The Vystera Jewels - The Forest

[Hefty Lefty]

Vaylindal - Countryside

The sun is just setting over the trees in the near distance. The sky is an delicious orange-pink. A few mosquitoes zoom around in the warm air, but other than their buzzing it is silent. It's a comforting relief from what has proven to be a much more stressful day than it was supposed to be. The two travelers have been walking for about four hours. Their destination is a small settlement Natalia knows about three days away from Unitus - longer on foot. The dirt under your feet has spread so wide that it no longer resembles a path at all. The trees in the forest in front of you appear to be about an hour's walk away. You will be able to reach the fringe of the forest by nightfall, but it travelling further would lead you into the forest in the dark. Never a wise decision.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia Bolts, human rogue

Natalia walks beside Mithril, running her fingers along her black stone necklace. The smooth obsidian had been tucked inside her shirt until just a few minutes ago. For the past several minutes Natalia has been mouthing something and she finally says, to nobody in particular,"Pink for a princess but her name's Azurella, that's blue. Pink for princess, blue for prince, blue princess pink, is Princess Azurella a prince?"

[Athedia]

Mithril- Human Wizard
"Ugh" Mithril groans "This has been more walking than I have done in years"

Her feet sore she asks Natalia "Do you want to stop at the trees? Whiskers and I do not trust them in the dark, not after the stories we have read."

[Athedia]

Mithril- Human Wizard
"It makes purple. Blue plus pink is rather pastel, thats princessy isn't it?"

Mithril pulls her waterskin of her belt, dripping a little into her hand, which she then raises for Whiskers to drink from.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia Bolts, human rogue

Natalia grins. "Of course, and purple's a royal color!" She looks at her companion again. "You said you're Mithril, right? Did your parents view you as rare as the metal?"

She looks again into the forest, the long branches beckon. "Stay on the path or the big bad wolf will eat you up, but the path's been washed away long ago and there aren't any pebbles to lead us back. We should stop here."

[Athedia]

Mithril- Human Wizard
"It was either that or Margaret. Oh, and no bread crumbs when we go in tomorrow, those will disappear too." Mithril sat down, glad that they were finally stopping. Apparently living in a city did not suit one to walking long distances.

She looked around for anything she could use to build a fire, she had read that the glow would keep animals away and knew the embers would serve to cook their breakfast.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia Bolts, human rogue

"We never make our own names," Natalia says as they sit down. "Our parents give us our identities and then others give us identities but we never make them for ourselves. But if we did name ourselves, then everyone would be Goo-goo..." She trails off, takes the flint and tinder out of her pack, tossing them up and down in her hand as she watches the dying sunlight glint off the metal.

[Athedia]

Mithril- Human Wizard

Pulling out her bedroll, Mithril laughed "Goo-goo still sounds better than some names I have heard." She looks at her spellbook, lying under the bedroll in her pack and thinks back to the morning, her spells still prepared for normal living. What use were they to her here.

Turned serious she asked her companion"Do you know about the jewel? The pink one I mean, do you know what it is?"

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia Bolts, human rogue

Mithril's question snaps Natalia back to reality. The flint and tinder bounce off her head into her lap. "Ummm..."

(Prepares for fail)

Knowledge (Local): [roll0]

[CoffeeIncluded]

(Oh, and while waiting for Hefty Lefty's response...)
Natalia Bolts, human rogue

Being the space cadet that she is, Natalia Bolts has forgotten to pack food with her. Whenever she gets the chance, she sets a couple of snares and goes looking for some edible plants like dandelions and onion grass to go with whatever she manages to catch. Natalia isn't stupid--if she's got any doubt, she won't take it.

Take 10 on the Use Rope checks (to make a couple snares for catching small game) for 17; the DC for special knots (like the ones that make up snares) is 15. Can I take 10 on a Survival check for an 11? If not (prepares for faill)
Survival (to search for edible plants to go with whatever she can catch): [roll0]

(EDIT: Nice! So Natalia's got a nice dinner for herself and Mithril, and tomorrow's weather report.)

[Athedia]

Mithril-Human Wizard
"Nice find, I wasn't looking forward to eating the food I packed." Mithril says as she notices the food Natalia has gathered. "That jewel is one of the Vystera Jewels, or so I think. It looks like the picture in an old text I found. The story goes that they are the keys to a dragons prison, and that they are all hidden. So why is the princess wearing one around her neck? It just seems odd. Mithril reasoned to herself that Natalia could be trusted, she didn't sound like she was one of the people who had attacked the princess.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia roasts the skinned rabbit on a slate held above the fire, locking in the fat and juices. "Scatter the keys and lock them away, but...Why unlock them?" And then the other part of what Mithril said sinks in. "Dragon?"

[Athedia]

Mithril-Human Wizard
"I don't know if the story is true, but that's what I read. If it is true and someone were to free it..." Mithril shivered, the idea of a death by dragon not something she liked to think about. She looked at the sky, seeing it darken as night arrived. "Whiskers can take first watch, I taught him to wake me when people approach, very helpful for sleeping during lessons."

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia Bolts, human rogue

"Soft red," Natalia mutters, lightly brushing her fingers over the meat. Apparently deeming the rabbit sufficiently cooked, she divides it up into two servings, scatters the onion grass she found over both, and gives one serving to Mithril. Natalia eats the way she always does, running her fingers over each part of the meal, taking in the textures and colors that come with every touch, colors that apparently only she can see. She looks at Mithril talking to the weasel that was nestled in her clothes, which is now nodding to her request.

"Never seen a weasel..." She trails off.

[Athedia]

Mithril- Human Wizard

Mithril watched Natalia as she ate. It was odd the way she examined her food, as if it was telling her something that no-one else could hear. And she had never seen a weasel? Admittedly Mithril had only found out about them from a book, after which she feel in love with them. She felt they called to her, one nosy animal to another.

"Don't worry, he doesn't bite friends. At least not often. You can pet him if you want, just don't pick him up. My brother still has a scar from the last time he did that."

[CoffeeIncluded]

(Actually, she's never seen a weasel act like that. Expect Natalia to trail off mid-sentence a lot. :smalltongue:)

Natalia Bolts, human rogue

She quickly withdraws her hands at that last sentence, and cautiously eyes the little animal. "Bright eyes, keen as a person's."

[Athedia]

Mithril- Human Wizard

Mithril nodded and yawned. The day had caught up with her and she needed to sleep. She wrapped herself in her bedroll and turned over to go to sleep. "It's getting late, and we need sleep. Rest up a bit. Whiskers settled down on her backpack, getting comfortable but listening for signs of trouble.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia Bolts, human rogue

Natalia nods in the darkness. "I'll watch the woods later."

(Natalia's going to have a lot of questions to ask Mithril about Whiskers and wizards in the morning.)

[Hefty Lefty]

OOC: Sorry for the delay. I tend to vary between super busy one day and absolutely nothing to do the next. Expect a lot of the latter coming up. Also, LOVING the conversation between you two. I'm happy with my picks.

Vaylindal - Countryside

The two new friends peacefully cruise down to the forest, smartly stopping early to avoid any danger. As Natalia drifts off to sleep, Mithril finds it a bit tougher to find rest, as she is distracted by a thin plume of smoke about seventy yards to the west, also on the edge of the forest. However, if she would chose to ignore it, she is able to get to sleep in a matter of minutes.

[Athedia]

Mithril-Human Wizard

Mithril sat up, peering out of the circle of light the fire provided. yes, there it was a thin line of smoke not to far off. She looked at her sleeping companion and decided to let her rest, it may be nothing and one of them should be well rested. She reasoned that if they were not friendly it would be better to know now, and if they were friendly even better. She whispered to Whiskers "Stay here, wake her up if there is trouble."

Grabbing her quarterstaff she headed toward the smoke. She planned to stop just outside the reach of the fire's light so she could learn more about the people who had started the fire.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia Bolts, Human Rogue

Natalia rolls over in her sleep. If her waking hours are jumbled enough, imagine what her dreams must be like.

(Can't exactly do much else...)

[Hefty Lefty]

Vaylindal - Countryside

Mithril creeps towards the fire. She ducks into a bush safe from the eyes of two men, a dwarf and a gnome. The human appears to be very frantic, shouting "Wake up! Wake up! There's a fire!"

[Athedia]

Mithril- Human Wizard

Mithril peeked out from behind the bushes, should she show herself she wondered. They sounded panicked about a fire. She realized it was probably Natalia and her fire, if she could see theirs they could probably see hers. She stepped out of the bushes "It's okay, don't panic. My friend and I are staying there. She pointed in the direction she had just come from I saw your fire and wanted to know who was out there. We mean no harm." She hoped that this was the right decision, they didn't appear to be harmful.

[Athedia]

Mithril- Human Wizard

Mithril closed her eyes and tried to send Whiskers a feeling of safety and needing to be close. She hoped he would interpret the feeling to come to her side, and hopefully wake Natalia. Translating instructions to emotions could be tricky.

[CoffeeIncluded]

(Tell me if this is okay with you)

Natalia Bolts, Human Rogue

Feeling something cool and point press into her cheek, Natalia opens her eyes to see two beady black ones staring back at her. She yelps and scrambles back, only pausing when she sees that the source of the sensation was Whiskers, who is somewhat agitated at the moment. She looks around and notices that someone is missing.

"Mithril?"

She looks up at the horizon where Whiskers seems to be gravitating towards, and sees a curling trail of smoke in the distance. "...Trouble?"

[Athedia]

Mithril- Human Wizard

Mithril felt a surge of anxiety from Whiskers, and felt her link to him grow stronger. He must be coming she thought as she re-opened her eyes to look at the people standing before her. Realizing she must have looked odd standing there with her eyes closed she blushed, she always forgot that other people might think her connection to Whiskers unnerving, hopefully these people responded well.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Natalia Bolts, Human Rogue

If Mithril was in trouble, then she should help. Natalia grabs her gear, and put out the fire, motioning for Whiskers to follow. Something had been needling her for the past few minutes, and she finally figured it out. It was good, figuring out a puzzle, seeing the pieces come together.

"No regular animal...Familiar," she says, pointing at Whiskers. And then, a bit of a gamble (but there was only one other time a stranger had come close to understanding the few words that escaped from the torrent of her mind out through her mouth), she points to the direction where Mithril likely is. "Wizard."

She slips into the shadows, under the trees, gambling that there won't be enough fallen twigs underfoot to offset the extra concealment from the low-hanging branches.

(Prepares for fail)

Hide: [roll0]
Move Silently: [roll1]

(And so Natalia moves out of this thread and into the main one. Athedia, you should too).