The farmer's
wife wakes everyone just after dawn and they are pleased to see that
she has prepared a huge breakfast for them. She also gives them a
haunch of pork for them to eat on their journey.
During breakfast, Heimlin
brings up the subject as to whether the farmer might have some spare
form of transport that he might purchase from them. The farmer
replies that he does have an ox and a cart, but that he needs it
himself as it is his only form of transport. Heimlin then begins to
offer higher and higher amounts of money for the ox and cart,
explaining to the farmer that he could easily buy another one at a
local market. When Heimlin's offer gets to 60gp, the farmer cannot
resist and they shake hands on the deal.
An hour later, the party is
on its way again, with Heimlin and Corrow sat on the ox cart with
Colin leading the beast. They are also pleased to see that the rain
stopped some time during the night and it is now a pleasant day.
Without having to stop for Heimlin to get his breath every few steps,
they are now making more than double the progress that they were
yesterday.
After about three hours of
travel, at 11.00, they can see in the distance a convoy of horses and
carts coming in the opposite direction towards them. The convoy is
over a mile away and so it is difficult to make out any detail. Yaz
guesses that they probably will not have been able to see the party
so far away. However, the terrain here is very open and so it is
going to be hard to hide the ox cart from view.
As the convoy of wagons gets
closer, the party can make out more about them. They can see that
there are four occupants to each wagon. One is carrying a musket,
although the matches are not burning, two are wearing chainmail and
carrying longswords and the fourth is unarmored and wearing fine
clothes.
Heimlin squints to look at
the convoy more closely and breathes a sigh of relief as he
recognizes them.
'Mudyar merchant convoy' he
says, with interest. 'They ain't gonna bother with us, but we should
still keep to our plans, just in case.'
As the convoy draws ever
closer, everyone sticks to their plans and, those that have them,
start holding their religious symbols in front of them and start
chanting any mumbo jumbo that comes into their heads. Colin leads the
ox to the side of the road to make way for the convoy.
'This could actually come in
quite 'andy' says Heimlin.
Everyone watches the elderly
gnome haul himself off the cart and pull out a knife. He hides behind
one of the wheels briefly so that he is out of sight of the rest of
them.
As he comes out from behind
the wheel, the convoy is just in front of the party. They smell
strange scents emanating from the wagons. Some guess that it is
containing spices from the Far East in transit to the North.
'Hail, friends' says
Heimlin, standing in front of the convoy. The convoy stops, out of
curiosity.
Heimlin steps up to the
first wagon and starts to talk to the finely dressed gentleman at the
front of the wagon. It is out of earshot, but the others can see him
reveal a violet colored stone in his hand. For several minutes,
Heimlin negotiates with the merchant, becoming more and more
animated. Twice Heimlin starts to walk back to the party, but then
the merchant calls him back.
Eventually a deal is
arranged and Heimlin hands over the stone. In return the merchant
opens a small coffer and starts to count out a big pile of gold
coins, a few hundred by the look of it, which Heimlin pours into his
leather pouch, looking rather dour as he does it. He shakes the
merchant's hand and starts to walk back to the others. As soon as he
has his back to the merchants he gives the others a little grin and a
wink and then hauls himself back on the cart, struggling under the
weight of his pouch.
The merchants move on,
Heimlin giving them a sad wave as they pass. As soon as they have
turned a corner, a huge grin cracks Heimlin's face.
'That should be enough petty
cash for the rest of the journey!' he says 'Let's carry on
then.'
For the next four hours, the
journey continues without incident.
In the mid-afternoon the
party rounds a corner to see a group of cattle chewing grass next to
the track. As they carry on up the path towards the cattle, Xavier
says that it is a pity that no one has any bows, or else they would
all be in for a nice beef dinner this evening - a comment that earns
him a black look form Yaz.
The group of cattle sees the
party approaching, but they do not flee, they start to watch the
travelers carefully.
Colin stops the
others.
'There's something wrong
here.' he says, and then looks at Giselle, the ox.
'Oh-oh' Colin says slowly.
'Our little ox here just happens to be in heat and I think that the
bulls in that group of cattle have just realized this. I don't like
the look of this!'
Colin's words prove to be
true. Four bulls start to walk towards the party, leaving five cows
behind. As they get a little closer, they start to trot, and then to
canter and, by the time that they are within 100 yards of the party,
they are at full gallop, all of them in a hurry to have their evil
way with the party's ox!
The party gets ready for a
stampede!
Despite the fact that he is
suffering from a terrible cold and is still not fully recovered from
the encounter in the inn, it is Darius who is the first to react to
the situation. He swiftly draws his trusty, yet rusty, short sword
and starts to cut through the leather harness connecting Giselle with
the cart. As the blade is not so sharp, he has a few problems in
cutting through the straps quickly.
Seeing his attempts, Colin
draws his broadsword and finishes the job that Darius started,
freeing his new bovine friend. Once Giselle is released, he attempts
to pick up Darius in order to drag him to safety. However, the nimble
goblin evades Colin's grasp and bravely charges off towards the
approaching bulls, although using a circular route in order to avoid
being hit head-on by the bulls.
'Suit yourself then' mutters
Colin, as he runs off away from the cart in order to avoid the
bulls.
Seeing that Giselle is now
free, Xavier and Winnacer also decide that it would be wise to make a
hasty departure from the scene, and take off in the opposite
direction. Heimlin and Corrow put their trust in the safety of the
cart for the time-being, and lie down on the bed of the wagon,
peeping over the side in order to observe the capers. Maire' jumps
down from the cart to situate herself behind the vehicle. Once she is
standing on the ground, she pulls a pinch of sand from her pouch and
starts gesturing and uttering an arcane incantation.
No one can be sure whether
it is because she is tired from her seven hour journey today, or
whether she had a sheltered upbringing, but Giselle does not take
advantage of her new found freedom. Instead she stands still, her
eyes fixed upon the upcoming charge of the bulls. Seeing that there
is but one chance to protect Giselle's honor, not to mention the cart
containing Heimlin and Corrow, Yaz steps into action. He produces a
holly leaf and starts to rub it over Giselle's flanks, gesturing with
his other hand while he does it. The rest of them don't know why, but
these actions have a strange effect upon the rapidly approaching
bulls. They stop in their tracks, just short of their position, and
start to look around themselves in a confused manner.
'Holy cow!' exclaims
Heimlin, with more than a touch of irony.
Darius uses the bulls'
confusion in order to make a strike upon one of the bulky beasts.
Charging the beast from the flank and taking it totally by surprise,
Darius' rusty blade pierces the bull's hide and gouges a long and
deep cut down the flank of the unfortunate beast. With an
ear-splitting strangled 'MOOOOOOO', the unfortunate beast makes an
unexpected visit to the abattoir and keels over, dead.
Straight after this, Maire'
releases a stream of magical energy at the three remaining bulls. Two
of them gently fall to the floor with their eyes closed.
Somewhat peeved at Darius'
impression of a master butcher, Yaz again acts quickly to save the
last standing bull, which is starting to bellow with rage. Clutching
his holy symbol, Yaz starts to utter an incantation in a strange
tongue and gestures towards the ground between Darius and the bull.
Darius (and the bull, probably) are shocked to see that the grass
surrounding where they are both standing suddenly takes on a mind of
its own, wrapping around the four legs of the bull, and Darius' two.
The bull bellows once more with rage and starts to try and pull its
legs free from the grass, but to no avail. Darius also tries to
remove himself from his natural shackles, but realizes that he is
stuck absolutely fast. Giselle is totally confused by the situation
and remains completely frozen in place, observing the bizarre
spectacle in front of her.
After just a couple of
minutes of slashing at the grass with his sword, Darius manages to
defoliate the grass around him. Jumping swiftly on his tippy toes,
the nimble goblin manages to avoid the clutches of the grass until he
has managed to get clear of the area. His banquet sized dinner,
however, remains totally entangled in the vegetation,
naturally.
'Either we gets out o' here
fast, or we better be dealin' with the bulls.' says Maire'. 'They be
awakin' in jus' three minutes.'
Colin gapes at the totally
unexpected turn things have taken, and, as Darius cuts himself free,
he inspects the oh-so-rashly severed harness lines to see if they can
be salvaged. They cannot.
Heimlin speaks:
'Well, I take it from the
fact that everyone's gone very quiet that no one's got no rope,
either for tyin' Giselle back to the cart, or for tyin' up the
sleepin' bulls?' he says, slightly annoyed.
Everyone looks at each other
guiltily, but no one replies.
'Well in that case we'll
have to *MOOOOOOOOOOOve* out of here fast' he says, drily. 'We ain't
gonna have time to get Giselle hitched back up, so I reckons we
should get Giselle out o' here fast. Colin, do whatever you must, but
get Giselle movin' now!'
Colin realizes that it is
the only choice and pulls on Giselle's rope. Giselle doesn't move.
Darius takes his sword and gives the reluctant ox an almighty
*THWACK* on her haunches with the flat of his sword. Yaz gives him a
very dirty look, but it has the desired effect and Giselle starts to
gallop off down the road, with Colin desperately trying to keep hold
of the rope.
'The rest o' us will 'ave to
get the cart out of 'ere by ourselves.' continues Heimlin. 'Xavier
an' Winnacer, you two grab 'old o' the yoke an' start pullin' as fast
as you can.'
*That'll make up for the
pair of you mighty warriors runnin' away from a few cows* he mutters
under his breath.
'The rest of us will help to
push. Darius, if you wants to wait 'ere for yer dinner, the choice is
yours, but I wouldn't like to be around when them other bulls get
free!'
Everyone takes their places
at the cart and starts to move it down the road. Darius hesitates for
a while, and then realizes that he has no choice but to come with the
others. With seven people all moving the cart along, they manage to
move it quite quickly, at a fast walking place. After three minutes,
they are out of sight of the now awaking bulls, but they carry on.
There doesn't appear to be any bulls following them. After about 20
minutes, everyone is totally exhausted, including Giselle. They can't
go on much further.
Just up the track, Colin
sees a plowed field standing in stark contrast to the uncultivated
land that the party has been traveling through over the past
hour.
'Where there's fields, there
must be farms' says Colin. 'Let's carry on, just a little bit
further.'
They walk for another few
hundred yards and, sure enough, they see a small farm.
'Same plan as before then.'
says Heimlin. 'Colin, you do the talkin'. I think we shouldn't talk
about bulls, just in case they did belong to this farmer.'
Colin walks up to the farm
and knocks on the door. He is greeted by a farmer, who looks
frightened at the group of travelers in his front yard. Colin
explains that they are all pilgrims heading for Olmutz, but it
doesn't help. The farmer is covering his mouth and starts shouting
agitatedly about 'the plague'. He then bolts the door behind him.
They're obviously not going to get a second night of five star
accommodation and hospitality.
Looking around, Colin sees a
barn.
'Well, if the farmer doesn't
want us in the farmhouse, then perhaps we can use his barn as
shelter. I don't think that the farmer is going to want to disturb us
this evening.'
Everyone agrees and heads
for the barn. Although not luxurious, the barn is a much better place
to spend the night than out in the open. It is warm and there is
plenty of hay to sleep on. Everyone settles down for the night and
the watch rota is adhered to. During his watch, Winnacer takes his
needle and thread and repairs Giselle's harness.
There is no activity during
the night.
The weather is
fine again the next day, thankfully, and the party sets off around
8.00. For three hours, nothing of any interest happens, and then at
11.00, they spot an inn alongside the track called the Spotted
Cat.
'Time for an early lunch, I
reckon' says Heimlin.
Colin hitches up Giselle and
all of the party pops inside for a good meal. Fully refreshed, they
leave again an hour and a half later. They carry on traveling
throughout the afternoon. Towards the end of the afternoon, they
reach the brow of a hill and see the large town of Koleen in front of
them. They decide to make a detour around the south of the town to
avoid any potential encounters with the Nyemetz.
They carry on for another
couple of hours and are starting to get very tired. Winnacer
announces that it is time to rest again for the day. They all notice
that Heimlin has been very quiet and jumpy for the past few
hours.
'I'd rather that we traveled
a bit further, if you don't all mind' says Heimlin nervously. 'Just a
few miles to the south of us lies Kutna Hora. Most of my old friends
were taken by the Nyemetz and put to work there. It's makin' me very
nervous to know that we's so close to a slave camp for my
kindred.'
Everyone agrees to carry on
for another couple of hours, until Heimlin believes that the party is
far enough away from Kutna Hora, and then they start to look for
accommodation for the evening.
They see a farm just a
little further down the road. Upon getting to it, however, they see
that it has long been deserted and much of it has fallen down.
However, half of the building has its roof remaining, which will
provide some shelter for the evening. They decide to make camp
there.
Despite having had a huge
lunch earlier in the day, Darius is hungry again, and the rest of the
travelers are pretty peckish also. They decide to finish off the last
of the pork leg that was left over from dinner the previous
evening.
They are tucking into their
dinner, getting ready for sleep, when they hear a low howling in the
distance...and then another howl...and another, getting closer all
the time.
'It looks like a pack of
wolves have smelt your dinner, Darius' says Heimlin. 'It's shame that
we've eaten it all, as a man, goblin or ox is equally as tasty as a
pork leg to a hungry wolf.'