"Sam is interested in napping," Sam counters. "He's tired enough he won't be needing any help with doing that. Three hours til it departs but when can we board? I'll happily sleep while they finish their preparations."
"this we can be doing I am thinking, I will be buying my own provisions on the way to the port, you are all being set with food yes?"
As the group finish their last meal on akiin for the time being Griff says a goodbye to his three kids and his wife, stopping to hug each one of them before readying himself to leave, his wife approaches the group "you take the care of Griff, you are all return soon, and safe" she states in broken common, leaving the group unsure whether it was actually a statement or a question.
The kids themselves give the group excited waves and hand each of the group a ribbon, seemingly because they wanted to gift their new friends something but had nothing else on hand.
"Griff's only job is to point us around and to keep himself safe, ma'am," Sam says, loud enough so Griff hears as well. "First sign of trouble he is to hightail it out of there and return home to you."
Sam nudges and grunts at all the kids, telling them to behave or Muir will come back and sit on them! Otherwise Sam is ready to take off...
((Sam had sent request that Hog send his kit from his room via the bag, or at least rations wise. Assuming that happened then Sam is set of foodstuffs for a bit...))
Elthana waves to the kids as well, but hangs back a bit as goodbyes are given and she is more than ready to board the ship and find a place to sleep...
Gewyn hangs back a bit to get a moment to talk to Elthana. "Hey,"he says casually. "I'm uh... Sorry for not checking in with you earlier. I could see you were going through something, but I just... I guess I tend to keep things to myself, and it didn't occur to me that you might not be the same way. I'll ask next time. If you want to talk, I'll listen. And if you don't, just tell me to piss off. I'll listen."He smiles.
The group head back to the foundling port, and Sam becomes aware of the teleport bag and begins rifling through the delivery.
There seems to be no real distinction in Thaeir between night and day. Even as the group feel their bodies cry our for sleep, the light radiating from an unseen point in the vastness of the pale blue, does not diminish, nor does the refraction from the land itself, making the semi translucent floor underneath your feet and in the walls of the buildings around you glow slightly.
The foundling port is still as busy, though after the hours that you have been away some vendors have changed shifts and unfamiliar faces man the stalls. Inside the taverne-sque building Gale and his group have disappeared. Griff gives a huff and exits the bar to the rear where a walkway turns on itself and starts making it's way up the side of the building and further up the side of the massive tree like structure. The path splits off several times, each sign-posted split leading to a branch where flying creatures big and small are perched awaiting their riders. The branches seem to be set out to not intersect from a birds eye view to make the hauling of supplies from the ground as unobtrusive as possible.
"Here we are being" Griff states as he finally takes one of the diverging paths toward the top of the tree, leading off to a thick and spacious branch. Gale's men are working on hauling supplies up from the ground with an old looking pilot system set into the tree, others are checking over harnesses and nets which are being worn by a monstrously massive black chicken looking creature easily over 70-80ft tall, it's beady eyes watch you all curiously as you arrive, as does Gale who moves to greet you all.
"Welcome, welcome, you all look terrible, I assume you've come early to inconvenience me, but it is no matter, your quarters are being hitched to Spier Umar now. Speaking of! This is my bird, I would like one of you to greet her so as to acquaint yourselves with her or she may attack you, as far as beasts go she is intelligent and territorial, we are her family and you are interlopers... One of you approach to ease her mind, if you please, she will assess you and you may pet her if she agrees."
Muir doesn’t wait for anyone else to approach. He walks with his hands out and slowly approaches with a smile. “What kind of bird is she? A beautiful specimen!!”
As Muir and Sam approach, Gale begins to answer Muir's question. "Specimen? That is no way to address an intelligent being. But Spier is of the species Umar which forms part of her name."
The bird seems to respond to Muir's interest with an interest of their own, bending her head down quickly and approaching. Some of the members of Gale's crew who are busy loading up the bird with supplies are jostled but seem to keep their balance and continue working even as the bird moves around.
In a flash Spier Umar is directly in Muir's face and then Muir realises that the interest this bird has was not in him at all but in the half orc standing behind him, arm outstretches in calm introduction to the animal. As Spier Umar cranes to sniff Sam's hand, Muir is knocked to one side and left prone on the ground. The bird coos gently but with such bass and force that everyone feels the vibrations in their chest, it then places it beak slowly on Sam's outstretched hand.
"It seems she likes at least one of you, this is acceptable, it means she will protect your group for this journey." Gale gives a proud grin to his beloved bird before helping Muir up off the ground and muttering "maybe you stay away from her head for the journey, she can be rough even when she is playing."
"Well hello there," Sam says softly with arm extended. "We'll try to not be too much of a bother and we thank you for your protection."
Boris gives out a snort at this and Ógra is obviously about to speak up but Sam turns his head to them and gives a quick "Quiet you too, we're guests here!" and they obey about as well as an annoyed 9 year old might. They quiet up but it's clear they're pouting about it.
"We're all just over tired," he explains. "Hopefully we'll sleep and relax throughout the journey and not be a bother at all."
As Sam is very close to the beast now he sees the amount of scars and battle damage this beast has accrued over the years, he sees and appreciates the marks left by battle, it's eyes also betray a warrior spirit within.
Seeing that Muir hasn't been hurt in any physical way, Vin stifles a laugh "oh this is going to be fun, hey Gale can we board now or should we wait til you're done with loading?". As Sam looks over to his beasts they give him a bit of a huff and an eye roll, Orga looks to the sky confused feeling something in the air before both the summoned animals vanish into fey lights and return to Sam's bag, their time apparently up and the bags charges reset.
Gale raises and eyebrow to Sam but doesn't mention his vanished animals, instead he looks up to Spier Umar and the work that his crew are doing, he approaches Sam and bows to the gargantuan bird who then slowly stands letting a rope fall from its harness, "come I will show you where you will be sleeping for the journey" Gale begins as ending the rope and leads you all up onto Spier's back.
The harness covering this beast is thick and has netting and ropes all over it, these appear to be there to secure any cargo but also serve as grips for those on the beast to hang onto if needed. The back of the harness has a hard shelled backpack looking thing which curves out from the neck of the bird and nestles between it's wings like an aerodynamic lean to, it is as big as a house and gale begins climbing over towards it.
"I take it you have no cargo to speak of as it wasn't suggested when we made our deal, but just so you are aware our supplies and our cargo will be secured under Spier Umar" Gale points and as he says this the group see a massive cylindrical container being brought onto the branch and the crew drag it over to begin securing it to the front side of the bird. "Most of my crew will rest in the container with the supplies and that container is off limits to passengers. You understand... My quartermaster and I will be taking opposite shifts and sleeping in here with you along with another of my crew, we will be here to make sure everything is ok and that you have what you need. Privacy is unfortunately limited but we will give you as much as we can."
The inside of this shelter is warm under foot from the heat rising from the bird, but even so the air in here has a chill, several hammocks are strung up for you all in one 'room' with another set out elsewhere for the two crew who will be around, one of the crew hammocks is currently taken by the black dragonborn who is snoring. The only provided amenity seems to be two large leathered bags filled with water and sealed with some kind of valve, enough for the journey. The group are asked if there is anything else they'd need before being left to set up their beds and get some rest.
Sam blinks several times while turning his head left and right to see just what happened to Ógra and Boris but is eventually left to shrug and look dumbly up into the sky. "I guess it's dawn," Sam says to nobody in particular, a bit sadly. He had been starting to think he would have Ógra with him for the full trip...
Somehow the pure and awesome size of Spier Umar hadn't fully dawned on Sam until he was climbing about the creature feeling like a flea. "The skies have things bold enough to attack Spier?" Sam asks of Gale, astonished, but with the answer evident by some of the visible battle scars. "I don't envy you your profession..."
"We tend to travel light," Sam mentioned when cargo is brought up. "Just what we carry ourselves, mostly."
The sight of the hammocks is a welcome one, yet a bit disappointing. The starving man dreams of the most fabulous of meals, not beef jerky, but will dig into them both with the same eagerness. "Probably wise we take the lower bunks," Sam suggests to Muir even as he lowers himself onto one. "Think we should strap ourselves in, just in case Spier does some barrel rolls or loop to loops?" Sam is joking but he does check to see if there is a loose rope or strap for such a thing just in case, as well as straps down his pack and his axe. Not overly so, he wants them readily available but he doesn't want them flying all over if the bird indeed does need to do evasive maneuvering... Once that is settled to his satisfaction, and unless another issue comes up, Sam puts his feet up, throws an arm behind his head as a pillow and then closes his eyes.
Elthana smiles warmly at Gewyn, "I appreciate that. And yeah, I think at some point I need to tell you all what is going on. You all have become more family in these past couple weeks? months? than my real family is." she shrugs. "I hope there will be a time soon that we can all talk." Her grin turns into a little smirk, "Speaking of divulging... are we going to learn of your little friend that likes your shoulder or not?" She gives him a little elbow shove and then relaxes, "But thanks Gewyn."
She watches as Sam and Muir greet the ginormous bird, she is almost too stunned to even approach the creature. As it falls for Sam immediately, Elthana smiles, "You sure have a way with animals. And I thought your boar was big." Humor touches her eyes as she stares at the bird, "You aren't trying to compensate for something, are you?"
She follows the rest as they board the creature and immediately climbs into one of the higher hammocks. "Rest, yes, rest is very welcome right now. If something happens... just let me sleep." and she falls asleep smilng.
Muir smiles and nods to Sam "Yes, you are probably right it is better that we sleep on the bottom bunks....How has the bag worked with Hog? Is he able to send things to us? What a fantastic contraption if that is the case!"
"Hmm?" Sam says, tearing his eyes open again and looking to Muir. "Oh. Yeah. Yeah..."
Going to the bag, which is with Sam's other gear, he opens it out and pulls out the supplies Hog sent. "Sent a bunch of rations and such like I asked," Sam reveals. "Not sure about some of the food here and my stomach. I have a delicate constitution, don't you know..." Sam also pulls out a flat square black stone with a note attached to it. "Not sure I'll be eating this though..."
Sam reads the note aloud, and perhaps a bit slowly. He knows his letters but he's not one to read for fun, you know. "Hope you can find this whetstone useful, use it on bladed weapon and it'll make you more dangerous should you need it, it's not been too long since you last wrote and I'm back at the shop now, going to sleep, I'll write when I wake, I hope everything is good. You all being in another plane is exciting, what is it like there? -Hog"
"Guess we should write back and tell him about this plane," Sam says with a large yawn as he tucks everything into hit kit and such so as to keep the magic bag clear and open. "Maybe tomorrow..."
Muir smiles "Well that's good news....Tomorrow is a fine idea. I could use some sleep....real sleep, our realm sleep." And with that Muir closes his eyes
Gewyn too settles down into a bed, dreading a fitful night of being stuck in his thoughts. But he underestimates how tired his body is, and sleep comes for him swiftly as the reaper
Vin climbs the rope up Spier Umar and then summons Neferox who was left pacing below, the boy is getting used to teleporting his familiar to him more often as he seems to not particularly like using that power, having Neferox vanish in front of him makes vin anxious, even if the hound reappears next to him but a moment later.
As the group find their hammocks and settle in, it is not long before exhaustion overcomes you all and you are welcomed into the warm embrace of sleep, under the blankets gifted to you by sergor before you left.
The start of the journey and Spier Umar's take off are missed by the sleeping group, as is much of the journey. As you all wake, Griff approaches and informs you all that you've been sleeping the better part of 32 hours, (everyone clear one point of exhaustion).
Griff keeps off to himself as you all go about waking yourselves up and partaking of the provided water, eating whatever rations you have to hand. The other compartment with hammocks set out for gale and his shift changing crew appear empty for the time being, and the group has some privacy to discuss ongoing affairs.
Muir sits chewing on whatever was handed him. He misses his garden....or what will be left of it. He thinks about his new home in a giant city and what he can do to make it more natural. "Ah well...who would like to go first? I feel I have said enough unless you have questions for me"
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"Sam is interested in napping," Sam counters. "He's tired enough he won't be needing any help with doing that. Three hours til it departs but when can we board? I'll happily sleep while they finish their preparations."
"this we can be doing I am thinking, I will be buying my own provisions on the way to the port, you are all being set with food yes?"
As the group finish their last meal on akiin for the time being Griff says a goodbye to his three kids and his wife, stopping to hug each one of them before readying himself to leave, his wife approaches the group "you take the care of Griff, you are all return soon, and safe" she states in broken common, leaving the group unsure whether it was actually a statement or a question.
The kids themselves give the group excited waves and hand each of the group a ribbon, seemingly because they wanted to gift their new friends something but had nothing else on hand.
Then the group set off toward the port.
Muir smiles and waves to the children while assuredly nodding yes to Griffs wife that they’ll keep him safe
"Griff's only job is to point us around and to keep himself safe, ma'am," Sam says, loud enough so Griff hears as well. "First sign of trouble he is to hightail it out of there and return home to you."
Sam nudges and grunts at all the kids, telling them to behave or Muir will come back and sit on them! Otherwise Sam is ready to take off...
((Sam had sent request that Hog send his kit from his room via the bag, or at least rations wise. Assuming that happened then Sam is set of foodstuffs for a bit...))
Elthana waves to the kids as well, but hangs back a bit as goodbyes are given and she is more than ready to board the ship and find a place to sleep...
Gewyn hangs back a bit to get a moment to talk to Elthana. "Hey," he says casually. "I'm uh... Sorry for not checking in with you earlier. I could see you were going through something, but I just... I guess I tend to keep things to myself, and it didn't occur to me that you might not be the same way. I'll ask next time. If you want to talk, I'll listen. And if you don't, just tell me to piss off. I'll listen." He smiles.
The group head back to the foundling port, and Sam becomes aware of the teleport bag and begins rifling through the delivery.
There seems to be no real distinction in Thaeir between night and day. Even as the group feel their bodies cry our for sleep, the light radiating from an unseen point in the vastness of the pale blue, does not diminish, nor does the refraction from the land itself, making the semi translucent floor underneath your feet and in the walls of the buildings around you glow slightly.
The foundling port is still as busy, though after the hours that you have been away some vendors have changed shifts and unfamiliar faces man the stalls. Inside the taverne-sque building Gale and his group have disappeared. Griff gives a huff and exits the bar to the rear where a walkway turns on itself and starts making it's way up the side of the building and further up the side of the massive tree like structure. The path splits off several times, each sign-posted split leading to a branch where flying creatures big and small are perched awaiting their riders. The branches seem to be set out to not intersect from a birds eye view to make the hauling of supplies from the ground as unobtrusive as possible.
"Here we are being" Griff states as he finally takes one of the diverging paths toward the top of the tree, leading off to a thick and spacious branch. Gale's men are working on hauling supplies up from the ground with an old looking pilot system set into the tree, others are checking over harnesses and nets which are being worn by a monstrously massive black chicken looking creature easily over 70-80ft tall, it's beady eyes watch you all curiously as you arrive, as does Gale who moves to greet you all.
"Welcome, welcome, you all look terrible, I assume you've come early to inconvenience me, but it is no matter, your quarters are being hitched to Spier Umar now. Speaking of! This is my bird, I would like one of you to greet her so as to acquaint yourselves with her or she may attack you, as far as beasts go she is intelligent and territorial, we are her family and you are interlopers... One of you approach to ease her mind, if you please, she will assess you and you may pet her if she agrees."
Muir doesn’t wait for anyone else to approach. He walks with his hands out and slowly approaches with a smile. “What kind of bird is she? A beautiful specimen!!”
As Muir and Sam approach, Gale begins to answer Muir's question. "Specimen? That is no way to address an intelligent being. But Spier is of the species Umar which forms part of her name."
The bird seems to respond to Muir's interest with an interest of their own, bending her head down quickly and approaching. Some of the members of Gale's crew who are busy loading up the bird with supplies are jostled but seem to keep their balance and continue working even as the bird moves around.
In a flash Spier Umar is directly in Muir's face and then Muir realises that the interest this bird has was not in him at all but in the half orc standing behind him, arm outstretches in calm introduction to the animal. As Spier Umar cranes to sniff Sam's hand, Muir is knocked to one side and left prone on the ground. The bird coos gently but with such bass and force that everyone feels the vibrations in their chest, it then places it beak slowly on Sam's outstretched hand.
"It seems she likes at least one of you, this is acceptable, it means she will protect your group for this journey." Gale gives a proud grin to his beloved bird before helping Muir up off the ground and muttering "maybe you stay away from her head for the journey, she can be rough even when she is playing."
"Well hello there," Sam says softly with arm extended. "We'll try to not be too much of a bother and we thank you for your protection."
Boris gives out a snort at this and Ógra is obviously about to speak up but Sam turns his head to them and gives a quick "Quiet you too, we're guests here!" and they obey about as well as an annoyed 9 year old might. They quiet up but it's clear they're pouting about it.
"We're all just over tired," he explains. "Hopefully we'll sleep and relax throughout the journey and not be a bother at all."
As Sam is very close to the beast now he sees the amount of scars and battle damage this beast has accrued over the years, he sees and appreciates the marks left by battle, it's eyes also betray a warrior spirit within.
Seeing that Muir hasn't been hurt in any physical way, Vin stifles a laugh "oh this is going to be fun, hey Gale can we board now or should we wait til you're done with loading?". As Sam looks over to his beasts they give him a bit of a huff and an eye roll, Orga looks to the sky confused feeling something in the air before both the summoned animals vanish into fey lights and return to Sam's bag, their time apparently up and the bags charges reset.
Gale raises and eyebrow to Sam but doesn't mention his vanished animals, instead he looks up to Spier Umar and the work that his crew are doing, he approaches Sam and bows to the gargantuan bird who then slowly stands letting a rope fall from its harness, "come I will show you where you will be sleeping for the journey" Gale begins as ending the rope and leads you all up onto Spier's back.
The harness covering this beast is thick and has netting and ropes all over it, these appear to be there to secure any cargo but also serve as grips for those on the beast to hang onto if needed. The back of the harness has a hard shelled backpack looking thing which curves out from the neck of the bird and nestles between it's wings like an aerodynamic lean to, it is as big as a house and gale begins climbing over towards it.
"I take it you have no cargo to speak of as it wasn't suggested when we made our deal, but just so you are aware our supplies and our cargo will be secured under Spier Umar" Gale points and as he says this the group see a massive cylindrical container being brought onto the branch and the crew drag it over to begin securing it to the front side of the bird. "Most of my crew will rest in the container with the supplies and that container is off limits to passengers. You understand... My quartermaster and I will be taking opposite shifts and sleeping in here with you along with another of my crew, we will be here to make sure everything is ok and that you have what you need. Privacy is unfortunately limited but we will give you as much as we can."
The inside of this shelter is warm under foot from the heat rising from the bird, but even so the air in here has a chill, several hammocks are strung up for you all in one 'room' with another set out elsewhere for the two crew who will be around, one of the crew hammocks is currently taken by the black dragonborn who is snoring. The only provided amenity seems to be two large leathered bags filled with water and sealed with some kind of valve, enough for the journey. The group are asked if there is anything else they'd need before being left to set up their beds and get some rest.
Muir gets up and dusts himself off. “Well then….just a bed please” Muir asks politely as he rubs his bum from the bump he took
Sam blinks several times while turning his head left and right to see just what happened to Ógra and Boris but is eventually left to shrug and look dumbly up into the sky. "I guess it's dawn," Sam says to nobody in particular, a bit sadly. He had been starting to think he would have Ógra with him for the full trip...
Somehow the pure and awesome size of Spier Umar hadn't fully dawned on Sam until he was climbing about the creature feeling like a flea. "The skies have things bold enough to attack Spier?" Sam asks of Gale, astonished, but with the answer evident by some of the visible battle scars. "I don't envy you your profession..."
"We tend to travel light," Sam mentioned when cargo is brought up. "Just what we carry ourselves, mostly."
The sight of the hammocks is a welcome one, yet a bit disappointing. The starving man dreams of the most fabulous of meals, not beef jerky, but will dig into them both with the same eagerness. "Probably wise we take the lower bunks," Sam suggests to Muir even as he lowers himself onto one. "Think we should strap ourselves in, just in case Spier does some barrel rolls or loop to loops?" Sam is joking but he does check to see if there is a loose rope or strap for such a thing just in case, as well as straps down his pack and his axe. Not overly so, he wants them readily available but he doesn't want them flying all over if the bird indeed does need to do evasive maneuvering... Once that is settled to his satisfaction, and unless another issue comes up, Sam puts his feet up, throws an arm behind his head as a pillow and then closes his eyes.
Elthana smiles warmly at Gewyn, "I appreciate that. And yeah, I think at some point I need to tell you all what is going on. You all have become more family in these past couple weeks? months? than my real family is." she shrugs. "I hope there will be a time soon that we can all talk." Her grin turns into a little smirk, "Speaking of divulging... are we going to learn of your little friend that likes your shoulder or not?" She gives him a little elbow shove and then relaxes, "But thanks Gewyn."
She watches as Sam and Muir greet the ginormous bird, she is almost too stunned to even approach the creature. As it falls for Sam immediately, Elthana smiles, "You sure have a way with animals. And I thought your boar was big." Humor touches her eyes as she stares at the bird, "You aren't trying to compensate for something, are you?"
She follows the rest as they board the creature and immediately climbs into one of the higher hammocks. "Rest, yes, rest is very welcome right now. If something happens... just let me sleep." and she falls asleep smilng.
Muir smiles and nods to Sam "Yes, you are probably right it is better that we sleep on the bottom bunks....How has the bag worked with Hog? Is he able to send things to us? What a fantastic contraption if that is the case!"
"Hmm?" Sam says, tearing his eyes open again and looking to Muir. "Oh. Yeah. Yeah..."
Going to the bag, which is with Sam's other gear, he opens it out and pulls out the supplies Hog sent. "Sent a bunch of rations and such like I asked," Sam reveals. "Not sure about some of the food here and my stomach. I have a delicate constitution, don't you know..." Sam also pulls out a flat square black stone with a note attached to it. "Not sure I'll be eating this though..."
Sam reads the note aloud, and perhaps a bit slowly. He knows his letters but he's not one to read for fun, you know. "Hope you can find this whetstone useful, use it on bladed weapon and it'll make you more dangerous should you need it, it's not been too long since you last wrote and I'm back at the shop now, going to sleep, I'll write when I wake, I hope everything is good. You all being in another plane is exciting, what is it like there? -Hog"
"Guess we should write back and tell him about this plane," Sam says with a large yawn as he tucks everything into hit kit and such so as to keep the magic bag clear and open. "Maybe tomorrow..."
Muir smiles "Well that's good news....Tomorrow is a fine idea. I could use some sleep....real sleep, our realm sleep." And with that Muir closes his eyes
Gewyn too settles down into a bed, dreading a fitful night of being stuck in his thoughts. But he underestimates how tired his body is, and sleep comes for him swiftly as the reaper
Vin climbs the rope up Spier Umar and then summons Neferox who was left pacing below, the boy is getting used to teleporting his familiar to him more often as he seems to not particularly like using that power, having Neferox vanish in front of him makes vin anxious, even if the hound reappears next to him but a moment later.
As the group find their hammocks and settle in, it is not long before exhaustion overcomes you all and you are welcomed into the warm embrace of sleep, under the blankets gifted to you by sergor before you left.
The start of the journey and Spier Umar's take off are missed by the sleeping group, as is much of the journey. As you all wake, Griff approaches and informs you all that you've been sleeping the better part of 32 hours, (everyone clear one point of exhaustion).
Griff keeps off to himself as you all go about waking yourselves up and partaking of the provided water, eating whatever rations you have to hand. The other compartment with hammocks set out for gale and his shift changing crew appear empty for the time being, and the group has some privacy to discuss ongoing affairs.
Muir sits chewing on whatever was handed him. He misses his garden....or what will be left of it. He thinks about his new home in a giant city and what he can do to make it more natural. "Ah well...who would like to go first? I feel I have said enough unless you have questions for me"