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Hace looks to the sky, "Hey guys, see those birds? Something has them spooked or magiked. Come across any raven or bird witches in your battles? They make pretty common familiars."
This gets Quasit's attention and her head snaps up to look at the circling black birds.
"Um... yeah, funny you should mention that. We got into a fight in the tower with a strange flying blue woman who used a swarm of crows to attack us. She escaped before we could beat her, so she's still on the loose."
She sighs and huddles herself more tightly within her cloak.
"Great. Just great."
Hace looks to Issalissk, "Guard.", then he turns to Quasit, "Looks like she's either back, spying on you, or about to do something, be on your guard. Anyone have a ranged weapon, I'd suggest having it at the ready to shoot anyone that magical appears here and tries to cast a spell to disrupt them."
Bulvi looks terrible the next morning. "I feel like a troll danced a jig on me. I can't remember last night." He just seems to roll with the fact they have new traveling companions.
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Drawing his crossbow he sighs. "My hangover didn't go away quicker with this magic ring. I suppose I can't expect it to fix everything. I guess I was thinking I'd feel a bit different... oh well as long as it works." Bulvi loads a crossbow bolt while they get ready.
Maka rose with the sun, performing her daily exercises and meditations in the snow. By the time she was done, she had been dusted in a fine layer of snow. Flames began to swirl around her as she focused her energies. In a moment the layer of snow was replaced with rising steam. The cold had never much bothered Maka, but she didn't like to be wet. Satisfied with efforts, the tall woman headed inside for a few plates of breakfast.
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Maka took a defensive pose at Hace's warning, her fire at the ready. "Go away, we aren't interested in fighting a bunch of birds!" She yelled at the observing creatures.
Hace looks pretty comfortable all bundled up in his cold weather gear, but Issalissk looks pretty comical. With some fur boots over his limbs, a jacket, and a scarf, Issalissk manages to keep his cold-blood relatively warm enough to survive.
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Sakitu wakes to find Quasit in the bed and smiles. It's almost like Quasit is her sister and she likes that. As soon as she starts to get herself out of bed, her head immediately starts pounding. Sakitu tries to hold still on the side of the bed. Through squinted eyes she spots Quasit moving slowly as well. "Yeah, this is why I don't drink." she says in a voice barely more than a whisper.
Pulling herself together, she manages to gather her belongings and head down to the main room.
"What? Those birds are back? Sakitu cranes her neck to find the dark specks in the sky. "Great. Just what I wanted." She grabs her shortbow and puts an arrow on the string just in case any nasty creatures pop up.
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Sakitu's face drains as she sees the crows coalesce into a couple of dangerous swarms. Sakitu grips the bow and arrow with her left hand then raises her right to face one of the swarms. "We're not doing this again!" she says under her breath and then follows that with a string of arcane words. Instantly a flurry of snowballs shoots from her hand in a cone covering the swarm closest to her.
Hace looks at the swarms of birds, the back at Issalissk, "Feeling hungry for bird? Time for a snack buddy. Guard, attack." he says while pointing at the spot in front of him.
Crocodile hissing noises
"Well if that's the way you want it." With a quick jab, Maka sent a small ball of fire at the crows while keeping defensive stance. Maka was never one to back down from a challenge, but she still found it a bit odd to be fighting a swarm of birds.
Hace watches maka fight, he has seen it before, she is pretty good at defending against a few foes, but not thousands! "Maka, you wont be able to block their beaks, there are too many of them!"
Hace watches maka fight, he has seen it before, she is pretty good at defending against a few foes, but not thousands! "Maka, you wont be able to block their beaks, there are too many of them!"
"Their beaks? Why would they use those when they have their little feet hands?"
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the crocodile not used to its new cold weather gear just barely manages to miss the swarm as it comes in
Blue Damage
as the blue swarm starts to claw at everyone, Bulvi can't help but seem to be getting the worse of it
Red Damage
I need reflex saves from everyone except Quasit
you are blinded as the Ravens rake at your eyes
~~ Round 1~~
Bold to Act
Fin
Sakitu
Hace
Maka
Quasit
R - 14
B - 12
Bulvi
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Sakitu swipes in the air at the crows. "Get away! Get away!" she shrieks at them and then tries to move away from them. "Hace, if you move away then I can try to hit them with snowballs again. I don't want to hit you or your croc though." Now that the swarm is on them, she takes a moment to cast magical protection on herself.
Maka ducks and weaves as best she can against the swarm, but as Hace warned she can only do so much. Her eyes flashed with anger as one of the birds scratched her cheek. "ENOUGH!" she shouted before moving to a position that would allow her to avoid her friends. Taking in a deep breath, she roared as a gout of fire flew from her mouth.
Hace stumbles around in the swarm of birds, but doesn't manage to get avoid the worst of the hits, causing him to no longer have functioning eyes. "Issalissk, attack! Oh gods, I can't see!" he says as he eyes flow freely with blood.
5ft step out of the swarm, command to attack.
Issalissk waddles out of the swarm and tries to slap as many birds as he can.
Bulvi draws his longsword and slashes through a few crows before stepping backwards out of their mass.
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the final blow from Quasit and Maka drops both the swarms of ravens, and everyone eats roast birds for the night
~~End of Combat~~
the rest of the days travel is uneventful compared to the swarms, a random wildlife may skitter across the trail but nothing threatening
you can find a clearing where it would be wise to set up shelter and a campfire
Survival DC 15 - it will take about an hour
Survival DC 20+ - it will take less then an hour
Hace holds on to Issalissk for guidance as the group continues their march through the cold lands of Irrisen. He finds his new life of blindness rather distressing, realizing he will no longer be able to read, see clues, ready body language, or many of his other skills that he is accustomed to using. Hopefully the party finds a helpful cleric in the near future to heal his eyes.
When the group decides to setup camp, Hace tries to provide some key facts about the best ways to setup camp in a cold environment, even if he can't actually see the environment.
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Sakitu stumbles around at the makeshift campsite trying to help but in reality she is more of a problem than a help. At some point Fin pulls her to the side and applies his healing skills. At first Sakitu can only see light and dark shapes but within a few minutes her vision returns back to normal.
"Oh Fin! I can never thank you enough." She embraces him with a fierce hug. "You are my friend for life."
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Once the birds are dead, Quasit emerges from her cover. She sees the bleeding faces of her companions and her hand goes to her mouth to hold back an exclamation of alarm. She shakes her head and then looks toward the sky again. But in anger.
"Oh, she's out there... she just wants us to know we aren't off the hook..." she mutters under her breath, to no one in particular.
She makes her way over to Bulvi , laying a hand on his arm.
"Bull, what is it with you and the eyes?" she says quietly with an empathetic smile. "Just think of all this barren snow you won't get to see. And the endless rows of dark trees. And the dark cloudy sky. Such a shame. I think you ticked off a bird in your previous life."
She wraps an arm around one of his and hugs it for a moment, laying a cheek against his bicep.
"I can help guide you, if you want. Does it hurt bad?" she says.
Maka exhales a puff of smoke with satisfaction as the swarm of crows laid in charred mess at her feet. Her satisfaction quickly turns to worry as she notices the injuries of her party. "OH NO! Hace, let me see. Yeah they messed up your eyes, guess you were right about the beaks." She said while she fussed over her friend. "They should heal up though. Might take a few days, but I can be your eyes until then! And Bulvi's, because his eyes look pretty messed up too. But at least we have dinner taken care of."
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Maka followed Hace's instructions as best she could, quickly moving to and fro as she helped to set up camp. Once done, she wiggled out of her cold weather clothing. "Agh finally! That thing is so itchy." Though the cold rarely bothered her, Hace had been rather convincing about keeping a low profile. Sitting close to the fire, she began to loudly chew roast bird while watching Finn apply his elvish healing. "So, should we be worried about more bird attacks?"
"Thanks Quasit... it's going to be awkward. I considered getting goggles but I was worried the glass would just get smashed into my eyes... I don't think I can win with this damn place."
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"Thanks Quasit... it's going to be awkward. I considered getting goggles but I was worried the glass would just get smashed into my eyes... I don't think I can win with this damn place."
"Well, at least that's 87 or so crows that'll never report back to their mistress. Eventually this place is going to run out of crows, right?"
Feeling like she has permission now, she fusses over him a bit, cleaning up the blood and bird poop from his face and armor, and rips him a bandage for his eyes from one of her ruined shirts.
"Maybe we could find you a helmet? You know, with a visor? Like cavaliers wear. Or do your Ulfen sensibilities rebel at not having your flowing blond hair billowing in the wind?" she teases lightly, as she begins leading him gently out of the clearing.
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Maka followed Hace's instructions as best she could, quickly moving to and fro as she helped to set up camp. Once done, she wiggled out of her cold weather clothing. "Agh finally! That thing is so itchy." Though the cold rarely bothered her, Hace had been rather convincing about keeping a low profile. Sitting close to the fire, she began to loudly chew roast bird while watching Finn apply his elvish healing. "So, should we be worried about more bird attacks?"
Although she knew Findurel had been looking for a campsite, and although she'd actually helped him scout a few spots, when he finally settles on a decent place Quasit seems mightily depressed. She looks around the desolate little clearing as the cold of evening begins to deepen and just shakes her head slowly. She helps Bulvi to a rock for him to sit on, and begins to help gather wood for a fire.
When she comes back and sees Maka lounging around without her cold weather gear, she just stares at the Jalmeri woman in wonder for a moment. She chews her lip, considering something, then seems to decide not to say anything, and comes back to lay her wood beside the fire for later use. She winces a little as she sits.
"Oh, bird attacks, bug attacks, lizard attacks, bear attacks, it's hard to know what'll attack us next. But yeah, I'm guessing we're going to get harassed somehow pretty regularly from here on out. And while Bulvi and Hace are out of commission, the rest of us will have to step up and help more with watch duties." She looks around and sighs. "Not that anyone is going to be able to sleep all that well anyway. Although I suppose I've slept in worse places."
"So, Nadya, how many days is it to White Castle?"