The morning sunlight peeked through the Gerry Oak trees, waking Banli and Razrim. Banli stood up rubbing his head while stretching arms outward towards the warmth of the sun. Razrim sniffed the air as if it held secrets that only he could know. After a quick meal of some bread and cheese and a bit of watered down wine, it was early after all, Banli and Razrim were ready to go. Banli collected his bed roll and neatly packed it into his leather pack while Razrim went about licking himself clean from his breakfast. A large flock of white and blue birds flew by noisily sounding off as if they were doing roll call. Quickly they were out of site heading more or less in the same westerly direction Banli and Razrim were going. Testing his walking stick and satisfied with it's resilience Banli and Razrim once again started off down the dirt road that was right in the middle of many open pastures, nestled here and there by neighboring Garry Oak trees. Razrim as always taking up the lead was vigilantly scouting a few feet ahead of Banli. Not too far behind them leaving a run down barn was a hunched tall figure in a green cloak who started moving urgently in their direction.
After a while a cool breeze was noticeable and the landscape started changing from open pastures to the beginning of a lush and vibrant forest. Large green and orange vegetation sticking out from where the pastures ended and the forest began. Noises one would associate with a forest loud and plentiful. A sighting of a hare hopping about, while toads tried speaking in unison by the side of a small lazy river. The dirt road how ever carried right on through oblivious to it's surroundings, and a little left of where the river ran it's course. Razrim stiffened and Banli realized something was unfolding up ahead. He could hear some shouting and two possibly three voices. They did not sound happy. This was no good at all as Banli was not overly fond of any kind of confrontation. Pulling out a small leather pouch from within his cloak he pinched some of the contents and sprinkled them over Razrim and then over himself. Mouthing a special incantion while he was doing this. " Arcanium Delasiar Affiniacido Inviisibilito" there were a couple more words too but nothing anyone would understand. Magical dust suddenly whirled around the both of them and then they blinked out of visual sight. "Excellent" Banli thought to himself, now they can not see us, and we can continue on. So with Razrim leading and Banli following, the two continued down the road around a massive birch tree taking a big turn around a slightly lopsided slope in the road where a dip in the road broke it's mostly uniform path. There on the road was an overturned carriage, and what looked like spilled market goods of various fruits, breads, cheeses, and other common market items.
Banli could see two large men towering over what appeared to be a solitary dwarf. Not that this was a surprise mind you, as all the dwarves Banli knew of which there were five, all liked their solitary ways. What was unusual was that dwarves were not usually the market types at least not around these parts and Banli that had lived here almost his whole life did not recognize this particular dwarf. Also where were the horses? Peculiar indeed. The towering men reached down and began unsheathing their swords yelling obscenities at the dwarf for reasons unknown to Banli. Banli had seen enough how ever, and pulling a vial of black liquid from within a small wooden case from within his cloak folds, he uncorked the vial getting closer to the two men, that had no idea he was even there. Shaking the vial vigorously Banli then threw it making sure it would splatter on both of them. As soon as he did this he snapped back into visual sight just in time to see the two men freeze upon contact from Banli's thrown liquid and the dwarf pass out obviously overwhelmed with everything that had unfolded before him. Razrim also snapped back into visual sight as the magical powder that Banli had sprinkled on him earlier had lost it's effectiveness on him. Banli figured it must be close to lunch so he set about setting up a makeshift camp first taking care of the fallen dwarf. He laid his head gingerly over his leather pack making a suitable make shift pillow. Soon afterwards loud snoring coming from the dwarf was all the assurance Banli needed, to know the dwarf would be okay. He then set about making his favorite pottage. He was sure the dwarf wouldn't mind him using some of the available resources that seemed to be in abundance here. Meanwhile a good distance behind, a green cloak clad figure, had lost sight on Banli and Razrim and was utterly confused as to how that might have happened. He backtracked to the last place he knew he had eyes on them. Then he did what he did best and started observing his environment.
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A couple of hours had passed and slowly the dwarf had started coming around to awakening. First he opened one eye and then slowly his other. He smelled a wonderful strong aromatic pottage and saw a rather short gnome and possibly his pet badger looking at him with a look of concern only a few feet away. Banli smiled and began talking, " Hello my name is Banli and this here is my pet badger Razrim. It is a pleasure to meet you". The dwarf rubbing his eyes and tugging on his long beard looked apprehensively at the both of them. " My name is Tadek. I don't suppose it was you whom saved me from those two idiots?" with saying that he pointed to the rather obviously still frozen statues of the two men who had their hands on their swords about half way out of their hilts before being frozen. "Yes I was intending on passing by as I have a culinary competition I am looking to compete in, but I could not leave you to those two brutes" With that a big grin crossed Banli's face and what ever apprehension Tadek had about these two quickly vanished. He propped himself up rubbing his nose andeyes before breaking a smile. " That pottage smells fantastic, do you have enough to share?" As if on queue Banli gave a bowl already full of his pottage, and some day old bread and cheese to Tadek and then the three of them sat quietly and ate. Tadek having his fill, stood up offering Banli's leather pack back to him and with great strength righted the overturned carriage with seemingly no effort at all. Once this was done he reached inside opened a wooden crate that was unscathed by the incident and produced from within it a bottle of honey mead which he offered to Banli. They then talked quietly into the late afternoon and decided to travel together, once they could figure out the whereabouts of the horses of course.