The Summit Road Campaign Thread

Caelius gives him a look of exasperation and disappointment before moving to join the rest of the party.

Taran continues following Captain Shen, whispers from the shadows of his mind keeping him company.

Just as Taran takes a few steps forward, he hears a cough. About 15 feet behind him, he can see the lumbering shape of Druhdaar catching up. The meaty-looking fellow is actually trying to jog, which is at the same time a tad ridiculous - considering his size - and a little surprising: he's a lot faster on his feet than his dour disposition and hulking shape would suggest !

He catches up with the young hunter and silently walks by his side for an uncomfortably long while, before turning his boulder-shaped head towards him:

" What ? You didn't think I'd let you got wandering around on your own, did you ? "

He then points towards Shen, who's walking a little ways ahead of them.

" He don't count. Ain't one of us. "

Taran shakes his head, "W-W-With a sh-shapechanging e-e-enemy, y-y-you c-c-can't tr-trust an-anyone, es-especially p-p-people cl-close to you. Th-That's th-the opening h-h-he w-w-will use." He rearranges his gear, filling in the space from the items he used, "Y-You d-d-don't need t-t-to bother yourself, b-b-but I-I-I'm s-s-sure th-they w-w-will appreciate y-y-your as-assistance... Y-Your w-w-wolf f-f-form c-c-could b-be useful, sc-scenting to m-m-make sure th-the k-k-killer d-d-doesn't have an ac-accomplice."

Druhd raises an eyebrow, then nods.

" Yeah. Didn't even think of that. Right. Your strength, my brains: we make a great team. Mmph. "

Hard to say if this was Druhdaar's way to make a joke, because before Taran can decide the druid turns his attention to the corridor ahead: bearded face impassible, the familiar furrowed brow and generally dour expression is back again.

Taran doesn't look up at Druhdaar's face, his gaze downturned as the large man talks. Words and thoughts twisting in upon themselves as they walk down the hallway.

Taran and Druhdaar complete their check of the new scene, and head to the large common where the group (and a few dozen monks) are sleeping.

The night passes, more (or less) peacefully for some, and you all find yourselves awaking the next morning at approximately the same time.

OOC: Everyone may now react to your dream/nighttime thing.

As Taran jerks awake he quickly wipes the grin off of his face and darts over to his bag to pull out a sheaf of paper and his quill. Furiously scribbling out messages and thoughts in Primordial and Road Code.

Hopefully their opponent didn't know the codes.

Kaori wakes with a start and noisily clanks to the corner of the room, holding her sword to her chest with both hands and looking around in a panic.

Vishal wakes up with a weird and almost solemn expression on his face. However he quickly hides it seeing Kaori and walks over to her, “Hey Kaori. It’s okay, you’re here and safe.”

Akuma wakes up with a seemingly indifferent frown that slowly turnd into a smirk and a slight chuckle. She glances around before moving to dig into her bag for a piece of parchment and quill, writing a few things in quick scribbles before standing and moving to wait until the others wake fully from their slumber, adjusting her wrappings. Her expression is serious and filled with obvious deep thoughts as she leans again the walls, the shadows slightly emenating from her arms the longer she waits in silence. 

Druhdaar slowly opened an eye, then another as the last strands of sleep ebbed away. The big man sat up in his cot and looked around at the morning light shining through the small shutters  of his monk cell window, creating a pattern of light against the far wall. He cleared his throat and rubbed his eyes, then got up wearily, scratching his scalp and his lower back, and humming soflty to himself.

More squids and giant insects. Great. Not only were the Quori intent on fighting their dirty wars on Sarlonan soil, but as well as being all-powerful and pretty much unkillable, they were also the weirdest-looking things he'd ever seen. Luckily, they were very rarely visible in their true forms. Yet unfortunately, he'd been plagued by dreams of them the whole night. He shivered when he recalled Nirdaya's tentacles and... God, why did the main Quori hero of Adaran history have to look like a giant praying mantis with a thousand eyes ? He cleared his throat and spat out of the window before proceeding to urinate.

As the blessed relief of the warm, yellow liquid trickled into the clay chamber pot decorated with traditional designs graciously provided by the monastery, he gave a deep sigh of satisfaction and kept on thinking about his dream. What in all the Seven Rotten Snake-Pits did Vishal get up to again ? Going after Nirdaya because he thought their were friends ?  Right... and he, Druhdaar Khar-Errendi, was the reincarnation of the Lord of The Hunt ! The druid's matted hair swung back and forth as he shook his big head in disbelief. That couldn't have been a real vision, probably just a silly dream. Even Vishal couldn't be that naive. Or could he ? He shrugged as he got dressed: maybe the others had similar dreams. They were all so eager to constantly share their feelings and fret over each-other's worries like a pack of novice nuns that he would doubtlessly find out over breakfast, anyways.

The thought of breakfast finished to cheer him up. He made a mental note to eat as many of these large wheat and cinnamon rolls as he could this morning. That normally calmed his anxieties down a little.

 Caelius watches his friends wake up. His bedroll has been neatly cleaned and his face is plastered with concern. He signs,

Taran nods to Mister Caelius, finishing up his writing and handing the page of twice encoded Primordial writing to Vishal to read (OOC: Forgetting that Vishal doesn't know Primordial) as he turns to begin pulling out his alchemy kit, moving swiftly and with purpose.

“Are you okay Taran? I don’t understand a single word on this.” Vishal replies after looking at the note.

Taran looks up from his equipment in confusion, then dawning realization and frustration.

"F-Forgot." he says simply, tapping his forehead with intention.

Vishal nods and his eyes glow as he establishes the familiar mind link with Taran. Taran knowing it’s complete by the warm comforting presence of Vishal in his thoughts.

Taran turns back to his gear, as though nothing was had happened.

At Vishal's words, Kaori simply nods slowly, eyes still sweeping the room with a soft coo.

Vishal looks around and says, “Why don’t we go get some breakfast. I need to meditate too. Going to shuffle some of my stuff around.”