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She's not, ah, particularly confident about the situation, considering the number of times she's managed to stick her foot in her mouth (or, well, the number of times she felt she'd done as much). "Truly, we mean no harm," Lenora adds, looking at the woman and her companions earnestly. "Might we ask whom we have the honor of speaking with? I am Lenora Glass, a servant of the Dawnflower."
GM.Boldr:
The 2 damage is from this post. She took 9 from an AoO, but was healed 7 from a channel. I didn't see any healing since then (or may not have accounted for it?) so I think she's at 10/12. c: Grimly, Lenora calls upon Sarenrae and let's a bolt fly. "Let's do this," she half-mutters to herself, reloading as she eyes the creature warily. If they're doing it, they're going to do it well, gosh darn it.
Moving to keep up with the others, Lenora takes a moment to cast detect evil, wanting to be on her guard for any... less than savory sorts. There was no telling what might give them an advantage, after all. Once that's sorted, she'll double check her crossbow to make sure it's loaded and settle her feet shoulder-width apart as Rose checks the door, ready to fire if necessary.
Lenora shrugs off the deceit. As far as she's concerned, this is a story not unlike the dramatic books and plays that she'd read and seen, far beyond the strange things that even Mattias had told her about. "I know I don't speak for everyone," she points out, removing the bolt and putting both the bolt and crossbow away, "But you haven't done any harm to me. In the knowing, we can better prepare, but I understand that you also had to protect yourself and your own." Lenora smiles at Halta-- Ah, no. It's Uliyara now. "Should we keep up the deceit in town?" she asks, curious as she begins eyeballing what lies beyond the small hole they've made.
Lenora's a bit surprised by the privilege, but accepts the wand, carefully stowing it in a place where she can't accidentally break it. "Thanks," she nods to Rose. Then, grinning, she says, "And I've got a flask of alchemist's fire if we absolutely can't get warm." She nods towards Rose and Untir, acknowledging their preparedness.
Lenora nods at his words, shuddering. "I'll have to keep that in mind." Grinning, she adds, "Mattias told me I'd see the world if I joined the Society, so here's me, hoping I'll get to see the world - though I didn't expect to be startin' somewhere so cold!" She shores up her gear and asks the others, "Well, any last purchases before we give this a try?" She had three trail rations herself, but, well. She was hoping they'd be enough.
Warmth slips through her body like a heated blanket settling itself neatly against her skin. Her furs had been well enough, but this - this was rather a great deal better than simply surviving. "Thank you," she says to him, a pleased, satisfied smile easing its way onto her lips. She considers his comment and pauses to ponder it. "The deserts, eh?" Lenora says. "You know, after all this cold, I think I'd like to visit them - they're sure to be warm, at least. Though... Tell me, is it true that the desert grows cold at night?"
"We did," Lenora says, still a bit shell-shocked. The relief she experienced once they were well away from noble was strangely powerful. "She said that we can enter Irrisen no further than five miles from Dalun - that it'd be sufficient for what we're looking for." Of course, the Baroness also seemed to have a very, very good idea of what was going on, considering what she'd said, but the paladin was hardly going to hold it against her. Rather, it had been a stern but fair primer on how they ought to at least make sure they had the same story before they went sharing it. "Are all nobles like her?" Lenora asks, curious. She'd been intimidated by the woman's evident lineage, to be sure, but it was also interesting. She was... Not a bad person. Or so the girl thought. And... "We're supposed to be looking for signs of old royalty, I think?"
Seeing as they've not got an understanding on to whom they're speaking, Lenora nervously answers, as polite as she knows to be, "Haltani asked us to pass along her regards," she says, giving a slight bow. "I am Lenora and these are my companions, as you might've heard Rose saying. We're in town for trade and we're, uh, hoping to travel further inland." She stumbles over her words just the slightest bit. Blushing slightly, she apologizes, "Please pardon my speech - I'm not so used to speaking with anyone so refined or as beautiful as you." She's not 100% sure she's on the right track, but as she remembered it, they'd been told to look further inland once they'd docked so they could look for the key, right? So this was the person they needed to ask permission from... Or so she thought, anyways.
Lenora's pleased that their conversation and trade with the merchant has gone so well - finally, something goes smoothly! Of course, that's when they realize that Skødir has simply... vanished. And, naturally, they realize he's in a loud argument just a ways away. Jogging to catch up with Rose, Lenora recalls that the yeti are considered citizens and, frankly, they probably shouldn't be drawing attention to themselves by tangling with one. "Yes, let's go and look for her," Lenora says to the Ulfen man. To the yeti, she bows apologetically and says, "I apologize for our companion. It's been a long day for all of us."
Lenora wonders at Rose's plan. Is that how things are normally done? She'll have to make a note of it. Were they close enough? Did they have everything they needed? Was it time to work on the task they'd been assigned? And hadn't something been mentioned about the strange shift in social structures in this land? She's distracted from her thoughts be Amhranai and his friend and can't help the grin that slips onto her face. "Perhaps so, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Don't don't different trees prefer different climes?"
"Oh, I think you'll be much more than that before the year's done!" Lenora laughs, teasing gently. It's been obvious to her from the first moment that Rose's bright take on life would easily carry her further in her career than most of the quietly trained initiates would be able to go. Of course, she was trying to be as resilient herself, but, well. It was all a matter of time! "I grew up with the church," Lenora shared. "Someone found me as a child and didn't have the ability to keep me, so I got passed off to a Sarenite who brought me to their home temple and they raised me as best as they could." She chuckles a bit, embarrassed, and rubs the back of her neck with a free hand. "It's, um. A bit of a weird origin story, I suppose." She returns to her work, chatting amiably with the others, but eventually, the strange buildings get to her and she asks, "Haltani, do you know what those are?"
"It was a bit tedious at times, but there were many challenges that I think I could call fun. I don't know that my classmates would've agreed," Lenora answers, nodding to Rose. "But I suppose I'll quickly learn whether it was worth the three years of study." She eyes the wolf a bit, before returning her gaze to the...log cabins? "Here's to hoping I don't make some stupid mistake and get us all killed. Still, it's all about exploring, reporting, and cooperating, so I suppose as long as I manage to get the cooperating bit down, the rest'll come. Maybe not as safely as it ought, but better than if I were to do it alone." She smiles, thinking about her mentor. "Mattias, my teacher - he's the one that got me into all of this stuff with his stories - he says that I'm thick-headed, but I do at least try to learn. "Were you field commissioned, then?"
Lenora claims a longspear and the remaining hide armor, grimacing at Haltani's description of what might've happened. As they continue on their journey, she swaps out her armor and makes it a point to maintain her weapons and gear, wiping clean what requires cleaning and sharpening the longspear, the crossbow bolt she intended to reuse, and her scimitar again for good measure. "I'll try to do more on the front next time," Lenora adds. "I stayed back because I was taught to support rather than directly engage, but... Well, things on the field are very, very different from in the classroom, aren't they?" As it grows chillier, she draws her furs close around her, shivering slightly as her body acclimates to the colder temperature. She's surprised to see the wolf, but, well. "Huh, how cute - it's following us." After a moment, she pauses and finally asks, "Are those buildings actually moving? Or is it just me? Those cabins out there, in the distance."
At Rose's words, Lenora pauses in her work. "Told to take us alive?" she repeats. "That's... troubling at best." Her respect for Skødir rose when she considered the ramifications. Perhaps he was more culturally aware of what these people would've wanted, considering the obvious, but, well. She shouldn't have signed him off as a savage in her mind. He clearly knew what he was doing. If, after they've finished with the net, no one else has taken from what remains, she'll take the masterwork longspear and the masterwork hide armor, but if they're gone, she'll consider the javelins and the kegs. Kegs held a lot of alcohol and, well... Maybe they could trade them?
Lenora nods and does as suggested, working towards removing the net. Whatever the man finds, he's earned, and whatever they can use, they ought. "Would they really have harmed us?" Lenora asks, perhaps a bit naively. "They didn't seem to want to fight." She considers the way things went and frowned. "Well, I suppose you did tell us that the tribes here aren't exactly friendly..." Once Rose has been resuscitated, she does smile warmly at the girl to welcome her back to the world of the living.
Lenora cries out as the enemy's longspear thrust through her arm. She's not looking to back down, but can't help but feel relieved when their Ulfen ally takes down their second enemy. The girl breathed out a sigh of relieve when Untir's healing channel flows over her, quickly knitting together muscle and bone. "Thank you," she says to him. That said, she sheathes her sword and goes to pick up her crossbow, wiping as much mud off of it as she can, and sees if her bolts are reusable. Once that's done, she looks at the two bodies and sighs. "I don't want to just let them die here - I'll at least see about keeping them from bleeding out until we come to a proper decision." That said, she isn't exactly happy to help - they'd nearly killed a potential friend, after all. All the same, she's aware that it's not proper to just leave them to die. She gets to work on the first one they'd downed. He was unconscious and it didn't seem like the bleeding was too bad - he'd stabilized on his own, it looked like, but there was no sense in being careless. Her teachers would've smacked her silly if they thought she was being negligent on purpose... Of course, they might've given her a good whack just for taking so long to even try to bother with these fools. "Well? Should we leave them here to report back? Take them with us?" Heal:
Crossbow Bolts:
Despite any desire she might've had to help the downed man, seeing one of their own goes down enrages her. She leaves the healing to Untir who has called upon his spirits, but ire makes her reckless. She drops the crossbow and advances on their remaining foe, scimitar in hand. "How dare you?" she demands angrily. "He's not even dead yet and instead of helping him, you think to add to the body count?!"
"We could be helping them both right now!" the stupidity of the situation nearly enrages her. Mattias hadn't mentioned how self-defeating the actions of the people he'd encountered had been - this was so ridiculous, she nearly couldn't handle it. Vengeance for a man that wasn't yet dead? For certain, if he killed Rose, she might just let their already fallen foe die. Even as she held that thought, countless memories of lessons past flooded her mind, each reminding her that no one should be held accountable for the actions of another and the man already downed had hardly had the opportunity to be too stupid before they'd defeated him. Mercy, then. But on their heads be it if their ally fell.
Seeing as the crossbow isn't going to be so useful now - her allies had their enemy flanked and she wasn't particularly interested in putting them at risk - she moved long their water craft and attempted to make the leap for the shore.
She wasn't quite so successful and got herself a quick dunking before she attempted to move the rest of her way to stand near Skødir and his foe. If I'm slow next round: Lenora would attempt to stabilize the downed man. She has a -2 on heal at the moment though, orz.
Lenora swaps targets, switching to the guard on the far side of Rose. Now that Skødir's target is down, she concentrates on the remaining one, aiming before pulling the trigger. Now that the guard's taken a step back, she's got something of a clearer shot - it's not so reckless now. Once the bolt leaves her crossbow, she begins loading in the next one.
Rolls:
"Leave her be, you cretin!" Now that any attempts at negotiation have gone done - and rather bloodily at that - she's sticking looking after her own. Or well - what the church would've considered hers anyways, seeing as they're traveling and adventuring together. She does, however, spare a thought for the two poor guards, thinking to at least keep them from bleeding out before leaving them to their fates after they sorted the weird boat trap.
Seeing as her only clear shot was to the guard Skødir was engaged with - Rose was decidedly between her and other other guard - Lenora tried to aim and pull the trigger. It, uh... Didn't go so well. Grimacing, she loaded another bolt into her crossbow. "Um, really! Uh, please just surrender?" Admittedly, she didn't think they had much reason too, but she'd certainly have been intimidated if a giant wall of growth had just appeared behind her. Rolls:
Having had the lesson beaten into her occasionally thick skull repeatedly - You're not to ever lead the charge! Support the others! - Lenora frowns a bit at the new development and then sighs. She puts the scimitar away and pulls out her crossbow to load it, carefully slipping the bolt into place and pulling on the lever. "You can always surrender," she points out. "We don't actually want to fight you, but we will to keep to our task. If you'd just surrender, we could just be on our way and you can be on yours, right?" She wasn't entirely sure that was how things worked, but it was worth a try, right? One of the many things she'd learned from Mattias and the others was that one should never be too eager for bloodshed. Enemies could have families, too. A mother, a wife, a daughter, a son. Pets. Others that depend on them - but the world was a wild place. But there was no reason not to at least try to be reasonable. There was no need to kill these poor souls - they were just doing their jobs, after all. Their jobs just seemed... contrary to what her own party was attempting. Were they themselves also contrary? Lenora considered her new foes.
Lenora blinks, a bit surprised. She'd been hoping to see what this civilization might be like, but, well... If this is the way things were gonna turn out... Mattias had always said to just roll with it, right? "I really must apologize," she says to the strangers. "But it looks like we unfortunately don't have the time to go with you today." She draws her scimitar and points towards their trap. "Would you mind getting out of our way?" GM: I'm not actually sure if you're allowed to prepare an action outside of combat, but, uhhh... She'll keep an eye on them and if they act violently towards anyone in their party or Haltani or the donkey or the boat, she'll slash at 'em.
Lenora listens quietly at the foreign language, a hand on her hilt, but when the guards become nervous, pointedly announcing they don't want to fight... Well. "Will this Halvor keep us from our task? Or take from us? So long as he is unlike to do us harm, I have no qualms with meeting him," the paladin points out. "It is clear that these men, at least, do not want to fight us. They are caught between duty and danger." She looks over at Haltani and the others and shrugs. "We are not yet in the territory of the needlessly vicious."
"I am Lenora Glass, a hospitaler of Sarenrae," Lenora announces herself. "We intend no ill will to you and yours." She pauses, looking at their raft, perhaps a bit skeptically. "Um, I'm not sure it's a good idea to come aboard carelessly." Although the woman doesn't think they'll attack, she keeps a hand near her scimitar's hilt all the same. Better safe than sorry after all.
Having said her piece, she looks to the others and Haltani, unsure of what direction this is going to go in... And wonders if this is going to cause trouble with Skødir. Well, I guess it's a bit like an adventure - things like this did happen, anyways, right...?
Lenora hurries to the other side of the boat in an effort to be helpful, but finds herself tripping a bit, and nearly landing face first onto the edge of their... raft? Either way, she doubted that was particularly helpful! "Sorry, sorry!" she sputters, trying to get to her feet without getting in anyone else's way.
"I'm a hospitaler," Lenora clarifies. With a smile, she adds, "I'm a paladin, but of the sort that prefers to heal rather than hit things. Granted, I can still hit things, but, well. I'm better at helping people than hurting. It seemed to fit, seeing as I follow the Dawnflower." She tilts her head to better answer Rose and explains, "My... I guess you could call him my mentor? Mattias was just a handful of years older than me, but he took care of me when the church found me. He told me stories about the tasks he was assigned and his adventures helping the society. I didn't realize how dangerous all of it was until he came back seriously injured." Lenora frowns at the memory and shakes her head a bit, sighing. "I started studying so I could maybe go with him the next time, you know, help look out for him." Her smile turned a bit wry and she looked at her hands. "Turns out I'm better at healing, so there's definitely some hang ups with my... what, ability, I guess? But that's the path I was placed on. I'd never been allowed to roam freely before, though, which is how I ended up in Kalsgard. Mattias hasn't been doing any jobs lately - healing and teaching, I think. I figure it's my turn to bring back some interesting stories, you know?" "What's a favorite moment of yours, a good story from your life?" she asks Rose in return, curious.
"I don't know about uncomfortable," Lenora admits. "It's all certainly new to me! I've been wanting to go on adventures for the longest time. Still, I've only just gotten to go on my first one!" She grins at Haltani. "I guess I'm just not sure what to expect. I hope I can help! I'm a bit worried I won't be good enough." She considers the woman's question and then nods. "Yeah, I can tell you a bit!" Lenora then launched into a brief explanation of what she knew about the Pathfinder Society and its three branches as well as how she'd ended up with the organization, the stories that Mattias would tell her and whatever other odds and ends she could think of. Once she's exhausted her throat for the time being, she decides to pass the talking bit back over to Haltani and asks, "What will you do when we get there? The Captain said you were going to guide us there, but... Will you be around for us to visit with afterwards, too?"
Seeing the Ulfen pull out a whetstone, she remembers that she has one of her own and begins to hone the blade of her scimitar and her crossbow bolts as she speaks with Haltani.
"I haven't the slightest clue!" Lenora responds easily. "Although, here's to hoping we figure it out so we don't capsize! We barely fit as is!" She gestured towards the poor mule. With that, she steps onto the boat without any consideration as to grace, finding a good spot for her and her kit, dropping her pack to get a feel of how the boat felt beneath her feet. Walking around on land was all well and good, but it was walking aboard a vessel on water that really made a person struggle. The boat tilted to and fro beneath her and it took her a good few moments to adjust. She wasn't sure if she was the one who had caused the shift in equilibrium or if it had already been moving. Whatever the case, she was doing a bit better now. The ship itself was crowded so she suspected that their travels would be, um. Eventful. Maybe not from enemies, but possibly from the water itself! Maybe they'd even find some rapids or some sort of quick water that made them bounce about! She was definitely excited - Adventure, adventure, oh, sweet adventure~! she all but sang in her head. She thought back, trying to recall whether Mattias had ever gone into detail about sailing or watercraft. "Haltani, do you know about how many days it'll take?" She'd picked up two more trail rations, but, well. She supposed she could try her hand at fishing or something? Not that... she had the supplies, but... Well! Mattias had told her about some guy that grabbed fish right out of the water with his hands once! Maybe she could try something like that?
Thinking of one of Mattias' stories, she recalls a few bits of useful information - at least, she hopes the information will be useful. If nothing else, it gives her a bit more insight into the Ulfen people. Seeing as they were going into a land where the typical hierarchy of creatures was... almost reversed? She wasn't sure if it was fair to say as much. Confused, then. Since the hierarchy is outside of the norm, it's not particularly easy to guess at what they might encounter. Especially since Irrisen was run by the White Witches and Jadwiga. The Ulfen likely had a wretched time there - undoubtedly, any ferocity was the result of the need to survive. Accepting the documents and map, she tucks them away carefully. She figures they can determine later if everyone ought to carry their own or if someone else would like to hold onto them. "Should we be worried about the citizens of Irrisen? The ice trolls and the winter wolves? I'd hate to run afoul of them. Will we be able to avoid them altogether?" Once her questions are answered, she'll nod in understanding before going to see what the quartermaster has. She doesn't have the funds to actually try for trade items, but... Well, she can at least pick up a few more things for the journey, right? Once she has what she needs, she'll go to meet with the others for the journey, showing them the documents she received from the Captain.
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