PoPP: Souls For Smuggler's Shiv [01]

Abraxis nods. "Let's to it."

"Do we have a place in mind?" Taron asks as he pitches in gathering up what he can of camp.

Your meager (but homey) base camp is packed in short order, and the seven of you stand for a moment looking over the area. Jask bows his head in a brief prayer, then looks up. "Before we proceed, I would like to show my gratitude for the aid you have given me. I do not know if I'll be able to clear my name once we reach Eleder, but my chances are surely much better with these documents. My order makes use of a mantra that serves to enhance one's ability to disregard distraction and focus on what is important . . . I'd like to teach this to you. With a little practice it becomes second nature, and one need not even think about it to use it."

Lerissa

Lerissa listens to Jask selflessly offer to give the group something. She's not used to people giving something without an alterior motive. Her mind tells her to refuse the offer and not be beholden to anyone for anything but her heart betrays her. She "knows" this man Jask and she feels he is a "good" man. And, as such she should allow him to express his feelings.

Battling her past actions with this new feeling of friendship, she merely says, "You are a good man, Jask. I will go with you to Eleder and defend your character. If they still do not allow you to be free I will support whatever your decision is - whether to run or to accept the punishment and will be there as long as you need.

Thank your for your gift."

Taking the consent of his two shipmates as good for the entire group, the middle aged man positions everyone so that they have room to move a bit and can still see him. He hesitates a moment for Taron's nod of consent before positioning him as well, but definitely includes him in the group.

He leads you all through a short series of stately movements and vocal intonations; all in all it takes about 10 minutes, but would be about 5 if everyone were familiar with the mantra. When all's done you feel loosened and ready to face the day.

"Good, good! With a little practice you'll all be quite good at this!"

[sblock=OOC]No mechanical benefit from this yet, but with a little practice there will be a small advantage to you. If you want to RP your practice and the first day or so of repetition I'll then assume it's SOP for you to go through this each morning on awakening after that.[/sblock]

Lerissa

Lerissa finds the mantra a little strange but not hard to memorize. After the group has finished practicing, she finds she's running over the pattern a few times in her head.

She looks over the area to make sure they have not forgotten anything and begins to head south along the coast. She will be last so that she might cover their tracks so no one can follow them if they were to find the camp.

Taron readily agrees to participate and does not object to the slight repositionings as he worked through the series of movements. Taron adapts quickly to the movements, but finds the vocal portion of the mantra a little more difficult to get just right.

Taron watches as Lerissa does a double check of the camp and is ready to beging the walk south along the coast in search of a new camp.

Abraxis doesn't find the mantra any more difficult than any of the prayers that he knows, and picks up the exercise quickly.

He follows Lerissa south along the coast, keeping his eyes and ears open for signs of danger.

With everyone (relatively) healthy, your group of ragtag castaways sets off for another day of exploring your prison of circumstance. You make fairly good time over the course of the morning, and fortune smiles upon you in the afternoon – Gozreh has apparently decided that the Shiv needs no rain this day. With the extended travel time, you make your way quite some distance down the beach. You spot the remains of two more unfortunate victims of the vicious reefs and tides around the Shiv along the way; the wrecks of the Windwar and the Bearded Harpy have little to offer in the way of supplies or tools for survival, but the Harpy did prove to be quite a dangerous little side trip when the skeletons of two of the crew roused themselves from slumber to attack and Abraxis’ foot went through a rotted plank, forcing him to defend himself while rooted to the deck. Sasha appeared somewhat shaken when the events of the encounter were relayed to the rest of the group, and seems more than a little anxious the rest of the day.

[sblock=The Fight on the Bearded Harpy]Abraxis took 3 points of damage in the fight, but Lerissa shattered one of the skeletons with her scimitar and Taron destroyed the other with a blast of Cayden Cailean’s holy might.[/sblock]

Jask and Aerys pull through like troopers, now fully committed to the survival of the group and recognizing that everyone’s best chance lies in cooperating with one another. Sasha’s coming along, but is still prone to simply sitting and letting others do the work unless specifically given a task. Gelik complains eloquently about the heat, the humidity, the bugs, the food, the company . . . nothing is sacrosanct to the Gnome’s sharp tongue and keen powers of observation; however, while being on the receiving end of that razor wit is not at all comfortable, his diatribe is actually somewhat amusing so long as one is not the direct target.

You round the beach’s bend and make your way into the large hooked bay on the island’s southeast coast, and come across the remains of an old camp just as the day’s light begins to wane.

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