Syl spends his long rest curled up and shivering, dreaming of calm seas and warm rum.

He wakens, still a bit crusted with old blood despite the cleanup from Raevyn.

"I'm uh...fine with that.  Just keep Krumar's glutes out of this throuple."  Dab says, patting the bard on his shoulder and grinning, clearly trying to jest.  "I'm ready to go when the rest of you are.  How about you uh....boy?"  

Dabbert gives Pauwau a scratch between the ears, trusting the wolf not to relieve him of the offending digits.  He takes one more look at the mine and shakes his head, and finds himself unable to formulate any useful response to what Nefire had said about the green stone.  Still, he purses his lips and worries about the green stone as she speaks of it.  

He doesn't wait.  Dab gets started away from the mine, trying to follow a similar path as the one they used to arrive at the mine...

Krumar grabs his things and follows Dabbert flexing his glutes a bit as he walks behind Dabbert. Krumar  looks over his shoulder to see how good his glutes look. "Hey could I borrow that mirror? I would like to look at my glutes"

     The trudge from the mines back to the Frost Beard is easier than the reverse had been considering the weather is calm and bright, even if still bitterly cold.  What is a bit of an impediment is the fallen blanket of fresh snow about four feet deep.  It would likely be nigh impossible for the party to find the path and landmarks to get them out of the valley and back up to the main road to Eisloch, even Nefire with her uncanny sense of direction - Mostly because the snow is well over her head.  The Orcs, however, know this land and are eager to get home.  They take turns breaking the path through the snow and leading the way but it is a slow, cold trudge that requires many breaks to rest and warm up.

     Once back on the main road things are a little easier.  The snow has piled up less blanket-like here than in the valley and there is perhaps only 5 or six inches of new non-packed down snow here excepting the areas where the snowdrifts formed weird formations about as high as the tallest of you. 

     All is quiet and calm during your travels until you are but a half hour out from Eisloch.  Pauwau is the first to hear something, cocking an ear and tilting their head to try to make sense of it.  Krumar is the first to recognize it, a voice upon the air.  Singing.  It’s perhaps a dozen steps later when the road bends and you see a mounted group heading down the road away from Eisloch and toward you…

     A dwarf rides atop a large, stout pony and a goliath sits atop an even stouter horse.  Behind these two a pair of humans who look nearly identical except for looking totally different from one another - One is tall and lean, the other short and robust.  Perhaps it is the easy way they ride alongside one another a bit too close which adds an air of sameness about them.  The last row of riders is another dwarf with something perched upon their shoulder and a book in their lap, besides them is a fair elf, slender and graceful and the apparent source of the melody upon the air…. 

     The approaching band is 40-50 feet away, taking up most of the road and making no signs of stopping or moving.  They’re not riding you down so much as just continuing on at a normal pace and ignoring you altogether.  It’s easy enough for you all to get off the road and make way for them to pass… Or not.  

Dabbert steps off the road as these riders come barreling down the road.  He watches them go and shrugs at those around him.  

"We uh...missed an opportunity to push Krumar in front of them."  He says, winking at Syl.

Krumar walks clenching his buttocks with each step working on his glutes now that he's been told they are magical. He doesn't see the folks coming, his concentration on his glutes. 

(If they barrel down on him he will jump out of the way into the snow if they slow down....-->) "Hello there! I am Krumar the Harmonic! The theatrical lyriscist! The enchanting poet! The best Glutimus Maximus on this side of the mountains! How do you fair this fine freezing morning?"

     The note the elf was holding so delicately upon the air is sourly lost as Krumar steps directly in their path, his attention on his own buttocks instead of his surroundings.  

"Hello there! I am Krumar the Harmonic! The theatrical lyriscist! The enchanting poet! The best Glutimus Maximus on this side of the mountains! How do you fair this fine freezing morning?"

     The first to riders pull up, their horses stopping just feet in front of Krumar.  The Dwarf releases long held flatulence that is loud and fragrant, seemingly in reply to Krumar's hail.  The Goliath is silent and sullen.  Behind him the others come to a stop as well, each more or less keeping formation.  The elf's song, interupted, goes unfinished and she has a cute little pout upon her face as a result.  The group is silent for a few beats, excepting of course the various horses whinnies or shaking of their barding, as they asses Krumar and the others in front of them.

     "We'd be doing a right bit better if we were further down the road, ya soggy headed oaf!  I swear, this whole land is plagued by brain addled Orcs," the Dwarf finally answers.  The Goliath half nods and spits off to the side.

     "Well?  Will you be moving your grimy, gristly glutes out of our way and letting us move on or do you be needing help with that?" the Dwarf asks after a moment.  The Goliath leans over towards him and quietly asks "What's a glute?" but the Dwarf only answers him with a glare.

Krumar bows at the group ”Hello to you too! You do look oh so familiar….It is so hard to tell you squatty dwarves apart but the Goliath on the other hand, I know I’ve seen….” Krumar put a finger to his chin and taps it ”Oh yes! Now I remember you’re the other group that went into the tower! You made it out alive! Congratulations, I will surely sing your accomplishments”

Dabbert steps out into the road next to Krumar.  He doesn't brandish his weapons or anything.  He just lays a hand on Krumar's shoulder and then points at the riders, looking pissed off.  

"Hey now.  This is my soggy headed, brain addled Orc.  You can't talk about him or his uh...glutes like that. He can't help that the gods put the best part of him in his ass.  Now how about you uh...say you're sorry?"  

Nefire watches what is going on before her with a grin on her face.  She doesn't give two shits about this group, but the exchange is entertaining so far.  She waits for the others to say they are sorry and wonders if they will mention anything about the Tower.

Jaylan smiles at the elven bard and mutters a "Sorry" when Kumar interrupts her song but when Dabbert asks the other group to  apology to them he rolls his eyes "oh Gods..here we go..." he thinks.

Syl prepares a retort to Dabbert's crack about pushing Krumar, but then the conversation veers in another direction.  He scratches his beard and eyes the newcomers, while trying to remember what happened in the tower.

"Aye... there was another group in the Tower, right.  Didn't we agree they got themselves disapperated?"  He shakes his head in dismay.  "No, no none of this is adding up."

Then he turns to quartet of Orcs they had rescued from the mine.  "Does that stick in your craw, the constant Orc-shaming comments from other humanoids?  Gods know, I'd wind up in the stocks every day, from rearranging the faces of everyone who so much as looked at me sideways, if I was as big as the likes of you brutes."

     The riders sit atop their horses with various expressions of impatience upon their faces.  Only the fair elf looks pleased or amused, a smile upon her face and a twinkle in her eye.  "The other group?" she replies to Krumar with a grin.  "We weren't aware you made it in at all.  We certainly never saw you at the top.  Do tell...  How far did you make it before you fled?"

     The Goliath in front scoffs at Dabbert's suggestion that they would say they were sorry but otherwise remains stoic.

     "Obviously your love of Orcs is an epic thing," says the Dwarf with the book upon their lap while looking at Sylrieth.  "There are so few who keep them as pets..."  The naked bird-thing upon their shoulder lets out a squawk which is remarkably akin to a burst of laughter.

     "We've no time for this!" Snorts the armored dwarf with the large warhammer at their side.  "We've a job to complete and miles to go before we sleep..."  He glances to the others with him and then prompts his horse forward.  The others follow...

     The horses are merely walking forward at this point, moving past you.  Nobody is being run down, at most they are being pushed aside with the heavy but insistent weight of an oversized drunk pushing their way to the crapper in a crowded bar.  The Dwarves sneer, the Goliath yawns, the humans wear smirks...  The female elf smiles.  "We'll meet again," she assures, her voice light and melodic upon their air.  "Perhaps with more time to chat...  Or something."  She winks as she passes and you each get the impression that it was meant for you.

“Believe it or uh…not, we made it all the way to your moms house.”  Dab replied, shifting his focus then from the Elf to the mouthy Dwarf with what probably equated to a Playdwarf in his lap.  He shrugged as he continued to speak, pointing to the book.  "Not as epic as a uh...Dwarf that knows how to read." 

"Oh I'm sure we'll talk when we uh....come save shorty's ass."  Dabbert continues as they start riding by, eyeballing the Dwarf as they go back.  He places as hand on Krumar's back and guides him out of the road.  "Don't think twice about what they said.  At least you're not a uh...Dwarf.  Or Goliath."  

Syls eyes almost go cross as he tries to make sense of this exchange.  "Were we trying to pick a fight here?  I'm still not convinced we've ever seen these arseholes before."  He stands on the side of the trail, shivering and petulant.  "B'sides.  We saved the miners, harvested some rock, and did the hard sailing in the name of the King.  We did our job... though it would have been nice to find that magical Stein.  Psh.  Probably just a fairy tale.  Anyway... lets get back to town before my toes and earlobes blacken and fall off."  

Raevyn stood back, silent like a shadow. She pet Pauwau throughout the exchange. Vibrant eyes simply watch and scan as pointed ears twitch and listen. Honestly she probably would not have recognized the group as the one that passed them the first day at the tower if Krumar hadn't said anything. While the strangers did pique her curiosity, she found herself thankful for the company she found herself in. Observing quietly for too long, the Doctor realizes they didn't really acquire any fruitful information. Truthfully she didn't quite take the time to speak up to ask where they were headed. However with the all knowing promise of crossing paths again, the thought leaves her mind.

"Ama vul." Rae whispers in a mix of elvish druidic beneath her breath and snaps her fingers. At first it appears nothing happens. But, back with the passing fancy strangers, when the melodic elf would look into her hand, a simple black dahlia flower would bloom, harmlessly coming to rest in her palm.

Then with a click of her tongue and a flourish of her cape, the plague doctor turns. Pauwau moves on command with her and they walk away along with the others. Having spent the night helping the orcs identify Krumar's spoils, she had some research to tend too with that green crystal, and the staff pieces Sil carried. Indeed it was time to head back and decide their next steps.

Krumar looks at Dabbert and laughs "Smooth....mock his mother...Leave the barding to the bard next time although I do appreciate the kind words, I could never imagine being a Dwarf or a Goliath, I mean the lack of personal hygiene alone is enough to make one gag" Krumar hopes Nef wasn't within ear shot "Uh present company not withstanding of course." 

Quote from Antlan >>

Krumar looks at Dabbert and laughs "Smooth....mock his mother...Leave the barding to the bard next time although I do appreciate the kind words, I could never imagine being a Dwarf or a Goliath, I mean the lack of personal hygiene alone is enough to make one gag" Krumar hopes Nef wasn't within ear shot "Uh present company not withstanding of course." 

 ((Note:  Nefire is neither a Dwarf or a Goliath...))

"Hey uh...no one calls you a brain addled shit for brains Orc but me, dammit.  Now come on."  Dabbert says, leading Krumar out of the road.  "Also, if Nef decides to kill you I can't save you so you're on your own." 

(Haha makes Krumar even better thst he can’t tell the difference bw dwarf and a halfling)