1. The Cloakwood

While the group considers its next move, Aldous takes the opportunity to settle down on a nearby rock and fiddle with his prosthetic leg. "I'm not sure what the problem is... Maybe the little guy doesn't like it?"

The young noble sighs. "I keep thinking about that spider... thing. She said she was in love with Jon Irenicus, and what, murdered his wife?That's awful." He picks at some tall grass stems. "He didn't exactly strike me as the romantic sort, to have all these ladies interested in him. He seemed very intent on his research, and little else." He stops his fidgeting as a thought occurs to him. "You don't suppose my tadpole will turn me into something like that Centeol creature?"

"Ah, I just love a happy ending," Aiwë sighs. "Though Aldous," her accent takes on a slight clack of hard consonants. "I'm pretty sure you father was less upset about magic than he was about a particular mage and of the shameless advantage he would take of a desperate nobleman's son." She looks around at the group.

"Ten gold says that before this is over I end up having to introduce Jon Irenicus to my clubs. If I were reading this in an epic, I'd bet 20."

"I-I just really don’t like spiders especially big ones, they’re unnatural"Dieter says sheepishly

Koveras joins the pair, walking on Dieter's other side. "There are many unnatural things in this world, Dieter. Remember the gibberlings? Best to face it all with a cool head."

Aiwë squints and leans forward to look across Dieter at Koveras. "He knows that," she clips him in orcish. "Can't you see how hard he's working?"

"I think I remember the gibberlings better than you do" Dieter says with a chuckle but inside he can remember the sounds of the guard dying just feet from him as he threw the other to safety "you’re probably right though I need to relax. Being hunted like this can take its toll. I don’t know about you Aiwë but your northern coming of age ritual is a bit absurd. Does every generation overthrow a shadow government? For me I had one of my eyebrows shaved and woke up halfway up a tree."

"It's not a ritual," Shelur retorts, rolling her eyes. "It was supposed to be a vacation, I told you." She lowers her voice. "Stella's dad was making her absolutely crazy and the alternative was being locked in a tower with a goblin wizard who actually is crazy. The Ten Towns aren't exactly comfortable destinations, so: Candlekeep, and the civilized south!"

"ah even better a vacation. Well when this is all over I think I’ll be ready to go home and kill what I would now assume is an evil wizard but after that I think I’d like to come north and see this tree Stella keeps going on about. Maybe you can show me what an Elk is…as long as it isn’t some kind of northern spider beast"

Koveras shakes his head and replies in Common. "I'm obviously not cut out for this kind of conversation. But I meant that when we encountered the gibberling horde, Dieter kept a cool head. It could be that the only reason some of us survived - and that horse, too - is because Dieter thought fast on his feet." He shrugs his thick shoulders. "He's capable of it, I mean to say."

"sorry Koveras I misunderstood. Thanks for coming back for us" Dieter apologizes

At Koveras' request explanation Shelur nods approvingly and leans back again. "Ah, the Kuldahar tree! She could keep a bard busy her whole life all on her own. And don't worry, Diets, an elk is just like a deer, but bigger. The giant bug monsters are called remorhaz." She chuckles. "Really though, remind me when we're settling down for the night. If the day hasn't drained me of magic I can show you elk, and moose too."

Quote:

While the group considers its next move, Aldous takes the opportunity to settle down on a nearby rock and fiddle with his prosthetic leg. "I'm not sure what the problem is... Maybe the little guy doesn't like it?"

"Have you tried asking it? It seems telepathic to some degree," Stella notes. "Think to it. Maybe with ideas and visualizations, rather than words. Then feel how it reacts."

Quote:

The young noble sighs. "I keep thinking about that spider... thing. She said she was in love with Jon Irenicus, and what, murdered his wife?That's awful." He picks at some tall grass stems. "He didn't exactly strike me as the romantic sort, to have all these ladies interested in him. He seemed very intent on his research, and little else." He stops his fidgeting as a thought occurs to him. "You don't suppose my tadpole will turn me into something like that Centeol creature?

Stella remains quiet for a moment, sitting next to him. "The thought did cross my mind...If it's the same mage, he is...frighteningly powerful." She shivers. "While I was a spider, I was nearly dominated in there...Mind blanked and completely controlled. Nearly..."

She shakes her head. "But you wouldn't turn into a spider. It'd be either a mind flayer or slaad, which..." she grimaces. "Might be worse, honestly...But it definitely seems different than usual. Such a powerful mage probably already knows about typical slaadi or illithid propagation, so...this tadpole is likely different!" she turns and looks at Aldous, trying to appear hopeful. "Different enough to experiment with, at least. I don't really know..." she says honestly with a shrug. "We'll simply have to keep an eye on you and it. For now, try asking it about the leg," she says, nodding at the prosthetic.

Despite the disappointment surrounding Centeol's character, Aiwë is feeling quite high after that successful encounter.

At Stella's bidding, Aldous squeezes his eyes and concentrates. "I think better out loud, if that's okay..." he mumbles.

"Right. Leg? Without it, I fall. With it, I can move much faster. I-" the prosthetic pops off again, and this time Stella sees a greyish something actually push it off Aldous' stump. It moves very quickly to hide within the stump, but it's obviously the tadpole.

Aldous seems to have recognized this too. He keeps his eyes closed. "Okay. So you don't like the leg. Well. How am I supposed to walk then? We're going to have to do a lot of walking about as adventurers. Do you want me to fall every ten seconds? Or get eaten by whatever monster we see next? I-"

Schlumpf

"Well would you look at that..."

And that's how Aldous grew a frog leg on the end of his stump. It takes some getting used to, walking with legs that have different bone structures, but after a bit of pacing around Aldous is confident he can keep up with the group.

"My father's going to hate this, but at least he'll see I can stand on my own two feet! Even if one's a bit longer than the other..."

Dieter decides to take Aiwë’s advice seriously. Winding their way through the woods Dieter is anticipating danger around every corner but he makes the decision to put his mind to rest and allow some of the others to take lead, surely these northerners have survived worse conditions.

……………..

Dieter takes a deep breath and feels his muscles loosen. His mind does begin to wander though, he thinks about jumping from the wagon to escape into the woods and the lonely night that followed. In some ways it was similar to the night he left home, he remembered the monsters hunting him through the night. Dieter had used every trick he knew to evade them stretching his abilities and luck to the limit.

He remembered Tulfgar’s face when he found him hiding in a ditch on the side of a road wearing nothing but a tattered pair of shorts and covered in mud head to toe, It had taken Marianne at least an hour of scrubbing to get all the mud out of his hair.

Dieter snaps back to the present smiling, judging from the tree shadows and their pace he hadn’t zoned out for long. He quickly scans the surroundings for threats in case something had subconsciously alerted him bringing back to the present.

He was right somebody was out there watching them

"Hey Aiwë, this is a great side trip. I could really go for some more of those spider legs but only one for right now though I know you’ll probably want more later." Dieter says in a relaxed voice Hoping she gets the hint.

Aiwë thinks she understands. "If you're sure you only want the one then you can just go get it. Let me just figure where we're going first so we can meet up again." Aiwë looks around like she's trying to orient herself in the forest and nothing else, while trying to catch sight of whatever or whoever Dieter saw.

"you know what, I need to pee. Keep going I’ll catch up" Dieter says crashing off into the woods like a tourist. Once he passes a big enough tree he tries to blend in. Once he’s satisfied he sets up his water bladder with some branches to slowly trickle out on some leaves before he circles around to flank their onlooker. Hopefully the watcher attempts to intercept him relieving himself.