Inder
Chapter One

	Inder, full of hustle and bustle.  Smack dab in the middle of the Inder 
Pass.  The last caravans are passing through before the snows block all passage. 
We've been here for about a month, but I still can't get used to seeing all the 
dwarves and gnomes in this place.  There are even occasional Orcs and Goblins 
coming in to trade their wares, or more likely their loot.  Places like this, on 
the trade routes between mountain passes, are always odd, but I shouldn’t 
complain, no one here thinks twice about seeing an Elf, a Dwarf, and an Orc as 
traveling companions.  This is the first time I've ever stayed in a place like 
this for more than a night.  
	We stopped here to finish our training, and check on the baby griffons.  
I finished my training with a shield, and now both Bud and I wait as Glug 
continues learning to read and write the common tongue.  Chargoth has been 
training the griffon hatchlings for both Bud and Glug, they should be strong 
enough to act as steeds by next spring.  We don't plan on staying here that long,
as soon as Glug is done, we’ll be heading back to the Horny Mug Inn, where I 
expect to spend the winter entertaining the guests and dodging beer mugs.  
	Its another late morning, I am just recovering from sampling a few too 
many Dwarven ales the night before.  Where the hell is Bud?  He got up and left 
before I woke, I don’t know how those Dwarves can drink so much and still feel 
fine the next day.  Might as well go down stairs and see what kind of grub they 
are serving for breakfast.  
	"Hi Bart", he runs the inn we are staying at, "You see Bud?"
	"He left about an hour ago, I think he was going to see them birds."
	"Thanks, give me some of that grub you call breakfast."
	"Sure thing Mister Strongbow."
	That was one of the things that annoyed me about Bart, he was always 
polite, even if you were insulting him.  In the midst of choking down this 
dwarven gruel, Bud came in through the front door.  He’s a big damn dwarf, and he
never goes anywhere without that huge axe.
	"Strongbow, you up for a little trip?" Bud asked.
	"Groan", from me.
	"Yeah, Chargoth never cleared out those griffon nests."
	"So?"
	"Well since we gotta wait for that idiot orc to finish learning how to 
write, why don’t we go get those nests, we could use the money."
	"Can’t I just sleep until you get back?"
	"I need your help to find them."
	"Damn.  We’re going to need to get some help to get those nests, you got 
anyone in mind?"  I wasn’t to excited about moving right now, but the chance to 
get out of Inder, for a week or so, didn’t sound all that bad.
	"I’m going to go buy a team of oxen and a wagon, and hire a few dwarves 
to help us.  Why don’t you get some sleep, you look like shit."
	"Thanks."  With that, Bud turned and headed out the door, leaving me to 
my gruel.  I finished that up and went to check on Screech.  I walked over to the
aviary, which is a huge structure made out of four of the largest tree trunks 
I’ve ever seen, and laced with rope to create a net to keep the griffons in.  
Screech was tied up next to the aviary, she’s a full grown griffon, that I use as
a steed.  A griffon is an impressive animal,  she has the head, wings, and talons
of a giant eagle, and the body of an enormous lion.  
	"Hi, girl, you get any food"
	"SCREECH!!"  Guess not, I’ll have to get something for her.  Where is 
that beastmaster, he should be training the hatchlings.  I head over to his 
house, on the other side of the aviary.  Just as I knock on the door, it opens, 
and there stands Chargoth, an old Dwarf, and one of the most skilled animal 
trainers in the lands.  
	"Hi Strongbow, you gonna feed that bird?  She’s been screeching up a 
storm."
	"Shouldn’t you be training some hatchlings?"
With that, Chargoth walks away muttering under his breath "Damn elves."
	I walk around to the back of the house to see what’s hanging in the shed.
Looks humanoid, I wonder where he got this?  Whatever, I drag the butchered 
corpse back to Screech.  If you think the sight of a griffon is impressive, you 
should see a griffon eat.  Whatever that creature was, it was just a few stray 
bones and some chunks of skin in minutes.  Remind me not to get on Screech’s bad 
side, I’ve seen her take apart living creatures in seconds.  
	I watched Chargoth work with the hatchlings for a while, they were five 
baby griffons, compliments of us, that he was training.  We had gotten into a 
little dispute with some griffons earlier this summer, and ended up with six 
griffon eggs.  One of them didn’t make it to hatching.  Chargoth was training two
of them for Bud and Glug.  They were just strong enough to fly, and I could see 
that it took a great deal of skill to control them, as Chargoth did.
	Well that task finished, I better find Bud before he spends all our money
on a wagon and some drunken dwarves.  I asked Chargoth where Bud would be able to
buy a wagon and team, and he sent me to an outfitter not far from here.
	I met Bud coming down the road toward me, riding a wagon, with two rather
large oxen.
	"Damn, I hope you didn’t spend too much money." I said.
	Bud, ignoring that comment replied, "Hop on, now we’re gonna travel in 
style."
	"Did you line up the hired help yet?" I asked.
	"Course, got three dwarves from the mines to help us out."
	"Okay, when did you plan on leaving?"
	"Tomorrow morning, make sure you don’t drink your face off tonight."
	"I’ll try not to, did you tell Glug we’re leaving?"
	"No, lets go find him and let him know."
	We went to the house where he was taking his lessons.  I walked up and 
knocked on the door.  A fossil of a gnome answered.  "Can I help you?"
	"Yeah, I’m looking for a really dumb orc, have you seen him?"
	"You mean Glug, just a minute."  With that he shambled back into the 
house.
	A moment later a big ugly Orc came out the door.  "Hi guys, nice cart."
	"Its a wagon!" responded Bud.
	Glug, not knowing the difference, didn’t much care, "Where are you going?"
	"Bud and I have decided to go get those griffon nests while we are 
waiting for you.  We could use the gold right now, we don’t have much left, and 
the nests are closer than the Horny Mug."
	"Great, I’m going to be reading books, while you guys are out having fun."
Glug complained.
	"If you weren’t so dumb you would be finished and coming with us." 
cracked Bud.
	"Okay, shut up you two." I said, trying to diffuse the situation.
	"Shove it elf!" in unison from Bud and Glug.
	"We’re leaving tomorrow morning, Glug, we should be back in a week or so,
will you be done?"  Bud asked.
	"I suppose." Glug responded dejectedly.  "I better go finish my lesson, 
see you guys at the inn."
	With that he turned and headed back into the house, I jumped up on the 
wagon, and Bud drove us back to the inn.  After securing the oxen we went inside 
to prepare our equipment for the journey.  We were all staying in the same room, 
so Bud and I put all our stuff on Glug’s bed while packing.  
	I checked my bow strings, and went over my arrows, they appeared to be in
good shape.  My broadsword needed sharpening, so I handed it over to Bud, he was 
sharpening his axe, for the third time today no doubt, and asked if he could 
sharpen my sword for me.  He took it and set it aside for now.  My glaive was 
still sharp, I can’t remember the last time I used it, oh yes, that was it, I was
hacking into a ghoul with it.  That was last spring.  My pack was ready, as was 
my armor, I’d probably leave my plate at the inn, my leather armor would do fine 
for a trip like this.  "Bud, I’ll go downstairs and get the innkeeper to put 
together a pack of food for us." 
	"Grunt", grunted the dwarf as he finished his axe and started sharpening 
my sword.  I headed downstairs to purchase the necessary food.
	"Bart do you think you can put together a pack of food for Bud and myself,
 we’ll be gone a week, Glug will still be staying behind."
	"Sure thing Mister Strongbow sir."
	"Uhgg!  Just have it ready by the morning."  I turned and went back 
upstairs.
	"Mission accomplished.  You done packing yet?" I asked Bud.
	"Just about."
	The rest of the day went uneventfully, at about sunset Glug came in and 
awoke us from our nap.  
	"You bums ready for dinner?" Glug asked enthusiastically.  
He thought the food here was great, I can only imagine how is mother must have 
cooked.  We got up and went down to eat.  About halfway through our meal three 
dwarves came in, and after spotting Bud, headed over to our table.  
	"Greetings Dwarves" Bud said "these are my companions Strongbow and Glug."  
	"You will be travelling with Strongbow and myself in the morning."  
	The three dwarves eyed Glug and myself rather suspiciously.  Like most 
people it was a little confusing to see three racial enemies all sitting together
eating dinner.  
	"Sit down, have you eaten?" I said, trying to mollify any suspicions they
might have.  
	Their apparent spokesman replied, "No we haven’t, we’d be glad to join 
you, my name is Gruedin and these are Brondaf and Skrenguld."
	"Pleased to meet you." I said, and rose from my seat to get them some 
extra chairs.
	"Bart, three more plates!"  Bud yelled.
	In a few minutes we were all eating and drinking and telling stories.  
The three dwarves seemed quite interested in hearing our tales of adventure and 
heroics.  I controlled my drinking that night, and we were all in bed at a 
reasonable hour.  Before the sun rose the next morning, I was up and waking Bud. 
After dodging a few poorly aimed blows, I was able to rouse him.  
	"Get up and pack the food on the wagon, I’ve got to go get Screech." I 
said.
	"Spurbland!", cursed Bud in his native tongue. 
I put on my leather armor, and some furs, the mornings were pretty cold this time
 of year, then headed down stairs, and was met by an ever chipper Bart.
	"Master Strongbow, I have put together the food you requested, along with
a keg of ale."  
	Well how can you be upset about that?  "Thanks Bart, you’re a good man, I
mean Dwarf."  His dung eating grin actually got larger, what have I just done, I 
wondered.Screech was cleaning herself as I approached, after spending a moment to
scratch her feathers, I untied her and lead her to the shed.  The harness and 
saddle were just inside.  I opened the door and noticed what had to be several 
large sections of what once must have been a giant.  
	"My god, where does he get this stuff?"  I wondered aloud.  I dragged out
a massive thigh, and let Screech munch on it while I saddled her up.  When I was 
all set, I climbed on her back and tied myself in, then with a squeeze of my legs,
we took flight.  Few things are as exhilarating as flying on the back of a 
griffon.  We did a circle around the aviary, Screech squawked at the hatchlings, 
they squawked back, then we turned and headed towards the inn.  I could see Bud 
loading the wagon in front, the three dwarves had joined him.  I settled Screech
down around the back, to avoid scaring the oxen.
	"We ready to go?" I asked Bud.
	"Looks like we got everything, did you get your weapons?"  Bud said.
	"I’ll go get them now, be down in a flash."
	Glug was snoring heavily as I opened the door.  I grabbed my weapons, 
then just before sprinting out the door, I tossed Glug’s tower shield at his head.
I could hear thrashing sounds and Orcish curses all the way downstairs.
	"You say goodbye to Glug?"  asked Bud.
	"Yup, lets go."
	With that I mounted up on Screech, Bud took the reigns of the wagon, and 
the three dwarves climbed in back.  We headed north on the road just as the sun 
began to light the mountain peaks, the valley of Inder was still dark and quite 
cold.  That day proved to be an uninteresting day of travel, in fact the entire 
trip to the nests went without anything interesting happening.  The Dwarves made
short work of the ale, and we were forced to replenish our supply a days journey 
from the nests.  
	It took a little aerial reconnaissance to find the nests, griffons have a
way of finding gold that is remarkable.  There they were, gleaming in the 
sunlight, like two jewels stuck to the side of a mountain.  I pointed Bud in the 
right direction, and soon he had the wagon at the base of the cliff.  Screech and
I landed in one of the nests, and waited as the dwarves climbed up the cliff face.
A griffon’s nest is a remarkable thing, it is made of spun straw, sticks, silver
and gold.  Each nest was worth a few thousand silver pennies.  The dwarves got to
the nests eventually, and we hacked and ripped and threw chunks of them down to 
the base.  It was a hard days work, but we were done.  We loaded up the wagon and
headed for the nearest town to celebrate.  
	The town was Criad, it stood at the northern entrance of the Inder Pass 
and was on the southern edge of the Plains of Kael.  Like Inder, the last of this
years caravans were passing through.  We went into The Willing Gnome Inn to get 
some food, and catch up on any gossip out of Kael.  Our inn, The Horny Mug is in
the city of Kael, and we hadn’t been back since the beginning of summer.  We 
talked to the travelers, and were told a great many number of stories.  There 
were reports of a young green dragon being spotted in the foothills to the west. 
Many people related stories of a large band of gnolls that had been making 
successful raids throughout the plains all summer.  There were also stories of a 
vampire in Mearlan, reeking havoc on the population.  Kael apparently hadn’t had 
a damn thing of interest happen.  We even found some caravan guards who had been 
in the Horny Mug Inn recently.  They told us about the broken tables, smashed 
windows, and ugly serving wenches.  Apparently things were running just fine 
without us.  Satisfied that everything was going okay, Bud and I settled down for 
a deserved rest.  
	We woke late the next morning, Bud and I had shared a room, and we had 
gotten another room for Gruedin, Brondaf, and Skrenguld.  We went down stairs to 
try see what we could get for breakfast.  The common room was empty except for a 
human serving wench, she looked young, must be the owners daughter.  
	"Hey wench what’s for breakfast?", Bud yelled, in his most polite manner.
	"Well sir, you can have eggs, or leftovers from dinner."  She said.
	"We’ll take the eggs, you little wise ass."  Bud responded.
	The girl smiled and disappeared into the kitchen.
	"You got a real way with women, Bud"  I said.
	"I know, us dwarves are real charmers."
	A few minutes later, we were eating our breakfast.  We were even able to 
get some apple cider to wash it down, that was a treat, in Inder your choices 
were goat’s milk, water, and ale.  After finishing, and paying for the food, we 
decided to go find the three dwarves.  
	"Aack!!  What is that smell?"  I said upon opening the door to their room.
The smell of stale beer, vomit, and sweaty dwarf makes a rather horrible 
combination.  
	"Get up, Get up, we don’t want to hang around this dump all day."  Bud 
yelled.
	Gruedin, Brondaf, and Skrenguld just groaned.
	"Go away." Moaned Skrenguld.
	"Damn!" Bud cursed, and with that we left them to their misery.
	"Looks like we won’t be going anywhere today" I said.
	"Damn" Bud replied.
	We threw on our furs and checked on Screech and our oxen, then decide to 
take a walk around town.  We needed to get some food for Screech anyway, she 
hadn’t had much to eat since gnawing on that giant leg the day we left.  If I 
didn’t feed her soon, she’d be dining at the stables, and I really didn’t feel 
like buying anyone a horse.  We decided to also take this opportunity to melt 
down the nests, and have them turned into coin.
	Criad was pretty busy, it was midday, and all the shops were open.  
Humans, Dwarves, and Gnomes made up most of the population, though we saw members
of just about every race here, including a few Elves.  When I saw them, I asked 
if they had heard any news out of Rubor, my homeland.  
	"There is war in Rubor, haven’t you heard?", one of them asked.
	"No, I hadn’t.  Is the House of Balcuar involved?" I asked.
	They looked at each other, but none of them knew for sure.
	"The war is with Argvaly, those scum invaded the forest."  Another Elf 
added.
	After a brief discussion, I had as much information out of them as they 
knew.  War against the orcs and goblins of Argvaly had been threatening for years,
apparently some orc chieftain had been able to join enough clans together to make
good the threat.  My father was the head of the House of Balcuar, he would most 
certainly be sending soldiers to the battle, though his lands were not near the 
Argvaly border.  I felt somewhat guilty that I would not be joining in the 
defense of my lands, but I’m sure that the orcs will be defeated.  I hadn’t been
home in fifty years, I wasn’t about to go back for a little skirmish.  We found a
silversmith that was willing to take our nest, and burn it down and melt the gold
and silver out of it.  We went back, got the wagon, and delivered the nests. Bud 
did the haggling and after getting what he thought was a good deal, they shook 
hands.  The smith gave us a good sum of truesilver for the value of the nests, 
and we went on our way.  
	Bud and I were able to buy a mangy looking goat from a livestock dealer,
and look into the weapons and armor shops.  Nothing really caught our eye, so we 
headed back to the Willing Gnome with our little pet in tow.  When we got back, I
took the goat to Screech’s stall and pushed him through the door.
	Snap!  Crackle!  "Bleat!"  So much for the goat.  
	I went inside to grab a mead and relax for the rest of the afternoon.  
Bud was just coming down the stairs.
	"Apparently Grouchy, Sleepy, and Dopey, did get some food in them, then 
went back to bed."  Bud said.
	"Could we have a round of honey meads, please?"  I asked the young maid.
	"Make mine an ale, I don’t want any of that fairie juice." Bud said.
We spent the rest of the day drinking next to the fire and playing checkers.  
Our dwarven companions did make it to dinner.  We drank a little more that night 
before going to bed.
	The next morning we gathered up three hung over dwarves, piled them into
our wagon, and headed back for Inder.  That stupid orc better be finished, I 
missed The Horny Mug.  It was one days journey to the next town, Vand, which was 
nothing more than a couple of inns and some shops.  It’s primary function was 
being one days journey between Inder and Criad.  We arrived at Vand with an hour 
of daylight to spare, and got a room at the Copper Mine Tavern.  
	Like most of this little town, it was run by Gnomes.  The food was good, 
and they even had entertainment.  This goofy looking gnome dressed up in a funny 
colored suit, pranced around the bar telling jokes and falling on his face.  I 
felt like stomping his head into the floor, but the rest of the patrons, 
including Bud and the three dwarves, seemed to find him quite humorous.  I had to
call it a night when Bud started giggling like a school girl.  Where was Glug 
when you needed him, we would have waited outside till the little runt was done 
and beaten him to a pulp.  I slept well that night, and apparently the other four
hadn’t had too much to drink, so we were able to get a good start in the morning.
We should be able to make it to Inder by late afternoon.  
	We arrived at Inder, as expected.  It had gotten colder here since we 
left, winter would be here soon.  Bud paid off the three dwarves and took care of
the oxen.  I tied up Screech under a big spruce tree by the aviary, and headed 
back to our inn.  Bart seemed happy to see me.  I ignored him and went upstairs.  
	"Hey Glug, you done with the studies yet?"  I asked.
	"Where’s my money?"  Glug asked.
	"Calm down, Bud’s got it, he’s taking care of the oxen.  I guess you’re 
not done yet, huh?"
	"That damn gnome thinks I need a few more lessons."
	I wasn’t too excited about spending another day eating the crap food they
served at this dump.  Bud walked in and we split up the coins.  We told Glug 
about the stories we heard, the gnolls, the dragon, the vampire, and the war in 
Rubor.  He seemed pretty uninterested in all of it, but he hoped the orcs won in 
Rubor.  




	
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