"Yea, the kid didn't mean nothin' by it. He's just goofin' around."
Allie frowns at Hobbes ans her sister.
"If only they knew..."
"What? About me? Pfft, they would never believe you."
"My sister would..."
"Go ahead and try it. See how far you get. Hahahahaha!!"
"Urgg..."
Allie goes to help her sister up. Staring Hobbes down. Her voice is lower, not her own. "He should think twice before touching people he barely knows. Especially when they appear in fire." Her eyes burn with flames for a moment, then she returns to normal and turns her attention to Percy.
"I wasn't going to hurt him, sis. I know he was just playing. Are you okay?"
Percy examines her arms and does a visual check of the rest of her. Looks like my hobbit-pillow did his work. Know me or not, it's always nice to have one's fall broken. Where are we, anyway?
"I do good work and if you need a pillow lata, I'm available. Though I got no idea where we are."
Ered steps through the portal, shivering not from cold but from the odd sensation of this sort of magic, feeling this is far too much like the part of his home life he wishes to forget. Once through and among the large group of others, he shakes his head, specifically at the small person pile in front of him.
Shaking his coat out slightly, he puts it back on, knowing that the time will come when he'll desperately cling to all reminders of home.
"That's a very good question, I will admit."
Neverhonme turns to Vashti and sincerely asks "Do you want me to throw you next?"
Pulling up in the Slaygon the samurai feline blinks at friend Neverhome. Save your energy yes yes, there may be bads on the other side lets go!" He began, Hi-yaing the horses and sleigh slowly thought so as to not crush any underfoots
Vashti sighs, uncertain if she had wanted to maintain her dignity or enjoy being picked up and tossed.
Choice taken from her, she strides through the portal.
Allie takes a good look around. "Well damn... This is a nifty playground. Irrisen is much bloodier than I expected!" She giggles, obviously not phased by any of the death or destruction. She walks up to the first witch and proceeds to cut out his eyes. "This way they cant see us from beyond the grave. Had an old wiseman tell me that." Once finished, she goes to the next witch and starts to harvest her eyeballs. Eventually she has 3 sets of eyeballs.
Rolls eyes and chalks it up to being a strange, strange and violent...strange, violent and crazy gnome.
we are all going to die, by fire...
"It's true." Neverhome will nod along with Allie's reasoning.
Percy just shrugs as Allie does her thing and starts searching for anything that will tell them where exactly they are and where they need to go. Like a map.
Hobbes shrugs and takes a look around as well.
With the salygon through he paused loooking at the death about him and shuddering at the crazy little gnomes actions still, it soudnded like it made sense. Taking a glance at the burgeoning storm he looked for perhaps some shelter and wondered if any of those wolf pelts were salvagable. He also kept his eye out for perhaps packs or the like, food would be important in this wintery land.
Zses will shrug "Never heard of something like that...I mean, I don't know much about winter witches, but what you're doing sounds kind of odd."
Sigrun's eyes narrow as she observes the more twisted of the gnome sisters desecrating corpses. She maintains a stony silence.
Allie shrugs at Zses. "Dont have to believe me. Its just what I heard." She stuffs the eyes into her backpack, smiling at Zses. "Whats your birds name again?" Little allie flies around giggling.
The raven will respond instead of Zses "You can ask me, lady. I'm Crow."
"There's a snowstorm coming, if we don't move quickly the cold will only be a part of the problem. Sigrun says solemnly.
Percy glares at the "crow". Right now wasn't the best time to bring up her suspicions about the thing that looked like a crow excepting that it had forgotten its own language, but the time would come. It might even end in a delicious meal.
She quickly finishes her search and is ready to move out.
No maps are available, but Sigrun's keen eyes can make out faint lights from a distant village. It's miles away, but there seems to be no other signs of life in the area. With no visible alternatives, you begin to slowly make your way towards the lights. After several hours, you begin to hear sounds of combat. As you crest the next hill, you see two enormous Praying Mantises harassing a group of travelers.
Zses's eyes will widen as he sees the mantises attacking the travellers. "Guys, we have to help them! We could get a surprise attack on them, but I can't do much from here. And I don't think they're smart enough that I can scare them off with an illusion... They would probably be all like 'Oh, a giant dragon. Well, let's get back to eating this commoners'" he will whisper to the party.
He will ponder for a second, and the he will snap his fingers "Do you think they will run away if a giant fire comes their way?" he ask with a grin.
"I can. Hey bugfaces! Over here!" Hobbes yells as he draws his bow and fires a shot at one of them. "Don't over think it."
"Well, I meant I could do this! Running up the hill, Zses will shout too to the mantises "Hey! Overgrown vermins!We ate your relative yesterday, and it tasted horrible! But don't worry, now we'll roast you good! Creating a wall of fire, he will move it steadily towards the bugs.
"Would have been cooler if they could understand what you just said" Crow will observe.
Percy grins at the firey display and walks with the crow-boy down the hill. Her arms ripple with an unidentifiable energy.
BAH! more of those bad giant insects! He began gripping his naginata and kicked his loyal friend Mule forward!
Allie rolls her eyes at the fake fire. "If we are going to help, we should use real fire, and we should kill them."
Allie casts Mage armor on herself.
Identifying the lights of a village and setting the group in that direction, Sugrun puts her survival skills to work to aid the horses against the bitter cold.
Seeing the mantises she hefts her axe and shield, preparing to engage as they move in.
Seeing the hostilities break out Neverhome will draw his sword and move in along Sigrun.
Hobbes shoots the closest Mantis, and Zes conjures a wall of fire. Unfortunately, the insects are too distracted by their soon-to-be meal to notice. Their sharp claws grab two of the travelers.
With a loud and boisterous hiya Silence kicked his best friend Mule into motion closing on the giant insects.
While moving closer, Zses will continue to keep the wall up.
Hobbes fires another shot and moves closer 20 feet.
Sigrun surges forward to just behind the wall, preparing to leap through it.
"I'm surprised fire even works here." Neverhome muses nonplussed as he moves alongside Sigrun.
Percy holds her charge. Strange magic distorts the air around her arms as she waits for one of the big bugs to get closer.