As Juniper follows Stanimir's instructions and gallops away into the woods, Star briefly considers following her. He's sure he could keep up, especially among the trees. But the urgency in Stanimir's voice reaches him.

"Alright," he says calmly. "We will do as you suggest. Come on you all," he directs to the rest of the party with a smile. "This is the elf's verse. Let us get clear of this mist. Last out of the woods is an achotic!"

And he lopes off at a jog, his long limbs covering the ground easily.

"A what?" Emma asks, but Star is already gone. Oh well, she'll most likely find out eventually. Emma looks into the forest again, where Juniper left off on her pony's back, but she has no urge to follow and face the wolves. Stanimir's plan was, as far as she was concerned, the safest plan. 

Emma shoulders her pack, takes a torch from one of the wagons and starts following the cat person. She does so walking though, finding no reason to run. She was already tired enough, and if the wolves reach them, she'd better save her breath for running then.

@Juniper(DandDSince1973) and @Kal(VanderLegion)

Juniper is careful in the positioning of her spell. All twelve wolves are caught in the spell's area of effect as the grasping weeds and vines begin to sprout from the ground beneath them. The wolves are startled to see this wild growth of vegetation. They try to pull free from the vines. A total of seven of the wolves fail in their attempt and are tangled in the weeds and vines. Five, however, break free from the grasp of the plants.

@Star(EMIW), @Emma(FireCat5) and @Vice(WhiteByakko)

Star and Emma begin heading down the road away from the wagons. Star begins to leave Emma behind as he runs, but she walks.

Stanimir and the other Vistani men begin waving the torches, shouting and yelling to draw the wolves' attention.

‘Seven. That leaves five wolves. Too many.’ Juniper grits her teeth. This was going to hurt. “COME ON!,” she yells to the man in the tree, and ‘Catch him!!,’ in elvish to Foxglove, urging the colt to move ahead and under Kal.

(OOC: Foxglove is dodging unless a dash is required. Once under the tree, Juniper uses her action to dodge, while maintaining concentration on entangle.)

Kal drops when the newcomer gets to the right position to hopefully land on the horse's back so they can keep running.

Vice catches sight of the wolves struggling in the sudden growth of vines. Not all of them were caught, and already several of them are tearing at the bonds. Juniper and Foxglove leap ahead towards the man in the tree, her braids whipping behind her in the darkness.

Not good. Vice curses under his breath. She goes in by herself, she’s going to get cornered. He could already see it - the wolves open their bloody maws wide, teeth as sharp as daggers, mouth watering as they pounce on Foxglove, dragging Juniper off… He shakes the grisly image off, shouting over his shoulder to Emma and Star, “Let’s go!” Then, not waiting to see if they are coming, he runs forward, drawing both of his shortswords, metal glimmering cold in the darkness.

(( I assume Vice needs to dash to catch up. If he can, he’ll position himself between Juniper and the wolves. ))

@Juniper(DandDSince1973) and @Kal(VanderLegion)

The wolves struggle against their restraints, with four managing to break free. The five wolves are distracted by the Vistani and are uncertain of who to pursue.

Juniper rides closer on the back of Foxglove to the tree that Kal is hiding in. As soon as she draws near, Kal safely drops onto the back of Foxglove just behind Juniper. Then Juniper quickly steers Foxglove away putting distance between the three and the wolves.

The trapped wolves continue to struggle against the vines and weeds with one now breaking free, leaving two wolves still trapped. The rest of the wolves start chasing after Foxglove. However, there is forty feet between the horse and the nearest wolf.

@Vice(WhiteByakko), @Emma(FireCat5), and @Star(EMIW)

Vice notices that is a close call with Foxglove and the wolves. However, Juniper and Kal manages to escape without being attacked by the wolves. They are now heading back through the trees to a point further along the road. Whilst Emma and Star continue heading down the road with Star running, and Emma walking.

Vice visibly relaxes as he sees Juniper and Kal were able to pull out. He really needs to stop having these visions of death... expect he can't. The dark place has a hold of him, and he knows it. His palms are already sweaty under the fingerless gloves. He sees Juniper is riding back towards the road and runs to catch up. 

‘Thank you Foxglove! Now away and be quick!,’ Juniper whispers in elvish into the colt’s ear. When she turns to look over her shoulder, her face a mask of reserve, Kal sees a sepia-complexioned elf, a white juniper-berry earring softly glowing under her black, beaded, shoulder-length braids. Her forehead is tense in concentration, her eyes pensive and distant, and she gives off a faint smell of moss and magnolia flowers.

“Welcome to the team,” she says ironically, “I’m Juniper. The others are there,” pointing. She aims for the road, making a wide arc to hit it in front of the wagons, beyond the downed tree.

(OOC: continues concentration on entangle, and focuses on finding a clear path through the woods for Foxglove.)

Star continues to run up the road and is the first one to the tree. Emma is the second up the road, but at her slower pace, Vice will soon catch up with her.

Meanwhile, Foxtrot is galloping through the woods with Juniper and Kal on her back. The free wolves are chasing after the pony but are not closing the distance between them for now.

Reaching the fallen tree, Star reaches out and digs in with his claws, pulling himself up with one fluid movement. He stands on top, and looks back down the road to see where everyone else is. His faces falls when he sees that the human is just walking - she isn't taking this race seriously at all! Such a shame. He waits for Emma and Vice to catch up, and will attempt to help them over the tree.

When Emma reaches the tree, she simply walks around it. The wagons may be unable to traverse the dense forest, but nothing stops Emma from bypassing a single tree. "Why have you stopped?" She asks the cat-man, looking back in case he's seeing something, but there's not much within the torch's light. "I bet it's a long way out of the forest, you shouldn't lose your breath running. We'll never get there while standing around, either. Come on, we have some pool to find." 

Why? Emma had no idea. Everything that happened was too distant from her. What could she possibly be doing here? Someplace where wolves don't want to kill her, personally, for some unknown reason, would probably be better, though, so out of the forest it is. "I hope they at least have good food over there..." Emma mumbles to herself as she continues on the trail. 

Star hops down from the tree and joins Emma in her walking.

"I was just looking back to see where my new companions are. And here, I have found one." He gestures to Emma with a smile. "My name is Star Setting In The East, but you may call me Star, if that is easier. What name do you go by?"

"I'm Kal," the warlock says, half turned to watch the wolves behind them. "Thanks for the assist."

He lets go of his hold with one hand to stretch it toward the wolves and unleash another eldritch blast at the nearest one.

Attack: 10 Damage: 5

Kal fires an eldrich blast at one of the wolves in pursuit. However, in the rush to fire the blast, Kal misses his target, and the blast hits the ground causing dried earth to burst into the air.

Meanwhile, as the pony and wolves draw closer to the road, Emma walks around the fallen tree. Star then star jumps down off the tree, and Vice catches up on the other side of the tree.

"Emma," Emma states simply, with no further courtesies. Fear, worry, tiredness and confusion can be discerned from her expressions, but no trace of a smile. Not even a fake one. If anything, she might appear a little sad, but that expression is currently obfuscated by the others. 

His name was strange. Well, mostly, it was long. But 'Star' was short enough and while still strange, it was probably normal in the cat-man's culture. Not that it mattered much, but Emma couldn't but wonder if her name is strange to him. Not that she voiced those thoughts.

‘Stanimir said “they’re no mere beasts.” Aren’t they?’

Juniper nods absently to Kal while this thought tugs at her, glad the newcomer seems more or less normal — for a sorcerer trapped in a tree by wild animals. Before gaining more distance, the druid rides high on the pony’s back, looking backwards over Kal, and tries to discern anything unusual about the wolves before sitting again and urging Foxglove ahead toward Star and Emma.

(OOC: Nature: 8; continue concentration on entangle.)

As Vice crosses the tree he sees the new comer on Foxglove shoot a brilliant light towards the wolves. A mage, it seems like. A little hard to make out specific features from the distance. As Emma and Star slows down to walking, he jogs to catch up with them, "Hey, we shouldn't slow down." He says, "Stanimir says the wolves are dangerous. I don't know how much of his words should I trust but better safe than sorry. Come on, they are already catching up. We should make some distance when we can." 

Whilst riding on the back of her pony, Juniper tries to get a good look at the wolves over Kal's shoulders. However, as far she can tell the wolves look rather normal, if a little determined in their pursuit.

"When were wolves not dangerous? I don't nees Stanimir to tell me that. But I don't think I can outrun a wolf either." Emma can't really imagine a wolf running slower than herself. "And if they catch up eventually... then what?" She sounds pretty pessimistic, as if having accepted that she'll meet her end here sooner or later, but l either way in these woods tonight.

The situation seemed dire enough as it is, but perhaps she could at least protect herself while the others... do whatever it is they initially planned. "Shouldn't you save your strength for when the wolves finally catch up?"