Reclaiming the Hot Springs
((Sadly I completely forgot to take pictures of it, it was a /roll event we had in Zigilgund))
Dhordur had just woke up and got dressed. He walked out of his office down the stairs in the outpost Zigilgund, it was a sunny and chilly morning as most of them used to be up there but something made this morning to feel good. He met Hlifa by the fire, she had just started to make the breakfast. They chatted a bit about the weather and other things. Just as the breakfast was done and ready to be served the Master of Trade Thorlaen came to the fire, he had just been out trying his luck with some fishing, but he had no luck and did not catch any fish. They sat down and started to eat the breakfast that Hlifa had made by some receipt she had got from the local folk of Forochel, the Lossoth. They had a bowl and a tankard of fresh ale each, they chatted some more about ordinary things, like the weather.
Dhordur then eventually, when he had eaten half of his food and he had drank half of his ale, started to talk about another thing, a more serious matter at hand. He kept munching on his food while he started to talk about it, it was about the Hot Springs, the salt mines it was called as well. He said that it was time to get it back and cut the head of the worm, literally speaking. The springs had been taken and was haunted by frost worms and had been for a while before they came to the outpost. Thorlaen agreed that it was needed to take it back so Dhordur started to explain his plan he had been working on.
They were going to hide their scent, sneak past the worms into the springs and find any trace of the matron worm. When they found it they will kill it by cutting the head off, hopefully. When they managed to do it, they were going to hunt out the rest with the help of the free guards. Dhordur had been reading up on the frost worms, or at least the small texts he had been able to find about them and the rumors about them he had heard of the Lossoth. What he could find is that they were more of a night creature and could see better at night, so in the days the most of them would be a sleep and would not be able to see too good cause of the sun light. How ever their nose is better, they could easily sense the smell of them out, even if the smell in the springs was so awful.
As soon as all had eaten up they got ready, Hlifa proposed to use the scent of old, old and bad eggs they had store in a crate nearby to cover their scent. She opened that crate and that smell was awful, but they needed to do it. All of them hoped that the smell would not stay in their clothes and was easy to wash off. Hlifa put it into some flasks that she handed to Thorlaen and Dhordur. Then they headed off, while the three of them walked out of Zigilgund, Dhordur kept telling them what he knew about the worms so all of them would be prepared for anything. He also said that if anything would go bad enough, he himself would attract the attention to himself so Hlifa and Thorlaen would be able to flee. He rather wanted to die than to risk the life of all three of them.
Eventually after a small walk they arrived a bit outside the springs. There they opened a flask each and started to rub the content all over their clothes and such, Dhordur started at his feet and ended at his head, lastly he rubbed it all into his beard. When they all were done, they started to move farther close to the springs, they were sneaking forward to a cliff, Dhordur peeked out from it and saw one worm, walking around and sniffing the ground. He turned back to the rest and when he did that another worm came walking up to the other one. Thorlaen noticed it and corrected Dhordur when he said that one worm was up ahead. They all made a try and sneaked further on, Dhordur sneaked lastly, giving the others a chance first. But he slipped, rolling down a bit into some loose rocks on the ground, it made some noise and dragged the attention of one of the worms. The worm walked up to the stones where Dhordur was laying completely still and hold his breath while it sniffed on him. Not long after it sniffed him it sneezed all over his stomach, making something nasty get on his stomach and then it walked off again. Dhordur got up slowly and quiet and sneaked on to the rest that was hiding by a cairn. Thorlaen saw the nasty stuff on Dhordur's stomach and told him about it, he wiped the most of it away as they were in a hurry.
They moved on, Dhordur sneaked first this time and got up to a small cliff wall, just after him Thorlaen was and as Hlifa was sneaking up as well, the ice cracked under her a bit and she slipped, making a bit of noise as well. Another Worm not far off heard it and walked over, but it just passed her as it apparently heard the sound from farther away. She got up again and managed to get over to the other two. They just kept going and hoped for no more misfortunes would happen to them. They moved on and had to pass two sleeping worms, as they passed they could make out one of them sounding like it was snoring. As they had passed the worms they stopped by another cliff wall and had to decide what direction to go. It was quickly decided and they head further on, where they were passing now a larger group of worms were sleeping and two of the worms appeared to be eating.
They moved up and stopped by the water next to a cairn again. Dhordur looked down on the ground and saw the tracks he wanted to find, it was tracks of a more heavier worm that had passed by not too long ago. He nodded at the Thorlaen and Hlifa and they all kept going, but this time Dhordur was unlucky. He slipped again as he was closer to the water and that made the ground more icy. He rolled a bit and splashed with his feet into the water. That made one of the sleeping worms to wake up, sniffing into the air and then walking up to the water. It started to drink from it and it appeared to notice Dhordur almost right away, it was about to go in for an attack when he took his axe and did a quick and hard sweep with it, cutting the head of the snake. Blood splattered onto the ground and into the water, a bit of it also got on his clothes. He moved on to the others. ''That was... Too close..'' Dhordur said in a bit of a shocked voice as he did almost think that it was over there and then. They kept sneaking on, now they could see three worms sleeping next to each others, two of them was smaller then the rest of the worms here were and the third one, sleeping in the middle seemed to be bigger than nay other worm in the springs were.
The matron was in a deep sleep as they moved closer to the three worms. They had decided to do this as quick as possible, as they was sneaking closer one of the worms woke up, sniffing the air and then walked away from there. Now they only had to worry about one small worm. They moved even closer but the small worm woke up and noticed them almost right away, they tried their luck and all three of them attacked it. Thorlaen was the lucky one and hit it in the side, making it's hissing growing higher, but the matron did not woke up. The worm went in for an attack, throwing Dhordur away with it's tail, Hlifa and Thorlaen was lucky as the tail had missed them but just barely. Dhordur tried to swing his axe from his position laying down but he just missed, Hlifa managed to miss as well, as it was too far from her. Thorlaen had luck once again and hit it yet again in it's side, making it to get angrier and hissing higher, still the matron was deep asleep. Now it had moved away from Dhordur and went towards Thorlaen and Hlifa. That was when Hlifa quickly buried her axe deep into the worm, it twitched a bit and then stopped moving and the hissing had stopped.
Now they moved their attention towards the sleeping matron. They went up to it and Hlifa being eager now after her last kill made a sweep with her axe at it and cut the head straight off. They all let out a small cheer and Dhordur took out something from his belt pouch, it was a small horn and as he blew in it it sounded like a large Dragon roared. When that sound stopped they could hear two more sounding a bit farther off and the worms had woken up and started to flee. They cheered yet again as they could see guards from Zigilgund hunting the worms off with blowing those horns even more as they went on.
Now the three of them moved their tired legs back towards Zigilgund...
The End
