NationStates Jolt Archive

As the road grew wilder, William was thankful that he knew how to sit for long term riding. If not, he guessed his chances of fathering children would be considerably reduced. As it was, he was able to make good time, approaching the border before nightfall, a boon he had not expected.

Here was where it got tricky. He knew that the borders of any country were generally the most unruly and fractious portions of a country. Getting through often meant dealing with the odd bandit gang, and more importantly, the more mysterious things that the authorities didn't deal with until it became a pressing issue. William couldn't afford to be dragged into fighting, but he couldn't simply run.

Waiting for darkness to fall, William led his mount through the wooded hills, listening for the sounds of breathing in the darkness. As he moved, he slid his Sight into the deeper planes, watching for the red mists that signified malice directed at him. What he Saw, however, unnerved him. Sight often transposed elements that the Seer understood to signify what was occurring on a less tangilble level. For William, that meant that the trees stood out, swelled from water uptake into dead and rotting wood, their very cores infected with some form disease.

The land around him was slowly entering the same state of decay. He found that by adding his will to the earth, he was able to affect a small area around him, restoring it. It proved one thing to him. The plague could be combated with magic, though whether or not it would be an effective weapon remained to be seen.

As William continued, he noted a rapid change in the color of the environment, from overtures of blue to increased hues of yellow. Gaireth Lands. Control was more than arbitrary authority over a parcel of land. As William crossed a small stream, the border, he noted how little of the ehtereal blue was left, slowly fading into nothingness as William left land controlled by the Magocracy.

He was in Gaireth. Now, it was time to see what answers this land held for him.

Selim glared at the trio of party-poopers as he quickly attempted to dry himself off; heaving his bag onto his shoulders, he stalked back towards the group gloomily.

"I'd prefer to keep my talents secret until they are actually needed. If you must know, I'm quite poor at finding my way around the countrysides, but once I'm in a big city, I'll be able to find you inns for free, the best food and drink, and the fairest merchants around. I've got a plentiful supply of money to buy or bribe, and could arm a small war party with all the weapons I have. You've no idea the kinds of tricks I can pull out of my little bag of fun and sunshine."

Selim sat down exhaustedly, looking up at Icarus. He fished into his pocket and pulled out his "cure for hangovers," motioning towards the man.

"You can have some if you want. If not, I have some other, more practical remedies you can use." He looked in Orome's direction as well. "And never throw me again, please. It's for your own safety."

erm, Ravea, you have at Tg headed your way - I''l post somthing here after you and I talk.

Penrhyn, Gaireth Protectorate

The talisman of Eovia inexorably drew Fayalin’s attention to it, the world disappearing into a vision again when she eventually touched it once more. She watched in confusion as the same scene from the previous two visions played out around her, except now there were other people there. The legionnaire and his surly companion, the elf woman she had just treated and the dark man who had been with her. She frowned, unsure what the vision meant.

“You… You want me to go with them?” she asked faintly, as the vision faded and her ruined house came back into view. But she got no answer, only the solid feel of the talisman in her hand. She was just about to continue picking through the wreckage when the legionnaire appeared on the other side of the hole in the wall and spoke to her. “Um… Y-yes. It is,” she replied. She wanted to say something else, but wasn’t sure what, so she remained silent until the legionnaire had moved away.

When she decided she had found everything that had been buried under the rubble, and cleared up the debris as best she could, she found a blanket and hung it up over the hole, so she at least had some privacy again. She then collapsed on her bed, mentally and physically drained by the day’s events. After a moment, she reached out and picked up the mysterious talisman of Eovia, holding it up and examining it, as the words of the vision came back to her.

“In day they hide, in night they show. When life has died, their numbers grow,” she murmured to herself. After a minute or two, she shook her head, and discarded the talisman again. The words meant nothing to her, but she was sure that if the strange things were visions, it would be made clear to her in the end. She lay there for a long time, thinking about what she would do. When she eventually reached a decision, she sat up, then finally dressed herself in a light blouse and long skirt. She piled all the herbs, salves and bandages she could find into her healer’s bag, then put a few other belongings into a small shoulder pack.

After both bags sat fully packed by her bed, she put on her cloak again and left her house, to go and check on Kavlin’s condition. As she examined the young boy, she spoke softly to Yarin. “I think I might be going away for a while,” she told him. “Can I ask you to get my house repaired while I’m gone? I don’t know how long I’ll be away for,” she added, in response to the question she could see forming, “You should let the healers in the town know I’ve gone, that way one of them can come by every so often and make sure everything’s alright.” She stood up, and turned to face him. “I’m sorry for all this. Kavlin should be fine now, though. Just make sure he rests for a few days.”

Penrhyn
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius' head began to fall and he instinctively jerked it back up, waking himself up from his short nap - too short for his preferences - in the process. Looking around his small camp site, he could see that the sky was starting to get brighter and that the village was still quiet. His little campfire was dying, but the coming day meant that he no longer needed the additional warmth that the fire provided. Letting it burn out, he grabbed some rations and began munching.

The legionnaire did not like taking naps like that. If he had been on nightwatch for the legionary camp and started taking naps, his very life could have been at stake. But the situation now was different, as there was no one else to take over his shift for him, and going for two days without any sleep at all was dangerous as well.

He was not wearing the legionary segmented cuirass, as it was much too uncomfortable to have the dented parts digging into him all night. Tovius had stored the armor and helmet away and wore just his long, padded, red tunic instead while everyone slept. But as the village began to stir, he took out a small hammer and began pounding out the dents. The beauty of the segmented cuirasses was that they were easy to repair, especially if the only damage was a few dents. After a short while, Tovius more or less flattened out the dents. It was not exactly polished perfection, but it was comfortable enough to wear again.

After donning the armor back on, he went to one of the homes in the village and checked in on the captured black-leather man that he had knocked out in Yarin's house yesterday. One of the villagers was guarding the bound prisoner and nodded his greetings to Tovius. The legionnaire apparently hit the attacker fairly hard, as the prisoner did not wake up at all throughout the night and was even now still unconscious. After a brief chat with the impromptu guard about sending for someone from a nearby town to take care of the prisoner, the young centurion left.

Tovius then walked to where Thibault was sleeping, but he changed directions in mid-stride and instead walked over to where Lanu and the woman he was with made camp. The centurion did not believe the other two had ill intentions - despite the fact that the woman was very strange and used to be a bear. Nonetheless, he was not in the business of trusting foreigners who had no reason for being here. It was a security risk, and Tovius' job was to keep Republic lands, properties, and people safe.

The dark man was apparently a light sleeper, as he awoke when the legionnaire approached. "Greetings..." What was his name again? "...Lanu Jbina. Since you do not appear to know where you are or why you are here, it will be best if I took you along with me. I will be passing by Aervyn, the capital of Gaireth, and you will be better able to get your bearings once there. Gather your belongings; we will be departing soon."

Turning sharply, Tovius walked away before Lanu could object, and went looking for Thibault. He saw the healer from yesterday, who was now thankfully more modestly dressed. She was going back to the house where Tovius had knocked out the black-clad man now being held prisoner. Without a second thought, though, Tovius kept heading to where he last saw Thibault.

"Let's get an early start," Tovius said upon finding his "uncle" waking up. "I'm going to bring those two foreigners along and drop them off at Aervyn. They have no business being in this village and I'd rather not give them free rein. Need anything to eat?"

***

"No need to apologize, Fayalin," Yarin whispered so that he would not wake up Kavlin. "If it weren't for you, my son won't even be with us anymore. And we'll patch up your house, don't you worry. May the gods guide your steps wherever you are going."


Western Border
Gaireth Protectorate

The rolling hills and tall grasses of this area of Gaireth appeared to be more or less untouched by civilization. The only signs of such were the occasional legionary patrols along the border, but William had not seen any of the legionnaires after heading farther into the Protectorate.

What would have been a quiet and uneventful trip was suddenly punctuated by a groan from the grass-obscured ground that the mage just passed over. Then the immediate area around where the groan came from lifted up off the ground. Dirt and long straws of yellow grass came tumbling down the rising figure, revealing a 6-foot-tall brute. It looked vaguely human, but fatter and uglier. Probably a young ogre.

Its bloodshot, angry eyes honed in on the human. "You wake Tunk!"


South of Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The creature continued through the fields and approached the town of Eavana, which was now dark since almost everyone had gone to bed. Should Nald choose not to stray too far from his home, then he would lose all sight of the creature.

Thibault smiled before raising a freshly gutted rabbit.

"Little girl thought she could outrun me." He boasted before skewering the little animal with a stick. "The trick is to wait for them to turn and change your pursuit angle. Now I just need to cook her."

He neglected to mention the doe that escaped him earlier. Perhaps because it didn't matter, or because he knew his age was catching up to him.

"How's the bear doing?" Thibault asked slinging the rabbit over his shoulder.

Damn. I hate dealing with these guys. Facing Tunk, William backed up a couple of paces, in order to tie the reins of his horse to a nearby branch.

"Tunk of the Ogres, I bid you no harm, and seek no quarrel with you this night. Allow me passage, for I claim myself a Traveler in these parts." This was designed merely to make Tunk pause for a moment. As an unannounced visitor on TUnk's land, William would be breaking the ancient Laws of Hospitality if he struck first. Retalliation, though, was completely legal.

In due course, which took Tunk about three seconds, he did strike, swinging to hit William hard across the head. But three seconds had passed, and William had his sword out and was ready, ducking down and slicing lengthwise to open a wound on Tunk's forearm before rolling to Tunk's flank.

"You Hurt TUNK!!" the young ogre screamed. William didn't bother wating for another blow. Tunk had struck first, so Will was free to attack as he liked. Ducking again, Will threw his weight into a kick aimed at Tunk's knee. He wasn't too surprised when the ogre went down in a stumble, as actually damaging the joint was rather difficult when dealing with ogres. Gesturing with his sword, the earth shifted, sending Tunk sprawling close to Will's feet. As Tunk got up, William bore down with the point of his sword, skewering the ogre through the chest and piercing the heart.

"Now I've killed you, Tunk." Using his foot as leverage, he pulled his sword out of the ogre's body, wiping it off with a piece of cloth. The small etched runes glowed in the darkness, an after effect of power within Tunk's blood. Walking back to his somewhat agitated horse, he calmed the animal, before untying. "Sorry you had to see that. He would have killed me, though, and probably have eaten you. Come on. Let's hope there's nothing else for us tonight."

Penrhyn
Gaireth Protectorate

"Still sleeping," Tovius replied. "Not that I'd complain. Better to have a sleeping woman than a rampaging bear. The man said they were from Korovir, so I'd wager she's some kind of druid if she could change into an animal like that. Don't know what they're doing all the way in Gaireth, though."

He picked up his cloak from the ground and shook it to fling out the dirt. "I could wait a little while longer for you to cook it. Somehow, I don't think the canoe would appreciate you starting a fire in it. Neither would I, for that matter. I'll go get the canoe set up and come get you once everything's ready."

Making his way to the home of the former owner of the canoe, Tovius enlisted the man's help to carry the long and narrow craft north toward the Ael River and settled it amongst the brush in the bank of the river. Heading back into the village was much easier without the bulky and heavy canoe, and the legionnaire wagered that a sufficient time had passed for Thibault and the foreigners to all be prepared for departure now.

Going to Lanu and Elva's campsite first, he walked up to them and asked, "Ready?"


Western Border
Gaireth Protectorate

The corpse of the ogre, no longer in view of the now distant William and his horse, seemed almost to melt back into the earth. The yellowed grass around it turned brown and wilted further. More and more grass began fading in this manner in an ever-increasing circle around the body that was now fully absorbed into the ground. The distance this decaying covered was vast, and the speed at which it went was faster than a horse could hope to match, until...


Senhild
Eringaard Magocracy

...several people in the inn's courtyard gasped. They were looking up, and one could see the pale green leaves of the tree that Icarus and the others were sitting by were wilting before their very eyes. The leaves faded into yellow, then brown, and started curling up.

The wheat fields that Icarus had so painstakingly partially revived earlier that morning were now deteriorating in like manner to the tree.

Whatever timeline the apparition of the woman originally gave, it no longer appeared to be valid, as it now seemed like the plants would all turn to dust in a matter of a couple of days if not shorter.

William dropped his sword as he saw the browning of the fields. What has happened?!? Have I done this?!? He looked around, glimpsing the edges of the expanding circle of wilting before it overtook his entire field of vision.

Dropping to his knees as he slid from his horse, he felt the soil run through his fingers. "Most High Creator, please, guide me. Why is this happening? If it be Your will, then I implore You, please, give me a sign. Show me the path to the salvation of the people. Help me understand Your design for me. I fear that I have become Lost. Please, show me a sign to put me on the Path."

Viktor had finished his prayers and was walking briskly back toward the inn when he felt something wrong approaching. He stopped midstride as he saw the plants near him wilt in mere seconds and felt the very grass beneath his feet decay, not only that, but he could feel it like an itch washing over him before passing, never one who had been overly conected to the elements, to feel something that powerful was a shock and highly disturbing. He could only imagine what Icarus and William might feel like if they had been caught unaware. His lapse in motion was only temporary though, because as soon as he realised what had happened he sprinted toward the inn, dodging the despairing citizens as he refused slow down.

Moments later he arrived at the inn breathing heavily. Pausing only to draw breath he focused on Icarus and said. "Icarus... time to go." He didn't have breath to say more and darted toward the back of the inn to order the carriage prepared and demanded two more horses be tied to the front, it seemed they would need the extra speed.

He paused for breath and to wipe the sweat from his brow before striding purposefully into the inn and approaching the innkeeper. "It seems me and my colleagues will be leaving." He drew a reasonable amount of coinage from his pocket and handed it to the barkeeper. "That will pay for the horses i am taking from your stables. Sorry for the inconveniance, but i assure you, it is entirely necessary, the fate of the known world may rest on it." After a moment he added, "And i'm doing you a favour, two less mouths to feed."

The death approaching him was like a shadow, and when it overcame him, it felt like he'd been kicked in the head. Bending double and clutching his skull, Icarus screamed in pain. Luckily, the pain passed quickly, leaving only a dull throbbing behind his eyes.

He looked up and saw that the work that he had labored over so intensely earlier was completely undone, and that the earth had begun to shatter. Broken spires of rock were rising from the ground turning the land into a veritable wasteland.

Icarus stood and followed Viktor, stumbling and using the walls for support as he went. He grabbed Viktor on the shoulder as the Chronicler negotiated with the inn keeper.

Pulling Viktor aside, Icarus whispered, "They can't stay here. This land is dead. They must head west. We must tell them, or famine will take them all in a matter of weeks."

********************************

Lanu looked up at the man he had met the night before, the inquisitive one. This man had so many questions for which Lanu had no answers. "Ready for what?"

Penrhyn, Gaireth Protectorate

Fayalin had slept restlessly that night, her mind occupied with varying thoughts regarding the strange visions, the mysterious talisman, the previous day’s events and many other things. Fortunately, in her opinion anyway, it had been a dream-free sleep, or at the very least, she could remember nothing of the dreams, and she awoke feeling reasonably refreshed, if not completely rested.

She dressed quickly in her preferred clothes for travelling any kind of distance, a long sleeved blouse, comfortable trousers and a pair of soft leather boots, to which she added her pale grey cloak over the top, securely fastened about her neck. She was well aware that some people, of both sexes, didn’t hold with women wearing trousers, but she found them more comfortable and better suited to travelling, so she wore them anyway.

Next, she fastened her long dagger to her belt, concealing it beneath the voluminous folds of the cloak. She had been told some time ago that if she was going to travel any distance from a settlement, she should carry something for protection, even if she wasn’t terribly proficient with it, so she had acquired the dirk from the smith in the nearby town for that purpose. Then she shouldered her pack, putting it underneath her cloak, and slung the bag with her healing supplies over one shoulder. Finally, she picked up the long ash staff that rested by her door, and left her house.

She checked on Kavlin briefly, just to make sure he was recovering properly, then headed over to where she had seen the wounded elf woman and her companion camped. The legionnaire was there as well, though she didn’t hear the words they said to one another. She found this convenient, as it meant she could get both her tasks done in one go, and she didn’t have to see the legionnaire’s companion just yet either.

“Excuse me,” she started, looking a little nervously at the legionnaire. “I’m coming with you. I hope that’s okay.” She then turned and looked over at the still unconscious elf. “I also need to check her bandages,” she said, indicating the woman with one hand. “Has she woken up at all?” she asked with a glance at the other man.

Penrhyn
Gaireth Protectorate

Fayalin drew Tovius' attention before he could reply to Lanu. His eyebrows furrowed just a bit in puzzlement. With a shake of his head, he said, "I'm sorry, Miss...?"

He never even learned her name, and she was declaring that she would be going with him?

"I'm afraid you cannot come along. She," he looked at Elva, "can find a healer once she gets to Aervyn, and I intend to continue westward to Eavana to investigate some strange happenings with the fertility of the farms. You appear to be a local of this village, and I can see no reason why you should come along with us."

Western Border
Gaireth Protectorate

William received no reply.


Senhild
Eringaard Magocracy

The innkeeper's mouth was agape as he stared out the window and at the dead fields. He looked blankly at Viktor for a moment before mechanically reaching out for the money, although whether his mind was even on Viktor or the money or the horses at all was a good question.

Snapping to, he finally managed to utter, "W-will you be able to fix...th-that?"

Icarus gave the inn keeper an apologetic look, "This is an ill far beyond my ability to heal. Stay here at the inn; Anvers will come with more instructions."

*******************

Lanu looked at the legionnaire and asked, "Your land is dying as well?"

Penrhyn, Gaireth Protectorate

“I’m not going with you because this woman needs a healer,” replied Fayalin, the nervousness in her voice increasing. “I’m going because I need to go.” She knelt down beside the elf woman and began to carefully untie the bandages she had applied the previous day. They were stained with blood, but not overly so, and it appeared that the wound was healing quickly, indeed a little better than Fayalin had expected. She wondered briefly if that was because the woman was an elf, not a human.

She half listened to the exchange between the legionnaire and the dark man as she stripped the bandage from the elf woman’s leg and discarded it to one side. She inspected the wound more closely, and decided that it did not urgently need cleaning again, and she did not want to risk reopening it by accident. She reached into her bag for a roll of clean bandage, her hand briefly touching the talisman of Eovia which she had placed in there on a whim. Working quickly, but without rushing, she applied the new dressing and tied it in place, then tossed the soiled bandages onto the man’s small fire.

As she stood up, she overheard the two men talking about ‘the land dying’, and a frown forced itself onto her face. Things were beginning to click into place in the young woman’s confused head. Her strange visions, where everything was dead, the appearance of these people and their subsequent presence in the visions and now this revelation that the land was apparently dying; they were all starting to fit together to form a coherent picture.
“Um, what do you mean by ‘the land is dying’?” she asked.

"Druids...wimps." He muttered.

Silently Thibault walked through the woods trying to gather his thoughts. Animals sprinted to shelter from his presence, even the trees seemed to sway away from him.

"Am I really a monster?" He asked sardonically, amused by the timid nature of the environment. "Then again, people are just as cowardly."

Viktor nodded at Icarus's comment. "Yes, I will go and tell Anvers. would you grab the carriage and meet me out front?" He then turned regretful eye to the innkeeper. "As my friend says, this is beyond our magic to heal at this time. To the east lies the solution and that is exactly where we are going."

He then turned and strode from the inn towards the town hall, he found Anvers standing outside in as much shock as the other citizens. Placing a friendly hand on his shoulder to get his attention Viktor said: "You must tell your people to head west, if not now, then very soon. Your lands are beyond repair at this time." Reaching into pocket he drew a small green crystal and held it out to the man. "This may be of some help. Hold it near your mouth as you speak, it will amplify your voice the people need to hear this message."

Penrhyn
Gaireth Protectorate

Almost shaking his head in denial of Fayalin's request, the legionnaire then looked at the woman's pack and figured that she was planning to travel with or without him - and given the black-clad bandits that were in the area, she probably would not get very far before encountering trouble.

He was annoyed. On the one hand, he could not simply allow someone under the protection of the Republic to come to harm in such a manner. But on the other hand, he needed to move fast, and he did not want extra people tagging along to slow things down.

"Fine. I'll let you coming along this time, but know that I'm not going to go out of my way for you. If you need to go in a different direction than where I'm heading, you're on your own. I have little time to spare, so if you are slow of pace, then know what I will not slow down for you."

Tovius furrowed his eyebrows a bit at Lanu's question. "That's one way of putting it, I suppose. Some farmlands in West Gaireth are deteriorating. Why? Do you know something about it?"


Senhild
Eringaard Magocracy

"Where will we go?" Anvers asked in his soft voice when Viktor told him that the town needed to head west. "Our entire lives are here..."

His hands were shaking as he reached for the green crystal anyway. His eyes were desparate as he looked at Viktor, but then his shook his head to clear it and steeled himself. Taking a deep breath, he placed the crystal very close to his mouth and spoke uncertainly into it.

"H-hello?" He pulled back his head just a bit as that rang out louder than he expected it to - not that he knew what to expect from that strange green crystal. The townspeople were just as alarmed, and several gasps and screams could be heard.

Anvers went on to spread the word, and from the sound of the townspeople in the streets, most of the people were either frightfully scared or stubbornly outraged.

Viktor pulled a map out of his pack and furrowed his brow for a moment before pointing a route that would take him through some other villages and towns before arriving at one of the moderately sized cities: "I would recommend you follow this, warn other people you come across. You should be safer in the cities, the mages there may be able to protect the lands better." For a while at least... Viktor thought, but did not say it out loud.

He cringed at the sound that came from the crystal as Anvers brought it too close to his mouth before Viktor could warn him, but the man quickly got the hang of it and after giving him a parting wave, he set off back to the inn, hoping to find Icarus already waiting.

Having heard only the silence in response to his prayer, William stood, taking his sword back into his hand, only to notice that the runes glowed more forcefully than before. That's not supposed to happen. I'll talk to Viktor when he and I meet up.

Remounting his horse, he continued, stopping only for a short rest for a few hours before the sun rose.

"It is now or never." Nald muttered as he viewed the creature in the distance. He peered over his shoulder and looked back at the peaceful farm house. It was his promise to always protect Caeli and he was going to live or die by it. Nald silently ran forward to the creature.

Senhild
Eringaard Magocracy

Anvers looked at the map uncertainly before giving some unsure nods. In the same, somewhat shaky voice as before, he continued announcing the evacuation plans to the town populace.

The streets were getting busier as people came out of their homes to ask questions of one another. Some looked scared, while others gave Viktor and Icarus glares.


Western Gaireth
Gaireth Protectorate

After about a day's worth of travel, William had left the brown, dead fields of grass behind. The boundary between the brown grass and the yellow ones was quite distinct, and there was certainly a different feel to the earth after stepping over that dividing line. But it was not too much of a difference, as it was evident that the yellow grass was slowly on its way to being just as dead as the brown ones.

The closer one got to inhabited areas, though, the more likely one was to encounter people. And so when William was slightly less than a day's ride away from the town of Eavana, a legionary patrol caught sight of him from a distance. There were two legionnaires on foot, and one beckoned William. They then approached the mage at an average walking pace, apparently not in too much of a hurry to reach him at the moment.


Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The oversized canine, whose fur appeared pitch black in the bright moonlight, slipped into the town of Eavana, unnoticed by anyone in the sleeping town save for the trailing Nald. The human boy was still a good distance behind the creature, but just close enough to keep from losing it in the town.

The path that Nald was following the creature down was somewhat dim, as the tall, darkened buildings to either side of the street partially blocked out some of the moonlight from the ground. However, up ahead was one building whose windows glowed with a hot fire from inside, and which the loud clanging of metal could be heard.

Jaso was working in his smithy when a large, lupine shadow passed by at the edge of his vision. But by the time he looked over, whatever was casting the shadow was already gone.

William appraoched the two legionaires, thankful that he had changed into the clothing of a Gaireth man before crossing the border. halting the horse, he slid down, keeping the reains in his left hand, and holding up his right in an open palm gesture, a signal of peaceful approach.

"Soldiers, what can I do for you?" he said in Gaireth accent. It had the tones of a traveler, a man that had grown up in more than one location, as William intended to pass himself as. The two looked like they were addressing him more out of duty than actual suspicion, so William hoped to keep the bias towards that end.

Lanu replied to the legionnaire, finally able to give an informed answer. "The spirits of my ancestors were once anchored to the life of the jungle in Korovir. Now, the jungle itself is withering, and my ancestors are slipping into the fog. It was my intention to heal this ailment. My companion has the same goal. We will go to this area of Gaireth, perhaps it is the source."

*********************

Icarus had already saddled the horses when Viktor returned, and two of the innkeepers sons were carrying their supplies to be loaded onto the pack horse.

Icarus looked at the older man with eyes heavy with exhaustion. He sighed and then spoke to his colleague, "We must make haste. The political climate in this region is about to get even more volatile than it was before. If we cannot heal this blight soon, I fear that civil war lies in our near future."

He looked at the citizens of the small town packing their few belongings, "I hope that the cities will be able to support the refugees. At the rate this appears to be expanding, their will be thousands in the coming weeks."

Penrhyn
Gaireth Protectorate

The furrow on Tovius' brow deepened. "It is happening to Korovir as well? This may be a larger issue than I thought..."

The legionnaire considered the dark barbarian. Maybe Lanu was lying, but he could sense no deceit in the Korovirian. Then again, Tovius realized that he was not always the best at determining if someone was being untruthful or not. But it did explain the foreigners' presence here, to some extent. He had heard of druids being able to turn into animals, so if the unconscious woman really was a druid, then she could prove useful in this endeavor.

With a nod, the centurion said, "Agreed, you will come with me." A glance to Fayalin, "But as I said to her, time is of the essence. I will be moving fast, and I will not slow down to wait for you. Gather your belongings and follow me. We depart now."

It did not take Tovius too long to find Thibault wandering in the woods. As the older man had his things with him already, everyone was good to go, and the legionnaire led them north through the woods and to the river. After hiking for about half an hour, they reached the long canoe that Tovius had carried there earlier that day.

Soon enough, the five were in it and zooming downriver toward the west. The trip was not too exciting, and when they zipped past Aervyn and reached the bend in the river, they left the canoe behind and went the rest of the way on foot.

It was about two weeks since they left Penrhyn that the five saw the town of Eavana some distance ahead of them. The surrounding fields were all wilting away, and a strange, decaying odor occasionally offended their senses. Tovius got them a couple of rooms at one of the inns near the town center, which was rather empty of patrons. Apparently few people wanted to visit a town whose fields were dying and whose air would make one gag.

The centurion left them there while he went to speak with the local legionary forces. It was late evening when he returned and gathered the other four. "The local forces don't know any more of what's going on here than we do. All they know is that the fields slowly began dying about two or three months ago, and that this smell started up in the past week or so. A couple of days ago, there were reports of a huge swath of grassland to the southwest of here suddenly dying and turning black. It's probably linked to the dying fields, but no one knows how exactly."

He looked over to Elva, "Do you sense anything?"


Western Gaireth
Gaireth Protectorate

"Hello there," one of the legionnaires greeted William. "Have you notice any strange sightings recently? We just received reports earlier today of a wide area of grassland suddenly turning brown and dying in the direction that you are coming from."

If the legionnaires noticed William's sword, they made no indication of it.

He looked over to Elva, "Do you sense anything?"

Elva did not respond immediately - she was too busy in deep thought with her eyes closed. For some reason, try as she might, the Druidess could not hear the spirits of the land. Nor could she determine why it was that she could not hear them; whether it was because they did not wish to be heard, or that their pain drowned out their voices, or, worse yet, that they were dead.

"Yes... I sense something," she said in a near monotonous, yet foreboding voice. "I sense pain. Much pain. With every day we crossed this land, the pain grew greater and more intense."

"Ravaged so hard the fields are, I fear that its source is somewhere in this land..."

Western Gaireth

William kept his hands off the sheathed blade, pausing for a moment in fake contemplation before responding. "I'm sorry, but all that I've heard is the general rumors that fields were sporadically dying. I just came from dead fields, true, but I thought that they had been in that condition for a while. Truth be told, gentlemen, I've not seen neither farmer nor soldier south of the delta since I started my travel, so you're the first men I've seen since I started my journey to Eavana."

The two nodded, the one speaking up. "I see. Well, if you find anything else, just go report to the local commandent. May Parminius keep you."

"And may Theras bless you," William replied, before remounting his steed and trotting off. The town wasn't far, and he'd arrive before night fell again.

Orome snorted at the musicians threat. It meant little to her. "If you had kept all your orifices shut save to take things inward then you would not be soaked now." Her tone was one of deep disgust. She ignored any other protests from him.

Heading to the arena where the Hellcorn had spent the night she stood with his head resting on her shoulder for a long time, deep in communication with the deadly beast. Then she set about grooming him till he shown, his ebony hide as glossy as polished onyx, all the while frowning, not soothed by the rythmic motions as she normally was.

At last she sighed and scratched him about the base of his horn, which had his eyes drooping closed in pure bliss. "I'll go make my excuses, but it doesn't sit right with me."

She threw on the light, treeless saddle that she used, pleased to see that the stable hands had cleaned it of the salt and grime from thier impromptu swim in the ocean. Orome mounted with a single graceful boun, and once she was mounted Black Fang carried her to the inn so she could collect her packs. Once she had done so, conspiciously avoiding Selim, she sought out Kiten and explained that she had urgent business else where and that may he have good luck with what ever his quest was.

Orome found Icarus and Victor saddling horses, and apologised but that she ould not be able to accompany them, though she would not say specifically why. Once that was done she and the Hellcorn headed west at a ground eating pace.

Viktor saw Icarus's exhaustion and nodded gravely before saying: "We are leaving now, however you seem in no fit state to guide the horses. Sleep in the carriage, i will drive and we will switch when you are more awake. There should be some food and drink inside if you require it."

He paused to watch the citizens milling around in confusion, but generally beggining to get the idea before responding; "I warned the council this may happen before we left, i can only hope they have made some preperation all ready."

Viktor scratched his chin as he watched Orome depart, it would have been useful to have such a clearly competant and powerful woman with them, but it was a pity she had chosen to leave, regardless, they did not have time to dawdle. However he noticed the womans 'servant' did not leave with her and keeping an eye on the man he glanced back at Icarus and asked: "Are any of these people accompanying us?"

Icarus shrugged, exhaustion making him indifferent. He hauled himself heavily into the carriage and then fell into a deep sleep.

Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius gave a quick nod. "That confirms that we're looking in the right place, at least."

He began pacing, thankful that there were no other people staying at the inn to complain about him making the floorboards creak so late at night. The room was fairly dim, as only a few candles were burning in their holders, but it was sufficient for the conversation the five were having.

"There have been no reports of any people falling ill - only the land itself." He looked at Fayalin, "Nonetheless, come morning, I'd like you to check around with the local physicians and see what they have to say. If they're treating people more than normal or less than normal in that past few months. What kind of ailments the people are coming down with. That kind of stuff."

"Thibault, you know your way around merchants. See if any of them brought anything new to this area, or know of anyone who did. I once heard about a how a rich man decided to introduce some new fishes to a lake near Garanan, and those new fishes ended up eating all of the original fishes in the lake. Maybe something akin to that is happening here. I don't how, since it's the land itself, but let's not rule out anything just yet."

Looking to Lanu, "I realize you might not be very familiar with the animals here, but take a look around the stables and the farms around here and see if you can pick up anything from them. Are they scared, skittish, sickly, anything. Animals have a habit of sensing things better than humans do, after all."

"And Elva, you keep doing that communing with the earth thing you do and see if you can pinpoint where exactly the source of this turmoil is stemming from."

The legionnaire stifled a yawn as he stepped over to the window. "I'll find the local governor and see what information I can gleam from that end. We'll want to speak with the farmers themselves as wel - whoa!"

He took an involuntary step back from his window sill. Out on the dark street below, a canine the size of a horse was prowling through the town, its fur as dark as a moonless night.

"Around merchants. In merchants. Through merchants." Thibault chuckled for a moment before realizing Tovius wasn't supposed to know about his profession. "I'll get to it at dawn, in the meantime I need a drink."

Sliding downstairs he couldn't wait to reunite with his beloved liquor. The constant traveling rarely warranted the time to stop for indulgence. For a man who would drink every night, his thirst was long overdue.

In his reverie he pounced through the front door and right into the broadside of a large creature. Unrecognizable in the black night, the fur was different than that of a horse, but he quickly brushed it off in his quest for the tavern.

Penrhyn to Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

Surprisingly, Fayalin kept up easily with the legionnaire’s fast pace, and the change in her demeanour from the previous day was startling. Now that she was appropriately dressed, and not scared out of her wits, she moved quickly and easily through the forest, completely different from the general lack of coordination she had exhibited when the legionnaire had led her back to the village.

Nonetheless, she was glad that they had the boat to cover most of the distance. Though she was no stranger to walking, she had never before been faced with walking such distance in such a short period of time. The boat also gave her the chance to check on the elf woman’s wounded leg a couple of times a day, without slowing them down or stopping. Through the banter as they travelled, they became familiar with each other, though Faye still did not really like Tovius’ companion Thibault, nor did she trust him fully. Despite their increasing familiarity with each other, she had still only given them Fayalin as her name, not yet shortening it to Faye, and she still occasionally used formal titles when referring to people.

She was thankful that Tovius had had no problems with letting Elva and Lanu join them and had not tried to leave them at Aervyn as he had initially indicated. After learning that the mystery affliction of the land was not just limited to Gaireth, Lanu and Elva’s accompaniment had gone from unlikely to almost certain.

When they had finally arrived in Eavana, Faye had been shocked by the extent of the problem, and had quickly tied a flower-scented handkerchief over her nose and mouth in an attempt to ward off the unpleasant odour. While Tovius was away consulting the local garrison, they had remained in the inn, and Faye had curled herself up near the fire. When Tovius came back, she looked up, listening intently. She had not been entirely clear about her reasons for coming, and she had avoided mentioning the visions entirely, but she had told them it was related to the dying land.

“I can do that,” she agreed, when Tovius suggested she should talk to the local healers, “I need to stock up on a few things anyway, and I can do that at the same time.” She frowned at Thibault’s comment; not for the first time she had the feeling he was hiding something, not just from them but from his friend as well. But her thoughts were abruptly interrupted when Tovius cried out. “What?” she asked, getting up hurriedly.

Viktor waited for Icarus to get inside before casting one last glance at the other two, waving a goodbye and climbing onto the carriage, securing his staff and enouraging the horses to begin moving.

It would take them a while to get out of time with so many people preparing to depart and milling around, but after that it should be easy enough to reach the border and continue.

Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius' voice was partially hushed when he replied to Fayalin, as if trying not to attract any attention from what he was looking at. "There's a huge -" he broke off as he noticed that Thibault had left the room.

"Thibault!" he called out in a still hushed voice, though a little louder to try to get the other man's attention. Apparently Thibault either did not hear him or chose not to respond - likely the former.

The legionnaire drew his shortsword and rushed out after Thibault, only remembering to grab his shield because it was standing next to the door. Struggling to get it in on his left arm while going down the stairs, Tovius then ran toward the main door of the inn.

Outside, the large canine growled at the man that had so abruptly walked into it and tensed its muscles in preparation for pouncing onto the human.


Senhild
Eringaard Magocracy

The horse-drawn carriage that held the two mages moved at a quick pace eastward. They were stopped and questioned at the border by some legionnaires, but Viktor managed to convince them that he and Icarus were there on official business for the Council - which wasn't exactly a lie.

The border guards allowed them through without too much of a hassle, although it was likely a given that the legionnaires would be keeping an eye on the two. After a few days of hard travel, they reached the Gaireth town of Eavana, where they were to meet up with William at the western edge.

As William made his way to the western edge of the town, he saw the carriage carrying his two travelling companions. It was dry, hot, and there were a few clouds in the sky. Dry thunder, a common weather pattern during the harvest season, and luckily, it often happened in the evening.

Holding his blade aloft, William called down a single bolt, feeling the power pass through him as he transferred the energy into the ground as a beacon to the other geomancer. Between the more mundane physical beacon and the arcane signal, the two would see him coming. He approached, glad that nobody could see this far out from the town in the failing light.

"What took you?" he asked of the two.

Elva was about to respond to Tovius that for some reason she could not here the spirits in this land when he barked something about a beast. As Thibault and subsequently Tovius left the room, one sprinting after the other, Elva dashed nimbly over to the window to take a glance. The sight below was indeed one of a beast; a canine-like creature, but much larger than any she had ever seen - it was like the description of a mythic beast.

As the others had done only a moment before, the Druidess dashed out of the door, down the stairs, and to the front door. If it was a fight they had to give, Elva was more than ready. Unfortunately, she was quite out of her element in the town, and with little of nature's blessing around, she had little to fight with. She could, of course, shape-shift again, but that would be tiring and was preferable as a last-ditch effort. The last time she had done so, it had ended with her knocked out for a day.

Maybe I can talk to it. she thought. Using her natural affinity to speak with animals and creatures, Elva communicated to the best of her ability. I hope this works...

"What are you doing here?"

♫"Drunk drunk drunky drunk drunk, gonna get druuuuunk".♫

A deep and immensely low growl shattered trough Thibault's ecstatic mood. Whatever suspicions he threw over his shoulder about the giant beast now came full swing and froze him dead in his tracks. Fear gripped his legs and he stood helplessly, back facing the monster. All he could do was repeat to himself how very dead he was.

Viktor had been driving the carriage since quite early and was beginning to tire. Although when he reached the meeting point he knicked the carriage with his staff to wake Icarus and kept his eyes peeled for anything.

It didn't take long for him to spot a man with sword raised aloft some distance away and he tensed slightly, it was not the reception he had been expecting, but it quickly proved to be someone with magical talents and as the man approached he recognised William and gave him a wave.

Viktor shrugged off the question and stated: "Something happened just before we left, every plant died and it continued on past the town, we have no idea how far." He gave a grave sigh. "We told them to head to one of the cities. Time is running out, so we had best get started here."

He turned his head and looked at the town before asking William: "Are you familiar with any of the locals or the area?"

Nald looked back and noticed that the familiar shape of the farm was gone. He must have been a couple of miles away from his house. Shaking his head he remembered the task at hand. Nald started to pick up speed, actually more or less spriting, after this mysterious creature.

William nodded as he heard about the death. "We need to talk about that, soon but in private. I know a couple of inns here, but not too many of the locals, for obvious reasons. Meet me in the town, Icarus will be able to find me at this close a range. I'd rather not draw undo attention to myself until I deal with a few theoretical problems."

Willaim re-mounted his steed, and set off into the town, taking a single look at the orb of the moon hanging in the darkening sky.

Icarus poked his head out of the carriage, now fully rested after two days of sleep and little work. He said to William as he approached, "It's been far too long since anyone's used the old signals. Feeling that sent shivers down my spine. It's good to see you William."

Icarus nodded to Viktor indicating that William was correct, and that Icarus would be able to 'track' him now that they were this close.

William looked back at the young mage. "Good to see that you're doing fine yourself, Icarus. Thought you'd appreciate the signal. The three of us need to talk when we get into town." Snapping the reins, William was soon out of earshot of the carriage. Hopefully one of the two would be able to explain the connection of the dead land to the killing of the young ogre.

Viktor was intrigued at what William knew of the dying fields, but let the man get a few minutes headstart before once again prompting the horses to action and trundling towards town.

Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

When Tovius disappeared after giving a generally unsatisfactory answer, Fayalin joined Elva at the window to see what the fuss was about. What she saw took a moment to register in her mind, so strange did it seem.
“What in the name of the gods is that?” she asked the air in disbelief. A dog, or a wolf? Can’t be; it’s too big. Whatever it is though, I bet it’s not good, she told herself, vainly trying to fight off the feeling of impending doom that was building in her.

After Elva also raced out of the room, presumably to go and help Tovius take on the strange beast, Fayalin turned and walked across the room, grabbing her healer’s bag and her staff from where she had put them by the fireplace. She then took her turn at leaving the room to go and investigate what was going on, though she took a far more relaxed pace than the other two had; knowing that she would likely be a hindrance to the others in a fight, not a help.

Still, she wouldn’t feel right if she just left these people to deal with this beast while she stayed in the room, safe from any harm, at least for the moment. At the very least, she had to provide moral support, and if any of them happened to get injured as they fought, she would be able to start giving assistance as soon as possible. She stepped out of the inn into the road, took a few steps to one side and crouched down against the wall. One hand gripped her staff tightly and the other was clasped around the hilt of her dirk within her cloak, just in case.

Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The large canine was just leaping into the air when Tovius burst out of the front door of the inn and slammed into it with his large shield. The momentum altered the trajectory of the heavy creature just enough so that it missed Thibault.

It skidded on the ground some few feet away from Thibault, momentarily surprised, but quickly got back onto its four feet. The black hairs on its back raised up, making it look even larger. The lips curled back in a snarl, showing long and pointed fangs that dripped with saliva.

"What are you doing here?"

The snarling stopped briefly as the huge canine's head snapped toward the elf that had just went through the door that the other two came from, looking uncertainly at her. Fayalin also came out, and the creature began to back up slowly, as if unsure of what to do now that there were so many people about.

The thoughts running through its mind were not quite readable by Elva, as if it was more monster than animal - or, perhaps, more human than animal.

Orome's dismissal was odd, but Kiten didn't mind as much even thought it could cause further problems as he wouldn't have a convient disguise. Rather than travel with Viktor and Icarus he delayed for he had a few things to do. He planned on catching up however.

Earlier in the day he'd witnessed a few things that the average dark elf would have enjoyed watching but that he'd decided to set right. Mostly minor stuff such as aggravated bullying and thefts. The only one that was of importance, as far as Kiten was concerned, was the fact that a group of boys had taken a little girl's teddy bear and thrown it high into a tree. Due to the rather major problem of crop failure none of the grown ups had the time to deal with a crying little girl.

As it was more practical to do it at night he quickly scaled the tree, balancing on branches much to thin to logically support him and recovering the stuffed animal. Making his way into the general store, he removed a small section of pink ribbon and a small amount of parchment, pen and ink. Owing to a definite dearth of funding, he did not leave any funds for the merchant but the small amounts were negligable.

Tying the ribbon in a cute fashion, he left both the bear and the message in the strange spidery form of the surface worlders language on the girl's bed so that when she awoke the first thing she'd see was the bear.

What the message was, was simply a suggestion that if those boys tormented her, then to kick them in the shins and stamp on thier feet, then once down threaten them with worse if they didn't obey. It was much the standard way of things in the child's world where he'd grown.

Lanu emerged from the inn with bow in hand, and an arrow nocked back. He took aim at the beast and waited for a cue from the others, or for the creature to threaten them, as it seemed rather harmless right now.

Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

With the appearance of Lanu, the large, black wolf backed up even more before giving a chilling howl to the moon. A wave of uneasiness hit Tovius' stomach, seemingly emanating from the howling canine, and the feeling spread through his body. It felt like death, though how Tovius realized that he did not know. The stray patches of grass and weed sticking out of the road turned black and crumbled to dust.

The creature then turned and dashed down an alley in a flash, leaving behind no footprints.

Tovius shivered. "Did anyone else feel that?"

He looked down the alley that the creature disappeared into, noticing that the random patches of grass growing along the walls to each side of the alley were shriveling up and turning to ash.

"Look at the weed. I have a feeling that that thing is somehow connected to the problems with the land. I'm following after it."

With that, the legionnaire went into the alley, making sure to keep his shield between him and whatever may be down the alley, and his shortsword at the ready.

William heard the howl, and immediately tensed up. He tied his horse to a nearby post, and as he did so, he felt a sudden pang in his mind, the same feeling he had gotten, though to a lesser degree, after Tunk had died.

Drawing his blade, he was annoyed, but not too surprised, to notice that the runes still glowed with an ethereal blue light. Following in the general direction of the feeling, he stopped near an alleyway. Deciding to wait for a minute, he ducked in, listening for any noise of what might be in the town, and looking out with his Mage's Sight to try and sense anything uniquely different. The area had the same look as his Sight had previously revealed, namely, traces of corruption and death. He waited, blade at the ready, Looking and Listening for anything more abnormal than what recent events had accustomed him to.

The horses of the carriage shied when they heard the howl, but Viktor managed to keep them organised. They were not far from the source of the chilling sound and he felt compelled to investigate despite his tiredness, regardless, it would have to be dealt with or else the horses would surely try to bolt, or at least the ones he had bought in Senhild would. They were not used to such things.

Taking up his staff he knocked on the side of the carriage and said: "We should tie up the horses for now, they are scared by whatever made that sound and the sooner we deal with it the better." He managed to coerce the horses into trotting forward to a place he could tie them and make sure they didn't run off with their suplies before dismounting and taking care of things.

When he finished with the horses he tapped his staff against each side of the caravan, if anyone tampered with it while they were gone, they would get a small shock and if they persisted Viktor would know. Giving a satisfied nod he turned away from the caravan and started to move in the direction he had heard the howl.

After a few steps he realised how dark it had become and even though there was some illumination from the buildings, he moved his hand above the crystal on his staff and it began to glow, illuminating the area around and in front of them.

Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

What a strange creature... less than animal. Is it even from this plain? Elva's thoughts raced as the creature let out a roar and then scampered down an alleyway.

Seeing Tovius follow after the beast, and knowing his words to be true, Elva did the same, though staying behind the legionnaire. As she wandered down the dark corridor, she could feel the death of the grass and plants. Their pain was her pain and became her weakness...

After his activities in the town, Kiten began pursuing those that they'd been about to travel with before Orome's buisness took her away. It was a fatigueing process to catch up with the three that they'd been dropped upon by the revenant but he arrived only a few hours after they.

Exhausted he may have been but he still slipped into the city unnoticed by common senses. The howl of a monstrous hound shook him but from his initial judgement of those he sought meant that they would likely be near whatever had howled and prompted him to proceed toward the sound as well.

Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Thick clouds floated across the moon, darkening everything on the earth beneath.

At the distant end of the alley that William was in, he could see the dim shape of large canine bounding past in an intersecting alley. Then a legionnaire appeared, following after the creature and holding his shield and sword in a ready position. Behind the legionnaire was a woman.

Tovius continued down the dark alley at a cautious pace. The black, wolf-like creature he was following disappeared around a corner, and the centurion began moving faster to keep from losing sight of it for too long.

Upon approaching the corner, he carefully turned into it, preparing himself for any potential surprise attacks. But nothing save for an empty deadend met him. He stared up at the blank wall, then all around in the alleyway. There was nowhere that the creature could have gone to, and yet it was just not there.

The legionnaire looked back at Elva, a puzzled look on his face.

William saw first the lupine creature, then the soldier, and finally the girl. He dashed after them, though the soldier had gotten beyond his sight. Still, he was able to keep track of the girl, despite her dipping in and out of sight. Taking all practical precautions, his left hand plunged into his cloak, drawing out a blade, twin to the one in his right hand. As he rounded a corner, he stumbled into the girl and the soldier, nearly colliding with them. He addressed the legionaire. "Soldier, what manner of creature was that, and where has it gone?"

Nald quickly dashed after the creature. He did not seem to notice any of the bystanders. Right now he was intent on following the creature.

Icarus had moved out ahead of Viktor, using his ability to sense rock and stone to guide him. The buildings and street shone before him like gold when he closed his eyes, but something in the distance along the alley ways appeared like a black hole in his sight. It looked like complete darkness to his earthsight. It was this that he headed towards.

Soon, he heard voices, and opened his eyes to the dark night. Ahead he heard the tramp of boots on pavement, and approached, but remained out of sight as he watched an odd group of people go running down the alley. A legionnaire, an elf, a Korovirian from the look of him, and a young woman. Stumbling after them was a man who was either drunk or dazed, or both. After him though, came William. With the appearance of his friend, Icarus stepped from the shadows and stopped William. "What's happening?" he asked.

Jaso had began to head towards the houses of three watchmen when a chill went down his spine as a howl went through the air. It had come from the other direction, towards the inn on the other side of the city. He knew that it was probably nothing, and that he should continue on with collecting on the three orders, but with as many odd things that had been happening recently, he was not going to take a chance. Afterall, his duty as militia captain of the city required him to investigate any odd incidents that happen within and around the community, and a mysterious howl coming from the edge of town right before dawn certainly counted as odd. Laying the three swords back inside his smithy, he picked up his own speicaly crafted shield and short sword, and sprinted towards the source of the howl.

Thibault pounced onto the rooftops via a stack of crates and followed in close pursuit. His chase ended with Tovius staring at a wall with no sign of the monster. A sick hollow feeling crept into his stomach nearly making him double over, as quickly as it came, it was gone.

"What the hell is going on here?" He shouted down to Tovius.

The brigand had seen a lot of strange things in his days, but his gut told him they were in over their heads. A sense of fear grew in him, as he knew his instincts were never wrong.

Alley, Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius wheeled around to face William as the newcomer came barging at them. But despite the dim light, he was able to see the newcomer's clothing as that of a local's. The man was probably a night watchman, judging from that fact that the newcomer was armed, running around at night, and had the same questions Tovius had.

Then, looking up at Thibault on the rooftop, the legionnaire answered both men with, "I don't know."

He looked around some more and walked up to one of the concrete walls of the deadend alley. "We couldn't all be hallucinating, and that thing felt solid when I bashed it with my shield. It has to be around here somewhere." He held up his right hand, his thumb and index finger wrapping around the hilt of his sword while the other three fingers moved across the concrete wall, as if searching for the seams to a hidden doorway.

"Elva, can you sense anything? Lanu, can you track it?"

Tovius looked at the ground, which was a hard, packed dirt. The clouds still obscured most of the moonlight, so the ground was dark, but it seemed to Tovius that the only footprints at all where those of the people here. There was nothing remotely resembling the creature's, although Lanu might have had other means of tracking animals that Tovius was not aware of.

Lanu moved about, low to the ground, but after several moments shook his head. "That... thing left no visible traces. It is like nothing I've seen before, and completely beyond my ability to track."

Icarus stepped forward to present himself to the group. "I might be able to help you."

Alley, Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The centurion turned around again as yet another unfamiliar person approached the group. This one looked like a foreigner, and it was rather odd that he should appear right at this moment to offer his aid. But at least he was no oversized lupine creature attacking them from behind.

Tovius was not too sure whether this man could be trusted or not, but it was worth hearing him out, at least. "How so, stranger?"

Nald stopped once he caught sight of a group. It would have been very suspicious to be seen running around here during the night. Though the weird thing was that these people looked like foreigners. As Nald stopped he seemed to be out of breath.

"Can any of you help me get that creature?" Nald asked with a desperate look.

William looked at yet another newcomer. Looks like everybody is after this thing. He addressed the newest one first. "Sorry, but it looks like you'll have to join the club. All of us had sight of it, but for some damn reason it seems to have disappeared..." Will's voice trailed off as he concentrated on the ground. Sheathing the left hand sword, he tentatively poked at the ground.

Speaking to nobody in particular, he asked "Anybody here know about the actual structure of these housing blocks?" He looked at Icarus, a glance that most mages, thnks to their common history, would understand. Do you sense this? was written on his face.

Finally catching sight of the one he'd been seeking, Kiten decided to remain within the shadows for the moment rather than reveal himself to the group. He caught sight of a look passing between William and the man he would've been travelling with had Orome remained, the one who'd claimed he was an assassin.

If the earthen mage was paying attention to his surroundings and matching his sight to his abilities concerning that which came from the ground, he would realize that Kiten, or at least someone, was present. Hearing the mention of tracks he remembered that the surface worlders suffered in the dark like he did in the light for it was proverbially clear as day to him.

"Elva, can you sense anything?"

Upon reaching a dead-end, literally and figuratively, in their search for the strange beast, Tovius had taken charge and asked the Druidess if she felt anything.

Blocking out the external world, so that all she concentrated on was her metaphysical senses and spiritual connections, Elva heard nothing of the newcomers or their conversation. Instead she stood very still, as if she was a statue or a tree. Her eyes were locked shut, but her ears seemed to be moving very slightly.

"Yes, I sense something," Elva responded after a moment. "The path is hollow. Beneath us..." However, as she banged her feet against the ground, it sounded as thick as ever and there was no apparent entrance through which the beast may have disappeared.

So, she's got magical talent too. She looks like a druidess elf. Not bothering to keep the charade up any longer, mostly because it would cost him too much, he spoke to Icarus in his eastern Eringarde accent, addressing his fellow geomancer directly. "Icarus, with you that's three of us that can sense the space. How far do you think it is? I've got about thirty to forty feet of earth, but you're more fine tuned than I. What do you think?"

He lowered his eyebrows, staring at the ground at his swordpoint. The area was crowded, and the positioning of the houses made it difficult. He could get down, but Will would rather not risk it without Icarus working the spell with him.

Alley, Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius looked over at Elva when she spoke, and his eyes looked at the ground when she mentioned it being hollow underneath.

"A sewer, perhaps? Or something bigger?" Though he was not sure if she knew what a sewer was.

He then looked over at William as the latter conversed with Icarus. That man was clearly not who or what he seemed. "You two feel something down there too? Who are you two? How is it you propose to help?"

William looked at the sword the man was holding. He could obviously use it, and in the current situation, he only had one weapon to use. His quick thinking.

"My name is William, formerly an agent of the Eringaard high council. Two years ago I was exiled do to certain...disagreeable...political viewpoints. Sympathizing with 'the enemy,' as I recall. Icarus was an old colleague. He's an envoy, an official diplomat, that is, if he hasn't stepped on too many people's feet since I last saw him. He was the one that had to escort me to the Northern Wastes where I've been sojourning during my exile. And knowing Eringarde politics, he's probably here for the same reason I am."

He paused, then continued by saying "The lands are diseased. The fields are dying. Crops whither before the scythe can harvest them. I serve no master but my deity. It is His Word that sends me here. That creature you were chasing is connected somehow. I could feel the death emanate from its scream. The Eringarde council would have sent him to find out what's happening to their fields. Our similar talents brought us both here. So tell me, Icarus, is it true? Are the stories about a starving Senhild real, or did the council's oppressing hand need to cover its tracks?"

William recalled what his father had taught him. Secret to a good bluff was the right balance of truth and lies. William had sojourned with his father in the North during his youth, and Icarus was a diplomatic envoy. That, and the fact that he really was a supporter of the King-in-Exile, made it true enough for the lies to fit together. That was one truth which he wasn't ready to admit to yet. An uprising could not succeed yet. And if William threw his lot too soon, needless deaths would be sustained. If Icarus asked, it was just a lie to explain why he wasn't an envoy officially in Gaireth.

"Icarus and I should be able to get to whatever's down there. Though for us to work, it may require space. I'd rather not bury a person alive."

Icarus chuckled slightly as William offered the depth estimate. "Is your earthsight starting to go in your old age? I'd put it around fifteen feet below us. I can make a tunnel that length with relatively little exertion."

He turned to address the rest of the group as William offered his false identity. Icarus followed his introduction with a rushed one of his own, "Icarus Fick, Eringarde of the Realm, and Geomancer Adept." He gave a slight bow and then waited for people to clear a space.

Viktor was not far behind Icarus, but had slowed and dimmed the light from his staff as he approached to listen to the conversation. It seemed a large group of multitalented people had all tagged along after this creature and it had managed to elude them all by somehow slipping into an underground passage. He shrugged and was about to join the group when he heard William's tale and Icarus's support. It was interesting, but it made his life slightly harder, but approaching was easier than being noticed standing at the side and the centurion of the party may have already known there were two mages in the area as he was sure they were keeping an eye on him.

Joining the group he asked: "Need a light?" As his staff brightened to a level which allowed a comfortable glow to cover the area he said: "My name is Viktor Zhalfus, Eringarde of the Realm and Court Historian to the council." He gave a small bow of greeting before giving William a look that bristled with contempt: "Rumours of Senhild starving are unfortunately true, Exile, and regardless of the councils power, keeping the problem hidden would be next to impossible. It is spreading fast and time is growing short, so if you are investigating this matter i will put up with your presence for now... But I will be watching you." The last sentance was clearly a threat.

He figured that would stand for now, he would just have to remain reasonably hostile to William for as long as the charade continued. Taking a step back he indicated to the others apart from the mages and said. "Now if you would just step back a moment and allow these men to do there work, we can get back to pursuing this interesting creature."

"Chronicler?" William let tones of surprise show. "This gets even more interesting. I didn't figure that they'd send you out." His words came with a calm tone of disregard. Note to self, Viktor seems to be pretty good of an actor for this type of work. This makes things easier, for now.

He faced Icarus, taking his sword and holding it with the point down in both of his hands, keeping the hilt just in front of, and above, his head. "Ready when you are."

Icarus knelt down and put his hands on the hard packed earth of the alleyway. He looked up at William and nodded before facing the ground again. Quietly, he began chanting his request to the earth, specifically that it open a slanted tunnel to the chamber below, and began imbuing the words with magic.

Tunnel making was one of the first spells a young geomancer was taught because it had so many practical applications, from building wells to digging ditches. Earth displacement was one of the most powerful skills a geomancer possessed.

Several moments after he began his chant, the ground opened up in front of him and began sinking at a rapid pace. Soon, a deep black tunnel extended in front of him.

William allowed Icarus to do most of the actual digging. As Icarus was pushing deeper, William collected the displaced dirt and packed it into the walls of the tunnel. The last thing he wanted was a collapse when they were all inside, and since it was merely loose earth, the chance of that happening was high unless the proper steps were taken. As Icarus finished, William spent a few more seconds solidifying the walls, before finishing himself.

"All right, we've got a way down, and it's stable."

Thibault stalked the roof above the others, listening closely. He didn't trust them, or any of the others for that matter. It's rare to bump into a giant wolf in the middle of the street, but it's even rarer for a group of strangers to randomly come along with only innocent intentions. Whatever their motivations he was most concerned with that wolf, catching it, and mounting its head on his wall.

Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

The feeling of nausea that hit her as the creature howled made Fayalin shudder, and she felt what she instinctively knew to be the cold hand of death touch her momentarily then pass her by. She hurried after her companions as they disappeared off in pursuit of the strange beast, trying to strike a careful balance between not being close enough to draw it’s attention should it turn on someone, yet still being close enough that she was not unprotected.

When she caught up with Tovius and Elva, they were standing in a dead end alley, looking at a wall in confusion, and there was no sign of the beast. She had heard Thibault shout to Tovius, and caught sight of his form silhouetted against the dark sky. A number of other people appeared, each apparently in pursuit of the strange beast, and immediately talk began of where the creature had gone and how they might follow it. Privately, Fayalin wasn’t sure that was such a good idea, but she couldn’t deny that something should be done about it. Like the others had expressed, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the creature was related to the objective of their quest.

She remained a little apart from the growing cluster of people, content to stay in the shadows and see where this went, particularly as she felt she didn’t have anything useful to contribute. Three of the strangers turned out to be mages, who proposed to dig a tunnel through which they could continue their pursuit. She had never met a mage before; there being none in her village nor any of the other nearby settlements. William, Icarus and Victor, she had heard them give their names as. As they began forming the tunnel, she unconsciously took a few steps forward to get a closer look, fascinated by their magic.

Alley, Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius watched the Eringardé intently as they told their tale and as a third one joined their ranks. This was getting much too unusual, although Lanu and Elva did come all the way from Korovir because of the dying lands. Those two islanders proved to be trustworthy so far, and what with Eringaard being close enough to no doubt feel the same effects that Eavana's farmlands were feeling, Tovius decided to accept their story. For now, at least. "Centurion Tovius Veralion," he offered in return.

The legionnaire took an involuntary step back when the ground in front of him suddenly started sinking, eventually forming a dark tunnel. This was much too weird. He peered into it, uncertain whether this was some kind of trick or not, but Elva did mention something being down there. Besides, where else could the wolf creature have gone to?

"Normally, I'd suggest sending a scout in there first to report back to the rest of us what's down there," he looked around at the group of people now assembled in the cramped alley. "But I think we've reached the consensus that this creature we're all following is somehow connected to our lands dying, and that there is little time to waste - if that creature could go under the ground like it seemed to, then it could have gone to any number of other places by now. It may be better that we go as a group."

Looking at the lighted staff of the one named Viktor Zhalfus, oldest and likely most trustworthy of the three mages, especially given his supposed position in the Eringaard Council, Tovius said, "You and I will go first."

"Thibault, you and Icarus Fick here will follow behind us, one and a half yards behind. I want to have enough space between us for movement in case something happens down there, but no so much that we'd start to lose each other in the dark." The centurion craned his head back to look up at the man on the roof. He also tried to pass on the unspoken message to Thibault of keeping an eye on Icarus Fick should the latter do anything sneaky, though whether Thibault could see it or not from all the way up there, Tovius was not certain.

To Fayalin and Elva, "If you ladies wish to come along, take up position behind Thibault and Icarus Fick. One and a half yards. If not, then you can stay out here or head back to your room at the inn. This might get ugly."

Then to Lanu and William, "You two will make up the rearguard. Again, one and half yards behind the previous group."

Nald may have been towards the older end of the child age spectrum, but he was still a boy, and had no business here. "Find the nearest legionary squad and tell them where I am," the legionnaire told the farmboy. "The name's Centurion Tovius Veralion."

Glancing back over at the other seven, he said, "Let's go."

Leading the way with Viktor, Tovius carefully descended the sloped tunnel until the only source of light came from Viktor's staff. His steps were slow and quiet as his ears strained to filter out the noise that the others in the group were making to pick up on anything that his eyes could not see in the darkness that hovered just outside of Viktor's light source.

After an indeterminate period of descent, the legionnaire felt the ground even out under his feet, indicating that the tunnel the mage had created ended and the "hollow path" that Elva discovered began. From what Viktor's light revealed, there was little in the way of change for the scenery. It still looked like an earthen tunnel, with what appeared to be some sporadic black roots wrapping around the tunnel walls, floor, and ceiling. For those who could sense it, the feeling of death in the earth itself was pervasive.

Then other underground corridors branched away or intersected with theirs, giving the group three directions to go in aside from the one they just came from.

They all looked the same to Tovius, with no indication of any differences aside from the obvious fact that they went off in different directions. The centurion glanced over at Viktor, then at those behind him. "Any ideas?" he asked in a hushed voice.

William eyed the tunnels, thinking carefully. "There aren't enough for us to evenly divide. Three possible further paths, but there are only eight of us. Just a second, though." He pushed his sword into one side of the tunnel, tracing back to the source of his handiwork on the tunnel. A line briefly glowed, going back to the entrance, and slightly jagged. As it faded, it showed a vein of green, glasslike material where the line had been. William withdrew his blade, turning to the others.

"It's a fulgurite," he said. "A path to get back. So, do we split up, and if so, how do we divide ourselves?"

Icarus shivered as they moved along the tunnel. He said to no one in particular, "Despite earth being my element, I seldom enjoy being surrounded by it."

He stood at the crossroads of the several under ground tunnels and looked around. The only warmer air he could feel came from behind him, indicating that it was the only nearby entrance to the network of tunnels.

Being unable to divide evenly wasn't their only problem, and he voiced his other concern, "We only have one light source."

Lanu looked up as he mention this and then reached and grabbed a sizable root, and tore it from the wall. He touched his fingers to the top, and a small fire blossomed. Looking at the others in the dim firelight he said, "I can make more, if need be."

William held out his blade. For some reason, causing circuit lightning to pass through metal caused it emit light. He channeled a small amount through his blade, causing it to glow red and white, emitting enough light for him to see. Too many missions where torches wouldn't serve had forced him to adopt other tactics. "So, who wants to go with the angry, exiled mage whose travels in the north have made him cynical and apathetic?"

Underground tunnel, Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

A thick, tar-like liquid slowly began seeping out of the black root that Lanu had just pulled from the wall of the tunnel. When lit on fire, the hand that was holding up the impromptu torch began growing steadily colder and less responsive, as if the root was sapping the life out of the hand to feed the fire.

Lanu dropped the torch, shaking his hand to make the feeling go away. Slowly, his hand regained feeling. He looked at the others who were looking at him strangely, "On second thought, no torches. That one was... making my hand go numb. It was evil."

Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

Fayalin hesitated at the mouth of the tunnel as Tovius and the mages descended into the darkness. The thought of being completely surrounded by darkness, with the possibility that they might run into the strange creature did not appeal to her, but she knew she should go. This was related to the affliction of the land, she knew, though how she knew she couldn’t begin to explain. She edged forward, as rational thought gradually lost out to irrational feeling. She glanced nervously at Elva, as if looking for moral support, then hurried after the others.

As she descended through the magical tunnel, she felt an unpleasant prickling sensation on the back of her neck and down her spine, which increased in intensity the deeper she went. When she thought about what was causing it, a thought floated unbidden into her mind. Eovia is in pain. She stopped dead at that, unsure where it had come from, and stunned by the implication. How can gods feel pain? she asked herself. But she felt that odd certainty about the statement; she knew it to be true, even though she had no idea how.

The others were stopped just ahead, and she hurriedly joined them. There was a three way fork in the tunnel, and they were discussing which way they should go, or how they might split up to search all three paths. The prickling sensation she felt was now accompanied by a definite malevolence in the air. She glanced around in the dim glow from the various lights people had made, and her gaze settled on one of the tunnels, from which direction the feeling was strongest.

“Th-th-that way,” she stammered, pointing with her staff down the centre path. “It’s d-d-down there.”

Thibault groaned as he marched forward, shoulder to shoulder, with someone he didn't trust. To make matters worse the tunnel was pitch black beyond the radius of light, and without his own, he wouldn't be able to run far.

Despite being cramped, annoyed, and sober Thibault felt comfortable with his surroundings. A strange sense of familiarity, but as to why he couldn't figure. Soon his alertness dropped, and he faded away into thought while his body drudged forward.

Kiten chuckled to himself as the assembled people delved into the underground. Whatever they were tracking would have an edge in those environs for if it were as beastial as they claimed than even if they were each bearing a torch then that would just mean they were that much less adept at reacting to the shifting shadows. Unlike the two who made up the official rear-guard for the group it was instead the dark elf who held that position.

Had they been foolish enought to seek to intrude into the lands of his people or thier foes, they would not make it out alive. As he followed, he had to pause to let the dratted staff get far enought ahead. It was a nastily blinding light. When William light his sword, he put his hand up to cover his face to avoid being crippled.

Standing just slightly behind the mage with his hand covering his eyes save for a tiny gap, he tapped William on the shoulder and asked, "Mind putting that out before you blind me?"

William looked at the man, only to realize it was a drow. What was more, he recognized him as the servant/assassin that he had met in Senhild. Are there no more surprises?

Acting with courtesy, he lowered it to only give him enough light to barely make out the drow. He whispered, "Sorry, I didn't know that you would have been behind me. Quick, whisper what I should call you, then answer my question." He's probably been listening and following. Well, he had plenty of opportunity to kill me, and he didn't, so that's good.

Will spoke at normal volume, "Didn't realize you had come up behind so soon. You learn anything of importance?"

Underground intersection
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius watched William's fulgurite take affect, and he gave the mage a nod of approval.

After Lanu dropped the black root torch, the legionnaire glanced briefly at William's sword and Viktor's staff. "That leaves only two light sources, so we still can't explore all of the tunnels. There's no telling how many times each of these three tunnels will split off into more tunnels farther down. And if we do encounter the creature, I have a feeling we'll need more than two or three people to take it on. Splitting up will only allow that thing to overpower us in our individual groups."

Fayalin spoke up and motioned down the middle tunnel. Despite her stuttering, Tovius got the impression that she was at least somewhat certain of herself. "How...?"

But then yet another newcomer joined the group. The young centurion could not make out the features on this new person, as he was completely covered up and the dim light of the sword did little to help, but apparently William knew him. Must have been another mage from Eringaard. That made four of them. Tovius could tell that Thibault did not care much for this - neither did he, in fact. Four Eringaard mages...either Eringaard was very worried about this farmland problem, or Eringaard was up to something no good. For all Tovius knew, this could be some elaborate scheme devised by the Eringaard Council.

"And who's this?" the legionnaire inquired.

In the same soft tone that William asked for his name, Kiten replied, "You may call me Kiten," Before answering the overt question, "Not quite sure what we're tracking, but if you can get the lights turned down a bit and tell me what is being searched for then it would make it quite a bit easier to see if I can pick up a trail."

Looking at the others, he added "In these enviroments, both the bright light and splitting up are not traits those who wish to survive cultivate."

Underground made defeat in detail a certainty rather than a likelyhood for those not use or skill in surviving the conditions and the light just served as a warning for those that were the 'prey' in this instant. It also caused the eyes to adjust to the bright light which meant that should anything at all happen to the light the surface worlders would be worse than blind and dead, the best lights for travelling underground were subdued and weak light. It made it so the eyes were at thier optimum in the darkness, at least as optimum as surface worlders eyes could be anyways.

William nodded at Kiten. The guy could play along well. Must have heard my bit about being an exile. Wonder why a drow was above ground? Well, at least the assassin bit makes sense. Drow thinking. Glad he's here though. William motioned to Viktor, speaking calmly. "Lower your light, Chronicler. He's got dark vision, so it gives us an advantage." He looked down the path that the one girl had mentioned.

"His story is the same as mine. We're exiles, though he's not from Eringaard. I don't know his name," a true point, as he had only asked what to call Kiten. He hated knowing full names. Meant too much responsibility. Knowing what to call people was so much easier. "But you can ask if you like. We seem to have a direction. An uneasy feeling in my stomach agrees with you, Fayalin." He turned to Kiten. "If we keep the light dim enough, and out of your eyes, can you use your vision to warn us of what's ahead? I know you don't enjoy being the point man," probably true for an assassin drow, "but I can at least keep my sword-light to one side and walk a little ahead and to the side of you."

"If I know what you've entered these tunnels searching then yes, I'm quite sure that most of you will leave completely intact." He replied with a bit of dark humour as it was certain that all the surfacer worlders wanted and expected to leave completely intact.

"It's some form of lupine creature. Definite wolf like traits. And most importantly, it has a connection to the death of the land, which is why we're so intent on finding it." It was a good thing they had a direction. He looked back to Tovius, waiting to see what the centurion had in mind as far as their next action.

Underground intersection
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The fact that this William character did not know the name his friend went against the two's credibility, in Tovius' mind. Although what the newcomer said about the lighting did make some sense, it could also be a ploy to make it harder for him and the others see any traps that might be set up in the tunnel. Plus, the legionnaire's trust for random strangers was spreading fairly thin by now.

"Leave the light as it is, please," Tovius requested of Viktor, in opposition of William's. "His exile friend may have dark vision, but I surmise that no one else here does. The dim light will be more of a hindrance to the rest of us than dim light will help us in surviving - especially if there are other creatures down here that have dark vision as well."

Looking to the unnamed newcomer, "You may come with us if you wish, but I'm afraid we can't sacrifice all of our visions for yours. If you and William wish to go ahead of us so that you would be out of the light to track the creature, then that is your prerogative."

To the rest he said, "Let's not lose any more time. We'll go with Fayalin's judgement. Fall in line and move out."

Tovius led the way down the central tunnel, hands gripping tightly to his shield and sword. His muscles were tensed and ready to go into action should anything jump out at them.

Tunnels beneath Eavana. Gaireth Protectorate

“I d-d-don’t n-n-know,” she replied nervously, when Tovius questioned her as to how she knew which direction they should take. “I just d-do.” She glanced around rapidly when Tovius addressed someone else. She had not heard his approach, nor his words, and even now couldn’t really make out his features in the darkness. He was different to Lanu, she thought; while the hunter’s dark complexion meant he blended into shadows slightly better than most, this newcomer was almost completely hidden, even with the light from the various sources the mages had produced.

Her uneasiness jumped as the dark stranger first suggested, then declared that they should put out their lights, and had any of the others agreed, she would have been off back to the surface like a shot, whatever her sense of duty said. But fortunately for her, both the mage named William, with his glowing sword, and Tovius a moment later refuted the suggestion, instead suggesting that this stranger and his unnatural aversion to light should move ahead of them, where their light would not bother him so much. It was at that point that a thought occurred to her. What was dark vision, beyond the obvious, anyway? She had never heard of such an ability, even among the stories of magic and fantasy that adults told to children to entertain them.

She obediently followed after Tovius when he started moving down the tunnel she had indicated. However, she did not follow him too closely, knowing that if they did encounter anything in the tunnels, he would be the first to know, and the first to get it’s attention. So, as an alternative, she stayed close to Lanu, the only other one of these people that she both knew at all and trusted.

"Guess you'll have to cover your eyes, Kiten," said William, moving forward. When he got beyond the light of Viktor's staff, he relit his blade, though instead of it being a source of light, it merely emitted a faint glow, enough for William to notice the floor as he held it at about knee level.

"Most High All Maker Above All that is, I seek thy protection."

Viktor found a middleground between dimming his light and leaving it as it was by altering the hue of the light from white to red: "I have read that this colour interferes far less with the natural night vision of all creatures, so it should perhaps improve all of our vision..." It also had the benefits of being bright enough for people to see and being less obvious against the earthy walls than the white one had been. IT was however a slightly disquieting colour. Regardless, he could change it or focus the direction of it almost at will if the need arose as long as he had the staff in his hand at least.

He gave Fayalin a curious glance as she seemed to have some affinity with this creature that he would have to ask her about, though now hardly seemed the best time for conferance as he dropped into position after Tovius holding his staff high enough for the illumination to work to everyones advantage. He was not used to this experience, so far from his usual work in the council, but it was proving to be interesting. "A lupine creature you say? I did not get a chance to look at it before it descended, is there anything specific about it?" He was hoping that he might have read something about it that might work to there advantage, but without having come across the creature he could hardly be sure.

While he would have prefered not travelling with a group trailing after, especially a group that refused to heed sound strategy by if not dousing then lowering thier lights, Kiten wasn't overtly concerned for if they wished to take the risks than it was on thier own head. Moving out beyond even William, it would seem he gave the mage a wolfish grin.

"Don't worry if you lose track of me, I won't lose you." He commented before disappearing into the gloom. Every so often as they followed the tunnel he would briefly re-appear before fading away back into the shadows and darkness.

On one of his jaunts away from the others he came to an intersection and with the speed that they were travelling Kiten knew he had a chance to briefly pathfind. The first remained the same as the tunnel they'd been travelling along while and this caused him to pull back was casting illumination.

Travelling back along the path he spotted William and gestured for him to stop. He'd utilized dark elf sign language rather than the more usual method but it was still obvious that he desired William to cease proceeding forward.

Underground
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The light of the staff cast everything into the color of blood, causing the dark and claustrophobic tunnel to appear all the more foreboding.

Tovius continued marching on, the only sounds being the soft footfalls, the movement of clothing and armor, and the breathing of air through nostrils and lips. The walk felt longer than the ten or so minutes it really was, but then again the passage of time seemed like a foreign concept in the stark and unchanging terrain of the underground tunnel.

All that he could see of William was the man's faintly glowing sword some distance ahead. The dark and nameless stranger was completely unseen the entire trek, and so the legionnaire did not see Kiten gesture for William to stop. Yet, when Tovius and the rest of the group caught up with the supposed exile, it was evident enough that he had stopped to converse with the nameless newcomer.

"I take it you two found something?" the centurion quietly asked. But then a distant voice echoed down one of the branching tunnels. Tovius held up a held to tell the others in the group to stop and to be silent. The voice, or rather, voices, continued, but it was too far away and garbled for Tovius to make out what was being said,

"I'll take that as a yes," he said to Kiten and William. To the others, "This way." He began heading down the tunnel from which the voices came from.

The tunnel did not go for too long before a light was visible, coming from a source just around the bend of a corner.

Tovius placed a finger up to his lips to indicate to the others to be as quiet as possible now, and whispered, "Now's the time to dim your staff, Zhalfus."

The legionnaire crept slowly along the wall of the tunnel, doing the best he could to keep his armor from making very much noise. His sword was still in his hands, positioned at his side so that he could give it a quick stabbing thrust if he needed. Upon reaching the bend in the tunnel, he carefully leaned forward and peeked around the corner.

Then he got down low and began crawling around the bend. Before him was a precipice overlooking a largish room. As he crawled to the edge and slowly peered over it, he saw a group of people assembled in a well-lit crypt.

It looked like the crypt was in the process of being built, but then abandoned partway through. Stone walls and pillars supported gracefully arching ceilings in most parts of the room, but other sections of the underground room looked like they were dug out, but never completed. Bright torches hung on the pillars, casting a warm and inviting glow on everything in comparison to the dark and dank tunnels behind Tovius. Several of the niches in the walls and the stone biers rising from the stone floor held the remains of the deceased, draped over with a thin, white cloth. A roughly cut, unfinished stairway led from the precipice down to the floor.

Tovius glanced behind him to see if anyone else had ventured forth from the tunnel to see this.

For down in the crypt, there was a group of perhaps a dozen people wearing hooded, white robes, chanting something in a language that the legionnaire did not recognize. They all stood rigidly, looking upon one of the biers. No corpse was lying on it, but instead there was a young woman, almost mature enough to be a mother. Caeli, daughter of Dyroth and sister of Nald, stood there wearing a white gown and in a trance-like state, staring dully in front of her. A small pile of earth was also on the bier, just in front of Caeli.

A rather well-dressed man with pale skin and long, dark hair stood on the floor behind her, but he was not chanting like the other people. Two large, black, wolf-like creatures were lying down at either side of the man, watching him expectantly. The man stepped onto Caeli's stone bier with ease and fluidly pulled out a knife. He took a step closer to her. She made not the slightest of movements. The man looked at the knife, then to her, and a small smile appeared on his face.

Tovius glanced back at the others in his group again. Was the man about to...make a sacrifice?

Tunnels beneath Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

While Fayalin found the red light from the staff rather disquieting, it was still better than not being able to see at all. Even though everything looked as though it had been bathed in blood, she could accept it, at least for a while, on the basis that it wasn’t really. And if it was, then hopefully she either wouldn’t notice, or could ignore it until it went away.

As they advanced, the prickling on the back of her neck continued to increase, causing all the hairs to stand on end, giving her a positively unpleasant feeling of apprehension. When Tovius stopped, evidently having heard something she had missed, she crouched down, trying her hardest not to make any noise to give them away. Her long staff was held parallel to the floor, gripped tightly in both hands, the dirk within her cloak forgotten.

She tiptoed along behind him when he crept forward, remaining crouched down as she did so. She deliberately let some of the others move ahead of her, as they were undoubtedly more familiar with this kind of situation than she was. But she didn’t let herself fall too far to the back of the group, afraid that something might come up behind them. When Tovius stopped again, the light around the corner was bright enough to see by, and Fayalin craned her neck to see what was happening. One of her hands flew up to her mouth to stifle a gasp when she saw the scene below, horrified. She looked expectantly at Tovius, her eyes wide.

Thibault had crawled right about beside the young Legionnaire peering just over the edge. He past a glance to Tovius and shook his head disapprovingly.

"Don't do anything stupid." He whispered harshly.

Viktor had been close behind Tovius and remained quiet as he spoke with William and Kiten. After a moment he too saw the light ahead of them and aquiesed to Tovius request, allowing the light to dim and then go out before creeping slowly and carefully behind Tovius. He paused to examine the room and frowned at the condition of it, unfinished but still being used for it's intended purpose judging by the number of bodies populating the crypt. He caught up to Tovius and Thibault a moment later.

He took in the scene and was troubed. His natural instinct was to intervene, but this was there only link to what might be causing the dying lands and surely that goal was more important than the life of one girl?

As he watched the scene and the others he quickly reviewed what he could do to intervene if the others made a move, but his choices were restricted, earth magic was the obvious choice, but it was not his forte and generalised offensive magic from the elements he was more familier with might bring the earth from above them crashing down. His worry was evident on his face as he contiued watching the scene, but it was clear he was ready to act.

William had darkened his blade when he saw the light. He crept up next to Tovius, opposite to where Thibault and Viktor were, lying prone on the ground, and watched the scene below. A wave of nausea, sickness, hate, avarice and anger rolled through him. Will shuddered. Those were the darkest emotions of humankind. He turned to the others.

"Whatever this is, it is definitely connected. I can sense them. Or rather, I can sense the Evil. It's similar to the lands dying, but this is so much more potent. Any ideas?"

Icarus looked at the others. "I could create a small delay. I could make the table throw him off, or dull his blade. I'm not sure how long either would be useful though. If it comes to it, I could bring pieces of the ceiling down on top of them. My aim is good enough to avoid the girl they want to sacrifice."

"Let's remember that our goal is to interrogate at least one of them." Thibault responded semi-threateningly. "Their lives are more important than the girl's right now."

"Don't threaten me, Tal'theran," Icarus said in a low, gravelly voice. "I don't necessarily have to kill them either."

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius' eyes fell evenly on Thibault. "She doesn't look like she's there by choice," he said quickly and quietly. With a brief nod to William, the legionnaire said, "This is somehow related to the land dying, and we must stop it."

He regarded Icarus, a mage that he had just met and whose abilities he was not at all familiar with. "If you can do it quickly and without being detected, blunt the blade. But wait until I say so. Let me know the moment you are successful with blunting that knife. The other options are too risky - Thibault is right, we need answers from those people, and I don't want them dead if it can be helped."

To Lanu, "Ready your bow. Once Fick confirms that the blade is blunted, aim to disable the man with the knife - not a moment before. I don't want to tip him off that we're here until his weapon has become useless. Try not to kill him either, there are some questions that I need him to answer." Tovius had seen Lanu at work with the bow before during their two-week journey to Eavana, and he was fairly certain that Lanu was capable of injuring the target without killing him or bringing any harm to the nearby girl.

Glancing quickly at the mass of black roots that were jutting out of the unfinished portion of the crypt, he looked at Elva and asked, "Druidess, can you use those to our advantage?" He tilted his head slightly toward the jumble of black roots to more clearly indicate what he was talking about. "We'll need to distract those other people down there, as well as those two wolves."

At Viktor, "I don't know what your skills are, but if you can help Elva with creating some diversions for us, that would be most helpful."

The centurion looked back over the edge of the precipice to see how much time the girl still had. To his surprise, the knife was down at the pale man's side, and the man's other hand held the summer scarf that the girl had around her neck. The man seemed to be biting the girl's neck, so hard that two trickling streams of blood flowed down and stained her white gown. The girl did not even seem to notice. Tovius winced at the sight.

He faced the nameless stranger and said at an even quicker pace than before, "Your aid will be appreciated as well."

To the group in general, "Once Lanu disables the man, I'm heading down there. William, Fick, and you," a nod to Kiten, "can come with me. You too, Thibault, if you wish. Otherwise you can stay up here and protect the ones staying up here. I'll take the lead and go in after the man to capture him first. Fick, you grab the girl and get her back up here as quickly as you can. Fayalin, get your healing supplies ready. The girl may need your immediate attention. William and you-" again to Kiten "-will make sure that the wolves and the other people down there don't surprise us in case Elva's and Zhalfus' distractions aren't enough. Lanu, keep raining down arrows if you see any of us needing the help."

Another look back at the scene below, and Tovius could see that the man had pulled away from the girl's neck. Two puncture wounds on her neck allowed the blood to keep flowing onto her clothing, and the man's lips and chin were also red with the liquid. The man took one of the girl's hands his his and raised it until it hung over the pile of dirt. His other hand, the one holding the knife in a cutting position, moved up and towards the girl's wrist.

Tovius' head snapped toward Icarus. "Now."

Icarus closed his eyes, and dug his palms into the ground. He whispered a few words and a small ripple travelled through the floor down to the altar up through the table into the man's leg and then out the the knife. The knife's edge dulled and rounded, making it ineffectual. The man would feel a small chill as the magic passed through him.

Icarus opened his eyes and nodded to Lanu, who raised his bow and loosed an arrow, hitting the man hard in his right shoulder, knocking him off balance. As the shock passed through the group, Lanu nocked another arrow and hit the man in the left thigh, this shot knocking the man from his feet.

William nodded at Tovius, then drew his blades. He will energy into the pommel stones, storing it there for a quick release when it became necessary. Knowing he only had one chance, William pointed his swords at the ground, then swung them upwards. Before the wolf creatures could react to Lanu's arrows, the earth heaved beneath them, flinging them backwards and away from the group.

"There's your opening, Tovius. Shall we?"

Viktor nodded at Tovius before glancing around the room, pondering what to do. He quickly developed a sly smile and nodded at Elva to show he was ready.

As soon as things started, the smoke from the the torches which had nowhere to escape and was filling the upper chamber would seem to gain inhuman shape and swoop down towards the group of people. The smoke clouds would be moved to engulf as many of the people they could and either choke them or drive the people nearer the vines which Elva should be doing something creative with he hoped.

It was not a challenging spell as all he was really doing was manipulating the stagnant air in the tunnels. But guiding the seperate clouds of smoke and keeping them away from his allies would take some concentration.

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The pale man felt the strange tingle of Icarus' magic passing through his body and into the knife. The hand holding the knife stopped moving and his eye slowly drifted up toward the precipice as he traced the energy back to its source. As his eyes reached the ledge overlooking the underground mausoleum, Lanu shot one, then another arrow into him. He fell off of the stone bier and onto the cold, hard floor.

The ground lurched and tossed the two black wolves away, but they dextrously twisted about and were instantly back on all fours. Immediately honing their sights in on the attackers, the fur on their backs raised up menacingly as they growled. In the light of the crypt, Tovius could see that their fur was not pure black. Rather, one of them had an almost purplish tint to the black, while the other one had a greenish tint.

"Let's go!" Tovius jumped to his feet and charged down the unfinished stairway.

Sitting up, the pale man virtually ignored his arrow wounds as he commanded his underlings to "Stop them!"

Both of the huge lupine creatures bounded over the upturned ground to cut off Tovius' advance at the bottom of the stairs.

The dozen white-robed people stopped chanting as one. Mechanically, they all looked up at the precipice where the attack was coming from, and started moving to the stairs. By the blank looks in their eyes and the fact that the smoke that viktor was channeling did not bother them in the slightest, it was likely that they were in as much of a trance as Caeli was.

The legionnaire paused. If it were only one wolf, he could take it on with a frontal assault, as his thick shield might have been enough to hold off the wolf's attacks. But since there were two, the other could easy come at him on his unprotected flank. Not to mention the approaching white robes. He threw a quick glance behind him to see if the others were right there with him or not. If they had been fellow legionaries, Tovius would not have had to worry about them being there. But they were not, and in fact they were strangers that he had met not half an hour ago. He would definitely need the reinforcement in this case, and he needed to make sure they were there to provide that reinforcement.

Elva looked to the roots that the legionnaire had pointed out; they were black and unhealthy looking like they had been touched by the evilness in the air. "I can try..." the Druidess replied, though in her mind she believed it would not be so simple as it was with most other flora.

She reached out with her feelings and sensed the darkness of the roots. When she attempted to control them, they began resisting her. They began thrashing about within her mind, sucking her life from her and destroying her mind. But Elva redoubled her efforts in an attempt to gain some semblance of use out of the roots.

As they thrashed about in her mind, soon too did they begin thrashing about in the underground cavern. Though she lacked true control over them, their chaotic and unpredictable nature mixed with a rage-driven desire to be rid of her made them dangerous tools. The black roots whipped about, slashing at anything that came near. Slowly, however, they were draining on her...

Damn, they're fast. Well, as they say, an object in motion...

Will made a sweeping motion with his blades, turning the ground beneath the running wolves into gravel sliding sideways. It sent them stumbling long enough for Will to charge up another spell. Pushing off from the ground, he leapt over Tovius, landing with somersault. As he got right side up, he plunged his blades into the ground, unleashing a portion of the power stored in the pommel stones.

A concussive blast hit the wolf creatures, emitting a sound exactly like that of a clap of thunder. Rising from his croutching position, he turned to Tovius, yelling, "Go, Go. I've got this. Kiten," he said turning, "Wolfsbane, if you've got it!"

He faced the creatures, holding his blades at the ready, readying himself for the next go. This was only going to get more difficult. "All right you two whelps. Let's see if you're hounds just that man's bitches."

Viktor raised an eyebrow at how the people, seemingly in a trance, were just shrugging off the smoke that should have had them chokeing. He frowned and with a wave sent the smokey clouds back to the cieling so he could see them more clearly. It seemed that distractions would not work against these people as they were not in command of there own actions.

He quickly leapt to the top of the stairs and holding his staff in front of him he began to spin it fan like at the group, everybody in the room would notice the air moving towards Viktor and swirling around him, lifting the white cloths and loose remains of the bodies beneath them along with years of dust before being unleashed as a strong blast towards the people. It was draining as there was very little actual movement of air in the room to begin with and he needed to create and speed that motion enough to form it into a strong enough force. He hoped the shock of it might knock them to there senses or some of the objects in the wind might incapacitate them.

As he released the blast he staggered, struggling to breathe in the sudden lack of air and cloud of dust focused around him, after a few seconds the wind completed its course of the room and settled again covering everything with a layer of the disturbed dust. Viktor gasped as the air filled the void around him and coughing straightened himself to see the effect it had had. Inwardly berating himself for not keeping in practice with these spells, almost choking himself and the amount of dust that now resided in his hair and clothes.

Kiten held back for while he could fight decently it was not his prefered area. Afterall cowardice was the virtue of survivalists and dark elves were beyond anything else survivalists, at least those who grew to maturity. That and the fighting styles of the others made it problematic for poison coated weapons and a general desire not to kill everyone present.

When William called for wolfsbane, he winced. Didn't the man know how expensive that particular toxin cost. It was one of the more expensive due to difficulty in both aquisition and preparation for maximum potency.

"Where do you want it and you'll have to get me more." He replied with a bit of a verbal scowl. He'd only packed a few doses and doubted he'd be able, under the circumstances, to restock.

Stand back and protect? Fine, let's see how well you fare alone kid.

Thibault's spiteful attitude came back like a kick in the berry basket as he watched Tovius hesitating. Thankfully, the smoke and magic had kept the enemy from organizing. The one capable armed bandit was impressed by the firepower these magic users were capable of. But he could that they were fairly vulnerable up close.

Quickly Thibault sprinted forward to cover Tovius' right flank. Line fighting wasn't his style, but the kid wasn't extensively trained in any other way.

"Stand back?" He mocked to the legionnaire by his side. "I wonder if you actually met me before."

"I know a spot where it grows. If it hasn't been killed by whatever this is, I'll get some for you. Just hit their torsos. Organs or blood vessels. Slow 'em down." William shot a glance at Tovius and Thibault. He hoped they could move fast enough for him to spend as little time as possible with the dogs.

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The wild roots knocked fully half of the white robes off their feet and onto the floor.

Tovius squinted as the air currents started up and blew dust into his eyes. Looking around to see what was happening, he noticed Viktor at work. The blast of air was enough to send the other half of the white robes sprawling to the ground, but again, all of the people began to get back onto their feet in a mechanical manner, unperturbed and with a glaze over their eyes.

The gravel created by William caused the wolves to begin losing their footing, and they struggled to keep their balance until the mage's blast threw them in different directions. The black-green one landed near some of the twisting black roots and was momentarily entangled in it, but was already starting to break loose from them unless the black roots tried any harder to keep it trapped.

The black-purple wolf collided into a stone bier and collapsed to the ground, but quickly got back up and glared at its assailant. Almost as if in response to William's challenge, the wolf started to grow even larger. The snapping of bones and joints popping into new positions resounded in the crypt, and new muscle mass developed right before everyone's eyes. Within seconds, the wolf grew into a bipedal form, still retaining some of its lupine features but now standing over seven feet tall on its two hind legs. It looked almost like a lycanthrope, and it opened its massive jaws wide to let out a roar as saliva dripped from its inches-long canines. With a single jump, it closed the distance between where it stood and where William stood. One clawed arm was pulled back to swipe at the human the moment the lycan landed.

Tovius gave Thibault a single-shouldered shrug. "With you, one can never tell." When the two wolves were thrown back, the young centurion took the opening.

"Let's get him," he said to his new partner, and moved in toward the pale man, depending on Thibault to watch his back as he did so.

The pale man had snapped off the ends of the arrows and was already back on his feet, seemingly oblivious to the pain that any normal person would feel from the inflicted wounds. He quickly grabbed the girl, yanked her off the bier, and held her as a shield between the approaching legionnaire and himself.

Caeli remained distant and uncaring despite being jerked around like that.

"Release her," Tovius ordered him, stopping a few yards away. The demand usually did not work, but it was worth trying.

The pale man smiled. "They're promoting younger and younger children to centurions these days, I see," said the man. His eyes casually traveled around the room to the other people present. "And the century more...unstandardized, evidently. Although, this is not your normal century, is it, legionary?"

The man waved a hand, as if not really wanting an answer. "But no, I think I'll hold on to her for a while longer. She has something important to do, you see, and I can't very well allow her to leave before her work is finished."

"Who are you?" Tovius asked. "What are you doing to her?" He was inching toward the pale man, hoping to find an opening to free the girl and disable the man while the man was busy talking.

"You may call me Vanion," the pale man did a bowing gesture with his free hand and a dip of his head. The fact that they were in the middle of a fight did not mean one should throw away civilized courtesies, after all. "And she's simply helping me. The details would bore you, really. But if you don't mind, I'll be taking my leave now."

Tovius moved faster as Vanion began taking a step back, but the legionnaire almost doubled over as his stomach lurched with each step that he took. The strange sensation that he felt from the wolf back on the street, like that of life itself withering, overwhelmed him as he neared the pale man.

Thibault threw his back towards Tovius. An overemphasized gesture, but in combat in meant the world. Of everything the bandit hated and wanted, there was a single promise binding him to the Legionnaire.

"You stink of death." He growled with his back still turned to Tovius and Vanion. "Not the good kind either."

S#@t!!! That's definitely some form of werewolf. Looks like Loup Garou. "Use silver! If it's been received as a family gift or inheritance, even bett..." William silenced for a moment as he dodged the claw. He threw the left blade up, keeping it up while moving. He used geomancy to speed him up, the only advantage he would have against the wolf. It wasn't as fast as the creature, but he could move with stability, as he could stay upright while using the moving earth to increase his speed to unnatural levels. The wolf-creature struck again, and Will rolled, still moving, practically sliding to the untrained eye.

This was Will's art. He used a lightning spell to force the blade down on the creature as it crossed it's path. As he stepped, the foot on the ground would move, propelling him in whatever direction he was moving. He turned to watch as the blade came down upon the beast.

Icarus looked around, momentarily helpless as everything in the room moved around him. Coming back to his senses, he stamped his left foot on the ground, and channeled magic into the dirty floor beneath the wolf attacking William. The earth there became momentarily soft, allowing the wolf to sink in ten inches before it hardened to rock. Icarus further bewitched the floor beneath the wolf so that whenever it touched it, the floor would cling to the wolf, and try to pull it beneath the stone.

Viktor smiled as the group of people were downed for a moment and took the opportunity to survey the room. Things did not seem to be going well overall for the group and they were not against normal enemies. He noticed the poeple getting back up and sighed, returning his attention to them. It seemed that they were under sway of the one man in the room who seemed to be in control of his actions and they were only going to stop coming once he had been dealt with. But they would have to keep the rest occupied until then.

Reaching out with his senses he felt for moisture within the walls and ground of the chamber and channeled it upwards and outwards onto the earth in front of the group of white-cloaked people. The ground began to turn muddy and slippery. He reckoned that if these people were just following simple instuctions then balance was not one of their primary concerns and they would therefore suffer when trying to move over the slipery ground, it should at the very least slow them down.

Gathering all the disparate elements into one place was tiring, he was used to far more avalability of useful elements than was available in this chamber. Leaning on his staff he turned his attention to the others. William and Icarus seemed to be struggling against the wolf-like creatures and the man seemed somehow to be having an effect on Tovius before he got within striking distance. These were all quite worrying issues.

He grabbed one of the torches off the walls and focusing the air around him used it to create a jet of flame that was directed at the black-green wolf stranded in the roots, hoping that setting light to the roots would have the same effect against the wolf as Lanu had described when he had lit one as a torch earlier.

The fire from the torch exhausted he tossed it at the wolf and paused to catch his breath and wipe the dust from his eyes, keeping an eye on the effects of his spells.

"Then you'd better know where a great deal grows." Kiten thought as his hands moved to a couple of concealed pocket, drawing out a small vial filled with a greenish syrup and a half-dozen needle like blades. The seal on the vial was punched through for it was of a cunning design that could be removed carefully to coat a single weapon or punctured to coat many weapons quickly. With each of the six needles dripping with a concentrated extract of wolfsbane, three were launched at each of the wolves. Of each three one was thrown for an eye, another the heart and the third for the femoral artery. If any of the three hit, the wolf that took the blow would most certainly be hurting.

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Through the combined efforts of William, Icarus, and Kiten, the black-purple man-wolf was momentarily trapped in place, allowing William to strike it in the torso and in turn giving a much distracted target for Kiten to poison. The concentrated wolfsbane coursed through the creature's blood rapidly, and the creature gave off a hair-raising howl before convulsing. The body appeared to bulge and shrink, as if not certain whether to revert back to its lupine form or to grow even larger. The creature dropped to the floor, its front paws scratching deep gouges into the stonework as it writhed about in pain, but then the floor almost seemed to melt as it began sticking to the creature.

With the combination of the twisting roots and the fire that surrounded the black-green wolf, all three of the Drow's needles missed their mark. In seconds, the black-green one had also transformed into a huge man-wolf creature and burst forth from the entangling black roots. Its fur was ablaze with the torch's fire, but that only seemed to fuel its anger. With a single, massive leap, it jumped straight to the top of the precipice where Viktor, Lanu, Elva, and Fayalin were. It raised one muscular, flaming arm, and looked likely to take out all four of them in just a couple of blows.

The wet ground worked rather well in the unfinished portion of the crypt, and the tranced people were having a hard time keeping their balance, thus slowing their progress greatly. But five of the white robes were already on the more completed section with the stone floors, and two of them broke off to go straight for Thibault. Their steps were slow and their arms moved stiffly as they reached out to grab the bandit.

The other three mobile white robes were closing in on William from different sides.

Vanion continued backing up with his hostage, seeming as if he either did not notice the rest of the battle raging in the room or that he did not care. "A word of advice for you and your friends, Centurion. Cease this idiocy, or you will only worsen your own fates in the end."

Tovius continued pushing onward, despite the draining sensation of death that the pale man emanated. The pale man had back up against a stone archway that was cut into the wall of the crypt. There may have been a door in that archway at one point, but now it looked like a slab of some grayish-white stone blocked the passage. It seemed as if there was no where else for Vanion and Caeli to back up to, and the legionnaire was about to say something in response, but then the pale man and the tranced girl he was holding onto slipped through the slab like nothing was there, and disappeared.

Viktor gave a smug smile as the white robed people at first encountered some difficulty with the mud, but quickly lost it as a few had avoided the effect and started to approach his teammates, who it seemed had managed to take down one of the wolf creatures. His attention was rapidly distracted however by a large form emerging from the mass of flaming vines and leaping right for him. He had time to mutter: "Oh dear." before bringing his staff up and flashing a brilliant light directly into the wolves eyes in the hopes of stunning it long enough for the others to move and flinging himself out of the way down the ramp he had been standing at the top of.

Landing roughly and rolling some distance did nothing to help the quantity of dust on his clothes and his general feelings. Shaking his head he saw his staff laying on the ground close to the white dressed mind slaves and scowled. He glancing back at the wolf creature and the scowl deepened. Persistant buggers he thought as he scrambled back onto his feet and prepared to avoid the creature if it followed him as under these circumstances he would not have time to prepare a useful spell.

As the wolf pounced towards them, Lanu pushed Elva out of harm's way, and raised his bow to fire. The arrow left his bow and sailed the remaining feet into the wolf man's open mouth. Lanu quickly threw himself to the floor to avoid the wolf's path into the wall behind him.

Well, it was either the poison, or my father's silver. Either way, we've got one that's down for now. Now for the...Damnit! As the other wolf leapt to the top of the ledge, William planted his right blade in the ground, raising both hands towards the precipice. Ignoring the furious amounts of sweat on his body, or the ache in his head, he concentrated on the ledge.

As Lanu's arrow hit the wolf, William made a pulling motion, breaking off the ground beneath the monster and forcing it away from the upper group. The aim was to get the creature back down to his level, giving the group on the ledge space to rain down projectiles.

They're just going to lumber at me? Fine, I'll fulfill their death wish.

Thibault's sword arched out across their abdomens, and slashed twice more when they doubled over through their necks. The blade howled like a banshee as it tore uninhibited through flesh and bone. Anticipating the remaining cultists' approach, he spun the curved weapon so that he was now holding it thumb up.

"Trudge through that mud, she hasn't nearly had her fill yet!" He mocked spinning the whistling weapon.

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The arrow embedded into the roof of the greenish black man-wolf's mouth, causing enough pain for the creature to stop momentarily on the precipice before it snapped its jaws shut to shatter the shaft of the arrow. The blinding flash of light distracted it further, and it was barely able to see when the ledge broke away from the rest of the precipice. But it realized what happened in time to leap off of the falling rock and clutch onto the edge of the precipice with one muscular arm. The flaming creature pulled itself back up onto the ledge in a split second and made a grab at Lanu.

While William was busy splitting the ledge off, the three white robes that were around him grabbed him with surprising strength. The one behind him reached an arm around his neck to put him into a chokehold. Another one grabbed his right arm and moved its head in to bite the mage in the biceps. The third one grabbed William's left arm and also grasped at the mage's face, obscuring William's vision.

The two tranced white robes going after Thibault were easily dispatched, now little more than a bloody mess on the ground.

Tovius quickly approached the seemingly solid, smooth slab of whitish gray stone in the archway, the sickly sensation now starting to evaporate. Tapping it with the point of his sword, he stirred up a surprisingly thick layer of dust that was clinging to the vertical face of the slab, but the surface underneath felt solid and impenetrable. The legionnaire furrowed his eyebrows, wondering what just happened to Vanion and the girl.

"They've somehow escaped through this solid wall," he said while still looking at it, uncertain if anyone else was hearing it amidst everything else happening in the crypt.

Icarus reacted quickly as the white robes attacked William. He whispered a few words and then swiped his hand across the ground. Three stone spikes shot up out of the ground and into the abdomen of each attacker.

Breathing heavily from the effort, Icarus stumbled towards the wall of black roots atop which Lanu was fighting the last wolf creature. As the wolf made another attempt to kill Lanu, Icarus slapped his hands onto the ground as he fell from the exhaustion his casting was causing. He shouted as he fell, "Dierta Diffedun!" Suddenly, a wall of stone shot from the floor in front of the wolf, blocking him from Lanu.

Vitkor took the brief respite in combat - as far as he was involved - to take in the situation, watching as the group efforts destabalized the wolf but did little more and struggled to think of a useful thing to do as Icarus collapsed.

I'm going to be feeling this in the morning he thought as he shouted: "I'm going to try and hold it in place, somebody kill it!" Viktor raised his arms in the direction of the wolf creature and with a violent gesture focused the air nearby the wolf and slammed it from behind towards the wall and tried to hold it there with bonds of air.

Through deep breaths he shouted: "Somebody... deal with... that." before falling to one knee, clearly showing the amount of energy it was taking to hold the beast. It's attempts to escape combined with the fires raging on its back consuming the air meant his already low energy stores were being sorely stretched.

Even as William felt the earth surge from Icarus's spell, he electrocuted his body, forcing the hands holding him to lighten their grip. He slid out, gasping for breath, looking to be sure that he wasn't wounded. He pulled his sword from the ground, and with heavy swings, decapitated the small group of slow moving people.

As he took the two steps to the fallen purple monster, he shouted to Tovius "Have Faith!" before pulling his other sword out of the fallen creature. Before he could help out Tovius, the other monster had to go down. Taking care to not be attacked by any other white robed individuals, he concentrated on the ceiling, making sure not to compromise the structural integrity of the chamber. He loosed a pile of rocks onto the monster's head, hoping to distract it. From this distance, he was limited to non-lethal attacks. Either one of the others had to finish it, or William would have to get up there and do it in with the sword work.

Sheathing his weapon, Thibault beckoned the three remaining pagans with his capable arm. We need a few alive.

The closest one was to his immediate right, the other two were slowly trying to circle their way around him toward Tovius. Swiftly he clasped the man behind the neck bringing his face onto a raising knee. The man in white robes wrapped his arms around Thibault's and tackled him into the pavement. With only one arm he couldn't throw the attacker, but instead chose to accept the tackle, and pound on his open head. A sharp pain in his side soon made the bandit realize his opponent had drawn a blade during the struggle. The cultist kept one hand on the shiv and another grabbing for his sword. Instinctively, Thibault dug his thumb into the man's eye lifting it up just enough to deliver a sharp head butt and end the struggle.

Glancing down he saw the dagger wedged through his left arm and only an inch into is hip. Fortune favored him again, no sooner did he withdraw the weapon was it thrust into the stomach of another attacker. The last of the white robes grabbed the former legionnaires long hair and slipped a dagger around his neck. Thibault raised his right arm between just time to block having his throat slit. Clasping the man's hand the brigand drove backwards into a stone pillar. In a split second the worshiper was flipped onto the ground, Thibault lying perpendicular, locked in an arm bar.

*crack*

A following kick to his temple rendered him very unconscious.

Breathing heavily, and sweating from every pore, Thibault climbed to a knee clutching his side.

"They've somehow escaped through this solid wall," he said while still looking at it, uncertain if anyone else was hearing it amidst everything else happening in the crypt.

"It's probably the same as before." He replied between heavy breaths. "Those mages can probably take care of it, if not, we got these two bastards."

Thibault nodded to his first attacker, whom stood up, wobbled a few steps, and fell back down. Quietly he let out a sigh of relief.

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The falling rocks were buffeted by the strong winds around the black-green creature, making them hit Icarus' stone wall rather than the beast for the most part. But then the fire surrounding the man-wolf's body suddenly intensified, bursting into a larger and hotter flame and causing the monster to howl a sorrowful sound. With another burst of flames, the creature exploded, leaving nothing of itself save for a massive, charred, right hand that soared through the air and landed with a thud by Viktor's feet. Smoke was still rising from the blackened hand as it shrunk from being a clawed hand to a wolf's paw.

The black-purple wolf had disappeared while everyone was busy, and the floor where it used to be was flat and seemingly undisturbed - perhaps swallowed by Icarus' spell on the ground there. Whatever happened to it, it could no longer be sensed.

None of the white robes were moving; most of them were dead.

Tovius, the nearest to the archway with the strange whitish gray slab in lieu of a door, could feel the sensation of creeping death immediately lift from the crypt, despite the gore-filled scene and the long dead corpses interred in that tomb.

After looking around to take in the scene, he said, "Fayalin, if you're not injured, please tend to anyone who may be wounded. Elva, please take a look at this archway. See if you can determine if Vanion and the girl went through that slab like how you and Lanu came through the tree. And if so, see if you can determine where they went, and also if we can follow them through that thing."

Looking to the mages, he saw that two of them seemed in need of rest, so he instead of having those two do anything further, he addressed William, "Help out Elva if you can. Maybe that man was a mage like you and used some sort of spell to escape."

At the Drow, "You and Lanu, stand guard while Thibault and I check out the survivors. One should cover the tunnel while another watches over the robed people on the ground to make sure they don't sneak up on any of our backs."

After a look to the bandit and a tilt of the head toward the white robes on the ground, "Any still alive?"

Viktor sagged with relief as the wolf creature exploded and remained kneeling where he was for several moments watching the wolves hand as it shrunk and cooled before eventually picking it up and standing, all other traces of the wolves had vanished and he couldn't help but feel that it was significant in some way.

Tucking it into a pocket Viktor walked slowly and with great care over to his staff and picked it up. Leaning heavily on it as he surveyed the crypt he gave a deep sigh at the number of presumably innocent entranced people that had been needlessly added to its deceased inhabitants.

Watching the others bustle with activity he hobbled over to Icarus and half carried half dragged the man over to a raised platform and lay him down on top of it before taking a seat himself and rubbing his eyes with his hands.

He coughed out some the dust from his mouth and shook his head in an effort to dislodge the dust in his hair while innefectually triying to brush the dust from his face and clothes. "Does anyone have a drink?" he asked in a dull voice as his body already prepared to rest and recuperate.

Lanu stood guard over the remaining cultists, but they didn't pose much of a threat in their condition.

Icarus lay back on the tablet and breathed slowly, regaining his strength.

"The two on the ground over there should recover." Thibault replied still trying to catch his breath. "Two are most certainly dead, and I'm not sure about one." Walking over to a collapsed body the bandit slid a hand on the side of his neck. He's gone. He casually shock his head at Tovius.

"Does anyone have a drink?"

"Don't drink it all." The exhausted brigand ordered tossing a flask to the stranger. "I'll be back soon enough."

Viktor cought the flask and nodded his thanks to the man who had been responsible for the majority of death in this room and took a deep sip of the water before closing the flask, placing it on the ground and laying back. "Somebody poke me if you find anything." he said in an exhausted voice before closing his eyes.

William nodded, sheathing his swords as the adreniline in his system began dropping. He staggered over to the rock, and placed his hands where the man and the girl had vanished. He tried sensing with his mind, but at this point he was too tired to sense anything more than an unusual oddity about it. He examined it more closely, brushing away the dust to reveal a rather unique trait.

"It's a mirror," he said, sitting down cross legged before it. "I can sense...the earth...behind it. The mirror...itself is what...we need to...examine." He was breathing heavy, and quickly feeling the fatigue explode in his body. He strained to turn and face Tovius. "It's possible...that it was...a transport...enchantment. But it's a...very, very...remote chance. Whatever he did...I'm either too...exhausted, or too...unfamiliar...to understand it." William shifted himself over, leaning back against the wall next to the mirror.

Tilting his head, he was able to get a glance around the crypt. "I need...water," he said, before resting his head back.

Crypt, Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

Fayalin had kept her head down as best she could during the fight, wrestling with the urge to tell Elva to stop whatever she was doing, as she could see the adverse effect it was having on the elf. When the wolf-demon had appeared right in front of them, she had scrambled to one side to let Lanu engage it, and pulled Elva further back to protect her. She breathed a sigh of relief when the wolf eventually fell under the combined assault by the mages and Lanu.

She was up on her feet and looking around the remains of the crypt by the time Tovius addressed her. She jumped slightly at hearing her name, glancing quickly round at the legionnaire.
“Y-yes,” she acknowledged, sliding the bag off her shoulder and taking it in her hands. She carefully made her way down the rough steps into the main area of the crypt, glancing around at the others trying to see if they were injured.

“D-did anyone else get hurt?” she asked, doing her best to make herself heard by all involved as she walked towards Thibault, the only one she could see with obvious injuries. She glanced at each of the mages in turn, uncertain if their apparent exhaustion meant they were injured, as she opened her bag to treat Thibault’s wounds. “Uh-umm, d-do you want me t-t-to treat that?” she asked nervously.

"Sure." Thibault replied hesitating for a moment. "No sense in bleeding all over the place."

He stripped off his cloak and sling before resting his left arm on a raised bit of earth. The gash was two inches wide running parallel in his upper forearm. The blade entered and exited between the bones.

"Even after twenty years I still can't even move this arm." The bandit muttered quietly to himself.

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius regarded the unconscious and the dead white robes that Thibault was talking about and nodded his understanding.

The young centurion then approached the archway where Vanion and the girl disappeared to, listening to William. He brushed away more of the dust to get a better look at the mirror, but briefly backed away as the cloud of dust seemed to be floating in every direction. Once it thinned out some, the legionnaire took a closer look at the dully reflecting surface of the mirror.

At first he saw himself looking back out of the mirror, but then the image rippled and turned into that of a middle-age woman wearing foreign clothes. Her eyes stared ahead, unfocused on anything even as she looked from person to person, and she would be recognizeable to some as the mysterious woman who appeared in the Senhild field and tavern.

Out of military habit, Tovius instantly took several steps back and readied his sword and shield, which also had the unintentional affect of allowing the others in the room to see the strange woman better. But the image of the woman stayed within the mirror, and did not appear aggressive to Tovius. When she spoke, her voice was young, but the tone at which the words were carried made her sound old and tired. "Seek you all the answers to the dying of the lands. To Karamethos the ten of you must come in all haste, for that is where you will find me. Time is of the essence, and communicating thusly tires me so..."

The image of the woman faded away, leaving a perplexed Tovius once again staring at himself. Ten of us? There's only nine? "That is one weird mirror. Does anyone have any idea what is going on here?"

Then the sounds of a small group of marching men came from the tunnel that led to the precipice up above. Out of it came eight legionnaires who observed the scene around them with open curiosity. "Centurion Veralion," the legionnaire at the head of the group said, "a boy told us you were here. What happened?"

"I'll explain that later," Tovius replied. Sheathing his sword, he pointed to the two unconscious white robes and said, "Have some of your men bring those two to a jail and place them under constant guard. I want to question them when they awake."

"Yes, sir."

To the three mages and the Drow, "Go and rest for the night; looks like you need it. I can be found at the Crossroad Inn at the center of town. Whatever's going on seems to involve all of us, so meet me the breakfast hour tomorrow."

To Lanu, Elva, Fayalin, and Thibault, "There's not much else for the four of you to do here either, so you should head back to the inn and sleep too when you're ready. The other legionnaires and I will take care of these bodies."

OOC: How did the other legionnaires know where to go? :p

Viktor had not yet fallen asleep when he heard a strange womans voice and with effort raised himself up again to examine the mirror. Surpirse was evident on his face as he recognised the woman and made a mental note of the destination: Karamethos.

In response to Tovius question he said: "This womn has appeared to myself several times, it is her words that brought us here to Eavana." He paused and rubbed his eyes again. "I recommend we heed her words."

He gave Icarus a prod with his staff and lifted the flask that Thibault had given him before making his way to the man and returning it before turning back to Icarus and the others "A bed would be far more comfortable than this somewhat dreary place. If you would find somewhere to stay i will return to the carriage first and bring it to you." The trace of residual magic that remained on each of the mages should make it easy to find Icarus.

To the group in general he said: "It has been a pleasure to meet you all and i look forward to our discussion in the morning."

He climbed back up the ramp to the entrance they had taken and with a curt nod to the legionnaires he walked past and back down the underground path, his staff once again giving off enough illumination for him to retrace his steps and after wht felt like an eternity to emerge from the hole they hd creted into fresh air which helped restore his general sense of wellbeing enough for him to walk at a brisk pace towards where he had left the carriage.

He reached the road where he distinctly remembered leaving it and was apalled to find that it was missing, which was troubling as he had placed wards that should have warned him against anyone tampering with it and he had felt nothing. Troubling indeed. Though he was at least relieved that he had removed his staff and pack before leaving the carriage, most of the rest was disposable goods, provisions and spare clothes. Though it was most definately a concern that he would have to look into. He gave a yawn... later.

Using the dim light from his staff he tried to see if there was a discernable trail which he might follow, but on the busy path there were many trails and none stood out to his tired eyes as he stumbled around cursing at his luck. After a few more moments he turned and began to head towards the hole again, assuming he may bump into the others and ask the legionnaires whether they had any knowledge of it.

Nald may have been towards the older end of the child age spectrum, but he was still a boy, and had no business here. "Find the nearest legionary squad and tell them where I am," the legionnaire told the farmboy. "The name's Centurion Tovius Veralion."

Nald simply nodded, though he wanted to join the group to find his sister. It was just better to follow the orders of a Centurion. Quickly he turned around and ran out of the alley as fast he could run. The only problem was if the legionnaires would actually believe his story. Nald shook his head. They just had to believe. His sister's life depended on it. For all he knew Caeli could be dead and Nald would never forgive himself for that. But he had to keep his hope.

Running through the time he finally found the Legionnaires. At first when he told him the story, they simply laughed at him. Nald then tried to remember the Centurion's name. Then he came to him. Nald told them that Tovius needed them right away, and that he was suppose to lead them there. Suddenly they became alert.

Nald lead the Legionnaires to the alley. He stopped at the tunnel, and then took a deep breath. It was all for Caeli. Gathering his courage he ran into the tunnel. Nald followed the foot tracks, until he found a group of people. He let the Legionnaires past by him, so they could accomplish their mission. Nald leaned against a wall and took a rest. It seemed like ages since he had woken up. All he wanted was his sister.

"Where is she?" Nald called out.

'She must be here...she must...' he thought.

Icarus opened one eye and looked at Viktor. "You and that damn staff again. If you keep poking me with it, you might wake up on morning to a pile of tooth picks."

He rolled to the edge of the tablet he was resting on and sat up, letting his legs hang over the side. Sighing, he got to his feet. The walk here had been less than pleasant, and the walk out was going to be much worse. With a little grumble, he started trudging back down the tunnel he had come down.

A while later, he emerged from the tunnel he had created to see Viktor looking puzzled. He looked around for a moment, and then asked his friend, "What's wrong... wait..." He looked around again, "Where's the carriage?"

William accepted the hand of a legionaire, and the waterskin, which he drained. Setting his back against the wall, he kept his body straight as he slowly regained his breath.

When the lady appeared in the mirror, he stared for a minute, wondering about the tenth member. He did not know of Karamethos. It wasn't an Eringaard name, and it didn't ring even the slightest bells in his head. Then again, he was tired, he had just dealt with a rather powerful supernatural threat, and he was in a foreign land. He needed rest, and food.

He waited until Viktor and Icarus were gone, then turned to Tovius. "Mind if I stay at your inn? I'll be damned if I stay anywhere close to them, and since you seem to be the guy that'll get us out to take care of, whatever this is, I'd rather stick close."

As he finished, he stepped away from the wall, making it a few steps before he was forced to pick up a decently sized stick to aid him.

Viktor glnced up at Icarus aproach, he had been leaning against a wall waiting. "That is exactly the problem. It has vanished and the wards i placed on it did not warn me of any tampering."

He paused for a moment watching the hole to see if anyone else emerged. "I was wondering if the legionnaires would be able to shed some light on the issue when they emerged, but i don't hold out much hope." He shrugged, "I am too tired to try searching for it now and in the morrow we will have more important things to set our minds too, this Karamethos for example."

Viktor glnced up at Icarus aproach, he had been leaning against a wall waiting. "That is exactly the problem. It has vanished and the wards i placed on it did not warn me of any tampering."

He paused for a moment watching the hole to see if anyone else emerged. "I was wondering if the legionnaires would be able to shed some light on the issue when they emerged, but i don't hold out much hope." He shrugged, "I am too tired to try searching for it now and in the morrow we will have more important things to set our minds too, this Karamethos for example."

Icarus wandered a little distance away, looking down several more alleys off the main road. Not finding anything, he returned and shrugged. "No tracks... Which is strange. A carriage that size would leave tracks, even in ground this dry."

With his 'dismissal', Kiten disappeared into the tunnel. There had been a branch earlier that he'd only travelled a short way into and he desired to investigate. Wrapping the shadows around him he left not a trace as he delved further into the earth. In its own somewhat soft way, the earthen tunnels reminded him of home as well as the hunting of Duergar and Svirfneblin.

"I suppose I'll get some rest. anything will beat the stink this place has developed." Thibault scowled before walking towards the entrance. Purposely he bumped into he Legionnaire Captain's shoulder as he passed.

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius gave Viktor a nod at the mage's suggestion.

To William, the centurion nodded as well. "Just follow one of them back to the inn we're staying at."

The leader of the legionary squad glared at Thibault for moment, then passed the bandit's affront off as an injured and possibly drunk man not being careful where he was walking.

Hearing Nald call out, the centurion looked at the boy and asked, "Who are you talking?"

Then, recalling that the boy was asking about a wolf earlier, he said, "If you're talking about the wolf, it was killed."

Four of the legionnaires carried the two unconscious white robes away. There were still a number of dead bodies left, some cut to pieces, others impaled with sharp rocks coming out of the ground. They all had their hoods on, obscuring the heads, and any could potentially be Nald's sister.

The squad leader looked around at the strange scene. "Doesn't look like any of them were armed. And I don't suppose those three just happened to fall on the stalagmites?"

Tovius shook his head grimly.

Nald quickly ran past, once he caught the sight of the bodies. He panic as he looked at each body. One of this bodies could be Caeli, but soon he found out that is wasn't true. He scanned the room. Where was she? Was she back at the farming? Did he just follow that damn wolf because of her fears? Maybe she was never here. Nald dropped to his knees. He was overcome with exhaustion and guilt. Slowly he turned around.

"My sister, Caeli. The only reason I am here is because I followed that damn wolf. See I live out in the farms south of this city. A couple of hours ago I woke up to a howl and didn't find her, because I let her sleep beside me. So I rushed outside, and followed that wolf. Well mostly followed the wolf because my sister was having nightmares about a similar creature. I believed that the wolf had taken her. But where is she? I must find her...if she is dead, then I don't know if I can go on living." Nald said calmly.

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius furrowed his eyebrows a little bit. "There was a girl here, around twelve, thirteen? Blond hair, about this high," he held a flat palm up at about Caeli's height. "Wearing some kind of summer scarf, I think. She was kidnapped by a man named Vanion, though. I don't know where they went, but I do intend to track them down."

"That is my sister..." Nald said with angry in his eyes. What kind of man would steal an innocent girl like Caeli? That just made him sick to the stomach. Nald's head looked down to the girl. Now it was his responsible to find Caeli and to kill this Vanion character. As he thought about this he formed a fist. Vanion would die, even if it was the last thing Nald would ever do. He had taken his sister and was going to pay for it in blood. Nald rose to his feet, then raised his head. Anyone could tell that revenge was in Nald's eyes. "Well I am going to join you. I will not let some coward take my sister. I am Nald Snydv..."

Nald extended his arm toward to Tovius.

William watched as the Tovius told the kid his sister had been kidnapped. "That was his sister?" he asked, before proceeding to utter a very potent cursing word. It was best left unrecorded, as he only used it in the most grave situations.

"I'll be at the inn," he said, following one of the legionaires out. He noticed them discussing the impaled, headless bodies that had tried to bring him down. "Better them then any of us, you know," he commented as he climbed the stairs to leave. It was tough going, but at least he was able to speak full sentences without having to catch his breath. Small comforts.

Crypt, Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

When Thibault offered his arm to her so she could treat it, she set her bag down beside him and gently took his arm in her hands. After a warning that ‘this is probably going to hurt’, she began probing the arm with her slender fingers, doing her best to analyse the damage done to the limb. After a few moments, she reached into her bag and withdrew a roll of bandage and the same small waterproofed box she had used when treating Elva’s leg. She smeared some of the past over both sides of the wound, then skilfully wrapped the bandage around it and tied it up, returning her remaining supplies to her bag afterwards.

“Th-there isn’t any water here, so I’ll have to c-clean the wound later, then dress it again,” she told him warily, uncertain what his reaction would be. She looked up curiously when a strange voice sounded in the crypt, the words inexorably drawing her attention to them. All that was happening was related, she realised, even though it did not seem that way at first glance.

She hurried after Thibault when Tovius suggested they all go back to the inn for the night, for something he had said had interested her and she wanted to ask him about it before his current lack of hostility to her ran out and normal service resumed between them, where she did her best to stay out of his way.
“Um, what h-happened to your arm?” she asked, after she had caught up.

The corridor was near black, but Thibault could see lit staffs in the distance, all he had to do was follow the little specs of light. A growing patter of footsteps closed in on him, it was the healer. Her pale skin almost glowed in the darkness, he restrained from making a joke, but still smiled.

“Um, what h-happened to your arm?”

Thibault held his silence, counting every step to keep his mind from wandering. Give the poor lass a break.

"I was fighting beside Tovius' father a while back, no older than you." He started pausing to remember the details. "Long story short, an ogre hit my shield with the trunk of a tree and shattered every bone in my left arm. Before the thing could finish me a stray bolt of lightning arched through the tree he was wielding, him, and lastly my arm. I can't feel it, and I can hardly move it. I'm too attached to it to amputate though."

The bandit sighed and smiled as he realized how much taller he was than the girl.

Crypt
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The legionnaires that William spoke to nodded their agreement to his comment. "But still, what happened here? The centurion wouldn't tell us anything."

Tovius looked at Nald's outstretched hand and considered the boy for a moment, wondering if he was ever as brash as Nald was when he was around the boy's age. The words of the strange woman in the mirror came back to him, and he wondered if she was foretelling him about another person joining his group. But certainly she could not have been talking about a boy, and so the centurion pushed those thoughts out of his head.

Instead of taking the proffered hand, Tovius shook his head and went back to inspecting the dead white robes. "The job of bringing the culprit to justice and retrieving the girl is for the local law enforcement and the legion to do, not for a boy, Nald Snydv. Vanion is no simple highwayman. You will only get in our way and get yourself injured. Rest assured that we will do what we can to rescue your sister. You did the right thing earlier by getting the other legionnaires as I instructed. But for now, the best thing you can do is to go home and allow us to do our job."

William was glad, at least, that the soldiers he was walking with had torches. He heard their question, and decided to give them a simple, if not intentionally true answer. He hated lying, so he had a tendency to bend his words.

"I don't know exactly what happened, as I wasn't able to see the start of everything. What I do know is that those white robed guys you're taking to the jail are involved with some pretty bad stuff. I'm pretty damn sure that their leader can do magic, and not the white kind either. You can connect the dots."

As he emerged into the night air, he breathed in quietly, beofre detaching himself to retrieve his horse. That animal, at least, was still present, and he was thankful for the small blessing. "Let's go," he said to his mount, walking it to the inn the soldiers had directed him to.

The stable boys seemed skilled, if a little annoyed at being kept awake, but took Will's horse. He managed to make it to the hallway before his improvised cane snapped, but given the proximity of the room, simply staggered into it. He ditched most of his outer garments, dropped his swords lazily but within arms reach, and lay down to a deep sleep bound to end in a morning of sore muscles and an aching mind.

Nald just glared at the centurion. Obliviously this soldier did not understand the circumstances. Caeli was his responsibe. She was the bright light in his heart. Both of them had shared a special bond. Nald was always the protective brother, and she was the younger sister. He wasn't going to let some guy just take her away without a fight. This Vanion would die. Nald took back his hand, then silently left the crypt. He would just have to find Caeli by himself.

Icarus wandered a little distance away, looking down several more alleys off the main road. Not finding anything, he returned and shrugged. "No tracks... Which is strange. A carriage that size would leave tracks, even in ground this dry."

Vitkor shrugged again. "Indeed, but there is little we can do about it now, perhaps in the morning we will discover something new. Besides, if we are travelling with others then we would have probably left it anyway." With that he turned from the hole, chose a direction and began to search for a place to stay the night.

Crossroad Inn
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius did not go back to the inn with the others that night, but instead worked through the hours with his fellow legionnaires. He caught occasional snatches of sleep when there was little to do, waking up mostly to check on the conditions of the unconscious white robes and for any new discoveries the other legionnairs may have made.

He had eaten breakfast by the time he showed up at the inn the following morning. By his request, the innkeeper had already prepared a breakfast large enough for everyone Tovius was expecting to show up. When the others finally did start to shuffle into the downstairs portion of the inn, the young centurion shook his head at any attempts to question him about what he found, saying that he would wait for everyone to get there first instead of needing to repeat himself eight times.

When everybody finally showed up, he said, "I do not know all of you very well." He was probably speaking about the three mages and the drow in particular. "But I cannot deny that all of you were of help down in the crypt last night, and it does seem to me like all of us have some role to play in this mystery, although what exactly I am still uncertain. But, this is nonetheless a Tal'theran investigation; it was Eavana that was targetted, and it was an Eavana citizen that was captured. As I am the one in charge of this Tal'theran investigation, I will not allow conflicting interests to interfere with and delay the investigation. I am reasonable person, if you wish to be a part of this investigation, then you will all follow my lead. If you do not agree to this here and now, then you will have no part in this, and a detachment of legionary forces will escort you to our borders."

The legionnaire looked at everyone in the face, judging their facial reactions to this news. He was normally a trusting person if the trust was warranted. But there was an undeniable tension between the Republic and the Magocracy, and Tovius did not want to take any chances with those mages. Especially with the account of how, not all too long ago, some mages snuck across the border to wreak havoc on an entire legion for no reason. The Eringaard Council claimed no knowledge or connection to this incident, but the Tal'therans knew better. And then there was the black-robed character whose name he did not even know.

"Agreed?" he asked everyone.

Looking to Kiten, "And also, what might your name be, friend?"

William was enjoying his breakfast peacefully, but the tone of Tovius's voice made him react. There were certain things which he had to keep strait, both for his skin and that of others.

"Centurion, I don't want to have to remind everybody of this repeatedly, so can we just clarify this right here and now." Gesturing at Viktor and Icarus, for emphasis, he continued, "By the tone of your voice, I assume you think I'm a council agent. I am not, nor did I come into this land with those two men. The Chronicler, unless I am mistaken, will be more than happy to back me up on this, expecially considering my history with the council. I was a bit disrespectful, sratch that, rather annoyingly disrespectful, and my attendance at meetings was often marked by repeated breaches of decorum. That, and the few of them that I supported prior my exile, pretty much paved the way for me to politely 'leave'. I just wanted to make sure that you and I are on the same page about the fact that my entrance into Eavana was separate from them."

"I don't have any problem following your lead, and I respect your position on the fact that it was an Eavana child kidnapped. But given our wide range of origins, I think we can all agree that Eavana is not the sole target, merely where the hands of Fate decided to group us. I'm your man, I just want you to know that I have a little trouble following those that don't see it as it is, and I'd rather prevent that now."

Viktor had enjoyed his breakfast and finished it before Tovius made his announcement, though the delay had irked him and he had not had an opportunity to ask about the missing carriage yet.

At the announcement Viktor closed his eyes and placed his hands in front of his face as if in prayer, his staff resting in the crook of his arm and he was clearly deeply considering the matter. After a moment he dropped them and addressed the table as a whole: "It is my belief that the presence of all of us is required. Regardless of who leads. The woman who appeared in the mirror has visited me several time my steps here, to me that is enough to prove that this is no mere coincidence." He indicated the group as a whole: "I assume this is not an isolated incident, or at least that some of you have been led here in some way outside the norm?"

He gave a wry smile at Williams account of his relationship with the council and gave a nod. "The council was frequently less than amused at your behaviour."

He paused for a moment as he seemed to make a choice and then gave Tovius a level stare. "For the sake of simplicity and haste i will accede to having you lead this investigation. As long as your commands are within reason and within our capabilities Icarus and I will do all we can to aid a swift resolution of this matter for the sake of all our nations."

The door of the inn flung open to reveal the young boy. Nald walked within in the inn and looked at Tovius. This was the man who had denied his help. What kind of man would do that? None of this foreigners would no the land better than Nald. He had grown up in this region and knew it like the back of his hand. But most of all was the fact that this Centurion had denied him the chance to rescue his sister. His own flesh and blood had been taken away from him. Caeli was in pain and he could feel it. He wanted revenge.

Though a few hours ago Nald had come to the conclusion that he go not do the journey alone. Plus he had no idea where to start. This group had a better idea, then Nald plus had seen this Vanion character. Nald had no idea what he even looked like if he happened to find him.


"Centurion, I don't care what you say, but I am joining you. I will follow you anywhere as long as I get my sister back. She is my responsible and I must rescue her. If I don't then there is no purpose to living. So too bade if you don't want me here because I am." Nald said defiantly as he sat down and joined the rest of the group.

William made a bit of a show silently counting off the group, before returning to his breakfast. "Well, that settles my next question rather succinctly. Now we know who the tenth member of our little posse is." He returned to his food, then held up the plate with the skillet potatoes on it. "Anybody want some of these?" he asked in a genuine manner, having moved on from the topic of Nald's participation.

Elva was late in arriving for breakfast. It was not that she overslept, but when she woke up with the rising sun, she had disappeared out of the inn. Gone before anyone else was awake, she made a quick trip to the edge of town to commune with the earth and then returned as breakfast was underway.

[OOC: Just a short, bad re-insertion post.]

Crossroad Inn
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

"I'm your man, I just want you to know that I have a little trouble following those that don't see it as it is, and I'd rather prevent that now."

"But you must agree that it is difficult for one to 'see it as it is' when you were operating under false pretenses when we first met," said Tovius to William. "You were clearly disguising who you were back in the alley, using a false accent and only revealing who you truly were when other mages who knew of your true identity came along." The way he said this was not so much argumentative as it was philosophical. Although William's quickness to rebute any thoughts of treachery on his part did, in of itself, draw some suspicions.

To Viktor, the centurion said, "And it is this woman which I wish to discuss about this morning. At least, she is one of the topics at the forefront. The description of the woman in the mirror matches that of the Oracle of Karamethos. If she is involved in this, then-"

Tovius was interrupted by Nald barging in. With a frown, he looked at the farmer and said, "That decision is not for you to make, boy."

A similar look was given to William. "He is but a child. Are you truly suggesting to pit him against foes the likes of what we've encountered? That will only get him killed."

Back to Nald, "And I can always have you detained for interfering with legionary business."

His eyes were hard as stone as he looked coldly upon Nald. But then the image of the tranced girl came to his mind, and he began wondering what he would do were he in Nald's position. Tovius spoke up again, the edges of his voice softening ever so slightly, "We've fought creatures last night which you have probably never seen or could ever fare well against. This is no stroll in the park, boy. The traveling will be tough and the person we're going after won't be afraid to kill you on a whim. Do you understand that?"

He glanced around momentarily, "And where are your parents anyway? Do they even know what you're doing?"

"You were clearly disguising who you were back in the alley, using a false accent and only revealing who you truly were when other mages who knew of your true identity came along."

William sat back for a moment, thinking of what Tovius had just said. "You are correct about my accent, Centurion, and I apologize if I misled you. I agree that in our first moments together, my actions and words did not reveal my true nature. Keep in mind, though, that as soon as you asked my name, I gave it to you. I am a stranger in a foreign country, and between my ancestry and my current citizenship status, I am currently in a precarious situation. I did what I thought was necessary for my survival at the time. But since I did not act as the proper guest, the majority of the fault does lie with me, a fact which I acknowledge and accept."

William didn't bother mentioning the fact that the Law of Hospitality often forbade asking one's name until the host had introduced himself. He didn't want to split hairs on the philosophy of hospitality, or the proper application of the law. He had admitted his fault, and was now ready to move on, listening to Nald's answer to Tovius's questions. The boys answers would determine how William would respond to Tovius's question about bringing the boy along.

Kiten was rather much late to emerging from the tunnels for the other passageway had lead to a minor maze of interconnected and dead-ending burrows. He had found a few very rare and valuable molds and roots that tended not to grow in the rocken Underdark, or valuable to one such as he.

After a rest within the earthen walls, more home like than the surface and thus more comfortable, he travelled to the surface and as he did so he noted that the roots that had before appeared tar-smeared and full of life now appeared gray and shrivelled. Slicing a section of the black root and putting it into a small pouch he headed to where William and by extension the others were.

One of those from the crypt, the enarmoured one with the officious bearing, had begun making a speech about how since it had happened on his soil and since he was an officious ass that he should lead. He seemed to be directing the comments at the three that he'd met earlier with Orome and to Kiten himself. He also seemed to be trying to gauge facial reactions which would be especially troublesome since Kiten's face was and would remain obscured short of it being forcefully uncovered.

"As to my name, what you may call me was already given. As to following you or the threats of what would befall us should we not, speaking for myself, if you are representative of the legion then that threat holds nothing. However, for sake of simplicity, within certain strictures and situations I shall follow your lead."

He then added with a note of threatening hostility, "I have my own goals and orders and if you place yourself betwixt me and my mission then you'd best be prepared to try and kill me." Dark elves were feared with quite good reason as even the most reasonable were still quite ruthless.

"GO AHEAD AND DETAIN ME THEN!" Nald yelled at the Centurion. "Nothing is going to stop me from coming with you and rescuing me sister. Not even the law. Rescuing Caeli is more important, than following the law right now. Do you think I am afraid of anything? I will rather die, then let my sister be captive forever. Whatever we face I will not runaway. My fear will not control me for my lust for revenge is greater than it. Anyone who gets in my way will die."

Then once Tovius asked the question about the rest of his family, Nald paused for a second. His family was trying to probably search for both his sister and himself. They were probably worried sick. He needed to tell them what had happened. Though he was unsure of what his parents would think about his journey to find Caeli with this strangers. Plus he would be so ill prepared. For all he knew his family didn't even have a simply sword, though Nald had been trained in combat with a sword many times before.

"My family is back at the farm probably where my sister and I are right now. I have told them nothing about this. Last night I ran after that wolf beast without informing them. I should probably tell them..." Nald said unsure of himself.

First, William dealt with Nald. "Kid, calm down and listen, since there's a couple of things you need to understand, and Tovius is right to be concerned. For one, your combat experience is lacking, and could prove fatal to more than just you. Second, like you just said, your family has no idea of what is going on. It isn't a good idea to just get up and go with a group of adults that happen to be going after a rather nasty and quite probably evil man. Third, uncontrolled thirst for revenge has been the downfall of many a foolhardy man. I am young by the accounting of my colleagues, and I look back at recent actions with regret for my lack of self-control. Trust me, you don't want to be me."

That issue temporarily set aside, William decided to diffuse another issue before it became an issue. "Tovius, as for as our friend is concerned, call him Kiten. Like I said before, I don't know his True Name, and I doubt he'd ever tell me. I do't even know if 'Kiten' is some sort of slang in his language, or if my pronunciation of it is something that translates into a self-derogatory phrase, a joke of which I am unaware. Whatever the case, he answers to it, that's what I call him, and you should be able to call him that as well. Unless he randomly changes his mind during our trip." True Names were always such a nuisance when dealing with the mundane community. Whether or not it was true, William, along with a number of his colleagues, had a suspicion about uttering one's full True Name to another, believing that in some way that person gained power over the pronouncer.

William had been alleviated of this problem at birth by his father. The pronunciation of his name had included nine written parts. He was aware of the first four. Because of this, he could, at any time, only pronounce less than half of his full name. Hence, he could be beckoned, but what he knew could not be extracted and used as a power bind over him. Though there were no verifiable records of a full name being used as a means of control, the threat was still there, and Will's profile made him less than eager to be the guinea pig for such an experiment.

"Do you think I care? All I want is my sister..."said Nald weakly. Suddenly he fell to the floor because he was overcome with exhaustion, guilt, and angry.

Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

Fayalin had awoken early that morning, and what sleep she had gotten the previous night had been fitful and uneasy. Her conversation with Thibault had gone nowhere after he had explained what had happened to his arm, as she did not know what to say to him, and had let him go on his way. After waking up this morning, she had eaten some breakfast, and by the time the others, both the old and the mages from the previous night, had turned up, she had finished eating and was curled up by the fire.

She was only half listening to Tovius’ words, as he was doing little more than explain what they were doing and invite the mages to work with them, as they seemed to have the same objectives. There was one thing Tovius said that drew her attention more closely, when he revealed that the woman shown in the mirror in the crypt was apparently an oracle, but before he could go into any detail he was interrupted by a boy barging in and demanding that he be allowed to join them. She had nothing to say on the matter, unlike when Lanu and Elva had asked to come with them, as she had had no vision portraying him.

She was hoping no-one decided to ask how she had known which way to go in the tunnels the previous night, because that would take a while to explain, and she wasn’t sure if they would believe her. And there was something else, which even she wasn’t sure about. The strange feeling of someone else’s pain was still there, though not as intense as it had been in the crypt. Whatever was causing Eovia pain was still there, though it did not seem to be getting worse. Even so, it was causing her some discomfort, and a pained expression flickered across her face every so often.

Crossroad Inn
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

The other conversations were ignored as Tovius saw the boy fall. Letting out a deep, exasperated breath, he said to the others, "Could someone help him up and get him some food, please?"

To Nald, "Do you now see why your coming along would cause more problems than not? If you collapse so easily, then you will be more of a burden to us than an aid. Should we come into combat, not only will we need to defend ourselves, but we must watch out for you, and thereby making us less efficient. Your coming along will only make it more difficult for us to rescue your sister, not less. A legion has no use for someone who cannot contribute to it, and I have no use for you."

Harsh words for a kid, but the longer Nald argued, the colder Vanion's trail would get, and Tovius did not want the culprit to get away. But then a thought came to his mind, and he furrowed his eyebrow in thought for a moment.

"Actually, strike that. I think you might be of use after all. But if you are to come along, then you must agree to taking some defense lessons. You will still need to learn to protect yourself should the need ever arise. If no one else volunteers to teach you, then I will do so myself. And you will do exactly as you are told, all the time, and you will not deviate from that. Is that understood?"

Turning to the rest of the assembled people, he said, "Now, let's not waste any more time. As I was saying before, the woman in the mirror matches the description of the Oracle of Karamethos. If we heed her words, then Karamethos is far to the south-southwest of here, and no matter what route we take to get there, it will require well over a month to reach it."

"On the other hand, I have received reports of a carriage fleeing from the town last night, around the time that we were fighting in the crypt. Witnesses saw it going east. Given the fact that no one travels at that hour here, aside from very urgent legionary business - and that was certainly no legionary carriage - that strongly points to Vanion and the hostage being in that carriage. If we go to Karamethos, we will lose the opportunity to follow Vanion."

"The other legionnaires are still collecting information on this Vanion character. Neither of the two apprehended suspects from last night remember a single thing. From the looks of it, they were in as much of a trance as the girl," a glance to Nald, "Caeli, was. They didn't even realize they ever left their own beds last night until they woke up in jail. If we investigate for a few more days, we may find more information that could prove helpful in what Vanion was doing here and how we may potentially stop it. But time is of the essence, and losing a few days can make a considerable difference on whether we catch Vanion or not."

"I have my own judgement on what we should do, but I would like to hear what everyone else has to say." He looked around at the others in the now open forum.

Icarus looked up as the carriage was mentioned. Looking at Viktor, "The bastard stole our carriage!"

He thought of the supplies that he had stowed on the carriage, from several research texts, to his various outfits for the journey. "I say we go after him. Right now. We'll see what the legionaries have learned as we pass back through to Karamethos after we catch him. If we ride fast mounts, we should overtake them in a matter of days."

"Yes, but please don't treat like some naive farm boy, Centurion. I have wielded a sword before, but not in combat. I am not blind to the art of swordsmanship. Actually a former legionnaire trained me after retiring from the service. He yearned for a more peacefully life as a farmer. Though for some odd reason he taught me to fight with a sword. Of course that ended once the old man died. I do admit it has been a while since I last wielded a blade, but I think his training should come back easily. He was a great and wise teacher." said weakly Nald as he picked himself slowly and sat at a table.

Nald grabbed a piece of bread. It disappeared within the matter of seconds. To him it had been ages since he had last eaten. Quietly he thought as he listened to Tovius. He pondered on what Tovius had said. Nald decided to see what the others had to say. Personally he would just like to go after Vanion and kill the bastard. Then return home with his sister.

A sister was it, that was something different and interesting. It seemed the boy had some faint good qualities. Kiten smiled within his hood as he made his way over to the boy on silent feet.

"Your sister, what would you do to get her back?" He asked in little more than a whisper.

"I would die. As long as she is safe..." Nald said to the unknown stranger.

"Dying is easy. Would you kill for her, kill till your hands are indelibly stained?" He asked, the question one he'd answered with only minor differences, "Would you kill all those present if it meant she'd be returned?"

Viktor remained silent as the other dealt with Nald and considered the options put forward by Tovius. The Oracle of Karamethos... It was a complicated matter, the oracle had at least been guiding him and seemed to wish them all to move as a group. However, this Vanion had been somehow involved in the matter and influencing the dying lands on at least a small scale. The only option he immediately disregarded was wasting time waiting for news.

Viktor stroked his chin as he reviewed the options in his mind and after a moment spoke up, at first outlining the situation along his thoughts: "The oracle of Karamenthos clearly has some guidance for us on this situation or else she would not have gone to such great lengths to attempt to contact us and influence our actions, any knowledge she can share would be of great import and perhaps necessary for our survival. She also spoe of ten of us in the mirror, therefore i am loathe to suggest a splitting of the group."

"However, this Vanion person and the wolf cretures under his command were exerting some influence on the earth around them and are therefore also related to the dying lands. Icarus speaks the truth, the carriage that you mentioned fleeing the area is likely the one that belonged to us." He paused for a moment to moisten his lips with a drink before continuing: "Vanion was able to bypass magical protection on it and leave without it alerting me. Clearly he is a man with significant power and we cannot leave him free to run amok. However, i assume there are few people outside of this group in the local area who would be able to summon the resources which may be required to deal with him." Turning to Icarus he also added: "He seemed to have the power to influence the minds of people and make them do things that would get the killed. I am sure that he would be willing to do the same to force speed from the horses on that carriage to outrun pursuit."

He fell silent as he weighed each argument. "Keeping in mind the big picture, the death of our lands and crops could lead to far more loss of life than that of one yound girl and the minor level of damage we witnessed from the creatures of Vanion. Therefore, I am in favour of leaving for Karamethos as soon as possible." He held up a hand to silence any outcry from Nald who would obviously disagree with it before continuing. "However, the journey is going to be long and time consuming. I am not particularly familier of the the routes and i propose that if there is a way in which we can begin by following the trail of Vanion to the east as far as we can reasonably take it before we turn southwest to Karamethos then that would seem to be the best choice."

"Yes, as along as Caeli is back with my family and me." Nald replied with no second thoughts. Right now all he cared about was rescuing his sister, but deep inside there was some second thoughts. Could he honestly kill innocent people to retrieve his sister?

Turning to Icarus he also added: "He seemed to have the power to influence the minds of people and make them do things that would get the killed. I am sure that he would be willing to do the same to force speed from the horses on that carriage to outrun pursuit."

Icarus responded, "Just because you can make a horse run itself to death doesn't mean the process is gonna take any longer. He'll have to change horses often. It'll make him easier to track."

Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

When Tovius asked for opinions on the matter, Fayalin found she could not reach a conclusion. Going to the oracle seemed like the more sensible choice to her, but a month was a long time, and she could not deny that the events of the previous night were somehow related to the mysterious affliction of the land. The strange feelings she was having was proof enough of that in her eyes. But she could see that taking one path would mean they would probably lose the other, and she would leave that decision to those more experienced in such matters.

Tovius’ words about making the boy that wanted to join them take lessons in defending himself were nagging at her too. If she was going to be a part of this, as seemed to be the will of the gods, then she should probably do the same. Though she carried a staff and a long dagger with her, she knew very little of how to use them; the staff was used as a walking tool and the dirk was merely a weight on her belt. Maybe later she would ask Tovius or Lanu about that too.

Her hand unconsciously snaked into her bag, and her fingers closed around the talisman of Eovia that had started all this. The goddess had seemed to be guiding her towards this task before she left Penrhyn, but there had been no more visions since then. The words from one of her visions came back to her. In day they hide, in night they show. When life has died, their numbers grow. Her eyes suddenly opened wider. Did those words refer to last night? she wondered, It had been dark when the wolves appeared, and they had been trying to sacrifice that young girl. She closed her eyes and grasped the talisman tighter.

“Please tell me what to do,” she whispered softly. “I don’t know where to go.”

William steepled his finger tips as he considered the dilemma facing them. He was, at least temporarily, satisfied with Nald's answer. If the boy needed it, William would offer to train him, though his style inherently took his magic into account. Thibault was a better swordsman than he by far, but then there was the lame arm. That issue was not important right now.

"It seems to me, our next course of action involves how we should travel. Before we decide, I would like to go over the facts as I know them, and I ask that all of you listen for any point with which you disagree and bring them up once I have set out a basic assessment. On the one hand, we have a message from the Oracle of Karamethos, bidding ten people to make travel. Let us remember that this is an Oracle that we are hearing, and their advice is not always to be taken literally."

"On the other hand, we have this Vanion character. He has, as far as our current knowledge will take us, a young girl named Caeli as a captive. What do we know of him? As we've seen, he has a familiarity with magic strong enough to grab a protected chariot without the owner knowing," here William gestured at Icarus and Viktor, before continuing. "Based on what we have seen last night, and the accounts of the white robed people we kept alive, I would also postulate that Vanion is able to control a person's mind in some way. He has kept company with these wolf-like monsters that we experienced last night. These monsters show a marked correlation with the death of the land, and by their connection, I would state that we can assume Vanion is involved with this widespread phenomenon to some significant degree."

William had to pause here, drinking some water before he went on. "Vanion has a carriage, and horses. Thus, we know that he is mobile. He might sacrifice endurance for speed, or he might not, but I would wager that he does. Even so, while tracking his progress could be a possibility, his mobility is still there. Also, in which direction is he traveling right now? He was spotted going east, but it is not unheard of to change directions in a deserted area. With enough markers, and a fast enough rider, one could pursue him."

Sitting back, Will concluded his summary of the matter. "This is the issue, then. Where do we travel, and how do we go about doing so. Viktor has advocated that we travel en masse to Karamenthos, by way of a possible detour should there be an available one. Icarus, you thought we should go for Vanion now, and then on to Karamenthos. So far, nobody has argued to split us up. Personally, I would heed the Oracle, and travel to see her. The gods give us messangers for a reason, and I would enjoy all the advice they deign to send. I would rather be supplied with all of the information available, even if it is misleading, than to lack it. It is easier to disregard a contradictory statement than it is to believe one that hasn't been heard. You all now have my mind's worth. I would like to hear the rest of your opinions."

"Then there may be potential in you afterall, and a manner to track your sister. Tell me all you know of her, as detailed a description, whatever makes her unique." Kiten replied to Nald before turning to the others, "Provided this Vanion does not seek to re-enact whatever rite or ritual he was attempting, and that this one provides me with sufficiant information, then I shall be able to track the girl most anywhere she is taken."

It was a poor assassin that let his target escape, and whatever else Kiten was, a poor assassin was not one of them.

Nald meticulously went over every detail that he could remember of Caeli. Her kind and loving spirit and golden blond hair were the most outstanding features of her. It was painful to recall everything about her, when he knew that she was under pain or something far worse.

"Enough." Kiten said as Nald started to become repetitive. "I will need something else from you later but short of something happening to her, your sister is more than trackable."

Crossroad Inn
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

"It sounds like Karamethos is the concensus, then," said Tovius.

"According to you," a glance at Viktor, "the Oracle guided you to here. Then she appeared to all of us right after the fight in the crypt. If I were to guess, I'd say that the Oracle at the very least knows of this Vanion character. Since she insisted that we go to Karamethos with all haste, I am led to believe that she either knows that we will not catch Vanion, at least not for the time being, or that something bigger is at stake than Vanion. And by going after Vanion, we would be wasting time which we could otherwise have spent on doing this other thing. That's all just speculation, of course, but it's not every day that people are contacted by the Oracle in such a manner."

"The best routes to take to Karamethos would be either north, to the delta, or southeast to the Arii River. Upon reaching the delta in the north, we can board a ship and sail all the way around Eringaard and the Evenaris Peninsula to reach Karamethos. I doubt I would be able to get a legionary vessel to carry us, so we would likely need to take a merchant ship, which means that we will be stopping at numerous coastal cities and we'll be susceptible to attacks from barbarian pirates. The north sea is full of them."

"The Arii River to the southeast will require more traveling overland, but slightly less distance traveled overall. Once we get to the river, we can get a boat and let the current carry us to the sea, where we can take ship to Karamethos. We don't have to worry about pirates so much on this route, but the Arii River divides the Hatriole Kingdom and the Republic, and we're not exactly on friendly terms with that kingdom right now, so we'll still need to be careful."

"Since Vanion was heading east, it could be that he was going towards Aervyn. If we decide to take the Arii River, then we can head east, and if we don't see any signs of Vanion, swing south along one of the trade routes. But if we go north, then we should head straight to the delta using the northern road instead of heading east first, which would add several more days to the travel time."

Nothing out of the ordinary happens to Fayalin.

"I vote for the southern route. At the very least, it offers some chance of tracking Vanion, and it would get us to the Oracle faster. This is harvest time, and the dying lands not withstanding, the merchant ships will be busy, and the pirates will be active. Given that, I think the northern route would only slow us down, and leave us open to attack."

"Barring any type of major assault or stupid indiscretion on our part, I think the risk of the Hatriole authorities is less of an issue. We've already established that two governing bodies have taken action with this manner, and Hatriole's crown would be stupid to ignore the land completely. The pirates, on the other hand, mught actually be more active if they've heard the rumors of the crops dying. The threat of starvation will make men desperate, and desperation can drive a man to extreme actions. We'd have to keep our guard, but from one that has learned to anticipate the general policies of a governing body, my experience tells me that Hatriole represents a lesser risk."

Hearing the talk about tracking Vanion, Kiten decided to simplify the matter somewhat by speaking up. "Provided he keeps this one's sister with him, it won't really matter how far he runs. With that out of the way, the shorter route would be better."

"We're not much safer over land." Thibault interrupted setting down a pint. "Bandits and the like will be trolling the river for merchant vessels, and Hatriole would imprison us the moment they find legionnaires treading through their waters."

I never realized how much of an inconvenience I was to travelers.

"I think we can easily handle any pirates that try to attack us. Either way that kid isn't coming with us."

Viktor was forced to agree with William. "As much as i hate to admit it, the exile has summed up my thought exactly." In response to Thibault he said: "On land we are safer than at sea, between us we have an array of useful skills, but not much of that matters if the ship we are on is sinking, depite the efforts I and perhaps Icarus and William could use to keep it afloat. At least on land or on a river we have a much larger chance of not running into such 'difficult' situations. There are also ways to dissuade bandits." He said, such enemies were generally unconsidered in Eringaard lands, few bandits were foolish enough to attack those with magical talents and even fewer lived to regret it.

Turning to Kiten he raised an eyebrow, "I would be impressed to see you use these skills. I am by no means trained in the art of tracking, but the wolves last night left no tracks and the carriage too seemed to leave no trail indicating where it had been taken when we realised it was missing. If it had not been spotted leaving we would have no hint whatsoever to the where it had gone. Conventional tracking skills are unlikely to help much in this situation, so what skill do you boast that is capable of this?"

Mentioning skills something stirred in the back of his mind, he glanced towards Fayalin remembering how she had seemed to feel the direction the wolf creature had vanished in the night before and he would have to find a moment of privacy to ask her. There was also the matter William had wished to discuss before they had all been distracted, but it would be difficult to find a casual way to talk due to this charade of them being 'enemies'.

"If I were a bandit, I'd set up men on both sides of the river, all wielding bows and flammable arrows. Maximize casualties before their barge has to land, and then press our numbers onto the ship. Spell casters don't focus very well surrounded by smoke and flame."

Thibault cracked a smile from the corner of his lips.

"Of course that's just hypothetical."

Icarus laughed at Thibault's comment. "Unless they're pyromancers. They'd be right in their element in that situation."

"Setting fire to what you intend to steal isn't always the best idea either..."

William looked at Thibault a little oddly. This guy was dead set against any overland route. But the water route was too risky, would take too long, and worst of all, would put them out of contact except for brief port stops. It wasn't feasible.

"With all due respect, Thibault, I think you're wrong. Now, the river itself, how large is it? If the bandits are coordinating a two sided attack, they'd prefer one small enough for them to send messages to each other easily. A river that size would be too small for mass navigation, and it would be quicker to take horses."

"Also, something that size will be crossable for an army. The Senate is not stupid about such a possibility. If Tovius is correct regarding the diplomatic status between Thera and Hatriole, then we can at least be sure of Legion presence on the Tal'Theran side. They'd be wanting to watch for any type of incursion by Hatriole forces, and I'm sure Hatriole would do the same. It would take a very, very skilled group of bandits to stay out of the way like that while still organizing themselves across such a body of water."

"A large river, though, would make it easier to elude notice, but conversely more difficult to organize a pincer attack. The further the separation, the harder it is to keep in touch. Also, something of that size would make the water travel faster. And if sailing on the river is the best way of doing it, you're forgetting a very important fact: Bandits are after the bottom line. They won't attack a boat from two shores of a river if it will sink and take the loot down with it. Your flaming arrows idea doesn't hold water, literally and figuratively. Pirates use boats that are fast and light, designed to get close and board to get what they're after. Only a fool with a death wish aims to simply cause destruction on that level."

"Nor is sinking it." Thibault replied bluntly.

"We've already been ambushed by, people I can assume, are Vanion's associates on a similar river. Casualties were bad, and they weren't even trying to kill us. The fact is, Vanion expects us to follow him the shortest possible route, and I'm not one for walking into a death trap no thank you."

He took another swig and wiped his mouth. He couldn't mention that part of his motivation lie in the bounty on his head in Hatriole.

"Alright, there've been ambushes. Can we expect any different? Does Vanion know where we're going? Cause if he does, we've got problems with either method of travel. Unless you want to go after Vanion and meet up later, an idea I don't endorse, the best way for getting to the Oracle of Karamethos is traveling the Arii River. If a ship can be that easily attacked, then what I said before should be considered. We go by horseback, following the river until we reach the coast." As he finished, another thought came to William's mind.

"Tovius, how fast can we send out messengers? If Vanion is headed near Aervyn, they should be notified, as well as the local communities. I know the mage presence here is not as significant as it is in my country of birth, but you do have them, and they should be alerted. Vanion may try to recruit more people. Have the people carry extra objects that tie them to their homes. Gifts from family, or something of personal significance. It will make it harder for Vanion to work. It might seem trivial, but it can do wonders. And have the dwellings addressed. Priestly blessings, warding, mage inspections, they all have their usefulness."

Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

After the voices had continued for several seconds, with no sign of anything unusual happening in the immediate future, Fayalin reluctantly opened her eyes and drew her hand out of her bag. However, as she reconnected herself with the flow of the conversation, it became apparent that the others had already reached a decision on which objective they should chase first. Now they were just arguing over the route to take.

“I-I-I think we should t-t-take the river route,” she piped up nervously. She could see very little against this choice; the river route was both shorter, and afforded them the possible chance of following their other trail as well. But she knew almost nothing about the relations between the various nations, nor the chances of them being attacked by bandits.

“If that’s d-d-decided , I-I-I’ll go and see if I c-can’t get some more supplies from the town healers,” she said to anyone that was listening. She also intended on asking the healers about whether there had been any strange illnesses recently, as Tovius had asked her. She uncurled herself from her seat and stood up, before taking her staff and making her way toward the door.

"No offense or nuthin, but I ain't following the advice of a prissy gown wearing nancy when it comes to traveling. Carry yer books on all hands, but leave the walking to the legs." Thibault scoffed between drinks..

Crossroad Inn
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

"Thibault's right," Tovius finally said. "Going near the Hatriole Kingdom might not be any safer than taking a merchant vessel through the northern seas. If anything, we could run into entire armies by going south as opposed to the scattered pirate ships up north. I was involved in a recent border skirmish with that kingdom, and we can't assume that they'll be friendly, or at the very least neutral, just because of some agricultural problems."

"On the other hand, the southern route is faster, and time is something we have very little of if we intend to keep the lands from deteriorating any further by the time the harvest is made. Legionnaires should be patroling the eastern shore of the Arii in any case, so that should be of some help. And we can always take to horses when we get there if we decide that going on the river proper will be too dangerous. For now, though, speed is what we'll need, and the southern route provides for better speed than the northern one does. We'll head to the Arii River."

"Thibault, if you would help come up with various ways you think that bandits will try to interfere with us, then we can come up with some contingency plans in the event that exactly such a thing happens."

To William, "I can have the legion dispatch messengers as soon as possible. But what you ask may not be very practical - especially in a city as large as Aervyn. Doing all that will take the mages far too long to be of much help right now, and I honestly don't see what the point of having everyone carry around extra items from their homes would do."

The legionnaire gave a nod to the departing Fayalin and added, "Don't be gone too long; we may need to leave soon."

William had to remind himself that in terms of the arcane, Tovius was not the most studied, and patience was required. "You'd be surprised how much help it can be. Carrying hearth-bound totems is an arcane form of protection. It links a person to their homes, and it makes it harder to break a person out of the natural protection that a home provides. It's not an end all run, but it does make it harder for malicious magic to work, and it has a tendency to alert others of a violation of that protection. At the very least, it will make it much harder for Vanion to operate in Aervyn without detection, and that is important."

"I'm going for my horse. Meet you outside," said William, finishing his breakfast. He went to the area dedicated for relieving one's bladder, then got the stable hands to saddle his mount before bringing him out. Checking the fastening, he headed for the front to await the rest.

"Something you claim to know how to use, magic. Specialized magic that has a couple restrictions to be sure, but as long as the girl is alive and he keeps her with him, then he simply can not lose me. He might keep ahead of me, but never lose me." Kiten replied as if were amongst the simplest thing in the world.

ooc: Sorry about the disappearence, been sick for the last couple days.

Crossroad Inn
Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius still did not think what William suggested would really make much of any effect, but he nodded and said, "I'll pass the suggestion along. It is up to the Republic's mages at Aervyn to decide what to do with it."

To the rest of the people still around, "Gather your belongings. I want everyone waiting outside and ready to depart within an hour."

He knew that no one in his original party of five brought along any riding animals, and chances were that none of the others aside from William had one either, especially with the theft of the carriage.

"I don't suppose anyone else has a horse?" he asked, just in case. "Pack lightly, then, as we'll be going by foot. I'm going to report to the local legionary forces. I'll be back before the hour's up."

With that, he starts heading for the exit as well.

"There are many areas of magic that i am not particularly familier with. Tracking is one of them, there is little call for it in my line of work..." Viktor said in response to Kiten.

As Tovius wrapped up the meeting, Viktor gave a smile, they were following the path he had advocated and he had no reason to be displeased. Plus, he had already brought what possesions he had with him, having lost the majority of their non-essential things with the carriage he only had his pack of useful nik-naks and a few other things to take with him, as well as his staff of course.

So he continued to sit where he was, picking at the leftover food despite the fact that he had already eaten as he glanced around at the others, they were a mismatched band of individuals with representatives from most corners of the world and he was curious as how they had got here. "You have heard that the Oracle guided mine and Icarus steps here, pray tell how some of you who come from further afield have found your way here." He was merely looking for a way to pass the time before they departed.

Nald quickly dashed out of the inn and toward the direction of his families' farm. He needed to tell his parents about the recent events and to let them know that he was alright. Plus Nald needed to collect some things before he left, mainly the ancestral family sword.

"And I'm no researcher. It works which is all that concerns me and my work." Came the reply as Kiten drew and threw a needle into a dart board on the other side of the taproom. Walking over, he removed it from dead center, albeit at an angle before returning to answer Viktor's question. "I was told to, simple as that."

Eavana, Gaireth Protectorate

It took Fayalin a while to find the town’s house of healing, having to ask directions from someone she saw in the streets. Once there, she questioned one of the local healers as she selected as much in the way of supplies as her meagre budget would allow. She had brought most of her money with her when she left Penrhyn, but a village healer was not exactly the best paid occupation. She briefly looked at various salves and potions, but decided against purchasing any, as it was cheaper to prepare them herself. She also hoped to collect some useful herbs and plants as they travelled.

As she stocked up on bandages and fresh herbs, she learned that there had been no sudden outbreaks of any particular illness in the area, just the usual scattering of common ailments that were always around. There was nothing new to come into the town either, except for the recent fashion for summer scarves among the young girls, most of which were home made anyway.

When she returned to the inn, about twenty minutes later, she found one of the mages waiting outside, with his horse ready to travel. The others were presumably yet to appear, so she sat down on a wooden bench just outside the entrance to the inn. There was no sense standing up while waiting, she decided, not when she would be walking most of the day, probably for several days.

Eavana
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius arrived back at the inn with a horse, which he tied up at the entrance before slipping into his room to grab his pack. Going back downstairs and settling the last of the details with the innkeeper, he went outside and looked at those assembled.

"I've procured a horse to help carry our belongings. I'd like to travel fast, so if anyone of you are carrying enough things to slow you down, distribute some of the weight to the horse. And for some additional good news, it looks like I've got a mysterious benefactor. Whoever sent me on this mission has also seen to it that supplies like food will be taken care of as long as a legion is nearby. We certainly shouldn't abuse it, but it's a nice fallback should we need it."

He paused to let the group members take up his offer for using the horse as a pack animal and for any final preparations. "Alright, everyone ready? Let's go, then. Thibault, take the lead with me. Lanu and Viktor, take up the rear."

Tovius did not trust the cloaked and hooded man to make up the rearguard, and he figured that Viktor and Icarus would probably appreciate not having the rogue William do it either. Lanu and Viktor were certainly much more trustworthy, at least, in the legionnaire's opinion.

"The rest of you, form up in the middle and move out."

The centurion walked through the streets and out into the countryside, using a well-beaten path that led east toward Aervyn. Using a marching pace that he expected those behind him to keep up with, he was soon beyond the farthest of the Eavana farmlands and into untamed grasslands. The tall fields looked just as sickly as the ones on the farms, but the farther they got from Eavana, the better they looked. It was a gradual change, and it took several days of travel before it became apparent. But whether it was because Vanion was temporarily thwarted, or because they were farther away from the source of the blight in Eavana, or for some other reason, Tovius did not know.

By the end of the third day, the group had made camp some distance from the road. The waning moon was out, still fairly bright in contrast to the blackened sky. The campfire was already little more than embers as the group slept. Tovius was on watch duty that midnight hour - military life was too ingrained for him to not have a night sentry, even in Gaireth lands - and he slowly and quietly went to each sleeping person, nudging them awake as inconspicuously as he could and whispering, "Don't move and remain quiet. There are people hiding in the field. They've got us partially surrounded on the side away from the road, and judging by the movements in the grass, they're slowly closing in. Get ready to confront them, but wait for my signal."

As Tovius woke him in the middle of the night, Icarus said nothing, but nodded slightly to signal his understanding. He began whispering incantations under his breath to create nonlethal mud traps between the strangers and the group.

Lanu was already awake when Tovius came to wake him. Years of spending nights in a forest full of dangerous beasts had taught him to sleep lightly. His hand inched to his waist and pulled his skinning knife from its sheath.

William continued snoring as Tovius alerted him to the danger. He had not been given a watch alone yet, and he wasn't surprised. He motioned with his thumb upward as the only gesture that he was awake. Otherwise, he kept the sounds of a dry nasal cavity going as right hand moved to his sword.

He shifted slightly, positioning himself for what was coming. He had a history of the more distant and unpleasant tasks assigned by the council, his lack of political propriety much of the reason why. His blade, though sheathed, was tilted slightly off being parallel to the ground. He could sense Icarus's steady hand slowly gathering the earthen power, even as he extended tendrils of power into the night sky. There wasn't much there, but every little bit helped. His other hand was positioned so that when the signal came, it would be a very short time before he was on his feet and had his weapon drawn.

I really hope you're all just a bunch of bandits, for your sakes, he thought.

Viktor had been having trouble sleeping for the last few days, he was accustomed to comfortable beds of his rooms back in Eringaard, or to the decent beds in inns and 'roughing it' had at worst meant sleeping in the carriage.

Tonight was no exception as he lay on his back in the field examining the wolfs paw he had kept, having over the last few days placed a spell on it to preserve it and placing a metel clasp around the top edge of the par and attaching it to a necklace, almost as a type of lucky rabbits foot.

When Tovius crept round he listened to what the man said and remained pretty still, though he readied himself to grab his staff and noticed a faint breeze in the fields, not much, but enough to make something of it if he needed, and though there was some moisture in the fields below them he was reluctant to deprive the plants of their current tenous grasp on life, by using it.

Being given a position within the middle of the little band was not something that made him happy and in point of fact, Kiten was often in the position of a skirmisher or outrigger as soon as Tovius' back was turned. He was of nature, a more lone wolf and knew that his talents were wasted where any possible foe might spot him, thus he travelled through the shadows and underbrush. The fact that it kept the unpleasent sunlight to a minimum was just a happy bonus.

When Tovius arrived at the dark elf, he'd be able to tell that he was already awake and for a very brief moment would catch a glimpse of reflected moonlight, but when he turned away Kiten had vanished not through magic but skill, skill enhanced by natural gifts and further strengthened in an arena where mistakes were fatal and then honed to a razor edge through harsh training. Few other than those gifted with the ability to see in darkness and pick out minute details might even notice he was missing, unless they'd known exactly where he'd been for his cloak had softened the usual edges of a body into near invisibility.
inconspicuously as he could and whispering, "Don't move and remain quiet. There are people hiding in the field. They've got us partially surrounded on the side away from the road, and judging by the movements in the grass, they're slowly closing in. Get ready to confront them, but wait for my signal."[/QUOTE]

Camp
Gaireth Protectorate

Icarus' spell began to draw what little moisture remained in the late summer soil into a ring around the camp, but then something began blocking the spell. It was faint at first, but quickly growing in intensity such that the spell no longer seemed to want to follow Icarus' weaving, and instead quietly disappeared into oblivion.

Tovius watched the slight movements of the top of the tall grasses from the edge of his vision. If he had the group react to the ambushers too soon, then the ambushers might flee and get away. If they were simple thieves, then that was not a big problem. The thing was, they could be more than thugs. Given what happened at Eavana several days ago, these people could very well have been working with that vanion character, and Tovius most certainly did not want them to escape. But if he waited too long to spring his own surprise, though, then that could also prove devastating to his own group.

On the other hand, what if those out there meant his group no harm? Or what if they were just field animals scurrying about, and it was all his imagination that turned them into people encircling his group? No time for those questions now. Attack first, ask questions later.

The movement in the grass stopped.

What was happening? Were they preparing some kind of trap in the fields? Of course they were. But what, exactly?

Waiting any longer would only give the ambushers more of an advantage.

"Now!" the legionnaire gave the order to his group.

Tovius stooped and grabbed one of his javelins and launched it toward a patch of tall grass that he previously saw being tousled about. There was a thunk as the iron tip pierced through what sounded like wood, and short cry of surprise, perhaps mingled with pain, came forth from that spot.

Arrows from two different positions shot at the centurion, and he barely noticed them save for the flash of silvery light that reflected off of them from the moon. One struck his trusty shield and another glanced off his shoulder guard.

With a shout, the rest of the ambushers rushed forth - at least twenty from the sounds of it - although a couple were slowed down from unexpectedly muddy areas. They ambushers came into the clearing, wearing all black leather armor and carrying an assortment of melee weapons. They picked out their targets and went after them quickly - almost too quickly to not have been planned beforehand.

The archers and several more men stayed back instead of joining the fray.

Even as William pushed himself off the ground, he power fell out of his hands like a dirty clod crumbling apart in one's hand. Swearing loudly, he didn't bother trying anything else as the attackers rushed them. He brought his sword up and dropped to a knee, allowing the closest attacker to cut his midsection open with his own momentum.

Even as the first one suffered the blade wound, William turned and met the next one as he rose to his feet. He didn't have time for fancy work, so he fought dirty. Hamstringing an opponent would bring them down, not only vastly mitigating their ability to kill him, but also giving him an opportunity to interrogate them afterwards.

Viktor leapt up, staff in hand and reached out to the wind almost carelessly as he prepared to hurl it at their foes with the strength to knock them down, but rapidly found it eluding him, trying to take control it was like trying to hold onto a wriggling creature and as the opponents got closer all he had managed was to encourage enough of a breeze to blow any loose dirt around slightly.

Much preturbed by the lack of influence his power was having and how how close the people had gotten he gave up on the attempt and hefted his staff staff defensively in front of him, waiting for the first opponent to get into striking range and trying to make out the weapon being weilded against before deciding how best to react, he had to admit that physical combat was not something he had ever studied to any great degree.

Camp
Gaireth Protectorate

As William felled two of the black-clad men, two more were already on him. One swung a mace diagonally downwards toward the mage's head, while the other made a wide swipe with his sword to the mage's back.

A spearman was the first to reach Viktor, charging to embed the tip of his polearm into the historian.

Another spearman targetted Thibault as well, making careful and stabbing advances toward the former legionnaire. A black-leathered man with a round buckler and a heavy hammer had also moved in on Thibault, swinging his bludgeoning weapon about menacingly.

An archer aimed at Lanu and fired off a shot at the dark man while a swordsman grabbed Icarus by the clothes at the scruff of his neck and tried to introduce the business end of his blade into the mage's back.

One that wielded a club locked onto Elva, pulled his weapon back, and brought it forth to cave the woman's temples in.

In the midst of all the fighting, two other black-clad men ran in and threw a large cloth over Fayalin, fully encapsulating her, before attempting to carry her off into the tall grass.

Meanwhile, outside of the camp and the skirmishing, a weathered and scarred man watched on, a black snake coiling and recoiling itself around one of his arms.

Icarus responded instinctively, and elbowed his assailant in the face, breaking his nose. The blade grazed across his back as his defense moved him just enough out of the way to avoid a stab. The hand released as pain coursed through the attacker's face.

Icarus quickly moved to the center of the camp where he would be defended by his friends. If magic wasn't working, there was very little he could do to help, having never been trained in physical combat.

Lanu side stepped the arrow easily, and dove into the underbrush. Moving silently like a tiger, he circled behind the archers position. Approaching the bowman from the rear, Laun raised his knife, and stabbed his target though the spine, the bloody point emerging below the Adam's Apple. The archer went limp immediately, and fell to the ground, the knife sliding back out as he did.

Lanu then went on the prowl again, determined to dispatch all the ranged fighters he came across.

William saw both of the two new assailants, and was forced into a decision he often hated: which wound would he take? Deciding, he spun with his blade, going for the mace wielder, stepping into the slash of the swordsman. Even as he deflected the mace and felt the reverberation from the strike, he felt a flash of fire on the left side of his upper back. Had he been wearing the cloak his mother had given him, it would have held, but that was stowed away. At least he had gotten hit before there was too much momentum in the strike.

William turned his sword around and shoved it backwards, running the swordsman through. Letting go of that blade, he drew his other, foregoing the use of his injured arm. He cut down the mace wielder, then threw the blade so that it landed with its point in the ground, upright, between Icarus and Elva. "Icarus, my magic is down. You two start fixing it."

Pulling his other blade out of the man that had cut his shoulder, he turned, seeing two men attempt to drag a struggling Fayalin away in a blanket. "They're after Fayalin! Stop them!"

Icarus looked at the blade protruding from the ground. "I can't use my magic either," he shouted to William. He knew what he had to do though. He would have to defend himself. He stepped forward and pulled the blade from the ground, and hefted it in his hands, surprised by its weight. He brought it up into a rough fascimile of the fighting stance he'd seen William use, and began to turn slowly in a circle, waiting for an opponent to realize he was an easy target.

Viktor raised an eyebrow at the bull rushing spearman, he may be on the older side and inexperienced, but anyone could dodge a charging fool, he waited almost to the last moment to do so and leapt to the inside of the spear, leaving him enough room and enough of an opening to swing his staff, which was much lighter than it looked, round to smack the man on the head hard to enough to knock some sense into him, or at least to give him second thoughts about getting up anytime soon.

He immediately stepped over the man and greeted the next attacker by swinging the lower end of his staff close to the floor and out of the way of the mans capability to block in order to trip the man, or if he tried to dodge, perhaps hitting in some 'sensitive areas'.

He heard Williams and Icarus's shouts and added. "They must be nullifying the magic somehow..." and as much as it worked against his usual method. "Fight first, ask questions later." He also heard the shout about Fayalin, but didn't want to risk taking his attention off the people attacking him. "A bit busy if you hadn't noticed." Though he started trying to back up, avoiding the man he had knocked over before to move closer to where Fayalin was struggling.

Camp, Gaireth Protectorate

Fayalin had lain very still after Tovius had woken her, gripping her staff tightly beside her and trying not to make any noise or movement that might alert their enemy to the fact that their target knew of their presence. When the fighting had started, she had done little more than half sit up, so she could see what was going on, but was trying not to draw any attention to herself.

She was confused when the blanket was thrown over her, but when she felt arms pick her up, she began struggling as much as the blanket would let her, and screamed as loudly as she could. The piercing shriek immediately let everyone in the area that hadn’t already noticed know that something was not right. However, it abruptly stopped when her blind struggling brought the end of her staff into contact with her head, momentarily stunning her.

When her head cleared, she realised that struggling wasn’t going to do her any good, so she forced her hand down to the belt round her waist, feeling around until it closed around the hilt of the dirk. She carefully drew it out, concerned about cutting herself by accident, then twisted it so the tip was pointing in a more useful direction, then thrust it as hard as she could toward where she could feel one of the arms holding her.

William cursed as he heard Icarus's and Viktor's replies. "It's not fully out, but something has been done. Figure out how to counter it. Remember the Third Tenet. 'That which is done, can be undone.' We can reverse..." Here William was cut off as an arrow buried itself in his right thigh. He cut of most of it, knowing that it hadn't hit a major vessel, which meant that he could leave it for now.

Kiten had slipped out the back of the camp, away from the attackers to circle behind the archers and those who'd remained bach from the fray. Slipping behind the ones furthest from the light, he proceeded to use the talents the sloppy need cultivate and the professional need use only once a kill, to slit the throat and catch the body for a nearly soundless kill. Each took only a few seconds to complete as in a singular motion he caught the mouth, opened the throat and lowering the body with the head to the ground.

The nose more than the eyes or ears was his greatest threat for the tang of blood and the scent of evacuated bowels was the reason this method of killing was not the optimal one but was the greatest of expediancy.

ooc: Sorry for any problems absence may have caused, got about 5 hours sleep in a two day period due to a Con.

Camp
Gaireth Protectorate

The man whose nose was broken by Icarus cried out as the pain made him slump to the ground. His eyes were clamped shut so tightly that he could not see, let alone fight.

Already aiming at someone else, the archer that targetted Lanu did not notice the Korovirian sneaking up behind him, and was easily dispatched.

Another archer was standing in the grass on another side of the camp, nocking an arrow onto his shortbow and releasing it at William's leg in an attempt to stymie the man's ability to manuever. After the arrow hit its target, another of the club-carrying, black-leathered men ran up and swung at the unarmed and unjured mage.

Seeing Icarus by himself, one of the bandits wielding a broadsword in the right hand and a long dagger in the left, point down, approached him. Rotating his sword hand around to loosen it up some, he feinted with the sword by slashing it down toward Icarus' left side, but quickly followed it up with a quick slice of the dagger toward Icarus' right.

The man that Viktor tripped got back up, now angry that the older and weaker man had managed to do that to him. He was not going to let the same trick work twice, though, and brandished his axe as he approached the historian with more care. If and when he got past the mage's first and seemingly only line of defense and closed in, he was determined to make Viktor pay for that wounding of his pride.

Fayalin heard an anguished growl and she suddenly found herself sprawled on the ground. With the cloth now off of her, she could see the scarred man with the snake, the same pair from the forest just outside of Penrhyn several weeks ago, standing over her. The snake had grown considerably since they had last met - larger than your standard forest adders would get. The man was staring down at her, a frown on his face as he surveyed the bruise forming on Fayalin's head from her self-inflicted whack. "I thought I said not to harm her," he said in a low, icy tone.

The man that got stabbed spoke up first, clutching at the flowing hole in his arm. "That stupid b-" but was cut off by the other man who helped kidnap Fayalin.

"We din't do it! She must'a done it herself!"

"Don't be an idiot," said the man with the snake, shutting them both up. Then, still glaring down at Fayalin, he said, "I would advise against such rash behavior, Miss Leishan. My orders to not harm you does not apply to myself...nor to my pet." The snake that was wrapped around his arm raised its head and hissed at Fayalin.

He looked over to a black-clad man with an eyepatch and a cutlass. "Gag her quickly."

The eyepatched man produced a strip of cloth and moved to cover Fayalin's mouth with it while the leader watched the fighting going on in the camp. Everyone was distracted and too busy to pay attention to what was happening here. Good.

Wait...there were only eight people in the camp. Nine including Fayalin. But there were ten that were traveling on the road. Where was the cloaked, shifty-looking one?

The leader barked the name of one of his underlings, and a nearby giant of a human stirred. His dim-witted face moved so that he looked at the leader instead of the battle. The leader looked at their surroundings, fairly well lit by the still bright moon, before looking back at the large man. Non-verbal communication passed between them, and the huge man swung an arm out and behind him at a speed that belied his mass, right into where Kiten was hiding.

Icarus jumped back to avoid the dagger and moved the heavy blade to block the sword blow. He quickly concentrated a large amount of his energy into his foot, and brought it smashing down into the ground, intending to create a localized earthquake on the level of a 10 on the richter scale. He hoped the large short burst of energy would circumvent the slow sapping that he'd experienced earlier.

Meanwhile, Laun had circled around to the far side of camp and, using his knife, made short work of the other archer.

Viktor had taken the opportunity while the man was down to look over at Fayalin and see her being dragged away, but when he returned his attention to the matter at hand the axe weilding opponent had regained his feet and looked most threatening, the little tumble having irked him considerably.

He backed up slightly and lowering his staff into what would appear to be a non threatening position he said; "Any chance we can talk about this?" histories said that rarely worked, but it was worth a try at least, and if not, the man may try to take advantage of the opportunity and he would have to do something about that.

Meanwhile in the back of his mind he was wondering if the innate magic in the staff, such as the light from the crystal would work, he hadn't tried it, but a bright light may at least dazzle someone if he needed it to.

William was thankful that Icarus knew how to handle the blade, but he had other issues. Another mace wielder was attacking him, and William was forced to parry with his other blade while on somewhat unstable footing. He would not survive any drawn out duel with his thigh and left arm burning as they were. Foregoing the niceties, he simply swung at the mace itself, bringing it down to impact in the earth. That was the set up. He brought his arm back up, driving a hard blow into the man's face with the pummel stone of his blade.

Camp, Gaireth Protectorate

Though the shock of suddenly hitting the ground had disoriented her for a second, Fayalin had the presence of mind to hurriedly withdraw the stained dagger inside her cloak and return it to it’s sheath before the blanket was pulled off her. She scrambled to her feet, grasping the staff tightly, and watched her captors warily. Her eyes widened when she recognised the scarred man from the forest near Penrhyn, and the snake still wound around his arm which, she realised in horror, was now even larger than before, far larger than any snake she had ever seen before.

She briefly considered the possibility of trying to escape, since this time she was armed and wearing garments suited for travel, and she had friends in the vicinity who could help her. She also considered shouting for help to alert the others to her situation, but she wasn’t confident that either plan would achieve anything other than getting herself hurt.

“Who are you? W-w-what do you want with me?” she asked nervously, repeating her questions from their previous meeting and trying to put as much defiance into the questions as she could summon. She was terrified of the snake, and her captor had just made it clear he had no qualms about harming her, so long as no-one else did. Despite that, she raised her staff defensively when the man with the eye patch approached to try and gag her.

When the battle had begun, Elva had attempted to utilize her control over nature to aid in the effort, but something was amiss. She simply couldn't. Her attempts to transform into a beast to fight met with similar failure. Unknowing of what had happened or what to do, the fair elf tried to stay out of the way of her comrades. Seeing her as little of a threat, the armored men seemed to mostly ignore her - for the moment. However, as one noticed her after another, she picked up a smooth shafted stick and tried her best to defend herself. Though not the most skilled fighter with a weapon, she was able to bop a few over the head...

Camp
Gaireth Protectorate

William's sword brought the man's weapon swinging to the ground instead of into the mage's head, but by the time William brought his sword back up to hit his opponent with the butt of his blade, it was already too late. The assailant's other hand was free, and he balled it into a fist to punch the mage right in the face as William was still raising his sword back up.

With a sneer, the axeman said to Viktor, "Sure, let's talk all you want." Lunging forward, he swiped the axe horizontally at the older man.

Lanu went unnoticed as he crept throw the tall grass to dispose of the archer.

The club that was swinging at Elva barely missed her, impacting her impromptu weapon instead. The black-leathered man heft it back up and prepared for another strike when the ground heaved, sending everyone within the camp sprawling to the dirt save for Icarus.

The rumbling of the earth ended as quickly as it started, but it was not nearly as massive as Icarus may have hoped - although the energy it took from him certainly certainly felt like it should have been much more spectacular. But it was enough to disrupt everything within the camp, allowing for a few precious seconds of respite from the fighting.

By the time the shockwave reached the leader of the bandits and Fayalin - granted, it was only a fraction of a second later - it was already little more than a foot massage. However, a more elderly man near the leader who sported a black robe and a staff doubled over, his face warped in what appeared like a combination of pain and hard concentration. Large beads of sweat were forming on the man's forehead as he clung to his staff for support.

After the very large underling knocked over (and presumably out) Kiten, a couple of other black-clad men went to make sure the Drow stayed down.

Meanwhile, the leader looked back to Fayalin and frowned again as she was resisting being gagged. "I thought I suggested against such behavior," he said flatly to her.

The black snake leapt from his arm to Fayalin's staff and began coiling around it.

William met the blow, but still got his in, and knocked the man down. It was simple physical laws, really. There was force in the blow of the fist, but the momentum concentrated in the pommel was greater. William heard a satisfying crunch, smiling as his eyes began to show the red streaks of the Blood Wrath. He felt the blood slide down the side of his face. The other knew how to throw a punch.

Feeling the earth wave, William saw as one man doubled over. He had been right. They were using a dampening ritual to drain away the power, though Icarus, bless his heart, had managed to surprise the ritual worker. Still, he had to interrupt the spell, and when dealing with problems, the simplest solution was often the correct one. In this case, he had to stop a ritual. Rituals were often well structured and difficult to counter unless one knew the specific ritual needed to counter it. They definitely didn't have that kind of time.

On the other hand, rituals had a built in weakness, especially active ones. Kill the child abusing bastard that was focusing the spell, and it would collapse. "Tovius, cover me!" he roared over the battle din. Thankful that the grass was sufficiently high, he ducked into the grass, going sideways, careful to avoid the men he had seen still waiting.

Viktor leapt back, narrowly avoiding the swing of the axe, though it did give him a shallow cut along his chest and he gave a slight wince at the pain before swinging his staff at the man whoes weapon would now be out of the way leaving him little chance to block.

Whether he hit the man or not he was unsure as the ground suddenly heaved and he was tossed down with a ringing in his head. Seeing Icarus standing relatively normally he thought: i guess some magic still works. Before leaping up despite the fuzziness in his head and took the opportunity to at first stagger and then run towards where they had taken Fayalin, shouting words which if anyone paid much attention were meaningless, but to the unobservant might have sounded like he was preparing to cast a spell, while also attempting attempting to channel power into his staff. His main hope was to distract them long enough for the other to capitalize on the situation and get some hits in, and if he reached them without any help, well, he would have to think of something, maybe whatever was stopping them using magic may have been weakened by Icarus, either way, at least he had left angry axe man behind.

William made it to the small clearing where his target was standing, coming up from the back. Stepping out, he pushed himself forward, running his blade into the sweaty man with the staff, entering at the liver and piercing up to cut the diaphragm. "Good evening. Fine night for a storm, don't you think?" he said in a calm, nonchalant manner. It was a truly unnerving sight, the words of a relaxed man making small talk coming from this man with a leering grin and and eyes that pierced the dark like a blue moon in red skies.

Withdrawing the blade, he continued, knowing that the staff holder could not speak without blood flowing into his own body. "Sorry, but you're in my way." He turned to the nearest, and arguably most dangerous opponent, the mountain of a man just a little ways off. William was gambling with Luck herself, but it better than the alternative. Collecting his power, he concentrated on the ground between he and the giant, hoping that he could shift the earth enough to eliminate the giant.

Icarus felt the spell die like hands being removed from his shoulder. He smiled and looked at his opponent lying on the ground. He opened his hands letting the sword fall to the ground. The malice in his eyes was tangible as a low rumble moving through the earth. Not sure what was happening, the swordsman scrambled to his feet, and stood to face Icarus. Laughing, he said, "How do you plan to face me unarmed?"

Icarus laughed in response, seemingly mirthful, as though the gravity of the situation did not fully weigh upon him. He whispered a short phrase and then knelt, and lightly touched the ground with his fingers. Immediately, stone spikes shot through the ground and impaled the man's feet.

The man screamed and fell to his knees, only intensifying his pain as his feet slid a little ways up the spikes to accomodate the motion. He dropped his sword and dagger and clutched at his feet in pain.

Icarus moved next to him, and picked up the dagger from the ground. Calmly, he slit the man's throat and then sat exhausted from the magic he'd just done.

The attack from the hulk had been injuring could have been fatal had he not been able to roll with a good deal of the force. As it was, it had knocked him down hard but not out. Kiten remained prone as if he had been rendered unconsious for he could see a few men advancing to ensure that the giant's blow had accomplished his demise.

As they neared the assassin he suddenly rolled back and up, feeling a stab which told him a rib or two had been most definately fractured. As it was however he was on his feet with two small knives in hand that just as quickly found themselves in throat or groin of the two nearest of the men. He then drew a larger blade and gestured for the last of the three who'd come to get him to try and kill him.

The man swung his sword in and caught Kiten's, knocking it out of his hands for in fact it had been only loosely held so even a comparatively gentle blow would have sent it sprawling. As the footpad was off balance by the fact that the intended resistance had been none-existant, Kiten slipped in with another of his slender blades though this one dripped with a syrupy fluid. Leaving it in one of the larger viens, he moved out of range as the man pulled the knife from his body. While he managed two other attacks, both were quite laughable for the sedative was exceptionally quick to render a person unconsious.

With at least one 'prisoner' secured he moved out of the way to take a drink from a painkiller.

ooc: Sorry for absence, much RL, not enough time.

William judged the distance between he and the behemoth of a man. It was at least twenty feet that the man had in any direction. Figuring that was enough, he started outwards, and worked in, power coursing into a huge ring around the man that slowly expanded inwards, forming a large circle with the man at the center. With the exception of the small patch of earth that the man was standing on, William had been loosening the soil, sinking portions of it as water and air filled the spaces, ever expanding. Soon the large one was surrounded by an invisible and all but undetectable barrier, one concealed by the thin root level of the vegetation. It would barely hold the weight of Kiten, much less the giant. The ring had become a huge quicksand pit. And as long as the giant stayed stationary, he would not suffer any harm.

He turned to the leader concentrating on Fayalin. The men that had grabbed her had vanished, presumably looking for whoever was out in the grass. That gave him some time. "I don't think the girl appreciates the snake. And I should add that when a woman says no, generally, she means no. You want to explain yourself before you end up like your ritualist here?" William kicked the body of the man he had killed, the staff now lying off the ground and across his corpse.

Camp, Gaireth Protectorate

Fayalin glanced around worriedly when she felt the vague tremor in the ground that was all that was left of Icarus’ spell, the young woman’s unfamiliarity with magic making her unaware of what was going on. Her gaze quickly came back up to the man approaching her though, and she murmured a hasty prayer to Eovia in the hope that the goddess would see fit to get her through this unharmed.

She gasped when the leader addressed her again, reprimanding her for her defiance, then she screamed when the snake flew across the gap and began winding itself around her staff. Without thinking, she cast the staff away, throwing it toward the bandit that had been going to gag her, desperate to put as much distance as possible between herself and the snake.

She looked around frantically, looking for a place to run, when she heard William speak to the bandit leader, sounding surprisingly calm, and almost as if he were enjoying himself to Fayalin’s ears. She glanced around in the direction of the voice, and ran towards him as soon as she saw him. Within seconds, she was hiding behind the mage, looking over his shoulder at her would-be captor, with her hand on the dagger hilt within her cloak.

Camp
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius was on his back because of the sudden churning of the earth. He heard William shouting to him, but one of the black-leathered men was about to pounce on him, a dagger in one hand and no doubt having the intentions to sink it into the legionnaire. Tovius pulled both his legs up close to his body and kicked the incoming attacker hard. Scrambling to his feet, he saw William's back as the mage disappeared into the tall grass. He ran after the other man, using his shield to ram and knock down a couple of assailants who were getting in his way.

The number of black-clad men had thinned out in the bloody clearing that was the camp, and fortunately for the drained Icarus, none of the bandits seemed to be paying him any more attention. For now.

No one else went after Kiten - the side fight having been forgotten for the moment as Fayalin was proving to be less cooperative than hoped for. The man who pulled out Kiten's treated blade quickly found his vision blurring and his knees weakening. The thin weapon dropped from his powerless hands, shortly followed by his entire body.

The man who wore the black robe and carried the staff looked up as Viktor ran toward him, shouting something nonsensical. He glanced around quickly, wondering where his guards were, and realized with a dread that they were no longer there. Stupid, useless guards. He concentrated all the harder now. Concentrated on stifling what magic the others were trying to do, concentrated on overcoming the building pain in his abdoman, concentrated on holding back the shouting mage historian who was running and shouting at him (or, at least, concentrated on backing up to the safety of the others before that crazy Eringardé got to him).

He tried to make out what spell Viktor was weaving at first, but soon came to realize that it was no spell at all. He felt nothing coming from that man. Any attacks from Viktor would be by physical weapons, not by magic. But then William popped out from seemingly nowhere and attacked him before he could even respond. His eyes looked over at this second Eringardé, the image of this surprise attacker burning into his mind until his vision went dark.

But a smile formed on the lips of the black-robed mage even as he died, for he got the last laugh in this encounter. It was foolish for this other mage to attack him so, for William to kill him in such a manner. His ability to oppress magic in the area was ended, yes, but even as he breathed his last breath, the power he was channeling leapt through William's weapon and into the younger mage. That power would prevent William from using any magic whatsoever for a while. He did not know how long, but he knew that it would be long enough, and the smile stayed on his face even when the rest of his body went completely limp.

The leader of the bandits looked all the more displeased as Fayalin got away so easily without his underlings even grabbing her before she slipped past them. He barely paid any attention to William's words, and instead rolled his eyes and breathed in deep. Glancing first to where his large snake was, he then fixed his eyes on Fayalin, who was cowering behind William. He did not say anything, but the message he gave her was easy to read. He was polite and patient with her, given the circumstances, but she had worn it out. The next time she was on the ground before him - and there will be a next time - he would no longer offer her the courtesy he had so far. The gloves were coming off.

The tall grass began to sway, like something long and thin was slithering its way toward William, Fayalin, Viktor, and Tovius who was just joining them. Then the tall grass suddenly parted and an angular, black head was shooting straight for William's face.

Camp
Gaireth Protectorate

Tovius kept running when he noticed that the tall grass in front of William was swaying around, figuring it to be more than likely a threat. Just as he went past William, the snake shot out at the mage. The legionnaire's sword swiped down just in front of the mage, forcing the adder downwards and away from William.

The black reptile's severed head plopped to the ground, as did the rest of its long, slick body. Black blood began slowly oozing out of the wound.

Looking up at the bandits, Tovius saw that they were already retreating. He was about to give chase when the headless body of the snake began writhing around wildly, forcing his attention to fall upon it instead. The centurion held his shield between the snake's body and himself, his shortsword pointed directly at the spasming corpse.

The writhing ceased, but then the upper portion of the body lifted itself off the ground and began splitting down the middle.

Tovius felt a twitch in his eye as he watched the grotesque sight before him. The spliting continued for about a quarter of the way down the body before each half healed into a separate neck, with a new serpentine head growing quickly from each of the necks.

The hydra opened its mouths and hissed. One head was facing Tovius while the other faced William and Fayalin and Viktor.

"Back away slowly," Tovius said to the other three. "It's probably an infant, but needless to say, you still don't want to be bit by it. I've a shield, so I'll try to keep both heads distracted while you go."

He then began waving the sword around and making loud noises in an attempt to get the attention of the head that was focused on William.

Viktors intent as a distraction had been served when William slew the other mage and his nonsensical shouting was no longer needed, so he stopped as he reached the others looking a little sheepish and pausing to catch his breath.

He had missed the snakes attack but watched it with interest as it began to regenerate two heads: "Marvelous, joining this group just brings one mythical and unusual creature after another." he resisted the temptation to poke the creature with his staff while it regenerated before following Tovius instruction and slowly started to take a step back, his staff held in front of him and his eyes fixed on the hydra, working out the best way of shielding himself if it leapt at him.

"Don't you know anything about the myths?" William asked, grimacing as he stepped back. His head was clearing now, and the pain was starting to get to him. "Hydras can be stopped by fire. We just need to cut the heads off, then burn it quickly enough to not make the problem any worse. At least, that's how the legend goes. Viktor, you want to be helpful for once and ready a fire spell? I've always wanted to see how much truth was in that old tale."

William didn't really know whether that story meant anything, but at this point, he was ready to try anything. And since most of the myths and stories about the monsters served two purposes, he figured he might as well employ them. Granted, he wasn't too keen about learning the 'moral' that those stories had, but the instructional 'how-to-kill' part could come in handy. Another victory for the pragmatist philosopher in everybody.

Viktor was getting slightly annoyed at Williams attitude and hissed in response; "Oh, i've heard all the myths, but when in my line of work you find so many they are sometimes, if not always contradictory... now the story of giving a hydra so many heads it didn't have enough blood in the body to keep itself alive, that one makes sense, but it would take a fair while." He paused as he crept another step back, "and in regards to the fire, if you hadn't noticed we are in a pretty dry field, would you like to burn?" Regardless he shifted his staff to one hand it began to glow with fire which spread from his hand up and down its length, it was at least a course of action and though he was not exactly happy with it, it was better than nothing.

Icarus trudged heavily into the group of individuals surrounding the small hydra. Looking at it, he kneeled down and lightly touched the earth with his hand. Suddenly, the ground around the beast sweeled to encase it, and then with a whisper from Icarus hardened into what appeared like obsidian. He then stood clumsily, like he was drunk, but put a hand out to Viktor's shoulder to steady himself. "Perhaps now that that's taken care of, we can get back to sle..." before he cold finish the thought, he'd fallen over onto Viktor, and was snoring away happily in a deep slumber.

Camp
Gaireth Protectorate

Saving Viktor from accidentally setting a dry field on fire, Icarus' spelled trapped the two-headed snake in the hardened earth.

Tovius looked back and forth between the casing and the mage that brought it forth before hesitantly approaching the obsidian-like structure and tapping it lightly with his sword to make sure it was solid. He then looked over at the fleeing bandits, and found that they were already no longer visible.

"Viktor, Fayalin, bring him back to camp," the legionnaire indicated the unconscious Icarus with a brief jerk of his chin. "William, you're not looking very great yourself. Need any help back to camp? Or do you think you can keep watch to make sure the snake doesn't escape? If so, I'll go check on the others."

Although Thibault, Lanu, Elva, Nald, and Kiten were in good shape when he last saw them, anything could have happened to those five in the past couple of minutes.

Lanu walked back into the center of what had been the camp as the others approached. He was curious about why they'd been attacked by these bandits again. Maybe they learned their lesson this time. Still, they'd tried to kidnap Fayalin, and that bore some need of explanation.

As the others returned, he looked at Fayalin and asked in a curious rather than accusatory tone. "What did those men want with you?"

William motioned for Tovius to go on as he spoke, saying, "I'm not going to die from this, but I'll be out of it till we make it to the shore. When you get a chance, send somebody to look at my shoulder. Go ahead, I've got something I've been meaning to do for the longest time."

Taking his other blade from Icarus, he approached the dark pool where the monster's blood had spilled onto the ground. After poking the severed head to ensure it's dead status, William pried its jaws open with his blades, pressing against the teeth to spill it's poison into the pool of blood already on the ground. Whistling an old tune as he worked, William proceeded to stir it up a little, then worked his first sword into the lethal mixture, muttering the old song his father had sang when the blades were made.

As he was about to coat the second one, he paused for a minute. He was dealing with powerful poison, and killing himself by using his sword to cut something out of his body when the blade was deadly would serve him little purpose. He sheathed both swords, and instead used a vial to store some for later. He could always apply the poison at a later time, and having the vile could come in handy.

Camp, Gaireth Protectorate

Fayalin had been doing her best to hide behind as many other people as possible when the snake lunged at William, then spawned two heads after being stopped in it’s tracks by a well-timed sword swipe from Tovius. She was all for burning the thing into oblivion, but quickly realised how foolish that would have been after Viktor pointed out the nature of their current surroundings. A rush of relief suddenly washed over her after Icarus sealed the thing inside a rock, both because they were not in any immediate danger from it anymore, and because it would have a hard time terrorising her trapped like it was now.

When Tovius told her to help the now-unconscious Icarus, she obediently moved toward the inert form, and began checking the mage for injuries, while trying to work out if she knew any treatments that would help him recover. She quickly drew a blank though, as she knew very little about magic and it’s effects. After she had helped Viktor carry Icarus back to their camp, she heard a question aimed at her, asking something she didn’t really want to answer. At least Lanu didn’t sound angry though.

“I…” she started, turning to face Lanu, “I d-d-don’t know. I d-don’t know who they are, b-but they know who I am.” There was a long pause, then she continued, “They tried to k-k-kidnap me before I left my village too, but Tovius rescued me.” There was another long pause, “C-can you teach me how to d-defend myself?” she asked eventually. “I don’t really n-know how to use that,” she pointed at the staff lying next to Icarus, where she had dropped it after finding it again on the battlefield, “and if p-p-people are going to keep t-trying to kidnap me, I n-need to learn to d-defend myself.”

As William sat, waiting and watching, he remembered why there was blood on the ground, and he shouted to Tovius. "Centurion, take care with your blade. It's taken on the venom and blood of the hydra, and for that, it has grown all the deadlier."

He didn't think things would work out too well if Tovius accidentally killed somebody with his now extremely deadly sword. Will didn't know how much had been exposed, nor did he know the potency for so young a hydra. But there was mention of the fatal nature in the Old Tales, and without an objective source to go by, Will had no way of knowing just how deadly the blood was. Maybe the Council had records of such experiments. Viktor would be the one to ask about such lore.

He grimaced as more of the pain in his shoulder came to him. "Oh, and will somebody bring me dressings for my wounds?" he shouted, not wanting to leave the monster untended.

Lanu looked at the girl quizzically. "You didn't exactly answer my question, but as to your request I will teach you what I know of self-defense. As a hunter, most of my knowledge is centered around avoiding confrontation and killing from a distance. Which is your first lesson: If you can avoid a fight, do so."

He walked over and picked up the staff, hefting it in his hands. "Judging from your size and stature, you'd be best served to feign weakness and defenselessness if you do get involved in a fight." He hunched his back and took on the air of a much older, much weaker man using the staff as a walking stick. "Then when your enemy closes on you, you strike." He deftly dodged to the side, using the staff to trip an invisible assailant and then drove the bottom of the staff where the attackers neck would be.

He then straightened up and handed the staff to Fayalin. "To be honest, you'd be better served asking the legionnaire for self defense tips." He gestured towards the armored fellow. "That still leaves the matter of your would-be kidnappers, though."

Kiten had made his way over to where the hydrean head lay. It had a few things in it that were of interest to his both fiancially and personally. Removing a smallish, curved blade and pair of gloves, he set to work on the head, not paying attention to William standing a few feet away. A portion of the ears, part of the tongue and the left eye were removed, wrapped and secreted about his person before he turned his attention to gathering up a bit of the blood.

That completed, he looked up and winced as his ribs caused him pain. "A man unconsious over there, one of the ones who attacked us. Maybe you can extract some information from him." He said to William as he took a very small dose of painkiller.

ooc: Many many apologies, my computer had crashed and I got it back yesterday.