Saturday, October 24, 2009

21 Kythorn 1479

Ugh. Too bloody damned early. Dunstan was in FINE form, I thought he'd shake himself apart from worrying. Not that I blame him, the vault where the gold is (this shipment anyway) is at the very end of a narrow lane with only the one way in or out. A fine place to hold up under a siege, a lousy place to try and move something through. We loaded up the gold, well covered by the iron and Max made several good suggestions about hiding things and fixing the wagons - apparently the boy's a merchant's son. Gnf had several good ideas too - but while he was worrying about the possibility of visible gold dust, he'd never thought of just wiping everything down with a damp cloth. It's like he'd never tried to cover his tracks or ...ahem. ANYWAY.

There are 4 wagons - drivers Glimber, Sinvlarin, Lethoval and Ernst. Fine guys and they at least know how to use a crossbow, but as far as guards and martial strength, it's just us. Good cover that. No one could possibly believe that anyone would ship a big load of gold with just so few guards. We headed from the vault to the gate, feeling the back of the neck prickling the whole way. I don't know if there was anything to worry, or if Dunstan was just contagious. Gnf did say he'd seen a dark cloaked figure on a roof top that darted back when it noticed him looking. Dunno, I think we're all just edgy - but then, there's reason to be.

We picked up our non-city goers out of town and headed out. Turned out to be a good thing I did get that residuum since we are doing more than 8 speeded up - one song for the oxen, one song for us. We could see the big bridge when we noticed a pushcart half overturned on the muddy bank and a small figure worriedly working at it. It was one of the bird-like creatures I'd seen in the shanty town yesterday - the ones that didn't much like being looked at. He was VERY alarmed when Ugrun and Allyson swung down to help him, but he calmed down reasonably when I reassured him that we weren't gonna to hurt him, just help. He said his name was Flutter and that he was a kenku. Allyson and Ugrun heaved the cart upright in no time and Flutter, having overheard them talking to one another mentioned - seemingly out of nowhere - that kenkus make good assassins. He'd heard that one had been paid to kill Ugrun. Flutter didn't want that to happen since we're good people. We reassured him that we wouldn't let it happen and continued on.

We've reached one of the caravan camp sites and set up watches to keep Ugrun well guarded. I can't believe I could get so tired just WALKING. It's not like I haven't walked this far before...maybe it's just the boredom.

HEY, when we helped Flutter, we put the cart before the bird. That old guy is really helpful...except that you don't figure out his help until it's too late. Still wonder what we're supposed to do to take care of Queenie.

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