Taisper, not being the best horseman under ideal circumstances, is even worse when wearing armor. "Wh-ACKPTH!" he exclaims as Verik's snowball pelts him. He overbalances and falls out of his saddle with a resounding *THUD* in the snow. His horse eyes him mildly. "Hahahaaa, okay Verik you asked for it!" Grinning, the inquisitor quickly packs a snowball and fires one back, just barely smacking Verik in the shoulder.
"Oi! What is this?! Tandlara! Help me vanquish that traitor!" Jemini jumps down the horse landing with the grace of a sack of potatoes. But she comes up grinning with snowy doom. - the shot going wide wide wiiiide. She hides behind Wildflower as she pelts snowballs.
The elven woman is startled out of her reverie by Jemini's shout. She looks around expecting attack but instead finds her human friends... throwing snow at each other. Well its good for them to play games. But my heart just wouldn't be in it, I'll just draw off a bit and let them have their fu-
It is at this moment she notices Verik approaching. 'Now Verik-' she tries to sound serious, but the man's smile tells her she will get little headway. 'Let's not be silly here, let's- Oh my.' She dives from Avansatra's back with a sudden move , she dives gracefully out, but not quickly and loses a moment rising from the crouch she lands behind her horse, a strange look having come over her face. The smile of a young girl, the dicentarian elf looks giddy as she calls out in a voice near giggling in tone, 'Zander! Save me from this approaching villain!'
Zander clumsily dismounts and grabs a couple of balls of snow. Seeing that Verik has already gotten his fair portion of snow in the face. he turns to Tandlara, "Now you know that witchery is against the rules!" Moving for cover behind the now snowmanesque Verik, Zander throws a snowball at the elf woman, catching her square in the face.
"Always take down the biggest fighter and the wizard first!" Taisper attempts to assist Verik's efforts at engaging Berrin and then Tandlara. He manages to smack Berrin in the torso with an icy missile, but Tandlara ducks just at the last second and Taisper's shot sails over her head. "Oh no! Now she's gonna target me!"
Smiling and grabbing up more snow, Zander calls out, "You know Taisper, that logic may hold true in a battle of blades, but in a snowball fight the Archer is truly the greatest threat!" Standing his ground, he throws two snowballs in rapid succession at the young inquisitor, pelting him in the back of the head and the neck.
"Ackkk! Pfft. Yow! That's cold and wet." Taisper brushes snow off his neck and grins at Zander. "No fair you can do that with snowballs, too! Hahaa!" He flings one back at the archer but some snow runs down the small of his back causing him to yelp with surprise and miss off to the side.
Jemini laughs as she ineffectually tosses more white powder at Verik.
'Ahh!' Tandlara sputters and spits the snow from her face. Leaning to down to ball some snow into her hands. She takes but a moment to get a hang of it, rising swiftly with a well-rolled snowball she stalks around her horse.
'I'll have my vengeance Zander! An elf never forgets!' With that she launches her snowball at the lopey ranger as he sends a barrage at Taispar.
The snowball hits the man directly on the back of the neck, cold snow sluicing down his clothes.
"Waghh!" yells Zander as the snow drips down the back of his neck just as Verik's snowball hits him in the chest. "I take it back, I take it back! Tandlara is the most dangerous!"
Looking around for cover, he dives behind a rock and gathers up more snow.
"Hah! Lucky!" Jemini beams like a little girl when one shot finally connects.
She whoops and sits down, taking a breather to drink something.
"Somebody remind me. What are we doing again?"
Time to make headway. "Let's get this place mapped then. I'd like to be on solid ground again by nightfall."
Grinning wildly Tandlara have does a jig as she makes her way back over to her horse. The elven woman then gracefully remounts the white horse, and flashes the others a grin.
'That was new! Humans are silly creatures! Back on the road we go!'
In a day of highs and lows, the expedition maps out the mountain area, paying special attention to marking the location that the procession returned to the First World. Between the portentous appearance of extremely powerful fey and the frivolous application of snowballs, the day was one to remember.
The expedition sets up camp at another cave, building a fire to ward off the cold once Jemini's magical protection fades for most of them. Like most of the nights since they began traveling together, the conversation is easy and friendly. The group seems truly growing into a cohesive unit, despite their earlier arguments.
"It looks like more mountains to the west and north-west. We'll want to explore them eventually... - but it will not be easy with the resources we have. I'd like to get this corner of the land sorted out in one go - but maybe we should chose the safest option for now."
Jemini looks worried over to Berrin, who looks to have developed some discomfort. His forehead is warm to the touch, and slightly clammy as if suffering from a severe fever. Perhaps the effects of endure elements actually suppress the symptoms to some extent? "Verik, I think you might be best suited for this. I suspect Berrin might have come down with something."
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"Um yes, I can take a look I suppose - though I pretend no real expertise in non-magical healing." Verik says uncertainly, riding over to Berrin's side he examines the big man.
"It does not seem to serious, a chill perhaps. Keep wrapped up in furs as best you can and conserve your energy - let me know if you feel any change."
'I agree. I can only take the mountains for so long, and we didn't plan for feeding the horses, nor do we have much rope or climbing gear. Returning to Olegs along a northeastherly path is probably for the best. We can avoid any serious ridges and mountains between here and there.'
"Honestly, I don't know - but if there are more than one; then there might even be groups that we cannot comprehend. An "eternal night" group, a "everybody-is-feyblooded" group, an "encompassing waters" group - anything is possible."
'There are more factions and courts among the fey than there are stars in the sky, each more strange and capricious than the last. Even the benevolent fey must be dealt with with great caution. This land is close to them, in many ways thats what originally drew me here. This landed is inhabited, haunted some would say, by the fey and their faerie powers and emanations. We will meet many more in our time, hopefully most of them more approachable and less threatening. I would reccomend to all of you to watch your tongues with the fey, and keep on their good sides. They may seem frail, and indeed you could slay some of the lesser ones in combat already. But that would only be the beginning. Don't spill fey blood in this land if you can avoid it.'
Riding silently for most of the day Berrin feels himself drawn more and more inward untill he's almost comatose, shivering with cold his skin is burning to the touch. Smiling weakly at Jemini's and Verik's attention he nods in thanks muttering "I'll be alright." without much conviction.
When the group makes camp Berrin slumps down after slowlie removing his armor and falls fast asleep. No amount of noise comes anywhere near waking him as he sweats and shivers through the night. Come morning his feaver seems to have mostly broken, he breaths easyer and his skin no longer burns, still feeling weak though he isn't much use in prepping for the coming journey. Eating sparecely he moves slowlie and sighs quite often though he is relieved when Jemini renews her endure elements spell on him.
Jemini spends a large portion of the night tending to Berrin. Even though he's mostly asleep - his heaving and sweat mark him as severely ill. Jemini tries to ease it a little by keeping her magic on him and using cool moist cloths to try and keep him more comfortable.
Zander looks hard at the map before speaking, "I think Tandlara might be right. Foraging for rations will just slow us down so if we head East into the hills and then skirt north around that other mountain, we can cut down on our travel time by quite a bit. After we restock at Oleg's we can set out again and take care of that mountain as it isn't too far out of the way."
"We should take care to stock up on feed as well for the next expedition so this situation doesn't come up again." Berrin replies to Zander.
"Yeah! Svetlana's cooking, what a great idea. I sure don't mind trail rations but it'll be nice to have some home cooking again. Though, you know, I dunno -- some of Berrin's and Tandlara's breakfasts have been really terrific! Hmmmm..." Taisper smiles earnestly at the two.
"Another portion of the moon radish soup would be amazing! That, and another hot hot bath..."
"Well.." Berrin shrugs at the compliments to his cooking, "If you'd allowed us to forage as we went the food would have been both frsher and gamyer. Some nice rosted hare with truffles and onions to kick off the day, now there's a meal I tells ya." Berrin dreams while getting ready to leave.
"So were heading east then?" he asks Zander, now the unoficial map-master and exploration-direction-setter.
Zander nods, "East it is. I don't like that we'll have to double back to climb that second mountain, but we weren't really prepared for mountain travel."
Packing the last of his supplies onto his horse, Zander mounts up and waits for the others to do so before continuing on the journey east.
Tandlara stays quiet during the planning process, glad to see her plan take off with the party. She smiles vaguely and sits happily in the saddle. What a wild few days, this kind of constant drama might be okay for humans, but I need a break. I can't take this constant action. She secretely looks forward to the outpost, and the peace it can provide. She hopes that she can convince her allies to take a few days off when they return home, though suspects it will be hard to dissuade the humans from rushing right back into the action.
Setting off on the horses, the group makes its way down the side of the mountain. Once they make it to the wooded foothills, the horses stop for a while to eat as much foliage as they can. Berrin's horse nearly bucks him trying to get to a particularly tasty looking bit of brush, but the warrior manages to hang on in the saddle. The other horses are better-behaved, clopping from bush to bush while having their fill.
The horses continue to move hungrily from location to location. The group simply rides, letting them guide the way while they map the area. While the air is still quite cool, the sun is out and providing some needed warmth on their skin. It seems that winter has let its grip on the area slacken.
As the horses are slowly getting their fill, Jemini thinks of food as well. "So... Berrin. You sound quite the gourmet; where - or perhaps how - did you learn to cook?"
As Zander rides, he works dilligently on his map, sketching out the area and occasionally taking notes as they go. "You know," he says to no one in particular, not looking up from his mapping as he talks, "Considering that we are the first people to map this region, we can pretty safely take the job of naming the various landmarks whatever we want as well. What do you think we should call that mountain range back there? I'm kind of leaning towards the 'Snowball Peaks' to commemorate our epic battle." He looks up with a smile, "What do you guys think?"
"Hahahaaaa! Well, people shouldn't have a hard time going along with that. Maybe the name will inspire others to similar acts of bravery and fun." Taisper grins as the group rides along.
After her conversation with Berrin winds down, the inquisitor pulls his horse up by Jemini. "Hey Jemini, I was wondering, and if this is too personal and you don't want to answer, I understand, but I noticed that before when you talked about your teacher, and the arrow almost hitting him, I just noticed...well, you were looking at your hands. Is...is something wrong with them? Did he do something to them to...Punish you?" Taisper pronounces "punish" oddly, the same rounded and over-grandiose and potentially irritating way he says things like "judged" or "gods" or "community" or anything to do with the worship of Abadar. It's one of his few affectations that doesn't seem geared towards making himself seem as harmless and bumpkin-like as possible.
Tandlara smiles at Zander. 'That's not bad. Not very portentous, but I quite like it!'
A nice memory of happier times, we can hold it dear in the years to come, because lord only knows there will be hard times and dark moments. But that snow helped us get over one, we know we can over come things together. Thats what these mountains mean to me. Family, she smiles as she thinks to herself, and does not think of how short a time she will have to share with her new human friends.
"Punished? What? Oh. No. No certainly not. It's just... I've always had trouble with my hands, the fine finessey things are difficult for me. I can grip and swing a sword all day long, but - well, to give an example, I've tried embroidery for a while, and the results aren't pretty," she stares ruefully at her hands again. "Look at this:" she holds up her hand, fingers splayed wide - then she moves them slowly into a fist, and her point becomes obvious as her fingers don't dense up to a fist in a smooth motion but in a fast start-stop staccato. "It's like my fingers only know about where they are, and where they will be - not the bits in between."
"It's not really very debilitating; but I've got trouble getting stuff out of my backpack in a hurry."
"Oh!" Taisper looks sort of relieved. "Does it - is it related to how well you can dodge and parry and things, or is it just have to do with your hands? And, I assume the answer is no or you would have brought it up, but is it a heal-able thing?" Taisper glances back at Verik, then back at the paladin riding next to him. "...like, nerves or muscle damage?"
"Oh!" Taisper looks sort of relieved. "Does it - is it related to how well you can dodge and parry and things, or is it just have to do with your hands? And, I assume the answer is no or you would have brought it up, but is it a heal-able thing?" Taisper glances back at Verik, then back at the paladin riding next to him. "...like, nerves or muscle damage?"
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Verik looks up to the sky, "No some things are just how we are, I think this is one of those things. Some people are simply... Better in some aspects of how they are made. I for instance will never have Zander's dexterity, Tandlara will never be a strongman - or even strongelf." He shrugs.
Looking to Zander he furrows his brow slightly, "Mount Snowball is hardly... Um, portentious I worry that if we give such a peak a friendly name more people will be inclined to go there. And it seems curiously I don't know disrespectful? To the what we saw there, I would not want too many people venturing there, just in case. Perhaps a name for it should be ominous, like, er, Snowfear or something?"
Jemini nods to Verik's words, "We're all gifted in some ways, and suffer in others. It is our lot."
"I also agree with Verik, even though I can appreciate the sentiment and have great memories of our little escapade - but that only paints a grimmer picture when taken wholly in context of our experiences there. Perhaps Feytread Mountains?"
Berrin's horse leads the way, ravenously heading from brush to brush to find the choicest bits of foliage. The other horses seem to have contented themselves, but this one seems to be a bottomless pit of leaf-eating. The horse tracks forward a bit, moving ahead of the others. Berrin appears to still be a little under the weather, content to let the horse take the reins.
As the horse munches on a branch, Berrin hears a strange high-pitched whine. Leaning forward to investigate, he sees that the brush is actually fairly bare in the middle. From the vantage point atop his horse, he sees a pit dug into the ground. "Oi! Look here!" He shouts to the others.
As they gather close, the whine turns into loud yips and barks. Looking into the pit, the expedition can see a large four-legged canine. Its red fur is stretched tight against its ribs. Its gauntness gives it the appearance of starvation, while its behavior shows obvious desperation. It leaps against the side of the pit, trying to climb out, barking and growling at them.