Shel's Head - 005

[spiral]

The night passes uneventfully until Goran's shift. An hour before dawn he hears large wings beating in the distance, growing louder with time. Carefully pulling back Elthar's blanket as he sleeps, the Dwarf is able to see the Shard glowing brightly.

Goran wakes the party, but ensconced in the pines as you are the Wyverns do little but circle overhead for a short while, shrieking their terrible calls, before flying away the way they came.

A hard day on the trail ensues with everybody tired from the interrupted night's rest and the high altitude of crossing the crags to get to Shel's Head. On the second night you make a quiet camp well in the evergreens, and again, are visited twice by Wyverns in the night who circle for an hour or so each time, keeping those on watch in a heightened state of anxiety, wondering whether to wake the others or not.

The next day, you begin the descent from the crags and the mood is sombre. You know as soon as you must camp in the open once more you will have have to face Infyrana's minions once more.

You reach the village around noon. It's a small place, its main trade being farming, so is prosperous at certain times of the year, and always depending on the weather and fortunes of the gods. Old Cud's antique shop lies at one end of the rustic sprawl.

Tethering your mounts outside, you look through the dirtied windows of the store. Sone villagers watch you at a distance with interest. Some speak, some don't. Visitors come rarely to Shel's Head, and when they do, they come to trade for the yields of years to come - and certainly not dressed in bright armour or fine cloths.

The inside of the shop looks crowded with junk, from ceiling to floor. There is so much inside it is hard to see the walls, or floor. An old man can be seen sat behind a counter. He is small, with patchy wild white hair and a long beard. On seeing you peering through the window he seems to duck out of sight, then hop up and down shaking his fist at you.

Then there is a crash as a piece of pottery flies through the window from inside! Glass shatters and falls on the dirt road before you, and a voice shouts, "You wont get it! It's mine! I was born with it, I'll die with it, and it's not for you!!"


The voice sounds quite insane.

[TheZebraShakes™]

[whisper=spiral,TheUdjat,TheZebraShakes™]At some point during their watch, Shay can no longer keep his secret and approaches his brother with a closed fist. He slowly opens it to reveal a ring. "This is that ring the witch was talking about. I found it before you guys got down there. I remember seeing that little marking right there. I bet this thing can make anyone do whatever you say,"

He holds the ring of Human Influence between two of his fingers for Dalien to see, but clearly not for him to touch, at least not just yet. "I think it could be pretty funny what we could do with this thing." Shay is of course not intent on causing evil, but a little mischief never hurt anyone.

He will return the ring to his pocket.

"Just don't say anything to anyone, alright." he made the statement, though upon thinking it over, trusted that he was fairly safe in disclosing this information to his brother, seeing as he really didn't like talking to anyone in the group, especially over something like ratting his little brother out.[/whisper]

Once in town and at the crazy man's store, Shay is quick to duck out of the way of flying pottery.

He waves his hands in the air and calls out to the man, "Hey now. We don't want it from you. It's yours, just like you said and that's all there is to it," he attempts to calm the man down.

"We just wanna come in and take a look at some of the other things you've got. Maybe some pots and pans. We get kinda hungry on the road, you know?"

Shay will approach the store slowly, keeping an eye on the man and making sure that the man sees him as well. He tries to appear as harmless as possible.

[whisper=spiral,TheZebraShakes™]
If I can use the new ring to grant me the charisma and capability of getting this man to mellow out and be my friend that would be sweet. Not sure exactly what to do, but you let me know if it's possible in the course of Shay's current actions.[/whisper]

[TheUdjat]

[whisper=TheZebraShakes™,TheUdjat,spiral]Dalien raises an eyebrow slightly at Shay's secret, the only indication that, perhaps, it surprised him at all--not in the sense that he was shocked that Shay did it, but more because he was shocked at himself for not deducing something so obvious. But then again, he didn't truthfully care all that much about the ring in the first place. He nods a moment later, his brief surprise fading. "Should have guessed as much. Too generous with giving everything back."

He looks at the ring nonetheless, though, making no move to touch it or take it from his brother. It is an arcane practitioner's interest, and little else. It is fitting for Shay to have the ring, in a way, as he was always the one more interested in dealing with others anyway. "Could be interesting," he admits.

Shay mentions not telling the others, and Dalien just smirks. Of course he wouldn't. Why should he? But Shay surely knew that. It was just the youthful covetousness of finding something new and shiny--or more accurately, of finding something new and shiny that can cause mischief. Dalien enjoys watching mischief, so it doesn't bother him. "Keeping the necklace, of course," he says, in his own unnecessarily obvious way. Naturally he's hanging onto the additional firepower. Fair is fair.

And besides, why put his brother in any more danger than he already manages to throw himself into? The last thing Shay needs to worry about is getting blown up.[/whisper]
Dalien raises an unimpressed eyebrow at Old Cud's antics. He looks at the others, particularly Shay, with a doubtful look--but then, they were warned the shopkeeper would be insane, and they were advised to 'be gentle' with him. So he nods approvingly as Shay goes about his cajoling and careful talking, knowing that it is far better than anything he can add. Indeed, the best thing Dalien can do is to stay quiet and keep an eye on their surroundings. There's no reason Infyrana's minions should be limited to wyverns.

He leans against a tree trunk or a building with a good view of the shop and waits, his bow leaning against the tree next to him--for all the good it might do. As well as the shop, he also keeps an eye on Crom is the barbarian is in sight, as he is the next most likely to botch a conversation, behind Dalien himself.

[at]

Crom allows the others to deal with the lunatic. While he does not doubt his ability to resolve this issue if needed the dragon's minions may still be following them and represent a far more serious problem.

He looks around, taking stock of the village and it's potential for defense.
"Let us not tarry here too long"

[Wicksy]

Matrox looks to the others for support and finds little. With a sigh and a slight role of the eyes he wanders inside to find old Cud "Good day sir! We have travelled far to peruse you shop of marvels and antiquities. May we please see what you have for sale?"

He then looks around for anything of interest.....it was times like this he wished he had paid heed to his masters advice and learned a few charms.

OOC: Does this guy look mad and distracted enough for Matrox to get off a detect magic spell or does he look like he's going to descend upon Matrox in a frenzy?

[prime9]

Elthar stays outside for now, trying to decide if he should enter bearing the shard clearly, or hide it from view. He decides the best bet is to wait till the old man has calmed a little and see if we know what he's referring to for sure.

[Rojito]

Goran stays outside as well, best to keep watch for minions.

[TheZebraShakes™]

Shay will head inside with Matrox.

"I'll calm him down, you just look for the . . . whatever we're supposed to be looking for," he whispers to Matrox. in all honesty, Shay had forgotten by this point, but he knew that they needed to get it in order to find the mountain.

Shay will approach the old man.

"Hi there, I'm Shay Matthias," he introduces himself to the old man, extending his hand so either the old man would hsake it or at the very least, see that it is empty of potentially harmful weapons.

This is a real nice place you got here Ol' Cud, that's what they call you, right? Don't mean no disrespect. A real nice lady outside of town said that we'd find you here. said she knew you from way back and that you've got some good stuff to sell for reasonable prices. You don't need to worry, 'cause we're not here to take anything that you're not willing to sell us. So, what do you say? Got anything along the lines of something that's gonna help a weary bunch of travelers and adventurers sleep a little better at night." Shay scans the store to get a better idea of its contents. He keeps near to old Cud, trying to keep him focused on Shay rather than Matrox.