[IC] A Stranger Land

[Stix4armz]

"Indeed it is." Artemis says.

[Ulthar88]

(Since no one has posted much in the way of specifics, I shall begin the tale of the journey with the most obvious presumptions... but first....)

Martel wisely tries to get a little rest before the night's march -- the pounding noise of the hours of the rain wash away the sounds and smells of the town and are oddly relaxing once you get used to it. But her sleep is disturbed by visions of another lost comrade -- familiar by now with the import of this dream, she clears her mind and reaches out towards the face of Marcus.

But something is different this time -- she sees him not frozen and half dead but flailing about with his great weapon as if battling a horde of unseen foes. Martel thinks better of trying to grab hold and suspects all she really has to do is... wake up.

Smashing to the ground at her feet is Marcus, still with a white-knuckled grip on his halberd. He is cold, but drenched in sweat and blood. It is his own blood -- there are many wounds, but all only on the flesh; his clothing and armor is strangely unmarked.

Marcus: You are down by 11 HP and 11 FP -- it seems like you've been fighting with an endless stream of indistinct, ghostly horrors for years without end... but as you find yourself on your back in the sudden moist heat and your eyes focus on the alarmed face of Martel, your memory of the time before the fight (up to the first two paragraphs of this thread) slowly returns... along with the pain & exhaustion of mere mortality.

[Gemini]

Marcus sat stunned and speechless, the sudden change of environment had been jarring. He could feel a strange sense of relief, like waking from a nightmare, but pain and exhaustion were overtaking him now that he finally had respite. Struggling to focus he saw a face, one he recognised, of the young witch Martel,

"At last"
He sighed,
"What has happened to me?"

[Lamech]

Each one is worse than the last... I move over to Marcus Hold still I need to heal your injuries. I put a hand on him and begin muttering softly to cast Healing Light

Spoiler:  

Healing Light (note the ritual mastery perk)
Greater Restore Body [4] Area of effect [2] Healing 4d [12] Multiplier*3 Total= 18*3=56
Only 44 needs to be gathered since 12 can come from ER
Skill: 18, 18, 17, 17, 17, 16, 16, 16,
Rolls: 13, 13, 8, 11, 13, 7, 9 45 energy gathered and 11 from the ER to make 56
Skill to cast: 18
Roll to cast: 14
Amount Healed: Roll 4d=16

Now to refill the reserve
Skill 16, Rolls 9, 12 ER back at full

Alright then assuming that works Marcus's wounds close and his HP returns. Then I move to get Marcus comfortable to recuperate, and making sure everything else is working well. Physician 18 Roll: 4, just in case that matters.

[Stix4armz]

Artemis hears the commotion and comes into the room, seeing Marcus on the ground he says, "I'll go fetch Sally, no doubt she'll need to help him too."

He goes to Sally's place knocks on the door and calls, "Sally! Another friend has dropped in that we need you to help!"

ooc: Unless of course we were still at Sally's place then it'd be as simple as going to the basement... Either way, Artemis fetches Sally

[Ulthar88]

There is some resistance from Sally's mother, who doesn't want her to go out in the middle of the monsoon, but Sally keeps repeating, "Wanna help!" and eventually wins. She is delighted, of course, to see a new stranger and asks with a grin, "You gonna keep making people?!"

However, bringing Sally out in the rain does not go unnoticed, and soon the news spreads through town that yet another pale stranger has dropped in out of thin air. This naturally renews the concern over your group's true nature, and causes another round of worry over why the town's spiritual defenses are not preventing such things.

Captain Fox even shows up, soaking wet and looking distinctly exasperated; "My apologies, I don't mean to sound unfriendly, but my life will become considerably more tolerable once you all are out of town."

As far as Marcus is concerned, thanks to the ministrations of Martel and Sally, he is as near to the peak of health as one could hope -- all that remains is the disorientation. (And one annoying reminder: Marcus does not yet share your team's Speed buff.)

(Assuming you are still planning on starting your long journey this evening... Tinwhistle says he will guide you as far as the ford downstream where you can cross the Sapphire river, from there you'll be on your own. What befalls the first leg of your march depends on how observant your are -- everyone can make two rolls, Tracking and Perception, plus a third on Thanatology if anyone's got it.)

[Stix4armz]

Tracking 14, roll 10, success by 4; Perception 12, roll 11, success by 1

[Lamech]

Alright then, recasting the speed buff

Spoiler:  

Total Energy is still 28, Only 16 needs to be gathered due to the ER.
Skill 16, 16, 15, 15, 15, 14, 14
Rolls: Meh don't want to deal with a quirk
Take 2: 13, 11, 7,
Skill to cast: 16
Roll to cast: 10
The ER is gone so lets refill that:
Skill: 16 Roll: 15, 13, 8

Nest up: Tracking=Naturalist-5=14 Roll: 8 Per: 10 Roll: 13

[Ulthar88]

(Proceeding -- I took the liberty of making a few rolls for those who hadn't posted yet...)

Your journey begins just after the rains that evening. Tinwhistle guides you to a spot about a half mile downstream where the river can be forded. It is already too high for him to cross with you, and will soon be too high for humans. After carefully checking for lurking crocodiles, you cross the Sapphire and head southwards towards the Green Leagues.

The night's marching is mostly uneventful; the weather is humid, but not unpleasant, and once the moon rises you are able to hit a good pace. The land is already greening and young grasses and flowers seem to be sprouting up everywhere.

At dawn, you continue on for a few miles keeping an eye out for a good resting spot. You spot an unusual cluster of birds a hundred yards away, probably clustering around a carcass from their behavior. When you get closer, you can see it is two carcasses -- humans.

Your approach scatters the birds and sends a pair of jackals who had just arrived slinking back into the grass. It appears to be two dead warriors, cut deeply with many wounds, but some very strange details come to your attention.

The most immediately notable is the lack of tracks. Even allowing for the action of the rains, there should be trails in or out of this place; they can not have lain here for more than a day or two. There is sign of a running battle with many opponents, but any trace of them, even the paths taken by the dead, appear to have been deliberately erased. The corpses are male and their armor -- leather breastplates and skirting -- has been cut open and possessions may have been removed, yet two quite valuable items remain on the ground beside them: a steel long sword, and a fighting spear and bronze shield.

But there were three bodies here. Another had lain beside the other two for some hours and bled out into the ground, yet impossibly seems to have crawled away to the east. Looking in that direction, it is not hard to spot it less than a hundred feet away in a small outcropping of stone.

This one was female and in other respects suffered the same fate as the others. But this corpse is now sitting on a rock facing the southeast, on her ankles as if in meditation, her head hanging down, long black hair obscuring her face. Her left hand is held out as if asking or offering something. Approaching closer, it seems more like offering, for in her hand is a small triangle of bronze, no more than an inch across -- it is held upright and inverted, one corner wedged between the fingers of her outstretched hand. Martel can sense a faint and subtle mystical energy in it, but nothing readily identifiable.

[Skullcrusher]

Rorik examines the shield and takes it. Strapping his other shield to his back.

OOC: How big is the shield?

Also is there going to be Xps awarded soon. I mistakenly forgot to buy spear fighting for Rorik.