That's what role-play is for, of course I don't mind! :)
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Linge moves closer to Kessir and lays a hand on his arm. Again, his head is filled with visions of hunters tracking their preys, sharpening his focus. At the same time, she raises the whistle she wears around her neck, and sharply blows it twice. The whistle is evidently a signal of a sort. Inside the lodge, Horn springs into action, and charges at full force the bandit unlucky enough to be standing nearest to him.
Linge gets closer to the door, wincing as she hears the sounds of fighting and the cries of the wounded already. Horn looks up to meet her gaze, waiting for the signal to charge.
Horn and Linge get a bit closer to the lodge.
Linge, who has no such spell to help out, doesn't chime in, but instructs Horn to stay close to Kessir in case he needs help.
Linge reacts too late to stop Mia's blade. She rushes to the bandit's side, and tries to stop the bleeding with an improvised tourniquet. Anyone who speaks Skald can hear her swear -probably for the first time since you've known her.
"Linge, can you make Horn noisily run around while we all take cover? If they think its a bear, we may still have surprise!" "Not if there's more traps around!" Linge answers indignantly. "And I rather think we've lost the element of surprise already." Her gaze is drawn to the stables. "Freeing the horses would be a better distraction... If we can reach them."
"She's still breathing," Linge reassures Kessir after a brief check of Mia's pulse and breathing. She pulls out the bolt, and quickly seals up the wound with magic. But this time, her power doesn't seem to be enough to completely heal up Mia. "Shucks," she curses softly in Skald.
"I assume there's no way they don't know we're here now... What do we do?"
Linge happily lets her more fight-savvy companions scout ahead, and keeps watch for any sign of life.
Linge attends to the woman's wounds, making her as comfortable as she can. When the group comes into view of the lodge, the druid visibly hesitates. "The rest of the bandits are probably in there," she says in a low voice. As much as she hates to kill, she can't think of a single way to avoid a fight. If only they could reach the stables and count the horses to figure out how many men are inside... "Perhaps if we simply go around it?" she suggests.
Linge glares at Mia before the girl can walk away. "This has to stop," she hisses. "Stay away from him." She cleans the wound as best as she can with the little equipment she has, and does her best not to make it hurt. The cut is pretty deep, she realises, and would probably need stitches. She closes it to the best of her ability. "I'm low on healing spells," she informs the man evenly. "And we've still got quite a bit to go. It will have to do." Back at camp, she helps with figuring out a solution for the bandits. If they really came all this way on foot, they'll be harder to carry along. "Perhaps if we can make a makeshift sledge for the mule to drag?" she suggests.
I'm helping out by rolling as many nat 1s as possible ahead of the next fight!
Mia's strike earns her another glare from Linge, and while she cannot spend a precious healing spell on the man's superficial wound, she still takes some time to clean off the blood and limit the risks of infection. At no point has she replied to the bandit's threats so far. Everyone notices she's keeping her distance from the party as they head to the Lodge instead of walking by someone's side as she usually did.
Linge jumps out of her bedroll as the man's voice becomes strange gurgles. "Stop that!" she cries out. "You're going to kill him and there's no point!" She looks ready to jump on Kriemhild to push her away (or, at least, try to, given that she's too much of a lightweight to stand a chance), but thankfully the half-orc releases her hold before anything embarrassing happens. "Are you insane?" the druid hisses, forcing her voice to be lower. "You can't choke people like that!" She checks the man's vitals, and, a bit reassured to find out that he's still breathing, goes back to her bedroll, still fuming. She doesn't sleep much afterwards. She finally doses off When Kessir and Krokod take their watch, but her night is fitful, and her sleep light enough to wake her up at the slightest noise.
Linge sits up with huge bags under her eyes and one bad case of morning hair. Her face is wan, and her features are gaunt. She looks like she hasn't slept much at all. Yet her mind is still sharp enough to jump on the opportunity to learn more about Krokod's past when he brings it up."How did you leave?" she chimes in.
Linge's decision to stay close to the prisoners in case their health plummets proves to have been a good one, as she's suddenly woken up in the middle of the night by Kriemhild and one bandit discussing... Treason! Her heart pounds in her ears as she listens to Kriemhild's bargain, but she doesn't stir. She's known the mercenary for a couple of years; surely she wouldn't betray them all like that... Besides, Horn's hearing is way better than hers -and even in the dark, she can tell he'd jump to action if she called for him. She waits for the half-orc's reaction.
Cocooned in her blanket, Linge tosses and turns, unaware of the scene enfolding between Kriemhild and the rogues. She occasionally lets out a sigh when Horn's snoring becomes particularly loud.
Linge comes back to the camp in the middle of the party's conversation, obviously empty-handed, covered in snow, and more than a little irritated. "We've all seen better days," she sighs. "I couldn't find anything." She takes some time to remove Horn's armour. As soon as it comes off, the cub shakes the snow off his white fur, and heads straight for the nearest tent to lie down somewhere dry.
Linge helps with tying up the hands and feet of the surviving bandits and carry them inside their tents, after double-checking that they're still breathing. She sets out with Horn to gather some extra food for the prisoners. She's not a hunter like Kessir, but knows how to find root vegetables in the wild.
"No spells. No potions. No scrolls. Nothing I can do," the druid drives the point home with a shrug that pretty much means you're on your own.
"What about the others they wanted to run off to?" Linge chimes in, still visibly upset.
Linge goes very pale. "Is this your god that teaches you this kind of cruelty?" She shakes her head. "I doubt they came all the way here on foot," she says coldly. "There might be no need for dragging." "You have a good heart, but not everyone is so kind." The druid avoids Mia's gaze, and simply shakes her head once more, wordlessly. Noticing that she's upset, Horn starts nuzzling Linge's hand until she pets his head.
You needed some time off, and you took it - that was wise, and nothing to apologise for! As Mia mentioned, it can easily be played with aw Krokod being too shaken to act.
I hope I don't come off as annoying by playing Linge as pissed off :/ I just figured a pacifist healer would be very uncomfortable with having a guy being kebab'd in front of her while trying to run away (even a bad guy!)
"Was skewering him with a pilum really the only option?" Linge says vehemently, not really framing it as a question. Despite her anger, the druid obligingly stands up and goes to Mia to heal her. Her magic is still as efficient as before.
Linge glares at Mia and Kessir. "Because that would fix things?" she gestures wildly at the limp body impaled on the pilum. As always when she gets emotional, her Skald accent thickens and she stumbles over her words. "I get defending. I don't get killing like a dog. Come here, Mia," she reaches for her magical scroll after tending to the bandits.
The fight quickly turns into a bloodbath, and Linge covers her mouth with her hand, eyes wide with horror. A couple of seconds pass, during which she's absolutely speechless -then she runs to the side of the bandits that were struck down, doing her best to stop the bleeding. "Why would you even do that?" she cries out, mostly at Kriemhild. She's pretty much there's no way that pilum is coming off without tearing apart some of the poor man's vital organs. "He had his back turned on you!"
I'm sorry for your loss, Krokod. Take all the time you need.
Horn jumps to his feet, and Linge has to shout over the man's cry to get him to lie down again. If she unleashes the cub on the bandits, she knows full well how the battle will go -and it seems Kriemhild has decided to take the non-lethal approach. She moves away from the fight, infusing some helpful magic into the person nearest her -Krokod.
When the bandits draw their blades, Linge hears Horn chuffing, a lot closer than he should. Reflexively, she turns around -and there he is, standing right behind her, staring at the men with a defensive edge. She quickly makes him lie down on his stomach before he tries anything. She's too distracted to chime in.
But I'm never alone, Linge is about to point out, before she thinks twice about it and realises that even well-mentioned individuals may shoot a polar cub on sight if they spot it near their camp. "Alright. Come with me then."
Before they come within sight of the group of strangers, she orders Horn to sit and stay back behind some trees. He has some trouble understanding he's not supposed to follow her, and as soon as Linge has got her back turned on him and begins to walk away, he gets up and heels. She doesn't notice him standing right behind her. "Evening," she greets the dice players. "We didn't think we'd meet fellow travelers here."
She immediately notices the dress, and puts two and two together. She does her best to hide it.
"I can try and talk to them," Linge whispers. "If they're hostile, I'll back away."
Before the party moves on, Linge follows Krokod's advice and drinks the potion they found on the corpse -not without a pang of guilt. Her headache disappears.
Linge sighs. "We've been attacked every step of the way so far. We can't rule out that the lodge will be... Occupied." "It's still early. If we wait for another day, the trail might be even harder to follow." She pauses. "We could push on a little further? At least to get away from the lake," she looks at Kessir expectantly; so far, the ranger has stayed quiet - and deny it as he may, he was still in a solid position to be the de facto leader of the group.
Linge meets the bear cub's gaze. "Looks alright..." she answers hesitantly. "But I think he's still affected. He had trouble finding his balance on the ice."
"If we press on, then I will drink it," Linge sighs. "I have no more spells left."
It takes more than a little coaxing to lead Horn across the river, but patiently baiting him with honey biscuits eventually does the trick. Linge looks saddened and horrified at the discovery of the corpse. "Poor man..." she whispers. Intrigued by the look of his eyes, she quickly examines him to determine the cause of death. One of the man's pockets is full, and she pulls out a small vial. "A healing potion!" she exclaims, relieved. "We'll need this..." She considers drinking it on the spot for a minute, but hesitates. There might be more fights ahead, and she's out of healing spells for the day. If no one wants it, she pockets it instead.
Linge sighs in relief when Mia safely reaches the other side of the river. She was scared she might fall for a moment. "I can go next," she offers. "Crossing might take me some time," she adds, with a pointed glance at Horn.
Fingers crossed for your mom!
"Only if you know what path to follow," Linge replies, in a tone that suggests she's not quite sure that Mia would manage on her own. Taking out her last blank scroll, she crouches down to prepare another Cure Light Wounds spell ahead of time. Her eyes meet Krokod's questioningly. One of them is going to have to go first.
"" Linge shouts in Skald. She rushes to the edge of the frozen water and grabs Horn by the neck of his armor as soon as he gets within arm's reach, pulling him to safety. When it's clear that everyone is safe from the breaking ice, the druid exhales deeply, and takes in the river once again, studying where the ice has broken. "We'll have to take the long way around," Linge massages her temples, grimacing. The sound wave has left her with an excruciating headache. "But I think most of the ice is thick enough to hold. I'll heal you, Mia," she adds, taking out the scroll she had written in the morning.
Just imagine a bear cub walking on ice for the first time and each of slipping away in a different direction. Think of a dog wearing boots for the first time on slippery tiles. That's exactly what's happening.
Linge narrowly dodges the creature's strike with a panicked cry, her heart pounding wildly in her ears. Before Horn can rush to her rescue Kriemhild charges the monster heads on, and cuts it into pieces. Finally, the path to Krokod is cleared, and the druid lets herself fall next to him on her knees, calling back her power to infuse life into him.
With some of the danger gone, and Mia still being in difficulty, she shouts at Horn in Skald to attack.
Sorry for your mother. Hope you are both okay.
Linge cries out in surprise at the sudden magical attack- her shout echoed by Horn's roar of pain. When the druid comes to her senses, she can immediately see two things; that Krokod is lying on the snow, unconscious and bleeding, and that Horn appears to be shaking his head in pain, looking completely disorientated. Because the last thing anyone currently wants would be a combat-trained bear cub in a spin, Linge makes her way to Horn and rests a hand on his fur, focusing hard to get the words of her spell right. It's fortunate she's used to saying it often.
Lifting up her head, she quickly assesses the situation. Mia is standing precariously on a sheet of ice, and the creatures appear to be moving fast. If they defy them on the surface of the lake, they will be at a disadvantage. "Horn, stay! " Horn huffs, staring at the snake-like creatures, and looks ready to start a fight -but doesn't move yet.
When the snowman suddenly calls out to the party, both Linge and Horn startle. The cub growls, and hurriedly recoils from the snowman, while the druid strains to regain her composure, worriedly surveying her surroundings in case any fey shows up. "And what might happen to us, if we try?" she inquires warily.
Before Mia sets off on the ice, Linge takes her time finding a secure place to tie one end of the rope to.
"Maybe we should tie a rope around your waist first," Linge suggests when Mia offers to try and cross the lake. "The ice might be too thin to support your weight. Horn, sit!"That last order is directed at the bear cub, who's sniffing the edge of the frozen lake. He obediently sits on his bum, though you can tell he's not exactly brimming with excitement to walk on this new, weird ground that doesn't smell of anything.
"Wait," Linge stops Krokod before he sets foot on the ice. "Maybe we should tie a rope around your waist first... The ice might be too thin to support your weight. Horn, sit!" That last order is directed at the bear cub, who's sniffing the edge of the frozen lake. He obediently sits on his bum, though you can tell he's not exactly brimming with excitement to walk on this new, weird ground that doesn't smell of anything.
"An elk," Linge says, pointing at the fresher trail. "Probably not dangerous." She frowns. "It reminds me... There was talk of a white stag back in Heldren... One who could speak." She shakes her head. "Of course, children make up all kinds of stories, but... Considering all we've been through..."
Linge throws her arms around Horn's neck and hugs him tightly against her chest. He seems a little confused, but not put off, and licks her face. The druid finally remembers the sprites, and looks around to catch sight of them, still not letting go of the bear cub.
Linge startles awake and bolts upright, crying out for Horn.
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