Path o' tha Explorer

[TygerDarkstorm]

((This isn't going to be a pet challenge or anything like that, just a story style journal rather like the one Lupis is doing to help me get a better feel of what Rina's background and personality might be like.))

Entry 1

"When are you going to cut your hair?" "Rina, stop drinking so much ale!" "Dear, have you cleaned up the house today? Tidied up yer room?" "Stand up straight!" "Get that bear and gun out of my house!"

...

Mothers...always so naggy. No one knows why me mum is like this, not even da' although I guess this explains why he spends so much time away from home. I blame the damn priest hood fer makin' her like this with all their talk o' the Holy Light and sich things. Drives me up the bloody wall! Finally blew up at her and she kicked me out o' the house and tol' me to go learn about the real world. *shrug* So here goes!

First things first, I'm bein' told I've got mail and that it's urgent. With a sigh I trundled over to the mailbox to find a letter from me pa wit' a package. 'E says he has a surprise of some sort for me.


Wonderin' what in the world it could be, I opened the package to reveal an egg. Staring at it all confused like, I bout jumped out of me boots when it cracked open and revealed a baby penguin squeaking up at me. I smacked me hand into my forehead. What the fel am I s'posed to do with a bloody penguin? And now I can't just leave 'im here so I guess he's gon' adventure with me.


And Sandy. Who's Sandy you ask? Why she's my trusty bear companion! Finest bear in all da land. Why is her name Sandy? Beats the fel outta me; you'll have to ask me pa why 'e gave her sich a strange name when we live in an arctic climate. I try not to make much sense out of his actions anymore--they give me almost as big a headache as me mam.


Any'ow, the three of us reported to one o' da local mountaineers for duty and he told us to kill troggs. Come again?

Oh right...those ugly brutes...Right then, bombs away!

Troggs are...surprisingly easy to kill. Or at least these ones were. Sandy raked her claws through them and I peppered them with bullets and Squeakers sat watching from the side. Fun times.


Maybe now I can have a harder opponent?

Thank ye!

Wait...you want me ta bandage wounded down on the battlefield to? Do I look like some kinda priest ta ye? Ugh, fine, I'll do it. I better get some ale for this.



Now this is more like it! Wait? Whaddya mean there's no more ale and I have to go get some?! Fel...I'll do it on the morrow.

((I'll probably be keeping my posts short; sadly it helps me keep my attention span longer for these kinds of projects. XD))

[TygerDarkstorm]

Entry 2

Well, 'tis the next day and I don' remember what it was I was s'posed to do. A smack in the back of the head from Jona reminded me that I'm s'posed to be recoverin' them casks of ale from out in the snow. Right. Grundel Harkin stopped me on my way out asking me if I was interested in Archaeology. Is that like treasure huntin' or somethin'? Could be fun I guess. So now I need to find casks of ale and 5 dwarven artifacts that the earthquake exposed. Seems easy enough.


I'm hopin' that the ale ain't frozen in there after sitting out in the snow. Bad enough I didn't get my usual drink last night. After returnin' the kegs to Jona, she did indeed let me have a mug from one before tellin' me that now real work needs to be done, startin' with food and blankets. Kill pigs for their haunches and wolves for their pelts, right. Grundel was excited by the artifacts as well and wanted me to go retrieve more, this time from the local troggs. When I made a face he explained to me that learnin' more 'bout the troggs could help us learn more 'bout dwarves. If he says so...

Them troggs are crazy little buggers. Blimey! Bastards couldn't just hand the artifacts over nicely. Nope, instead when they felt provoked they THREW THEM AT ME. I mean really, what the fel? Grundel's gonna hear an earful o' this when I get back...


At least the boars went down a little easier; Sandy was able to keep them from goring me at least. Ol' bear seems to have managed to escape serious wounding herself. Atta girl! I felt kind of bad for killin' the wolves though. They were so puny, not much like what I was expectin' at all. I wonder if all wolves are like this or just the ones from Coldridge Valley?



I finally trudged my way back to Anvilmar looking forward to studying the artifacts with Grundel. I handed them over to him with a bright smile. Wait? What do you mean yer going to look them over? You said we could do it together! After giving him a swift kick in the rear end, I trundled off to Jona. At least she was happy with the gift of meat and pelts, spreading them around to those who needed them most. She then sent me to go talk to Thorgas Grimson, the hunter trainer.

Thorgas went on for a bit about how we need to learn to respect the world around us and that I need to learn about everything intimately. I'm a little unsure of this, but I s'pose he knows what he's doing. He then went on about what a great tradition huntering is. Everything he said was punctuated by the mention of drinkin'. Oy, I think I kin handle this new life. First things first, I gotta start with the basics.


After returnin' to Thorgas, Jona called me over, tellin' me I was needed by Grelin Whitebeard. I nodded to her, waiting for her to walk away before grumblin' to meself. Ach, Whitebeard kin wait until after I've had a drink or two. *hiccup* Or maybe three...
<The page ends in a bunch of random scrawling as if the writer passed out while in the middle of writing.>

[Nili]

aw I never thought dwarves cute until now

also my name's Rina so there was a moment of confusion lol.

[TygerDarkstorm]

I was never really a fan of dwarves either until I rolled my shaman on my main server as one. Then I got it in my head that I wanted to RP one.
Sorry for the confusion! It was one of those things that popped into my head and I liked the way it sounded (last name courtesy of Serendipity82). XD

[Varethyn]

Hee this is kind of fun Good job, looking forward to more.
And confusion happens. T'is a small world after all

[TygerDarkstorm]

((Thanks Varethyn. ))

Entry 3

Eugh...wha...wha' happened? Oh right, I passed out from drinkin' so much ale. Got a doozy of a hangover too. Woke up to Sandy nudgin' me with her nose makin' sure I was all right. Have to remember to thank me pa fer lendin' me such an excellent bear.

Now what was I s'posed to be doin' again? Oh right, gotta go meet up with Whitebeard. With Sandy pushing me from behind until I was sober enough to walk on my own, we made our way out to Whitebeard's camp. I swear Squeakers was laughin' at me the entire time; 'opefully that's jus' the drink talkin'.

Once we made it to the camp, Whitebeard took one look at me and laughed. 'E shaddup at my glare though and told me that while everyone else was focusin' on troggs, the nearby troll threat was bein' ignored so he wanted me to go around thin out the troll numbers to let them know that we know they're there. That sounds kinda confusin' come to think of it...

Nearby Whitebeard, a dwarf by the name o' Soren said that he don' think the trolls are here ta be hostile. He thinks that they're confused or frightened by somethin' and wants me to get near their soothsayers to try and figure out what they're up to. ((That quest is called "Trolling for Information" and gave me a giggle. XD)) As I turned around, a gnome was askin' for my attention; said he'd had nothin' but bad luck as of late and that since I was already headin' to the troll villages, if I could bring back his stuff since he'd been incompetent enough to lose it. Guess I might as well.

Eh? Did someone slip meh a drink without me knowin'? These trolls are tiny! I feel like I'm seein' things--Sandy's havin' fun toyin' around with em and even Squeakers is runnin' up to em and inspectin' em with his little beak.


As for the other matters, Felix the gnome's belongin's were lyin' about the camps near the Soothsayers so it was easy enough to accomplish both tasks. I don' think that the trolls are as scared as Soren thinks they are. From the sounds of it, they're waitin' on an elemental o' some sort. Right, time ta report back.



Felix was happy to have his things returned to him. Gave me a chuckle when he said he was off to Gnomeragan to find the ladies. I gave my report to Soren. He said this was bad (no kiddin'!) and to report to Whitebeard. Whitebeard was happy I made my mark on the trolls and a little upset by the news of the elemental. He wanted me to go put a stop to this mess while we were ahead, includin' taking out the troll leader.

When I got to the cave of trolls I noticed the trolls here were much bigger. As I looked out behind me to the tiny trolls and the way the soothsayer was talking to them, I put two and two togetha. I paled and had to sit down. Those lil ones I killed...they were...they were kids... <tear stains dot the page as the writing trails off>

[Layiaissa]

Awww, that's so sad. But it's a fun read.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Why thank you.

[Lupis]

Bastadran (my dwarf) isn't the only one crushed by the idea of killing little kids!

I like her. ^.^ And Squeakers is adorable.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Thanks Lupis. I didn't even realize they were kids, thus her slow realization. XD I just thought they were weirdly small trolls (since that bug is still around) until I finally put two and two together. Made for a good story. XD

[TygerDarkstorm]

((I haven't forgotten about this, I swear! I've just been busy working on my 85s on Uther.))

After mournin' for them poor little kids, I sobered up (so to speak) and headed inta the cave to put the hurtin' on them big trolls and their fire elemental lord guy.



After returnin' ta Whitebeard I let him have it for makin' me kill kids. He tol' me it was to keep them from growin' inta big trolls that will be set on killin' our valley. If he says so.

My next task was to report to Hands Springsprocket in the Coldridge Valley pass. Right after I arrived and he was about to send me through the tunnel, the whole thing collapsed!


Once we got over our shock, he told me to go report to Milo Geartwinge, a gnomish pilot down by Anvilmar.


Milo said he only had room for one dwarf (which would be me I guess) and that my things were packed up inside of Anvilmar and all I needed to do was retrieve them. So back inside meh dwarvish behind went to grab my stuff.



I said goodbye to everyone inside and made my way back to Milo, letting him know that I was ready. With a last look around, I said goodbye to Coldridge Valley and climbed into the plane. Well, I tried to, but Sandy wasn't having any of the plane. Milo and I had to push and shove at her big ol' bear butt before she begrudgingly got in the damned thing. I hopped in behind her before she could climb out and the plane took off. As we flew, Milo let us know via radio what to look forward to in Kharanos.


Once we landed, Sandy bowled me right out of the plane, ran over to the inn, and promptly plopped herself in front of the fire, refusing to move even at Squeakers' coaxing. Looks like we'll be staying here for a little while until she decides to move...

[TygerDarkstorm]

Entry 5

'Tis the next morning. Sandy's still sleepin' like a lump in front of the fire. After runnin' around and speakin' to the locals for things to do, I went back inside and Sandy was there gorgin' herself because she was apparently makin' pathetic faces at the innkeeper, leading him to believe she was bein' mistreated. After I corrected him, I encouraged Sandy to follow me outside with a hunk of meat so that we could get started on our tasks; after I bought a flask of Rhapsody Malt first--don't worry, it's not for me.

Once Sandy decided that she was done sulking and wanted to follow me on her own, we made our way out to go kill boars for their tender ribs so that they could be basted in the malt.


While Sandy was still in a good mood we made our way up to a local ice troll village and pilfered through their things for Shimmerweed. I was also told that some of their shaman might be carrying it on them as well. While I was up in their village, I also took care of killing off some of the trolls to keep them from attacking Kharanos. Nothing like being surrounded by em eh?



We made our way back to Kharanos and gave the ribs and malt to Thunderbrew. After he was done cooking them, I made sure to snag a few before they all got eaten and tossed one to Sandy for good measure. As I chewed on a rib, I made my way over to Barleybrew and gave him the shimmerweed he asked for. Next was to report to Captain Tharran and inform him that I had helped to take out some of the troll threat.

Tharran informed me of my next task. I guess the nearby population of Wendigos has sensed that we're becoming surrounded by more and more threats and they're encroaching further in upon us. Tharran wants me to go kill a bunch of them to cull down the population since he's pulling the mountaineers that have been stationed out there to help out with the growing troll threats. He told me I could kill young or old Wendigos; I sure as hell ain't killin' the little ones, even if they will grow into a bigger threat. Killin' kids just ain't right.


While I was killin' the big guys, I made sure to grab some of the supplies that they've been pilfering from us and our supply wagons.


Also in the cave I took care of Captain Tharran's other request to inform his stationed mountaineers to deploy their robots that the gnomes gave them and to report back to Kharanos. They all agreed to follow orders after making sure that their bots were working correctly.




After completing my tasks, I returned to Kharanos and reported in to Captain Tharran and Quartermaster Glynna. As Tharran assigned me my next task, I accepted it and headed back to the inn. Or ran rather as Sandy had decided that she'd had enough for one day and wanted the warm fire to curl up in front of again. Squeakers and I looked at each other, sighed, and then followed her. Ah well, at least I'll get a pint of ale out of this.

[Varethyn]

Yay, more!
I'm actually tempted to roll a dwarf now. Something I've not considered before. Good work

[TygerDarkstorm]

((Yeah, I went from being totally anti-dwarf to actually growing into liking them. XD))

Entry 6

Well, 'tis the next mornin' and Sandy at least seems more eager to go help me with my next task and we set off briskly to go free some of our mountaineers that had been entangled by troll totems and kill off some of the trolls that had taken parts from Razzle Sprysprocket.

Upon arriving to the battlefield, I could see that there were trolls everywhere. Sandy and I kept a wary eye out as we cleared paths through them to get to our encased allies and rifled through their clothing for the missing gears. It wasn't an incredibly hard task, although these damned trolls just seem to pop out of no where sometimes.



A little worse for the wear, Sandy, Squeakers and I returned to Kharanos. Razzle was happy to get his gears back so his two pilots could start being on their way into helping out the cause. Tharran was also pleased to hear we rescued some of our fellow mountaineers so now they could start pushing for a stronger attack against the trolls. In order to best help with the push toward Frostmane Retreat, Tharran wants me to report to Steelgrill Depot where the gnomes are running a covert, behind enemy lines operation. Sounds like fun!

As it turns out, Steelgrill Depot wasn't too far away and Delber said he was expecting me. He has a machine that shoots one with a volt of electricity and equips you with a parachute and is capable of deploying a person anywhere in Dun Morogh. Er...wait, what?! Apparently I'm to use this thing to take myself to Frostmane Retreat and report to Slamp Wobblecog when I land. Oh Light, please let me make it through this alive!




Once I got over the initial shock it wasn't so bad; Squeakers didn't seem to mind either. Sandy, as you could imagine, hated every last second of the brief ride, but at least there was no fireplace here for her to retreat to. After getting my bearings when we landed, I made my way to Slamp, who was busy looking at plans or something.


Our first orders were to Frostmane warriors and hunt down and kill Battok the Berserker. While we were on the field, Slamp also wanted us to signal in airstrikes from the northern and southern points of the retreat. Another gnome by the name of Snevik the Blade wanted us to stop the construction of the troll villages by shrinking their villagers to be gnome-sized. This is going to be interesting, I can tell already.

There were a lot of warriors, but they went down easily enough with Sandy swiping at their legs and me peppering them with bullets.


Battok was...odd. he started off lookin' like all them other big trolls wanderin' around, and then all of a sudden he transformed into this HUMONGOUS troll. Thankfully it didn't affect Sandy in the least and she continued to claw and bite at him while I did my best to shoot the monster in the head. Now I know why he's called the berserker.



While we ran around the retreat, I made sure to shrink the builders--which was hilarious, by the way. I felt sort of bad for them though because once they were shrunk Sandy did her very best to torment them until she either killed them or they outran her. I would feel worse for them if they weren't trying to overtake my home and people.


Our last task was to signal air support from the northern and southern parts of the village. This was done rather easily. Gnomish fliers came in and shot down their buildings and any nearby trolls while I hoofed my way back to Slamp.


The gnomes were pleased with my efforts when I returned, saying that all that remained was to mop up the survivors. Slamp said that Tharran had sent word to him telling him to thank me for all of my help in Kharanos and that there were reports of troll attacks at Amberstill Ranch. Looks like we have a new destination.

When we arrived at Amberstill Ranch, I felt myself get a little giddy on the inside--this is where they raise and train our riding rams! I canno' wait to get one of my own! Calming myself down, I reported to Sergeant Flinthammer. Sandy saw the rams' stables and beelined her way to it, promptly plopping herself in one of the stalls and refusing to move, even from the prodding of the local ranchers. Looks like we'll be staying here for a spell.

[pop]

She should go to the barber.