The Chronicles of Mordek Vol. 009

Gameplay Date 04-01-07

Players present:  Mordek, Taneus

We headed west until we arrived at the last stream we had encountered and decided to make camp.  A badly wounded worg shows up...  probably Jade's handiwork as there weren't any worgs at the goblin camp.  Everyone of us is quickly pointing either a bow or crossbow at it.  The worg doesn't take long to reconsider his chances and beats a hasty retreat.  As we're all gathered around, Fazu & Taneus take a look through all of the scrolls to see what we have.  They say that 4 of them are for curing minor wounds, 4 more are for something called Blur and is useful for concealment, while the last scroll is used for protection from the elements.  We pulled out the handwritten note to see what it said as well.  It was short, cryptic & choppy...  "Roots of Evertree uncovered...  sacrifice chosen...  march to Teryll immediately."  Well...  that definitely doesn't sound good...  but there's not much we can do about it tonight.  Taneus says he'll stay up on watch until about 3:00 in the morning.  As I'm nodding off, one thought keeps going through my head...  I just know they're gonna make me ride a horse tomorrow so we can make better time.

By midnight, it starts thundering and by 2:00, there's a light rain coming down on us.  When morning finally arrives, I'm grumpy enough from last night's weather, and sure enough, Beor is already up and getting the horses ready to be ridden...  and bareback no less!!  Doesn't he know that us dwarves prefer a different mount entirely to those easily frightened, though admittedly faster excuses for a mule?  Though not seen here on Wolfguard Island, that noble brute of an animal, the war rhino, has fired my imagination ever since my grandfather told me stories about them back when I was but a child.  I just looked at the horses, knowing that it was either suck it up and get on one of them, or get left behind.  So after wrestling with those choices in my head for a while, I grabbed some rope from my pack and tried to rig up some semblance of a saddle and stirrups onto the shortest horse we had.  If I gotta ride this beast, I sure as hellfire ain't gonna keep falling off of it.

Once everyone was situated, we headed north following the stream until we came to a good spot at which to cross it.  We took a quick break to let the horses have a drink before setting off again, this time west, along the plain, near to the forest's edge.  As we're riding along, we manage to spot another Uegan about a mile off.  As we head toward him, Beor gets knocked from his horse by a giant praying mantis.  Taneus & the kid jump down off of their mounts to help Beor, but I stayed on mine to give me a higher view of the surrounding grasses, looking for more of those darn bugs, or worse, a gryphon swooping down out of the sky at us.  We are still close to the mountain range they nest in and definitely within their hunting territory.  After my friends killed the bug, the Uegan we had spotted arrives after having chased down Beor's wayward mount.  Together, they lead us back to the Uegan village.  Sound's like Beor is going to stay behind this time.  He thanks us and wishes us well and offers us 4 sets of bridles and blankets for our mounts.  Well, even though I greatly appreciate the extra padding...  my arse is still killing me.  We also ask if we can purchase a few more days worth of rations and if we can rest here for the night before continuing on.  Opening up one of the sacks of loot acquired at the goblin camp, we divided up the gold & silver we had gained and give Beor his rightful share of it.  Fazu had declined to accept any of the coinage, so we split his amongst Beor, Taneus, Corny and myself as well.   Feels good to have some coin back in my pocket.  Taneus, finally with some coin to his name, hands me roughly 50 gold pieces to pay me back for the loan I gave to him back in Teryll.  We stayed the night there at the Uegan village.  Everyone turned in as there were plenty of people on watch for us, but I stayed up a little longer.  Once I was sure that Taneus was asleep, I quietly slipped half of what he had just repaid me back into his pack.  I figured he'd watched out for, patched up and saved my arse enough to have earned it...  cripes!  I must be getting soft.  Dammit!

To be continued...