Raffe's face drops into a mask of neutrality upon hearing that this... wyrm... what an odd name... does not serve the goddess.
"Is that so, my friendly wyrm. Well, how about you, my fine Tengu fellow? Please tell me you are among my goddess' favored."
Fariza would stand up straight again as Isaac refused to show her his orb. For a brief moment her mind contemplated taking it by force and her eyes glared like a predators stare. Where she not on a mission for her Bloody Lord then she might have, but she had not been commanded to take this mans life, at least not yet, so calmed herself and smiled once more to him. "Very well, I trust that you have it. You seem like an earnest person."
She would look around her at the forest then back to the young man. "So, Isaac, how was it found me?" She glanced at the trail of scratch marks she had made on the trees on her way here, but he had not appeared from that direction.
Haikyu nods to Book Wyrm and begins to explain. "I'm afraid that I cannot remember how I got here. I just woke up in the forest. I assume the same can be said for you?"
Before Book Wyrm can reply, however, Raffe comes through the bushes. Haikyu regards the wizard with curiosity. He cocks his head between the ravens as the other two talk about their religions, before such a question is posed to him.
"I would that I could, but no, I am not familiar with this Lissala. The path of enlightenment for me is paved by Grandmother Crow." He casts a significant glance at the two ravens. "I rather expected you both to be followers of her ways, given that you are to be my new flock."
Grandmother Crow... not sure what I remember about her, if anything... Raffe thinks to himself as he attempts to remeber more about the goddess of Haikyu.
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Grandmother Crow (LG), otherwise known as Andoletta is one of the powerful archons known as an empyreal lord. She treats her flock as any grandmother would, protecting the innocent, reprimanding the wayward, and punishing the sinful. Common places to worship Grandmother Crow are courthouses, orphanages, and schools.
Creatures most often associated with Andoletta include blink dogs, celestial crows, hound archons, lantern archons, and similarly-aligned tengu.
Isaac feels briefly concerned about the face he thought he saw Fariza make, then decides he must have imagined it.
Well, I'm not much of a forest person, so I don't know how to follow tracks or anything. I was kinda confused and then decided to see if I could sense any magical auras. Yours was the only one I found.
He shrugs.
"Oh really? So you're able to cast spells then?" Fariza would ask, folding her arms and looking around her. She thought for a moment then asked "What does your orb do?"
Though she'd rather have kept this to herself, accomplishing her Bloody Masters task was more important to her, and so she decided to pluck her marble from her coat pocket. "This one is mine and one side of it is always illuminated, no matter which way it is turned. I followed its light so far and that is what lead me to here." She closed her hand around it to hide the light from Isaac. "Perhaps yours does something different."
Jack lets out a "Caw" directed to Olli.
"Oh! Sorry. This is Jack." Then directed to Jack, book wyrm harmonizes out, "Lleissiell ah Raffe. Tel nel kel nek Lissala. Burrarroum bu mem seles, mais trea youoy! Haikyu tel nel kel nek Andoletta, jej ta."
"Who might this be?" Olli gestures to Raffe's Raven friend.
Seeing Olli pointing at him, Xin shifts his weight nervously from leg to leg, feathers ruffling a bit as he does.
Raffe smiles at Xin and sends waves of comfort to him empathically. It's ok... nothing bad is going to happen to you while I draw breath.
After calming Xin down a bit, Raffe then addresses Olli, face still neutral.
"As I said, this is my friend Xin. He only speaks Thassilonian though. What language does your Jack speak, I don't recognize it."
"OH! Xin! That's great. Like the First King. Very clever. Jack speaks Celestial, I taught him the language, because I thought is was so lovely. I was just doing introductions. He doesn't understand common."
Olli shifts his body and matches the change with his face.
"I suppose we are to use some sort of key that we each posses, or something. I would like to meditate on all of this, but I think we don't have the time. Seeing as we are to be bound by some greater call, we should get to know each other. So that we may find some connection. My real name is Olli Lahti. I really like the mystic arts, but I study many things. Irori called on me because of my strict and disciplined life of study. Perhaps that is my part of the key, or maybe it is some real thing, like an actual key."
He starts searching his body.
Isaac pulls it out and looks at it.
Well, I don't mind you looking at it, I just didn't want to hand it over. Someone important gave it to me, you know.
He smiles slightly at the thought of the old lady.
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The orbs do not seem to react with each other, but now that you have others to compare it to, you notice that they point to a single direction but not parallel.
EDIT: As a PbP exception to speed things up, here's a clue. Your orbs/marbles will always point to the middle intersection of all active demi-gods who has them.
The general direction that Book & company's orbs point to is towards the NE, while it's SW from Raffe & Fariza's position.
Fariza bends over to look at the young mans orb. She could see that it too was casting a light, and in a similar direction to the one hers was pointing to before. Just to be certain she would open her palm enough for her to see its light as well. 'Our path is being shown to us.' She would stand up straight again then step to the side.
'Your orb does the same as mine, I suggest we follow its light. Our master is surely guiding us.' She would then gesture for Isaac to take the lead following the light. 'After you.'
Should he take the lead then Fariza would walk behind him by five paces, moving closer should she be in risk of lose sight of Isaac. Whilst he followed the light of his orb she would also constantly check hers to ensure that she is following her path.
If not then she'd say 'Very well, then you shall follow your path and I will follow mine.' With an annoyed tone then simply go on by herself, following her pearls light Southwest.
Of course.
The old lady would want me to work with others, I think.
Isaac follows his light.
Raffe pulls out his orb when Olli finds his.
"So you have one too... did your god send you on a quest to find it or did you just find it now?"
Turning to Haikyu, he asks, "Do you have an orb as well?"
"A quest of sorts." The Wyrm thinks back to his days of meditation. Crawling through labyrinths unseen... unheard. The boundless realm of the mind is where Irori can be found. "Those who do not seek to possess it, cannot lose it."
Without saying anything, Haikyu begins rifling through his pockets, before coming out with the same type of orb. Looking at it with a confused expression on his face, he shakes his head. "I was sent on a quest, but with nothing but what I carried."
Finding a smooth rock or tree stump, Haikyu puts the orb down on it and pecks at it with his beak, attempting to discern what it is made of, or even break it open.
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Book stares quizzically at the orbs but cannot seem to discern any other meaning except that they point to roughly the same direction. Haikyu's pecking does not even put a scratch on his own orb's smooth surface.
Fariza and Issac starts moving towards the direction of the light from their orb. After minutes upon minutes of walking, they hear a new set of noises. People talking, "... nothing but what I carried." then a series of thumping noises. It was not long before they find the other three companions in a clearing around a smaller tree stump where a crow-person seems intent to bury another white orb into it.
Book, Haikyu, and Raffe all look up as Fariza and Issac comes out from the bushes and continues to walk towards them. Before they can react however, the bushes behind the tro rustles once more and out comes a small band of orcs and their hound!
The hound has its nose towards Haikyu (). The orcs, who are armed with javelins and battle axes, smile at the trio wickedly and looks ready to charge at them while they're distracted by the appearance of Fariza and Issac.
Haikyu was alert enough to hear the additional newcomer's appearance and promptly turns around to look. Book & Raffe are still gawking at Fariza and Issac who easily spot the intruders.
Raffe looks up to see the two new people holding a now familiar looking orb. For all the trouble I went to to get mine I wouldn't have thought them to be so seemingly common. And by my Lady's runes are they loud, they sound like an entire war party!
Come on! Those people are under attack!
Isaac runs forward, looping around. The words of the old lady float into his mind.
Reach out. Find the flow. Magic flows through the planes, each plane leaving its own signature. Find the plane you want, follow the stream back until you find the wall. Where the flow meets the wall is The Door. Open The Door. Offer your magic and call the creature you desire.
Fariza enters the clearing and sees a gathering of others, all conversing among themselves. Following behind Isaac she would step into the clearing to see them. An eyebrow would raise as she saw a strange creature, a bird that stood like a man with dark plumage. She was about to introduce herself and enquire about the birdfolk when suddenly she saw a small gang of greenskins trample into the clearing as well.
At the sight of them she felt the metallic tang of blood on her tongue and all she could hear were the Infernal whispers to shed blood for her lord. With a hiss from her lips she drew upon her lords power and suddenly a layer of bone would calcify over her body, covering her in a pale white exoskeleton that twisted and gnarled across her body like the branches of a pale tree.
Garbed in her gruesome armour she would approach the orcs and their hound, fingers splayed as she prepared herself to fight.
Seeing the band of Orcs approaching, Haikyu draws his sword and prepares to stand between his new comrades and the oncoming battle. His eyes narrow and he lets out a low caw that sounds more like a growl than anything.
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The orcish gurgle of language ripple from the larger orc who points his falchion at Haikyu followed by a howl of laughter before they move out, leaving the hound behind after one of them pats it towards the other two.
"Look boys! We've got ourselves a big chicken for dinner!!! Get him!"
Issac moves forward while Fariza conjures up a gruesome collection of bony armor. The hound then moves forward towards Issac, finishing in a crouch, ready to jump at him.
Hearing the strange language coming from behind him (coupled with Haikyu's strange reaction), Raffe finally catches on to the presence of the Orcs. Well, that explains the sounds of a warband... there really was one.
"I take it you aren't friendly. A pity, I always wanted my own pet orc."
Turning to the closest one, he begins simple verbal and somatic incantations.
Seeing his ray go wide of the orc, Raffe begins to back pedal a bit.
Wyrm whips right around and Jack flies away. Wyrm back peddles as well and exclaims an incantation and places a force shield around the Tengu. .
If being laughed at has any effect on Haikyu, it doesn't show. While he cannot understand what they said, their continued forward movement is response enough to his warning. Without saying anything more, he swings his branched sword into the closest Orc.
-Posted with Wayfinder
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As a white-blue beam passes over the heads of the orcs, Haikyu draws his sword and follows up with a precise slash that put down one of the orc with one deep wound across its chest. This orc falls unconscious from the pain and is seen bleeding on the ground.
The other two orcs howls angrily and surrounds the tengu in retaliation. One of them moves towards Issac and tries to bring him down before he can assist the rest of the party.
Issac almost dodges but his foot got caught in an upturned root preventing further movement. The battleaxe leaves a deep wound upon his shoulder, blood spurting out it was drawn back by the orc. At the same time, Haikyu managed to block the orc's attack in front of him but the one attacking him from behind took the opportunity to cut down some of his feathers on his back, leaving bloody trail as well.
Book Wyrm steps closer to the Tengu and the Orcs. He sings out in a battle hymn...
Book then readies his hands and his mind for any attack.
Isaac withdraws next to Fariza.
Ah! Ah! It's hurting me!
The bone clad changeling would spin her head to the side as she saw one of the orcs charge out of the group and head right towards Isaac. A deep growl would echo through her, far deeper than her natural voice. 'You cannot stand before my path!' She would snarl, her voice like the grinding of gears in a torture device.
She would halt her charge and proceed to rush over to the orc that was attacking Isaac, aiming to at least keep the first person she meet in this place relatively safe for now.
Fariza would approach from the beasts side and jab out with her right hand, stabbing at its green with her claw-like nails.
Raffe is startled by the woman speaking in Infernal of all languages. There is a language that I had hoped to never hear again.
Haikyu obliges Book Wyrm, taking a step backwards towards him and waiting, ready, blood dripping from his sword and from his feathers.
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Fariza leaves a very deep gauge across the orc's back who was focused on Issac. Blood flies upwards from the wound when she withdraws her claws as the orc howls in pain and anger. In response to that however, the hound tries to bring down the woman-demon who brought pain to its master.
Haikyu promptly takes a step back.
Book exclaims an incantation and places a force shield around the Tengu. Then Book back peddles 30ft as he shouts to Haikyu.