An Adventurer's Tale/The Undead Part 1
Roleplay from Danost
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Late in the afternoon, after several hours of chasing through the mountains, Danost returned to the camp he shared with fellow adventurer Baldhart. He sat down, nearly collapsing from fatigue, on the log near the fire the men used as a bench. Danost took a long pull from his wineskin. He stoppered the flask and tossed it back onto his pack.
"Lookat this", he said, tossing a sack to his friend.
Baldhart opened the sack and wrinkled his nose at the stench. He upended the sack and dumped the contents on the ground at his feet. Several ears plopped onto the ground in the dirt. "You could have warned me. How long have you been carrying these? They smell like rotten meat."
Danost chuckled. "They're goblins, what do you expect? After all, that's what they smell like when they're alive, too. I'm headed down to the Baron's estate tomorrow to turn them in for the bounty. Besides, I heard some tales from a few traveling tinkers about hordes of skeleton and zombie armies gathering in Riombara. I want to check with some of the townsfolk and see what they have to say."
Baldhart used his belt knife to skewer the ears and put them back into the sack. He tied the sack shut and tossed it back to Danost. "You better hurry, I hear the bounty on monsters is almost all claimed."
Danost relaxed, unconcerned about the rumored lack of a bounty. "There's plenty of time, the Baron keeps posting new bounties every week. He doesn't care how old the ears are, so long as you can tell they're not human. Besides, I'm hungry. It's been a long day. Is there any of the venison left from that deer you took yesterday?"
Danost (Freeman)
Roleplay from Baldhart
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Baldhart looked across the fire at Danost, the greasy venison steak in his hands forgotten, could feel his heart as it began to race in his chest. "Six-Thousand Undead?"
Danost nodded, and took a swig from the earthen cup, draining it and leaning forward to grab the small kettle hanging over the fire. "That's just in Irombro. Three-Thousand attacked a troop in Wilwau earlier, too."
Baldhart tore a hunk from the steak, chewing absentmindedly as he stared off into the fires. "Rumors. That's all. Ain't no horde that big."
Danost just shrugged. "If that is what you'd like to believe."
"I'll believe it when I see it."
Baldhart (Freeman)
Roleplay from Danost
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Danost grabbed his belt knife and sawed a hunk of venison from the haunch on the spit. He filled his own mug from the kettle, then added more wine from a wine skin.
"Look, Baldhart, just because we haven't seen any undead around here, doesn't mean that there isn't any over in Wilwau, or down in Irombro. Hell, that's clear across half the continent from here. Who knows what's going on down there? Sure, maybe it's not 6,000 walking corpses. We all know how tinkers exaggerate just to impress you. It takes the attention away from the quality of the cheap garbage they try and pawn off on you. But still, there's something going on down there."
Baldhart shook his head in denial. "Even if that damned tinker you talked to doubled, no tripled, the numbers, that would still leave 2,000 undead. There hasn't been an undead horde that big around here since the last invasion. And that was a good 10 years ago."
Danost snorted. "Oh yeah? That's what you think! You weren't in Joppo when hordes attacked the city two years ago. I made it out the city as the hordes were closing in. A few days later nearly the entire city was one big charnel house. I had to go through Suuk when I fled Joppo, and it was even worse there. The undead had already finished with Suuk by the time I passed through. There wasn't a single living person anywhere I could find. I left Suuk in a hurry, too. Kept right on going, through Mesh and into Plergoth, where I met you."
Baldhart gave Danost a doubting look. "Like I said, I'll believe it when I see it!"
Danost tossed the last stringy bits of venison into the fire and stood up. "Alright then, let's go."
Baldhart looked up in surprise. "Huh? Go where?"
"We'll start with Wilwau. And if we don't find anything there, then we'll keep heading south until we do. Come on, get up. Pack up your junk and let's go. We're headed south."
Danost (Freeman)
