IC VI Stormy Seas

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia bows her head and watches respectfully, though her nose wrinkles. It smells too much like burning meat--burning pork.

And the truth is, she doesn't much understand their speech on dying with honor. Well, she doesn't understand it, but she doesn't much agree. Dead is dead. Why would he want to die at such a young age? How is that honor worth dying for?

And here I am, not even twenty until a couple weeks from now, risking my life when I haven't even had the chance to do anything yet. Am I really that different?

If I died, now, I'd want to be raised like Shiny and Kurt. So I guess that's different.

[Athedia]

Mithril couldn't watch the bodies being put on the pyres, but after they were lit she watched the fires for a while. These were just the first three, once they arrived Deldon more would follow.

Settling down she pulled out her spellbook. She had been fiddling with new spells for weeks and finally tested out the idea.

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Spell List:
Level 0 (4):
Read Magic
Detect Magic
Mending
Prestidigitation
Level 1 (5):
Burning Hands
Mage Armor
Shield
Grease
Magic Missile
Level 2 (4):
Web
Acid Arrow
Cloud of Knives
Detect Thoughts
Level 3 (3):
Fly
Haste
Tongues
Level 4(2):
Black Tentacles
Black Tentacles

[Cavelcade]

Kurt watches in silence while they pay their respects, raising Daybreaker as the fires catch hold. "They will not be forgotten!" His face is otherwise inscrutable, but he sounds sincere. He mounts up as the others do, riding beside the slavers for now.

"You fought well yesterday. You could have hung back when you had the chance, but you didn't."

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia watches Mithril prepare her spells while focusing her own in her mind. It helps calm her down a bit. Then something piques her interest. She hasn't seen that spell in her book before.

"What new magic?" she asks Mithril.

[Athedia]

"You'll see, just something that I thought looked iteresting." Mithril shrugged and shut her book, placing it back in her pack.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia can't help but smile. What kind of magic has Mithril cooked up now? She can't wait to find out.

[Admiral]

"You fought well yesterday. You could have hung back when you had the chance, but you didn't."

Karn grunts. "I do not know that you were watching same fight. We shot arrows and nets while you and the rest were off slashing. I do not think you can call us brave yet."

[Admiral]

The party and the samurai continue riding east. Early in the morning, Ash rides back towards the party, looking troubled.

"Something's bothering me about the giants..." he says slowly. "The samurai figured they were a raiding party from one of the barbarian tribes... but they don't know much about giants, we're used to fighting orcs back in Soshima. But I used to deliver shipments through this part of the desert... thing is, a giant raiding party would have three or four giants in it, five at the most- anything that would take more than five giants to kill they wouldn't see as worth the trouble. I've never seen seven at once." He keeps thinking. "And both the times one of my caravans has been attacked by giants, they ran off as soon as one of them fell, once it was clear they wouldn't take us down. But these giants kept on fighting even when it was clear they'd all end up dead- that last one charged right at us..."

"I can't make much sense out of it, except that they weren't just looking for food or supplies. They were aiming to kill us."

[Athedia]

"So, its true then." Mithril face tightened. Those giants were strong, and if they had been alone would have easily crushed them. If the Hooded One had them on his side, well then they were in trouble.

[Cavelcade]

Kurt laughs softly at that, thinking back. "I've seen men who were called brave fall back after a punch - but it took two boulders to knock one of you off his feet. No, you could have been done worse."

After Ash tells them what he thinks happened, Kurt rides on in silence for a little while, then brightens up all of a sudden. "That means we're doing a good job at pissing someone off. We must be doing something right!"

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia looks back, frowning. So the giants really were working with the orcs. "Maybe Orc reinforcements, like us with Deldon. So...could see more. But then, who sent? And from where?"

She already knows who probably sent them, and the thought makes her shudder. Quietly, she asks her friends, "Do you think...reinforcements met early, by accident, or...sent hunting us?"

[Admiral]

Ash shrugs. "Whatever it is, I'm glad we're getting off the road in a couple of hours. The rest of the path to Bellville is open field, so it'll be harder to intercept us if anyone else was sent. We'll swing along the southern, rockier side- may take us an extra hour or two but we'll be harder to spot and to track."

Sure enough, a couple of hours later the road disappears into a vast expanse. Ash and a couple of the other samurai with ranger experience lead the party along their route, keeping an especially close eye on the surroundings. But happily, the day passes uneventfully, and they settle down for their second night of rest, with the guard once again doubled.

The following morning passes similarly uneventfully as they travel through rocky terrain, Firefeather circling in wide arcs above them. While the terrain is rockier, they also find some trees nestled away in the hills, something they hadn't seen in the last few days of travel. Finally in the distance they spot their goal: a small village just a bit larger than Linwood, nestled on a rocky ridge across a couple of canyons, and they make their final approach.

Bellville is perched in a curious position- it lies along a flat expanse only a few hundred feet across with deep canyons on either side. As they walk towards the village, Ash explained that Bellville was located on a ridge for the sake of the city's defense, barbarians could attack the city from only two angles, and the village had built sturdy gates to protect from such attacks. Even if they were held under siege, the attackers could not prevent the town from sending out ravens asking for aid, as the birds could fly across the canyon outside the range of archers' arrows. For this strategic reason, Bellville was one of the smallest surviving settlements in this barbarian-ravaged territory.

As the party moves towards the city, the ridge gets smaller around them, until they reach a stone wall and iron gate at its thinnest point. It's not until they're fairly close that they can spot the two short halfling guards behind the gate. One of them eyes the belts of the approaching warriors.

"You'd be the folks sent from Soshima, yeah?" he asks carefully through the gate.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia can't help but smile as she sees real trees. Though she doubts she'll see a proper forest in the desert, it makes her happy to see trees beyond short scrubs, as gnarled as these trees are.

The desert is fascinating though--the air is so dry and clear, and the rosy sandstone is like something from another world entirely. As they rest at night and she keeps watch, she looks up at the clear starry sky and hears coyotes yip in the distance. The next day, a large grasshopper hops into the wagon next to her, and Natalia spends some time studying it. She's never seen grasshoppers that shade of brown and tan before, the color of dust and dun--every grasshopper she's ever seen has been small and green.

Natalia observes the plateaued city with fascination, and when the guard asks if they're from Soshima, she nods but leaves the talking to the actual Soshimans.

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Are we high up?

And yesterday on the airport shuttle I also found a large sandy-colored grasshopper sitting next to me: I spent the whole shuttle ride cupping it in my hands so nobody accidentally stepped on it.

[Admiral]

Dresden responds to the guards. "Aye, that'd be us. Orders are there's a
cart from the Church waiting here, we're here to help with it."

The guard looks over the group, glancing at each of their guildmarks in turn, then finally nods and steps up to unlock the gate- a complicated affair involving two large keys. The gate opens and the pair of halflings gesture for the group to enter. As the party marches through, they notice another halfling on a raised platform behind the wall, longbow in hand. The town seems to rely on some measure of paranoia for its survival.

As they march through, the halfling suddenly raises his hand. "Hold on! " He points to the three former slavers at the rear of the party. "Where's their guildmarks?" His eyes dart back around the group, as if suspecting he'd fallen into a trap.

[Cavelcade]

Kurt rides forward, clearly displaying his guildmark. "They are here with me, on guild business." He frowns at him almost angrily. "They are here to help us get through to Deldon - or do you think the samurai would let them go with us?"

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia silently raises her guild mark as she looks around. The place provides a good vantage point, but the people seem clearly on edge. Were attacks that common? Were they increasing in number here, like Aicha said?

"With us," she says, before changing the topic and asking politely to pique her curiosity, "Any trouble against Bellville, for such guards? Trouble by whom?"

[Admiral]

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Gonna need a Bluff check from Kurt for that one!

[Admiral]

"With us," she says, before changing the topic and asking politely to pique her curiosity, "Any trouble against Bellville, for such guards? Trouble by whom?"

The guard looks at Natalia like she's speaking Druidic. "How long you been in the desert, you have to ask why we're afeared o' strangers?"

[Cavelcade]

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Fair enough! (1d20-2)[-1] Bluff.

Ha. Not so lucky today!

Unfortunately, Kurt's seeming anger comes across blusterously, making it seem even worse now.

[Admiral]

The dwarf is not nearly as skilled a talker as he is a fighter, and the guards seem alarmed by Kurt's clumsy attempts to cover for the others. The halfling at the front puts his hands on his swords cautiously. Without turning away from Kurt, he asks Dresden, "This dwarf and these unmarked humans- they with you?"

After a moment's pause where Dresden's mouth seems to twist uncomfortably, the samurai replies, "...the dwarf is."

"I don't care if they're your baby brother, your favorite uncle, and your childhood sweetheart," the guard says to Kurt firmly. "If they're not in a guild, they stay outside the gates. You stay out here with 'em if they want to, no skin off my soles."

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Ah, nobody can fail a bluff check like Kurt.

Shiny might have jumped to the rescue in most situations, but like the others he might be less than eager to help the slavers. No one said redemption would be easy.

[CoffeeIncluded]

The guard looks at Natalia like she's speaking Druidic. "How long you been in the desert, you have to ask why we're afeared o' strangers?"

"That not..." Natalia pauses, collects her thoughts, tries to round up her scattered words, and tries again as Kurt also trips over his words next to her. Again, she makes sure they can easily see her Institute guildmark, and that her blades are sheathed and her hands are bare and away from her body--not quite in a "put your hands up" pose, but one where she can't instantly have her swords in her hands (maybe she could, now, but it's not something she wants to project or try!).

"New to desert, but see many dangers. Fight many dangers. From slavers, Horde, and Crusaders." And add giants to the mix too. "But, want to know...any danger worse than others? Any group...more threat? Especially...recently?"

She winces as she screws up Kurt's words, and whispers, "Outside and alone? Too dangerous!" The rogue pauses. No way does she want Kurt staying outside the gates by himself. "What if say...going to get marked? Might be true. And under many guards."

[Cavelcade]

Kurt simply shakes his head in frustration, waving away Natalia's words. "These men are travelling to Deldon to help us break the siege - do whatever you want, and I'll sleep where they do." He turns away from the gate in anger, seeing firsthand, and for the first time, what not having a guildmark means to these people.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia pauses, working her jaw. Finally she seems to come to a decision. She turns and shouts, "Then...I stay with you! Restock inside, sleep outside." she lowers her voice, speaking to Kurt alone. "Too dangerous outside, alone. I...with you, please." and with that, Natalia turns to her friends and the Soshimans, silently asking where they will stand.

[Athedia]

"Natalia.." Seeing the rogue would not change her mind she nodded. She would not leave her out here with the slavers. "Fine, I stay with Natalia.

[Admiral]

The guard shrugs. So does the Soshiman captain, who doesn't seem too inclined to do favors for the slavers. "Sleep where you want," says Dresden. "I'm going inside to meet up with the caravan escort and discuss our plan of attack against Deldon tomorrow. I thought that was your priority as well." He steps on through the gates.

Shiny looks a bit conflicted. "One of us should be there for the planning..." he says cautiously. He follows the samurai in.

[Athedia]

"Kurt, Natalia. Go in, plan. I can handle it out here. They need you Kurt, you know dwarves and you will be in the combat. And Natalia, you can sneak, hide, get into places. You both know what I can do. So just go to the meeting, nothing will happen." Mithril urged the two to go into the town.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia pauses. "Mithril...you sure? Safe?" She looks like she is going to say more, but the remembers her conversation with the wizard last night. "Please, not alone...do you have mind speak spell? Like yesterday?"

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please tell me Mithril prepared telepathic bond.

[Athedia]

Mithril sighed and then murmered some words. "I cast my armor spell. And do you think they would do anything? Really? With Kurt here to track them down?"

[CoffeeIncluded]

"What if giants again? What if...gone before we notice?" She pauses. "I just...what about Whiskers? Warning from afar if danger? Emotion link?"

[Athedia]

"If you are afraid of giants then he will help me spot them. Now go, don't worry. I can always nip inside the gates if there is trouble. My mark isn't going to disappear between now and when you get back." Mithril shooed her friends toward the gate. Before she turned to go back she placed a hand on Miriam's shoulder and leaned down to whisper in the clerics ear.

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For Achinca:

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"You are not just a farm girl. Remember that. And keep them from doing something foolhardy."