Xanya nodds at Eleanor's words. "I agree with Eleanor, we shouldn't camp before we have to. The cold up here in the mountains has changed my mind about travelling through the night though. Maybe it is better if we at least find somewhere to start a fire for the night for warmth. At least the light from a fire doesn't hurt like the sun. Do anyone have magic to make a fire once we do decide to camp? Oh yeah, since we won't travel through the dark, maybe we should push ourselves a bit harder to travel faster before the sun goes down? We won't need the extra energy anyway."
Concern setting in, the group starts to hustle up and move quickly to the lake, hoping to make a camp before sunset. The irony hits you that the sun that many of you so despise, is still life sustaining and keeps you from freezing to death. You press on and anticpate arriving at the lake soon.
"How did you manage to stay warm while you were so far under the earth?" Eleanor questions as they increase their pace through the woods.
Xanya's face is filled with conflicing emotions as she thinks back. Longing for the people she would never see again, relief to be free of the madness and a strong desire to change her ways and those of her people from what they had been back them. "There is no wind nor rain below. The absence of varying weather kept the temperature pretty much constant. Also the center of the earth is actually quite warm so it kept the tunnels temperate. Thankfully not warm enough to be uncomfortable though."
"Ok Kiki, pretending to be a familiar will work well. I just did not want to suggest it unless it came from you or you asked for suggestions."
Quassine nods in agreement, "From what Archmage Goodwin told me, Xanya is correct. There are volcanic vents that warm Underdark and most civilizations are close to these vents but not too close. Where there are not vent or volcanic activity, it can get cold."
Quassine looks at the trees and surroundings, "Instead of camping here, let's continue to the lake where the trees will open up and we can build a safe fire. We will have enough time to build lean-to wood shelters to help stay warm tonight."
"Being a familiar is nothing to be ashamed of, it's usualy a good deal, and for a spiderling one of the only ways to go and see the world."
"My old home also had more or less the same temperature all year round, the forest regulates it own temperature, normal forests do it too, but forest as old as my old home do it way better, the trees also keep the sun, snow or rain away from the ground. I want to see the Underdark one day, to compare it to my old home.
Kiki stops her ground preparing, "Yes, lets go to the lake, I still need time to prepare the water creation spell."
Day 1, Time approximately 6:30 PM.
The group arrives at the lake, tired and exhausted, elated to have finally made it. For those outside of your artificial darkness, the sun is setting quickly behind the mountains to the west, casting long shadows over the lake. The sunset is somewhat magnificent for those who appreciate it. For those cloaked in darkness, within the forest it was not always necessary due to the dimly lit forest, and once to the lakeshore the sun is setting enough that the light levels no longer harm the darkness lovers.
As evening draws closer you see the birds start to nest up for the night but some early insects buzz around briefly. You wonder where they go when it gets so cold. The waves gently lapping against the shore brings a peace over you. While the lake itself is not very big, this is the lowest point of the plateau, the depression serving as the 'bowl' for the lake, all the snowmelt flowing in this direction. During the off season the lake levels may be lower, but now, it flows briskly. Waters from multiple streams flow in the north, east and west sides. The south end of the lake empties its contents into a river, its waters crashing down through a gap in the mountains. These rapids signal the path from the mountains for those who cannot fly or traverse the treacherous peaks.
The water is cold, very cold, but fresh. As with in the forest, wood here is plentiful and more available in smaller amounts. Driftwood and other pieces of wood has washed up and lie scattered about the shore, deposits from the fast flowing streams that made their way back to shore. The breeze here is still strong, and the cool wind picks up as the warmth of the sun disappears. In the dusk you occasionally you see or hear a fish jump into the air or surface to grab a meal from an insect that came too close to the water.
You take a moment and then need to decide to get on with your your next plan. You have about an hour and a half before dark. The temperature is dropping quickly. Quassine sets to work gathering pine branches for a makeshift tent, creating basic structure with saplings and covering them with a roof of pine branches. There is also wood and stone aplenty here. Let me know what else you plan in the hour and a half or so before dark. Again as long as you have a fire you should be ok, and could do other tasks after dark (sleeping at some point), as long as you stay close to the fire and warm up occasionally. The stones are still somewhat warm from the sun of the day, but will cool off after dark.
While you work, have some more inspirational pictures:
Snowmelt streams
River
Lake
Lake Close
Lake Side
Lake Side
More Lake!
aerial view
"I think I can get a flame started, we just need a clear area and a pit for the fire."
Eleanor begins searching for dry tinder while Kiki focuses on her spell and Quassine builds a shelter from the wind.
Quassine makes sure not to point the entrance(s) of the lean-to(s) toward the lake since even colder wind will blow from there, and makes the entrances point to other trees or whatever to help be a wind breaker. And yes, he will make sure everyone can crawl into the shelter(s).
"Thank you El, a fire would be nice! If we did not have such a pressing issue, I would enjoy our outing even more and can spend days up here. However, this does remind me of my human home so that is probably why. However, I must admit Underdark has its own beauty in the darkness especially the vegetation with bio-luminescence."
With Quassine's focused dilligence, the shelters take hold and while crude, will do the trick nicely, protecting the group from the wind, and allowing heat from the to be trapped. Eleanor, using jolt, eventually manages to spark some tinder and dry pine duff into a small flame. Within a minute a large fire is being fed with more pine debris and small twigs, shortly a nice toasty fire is roaring offering ambiance as well as protection for those who do not have magical protection from the elements.
The group settles down to the night, the stars are bright in the clear sky, and you can all clearly hear the other groups dotted along the west side of the lake. Along the shore you can see their campfires as well, and hear the largest group singing and laughing.
Quassine looks in the direction of the singing and laughing, "Sounds like they are having a good time and I wish we were too. But I must admit, we do not know what denizens are in the area and we should set up watches for the night especially if they attract unwanted guests?" Quassine points in the direction of the merry making.
Eleanor nods in agreement and volunteers to take first watch. "I'll stay up."
Quassine smiles something like Captain Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean except his mouth is under the tentacles instead of on top, "Good ... Good ... I'll take mid watch. I would have taken last watch but when the sun comes up in the morning, it would floor me." Quassine laughs.
"Kiki, I would be delighted to have you pose as my familiar, it would be natural given that you've been climbing on me a lot. Maybe some day I get a real familiar, but until then, feel free to crawl all over me. Though even if I do get one, you can crawl on me of course. I still need to use my extract to hide myself of course."
Xanya tries to help out with making camp, but she is actually quite hopeless in survival matters. STill, there is something she can offer. "I'll take the last watch so I can cast darkness to greet the sun as is fitting. Sadly Cryxial can't stay here while I sleep, otherwise he could have kept watch through the night as he doesn't need to sleep on this plane."
Xanya points towards the dwelling. "We should sleep close together for warmth, snuggled up against each other.
Eleanor focuses her magic and forms a crude glass-like bowl shaped object.
She sets the bowl near Kiki. "Here this should be able to hold some water. It's not the sturdiest so try and be careful with it."
"And I would be delighted to pose as your familiar."
Kiki spends the camp building pase in meditation, preparing her spells "I'll take the watch between Quassine and Xanya"
noticing Eleanor setting the bowl beside her, she waves her hands and speaks a few fey words and the bowl is filled with water.
Kiki nodds in agreement with Xanya "Keeping warm is important, exspecially if you have no blanket, just don't sleep on me, even fey need to breath"
Xanya now walking on the ground greedily grabs the bowl and starts drinking before she abruptly stops and thrust the half-full bowl towards Eleanor. "I am thirsty, but the good thing to do would be to let you drink first. I am so sorry. I need to control my urges." there is a hint of tears in Xanya's voice.
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Quassine's eyes dart back and forth as he thinks to himself, "Talking about urges, I'll have to control my remaining man parts tonight during this "keeping warm" session."
Quassine gracefully grabs the bowl of water when it his turn to drink, "Thank you Kiki for the water."
A somewhat gangly kitsune with a green moon-shaped birthmark on his right cheek ambles up to the makeshift shelters. Cardau, or "Card" as his siblings sometimes referred to him, waves. "I WANT TO HELP! WILL YOU LET ME HELP? THE OTHER GROUPS WON'T LET ME HELP; THEY SAY I'M USELESS WITHOUT DAD TO COMMUNICATE TO ME TELEPATHICALLY. I KNOW THEY MEAN WELL AND JUST WANT ME TO BE SAFE, BUT I DON'T NEED TO BE CODDLED. I CAN HELP."
Quassine
"Letting the most thirsty drink first is also the good thing to do. Help yourself." She replies politely.
Eleanor hands the Kitsune the bowl."I won't turn you away Card, have some water."
"Try put less energy in your voice, especially at night. The rest of us can hear just fine." Ellie says.
"UGH! Another Illithid urge, Telepathy, that I don't posses."
Cardau takes the bowl from Eleanor and examines it. Taking his sister's instruction to heart, he replies more softly (though perhaps still a little louder than normal): "Thank you. Did you make this with magic?"
"thank you Xanya finishes the bowl with a guilty smirk before putting it back so the others can drink.
Xanya smiles at the new arrival. She seems to recall something about him reading lips so she speaks to him normally. Welcome Card! The others are fools. What others see as curses, we use as our strengths! They say I am insane, but that is the very thing that allow me to fend of attacks against my mind as if it was nothing. I would be happy to have you join us. Come cuddle in our makeshift shelter for warmth this cold night. We will make each other comfortable."
Eleanor nods. "I made the... bowl-thing and Kiki provided the water."
Quassine parts his tentacles and quickly adds, "Yes come join us and I made the shelter. When do you want to stand watch tonight?"
Day 1:
Time: After Dark. 9-10 PM ish.
The group settles in for the night. As you settle in the new arrival joins the camp. Coming from Tolteimia's group, it was just too overwhelming for him. They were singing and dancing at their camp and he was unable to really enjoy the conversation as people danced or sang. he couldn't hear the beat and felt a little left out. The group is huddled in Quassine's tents and the fire crackling nicely warms the group as they each consider in their own way the sleeping arrangements. The group finishes the last of their food, but refills the fragile bowl of water, passing it amongst each other almost ritually, realizing how thirsty you all became during the trek. Eleanor's mismatched eyes sparkle in the fire light, almost balefully. Kiki's tiny bristly spider body moves amongst the group agily, climbing and crawling over people. The group has gotten used to it, where others has always been a little creeped out by the spiderling.
You huddle close, dirty and exhausted, but enjoy each others friendship. In many ways, misfits, monsters, with dark, violent backgrounds, taken in by Goodwin, who believed you could become something more. Many times you struggled with your identity, or insanity, and still do, but staring into the fire, in the middle of nowhere, you wonder, what will you do now?
I am going to get things to the overnight stage, and prep for the next day of adventuring, as well as focus on character crunches.
Eleanor spends her time on watch listening to the sounds echoing across the lake. Music from all walks of life, most of which the people of this time would consider ancient, perhaps alien in most cases.
She needed to enjoy what she could about their situation. Things looked pretty bleak, with everything considered and she'd have to look after her group closely.
Xanya is nightly pleased with herself at managing to convince the others to snuggle in the tent with her. It feels great to have their big, warm bodies pressed up against her. They aren't her race, but she wonders if they might be compatible anyway. "This is really nice. At least one good thing to come out of all this. Getting to spend time with you all like this. We didn't really ever huddle together all of us back with Goodwin."
Jovar was able to wake everyone who was suspended in the stasis tubes. There were golems and other constructs or artifices that did not make it from the plane, but all of Goodwin's chosen, made it out.
Kiki refills the bowl as needed.
"yes its nice, we never had that much togehterness back then." said the spiderling, enjoying the sunggle, sucessfully ignoring the only bad aspect, everybody's to high state of dress.
Cardau returns Xanya's smile before replying to Quassine. "And a fine shelter it is, brother. I will stand watch as the moon reaches its height. I must be awake to worship the Prince of Moons then, anyway. Might as well make myself useful. Speaking of making myself useful, Eleanor and Kiki, I think I can duplicate your trick, should the need for multiple water-bowls arise." Cardau grins. "Now, Xanya, I'll take you up on that cuddle offer. Shake me when it's time for me to get up." Then, he snuggles down next to Xanya.
Quassine medidated and since he not used any major spells, he did not have to remember any but of course still needs his rest tonight.
"It is quite comfortable in here." Quassine tries to think of other things besides man urges with the ladies around him, and he makes sure either El or Xanya is between him and Cardau. He continues, "Archmage Goodwin had us always in training and had trainers chaperoning us all the time so this was not possible back then. And then he placed us in stasis."
Quassine looks at Cardau and moves his tentacles with their own muscles to reveal his mouth, "Thank you and your night watch sounds like a good time. Do you need someone to be with you since you are hard of hearing or something?"
Xanya uses both hands to stroke Quassine on one side and Cardau on the other. She sneaks her small hands underneath their clothes to stroke their chests and backs. The feel of Quassine's smooth skin and Card's soft fur feels wonderful underneath her hands. She snakes her trained hands all over their torsos. She gets the sudden urge to dig her nails into their bodies, but she manages to resist the impulse. At least her nails are not sharp weapons like Eleanor and Cryxial got. She raises her voice to shout out to Eleanor. "Come join us for a bit, I doubt we need a guard as long as we are all awake. Also, it might be nice to make plans for tomorrow, instead of wasting time in the morning. I say we'll head down and out of the mountain as fast as possible. Scaling the way up would be even colder than here."
Kiki, lying on Xanya, uses all four of her dextrous hands to explore Xanya's well toned body, as she explores the bodys of her male companions, the spiderling sometimes also sneaks a hand to those two.
"yea, crossing the mountains without equipment would be suiccide, goint through the montain would be easier, but going down would be the easyest way"
Xanya's body is mostly incredibly firm and well trained, but her breasts are soft and much larger than can fit in her hand and barely even barely bigger than what the much larger guys can hold in their fists. The muscles holding them up are just as sting as the rest of her and they are standing straight out without the need for a bra. Underneath her tunic going down to right below her crotch she wears only a simple pair of panties. Kiki's hands running over her body sends her nerves tingling with pleasure and as the little fey squeeze a fleshy mound, she can't help but emit a low moan.
Eleanor shakes her head while the others... fool around. "I'm quite alright by the fire, thanks."
Looking at Quassine, Cardau says: "If it will make you more comfortable, I don't mind having company during my watch. I should be OK, though, I can see for a long ways, even in the dark." Xanya's hands feel good as they stroke Cardau's fur, but he doesn't dare make any noise because he doesn't know how loud it would be. Instead, he rolls over on his back and flails his legs a little to make it clear he's enjoying it.
Xanya is inspired by Card's reaction. Forcing emotions and sensations in others, whether it be pleasure or pain gives her such a heady rush of power and europhia. Causing pleasure is also good, right? She let her hand run all over his chest, trying to figure out what kind of movement elicits the most response. She pauses at the loincloth though and runs her hand back up again.
The first rays of sunlight wakes Xanya up, burning into her skin. What an annoying thing, the sun, she thinks as she casts darkness. She looks over and sees Kiki on duty. She slowly gets out of bed, not wanting to free herself from the warm mess of tangled limbs with the others. She picks up her lance and walks over. "Good morning Kiki, I'll take it from here. You can sleep some more."
Quassine smiles, "Cardau, It looks like you are on my watch any way. So it will be you and I."
Quassine enjoys the free flowing hands of Kiki and Xanya but notices El does not want to take part in it so he controls the man part to only firm but not a full out unwelcome surprise for her. Instead his tentacles raise up into the air displaying how much he is enjoying the caressing. With his free hand, he returns the caressing in light touching that women in general seem to like more and teases where his hand adventures around the most pleasurable regions.
By the time he can barely it take it, it was his time for his watch. He pulls himself out of the mix and into the cold air that helps his hormones cool off before reaching blue man part stage. The combination of the cooler air and cooling hormones, Quassine had no problems staying awake, "It is an interestingly nice evening isn't Cardau?"
Kiki enjoyes plaing with Xanya, enjoying it more than the kind of playing she did before Godwin. While her hands wander all over Xanyas body they, allmost teasingly, avoid her panties.
The spiderling reappers from her hiding place "Thank you, Xanya" Kiki yawns and moves roughly to the position were the Derro slept and lies down.
Xanya's moans groan louder at the dual stimulation of Kiki and Quassine. She grabs a fistfull of fur due to the stimulation, before catching herself and going back to caressing Card. "This is good.
Xanya runs up to the spiderling and hugs her before letting her continue. She feels much closer to the rest of the group after last night. "Hope you sleep well."
She then goes a bit off and starts chanting under her breath, summoning Cryxial back into this plane of existence.
There's a faint sound of a string instrument off in the distance that slowly rises until the owner approaches. He stops strumming lets the ukulele fall to his side, the strap over his shoulder and between his wings sliding easily along smooth scales.
"Well hi there. How're y'all this evening?"
He scans their camp, eyes passing the lean-to shelter.
"Well that seems like a stupid question now."
He grins.
"Hey, Xanya, dear. You doing alright? Wait. Nother stupid question. That should be obvious."
He address the group.
"Don't suppose your party here has room for one more, does it?"
"The moooore... Ahhh Xanya's speech is interrupted by moans. "The merrier" she pushes herself into the hands touching her, trying to get further stimulation. "To aaaaahhh certain pooohhint of course." Xanya nodds. "Now come here." Xanya doesn't really care about the future or whether things will be awkward in the morning, though they might just have formed a stronger bond, but she is not one to delay gratification, well unless it breaks her code of Good.
Simon couches down in front of the shelter, placing his elbows on his knees.
"Should probably ask names first, at least. Hi. I'm Simon."
He gives a short wave.
"I recognize most, if not all of you, but I'm afraid I don't know names."
He has this perpetual chill, goofy smile that is easy to find endearing.
After Quassine and Cardau's watch, if uneventful, he returns to the lean-to to get some sleep regardless of what is going on in the tent. A spell caster must still get their sleep but lucky for Quassine, he only needs (2) hours of rest. Somehow, something about the Archmage's stasis has changed him.
Presenting a crude map of the region you are in: MAP
You may be more or less aware of specifics of the map, but suffice to say you have a rough idea based on Grobly's scouting. Remember the entire region is ringed by heavy treacherous steep rugged mountains. To the south, a river heavy with snowmelt cuts its way through a small gap in the mountains to the highlands below. It too will be dangerous and rugged, but the safest way for those who wish to find their way from the wooded alpine plateau.