Davi finds a reasonably open clearing to lay bedrolls down on. Unfortunately, this is the best that she can find, though it is not ideal as it is open to all sides.
Adrac nods back to Soroza, smiling. "You all have potential. I think I will start taking more of a back row and let you young ones handle things more. Perhaps my knowledge will prove more effective that way."
Traveling along, Adrac keeps an eye on the sunlight, but as night falls, he sighs, nodding. "A wise decision. I think a good rest will restore our spirits. Tomorrow is a new day with new opportunities. Besides, I've worn my body to it's limit... calling on the Four Winds takes a great deal of concentration and endurance. And it seems all mine left me long ago."
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Anthony nods to Adrac in agreement, "You aren't young any more, sir for good and for ill. Doesn't mean you can't pull your weight, I think you can just take on a new role than in your youth." He smiles and starts setting his bedroll out. He withdraws his journal and reviews his old notes before heading off to dreamland.
Herral points out the ready water supply nearby and the plentiful logs from a fallen tree not that far away, heavy fat mushrooms in its shade to help feed everyone.
The halfling begins to collect dozens of them.
"Us'll take a few watches an' start off early agin in the morn."
The lucky halfling finds an entire grove of edible mushrooms to feed the group. They go well with Violar's biscuits and honey that she packed for him before he left.
"I can take first watch, if you don't mind Herral, I'm a little restless after today. Anthony volunteers.
"Desna be happy fur me to greet the dawn. Fur prayers an' this ear journey ahead. So I be on las', company or none. I do 'eartell that the older youm get the less sleep you be needin', is that an old wives tale, Adrac, cus you cun have a night watch, if'n so."
The halfling munches away at the food "until his belt squeaks", as they say. He stifles a belch and prepares for bed.
"I think Adrac's more than earned a full night's rest and then some. I'll take middle watch."
Did I just volunteer to wake up in the middle of the damn night?
Soroza was surprised at herself, but Adrac had nearly been eaten by some approximation of a dragon and Davi, while not suffering any particularly grievous wounds, was covered in minor cuts and bruises after the day's events.
She laughed a morbid, quiet laugh to herself. If my mother were alive, seeing me drag myself out of bed for someone else's sake would certainly have struck her dead on the spot.
Adrac grabs a seat next to a tree and crosses his legs, placing his palms on his knees and inhaling. "Now now, I've taken watch under worse conditions. Permit me to take first watch - I can use the time to meditate and ponder my straying from the path."
Davi yawns. "I've got a patient to take care of. I'll be up for a good hour at least. If you guys can't decide who takes what watch I'll supervise arm wrestling matches then. Winner gets to stay awake."
Davi heads to Flower and pulls out her healing kit. After a moment's thought she grabs some of the jerky as well. Slowly she unties the makeshift fox 'den' and carries the whole load over to her bedroll. She carefully places the fox down and puts some jerky in front of it.
"Hey fox. Good fox. Does, um, Foxy want delicious dried meat? Yum!" Not the most original name but hey, she's tired right?
Assuming that the fox allows her to, Davi tends to its wounds.
After replacing his book in his bag, Anthony makes a pleading gesture with his hands as he says, "No, no, it's quite alright sir. I really am restless. I need the time alone if you don't mind, sir.
"Baint an argument if'n you both watch or we av four with Anthony at the face, then Adrac, Soroza an' me at the tail," munches Herral on a russet before bed.
With his part in that conversation done, he rolls over and is soon snoring. He keeps the apple core in his hand in case he wakes up hungry.
Toilday, Sarenith (June), 30, 4708
The fox accepts Davi's food, but it falls back asleep soon after.
The night passes. Light from the almost full moon filters through the leaves during the watches. The group stays until the next morning, a few hours after sunrise to allow the first watch to catch up on sleep.
It is raining, making it difficult to see far.
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Soroza wakes up lazily, lifting herself slowly to a sitting position and stretching her arms and back languidly. She wordlessly fumbles through her backpack for some rations to nibble on.
Soroza has barely opened her eyes the entire time, and her demeanor currently has more in common with various lesser undead than a humanoid. She's hardly in the appropriate state to notice anything.
Elsie sniffles, eating from a feedbag that Herral set up for her. The forest is still and quiet.
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Adrac grimaces at Anthony's pleading, but after some of it, submits and allows him the watch himself. Adrac sleeps quietly through the night, though he does stir once in a while to investigate things while others are on watch.
Waking up in the morning, Adrac immediately curls his legs into a criss-cross and begins his morning meditation. As he sits, he speaks up, though his eyes remain closed. "So, tell me: who was on watch when whatever left those tracks came through the camp last night?" he asked, and if inquired, points wordlessly to the tracks through the mud before resuming his silence.
...how does he do that?
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Davi checks on the fox as soon as she wakes up. She puts jerky in front of the creature and starts singing. "Good morning, good morning, it's time to rise! Don't lie abed wipe the sleep from your eyes. It's time to get up, stand up on your feet! Get up Mr. Foxy and have yourself some meat!" She's focused on the creature until Adrac speaks up.
"Well those are...footprints. Maybe it was just a goat? I mean none us died a horrible death so it can't be that bad right?"
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Soroza is a one-woman chorus of grumbles as she picks herself up and starts getting ready for the day and assembling her gear. She gives Davi a groggy, perplexed look as she sings at the wounded animal.
When Adrac mentions the tracks, Soroza ambles over to the location he indicated...
...and offers Adrac something between a grunt and a shrug, her eyes still barely open, and returns to readying her gear.
Anthony shifts over to look at the tracks. He furrows his brow, and retrieves a book from his bag and starts flipping through it furiously to try to find a matching footprint.
"A goat walk through an' no one spots it. Tis better if'n we keep our eyes peeled but p'haps no harm bin done. I be checkin' me food an' belongings now, they et most things."
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"Which way we be goin'? The witch, the ruins or was there another plan? I got an idea of the way to Ozmilla if'n that be the one us plump fur.
Herral is a capable navigator. Where to?
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"Witch next, right? I would very much like to get that over with."
Herral leads the group onwards for a few hours. It is wet and miserable.
Then, the sounds of the forest become suddenly distant as the trees part, opening into a small, almost perfectly circular glade. The nearest stands of pine, eyln, and darkwood-- all typically sturdy woods-- twist away from the clearing, as if bent by some impossibly strong wind or seemingly in an attempt to flee despite their paralyzed roots. At the glade's center squats an ugly cottage, little more than a pile of twigs, shoots, and ivy stacked upon mud walls. From the thatched roof dangle bundles of gnarled roots, old dried beast carcasses, and knucklebone bangles, all clattering together like gruesome wind chimes. A dozen small thatched fetishes-- each shaped like a tiny man, imp, or rearing serpent -- stand propped in the yard, keeping guard before a rickety plank door.
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"Us as 'ad mite too many surprises fur moy taste. I is goin' to take a trip rond to see what I cun see. P'haps someone cunmeet us rond back if'n they go the other way. Like a crab's claw snappin'?"
The halfling ties up Elsie and circles the clearing carefully, looking for trouble.
Adrac grimaces at the tracks... something didn't seem right about them. Well, if they were fine, perhaps it wasn't an issue.
Adrac followed along quietly as he spied the witch's hut. "Well now..." he mused, waiting for the others to approach.
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All that's missing is a sign that says "Vaguely Sinister Witch's Hut - Beware", Soroza thinks to herself as they approached the clearing.
Seeing Herral slink off, Soroza becomes impatient and addresses the rest of the group:
"This is simple, no? We need something from her and will likely have to bargain for it, best approach boldly and ask honestly. While her... decor... does admittedly bode ill, I can't imagine sneaking around the outside of her house will particularly endear us to her."
Without waiting for a response she turns and walks purposefully towards the structure's front door.
Soroza approaches the door. She can see that the door has rotted off its hinges, but still blocks the way within.
It's stuck! Takes a DC 10 strength check to heft it aside...
As Soroza nears the door, the ghastly trinkets surrounding the hut dull her nerve a bit... but there was no going back at this point.
Opting for a compromise between directness and deference, Soroza stands before the door and knocks on it confidently.
Soroza knocks... but there is no answer.
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Davi paces back and forth. She's hyperventilating and mumbling under her breath. This is taking too long. No more waiting. She bounds up next to Soroza and pounds on the door. "HEY! OPEN UP" she yells.
If nobody answers her she tries to force the door open
Not a peep. One of the boards in the door splinters when Davi tries to force it open.
With a start, as Davi rushes up next her, Soroza leaps a full three feat back.
"Calistria's t!ts, Davi! What are you doing!?"
Seeing her struggle to force the door, Soroza gently rests her hands on the other woman's shoulders.
"Calm. Down. I'm all for rash action but we're asking a favor, not putting the cottage under siege."
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"Yeah...well...ok" Davi slumps. Her head hits the door with a slight thump. She closes her eyes and begins to whisper. "It's just, you know, the witch is kind of sort of some kind of relative that's been invading my dreams with magic? She halfheartedly smacks the door with her hand. "I think she's out. I can't decide if that's good or bad luck."
"Davi, I... I don't... really know where to put that..."
Which was the truth, but something about Davi's frustration resonated with Soroza. Specifically with parts of her life that she didn't often speak of.
"But... If you know this woman. If she's doing something to you, you should have told us. I'd never tell you not to go straight at throat of whatever's bothering you, but you didn't have to eat up all that anxiety on your own."
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"I thought about it. Once I knew we were coming here. But how do you even start that conversation? 'Hey guys, the witch we have to go see is related to my hag mother, maybe even is my hag mother, but either way she definitely wants me to come be her creepy apprentice based on the crazy weird dreams she's putting in my head and Sheyln above but I sound like a crazy person."
Davi sighs. "I don't know. My working plan was to stab things until my problems go away. It's a decent plan?"
Anthony looks at Davi and asks, "You think she's going to demand your apprenticeship in exchange for her help? We ought to be prepared for that. Adrac, Sir, may I see that dagger we collected?"
After Adrac gives it to him, Anthony examines the dagger carefully. "I should have done this before we arrived in Falcon's Hollow. I completely forgot." He opens up his magical senses and attempts to discern the Dagger's properties.
His brow furrows, and a disappointed expression crosses his face. "I can't be sure of its abilities except to say that it is magical. She might be inclined to take this instead of our Davi, if we offer it." He suggests.
Adrac nods, handing Anthony the dagger, before turning to Davi and frowning. "Davi... you sound like Anthony's father before I got to know him. He worked along similar logic - a strong swordarm will solve your problems. I'm afraid to say, it will not... a price we paid dearly for at one point."
His eyes dart almost imperceptibly to Anthony, before kneeling next to Davi and placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I understand the fear you must be feeling. I cannot claim to know it, but I realize it's hard to put into words. But you are among friends; they are here to aid you with such demons. And I would've hoped you'd at least have told me. Perhaps we are not all related by blood, but I consider you all students and family, as much as I do my son, his wife, and my granddaughter. If things trouble you, I pray you will tell me."
Adrac stood up, looking around to each in turn and nodding firmly. "That goes for all of you. I know from experience - the price of not speaking is steep. Please... if not your allies, then myself." Adrac stepped over to the door to try and open it, finding it stuck. "Davi... if you do not wish to enter, please do not. But you have my word - I will not leave this place without you or the ingredient!" He stated, before placing his hands behind his back, raising a foot and smashing it into the door.
Adrac smashes the hut door down.
Inside, the cottage is empty. It is dank, reeking, and filled with shadows. Haphazardly hung shelves line the walls, covered in all manner of clay jugs, clouded bottles, strangely cut rocks, rotted bunches of herbs, and a museum of other crude curios and remnants of a bone grinder's artifice. A rusted iron cauldron, with a mouth nearly five feet wide and a depth of three feet, dominates the hut's single room, its ash-covered surface shaped with a relief of capering fiends and leering devils. Across from the door, against the far walls, stands a high-backed chair made of wicker, the gigantic curved tusks of some monstrous beasts, and thousands of human teeth. In the chair sits what looks like a corpse wrapped in filthy burial linens, its form sprouting patches of thick white mold.
Herral moves back into camp after the party bomburst forwards into the clearing. The fetishes he fingers briefly then shrugs with a total lack of knowledge in that direction.
At the back and short by a couple of inches, Herral contents himself by waiting for the front people to enter or give room for a decent view.
Soroza took in the environment of the cottage's interior in stages.
First, there was the smell. Her eyes began to water and her throat turned to slate.
Secondly, the chair. She recognized the teeth instantly as human, but it took several heartbeats for her mind to fully engage with an understanding of the sheer quantity of them. She felt dizzy.
Finally, the corpse. The foul, white mold sprouting from it was perhaps the most thorough illustration of death she'd seen in her short life. Her stomach convulsed.
"Looks like... Uliz... ugh... Uli... urgh... the witch... has seen better days."
Her paltry attempt at wit had little impact through the periodic dry heaves.
She stepped outside, took a deep breath, wiped her face, and began regaining her composure.
She gestured towards the doorway at Herral: "Be my guest. Adrac really does take us to all the finest locales."
"T'aint no body, tis branches an' leaves. Look, this be a fine locket though." Herral waves the locket at Soroza and lobs it towards her and Davi. Then he starts to search around.
The locket is heart shaped and it has three tiny portraits in it: one of a well dressed human man, one of a beautiful young woman with thick, curly hair, and a last one of a baby girl, with a full head of thick, black hair and mismatched colored eyes...
Davi only: