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Post by Phillip the Bear on Jan 21, 2015 17:03:19 GMT
Location: Somewhere between Tilverton and Suzail Date & Time: Hammer, before Mid-winter, 1372 DR. Morning Participants: Anyone who wants to join a young black bear on his travels. And who likes berry pie.
Phillip shivered as he shook the snow off his paws, nose, and ears. A slight slip on some ice, and he'd careened headfirst into that snowdrift. He snorted, then sneezed snow. Rubbing his sensitive nostrils, he shook his head again and snorted. "That was cold," he commented, with a slight lisp to his voice. Blowing more snow out of his mouth, he stepped gingerly back onto the road and began walking again, a bit more carefully this time. As he walked, he tried to swing the smaller of his two bags around to get a look at it, and promptly slipped and fell again, this time onto his rear. Snorting, he frowned (as only a bear can) and examined his possessions before getting up this time.
It has been a long couple months, traveling through the Ride, Cormanthyr, the Dalelands, and now Cormyr, all in the dead of winter. The cold didn't bother him so much - he was heavily furred, after all - but the snow getting in his nose and ears was undignified. Particularly all the affronts his nose had taken. It was a majestic nose - his mother had always said so - and to have it fill with snow as often as it did was not right. Still, he had endured, and having passed finally through the Thunder Peaks, he was heading towards warmer weather. There was still snow, of course, but it wasn't as bad as in the mountains, and at least there was some sun here.
Rising once more, he set off down the road towards Suzail. He'd heard there was a druid grove in the King's Forest that might be able to train him further, and he wanted to get there as soon as possible.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 17:12:43 GMT
Sarina huffed and shook herself once more, but as she'd experainced the last eighteen times, it was to no avail. Stranded on the side of the rode, she'd found herself ensnared in the thorny brambles of a most-stubborn bush, and despite her best efforts, had gotten nowhere. Well, that wasn't entirely correct, she'd gotten many scratches across her exposed skin, and quite a large number of small tears in her clothing, a matter which had caused her no small amount of embarrassment. The frosty weather wasn't helping either. "Come on...let go...pleeeeease?" She pleaded, mostly with nobody in particular. Mortimer, Sarina's trusty rat, simply rolled his beady black eyes and continued chewing away at the manifold branches, trying to free the waylaid spellcaster. Sarina, meanwhile, continued to futilely flail her limbs in frusteration.
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Post by Phillip the Bear on Jan 21, 2015 17:23:33 GMT
Phillip ambled along for some time, managing to keep his feet now that he was more focused on them, and his nose suffered no more affronts, which pleased him. When he saw the woman entangled in the bush, he stopped, cocking his head to one side and frowning. He stared for a moment, then asked, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Pardon, ma'am," he said apologetically, "but you don't seem to be enjoying your current rwesting place." He scrunched his face a bit. "Perhaps you are in need of assistance?" He said the last with a hopeful tone, more than willing to offer his services to help.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 17:30:59 GMT
Sarina froze as she saw the bear, blurting out a rather pitiful "Don't eat me!" Before the bear did perhaps the third or fourth most unexpected thing it could possible do, which was to speak. For the record, the second most unexpected thing to do would be to erupt into a column of fire and ascend to the heavens, and the first most unexpected thing would be to transform into a dragon made of smaller bears. Cought off guard, she only nodded in response "How do you do. Yeah, some help would be most welcome" She asked, before her brain kicked itself back into action "Holy Heck, a talking bear! Wait, no, bears don't talk. At least not normally. Gahh, I bet I'm hallucinating from dehydration. No wait, that can't be it, I've only been out for a few hours. Unless I'm so far gone with exposure that I only think its been a few hours, which I suppose is a possibility as well. What do you think, Mr. Bear? Oh wait, that was probably rude of me. I shouldn't presume your surname is bear. That's awakward of me, sorry. Unless you are really a hallucination, in which case I'm not sorry because your just a figment of my mind, and really, my mind can do better as far as fever dreams go"
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Post by Phillip the Bear on Jan 21, 2015 17:43:57 GMT
Phillip listens politely as the woman rambles, nodding along but not understanding half of what she said. She was asking for help, though, he understood that much, and he smiled a very bear-y smile as he said, "I am verwy pleathed to athitht you, ma'am," he said sincerely, then examined the brambles holding her. "I believe I know thomthing that might help," he said after a moment. "Jutht give me a moment to rwemember it..." His face scrunched up again, then, after a moment, he reached a paw through the branches and touched Sarina. Her skin became shiny and slippery. Reaching in with his other paw, he pushed some of the brambles to the side. "Now trwy to wrwiggle out, ma'am." Casting Kuo-Toa Skin - +8 to Escape Artist.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 17:54:41 GMT
Sarina wiggled and wobbled, feeling the spells effect loosen the grip of the pricking thorns. With a twitch, a scrunch, and a slip, she popped free. "Ok, now see, that was pretty impressive. I've never even heard of a spellcasting bear" She dug around within her overcoats pockets, and extracted a quill and a bit of parchment, before frantically scribbling notes "Didn't look like arcane magic, so thats a bit outside my speciality. Shame, I'd love to swap notes. Do bears keep notes? I'll have to make a secondary note re: notes, if we find anything noteworthy. Bleh, unintentional tongue twister" Without missing a beat, she snapped her attention up "And thank so much for your assistance, I honestly was starting to think I'd have to strip naked to get out of that thing. GAH! I mean, I shouldn't have said that, that was inappropriate. Sorry"
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Post by Phillip the Bear on Jan 21, 2015 18:05:45 GMT
Phillip frowned. This woman certainly did love to talk. Perhaps she was just nervous. He smiled his friendliest smile. "I am most pleased to have helped," he says, bowing formally. If you have never seen a bear's bow, it is a thing of beauty and dignity, and he pulled this one off without a hitch. "I am Phillip," he continued, straightening. "My mother always taught me to do what is rwight, and it is most certainly rwight to help you in your distress." He drops back to all fours, then continues, "I am trwaining to be a druid, like the one who crweated us. But I'm not verwy good at it yet. I'm not the smartest bear, you know. But I trwy my best!" He smiles up at the woman. "And what ith your name? If it is not imprwoper to ask. Some people are verwy sensitive about their names."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2015 18:21:39 GMT
Sarina watched the bow with what could only be described as a reverant gaze. Truely, her life had been incomplete until this moment. She attempted her own bow in return, though it is important to clerify that it was only an attempt. She only managed to lower her torso by about twenty degrees, before the sound of ripping fabric caused her to jolt back upright. The damage to her wardrobe, while certainly not past the point of no-return, was certainly enough to have endangered some of its structural stability. "I am happy to say it is my pleasure to meet such a polite bear as you are, master philip. And no, its no trouble. My name Is Sarina. Sarina Albel, mage by trade, scholar by disposition. Always liked the idea of the druids, they seem a chipper bunch, but then, I don't ever imagine I'd make it very far. Speaking of which, should probably get moving again while the daylight lasts. Well, that, and I think I'll lose the feeling to my toes if I don't get some blood-flowing to them. Are you traveling this direction?" She asked, pointing briefly down the road.
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Post by Phillip the Bear on Jan 21, 2015 18:54:51 GMT
Phillip smiled broadly, or as broadly as a bear can. "I am indeed," he said, dipping his head. "I would be most pleased for us to accompany one another on this journey." He frowned, looking at the sky. "I don't think we need to worry about the light," he continues. "It is only morning, and almost time for the midmorning meal. Perhaps you would care to eat with me when we stop?" It is, of course, a great honor to be asked to eat with a bear, though none but bears would know that. But Phillip thought she needed some food, and he'd baked several berry pies the night before, when he'd stopped for the evening.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2015 19:54:27 GMT
Sarina was, simply put, a bit uncertain as to how to respond to the offer of a meal. What do bears eat for a mid morning snack? Grubs? Fish? Honey? Campers? Sarina was only comfortable dining on 50% of those things. But then, she also hated to be rude, given the good manners displayed by Philip thus far. So she simply nodded, and stated "That sounds good" before adding "I only had a light breakfast, so a mid-morning pick-me-up would not go amiss" And she immediately started questioning if she should have added that second part. What if it meant Philip would offer a double sized portion of grubs, out of curtsy.
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Post by Phillip the Bear on Jan 22, 2015 20:13:31 GMT
Phillip grinned again, quite a noble grin for a bear, though it might be frightening to a human. "Wonderful!" he exclaimed. Removing the smaller of his two bags, he opened it and pulled out something wrapped in cloth. Delicately, he unwrapped what appeared to be some sort of pie. "I made two of these last night," he said modestly. "I hope you like berwy pie. It's my mother's rwecipe." He offered the entire pie to her, eyes hopeful. To determine the pie's quality: _V8uX0DH1d20+10 1d20+10
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2015 0:48:17 GMT
Sarina accepted the pie, uncertain if she was supposed to eat it now or wait till later. More to the point, should she just continue to hold it, or put it away in her haversack? Splitting the difference, she diverted around the issue "Smells really good. Wait..." Her eyes narrowed, as a thought occurred to her. "How...How did you make this? I mean, making a pie, its not exactly a simple process. You need ingredients, a cooking tray, some kind of rolling pin." She was having a difficult time picturing how a bear would manage any of this.
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Post by Phillip the Bear on Jan 27, 2015 16:23:44 GMT
Phillip smiled. "Well," he says, "I do have a baking trway and ingrwedients in my sack here. And my paws do for a rwolling pin, when I don't have one." He held up his front paws. "My mother always made do with her paws, and she taught me." He looked expectantly at her as he pulled another pie from his sack. "It is time for eating," he said as he stuck a paw in the second pie and scooped out a paw-full. Despite the rather rough sound of this, he actually was a quite well-mannered eater, for a bear, eating only small paw-fulls at a time and carefully licking his paw clean after each bite.
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