“Rock no really care about such.”  Rock says with a shrug.  “Rock just want to be great warrior, and have tales told back at peaks about his great deeds.”

     "And that is a worthy goal, Rock.  And I shall be happy to compose and tell those tales...  But the great tales, the epics... they need context.  Background.  Drama.  More than just fighting, they need pathos and gut wrenching turns of events!  We need more than just the fighting, we need the reasons and the betrayals and the everything else if you really want your story to last down the years and the ages," Shayne says in earnest. 

     "Was there not talk of 'druid-touched' and being 'awakened' by the mammoth?  Do we know anything about what they may have meant?"

"Druid saved Rock's life when Rock was little thing." Rock says, holding a hand down near his thigh. "Changed Rock into Goliath then, when Rock, called Climber back then, fell from great height." he shrugs. "Suppose that is why they say this thing about being druid touched."

     “Ahhh, now see, that is the kind of back...”

     “Wait.  What now??” Shayne asked in a blurt, interrupting his own stream of babble.

     “There’s a Druid around here turning people into other people?  You’re not actually a Goliath? You’re a...  what we’re you?” This was a bit astonishing.  I mean sure, magic and illusions and such happen, but they tend to be temporary.  Or epic things.  Not just, oh let me heal you young sir, and by the by you’re something else now!

     “So we’re the mammoths ‘Druid touched’? The wolves?  Do we think they were originally people?  Is that why they could talk?”  Shayne found the story possibilities endless and exciting, but the effect this could have on their little adventure dangerous and terrifying.

Elderan (going to shift back to Finn now, its shorter and he prefers the less formal name) looks amused by this turn of events and has a casualness about him but if anyone looked closely you can tell he doesn't miss a detail. 

Half to himself he mutters, "and this is becoming the most interesting supply requisitioning trip I've ever been on, to think I just came for some fishheads..."

"Rock was dragonborn before." Rock says with a shrug, as if it is no big thing. "This thing was done when Rock was very little, so spent all of life, nearly at least, as goliath."

"Wait what? You were a Dragonborn? What kind of druid could do something like that?" Ines tries to go over what she knows of magic because such a feat seems impossible to her.

     Shayne gently nudged Ines with his elbow. “Do we believe him?” Shayne asks in a stage whisper, pausing just a second before grinning widely and chucking.  “Of course we do.  Any of the rest of this lot and I’d be checking for wool around my eyes, but Rock here... well, seems to me he couldn’t be bothered to lie about such a thing.”

Ines, make a Medicine check

You all begin to notice the distant but distinct sound of buzzing bees.  As you move further forward, you see small homes that all seem to have carvings of dinosaurs and serpents, except for one huge, two-story building carved and painted to resemble a wyvern.  The sound of bees gets louder and louder still.  You have reached the end of the road, and Good Mead is before you.

     Shayne follows his Bardey-Sense to the tavern!  Because a town called Good Mead MUST have a tavern, and a Bard can always find such an establishment when it is within 100 miles! But indeed, Shayne heads straight for the large building.  It's is either a tavern / inn type building or some government thing, and either would be useful at this point.

Trusting the bard’s eye for this sort of thing, Rock follows towards the larger building.

Shayne leads the party toward the tall structure in the center of the town.  Following the bard's nose, and the crescendo of buzzing bees, you of course find that the large structure is the Mead Hall.  As you enter, you feel warmth, genuine warmth, for the first time in a week or more.  There is a large structure in the center of the hall that appears to be dedicated to keeping a massive swarm of bees.  And you're greeted by perhaps the first genuinely smiling face you've seen in a while, a dwarven barkeep with a long, brown beard, cleaning out a tankard or a mug of some kind that bears a striking resemblance to the town's heraldry. 

"Ah, some new faces," the barkeep says, announcing your presence to the bustling hall.  "Just in time!  The last three or four minutes were starting to get dull again."

Medicine Check: 18

Ines looks over to Rock. "Yes, lying seems beneath him, but what a strange tale..." She follows the others to the large building. "Last three or four minutes? What happened before then?"

     "What happened was we weren't here to liven things up, of course!"  Shayne says with a big grin and throwing back his cloak with a flourish.  "But I am here now, good people!  Fret not for your boredom is over!"

     Shayne makes his way into the room, his charm and good nature evident to all.  He looks about the room and if there is some kind of stage he wanders over to it, if not he just find an empty chair somewhere in the middle of the room and jumps up on it.  "What will be first, ladies and gents?  A stirring tale of heroics and derring do?  A good old fashioned Elven love song?  A bawdy tale of the lusty lad and the conniving barmaid?"  Shayne pauses to give a big old wink to any waitress he may see, or to just some shy younger male if no waitress in sight.

     "Of course first thing is an ale for the tired and parched tale, but once I have that in hand I am open to requests!"

Rock frowns as he enters, the warmth a bit uncomfortable for a goliath use to the cold. He pushes past it quickly enough, after all it is not the first time he has been somewhere warm. Walking on inside he smiles as the bard climbs atop a chair, and offers to tell a tale for the tavern. Rock moves to the bar, taking a seat there. "What happening in this place?" Rock asks the barkeep. "Rock doing great deeds, and would help with anything needing doing in this place..."

Ines: you realize that the process that Rock is talking about, especially with the mention of the druid, is almost certainly the work of a Reincarnate spell, which would be very powerful magic.  (Specifically, something a druid doesn't have access to normally until 9th level.)

"A drink, we can do.  That'll be two silver."

He responds to Ines: "Okay, maybe three or four minutes was an exaggeration, but you must be new in town if you don't know, so I'll just tell ya.  'Bout two days ago, we was loadin' a sledful of mead, three casks of it as I remember, for delivery to some town or another, and this big old thing came in here lookin' like a human stretched out by the gods to twice 'is normal size.  He snatched up the mead and started runnin'.  Well, our Speaker himself, gods rest his soul, came out to try to stop 'im, and the thing took its spear and ran the Speaker through.  An' the speaker weren't no joke, either. 'e was just as happy in a scrap as any of our militia.  Anyway, 'bout five of them went and chased after the thing, an' nobody heard from any of them since."

Approaching the barkeep Finn smiles apolegetically gesturing to Shayne who is already climbing on the furniture "Sorry about him good dwarf he doesn't get out much. Can you tell us more about what happened? Is anyone investigating this? Where do you suggest we start looking? Forgive me, I am Finn, your name is?"

     “...and so the farmer’s son, britches down and with a rooster in his hand, says to the barmaid...” Shayne recites in his finest form before hearing the barkeep.  He pauses the humorous tales and turns his attention to the proprietor.  “Two what?  Silver?  Oh but of course my good sir....”

     Shayne begins digging through his clothes looking for the coin.  He pauses to once more address the patrons in the tavern. “My apologies, good people.  My humblest apologies.  Our good sir here prefers I let you drink in peace and quiet.  Perhaps in the future I can regale you all with the conclusion of the tale so you can all know how the farmer’s son solved the riddle of which came first...”

     Shayne hops down off the chair he was standing upon and paid the barkeep his coin.  “A bit pricey for you’re ale but I did work up a thirst...”

Ines snaps her fingers believing she knows what happened to Rock, but hearing the dwarf's story her eyes widen. "Oh my, it seems all sorts of strange creatures make this place their home."

“This sounds like something Rock should deal with, with his great friends.”  Rock waves to those he traveled here with.  “Is there anything else you know of this creature?  Which way did it go from here?”  He stand sup, clearly ready to go and hunt down the thing right off.