of the story itself. A smattering of those gathered showered the table with a few coins, toasting there glasses again and again as they finished the last of their drinks.

"What happened to Colin and Darren?" Erik asked through the din, obviously concerned about what happened to the other characters in the story.

"Well," Teric said, "we made it back to Talmhaidh as quickly as we could, eager to get clear of the swamp. Luckily enough, the other goblins seemed to take the death of their leader as a sign we shouldn't be messed with. They huddled in their cave and left us be as we high-tailed it out of there. Darren got out of the whole ordeal with a scar below his left shoulder, and after dropping Colin off at the local infirmary, never heard from him again. I suppose he probably survived his injuries, but I doubt he was quite as handsome as he was before..."

"Hey!" Sloan, the bartender shouted from behind the bar. "It's past closing time, all of ya!"

With mumbles and groans and a few drunks stumbling around imitating a young Teric leaping atop the felled Gul, the crowd of patrons that had stayed for Teric's story got up from the table and began exiting the Starlight. A few made their way upstairs to the establishment's boarding rooms, but the majority disappeared into the night streets and could be heard fading into the distance as they chatted and shouted amongst themselves.

[Bloodrose]

"Is that story true?" The red-head asked when she and Teric were left alone in the Starlight's common room. Sloan was busying himself flipping chairs upside down and setting them on the tables for the night. "Did all that really happen?"

"Well, most of it is true." Teric answered truthfully. "For the sake of a good story I left out the part where I turned-tail and ran for my life when Colin went down."

"You ran away?" The girl asked incredulously, playfully punching Teric in the arm. "Some hero you are!"

"I never claimed to be a hero." Teric retorted. "Sometimes the job gets done, sometimes it doesn't, and you don't get to be as old as I am by sticking your neck out to finish every job..."

"So what really happened to Darren and Colin?"

"Colin was dead as soon as the brute hit him." Teric explained. "Caved his skull in like it was made of clay. As for Darren, I couldn't say; I took off before waiting around to see what would happen to him. I'm sure Gul probably struck the maggot dead, but no one the likes of Darren Toll are worth shedding a tear over."

"You're so cold." Teric's female companion narrowed her eyes and scowled at him darkly. "You don't care about anyone other than yourself."

"I will admit, I have a nasty tendency to watch out for Number 1." Teric admitted freely. He picked up the smoldering remnants of his cigarette and frowned. As he contemplated asking Sloan if he had any cigarettes, Teric felt his companion shift, nuzzling in closer to his arm. Her movement attracted his gaze away from the burning paper and plant matter in his hand, and he found that her new position against his body offered up a very tempting view down the front of her shirt. "But," he added, clearing his throat and pushing the empty ashtray away from the edge of the table, "I have been known to care about certain people from time to time."

I don't even know her name. The old warrior contemplated, wondering if she even cared.

"Cared about anyone lately?" She asked coyly, sitting up and looking Teric directly in the eye.

"My dear, I haven't cared about anyone in nearly a decade." He replied, taking her hand gently.

"You don't even know my name." Her eyes danced with a seductive inner laughter, drawing Teric in like a moth to the flame. She stood up from the table and pulled his hand to follow, leading towards the stairs.

"No, no I don't." He smiled as he followed effortlessly...


Kind of started this just for fun one afternoon when I had nothing else to do. Didn't really know where I was going with it, but figured I'd see it through to a conclusion...

Spoils: 35 GP from the crowd of listeners, and a red silk hair-ribbon twelve inches in length.

[Karuka]

You didn't ask for much commentary, and it was a really well-done quest, so I'm just going to crunch the numbers, unless I give you a low score, then I'll explain it.

General comments: I really enjoyed both the realism and the reveal, and I liked how you played off the crowd, interruptions and tangents included. It really made this story, while it might have gotten dull to..."spend another day" with him "pulling [his] feet out of the muck."



Continuity: 3. I don't really know what Teric was up to before he came to the Tavern, and I don't really know what led him to his job. I don't even know the "after" stories, save that some thirty years later, Teric wound up in a tavern, selling slightly exaggerated versions of his tales for a little bit of extra money.

Pacing: 8

Setting: 7 - I like how you interacted with the cigarette and the swamp.

Persona: 8 - highly realistic, but he still needs a little breaking in. This felt like an experiment - which is all well and good, but he's not quite settled yet.

Action: 8.5

Dialogue: 7

Mechanics: 8.5 - some odd wordings that made me wonder if it was right or not, and then some little mistakes.

Technique: 9 - the flashback/story MADE this thread.

Clarity: 9

Wild Card: 8 - this was both a good read and a quick one. I appreciated that. Good luck in the future.

TOTAL: 76! Congratulations!

Rewards:

Bloodrose gains 890 EXP, 150 GP (apparently he had more listeners than he thought, a couple of whom were very generous), and the silk ribbon he asked for.

EXP/GP added!