Chapter 7: Wherever You May Roam

Verrian rubs her forehead and pinches the bridge of her nose. "I'm not mad," she says in a slightly strangled voice.

After a moment, she looks up again, now back in control. "So I gather there's no danger of the orb summoning another Hunter?"

"...I don't know." Elora feels her pulse accelerate, her gaze rapidly shifting between Verrian and the orb as she fails to form a coherent thought. Pip still looks primed for a fight.

Hey, everyone relax. Ember speaks up, possibly including herself in that. This is a super cool piece of magic here. If anything, we should test it before we move on. Clear the air. And if it does summon a hunter, we’ll have it surrounded with actual not-evil hunters of our own. A blast of non-magic and poof! Back to the orb. But we can’t do anything else about it tonight.

Verrian glances at Ember. "We're doing nothing of the sort, obviously. We'll wait until we know what this thing will do before we start using it."

She turns back to Elora. Her voice softens. "There's no need to be upset. We're all exhausted and emotionally spent. I'm not angry with you. You understand that, right?"

Elora opens her mouth, closes it, and takes a deep breath as she closes her eyes. Count to 3, exhale.

She opens her eyes again, trying to replace this irrational fear with relief. It works, generally speaking. "Yes..." She still feels very small, like a child. "Do you...still want the orb?"

"I like it, Ember. But not today. We're weakened still from using most of our magic, today, at least some of us. If we try that, we should all be at full strength."

Verrian shakes her head slightly. "You keep it. Study it some more if you like. We'll want to use it eventually."

Sighing, she addresses the room again. "Anyone have more to discuss about the orb? Or should we start talking about what we're going to do with all of these refugees?"

Yelnar speaks with a manner as though he’s looking at something far off in the distance. "I was thinking there are plenty of unoccupied places at Viamard, though you have the storms to deal with, the locals seem to have done that just fine surviving there, and the Keep is defensible."

It seems like our best option, but how long will we need to stay here to get people strong? She glances at the sleeping Coreene then Uelten, hoping he knows. And no matter how long we stay here, or how long it takes to get back to Viamard, what can We do about the next storm?

The supposedly sleeping form of Coreene sighs heavily. Without opening her eyes, she states, "These people need to rest, if they have any hope of healing properly. At least a few days, but if the need arises, most can walk at least a short distance, and only a handful or two would need further assistance moving." Her eyes crack open tiredly.
"If we can hunker down for at least two days, I can get them in fighting shape, and our journey will be easier. That is provided I can find the proper herbs to treat the seriously wounded."

"What about healing spells? Can we heal the most serious cases magically?"

Coreene purses her lips and lets out a steady stream of air as she thinks. "I have restoration spells that could speed things along." she finally says. "As well as some minor healing to help with giving the healing of broken limbs and whatnot a head start... but I need to rest before any of that magic is available to me."
"I can get most people up and moving tomorrow. The serious cases I can have up by the next morning I think. That's my best estimation... But that means I can't be out in the woods hunting or gathering the herbs I need, and if I don't have the proper herbs, I can't stretch my care nearly as far."

Verrian smiles faintly. "I wasn't putting the entire burden on you. We have others with healing magic, I believe? I suggest that we use magic to get anyone who's severely depleted or injured as far up to speed as possible. In the meantime, I think we can afford to stay here for two or three days. We can use the time for Yelnar to get his band of fighters trained and for stocking up on herbs and food supplies."

@Coreene: And may I suggest that you take better care of yourself? We're going to need your abilities if we're to get all these people to safety.

Coreene's face flashes briefly with shame, and she looks down at the floor. "Understood."
"Ember," she says, looking to the young sorceress, "When you have time tomorrow, if you are not otherwise occupied, I could use your assistance in the infirmary. You have been incredibly helpful, and you and Uelten could help improve the morale."

Ember smiles. Of course. I’ll be over as soon as the last of the kiddos are up and fed.

I know we can't rush this and move sick people, but should we plan on what we will be doing, when we can move.

Wil looks at the group.

I assume a slow march to Viamard? If so, we should ask around to see if anyone knows any places we could stop and stock up on water and game.

Maybe places like that camp we stayed at.

Verrian looks thoughtful. "I remember the trip in pretty well. I think you and I could set out ahead, locate the best places to make camp for this large group and send the information back to the main group over a whitestone disc. Then we could make people in Viamard aware that the refugees are coming, make any necessary arrangements, and head back to meet up with the rest of the group?"

"I'll uh, stay with the group if that's alright. I have more healing magic now, and that might be useful during the trek with such a massive crowd."

Well, and..... Ember tries to get a feel for whether they think she's crazy or not. Okay, so, I think this is a really good idea. But, we haven't seen a storm in a while. And we're sitting ducks if another hits. I want to...... She rubs the back of her neck. I want to see if we can make some sort of.....sponge? Lightning rod? With the orb. But we only have one. I'd offer to go back to Hara to see what else we can use, but I don't know what those elementals are up to.

Coreene thinks for a moment. "I have no idea if that would work. But if we're going to be staying here for another day or two, knowing what's left of Hara would be helpful. Depending on what we find, we could salvage some supplies, or maybe even go back for survivors... if the elementals left anything standing."
The Naucan runs her fingers through her hair as she thinks. "I don't feel comfortable sending in any scouts until we know if its even safe to approach but... perhaps I could scope it out." She starts nodding her head as if deciding on something. "Yeah. Yeah, I could run a quick scout mission from above, see how stable everything is and report back. Then we could mobilize something."