. . . with cinnamon, but finding that is nearly impossible these days.
I suppose this means we ought to head to the Council Chamber.
The waitress brings over a pot of tea. "Sorry hun, we don't have any cider."
Jin stands up and bows to the woman, then moves next to the little boy, " We appreciate the hospitality you gave us. I shall return with proper payment soon enough. let us report to the Elders, they are 'waiting' on us "
Once everyone was situated he was ready to leave, their information would no doubt interest the council.
Zaralastra follows Jin out the door.
Jin however did enjoy the delicious tea with much fervor. The pressure of the situation was mounting and he would need all the comfort he could get.
Elisa left the money unless the girl had already taken it and followed along.
Zaralastra leaves a tip, if that is the custom here.
The boy walks you to the council chamber and to a back room where Elder Haldir awaits your arrival. He does not follow you in, but directs you forward. You enter to find the old man sitting, looking out the window. "Come in, come in. Have a seat." The man gives you a moment to situate yourselves before he continues. "So, what have you to report?"
Zaralastra nods towards Zin, assuming he will be reporting on behalf of The Hunting Party.
Jin does not sit, seeing this as a important matter. He grosses his left arm along his chest and stares at the elder, bowing slightly in a form of respect. " Great Elder Haldir; I, Jin Hebimoto, will speak on behalf of our group 'The Hunting Party'. Informed of your request by Luke, we set out the following morning, prepared to locate the tracks and indeed they were noticeable. The first day led us deep to the east about a days travel where we came upon an old circle for the night. We dealt with the hungry cat predator there and braced against the cold. " signaling at the Snow Leopard pelt.
" The following morning our party tracked the prints to a change in direction and a curious smoke formation. Knowing our mission was information, we reasoned to investigate the matter revealing it to be a camp of greenskins, hobgoblins I believe they are called. There were four and seemed to burn something that made the smoke blackish, it was a detour from the Giant tracks. We noted the intelligence and moved on. The tracks led North. " Jin took a pause reaffirming with the rest of the group before continuing.
" Along the tracks we ventured we located an isolated cabin whose supposed occupant laid slain in the snow, presumably by some bladed weapon, he was not looted and had ample weapons, His bow however seemed unused in his cabin. An odd trait if One were to see a giant come upon your dwelling. Strangely enough the tracks led past the cabin however to it's final resting place.. a cave. At that time we used the expertise of Lan to search the area with his pristine skills of cloaking. While the rest of our gathering readied for the worst. He revealed that the Giant was of the larger humanoid type and wielded a weapon, an axe. He was also of a blueish skin and seemed to have had a feast of a quadruped. To our knowledge there is at least that one "
Catching his breath once more, Jin's eyes did not leave the Elder's. " We decided this was confirmation of your suspicions and proceeded to head back post haste, using the confines of the deceased man's lodgings for our purposes. There was a proper burial set for the man. On the third day we met with the ferocity of the lower lands . A creature, a Winter wolf attacked us and by sheer luck we managed to slay the beast.. as you can clearly see. After which the road was clear and our goal I believe achieved as I am reiterating to you as of now. This concludes our Report. We were honored to serve the Council. " Jin finished with a slightly lower bow and placing his hands behind his back in an almost military fashion.
Lan, for his part, maintained empathy, and kept the power focused on the elder throughout the tale, watching, somehow, curiously and aloof simultaneously.
I should add that none of us would likely be alive today, were it not for Jin, whose heroic strike, despite grave injuries, brought down the winter wolf.
Jin seems to purposely stare at the upper corner of a ceiling as Zara mentioned such. " Do not inflate the situation Zaralastra. The victory was accomplished with suitable effort from every member. Elisa dealt the first blow which gathered our momentum. This also placed both our lives on the line to ensure safe delivery of the information if things went awry. The consecutive blows and luck that the creature did not focus any particular opponent is what saved us. I simply played a part as I would have for this mission. "
The elder looks to your pelt. "Winter wolves are not known to occupy the low lands. The climate is not right for them. No, there is much worse in the low lands..." Elder Haldir gets a distant look in his eye for a moment, then snaps back to the issue. "But, it is quite impressive indeed, even somone who has braved the mountains before. And this was your first venture. Very impressive. Now lets talk about this giant."
The old man takes a lid off of a brass container and loads a pipe, puffs it a couple times, and continues. "A frost giant you think it was?" (puff puff) Nothing good comes of frost giants. Greedy and violent they are. I will take this up with the council in the morning. In the meantime, we are glad your home. Please, get some rest and come see me tomorrow."
Zaralastra makes a mental note to himself to examine the bow more closely once we've finished meeting with the council.
Jin places his head up from his bow and nods " We shall see word from you then I suppose. We shall recuperate and report once more. " Turning to the party giving them a sign overall before leaving the Elder's presence. After which he would go to the temple and start working on the pelts for sale.
Zaralastra, after leaving the council chamber, examines the bow more closely, hoping to determine something more specific about its psionic aura.
Haldir is genuinely impressed. You also pick up a sense of wise caution.
+1 composite longbow (+3 pull)
The composite longbow we discovered at the cabin has been psionically enhanced to be more effective than a normal bow of its type. It is of no use to me as I have no skill with a longbow of any sort. If anyone else in the Hunting Party can make use of it, let me know.
" Oh/ I might have some use but I an assure you there would be a much better person perhaps who needs such a item.. I plan on making more elixirs " to speek along the ability of Jin and Elisa.
"I'd rather stick with my creations so I'll pass as well."
" Exactly, for the moment I am limited to my armor and what weapons I can use.. but perhaps I will learn to form something from my armor much like Elisa. Until then I will use the bow to good effect if you would like. Or we could attempt to barter it to the other villages for coin. "
I'll leave that decision to your judgment Jin. If you feel you can achieve a substantial gain in effectiveness by using the bow, then you're welcome to it. Otherwise, let us sell it and put the proceeds to good use.
"I have no personal investment in a bow. I would be better served by a crossbow. They are simpler to use."
Dismissed by the elder, the hunting party heads their delegate ways for the evening, content with the completion of their mission.
Jin tries to hunt that evening looking for reagents before settling in for the night.
Unfortunately He does not find anything and comes home empty handed and tired. Perhaps the accomplishment of the completed mission would distract him from his failure.
Zaralastra retires to his residence to contemplate the events of the mission and to integrate his experience into his array of psionic abilities.
As Jin awakes around 5 AM, he conjures his Scout Suit with intent to do some early hunting for himself and the village. With the new bow it would not hurt to add to the villages larder. However when he does dso it is quite noticeable to himself that.. he felt absolutely no cold. And even more so, his soreness was mostly gone.
Letting it bask as an afterthought, Jin remembered the Pelts. It would be best to complete those first. Though the cold preserved them for now a proper tanning would increase value and prevent deterioration. With his alchemical tools it would be no task to create the proper fluids and his Wilderness Lore helped a great bit.
After treating the pelts he set them up to be stretched between two hefty poles with taut rope and string. They would need to be cured.
Then Jin took enjoyment in his Hunting but only for a bit, Enough to find the food and perhaps the reagents he missed at night. His mind was filed with the accomplishments involving the previous mission. Jin wondered on the warning of the Elder and what else they could ask of The Hunting Party this morning.
He came back with Enough for himself and about 7 other persons. However in his search there seemed to be little reagents this time as well. perhaps he had picked the place clean? Jin sat the bounty in a basket, it would be distributed to the masses later.
Empathy
Lan went out to check his snares after leaving the council meeting, then moved around the town for a bit, searching for any changes that he may have missed since he left. Once his rounds were complete, he headed home and spent a moment renewing his body's energy stores, before entering meditation.
Four hours later, he had a few epiphanies regarding his patterns... and set to work etching a new tattoo, to allow him to link to the new set of patterns he'd discovered. A way to change his body. He'd also noticed the night before that when he didn't want to be seen, there were more efficient ways of moving to keep from being noticed... without necessarily slowing himself in the process.
It would seem that his mind-over-matter body control changes were accelerating.
He decided to have a little 'fun', and try out the new pattern, changing himself into a large shaggy dog as he left his home. Minor Metamorphosis, for Medium sized with Cold Resist 5, for two minutes. Maintaining Empath during.
Zaralastra cannot recall if Jin took the bow when he went out hunting. If not Zaralastra will take the bow to a local bowyer/fletcher and ask what sort of price a psionically enhanced bow might fetch.
And despite having the same metamorphic ability that Lan does, Zaralastra resists the temptation to run about as a canine. He will instead stroll about town in his natural form (apart from running the errand with the bow) just to see if anything interesting is going on.
Zaralastra ends the day with his usual routine of spending a psionic power point to forego the need for food and drink for the next 24 hours, then retires to bed.
Upon arising the next morning, after regaining psionic focus, he will make sure he is clean and tidy in anticipation of another visit to the elders.
If it was available Elisa would likely spend the next day with town medics getting healed after their fights.
Jin makes his way back to town, carrying with him several rabbits. Before he reaches the temple, the same boy from yesterday chases him down. "Jin, Elder Haldir would like to see you again."
Jin stops, turning to the kid and nods. Taking the rabbits he places them in the little boy's arms and points to the temple. " Alright then, just make sure these get to the Temple to be sent to the Larder. I assume he sent you to fetch the others as well? Do it on the way to gathering the rest and I will reward you with a meal.. and maybe a rabbit-skin bag of your own. "
Jin heads off to meet the Elder once more, curious what the Council will ask of his this time.
"No sir, just you. I can drop these off at the temple for you though."
Jin makes a surprised reaction, enough to stop him as he walked. " I.. I see, this is... not what I expected. I appreciate your cooperation though. Visit me after the meeting then, I'll give you a suitable reward. "
"Thank you sir, but there's no need. Just doing my job." The boy grants Jin a small, friendly smile, then parts ways.
Jin waves him off, going to see the Elder Haldir. It must be an important meaning to call only him.
Jin arrives to find Elder Haldir feeding some birds in the courtyard, located behind the council chamber. He welcomes him over with a wave of his hand.
"So, tell me more of these hobgoblins you mentioned."
Jin gave a lowish bow and proceeded to come over. The Hobgoblins, this was something he knew they would want information about, but he was so focused on the mission he did not gather much.
" Of course. At first I was not aware of what they were until another of our group identified them. The smoke had drew our party, thinking it might have been a building on fire. When we reached the area the Hobgoblins numbered four. The creatures seemed to have formed a camp across a mountain pass, a bridge of unconfirmed stability allowing access. They did not seem to notice our group, though on our leaving burned something that turned the smoke black. We did not investigate past the fleeting glance, it was not the main priority and time could not be wasted on such. I did not want to increase the chance our the group garnering undue attention. "