After a time of resting and practice… (Original Fiction by Xan)

“Zander!” Beasley nudged the dozing giant quietly. “Zander come on! Let’s go!”
“W-what’s the matter?” Zander groggily rubbed his eyes.
“Shhh!” Beasley placed a small finger to the huge lips of the cleric. “I wanted to go exploring on my own a bit. But I figured I’d include you on the fun.” He peeked to the others, still dozing. “Let those two sleep a little longer, heaven knows Solcloud can be a party pooper if I have to liberate a jewel or something.”
The giant shuffled to his feet trying hard not to make any noise as he slung his giant trunk onto his back. “Besides,” Zander tried to be as quiet as he could when he spoke in his thunderous baritone voice. “You’ll need my help if you should get into trouble, or need to carry something.” He winked at the small halfling and they both snickered silently.
They preceded down the tunnel they had burned the assassin in earlier, the smell of charred flesh and cloth still seemed to cling to the air. Zander plugged his nose and waved his hand in the air to try and part the smell before him. His eyes seemed to sting with the toxic fumes of the fabric burned his nose. He kept his eyes closed for a bit, as they continued to walk; the smell slowly dissipated to a lighter smell and eventually was gone. As the smell vanished, the room seemed to open up into a large cavern, large enough that the torchlight from Beasley’s torch didn’t touch the far wall.
“Wow!” Beasley didn’t even attempt to be silent any further as they were several yards away from their sleeping companions. “Look at the size of this cavern!”
“It’s not that big.” Zander let out a laugh.
“Funny.” Beasley shot the giant a glare. “Be careful about those size jokes, besides, I am the one who is supposed to tell jokes.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it.” Zander continued to look around the cavern. “Hey, what’s that over there?” Zander spotted a large pile of bones on the edge of the torchlight. He walked towards the pile and before he stepped more than a half a dozen paces, he heard a click. Like a flash of lightning, Beasley sparked the distance of twenty feet in a single bound just as a plume of green smoke enveloped Zander. His eyes and lungs seemed to burn like an acid was tearing him from the inside out. Beasley threw off his cloak and began to fan the thick gas away from the giant. Zander fell to his knees trying to get fresh air close to the ground.
“Othr help me, what was that?” He coughed out every word.
“You set off a trap, you big oaf!” Beasley continued to fan the noxious gas away from them. “If I hadn’t been here, you would have been the next pile of bones.”
Now that the plume of gas had dissipated, Beasley took his time to investigate. He saw the trigger tile on the ground a foot or so away from where Zander had collapsed. With a simple rock in the shape of a wedge, Beasley disabled the tile by removing a small spring mechanism underneath it.
“So much for that.” Beasley stood up and dusted off his hands in victory. “You OK?”
Zander just finished a prayer to Othr. “Othr has given me strength to continue. He has also blessed me with a gift in a small package. Thank you my friend.” He patted the small man on the back. “Is it safe to look through those bones? I have a feeling there is something they may be hiding.”
“I have a better thought!” Beasley winked at his large comrade.
He began to whisper in Zander’s ear a devious plan. Zander snickered at the halfling’s humor and sense of practical jokes and of course went along with the suggestions. After a few hours of searching and setting up, they found nothing in the pile of bones so Beasley took the torch and searched the room further. He stumbled over some stones piled in a corner and cursed. Zander, after hearing the curse in halfling moved towards the pile.
“Looks like a cave in.” Beasley said auOthritatively.
“No, they were out here deliberately.” Zander looked around. “I watched many stone workers who worship Othr discard stones with less precision.” Zander got down on his knees and examined further. “They lead up to something.”
Beasley hopped on Zander’ shoulders while he was on all fours and clapped him on the head gently. “Well get me up where I can see what’s at the top!” Zander stepped out and with almost no effort stood back up as if no weight had been placed on his enormous shoulders. However, Beasley seemed to need to catch himself without falling off this enormous moving platform.
“Stop, there!” Beasley pointed to the wall in front of him. “I think I see some light.”
“I see nothing.” Zander stood up on his toes to try to see what Beasley was looking at.
“Wait; go back to the flats of your feet man!” Beasley waved the giant down. “I can’t see it now.” He pulled out his tools and began to scrape the wall. Light appeared to glint in the little rogue’s eyes. He pulled out a long wire with a small hook on the end, fished it through the crack, and then turned it a quarter of a turn.
With a grunt, Beasley yelped. “I got it!”
Light started to glow eerily in a square pattern on the rock wall. Beasley pushed just above the horizontal line of light lowest to the ground. It was about waist high to the little man. As the door opened, a click was heard and before the halfling could duck a small dart flew from an unknown source and hit him between the eyes.
“OUCH!” Beasley yelped by the sharp pain of the small dart pricking his head. He pulled the dart out, climbed up to on the ledge, and signaled Zander to follow. “Come on up, I think that was the only one.”
Zander pulled his large form up to the ledge and in the hidden doorway and closed it gently behind him, but left it open just a crack. “What kind of dart was that? Obviously it was a trap.”
Beasley was examining the dart in the torchlight. He smelled it, twisted it in his hands, rubbed the tip and smelled the residue on his fingers.
“It smells like the blue pumpkin.” Beasley began to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Zander dusted his hands off as he sat next to his tiny friend.
“I was part of a joke a long while back for one of my cousins on his wedding night. His brother, a few others and I slipped some spice made from a blue pumpkin in his wedding cider. The blue pumpkin seed, when crushed and added with alcohol or certain ciders has a very interesting side effect.” He snickered again.
“What does it do?” Zander was very curious. “I hope you didn’t try to kill your cousin on his wedding night.”
“Well, yes and a resounding no.” Beasley tried to keep a straight face as he continued with his tale. “I haven’t the bard’s tongue for tales, but we did ‘kill’ his… how should I say it? We killed his drive to be with his wife.” Beasley could not contain his laughter anymore as tears began to run down his face. “We told tales of his inability to consummate his marriage for weeks. It seems we put in a little too much pumpkin seed in his cider, or perhaps he drank too much.” He fell to the ground in laughter.
“I will have to remember that next time I am back at the Broken Horse or any other Inn while I am drinking with you.” Zander chuckled.
“It seems whoever rigged this trap had a sense of humor as well. This would have made you numb in your…” Beasley coughed. “You get the idea. You would be numb for weeks. But as it hit me in the forehead, it had no effects.”
Zander cleared his throat. “Considering the traps we have encountered, I would suggest you take the lead my small trap-finder.” Zander groaned as he came to his feet. “Shall we continue?”
“Yes. But I should want to keep this dart; it would make a wonderful trick to play on…” Beasley winked.
“Yes, but let’s do it at a more jolly occasion, where there is cause to celebrate something.” Zander tried to contain a smile.
The two adventurers began to walk down a hallway that seemed to have been carved out of pure rock into some extraordinary brickwork. The hallway seemed to have been built rather than carved.
“We have definitely stumbled onto something here.” Zander spoke softly.
They kept walking down the hallway a few more paces and reached another door. Beasley examined the door carefully, covering his head with his hood for some protection. Zander stood back a few steps. The door seemed to have no traps on it or a locking mechanism. Beasley swung the door open and stood there for a moment, wincing, waiting another dart. Nothing came from the darkness so Beasley stepped through the door. Just as both feet crossed the threshold of the doorway, a large glowing hand appeared in the darkness. Beasley grabbed his short sword but it was too late, the hand grabbed him, threw him to the other side of the doorway again, and slammed the door.
“Hmmm, not a trap, but it definitely doesn’t like us going that way.” Beasley rubbed his backside as he stood up. “All the more reason to enter, wouldn’t you agree my big friend?”
“I suppose.” Zander cleared his throat. “Let me have a look.” He approached the door with caution, examining it carefully. He looked at the door and saw a sign covered with years of dirt and mud. He rubbed the sign gently but due to years of rot in the wood, the sign disintegrated partially only leaving a few characters. “It’s written in giant. It is hard to make out but I think it says ‘knock.’ Shall we try it?”
Beasley jumped up and stood behind one of Zander’s legs as he reached with the hilt of his sword and tapped the door. He closed his eyes half expecting another explosion of poison gas.
“Nothing happened.” Zander said shocked as well. “Well, only one way to find out if it worked.” Zander grabbed the rusty door latch and pushed the door open, and apprehensively took a step forward and braced for the ghostly hand.
“It worked!” Beasley barked. “I must find out the spell for that one, it’s amazing!” He pranced on through the doorway without fear and did not notice the crack in the tile flooring. Without warning, the floor dropped out from underneath the tiny bandit his hands waived in the air, clawing for handholds that were not anywhere within reach. “ZANDER!”
“Beasley!” Zander jumped to save Beasley, skidding across the floor with his immense arms outstretched. “I gotcha!” Zander lay on the floor in a cloud of dust holding Beasley by his hood. The little halfling dripped the torch when he fell, it now lay about one foot below Beasley on the ground. “Let me go Zander, I think I’m OK.” Zander released the small bundle, Beasley simply dropped half his height, and with a soft thud, he landed with both feet and picked up the torch. He looked up to see the pit he had fallen into was a little more than the height Zander one and a half times over.
“Come on down Zander! You can get us back up this hole with a little climbing.” Beasley looked around and saw at one end of his small pit there was a tunnel about his height. “Hey, there is a tunnel down here. Let’s see where it goes.”
Zander made his way down the pit and onto the ground. He dropped to his knees to examine the tunnel. “You had better hope it stays this size, or I am going to get stuck and then we are really in trouble.”
Beasley began to walk down the tunnel and smugly remarked over his shoulder and laughed. “Well then, don’t get stuck.”

Putting it to better use… (Original Fiction by Xan)

“Very well.” Solcloud reaches for the ring with a false air of contempt. “But I think stealing from the dead isn’t right.”
“We’re not stealing,” Beasley looked up from his examinations. “We are putting them to better use.” He looked to the paladin and then over to the half-ogre who was trying not to smile.
Not doing a very good job of holding back his excitement for nice things, Mayvn jumps into the search. “What else did you find, my diminutive friend?”
“Stop crowding me!” Beasley tries his best to fight off the grabbing thin man. “Don’t worry, we’ll find you something pretty.”
Zander walks up, grabs Mayvn by the coattails, and pulls him back. “If you keep crowding him, he may not find the ‘good stuff,’ understand?”
“Y-y-yes, s-s-sorry.” Mayvn sits on the closest rock. “My apologies, friend. Just make sure you can find me something worth while.”
“DONE!” Beasley reaches up with a pendant in his hand. “By the looks of it, it seems to make you move a little faster. Might be good if you ever get close enough to someone to try and use the small sword you have hidden in that fiddle of yours.”
“Fiddle! How preposterous…”
“You want it or not? I am sure Zander could use it.”
“Oh, my apologies. I will certainly take such an endowment.”
“Thought you would.” Beasley smiled, winked, and went back to searching the next body. “And what do we have here?” Beasley pulled on the wizards’ gloves. “They will fit you well Mayvn.” As Beasley pulled the gloves off the wizard, he noticed the wizard’s complexion became a little more… geographical. “Hmmm, seems to me they make you better looking.”
“Don’t encourage him, small one.” Solcloud walked over with his arms folded. “He is already a peacock.”
With a smug look on his face, Mayvn fidgeted with the gloves and they slid on with a perfect fit. Everyone noticed Mayvn’s teeth got a bit whiter when he smiled at their fit. “Beautiful!” Mayvn shrieked as he picked up his lute and began to strum a happy little tune. The music seemed to be better than before. “It sounds like my playing has improved.” He smiled at the party once again.
“Put those away, your smile is almost blinding.” Solcloud shrugged, “Seems they make you more charismatic.” Beasley and Zander looked at him like a curious set of dogs looking at something making an odd noise. “It made him prettier and his music better.” The paladin just shook his head. “I am glad intelligence wasn’t wasted on everyone.”
“Oh! Perfect!” Beasley shrieked with glee as he held up a pack of playing cards that seemed to shimmer in the torchlight. “I have heard of these! They’re great for parties!” He eagerly stuffed the deck of cards back into one of his many hidden pockets and went back to pawing through the bodies like a hyena.
“What is this?” Beasley seemed as though he was pulling on something off one of the ogres, but nothing was in his grasp. “Zander, could you help me please, it seems to be stuck!”
“What is?” Zander observed Beasley standing very stiffly with one foot on the ogres face and the other on its chest pulling at thin air.
“Just come and help me!” Beasley demanded. He obviously was a bit frustrated at his small size and the need to ask for help.
With one large hand, Zander gripped the small halfling in his colossal hands and lifted him off the body. He was shocked that the halfling cleared the ground but his hands stayed in position, still gripping the invisible object. “Pull harder, but don’t pull my legs off!” Beasley hesitantly ordered. With a great pull, Beasley yelped as he barely budged when Zander pulled at him.
“It’s still under him.” Solcloud kicks the dead ogre body and as it rolls to the side, Zander and Beasley fall to the ground. Beasley was holding a black and white cowhide. Beasley shakes the cobwebs out of his head from the impact and his eyes went large.
“This is a vanishing hide!” Beasley looked at the enormous size of it and sighed. “It’s too big for me. Zander you can have it. It disappears when you put it on. It can be worn right over your chain mail.” Beasley rubbed his head and rear end as he stood up, examining the bodies.
“What else did you find on that assassin, thief?” Mayvn piped up greedily.
“I am not…er…I found this hood. Well on me it’s a cloak, I suppose.” Beasley twirled. “I found it quite by accident. I dropped the torch on the assassin’s body and he did not light up. I noticed the hood protected him a bit.”
“He took it,” Zander’s nose began to curl. “You can still smell the burnt remains after Beasley lit the body after he took the cloak.” The half-ogre rubbed his nose. “I would have preferred to haul the body back to that chasm we threw the ogres and the spider into. At least then the smell would have taken longer to reach us.”
“I saved you the trouble of hauling him back up here.” Beasley said with a grin. “Besides, you’d never find the body if you just find a pile of ash.”
“What is that token on your left hand, thief?” Solcloud stated his accusation while waiving towards Beasley.
“Oh yeah, and this ring.” Beasley gave the ring a twist and vanished. His voice seemed to come right from Mayvn’s shoulder, “Isn’t it great? I am like those disappearing lizards down south. I love it!” With a flash, Beasley appeared next to Mayvn with his hands crossed over the ring. “Zander found a ring lying on the ground on our hike back; it has a dog or something on it.”
“Give it a twist.” Mayvn said excitedly. Zander shrugged and twisted the dog towards his palm and he too vanished.
“What happened to you?!?” Zander’s voice echoed as if he were a ghost. “You are all blurry!”
“It is not us, my dear friend.” Solcloud chuckled, “You have found a ring of the blink dog. You go to an alternate plane that is parallel to this one.”
“I have heard of those!” Mayvn said ominously, “They are very rare! Good in a fight though, you blink in an out of this plane all the while you can attack and still not be seen. Amazing!”
Zander blinked back into their vision. “I feel sick.”
Beasley laughed. “Looks like you and I will need to practice with our new jewelry.”
“It’s getting late; we had better just stop here.” Solcloud sat down; putting his ring with the troll head on his left hand, he breathed a great sigh as his muscles relaxed from the effects. “I need to rest.”
“I think we all do!” Mayvn dusted off his rock with his hat, sat down and leaned against it. “That fight took a lot out of us all.”
“Agreed, besides I want to look around.” With a wink and a nod, Beasley twisted his ring and was gone. His voice echoed from a far distance in the cavern. “I will be back before my turn at watch!”
Zander shook his head while caressing his ‘dog ring.’ “I’ll take first watch,” he said. “I’m not tired.” With a twist of his ring, he too vanished. His voice echoed ethereally, “I got to get used to this feeling.”

An unexpected twist of fate… (Original Fiction by Xan)

“Shhh…” Beasley cautiously made his way back up the winding slope of the cave back to the adventuring party who were lumbering down the slight incline. “There are at least three of them just about fifty yards down. Looks as though we have a wizard and his bodyguard.”
Zander pulled his hammer out of the strap on his belt and strapped his large wooden shield to his left arm. Solcloud tried to pull his sword out without it singing as it cleared the scabbard; he too had his shield out and at the ready. Mayvn just shrugged his shoulders and made sure his crossbow was loaded and his lute was tuned. Beasley extinguished the torch in order for the entire party to sneak up on the unsuspecting wizard. He began to creep back down the cavern towards the slight light now emanating from the other unsuspecting group.
As they all rounded the bend, a light could be seen and standing on the edge of the light was a man looking their direction. “They’re just down this tunnel.” He whispered back to the other three in his group. “We shouldn’t dally; one of them has sneaked up on us and knows we’re here. All except for me. I walked right past him. We must get them before they get us. It is, after all, all about winning.”
Beasley signaled his group to stay put with an extended finger over his lips. He could see the wizard already had something in his hands to quickly cast a spell. His bodyguards consisted of two very large armored ogres. Beasley made his way down the tunnel once again trying to be very quiet as to not alert the other rogue again of his presence. He made it to the wizard and his bodyguard and ran past the thief. With a slash, he cut the rogues leg, just under the knee. He let out a yelp of pain as the others in the party turned towards the noise.
Zander and the others rushed into battle, catching the rest of the party with their backs to them staring at the downed rogue. Solcloud, with sword in the air charged at the first ogre. Before the ogre could block the swing, Solcloud buried his sword deep in the ogre’s right arm. It just winced and looked at the paladin with a glare and threw his arm to the side, flinging both the paladin and his sword against the cave wall. Zander mightily hammered the ogre in the shoulder, but the strike hit the armor and glanced off. The ogre roared, with his great sword swung, and connected. Zander’s shield was too slow to deflect the sword. It cut Zander’s arm straight to the bone on his left side. Zander grimaced, did not hesitate, swung his mighty hammer again at his kin, and made a huge dent in the ogre’s shoulder plate knocking the big thug to the ground with a thud. Mayvn stood at the edge of the battle, lobbing bolts with his crossbow into the fight while composing a song of the ensuing battle. One shot held true and dropped the ogre that had so ferociously threw Solcloud like a rag doll. Mayvn cheered at his accomplishment, looking for the fallen paladin, but he was not where he was thrown. Solcloud had closed the gap on the wizard and began to swing with his sword. Zander, after several attempts to drop his kin, finally landed a solid hit to the ogre bodyguard’s chin, breaking its jaw and sending several teeth flying as it fell to the ground like a mighty oak tree.
“Where’s the halfling?!?!” He bellowed to the others.
Solcloud was preoccupied with attacking the wizard and did not answer.
Mayvn looked around and shouted out, “Where is the other dark fellow?”
“DAMN!” Zander shouted as he ran down the tunnel, following a trail of blood presumably left by the rogue after Beasley had slashed him in the leg. He rushed down the tunnel with the din of battle fading behind him; he heard the panting of his small friend growing louder along with clashes of daggers. “I’m coming Beasley, hold on!” With renewed vigor, Zander ran towards the battle.
“Zander!” Beasley shouted back towards his friend in complete panic. “Help me!”
The giant rounded a bend and saw Beasley and a man dressed in black locked in a fight to the death. The man had one hand on his gash bleeding on his leg and the other hand had a dagger in it, slashing at the poor halfling. Beasley was countering all the assassin’s moves but he was tiring quickly. Without hesitation, the large man swung his hammer at the assassin while his back was turned. With lightning reflexes, he pulled out a separate short sword with his bloodied hand and countered the mighty swing of the giant. The unknown assailant looked back to the giant and glared through his black mask. “You won’t strike me down that easy, half-breed!” His eyes went wide and he let out a groan. He looked down and noticed that he had let his guard down and let Beasley have the opportunity he needed to stab him through the chest.
“Don’t ever insult my friends!” Beasley scowled at the assassin as he fell to the ground. He spit at the dead body on the ground, panting with exhaustion. “Now that is what I call an equal in battle. Zander, if you hadn’t come to distract him we could have fought for hours.”
The giant smiled with a look of consolation. “I’m just glad you are OK. Let’s check on the others.”
“Wait! Give me a second to see if he has anything of worth on him.” Beasley greedily looked to Zander. “A man that good should have a whole clutch of great gear.”
“I thought you weren’t a thief.” Zander chuckled. Beasley just smirked and went about searching the body.
The two opposite friends walked back up the cavern towards where Mayvn and Solcloud were awaiting their arrival. Mayvn was searching the bodies.
“Let me do that sir.” Beasley shouted to the bard. “After all, I am the thief.” The thief started with the wizard and found a great ring with the head of a troll biting an emerald. He smiled and started searching the wizards other pockets. “I think we shouldn’t go too far right now. I just found a Ring of Trolls on this wizard!”
Solcloud walked towards the body of the wizard and kicked him. “That would explain why he was so hard to kill.”
“Exactly!” Beasley pointed to Zander. “I gave him the one I found on the black one back there. They give you healing abilities just like trolls. The large gash in Zander’s arm from that ogre will be gone within an hour after wearing that ring. I suggest you have this other one.”

Breakfast conversation… (Original Fiction by Xan)

“NO!” Beasley jumped from his slumber after a terrible nightmare. “I sure hope we don’t face anything uglier than that spider.” He smiles at everyone who was already awake.
Zander was cooking some bacon and ham on a skillet over the fire. Solcloud was leaning against the wall, still nursing some stiff muscles in his chest and arms. That spider did a lot more damage to him that the party had realized. He grimaced as Beasley came over to take a look at the dressings on the wounds. Even though Zander had healed him, the two puncture marks on Solcloud’s chest will probably never truly go away. Mayvn was, of course, tuning his lute and singing a sweet song of morning and sunlight. The party listened to his sweet soft tune and reminisced over what the sun looked like and they all smiled. It was truly hard to tell if it was day or night in the caverns, they just assumed it was daytime and did not think twice about it. The sweet smell of maple cured ham and bacon made Zander’s stomach rumble with ferocity.
“Everything tastes better with maple.” Zander spoke while poking at a ham steak sizzling sweetly in the pan. “There is plenty for everyone in my box.” Zander pointed with the greasy fork at his large makeshift chest of holding backpack. “I am quite the cook you know.”
Everyone looked at the meat, smelled the sweet sugary smell and furiously dug through their packs to find their bowls and forks. Zander served the meat up to everyone and then went back to his box. He rummaged around in the bottomless chest until he found some bread; some baguettes Jenny had given him for his adventure.
It seemed like so long ago that they spent the night drinking and exchanging stories. Jenny had expressed an interest to go, but was worried about the Inn and the Innkeeper if those soldiers should return. He had found the tankard she had given him and he smiled as he placed it back in the chest and brought the bread to the cooking fire.
Everyone was eating the food as though if they did not it would vanish right out of their bowls. Beasley finished first and was anxiously awaiting another serving. The giant just looked to the little one and chuckled. A couple more pieces of bacon and that is all, we must conserve our resources. I have brought us some bread as well eat some of that. Solcloud let out a small chuckle followed by a grunt of pain as he grabbed his chest.
“Are you all right to continue, Brother Genus?” Zander looked up from his smoky pan in a look of genuine concern.
“I will be fine, Mother.” Solcloud moved his arm around, testing his movement. “I have never seen a giant care so much for others as you do. You act like a nursemaid, but in the thick of battle, you are a bear. You are a strange creature Zander.”
The half-ogre smiled at the appraisal. “I am, as you say a bear. Have you ever seen a bear with its cubs?” Zander took on a glow of the priest giving a great oratory. “I too am like that bear. I defend those that are smaller than I, as they may not have the ability to defend themselves. I care for those who are in need of protection. And I am slow to make friends, but those that gain my trust I will defend with my life.”
“Yeah, you can sleep like one too.” Beasley poked fun at his huge friend as he picked at a piece of bacon and dropped it into his bowl and licked his fingers of the sweet maple glaze. “But, you sure can cook!” He munched on the sweet bacon and hummed with contentment.
“Zander the Bear,” Mayvn mused as he strummed a low chord on his lute. “That will definitely have to be placed into my memoirs!”
“Along with that rubbish about our adventuring party… what did you call us?” Solcloud abruptly interrupted.
“What was wrong with, ‘Silent Scales of The Singing Storm’? Is it too strong?” Mayvn queried.
Solcloud and the rest of the party fell to the ground laughing. “Are you sure you are just a musician? That is comedy!” Solcloud wipes his face of the tears. “Too strong, too strong, how about too long! How about not being clear? How about…”
“That’s enough, Solcloud.” Zander cleared his throat. “I think it is ‘interesting.’ Tell me Mayvn, how did you come up with it?” The giant stood up and patted the bard on the shoulder as he started putting the cooking utensils back into his box. He stopped rummaging when Mayvn didn’t begin to talk. He peeked up over the lid, “Go on and tell us, I am sure it has a ‘strong’ meaning.” He winked at the embarrassed man.
“Well…umm… it came to me when I was thinking about our party.” Mayvn apprehensively spoke up, toying with his bowl to place it back in his satchel. “I thought of our small friend, the thief; ‘Silent.’ I thought of our just paladin; ‘Scales of judgment.’ Of course, I had to be part of our tales so I chose the ‘Song.’ Then we have our ‘bear’ that worships the ‘Storms of Othr.’ And thusly we get the ‘Silent Scales of the Singing Storm!” Mayvn stood and with a flip of his hat swung his body low with a great bow as though he had performed a great couplet.
“Well met.” The paladin begins to applaud as he places his saddlebags into Zander’s box. “You are good for entertainment, peacock. I think that was a great choice for a name.” Solcloud claps the bard on the shoulder with a mighty slap. “Perhaps you are good for something.” He draws his sword, walks to the crevasse, and examines the depth of it by tossing a rock down.
“I like it!” Beasley pokes his head from around the chest after tossing his bedroll inside. He bolts down the tunnel to scout ahead of the ‘noise’ of the rest of the party and do what he does best.
Zander takes the mighty chest and slings the cracked leather straps over his broad shoulders. “As do I, my twiggy friend. Come, let us be off to more adventure and to dispose of that evil cult and their so-called god.” He slung his immense arm over the slight man, who nearly buckled by the weight of an arm that was nearly as much as he weighed. He managed a smile and a pat on Zander’s arm as the both began to walk to catch up with Beasley and Solcloud.