To the Southern Continent

As we play, occasionally we'll close a thread and open a new one to keep the size of threads (and relative complexity) down to a dull roar. Here's where we store the closed posts from the history of Errant Road.
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Sareth
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Re: To the Southern Continent

Post by Sareth »

Jamie eyed the three appreciatively, possibly thinking unwholesome thoughts (though one couldn't be certain if they involved the darts, or their new companions). "Great to meet you. So, where are we going hunting?"
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: To the Southern Continent

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"Out. West." Tallah waved a hand towards a narrow path leading out the village. "We-ah- them...come... that..." The male kobold made an annoyed noise and said something in his native tounge. Tamina nodded.

"Most of the ferals came from that way. So that's where we look." Tamina indicated the weapons the group carried, which including a pair of hunting bows and a broad bladed spear held by the one she'd called Riiki. "We catch one, drive off the rest. Try not to kill too many." Her mouth twisted. "Could cure them, save them instead."

The group took off, following the path that Tallah had indicated.

"We listen for the quiet." Tamina said. "Hope they don't surround us again."

........................

"You didn't have to shoot her, you know."

Gabriel looked at his guide skeptically. Was this woman serious?

"What should I have done then?" He replied sardonically. "Let her bite my face off?"

"I'm... just saying, there was probably a better way."

Gabriel stared the woman down until she averted her eyes. "Just take me to the village. We can discuss morality another time."

They'd only been walking a short time but Alec's right hand man was already beginning to pick out places in the undergrowth he could dump the plantive woman's body. The route, as it turned out, hadn't been difficult to follow at all. Gabriel was confident he'd be able to make it back to Grendell alone.

Pellen, the guide, lapsed into silence at her intimidating employer. She brushed the black hair framing her face over her ear in an expression of clear discomfort. Gabriel fought back the urge to snarl at her in contempt. It was funny, despite the fact things were so far going mostly as planned his mood had been on a steady downward slide since he'd left Grendell. The weather was too hot, the bugs were irritating and the scratch on his forearm was beginning to sting. A certainty settled on the ex-militia captain that the day was going to end in bloodshed. The only question was of whose it would be.
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Graybeard
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Re: To the Southern Continent

Post by Graybeard »

Keyes had good ears, and he couldn't help but hear the commotion behind him at the clinic as he reached the edge of town. However, he didn't even look back. Jamie and the -- kobold? -- were his only reasons for being in Grendell. They were not in town; they were at the kobold village. His interests, therefore, lay in front of him, not behind him.

Not my problem, he thought, not entirely accurately, as he started on the path to the village. [OOC: Let's assume this is not the same path that Gabriel and his guide are on, and is less direct than that path; Keyes doesn't have a guide, after all, so he's winging it and it will take him longer to get there. Timing can work out however it needs to.]
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Sareth
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Re: To the Southern Continent

Post by Sareth »

Attempting to keep as quiet as she could, Jamie fidgeted with the blowgun. Even if it had the word "gun" on it, she found herself suffering a great deal of doubt about the use of a hollow reed and a thin little toothpick to bring down things intent on killing her, raping her, and eating her (and if she was very lucky, in that order). Well, perhaps not rape. She hadn't gotten any indications that they had any amorous intent at all. Honestly, she was a touch disappointed by this. She might have to wash the disappointment away later with a little tryst with part of her hunting party later. Any part, she wasn't picky. Shoot, maybe the entire party. She'd never had a foursome before...

*CRACK!*

The sound of a branch snapping interrupted her particularly inappropriate thoughts and brought the small hunt group to a halt. As everyone froze, Jamie's eyes rolled from side to side as far as they could go as she tried to locate the source of the sound. After a few moments of absolute stillness, Jamie shrugged very softly. "So," she whispered, "anyone know where that came from?"
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Re: To the Southern Continent

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The hunting party stood tensely; weapons at the ready. Tamina's ears flicked wildly, trying to locate the source of the sound. A moment later a faint grunting noise was heard through the undergrowth. Tallah muttered something in kobold to his brother, who nodded and gripped his spear more tightly. The gentle thud of hooves punctuated the quiet, the male kobold pointed at a gap in the trees as it rose in volume.

The creature which emerged was a squat thing, trundling into view on four stubby hooves. It's raised it's big, flat, tusked head at the travellers and pawed the ground in a nervous gesture. The group relaxed.

"Jus' a garlop." Tamina said side-mouth to Jamie. "Pig-thing, eats plants."

"Yalt teese!" Said the other female.

"Alleece said it 'tastes good'"

The pig-thing turned tail and fled.
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Sareth
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Re: To the Southern Continent

Post by Sareth »

"Tasty?" Jamie grinned. "So is that on the menu for dinner?"

As Tamina began to translate the joke, Jamie turned back to look down the path they had been following. "So, shall we"

*WHUMP!*

A spitting ball of fur took Jamie down to the ground, sending the two tumbling off the path.
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Re: To the Southern Continent

Post by Graybeard »

What in Luminosita's name was that? Keyes wondered, shaken, as he headed for the kobold village.

He'd been walking for half an hour without seeing another soul on the run-down path, when suddenly there was a hideous scream from off to the side, in the dense forest. His first reaction was to duck for cover and finger Old Charlie, but it only took a moment for his half-elf ears to register something incongruous: the scream hadn't come from ground level. Unless some fearsome predator had hauled its prey up into a tree (you could never tell on the Southern Continent, it certainly wasn't out of the question), the sound hadn't been a human (or kobold) woman dying in agony, but rather something else. But what?

Aha. In the direction of the scream, Keyes could see a small bird hopping around the branches of a tree he didn't recognize. Experimentally, he stepped back onto the path and approached the tree ... and the bird screamed again.

That was a relief, and it left him wondering how such a tiny animal could produce such a big noise. Well, as long as it was a bird, it wasn't anything to worry about. It did seem like nothing could move on this road without causing the birds to raise a ruckus. That was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, nobody, and no thing, would be sneaking up on him without his knowledge. On the other hand, he couldn't sneak up on anyone, either. Of course, he hadn't really been planning to, but it would be nice to at least have the option.

He stepped away from the tree and started tentatively down the path again, getting one last outburst from the screaming meemie, or whatever it was, as he went. Once he was out of its line of sight, he walked in silence for perhaps another fifteen minutes, his senses on high alert ...

... And then, from somewhere off in the jungle, there was another scream that didn't sound like the bird.
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Jack Rothwell
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Re: To the Southern Continent

Post by Jack Rothwell »

Tamina watched in horror as Jamie and the feral disappeared into the undergrowth in a rolling tangle of chaos. She recovered herself enough to bark a command to the rest of the group, who went for their blowpipes and held them steady. They gave chase.

With the scrambling pair so close together a clear shot was nearly impossible. The native cursed and tried to figure a way round the situation; if she didn't act quickly and Jamie took an injury she'd run the risk of winding up like the creature attacking her. She waited a moment, and picked her spot to channel when the teenager was on the bottom of the ruckus; pushing the snarling feral upwards with it's back exposed to the magic-user. Tamina shot forward and planted a kick into the creature's ribcage which knocked it sideways and tore it free of it's intended prey.

<"Now!">

A trio of darts cut through the air in a blink. Tallah's (although he would later rufuse to admit it) went wide, but Riiki and Alleece struck their target squarely. The feral froze in place for a moment, looking down with an expression of puzzlement at the black feathers sticking out of its chest that looked comically alien. The plague victim's body sagged from the middle, its eyes rolled up and it collapsed to the ground.

Tamina, however, wasn't focused on the stunned monster. She ran over to her travelling companion and began frantically checking the girl's limbs for sign of injury.

"Jay-me!" She gasped. "You k? You get scratched?"
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Sareth
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Re: To the Southern Continent

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"Woah! Hey! Stop that! If you wanted to get intimate you just had to ask! Really." Jamie batted Tamina's concern away just enough to back the kobold up without actually hurting her. "I'm fine, really. Just fine." She carefully backed against a nearby tree, hands clasped behind her. "We get one?"
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Re: To the Southern Continent

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"Yeah-yeah." Tamin replied, breathing a sigh of relief that her friend was ok. She indicated the trio of kobolds behind her who were currently hog-tying the unconscious feral. The monster face rested in a strange slack-jawed snarl, maybe it was a trick of the light, or maybe it was manic circumstances under which they'd first encountered the ferals clouding Tamina's memory, but the creature the hunting party had captured seemed just a touch more animalistic than the group that attacked them at the village. The teeth seemed a little more prominent, the limbs more twisted, the claws more pronounced. The healer didn't think too deeply on the subject, there was a job to do that was more important than a biological study.

Moments the later the feral hung from a pole which rested on Tallah and Riiki's shoulders, the younger of the two was taking the opportunity to rip his brother about his bad aim, Tallah's face twisted into grumpiness.

"We go back now. Keep an eye for any more. Drive 'em off if they appear." Tamina said brightly. "Then me and Leli fix 'em. Should be ok."
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