Back to Page Eight
-----As he begins to unhitch the horses, Jim suggests to the others, "We might wanna all sleep up in the bed of the wagon tonight. If ya want, we could put that orc under the wagon." After he takes care of the horses, he brings out some firewood as the sky begins to darken for the night.
-----Seth looks around the campsite, "It appears there is no one near by at the moment, but I think we should still have a watch. I will go first, Ok?" Then he goes about his usual meal preparation cutting up some small slivers of food for the crow.
-----Kazel nods. "I'll take last." She glances at the crow once or twice, but then returns her attention to her food until everyone has eaten. Turning to the orc, she takes out her knife and proceeds to cut several pieces of cloth from its sleeves. She then uses the cloth to gag and tie over the orc's mouth, giving the creature several resounding smacks on the cheeks when it resists. When she's done, she grabs the orc by the collar and drags it off the wagon onto the ground, and sends it rolling under the wagon with a kick.
-----"Didn't want it to squeal in the night," she says to the others as she dusts off her hands.
-----Gimplefwick looks up from eating lunch, "Arrr, well, I guess that leaves me with the middle shift."
-----After a while Jim has a decent enough fire going. It took a while for the wood to catch in the moist air and chilly breeze. Still it helps to provide some warmth to cook by and some light to see by.
-----The clouds continue to cover the sky and the thieves see nothing in their surroundings beyond the firelight. Soon it seems as though there is nothing else to do, so the thieves begin to sleep with Seth taking the first watch. All seems to be quiet and an hour after midnight, he awakens the Dread Pirate for his shift. . .
-----Suddenly Kazel and Seth are awakened by Gimplefwick nudging them. He mutters, "We have a visitor. And I think it has my cutlass." However, they notice the Dread Pirate still has his own weapon still by his side.
-----Peeking out the cover of the wagon, they see the biggest humanoid they’ve ever seen in their lives! It stands to the east of their wagon just outside the light of the campfire. At least nine feet tall it stands, skins and furs covering its body. The light of the campfire picks up its brownish hide that is covered in places with dark warty bumps. The hulking figure stares toward the wagon with darkened bloodied eyes surrounding white pupils. Its long black hair is pasted back from its large misshapen forehead.
-----The thing just stands there staring at the campsite and the wagon as if considering what it has in front of it. It seems to have something in its mouth that it picks its teeth with. The ‘something’ looks to be a short sword although it looks tiny in its huge talon. The towering humanoid looks like it could move closer any second.
-----Gimplefwick stares up at the creature in awe, the top of his head coming up to about its knee, "Maybe it's friendly and just stopped by to say 'hello'. Just in case though, I say we send Jim out to talk to it. If it eats him then we can probably assume that it's unfriendly. And we get the added bonus of Jim filling up its belly. It might go away if its belly’s full." Gimplefwick looks about and espies Jim, "Jim. Wake up Jim. We've got somebody we'd like ye to meet."
-----Gimplefwick looks at the other two thieves, "I'll just hop off the back of the wagon here, and try to sneak around behind it, in case it decides not to be friendly. You guys try to distract it, while I sneak about."
-----Gimplefwick clambers off the other side of the wagon and scampers off into the darkness. Jim groggily comes to and sits up saying, "What . . . what?" He looks around with a confused look as the halfling pirate makes off. He then looks outside the top of the wagon. The gasp and look of shock from the boy indicates he sees the large visitor.
-----Seth thinks 'friendly - no $%^$%^ way' as he reaches into his pouch for his pork fat. He whispers to Kazel, "Dread Pirate said distract, did he not? I’ll do the same trick again, hey?"
-----With the piece of fat in his hand Seth begins to concentrate and moves his hands in the same complicated pattern as he did when he met the orcs. He mutters some unintelligible words and then points at a spot under the huge humanoid’s feet again releasing a stream of greasy magic.
-----Kazel stuffs a knife into Jim's hands, then leaps off the wagon without a word. As soon as she lands, she reaches under the wagon and drags out the orc, sleeping or not. With a hand on its back collar and the tip of her shortsword at its back, she stays just outside of the campfire light while holding her humanoid shield in plain view of the large creature.
-----The startled reaction Kazel receives from the orc tells her she did catch the orc still sleeping. As she brings the orcish prisoner about in front of her, she feels its body stiffen. From its reaction, it can only be guessed that the orc sees the large form in front of it. Kazel’s ‘shield’ begins to fearfully whimper as she concentrates on the large thing’s next move. Seth and Jim can see the thing is almost twice the height of Kazel.
Go to Page 10