"Gather Round the Campfire"

"Gather Round the Campfire" is the second episode of Dealing with Death. The four sit down 'round a campfire with some good food and good drink, telling their backstories.
== Plot Synopsis ==
Before the group settles down for the night, Markus and Kier try to make a fire. Ashe tries to cook food for herself and the rest of the group on the fire. This shocks Kier, who tells her the fire is not for cooking, just for the ambience. Ashe shortly realizes the fire is not even putting out heat.
After arguing with Kier about his and Markus' fire, Ashe gives up and creates her own, normal fire, to cook food on. She tries to coax the boys from the cold fire and succeeds. Except for Kier, who begins pouting underneath the table that his fire is sitting on. 
Eventually, with Ashe's help, Markus manages to get Kier out from under the table. Everyone sits down around Ashe's campfire.
Once the food starts cooking, Kier gets curious and asks Ashe about how she learned about fire making. Ashe says she learnt it from her father, back when she still lived in her birth country, Meathe. Her mother had died during childbirth. Ashe mentions she didn't like him much, but he taught her a lot of survival skills and also how to fight. 
Her opening up allows Markus to attempt to 'one-up' her with his own past. He talks of the kingdom he came from, Tannhauser, and his tiefling family - his father and a little about his mother. They acted as servants to the royal Aasimar line of Tannhausers for millennia - or so Markus was led to believe by his father. One day, as a teen, while he was assisting the (at the time, heavily inebriated) king, he found out the current rulers of Tannhauser have usurped the throne only about a century ago. Realizing he and his whole family were living a lie, Markus decided to leave the kingdom.
Then, Kier decides to tell the others about his own background. He grew up in the Shrouded Isles when it was still colonized by humans and called Grius. His father fought against the spiritfolk at one point, but according to Kier, he felt guilty about it and taught his son that spiritfolk should be respected. About twenty years ago, Kier witnessed the humans of Grius being slaughtered by spiritfolk - 'pitch black, warped red creatures'. He himself was protected by a mysterious dragon-like spiritfolk with 'a sword as big as the world'. He lived alone on the Isles, eventually encountering the new spiritfolk settlers and trying to make friends with them.
Ashe continues her story then, saying that she and her father lived separate from the other denizens of Meathe. They lived alone, only sometimes receiving gifts from people and visits from 'some of the shamans'. She was the island's Guardian - a person who is to guard the Meathians from the dangers of the world. As such, she was treated very well, to the point of everyone always agreeing with her. This annoyed her, so she left, abandoning her Guardian duties.
Finally, Gregor tells his tragic backstory as well. His original family of rock-farmers in Renalan died in an owlbear attack when he was eight, the only survivor being him. He was recruited by the Outriders, a band of monster hunters who came to his village's rescue. He even became the apprentice of their leader, Ventis. However, when he was older, they also died, presumably in a raid on their headquarters. He says he's going to reform the Outriders eventually with him in the lead.
Markus passes out from drinking too much fogapple extract. Gregor and Kier tuck him in under a table in the bar.
== Trivia ==
* Markus states his age is actually 'between 35 and 37' in this episode.
* Kier mentions that the corrupted spiritfolk the group has to fight were very similar to the ones that partook in the slaughter of Grius' human population.
* Kier uses a greatsword mainly because he was inspired by his 'guardian spiritfolk', who wielded a gigantic sword.
* This episode has the first appearance of Ventis and Aryn, in the illustrations for Gregor's story.
== Quotes ==
* Ashe: "Do you know what a regular potato is?"
* Gregor: "Yeah, but.."
* Ashe: "It's like that except.. flavourful."
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* Markus: "Where did you learn how to tend a fire?"
* Kier: "Oh! I taught myself."
* Markus: "I figured."
* Ashe: "Yeah."
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* Gregor: about Ashe's father "Like.. if you take Ashe's hair and turn it upside down? That's what I think he'd look like."
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* Ashe: "Judging by the morale of your own story, how much of what you told us is truth?
* Markus: "Well-"
* Gregor: "Markus would never lie to us!"
* Markus: "Not even a little bit. Thank you, Gregor."
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* Kier: "I'm a simple person." pauses "With an incredibly tragic past."
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* Kier: "It's Kier Fiore, genius, swordsman, friend of the spiritfolk, wanderer of the six or seven islands he has access to."
* Ashe: I pull out the 'Guide to Relationships' and as he's saying that, read off the title of the author. "Yeah, it's all there."
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* Kier: "I think living inside a tree has to be a little romantic.."
* Ashe: quietly "It was cool."
* GM: ..Ashe mumbles to herself.
Category:Dealing with Death episodes