Reply To: Keli… short for Keli

[Aelswith]

Well, there must o’ been a frightful encounter what took place in the camp! The poor gripplis was scattered about, with some o’ them stretched out dead on the ground while others still alive and bleedin’ was thrashin’ about, screamin’ in agony from dreadful wounds they’d suffered!

Off to the side o’ the camp was a huge pile o’ dead ones what someone set ablaze and the fire was cracklin, and poppin’ burnin’ away the fat and flesh from the corpses! ! Oh geez! The stench o’ it was somethin’ awful! And there was cages set up ‘round the camp too! And more gripplis what seemed to be unhurt, locked up tight in ‘em!

Standin’ there in the middle o’ all this was Ebb, a boy we sees sometimes in town who I think lives with his wife in a house somewhere along Spinhold road!

The lad had a wild look in his eyes and straight off, we seen his weapon was all bloody with grippli guts drippin’ off o’ it! Ebb ain’t wanted to talk much about what had happened here. All he seemed concerned about was the seeds fer Frank what Walis was carrying in his pack and I ain’t sure just how Ebb knew ‘bout ‘em, ya know?

Anyways, Ebb wanted us ta give the damn seeds to him instead o’ Frank! He told us someone . . or something, was holdin’ his lovely wife hostage in the Spider Temple and he needed ta have those seeds fer ransom! Oh geez!

Then he tells us he ain’t got much time ta waste dickerin’ back and forth with us and we’d better hand over those seeds right quick or he’ll go about killin’ the rest o’ the Grippilis and us along with ‘em! Why the nerve o’ the pimply faced half pint little twerp!

Well, like I said, we’d noticed his sword, drippin’ blood and we was sus . . . susp . . . uh, we ain’t trusted Ebb one inch or believed his story about his wife. While the rest o’ us was havin’ this pleasant chat with the boy, Walis and Durok had worked their way ’round behind him and we now had him surrounded. We was ready fer anything he might be tryin’, ya know?

So a moment later, when Ebb flew at us in a rage, swingin’ his sword like a mad man, tryin’ ta chop us up into little bits, we began swingin’ right back! And oh geez, we wasn’t battling Ebb anymore ‘cause right before our eyes the little twerp turned into Kalem Salt, one o’ the Thirteen and now we had a real fight on our hands!

With all o’ us hackin’ away at him he ain’t had much o’ a chance and before long he was makin’ a trip to Garm, or wherever the hel one o’ Thirteen goes, when they’s dead. Then we ran quick to the cages and we let out the rest o’ the Grippilis so’s they could go about patchin’ up the others o’ their tribe what was still layin’ wounded, here and there around the camp.

We found Frankie in one o’ the cages and he ain’t had a clue to why Kalem Salt wanted the seeds. He suggested we keep ‘em, thinkin’ they’d be safer sittin’ in walis’s pack then in the camp with him. Later we talked a bit with Frankie ‘bout Sun-Ok bein’ cursed and unable to remove the gloves what was makin’ her do evil things. He tugged on ‘em himself, strainin’ hard ta pull ‘em off but he ain’t had no luck either.

He told us the only one what could take off those gloves was Sun-Ok herself and she’d be needin’ a huge amount o’ wisdom to be doin’ it. He told us if she did manage ta get ‘em off, they must be burned in a kiln or somethin’ like that what had a really high tem . . .uh, somethin’ really hot, ya know?

Then Sun-Ok, bein’ afraid she was gonna hurt someone else, run off into the woods somewhere and I don’t think nobody’s seen her since!

Walis left a bag on a post by the Foothold gates marked with her symbol and a little note tied on it, hopin’ she’d come by and notice it was left fer her. He put some things in the bag what he thought she might be needin’ and the rest o’ us has been addin’ almonds and other stuff to it durin’ the past week, tryin’ hard ta keep the poor thing from starvin’ to death!

We’s been collectin’ magic rings, amulets, charms and potions too! We’s lookin’ fer anything we can find what could give her a boost o’ wisdom. I heard Aelswort who’d heard about the whole thing from Bel, met Tam the other night in the Dragon and handed her two really strong potions ‘o ‘Heroic Wisdom’, thinkin’ they might be helpful!

Anyways, we’s done all we could think of, to do fer her. We’s hopin’ we’ll see her tonight and with what we’ve collected between us, mayhap the girl’ll be able to pull those damn gloves off.