Spider's Path

[Frozen Messiah]

Claude finally opens his eyes and he feels refreshed and invigorated. He gets up slowly so as to not let his bow become wet. He gathers up his equipment and moves walks over to Trinham. "I do believe that we both made a large blunder on our assumption of rations, am I right?" Claude says with a kind-hearted smile as he sits on the grass beside Trinham, "Now I aided you by making your walking stick could you recompense me with the second rabbit?"

 

[Myth and Legend]

"Uhm, thank you..." Lora mumbled with an uneasy smile on her face. She was never the hunter-gatherer type, and she really didn't know nor want to know how to skin a dead animal and cook it. "Perhaps it would be best if you indeed cook us a dinner later on if you are feeling up to it. Although I'm sure the Manor's cook can provide his services as well. That is, if we have managed to outrun Dellex's horsemen once we get there."

Lora got up and tucked away her drawing - it had turned out quite decent for such a rushed job. "This reminds me - forest or no forest, we are on foot trying to outpace riders. We should resume our march if everyone has refreshed themselves. Claude, you can share my jerky and dried bread, there is no time to roast the rabbits at the moment."

Lora paused for a bit with a concentrated look on her face as she stroked her shiny ponytail and then spoke with a louder tone: "Dellex's soldiers obviously did not go along the road, else they would have encountered the Ettercap. This means they rode trough the thick woods, which would have been not much faster than walking, with all the roots, holes, rocks and branches in their way. They would have had to pitch camp at some point since even if horses can see well enough in the dark, riding trough rough terrain with a tired, spooked animal is asking for a broken ankle. They can't afford to bring extra horses with the assumption that they would maim some while on their mission, so they must definitely be not far ahead of us, if at all."

 

[Dragonwriter]

Jareth relaxes slightly and stops pacing as Lora brings up the subject of getting underway again. He finishes his light snack, washing it down with another drink before filling his waterskin at the stream again.

The duskblade draws his chain again, swinging one end back and forth as he waits for the others to form up. "Then let's get going."

 

[Sphyh]

With a content stomach and such beautiful scenery to gaze upon Onesimus quickly slipped into a mindless trance of a surreal yet simply happiness sitting on his log. To which he is brutally snapped out of by the shrill and seemingly authoritative voice of the young wizard girl. He slaps both hands onto his knees to push himself up with and stands up straight. He gives a quick mock salute at the new-found leader when she wasn't looking and then slings his pack onto his back and double checks around him to make sure he doesn't leave anything behind. Once hes done preparing to leave he then puts on a more serious look as to not give Lora anything to suspect and assumes his position at the front of the vanguard silently awaiting the rest of the group to fall into position.

 

[HolyMan]

Their respite and lunch finished the group continues to follow the path to Harkon Manor. It winds along beside the stream and then tapers away. A half hour after their stop the group starts encounter a few hills as the path cuts around some but leaves no choice but to go over others.

Then they happen onto another body of water, this only a large creek. The path follows along up stream with the creek but from atop a large steep hill.

You continue on at your good pace, the creek always to your left down the hillside, the forest to your right.

 

[ghostcat]

Lora talking about Dellex setting an ambush, sets Trinham thinking. As he has previously mentioned, he is not very good at strategy so he is reluctant to say anything. Especially as Lora will probably think he is an idiot. Finally he tentatively says "While I agree that Dellex's men will probably cut through the woods to ambush us. Why don't they just follow us down the path, wait for the Ettercap to kill or weaken us, then attack us from behind. That aside, last time Dellex men attacked us Martumum told us not to kill them. Does that restriction still apply?"

 

[Frozen Messiah]

"The very nature of an attack would be considered a hostile action making them our enemy, even if they are on our own side. What I fear is them attacking us and Dellex blaming the hostile action on us, there is little that we could do in that situation though." Claude says to Trinham as he keeps his focus on his surroundings as best he could but at this point he was growing worried of what is unfolding at Harkon Manor and wether they were going to be able to get there in time.

 

[Myth and Legend]

Lora leered her head to the side as she spoke in a calm voice: "I am unsure if Dellex is even aware of our group. He views the irregulars as a nuisance more than anything else, and seems to discard us as far as his major planning is concerned. This is actually to our benefit, as he does not seem to think us a threat to his aspirations for lordship at the moment. So his men are rushing towards the Manor, and are likely not to interfere with our mission. Which is good since I doubt we can hold our own against mounted veterans."

 

[Sphyh]

Onesimus tries to focus on both leading the party down the path and trying to gather information on the coming battle from the surrounding conversations. At one point he becomes a little focus on listening and not enough on walking and almost takes a tumble down the hill but quickly gets his feet back underneath him. The creek running alongside them at the base of the hill reminds him of home. Of the creek he would draw water from to supply water to the smithy. It takes him way back into his memory and then he quickly shakes it off as if it was a bad dream. I never wants to go back there. He thinks to himself.

He glances over his shoulder and says. "What exactly are we to do once we reach the manor? Secure it?" A rather vague goal that can be extremely open ended in the means by which they hope to achieve said goal.

 

[Theroc]

As they walked, Aidan tended to watch the water flow, not following the discussion on Dellex's powergrab with much heart, feeling he was not suited to dealing with politics, being a simple farmboy. As he did so, he took particular note of a certain old log. He continued observing it as something seemed off, and after twenty minutes, he saw the log submerge and reemerge, a glint coming off of what Aidan could only describe as an eye. Drawing a javelin, he pointed.

"Oi! That ain't no log!" He observed, indicating the serpent. He did not throw his javelin at it, however. He simply awaited the groups response, in case they decided they wished to attempt to pass by it.