Age of Ruin IC: When all your friends are dead

[Lycar]

"...'We could always just go home and call it a day.' Gundarak's rogueish companion said. But of course, as a true Hero, Gundarak would have none of this nonesense and... are you still listening ?"

Orin eventually notices that the others have stopped.

"So, what now? Are we quite there yet? I swear, it's hard to make out anything in this thrice cursed fog."

He looks around a bit, frowning.

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina opens her eyes again, and glances Akim's way, the anxiety plain on her face.
"Orin...I just found out what happened to Rego. The Fog ate him."

[Lycar]

Orin freezes for a moment.

"..."

"Riiight." Orin turns around to face the others and raises a finger. "Just for the record: Someone cautioned against spending any more time in this fog then absolutely unavoidable."

"Great. So what now. Don't look at me for answers. I'm just a glorified scribe for crying out loud!"

After pondering for a moment, Orin continues "Try to find our way back to the tomb? At least that is a proper place to spend the rest of eternity..."


Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina shakes her head.
"Screw that; I'm not dying underground. And I know even less about this stuff than you do. Maybe...Krashnix, or Lucida? Ideas? It's dark in here, and we can't really see where we're going..."

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnix stands there frowning but unties his mace upon seeing Tharok draw his sword.

We cant see further than a few feet and we have no idea where we are. Even if we tried to get back to the tower we have no more chance of finding it again than finding anything else in this damned fog.

A dispairing look comes accross his face

There is nothng we can do. We are likely doomed to be consumed by this mist, of whatever horrors it conceals. This entire endevour is hopeless.

[MattKatt]

"We do not stop, we press on, but slowly. The spirits only know what lies in this fog, but standing still is just as dangerous as moving. Only moving might get us out of this place quicker"

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina shivers.
"Y-es...Let's keep moving, I guess. Think you could find our tracks from yesterday?" She asks, hopefully.

[MattKatt]

"I shall try my best"

Tharok surveys the ground in an attempt to find some tracks, be they human...or ottherwise

[Ozzy_G]

There are no footprints other than the group's own nearby, but as Tharok circles out more he comes across some faded bootprints, it looks like three adult humans, one a bit bigger than the others, crossed here a day or two ago, maybe three. They were travelling in the opposite direction to that which you've been going, so presumably they were going east, assuming you're going west like you want to.

[MattKatt]

Tharok points out the tracks to the group

"They appear to be heading the other direction. Perhaps we should backtrack them to where they came from. It would possibly lead us out of the fog, and defiantly back to where these footprints came from"

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina does a little mental math.
"Or...it might be the cultists leaving the temple..."

[Lycar]

"Which would be just as well. Frankly, i'd rather deal with cultists..." Orin says, then continues in a lower voice "then with Isana's curse..."

Besides, in his current mood he really wouldn't mind crushing someone's windpipe again. The first time, it horrified him. Now, he might actually enjoy it. Finally something he actually can do something about...

Lycar

[MattKatt]

"So which way do you want to go? Do you wish to follow these 'cultists'..."Tharok tasted the unfamiliar word in his mouth "...or head to where they come from?"

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina shifts her weight to one foot and cradles her own elbows.
"I don't know. It's just a guess that they're cultists." She reaches into her pouch for a moment and comes out with a silver coin.
"Heads we follow, tails we backtrack."
(1d2)[2]

[Lycar]

"Backtrack it is then." Orin observes.

"Very well, let us see where this tracks do really lead to then."

Orin looks at Tharok expectantly. Could it really be that easy? Just follow these footprints back to safety? He doubts it. Still, he has no better idea, so it's better then nothing.


Lycar

[Ozzy_G]

You start following the footsteps back towards their start. You walk for a couple of hours, and suddenly it gets dark again, over about ten minutes. You should have long reached the ruins by now.

[Lycar]

"Well, it would have been too easy, wouldn't it..."

Orin looks around and frowns at the fog.

"What the hell is this about ?"


Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina crouches down and sighs. She looks from side to side.
"I don't suppose it'd help if we apologized for trying to loot the tomb? I mean, we never really took any of his stuff, did we?"

[Regwon]

Krashnix

Krashnox sits down next to Livina with a thud, his head in his hands.

You see? It's all hopeless. It is our fate to succumb to this fog, or whatever lurks within it. It is pointless to believe otherwise. We may as well give up.

[Lycar]

Orin

Orins concentration on the floating face in the fog is broken when he realizes, that two of his companions seem to have a crisis of faith.

(Hrm. Better do something about that. I need all the help i can get to get out of this mess.)

He looks between Lucidae and Tharok for a moment, trying to determine if they are about to be infected by the prevailing aura of despair and then turns to Livina and Krashnix.

"Hey, what in Goramesh do you think you are doing? I am the designated coward of the group! Don't you dare steal my act! And Sir Krashnix, with all due respect, you ain't talking no crazy, you're talking just stupid. You want crazy? I'll show you crazy! And now get off your lazy butts you two and help me figure out what this guy wants from us!"

Orin goes back to staring at the mist, trying to catch the face(s) that float(s) by and read what they are saying.

"I suck at lip reading..."

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina sinks to a crouch again, looking with vaguely-resigned horror at the blackened-pink mist around them. With a flash of irritation, she says
"I think I can hazard a guess what he's saying. Something like 'Aaaaaarrrrgh' or maybe 'you bastards left me to die!' or something like that."
She shudders.
Sorry Rego...I just hope you aren't really feeling all that right now.

[MattKatt]

"I am a little confused here. Who is this Rego person?"

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Livina shifts a little uncomfortably, and toes the turf.
"Er, he was a scholar, I guess. He hired us to escort him through the ruins to this tomb and help him get inside...Um, but when we got down there, he vanished."
She looks almost desperately at the Darven
"We didn't mean to abandon him, it's just, then the golem attacked up above, and killed Kizima, so when we came back to look there was just this pink mist, and-"
She breaks off.

[Lycar]

Orin tries to catch the fleeting face in the fog, tries to decipher what, if anyhting Rego wants to tell them. He has to be trying to communicate. That he wants to tell them what to do to get out of this mess is their only chance of escape after all!

But whenever he catches a glimpse of Rego's face, just before he can properly concentrate on it, with growing desperation, it disappears again.

And all the while his compatriots just sit around on their butts, doing squat.

(I can't believe it.. we are trapped in some ... living fog and i am the only friggin one to do anything about it at all !)

The anger slowly creeps into his mind, making it even harder to concentrate, which in turn makes Orin even more angry and desperate.

Until finally, something gives.

"Okay! That's it! I've had it with the lot of you! All of you! You want to give up and lie down to die?! I didn't survive being ripped apart by pure chaos, just to be let down by the lot of you!"

He practically stomps up to the nearest party member (which happens to be Livina and glares at her.

"You! Get off your lazy butt and find out what the creep wants from us! I don't care if you don't think it will do us any good, i don't care if you just want to go home and retire, if you don't get to the task right now, the only retirement you'll get will be the permanent one and it will be right here! I want to know what he wants, why he wants it and i want the answer yesterday!"

Then he turns to Krashnix next "Same goes for you Mr. I'm-too-crazy-for-my-fire, make yourself useful, talk to Isane, do some divining, i don't give a **** as long as you do something other then sitting there with your thumb in your butt! And don't think you can scare me with your thrice-cursed mace. I can run faster then you. NOW HOP TO IT!"

He goes over to Lucidae next "I am very sorry, Lady Baker, but i am afraid we need all the help we can get to solve the mystery we find ourselves in. So... would you kindly help with figuring out what all this fog is about? Surely your long years of experience with the arcane taught you something..."

Tharok is last "And you... well, i dare say your idea of parting with this world does not include starving with a bunch of strangers in some sort of magical fog. So if you think you can read off this apparitions lips, do it."

Orin turns around, then hesistates and turns back to Tharok for a moment.

"Oh and if you're wondering why i am ordering you around: I'm a noble. That'S what nobles do. Making other people do stuff. Nothing personal."

Then he just goes back to his old position and stared into the fog again.

(That... felt surprisingly good...)

Lycar

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
"..." Livina just shakes her head silently at Orin's ravings.
"You want to know why I'm not jumping right to it?" she asks, in apparent mockery,
"Because I'm not your damned oathsworn; I'm a free Mokai, and I don't have to listen to your ponced-up braying, Prancibald."
Livina rises to her feet, her lithe muscled body moving fluidly with a rustle of cloth and leather.
"He's screaming. In the state he's in right now, I think being helpful is last on his list, assuming it's even him doing the talking."
Her brown eyes flash in anger.
"I'm not happy about where we are, but all we've got that we can do is keep moving and hope we can get out, or stay still and hope it goes away."

[Ozzy_G]

Staring at the fog intently, Orin thinks he can see what Rego is saying...
"flower"? It looks like he's saying "flower". Is that right?

[Moechi_Vill]

He goes over to Lucidae next "I am very sorry, Lady Baker, but i am afraid we need all the help we can get to solve the mystery we find ourselves in. So... would you kindly help with figuring out what all this fog is about? Surely your long years of experience with the arcane taught you something..."

"I was just the well paid guinea pig assistant in the lab Akim! You coward. I advised you three fools hundreds of times to just back down and head back to civilization and you wished only to stick to your courage and noble ideals.." she talks down at him. "Now we are going to follow through!"
She approaches on Orin somewhat menacingly and reaches for his instrument.

[The Great Skenardo]

Livina Lightfoot
Turning her back to the noble, the Mokai puts her hands on her hips and looks at Krashnix.
"But he's right, a little; we can't just sit here. I guess we've got to follow those tracks for now."

[Moechi_Vill]

Lucidae

She approaches on Orin somewhat menacingly and reaches for his instrument.

Baker attempts to squeeze Orin's adams apple.

Spoiler

Show

I think she's got a +2 to touch attacks and an 8 strength. How much damage does a two-handed squeeze do? Thanks.

[Lycar]

Orin

Still figuring out what the disembodied Rego tries to tell them, Orin doesn't immediately realize that his attempt to rouse the party from their inaction was... less then successful.

(Okay.. that open mouth must be an o sound.. ow ... and then.. e ? Er maybe.. hmm.. ower... but the first... *sigh* it's 'tower' isn't it ?)

"Rego you fool! We were at the tower but didn't get down to the tomb any more!"

Quite irritably, Orin turns to the others.

"Are you still not..."

Noticing the sorceress advance on him with murder in her eyes, Orin tries to step back but he's too slow.

Lycar