After a lovely meal at the Bull and Bear Inn, Belona and Toro bid them adieu and give them some rations for their journey. ‘You know, to thank you for finding the best help that i could ever imagined’ Toro syas beaming as he grips Belona around the shoulders and pulls her in closer. Belona though a little squished smiles as well, ‘be safe now on your journey!
Purot, Saaya, Chip and Vall pack up their things and head into the late afternoon sunlit dappled trail toward the Alabastar Sierras. They plan to try to stop Hermock, a member of The Clasp from … whatever he’s doing; or at least try to find out what he’s up to. I mean Mooren was a nice enough town to have settled in but it seems with this group, curiosity always gets the best of them. They’ll definitely have to come back for a visit one day to see whether their matchmaking scheme was truly successful. But for now, they have to get as far as they can to make up for lost ground, they still have a few hours of daylight at least, and they’ve handled the wild woods at night before, maybe they can use the cover of night to catch up… With the light fading and time running thin, the group sets out on the road right after finishing their meals.
Dark clouds roll overhead but everyone continues moving at a steady pace. Sayaa leads the way, confidently bounding forward through the winding trail, but stops every so often to allow the others to catch up since they are moving at a slower pace than she is.
Eventually, a light rain starts to fall. Purot pulls down his hood to allow the rain to run down his blue and purple blotchy skin, rehydrating it. Bounding along besides him, Chip pulls out her doss lute and begins a slow, thoughtful tune that synchronizes with the raindrops pattering on the ground.
“How tall are you?” Saaya interrupts Chip’s song in order to appease her own curiosity.
“5’2”. How tall are YOU?” Chip responds, somewhat irritated that her song could not be finished.
“I’m 5’10”.” With a grin, Sayaa continues on her way and Chip walks in silence.
Not wanting to stop conversing, Purot turns to Vall as they move, “Vall, why are you so… quiet?”
“What do you mean?” The elf glances in Purot’s direction, “I talk.”
“Yes,” Purot continues in a monotone voice as normal, “But even back in Mooren you barely spoke. I was just worried something was wrong.”
“Everything’s fine. Do I have to talk more?” Vall questions right back.
“No, I guess not.” Purot shrugs.
The bushes rustle around the group but they don’t notice and keep heading confidently down the path. Finally dipping below the treeline, the sun vanishes from view and the light fully diminishes. Purot is forced to pull down his goggles of the night to be able to see anything. In the sky, Exandria’s moons are waning. In turn, the light level remains dim even as the rain ceases. A roar echoes throughout the forest, easily being identified as a bear by everyone in the party, clearly miles away from where everyone was.
“Was that a bear?” Chip shrinks back into the middle of the group, clearly on edge.
“Yes,” Purot blinks slowly, “But it is far off. Nothing to worry about. If anyone should be worried, it should be me. I can’t see in the dark without these goggles. You can.”
“So? It’s still creepy out here!” Chip defensively responds. At the same time, Vall slinks off into the woods and creeps up behind Chip. A moment later, he begins rustling the bushes besides the Aasimar performer. Jumping up into the air, Chip squeaks and panics for a moment before calming down, “Don’t do that Vall!”
“Sorry,” Vall laughs, “Not sorry.”
Chip and Vall continue to bicker as the group walks, Sayaa and Purot trying not to laugh at the corny pair. Then, collectively, their feet catch something in the middle of the road and cause them all to tumble into the muddy path.
“What was that?” Chip seems panicked again.
Everyone recovers from the fall and turns to look at what they fell over. It’s a body. The full plate armor made it hard to tell for a moment, but it is clearly a human. Sayaa scans the body, trying to decipher what caused the poor man’s demise, only to find a dart sticking out of his neck. It is a perfect shot that put him down, right through a chink in the armor where helmet didn’t quite meet breastplate. On the shield, Purot points out that there is a w over a water drop, which he happens to know is a symbol of the waterwatch of Stileben. Suspicion rising, Chip scales a nearby tree all the way to the top. It takes her only a moment to deduce this is probably where the dart was fired from, given how the chink would only be visible from this angle when the knight was up right.
Noise emits from the woods as three boars charge out of the woods and towards the group, who must be on their territory. Without any hesitation, Vall lunges at one of the boars with a rapier, piercing it through its shoulder’s hide and pulling it out, blood squirting everywhere. He must have hit an artery. Then, with deadly precision, he flicks his wrist and slits its throat. One down.
Saaya charges the middle boar and flings two darts into the creature, yet it stands strong and faces her head on.
Chip yells, “Don’t kill the one on the right!” He then climbs down the tree before casting animal friendship and throwing a ration at the boar on the right.
Purot then whispers, “Rise.” Cold, dead hands latch onto the boar in front of Saaya and dig their sharp fingers into its hide and hold it back for a moment.
The same boar being held by Purot’s magical dead hands breaks free and charges Saaya in a renewed rage and tears a tusk across her furry abdomen. Blood splatters across the forest, the thick liquid running down her leg after pouring out of the gash, but Sayaa remains upright.
While the charmed Boar sniffs at Chip for more food, another boar, not seen at first, charges Chip. It attempts to run her down, though she manages to stay on her feet despite a tusk ramming into her side and thick red liquid soaks the beast’s tusk.
Vall sneaks up behind the boar goring Saaya and drives his rapier into the creature’s back twice but they are just glancing blows and only seem to infuriate the creature.
Saaya stands her ground and rams her shortsword into its gut and slices it across the stomach, allowing its intestines to fall out onto the ground. She quickly moves to behind the newly arriving boar and slams her left fist into the boar’s side with all her might and the impact causes the boar to whimper but she doesn’t stop there and comes back with her right. Yet, the stubborn thing remains upright, standing strong.
Now done making friends, Chip takes her spear and rams it into the things stomach but it remains aggravated. Yet still, Chip has time to pet the friendly boar.
Purot moves from tree to tree and then points at the final attacking boar and whispers foreign words. A misty smoke erupts from his fingers and sinks into the boar, melting its flesh away until it leaves a half rotten pig.
With the fight over, the group returns to each other’s side and makes sure everyone would live through the night. Giving the knight one last once over, Sayaa finds a note tucked away in his boot that must’ve gotten knocked over in the hogs’ charge. Munching on one of Balona’s sandwiches, which were packed for the group just before they left, Sayaa reads the letter out loud.
Collectively, the group brings over a boar to try and skin as well as cook. Whether it was Chip not cutting correctly, Purot not remembering the anatomy of a boar, or Sayaa and Vall’s inability to cook, the group completely botches the first boar to a point where there is nothing of use left. Looking at the other boars, one is now half rotten and the other is in good condition. Using what they learned from messing up so badly the first time, everyone performs better and manages to properly skin and cook the boar (with mushrooms as a bonus)! Shortly after Chip manages to successfully ride the boar, the group settles into their watches and rests hoping that they didn’t lose too much time.
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