Union! Game Thread

Corti stops her conversation as she spots the lancers ahead dismounting. She follows suit, holding onto the reins of her horse and patting its nose. 

Tarian eases off her horse and leads it as well. "Miss Thia, I know this isn't part of our normal survey mission, but we should probably at least make mention the condition of this path we're on." 

Gyselle pipes up from up ahead. “Maybe you could make this path a bit wider. Perhaps a side to it so no one falls.”

Just as Gyselle says this, a large bird launches itself from a rocky precipice with a screech, loosening a rock that comes tumbling down the mountainside, cascading into a small hail of rocks and splinters. Your horses rear up and Gyselle's and Thia's horse try to evade the small rockslide but lose their footing and go over the side. It's not a sheer drop, but the momentum of the horses and the rocky shale make for a bad combination, and both horses tumble several dozen feet down. You can hear by their pained whinnies, that they likely broke some bones, but before any of you can even think of going after the horses, the mountain lions that had been stalking you are on the two downed and injured horses, quickly ending their suffering.

Up on the path meanwhile, you've avoided being pulled downhill yourself, but you're all a bit shaken up and the remaining horses are all a bit nervous at the ghastly sounds that their fellow horses made, shortly before dying. Also, Thia and Gyselle are without horses now. While you wouldn't have been much faster on this leg of the journey, you will likely have to double up on some horses on the trip back.

For now though, the lancers do their best to calm the horses and carry on up and over the pass. A small silver lining of the whole ordeal is that the mountain lions aren't stalking you anymore.

Gyselle lets out a semi-loud whistle.

“Glad I wasn’t on my horse. Shame to see them die like that.”

It took practically all of her self control to not slide down after the horses to save them from the mountain lions. But by the time she realized what was happening it was too late.

Looking back towards Tarian adds, “told you this path needs something to keep things from falling off of it.”

Then to Thia she says, “What’s this stuff we are trying to find look like? Could you describe it for me?” (Would she have seen or read something about it from Othmar?)

Still shaking, Thia would swallow. That could have been a lot worse... She'd exhale. Pulling out her notes, the artificer would scratch down some notes to record the condition of the path as per Tarian's suggestion. "Note made." She'd mention out loud for Tarian.

When Gyselle would inquire about what Silverbark looks like, Thia would dab some sweat from her brow before flipping through her notes to show the cleric what she had.

(I don't have a description in my actual notes, but I'm imagining a tree similar to birch but more silver in colour, with leaves similar to a silver maple perhaps?)

Corti covers her mouth with her hand at instinctively jumps back as the horses plummet. "Oh... poor beasties." She hesitates for a moment over the edge, and then draws back and wraps her hand tighter around her horse's reigns. 

Corti will also take a glance at Thia's notebook as she flips it over.

You both notice a tremor in Thia's hands as she's holding the book out. The illustration shows a thin tree that grows mostly straight with a silvery paperlike bark, that flakes off, giving the tree a feathery appearance. 

You don't stop for too long though, instead making your way upwards to the summit. After another two exhausting hours, you reach the summit of the pass. By now, almost all vegetation apart from some tufts of grass, lichen and moss have receded, which means that there is nothing impeding the chilling winds that blow in your faces and tug at your coats. The clouds above are grey and stormy, but for now the weather holds. As you reach a slightly more sheltered area, the first pair of lancers call a halt to rest for an hour, make some tea and plan on how to distribute your equipment so as to allow Thia and Gyselle to ride again. The more perceptive among you also notice the other lancers leading there animals a bit further away to treat them, as several of them have weeping sores on their joints from the jagged rocks and the exhausting climb. The animals were being pushed almost to the breaking point, and once you'd find the necessary ingredients, you would have to return across the pass, with even more baggage...

Gyselle moves over to the lancers and offers to help tend the horses wounds. (Possibly cure wounds or channel divinity: preserve life or healing word. I’m not sure how injured they are based on the description.)

You apply a bit of a salve from your personal supply. From your studies, you reckon that it will serve to disinfect and cool the wounds and help them heal.

There has to be a way to get another horse or something when we get there. My coins are pretty much spent, and even if we cobbled together what everyone else has on hand, I doubt there’d be enough to buy one… if there even is one to buy. Tarian sighed. She spent much of the break massaging her horse, and mentally rearranging the gear and riders.

“We should probably pair the heaviest with the lightest, right?” she asked her horse. “And rearrange the gear to keep the total balanced.” The horse skirted a bit as Tarian dug the heel of her hand into a knotted muscle a bit more than the horse would have preferred. “You’re overworked as it is.”

“Sounds sensible to me!” Gyselle says to Tarian seemingly in a much more chipper mood, at least since the sounds of the horses being eaten alive is far enough away to not be heard. 

Acting on Tarian’s idea, Gyselle does her best to help assist with the logistics of rearranging everything now that the group has two fewer horses. 

The lancers quickly catch on, and together, you spend the latter half hour of your rest to try and distribute the weight so as to spare the weakest of the horses. Once you're all done, one of the lancers looks at Tarian: "I hope they'll be able to keep going, these rocks are terrible for the horses. If we lose two more, we'll have to use the rest as pack horses and cover the distance back on foot."

With that, he swings himself back into the saddle, and after you all follow suit, leads on down the mountain pass.

After another three hours, the sun sets, and air becomes frigid, even though you descended lower than you started the day with in the morning. By all estimates, you should reach the borderlands by tomorrow midday, if you started riding out at dawn, as you did today. Without being chased by mountain lions, you set up a camp in no particular hurry, and the lancers do their best to tend to the horses while Thia cooks another meal, this time not burnt to a crisp.

Do you wish to discuss anything, or go to bed?

Seeing Gyselle move in to tend to the horses wounds, Thia would offer to lend some assistance. Then as they’d move to redistribute the weight and repack the horses, she’d assist in any capacity she could there as well. Occasionally she’d sort of fumble an item from unsteady hands. Should Thia come across any smaller supplies that could or would make sense for her to be seen putting in her bag in an attempt to redistribute weight, she would.

Moving on to dinner time Thia would focus on making the meal, relieved she didn’t burn it to a crisp this time. Wiping some sweat from her brow, she’d tidy up her tools and workspace before taking a seat to enjoy her meal. As she ate, the artificer would scan their camp area, as well as consider the resources available to them, would she be able to craft anything to assist with hauling weight, distributing weight, or even reducing the weight on the horses? She was no Arc. But maybe, if she brainstormed enough, she might have enough brain power to formulate some sort of solution. She probably should have considered looking into this sooner... Thia would rub her aching head.

Not really having anything to say to the group regarding the days events. Gyselle sits by the fire quietly and watches Thia make the evening meal. Given that it smelled a bit better than last night, there was no odd looks from Gyselle tonight. She quickly scarfs down her portion and heads to sleep rather quickly. (Unless someone wants to try and talk to her before she goes to sleep)

Int: 13 + 3 = 10

As the evening was likely dawning outside, Arc took a moment to reply, "....there is another way....the traitor, Hadrari....he's still out there....if nothing else, I think he'd deserve to ease you of the position of being a scapegoat, wouldn't you say?" Arcius raised his gaze back to Phoenix's, his eyes turning a shade colder as he began speaking tactically, his mind running all manner of numbers and minute calculations.

Thia, your thoughts are racing and jumbled. There are ideas that float through your mind, like bilding travois that the horses could pull, with your stuff laden on it, or creating some sort of sledge. There are unfortunately two problems with that: the terrain is very craggy, so that anything dragged along might actually catch and hinder the horses more and secondly, there's no materials to do this with, unless you want to use the poles and canvas of your tents, which could risk destroying them and result in two of you having to sleep in the cold, with potential drawbacks of that.

If you built a good harness though, the eight would be taken off the shoulders and backs off the horses though, and two of them might even be able to pull together, easing the burden on the animals. The rope for an improvised harness is around, and if padded with bed rolls, spare coats and clothing, it could suffice for your purposes.

Pushing through the fog, Thia managed to scrape together a potential solution for consideration. She’d look up to any one willing to listen, Corti, Gyselle or Tarian, and begin explaining her thoughts. She’d pull out her notebook and begin sketching out the concept design for them to review and see if it might be something worth looking into.

Tarian looked over the sketch and nodded. She then shifted positions to get a different view of the sketch, and with her lips pursed, she nodded again. Seemingly satisfied, she stood straight and stretched. “It’s beyond my ken,” she shrugged. “I’ll help where I can, but you’ll have to direct me.”