The small captive looks at you defiantly for a moment, but then the defiance seems to drain out of in. "Our sister. She was abducted by a troll, who holds her against ransom in gold."
All of the creatures you see look down to the ground at this, taking off their various caps and hats.
"Well! In this case you should ask for my help instead of stealing my gold.
I propose the following:
If I help you to free your sister you lead us of this forest and give me back my gold.
First you tell me all details about this troll. Then I will make a plan, and we free your sister and punish the troll.
Do we have a deal?"
Hans gives Torros a questioning look, but says nothing. The magus was in charge here and generally knew best about the weird stuff. But still, a troll sounded dangerous.
Franz, for his part, goes pale at the mention of going after the troll.
Torros tries to look optimistic, and hide his own tension. Hans and Franz will know him good enough to see that he is not as relaxed as he tries to look.
Trolls are not very clever! Should be easy to trick him! He mentions with an optimistic smile.
"Well, if you put it that way, sure," says your captive. "We'll give you back the gold if you free our sister from the troll. We don't need gold ourselves, it is just for the ransom. We may even throw in a little reward on top of that."
"My name is Grunch. Do we have a deal? If so, cut off those ropes and we can shake on it."
(Here's what he looks like. Not a perfect image -- the nose would need to be larger -- but close enough.)
I can only try to free your sister!
Maybe it is too dangerous. I don´t want to risk the lives of my Grogs.
Show me the troll and the place where he holds your sister.
If I see a change I will help you. For now you will stay with us.
As soon as I have a plan to free your sister we will have a deal and I will let you go.
"If you don't free her, we will need the gold. So we keep the gold if you don't free her," the creature bargains. "But if you free her, we will grant you a gift in addition to giving you back the gold."
"But I can't bring you there if you don't free me. So if you keep me captive, we don't have a deal. You may decide to kill me, but you won't get your gold back then," the creature concludes stubbornly, "and you won't get out of this forest either."
Even if I don´t free you your brothers can lead me to the ogre. You know the ogre I don´t. So I do not know how difficult and dangerous it is to free your sister. It is not fair to expect me to agree to a deal I don’t know how much risk I have to take for.
If you promise not to run away I will unbind you. Then you lead me to the ogre and we see what I can do for your sister.
Deal ?
The captive first shakes his head in denial, "We don't know the ogre. He just left us a note about the ransom. We know were he lives, but it is not a place we usually go. My brothers will not lead you there if I am held captive, would you guys?" The other shake their head as well, "After all, you might just try to capture them as well to get your gold back."
"Also, if you agree to try to rescue our sister, I don't have any reason to just run away. That would be much simpler that trying to get enough gold to pay the ransom. So untie me," he concludes, "and I will lead you there. My brothers will observe from a distance to make sure you don't do anything against us." The creature has a mullish expression on its face, showing that it isn't interested in negociating any more on the topic. (Hint from the SG)
Ok Deal! Torros removes the Rope from the Hands of our captive.
Hans you better keep your weapons ready; this forest seems to be a dangerous place.
As Torros knows that Franz can´t get close to the Mule without making it freak out, he will try to lead it.
Grunch, you lead the way. How far is it?
On the way Torros tries to get as much Information as possible about the Ogre.
How big is he? In which way did he left the note that he has captured the sister?
(Torros assumes he did not write the note).
How does the area the Ogre lives look like? Is it a swamp? A cave? And so on….
"Why, silly, he lives under a bridge, of course." (OOC: I made a mistake when I wrote the last few posts. It is a troll, not an ogre, that is holding the sister captive. Modified the older posts about that.)
"We've never seen him, actually. We dunnot go there much, just nut our stretch of the woods. Not far, though," he adds as he leads you down a path that wasn't there previously. It quickly widens to what appears to be a well-travelled dirt road, under the arching branches of large trees. True enough, the small group soon reaches a large bridge crossing over a deep-banked river.
"He lives under there," whispers Grunch. "We simply found the note on the table one day, as we were returning home. It said that he'd taken our sister and not to come looking for her unless we brought her weight in gold. So we started looking for the gold. My brother Spunch has a nose for things, so he said that travellers sometimes had gold. We didn't know where else to get some, so we started takung it from them."
"Grunch I think you should hide somewhere nearby so that the Troll doesn´t see us speaking.
Hans,Franz, you stay close to the bridge if I don´t come back make your way back to Valnastium."
Torros will check the riverside first, keeping some distance to the bridge. He will try to get a look under the bridge from some save distance first. He also checks the river as an escape route. Is it deep enough to jump in? What is the distance between the bridge and the water? Finally he slowly makes his way to the troll. A few paces before the bridge he stops and casts a fatiguing spontaneous version of “wizards sidestep” with duration diameter (level 5). Casting total 10
Then he takes a deep breath and goes the last steps to get under the bridge.
(OOC: When you cast a spell, let me know what the roll was, not just what the total is. Remember that fatiguing sponts are always stress. It appears that you rolled a 9 here, but I can't be sure and I had to look up your character's stats. Just a friendly reminder.)
The banks of the river are quite steep and rocky. The river itself doesn't appear to be very deep, but it has a strong current and is about twenty paces wide. The bridge itself arches over the river, at least 20 feet above the water and its numerous rocks. The bridge is built of timber and has two supports along its length, sets on two rocky islands. The larger and closest of those minuscule islands appears to have a very small entrance to a cave on one side.
OCC: I didn´t roll at all, I was not sure if you want me to roll or if you want to roll it.
And I made a mistake. The casting score would be 10 (If the Aura is 0). So casting total would be 10 + die
Torros would first made his way to the minuscule island before he cast the spontaneous “Wizards sidestep”. Is there a way to the small island with the cave?
(OOC: Rego 6 + Imaginem 4 + Stamina 1 = 11. Plus aura and die roll, then divided by 2. I'll roll as soon as we get to that point, but the only danger here is a botch.)
There appears to be no way to the island -- no stepping stones, rope or ladder. There is the bridge's support, but it offers only limited handhold. It is also has some patches of moss growing on it.
Hans whispers urgently, "Master, I should be the one to go. Or at least I should go with you. It's my job to protect you."
(OCC: Torros has a light wound (-1). Hans is the shield grog who should protect Torros, not Franz)
Is it possible to reach the water and cast Bridge of frost to reach the island?
To Hans: “Al right you come with me. But in case there is a real troll don’t try to fight him that’s too dangerous!” Then Torros whispers to Hans: “I don´t think that there is a real troll!”
Then he tries to figure out a way to the island with the cave. Maybe downwards from the Bridge using a rope or Magic?
Torros would prefer to use “Bridge of frost” because it is a Formula Spell. But if he can´t reach the water or if the current is to strong he will use a spont. version of “Rise of the feathery body” on range personal (Level 5) to hover downwards from the bridge using loud words and exaggerated gestures. In case we have a rope that is long enough Hans can use it to climb down.
Rise of the feathery Body (only if needed): ReCo (Re(6)+Co(0)+Sta(1)+Words and gesture (2)+ Light wound(-1)+die)/2
= (8+Die+Aura) /2
(OOC: Ah, yes, a Light Wound. Sorry for the Fanz/Hans mistake, corrected that on my previous post.)
(OOC: Loud words to cast a spell, when you are currently whispering to avoid alerting the troll, or whatever else is there?)
Inspecting the banks of the river, Torros soon concludes that it would be foolish to try climbing down to the level of the river. It might be possible farther away up- or down-stream, but then it would be just as difficult to get to the island.
Hans returns with a rope from the mule's packs. "Franz wants to know what he is to do with the mules. They try to kick him when he comes near them." The grog grins, "I told him to leave them tied up there if the troll comes after him. They'll make a tasty lunch to the troll if he has to flee." Then the grog looks down, "Do you want me to try and lower you down, master? Perhaps we could use one of the mules for that..." He seems doubtful. But then, Torros remembers that his grog still has much to learn about animal handling.
Right, that would be stupid . Torros will just uses the exaggerated gestures.
"Franz, just stay away from the Mules and wait here. Hans, you stay up here and watch what is going on down there. You should have your throwing axe ready." First he knots the robe around his own waist and checks the knot. “Release the rope slowly. I will hover down like feather. The rope is just a backup."
Torros goes in position close to edge of the bridge directly over the small island then he casts his spell.
"Yes sir," Hans says and moves into position.
As Torros casts his spell, he feels the magic twist and escape his control. He starts rising up from the surface of the bridge, with no control over his movements. Soon, he is fluttering at the end of the rope like a kite, about thrity feet up in the air.
(OOC: Botch! You gain 1 point of warping.)