Xaeken bobs along with the others, fine to let the like of Kincaid make the plans.
The group begins picking their way between clumps of forestry, sticking to the relatively 'clear' grassland, so as to avoid any ambushes. At the least, their flying friend can see if grass is moving ahead in the open. The switch from preferring forest to preferring open grass is ironic of course.
After a day or so, they have lost sight of everything except the distant mountains of home.
Earlier as they had entered the woodlands Kincaid had quipped to Rojas, "I can't see the wood for the trees in here!" Kincaid didn't say it out loud but he sure hoped Terex could spot any trouble...
Terex keeps up his scouting, warily watching for anything that might indicate the presence of enemies.
"Maybe you need bigger eye holes in your helmet." Rokas does a faint smile, trying to lighten the mood a bit with humour. But deep down, he is still uncomfortable walking around with some many hiding places. Compared to the city, the world feels like one big dangerous place where death could be hiding everywhere.
Hylar looks around, trying to perceive the surroundings as is his one redeeming quality.
Of course he doesn't do it particularly better than any of the others, so it would seem he needs a better redeeming quality.
Terex, Rokas, and Hylar all are looking hard, and notice some shadows moving in the trees to the right as they are walking, and notice it just in time as a pack of wild dogs suddenly bursts from the tree-line!
Rokas notices the dogs an instant before they burst out of the tree line. Digging into once of his pouch, he pulls out a small vial of liquid. He presses on the top of it and something fall in the liquid. Instantly, there is a reaction happening inside. Without hesitation, Rokas throws the vial toward the dogs, aiming for the leader. As he is throwing, the vial sticks a bit in his hand, resulting in a bad throw. The bomb fall short and to the right of the dog. "I need more practice with this."
Rokas retrieves an Arrow from his quiver, and in one fluid movement nocks it. Aiming for the lead dog, he sents the arrow flying. In the rush to hit the dogs, Rokas badly judge the distance and the arrow three quarters of the way to the target. "Damn it." He tries to judge the situation better, wondering what weapon should he use next.
Do not stand in fireball formation! It had been repeatedly drilled into them, and most of the time that was the right thing to do. Not versus a pack of wild dogs however, they'd mob the weakest seeming target. "They'll try and surround us!" warned Kincaid, "Come to me - and stand back to back."
Rokas had the right idea, if they could scare off the pack leader maybe the others would hightail it. Kincaid drew his bow, knocked an arrow, sighted the largest looking dog and loosed!
The dogs leap from the woodline and race toward the group. Rokas looses an arrow, but the 3 foot grass provides nearly full cover to the dogs, and his arrow goes widely off course and vanishes in to the tall grass.
Xaeken opts to not move, hoping he is as easily hidden as other foes his size seem to be. The small construct presses a hand to his temple and many copies of him erupt into being...
Terex circles downwards, aiming to be a little behind the pack when they attack his friends.
Hylar draws and readies his rapier.
With the dog upon them soon, Rokas drink his mutagen and moves backward to cover Xaeken. As he moves, he takes out his morningstar. "Get ready, here they come."
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The dogs have trouble penetrating the armor of the Kotelian group.
Now that the dogs are engaged in battle, Terex dives down behind one of them, lashing out with the stinger on his tail.
Rokas brings his morningstar down on the head of the black dog that went past him. "Xaeken, move back!" He knows that he scored a hit the dog, he just didn't pay much attention on how much damage he did. Looking at the line of dogs in front of him, he takes a step back, hoping that Xaeken will do the same. This will probably hurt.
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The pack where upon them, biting and snarling to get past Kincaid's armor. So far it was holding - but it would only be a matter of time before they pulled him down if he became surrounded. Dropping his bow, Kincaid pulled out his oversized sword and brought it down with an overhand chop on the dogs.
Hylar whistles for his companion to assist, and once they are both adjacent to the foe, they strike. Hylar lunges with his rapier, while Kasha takes a bite out of the creature.
Three dogs are killed, and a fourth passes out after being stung. Having their numbers reduced by 40% in less than a few heartbeats has the dogs suddenly turning tail and running, yelping as they flee into the woods.
Kincaid carefully wipes the gore off his sword with a rag before sheathing it with one fluid motion. He then picks up his bow and sighs deeply before asking, "Is anyone hurt?" There didn't seem to be any point in perusing the dogs, this was likely they last they'd see of that pack at least.
I'm fine! Terex replies, watching as the dogs run away. They must have been pretty desperate to attack us, don't you think?
Kincaid was thoughtful, "Mmmm pickings must be slim for them to risk such a thing. I wonder if they live here normally or where pushed out by something else. I guess we'll never know. Still if nobody's wounded we should push on. No sense staying here."
Putting away his morningstar, Rokas picks up his bow and store it. He then starts gathering the dead dog together and take out his dagger. "If picking is slim around here, we shouldn't waste good meat." Taking one of the dogs, he cuts it open and starts cleaning the inside. Not looking at anyone in particular, he continues working. "Anyone feel like helping, we just need to take the guts out. We can cook the meat later."
Hylar is about to decline to aid, when Kasha decides she is more than happy to take the guts out, by way of teeth. Offal was not a concept to a fairly hungry cat, guts were nearly so good as any other meat. She, being slightly more intelligent than some other cats, does confine herself to the meat that she is offered rather than eating indiscriminately. "I think you have your help," Hylar adds as an afterthought.
From somewhere from within the armour Kincaid's gravelly voice replies, "Never been keen on dog, too tough and stringy. Still I suppose you're right... If we add enough spices it wont matter anyway." He starts rummaging through his pack looking for the dried chilli flakes and cardamon pods.
I don't think I'd be much help, Terex comments. We should probably get moving quick, though, and make sure we hide our tracks. Someone might stumble across whatever we leave behind.
The group harvests meat from the dogs, while Katscha eats her fill of whatever is left over.
Then, the group continues east, and after another day or so, they finally exit the sparse woods and enter a vast flat plain of grass that goes as far as the eye can see. An endless sea of gold waving in the wind.
So... we turn southeast-ish now, right? Terex 'says', trying not to think about just how very far they'd come from Kotelia now.
"Terex, how high up can you fly? Maybe you could see something in the distance that we can't from up there."
Terex shifts uncomfortably. Pretty high, but if something big and flying comes along behind me I won't be in telepathy range or anything if I fly all that high. I guess around here we could see from a long ways if something was coming, but still...
Terex flies up and up, until the other party members are little dots in the yellow sea far below.
On the horizon to the east, almost due east, he sees a smudge as if smoke were there. Not like a forest fire, but like a town or something, all hazy and spread out.