adventures on the river

while the raft goes down the river Pippa sees a barrel stuck between some rocks.... it might contain something useful

Pippa tries to navigate the raft to be close to the barrel (but not too close to the rocks) so she could try to get it

she gets the barrel, it contains some wet tarpe and some rope

It's always good to have this kind of stuff, we never know when a rope would be needed

Once she got the barrel, Pippa resumes her travel

pippa can hear some loud splashing ahead. at first she think its a waterfall but the river doesn't get any faster. then she can see a giants head looming over the trees crowns. it seems for some reason he is stomping around in the river a bit further down

Pippa tries to slow down the raft and to stop it on the banks. So she could see more in detail what's going on over there.

from what she can see, the giant is not armed and rather just jumping up and down in the water, splashing it around. for any more details she'd have to get closer either on the water or on land

Pippa secures the raft on the river's bank with the rope, and goes on foot, to get closer to the giant, trying to stay hidden in the treeline

through the foliage she can see that he is barefoot jumping in the water. it seems he is just having fun

Small as she is, compare to the giant, Pippa's not the one to deny him fun

so she tries to stay hidden utnil the giant had all his fun and goes away

at some point he seems exhausted and sits down, cooling his feet in the water... the river is wide enough to make it past him but he will definitely see her if she dare

he seems sleepy but not asleep yet

while waiting for the giant to get more sleepy, Pippa decides to try to find food in the forest near the raft

pippa finds some wild berries, ripe fruits and some vegetable roots, all in all enough to give food for two days

Pippa puts the food in her bag, eats some fruit, drink water and fills an empty ale bottle with water

then checks the giant again

he's almost asleep by now, snuggled in the forest, his feet still in the water

Carfully, Pippa slowly navigates the raft around the feet

pippa barely makes it around the sleeping giant, but she can travels further down the river

"I saw a real giant! his toe was bigger than me! Lucky that he didn't wake up..."

traveling down the river Pippa see ripples in the water every now and then, as if big fishes swam underneath the surface.

then the 'fishes' board the raft, being little ugly fishfolk with weapons made of shoddy bones

three of them jump from the water and onto the raft, weapons in hand, gurgling something she doesn't understand

Pippa puts her hands up.

" whoua whoua, calm down please... i mean no harm... I'm just traveling...please"

more gurgling and they brandish their weapons, clearly not intend in diplomacy

Pippa opens her bag and tries to give them food and drink, firstly the unknown magic bottles

two of the three grab the food she just found earlier and jump back into the water but the third is trying to grab her instead

"hey hey, stop, please... what do you want from me?" Pippa tries to communicate with gestures and facial expressions

he points towards Pippa and her bag

Pippa doesn't understand the creature, and put out the rest of the food and bottle from the bag

"is that it ?"

it ruffles through the things and grabs the bottle before he hops of into the water, she can see the ripples for a bit before they fall back and she is left alone once more, food and the water bottle gone

"well, i still have the bag at least, and the ores at the bottom"

The raft goes down the river further. after a bit she see some kind of village on the shores, and on second look she see the same ghastly creatures that just robbed her, wandering between small, reed-covered huts or fishing on the shore

As the previous encounter made clear that communication would be difficult, Pippa tries to not get closer, and to go along the river, if they let her

Pippa tries to quickly steer her raft along before they have the boarding party assembled

She see a few of them jump into the water and pole your raft downriver, but then she feels a draft and the creatures pull her vehicle to the shore, in the middle of their village

Pippa once again put her hands up and tries again to communicate

"well, hello there. Is there someone who I can talk to?"

they all chatter over each other but then she is approached by one murloc and in his guttural voice he talks to her, telling her that she is their prisoner now. she went through their river and now they captured her

"please, i mean no harm, i just go down the river. Why would you capture me? I also gave food to some of your kind earlier. Isn't that good?

What could i do to get free? Please?"

"You go down river and no pay respects to great murloc folk who own river!! no good.

now you stay here. we put you in cage, later we trade you off. men come, get all travelers we caught, give us food and weapons. good trade. you can give better deal?"

"well i still have some ore chunk in my bag, it has value, I hope that would be ok"

Pippa knows she could offer some sex, but first she doesn't know if they will be interested, and more, they look gross. But if they ask, may be she coukd bear it.

the murloc inspects the ores

"What murlocs do with shiny rocks? they not good weapon. or food. little girl trying to trick us?"

"No trick, please... but that's all I have left... what whould you want ?"

"weapon! weapon good. or magic! you know magic and can give, we let go."

he points to the rapier

"give weapon. then you free to go"

"I have some magic. I can mend objects, if you have broken stuff i can repair by magic... But i can't give that , there nothing, it's a race ability, you aren't gnome"

he thinks

"you can fix? fix thing?"

he says something in the guturral language and all the murlocs around make guttural sounds Pippa interpet as astonishment

he then turns to her

"Come. i show u thing to fix. you fix for us and make good again, you free"