Makoa looks out over the plains and feels more like his old self. Island jungles where nice and all, but nothing could beat a plain or a forest in his mind. He could see wolves again, the ones he now knew represented the spells Nature gave him. They looked... happy to be back in a more natural environment.
This was a very good place.
"Which way do we go? ...and come to think of it - should we not somehow let our 'main' party know as well?"
"Any markings we leave could be used by our enemies as well. I say we don't leave any."
Douena is unconcerned about the party following them. "They have their own guide," she shrugs. "It's not like they don't know where they're going. Besides, if they see the drawing I left for Athyra, they'll probably take the same shortcut." She clearly hadn't considered that her picture would be helpful to the Pathfinders and is now regretting it.
"Only if they can figure out what it is supposed to mean. It may be clear that we stopped at the mine to help, but not that we found and took a shortcut."
"The main expedition will have too much equipment with them to use the shortcut, anyway," Jask says. "Our objective is to get to Tazion as quickly as possible. We don't need to leave messages about every shortcut we find. We should only warn them of major dangers or delays."
"Wise man won't tarry then," Mahjik points in what he suspects is the right direction, "Let's go! Lead on Shokambe!"
Lorenz grins sheepishly at Sasha as he follows after. "I think I'd rather deal with the larger ants...at least then I don't have to worry about them hiding in my clothes and nibbling on me without me knowing about them!"
As the others discussed leaving messages for the main group, he was leaning toward agreement with Makoa that they should be made aware of the shortcut but Jask's comment brought him up short.
"Since we took care of the danger in the mines I guess we don't need to worry about warning them of that. Let's take advantage of our head start and get a move on."
You set out across the plains, pushing through the long grasses. You do see a lot of ants (and some do climb up people's legs), but not swarms of them and they prove no danger. To the south, you can still see the jungle in the distance, but it recedes the farther east you go. Shortly before you stop for the evening, you see a huge herd of antelope grazing to the north.
"Best to watch them from a distance," Shokambe says. "We don't want to startle them and cause a stampede."
Assuming no one does anything to startle the herd, you watch the antelope as you pass. There seem to be hundreds of them in the herd, all peacefully grazing, a few moving slowly from one spot to another.
As evening falls, Shokambe locates an area of relatively short grass to camp on for the night. There you set up camp and settle down for a relaxing evening.
Lorenz eyes Pezock and Douena nervously after Shokambe's warning about causing a stampede but says nothing.
It's been a very unpleasant day for Douena: Pushing through more-than-waist-deep grass is nearly as tiring as tramping through jungle undergrowth, and when ants weren't crawling up her legs, tiny flying insects from the stalks of the grasses were flying up her nose. Ralph, on the other hand, is chipper and sated, his belly so full of the smorgasbord on offer in the Mneri Plains that he hasn't even bothered to catch any bugs for the last few hours. When Shokambe calls a halt for the night, she flings herself down on the ground grumpily while everyone else gets out their bedrolls and camping supplies.
After the camp is set up, however, she scoots over next to Jask and whispers to him in a low voice.
Douena gets up and announces importantly, "I need to talk to Desna." Moving to the edge of the campsite, she lays flat on her back, disappearing into the grass entirely, to stare up at the brightening stars.
After an hour, she approaches Sasha and Lorenz. "Sasha," she offers gently, "I asked Desna to let me see if the mold from the book affected you. If you are infected and we find out now, we might be able to stop it before it gets to your eyes."
Lorenz nods eagerly at Douena's words. "Yes, that'd be important. Thank you, Douena."
Sasha nods. "Of course," she says. "I'm pretty sure I'm fine, but doesn't hurt to have it confirmed."
Douena casts her diagnose disease spell and determines that Sasha is free of any diseases.
Douena's anxious look dissolves into a wide smile after she casts her spell and gives Sasha a good once-over. "You're perfectly fine," she tells her happily. "I was worried about you being infected; green haze isn't like the sicknesses people caught back on the Shiv where they'd get back to normal once it ran its course. Even if you'd gotten better, there would be nothing Jask or I could do to restore the sight you'd have lost. Don't go touching moldy things next time!" she scolds her fondly.
Sasha raises her hands in mock defence. "I will never touch another mouldy thing again," she says with a smile.
After a peaceful evening (the plains are very quiet in the night apart from the rustle of grass in the wind), you prepare to set out again in the morning. Jask and Douena check on Mahjik to see how he's recovering from the wight's draining, and Douena provides him with a little luck.
As it happens, Mahjik is doing well, and although he begins the day still feeling drained, he feels his vitality start returning during the process of breaking camp. By the time the group starts out again across the plains, he's feeling his old self again.
Mahjik shrugs his shoulders, rolling his head left and right, dislodging something. "Wise man acknowledges that peace without harbors peace within." He soundly claps his hands together then stands a moment, his head bowed.
Mahjik likely performed a prayer, using the customs more commonly found in ancient Vudra and Tian Xia. It's rarely seen in that form in the Inner Sea.
Lorenz rises in the morning and stretches, enjoying the rare peaceful night without a torrent of jungle sounds intruding on his dreams.
He sees Mahjik doing something unusual but shrugs and prepares his equipment for the day, making sure that his arrows are within easy reach as he straps his quiver onto his back.
Looking out at the grasslands he shivers. "I guess just about anything can be hiding out there. I hope we get a little warning before an attack or my arrows won't be of much use," he says to Sasha.
The journey today is a surprisingly gruelling one after the calm night. The grass becomes less of a hindrance as it gets shorter the farther into the M'neri Plains you go, but the sun beats down relentless and the lack of trees or hills or anything else to provide shade, you feel its full strength. You go through water supplies quickly and have to restock (via create water spells and small streams lakes) several times. Because of the heat, you take a longer midday break than usual before heading out again.
You do get to see numerous examples of wildlife on the plains, including more antelope, elephants, unusual birds. Sasha has an easy time hunting, so food is not a problem today.
Eventually, you gratefully settle down for another night's rest. "Are we nearly there yet?" Pezock grumbles as you unpack the camping gear.
"Kalabuto is about six or seven days away," Shokambe replies. The tengu does not look pleased with the answer.
Lorenz rises in the morning and stretches, enjoying the rare peaceful night without a torrent of jungle sounds intruding on his dreams.
He sees Mahjik doing something unusual but shrugs and prepares his equipment for the day, making sure that his arrows are within easy reach as he straps his quiver onto his back.
Looking out at the grasslands he shivers. "I guess just about anything can be hiding out there. I hope we get a little warning before an attack or my arrows won't be of much use," he says to Sasha.
Sasha grins. "That's half the fun of travelling in the wild," she says. "You never know when something might sneak up on you and devour you alive. Of course, you hope that that doesn't actually happen, or at the very least, you get the better of whatever sneaks up on you."
"Are we nearly there yet?" Pezock grumbles as you unpack the camping gear.
"Kalabuto is about six or seven days away," Shokambe replies. The tengu does not look pleased with the answer.
"I know how you feel, Pezock," Douena grumbles. She is less exhausted than the rest, having bestowed her endure elements spell on herself when the day started to get hot, but doesn't let her relative comfort get in the way of a good complaint. "We keep tramp, tramp, tramping, day after day, to go somewhere I don't want to go on behalf of people I don't like. We should have gone to find that city with the big beetle in it; I bet it would have been more fun."
"Meh, we would have had to travel there, too," Pezock grumbles. "We should have gone to another one of those mines and cleared out more walking dead!" The thought seems to cheer him up a little and he goes about camp set-up chatting with his sword about the glories of cut down swaths of undead.
"It might have been a little more interesting if we'd seen something to fight," Lorenz agrees, "But I rather enjoyed the walk except for the heat. Though I'm wondering now why we didn't buy horses."
He grins. "Weren't those large grey leathery skinned things impressive? They didn't even seem all that mean."
"You won't be wondering when we get to jungle or cliffs," Douena tells Lorenz. "Remember how long it took to rig up contraptions to move Soulwind when we had to climb up or down someplace on the Shiv? And that was just one horse. Pezock, travel is lovely," she protests, following after the tengu. "You get to see lots of interesting things and meet different kinds of people, like you and Aycenia and the mushroom men ... well, maybe not them. This isn't traveling; it's just walking."
"Word to the wise, Lorenz, don't assume the 'leathery skinned things' are always gentle giants. Those tusks aren't for show."
"Now I don't know about any of you, but being back in the wild has me in the mood for food from my youth. If no one has any objections, I'm going to go hunt a snack."
"No objections, but if you can, won't you take me along? I think there's something to learn in the way you hunt," Mahjik asks Makao.
"I don't like hunting," Douena generously volunteers her opinion without it being solicited. "There's too much staying still and being quiet. It's like hiding, but it lasts too long."
"If you want to come along, Douena, you can wait for us to get on the other side of the prey. Then you can make all the noise you want. Should send it right towards us."
"Mahjik, you're welcome to come along. How you'll learn to hunt to your teeth is going to be interesting."
"Good hunting friend." Urza enjoyed a fresh kill as much as Makoa, but was not very skilled at hunting.
Lorenz grins at Makoa. "Well you didn't see me run over and pet them, did you?"
Since Sasha had already hunted for the day, he finds a comfortable place to sit down and relax, enjoying the rest after a day of walking.
"If you want to come along, Douena, you can wait for us to get on the other side of the prey. Then you can make all the noise you want. Should send it right towards us."
"No," Douena sighs with lassitude. "I'll stay and watch Shokambe's turtle."
"Then I'm off to hunt." Makoa sets his shield down and undoes his armor as well. He was going to take it off before he slept anyway, so it was just a bit more time feeling lighter. He grabs an axe and a javelin before turning to Mahjik. "Let's find out what my hunting style teaches."
With that, Makoa heads off into the night in search of small game he can really sink his teeth into, being watchful for large predators as he goes.
"Ah... I see - dual purpose," Mahjik nods, "seek the prey while not becoming the prey. Wise wolf indeed."
Makoa has a very successful hunt and Mahjik's presence turns out to be very helpful. Combined with Sasha's earlier success, your group eats well tonight.
It's a warm night, but not too uncomfortable, and you awake refreshed in the morning. Pezock is eager to get moving, but that's normal. "Let's get this walking over with so we can travel!" he exclaims.
"I had a dream," Douena announces portentously when she sits up. "The vampire-snake people came back and were trying to steal my Tiny Bear, and we fended them off with a bag full of rats. I need a bag of rats."
"That seems rather strange for your dreams. Do you believe this one came from Desna as well?"
"All dreams come from Desna," she tells him serenely.
"Ah, that's right, isn't it? Let me try again. Do you think this is a prophetic dream from Desna like the ones you had back on the island?"
"It seems obvious that she does, since she now needs a bag of rats." Lorenz interjects. "Just be careful you don't actually feed your new friend to one of them. I bet rats eat salamanders."
Lorenz returns to packing up his equipment with a small smile.
"Rats?" Pezock says, his eyes narrowing. "Rats should be easy to find. We'll look as we move. Onwards! If we move quickly, we can reach our destination today!" He points to the east with his sword and begins marching.
Shokambe looks about to say something in response to Pezock's wildly inaccurate estimate of travel time, but stops when Pezock holds up his hand. "Quiet, Guideman! I'll lead today. You look for rats." With that, Pezock begins trekking across the plain.
Jask places a conciliatory hand on Shokambe's shoulder. "At least he's going the right direction," the cleric says.
"All dreams? What about nightmares?"
"Well, nightmares are a kind of dream," Sasha comments as you set out across the plains. "But I'm not really an expert."
The morning journey across the plains is mostly uneventful. At one point, Pezock finds a very large rat (almost a foot in length) that he grabs and offers to Douena for her bag of rats. At another point, Alton swoops down over a group of antelope, startling them and causing them to stampede, luckily in a direction away from the party.
After resting during the heat of the early afternoon, you set out again. Throughout the day, the Laughing Jungle to the south has been creeping closer. Shokambe says that you're passing the most northerly extent of the jungle. Sometime tomorrow, it will start creeping south again.
Shortly after 4 or so in the afternoon, you spot a small wisp of smoke rising from the jungle. "Cooking fires from a local village probably," Shokambe comments. Shortly after that, you notice three people walking through the grasses to the south of you, near the jungle's edge. They are waving, apparently at your group.
So as not to be impolite, Lorenz waves back.
The people call out as they continue moving through the grass. It's hard to hear from this distance, but it sounds like they are repeating a few words in Polyglot.
"They are calling out greetings," Shokambe says. "Do you wish..."
Before he can finish, Pezock calls out to the three people. Shokambe sighs. "He is asking if they have any rats to fight vampire snakes with."
"Well, at least we'll know. Return the greeting."
The morning journey across the plains is mostly uneventful. At one point, Pezock finds a very large rat (almost a foot in length) that he grabs and offers to Douena for her bag of rats.
Douena eyes the rodent almost a third her own size a little warily. "You can carry the rats, Pezock," she tells him graciously. "We need a sack, Lorenz. Where's the sack you put all the snakes in?"