9/11/02

The barmaid drops off your drinks- an ale for you and Eldane, a glass of blue wine for Aster, and as Asters slender fingers closed around the stem of the thick and almost bubble-free glass, he continues his story. "After we'd moved on a bit from the site of that disappearing horseman's butchery we came upon the outskirts of a town that'd been through a lot- and none of it good. The first farmhouse we stumbled upon had fields left fallow when they should have been sown and a father & daughter whose future looked bleak, though they were quite happy to share what meager food they had with us. They also shared their information with us- also meager. The horseman- they didn't know much about it. The elves have been attacking. We'd learn more from the local leader or the chapel's devotee, perhaps. We stayed the night and Torj plowed a field or two for them- they might have a bigger harvest than they expected!"

Eldane looks up from an ale mug that's only slightly smaller than his head. "What? When did he do that? They didn't look plowed when we were leaving in the morning. I don't even remember seeing a plow..."

Aster supresses a smile as he continues, "The next day we continued down the road, stopping by an odd chapel surrounded by standing stones. I didn't bother going in and it turned out my assumption proved true- not much in the way of new data from those who spend their hours muttering to their 'gods'. The self-delusion is useful in the creation of a different form of magic than the arcane- one only attainable through this sort of self-imposed insanity. Useful, but how can that price be worth it?"

Eldane breaks in, "I went in. She was pretty, but kinda distracted. I liked her squirrel-monkey. I offered her a drink of water, 'cause she sounded all hoarse and like she could use it, but she didn't want any. She told us about her gods- nine of 'em, I think there were. A traveller, a landlord, a raiser... Don't remember them all. She said something about them all being neutral and about her worshipping them ALL! No WONDER she was hoarse from chanting, if she's got nine times the worshipping to do!"

Aster takes a sip from his wine glass and stares at the ceiling. "Leaving the chapel behind, we later came upon the town proper. Odd construction- the standing stones prevalent around the chapel also ringed the town itself. The people were obviously starving. I talked to Leodan for a while about the possibility of making a magic bowl to feed the town, but we both agreed it'd cost far too much. Yet another reason I think we should settle down in Genevue for a while, Eldane."

"So you've been telling me. I don't know, I kind of like moving around."

"But a homebase you could return to?" Aster casts a glance in your direction, returning to his original thought, "But I digress. The starving humans of this town clustered around the non-elves of the party, causing them to grow increasingly uncomfortable. I hollered a couple of times for them to back off, since they seemed to respect elves by giving us a proper amount of personal space. Didn't work. It almost got ugly before this whistling guy came out."

"Yeah, he could carry a tune! A fellow bard, this Cuckoo fellow had been there for a few months."

"Seemed a bit disturbed to me. Not dicing with a full cup, if you ask me. Their leader came out- don't recall his name, but he's dead now, anyway."

"Aster!"

"Well, he is. Shot in the back, no less. I can't imagine what would drive a group of elves to such barbaric behavior! And to send summoned creatures after us! Oh, they saw us again, that was certain! Why the next time we met-"

"You're getting ahead of yourself again, Aster," Eldane interjected. "They sent a HUGE owl that SWOOPED down on me and started hauling me up into the AIR! Aster made its eyes pop with acid- while it was distracted and blind, I was able to wriggle my way to the ground. I even landed on my feet!" Eldane beams proudly.

"I got off a shot with my bow as it rose into the air and then Leodan lets loose with the brightest beam of light I'VE ever seen spots from. Fried the thing right out of the air. The aroma of freshly fried fowl was too much for the peasantry, who rushed it. I used Prestidigitation to pluck it in a flutter of feathers, then POOF, it vanished. The looks on their faces when that feast faded could almost make you cry. Or laugh. Or both."

"You have a weird sense of humor, Aster," Eldane looked up at him from under a furrowed brow. "So you see," Eldane turns his attention back to you, "we had to do something about those elves! Not to mention about that horseman. What else could we have done, just moved along?"

"I thought we could have, but I didn't bother mentioning it. After a bit, though, the curiosity over what was motivating these people of the woods drove me to continue the investigation. But we had no idea what our actions would cause at that time. If we did... Well, we could have done something different, I feel sure."

"You can't blame us, really," Eldane adds, "our motivations were good and we even gave them their gold back, didn't we?" Eldane looks to Aster questioningly.

"Did we?"