Trifecta: The Stones' Teeth

[dariathalon]

Corwin

Unlike Betsy, Corwin has no compulsions about being rude. After scooping a share of the items into his pack, he chooses a cream colored horse with a black mane. He swings his leg up over it's back rather inexpertly. It is obvious that he has not had a lot of experience riding, but once in the saddle, he seems reasonably capable of staying there.

Spoiler

Show

Do you want us to inventory the items that each of us are taking, or can it be assumed we each have some of each and just keep a running total of the items expended?

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

The journey south is pleasant and uneventful. Your party is large, and well-armed, enough to deter most bandits, and a little bit of luck-- or perhaps divine favor-- sees you through without incident. A week after you set out, you arrive in Aldar. This city, still rebuilding from the war, is a far cry from the capital and jewel of the Empire. The military presence is pronounced. Soldiers of the red army patrol the streets, instead of the usual watch. The patrols are occasionally supplemented by guards bearing the livery of Duke Ryloth, governor of the city. A pair of guards stop you outside the imperial army compound. "Your business in the Aldar military compound?" the older of the two inquires. He's a grizzled half-orc soldier, with a pock-marked face. The other soldier looks to be a new recruit, perhaps sixteen or seventeen years old, with faint traces of a brown mustache-- or perhaps dirt-- under his nose.

(OOC: I can't recall if I've mentioned it, but the Imperial military is composed of five 'armies', designated by color. It's a little more complicated than this but essentially: red=infantry, blue=navy, grey=cavalry, black=special forces, green=scout/spies.)

[Serpent Stare]

Surprised to see that the guard is a half-orc, and eager to finally reach her destination after a week of travel, Ovurka answers, "We're here on business for Duke Morland." She gives the guard a curious, honest smile and gives Gilad a quick glance, seeking reassurance.

[Toliudar]

Orwell

Expecting no trouble, Orwell nods at Ovurka's statement, smiling broadly.

Huh. War must have bitten deep if they're recruiting the beardless kids. Mind you, I can never quite remember whether the piliatory process equates with ours, or is closer to those of the elves.

Spoiler

Show

I had assumed that the two clerics would split the healing wands. If Evi's going to do more of the battlefield healing, perhaps she should take the CMW wand, leaving Orwell the CLW?

[McSherrie]

((OOC: Evi is just a librarian so can't actually use either of the wands. I think you may mean Betsy. ))

Being unaccustomed to riding, Evi seems to have discovered some new muscle groups due to soreness. Her relief at reaching Aldar is undisguised, even though she is disturbed by the youth of the soldier. She is happy to let Ovurka speak to the half-orc, having spent the majority of the trip randomly identifying - and telling the historical significance, if any - of every plant, stone, ruin, and farm house along the road to anyone who will listen. Even if sometimes the only one listening was her horse.

[dauphinous]

Betsy

Away from the city, Betsy brightens again, like a flower given water. Whenever Duantan has the horse near Evi's she listens to Evi expound with polite interest and even asks a question when one occurs to her. Although that isn't often, it does show that she's paying attention.

She sits up most of every night embroidering in whatever light is available. It is a neverending project, as she tends to find a reason to rip her stitches out every so often and redo parts. The short time that she does sleep, she makes sure that it falls during a watch other than Duantan's.

The city causes her to react as expected. The small, earnest smile is soon gone, she sits up straight in the saddle, and she keeps her mouth shut.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

The guard grunts at Ovurka in surprise at her claim. "Do you have papers to prove your claim?"

[Serpent Stare]

Ovurka falters for a moment, and blushes. "Umm... I think so. Gilad? Guys? Do we have papers?" she turns to the others to deal with the complicated question of paperwork, not having been paying all that much attention to the details of paperwork or whether anyone had been handed any.

[Santanya]

Duantan

Duantan chuckles softly. "No, we frequently are sent by order of the duke without proof," he says as he urges his warhorse around the others and to the guard. He reaches into his saddlebag, leaning against Betsy slightly as he does and produces the scrolls that accompanied their supplies. He turns with a smile to the soldier and holds out the scroll. "We were sent here to resupply before heading to investigate."

[faithfreebible]

Gilad

Grinning to himself, not so much in amusement at Duantan's jest as at the clearly inexperienced guard's lack of competence, Gilad shakes his head.

That it should come to this. Perhaps if the nobles didn't have such an irrational fear of hiring mercenaries, the ruins would have already been explored properly.

Turning to Ovurka, he voices his opinion, "Truly, had the Silver Shadows been hired as the expeditionary force, we would not have simply run in fear of some creatures footprint, eh?
Not truly caring if the guardsman will take offense at the comment, he doesn't even lower his voice for the jibe.

[Toliudar]

Orwell

Nodding cheerfully, blissfully unaware of the potential offense in Gilad's word, Orwell adds:

Well, unless it was a really, really big footprint. Or, you know, smouldering with sulphur or something. That might be pretty frightening.

[dauphinous]

Betsy

Blushing a very light pink, Betsy turns to look just about anywhere but actually at the soldiers. Nothing about them is remotely embarrassing, of course, and she's quite used to this particular form of proximity Duantan. Although she would never admit it, this is the primary reason why she continues to ride with him, even though she doesn't have to. It's just the 'accidentally-on-purpose' nature of the contact that brings the warmth to her face. He wants to be there, which is something of a compliment. And that's worth a blush anytime.

[Serpent Stare]

Ovurka frowns, a slight worry reclaiming her. "I forgot about that," she admits. "I wanted to ask if anyone knew what that might have been." She looks around at the others again, even the guards, the question in her expression quite clear. She ends up looking at Evi in particular for a moment, not saying anything about her blushing, if indeed she even notices, but hoping for some sort of answer from the one who seems to know something about everything, and has for the past week been displaying tidbits of random knowledge. Perhaps Evi can tell us something bout this, too... she thinks, cocking her head in a hopeful expression.

[dariathalon]

Corwin

Corwin frowns at the guards while reaching down to massage his own thighs. "Listen, can we hurry this up a bit. We've been riding for quite awhile now, and I can't wait to get off this beast. I just want to get dismount and take a little rest. It'll probably already take me weeks to walk off the sore legs."

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

The orc grunts a nonverbal reply to all the comments as he looks over the papers. "You'll be wanting Lieutenant Charen. Her office is in the headquarters building. Big one about two hundred yards that way," he says, pointing. "Imperial Flag outside the doors. Can't miss it."

[Santanya]

Duantan

Duantan nods and smiles. "Thank you very much," he says and holds his hand out expectantly, waiting for the papers to be returned before continuing on. He glances towards Ovurka with a raised brow. "That probably will get a better answer once we talk to someone that saw it," he says. Once the papers are returned, he knickers at his horse and guides it towards the suggested building.

[Serpent Stare]

Ovurka nods. Of course. They were going to talk to the soldiers, who would probably have a better idea what it might have been because they were the ones who saw the footprints. That made sense. She nods, says a quiet "Thank you," in passing, to the guard, and guides her horse to follow Duantan's. She hasn't minded the ride that much, but it will be nice to start moving around the normal way again.

[Toliudar]

Orwell

As Orwell gratefully got down from the cart and clanked off after the others, he gazed carefully around the compound. The city was in rough shape. If there were repairs that they couldn't make out in the field, this was likely where they'd be going, and he wanted to know what kind of resources might be here.

Spoiler

Show

Specifically, Orwell is looking either for signs of a field hospital of any sort, or of the forge-fires of a smithy. Because, after all, it's ALL about him!

[McSherrie]

Evi slides ungracefully off of her horse when they get to the headquarters, looking around in wonder at the city. "I feel quite as if one adventure is over and another is begining!" she says cheerfully, waiting for one of the more experienced members to approach the building.

[Santanya]

Duantan

Duantan guides his warhorse up to the building mentioned before, then looks over his shoulder to Betsy as he holds his hand out to help her dismount. He quickly follows her down and off. As he ties the horse, he looks to the others. "We need to ask about Rik Selkirk," he says. "That was the commander of the scouting party apparently, not the person we were pointed towards." He stretches for a moment as the others dismount. "Probably get more answers as to what signs of animals they saw. I wouldn't suggest they were driven off by them though. That's not what we were told," he adds with a grin and heads into the building.

[Serpent Stare]

Ovurka ties her own horse, patting it gently on the flank, and hefts her axe, glad of it's comforting weight. She gives a reassuring, companionable smile to Evi, and gestures for the librarian to walk beside her, hoping to stave off some of her fear, then turns to follow Duantan.

[McSherrie]

Evi does her best to imitate Ovurka's tying off on her own horse, and returns the smile. She looks up at the headquarters - quickly identifying the architectural style and type of stone used without really thinking about it - then begins to follow Duantan and Betsy inside, happily pacing Ovurka.

[dariathalon]

Corwin

Corwin dismounts eagerly. He moves around his horse to where the others are beginning to prepare. It is obvious that he isn't used to riding for these long stretches. Today, like most of the last few, he is walking stiffly with his legs bowed outward. "Hold on, before we go in, I'm going to set up a mindspeak," Corwin says. He makes a few gestures to center his mind and looks around the group from one person to the next. As he does so, the color drains from his cheeks and a few drops of sweat form on his forehead. As soon as the spell is completed, he reaches up and wipes the sweat from his brow, a few seconds later the color has returned and he says, "Alright, I'm ready. Make the usual signal if you need to speak to me."

Everybody

Spoiler

Show

Mindspeak is a spell that you all would be familiar with, Corwin would have likely used this with the group several times in the past. Here is a brief description. Oh, by the way, the usual signal, just to pick something, has been touching your head in some way. (Scratching your nose, brushing hair out of your eyes, etc.)

Mindspeak is a long-range area affect, lasts for 10 min/caster level and allows for unlimited telepathic communication between any target of your choosing, within the area of the spell. You have to either be able to see the target, or have some familiarity with them. You can switch targets while the spell is in effect, but you cannot speak to multiple targets at the same time.

DLotS

Spoiler

Show

Since this is a first level Mind effect, I don't need to worry about resisting drain, correct?

[dauphinous]

Betsy

Taking the help Duantan offers to dismount with some amount of reluctance, Betsy lands heavily and pats the horse gently. She gives a light, quiet sigh and casts her gaze downward, waiting patiently for everyone to be ready to go in. She nods to Corwin, a gesture to indicate that she heard and understands, then trails along with the rest of the group as they head inside.

[faithfreebible]

"I'll stay with the horses just in case. Good idea on the mindspeak, you can let me know if there's any trouble." Gilad says, dismounting but not moving to follow.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

The guard at the duty station directs you to Lt. Charen's office. The lieutenant is a harried looking half-elf woman in her thirties. She looks up from a stack of paperwork as you enter, seeming grateful for the distraction. "Yes, yes. What do you need?"

[Toliudar]

Orwell

Happy to let the more silver-tongued and attentive among the group handle dealings with the overworked lieutenant, Orwell contents himself with looking around the office, trying to work out by looking at any maps and posted documents the nature of her troubles.

[Santanya]

Duantan

Duantan steps forward, nodding to the lieutenant as he holds the papers out towards her. "We were sent by the Duke to investigate some ruins that were found by a patrol," he states, getting to the point rather directly. "We were told to stop here to resupply, and were hoping we would be able to speak with the patrol that originally found them." He smiles to the woman, nodding slightly once more. "We were also told to report to Commander Rik Selkirk upon this assignment," he says.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Commander Selkirk isn't here. Hasn't been for some time now." She scans the documents before speaking further. "Since you're on assignment from the Duke, perhaps you could assist us with a small problem as well?"

[Santanya]

Duantan

Duantan raises an eyebrow, looking over the top of his blue tinted spectacles a moment at the woman. "He has not been?" he asks curiously. "Might I ask what happened to him?" he adds.

He smiles slightly as he looks at her. "It would depend on the nature of the 'little problem'," he says. "We're not exactly just a unit assigned to this task. We are being compensated for the job."