The Summit Road Campaign Thread

After about a week or so of downtime, you're summoned to a meeting room in the early morning. However, when you all arrive, there is neither River nor a trailblazer in the room, and there are several extra chairs around the table. On the table is a brief note.

Meeting someone at the gate who will assist with explaining your mission, thus will be late. Please wait here, I should be no more than a quarter hour late. Apologies for the delay.

-Trailblazer Ishhareth

There is water and empty clay mugs on the table.

Taran arrives punctually and after reading the note finds the seat most out of the way to sit in after pouring out a few glasses of water, prepared the way the group normally likes them. 

Those who have spent a lot of time with him might notice a slightly different air about him. He is just the smallest touch less fidgety.

Vishal arrives just after Taran. Not a whole lot having changed since they last met he give them rogue a smile and happily takes his water while taking a seat.

Druhdaar walks in on Taran's footsteps and leans silently against the wall, arms crossed. He wears a simple and surprisingly clean monk tunic, as well as thick hand and feet wraps. His beard seems a little more trimmed and the sides of his head remain shaved, but otherwise he's his usual dour self.

Noticing Druhdaar Vishal smiles and says, “I missed you big guy. I got your custom made wraps here. It’ll help your punches land harder and more accurately.” He takes out the wraps and offers them up to Druhdaar. 

Akuma steps into the room relatively later but calm and confident nonetheless. She waits for the other quietly with her arms cross, seemingly lost in thought. 

Several minutes later, while everyone is waiting, the loud clanking of metal against metal is easily heard from outside the room. After only a moment, the small form of River pokes into the room and she moves into a corner near the door, staying relatively quiet. River is wearing much heavier armour than the bird-girl is usually seen in; her usual chain shirt swapped for a much more effective set of heavy plate, the perfectly-fitted helmet wrapping around her beak and her black, beady eyes hidden by the shadow cast by a slit in the front of the helmet. The wings on the side of the helmet help to give a unique silhouette while also paying homage to her bird-like form. Her painted shield has been replaced by a brand new, pristine shield taking the shape of a bird's wing, and a new longsword takes its place in the scabbard beneath the shield on her back. Even despite her heavy armour, River's posture makes her look nervous and fearful, her head slowly swivelling to give her full view of everyone in the room; lingering on Druhdaar.

Taran nervously waves at River, "Th-That i-is v-very n-nice ar-armor River." He says awkwardly trying to relax her, "it, uh, i-it s-suits you?"

Druhdaar's eyes, who'd slightly widened in surprise at Vishal's gift, now almost bulged in shock at River's new armor-clad, war-like appearance. The bearded colossus regains enough of his composure to mumble to Vishal:

" Hmmph. Been keepin busy, then. Lemme see that... "

As he puts on the wraps, he wrinkles his bushy brows, hard to say if in confusion or genuine appreciation. Yet when he lifts his head to meet Vishal's eyes, it's with a clean and direct stare.

" Good fit. Nice work, Dancer. "

As he catches River's look he grunts: " No need to look at me like that. I wasn't gonna hurt ye, Bird... er, River . I just thought you were... ermh... " his face falls as he struggles with his words. " Arrh, forget it ! Anyways, you got nothing to fear, especially now with all that clonky stuff on ye. "

As if reflecting on what he just said, the big man turns his back on River and shuffles his hairy frame back towards the corner he'd been leaning in a few moments ago. On his way there he passes Taran and Vishal and mumbles: " Y'all deal with this. I'm no good at that sorta thing. "

"I turn into beasts of the wild when the fancy comes over me. Sometimes when I come back to my human form I still have bits of stuff stuck in my hair. And teeth. crr ...I enjoy it? coo You know it, everybody knows it." River trembles as she perfectly mimics Druhdaar's words, pausing for an awkwardly long moment before looking to Vishal, speaking in Luunkashtai's voice. "Mental link coo Join me crr Mindscape coo Explain."

Caelius frowns and taps Taran’s shoulder, 

As Druhdaar shuffles back Vishal quietly says, "Making the effort to explain is worth a lot more than getting it right." Before looking at River and saying, "I'm not quite sure what you mean by that but if you're talking a psychic link I can set that up." Vishal's eyes glow blue as he links his mind with River's to telepathically say, "Is this what you wanted?"

Taran is standing somewhat confused, but his hands flash for Caelius. 

River slumps slightly as she fails to create a mindspace. "coo Nevermind crr Useless bird."

"Y-You aren't us-useless River." Taran says stepping up, "Y-You're a-amazing, you h-haven't g-given up even af-after whatever happened. A-And you t-took time to make that a-amazing meal. Y-You a-are amazing. Please st-stop s-saying y-you are u-useless. That is-isn't s-something y-you should l-let s-someone k-keep saying about you. Y-You can d-do anything, I'm sure of it."

"Can talk crr Mindspace coo Hard to do crr."

"Th-that's amazing River." Taran says, honestly impressed, "Wh-when d-did you learn, n-no, w-wait, y-you need Esteemed Vishal to h-help set it up, r-right? So m-maybe, um... I-I don't c-carry any meditation drugs on me, M-Master Lukaan disapproved of them, um, meditation is r-relaxing right, maybe a massage? But, you're in ar-armor... um, oh! W-would the m-mesage st-stone help? The sh-shiny one fr-from the camp? Th-That might relax you an-and it is psychically ac-active right?"

Vishal chuckles and shakes his head saying, "I'm not good at the whole psychic mind things. I got telepathy and that's about it. Though I am learning. So it's more than likely my fault. Just not strong enough yet." 

"Maybe crr Trailblazer coo Will help crr No, they won't coo Not important crr Stupid bird..."

Taran swallows, gathers up his courage, and walks up to River. After a brief moment of hesitation, he wraps her metal form in an awkward hug, speaking quietly to her.