RoL Test Party 2
So, this is the second RoL Party. Unlike the first party, which I'm using to define rules, in this case I'm doing a little experiment to see how much variation can be obtained from a single class/skillset. Also, I want you guys to be familiar with the lore and the rules since I want to get the book project going next year and I'll need writers and editors, should any of you be interested. - http://realmsoflemire.wikispaces.com/
Setting - Pre Civil War, 15 Years before current RoL Time and 10 Years before the Test Party. The characters are young students of Magic at the mysterious Malche Academy, deep within the Fell Woods.
Malche Academy is located in the depths of the Fell Woods, with its back to the Asfeltas mountains. For generations, the academy has functioned in a few buildings, part of a forgotten and mysterious complex which sprawls within the thick, dark woods. Old stone spires rise up from the canopy for a view of the entire forest and the mist covered mountains beyond it. The academy is connected to the nearby town of Linne by a single road and the so called Ghost River.
The academy itself takes up one of the large buildings of the sprawling archaeologycal complex. Surrounded by a recent wall, a single needle like tower is flanked by two sides of a crescent, ancient rooms refurbished for new use. to the left of the complex is a small out house which leads to a pier. The rest of the area encircled by the wall is a courtyard, dug up after being claimed by the forest, a few tress older than the academy itself still dot the yard. The stones on it form strange and alien patterns. Though definitely inhabited, the academy seems wild and overgrown, a strange, mysterious place from an age past, on the edge of the wilderness.
RoL - Malche, Greetings
3rd Day, High Igna.
11:00 AM
As noon approached, some of the eerie fog that had been covering the Fell woods before began to fall back, pale sunlight seeping in through the heavy canopy of the woods. Though the forest was thick and seemingly brimming with life, there was something unsettling about it. As the party walked through the forest path, their skins speckled by small beams of filtered light, they noticed the trees seemed pale and their trunks contorted as if they were the body of a man writhing in pain, and their leaves, though lush, seemed darkened on the bottom and ashen on top. Other than the crunch of the underbrush as they walked, the young mages could not hear a single sound coming from the deep forest. Soon they came across a small clearing and a fork on the road, On the middle of the clearing was an old, tilted wooden sign, bleached by the sun to the point where it looked like it was made of bone and with dry brambles growing along it's base, desiccated by the lack of shade.The sign had two arrows on it, one pointing south read "Linne" another one, pointing to the east, read "Asf_ltas". After an hour or so of walking, this seemed like a good place to catch a small rest and decide on the next step towards finding the missing courier.
Surprisingly enough,
Enzo fell as quiet as the surrounding forest shortly after the quintet started their trek, but her mouth still moved with perceptible subtleness if anyone looked closely enough. She had stopped talking aloud but started an active inner monologue as her eyes, wide with the hope of remembering the details of the path they were walking, scanned over the rocks, the landscape, the peculiarities of the foliage. 'Hmmmmmm,' was her first utterance in a good while, and it covered a few octaves, starting high and following a downward trend to a lower pitch. She walked all the way up to the decrepit sign and tapped her chin with a fingertip as she read which direction was what, and took what seemed to be far more time than necessary to comprehend what was posted.
A few seconds of staring at the sign later, Enzo finally recognized the word Linne, it was the small town where they had taken the ferry at, several hours downstream from the academy and probably more than a day's walk away. It was a muddy little town but still far livelier than the eerily desolate woods around the academy.
Riz'nah stayed ahead of the group as she jogged, unable to keep her bare feet from moving quickly. Though some might have interpreted her surge of energy as reckless, egotistical, or showing-off, Riz'nah was actually rather unnerved by the woods. She had never been in a place that was so still and so quiet and so
dead... but so alive. The place thrummed with latent, ancient energy that she could feel in her feet, feel in her toes, strumming up her calves as she ran. How the others could lay their feet on the strange, foreign land without feeling the spirit that lived in the very ground was completely beyond her. Her primal, shamanistic nature was uncouth and unfocused, but her father had taught her well enough to sense the land's life. Coming upon the sign, Riz'nah slowed and caught her breath, which was only slightly elevated thanks to her seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of fuel. "South," she answered as Enzo approached the landmark with questions written all over her face. Then, as if Enzo didn't know which way was what, the Ignean teenager pointed with her whole arm in the direction of Linne, like a humanoid representation of the very sign she was currently reading.
Coming to the crossroads,
Nim took a deep breath, and exhaled, smiling. The forest may have been unnerving, but the Terran was thrilled to be back out in such a natural setting. Though he may be more acquainted with the Deserts, he did enjoy being around a place so natural and verdant. The light that splashed on his face caused him to absolutely beam among the dread that seemed to seep in on some. He stood back as Riz'nah instructed the Ravillan on their direction of travel, watching as some of the group mentality began to unfurl. He was ready to find this courier, but as far as he cared, they could take their time doing it if they were going to be out here.
Falkyre trailed behind the group, breathing slowly as he turned his head around to look through the thick canopy of green that surrounded them. As he came to rest with the group, he yawned, the fresh air always made him feel relaxed and warm despite having a good nights sleep the night before. He stretched and asked through groaning muscles, "What's the hold up?".
Aeune reached the crossroads and paused, looking at the signs. She looked at Riz'nah, who was being a bit overly dramatic about pointing the direction, and awaited everyone else to start moving.
'Buuuuuuut...'
Enzo started , ready to play the devil's advocate, '...what if... whoever has the potions got here and then went to...' The young Ravillan squinted and peered hard at the other word on the sign post. 'Uhh... Assss.... Asssffffful...
tuhhhh...' She stopped and whirled about on the ball of her foot, causing her gear to thunk dully as it settled back against her body when she abruptly ceased moving. 'That way?' she said, mimicking Riz'nah with an outstretched arm and pointed finger, only in the eastern direction.
As the Terra approached, followed shortly by the human male and the other Ignean, Riz'nah looked at them all in turn, waiting to see if they had anything to add. Everyone had been listening and knew that the potions had come from Linne, the direction that the hotheaded daughter of the flame intended to go if it hadn't been for Enzo's curious postulating. Her arm dropped, swinging a bit by her side and bumping the handle of her mace as she went to stand next to Enzo with her hands on her hips, gazing down the way the Ravillan girl was pointing. "It doesn't make much sense to steal a bunch of potions and then stick around in the same place, does it?" she asked hypothetically as her tone started to indicate she agreed with Enzo's wondering. Whirling to the group, her wild hair flying out in an arc and then settling around her shoulders like a lion's mane, the Ignean addressed the rest of their silent, useless group. "Decision time," she said, her fiery red eyes darting from Falkyre to Nim'ael and then lastly to Aeune. "Bean-sprout here thinks maybe we should go to Asfl..." she hesitated, looking back over her shoulder to the sign and then sighed irritably and turned back to the group and jerked her head towards the east. "that way. I'm inclined to agree with her," she added, as if that was clearly a weighty admonition to throw around.
"Well, that's two votes for east," Nim said with no sign of emotion behind his words, "Why don't we go for it?" The Terran shrugged his weighty shoulders, figuring it was going to be as good as it gets when it came to an actual group decision at this point. Riz'nah and Enzo were agreeing on something, it seemed to be time to take advantage of that fact.
"If that is the way you wish to go," Aeune said quietly. She wasn't going to stir the pot, so to speak, and if the fiery tempered girl could agree that someone else may have a point, then it would be useless to argue. She remembered all the times she had tried to argue with her family, who were much like Riz'nah in temperment, and how it was like trying to hold back the ocean with a spoon.
Working on the hypothesis that the courier had come from Linne in the south bearing the potions and then had a change of heart, stealing them and heading for the mountains, the group headed east, making way to Asfeltas, up a forest road north of the infamous Frost Path. The group walked for several troublesome minutes, the forest growing wilder and the leaves on the trees became a darker, shade of green with serrated edges as the terrain became more and more rugged. The path seemed to build on a sort of steep hill and rocky outcroppings began to appear every now and then. Enormous roots of the now coniferous trees sometimes sliced the path in two, forcing the lot to climb over them and the woods grew darker as the canopy covered the path, it was obvious they were entering a mountain forest. The group would've probably continued aimlessly had it not been for Riz'nah and Falkyre, who suddenly noticed something strange in the road one grueling hour into the hike
Falkyre slowed to a halt as he peered upon something others may have overlooked. Taking a few steps forward he brushed his hand over the disturbed area, getting onto one knee to get a closer look. "Something isn't right here." Falkyre mentioned, murmured really. A whisper into the woods as he felt the mark left by whatever monster had rampaged through here. His fingertips caressed the leaves and broken branches, touching upon a sticky substance, different from tree sap, a darker crimson colour. If only he'd practised earthen magik like the rest of his family, perhaps there was some spell he could have used, but alas his array of frost magik would hamper him at this point.
As the forest went by them, leading them over rough terrain into the mountains, Riz'nah glanced back towards the road-sign and wondered just what their trek would have looked like to Linne. Although she was not the type to second guess much, as she hoisted herself over a particularly large root and stood atop it to look at the unclear path ahead of them, the Ignean woman felt a strange coiling in her stomach. The prickly feeling of needles in her feet shivered all the way up to the backs of her knees and caused the shaman to clear her throat and peer about on her large root roost. Having not heard Falkyre, Riz'nah's voice overpowered his as she lifted on her tiptoes and held her hand as a visor against the sunlight that peaked through the canopy of foliage above. "I think we found something, guys," she said, her voice calmer than she felt, as if she were doing nothing more than informing them. "It's up ahead," she said, hopping down from the root and landing on her bare feet. She then jogged to the spot she had seen, stopping before she stepped onto the large scar across the road. "This was not manmade," she surmised as she looked at the way it cut across their path and interrupted the plants on either side. "Looks like something heavy was drug across or something," she said, wiggling her toes to try and dispel the itchy feeling that the woods were giving her.
'What? What's the matter?' Enzo asked first of Falkyre who made a largely ambiguous statement. Despite being the peppy little firecracker that she was, the girl was obviously winded as she shuffled to a stop in the laborious trek. She was also a bit overwhelmed by the surroundings, the peculiarities of the forest as it transitioned into the foothills of the mountain. Swiping the back of her right hand over her damp and glistening forehead, she asked, glancing at Riz'nah, 'What is it? er...what made it, then?' as if it were possible to further make her curiosity apparent.
With Riz'nah's proclamation, Nim furrowed his brow with inquisition. The hulking Terran stepped up to the drag marks and knelt beside it, quickly studying the marks and trying to determine a final direction. Certainly, the marks were a curious sight, and quite possibly from the porter being drug through the woods with the stock of potions.
Aeune came up to the drag marks and looked at them. It was obvious what the were, and Riz'nah's proclamation that they were 'not manmade' almost made the stoic Ignean smile. Because the problem was that while they might not be 'manmade', they certainly weren't natural. She eyed the marks, determining which direction they were headed in, and started following them at a very slow pace.
"It seems we have a break in the case." Falkyre held a grim smile upon his lips, getting to his feet and nodding in the direction of the drag marks. "My guess is we follow this trail, we find what we're looking for." Falkyre began walking forward after Aeune, letting his fingertips brush the tree's every so often.
"I have no idea," Riz'nah replied through a sigh as the smaller Enzo approached, looking at the track that Aeune was currently following. "It doesn't feel right either though... I mean it's not like some beast drug something just across here and then picked it up again..." she said, using her arms to emphasize her point by clearly indicating the mark. She was second guessing her first assessment that the scar wasn't made by men. If not men then who else? Looking over to Falkyre as he suggested they follow the marks, Riz'nah hopped down into the scar to let herself experience the space to see if she could pick anything else up about the strange marking. "That's the smartest thing you've said yet," she commented, as if this were high praise. (Survival)
Enzo listened to what the Rysallean and the tempermental Ignean each had to say, her head cocking with a quirky motion, much like a bird's, as she did so. 'Welp, sounds like a pretty good idea to me, too!' she eagerly stated and, with much less finesse than the three who went before her, toddled into the rut marring the landscape. 'C'mon! she said to Nim'ael, with a swooping arm gesture. The girl fell into line behind Auene, Falkyre and Riz'nah, and, while she didn't know exactly what she was looking for, she scanned the area for anything of interest. (spot)
Nim watched as the others began looking for some sort of clue about the tracks. The Terran, who had already taken a quick glance towards the tracks in an effort to determine their direction leaned in closer, investigating the marks in a hope that he would get a clearer answer as to either what was dragging the crate or what direction it was being pulled in. (Survival)
The group walked behind the tracks left by the object dragged for some good ten minutes but soon ran into a snag. The further the group moved away from the path, the most unruly the forest got, to the point they could barely make any progress anymore without climbing over brambles and stumbling over raised roots. What's more, it had become nearly impossible to see or notice any tracks anymore, so they had began to wander aimlessly in the general direction the tracks had been keeping.
As soon as she lost the tracks, Aeune stopped and knelt down. "That is as far as I dare follow," she said calmly. She looked around for any other signs of someone moving through the forest. If they were having this much trouble moving, then surely whatever had made the marks had had trouble as well.
More cautious in his approach, Nim stood up and took bearing of his own direction, cautiously following the tracks in the direction he had determined to the end of where he could finally locate the the drag marks to investigate more closely at the point. (Spot)
As the group progressed through the forest, Enzo diligently plodded along but came to a stop as the density of the unruly vegetation impeded their way and as the visibility of the tracks lessened and lessened. Staring ahead, and just as her face started to fall in disappointment at their surroundings and Auene's words, the Ravillan piped-up as her arm shot out in front of her, finger pointed straight ahead. 'There! Do you see it? Right there!,' she exclaimed after a sharp intake of air. Her blue eyes were lit with utter excitement as her face cracked into an infectious grin; she was pointing to a sizeable tree in front of the group. At its base, among its mass of roots there appeared to be an opening.
Riz'nah fell silent, her flaming eyes shutting as she took a step inside of the scar, as if following a trail that only she could sense. Her chest filled with air slowly, taking in the breath of the forest, and her eyes opened, scoping around as if with new eyes. Climbing from the deep impression of the scarred rut, the Ignean sharpened her ears to the natural sounds about her, the voices of her comrades blurring into stretched, easily ignorable tones. Instead of forging to the front, as she had shown a pension for during their journey thus far, Riz'nah allowed her steps to slow and simply trusted that her feet were guiding her in the right direction. Dropping suddenly to one knee, the young girl ran her fingertips over the earth, tracing the perfect outline of a footprint. "What are you?" she breathed, mouthing the words into the wind that passed her lips. Their size and stretched shape confused her and she traced them for a moment longer, stooped over to remain in contact with the trail she had allowed the enchanted woods to show her. Her head snapped up as Enzo's girlish voice cracked her primal concentration, eyes immediately orienting to where the Ravillan was pointing. "I found footprints too," she said, not once ripping her eyes from the opening in the tree roots. "And they are most definitely not human," she finished, turning to look at her feet where the tracks were. (Knowledge of critters with feet like that/inhabitants of the forest)
Falkyre stepped along silently, his brow furrowed as they followed the trail left by whatever it was. He gazed into the direction of where Enzo was indicating, pondering the origin of the hole, wondering if it seemed familiar to him. He could only imagine what creature the underground would hold, and he was loath to encounter something this ferocious.
Aeune looked up at the others from where she was inspecting the tracks. She stood slowly, smoothing her hands down her thighs as she did. "After you," she said to Riz, taking a step back. "What could be strong enough to leave a trail such as this?" The hole intrigued her, but Aeune wanted to know 'what' more than 'where'.
Characters
[Ms. Steel] - RoL - Enzo Ginevra
[Roma] - RoL - Riz'nah Thadar
[Lepellier] - RoL - Nim'ael Theron
[Flisky] - RoL - Aeune Das'laal
[AccountUnavaili able] - RoL- Falkyre Everto
We're missing one.
Stumble!