Anton frowns, his brows knitting together in puzzlement as he searches his memory for any hint as to the undead man's nature. "Driven by revenge, perhaps?" he murmurs, mostly to himself. "I wonder if he's bound to this site...?" He spends several long moments staring at the spot where the creature vanished.
Mattrim watches the undead man/thing go, his rage easing a little with the moments passing. In it's place an unsettled look appears on his face.
"Well that was disconcerting. You say he might be bound to the site? I could understand revenge perhaps. At the very least it seems to be friendly for now, I'd hate to have to deal with that "thing" if it wasn't."
Mattrim moves to start preparing the horses, and one particularly unhappy large cat, to cross the water.
"As long as we seem to have free passage, mind as well move on."
Using the rope as a sort of hold the group is able to navigate the river all be it a bit of a wet affair with some maneuvering required at the deepest points. One could imagine at another time if the river was moving a bit more a raft or bridge would be essential. On the other side the group is able to resaddle and continue...
"... thereby, the only thing that keeps the body 'alive', as it were, is not the vital functions of the organs, which have ceased; but rather, the sheer will of the creature to remain - or, in the case of unintelligent undead, the creator's will exerted upon it. That perversion of a will to live, that's what makes the undead so terrifying." Anton chatters away as the party mounts their horses again, heedless of whether Mattrim's paying him any attention or not (and expecting that Cuddles isn't listening in the slightest). "I suspect that this strange revenant - for want of a more accurate classification; it would be impossible to tell without a full dissection of the body - is here simply because of his strong desire for revenge."
He dries off his robes with an unconscious flick of his fingers, not thinking to extend the courtesy to the others. "Well. To the southwest, then?"
Mattrim nods his head in agreement as if what Anton was saying seemed to make perfect sense What in the blazes is he talking about!?
When Anton motions to go Southwest.
"Agreed."
Anton turns his eyes in that direction, ignoring his wet clothes for the moment, they would dry eventually.
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon enough. Once we get the area scouted and a sound plan in mind with everyone else.
Anton only thought Cuddles wan't listening. And he thought that for good reason. Cuddles certainly looked like he wasn't listening. Fact of the matter was he was, in fact, listening. He just lacked the wits to make heads or tails of what he was told in common most of the time so he tends to not respond to what is said (thus the appearance of not listening).
He mounts up and rides at the back of the group. A series of fresh saplings hangs from his mouth like grass, a habit he picked up from Harsk, the recently departed dwarven holy man.
As they are riding Mattrim's head suddenly shoots up as he looks at Cuddles.
"Cuddles... I'm curious, what happens when you find Lucy?"
Cuddles gets a far away look in his eye. WE TOGETHER AGAIN. AND CUDDLES NEVER LET GO.
The group follows the river as it onces again widens and proceeds to its normal fast moving and somewhat treacherous self. Like the area to north this side of the river features mostly grass and little in the way of additional cover. As the sun starts its downward descent the group has covered a number of miles but has seen little more of interest...
Nothing jumps out in the fading light as particularly close, Matt thinks there might be more diverse foliage but not for another few miles south of the river (probably an hour or two minimum).
Matt blinks in the growing darkness, unable to make much out. It might be possible to find shelter if we continue on for another few hours, though I can't say with any certainty. Perhaps it's best we bunker down here for the night?
Let me double check to be safe Mattrim begins casting a spell, chanting softly as green energies start to swirl around him filled with faint images of Avian kind.
A few birds show up and basically confirm the situation though they do note that there are some predators skulking about in the broadest sense, none seem particularly interested in the group.
Mattrim nods in response to the birds.
It would appear the birds agree there is nothing nearby and outside of normal predator activity there doesn't seem to be anything particularly nasty nearby.
Given we found a crossing, I think it would be best to just here for the night and then regroup with everything else back at the Trading Post. We can make decisions as a group from there about how to proceed.
Sound good?
Cuddles nods and dismountes for camp setup.
The night and cmaping proceeds uneventfully though at one point Saber clearly smells something on the wind and stares into the darkness as cats his size tend to do. He gives no indication of threat, only fascination and quickly settles down.
The morning sun hits early with little in the way of terrain to stop its light. The group is able to mount up and make their way back to Olegs...
The group move back across the river and over again, having no trouble from the undead and begin the trek back north as the day starts to fade. Again little approaches you but you are able to see on a handful of occasions small bands of black scaled kobolds skulking throughout the area. The always run as soon as they get wind of the group which is easy with the open terrain.
"Pesky little critters, have you lot every had any problems with them?" Mattrim asks pointing out the Kobolds. "I've had a few skrimish with their kind myself but never anything more serious than a few confrontations over food."
"What do you think Cuddles ? Is there anything out here you want to see or should we head back. I was kind of hoping to see that temple myself if we could swing our route around to maybe catch it on the way back. I'm no worshiper of Erastil, but I'd be curious to see what such a place looks like.
Our supplies should be well enough to make it I believe."
Cuddles shrugs. SEE TEMPLE IS GOOD. KOBOLDS ATTACK ONCE. NOT END GOOD FOR THEM. ANTON EVEN TRY TALK TO THEM. IT NOT WORK.
"They were using a primitive dialect," Anton says defensively. "Improper conjugation, poor syntax... it was as if it had been translated twice." He scowls at the memory of the headache. "They don't seem to want to engage, at any rate, so we should be fine.
"Perhaps we should regroup. Safety in numbers, I believe is the saying."
"Agreed."
At some point when the group is taking a break, presumably with packs on the ground and such, Saber will try and sneak into Anton's pack to see if he can find anything edible smelling.
Saber is properly punished for his inquisitiveness by finding a number of items that *smell* good but tast horrible and the wizard find himself grumbling about reduced components and supplies while Saber looks to find anything else possible to put in his mouth that tastes better.
The group does some orienteering and discovers that it can chart a direct course to the temple and make it there in two days time if they don't stop for sightseeing.
"Serves you right, you overgrown kitten," Anton mutters, angrily shaking loose tea out of his pack. "The spell components? Really?" He scrunches a sheet of butter-smeared paper into a ball and tosses it over his shoulder in frustration.
Noticing the hangdog look on Saber's face, he sighs, rummaging in a pocket. "Oh, fine. Here." He tosses the feline a few strips of dried meat from a paper packet, attempting to conceal the rest while reconciling himself with the fact that he's likely to wake up in the near future with a tiger sniffing through his clothes.
"Two days should cover it, allowing time for inclement weather. Let's not dawdle."
Cuddles nods and starts on his way. He had no idea what dawdling is, but it sounds awkward like that one time oleg's ropes that hold up his pants broke and he went dawdling from the outhouse to his house in front of everyone. Thankfully, Cuddles pants fit well so there would be no dawdling from him!
Saber initially gives a sad expression at his failure to find anything good tasting though immediately cheers up at the dried meat. He eyes Anton for a while longer to see if he will get anymore, going so far as to walk up and paw at the location of the remainder of the meat. Before finally giving up and moving on to find some water.
Mattrim briefly considers scolding Saber but decides the effort would likely be wasted and lets things be.
"Fine with me, I'm sure Saber will likely have plenty of energy to keep up now."
Mattrim continues riding in his horse, giving no outside expression of his attempt at a joke.
"Of course he will. It's full of important nutrition for carnivorous beasts," Anton replies, Mattrim's joke sailing over his head. He twists away from Saber's pawing and prying, mentally noting the importance of preparing a minor flame cantrip in future.
Excellent. I will be having you rejoin the other thread now and we will put this one on ice for the time being. I'll unpack your rolls over there.