Quassine shrugs at the over abundant chaos and attitude, and starts walking away from the group descending down the hill side.
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Her annoyance at having been told to be quiet by a squid may have carried over as she responded in time. "What, in particular, do you have against art, Sly?"
In a rather stuffy tone, Sly responds, "If you believe his dancing will be art, then perhaps you have something against it. Will you take him into a china shop as well?"
"Of course I would. Provided he can fit. Would you not?" She tilts her head, one ear quirking lazily. "He's actually quite graceful, all things considered. He's certainly not a natural... but practice and effort go a long way."
Shaeyl watches Quassine head off down the hill, alone. He recalls the admonishment from tactical combat training, and hopes that Quassine doesn't go too far from support.
I'm not sure how dancing will provide a roof or dinner, maybe these topics should be sidelined until more immediate matters are solved?
Quassine's comment jerks Tavros out of his thoughts. If briefly considers actually shouting. Or rather, "talking loudly" since he didn't like shouting. He was good at it. He takes a deep breath, filling his diaphragm. But then he merely lets it out again. Oh for the days I during which I lacked common sense. They were so much more fun. He sighes, looking wistful.
He brightens up again as Sly's comment gives him an idea. "Once we get paint, I can really make art; I'll paint my hooves and tap dance all over the canvas! I wonder how different that would look from other dance styles...."
He seems completely oblivious to Sly's lack of faith in his dancing ability (but then, he had a lot of practice ignoring such comments. It was really a talent all to itself. A very, very necessary talent given the alternative). He had finally found a place where he could dance without being mocked. ...errr...well, or rather, he had found a place where people weren't going to try to beat him to death for his interest in dancing. But as soon as his thoughts went in that direction, he immediately distracted himself by mentally comparing painting dance style differences. Oooo...maybe I could color code dancing styles...
With a startled snort, Qahnaarin bolts up from his prone position on the grass. "Wha? What? What's going on?" Apparently the multidimensional journey interacted with him in a strange manner. He blinks his his blearily and looks around. "Was I? Jovar! That wasn't a dream! We really are no longer home!" His voice is a raspy baritone.
You see a well-groomed hobgoblin male with blood-red hair loosely gathered into a ponytail. His head is shaved on either side. His eyes are a deep orange, with small flecks of silver near the iris. His skin is gray and ashen. He has high cheek bones, and a strong jaw with slightly protruding lower canines. His skin is taut against a lithe build. He is dressed in simple black robes with silver geometric symbols. He holds a wickedly curved spear. He is tall, with a solid frame and straight posture.
He stands and looks about. "Are we? Gods, my head. Are we staying together, or dividing into teams?" He looks at his 'siblings', wondering which would be best to accompany should the group decide to split.
Mlinzi scratches his chin thoughtfully. "Now that I think about it, we've got a small army here. Chances are, we won't be able to survive off the land for very long with this many people to take care of. If we can find a way of keeping in touch, splitting up would probably be much smarter."
Quassine enters the treeline ...
Quassine enters the tree line to get out of sun, escape the bantering, and the over zealous planning which always turns into no action. Once in the tree line and out of the direct sunlight, he himself looks for nuts, "At least these nuts are quieter than the ones I arrived here with. However he keeps on eye on the surroundings and what the group is up to.
Maks simply smiles a foxy grin as her brother bull goes off on a tangent. Then loses the smile as Mlinzi brings up realities.
"Yes... I suppose it would be mostly impossible to simply rebuild our home." the Fox huffs heavily in place of a sigh.
Then her tails twitch and dance as her head tilts. "Oh. What if this is still part of the experiment? Goodwin has guided us all for around a decade." she says quietly, but excitedly, her voice assuredly not carrying far. "Maybe he needs to see if his experiment will work without him around!"
Quassine enters the treeline ...
** spoiler omitted **
I am going to link up the gameplay tab here shortly. Feel free to RP in character. The timing is right after Jovar transports you from Goodwin's pocket plane. Please just keep actions to verbal interactions.
Don't wander off, don't use any abilities, powers or skills. Don't interact with the environment. Don't pick up anything or chop down trees or move rocks or attack anyone/anything, or so help me I will turn this bus around :)
Just keep it to some fun light in character banter to get a good feel for each other, and help guide us all in selecting tables for playing.
There are reasons why we're all still standing on the hill...
Xanya shakes her head vehemently in disagreement. "I don't think settling down to make a village here or simply living off the land is a good idea for several reasons. First, we can't let Goodwin rot. We owe it to him to free him. Even if we didn't do that, freeing him would be the good thing to do. Rescuing others is a good deed. Secondly, I am not suited to settling down and building a village, at least not yet. I can be a force for good as Goodwin has taught me and maybe one day I'll be able to follow his example and bring others to good. I will have more opportunities to do that if I travel around seeking to do good deeds." Xanya smiles with pleasure as she dreams about what she envisions what she can accomplish. She proceed to look around at the others. "Who else thinks like me and want to be a force for good? We are intelligent beings, we can plan further than our immeadite survival as well."
Karkoran eyed the treeline and the assembled group. He said nothing. Soon enough some or all of them would grow impatient enough and pick a direction to move. He would do the same, but felt some responsibility to keep an eye on things at least at a cursory level. He doubted there was very little that would assault a group of this size. Only a very large group such as theirs would prove any threat, and seemed unlikely given their location. A dangerous predator seemed more likely if they were truly in the wildest of lands. Internally he welcomed the idea of battle. He could not imagine anything that lurked above or below the earth as terrible as his own nightmares and thus he feared nothing. In death he mused where his soul would end up. Did Baphomet truly have a claim on it? Perhaps it would find its way elsewhere after this shell was done with it. As he mused, he realized he was growing hungry, and yearned for the hunt. He continued to watch and listen however. He was sure many of those gathered about would not last without the protection of others. Goodwin had trained him to be a warder, to complement his hunting abilities, as well as other...skills...that he still retained. In time he would be called upon to muster the primal fury within him. It would come, and he could be very patient.
Well said Xanya. Unfortunately, the nature of many of us is contrary to what is commonly assumed. As such, we will have to overcome an initial threat of drawn weapons anywhere we go. And since we don't know where we are, what threats lay about us, or even what course of action to take in hunting down Goodwin.
Shaeyl waves a hand about to take in all of those gathered on the hill top. Imagine what the likely outcome is if we all march into some hamlet or town. We must secure a base of operations, if only for our own defense. And then, we can move on to other concerns.
Knowing the next likely argument, Shaeyl continues we all owe Goodwin our life. Hasty actions only throw away the efforts he took with us.
Goivan puts a hand on Xanya's shoulder and nods. "I agree that we should find Goodwin and follow his lessons to do good in this world. But Shaeyl speaks wisdom. If it happens that we're hundreds of miles from civilization, the cold hard truth is that we will have to worry about survival. We must hope for the best but plan for the worst. The faster ones among us should scout out far to try to find some civilization."
Standing against a tree, a dark-skinned and white-haired dwarf clears his throat. "Ain't nothin' we need t' worry about. An' even if we did, we got a few days before it'd be a problem," he states. Tapping on the intricately-crafted longbow that is leaning against the same tree, he grins without a hint of worry. "More importantly, can't be havin' everybody headed this way an' that like drow with their heads cut off. We need a solid plan," he finishes, picking up his weapon and moving to join the rest of the group.
Ellie tries not to think about headless Drow. "Then our plan should start with obtaining information about our surroundings, while gathering anything of use, so we need the high ground or an eye in the sky."
Xanya looks curiously up at Goivan towering over her. She finds that she actually likes being surrounded by all these huge males, now two Minotaurs and a garagoyle. It would be kind of cool to collect such people to do what she wanted with. No, not pain, that would be evil. To do what good things she wanted! That wouldn't be evil would it?
Xanya closes her eyes for a moment to call on her inner power of darkness. She doesn't say anything or move her arms, just the briefest of pause of her eyes. Suddenly a rather large area around her seems to be in shadow despite there being nothing blocking the sun. She opens her eyes again with a huge grin on her face. "Ah, blessed darkness at least. Finally some reprive for the torture on my skin and rest for your sore eyes. Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to get Cryxial to join us."
Her eyes still blaze white as she turns to face away from both of the minotaurs and Goivan with a determined look on her face. "Time to come here Cryxial." She thinks to herself. She starts waving her arms in front of her rapidly and starts murmuring under her breath. Her arm movement rotates between what seem like spell-casting, punches, blocks and dancing. She starts chanting in a low melodious voice. "Kom hit min samvittighet, du hjelper med a folge den vei som min elskede har vist meg og sorger for at jeg ikke mister malet av syne. Ved deg med min side kan jeg alltid tenke meg om to ganger og stoppe meg selv fra a gjore dumme ting. Du barer meg inn i kamp sa jeg kan bruke mine evner pa best mulig mate og sorger for at jeg alltid er der jeg trengs nar mine egene korte ben ikke er raske nok. Jeg vil beskytte og passe pa deg og sorge for at hvis noen prover a skade deg sa skal de betale."
Prar wheezes as he draws breath. The time displacement and relocation of the spell had worked havoc on him apparently. He always was so attuned to the magical currents in the world.
He looked up at the sun. It stung his eyes and he squinted but did not shield his eyes. Standing from the tall grass, he saw his siblings several yards away and moved to join them.
As he approaches, you see a tall, 6'4, lithe muscular Mindflayer. Even overly muscular for his kind. Prar has always been one to take pride in his heritage, his tentacles were prominent about his shoulders and neck. His purple chest exposed. He wore a robe with a belt from the waist down. A little green scorpion rode on his shoulder. A scimitar, his gift from their father, and his deity's weapon of choice was lashed to his belt with silk. On the other hip, his spellbook was chained and hung at his thigh. On his right hand, his Arcane ring, scrawled with runes. Pic
Seeing the splotch of darkness, he strides in. "Convenient." he whispers.
Shaeyl smiles at the darkness, though the light isn't painful, he naturally preferred a darker environment. Shifting sideways to stand at the edge of the darkness he sighed in relief. Thanks Xanya.
It seems obvious that some of us should be scouting around, others need to be searching through the woods looking for anything we can use to make some shelter. Finding a natural water source would be good as well.
Shaeyl looks around, some of us should also be standing watch. It seems not everyone has weathered the plane shift well. I am willing to hunt through the woods. I take it some of you are itching to go scouting. I'd suggest only a mile or two for the first trip out, let's find out if there is anything in our immediate vicinity.
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"An interesting proposition, Makoto," Sly says as he rubs his chin thoughtfully. "We will agree that the possibility of Master Goodwin being in trouble supersedes any other possibilities. Thus, our course of action must reflect that principle and so, clearly, we must proceed as if that is not the case."
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"But Goodwyn cant be in trouble!" The goblin stops and tries to think of the words needed toe explain his meaning. "He be gone long, yes? And Goodwyn good, but Goodwyn not be good enough to be fightin these last-" Grobly stops to think about what the Small Master had told him. "-Hundreds of years. If master Goodwyn is trapped, he trapped good, yeah? We can be all slow and sneaky in our lookings."
Gunther shakes his head at Grobly's declaration. "We don't know that, an' we can't be sure that he ain't in danger right now. We can't be bullheaded fools," he pauses and turns to the minotaurs in their company. "No offense meant, lads," he says, before turning back to the goblin and continuing, "But every minute we waste is a minute we ain't ever gonna get back. An' who knows how many o' 'em Goodwin still has?"
Makoto watched as the darkness lovers began to congregate in the shade... which she slipped away from, rather quickly, one of her tails fluttering to Lucina's other hand as she put the distance between it and herself; she didn't like darkness. It hid things, and sucked beauty from the world by voiding the capacity for understanding of that which lied within... it didn't help that she was one of the few who didn't have the ability to see within darkness.
Best to assume your joke went over Maks's head, as she's trying to juggle too many things at once, mentally. :)
Tavros looks up as the darkness descends, frowning slightly. There were no clouds in the sky, and it wasn't night time. He didn't like artificial darkness. It made him feel like he was slowly going blind. Sure, he could still actually see fine, but he still didn't like it. But it made his siblings more comfortable, so he'd put up with it. Or rather, it made some of his siblings more comfortable, he amended, noticing Makoto moving to a sunny area. Perhaps one day he'd find glasses for those who didn't like the sun. They they could all enjoy it and be happy.
Not wanting to add to the arguing still going on, he briefly considered moving to sunbathe while he waited, but he felt like that would be taken the wrong way. Plus he didn't want to be accidentally left behind when everybody left. Although admittedly, even laying down, he was still taller than some of his companions, so that would be unlikely. The bigger issue would be making sure not to accidentally sit on anyone in the process.
Sighing, he contented himself with merely stretching, several of his bones giving a quiet pops as he does so.
Mlinzi, though not bothered by darkness at all, moved out of the way to leave room for those who needed it, finding himself close to Tavros, Gunther, and Maks. "I'm worried about Goodwin, too, but until we have a good handle on where we are, where we need to go, and how we're going to move forward, he can't be our main concern. Until this bubble's gone, we don't have anything to do but wait and plan. Really, though, it's hard to make any solid plans until we know what our surroundings are like. Once we've got a good feel for that, we can make more definite plans."
Xanya continued her melodious chant and varied movements for exactly a full minute, before suddenly, between one blink and the next a creature appeared in front of her. A four legged serpent-like creature covered in black scales, but with white flesh along the belly. The creature towered over Xanya, there being nearly four feet from the ground to it's back, though it was in turn towered over again by Goivan and the minotaurs. At the end of each leg were vicious claws. It's face was elongated and sported massive jaws, clearly a predator. Xanya didn't miss a beat, she knew when he would appear after all. She glides fluidly over from the last movement of her dance to jump at the creature to swing herself onto its back. "Ah, it's great to have you solidly wedged between my legs again Cryxial." she squealed out. A deep voice answered "Its great to be back and have you on my back."
"I agree, Minzli, we can't just go running off without a plan... If we chase after the lost, while blind, we'll become lost ourselves." she shook her head. "Maybe we need to find a way for everyone to be able to find their way back here. Perhaps when we form groups, we can choose compass points? We certainly can't move without splitting up. Armies without supply lines will simply crumble to pieces, destroying everything before them."
Quassine looks over his shoulder to see the area of darkness. Seeing it as being a better solution than his current one, he returns to the group and walks into the Darkness. When he arrives knowing which sister most likely produced the Darkness spell, "Thank you Sister Xanya for the Darkness. The sun is now much easier on the eyes." He then turns to Prar, "Ah I am glad you made it Brother Prar, if we group together to find Archmage Goodwin, if you want we should copy each other spells down."
Mlinzi nods to Makoto. "As I've said, our first step is to figure out what our surroundings are like. Splitting up into scouting parties and then meeting back here again should help us do that, so long as nobody gets lost. One thing that might help would be to leave markers. We could burn some wood to make charcoal, then draw marks to point our way backk, or use stones and sticks arranged in obvious patterns, or cut marks on tree bark or in the soil. That could work for today anyway."
Xanya smiles at the thanks. People thanking her also felt good. Not quite as good as screams of pain or the look one someone's face as their life slowly drips away after getting disembowled, but good nonetheless. She could get used to it. "No problem Quassine. Preventing suffering is the good thing to do."
Quassine humbly bows to sister Xanya, "Yes, I do agree with you sister Xanya. Hopefully we can relieve others of their suffering as we rescue the Archmage."
Kiki says " Ahh, Blissfull darkness, thank you Xanya" as she enters the globe of darkness.
"Goivan, I see you have your axe. Does that thing work on trees as well?"
"Mlinzi, care to join me for a climb?" Champawat asks as she eyes the treeline.
Mlinzi brightens up at the prospect of something to do - especially climbing. "Sure thing! Lead the way!" The Vanaran slings his heavy hammer over his shoulders and scampers after Champawat.
Lucina looked uneasy at the mindflayer's return, sibling or no anyone that ordered the silence of others was not to be trusted. "If we have the proper magic we might be able to mark our paths with it instead of coal." She offered to Mlinzi.
"I was actually studying a spell for that... but hadn't quite mastered it." the Kitsune said. "Although... it is limited in duration." Makoto continued.
"In either case... our brethren are already beginning to split apart." she said as the Vanara did just that. "I suppose we should prepare for traveling as well. What do you think we should do..?" she asked of the Tavros and Lucina (as well as anyone else who is nearby!)
As she listened she sat down on the ground, cross-legged. "Let's hope this works." Slowly, each of her tails radiated out from her, and a flame burned bright at the tip, in the color of the ribbon. She slowly drew the flames closer together, and once all of the tails had touched, a white flame took the former's place.
Eleanor forgoes the globe of darkness some of the others were taking refuge within and instead choosing to enjoy the sun a little longer.
"I can leave a mark behind but if I have to do it to often it's gonna really slow us down." Eleanor offers, emphasizing the point by casting the cantrip on a stick.
Although the Vanaran was much faster both on the ground and in the trees, Champawat was determined not to get left behind. Once again having a goal insight served to brighten her otherwise dour mood. They hit the treeline at almost full sprint, but that didn't seem to slow them down as their direction shifted from horizontal to vertical. Up and up they climbed until they broke through the forest canopy. Peeking around and taking stock of their surroundings didn't take more than a few moments, but it did serve to release most of the tension in their muscles.
"I'm going to see what I can scavenge below" she said as she began her descent. Upon hitting the ground, Champawat began looking for sizable sticks for firewood and airrow/bolt crafting and any food she could find. After about an hour of playing in the woods, she has gathered enough berries, mushrooms, and caterpillars to feed herself and seven of her brothers and sisters. I hope Mlinzi found some as well.
"Mlinzi" she calls out, "are you ready to head back yet? We shouldn't be gone too long."
Prar whispers in Undercommon, "Brother Quassine, that would be worthy of our collective time indeed."
The Vanaran felt no need to race his partner, and simply kept pace with her easily. Mlinzi took to the trees with consummate ease, aiming for the highest vantage point he could find to get a feel for the lay of the land.
After surveying the landscape, he decided that he would scour the trees for nuts, fruit, eggs, and other edibles. He had some luck returning to the ground with an armful of food. "Yep, I'm ready. Seems this place isn't too bad for food. Pickings aren't good enough to feed our crowd, though..."
With that, Mlinzi began to head back to the others, hoping they'd appreciate what food he was able to find.
Climb: Unnecessary. I can make a DC 15 Climb check on a natural 1 with a margin of success.
Perception: Taking 10 - 10+10=20 Perception to notice any important features - rivers, signs of civilization, caves, or even living things that might be within view from the top of a tall tree.
to forage for food.
Xanya reaches down for her belt and pulls out a large tome, nearly as large as her chest. She balances it on Cryxial's neck and start leafing through it, those standing nearby can see that there are a lot of empty pages, to get to a place near the start where there actually is something written. "As I said before, I think we should prepare our spells and other resources in case we need them instead of just wandering off. Though of course those who doesn't have anything to prepare are of course free to go. Myself, I want to make some extracts."
The flame that Makoto had summoned danced for a moment... and then, from that, a lupine form slowly began to emerge, before finally a white fox, approximately Makoto's size appeared. They both bore the same flaming rune upon their forehead, as she slowly rose... and then she clapped happily; she'd been studying to do that as well. She wasn't certain that the pact had been successful until just now! The whole process had taken just over a minute.
A brand new Eidolon that wasn't trying to tempt her into a darker path!
"Greetings, petitioner." came the voice from the fox, considerably deeper than Makoto's, but with the same lilt. He pads for a moment, before taking a seat, his eyes moving from person to person, slowly, as he feigned disinterest. What... odd company you keep."
Tavros blinks slowly, surprised at having a decision question directed at him. Normally he just let other people decide and then did whatever he was told (or asked by some of his more polite siblings).
He watches Mlinzi and Champawat race into the forest as he thinks. "Hopefully our siblings will be able to tell us what is nearby after they look around." He looks up towards the sun, judging how far it's traveled so far. "Since it's already mid-day, today might be best spend gathering food for our travels and shelter for tonight; it is warm now, but who knows what chill the night may bring. That will allow us hopefully to travel uninterrupted all of tomorrow should we be far from civilization."
He pauses, continuing to think through the problem. "When we do find others, we will need to find out where we are. Or rather what is around us. A map would be useful. As would any information we can find on Masters Goodwin and Kao Lor. Unless Master Jovar has more information on what kind of a person Kao Lor is, we may not be able to do better than random travel to gain information as I don't think any of us are powerful enough to cast spells to find him yet and we have nothing to trade for such a service."
His heart begins to grow heavy as he starts to realize that splitting up may be their best option: he doubted a literal army of "monsters" would be responded to positively, and without an idea of where they were going, they would increase their chances of finding something that way. He bites his lip and starts to fidget at the idea. Looking off into the distance, he softly adds under his breath, "We need some way to keep in touch once someone finds something.... Maybe agreeing to meet up somewhere after a certain amount of time has passed?" He's clearly starting to grow agitated as he fails to find a better way to keep in touch.
Gunther nods at Tavros' suggestion while he stores his weapon. "Sounds like a good plan t' me. If we've got somewhere t' return t', then it'll be fine for th' lot o' us t' wander off. But where should that be?" the duergar asks, running a hand through his beard in thought.
Quassine nods with a Mind Flayer smile, then in his burbling gurgling voice in,
Quassine looks towards Xanya and also speaks in
"The best that I can do is a message spell." Makoto acknowledges to Tavros. "Which... won't last long, and doesn't reach very far. I think that meeting back up is the best option, yes." Her tails flicker about as Gunther speaks. "I still say near running water. At worst, we'll have access to fish... and at best, we'll have boats moving between towns."
"And what is going on, precisely..?" asked the Eidolon, before his tongue lolled out to the side. Maks looked to her familiar, the resplendent thrush, "Would you mind, Sora?" which was a simple enough request. The Thrush fluttered over to the Eidolon and began to fill him in on what the pair knew, quietly, so as not to rehash anything that was already well-established.
"hmm, food and shelter should be the main priority now, I don't know how cold the nights here get. "
First looking towards Tavros, then towards Maks she adds "how about meeting here after a year and a day regardless of what we find. Or earlyer if necesary, for the meantime some magic to comunicate with someone you know should not be to difficult to aquire."
While in the tree tops,you watch for a while, for any signs. After a bit of time, you spy in the distance what you swear is some sort of raptorial bird, perhaps an eagle, flying with a fish in its talons. It quickly dips down below the treeline again. But surely that is an indicator or water. There may be a river in the distance, and perhaps the salmon are heading upstream. Possibly a mountain lake lies in that region. A river that would wind downstream may very well lead to civilization.
You see no other signs of interest. The mountains, and alpine forest stretches to the range of your vision. Above the treeline you see nothing of note. Distant peaks of grey and purple reveal nothing of interest.
You spy other birds periodically, and the forest is filled with plenty of squirrels and chipmunks. You find a birdsnest with a few eggs in it, and you know that some of the pine trees nearby will provide needles which if boiled will provide a healthful tea, which can stave off scurvy.
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For anyone else who slips into the forest edges:
There is plenty of duff and dry branches and pine needles to easily start a fire, and surely someone in the group has the power to summon fire in some form or another. There are some fallen trees which can be recovered, and you find plenty that are dry enough.
The duff and pine needles could serve as a soft bed for sleeping on, and the shelter of the trees may provide a small respite from the brisk winds, although a fire within the forest seems quite unwise.
Enough of you are skilled in survival to determine that the season is early summer based on the plant life in bloom and the presence of some insects, small bees and other pollinators, and despite seeing some small amounts of snow caps on distant high peaks, you deem in unlikely that it will snow tonight, although it may get quite chilly.
"A... year and a day seems to be a very long time to me." Maks acknowledges. "Maybe a shorter timeframe?" she smiles, knowing that the little fey creature is very likely going to choose something else numerically significant to her.
"We fritter away our time." Qahnaarin turns to Jovar. "Dear friend, do you know where we have been deposited? Finding the nearest town would be the first step in gaining supplies, information, and our bearings."