Greyhelm: Brogg's Story, Conclusion More conversation.

"Mm," says Crossbones thoughtfully. "I-" but then Ralph interrupts. "You a stone cold killer man! STONE COLD!"

The High Priest looks over at the half-bugbear momentarily and says "uh"; it's hard to say if Ralph's excited, finds this amusing, or is shocked. Mostly he's just stoned out of his enormous gourd.

"Anyway," says Crossbones, "you're right. No one, certainly not the clergy of Grisbane, will fault you for defending yourself, or even a little proactive, preemptive defensive manuevering. We're all about purity through strenght, survival of the fittest, all that."

"This owlbear thing, though, yeah, we kind of already heard. I don't really know the details- if you're after some wizard, well good, you gotta job to do. Regardless of where owlbears fit into Grisbane's grand plan for us misshapen mortals, you can't go around fucking with nature with magic and playing god. Like I said, these magic users, friend, they really don't understand what they're doing. And I'd like you to stop this guy."

"But it turns out that Elder Grettin and Elder Shettin think this owlbear situation is a pretty serious dilemma for the church. So the Inner Circle's sent this guy over here to look into it. Leuco? Leuco you around somewhere?" he calls off into the woods.

Then, after about a minute, like the biggest guy shows up, stepping out from behind a tree. He's about nine feet tall, green, giant sword and bow on his back, and wearing a little green Robin Hood style cap with a feather in it. You're guessing he's a troll.

"Half-troll, really," says Crossbones, as 'Leuco' comes over to the smouldering campfire. "Half-elf too. That's why he was out there sneaking around in the woods."

'Leuco' the half-elf, half-troll, is basically a troll from what you can tell. You've got a sickening feeling that the only 'elf' part of him is probably some dumb +1 to hit with bows and swords, 30% immunity to sleeps and charms, and that gay little hat he's wearing. Fucker still probably regenerates like a troll. He's also wearing an emblem of the Grisbane church.

"Nice to meet you," says Leuco, shaking your hand. "So now we got two of us" he says to Arvid. "We can resolve this situation and please the masters."

"Something like that," says Arvid, frowning. He explains what's going on. "You see, Brogg, the Inner Circle is sort of divided. The Brech-Turf thing never's really been figured out to anyone's satisfaction. We all agree whoever this guy is, shouldn't be making more owlbears, because he's just making them to be slaves, or serve drinks, or fight adventurers and die. Not good. So like I said, I guess you gotta make a choice. Help them, or destroy them. Up to you. Well, you and Leuco. Because, uh, and this is where it gets a little complicated. Leuco's what we call a 'Contrarian of Grisbane'."

The ogre joins the conversation with some more potentially helpful scripture: "'Rhetoric has failed us, and all we have gained by listening to the apologies was to watch our enemies grow stronger. Let us appoint a champion, and let us appoint a contrarian, and let this matter be settled for once in their blood.' Grisbane 7000:600.1, The Appointing of the Contrarian."

Arvid nods. "No, you guys aren't going to fight. Not here, not now at least. And Brogg, you don't have to decide which way is best right now. Take your time, study the situation, do what you think is right. But finally, you will make a decision. And Leuco will take the other side, working to destroy the owlbears you try to save, or saving those owlbears you set out to destroy, until all owlbears are destroyed, or one of you dies."

Leuco smiles a big unhappy troll smile at you and bows, saying "it will be glorious to fight against you, friend Brogg. Good day." He bows to Arvid, who nods back, and silently stalks off back into the woods.

Watching him leave, Arvid then turns to you. "So is the confusing will of Grisbane settled in this world. Like most things, it ends in blood. It's stupid. That's why we hang out down in the woods here, smoking weed and talking about god. To get away from that shit. That Leuco guy... I think he's headed up to Grito to see some of these owlbears for himself. Kind of an Inner Circle prick. But don't worry, I think you've got some time. And some advantages... for one, you can go into towns and stuff... Leuco doesn't dare. Half-elf my ass. But here, I've got a couple things to make your life a little easier."

He pulls out a huge pair of mittens and a stick and offers them to you. The mittens look like giant bear paws, complete with little claws, and strap across your hand, leaving your fingers free to grip things. "These are the Mittens of Friendship. And this the Wand of Deconstruction. They work on chimeras. Might make deciding what to do about those owlbears... and anything else like that you might come across. You do get that this whole owlbear thing is a metaphor, right? Anyway, they've got three charges each so be careful. It's cool if you want to hang out here however long, and we'll help you out with whatever. Sorry to dump this shit on you. But I still think it's good you came here and met Leuco... otherwise, he might just have hunted you down and killed you, and you'd not really understand why. You'd be both dead and surprised. Here." He offers you the last of the beers.

Ralph's been staring at this whole scene with his mouth wide open. "Whoa... that is some crazy fucked up shit! Some fucked up shit right there that is totally nuts." And summing up everything rather nicely: "Who knew that those owlbears were so important? And what's with that dude's hat?"

Finally, the half-elf was only half paying attention. Uh, no pun intended; I guess you might call that a pun? Anyway, while you were all talking, he was hunting around for anything else to smoke, drink, or eat, finding only one hotdog bun that remained from the cookout. He takes a bite, kind of frowns, puts it on a stick to toast it, burns it a little when Leuco showed up and says "aw shit man", but eats it anyway. Afterwards, he then says "yeah, dude" apparently meaning Ralph, "that is some- crazy- fucked- up- shit" enunciating each word, and comes down and sits next to you Brogg.

He says "hey bro, what up. I'm Gregolas Half-Elven. Good luck with that, uh, that troll, mittens thing. Hey, you wouldn't happen to have like a little place I could crash, you know, just for a few days? Maybe get a bite to eat or something? I'll totally pay you back, just gotta get back on my feet and find like a job or something. Work-trade, man! Fuck the gps! Would it be cool? Let me know if it would definitely not be cool."

So Brogg, answer them how you will, but pretty soon it'll be time to get back to the temple of Odin.  ¶ 9:38 PM