"That was my fear. Well then, it would seem that we have a common cause, and path for a little while then wizard." He gestures off to the ruins. "Assuming that you are going after your missing two, shall we travel together? No matter what's in these woods I think a larger party would be better." 

The dragonborn winces at something making him uneasy, but maintains his composure. “That would depend on your tolerance for the brothers, I'm not entirely discounting the idea of traveling in a larger group." Glancing at the two dwarves.

"It would make the most sense."

Ura straightens up a little.  „Uthal hasn‘t broken anybody yet — something must be wrong,“ she tells Anaeris.  „Go wake up Ander.“ She then sends a message to Uthal -

„What‘s going on?“

Uthal instinctively swings a fist behind him as Ura's voice appears much to close for comfort. A second to late he realizes it must be magic. "I'll go tell the others. And I promise not to kill the dwarves. Today." With a nod to the dragonborn he turns and heads back. "Thief! Not in the middle of a conversation. We will be travelling together with the other group. Seems two of their number have also gone missing. The wizard suspects the ruins are the cause." 

Anearis simply nods and walks over to the still sleeping Ander. He crouches down and tries to gently shake him awake.

"Ser Ander. We must get a move on. It is time to wake up."

The dwarfs react to Uthal swatting at open air behind him, followed by his shouting in the same general direction. "Think he's got an invisible friend, Nik?" "That or an imaginary one, Nack. MAYBE that's the missus!" Both were laughing as he walked away, back towards the other camp.

While not necessarily having the context for it, as Uthal reached the camp, he, as well as anyone in the clearing aware of what was goin' on around them, heard the two dwarfs shout in unison, "MEAT SHIELDS!"

Uthal gets a slightly evil grin on his face and looks towards Ura. "I was thinking the same thing about those two. Maybe we could strap them to a shield. They could block that hits and get a swing at the thing in return." 

He approached their camp without herald, simply walking to a point just beyond the imaginary lines shared by each other the night before. He wasn't in a rush, the dwarves content on amusing themselves with whatever they were absconding with, this camp of travelers still in the midst of waking up and breaking down. Then again he suspected they just threw down bedrolls and hoped the elements didn't downpour. He shook his head in bewilderment, drawing a dagger with slow motions and idly picking out debris from his claws. He clacked his tongue without opening his mouth, gazing up from his work with a casual eye to the figure across the green that was moving towards him. He sighed, waiting the three heartbeats it would take for it to reach him and moving to the next nail. 

The mouth moved, but no words were heard.

"That's not exactly something to brag about." he hissed quietly. "Best to let laying lickers lounge and move on." Shouting now, it threw a fist and he shook his head at it. "Hardly the sort of company I would keep, if anything they'd be sold to a breeder if there was any such desire worth the difficulty of capture." The mouth moved in anger and he slowly blinked in response. "Don't you have somewhere else to loiter, some of us still have work to do." he waved a hand in the air before him and set about cleaning the next nail.

"Honestly...like herding cats." His voice never rose above a whisper, but the conversation carried just the same to anyone looking.

„Shield dwarves? I‘m more one for the ranged attacks,“ Ura replies, getting to her feet and dusting herself off.  „I mean, dwarf tossing has this nice ring to it, don‘tcha think?“

Looking over her shoulder, she frowns, seeing Anaeris having trouble waking up Ander, who seems dead to the world.  Or maybe just dead.  Not a comforting thought.  „Hey, Anaeris, step back a second,“ she calls out, aiming her hand at Ander.  A wave and a few whispers later, she‘s fairly sure she managed to prestidigitation his breeches to a chill temperature anyone warm blooded would find too uncomfortable to sleep in.  „Wakey wakey!“ she says to Ander after casting the spell.

As she turns around, she notices a figure aproaching them.  Tapping Uthal on the shoulder, she gestures with her chin at the stranger loitering on the edge of their camp.  „What‘s he doing? Coming over here to clean his nails?“

Uthal looks up. "He cleans his nails. You put on small fake boobs. All you small races are strange." He shrugs. 

„Yeah, yeah, they got stuck last night,“ Ura says irritably, keeping an eye on the dragonborn.  She squints.  „I think he said his name was Dovah‘keen.  Is he... talking to himself?  I think he is.“  She frowns.  „Maybe we should ask him if he‘s feeling all right.“

The dragonborn casts a glance over to the others, as if somehow aware that magic had been performed or that eyes were upon him. That sensation of glances in your direction and the complexity of extra sensory input that attempts to form a coherent pattern to the recognition. With a practiced motion he moved his hood down to rest on his shoulders, so they could see his face. He nodded a simple greeting to the pair and resumed his idle work, switching hands to clean his right set of claws now. Content to wait until they approached lest his dark garb and looks give the wrong impression. 

...like before...

"No they can't see you." he mumbled to no one. He itched at one of the iron bands on his horns for a brief second as it pleaded on its knees. "No I don't think they would care either."

„Well I think he‘s waiting for us.  Hopefully he‘s got all his cards in his deck. As much as I love Dah‘deey, I‘m not sure I could take traveling with two of them.“  Approaching the dragonborn, Ura waves again. „Hey, Dovah‘keen! Did you sleep well?  I didn‘t.  But I think some of us here slept even worse.  We‘ll be ready to go as soon as we can wake the one who‘s dead to the world over there.“

Uthal bends down and picks up the still sleeping Ander like a small child. He gently puts him over one shoulder and walks over to Ura and the dragonborn. "There. Our camp is cleaned up." 

As the elf approached, the dragonborn stopped fiddling with the dagger and sheathed it with an easy motion. He acknowledged her wave and greeting with a somewhat puzzled look before recalling the events of the previous encounter and attempting to lighten his countenance. He doubted it helped. "No I did not rest easy, thank you." he blinked slowly, taking in the details the sunlight afforded what firelight did not. "I am in no rush elf named Ura, the ruins do not move to our knowledge." He stifled a toothy yawn, continuing the conversation. "Since it seems we would soon be traveling the same path to the same destination, you can call me Viilgahan*...as you have given me a name to call you by, rather than just address me by my race."

The Goliath approached, carrying the shambles of what could be considered a human. Viilgahan blinked slowly at this action as well, taking in the details. Being six-fiveish himself, it wasn't very often the dragonborn had to look up to study something. "Fascinating...and the human is comfortable with this sort of exercise?" He asked like an individual who, if serious, would procure both ink and paper to mark down the event, but made no move to do so.

*<Veal-GaH-Han>

Uthal shrugs, causing Ander's armor to clink as he bounces up and down. "Probably not but he seems to be slow to rise this morning, even for him. Have no worry though, he his a skilled fighter and worth the trouble of taking along." 

“SO WE GOIN’ OR WUT?” Nik called you the rest of the newly joined parties. He and Nack were standing on the trail. Nack kicking at the dirt while seemingly picking his teeth with something in his hand.

Had he the brows to do so, they likely would have both gone straight up. As it was however, the scaled area where his brow was only twitched. "So you say, however..." he gestured to the area where he had previously made camp. "...many hands make light the work I hear." He gave a glance at their area but guessed they had nothing more to pack. "Light travelers?" he suggested to the pair of them, turning to move toward the dwarves.

Uthal’s size and demeanor had attracted the unwanted attention of the the dwarf’s the evening before. Now carrying Ander’s unconscious body, the interest was renewed. While walking down the trail, the dwarf known as Nack walked with Uthal, running circles, poking the otherwise limp armored figure, and chatting away uncontrollably. “How long ya carryin’em for? Is this wut you’re good for, lifting and carryin? Is this one asleep or dead? He’s not a zombie, is he? Gon’ bite my finger, I keep pokin?” Lotta weight. I can hold ya smasher, if you want. Light in’ ya load.”

Nik on the other hand seemed a bit more controlled, comparably to both his brother and to his own behavior the previous day.

Nik: 14

He walked generally next to Ura. “How’d he die then? The bloke, Biggins’ got. Doesn’t look too banged up or nuthin’” Nik asked her as he pointed at Ander.

"If by light you mean impoverished, then you got it in one," Ura says to Viilgahan with a shrug.  She watches the dwarf circling Uthal as a fly would manure, and smirks in amusement.  "He'll wake up sooner or later.  But he's not dead, he just sleeps like it.  If you want to draw something on his face, now's your chance to do it.  It's something of a ritual to that one.  Makes him fight stronger," she says, unable to resist.

Looking down at Nik, she decides to give the dwarf a second chance, namely because she doesn't want to piss off their other campmates and start a fight while Ander is still asleep and their dour archer is suspiciously absent.  "Like I said... not dead.  Our companion who died was a paladin from the Order of the Flame, a tiefling by the name of Kel Iscariuss."  She pauses for a moment in respectful silence, thinking about how sudden and unexpected his death had been.  "A lot of us were expecting this to be something of a one-way trip, but... more because of whatever's been stirring in the ruins yonder... not the path to get there."