The Worlds of Katherine Kurtz

Quote from: Jerusha on Today at 12:28:25 PMI wonder where that deserted monastery is.  I don't think I would like our party to meet up with them on the road, so I hope they are a fair distance away.  (I wonder what the chances of that are.)

Nice scene, Laurna.  It feels so bucolic compared to Bynw's interlude.

Don't worry about the monastery. It doesn't matter where it is right now. They are far enough away that there is no chance of running into them. Yet.

I wonder where that deserted monastery is.  I don't think I would like our party to meet up with them on the road, so I hope they are a fair distance away.  (I wonder what the chances of that are.)

Nice scene, Laurna.  It feels so bucolic compared to Bynw's interlude.

"No, no! Not that one!" The barmaid proclaimed under her breath. The tavern crowd was loud enough to drown out the sound of her voice. Helpless to protest, she watched from across the tavern room,  as Proprietor Goeffrey Kildryn and Master Carew Rowan negotiated with a fellow on what can only be business of a guardianship nature.

"Forsake all Saints who detest women," she cursed under her breath, "The man is shirtless!" I will not fall for that again. Helplessly, her mind shimmied back to those handful of years ago when she had fallen, weak kneed, for a shirtless man. But who else could not have, for one such as he? Her inner mind consoled her for her past indiscretion. He lay cold as death itself. I did what I did to save his life.

Had his life been saved? She had no answer. She fingered the silver chain that hung from her neck, hiding her history deep under her kirtel. Her life had changed after that night. If ever she learned that he lived, she intended to call in his debt to her.  She looked back at the man being maneuvered into a job, he was a burly fellow, well enough to look the part, but he was not HIM. No one would ever be.

"Wench... Where's our ale!" Amy turned back to her work , setting the three tankards of ale on the table before her.  Her hand automatically opened to take the coins in payment. Two coins touched her palm. A third bounced on her bosom and tumbled into her cleavage. She knew better than to try and retrieve the silver penny before these louts. But that didn't stop them. "Come closer, lassie, and I will retrieve it for you," the drunkest one shouted, followed by cat calls from the other two.

Amy snarled at them all and her glare stopped the one's fingers from moving closer. "Roll those eyes of yours down to the gunk under your boots and just maybe you will find what is left of your brain sloshed on the floor."

She stormed away with half the tavern hooting and hollering at her back. "I need to find a better way to make a living." She snarled as she passed Carew on her way to the kitchens.

Amy stayed in the kitchen after that watching Elspeth wrangle out of her mother a full basket of bread, cheese, fruit, and dried meat to get them through the first days of their travels. When she finally got the go ahead, Amy filled three ale skins, a wine skin of the good stuff, and more skins of water and put them in the basket with the other goods.  There were perks to this job with her good friend being the owner's daughter.  Well, step-daughter, but that was a close enough relation.

When Carew finally marched into the kitchen, he widely smiled as he caught her glance. With conviction, he announced. "Amaryllis Aldan, I have tossed those three far beyond our tavern doors for the sake of your honor," he bowed chivalrously. "You can go back out onto the floor." Then more seriously he said, "Geoffrey needs your help with this crowd."

"Does he really?" she asked, wondering if Carew would someday be the one to save her from this life.  No, he enjoyed the tavern life far too well to take her away from here. " ...and that fellow...?"

"He is hired," the tall and handsome brother of Elspeth proclaimed.

"Not until you get him a shirt, he is not." Amy swore. "He is not as tall as you but he has your shoulders, give him one of your old shirts.  That green one that has faded from too many washes should do."

Carew laughed, "I am sure I can do better than that.  To make my sister and you happy I will throw in that leather jerkin, which I have outgrown."

"That will do," Elspeth said in agreement before hefting up her basket of goods and making her way out the back door. "Amy, I will see you in the morning at the stables. Make sure Geoffrey lets you go soon enough to get some sleep, we have more than a day's ride ahead of us."
   
   

Clip, clip... clop, clop... clip, clip... clop, clop...,

The foot falls of the two dusky tan ponies seemed to fall into the same strides. The rhythm was soothing. Amy felt at ease in the saddle as she rode alongside her mentor (the woman without whose tender care, she would have surely perished from this life.) The old gravel road climbed up from the harbor, skirting the hills, and reaching up for the flat plateau of land ahead of them. They had climbed the worst of the road's ascension that morning. And now as the afternoon came on, their sturdy little ponies took this slow climb with confidence. They would not see the distant tall curtain walls of the great University City of Grecotha until they had rounded the hill on their right and turned to face South. It would be a sight to see from this distance in the late afternoon sun. Amy had only seen it once before, but that time the city had been receding in the background and her eyes had been filled with despair that she had become a forsaken soul as she had walked this same road to the harbor by the great Gulf of Kheldour.

clip, clip, clip... clop, clop, clop

The larger horse walking the opposite side of Elspeth Rowan; the bay mare seemed to fall into the same slow strides as both ponies. Amy didn't look up, but she merrily stifled a smile behind the edges of the woolen cloak hood resting over her head. Their 'man-at-arms' had seemed to finally settle into the ponies' slow pace. Amy was not sure if the man's calling was truly that of a man-at-arms. Her first sight of him last night, with only a heavy cloth draped over his shoulders, was somewhat improved by his now wearing of a shirt and jerkin. He even seemed to have come upon a new belt at his waist. A man-at-arms, he could certainly not be. From her father's house, she had known plenty of men in that profession. This man carried neither a sword across his back nor one at his side. Instead, across his back was a hefty quiver of many brightly fletched arrows and his long bow was conveniently laid across his back with the loosened bow string tied with a cloth to his leather shoulder strap. But then who was she to comment about the man's true profession? What could it matter? It was not that far distance between Carbury and Grecotha, a travel that she was certain Elspeth and she could have made on their own. Yet Proprietor Kildryn, Elspeth's step-father, had insisted that they could not, so he had hired Bede. The young hired man was finally easing into their non-hurried pace.

Amy's thoughts drifted to times past. Her traveling days before meeting Elspeth had been managed by foot or by wagon-rides offered from friendly passersby. Weeks of being foot sore had led her in despair to these harbor shores some four years past. She tried desperately not to think of those harsh times. The anger of her father when he had returned home from the war had been enough to cause her to run away. The woman riding beside her now, had saved her from her own folly, she owed Elspeth more than she could ever repay.

Clip, clip, Click and a whiny.

The horse shook his head at the misstep, and the man-at-arms stifled a short curse. He was out of the saddle with the agility of a cat; any man accustomed to chain-mail would not have moved with such grace. He swung the bow to his side without it touching the animal, something only an experienced archer would have considered. Again, Amy wondered what Bede's real calling had been.

A quick perusal of the horse's foot, a flick of a dagger that Amy did not know where it came from, dislodged a small pebble from the hoof. "No damage done," proclaimed the young man as he bounded back into the saddle without effort and readjusted his gear.

"Do you think we will make the gates of Grecotha before nightfall?" Amy had to ask, wondering if it were best to find a place at the side of the road to rest instead. She had worked long hours the night before and had not managed the sleep that Elspeth had requested for her to get. A quick bite of food and even a short nap would do her wonders.

Casting out with the border-folk skills her grandmaman had taught her, she searched for a safe place at the side of the road. ((Perception taken with advantage, 3d6 rolls 1, 4, & 6 Success))

"Mistress Elspeth, I believe there is a flat spot beside the road, just around that rock there. We could pull aside and give the animals a bit of rest."

Is it too late to scurry for cover?

Oh ... these guys are up to no good.  Exciting!

Quote from: Nezz on May 30, 2024, 04:15:19 PMYes! We finally have a Bynw post! rubs hands together in anticipation!

I rub mine together too. That was a fast notice there.

Yes! We finally have a Bynw post! rubs hands together in anticipation!

On the cold rain soaked autumn night, men in black leather and chain, bust through the oaken doors of the old monastery. They search through the building and cells but find no one. Exhausted by their empty search and the worsening weather they leave. Riding into the dark of night.

"They were there. Some of the coals were still warm in one of the braziers."

"The Master will not be pleased. But this weather makes it impossible to track them. We will have to rely on other methods."

We are all indeed "interesting".  I know we have two men who are chomping at the bit to get noticed by this crowd.  I can not wait until all five are on the playing board. I am so looking forward to meeting each and every one.

"We're all 'interesting'. 'else God wouldn't have picked us for this, yeah?" - something he might say evasively.