A spot of air on the road to Jastrey seemed to grow visibly hot, the air shimmering and waving if you looked just so. This persisted for a few moments before a small pinprick ruptured the very fabric of space with a light blue glow. The glow burned hot as it devoured more of the immediate area around it until the opening became large enough for it's intended purpose. A few seconds later the armored head of a massive bleeting ram wrestled through the fiery blue glow of the portal, upon it's back a fairly shaggy looking Dwarf with a cocky grin behind his long red beard. The Dwarf's keen eyes scanned the area and with a grunt he turned to shout behind him, "Oy, Hrunaevaar, come on through the way is clear, least we're not in the middle of a greenskin infested shite hole like last time. Damned things tried to knick the last of our supplies, we'd a starved and it woulda been yer fault, ye old fart"
The first Dwarf let a low grumble escape him, clearly agitated by the other. "Blasted hole don't account for the first two mistakes, nor ter mention how we ended up knee deep in the greenskin's shite trench. That's a smell ye cannea jus warsh off ye know" he horked something up and spat on the ground, "If ye worried more about plannin' our trip and less about yer pipeweed we'd already be in Jastrey b'now!" he continued to grumble as he put heels to the Ram's ribs. "Where abouts de ye think we are now anyhow?" the Dwarf inquired over his shoulder, hands clenching at Borghildr's reigns.
Hrunaevaar chuckles, " Oi, now Bolgrim, one o' us has to keep to the finer th'ins in life!" Hrunaevaar stands in his stirrups, using his staff to maintain his balance. He takes hold of his pipe, chewing the stem some, and taking several long pulls. He looks around, looking for landmarks, people, something...
"I havn't the slightest idea. At this point, it all be lookin the same." He rolls up his damaged map, and begins to dismount. The stout dwarf hefts his belly, and swings a stumpy leg over the back of his saddle, and lends with a thump. He pats his way down his mount, a trail of smoke following him not unlike an irritable dragon. He offers the map to the goat, who takes a tentative bite, before demolishing with gyrating chomps. "That's a good lass, there Mirvana." The dwarf scratches the animal between her horns while she eats.
"Whataya say to making camp? The beasts could use it, and I dunna think i have another portal in meh"
The first Dwarf dismounts his ram in a similar fashion, though with signifigantly more clanking as he landed. The dwarf grumbled once more and moved a hand up to straighten his jostled helm, "aye, here is as good a place as any". He moved to the Ram's backside and fiddled with a few latches, removing from the beast his massive hammer, a couple axes and the rest of his provisions. The weapons were strapped to his person in various ways before he went about readying his tent, "tis time ter break out the brew I'd say, if we cannea wash out the smell we might as well ferget it exists fer a bit!" he gave a deep laugh before wandering towards the tree line in search of suitable wood for the fire.
"Ta'int muh fault ye fell off yer mount inta tha trench" The second dwarf pulls the cask from the rear hauches of Mirvana, and its hits the ground with a dull tud and sloshing. He pulls an axe from under that saddle, and begins to circle the camp for a suitable fallen tree. Using the axe as a lever, her rolls the trunk over towards the camp.
Returning to the goat, he takes the rest of the supplies fromt he beast, and removes the saddle. He sets the saddle on the log, and fishes out a tankard. Mirvana has herself a roll, clomps over, and settles next to Hrunaevaar. He wanders over and pats the beast, and sits next to her, leaning against the great horned creature. He re-packs his pipe, lights it, and waits for the other dwarf to return before getting started at drinking.
After a few moments had passed the first Dwarf returned to their makeshift camp carrying more wood than they would ever need. He hefted the pile next to the tree the other Dwarf had rolled over before likewise seeing to his mount, unburdening the beast of it's load and letting him graze where ever he pleased. He then removed the massive hammer from his back and let it land with a giant thud on the ground next to him.
"Shouldn't e're been in that trench in the first place, ye daft old fool!" the first Dwarf grumbled towards the older of the two, "Aye, I'll forgive ye though for a tankard or two o'that holywater ye got there. Grandhelms got good brew, I'll give ye that much". The first Dwarf let loose a burly chuckle before beginning to move the gathered wood into a suitable arrangement for a campfire. "What we got fer food, eh?"
Hrunaevaar nods, "The fin'est! With spices gathered from all corners of the mountains, and distilled with the coolest steams from the highest glacier peaks!" The older dwarf rolls the cask over to where they are seated, so that the bung is on the top. He pops the bung out and slams a spout in its place, and then rolls of cask over a quarter of the way down, so the holy water can flow. He brims his own and Bolgrim's tankards before waddling back to his goat.
"Get that fire a'goin, and I'll see to sum suppah." Hrunaevaar pulls a small tome out of one of the bags on his saddle. Thumbing through it, he begins to mumble in a deep voice, sometimes chewing on the stem of his pipe as he moves it back and forth from one side of his mouth to the other. The mumbling continues, growing deeper and deeper. The smoke from his pipe begins to take odd shapes, and setting to the ground. Hrunaevaar takes a quick glance over the settled smoke, before closing his book with a solid thump, and snapping his fingers immediately after. The smoke dissipates with a bright flash, reveling various meats, breads, cheeses, and mashed spud dishes. "Thar ye go, ya whipper whacker"
The first Dwarf issued a grave sneer towards the magical workings of the second Dwarf, "Bah! I need the meat o'the kill lad, the bounty of the land! Not some blasted pipe smoke n'matter how tasty it may look!" The dwarf continued to grumble as he began striking his flint into the small pile of tender he'd gathered. With minimal effort a fire sprung to life. Bolgrim gave a big grin as he slipped the lit tender beneath a loose pyramid of dry wood. "Thar we go, that'll be a nice'n."
Content with his work on the fire he rose and plopped himself once more upon the log. "Dun't we have any dried meat an stale road bread? I'll take that over your fancy conjured slop any day!" Bolgrim withdrew his own pipe, filled it pipeweed, tamped it, puffed a handfull of times, tamped it and finally lit it once more. He puffed slowly, seeming content for the first timecsince their arrival.
Hrunaevaar chuckles, "I fool'd ye the first few times. Aye, we have the real stuff be in tha bags." The dark bearded dwarf stands and look out beyond the perimeter of the camp.
"This is tha first time tha't we havn't found some civilization in our pota'hl hoppin'. This road seems in decent repair..." Hrunaevaar walks over tho his saddle bags, and throws hard sourdough bread and dried meat at his plate coated colleague.
Hrunaevaar, still looking into the woods with his bespectacled eyes, refills his tankard, and thumps back over to his seat near Mirvana. "Thar be som'tin in deez woods..."
Bolgrim grunted at Hruneavaar with a faint sneer, "aye, ye did. Shoulda known though, even the bread tasted like it came from some foul abomination of a smoker. Food aon't s' posed ter taste like that. Meat t'weren't bad though". Bolgrim laughed gruffly, "o'course I didn't shite that wee either, just ain't regular". He fumbled after the tossed food and managed to catch the meat, the loaf od sourdough landing on the ground infront of him. He quickly scooped it up and dusted it off, "ah well, will taste like home I s'pose" he tamped out his pipe, rubbed the ash about the inner wall of the bowl and stashed it away before tucking in, frinking heavily from his tankard to mask the taste of old meat and bread.
As Hruneavaar spoke he'd turn eyes to the road, "given the state o'the road i'd say we were a mile, n'more than two, from a town" he gave another gruff chuckle "could always consult th'earth, the ground knows more'n we"
"Aye, I could." Hrunaevaar nods sage like. "But, the holy water has made me a touch sleepeh, I'm think'n some sleep is in order." The elder dwarf saunters over to his mount, and with the snap of his fingers, brings forth a large sheet and a length of rope. he ties the ropes as high as he can around a tree, and then ties the sheet over them, making a lean-too over he and his goat. "Gnight mate"
"Hah! Ye must be older'n I reckoned, tuckered out by a couple'o tankards and fifteen'er so greenskins!" Bolgrim kept laughing for a moment longer before wheezing out a sigh, "t'is gettin' dark though I s'pose." Bolgrim gave a big yawn and streatched out, "I'll keep the night watch while ye sleep, I'm knickin' the first bed I see in town though". Bolgrim gave a chuckle before refilling his tankard and drinking it down in a few quick gulps, foam coating his beard and mustache.
Soon after the first dwarf, the portal shimmers once more as it admits the head of a massive, bright white mountain goat. It struggles through he portal, reviling a heavy set hooded dwarf with a long, black beard filled with small braids clasped with gold rings. The dwarf holds a map across his saddle's horn while he leans on a large wooden cask. As the dwarf exits the portal, he snags a metal rune-covered staff from the crook of his arm, takes the base our of his stirrup, and taps it on the ground. The portal snaps shut, a quick back-blast of stale, goat scented air issues forth.
With a disgruntled look, he sticks his finger in the pipe he had been smoking, and re-lights it with a small bit of conjured flame. Puffing quickly, he gets the pipe-weed to catch light in a cloud of smoke. Holding the map up with one hand, he points to a tankard sized hole burned into said map. The raven beared dwarf blows a cloud of smoke at the other dwarf, before saying "It t'ant my fault one of the little bastards put a danmed hole in tha map. We'd already been to all tha other shards, and I had to take a shot in tha dark to even get us..." the dwarf pauses and looks around"...whereva we are now!"