Above & Below

(Woo! I'll update my sheet later today)

As soon as Kurama was brought to his room, he fell face first onto the bed falling into a deep dreamless sleep till morning.

As Effort retired to her room to rest, she stroked Cadmael on the head absentmindedly and considered how she got to this point.

"Hmm.  I never imagined championing the tiefling cause would bring me to other worlds," she admitted to the owl quietly, in a rare moment of being honest and open... at least to her familiar.  She undid her braid, doing her best to finger-comb her hair into submission, while regarding her own reflection and thinking about her choices, wondering if any of them were mistakes.  Silver eyes, unusually bright against her dark brown skin.  She blinked, then leaned forward, her frown deepening.

"I've always had light eyes, but this is ridiculous," she declared to Cadmael, turning her head one way, and then the other.  She closed one eye, then switched, shutting the other, all the while never breaking her stare.  No matter how she tried, it was clear - her eyes were now glowing, somewhat.  And everything seemed sharper and clearer than before.  "What is going on now?" she mumbled, brows drawing together as she stared back at the unblinking reflection.

A boon, Cadmael answered.  Our master deemed your actions worthy.  You can see better than even I, now, with your new eyes.

"New eyes?" Effort said, turning her head this way and that once again.  "Great.  Hopefully the others won't notice anything different," she grumbled, still wondering just what Cadmael meant by that.  The blazingly silver eyes that stared back at her didn't offer any clues.  Shrugging it off, she retired to her bed, exhausted, and decided to handle it the way she did with all challenges in her life -- only as any trouble came.

Once your sheets are updated, let me know what big changes there might have been in terms of action or spell options. Easier than me looking through your sheets trying to find them. :)

Brask heads off to his room with Pip.  You've been in a few good fights now, he says to the little goblin.  And you're good at it.  Got some good hits in.  Is it... what you expected?  Do you like this kind of job?

Effort, gain a point of inspiration!

You wake up the next morning feeling sore but mostly refreshed. An odd sense of rejuvenation seems to have washed over you during the night. For the first time since you've been here, a bit of subdued sunlight rests behind a thin layer of clouds. It would be considered a dreary day in Oshait...but here? The whole town seems to be outside first thing in the morning, cheerfully getting to work in conditions that are somewhat less gray than usual.

As you gather outside the inn, someone stops by to drop off a burlap sack that has been loaded up with bread and raw vegetables. A few moments later you see the baron heading down the main avenue with a few people at his side. He's talking demonstratively, but sees you and pauses. He briefly contorts his face as if he had forgotten all about you for a moment, but then smiles and gestures that he'll be right back. 

"It seems you're set for your journey then," he looks around at your belongings. "If you ever find yourselves back this way, please know there will always be work for capable people like yourselves. I wish you good fortune."

If there are no more questions for the baron, you can be on your way. You'll need to decide soon if you want to take the faster route (through forests and marshes) or the longer route that follows the northern road until it breaks eastward. Each will present its own challenges, of course. :)

"One last question.  Would your town happen to have any healing supplies?  Potions, or the like?" Effort asks the baron.  "If we are to brave meeting this Sister, it seems it would be prudent to have something to fall back upon should negotiations... falter."

Once she's received her answer, she turns to the others.  "Well.  Fast and hard or safe and slow?  I myself am no fan of 'roughing it' as they say, but this is hardly a pleasant place to be caught unawares, and I doubt we'll find another inn for some time, if at all.  I would still prefer the road, however.  As you all know, I have a delicate constitution," she smirks.

"I am also for taking the more traveled path as I would rather not get lost in this particular part of the universe if we can avoid it."  Kurama replied completely missing Effort's joke.

"Mm, sadly we have no one in town knowledgeable enough to make such potions," the baron looks down for a moment in thought, then shakes his head. "I don't think any of the nearby villages do either. Although there are strange folks and other...things out there that might be able to help you. If you're lucky, you'll run into such a person on the road."

This place is dangerous, Brask agrees.  No need for stupid risks.  No point if we all get killed.  Let's stick to the road.

You begin your journey back up the road you came in on. The clouds darken again later in the morning, the respite from the bleak gray all too brief. There's a chill in the air as there always is, although it's not as cold as it has been. About an hour passes without incident as you travel past familiar patches of woods, their trees with long, leaf-less branches stretching upward. 

Everyone, give me a perception check. Let me know where/how Cadmael is scouting (i.e. high, low, road, woods, etc)

Kurama Perception Check: 10

Effort Perception Check: 16 (14 + 2 Guidance)

Cadmael Perception Check:  8

(Cadmael will be scouting high, over the road, looking to the immediate sides of the road for ambushes / down the road for other travellers.  Although with that roll, maybe he's just looking for mice, LOL.)

Cadmael finds a rock that kind of looks like a mouse.

As you walk along, Kurama stops suddenly. The energy within him seems to be sending him a signal...something is off. He focuses, taking in his surroundings, and then notices it. The smell - or stench - of death, coming from the ditch along the left side of the road. 

Brask's Perception 11

Brask thinks the same rock is a loaf of bread. He and Cadmael struggle over it until they both lose their grip, sending the rock tumbling down a hill. 

"What are you two do..." Kurama began as he noticed Brask's & Cadamel's strange behavior before stopping himself mid question.  Something is wrong... he thought apprehensively.  It took him a moment to realize that the thought seemed to have originated from the energy within him.  Strange, I don't I think I've experien... he stopped himself again as he caught a whiff of what it was; it was faint but there was definitively something there.

"There's something is off here.  There's something dead in the ditch to the left of us..."  Carefully moving forward, he'll begin to approach the source of the smell to see what it may be.

Bread's not good for birds, Brask snaps at Cadmael, and he sets off chasing the tumbling loaf.

Cadmael, Effort chides.  Leave the mouse.  There are things more important underfoot here.  Moving over with Kurama, she frowns.  „Something dead?  Be careful,“ she says, staying behind the monk and trying to peer into the ditch.  She touches Kurama on the shoulder to give him guidance just in case, allowing him to take the lead on the investigation.

The source of the odor isn't hard to find once you peer over the side of the road. The ditch isn't deep - only a foot or two - and the body isn't particularly hidden. 

Kurama, you recognize the man right away. It's the taller guard that you met on the roadway chasing the escaped woman. His mid-section has been slashed open, with dried blood and viscera pooled around him. It looks as if he was trying to pull some dead branches on top of himself to hide, but didn't make it very far before expiring. A pair of flies buzz around the open wounds, occasionally shifting their position.

Calling the others towards him, Kurama commented, "It seems there's a good chance we'll run into more trouble on the road.  Whatever did that to him must be fairly powerful to make a wound like that..."