The Summit Road Campaign Thread

Vishal continues to pat River's head as he continues encouraging her with, "Whatever your past was like. That doesn't matter now. You're a member of the Road. You are useful. You have worth. No matter if you mess up. Or if you make a mistake. That doesn't matter. I still respect you the same. I still look up to you the same. I want you to always remember that River. And...if you ever get down on yourself just repeat what I say. I am River and I am useful, I have value, and I will keep trying my best." 

She nods and looks down at her sword once more, clutching it tight and nodding to herself. "coo I am useful."

Vishal smiles as he says, "Yes you are River. Useful and wonderful and I don't know what we'd do without you." All the while he is giving her lots of gentle head taps.

Taran turns after finishing the last bundle of armor and weapons, to see that Mister Juhaan left, and he was alone with the bodies.

A beat later he begins dragging the bodies of the Riedran soldiers over to the rockslide, and begins digging into the rubble to bury the bodies there. If they were lucky, any future patrol that found the corpses would think them killed by that. He would silently work for hours at the deception.

Then, he would check his snares and recover the ropes and caltrops he had spread on the cliffside.

Juhaan

Approaching the leader corpse he looks at the strange amulet "Weird amulet. But it might be useful for trades in the future" he says pocketing it

River begins to sing a birdsong as she nuzzles into Vishal's hand.

Vishal happily continues to pet the bird and joins into the song a little bit. Once it is over her says to her, "We should join back up with the others now. Before they wonder if we got ambushed or something." 

Performance for Song: 12

She nods and puts her sword away, clacking her beak a bit before reaching for his hand.

He takes her wing(?) hand(?) and leads her back to the others. A small smile on his face that he shared with the little bird. 

The trek back to Shalquar is a little quiet, with many of you busy with your thoughts (or demons). When you arrive back, you give the code word exchange and enter the monastery. In addition, since you didn't go into Riedra, the mental scanning is less probing, as a few telepaths (Aapti among them, who gives you all a cheerful smile) merely ask you all a few questions as a group. Hardly four hours after you leave the ambush site, you find yourselves back with a serious Ranari. "How did the ambush go? I take it they arrived in the earlier days, since you're already back."

“The ambushed went as planned.” Vishal replies, “Nothing too difficult they just kept trying to losses the earth below us so we’d fall. How are things here?”

Taran would awkwardly wave at Aapti when they see her.

As they speak with Ranari, Taran will find himself fidgeting more than usual, glancing at her and then looking away.

"As usual," Ranari says with a shrug. "None got away, correct? Did you find anything unusual or important on the bodies?"

"Correct. None got away." Vishal replies as he gives Taran a curious side glance. "Swords, armor, crossbows, two sticks which we haven't identified yet, and an amulet to the inspired." 

Taran pulls out one of the sticks, his hands bandaged from digging through the rubble the day before, "R-right, l-like Es-um, I mean, M-m-mister V-Vishal s-said, we f-found t-two of these. I, um, I think they might be a, um, a t-type of smokestick, b-but I haven't h-had t-time to ex-examine them yet."

Taran looks down at the ground, "Um, M-Mister J-Juhaan, um, c-c-claimed the amulet, for, um, d-d-disguising himself... um, in the future I mean..."

Ranari nods. "Excellent. We'll leave you to identify the sticks, unless you'd like the Road's help. And Juhaan is of course welcome to the amulet. Was there anything else about the ambush or patrol that the Road should know?"

"Nothing really. They just attempted to collapse the ground below us as a means of attack instead of direct attacks." Vishal replies, confident that's it. 

"Excellent, then I'll get straight to your next mission." Ranari's face becomes even more serious. "We want you to take down a hanbanali monolith."

Taran's jaw drops for a moment.

"Th-the one in Hillcorn? W-Wouldn't th-that mean... I, um, it, you wouldn't want us t-to... d-destroy the wh-whole village, do you?"

Having some questions Vishal immediately asks, “Is Druhdaar coming with us? How long do we have to prepare before we move out? Do we have locations and maps?”