After hearing Setrona explain what she wants done, Boros hums thoughtfully. "Well, it doesn't sound terribly difficult on the face o' it, I'll say. If the rest o' us are agreed, then I'm willin' to do it. As for whoever might be hidin' your cousin, I say we hold off on makin' too many plans for that. Might be we got all these things thought up and we find him sunnin' himself on the front steps when we arrive, or everyone there packed up for someplace else entirely."
"Well, if I'm reading the mood aright, I think we're on board with this scheme." Nez looks around her companions then back to Setrona.
"Well, I'm confident my contacts will pull through. I mean, it's not just your behinds on the line here...I figure if you fail, I'll be in trouble as well.", she nods to Nezari. "But yeah, we should set things up right. Time is not on our side, so the faster, the better. The right set of guys would have gate duty in tomorrow night, then again 3 nights later - just in case you don't make it there and back in one go. Give me some passphrase I can forward to them so they know it's you - glad to hear, you're on board - we're all on the same side here. Anything else you needed to know or that we should discuss?"
"Just one last question. If we bring him home to you here, how are you going to keep him hidden?"
"No other questions? Well. As mentioned before, I THINK he will want to stick around. If he doesn't, well, I don't expect you to escort him across the border or something. Just bring him back here. The first day, he can...ah...stay with me." She almost manages not to blush, "After that, as said, he certainly has a number of allies within the city and places he could stay. Now that things calmed down a bit after the Torrent was targetted by his royal s@~+stain. But where he decides to look for quarter? His choice, I'd assume, not like I could tell him where to go.", she answers with a shrug.
Clearly, it would not fall to you to keep him save, although you most certainly could offer him any assistance you wanted.
"As far as passphrases go, I've been preparing a little something extra too. Not sure if we should reuse the Silver Ravens, but till I got a better idea.. Anyway, 'Raven caught a Rat' plus this should do the trick nice." Nez pulls a cloth from her shirt, a silver raven's head peeking out from a sable flag.
"I'm up for that one." Miranda makes a mental note. Raven caught a rat. Would be awkward to forget yeah.
On the topic of readiness she felt that she had what she needed.
"Nice flag, Nezari!" The strix is definitely pleased by the effort to resurrect the rebellious symbolism.
"Thanks!" Nez smiles a rather different smile than the usual 'hey you can trust me, soon to be con victim' at Varuzhan's praise. "This little old lady that was in the dungeons for some reason helped me with it."
You finish preparations, making sure that everything will go smoothly at home - or as smooth as can be, with some people starting to stress out about living in a cramped damp cellar - and prepare to move out. Since the curfew is in effect during the nights, you decide to relocate to Setrona's during the day, significantly shortening the distance to the gate you'll have to cover at night.
As you make your way, you almost run into a patrol - luckily you stayed close to a wall rather than walking in the middle of the street, preventing the moon from illuminating you, and giving you ample time to duck into a delivery entrance before the guards finished rounding the corner. When you are certain the danger has passed, you move on, and make it to the gate.
There is a larger open space in front of the gate, likely for inspections, or to park carts or carriages while papers are inspected. Before you can start to cross, one of the guards takes note of you. He looks to the guard house for a moment, then back towards you, violently shaking his head and pushing his empty hand at you, the other holding a polearm. After a moment, he seems to notice something in the guard house and stops his gesturing immediately.
Varuzhan decides to stop, but lets his owl, Lore, begin an exploration of the area ahead, to see if there was some greater danger at hand.
Yeah that seemed to definitely be one of those "hang on my boss is watching" moments. And the courteous thing to do was simply to hang on. And not be noticed. The tiefling looks around for something to provide cover against the guard house, other then simply darkness. "Careful!" she whispers to her companions, entirely redundant.
Kith is more than happy to withdraw around a corner and out of sight of the guard and the guardhouse.
Nez stops at Miranda's warning.
"Told her promising and doing were too different thing." Nez rolls her eyes, whispering. She definitely had plenty of 'told you so' sass ready to go.
Boros immediately follows Kith's lead and ducks back around a corner, hopefully before being noticed.
You opt to remain hidden. Since the decision was non-verbal and unanimous, it can be assumed nobody wants to tempt fate and try anything that could be considered risky.
Time goes by, and after close to half an hour, some guys in inquisitorial garb leave the guard house. One of them, wearing an eye patch, seems very familiar to those of you in from the beginning. They don't even stop to return the salute of the guard at his post, and march off towards the castle. After they are gone for several minutes, another guard comes out from the guard house, talks with the one at the gate, looks in your direction, then starts a patrol round around the open square in front of the gate and the adjoining streets.
When he stands next to you, he stops to light up a smoke.
"Surprise inspection. No idea why. We'll hold up our end, but please wait a bit longer. We'll let you know when."
With that, he inhales deeply and resumes his brisk walk.
Boros carefully considers the guards words, looking for any sign of falsehood.
Boros feels the guard is nervous, but it's the kind of nervousness that comes post-factum, when the adrenaline of a situation dissipates and uncertainy remains.
Not the nervousness of anticipation, of things yet to come. What he says seems truthful, maybe he simply wants to make sure nobody is watching from the dark?
A few minutes later, the question is answered, when a regular patrol on a route along the walls comes to the gate, some formalities are exchanged, before the dozen or so Dottari move on along the walls.
Shortly after, the guard moves past you in a second patrol round, less stressed this time:"So. You wanna tell us about your business here?"
The human-disguised strix nods as the guard approaches. "Raven caught a rat," replies Varuzhan on cue. As Lore returns from his flight, the owl nestles in Varuzhan's cloak once more.
Yeaaaah Miranda remembered that one. Was hard to forget... At first it had made her sick and squeamish, but nowadays it was mostly anger. At Thrune, for putting them here in this situation. At the inquisitor, for picking that side ahead of the people and city. Bleh. Bleeeh.
That the inquisition was poking around wasn't a great sign though! But better stay put and wait then do another rash dumb thing. At least now when it seemed like waiting would be good ...
---
"Pew ..."
Nez facepalms as Varuzhan just says the codephrase without any sort of disguising narrative. But supposes it would be even more suspicious to correct him.
Reassured that nothing untoward is happening with the guard and their unofficial exit from the city, Boros shifts his attention to staring down the street in the direction of the departed inspection group, and the all-too-familiar one-eyed man leading it. The soldier can't help but feel that not killing him is going to be problem for the group at some point. Seeing Miranda's own expression, indicating that she remembers that face as well, Boros offers a quiet comment to her. "I think we'll sooner or later find ourselves regrettin' not killin' that one when we last fought."
On Varuzhans comment, the guard nods.
He may have expected a bit of disguising narrative, but then, it seems he was already pretty certain about who you were, and just needed confirmation, however THAT was provided.
He leads you to a side gate, a small and lenghty gap in the wall just broad enough for a single person - a passage used for inspections outside when the gate was closed, but very defensible in nature. Clearly they won't risk opening the main gate at this time.
"It's unlocked, once you are outside, stick to the right side of the road - there's high grass and bushes there, which will hide you from the guard tower. Dunno how they do it, but something there can see in the dark pretty well, so don't just trust that the night will hide you."
"Let's get moving." Nez seems happy to travel in darkness.
"Sneak in the grass. Noted." Yeah, sounded like they got imps up there. Or brr worse.
"I always favor acting in the night," says the normally nocturnal strix. "Beware of fatigue in the morning, though. If we start to tire, would not be so wrong to find a hidden place to rest."
"Ey, if we're lucky, our destination will just be peachy keen everything is fine and we can rest there." A wry tone indicates Nez doesn't think such a think particularly likely.
Voicing his own opinion, Boros offers the following. "We should make some distance now, but hunker down and wait for day to actually get on with it. If we run into something that's hostile, I'll be all but useless without a torch or the like, and that'll pretty much make it pointless to travel at night to avoid attention."
While the going for the first hundred or so meters is slow, once you return to the road, you make pretty good progress. And while the time passes eventlessly - most creatures seem to have learned to instinctively avoid the road(or considering those using it prey) - the presence of some clouds soon dims the stars and the moon to the point only those with dark-vision can really see anything at all.
Travelling through swamplands under these conditions would be...demanding.
"Perhaps it'd be better to rest up and wait for light then? We're a bit away from the city patrols ... And I'm not comfortable in swamps. Though I guess we've had practice with wet stinky places lately ..." Miranda offers, voting for 3.
.
Varuzhan lets out an exaggerated sigh. "Yes, you morning creatures always prefer the light, don't you? Like I said, no sense in us getting there tired, so let's find a good place to rest."
"Oh, right! Forget people without magic can't see in the dark." Nez taps her head. "Suppose we should find something."
"Looks like it'll be raining soon though. And it'll make the mud even muddier. Hmm. So... Food for thought." Miranda doesn't feel great about the prospect, one way or the other.
Kith, having had a long life and dabbled in living like a recluse in the wilds outside the city for a while looks around and sees if he can find a path that'll allow them to move forward on easier ground.
I... don't th-think.. we're in a hurry
"Likely as not, rain'll slow down any trouble headed for them too, if there is any time crunch." Nez agrees with Kith.
"Rain you say? All the more reason to find some shelter."
Varuzhan tries to find a good option for staying dry and hidden.
You spend some time looking for a shelter - while moving along the road towards your target. Eventually, quite far from the city, but before you reach the marchland, you find a large tree that was uprooted during a storm. What remains of the roots took enough earth from the ground to create a small crater where the tree stood, and now provides an effective shield against the wind, while the trunk and branches caught other broken branches, foliage and victims of the storm. There is not much space beneath the tree, but with only a little work, it can be turned into a very decent shelter. You don't quite manage to be done before it starts to rain - but while there is hardly more than a drizzle, the winds picks up and howls past your articifical cave.
The night is almost dark, with heavy clouds covering all the stars as the wind pushes them past. As a new day dawns, the rain dies down after a last half-hearted effort, but it remains very windy. Not to the point that you would have to remain sheltered, but definitely inconvenient.
.
After you break camp, you manage to reach the point where you have to move off-road into the swamplands without any trouble, and without seeing anyone on or near the road.
Now you'll have to find your way to the shrine.
While the weather wasn't quite to his liking--Boros didn't like any conditions that affected his shooting--the soldier had to admit that the prior night could have been a lot more unpleasant. Gods knew he'd dealt with worse conditions when he still fought as a part of his home's regular military. Fishing a ration out of one of the various pouches attached to his armor, he munches with resignation through the body-temperature preserved food, occasionally washing a mouthful down with a sip from his canteen. "Glad that rain wasn't any worse," he says between bites as his eyes periodically scan the terrain around them. "I've got my powder sealed proper and all, but rain is always one of the worst conditions that a gun user can deal with. Only thing worse is being at sea, in my mind."
.
"Hate it when it's windy, doesn't help for flying," remarks Varuzhan. Not that he was particularly good at flying, but the wing-clipped strix had been determined recently to try.
"Aye, you been at sea Boros? Ever seen, or been a pirate?" Nez smiles as she asks it. She could fancy Boros a pirate. If a man could rob an armed wagon, he could rob a ship, right.
Nezari's question draws a shudder from the soldier, accompanied by a reluctant nod of his head. "Yep, had to board a ship to make the crossing to the north here. Worst days o' my life, clutchin' a bucket and alternatin' between worryin' I'd die and hopin' I would. Never did get past that misery before the ship made port, so I've no idea if those sailors were lyin' or not that it would pass. And I'm not exactly in a hurry to find out either."
Giving the last of his ration a distasteful look, he chucks what's left off into the underbrush to the side and continues. "Obviously enough, I'd make a rather poor pirate in that state, and the fact that I swim about as well as I fly doesn't help matters any. If I'm ever minded to take up that trade, I'll stick to the version that's firmly land-based."
As you enter the swamplands, you are very glad there was not more rain. The wind, to some extent, even helps - if you watch carefully, you can make out borders to pools of more liquid areas.
What it does not help with is the smell, which is fetid.
The ground is muddy at best, and you progress slowly, but are confident you are going in the right direction. You see some creatures from a distance, most of them hidden in the bogs or by the sparse vegetation, but manage to evade them.
As you move over some dry passage following what does seem to be a path(albeit overgrown and in disuse), the loud wind masks the sounds of a thousand tiny wings angrily taking flight from a nearby hive.
You do, however, spot the swarm that converges nearby and approaches, struggling against the wind.
As you look in the direction they come from, you can see some hive-like husk of a tree where more of their kind hover.
Initiative
Everybody
Little Flappy Guys
"Moist and stinky... Why can't we sneak into a nice place for once?" Miranda complains about their recent choices of scenery. As she does the black miasma of buzzing creatures come their way. "...I think I hate nature. And sewers. Bleh!
Wasn't quite sure what that was - and really didn't want to get a closer look - so the tiefling backs up against the wind. Which was on their side it seemed! Maybe *all* of nature wasn't bad ...
Nez looks for any reeds she could use to breath through, planning on grabbing one and plunging underwater where the swarm couldn't follow.
. "It's a mosquito swarm!"
Nezari sees, at first glance, some undergrowth, but nothing she thinks could be used as a breathing apparatus. Aside from the lack of suitable greenery, she is not sure the water on the surface of the marsh lands is deep enough to hide...or if she really wants to sink below the surface - the muddy grounds seem like they'd draw you in if you got stuck enough.