A Fight Breaks Out
From the last update:
"At that moment, a rock crashed through the window, hitting Bjorn straight in the forehead, knocking him to the ground.
Bjorn, getting up with a bloodied head, peered out of the window, still confused as to what was going on. Outside of the tavern stood Gromprich. From the shadows behind him, more dark green figures slowly began to emerge................"
KSSSSSSSSSHHHHK!
The group turned upon hearing the tavern window shattering in the main hall of the tavern. Bjorn stood there, holding a stone in one hand, blood dripping down his head from where the stone had struck him.
"What in the world is going on, and what are those little goblins doing here?!?!?" shouted Bjorn. "What have you brought into my tavern?!"
Kira, looking down at Bjorn's hands, noticed something peculiar about the stone he held. "What is that tied to the stone?"
Bjorn looked down again, and noticed a string wrapped around the stone. Something appeared to lie beneath the string, but what could it be?
Unwrapping the string which surrounded the stone, a folded, wrinkled piece of parchment fell to the floor. It appeared to have something written on it.
Ulfric was the first to see the parchment, and jumped into action. Slightly nervous about its contents, he snatched the note up, unfolded it, and turned away from the others while reading, so as to hide its contents.
"What does it say, Ulfric, why is Gromprich so angry?" Bee asked, slightly annoyed with the situation.
Nervously, Ulfric tried to brush off the curiosity of the group. "I can't seem to figure out why he is so angry, this note doesn't say anything of importance."
Bjorn, who stood like a giant over Ulfric, reacted with anger and frustration. "OY! Give me that!" Bjorn lifted up Ulfric and took the note from his hands. Squinting, Bjorn read the note. "Gromprich is mad for a reason. It seems this sneaky goblin here (shaking Ulfric) didn't pay his bill before leaving the tavern in Poku Bog. Well then, best you pay up right now then" he said, shaking Ulfric some more to dislodge some coins before putting him down.
All of the group slowly turned to look at Ulfric. "I can explain, I had a good reason! Gromprich and his pals were charging way too much for a glass of Poku Bogwater!!!"
"All of this, over some bog water??" Aveanth asked, scratching his head.
Sir Snorfkin, noting the confusion, grinned and turned to Aveanth. "Poku Bogwater isn't just your ordinary bog water." Snorfkin, muttering a small spell under his breath, used his hands to create a small cloud around the size of a cannonball. Within the cloud the group could see a vision of goblins in a musty warehouse-brewery combination, and all gathered around.
"Poku Bogwater is one of the finest delicacies in Poku Bog. It is a drink which is distilled and sourced directly from the Bog, hence its namesake. Bogwater is highly valuable, and imbues those who drink it with increased strength. The goblins who inhabit Poku Bog are no strangers to Bogwater, and it is used in many traditions and rituals in the area. Bjorn has tried to get some shipments, but one requires approval from the goblins. A very powerful and valuable drink, that one, make no mistake!"
The group began to understand. Ulfric, still shocked and embarassed by the situation at hand, began to speak.
"I promise, I had my reasons for not paying" he exclaimed. "It was just so expensive!"
"Expensive?! How do you think taverns work you dolt?!" Bjorn shouted, outraged at the broken window due to Ulfric's antics elsewhere. "You're paying for the window now too!" Ulfric, looking a bit ashamed dug further into his pockets and emptied the rest of his coins into Bjorn's hands.
The room became incredibly quiet. Anachron, the only one who had been relatively calm until this point, spoke up. "It's quiet... too quiet."
At precisely that moment, chaos broke loose all around the tavern. While the group was discussing, Gromprich and his horde had surrounded the building, and the goblins had quietly pried open many of the windows.
A tiny goblin, no taller than the stools in the tavern, jumped through the window and latched on to Bjorn's back, clawing at him as he tried to reach behind himself and rip the goblin off.
The group became quickly overwhelmed, as many of them suffered similar fates as that of Bjorn, with goblins flying through the windows, and claws scratching at any person available in the tavern.
Gromprich, as angry as ever, and emboldened by the chaos occuring in the tavern, attempted to kick in the doors. Kira, however, had been wise and bolted the tavern entrance upon seeing the horde. Gromprich kicked and stomped, but with his small stature he became easily tired, and decided to join in the fracas by entering through the window.
"ULFRIIIIIIC, WHERE ARE YOU YOU BOGWOLLOP?!?" he screamed out, using the last of his breath.
Ulfric had remained relatively unscathed until this point, due to the goblins mostly attacking taverngoers and the group. Still tipsy from all the ales he had been drinking, he stumbled forward towards Gromprich, and shot out three fireballs in Gromprich's direction. Due to his impaired aim, they all missed. One fireball struck a curtain, setting a corner of the room on fire.
Gromprich, club in hand, rushed at Ulfric and knocked him over. He began to beat Ulfric again and again, with many of the hits connecting with a loud "THWOP."
Meanwhile, Kira, Aveanth, and Bee had been cornered by the goblins, and were fending them off, using large plates as shields. The goblins began pelting them with anything they could find available, rocks, silverware, snorfkoins, and even goblin boots!
Eventually, a fork sruck Bee in the leg, piercing her skin. She let out a loud cry "YEOOOOOOWWW!"
Amidst the chaos, Snorfkin and Anachron had managed to barricade themselves in a small storage closet in the tavern, and they discussed what to do next.
"THAT IS ENOUGH!" Bjorn thundered in to the main room with a greatsword in hand, swinging indiscriminately at the goblins. "EVERYONE CAN GET OUT OF MY TAVERN!" With some luck, Bjorn chased a good amount of the goblins out with his sword.
Although many of the goblins scattered, the scene didn't become much less chaotic. Bee was screaming in pain, Bjorn was so angry he was smashing anything in his vicinity, Ulfric was being pounded into a bloodied mess, and the rest of the group was still fending off the mass of scratching claws and flying rocks which filled the room.
Suddenly, the room was illuminated in a bright light which came from the storage closet. As the group and the goblins turned to look, stunned by the occurence, the group members also began to glow, a bright blue shining from them.
The tavern was so bright nothing could be seen. As it happened, the room became swallowed in silence.
While the light faded away rapidly, the silence remained. The group stood there, finding themselves precisely where they stood just before the fight broke out. All were unharmed. Everyone looked up and down at each other, and then at themselves, incredulous as to what had just happened.
Stepping out of the storage closet, Anachron and Sir Snorfkin looked around and greeted the group with a happy shout! "The time warp spell worked! Great work Anachron! We managed to warp back to before the fight!"
Realizing that they had just been warped back in time, and remembering the reason for the chaos in the first place, the group all turned to look at Ulfric, who was scurrying towards the back door. Bjorn, still freshly angry, grabbed ulfric by his cloak once again, holding him up in front of the others. "OY, what are we going to do with this one?" Bee, although happy to be safe, was still looking at her leg with a hint of pain in her expression.
Just then, a shout came from outside. It sounded all too familiar, as if this moment had already happened, but did not appear to be deja vu.
"..................uuuuuuuUUUUUULLLLLFFFRIIIIIIIIC!!!!! I know you are in there, you mangy snorfling's arse!"
It dawned on the rest of the group that they could now avoid a fight with Gromprich and his horde, as they knew exactly why he was so angry.
As if on cue, the parchment-wrapped stone crashed through the window. KSSSSSSSSSHHHHK! Howver, this time Bjorn was quick to react, catching the stone before it even hit the ground. He managed to do this while still holding Ulfric, who was trapped in Bjorn's boulder-sized hands.
Bjorn was still infuriated by the situation, and shouted out through the broken window: "OY, the next goblin that breaks a window will have his bones used to replace the frame! Give us a few minutes to discuss and we will resolve the issue with Ulfric!!"
"This better be good!" Gromprich shouted back. "You have 5 minutes!"
Turning back to the group, Bjorn held Ulfric up high, flipped him upside down, and began shaking him until snorfkoins began to fall from his robes, clinking as they hit the ground.
Kira bent down to collect all the snorfkoins and tossed them to Bee, who had found a small rucksack where the coins could be stored.
Anachron, the hero of the day, helped Bee tie up the rucksack and threw it outside after all the coins had been collected. "That should be enough to cover the Poku Bogwaters! Now let's try and avoid a scuffle, no one wants to get hurt!"
The group agreed that this was the best approach to ensuring that no goblins or travelers ended up in the Snorfkingdom infirmary.
Gromprich was irritated, but satisfied. "We've come all the way from the damn Poku Bog, so these Snorfkoins won't solve the problem. If you give us a place to stay for the night, then we'll agree to a truce. And you better make sure that bogwollop Ulfric pays the next time he visits our tavern!"
Snorfkin looked at Bjorn, who nodded in acceptance at the terms. "Come on in, and grab yourselves some Snorfkingdom Grub while you're at it, it's on the house!" he shouted out the window.
The group all sighed in relief at coming out of the tense situation unscathed, although Bjorn was still angry about the one broken window. "I'll have to patch that up as soon as possible." He was, however, relieved that the situation ended the way it had, and decided to place the parchment-wrapped stone on a shelf above the tavern bar, a sort of trophy to remember the experience.
As Gromprich and the goblins spread out and enojyed their grub and the warm fire, the travelers regrouped at a large oak table in the tavern.
"Now that that's over, it's time we finish where we started. I suggest that we all get some much needed rest, and we meet back here in the morning. Then I can tell you about the rest of what I know so far about the regions of the Vale of Snorf, and we can decide how to proceed from there onwards. How does that sound?" The group agreed at this being the best approach. Ulfric, embarassed and exhausted, was the first to head to his lodging upstairs. Kira, Bee, and Aveanth stuck around to drink a few more ales and make new friends before resting. The others, in time, made their way to their freshly made beds. Bjorn, always the caretaker of the tavern, patched up the window, dimmed the lights in the tavern, and closed up for the night once all had found their place to rest for the night.
In the night, many began to think about what else could lie outside of Sweetwater Plain, and where their adventures in the Vale of Snorf might take them next. After the long day, many had started to feel like true citizens of the Snorfkingdom.