In a moment with Gustav:
“If you had to take down a really big animal, like an elk or a bear, say to feed a big hungry group right as fast as possible, and your bow was broken, and you didn’t have any bow-making tools, how would you do it Gus? What kind of traps would you use?”
In a moment with Alexis, when Ethelred is busy elsewhere.
“Alexis, we need more than just the ballista. We were successful with both the dragon and The… Pit because we worked together and because we used more than one…tool.
“we need need to do more that just one thing. Immobilizing it, or at least slowing it down would be good. Spike traps, deadfall, and giant-sized snares too, I bet there are other things we could to do too that I’m not thinking of, but
I’m getting ahead of us though, what do we already know about the giant?
It ignores us if we play dead? At least as long as there are other things for it to worry about. It stinks. It has three arms. It has a lair. What else do we need to know? It’s movement pattern? Where along it’s path is best to set our ambush?
“Alexis, what do you know about sleeping gods? I overheard mention at the Five Winds that TyLin is sleeping? The Hungry Voice said She had abandoned me… She’s certainly more distant than… Others, but…”
In camp, some days after leaving the valley of chaos and cold.
“I’ve a thought… what if we don’t have to kill the giant to get the sword? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for killing the giant, but it seems like there is a lot of other things going on, and the longer this takes, the more… strange things get. Maybe we should try to deal with the swords first.
“The giant is our goal because of the Twice Broken Sword, be believe it is in the fort, right?
He looks at all his companions.
“Raff is… concerned about the Twice Broken Sword, but the Chaos Blade is not, correct?
He looks at Alexis.
“We know Earycka has more access to the inner workings of the fort that we do…”
He looks around at every one and pauses to see see if at least Alexis and Red are following his line of thinking…
“We are deal-makers after all…”
After leaving the mine Ethelred can’t stop thinking about all the materials they found in the old Copper Hills mine. He is still confused as to why some materials were allowed to be taken, gems, copper, pix ax heads, broken handles. But other materials were off limits, rope, hooks, shovels, pix axes.
Ethelred brings up his confusion to the group.
“If we need more rope to capture the Giant, where should we go to get it?”
While the group is at the spring talking about what to do regarding the four horsemen.
“The last time someone wanted me specifically, rather than The Crimson Calling as a whole, was Creepy Doll and the undead wanting my key. Before that was Barra because of my memory of giving the eyes to Lady Sofia.” Alexis gives a nervous shrug.
“With the eyes retrieved, the key seems to be the most likely culprit. Any other ideas?”
Sometime during the first week after the closing of the pit-of-three-evils Alexis approaches Gustav.
“Thanks for being there, when things were looking the darkest with the Arru-Noroth.” Alexis clasps Gustav meaningfully on the shoulder and locks eyes with him for a moment to let him know how much it meant.