this forum's W&W own storyline

Balgin Stondraeg eagerly accepted his meagre share of gold and set out into the wilderness.It was late in the evening and a lone bell tolled from the town behind him. Wrapping his furred cloak about him he thought of Serath's rodent, it looked like pie filling but he never really liked them daft things that his kinsfolk ate. Up ahead on the pathway loomed a strange robed figure wich, had he not been a Stout, would have smelt vaguely lizardlike.
The creature spoke,"Ssstranger, a word if I mayy, I am seeking the Toad Village, I have jusst come ffrom Valeia."
Balgin cleared his throat and introduced himself in typical, longwinded, stout fashion. "I am Balgin Stondraeg, son of Durin Stondraeg, son of Norris Bearchaser, son of Guthram the smith. My mother's name was Herna Siggurdsdaughttir, her mother was Maerna Atli's child, my wife is Urwena the shield bearer and-"
"The Toad Village,"hissed the scaly creature,"is nearby yesss?" It's forked tongue flickered in and out of it's lipless mouth, tasting the air for any scents that it might find pleasing. Instead it smelt a stout, and a particularly unclean one at that.
Balgin did not take kindly to being interrupted,he didn't particularly like large lurking lizardlike beings that happened to interrupt him. Insulted by it's indifference he stomped around it and up the path, his steel toe capped hob nailed boots marking a clear trail...

Strange shapes ahead in the darkness, trolls most like. The axe sang as it cut through the air, black blood dripped from the monstrous travesties. The dwarfern war chant was suddenly joined by another. The trolls club struck against the fine dwarfern shield, Balgin felt the vibrations shudder up his arm, jarring the shields rim against his shoulder. He must be getting a bit old for this. "Think, lad, think" he muttered to himself. Smashing his shield against the creatures body, pinning the club between them, he grinned wickedly,"Hello my enemy, stay a while and die!" The axe ripped across the trolls neck and it's head lolled forwards.Pushing the corpse from him Balgin observed that his fight had not been unaided. A young dwarf (younger than Balgin anyway)was whiping a knife on the last trolls back. After lifting it to the dying light and turning it to satisfy himself that it was clean again he turned to his fello Stout, "Hello there, me name's Bilbumph, I used ter work up in the crypt but I retired a ways back."
Balgin knew that he was in good company and felt around in his belt pouch for that last emergencies only bottle of beer. After all he was in good company and he needed to clear his head of the taste of that vile Toad drink, it had tasted a bit off this time, fair cleared his head (he had been able to see his face in the shiny pile of vomit that it induced) but at least it seemed to cure that infected wound that he'd picked up near the serpent temple. So he settled down to a good session of drinking, grumbling and carousing to the memory of good old King Brinbath, may he rest in peace.

Meanwhile...

Last in line for the adventurer tryouts stands an unlikely pair- a tall, lithe tigerwoman and a short, redhead gnome. They apparently know each other from somewhere... The gnome occasionally makes small, snide comments about failed applicants trudging by, heads down.

"Heh. Check this one out, Wylie. This here Oomphaz thinks he got what it takes ta be a rogue. Gah."
"Shut up, gnome."
"Hey, now. There ain't no reason ta bring race into it, now is there, fur-butt?"
“I mean it, Dael.”
“Ooh. Check out that Whiskahs over there… bet he got a nice tail on him, don’t he?”
She glares down at his stupid grinning face, and smiles, being sure to show ALL of her teeth. He shuts up.

"Next!"
Ditka stood lounging against the staircase in the inn while Adam sized up the potential “recruits” and found some small flaw that promoted him to confiscate their gold and send them on their merry way. He takes one glance at a chubby Gourk female dressed only in a very small leather bra and some bizarre skin panties, almost lost his lunch, and put out a small sign stating that the tryouts are now closed.
“Well Ditka, how’d we do?”
“Not bad… we got almost ten thousand gold from those suckers… Probably set up a few of them to wind up with a bad hangover, too. I’d certainly go get drunk if I knew I’d just lost two hundred gold in a set-up.” He laughs, and reaches down to admire a gold crown confiscated from some Lizzord.
“Hey! Not so loud! There might still be some around, they’ll hear you!”
“Oh, come on. Adventurer tryouts!? Who’s gonna believe that?”

At that point comes a knock at the inn door. Its one of those double-door jobs, with a section above that swings out. Adam walks over to it, swings open the top section, and neatly smacks Wylie in the face. She jumps back with a yowl of surprise.
“Hey, whaddya think yer doin’? Ya just about broke me friend’s nose, there, bucko!”
Adam looks around, but can’t find anyone making this obnoxious noise.
“Hey, down here, bigjobs!”
Adam looks down over the lower half of the door to see a short, spiky-haired gnome staring back at him. “I… uh…”
“Yeah, you better! Lissen, we’re here for them tryout thingies, so let us in!”
“Sorry, no can do. The tryouts are closed.”
“Whaddya mean, the tryouts are clossed?! Ya gave all them others a chance! E’en the stupid ones! Like that Lizzord what wanted ta be a wizard… didja see ‘im? Barely knew his nose from his face. I don’t fancy him chuckin’ around Flamestrikes, I don’t.”
Ditka looks up. “Hey, whats going on, Adam? We’ve gotta get all this gold over to Sazerac so we can get our stuff.”
“Gold? Did I hear something about gold?”
Dael has hopped up atop the double door and is leaning on Adam’s shoulder, looking past him at the sack of gold Ditka is holding.
“Hey… where’d all the gold come from, anyhoo?”
Ditka grins, still staring at the sack of yellow. “I’d guess from some poor wannabe’s pocket, not much of a leap there.” Ditka looks up, wondering why Adam’s voice had taken on a gnomish quality. “Hey! What are you doing here?”

The inn door flies back with a crash. Adam steps back, and Dael goes flying off the lower section to land precariously in the moose antlers hung over the fire. In strides Wylie, eyes ablaze, claws out and a freshly squashed nose on her face. “I’ve come fifty miles to this flyspeck town for some stupid contest to prove I don’t even know what! And now you tell me that the tryouts are closed after I waited in line behind a Boogre who’d been eating beans with only this scatterbrained gnome to keep me from chucking it all and leaving!? You are gonna let me try out or I’m gonna…”

..claw your eyes out!"
Wylie lifted a hand and one by one, long and freshly sharpened claws revealed themselves with a faint "ting!", Adam's eyes got bigger and bigger as each one popped out until he realized what easy targets he was making of them.

He blinked hard and squinted. "Uh, Well, OK. Show us what you got"

Then holding his hand out added "But, your gold first please?"

Wylie hid them again and said "Yeah, I thought as much!" She threw him a small sack of coins and as he opened it to count it she hissed "It's all there! Now stand back!"

She drew her sword and did some impressive maneuvers in an almost Samauri-like style but it was obvious she needed more practice.

When she was finished, Adam shook his head approvingly and said "Next!" as he turned toward Ditka and winked.

"Wha?" Wylie stammered, "What do you mean next?!"

Adam looked around, "Oh that's right, there's no one left!" He smiled at her and almost flinched when her ears flatttened and a small growl escaped from her throat.

Holding his smile intact though he nodded his head slightly and said, "Thank you for your tryout m'lady now if you will excuse us we have business to attend to."

He stepped past her toward the door and motioned over his shoulder to Ditka to follow him.

As they stepped out of the Inn, they heard the gnome still entangled in the moose antlers yelling for someone to help him down.

They laughed as they headed for the Armory.

They enters thru the door and the blacksmith greets them
"Welcome to my armory! have a look around while I finish this helm then I'll be with you!" hammering resumes.
Adam, like a child in a sweet shop, started pointing at the weapons hanging on the wall, "I want that, and that, and that...and...."
Ditka interrupts, "We only buy what we truly need not want!"
Adam mumbles, "Dammit...."
Ditka sighs and walks over to the table covered with boots.
Later....

[Wyvern]

The expression "cannon fodder" jumps into his head. Adam has no idea what it means but suspects that an extra body or two might help form some additional protection in the days ahead.

"Er, a sorry about your nose. Want to join up?"

"Of course I do." she answered flatly.

She was pouting a pout that only Whiskahs could get away with...serious and sad, it made Adam feel a little sorry he had put her off the way he had.

"You are pretty good with that sword you know and with some more practice I could see you ascending to Samauri"

"It is what I hope for" she said in an almost purr, licking her paw and rubbing it over her brow to wash away the tears that had surfaced in their absence. "Do you have room for us?"

"Us?" Adam asked, "You mean you and your little gnome friend?"

"The name is Dael!" the gnome huffed, "Well do ya?"

sssT!>>

[Serath]

Adam shrugged his shoulders, palms up. "I'm not really sure. We've gone through a lot of applicants, and now we have to decide who's best for the party. There are a lot of qualified adventurers out there, like that rogue Kitten. I'm sure she VERY qualified..."

"The point is, we're not sure who is going to be going with us," Ditka went on, snapping Adam out of his fantasies. "But I'm sure that you two rank right right up there with the rest. Give us a day or two, and we will be contacting the persons that we choose."

Ushering the two prospects out the door, Adam announced "Now if you don't mind, Ditka and I have to go purchase some...uh, supplies." A faint hint of a smile crossed his lips.

Once outside the door, Wylie looked down at her friend and stated matter of factly, "They can't just shoo us away like that you know! I heard a couple of REAL Ninjas talking about that Kitty and how she had no self control! She could get them all killed if they ally themselves with that one!"

"So what do you propose we do then?", Dael asked, "Go back in and beat them into accepting us for our talents?"

"No," Wylie answered, "but we can go back in and get a room and hang out for a couple of days to see what becomes of the party they are trying to put together. I would even consider a little sabotage where little Miss Kitty is concerned if it meant my getting in."

"What about me? I ain't here for a vacation you know!"

Wylie giggled, "I know, my friend, and I do thank you for keeping me company this long but would you agree that if one of us gets in and the other doesn't that it would be OK?"

Dael puffed his chest out a little, daydreaming momentarily of being part of the party. "Sure it'd be OK!"

With that said, they turned back to go back into the inn to get a room and wait around to see what became of the adventure they had journeyed so far to be a part of.

[Wyvern]

Laurel, having left the village by the east gate, located a large tree under which to sit. Assuring herself that there was no immediate danger she slipped into a deep meditation.

"They wish your personal help, Wyvern."
"I am aware of this but I am not convinced that this group would benefit from my council. They seem uncautious and easily mislead. Monyka had no difficulty convincing them that they must be in the Boogre Caves in three days."
"If you do not help, all their efforts will probably help Cet. You cannot wish that, can you?"
"No, I do not wish that."
"Then you will come to meet with them?"
"Tell them that if they wish to meet with me, they will have to meet me at ......."