Second Expedition

[Raven Crowking]

Who goes with Char and George?

[Vanguard]

Pudge, against his better judgement, volunteers. He makes it barely a step before Aldo follows his example.

[caveman]

Silvas three will advance. Ready with arrow, stone and pitchfork.

[Raven Crowking]

"There you go, my hearties," the leader says as he catches sight of you. "Shy as a maiden on her wedding day! What need have ye of those weapons, eh? If you're for going into that stinking pit, well, here's a rope and the men to steady it for you as you climb! What better luck, eh?"

The other four men look at you wolfishly.

[caveman]

"Everybody Put up your hands! This is a robbery!" says Ballotelli. Silva looks at him in shock. The tall mohican prince brandishes his rock.

[jferngler]

"Dibs on the blond mohican's sword," says Toothy Herman to the others.

[Vanguard]

Also and Pudge are caught by surprise for a moment and then point their daggers towards the men. Aldo squeaks out, "Anyone moves and I'll cut you to pieces, finger by finger until you're not a pile of skin and bones."

[Raven Crowking]

The men stare for a second, and then laugh.

"You be brave, boyos, I give you that. But no one who ventures below is afrighted by such as you. Now, drop your little sticker and your rocks, strip down the skin, and we may just let you live...if you make it to your homes, walking naked and shivering across the moors!"

They pick up their cudgels and hold them menacingly.

[Lord Zack]

"Fall back! Hold them off at the top of the stairs!" says Char. He and George retreat back to the surface, where Alexatros and Albert are waiting. Alexatros has a arrow readied to fire at any not of the party that come up the stairs, and Albert has his sword ready as well.

[Raven Crowking]

"We seem to find ourselves at a bit of a standoff, boyos!" the leader calls up from below. "You'll not be foolish enough to come down here, and we'll not be foolish enough to go up there. And neither of us can go the way we wish while the other is camped where he be! The gods laugh at us, me boyos, but we can laugh at them yet. No one need die here today."

[Vanguard]

Aldo and Pudge sheathe their daggers and retreat up the stairs. As they do so, they both grab the rope off their shoulders. Both whisper to the tall Mohican prince, "Hand us some stones."

[Raven Crowking]

"What say you this? You know our number, yet we know not yours. We'll send a man up, unarmed, to count ye. Then you send half down, and we send half up. No fighting, just a short exchange. And once that be done, the rest go down and up as needs and wants desire, so that we be free to go our ways, and you be free to go below, if that be your desire. None at an advantage, none at a disadvantage, and all where they wish to be. What say you, boyos?"

[jferngler]

Toothy Herman exits to gather Avery and Girt and Giant the dog. "I don't trust the men below to keep their word, and our 'companions' are trying to shake them down," he says. "They look seasoned enough."

"Are we bandits, now?" asks Avery, his voice quavering. Herman shakes his head.

"Do we stop those men from robbing us and our friends from robbing them?" asks Girt, hefting his shield. Avery puts a hand on the herder's arm.

"Peace, remember," Avery says.

"We should descend and be a part of what goes on," Herman says with a sly wink. "There's five of those men we can see, and we outnumber them by quite a bit. Unless they have men in the hole, I doubt they'll be too eager to fight all of us, no matter their skill." The boys nod, and carefully, the trio-plus-dog makes their way back into the barrow.

[Raven Crowking]

There are now folks up by the top of the stairs looking for strangers coming up; does anyone react as these party members go down?

[jferngler]

Herman takes hold of the arm of them archer on the stairs, saying "If they make a move, you take the shot." Then he'll continue down the stairs.

[Raven Crowking]

As the characters descend the stairs, a hsst! is heard. This, obviously, from the man watching the stairs...much more alert than he was before!

As the three men and the dog come closer, the leader gives a wide grin. "Well, boyos, an unexpected pleasure this is, as I though there'd be a bit of rough-and-tumble upcoming!" He eyes the dog, in particular, with some wariness. "Must be a bit of work, getting that monster down a rope! To please us all, some come, some go, and we'll be out of each other's way, what say you?"

[jferngler]

"Herman Longtooth is my name," says Toothy Herman, flashing a grin that displays his many yellow teeth. "What's your name, friend?"

[Raven Crowking]

"I am Samash, called 'the Wolf' by some, friend of the Long Tooth, and like the wolf some name me, long shall I stay in this den ere I attempt the stairs. So, what shall it be? Shall we pass each other, like tradesman on the street, going each his own way? Shall your boyos come down here with steel, to be bathed in their own blood? Or shall we each squat where we be, till the Dead do come and force us to make common cause?"

He gestures at the four hard-bitten men within the barrow, lean men with carnivore eyes and colourful clothing.

"Ye've seen my pack, me boyo, and I am thinking should you try to take us, you at least will die. What say you now?"

[Raven Crowking]

"It is the old riddle of the wolf, the goat, and the cabbage, is it not? How to get all across the river without wolf eating goat or goat eating cabbage....save here we have no river, and none to row us across."

[caveman]

Silva speaks harshly to his pouty friend. "i knew i should not have selected you. When will you grow up? Just because we encounter bandits on the road does not make us bandits ourselves. We are here for gold and glory, not to slay every beggar in the crypt."
Now Silva steps down the stairs, arrow pointed at the floor. "what are your terms wolftooth? What show of good faith can you present? Perhaps an exhange of information or maps?"
Ballotelli follows sullenly; Milner piously.