Fellowship of the Dice

Pipkin heads in and takes a seat at the table. And for all that he just made breakfast not that long ago, he seems ready to tuck into a new meal with gusto.

Borir takes a seat and orders an ale. "Drink all their ale. Working folk. Burmpah." He grunts and guffs. "I'll show those Beorning what it's like to drink all the ale after hammering iron all day."

Varuthil silently enters the inn and watches with the same curiosity as Wren as she watches Pipkin tuck in an extra meal. She keeps a second eye on the inn though, looking at the other guests to see if she can spot an old man in grey, as Radagast described to them.

The Inn has only one other table with folks at it, they looks like gruff Beorning folk of the region. A woman with a long braid, and two men that look strangely similar to the woman, and after only a moment of evens dropping you come to realize they are brothers and sister. They look up at your entrance, and the woman gives a nod to Varuthil who is scanning the room, but they pay you little more heed.

Dody hustles in the kitchen and calls for his wife who has been out back playing with the kids. She eventually comes in and gets to making Second Breakfast for the group. Some cold bacon, poached eggs, toast with raspberry jam and cold milk (or other drinks) is soon brought out. Dody seem eager to help and serve, almost a bit too eager.

"So, now that you are filling up the corners, " for me waits politely for you to eat like any good host would before bothering you with stuff, "do you have any news? Where has your travel taken you this time? West perhaps? South?" He smiles but you can read something on his face.

"Very good," Pipkin says, patting his belly. "That should tide me over until elevenses." He smiles. Then he gets a more serious look on his face. "You want to know what news we have? Well, I'm afraid it's not good news. Orcs are on the prowl. They attacked the Woodmen Hall." He them proceeds to tell Dody the story of what happened.

Wren's eyes widen as he looks over to Varuthil and whispers, "elevenses?"

Varuthil just silently shrugs in response to Wren's words, though she seems amused by the situation. "Yes, it was a very close thing," she adds to Pipkin's description. Picking up on the concern in Dody's voice, she asks, "Did you know anyone at Woodmen Hall? We may be able to tell you how they fare, though the news may be unhappy--many of the Woodmen died or were injured." Realizing she is being very gloomy she adds, "But we were victorious in the end and the Woodmen still stand against the Shadow."

Dody takes a chair and sits down, "We have a nice set of seed cakes for elevenses you'll want to try." He collects the group's money, almost forgetting about that, as Pipkin goes on to tell him all about the orc attack and other things happening in the south. That makes his face go pale. "Well aren't you a valorous bunch of folks? You think maybe the orcs are prowling about in other places too?" He might be fishing for an answer he doesn't want to hear right now by the look on his face.

"Elevenses," Pipkin says to Wren as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "The meal between second breakfast and early lunch."

Then he turns back to Dody. "I'm afraid we don't know for certain. But they could be this far north. I'm not sure if they want to deal with the Beornings yet."

Aerth nods and looks at the food. Travel does burn a hunger in the half-elf; walking all day can sap the strength of a man. "I could go for some second breakfast," he says unexpectedly.