Vigny replies "oh sure, a little bit every day" breezily to Emiliana's comment. Mostly she's looking about for a decent place to have the picnic she prepared. No where looked very good so far.
"I don't hear anything either," Tatiana says as she shuffles closer to Soliana.
"That does seem vierd..." Emi agrees now noticing the silence, "I'm no voodsman, but shouldn't there be animal noises? Is it possible ve just scared off vhatefer animals are usually here?"
Even as she tries to comfort the others (and herself) the graceful young Varisian takes hold of the scarf that she uses in combat...
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"Huh? What?"
Jerukh eyes narrow as he too tries to take in the still atmosphere;
:
The chirurgeon keeps his hands free, lest weal or woe be required...
"Maybe they're all just somewhere else right now?"
As you consider the profound silence, a clear, tinkling laugh rings out in woods. It echoes around, making it almost impossible to tell which direction it truly comes from. But the thing that causes the hairs on the backs of necks to rise and skin to turn into gooseflesh is the slight, sinister note that edges the otherwise pleasant sound.
"Oh yes," a beautiful voice says after the laughter dies down, "perhaps they are only sleeping in their nests and burrows!"
The laughter rings out again, filling the gloom with with its echoes that continue long after it has died away.
Jerukh's brow furrows in concentration as he listens to the eerie laugh;
:
You've got a feeling that whomever that voice belongs to, it's fey in origin.
The voice laughs again at Soli's reply.
"My! How innocent you are! And dutiful too," the voice chirrups mockingly. "I think I'll leave you for last, maybe even make you a pet! Wouldn't that be fun?"
"শুভেচ্ছা, বোন আমরা বলতে পারি যে আপনার রাজত্ব প্রবেশের কোন অপরাধ নেই, সম্ভবত আপনি আমাদের সাথে মুখোমুখি কথা বলতে পারেন?" Emi asks politely but confidently.
Vigny had lived not very far south of the Grungir Forest. Tales of the fey within it, and their cruel trickery were a staple of her young childhood. She had never really thought about it, but had always figured that forest was unique with it's proximity to the First World.
Yet this voice and what its words are of a part with those stories. That seems a very bad thing. It, (she?) doesn't speak like Vigny would expect a Norn to. No prophecy, unless that implied threat of their deaths and Soli's probably very limited future as a pet counts. A rusalka? She hadn't noticed any water nearby...
Vigny rifles through her old memories as best she can trying to think of the stories and how they went. Searching for anything useful.
"You presume much," the voice answers, "both of you. I have no sisters. I made certain of that, and why would I want someone to talk with? No, I'm looking for entertainment!"
You spot a shadow moving close by. It seems to be heading for Tatiana. You have one action (Standard or Move, not both) before it gets there.
Vigny's hand itches for the handle of her sword, but she doesn't want to precipitate anything that could be avoided. She scans the trees looking for some sight of the voice's body, and waiting for a definitive sign of the direction the encounter will take.
As the disembodied voice continues its ethereal dialogue, Jerukh frowns and draws on his innate senses in an attempt to nail down the location of its owner;
:
"Ware the fell shadow! It draws toward Tatiana!"
Growling a warning he shifts forward shielding Tatiana, drawing his club as he does ;
"Stand behind me little one!"
Although she still can't see anything, obviously the others do. Or at least they know something she doesn't, not a terribly unusual position for Vigny to find herself in.
It sounds like things have definitely gone south, and the others are beginning to move defensively. Vigny positions herself back-to-back with Soli with her sword drawn, just in case they have the direction of the voice wrong or it has less talkative friends.
The shadow disappears into the underbrush.
Soli and Vigny stand back to back, ready for all comers, but...
nothing comes.
A loud rustling in the underbrush presages the stumbling arrival of... a familiar Tien woman, clad in silk. Reiko looks a little green - even in the odd half-light of the woods. She cocks her head at the fighting stances held by Soli and Vigny. "Were you about to kill something without me?"
"Perhaps ve should get Tatiana out of here..." Emi offers nervously as she looks around (completely unaware of from where the threat originated). "Ve could alvays come back vithout her to gather the final herb?"
Jerukh scowls at the undergrowth but keeps his bludgeon handy;
"The shadow... fleeting as it was... has retreated."
The lanky healer nods in greeting at Reiko, then addresses Tatiana;
"Little one. Give me the list... I will collect what is needed. Fell tormentor be damned..."
Vigny looks Reiko's way and cracks a smile. But she doesn't lower her guard.
"Nice to see you Reiko, but what are you doing out here? You're sick. By the way, what did you call that hairstyle you gave me? I can't remember."
The stories also tell of devious, tricky fey. Shapes-shifters and illusionists who fool the gullible and lure them to their deaths.
"I really don't think this is a good time to split up Jerukh. Surely we can find the whatsit on the list somewhere else? Let's just be on our way."
"I'm not sick, just lazy." She lies blatantly, "But lazy as I am, I wouldn't pass up such a pleasant excursion with good company. So here I am."
"By the way, what did you call that hairstyle you gave me? I can't remember."
The ronin wipes the clamminess from her brow and puzzles over the question, noting the warpriest's tense stance. "It was based off a serpent-like origami pattern but I don't recall if it has an actual name... I may have made one up to impress you, but I really don't recall." She offers a strained and sickly smile, keeping her hand well away from her blade in case Vigny finds something wrong with her answer.
Jerukh eyes Vigny with his usual stoic expression;
"We won't be splitting up if you come with me..."
The tall half-orc beckons again for the list, casting a concerned appraisal of Reiko as he does so;
"Seems Mistress Reiko has a bad case of stubbornness too."
Reiko offers a genuine smile at the half-orc's observation. "A fatal illness, indeed."
"Fey can be fery tricky..." Emi counsels apprehensively, "ve should really all stay together... if Jerukh can't leafe and come back to finish the list ve should all stay, but efen then ve should mofe quickly because this could all be a ruse to keep us avay from the carafan for a vhile..."
"B-but Sister Koya told me to get these. She said it was to see if I'd been paying attention," Tatiana, obviously frightened, says. She holds the list in her hands, but she makes no move to give it to Jerukh.
"What was it that you saw," she asks the healer after a moment.
Jerukh nods in silent understanding as Tatiana explains her dilemma.
"I saw a fleeting shadow. Nothing more..."
His voice drifts as he struggles to recollect exactly what it is he saw;
"If some elátkozott steals you little one, you will not get any praise from Mamă eh?"
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At the description of the creature, Reiko pulls a short blade and scabbard from her backpack and tucks it reassuringly into the obi of her robe. With Tatiana's honor bound tightly to Koya's request, the choice seemed inevitable. "Very well. Girl, you will need to tell us where to look for these herbs and we will ensure you collect them safely and deliver them to Koya... And any fleeting shadows would do well to remain 'fleeting'. My laziness is making me irritable towards shadows." She fans herself with a free hand trying to not gag on the stifling forest stillness.
"I don't think it's far, she said this last one tends to grow near water," Tatiana says quietly. She sticks close to Vigny, one of her hands hold onto the Caydenite's belt.
It isn't look before you hear the babbling of a running brook. Tatiana's face lights up as she points out the last plant she'd been sent to gather. Other than the sound of running water, all is quiet in the wood.
Reiko looks to the other warriors. "I'll get it." Reiko draws the Whispering Shrike then looks about cautiously as she moves towards the brook and the final plant. She readies herself to lash out at any threat.
Vigny relaxes and lowers her sword. "Yep, you never called it anything."
The release of her tension causes Vigny to let out a short, snorty laugh. "Pretty clever of me huh?"
++++++++++
I'm not so sure Koya meant gathering the herbs should become a death march...
But Vigny raises no objections.
When Tatiana mentions the plant growing near water, Vigny is unhappy. When Tatiana finds the water, Vigny is very unhappy, the pieces are coming together to form an ugly rusalka picture.
Eeep! Oh Cayden, not good, not good...
"Let's hurry, get the plant and let's go."
Crawling with gooseflesh, she takes Tatiana to it.
Jerukh shadows Reiko as she approaches the last plant;
"Harvest it carefully Reiko..."
The alchemist scans the area with a scowl;
:
All of you spot the creature this time. It has not a hair on its head or goat like legs and tail. Two horns curl from it's head and it's eyes are black as pitch, save the irises which shine gold in the dim light. From the waist up, it has the body of a shapely woman with only a scrap of leather draped from its shoulders providing any hint of modesty. It appears to be trying to sneak up on Soliana, a cruel gleam in its eyes and a crazed smile twisting the corners of its lips up.
As he eyes the creature more clearly Jerukh tries to recognise more about its potential nature;
:
Soli and Jerukh both recognize the fey creature as a forlarren, the offspring that can result from the union of a nymph and a fiend. They hate all life and seek to deface anything beautiful that they find.
Reiko continues to stalk toward the plant and tries to ignore the creature approaching her allies.
Vigny thinks she knows what the others are doing because she knows they know that at least most of them have seen what she knows she's seen.
So she she's pretty sure she knows she should act the same as them so the goat-woman won't know that they all know she's there. Maybe. In any case she tries to not look over at goat-woman so she won't know that they know.
What Vigny knows without any doubt is she could really use a bath and a nap.
-They are the offspring of nymphs that had been violated by fiends.
-Their mothers often die in childbirth, those that survive are often killed by the Forlarren as their father's nature takes hold, even if the mother does her best to raise them with kindness and love.
-They are weak to cold iron as most fey are.
-They also exhibit some of their mother's nature as well. Sometimes they show a deep remorse when they kill their victims.
-They attack just about anything, hating all life and the fey above all else. Though they can supposed live centuries, they rarely make it past a decade as they self-destruct.
"You must think yourselves clever," the fey creature says as she stands, her eyes narrow as she glares at y'all. "Pretend to not notice and lure me into a trap. I am not so foolish, but you best sleep lightly. I will have my revenge for your attempt at making me a fool."
Before you can reply, she slips back into the gloom and disappears, her eyes never leaving your faces.