Ud hadn't done an extended stretch of slow travel since his days underground. He had recently changed his old clothing for new, but the tick count under slow travel brought everything to the first stage of xwearx. He'd been slow traveling to train up the crutch-walker skill for the (at this point) minimal attribute gain. It became pretty much a bucket list item. The whole early adventure, slow travel synergy of training ambusher and crutch-walker while traveling the underground highway as preamble to what lay ahead was never meant to be. Ud had started off in a mountainhall, so getting a crutch at that time would have disrupted the natural progression of the adventure.
At the bandit camp Wingare, after shield braining the captain Kothvir Yellowswims in a dispute over the value of stoicism (Kothvir very much against), Ud entered into conversation with Wingare's newly promoted captain, bowman Gostrim Whiskmaster. Gostrim was, in his own way, something of a good man. Loyal still. He had nothing but venom for Ud. Sadly Gostrim was fangless and so his only method of delivery was a series of emissions that missed their mark. Gostrim was grasping at meaning, but this wasn't Ud's responsibility. He was left to freely captain Wingare and mull over what had not come to pass, what would never come to pass.
In the new town of Clusterfights, 1 world tile southeast of Wingare, tavern keeper Lon Toastedembrace and Ud got on quite well, agreeing on mostly everything. Well enough for Ud to hand off a variety of clothing found at the bandit camp. Lon was quite pleased to put on an exceptional item. Upon Ud's return from some night troll hunting, Lon was still quite pleased, but Clusterfights had been offloaded and reloaded more than once, recreating a world without any of those items. Her exclamations were just phantom memories. The only holdover from the past that refused to be deleted was a <<bronze long sword>>.
EDIT: Not giving up, bowman Gostrim Whiskmaster sent a series of messengers to The Fragrant Saffron in Clusterfights. It was all about his former captain Kothvir Yellowswims, who Ud had pummeled to death only days before.
This loose thread in Clusterfights tracks backwards 52 years to the hamlet Toastedarrow. It was there that Kothvir met and married Rismal Tattooedbuds in 198. Eight years would pass and in 206 their daughter Umil Gravefocuses would be born. This was followed by a son, Nulce Steelcudgels in 209. Six years later in 215, Umil would be devoured by the giant wolf Rhythmicholy. By then Kothvir had been gone for two years. She had become the captain of a bandit group in 213. Rhythmicholy would never be found and would die of old age in 224. In 235, Kothvir would become obsessed with her own mortality and wished to extended her life by any means. She would die 15 years later. No book or slab could have changed that.
After driving Gostrim's messengers into the ground, Ud traveled northwest to Toastedarrow in search of Rismal Tattooedbuds, carrying the corpse of Kothvir Yellowswims and all her worldly possessions. Ud searched from house to house and he was greeted as a legendary hero in many of them. Ud was looking for a soldier as Rismal had wandered the wilds in 195. He would find a pikeman at the meadhall, The Beach of Respecting. This pikeman would greet him as the hunter of many titans, a protector of the weak. He would learn of Kothvir's death, a collision with the edge of a copper shield. He would remember that the adventurer, the seeker of fortune was often just a killer, good with their hands. None of that matters really. Death's the only magic there is. It ties everything up.
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Topic: What's going on in your adventure? (Read 2127042 times)