The voice issued forth is a combination of throaty growls and raspy 'Rs' which reminds the party of your saurian friend. "Identify yourselves! Who are you and what business do you have with the mighty pterran nation of the Hinterlands." When Gaigin and Mendi step to the front to try and catch whatever it is he said, Koreth interrupts them by putting a hand on Gaigin's shoulders. "You better put those lessons to good use, we have company." As silently as the first snake rider appeared, three more slither forward and outflank the party. One of the worms makes an accidental (?) dive for the party but the rider pulls him back just as the teeth filled maw snaps a mere distance away from Tak. You can see that this rider in particular is having a hell of a time trying to put the snake under control. He kicks at it and knocks it on the head with a small club strapped to his wrist while the snake shakes trying to throw the rider off its head.

The leader again addresses the group, this time in broken common, "Who be you? What want with big pterran people of Hinterland?"

Tak' looked in awe at the Pterran atop his fearsome mount, spellbound by the connection the rider must experience with such raw animalian power beneath him. <Ptellac did not tell me his people were so close to their wild kin...> Tak' wondered, his estimation of the Pterrans as a people increased..

Mendi looked towards Gaigin who silently nodded his agreement. Smiling his best trader's smile, and rising his hands in a peace gesture, Mendi cleared his throat and then attacked in his still very awkward language:

"Fe... aRRR... fRRiends...," he blurted. "My name iz Mendi de peddlar. Here iz Gaigin, dze warrior, here iz Elric de Farlock, over there, de tall Mul iz Rayne, dze small iz our fRRiend Tak... Aryus is a friend of dze Wind... perhaps our names aRRe familiaRRR, if you are from our friend Ptellac's village?"

The snake worm shifts its long body and the sun glints off its white rings as the pterran straddles his leather seat. The pterran leader nods his head as he mumbles something that is very hard to hear for the companions specially bearing in mind that they did not want any closer to the snakes. It was strange because it seemed that it would also be very hard to hear for any of the other riders. Suddenly, the two snakes that were under their rider's controls shifted their horns towards the leader and each of the pterran on top of them silently nodded in agreement.

"Ptellac told us... fe could come... HeRRe fe aRRe... pehapf you will hehlp uz find de village?"

The pterran leader folds his muscular arms across his chest and rests his long polearm on his hips. He seems an immobile statue of might and power as sunlight glints off his scaled shoulders. His mouth moves not as if he is waiting to hear something else.

Elric stares openly at the white snakes. "Very nice, Hey Ptellac never mentioned how the snake riders would look and I thought he said he would be sending healers as well. Not that we need them now or anything but still." As Mendi speaks Elric looks down and gathers Whisper closely to his side. "Easy fellow wouldn't want those big snakes to decide to grab a snack"

Koreth watched as his companion tried to speak with the Saurians, and wondering where Ptellac was at that moment. It would have made this easier if the trader were here to deal with his kinsmen. The noble warrior's eyebrow raised as Mendi introduced everyone but him. He huffs loud enough for the elf to hear, hoping the gangly limbed trader isn't trying some elf trick on him this day.

<I'll skin him alive if he's trying to get these Saurians to kill me!> his thoughts grow angry, as he waits to see the elf's reaction.

The Elf looked quite embarrassed, and hastily added: "and here is dze nodle KoRReth, a man whose blades zaved our liFFes moRRe than onze." <I hope he will not cut my tongues in retaliation> thought the trader.

Aryus keeps a hand on his bow, while keeping part of his mind focused on spells if trouble should come. He eyed the large snakes nervously, the creatures were fascinating to behold but were extremely deadly as well. Having not paid much attention to Pterran tongue Aryus knew that it was his place to keep quiet as his companions talked with the traders. Should trouble come, and bless the wind that it better not, Aryus will be ready with his arrows.

Mendi spoke in halting tones, their obviously rudimentary language skills being sorely tested in this confrontation. Tak', incapable of understanding the harsh dialect, turned his attention to more base matters - the snake in front of him thrashed its massive body as the saurian desperately pulled on the reins.

Resisting an urge to set his spear - or lash out with the Way - the halfling instead concentrated on controlling his breathing. Tak' had seen countless predators in the forest, and knew how to read the body language of an animal set on attack - and he was reading these signs now. Fear was his only enemy here, for a false move could set the worm into a frenzy.

With a slight nod to the rider, to reassure the Pterran of his peaceful intentions, Tak' slowly lowered himself to a kneel, wrapping his arms around his body. Whilst strange, this action reduced Tak's small size even further - hopefully reducing in the mind of the worm the threat the halfling posed. Regulating his breathing, until it matched that of the worm, Tak' waited in absolute silence for the worm to calm down.

He knew his signals well, but the chaos of animal emotions meant that nothing was for certain...

Elric looks on from his kneeling position, Whisper held close to his side, and watches Tak' intently. This is the first time Elric had witnessed the halfling commune with a wild creature. Examining both snake and Tak', Elric spots a few signals. Some he had seen in Whisper during the past few weeks and still was unsure of the meanings. Halfway to his feet, Elric abruptly settles back to his kneeling position <No now would not be the best time to ask questions, I had better wait for camp tonight.>

The snake rider seemingly smiles as he finally gets the beast under his control. He signals his leader and his snake also turns its horns towards him. The pterran looks over the small halfling and a slight bow is seen coming from him followed by another healthy look at the Pterran's teeth.

Gaigin eyed the snake-riders warily as Mendi spoke the packs introductions. They should be friendly, but you never knew. Gaigin kept his face smooth and squared his shoulders, looking the leader of the Pterran's in the eye and nodding his head as Mendi introduced him. So close to the pack's goal, Gaigin had hoped Ptellac would've met them to translate properly, but between Mendi and himself, they should get by.

As Mendi stuttered over the last of the introductions, Gaigin stepped forward and bowed slightly, idly wondering what the pterrans would think of Koreth running that big bloody sword of his through Mendi's rib-cage. Hoping fervently the Noble could hold his temper til after this meeting, Gaigin spoke out in Pterran. His vocabulary was tuned to diplomacy, but he suspected his enunciation and grammar would be even worse than Mendi's, which wasn't great judging by the confused expressions on some of the riders' faces.

"HoNerrR to yau, SssnakE-holterRs. Mendi-Petlar intreRroduce we. Gaigin, I name." Gaigin thumped his chest, unsure of that part's grammar. "TraderRz we be, of acrRoss mountains, of Tyrr-city we. Apogolees arRe we, for bad speak, but arRe new to speak of you's tongue we. Knows you forR speak we of Lost-Scale," at least Lost Scale sounded right, Gaigin hoped he hadn't buggered that part up at least. "Meet with honerred Ptellec we, and mostful honnoRred Elders of Lost Scale. Forr to speak we of trrades of happyness and grreatness love, we." Gaigin grimaced as he heard Mendi try to hold in a chuckle. The words for 'great love' and 'community profit/advancement' were differentiated by a click of the tongue in Pterran. He had a feeling he was making a bloody fool of himself. With a sigh, Gaigin cleared his throat and addressed the leader again, in common this time.

"I hope ye speak my tongue a bit better then I speak your's, friend. The human tongue ain't as adabtable as yer Pterran one, I'll wager. We are the trading delegation yer Lost Scale sent for from Tyr. Ptellac should've told ye we were on our way. We'd be grateful if ye'd let us know we're headin' the right way." Gaigin hoped the Pterran commanded enough common to understand him, because bloody Pterran was getting him nowhere.

The leader again conferred with his patrol mates. The hushed conversation was followed by action this time as the four snake riders united in a common front. Two of the snakes dropped their heads to the ground and two pterrans jumped quickly to the ground carrying their weapons. The long polearms had a distinct look that reminded everyone of snake fangs. The pterran leader and a muscular youth carrying themselves with regal authority approached the party while the other two remained mounted in the background holding the reins of the other two snakes.

The pterrans stopped about thirty feet from the group and raised their hands in salute. The leader licked his dry lips and pronounced in throaty, rasping common. "Greetings Me is Talbot, Patrol Leader. Me know Ptellac. Ptellac teacher of common tongue. He say, patrol leader must learn for new people come to Hinterlands. Are you new people? If yes, where is Ptellac? We no see him for over a moon! How I know you telling no lie!"

Gaigin cursed his bad luck fearing the worst for Ptellac and Chit. Mendi was trying to think of how to convince these pterrans that they came from Tyr and were sent by Ptellac if the pterran was…As bad omens ran rampart across everyone's faces, the pterran leader continued, "We, ptop worm patrol come from West, we patrol for over a week ago, we protect village from …foreigners." The saurian squinted his eyes which had turned into two vertical slits under the high sun and stated, "We take leader and one more to village but no weapons. Rest must camp here and wait…"

Your actions…

OUT OF CHARACTER

HEALTH STATUS

Remember the scale:

Healthy (H) 100% hitpoints remaining

Slightly Wounded (SiW) 75% to 100% hitpoints remaining

Wounded (W) 50% to 75% hitpoints remaining

Seriously Wounded (SeW) 25% to 50% hitpoints remaining

Mortally Wounded (MW) 0% to 25% hitpoints remaining

Gaigin (H)

Koreth (H)

Ayrus (H)

Tak (H)

Rayne (H)

Mendi (H)

Elric (H)

Whisper (H)

GENERAL

Questions, comments, and suggestions please.

L8r,

Fabian