32x02
Hello all!!
First, thanks for the bumps. And second, apologies for the massively long break between posts. Professional obligations intervened for both Ilex and me, but now we've had a chance to do some story hour writing, and are ready to get back on the regular-posting train. There's a lot more wonderful story to tell!
I feel that considering the 9-month hiatus, we need a "Previously On" segment to get rolling. So here's the synopsis:
The party has traveled from their Pol Henna home base to the Kettenite-governed Sovereignty. In the Sovereignty, they generated unprecedented political change in the city of Cauldron in what the Cauldron natives may forever call "The Summer of the Heathen" (and what the players will forever call "The Skill Cascade"). This required going "the long way 'round the circle" of Cauldron's political Rings. The most significant result of this massive political undertaking was that the party uncovered and defeated a nefarious conspiracy orchestrated by the Restless Tide of the One True Path and restored a future of religious freedom for the city of Cauldron. In so doing, the party also caught the attention of Lady Akiko, heir to the Lord High Regent of the Sovereignty. Lady Akiko requested a meeting with the party...which brought the party one step closer to the possibility of meeting the ailing Lord High Regent...which in turn the party believed might bring them closer to deciphering the prophecy's language about "the last words of the Dying King"...and just that much closer to deciphering Rose's destiny.
To meet Lady Akiko in the Sovereignty's capital city of Divine Mark, the party began by teleporting to the nearby city of Overlook. But when they arrived, Rose was missing. With the help of the Overlook Telemancer, Goodman Miele, they identified what they believed was Rose's location. But when they landed there. . .
32x02
Twiggy jerked her head left, then right. Looked behind her. Where was everybody?
What if she’d been pushed from the teleport this time? Or what if everyone else had been? Or what if they were all stuck somewhere in the teleport plane?
She looked down, and saw a pile of stones and feathers, in a crudely drawn circle in the forest. She’d landed in the middle of Rose’s beacon. It looked exactly as it had in the scrying pool—but then it had been daytime. Now it was night, or almost so. And the tree cover made everything dark. And her friends were gone. Twilight, Twiggy thought, Sedellus’s hour.
But this wasn’t Sedellus’s fault. It was hers. It had been her job to get them all to Rose, and now they were gone. Twiggy felt the pressure of tears welling behind her eyes. Time to bring Rose back, she thought, pulling herself together. She cast light on her orb, and saw a few stones arranged in an arrow a few feet away. She followed it.
“Hello?” It was Tavi’s voice, faint but real, ahead and to the left.
“Tavi!” Twiggy cried out in relief. But then she tripped over a branch, and by the time she stood up, she was lost again.
###
Tavi heard Twiggy’s voice, but couldn’t see a thing. He began to climb one of the trees, to get a better vantage point. He got about five feet up when a screeching sound rang just beside his ear. Then a slash. Something had scratched his shoulder. Ow! he thought, and tried to keep climbing. Ow! another scratch. Then another. Then another loud screech.
###
The first thing Kormick did when he found himself alone in the forest was to light a fire. We must have been scattered by that kludged teleport, he thought, and it’s easier for the others to find me than for me to find them. He made a circle of rocks and tindered the dry leaves underfoot. Sparks rose from the fire, and hit the branches above. Instantly, Kormick was surrounded by…creatures. Just feet away, dozens of them. Some sort of monkeys, he thought, but they seemed to be attached to the trees somehow. Their fur looked like bark, but their faces looked like lemurs, and their claws were sharp. He lit a crossbow bolt aflame and fired. A tree-lemur fell to the ground, dead. Kormick re-loaded his hand-crossbow and lit another.
###
A flaming bolt from Kormick’s crossbow flew by Tavi’s face and lodged in the next tree, setting the bark ablaze. Tavi rubbed his eyes. What were those things? Another screech, another arrow—this one from Nyoko’s bow. It lodged in a tree-lemur in the pool of light, only a couple of feet from Tavi’s head. Tavi could see the creature’s claws, sharp splinters at the end of the creatures’ bark-covered arms. One appeared—as if from inside the tree trunk,—and slashed him in the face. Whatever they were, they were dangerous. Blood poured from below his eye. He responded with a fire pulse. The creature burst into flame. Tavi let go of his branch and landed on the leaves below.
Arden saw a fire in the distance. She crept toward it, silently. As she approached, she saw Kormick by the fire-light, surrounded by attacking lemurs. She threw her dagger at one of them. It screeched and hissed as the dagger knocked a chunk of bark from its back. The magic dagger returned to her hand—but now the tree-lemurs knew where she was. Within seconds, she was dodging slashes.
Nyoko heard Tavi’s voice in the distance. “Nyoko! You got one!” A flash of Tavi’s green flame illuminated Tavi’s face for a moment, a small pool of light nearly 30 yards away. Then, with a screech, a lemur popped out of the tree beside Nyoko and slashed her in the back.
“Everyone! I found the beacon!” Twiggy yelled, hoping they could hear. “Look for my—” her voice caught in her throat as two enormous branches came flying toward her. Tree-lemurs popped out of the branches. Their claws and teeth dug into her face and neck. Twiggy grasped at her neck to stem the bleeding. It barely helped. Acorn squirmed in her pocket. “Help!” she screamed as loud as she could, but it was little more than a gurgle.
Mena heard Twiggy’s cry. It was somewhere ahead and to the left—but where? Mena was standing amid a pile of rocks, with a hill behind her. She dashed forward. The rocks slid, and her ankle turned. She stumbled and slid to the bottom of the scree. Twiggy’s voice again, pained. Too quiet. Pull it together, Mena told herself. She freed her ankle and clambered ahead, toward Twiggy’s voice. Above her, the trees rustled.
Kormick spun around. A tree-lemur was right behind him. It slashed his chest and gut. He managed to seize it and throw it away, but blood streamed through his coat and he doubled over in pain. Another tree-lemur hissed. So this is how I go, Kormick thought. A nature guide killed by animals I didn’t even know existed.
A dagger whizzed over his shoulder. The hissing lemur fell to the ground. “Arden!” Kormick peered through the smoky fire-light at her hazy shape, coming toward him. “My favorite murder-slave!” A tree-lemur jumped out toward her. He bashed it with the war-hammer in his left hand. So glad to see you!” Kormick coughed in pain.
Note: For those keeping count, the tree-lemurs have just rolled three crits against us in a single round.
Savina could hear everyone, but couldn’t see anyone. They were far away—too far for her to help them. But she knew they needed help. She could hear their voices, unmistakably in pain. She felt her way past tree trunks, toward the voices. She followed Tavi’s voice, but when she got to where it had been, he wasn’t there -- there was just a bunch of bark, and a spiked branch sticking up from the ground. The spike had blood on it. Savina hoped it wasn’t Tavi’s. She suspected it was.
Twiggy grasped her throat and felt the hot, wet blood seep through her fingers. The world swam in her vision, and the trees above rustled. She heard Mena’s voice: “Twiggy! Behind you!” and cast shield. It was all she could do. I know how to work together, she thought. How do I work apart?
Back to back, Kormick and Arden fended off the lemurs. But they were surrounded. Arden could hear Tavi’s and Nyoko’s voices, only feet away, but it might as well have been miles. A lemur slashed through their defenses, gashing Kormick’s gut. He doubled over and moaned in pain. Another swiped at Arden. Blood streamed from her neck and side. She could feel her energy ebbing away.
“Justicar,” she began, surprising herself. But suddenly she couldn’t bear the thought of them dying like this, joined back to back in battle, without him knowing the truth. “If we’re going to die here, there’s something—”
He wheeled around to glare at her, his face pale with blood loss.
“Shut up, Arden. We are not. Dying. Of monkey bites. Stay right there.” With some last reserve of energy, he launched himself up into the tree above them and started climbing.
Arden heard a series of crossbow twangs, hisses, and yelps. Moments later, Kormick fell back to the ground, covered in bark and blood. “You won’t believe what’s up there,” he croaked.
“Monkeys?” she ventured, surveying all his fresh scratches and bites. She hoped he was rolling his eyes at her, but his eyes stayed rolled. He was unconscious.
Nyoko let loose with an arrow at the lemur nearest her. It tore away a huge chunk of bark. Nyoko arched her eyebrow. Finally, some progress.
Twiggy couldn’t see anymore, and could barely breathe, but she listened. She was surrounded by lemurs, rustling above her. She cast upward, igniting her flaming sphere in the canopy above her head. She heard crackling and shrieking as a lemur ignited and kept burning. She smelled smoke. It was exactly what she had hoped for. Lemurs scuttled away above her, and—she hoped—everyone else could see the fire. She sat down to avoid falling. You can’t fall off the ground, she thought, and strove to remain conscious. To keep the ball of fire burning…
Savina took off running toward the ball of fire in the distance. After a dozen yards, she found Kormick and Arden. Arden was kneeling over him, holding bloody fabric to his gut. Savina dove in, and prayed for Alirria’s grace. The familiar blue glow coursed through her, and she felt relief as Kormick gasped awake.
Gradually, the party converged on Twiggy’s fire, fighting off lemurs the whole way. By the time the group could all see each other, they were all covered in blood and leaves—and Rose was still nowhere to be found—but the rustling in the trees above them was only wind.