This thread is for Avatar of lag's and Trusted Wave's characters as well as any WPLs. Any other caught posting shall be buried alive to be used for parts by our local necromancers.
That said, check in time.
The guards at Estark's eastern gate shuffled around in a bored manner as today had been a slow one for travellers entering and leaving the city through their gate. One sat on a barrel leaning on his pike looking down both roads hoping to see someone so he'd have something to do...
As the guard looked down the road leading to the city, he could make out two figures walking towards the guard station. As he peered at the pair, he could hear one of their voices, carried over by the wind.
"Hey! You're not too bored, are ya? Is it alright if we pass?"
I'm going to wait for your partner to check in first in case he has some questions for Jack. Your post implies he being with you so until he is actually with you then we will wait.
I too have arrived. And no questions for Jack from me; he's given me more information about this bounty already than Lucius ever did.
Mar thanks Jack for the information, then heads off, following his excitable new companion out towards the city gates. He lagged slightly behind; lacking a summons useful for fast travel Mar knew he'd be better off maintaining a steady pace that he could maintain for as long as needed.
As he hears his companion yell out a question, he speeds up slightly so that he'll get to the guard's post at the same time.
The guard quickly straightened up coming to attention as the two approached the gate. He flashed them a grin, happy to do something, and asked with a wink, "You can pass just as soon as I see your papers!"
Then with a light laugh as he accepted their papers he asked, "So, where are you two off to?"
The guard hands back the papers saying, "Sounds like fun, but are you two planning on walking the whole way? San is just on the western border of Sursi right? That's a fairly long distance to travel by foot..."
Genesius grinned hearing the guard's reply. "Yup, western border of Sursi, planning on walking. Why? You thinking of lending us horses? Thanks for processing our papers, by the way."
"How much time does it usually take to get there on foot anyway? And does the area we're going through contain any charming aspects that may prolong the journey, such as, but not limited to, perilous terrain, riddle-less sphinxes, disgruntled goblin tribes, political activists, or something else entirely?"
Mar looks vaguely surprised by the Guard's question, as if he hadn't considered it as a serious problem, but laughs when he hears Genesius's description of potential perils. "Yes, I believe San is near the border, but I've always traveled faster than people think I'd be able to. If you happen to know of any stagecoaches or the like heading in that direction, though, it would be helpful." Eventually I should invest in a flying mount of some kind. They do make travel so much faster.
The guard leans back against the table set up for processing and smiles as he contemplates the mages before him. Then waiting a few seconds in case any more questions would follow, he said, "You are quite full of questions..."
Then looking off past Genesius' shoulder he thought a moment and said with an unfocused gaze, "I asked because people do not normally travel to other cities or towns by foot these days. As for lending horses I am afraid the city guard does not make it a habit to hand out resources that belong to the city's soldiers. You're welcome for the processing by the way."
The guard had focused on Genesius when he had returned the thanks before continuing, "Traveling by foot would probably take you a good four days if you spent every hour of daylight marching at a good pace..."
He paused in thought another moment and said, "The area you're traveling through will have plenty of refugees fleeing the turmoil that has fallen upon the northern borders of Sursi. There is the chance of a few stray goblin raiders chasing those refugees. Normally there would be trade caravans heading directly towards the war effort but the flow of refugees and threat of goblin raiders have left that option to be an undesirable one by the city merchants."
The guard turned to one of his fellow brothers in arm and exchanged a few quick words before looking at Mar and saying, "The only trade caravans making their way into Sursi are doing so by traveling the southern routes to avoid potential conflicts. If time isn't an issue you could likely join with them, though I expect that journey would take at least two weeks as the merchants will want to stop and trade along their route."
Once the guard finished speaking, Fevvers flew off Genesius' shoulder and off into the distance. Undisturbed by this, Genesius simply muttered "Hungry already, huh?" before starting to think.
In the silence that followed, he contemplated all the new information carefully before opening his mouth to speak.
"As much as I would like a leisurely ride to San, we can't afford to spend two weeks on a caravan ride. Four days on foot isn't that bad. As for goblins...well...I'm sure we can handle ourselves." he says with a grin.
"Such a pity; our travel plans require us to make haste. Thank you for the information."
Mar turns to Genesius, and shakes his head sadly. "While we could likely completely eliminate any goblins that threaten us, they would delay us. But we should probably be off immediately. Although it might be worth taking a detour on the way back to see if we can stop the goblins from... being a threat to anyone anymore."
Mar nods his thanks to the guard once more, then turns to face the road. "Well, Let's be off."
The road lay before Mar, serene with a gentle breeze blowing past him into the city. Genesius stood at Mar's back catching the cooling breeze. Their first step of adventure outside the city awaited for them...
"Well, let's be off." Mar started off at a steady pace that he knows he can keep up all day if need be. "Your bird won't get lost, I hope," he calls back to Genesius as he heads towards the distant Sursi border.
Loving the feeling of walking into the wind, Genesius catches up to Mar and starts walking at the same pace.
"Don't worry about Fevvers. She flies off whenever she needs to and always finds her way back to me." he said with a smile, clearly enjoying the cool breeze.
After spending a considerable amount of time walking, Genesius eventually broke the silence.
"Hey, Mar...Jack mentioned that a Time Rift is the reason for these germs' appearances. It makes sense, then, that the rift should be sealed so that this doesn't happen again...but if that's so...then..." he looks at Mar before continuing, a defeated expression on his face.
Soil crunched beneath Genesius' and Mar's feet as they walked along the road into the cool and refreshing breeze of wind. Faint wisps of smells were carried to their nose, hints of the local fauna, a campfire's scent ahead, and the smell of unwashed men. Off to their right was a screech of victory from Fevvers, he had caught some game apparently.
A beam of sunlight tickled their faces as it broke through the slightly cloudy skies that cast drifting shadows on their path.
Mar had been walking in silence broken by the faint sounds of his staff hitting the ground as he traveled, but when the silence was broken he spent a few moments thinking about the answer before answering, maintaining a faint smile as he did so, not at all worried by their lack of island savvy, though whether the confidence was warranted was hard to tell. "Heh, I suppose one of them could be useful, yes, but experienced ones tend to be busy." "And just a little insane," he adds in a quiet voice before continuing in his normal polite tone. "Besides, there's usually some trick to it. Destabalizing the local mana flux that holds the Rift stable shouldn't be too difficult; between us we've got several forms of mana available to throw at it. Even if we can't stop the portal completely, we can wipe out all of the creatures currently besieging the town and buy the some time to evacuate. And if worst comes to worst, we can just jump on through. I've heard rumors of strange and unusual lands beyond some of them." And I half suspect I've already traveled through one to get to Estark in the first place. It would explain how I found myself in that swamp, years ago.
Mar looks back at his travelling companion before finishing his thoughts on the matter. "I firmly believe that everything is bound together by bonds of varying strength and ease of manipulation. The bond between a mage and their summons is easy to tamper with, the bonds between a mage and their sources of power more difficult to perceive but still present for those who can follow them. And then you get the connections that connect people to each other, connections that define their relationships with others. Something like a rift in time... it stands to reason that such a thing would distort the flow of energy around it, but systems are often surprisingly easy to disrupt..." He sighs, then abruptly goes silent and stops when his mind registers a certain smell; while he's been ignoring the local fauna as insignificant to their efforts, the smells of a camp and the men to go with it are more significant.
Mar scans the road ahead, then sweeps his head to look at the surroundings of the road ahead, and more importantly, for the tell-tale signs of rising smoke that might indicate where the campfire is located."Do you smell that?" He asked. "I don't suppose your Fevvers would be able to return in time to be able to scout the camp for us?"
Genesius had been listening intently to his companion's answer until Mar had suddenly asked his own question.
"Flames. Yeah, I'd recognize that smell anywhere."
Genesius then whistles sharply. A few moments later, Fevvers lands on his shoulder, her beak still bloody from her meal. He gives her a kiss on the head and says, "You know what to do." Understanding her objective, she flies off his shoulder towards the direction of the campfire.
Turning to Mar, Genesius explained, "When Fevvers returns, if she lands on my right shoulder, then the camp consists of civilians, refugees, or soldiers. If she lands on my left shoulder, then it's filled with brigands, marauders, goblins...basically some kind of people we'd rather not meet. If she circles overhead before landing, then danger is straight ahead."
Fevvars appears to hover for a moment before doing a figure eight flight path above the smoke slightly to the south east of their location. He seems to be unsure of the camp's residents and what there motives may be.
"Is that so?" says Genesius after seeing Fevvers' signal. He whistles again, an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face. Fevvers returns to his shoulder soon after, and receives praise for a job well done.
"Seems like we've been dealt a wild card. Wanna stick to the road and play it safe? Going straight for the camp would be a detour we wouldn't want to waste time for anyway..."
Despite his reservations though, Genesius grinned inwardly at the thought of encountering a random element, but managed to keep his excitement contained for now.
"If they are bandits, I'd rather take them out on our own terms than wait for them to come after us, which they would. If they aren't, they might be able to tell us about the conditions of the road ahead. And even if they are bandits, I'm sure we could... convince them to tell us what they know of the road. And it doesn't look that far off the path."
Mar is clearly curious as to who it is in the camp, and he veers off slightly, heading towards it more than towards the road, though no he is moving a good deal quieter than he had been. "Let's investigate, shall we?"
"Well, I...I suppose we could find out who they are..." Genesius says, failing to suppress a grin. He rolls up his cloak behind him and secures it with a built-in cord to prevent it from dragging on the ground and giving away their location. As quietly as he could, he moves towards the camp.
20 sided roll with a plus one modifier for both of you on sneaking up to the campsite.
The two moved quietly towards the general direction of the campsite, taking care not to snap any twigs. The process was slow moving but they eventually came within one hundred yards of the camp. Here the forest was dense with trees obscuring any vision into the camp. Both mages could here faint conversations going on from this distance though. A bit further into the trees and they would be able to see exactly what was going on inside the camp as well as pick up the tidbits of conversations...
That said, check in time.
The guards at Estark's eastern gate shuffled around in a bored manner as today had been a slow one for travellers entering and leaving the city through their gate. One sat on a barrel leaning on his pike looking down both roads hoping to see someone so he'd have something to do...
As the guard looked down the road leading to the city, he could make out two figures walking towards the guard station. As he peered at the pair, he could hear one of their voices, carried over by the wind.
"Hey! You're not too bored, are ya? Is it alright if we pass?"
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR
Mar thanks Jack for the information, then heads off, following his excitable new companion out towards the city gates. He lagged slightly behind; lacking a summons useful for fast travel Mar knew he'd be better off maintaining a steady pace that he could maintain for as long as needed.
As he hears his companion yell out a question, he speeds up slightly so that he'll get to the guard's post at the same time.
And thus do empires and settlements fall
Then with a light laugh as he accepted their papers he asked, "So, where are you two off to?"
And thus do empires and settlements fall
"How much time does it usually take to get there on foot anyway? And does the area we're going through contain any charming aspects that may prolong the journey, such as, but not limited to, perilous terrain, riddle-less sphinxes, disgruntled goblin tribes, political activists, or something else entirely?"
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR
Eventually I should invest in a flying mount of some kind. They do make travel so much faster.
And thus do empires and settlements fall
Then looking off past Genesius' shoulder he thought a moment and said with an unfocused gaze, "I asked because people do not normally travel to other cities or towns by foot these days. As for lending horses I am afraid the city guard does not make it a habit to hand out resources that belong to the city's soldiers. You're welcome for the processing by the way."
The guard had focused on Genesius when he had returned the thanks before continuing, "Traveling by foot would probably take you a good four days if you spent every hour of daylight marching at a good pace..."
He paused in thought another moment and said, "The area you're traveling through will have plenty of refugees fleeing the turmoil that has fallen upon the northern borders of Sursi. There is the chance of a few stray goblin raiders chasing those refugees. Normally there would be trade caravans heading directly towards the war effort but the flow of refugees and threat of goblin raiders have left that option to be an undesirable one by the city merchants."
The guard turned to one of his fellow brothers in arm and exchanged a few quick words before looking at Mar and saying, "The only trade caravans making their way into Sursi are doing so by traveling the southern routes to avoid potential conflicts. If time isn't an issue you could likely join with them, though I expect that journey would take at least two weeks as the merchants will want to stop and trade along their route."
In the silence that followed, he contemplated all the new information carefully before opening his mouth to speak.
"As much as I would like a leisurely ride to San, we can't afford to spend two weeks on a caravan ride. Four days on foot isn't that bad. As for goblins...well...I'm sure we can handle ourselves." he says with a grin.
"What do you think, Mar?"
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR
Mar turns to Genesius, and shakes his head sadly. "While we could likely completely eliminate any goblins that threaten us, they would delay us. But we should probably be off immediately. Although it might be worth taking a detour on the way back to see if we can stop the goblins from... being a threat to anyone anymore."
Mar nods his thanks to the guard once more, then turns to face the road. "Well, Let's be off."
And thus do empires and settlements fall
And thus do empires and settlements fall
"Don't worry about Fevvers. She flies off whenever she needs to and always finds her way back to me." he said with a smile, clearly enjoying the cool breeze.
After spending a considerable amount of time walking, Genesius eventually broke the silence.
"Hey, Mar...Jack mentioned that a Time Rift is the reason for these germs' appearances. It makes sense, then, that the rift should be sealed so that this doesn't happen again...but if that's so...then..." he looks at Mar before continuing, a defeated expression on his face.
"...why didn't we bring a Chronomancer?"
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR
A beam of sunlight tickled their faces as it broke through the slightly cloudy skies that cast drifting shadows on their path.
Mar looks back at his travelling companion before finishing his thoughts on the matter. "I firmly believe that everything is bound together by bonds of varying strength and ease of manipulation. The bond between a mage and their summons is easy to tamper with, the bonds between a mage and their sources of power more difficult to perceive but still present for those who can follow them. And then you get the connections that connect people to each other, connections that define their relationships with others. Something like a rift in time... it stands to reason that such a thing would distort the flow of energy around it, but systems are often surprisingly easy to disrupt..." He sighs, then abruptly goes silent and stops when his mind registers a certain smell; while he's been ignoring the local fauna as insignificant to their efforts, the smells of a camp and the men to go with it are more significant.
Mar scans the road ahead, then sweeps his head to look at the surroundings of the road ahead, and more importantly, for the tell-tale signs of rising smoke that might indicate where the campfire is located."Do you smell that?" He asked. "I don't suppose your Fevvers would be able to return in time to be able to scout the camp for us?"
And thus do empires and settlements fall
"Flames. Yeah, I'd recognize that smell anywhere."
Genesius then whistles sharply. A few moments later, Fevvers lands on his shoulder, her beak still bloody from her meal. He gives her a kiss on the head and says, "You know what to do." Understanding her objective, she flies off his shoulder towards the direction of the campfire.
Turning to Mar, Genesius explained, "When Fevvers returns, if she lands on my right shoulder, then the camp consists of civilians, refugees, or soldiers. If she lands on my left shoulder, then it's filled with brigands, marauders, goblins...basically some kind of people we'd rather not meet. If she circles overhead before landing, then danger is straight ahead."
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR
"Seems like we've been dealt a wild card. Wanna stick to the road and play it safe? Going straight for the camp would be a detour we wouldn't want to waste time for anyway..."
Despite his reservations though, Genesius grinned inwardly at the thought of encountering a random element, but managed to keep his excitement contained for now.
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR
Mar is clearly curious as to who it is in the camp, and he veers off slightly, heading towards it more than towards the road, though no he is moving a good deal quieter than he had been. "Let's investigate, shall we?"
And thus do empires and settlements fall
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR
The two moved quietly towards the general direction of the campsite, taking care not to snap any twigs. The process was slow moving but they eventually came within one hundred yards of the camp. Here the forest was dense with trees obscuring any vision into the camp. Both mages could here faint conversations going on from this distance though. A bit further into the trees and they would be able to see exactly what was going on inside the camp as well as pick up the tidbits of conversations...
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR