Ferg is both comforted and annoyed by the fact that Arc hasn't risen from his fog enough to notice that the vials are being handed to Fin, some part of him deep down hoping that maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed and that there was still some of Arc's sharp self in there somewhere. This was the final proof he needed to decide, once and for all, that something had to be done beyond the immediate transfer of the vials.

"Take these", he instructs Fin quietly but with an urgency he hopes invokes the severity of the problem. "Arc's gone off on that ruddy gem, speaking about turning them into homonclulus eyes, so protect them good. I think we'll need to either get rid of Arc or the gem honestly. Maybe Kord can guide you on that one."

Fin stammers a bit in the confusion of being handed a package so suddenly. "What's so special about the gem? I mean, sure, it looked nice, but why all the fuss over it? If it's that bad, I say just smash it or throw it far away while we're on the road." He takes the satchel of vials and stuffs it up his gambeson. The thick linen was, luckily, not offset by the pouch too much.

Fin that thing is cursed plain and simple. Surely you remember what cursed things can do to a person? Ferg realizes his voice betrays how exasperated he feels and may alert Arc to their conversation. This is not the time for a history lesson, he tells himself, and calming his mind, checks in on Arc through Parson's eyes. Arc has taken his goggles off but is still playing with the gem, oblivious to all around him. 

Anyway. Keep them safe yeah? Maybe give one to Effulgyn. He's handy. Not sure about the other two yet. Ferg says, smoothing out his crisp, expensive looking shirt. He walks slowly back over to Arc, dread creeping into every step, feeling certain this is his fate and kind of wondering why Madame Moulot hadn't predicted any of this (except for maybe finding the gem in the first place).

But....maybe she had done. With that first card, the Fighter was it? Right. The Fighter. Something about how he walks calmly into the face of adversity knowing the risks but also knowing it's the correct thing to do and so doing it anyway. Ferg had at the time thought Madame was rather full of incense smoke and too many scarves but now that he thinks on it...it isn't actually too far off.

Using his keen memorization skills that have come in handy hundreds of times as a Wizard and during his time at the Academy, he recalls her exact words:

He is a champion in all things physical, mastering his destiny through determination and force. Not unlike The Chariot, this card portends success in the chosen strategy--the journey you are on will bring you the success you desire. But don't let that give you a sense of peace and ease for the Fighter must wrangle the beast with his bare hands lest the journey fall apart where he stands. Indeed, he puts himself in grave danger, and risks great danger to succeed. He is often tested and must at each instance decide the degree to which it is worth it to continue. But see? His face is calm. He knows on some level that the path he has chosen is correct, and that this is just another obstacle in a series. He knows that the fates smile in his favour, unpleasant as it may be to wrest the outcomes he wishes for.

Sitting now next to Arc, who has not even seemed to have noticed that Ferg has returned, he finds comfort in that old mystic's words. Maybe fate does smile in his favour after all. 

OOC everyone please roll a flat D20 either here or in your character sheets and post here

((Flat 20: 5))

"Um...yeah...yeah I remember."

Fin did not. Not entirely, at least. Most of the lesson had escaped him aside from the numerous variations of bad things to happen with curses. He figured curses were a lot like the first time he picked up a kitchen knife. There was a lot of sudden yelling, but not about anything he'd done. Nothing bad happened, but he was given a sense that he was lucky to have missed a dire consequence. Older now, he understands the full scale of events. At this point, he was still the ignorant child towards cursed things, but he knew enough that he never wanted to learn more than to stay away.

Once Fin had stashed the vial pouch away, he hugged close to his sword and javelins, and made sure to sleep with his shield propped over his head and back. Weather protection, that would be his alibi. Just a bit of ad hoc fieldcraft he learned from M.O.M. Looking out into the dark night, Fin pressed another thought to the ether. Another thanks, and a petition for safety while he slept. The voice from before didn't return, but it almost seemed like the dark world just outside his view grew thicker, like a veil or shade forming just out of view. Hours passed before he was roused from his sleep for his watch of the night.

17 on d20 for Effulgyn

Based on everyone's roll, including Yasrora who rolled in her character sheet, her is how things play out.

Yas wakes as soon as the sun crests the eastern skies, draining the horizon of its inky blackness and deploying a frenzy of activity from the various birds, rodents, insects and other creatures in the forest. Their activities are loud to Yas who has grown accustomed to a life of relative silence. She stretches sinuously before realizing that she must have slept through her watch. But wait--she was never woken up for her watch. In fact, it's been so quiet here. A little too quiet. She sits up and looks around. Everything is cast in shades of grey but she can see for the most part. She both hears and sees Avra snoring a few feet away, by the long-dead fire. She should  have taken the last watch, why is she sleeping? 

Skipping these thoughts for now she searches across and sees the cart and the donkey, does it have a name? Doesn't matter--the beast is there. But she can see no one else. 

She stands and aha, there, to the left! She sees two forms sleeping maybe thirty feet away--the Halfling and the Human. Wasn't the Human supposed to be on watch with Avra? 

This is all very odd--maybe these people are not the professionals they claimed to be after all, and that uppity Gnome and that dazed Half Elf who took the first watch probably fell asleep. She can't see them from where she is standing so she starts to carefully pick her way over to the rock so she can see what's on the other side of it and confirm her suspicions. 

In doing so, she wakes Avra.

"What? What's going on?" Avra says, very loudly, her gravelly half orc voice bounding all over the camp.

"We ssslept through our watch," Yas says over her shoulder, carefully avoiding branches and rocks in the dark. "Thessse people ID trusssted mussst have fallen asssleep during theirsss."

But when she gets to the rock, the uppity Gnome and dazed Half Elf are nowhere to be seen. 

Effulgyn and Fin no need to roll, I think you would wake up at this disturbance. 

Effulgyn starts, having been dreaming about his last feast back at the farm, and his little stomach is rumbling as he sits up, stretching and yawning, rested and refreshed, and thinking of toast and jam. But in a moment, he processes the sound which awoke him, the tone of disdain and the smell of trouble. Still on his bedroll, his head turns one way then the other searching for familiar faces, noting two missing. "Where's Ferg? And... Arc?" And now the halfling remembers the concern he had expressed about Arc and the jet, and his eyes widen anxiously. "Ferg! Arc!," he shouts, standing and looking to Fin, noting the hour, and that he was never awakened for his watch.

Fin jumps awake at Effulgyn's call. He looks about frantically, clamoring for his sword. The unexpected rest would've been welcome otherwise, but now caused nothing but panic and shame. "What happened? Wasn't I supposed to be woken up? Where's....?" Fin trails off as he realizes Effulgyn beat him to the question of the missing comrades. He quickly snatches up his shield and quiver before shouting for his missing friends as well.

Effulgyn. Fin, Yas and Avra stand in stunned silence near where they last saw Ferg and Arc take first watch eight hours or so earlier. If not for the presence of their belongings--in particular, Arc's precious tools sitting benignly on the ground at their feet, you'd assume they'd gone for a walk or something. But anyone who knew Arc the tiniest little bit would know that he would never leave his tools just lying around.

The magicked bird is also gone, Avra says quietly. Indeed in the growing light of dawn there is no sign of Parson which is troubling given Ferg's pride in having created him and his reliance on the familiar's eyes. 

“This makes no sense!,” shouts the halfling. Effulgyn conjures a magnifying glass in his hand as he rushes to where he’d last seen the pair, examining the ground for tracks. “Well don’t just stand there,” he snaps to everyone and no one, “help me find em!”

(Survival: 12. I rolled for Advantage in case the magnifying glass helped. Second roll was a 9.)

Fin gives a panicked nod and rushes off to sweep the area. He sweeps around the area, circling near then far, for any possible signs of passing in or out.

((Perception: 5))

Effulgyn, the ground where Arc and Ferg kept watch is dry and the forest floor packed hard from hours of sitting; it could be the still-dim light but you're fairly certain there are no obvious signs of struggle or retreating movement. 

Avra follows the path back to the main road and searches around there. She comes back after a long while, looking alert but quite confused. "No trace of visitors or of people escaping in the night." she says, troubled. 

Fin takes a similar approach, fanning out and gradually coming back to the spot where they were last seen. He is about to give up when he spots it: that black jet, so precious to Arc in his last moments, lying on the ground benignly. 

OOC Fin please make an arcana check

OOG sorry for the radio silence, I am back in the office most days of the week and was travelling last week so time has been limited! 

((Fin Arcana: 12))

Fin dares not to pick up the ominous jet, but instead pokes and rolls it over with a dagger.

Fin you are fairly certain that Arc would never have left his precious new toy behind--you can't recall any moment in the past 16 or so hours where the gem was out of his sight, never mind out of his hand.

Poking at it now with your dagger, nothing happens--but something tells you that wherever Arc and Ferg are, this stone has something to do with it, and that you should not touch it lest you end up in the same spot. 

"Hey, I really think we were onto something with this stone. It's really dangerous, but we probably shouldn't just leave it out for someone else to find. Maybe we wrap it up and bring it back for I.D. to look at?"

((If I stare long enough into the jet, do I see a big, flaming eye by chance? Lol))

'Yessss, ID often sends me to find such thingssss, Yas says, producing a pouch made of very dark black leather. "Dragonhide," she says, "very rare. Can handle mosst thingsss." She places the pouch in the palm of her hand and stabilizes its sides with nimble, sinewy fingers. Once she has a firm grip she places the pouch over top of the gem and with a little wriggling, manages to secure it in her pouch-covered fingers, flipping it back up to let the gem tumble safely inside. She ties the pouch deftly and tucks it away--it's funny, even though you are all looking right at her, you can't say you know where the pouch went.

OOC it's now Fin, Avra, Yas and Effulgyn. Asterix is still tied behind the large boulder. 

hahaha no big red eye in the jet as far as you can tell but maybe Ferg and Arc can confirm if and when they get out of there :D

"Well, good for that, at least. We'll deliver that along with the results of out mission." Fin checks over his possessions once more, then heads towards the wagon. "Tragic as it may be, I think it's best we move on. That stone is the reason they went missing, so the faster we get back, the faster we find out what happened to them."

((Did you really just pick that up like an enchanted dog poop?))