The Game

ELSPA, FRICK, AND YGNE

The man looks like he is turning to flee, and Elspa hears another challenge from the cave. She turns slightly to face Ygne, slaps the head of her axe against her shield, and says as she lopes towards the woman, "Very well! Let's go!"

Seeing that Elspa isn't going to back down, Frick turns around and levels his glaive, moving to intercept her, a wide smile on his face, "Bring it on!"

Not wanting to belittle Jarveena or coddle her, Ryte remains ahead of her. Hearing shouts in the distance, he instinctually gets down low, motioning to his partner in crime to do the same. Stalking up the beach, he draws his bow and nocks an arrow, and takes a spot behind the stone; he awaits Jarveena to catch up "Humans. Any of them familiar to you?"

ELSPA, FRICK, AND YGNE

Elspa lopes forward, eager to engage. However, the time spent to close the distance has eased her bloodlust, and as she passes by the splayed-open bodies of troglodytes, Elspa slows her pace. She looks around at the corpses, to Frick and Ygne, and finally stops.

"You are not with them?" she asks, eyes narrowed as she points her axe at Frick.

"Why in the hell would I work with stinky fucking trogs?" Frick responds, glaive still prepared for battle.

"Family resemblance," snaps Elspa. Satisfied that, at least for now, there isn't a fight to be had, she lowers her axe. She is mindful of the clanging from the jungle, but still asks, "Who are you, then?"

Frick looks stunned at Elspa's response to his question and then proceeds to throw his head back and let out a deep belly laugh. When that's over, he lowers his glaive and walks forward holding out a hand to clasp, "Name's Frick, and that's Ygne back there. What about you?"

The barbarian slips her axe into her belt loop. "Elspa" she grunts, reaching out her hand. "You live here?"

"Nope, boat crashed and I woke up here."

"Boat," Elspa repeats. "Ah. Yes. Both of you?" She looks to Ygne, then to the jungle as if expecting visitors.

Jarveena peers at the figures on the beach. She recognizes the fearsome warrior woman as one of the Sea Witch's new recruits. "El'hpa." Pointing at the other two figures, she asks Ryte, "Friends o' yer'h?"

As Jarveena and Ryte watch, the tension on the beach eases: weapons are lowered and a handshake is offered. More allies? Good, they'll stand a better chance against the trogs clanging in the jungle. At the same time, Jarveena is acutely aware that if those two are Ryte's friends then she and Elspa are now outnumbered. Jarveena rises and calls out, right hand raised in greeting. "OY, EL'HPA!"

Elspa nearly chucks a handaxe in the direction of the new voice, but there is recognition. "Aye, that there's one of mine," she says.

Ryte bunkers further down into his hiding spot, drawing back his bowstring "No, not friends of mines."

Elspa coughs a few times, as though something is stuck in her chest. "Sounds like trouble is coming," she says, tipping her head to the cacophonous jungle. "If you ain't friend of the frogmen, I figure we stand a better chance together than on our own. Four's more than two, in any case. What say you?"

Ygne, once Elspa seemed to not be an immediate threat, busied herself by scraping off some piece of bloody matter from her boot. Perhaps it was from the corpse pile she'd been tossed on, or maybe from the trogs. Afterward, she strutted toward the trogdolyte still with its dagger embedded in it and she quickly retrieved her weapon, stowing it away once more. Ygne snorts, wrinkling her nose with a look of discomfort. As Frick is introducing her, Ygne is plugging a nostril and discharging the bloody contents of her nose into the sand behind her. She wipes her hand off on her leather jerkin, offering Elspa a small wave instead of a handshake. At being questioned, Ygne looks back at Elspa and just nods.

"Sounds fine by me. Lets just either kill the rest of these, uh... whatever these are, or leave this place. I can't stand this noise right now."

"Come on." Jarveena says to Ryte, then makes her way to where Elspa and the two strangers are. "El'hpa. Ye alrigh'?" she gives the two strangers an appraising look, then jerks her thumb at the jungle. "Sounds like trubble."

"Teaming up? Sure, why not? Sounds like there's gonna be plenty of killin' to go around!" Frick says, a wide smile on his face at the thought of more fighting.

Ryte laxes his bowstring as Jarveena leaves his presence, returning the bow and arrow to his back. Quite the predicament, aye Ryte, only thing left to do is hope I proved my worth to the archer. He stands from his cover, stretches out his arms to show that they're empty, and calls out "Any chance you have room for one more?"

"S'long as ya aren't green!" Ygne replies with a shout, assuming this one must be with the angry woman and the archer. She snorts with her nose once again, rubbing at it and sniffing. She pauses, and grins excitedly as though a brilliant thought just came to her, and she calls out to Ryte once more, "And it'll cost you a gold coin!"

"You won't have to worry about me, I can handle my own in a fight." Ryte calls back and slowly begins to lower one of his arms, keeping his other one high. He reaches into his pouch, grabs a gold piece, and holds it in the air "Come get it if you want it."