[NEXUS] The Weald III

[Ashen Lilies]

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium/in-fangorn-forest-odille-esmonde-morgan.jpg

Have you ever been lost in the woods? No? Well perhaps you know someone who has. Or know of someone who has. An a group of boyscouts, perhaps. A father and his son. A little girl bearing cookies for her frail old grandmama. They went into the woods. But they did not come out.

They are here.

But where is here? The Weald is the darkness that exists in the heart of all forests. As long as there have been green places large enough to get lost in, or woods to house wolves or demented serial killers or other ferocious beasts and unseen terrors, the Weald has existed. It's funny, really, how fast nature can turn on you when you don't expect it, even in the modern age. Advanced technology fails here, and navigational tools such as compasses and GPS cease to function. Maps are similarly unreliable and even trying to navigate by the stars is prone to failure within these depths. Do not depend on magic either; its strength can wax and wane within the Weald, and in some places even disappear completely.

This is the Weald. No benevolent gods will intercede on your behalf. No one cares if you die. The only prey here is you, and all games played here are lethal. No civilizations exist here, and no civilizations would dare. Only the brave or the foolhardy need enter. Good luck. Not that it will help.

OoC Rules

This is an Open thread. Anyone can enter if they know how (or are sufficiently unfortunate to stumble across it by accident), and anyone can run encounters or plots here. Ideally, any voyage into the Weald by outsiders should be suitably risky, even for fey, druids or others supposedly in tune with Nature. The Weald has a will of its own, and makes few friends.
The Weald cannot be destroyed. The trees tend to actively resist an attack, and in any case, the Weald is not a physical place as such, but rather the essence of loneliness, danger and fear. One might well try to destroy happiness, love or grief.
You are not greater than the Weald. This thread is intended to be used for dark fantasy or gritty realism at least, and outright horror at most. Mary Sue unkillable super-perfect god characters (or regular characters played like unkillable super-perfect god characters) need not apply.


http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs14/i/2007/008/6/8/Dark_Forest_by_Raskadow.jpg

[Surtr]

Somewhere in the Weald a man is resting on the trunk of a tree. Though asleep he will waken if he senses something or someone approach. At the moment his left hand is resting on his sword at his right hip. Things seem to be peaceful at the moment but how long will that last?

[happyturtle]

There's the softest of rustles near him, but that shouldn't disturb him. It's just the breeze over the surface of the grass. Nothing to wake him.

Or so it seems until a hand tries to grab his ankle.

[Surtr]

The man maybe a light sleeper but he isn't super-sensitive. Until the hand grabs his ankle he doesn't wake. But as soon as he felt it he Jumped away too try and make the hand let go. His sword is out as well, thin black steel shines.

"...!"

[happyturtle]

"Die, Owner! a voice says, that sounds like wind. He easily escapes the grip. The hand is quite small and attached to a shoulder and a head that emerge from the grass and earth. It appears to be a little fey girl of about 5 or 6 and she looks angry. As she speaks, grass grows up trying to pin down the man's sword arm.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/2233/tek4e9628983a4906124767.png (http://tektek.org/avatar/46590803)

[Surtr]

The man is agile so he moves away from the growing grass. He makes it up to a tree branch via wall-running. His mind is confused at his situation. He fell asleep after wandering into a forest and is woken by...... something clearly not human, also it seems to want him dead.

"Owner? The hell do you mean? Hey, stop it with the grass! What do you want?" The man speaks in a rough tone.

If he could stop it from attacking him then good but if not.......

[happyturtle]

"You came here to own us!" the little grass fey screams in fury. "Swords and metal and chains and whips and pain! I HATE YOU!"

The grass vines keep whipping up after him, but they can't reach.

[Surtr]

The man is relieved that he is out of reach but is still on his guard. When the fey screams at him for stuff he had nothing to do with he got pissed. He gulped some air and bellowed.

"SHUT YOUR TRAP BRAT! Do I look like a slaver to you!? huh!? "

He takes a small black ball from his pocket and struck it on his sword. He puts the ball back in his pocket quickly. The blade quickly becomes enveloped in black flame. The flame, however, is not raging but thinly veils the sword.

"Don't force me to do something we'll both regret. I am NOT a patient man." Hopefully this will scare the fey off so the man can get himself unlost from whatever forest he wandered in.

[happyturtle]

"YES YOU LOOK LIKE A SLAVER!!!!" the fey girl howls back, in a voice that sounds like a storm wind. She's completely out of the ground now, standing defiantly and staring up at him. "I won't let you trick me again."

[Surtr]

"You calling me a liar Brat!" Sigh.... again sigh. Stupid slavers getting me into trouble for stuff I didn't do. Stupid kid Fey blaming me for stuff I don't know about. stupid forest making him lost....

"I warned you. ALLSLASH!" He jumped down and used a skill from the time when he was an explorer of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth back in Etria . The skill ALLSLASH is a move that damages all oponents, with the black flame the damage should be even worse as like all black fire it consumes what it touches. The skill is only aimed at the grass and not at the fey. Its only purpose is to try and burn whatever want to grab him and cover his escape with the black smoke that will emit. If all goes well the man will be able to run away north of the current position. The fire should only last till he gets away if he gets away.

((If it was not clear, the dude id from a game called Etrian Odyssey on the DS. Check it out its a cool dungeon crawler game.))

[happyturtle]

The grass burns, and the fey, despite not being touched by the fire, lets out a scream of wind that is painful (but not damaging) to the ears.

The man is free to run away.

[Surtr]

Well looks the the man got away. Well its not like forest creatures/people trying to kill him would be new to him. It was the same in the town of Etria. As soon as he got away he gathered his breath and came to a decision. He would hunt down these "Owners". If he got rid of people like those maybe forest-kin would be lest inclined to kill wandering humans like him. Well he found something to do. First he needs to find a way out of the forest in one piece, gathering info comes next and last... well you know.

"I hope I didn't singe the kid, she attacked first anyway..... I'm too soft for my own good."

The man walks on, what will this forest bring next?

[Reinholdt]

Nadas returns to his tent on the outskirts of here, clearly agitated. What a terrible day. Lost all of his library books again too. Fees are going to kill him if accursed demons and grigs didn't first.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald]

>=3

As Nadas approaches his tent, he'll see several tiny people with the wings of butterflies and moths flitting around his tent. Upon closer inspection, there appear to be an even number of men and women. They were very minimal clothing, amounting mostly to small leaves around their waist. They each have brown and green body paints covering their bodies, with patterns varying from pixie to pixie. They don't notice Nadas yet; They're too focused on poking around his camp.

[Ashen Lilies]

Surtr

What the forest brings is trees. Lots and lots of trees. Where previously they had been spacious enough to allow him passage, now, in every direction, they cluster tightly together, extending branches and vines to deny him progress. He'll have to hack his way if he wants to get through.

[Surtr]

[Esruc]

Esruc blinks in surprise as the forest decides to block his path in every direction. "Maybe up is in order." Esruc jumps up at the branches trying too see if he could branch-hop as opposed to sapping his strength by hacking through the forest as the trees may decide to hack back.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald]

Hell, he wasn't in the mood to deal with more fey today. Not even in a studying mood. Even if they may be able to reverse what the grig did, Nadas backs up as far as he can and still watch. Just don't hurt his notes. Please, please, please...

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald]

Some of the pixies disappear into the tent while the rest continue milling about. Those inside the tent will start picking through Nadas' possessions. Not damaging anything, but they'll make a mess if left to it.

[Earl of Purple]

Pixie-Hunting Expedition

A group of five orcs are walking through the forest, carrying large nets. They each have a mystic amulet around their necks which is supposed to protect them from fey magic. The fact the person who sold those amulets suddenly left town shortly after puts their protective value into question, but their master chose to omit that information when he gave the orcs their orders. They are searching for pixies to capture.

The first orc is tall and burly, with deep purple skin and a scar over his pig-like snout. He's wearing a heavy steel breastplate and ill-fitting chainmail; it hangs loosely at his wrists and lower legs, but threatens to burst on his upper arms, torso and upper legs. At his waist are two swords, one made of dark iron, the other of shiny silver. He's carrying a large butterfly net.

The second orc is much smaller, with no scars and light orange skin. He's wearing leather armour that was designed with sneaking in mind, and carries a crossbow adapted to fire a net, with several spares draped across his person.

The third orc is a runt with pale blue skin, glowing red eyes and is wearing a loincloth, three belts and four bandoleers, all covered in currently-empty jars crawling with symbols of magical absorption and reflection, plus glyphs of binding and captivity. He pushes a trolley filled with more of those mystic signs. The jars, unlike the protective amulets, are incredibly valuable and are certainly all genuine.

The fourth orc has deep green skin, walrus-like tusks, and form-fitting steel plate armour. She carries another net.

The fifth orc is a priest. She is wearing a cloak made from the sewn together skins of several other humanoids and nothing else, revealing her withered and ancient albino body to the world. Her toothless mouth constantly moves in prayers to protect those of her flock from the fey. She carries an ornate staff carved from the femur of a Titan.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald]

Well... they don't seem to be ripping things up or lighting matches, so Nadas will stay back for the time being. Things ought to be alright.

At least, they would be if it weren't for incoming orc pixie catchers. Things will likely all go to hell if they show up here.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald]

The pixies continue to poke around at their leisure. Sure is some interesting stuff here. The sort of stuff they generally see in the bags of the occasional corpse in the woods.

But when they hear the rustling the approaching orcs undoubtedly make, one makes a bird call (that's unfamiliar to this particular area, if one has knowledge of such things) and the whole lot of them disappear into the trees and underbrush. They don't go far, though. They want to see what's approaching.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

Unfortunately for Nadas, when the orc hunters find the camp they'll have a quick look around. Most likely, anything obviously valuable will disappear, as will food. They also won't deliberately destroy anything, though might accidentally drop something valuable, fragile, or both, especially if they don't realise its value. But they'll quickly move on; they're looking for pixies, not mysterious camps.

The pixies might recognise the purpose of the nets, or Nadas might.

[Reinholdt]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

Well no one said anything about Nadas standing by when Orcs show up. Pixies are troublemakers, but Orcs are brutes and frankly Nadas won't stand for them even thinking about digging through his stuff at this point.

When they come into view but before they actually reach anything, no doubt after the pixies already went into hiding, Nadas comes out of hiding heading straight into his camp hurriedly.

"Salutations." He says, warily eying their equipment.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

The pixies stay out of sight for now. All of them recognize the nets an their purpose. A they tighten their grips on their spears and a couple giggle, though the sound shouldn't be audible to someone with normal hearing.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

"'Ello. Oo're you?" The speaker is the withered crone orc, wearing her cloak of sewn skins. The other orcs look around nervously. They seem more confident than the last group, due to the (probably faulty) protective amulets they wear.

[Reinholdt]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

Nadas ears turn slightly, but not much. Definitely doesn't have boring old normal human hearing.

"I'm Nadas Xar'cha and this is my home." Nadas explains without asking any questions back.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

No action from the pixies just yet. Wonder what they're planning over there? Oh well, Nadas and the orcs won't have to worry about them just yet.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

"OK. Be careful; dis wood dangerous. We got protekky-tive amoo lits. But not any spares. We be goin' now. OK." The orcs will then quickly move on, heading deeper into the forest. Nadas might see the amulets; they are an arcane shape, and seem to glow slightly, but they aren't very powerful.

[Reinholdt]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

Grrr... if they leave the pixies might come back.
"Wait! Uhhh... what does your amulets protect you against precisely?"

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

Oh, the pixies are coming back alright. One of the pixies peeks out of the underbrush. He's a wiry little red haired individual. He taps his fingers against the long, sharp thorn that makes up the tip of his spear. Suddenly he flits out of the underbrush and, swiftly and silently, he heads straight for the back of the purple skinned orc and tries to sink his spear into the back of his neck. Even the smallest amount of exposed flesh provides and excellent target. Should the attack succeed, a poison that's supposed to temporarily paralyze should enter his body.

Not quite in unison, but almost so, two more pixies shoot from a nearby tree. They're identical twins, their body paints being the only way to tell them apart. The first flits in front of the orange skinned orc to get his attention. She tries to fling pixie dust in his face with the intent of temporarily blinding him. Her sister goes behind the same orc and tries to find some bare skin to stick her bee stinger tipped spear into. She has a poison as well, one to make muscles spasm and difficult to use.

Three more pixies pursue the blue skinned runt. These seem even more quick and agile than their companions and carry tiny short bows. They flit around in front of the orc and shoot arrows at his eyes with an impressive rate off fire.

Another two pixies, one with streaks o colour in her light brown hair and the other with midnight black hair fly toward the heavily armoured green skin. They fly over her head and try to sprinkle pixie dust that's intended to make her armour rust and the joints become stiff.

The last two pixies, a somewhat large male and and an older female, fly around the albino priest's feet. They sprinkle pixie dust around that will make the grass and underbrush razor sharp.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

"Dey protect 'gainst fey magic." Then, pixies!

The purple orc screams as he is stabbed, and flails around with his net. If a pixie is caught in it, they'll find the net is made from the sticky threads of a giant spider's web. At least, until the poison sets in, at which point he stops, every muscle rigid, and slowly falls over.

The orange orc is blinded, and then stabbed. His net-crossbow is fired randomly and may accidentally either catch a pixie in its strands of the same material as the purple orc's net or hit Nadas. Meanwhile, he falls over as his legs muscles spasm uncontrollably and won't stay still long enough for him to stay upright.

The blue orc runt is blinded, and screams. He drops the cart of pixie-holding jars and covers his face with his hands as he runs blindly into the forest. He'll stop when he hits a tree, cliff, chasm, or another fey, and not before.

The armoured orc's amulet flares as it prevents the pixie dust from working and tries to catch the pixies in her net. She's undeterred by the chaos amongst her colleagues; orcs fight as an undisciplined mob a lot of the time and she's used to working through chaos.

The priestess screams as she's slowly diced from the feet up. She holds her staff above her head and tries walking forwards on what's left of her feet. If the effect follows her, she gets shorter as they slowly hack away at her lower legs.

[Reinholdt]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

Nadas is not caught as he's too busy throwing up a hasty ill-formed barrier spell and ducking into his tent, prepared to react against any intruders that might decide to follow him.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

The redheaded pixie nimbly dodges around the net and cackles triumphantly as the orc collapses. He flits down to land on the purple skinned orc's neck and tries to stab viciously and repeatedly into his jugular.

The twin that blinded him gets caught by the edge of the net and is sent flying through the air, caught in the net and carried by its momentum. Her sister decides not to press the attack, and instead flies after her to try and free her.

The three bow wielding pixies don't pursue the blue skin. Anyone who runs blindly through the Weald like that is likely going to die anyway. It'd be more risky to chase after him, in fact.

The heavily armoured orc manages to catch the black haired pixie in her net. She screams and her friend responds. The rainbow haired pixie shoots forward toward the the green skin's face and tries to bury her spear as deep as she can into the orc's eye.

Thankfully for the priestess, the pixie dust doesn't make it that sharp. It'll cut through flesh, but certainly not bone, and the effect only applies to the plants hit by the pixie dust. That doesn't mean she's out of the woods, though. While she's distracted by the painful plants and moving away from them, the two pixies fly toward her throat, trying to jab at her jugular, but only with quick flyby strikes. They don't want to get hit themselves, though they are taking a risk by getting so close.

Nadas remains unharassed by pixies.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

The purple-skinned orc's jugular is slashed open and he bleeds out in a horrendously gory fashion.

The orange orc is still suffering from violent spasms, and can do nothing further till it wares off.

The armoured orc dodges the spear by jerking her head forwards and opening her mouth, trying to catch the pixie with her mouth.

The albino orc has thick skinned soles; she's elderly, and walked barefoot for decades. After the initial shock of attacking grass has worn off, she quickly barks a spell that causes her to be wreathed in glowing blue flames. The pixies may not want to attack her any more, at least not with melee attacks.

[Reinholdt]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

Nadas zips up his tent.
With all due expedience.

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

After walking for awhile the group will find themselves in a dense forest. This is the first area that the group must pass to reach the ruins. Though the magic eyeball may have shown no creature on the way it will not be the same for the tangible and visible trio that entered the forest.

"Scout will lead us to the cave, we won't get lost that way. Just know that I won't be able to summon anything else while Scout is leading us." Alistair explains to Tamashi and Reinholdt

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

The redheaded pixie, splattered with his foe's blood, decides that the orange orc needs dealing with. He tries to land on his neck and kill him the same way he did the purple skin.

The twins are out of the way for another round. Those nets are sticky and hard to get away from. Pixie dust will be used to help it along.

The rainbow haired pixie will have a leg caught in the green skin's teeth! But there's potentially a cost. When the orc bites, the pixie turns her spear so it'll stab deeply into her foe's lip. With any luck it'll be enough to make the orc release her.

And if that's not enough, the three bow wielding pixies rapidly respond to her cry of pain. They flit over to the green skin and will fire arrows at every exposed bit of flesh they can target. Primarily near the face when they have little risk of hitting their friend.

The pixies attacking the elder back off when the fire appears. They both take spears more suited to throwing off their backs and launch them toward the albino's eyes.

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

After walking for awhile the group will find themselves in a dense forest. This is the first area that the group must pass to reach the ruins. Though the magic eyeball may have shown no creature on the way it will not be the same for the tangible and visible trio that entered the forest.

"Scout will lead us to the cave, we won't get lost that way. Just know that I won't be able to summon anything else while Scout is leading us." Alistair explains to Tamashi and Reinholdt

[Path to Ruins]

"Alright..." Reinholdt says, unable to feel this familiar feeling of unease. He's having a hard time placing it though, so just follows quietly.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

The orange orc is harder to land on; he's still bucking and spasming wildly. It's also hard to stay on, but if the pixie manages it then the orange orc blood spurts out in a similarly gory fashion and the muscles slowly stop moving.

The net isn't protected against pixie dust and offers no unusual resistance.

The armoured orc ignores her freshly-pierced lip, and starts chewing on the leg and moves her net up, aiming to catch another pixie or at least keep them moving so they can't aim properly, walking forwards as she does so. Unless the spear's tip has been poisoned like the others, anyway.

The albino priestess is barking a spell that should cause one of the pixies to loose all muscle control and flop to the ground, unable to move. However, this means she's not concentrating on anything else. Such as dodging the arrows. She's blinded just as the spell completes; a quick aerial manoeuvre should prevent the pixie from being hit, although there's no prior indication of which pixie she's aiming it at besides her stare.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

The red head pixie will have some difficulty, but given a bit of time he will eventually finish off the orange skinned orc.

The rainbow skinned pixie screams again as her legs is shattered beyond repair. But she remarkably is able to still act. She yanks her spear free and stabs wildly at the orc's eyes. The archer pixies pull short spears off their backs and drop their bows. All three of them shoot forward and stab repeatedly at the armoured orc's face, aiming for the eyes, the nose, and around the jaw.

The twins fly back as quickly as possible, and will join in stabbing the armoured orc.

The pixie targeted by the spell, the male, is hit full on and tumbles out of the air. HIs companion swoops down and scoops him off the ground, leaving the albino alone for the moment. At least they'd managed to blind her.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

The orange orc joins his purple companion in death. Maybe the blue one is also there to meet him, maybe not.

The armoured orc drops her net and brings both hands up in a sudden slap against her face, hoping to squish the pixies against her skull. She can't do much else; pixie spears have pierced her eyes and left cuts over her face.

The priestess starts chanting another spell, a healing spell to restore her eyes. It isn't complete yet, however- unlike the battle-spells she's been using healing spells are developed for power and efficiency, not speed.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

The free pixies manage to get out of the way, but the slap hits rainbow hair solidly. She'd been staying upright with her wings earlier, but now she just hangs limp, not making a sound.

The pixies swarm back in, thrown into a rage. It seems impossible that they could have attacked with more ferocity, but they do. Four go for the throat, two on each jugular, and the remaining two try and support their possibly dead companion while still stabbing at the orc's mouth.

The pixie holding her limp friend deposits him in a nearby tree and comes rushing back toward the priestess. She flies a quick circle dangerously close to the albino's feet, sprinkling pixie just over the ground. The ground and plant life both become incredibly slippery.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunter

The armoured, walrus-tusked orc opens her mouth to scream in pain, before slowly collapsing heavily to the ground. Her eyes have been completely destroyed, and her nostrils are likewise heavily damaged (assuming the pixies took advantage of the thinner skin inside the nose with their spears).

The priestess falls over on the slippery ground. The spell fumbled, going off as a blinding blast of light which, funnily enough, none of the orcs noticed, what with three being dead, one fled and blind and the last plain blind. The blast of light also dispelled the albino's flame-cloak, so she's vulnerable again and doesn't yet realise it. She starts recasting the spell to repair her vision from her position on the ground; this way she won't fall over again.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

The two pixies carry rainbow hair's broken body away from the conflict and gently lower her to the ground.

Meanwhile, the remaining four pixies swarm over the collapsing orc and set about trying to finish her off.

The albino is set upon by the woman again and she throws her spear into orc's mouth and down her throat. That's the goal at least. At the same time, the red haired pixie joins her and tries to stab her neck.

[Earl of Purple]

Edge of the Weald- Pixie Hunters

The armoured orc will be found to have died before they arrive, doubtless to their dismay. Though I suppose that might not stop them from meting out revenge anyway.

The albino priestess orc is stabbed in the throat whilst another spear causes her to mispronounce a word of the healing spell, turning it into a far more fearsome spell that erupts from her eye sockets in a great puff of smoke that quickly starts curling from her nostrils and ears as well. Her brain has boiled, and she's dead too.

Five dead orcs for one pixie that might not beyond the power of pixie dust to heal. Pixies are scary; they couldn't even use their most powerful ability directly against the orcs and they won.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

The pixies leave their dead foes and crowd around the injured pixie. Only the older female goes to check on the pixie previously disabled by the albino's spell. They chatter agitatedly as two of the pixies try to tend to rainbow hair. It's not looking great.

The red head turns to glare at the tent, and Nadas will here an alarming sound. "Bring me the elf!" The pixie bellows at a surprisingly loud volume. In moments, Nadas will see signs of several pixie flitting around his tent.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

Well that didn't bode well.

Admittedly, neither had the hastily drawn ritual circle Nadas had been working on. He's reasonably sure this was a newt's tail, not a gecko's. And had no idea if the dirt he was using was from a graveyard or from a church. And just using a clump of grass in place of a red fern leaf is just plain reckless.
"Close enough."
I, uh, guess.

Doesn't help that some of the materials were outside the tent. And that he was doing this entirely based off memory of a book he had at least three years ago.

Or that the pixies had decided to go after him before he was done.
Well no time for that part then. Nadas skips straight to the chanting.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

It takes only moments for the pixies to discover the zipper, and less time to apply pixie dust and make it fall apart. Three angry looking pixie shoot into the tent and right for Nadas. The first that reaches him tries to kick him in the nose while the other two similarly assault his face. At least they aren't trying to stab him?

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunters]

Nadas finishes his teleportation ritual!
Well... sort of. With his shortcuts, and the Weald's love of magic, he actually only finishes his Le Porte ritual, inadvertently creating a big old wooden door between him and the pixies before they reach him. They might even run into it! Does sort of just pop up in the way.

This closed door is fun in that you can't fly around it! It seems to move around to block anyone from getting to Nadas. At least so long as he stays in that ritual circle anyways.

Nadas just groans.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

One of the pixies smacks right into the door, but it doesn't deter them for long. Soon they're smacking their little fists against it angrily. "Come out, you coward. If our friend dies we'll make sure you join your orc friends."

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

Nadas doesn't come out! The door does not budge to gentle knocking!

"They're not my friends! I didn't even warn them about you and I spent like... fifteen minutes watching you rifle through my stuff and giggling in the bushes."

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

"Then why're you hiding?" One pixie demands.

"Listen here. If we find out you had someway of helping our friend and she dies just because you're too much of a coward, then we'll make you wish you did die with those orcs."

Meanwhile, the pixies have been joined by two others. One gets the idea to apply pixie dust to the wood with the intent of softening it so they can start digging through with their spears. It'd take a bit of time.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

"Cause you... I dunno... just murdered 5 people, loathsome orcs though they are, and I don't feel like being number 6?"

The closed door proves... surprisingly immune to pixie dust! It's powerful ritual magic enhanced with holy or unholy ground. It'll take more than parlor tricks to get it open. Even powerful pixie dust parlor tricks.

"Besides, I'm no priest."

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

"Don't pretend you didn't know what those bottles were for!" The pixies bang against the door for just a bit longer before they leave one by one. All except for one. The redhead pixie sits on the ground just outside the tent and glares at the door separating him from Nadas.

Back over at the rainbow haired pixie, the rest of them are still doign everything they can to save her life. Pixie dust and bandages made from leaves are applied, but she's lost a lot of blood and has been badly battered. The black haired woman that accompanied her into battle holds her hand in a death grip, and likely hasn't stopped sobbing once yet.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

Well if the pixies would just get in the bottle, the other one would be fine.
Relevant:
http://thegamercat.com/wordpress/comics/2011-12-28-1112gamercatcomic_fairyfountain.jpg

A little after the banging stops, Nadas will turn the door handle and crack open the door a little, enough to see the pixie still staring at him. Not that it matters how much since he's now displayed the door's one true weakness.
"Well... I do have a small sample of a self-regenerating plant from the Weald that I think might have restorative capabilities, but I haven't had a chance to run it through any sort of scientific trials, let alone compare the results to pixie physiology and it might kill her just as well as help or be a complete placebo and..."

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

Redhead is on his feet in an instant. "It doesn't matter, anything is better than just letting her die." He resists the urge to fly right up to the drow. The last thing he needs is for Nadas to cower away from them again.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

Probably. One could probably argue they kinda earned it attacking the orcs and all.

Well, Nadas comes out all the same and nervously talks as he works. "I had to store it in a special coated container designed to slow its growth. It always either broke the container or died once it grew too much." Nadas says, opening a cooler and pulling out a brownish vial before heading over to mortar and pestle. "Might have a negative impact on its effectiveness, but also means not likely to cause vines to just burst out her extremities." Nadas dumps a red plant with blue spots out of the vial, adds some water, and a something brown looking liquid that might be maple syrup. Then starts to grind it all into a paste.

"I mean, that's not the worst I've ever brought back here, admittedly. For the record, if it's a small and cute and round there's only one to start with, within a day there will be hundreds meeping all over the place." Nadas frowns and adds a bit more leaf and grinds a bit more. "In the end I had to hire a bounty hunter just to get rid of them. Weird giant lizard fellow. Good at his job though. A bit obsessed with the time admittedly." He adds a bit more water then pours it all into a large vial. Still, it does have the little tip for pouring out slowly, so it's the best he can think of for moderating how much a pixie gets. He'll head outside and knell down next to the pixie. Hopefully another pixie will help open Rainbow's mouth, cause Nadas doesn't want to crush her and as it is, he'll have to be careful not to drown her. He's pretty sure they'll murder him either way, only more slowly if he fails. "Apparently one got away though. An amputee with a tri-corner hat. The bounty hunter wouldn't shut up about that one. Guess it irked him." Nadas says as he tries to get Rainbow to drink a moderate amount of the liquid.

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

"Alright..." Reinholdt says, unable to feel this familiar feeling of unease. He's having a hard time placing it though, so just follows quietly.

[Path to Ruins]

The group walks following the eyeball, however night seems to have fallen. The party could continue but the night holds dangers. "Shall we call it a day or shall we go on?" asks Alistair. Tamashi seems to not care whether the team sleeps or walks.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

As Nadas works, the pixies all move around agitatedly when they're not tending to rainbow hair. Can't this guy work faster? Why is he talking so much? But they don't badger him too much and let him work. When he goes to pour the substance in her mouth, the black haired friend guides it into her mouth and helps her swallow it properly. Now all there is to do is wait to see if it works.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

Well Nadas already described the potential things that might happen. The plant may attach to the cells and replicate, healing her, before being broken down naturally. If there was too much given, then she might just end up dead with a plant growing out of her. If too little, she'll die before any real effect.

And there's all manner of inbetweens and offshoots. Never tested before.
Nadas is realllllly hoping for the first one and studies have shown it might work.

[Path to Ruins]

Reinholdt's eyes seem to glint in the dark. "If you're tired. If not, then we can press on." Oddly, Rein hasn't seemed to have even broken a sweat. And certainly doesn't seem to be having any trouble finding his way around at night.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

Nothing happens for a moment, and all the pixies watched in hushed anticipation. If this doesn't work they lose their friend; No one there isn't on edge.

Then rainbow hair coughs a few times and picks her head up to look at the black haired, pixie. "Hey." The pixies all cheer. Black hair practically lunges at her, and she kisses her passionately. Sure, her leg isn't properly healed since it hasn't been set, but she's going to live.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

Nadas thinks now might be the time to slip away before any nasty side effects decide they want to rear their head.

Or at least he would, if he were smaller and not practically a giant mach truck trying to slip away by comparison to the pixies. He'll just breath his own sigh of relief instead, though remains tense.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

Redhead whirls around and points his spear up at Nadas. "You!" His tone isn't harsh, but something about the red painted fangs surrounding his mouth isn't comforting. "You are a friend to clan Bloodfang. We will take you back to our village and have a feast in your honor." The rest of the pixies cheer.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

"Yay." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLTZctTG6cE) Nadas says, enthused.

Still, best to at least try to go along with it. Especially with a tribe name like Bloodfang. "I am deeply honored." He says, a bit more sincerely than a nervous yay.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

"Follow us!" The pixies gather up with rainbow-hair being carried. A couple of them will carry a pair of the pixie capturing jars with them. They go nice and slow so Nadas can keep up. They don't have too far to go before they arrive at the village.

It's actually fairly difficult to spot at first, until a few of the pixies break off and go to various locations. Up in the trees, either embedded in the trunks or constructed in the branched, are a number of homes. They're very simple, serving as little more than shelter. Interestingly, some of the buildings are seemingly randomly decorated with a number of colourful flowers.

For each pixie that leaves them, it seems that two take their place. They fly around Nadas, chattering questions too quickly to really be understandable. Soon enough they arrive before the biggest tree int he area and the most elaborate looking hut. It's decorated with pelts, feathers, and a number of trophies.

A woman steps outside and regards Nadas. She's older than any of the pixies the drow has seen so far, but she looks no less spry for it. Around her waist is a length of a fur pelt that serves as a long skirt. Atop her head is a headdress crafted from bone and small feathers. Paints decorate her skirt, wings, and bare upper body.

"Chieftess!" Redhead cries. "We return from the hunt. Not with prey, but with victory over orcs that wanted to capture us." He gestures to Nadas and another pixie prods the drow in the back to get him to step forward. "Chelsea was badly injured, but this elf kept her from the Last Hunt for another day. Tell the chieftess your name, elf."

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

Hmm... Nadas doesn't actually pull out his notebook to take notes this time, though he wants to. He does make a mental one, however, to ask if the flowers outside each home has some sort of symbolism to them.

When prodded, Nadas steps forward and kneels, head bowed. "My nomenclature is Nadas Xar'cha your grace."

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

The chieftess looks at Nadas for a moment longer, then her face splits in a grin. "Up on your feet, Nadas. My name's Samantha, but you can call me Chieftess like everyone else."

"We are going to hold a feast for Nadas and our victory, Chieftess." Redhead adds hopefully.

The Chieftess nods. "If I didn't know you, Kyler, I'd think you're just looking for an excuse to cook up that stag." Kyler scratchess the back of his head awkwardly, but the Chieftess just laughs. "Sarah's not here to object, so go ahead and prepare it." The redhead shoots off without further delay.

[Reinholdt]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

"Yes Chieftess." Nadas responds quickly, standing again, wondering who Sarah was and why'd they'd object.

[Gullara]

[Edge of the Weald - Pixie Hunted]

No doubt Nadas has many questions. With any luck he'll have a chance to ask them soon.

"Follow me." The Chieftess instructs and starts flying back the way they came. Already a pile of wood is being constructed for a bonfire. Not far off, the previously prepared carcass of a deer is somehow being carried over by only four pixies.

"Sit down. They'll be ready soon." Pixies are milling about excitedly. Talking, working, or playing all of them. Some land on the ground fairly near to where the fire will be. "This is all new to you, isn't it." It seems plain to her.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Nadas nods. "Quite Chieftess. I've never visually examined a pixie feast, or village for that matter. The majority of my life was contained underground, and inside a library or two at that." It's a miracle he's survived the wild, especially the Weald wild, as long as he has really.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

The Chieftess laughs. "You're really out of place here then. I bet you've never had to take a life to keep your own, now have you?" She says good naturedly. "What're you doing poking around these parts anyway? Bit dangerous for you."

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Nadas wishes he could say his hands were clean. But while many avoided him for his heritage and psychotic sister, there were those who hated him for his studies, or hated him because of his relationships, or...
Well.
In the end, Drow don't really need a reason to hate each other. All too often, they just do.

"Perhaps, but the Nexus has much that needs to be chronicled and cataloged. So much of it has remained undiscovered, and the Weald is a bastion of enigmas waiting to be investigated. There are many potential benefits to be found here amongst the unusual flora and fauna, including the plant that I used on Chelsea. So I'm present in this location to perform research."

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Research, huh?" The Chieftess strokes her chin thoughtfully. "Then it looks like this is a good chance for you to learn about our tribe." She says with a nod. What better invitation could he get?

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

One that didn't come from a tribe of murder pixies maybe? :smalltongue:

"Well I'm certainly interested in your culture. And customs. And physiology and language and..." Better stop him before he gets as low as mating rituals.

Though eventually, whether stopped or not, he'll inquire, "I was curious as to whether the flowers outside the abodes held any significance?"

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

The chieftess just kind of stares at him as he goes through all the various topics. Wow, this guy sure can talk, and that's coming from a pixie. "Flowers, right. That's easy. The flowers mean the person living there is being courted. The person pursuing them will usually give them a flower every day they're courting. They use pixie dust to make it so they don't wilt."

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Oh yes. Speaking of pixie dust, what is it exactly? How do you control it to produce such specific effects?"
Nadas gets out his notebook and starts scribbling notes.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Well, we just have to think about making it and it comes out of our hands. Then we just have to think about what we want to happen as we sprinkle it on the target. Bigger effects need more pixie dust too." The Chieftess explains.

[Surtr]

Reinholdt's eyes seem to glint in the dark. "If you're tired. If not, then we can press on." Oddly, Rein hasn't seemed to have even broken a sweat. And certainly doesn't seem to be having any trouble finding his way around at night.

Alistair doesn't notice the glinting eyes nor the lack of sweat. Being a summoner and a blood one at that makes it hard to be surprised at a few differences to the norm. Tamashi on the other hand is not interested. "We'll continue then."

About a half hour since night fell the party is slowly being surrounded by a pack of Black Panthers, Wolves, Lions and Sabertooths. As to why these creatures are together or in cooperation, who knows? Tamsahi is now glowing blue and Alistair seems to have melded in the darkness wielding daggers in both hands.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"You need more? So there's a limit on the amount you can produce?" *scribble scribble*

[Path to Ruins]

"Wait. Let me talk to them." Reinholdt hammerspaces his sniper rifle before shifting into... a small blue kitty cat! So cute.

Kinda small too, even for a kitty. Could easily get lost in the underbrush, so he hops up to a tree branch and meows. Meow meow meow? Wants to know what they want. Though the dogs of the group seem to be the odd one out.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Yeah. We can make quite a bit, but if we use it too much we'll eventually run out. There's always more later, though." The Chieftess explains.

By this point, the pixies have already gotten the fire started in a few spots. In not too long it'll be a roaring bonfire.

[Surtr]

[Path To Ruins]

"If you say so..." Says a voice from somewhere in the darkness. He of course moves from that position to elsewhere in the dark. Tamashi's aura fades and he speaks, "So, we are a group of three magic users."

As to the Cat-Reinholdt question, the sabertooth answers this after its eyes go blank. "Soul Eater, Blood Mage, Eternal Being! Resist not for you three are but mere magic ingredients to be!" The beast returns to normal.

"That was a link made by an artificial life. These animals are but puppets, made at least thrice as strong as its old state it seems." Tamashi fades away all together. Though Alistair and Tamashi are nigh invisible at the moment they are fighting as well.

All five sabertooths have picked the small cat as their target. Four surrounds and one lunges to crush the cat with paw and claw.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Nadas pauses in some thought.
"What is your relationship to grigs?"

[Path To Ruins]

Boy Rein sure walked into that one. Darn trinity sacrifice things.

"Does anyone ever stop resisting when you tell them you're going to kill them?"
I guess it's a good thing he's already up in a tree. Admittedly, not high enough, which Rein quickly changes, hopping up and climbing further as they start making their moves, agilely avoiding the paw. Sure trees are dangerous in the Weald, but so is getting mauled. Hopefully the sabretooth proves to big to climb as well as Rein.

Rein stops playing around though and decides to show off some of his 'magic' skills by pulling out a grenade, taking the pin out and dropping it amongst the Pride before quickly leaping to another tree and taking cover on the other side of the trunk.

No, he doesn't warn his allies. Meanie.

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

Well his allies are busy elsewhere fighting the wolves, lions and black panthers so they aren't hit. The two sabertooths caught by the grenade are damaged. Normally a grenade would have killed the sabertooth but it is an enhanced type. The two will be attacking the tree to get him to fall or break the tree which should bring about the same result. The other three are watching his movements.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"We don't have much to do with them most of the time. They're nothing but trouble makers most of the time. We have one that's living around here, but she's different." The Chieftess may have misunderstood what Nadas meant when he said relationship.

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

"What're you beav-?" Reinholdt's taunt is interrupted by the tree falling. Reinholdt jumps and... turns thoroughly pink and floats up in the air.

"I ever mention I've been to the Weald once before? Had a nasty run in with will o'wisps actually. But enough playing around." Reinholdt shifts back into human form, still quite pink and still floating. But now. Now he's got a very special gun he has picked up but has yet to use. To be precise, it's a chaingun chainsaw with flamethrower. It starts revving up loudly, flamethrower sputtering to life as well. The downside, admittedly, is that Margret takes a little time to warm up which does give his foes a chance to react.

Full description from original owner:

Now I know from a lecture that was delivered to me by a lumberjack that chainsaws aren't, within the confines of strict, stark, bleak reality, good weapons for slaying anything but trees. They stall and liquid getting into the machine really gums up its works. That's why this particular chainsaw's blade is a projection of heated hard light. A bent, grooved laser beam, no less. Gripped from the back and top as it is, with sleek leather insulating pads lining both of these areas, the chaingun barrel could only be mounted inside of the weapon, the laser ripper chain projected around it. The chaingun is fed bullets through a box on its right. The loaded bullets at current are gyroscopically stabilized fragmentation bullets. Mounted underneath is a tube which spews fire with the press of a trigger near the back grip. Squeeze the back grip itself to fire the chaingun and set that chainsaw a spinning with a quick smacking of the big red "Chainsaw On" button on the side.

Oh, and the midnight black weapon of death seems to have a name engraved on its side too. That name is "Margret".

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Might I ask how so?" What makes her different from the rest? But I don't think the Chieftess misunderstood.

[Surtr]

[Path To Ruins]

Upgraded the beast maybe but they aren't immortal. Being shot with a chainsaw made of light-beams while being flamed by a flamethrower kill and most likely mutilates the sabertooths. On Tamashi's side The black panthers were all limp and dead with no visible wound. Alistair is still duking it out with the wolves and lions, 5 each. Without a battle summon, he's having a hard time. With ten pairs of eyes on him, he can't hide so well. Some of his foes have wounds in their vitals though.

[Reinholdt]

[Path To Ruins]

Errr... well they were supposed to get a chance to react before getting mutilated to balance out the... oh nevermind. Seems the fight isn't over anyways and there's no way Rein would use this thing with allies so clearly in the way, even if he was willing to grenade them earlier. Margret gets put away and his classic infamous sniper rifle comes out.

This weapon doesn't actually seem to have any special properties really. It's just Rein's sniper rifle. Reinholdt will take position to cover Alistair and shoot at critters that try to move in on him.

[ThirdEmperor]

Approaching the Edge of the Weald

Through the thick grass and catching brambles comes a Wizard wandering, eyes sweeping the horizon for any sign of life or civilization on the edge of the great forest looming up before him. In truth, he wasn't precisely sure of where his employer was, trepidation filling his mind at the thought he might have to wandering blindly through the dark woods in search of him.

These second thoughts had caught him on the road, as the well-laid cobblestone gave way to an overgrown trail of trodden grass, then to no more than a scattering of moss-ridden cairns to mark the route. Now, when even those landmarks have been swallowed up by the briars and undergrowth, they had grown into a cacophony of better judgements, urging him to turn back.

But still, five hundred gold for the simple task of gathering a few herbs. It was too good to pass by out of silly, childish fears.

[Surtr]

[Small Shack]

The wizard should notice after walking a bit more that there is a small but well-maintained shack that matches the description in the quest poster. The wizard should also hear wood being slashed in half in contrast to being chopped. If the wizard has goo eyesight he will notice it is only a boy 12-14 years of age. He is wearing normal clothes with bits and pieces of armor strewn here and there.

[ThirdEmperor]

Small Shack

"Hail!" The Wizard calls out, waving a hand in the air to draw the boy's attention as he walks towards the tidy hut. "Is your father around? I think I have need to speak to him." The conjurer is notably without weapon nor armor, clad chiefly in a thick woolen coat too warm for the climate and sweating heavily because of it.

[Surtr]

[Small Shack]

"Oh hey a mage, wait there's no such thing as brown mage..... anyway I'm no one's kid in this world. I'm the clan leader of Ignis! I'm helping one of my members out by watching his house, you here about his medicine gathering quest?" Looking closely now the boy has two greatswords on him. One on his back and one on hand. He's carrying it without difficulty.

[ThirdEmperor]

Small Shack

"Uhm.." Most of that rapid fire stream of information is lost upon the Wizard, but he gets the gist, that this boy is an orphaned mercenary and quite capable of taking care of himself. "Yes. I've come about the medicine you've asked for?"

[Surtr]

[Small Shack]

"Yeah, the medicine. Here take this." He hands the conjurer a stone with an arrow on it. "The arrow will always point to the direction of your goal. The materials are all in one spot. Take this as well." He hands the man some notes with pictures of what he should get and how many of each. "Good luck, come back here when you're done."

[ThirdEmperor]

Small Shack

"Thank you." The Wizard says, accepting the items and casting a dubious glance towards the nearby treeline. There's likely spiders in there. He hates spiders. No doubt wolves too, and he hates those every bit as much. "Could you tell me what creatures might make their lair within?" Surely there must be some manner of beasts, to pay so much for a simple gathering trip.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Then apparently her player misunderstood. :smalltongue:

"Because she's attached. She used to spin webs around here and catch pixies to mess with them. But then a couple years back she caught a specific man, and now they're absolutely inseparable." She chuckles to herself. "I can't count on both hands the number of stories I've heard about him being discovered all tied up." She winks at Nadas and laughs again.

[Surtr]

[Small Shack]

"Oddly enough I haven't been attacked by any non-plant creature there. Only things like giant wasps and Giant man-eating fly traps. The insects are usually half your height and the man-eaters a bit bigger than you. " Looks like something was up with the plants.

[ThirdEmperor]

Small Shack

"Ah, yes, I will be careful then." Huge wasps and larger still plants that feed on men. Yes, this forest was as bad as he feared. "It should not be too much trouble." Saying this more to himself than the boy, the Wizard glances at the compass stone and heads in the direction it indicates, keeping an eye peeled for large plants and an ear out for the buzzing of wasps.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

As the wizard follows the directions of the stone compass he may notice that it is slightly glowing blue. Later the compass points in a direction that will force him to go down a wall of earth 18ft. in height.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald: Outer Rim

As he walks the Wizard finds an old melody from his childhood drifting into mind, almost unconsciously beginning to hum the tune, words long forgotten. His wariness of the forest begins to fade as nothing leaps out from the trees to eat him and so does his attention to the path, beginning to leaf through the notes given to him.

So it is that he discovers the sheer wall by nearly walking off it, right foot swinging out over the drop before he manages to regain his balance and pull back. Not the worst his carelessness might have brought upon him, but close enough to serve as a harsh reminder.

Now of course comes the question of surpassing this barrier. Sadly the Wizard has brought no rope or line from which to descend, indeed, he's brought little of anything except his magic, but perhaps nature might provide. Looking around, he tries to find a vine that might be able to hold his weight.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

On one of the trees to the side, a big one about twenty step wide has some good vines on it. Three of the vines seem good enough to use. Now to choose which one, The right, middle or left vine?

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald: Outer Rim

Left, middle or right are rather poor things to base your decision on, when an error could well send you tumbling a full eighteen feet. No, the Wizard will be more careful than that. First making sure that none of the vines are snakes, for he's heard more than one tale of a traveller perishing that way, he'll test each to see which one is sturdiest and best able to hold his weight.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

Well the left one is the sturdiest of the vines, The right one is second with the middle placing third. None of the vines are snakes and all are sturdy enough to bring him down. As the wizard approaches each vine he may notice that the left made the compass go Red, middle Yellow and right blue.

[Reinholdt]

[Path To Ruins]

Errr... well they were supposed to get a chance to react before getting mutilated to balance out the... oh nevermind. Seems the fight isn't over anyways and there's no way Rein would use this thing with allies so clearly in the way, even if he was willing to grenade them earlier. Margret gets put away and his classic infamous sniper rifle comes out.

This weapon doesn't actually seem to have any special properties really. It's just Rein's sniper rifle. Reinholdt will take position to cover Alistair and shoot at critters that try to move in on him.

Errr... repost I suppose.


[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Then apparently her player misunderstood. :smalltongue:

"Because she's attached. She used to spin webs around here and catch pixies to mess with them. But then a couple years back she caught a specific man, and now they're absolutely inseparable." She chuckles to herself. "I can't count on both hands the number of stories I've heard about him being discovered all tied up." She winks at Nadas and laughs again.

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Nadas forces himself to smile. Oh gods, it was like being back home all over again.
"And, hypothetically, if a grig fleshcrafter were to do something terrible to someone, could pixie dust reverse the effects?"

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

The Chieftess frowns. "Fleshcrafter? That sounds nasty. I guess it depends how it works. If it's some kind of magic making something stay in the new shape, then I could get rid of it easy, but if whatever it was actually completely changed, then I couldn't really do anything."

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Hmm... I don't know which, unfortunately. Not that well versed in grig fleshcrafting." Must have skipped that class.

"What about something like an extra skin?"

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"I'm not sure. I guess if it was a layer over the normal skin, something might be done about it, but if it replaces the skin, then no."

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Nadas is quiet for a little bit before setting aside his notebook to roll up his sleeve a bit and reveal the chitin over top his skin.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Hah, I knew you were talking about yourself." The Chieftess takes tot he air and tries to land on Nadas' arm. "Yeesh, what kinda jerk would do this anyway?" She pokes at the chitin experimentally.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"She called herself Vriveka." Nadas says. Poking the chitin doesn't really do much beyond what one would expect.

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

The sniper rifle kills two wolves as they weren't expecting it. Tamashi enters the scene and three lions pounce on him and they all go through his body. Once they passed through his body they just lay there limp and dead. Alistair takes this chance to do some stealth kills. The three manage to take care of the beasts. Tamashi barely broke a sweat but Alistair is real tired which is very visible.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Never heard of her." The Chieftess hops off Nadas' arm. "Maybe I can see if anyone around can do something about that for you. It's the least we can do. Right now lets enjoy the feast."

Speaking of the feast, by now a spit has been constructed and the deer is roasting over it. Various other fruits, berries, and vegetables along with other kinda of meats have been set around for people to help themselves to. Many more pixies have gathered around and are busy eating and talking among themselves.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald: Outer Rim

The right one then. It may not be the strongest, but the compass stone glowing blue seems to be a sign that he's on the right track and he'll gladly take it's advice.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Nadas rolls up his sleeve to cover himself up again.

"What spurs on a pixie feast?" Nadas asks, taking a look over things.

[Path to Ruins]

"We need to move away from here then rest." Reinholdt suggests.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Pretty much anything if the lot of them think they can get away with it. Births, deaths, after successful hunts, to celebrate a coupled pair, because the moon is full, because the sun set." She laughs at the last one. "If there's one thing Bloodfangs like to do, it's celebrate."

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

With that the wizard can get down no problem. As soon as he gets down and follows the compass' direction, the compass will glow yellow. The more he follows the yellow will start to go red but he is going the right way.


[Path to Ruins]

"Agreed. Lets follow my eyeball scout until we find a good place."

Thus the group traveled and managed to find a semi-hidden cave that was formed by tree roots. Tamashi checks it and it looked relatively safe. Once inside Alistair collapsed and his summon of course disappeared. "Hm? He's not that wounded....?"

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald: Outer Rim

The Wizard pauses in his tracks, examining the stone. Huh. Isn't this the right way? It said it was the right way before, yet, now it's red. Thinking, he turns a full circle in place, looking to see if it will turn blue again if he faces another direction.

And he had been so sure he was headed the right way.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

Once the wizard turns away and walks away from the direction pointed by the compass the compass reacts. The farther away he goes it goes yellow then blue but the arrow points to the same direction that turned it red. Mayhap the color and the arrow on the compass have separate uses?

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Outer Rim

Again the Wizard stops, shaking the stone in the hopes that doing so will force it to make up it's mind. The arrow points one way, yet, red is the color of fire, danger and bad things, no? So it was in his lands at least.

Yet there seems to be no other choice. Again the Wizard turns and begins walking in another direction, the same he was headed before the compass stone began to act up.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

As soon as he headed back in the right direction the wizard should hear something. A faint buzzing that's getting near. The compass still pointed in that direction. Then suddenly the compass went yellow then red in mere seconds. Insects are now steps away from the wizard. They seem to be wasps the size of a dog. There are four stingers on them on their bottom. Being really fast flying creatures they opted to surround the wizard and aimed their stingers at him and fired beams. If the wizard has some knowledge of the forest he will know that these wasps only attack other insects and would only attack humans if disturbed.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Outer Rim

The moment the buzzing noise reaches his ears the Wizard ducks behind a tree, not even waiting for the wasps to come into sight. Tucking the compass stone into his cloak for fear the buzzing will give him away, he remains as still as he possibly can, not even breathing, and prays for the wasps to pass him by unnoticed.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

By buzz I meant the insects not the compass. The wasps seem to be looking around as they have a lingering feeling that something was just there a second ago. Behind whatever tree the wizard was hiding he will hear footsteps and a lot of them. If he squints he might just see spiders the size of him moving towards him. Not such a lucky day eh?

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Outer Rim

Spiders. Why did it have to be spiders?

Closing a hand around the medallion of etheric gold hanging 'round his neck, the Wizard steps from his hiding spot and barks out an ancient word for fire as loud as he dares. In his free hand bright yellow flames rise into existence, bringing with them a ferocious amount of noxious gray smoke.

He waves the flames before him like a ward, hoping that the fire and smoke will frighten the dull insects away. And if not, then the fire can be redirected upon them as a weapon.

[Surtr]

Weald: Outer Rim

Due to the fact that the spiders were just taking a walk they decide to avoid the sudden fire. The wasps left as the search became troublesome with the smoke. Good going right? *Rumble* Hmmm? the wizard's fire seems to have woken something. The ground shakes beneath the wizard. Thus from below him jumps out a giant Hercules beetle the size of a small house. it is pissed

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Outer Rim

Is there no end to this parade of wildlife? Two packs of roving insects was misfortune, three, nothing short of ridiculous.

The Wizard hurls his conjured flame at the beetle, before quickly putting a tree between him and it to forestall any charge aimed his way. The fire should cling to it's shell with unnatural adhesion and burn quite intensely for a few seconds, rapidly consuming all the energy invested into it to create as much heat as possible.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

The beetle suddenly stops. Something is wrong with it. The beetle no longer sees the wizard. It leaves the area. One wonder what just happened. Something is up with the insects. No plants, man-eating ones, have been seen either.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Outer Rim

Aaaaand what about the flames that were thrown in it's direction?:smallconfused:

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

They are burning as you speak. :smalltongue:

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Pretty much anything if the lot of them think they can get away with it. Births, deaths, after successful hunts, to celebrate a coupled pair, because the moon is full, because the sun set." She laughs at the last one. "If there's one thing Bloodfangs like to do, it's celebrate."

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Yes, Bloodfangs. Why is the tribe named that?" Besides murdering anything with fangs. With stabbing murder death.


[Path to Ruins]

"Agreed. Lets follow my eyeball scout until we find a good place."

Thus the group traveled and managed to find a semi-hidden cave that was formed by tree roots. Tamashi checks it and it looked relatively safe. Once inside Alistair collapsed and his summon of course disappeared. "Hm? He's not that wounded....?"

[Path to Ruins]

"Who's not?" Reinholdt and Tamashi don't seem to have been wounded at all. If Alistair was referring to himself then maybe the Weald was just taking its toll on heavy magic use? Weald would be crazy enough to just do that to one person and not the others.

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

"I'm the one talking." says Tamashi. Alistair is knocked out. I believe it is one of the disadvantages of a summoner. Being unable to summon a combat summon weakened his battle performance and fighting ten beast without cover is hard as he doesn't take well to hits. "Have you healing as one of your tricks?"

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

It was particularly hard to tell since last post mentioned eyeball scout, which I thought was Alistair's. And if that's correct, then they have the same text colour which is really confusing.

"Just first aid stuff." And most of Rein's first aid practice was on a cat.

Still Reinholdt will kneel down and take a look at how bad it is.

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

As Reinholdt examines Alistair he will see a lot of gashes on his body from claws that hit earlier. The only bad wound are deep bite marks that start from the right shoulder down to part of the chest. One tooth is stuck inside which maybe the cause of him fainting.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

The Chieftess grins. "A long long time ago, there never used to be any large organized tribes of pixies like this. There were a lot of smaller bands and everyone was pushing for territory. You can probably guess there was a lot of fighting. There was one band that was famous for tearing the throats out of their enemies with sharpened teeth. They'd charge into battle grinning like madmen to show off their stained teeth. They were terrifying and vicious. Pretty soon you either joined with them, fled the area, or died. That's where we get our name to this day and why we're the biggest tribe you'll ever see around here. We don't stain our teeth with blood anymore, but when we Paint ourselves for hunting or war, we paint red fangs around our mouths."

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

"Might have to pull this tooth out. You'll need to be prepared to stop the bleeding." Reinholdt tells Tamashi as he works on cleaning the various wounds first.

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

At least Nadas is used to hanging out with vicious psychopathic murderers. Not that he likes it, but he's not going to freak out or do something stupid.

"Well at least the history is colourful. What other tribes are there?"

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

"Doubtless this will give him a nightmare...." Tamashi turns ghostly and enters Alistair's body. A voice rings outReady...

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

Not what Rein meant... but it'll have to do he supposes. Reinholdt will go to carefully extract the tooth, clean the wound once more, then dress it.

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

Alistair gets bandaged and does not lose any blood. He's sound asleep. Tamashi speaks. "My soul will take tonight's watch, go sleep." assuming there are no objection we proceed to morning.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

To be fair, she is referring to war time. Though it's small comfort after they killed those orcs I'm sure. :smalltongue:

"There's lots of tribes around, but the other two main ones in this area are the Quillbeasts and the Deviltongues. They live further out where the woods are safer than they are here. No one really lives in the deep woods, though. At least no one normal. You're just asking to die if you try."

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

Reinholdt doesn't bother explaining he's nocturnal and always has been. Granted he still can sleep so goes and takes some catnaps anyways. Cause, well, catnaps.

Morning time!

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Why? What's in the Deep Woods?" Nadas asks, taking some more notes.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Outer Rim

Strange, that the beast does not even seem to notice it's burning. A welcome reprieve from being chased, but very strange. Giving the beetle a wide berth the Wizard creeps away from the tree and towards another, moving from cover to cover towards his goal, in case the beast decides to resume it's fury.

His atunement to the ether should warn him of any enchantments lingering, but the Weald is a wild place, so he might not be able to pick out the spell responsible amidst the clamor of conflicting magics.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"You tell me, you're the one studying it." The Chieftess says jokingly. "The Weald gets more and more dangerous the deeper you go in. We hunt in the Weald a lot, but living any further in than we are is crazy."

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Well that didn't answer his question in the least. Didn't even tell him what they hunted there.
"I haven't been that far." Is his only reply, lacking any further questions at this time.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"That's probably a good thing. You can get yourself killed easy if you don't know what you're doing. There's all kinda of things there. The worst are the fae, though. They're not just cruel and vicious, they're smart too. We don't go too too deep ourselves. There's a lot of animals like deer and stuff like that that we hunt for food. One of the nastier things we hunt for food are these big, tree climbing lizards. They're quick and they have sharp claws, but they're delicious too." The Chieftess says.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"I comprehend. Do you consider yourselves fae as well?" Seems like they might not?

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Not exactly. There's all kinds of fey, and they're a different kind from us. That's what some say at least. I just know they're different." The different in spelling between fey and fae is lost on the pixies of course. :smalltongue:

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

That's ok, they're lost on me as well. >>

"So what do pixies do when they aren't courting or hunting?"

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

Reinholdt doesn't bother explaining he's nocturnal and always has been. Granted he still can sleep so goes and takes some catnaps anyways. Cause, well, catnaps.

Morning time!


Alistair wakes up with a gasp. He felt as if he slept in the land of the dead. "Ah, where's my summon? Did it disappear? "


Weald- Outer Rim

Strange, that the beast does not even seem to notice it's burning. A welcome reprieve from being chased, but very strange. Giving the beetle a wide berth the Wizard creeps away from the tree and towards another, moving from cover to cover towards his goal, in case the beast decides to resume it's fury.

His atunement to the ether should warn him of any enchantments lingering, but the Weald is a wild place, so he might not be able to pick out the spell responsible amidst the clamor of conflicting magics.

Well I'm pretty sure magic isn't the cause of all the ruckus anyway after careful traveling by the wizard he does not encounter anything. He is now at least halfway to the goal. He is now in [Weald: Herb Haven]

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Eat, sleep, spar, raise children, play, fight. There's lots we do besides hunting and courting." The Chieftess replies.

Meanwhile, Two small (even for pixies) people fly up in front of the drow's face. They're a boy and a girl, about eight and six years old respectively. They're obviously very curious about this giant in their midst. "Who're you?" The girl asks.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Nadas leans back a little.
"I'm Nadas Xar'cha. A drow."

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"You're huuuge." The girl observes. Her brother flies forward and tries to poke Nadas in the nose, which makes the girl giggle. The Chieftess just shakes her head at the children.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

I'm sure if Nadas were anyone else, there'd be a 'that's what she said' right about now.

Nadas' nose twitches. "Well to me you're tiny."

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Herb Haven

Then the Wizard is at a loss for what it could be. But he is, at least, drawing closer to his goal, even if unsure what lies in wait there. If the compass stone's red glow indicates danger as he's beginning to think, then surely something does.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

That'd be horribly inappropriate!

The two children giggle some more before flying off. The Chieftess chuckles. "There are a lot of children around here if you look. We tend to have a lot of them. I have a daughter myself."

[Lady Serpentine]

[Weald - Boneheim]

On the edges of the Weald, a pixie, and her two companions, both shrunk to the same size, are returning. But not to the Bloodfang camp, or that of any of the other tribes here, for the excellent reason that Bone, the pixie in question, is not affiliated with any of them.

As they land on the small ledge allowing access to the entrance of the hollowed out tree she lives in, what appears to be the skeleton of a mouse can be seen on the far edge.

[Beans]

[Weald - Boneheim]
Callie looks around, interested, tail swishing!
Oooooh...

[Lady Serpentine]

[Weald - Boneheim]

As does Polly! Though she doesn't have a tail to swish.

"I take it you like here, then?"

[Beans]

[Weald - Boneheim]
She giggles and nods excitedly.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Weald - Boneheim]

Bone goes to hug her briefly, before leading them inside.

[Beans]

[Weald - Boneheim]
Callie will look around the house, ears perked in interest.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Weald - Boneheim]

The house is carved out of the tree, and suitably sized for the pixie; after a short time of walking through the halls, they'll reach an antechamber with a few seats in it, and the somewhat tattered exoskeleton of a centipede, perhaps twice their current size, in the center.

[Beans]

[Weald - Boneheim]
HI MISTER CENTIPEDE.
Callie seems interested in that.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Weald - Boneheim]

Bone giggles at that, watching her friend curiously.

The centipede, being a hollowed out dead shell, makes no response. :smalltongue:

[Beans]

[Boneheim]
Callie sits down and grins.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Boneheim]

Bone sits down next to her, grinning as well.

"You want something to eat?"

[Beans]

[Boneheim]
Callie nods, giggling.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Weald - Boneheim]

Bone leads them further in, then, to a living room, which, for some reason, has a pair of mouse skeletons, subtly altered to be bipedal, and with a second, shorter, pair of front legs grafted in below the original ones, presumably to give it manipulators, as the paws from the upper ones have been replaced with pebbles roughly the size of Bone's fist, set into alcoves in the wall behind the improvised couch.

[Beans]

[Boneheim]
Callie is even more intrigued, peering at the skeletons.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Weald - Boneheim]

On closer examination, their teeth seem to be have been sharpened, and bone spikes are attached to the ends of their tails; their lower jaws are also rather unusual, having been split at the center, and the ends ground down into needle-sharp points.

[Beans]

[Boneheim]
She giggles.
Oooh, scarymice!

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

That'd be horribly inappropriate!

The two children giggle some more before flying off. The Chieftess chuckles. "There are a lot of children around here if you look. We tend to have a lot of them. I have a daughter myself."

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Yes.

"How many children are birthed at a time? And what's the average gestation period?" Might as well ask about what Ghar's best at. Pregnancies. :smalltongue:

[Lady Serpentine]

[Boneheim]

Bone nods, and flicks her hand at one of the skeletons, sending a cloud of glittering dust into it; said skeleton creaks to life, stepping towards Callie a bit, though it quickly comes to a halt.

"It gets dangerous out here. Other pixies, ones with tribes, grigs, other things that can fit in here. These keep them out."

[Beans]

[Boneheim]
Callie nods, seeing the sense in having bonemousedeathservant things.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Boneheim]

((...Why does Bone Mouse Death Servant sound like it should be a very odd band?))

Bone sits down on the couch, motioning for Callie to come sit with her; the Boneservant heads off into another room.

[Beans]

[Boneheim]
She sits down, giggling.
((I don't know but now I want to make music.))

[Lady Serpentine]

[Boneheim]

Bone and Polly snuggle against her, giggling as well.

The Boneservant returns after a bit, bearing food!

((You should!))

[Beans]

[Boneheim]
Whoops I made popcorn instead no activity from me ever.

Callie grins appreciatively!

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

<.< >.>

"Usually it's one or two babies at a time. It's pretty equal either way. And pregnancies last around six moon cycles." The Chieftess explains.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Boneheim]
Whoops I made popcorn instead no activity from me ever.

Callie grins appreciatively!

The Boneservant seems to be carrying... Vole bacon?

Bone, for her part, doesn't seem to care about the strangeness of the food, simply digging into it happily; Polly starts looking through her jacket for the bottle of blood she got earlier.

[Beans]

[Boneheim]
Callie digs in as well, not minding either!

[Lady Serpentine]

[Boneheim]

Unless Callie has something to say, the meal will probably be finished quietly.

[Beans]

[Boneheim]
((Waity for you and BR (more so BR) in N&N)) Whoops ding guess who posted it's BR.
Callie eats and grins, tail swishing as usual.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Boneheim]

((And now that there's something for that particular version of Karyana to say, so have I! :smallsmile:))

Bone goes to crawl into her lap when the meal ends, then, smiling.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

<.< >.>

"Usually it's one or two babies at a time. It's pretty equal either way. And pregnancies last around six moon cycles." The Chieftess explains.

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Nadas writes down 1.5 children.
"Any percentages on male to female ratios? Is your tribe a matriarchy or patriarchy or an equal opportunity archy?" Probably not the second one given Chieftess and all.


Alistair wakes up with a gasp. He felt as if he slept in the land of the dead. "Ah, where's my summon? Did it disappear? "

[Weald - Cave]

"The creepy eyeball thing? Yeah, it disappeared." Reinholdt tells Alistair. "Feeling better?"

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"The boys and girls are pretty even. I don't know exactly how many there are, though." The Chieftess says. "The chief or chieftess is decided by whoever's strongest and wisest. Apparently that's me, because I've been chieftess for years with only a handful of challenges to my claim."

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"When did you become ruler?"

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Hm..." The Chieftess counts on her fingers. "Nine winters ago, about. Maybe one more than that."

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Are the seasons here fairly standard? Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter?"

[Surtr]

Weald- Herb Haven

Then the Wizard is at a loss for what it could be. But he is, at least, drawing closer to his goal, even if unsure what lies in wait there. If the compass stone's red glow indicates danger as he's beginning to think, then surely something does.

Well its glowing blue so he's safe for now. As the wizard follows the direction of the compass, he will come upon a river. It's flowing at a calm pace as far as can be seen. If tested for depth it can't be waded through standing, you'd have to swim. The distance is 8 meters, not too far.



[Weald - Cave]
"The creepy eyeball thing? Yeah, it disappeared." Reinholdt tells Alistair. "Feeling better?"

"What's so creepy about the eyeball? It didn't even have the nerves on the back like a normal eyeball, or any goo on it. Ugh, but this puts us back. The reason I didn't want to dismiss scout was because he has a cool-down period before I can summon him again. We can wait it out here or try to find the ruin by ourselves. I think we'd get lost on our own though."

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Yeah, exactly that. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter." She says.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Herb Haven

Pulling a dead branch from a nearby hollowed-out husk of a tree, the Wizard uses it to test the waters, finding them as he'd feared, too deep to wade across. And wide too, eight meters is a great distance when you're soaking wet and must leave your cloak behind to keep it from weighing you down, more so when, placid as the waters might seem on the surface, there may well be a vicious undertow lurking beneath to pull you down and drown you.

Kicking stones from the riverbank, the Wizard curses himself for not having learned to swim properly and sets off along the stream's course, looking for a bridge, or at least a point where the waters are not so wide farther on. Something of this forest makes him wary, he does not trust even the rivers to be as harmless as they seem.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Cave]

"Well I guess that depends on how long of a cooldown, but when it comes to the Weald, I suggest waiting over getting lost."

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

You know, I don't even know why Nadas asked that seeing as how he practically lives on the corner and has for a long time now.

"Are there any special rituals or customs with these feasts that I should be aware of?"

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Nah, not now. There are feasts for special occasions, but after a hunt it's all about enjoying yourself. And speaking of which, go ahead and help yourself to some food. Next think you know you'll blink and that stag will be picked clean right to the bone." The Chieftess says with a laugh. It's not much of an exaggeration, though. She wasn't kidding when she said the tribe is big. There are a lot of pixies milling around.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Herb Haven]

Well if the wizard decides to go right far enough, he will encounter a waterfall and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't wan to cross this way. If he goes left far enough, then he will find a part of the river deep enough to wade in, waist high. Unfortunately the distance he'd have to cross is about the same. However if he goes just a bit farther, he'll come across a stone bridge. The bridge looks normal but is very suspicious as who could build one here and not have it destroyed by nature? Well those are his choices.

[Path to Ruins]

"The cool down is 12hrs, we have about 4hrs more or less before I can summon him again."

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- River

First the Wizard goes right, then, finding the waterfall and taking it as proof that this is the wrong way, heads back again to the left. The bridge is odd indeed, but stone outlasts any man, and perhaps it was built by trappers or lumbercutters who once worked this forest?

In any case, tales of trolls and other such villain lurking beneath bridges are lost upon the Wizard, who takes no more precaution than giving it a kick to make sure the stone is still solid before starting across.

[Surtr]

[Weald: River]

After kicking the bridge, the bridge wakes up! It was actually a stone troll disguised as a bridge. Normally when a person crosses and reaches the middle, the troll wakes and tosses the person then kills the injured prey. Since the wizard kicked him before going across, he is safe from that. Now all he has to do is fight a huge stone bridge troll.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- River

Well then!

The Wizard will be running now. Running as fast and as swift as his feet will take him, away from the stream and towards the densest thicket of trees he can spot, in the hopes of finding a safe harbor from the angered troll.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Herb Haven]

The troll will not give chase. Though it is fast with swinging around its fists it is not good at chasing things that are running away top speed. The troll will instead return to sleep discontent in his stomach.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- River

Maybe so. But the Wizard has been well scared and left his wits behind in haste, so it's a good while before the lack of heavy footsteps crashing after comes to his attention and he thinks to look back. Leaning against a nearby tree he catches his breath, then, by the compass stone's direction, gathers up his courage and sneaks back towards the river.

This time there's no hesitance. Shrugging his heavy coat aside and hooking it on a branch, the Wizard wades into the stream until it grows too deep, then tries to swim it.

[Surtr]

[Weald: River]

The wizard will get by with no problems. He'll have to somehow dry himself later, lest he freeze later. Once across he can follow the direction of the compass and he will reach the place where he can gather all the Herbs the mercenary boy spoke of earlier.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- River

That would be what the Wizard was afraid of. The risk of dying by winter and water, either by freezing or by any number of diseases born from them, is well known to him. It's not half so cold here as in his native land, but drenched down to the bone and without the better half of his garb, at what must be drawing close to sundown no less, the chill is bitter enough to make him shiver all the same.

It's bad enough that he's willing to risk calling up a little flame for himself, not much of one, every speck of light risks drawing unwanted attention, but it helps fight the worst of cold. Now, now for the herbs. The thought strikes him that he left all the notes and pictures he'd been given back in his coat, but that should not be too much of an issue. Being a wizard requires all manner of refinements in as many forms of wit, memory among them.

Stooping down he begins to gather up the herbs in the varying proportions they were asked, then a little more, for himself. Alchemy was never his strongest subject, but this seems as good a time as any to try and learn something of the local fauna's properties. Already knowing that these were good for healing was a nice start as well.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Herb Haven]

He could use one of the many cave-like tree-root formations to rest in. He can light a fire there without attracting much or any attention. With the Herbs gathered his quest is half done. Only thing he needs to do is return to the small shack for his reward.

Now the wizard has many choices he can make to continue his quest like heading straight back to the shack or finding somewhere to rest in. If he's feeling particularly adventurous though he can go even deeper into the forest. Though I really doubt that last option.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Herb Haven

That does sound like a good idea. Yes. Some rest would do him well. But a fire? A fire is always risky, even with shelter to keep the smoke from rising. Falling asleep and leaving one untended, even more so. I'm unsure of how large this makeshift shelter of roots is, but I cannot imagine it is so large that trapped smoke might not choke a man in his sleep, or worse yet, that the flames might not spread to devour him.

Still, catching the pneumonia would leave him no better, so in the end the Wizard resolves to light a fire and stay awake as long as he can, to give his clothes a chance to dry, then snuff it out before he succumbs to dreams. To this end he gathers only dry, dead branches and collects up stones as well to make a ring around the firepit, using his conjured flame to light it when all this is done.

Then he crawls beneath the great tree's roots and curls up by the fire, wriggling out of his shirt and hanging it up to spare him the added cold of the water trapped within as he lies there, shuddering slightly despite the warmth of the flames and fight as best he can the exhaustion pulling at his eyelids.

In truth this is somewhat easier than he expected. The many frights he'd suffered today helped in that regard, for each time his eyes threaten to close some phantom vision comes along to pry them open; the eight-eyed face of a fat, furry spider, or the nagging worry that the bridge troll might find this place and simply pull the tree from the earth to get at him and eat him whole.

All these nightmares weigh heavy on his mind, along with new ones, thoughts of what further trials the forest may hold for the trip back, so that in the end, the fire's nearly burnt out on it's own when finally casts wet leaves over it and stamps upon the embers, drifting away not long after.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Nah, not now. There are feasts for special occasions, but after a hunt it's all about enjoying yourself. And speaking of which, go ahead and help yourself to some food. Next think you know you'll blink and that stag will be picked clean right to the bone." The Chieftess says with a laugh. It's not much of an exaggeration, though. She wasn't kidding when she said the tribe is big. There are a lot of pixies milling around.

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Oh. Right." Nadas may have inadvertently waited to let others test for poison. He swears it's a bad habit he picked up from his sister. Regardless, he'll go and get some food.


[Path to Ruins]

"The cool down is 12hrs, we have about 4hrs more or less before I can summon him again."

[Path to Ruins]

"We might as well wait. How are your wounds?" Reinholdt says, settling in.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Herb Haven]

When the wizard wakes he should feel great. A good rest and dried clothes should see him through the quest without any trouble. Nothing tried to kill him in the night either.

Back at the small shack, some time after the wizard fell asleep, the mercenary boy Narve is a bit worried. "Is that mage ok? It never took me this long when Esruc asked me for medicine gathering. I should go check. Hey Tamashi! You'll be fine alone right?"

Tamashi turns around and replies. "Of course."
Narve enters the Weald with a compass that can track the wizard's compass. Using his Farie Shoes he teleports from branch to branch.

[Path To Ruins]

"Some throbbing, some itching. Thanks for taking care of my wounds. Anyway, if we plan on waiting what do you guys want to eat? I got a bag of holding filled with food."

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Nadas doesn't have to go far. Most of the food is laid out on large leaves just on the other side of the bonfire. Nothing is in serving sizes, but he'll find that most pixies are using small knives or just tearing chunks off with their bare hands.

"Hey, you there! Giant!" A young pixie, probably fifteen years old if Nadas is good at judging such things, stands with his legs spanning between two halves of some red fruit. "I bet you want some of this fruit, huh? This is the best fruit in the entire forest. But you can't have any! This is my fruit!" He puffs up his chest and briefly glances to the side toward three giggling girls around his age.

[Reinholdt]

[Path To Ruins]

"I'm good, thanks." Reinholdt says, pulling out a flask of what is probably liquor or rum and taking a swig. He never goes on an adventure without the proper tools.

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Oh boy! Juveniles! Nadas promptly ignores that fairy and grabs a very different piece of fruit from over there. He's probably disappointed in the lack of prune juice, but he'll get over it if there's any actual prunes for him to take.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Herb Haven

Teleporting along is sure to be faster than walking and with a headstart besides, Narve will likely meet the Wizard before he crosses the river again, possibly even before he's left camp if the mercenary really hustles.

[Surtr]

[Path To Ruins]

All right then. How about you Tamashi, want anything? Tamashi shakes his head. "I had my fill last night and I am sure I'll have more today." With that Alistair eats breakfast alone. After enough time had elapsed he summons scout and the party will resume the adventure. As they go further after an hour the buzz of wasps can be heard.


[Weald: River]

Narve does hustle due to his freedom from house watching duties. He makes it to the river in record time, no less. He reaches the bridge which is actually a troll but he never saw this bridge before so he doesn't know that. Curious of the bridge he decides to walk over it. As soon as he reaches the middle the troll wakes up and tosses him over. In the air he teleports to land. "Huh, who'd have thought? You didn't eat the wizard did you? Well my compass isn't pointing to you stomach so-" The troll roars and cut him short. "That's just rude! I'll teach ya some manners!" He draws his greatswords and fights. If the wizard is near he will hear the din of battle hearing, "Take that! Hah! Yoh! Rah!" or something like that.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

There's plums! That's close enough, right?

Whether or not it is may have to wait, however, as the young pixie isn't done with him yet. "Hey! Stop!" He flits in front of Nadas' face. "I don't think you heard me. I said that fruit is the best in the whole forest, and you can't have any."

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Plums are probably good enough.
"Oh. Well alright then. I'll just get the second or third best fruit. Probably won't even notice the difference really. If I don't know what I'm missing, I won't miss it." Nadas says, pausing cause there is a pixie in his face.

[Path To Ruins]

>> Still need a better variety of text colours.

"Let's steer very far away from that sound, even if the detour takes an hour." Reinholdt says, immediately turning to get away. No way in the world is he going to do deal with stingy things if he can help it. It'd be very deadly for most of them.

[Surtr]

((I though text color was just what you put when your characters are talking. You have blue and I use red.))

[Path To Ruins]

"Uh...ok?" says Alistair. the party takes a detour. They seem to have arrived at a fruit tree grove, the fruits smell like wines, beers and other alcoholic beverages for some reason.

[Reinholdt]

[Path To Ruins]

Ah, that is true, but not all of my characters use blue. At the least, they don't use the same colour blue. By using the same colour for each of your characters it makes it harder to distinguish which is talking.

It's really just a suggestion. So long as you clearly indicate in the text which is which, I suppose it doesn't matter.

"Hmmm..." Reinholdt pauses to pluck a fruit and sniff it.

[Surtr]

Path To Ruins

The fruit he plucked smelled like wine made from grapes though the fruit itself looked like a banana. "Come on Reinholdt, the smell here is making me want to puke." says Alistair. Tamashi couldn't care less.

[Reinholdt]

Path To Ruins

"Don't like alcohol?" Reinholdt asks, going to peel the fruit and take a small nibble.

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

"Its bitter. Why would I want to drink something so bitter." Says Alistair. He goes on ahead just to get away from the spell. The fruit that Reinholdt nibbles turns in to liquid in his mouth. The liquid was thrice the amount he nibbled. Better drink it fast before he makes a mess of himself. The rest of the uneaten fruit stays solid however.

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

It turns into bonified wine?
Well Rein did only do a small nibble for a reason. Still, this is pretty awesome. Unless it's as bitter as Alistair says it is.

If, however, it doesn't taste bad, Reinholdt will pull out a basket and start plucking fruits. "Give me a bit."

If it does taste terrible, Rein will throw it away and follow Alistair.

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

Alistair waits ahead with Tamashi. The fruit that Reinholdt ate/drank will taste great to any wine/alcohol lovers. Alistair just thinks that all alcoholic drinks are bitter. He prefers sweet chocolate and cakes. After Reinholdt is done collecting fruits, the party proceeds. After a while they will see a cave similar to what scout showed them just ahead. There seems to be no one visible outside the cave.

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

"After you." Reinholdt says, hammer spacing his fruit away. He already considers this excursion a victory.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Uh, well, yeah! You should be scared. Don't you forget that you don't mess wi-" He breaks off as he looks backward only to discover that the trio of girls is gone. "Dammit anyway!" He flies off without harassing Nadas further.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Goodbye Dammit anyway and good luck on your quest to get a date."
Nadas will then totally go to grab the fruit he was protecting since he seems to have left it unguarded. :smalltongue:

[ThirdEmperor]

[Weald- River]

The clash of steel on stone and Narve's shouting does draw the Wizards attention as he walks along the river, trying to find the spot where he forded before and left his coat. Cautiously he heads towards it, likely spotting the mercenary and the troll before he's noticed and doing his best to keep it that way, ducking behind the nearest tree or thicket that offers some degree of shelter.

Why the boy who hired him is here, fighting a troll, when the Wizard had already been hired to venture into the forest on his behalf, is a good question. But it's one the Wizard feels can wait until the troll is slain, a slaying he will only join in if Narve seems to need assistance.

[Gullara]

[Weald- River]

Upon tasting the fruit, he'll discover that, while good, it's not nearly as spectacular as the boy claimed.

"Lift you bunch of lazy insects. You call yourself Bloodfangs?" Something's going on by the bonefire it seems. If takes a look, he'll see a group up pixies hauling at the spit the deer is roasting on. Hovering before the whole thing is a male pixie obviously much older than any Nadas has met yet. "If you burn it I'll shove all the charred parts down your throat myself." Looks like he's the one telling the others off.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Errr... do you require any particular assistance?" Not that Nadas would be any stronger than the pixies really. For someone who carries books around everywhere, he sure is a wimp.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

The old pixie glances at Nadas and then bellows. "You lot here that? If the outsider has to help you you all go hungry." That seems to inspire the pixies to put a bit more effort into it. The spit starts rising, impressive considering the size compared to the pixies.

The old pixie flies over to Nadas. "Don't worry about them. It's a lot lighter than it looks. The young need to be put to work somehow, after all. They got too much enery for their own good."

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

"After you." Reinholdt says, hammer spacing his fruit away. He already considers this excursion a victory.

[Path to Ruins]

"....You want to send the guy in bandages in first? Uh... Tamashi, you go." Tamashi nods and goes to examine the cave. After a couple of minutes he returns telling them that he did not feel or see any living creatures or traps or anything that might come to life to attack them. He did see a door though, which is weird as its in a cave, and magic was felt from it.

"Lets go through then." Says Alistair. The team enters the cave. The door inside is large, covering the entire wall yet the handles are easily reached. Alistair opens the door and a white light shines through. Hit by the light, Alistair and Tamashi are teleported elsewhere.

If Reinholdt was teleported along with the rest he will see a barren wasteland as far as the eye can see. Only a door, half a kilometer away, seems to be the exit to this place. The door though is guarded by a barrier of red aura. If it was not obvious enough a foe must be defeated to advance. The foe is unseen at the moment.



[Weald- River]

The clash of steel on stone and Narve's shouting does draw the Wizards attention as he walks along the river, trying to find the spot where he forded before and left his coat. Cautiously he heads towards it, likely spotting the mercenary and the troll before he's noticed and doing his best to keep it that way, ducking behind the nearest tree or thicket that offers some degree of shelter.

Why the boy who hired him is here, fighting a troll, when the Wizard had already been hired to venture into the forest on his behalf, is a good question. But it's one the Wizard feels can wait until the troll is slain, a slaying he will only join in if Narve seems to need assistance.

[Weald: River]

"Well, this is getting boring. No fun finishing you off myself, I'll leave you to the Judge." Narve uses a card. It is a law card. The card disappears and a man armored from head to toe appears floating in the air. For now the Judge does nothing.

The troll attacks once more and aims a fist at Narve. Narve dodges a bit to the side and the punch grazes him on the arm. Getting hit seems to have been the goal of Narve for as soon as he was hit the Judge sounds a whistle and throws a Red Card at the troll. Once hit the troll vanished. Suddenly the judge speaks. "Law against Fists breached, perpetrator imprisoned." After which the Judge vanishes.

"Imprisoned? I don't think Esruc wants a pet troll. Leave it to a troll to be too slow to dodge." Narve looks at the compass and finds out that the wizard was near. Narve approaches his location. "Hey Wizard, were you just watching?"

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- River

"I... Yes, I was." A tad bit ashamed of himself, the Wizard steps out from his hiding place to meet the young warrior. "That was- What was that?" Obviously he means the judge, glancing over at the empty patch of air where the arbiter had stood.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"I'm, uh, guessing the young get worked a lot around here then, huh?" Not that that's unusual in any way really.

[Path to Ruins]

Reinholdt doesn't care which one goes in first, cripple or emotionally stunted, just so long as it isn't him getting smacked around by traps and/or invisible foes.

But teleportation happens. Reinholdt looks around and up and down. What kind of ground are they standing on? Dirt, sand, or some other? To be honest, Rein's expecting the ground to start rumbling with vibrations any moment.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"We keep them busy, but everyone has to pull their weight. Even if you can't hunt anymore, there's lots to do. The young ones don't seem to remember that half the time, though." The pixie grumbles.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Oh? Like what sorts of things?" Nadas hadn't noticed any particular industry beyond hunting. Maybe he's talking about carving out tree homes or something similar.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Preparing and storing food, building and maintaining homes are two big ones. Then there's taking care of the children. There tend to be a lot of them, and their mothers generally want to go out hunting again after recovering from childbirth. And a certain amount need to stay back to protect the ones that can't protect themselves. It's not incredibly dangerous here, but it's not safe either." He explains. "There are a bunch of little, day to day, things, but that's the main things."

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

Reinholdt doesn't care which one goes in first, cripple or emotionally stunted, just so long as it isn't him getting smacked around by traps and/or invisible foes.

But teleportation happens. Reinholdt looks around and up and down. What kind of ground are they standing on? Dirt, sand, or some other? To be honest, Rein's expecting the ground to start rumbling with vibrations any moment.

[Path to Ruins]

The ground is made of sand, quite hard to move in really unless you can fly or you ignore terrain. Something that wasn't in the wasteland earlier suddenly appeared. It looked like some sort of rock.

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/RWbJ6DlCpQc/hqdefault.jpg
((Just the rock in the middle don't mind its background.))



Weald- River

"I... Yes, I was." A tad bit ashamed of himself, the Wizard steps out from his hiding place to meet the young warrior. "That was- What was that?" Obviously he means the judge, glancing over at the empty patch of air where the arbiter had stood.

[Weald: River]

"That was a Judge, one is assigned to every clan back in another world. When i got sent to the Nexus, so did he." Narve clears his throat. "Shall we head back to the shack, don't worry about the reward it's still 500 gold coins, it was my own choice to come here." With that Narve starts walking in the opposite direction of his compass.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- River

((And a Bravant IV! Don't forget the Bravant IV, whatever that is!))

"I see.." No, he really doesn't, but the Wizard is tired of always being the one who knows the least of anything. So he nods and rubs his chin in what he believes to be a wise-looking fashion, following alongside Narve as they make their way back towards the shack. But one question does plague him a bit much to be ignored for wounded pride's sake; "You say you're from another world?"

[Surtr]

[Weald: River]

"Yeah, I'm from another world. Aren't you? Most of the people I've met since coming here are from other worlds." Narve walked as he talked. There seems to be nothing around to attack them. [COLOR="DarkRed"]"Oh yeah, how come you took so long? Even walking I never took that long while Herb Gathering."/COLOR]

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- River

"Another world?" It seems ludicrous, yet, inescapable. Of all the things he'd seen, all the beings with whom he'd conversed over the last day, no leap of the imagination could explain Aules living for centuries in coexistence with them, yet never so much as suspecting it.

Did that mean that this was another world too, not his homeland at all or even a mere ocean removed from it? "How did it happen then? How do you move from one world to the next? What kind of magic could accomplish that?" It seems Narve's own questions have been thoroughly ignored.

[Surtr]

[Weald: River]

"Well, I see no reason not to answer your questions. Actually I moved worlds twice already. You see, I was in our school library where I found an old book on the highest and farthest shelf. I opened it and I saw a lot of things I didn't understand, like odd symbols and words in another language. At the end of the book there was a question I understood, it asked. He who holds this tome of awesome power, what does thou wish for? I thought it was cool so I wrote my wish down. That's how I ended up in another world.

In that other world I found another book like the one in my library and I thought that if I used it, I could go home. But as soon as I opened the book, a light flashed and here I am in another world. Foe the last question, this is only a guess. The books I opened were called Grimoires. They hold a lot of power in them." Narve clears his throat.

"Anyway, again, what took you so long Herb Gathering?"

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Preparing and storing food, building and maintaining homes are two big ones. Then there's taking care of the children. There tend to be a lot of them, and their mothers generally want to go out hunting again after recovering from childbirth. And a certain amount need to stay back to protect the ones that can't protect themselves. It's not incredibly dangerous here, but it's not safe either." He explains. "There are a bunch of little, day to day, things, but that's the main things."

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

Doesn't sound like enough reason for the slave, slave, slave away attitude, but Nadas holds his tongue. "And what's your proclaimed profession around here?"


[Path to Ruins]

The ground is made of sand, quite hard to move in really unless you can fly or you ignore terrain. Something that wasn't in the wasteland earlier suddenly appeared. It looked like some sort of rock.

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/RWbJ6DlCpQc/hqdefault.jpg((Just the rock in the middle don't mind its background.))

[Path to Ruins]

"It's a trap. Anyone remember to bring a long poking stick?" Reinholdt asks, not moving yet. He could use one of the staffs Erin's likes to give him frequently to poke it he supposes.

Since poking is the only viable option in such a circumstance.

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"If I do say so myself, I'm one of the best hunters we have around here." The pixie says proudly. "At least I was, but them everyone kept insisting that I was too old. Now I mostly make sure the young ones know which end of a spear they're supposed to stick into things." The pixie doesn't actually look that old. His hair is rather grey and he's got some wrinkles, but he still certainly looks fit.

[Reinholdt]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Is it at all related to knee troubles? I have an ointment specifically designed to cure knee troubles." Useful for adventurers of all sizes.

"How old do pixies usually live?"

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"You don't see many of us die of old age." He says. "But I'm somewhere around sixty winters myself if that tells you anything. Lost track of the exact number a while back. I don't have a lot of peers left." He's none too concerned about that. It's just the way of things. "And my knees are fine. Just a bit slower to react these days, and that'll kill you a sure as anything."

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- River

Grimoires... And now the Wizard knows what next to do. If not to return home, for he is still somewhat unwilling to accept that he ever left it, at least to understand this strange phenomena. He'd begun this strange journey to learn more of magic. Even if he'd gone farther abroad than he'd ever intended, there was no reason to abandon that goal.

I was resting. He says, finally pulling himself back to the present and addressing Narve's questions. My clothes had been soaked crossing the river, so I stopped and waited for them to dry. And this line of conversation brings him to notice something he hadn't before. Say, how did you cross? You're still dry.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

Their talking must have taken awhile for they are now back in the outer rim of the Weald. "Farie Shoes, it allows me to teleport over distances I can cover walking while ignoring obstacles. the time it takes to teleport is still as long as if I had walked that distance unobstructed. Also, I need to see where I'm going.

You dried your clothes huh? Didn't think you'd need to being a magic user and all, I thought you'd just freeze part of the river over and cross."

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Outer Rim

"A wizard is not to use magic for frivolous things." The Wizard declares, attempting to affect the somber tone of his teachers back at the college. This is true, although, it would be equally accurate to simply say he doesn't know how to cast such a spell.

"But, these shoes? Where did you find them? Are they common on... on your world?"

[Surtr]

[Path to Ruins]

"It's a trap. Anyone remember to bring a long poking stick?" Reinholdt asks, not moving yet. He could use one of the staffs Erin's likes to give him frequently to poke it he supposes.

Since poking is the only viable option in such a circumstance.

"Uh, here use this." Alistair takes a ten-foot pole out of his bag of holding and hands it to Reinholdt. Tamashi and Alistair will stand behind him.



Weald- Outer Rim

"A wizard is not to use magic for frivolous things." The Wizard declares, attempting to affect the somber tone of his teachers back at the college. This is true, although, it would be equally accurate to simply say he doesn't know how to cast such a spell.

"But, these shoes? Where did you find them? Are they common on... on your world?"

"That so? The-"
The ground starts to rumble cutting off Narve's words. Th epicenter seems to be coming from behind them and is moving closer.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Outer Rim

"Run!" Trying to sieze Narve by the shoulder, the Wizard will start into a dead run and pull the boy along if able, away from the earth-shaking rumble that seems to be chasing after them.

Seeing as he's dealt with every foe so far in the same way, by running or hiding or both, one might by now think the Wizard cowardly. But, although he is indeed more than a little afraid to face something that can make the very earth tremor so, what would he have to gain by staying to fight?

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

Hmmm... they're learning. Too fast.
Ah well, what can you do? Reinholdt takes the pole and grips it at one end. He finds it unusually easy to handle despite this and tries gently poking the rock. Poke poke.

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Have you not considered retiring someplace safer?" Nadas inquires.

[Surtr]

[Weald: Outer Rim]

"I am!" Narve runs as well instead of teleporting. He won't leave the wizard like that! The chase continue until they reach a wall. This is the same wall that the wizard crossed on the way to Herb Haven. No vines to climb up to, the wall isn't good for climbing either. Narve could teleport himself but he won't. "I think we're at the end of our road. Time to clash." Unless the wizard has a spell to get them out of there.

As for why he would fight, why not? EXP and loot, well loot anyway. EXP is non existent here.


[Path to Ruins]

As soon as he pokes it, a monster launches itself from the ground and gives a deafening roar. Tamashi is unaffected but Alistair is, he is a bit dizzy and can't act for a bit.

http://game20.gr/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/monster-hunter-tri_1.jpg

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"Hah! Safer? What kind of Bloodfang would I be if I went cowering off somewhere safer? Not one that I'd want to associate with, I can tell you that much." The pixie says.

[Earl of Purple]

Clearing

Resting upon a stump in the centre of a clearing, easily accessible both by travellers going deeper and those coming out, is a large book. It's bound in black leather, and doesn't have a title or author visible either on its cover or upon its spine. Likely such information is contained upon the book's front page.

Also in the clearing is a small pond, a fallen tree and a lone pillar of basalt, covered in slightly worn carvings of plants and animals. Resting atop the pillar is a humanoid skull with three eye sockets, small spikes on the cheekbones and an impressive collection of fangs.

[Reinholdt]

[Path to Ruins]

"What is... I don't even... is that a dinosaur rock?" Reinholdt's having trouble figuring out just what that thing is supposed to be. For a dinosaur rock, it sure seems to have a sensitive head.

Reinholdt tries throwing the pole off to one side to see if the movement of the stick will catch its attention. Might even get Dinosaur Rock to play fetch.

[Weald-Pixie Camp]

"So you've never taken a vacation or seen the world outside the Weald?"

[Gullara]

[Weald - Pixie Camp]

"I've been out and about more than a few times in my life. Doesn't mean I don't want to come home again after." The old pixie says. He's not much for changing his ways it seems.

[ThirdEmperor]

Weald- Outer Rim

Well, the Wizard can hardly be blamed then. In his universe there are no such abstract laws as 'experience points' nor does treasure simply pop out of thin air to mark a victory; There, fighting is a bloody, chaotic and dangerous affair, like as not to end with both combatants dead, with a lack of decent medicine making injury twice-over dangerous by the risk of infection.

But it seems there'll be no avoiding it now. The Wizard gives the rock face a single, dubious glance, wondering if there's some way it could be scaled, before rightfully abandoning the notion as foolish and turning to take arms alongside his newfound comrade.

"Sword." With this word and a more silent invocation of the power trapped within his amulet, the Wizard calls forth a sword made of golden light, willing it into a form somewhat like a cutlass.