IC Story Thread: Chapter I, The Pride of Lions

Marabi plods as slowly as Stumpy in the thin mountain air. The drudgery is oppressive like she's carrying a heavy blanket on her back. She starts to think uncharitable thoughts about the Alderman tucked up warm in his home, and those enjoying good cheer in the inn back home.

Another step. Another step. Another step.

Each footfall costs her - it's a toll road paid in energy and lightness of spirit. She opens her mouth to make a crude innuendo about crevices then closes it again - her heart's just not in it.

Marié Dijon

Jul 16, 2021 9:03 am

Brused and battered, Marié is looking for a place to make camp.

Rolls

Survival - (1d20+0)

(2) = 2

Jul 16, 2021 9:06 am

Skallagrimm Inactive forever!

Marabi gives Marie an exasperated look.

"We can not all sleep in trees like cats, Marie. Just as we can not all lick our own... you know what? Never mind. I will look."

Last edited July 16, 2021 9:07 am

Rolls

Survival - (1d20+4)

(14) + 4 = 18

Morak Ur’gray

Jul 16, 2021 6:06 pm

"your tongue would be better kept inside your mouth madame...." Belaros says with even less patience than usual, as he expends his last bit of strength to pull off his leather boots and inspect his feet.

"when will you have supper ready?"

Jul 16, 2021 6:14 pm

Skallagrimm Inactive forever!

Marabi slowly turns her head and squares off

"When will I have supper ready? At about quarter-to-go-fuck-yourself, with a battered smack in the gob for dessert."

She doesn’t look like she’s joking.

Morak Ur’gray

Jul 16, 2021 6:45 pm

"Hmph" is all Belaros can muster as he begins to rummage through his satchel for something to eat. Not sure if he'll even be able to prepare his bed-roll without a rest first.

Rolls

survival - (1d20+2)

(14) + 2 = 16

Jul 16, 2021 7:03 pm

There is very little space that is suitable for camp at the elevation where you have found yourselves. Basically any ground that is anywhere near level, which there is nothing that is completely so for any significant amount of area, will have to do. The temperature begins to drop rapidly as the sun sets, and perhaps the only consolation you have this night is that you can see the summit where the oread resides from your location.

So... the end is literally in sight! Even if still a 6 hour hike in the morning.

OOC:

You're pretty exposed here. Let me know if you want to make any specific nighttime preparations.

Jul 17, 2021 2:43 pm

Marabi, usually very sensible, had quite underestimated the hardship of this journey. Instead of packing supplies, bedroll and tent, she’d spent her time baiting the Alderman. She spends the night curled up in a ball; her shivering drags her in and out of fevered consciousness. If the realm thought she needed to be taught a lesson, then this was an excellent teaching aid.

OOC:

I think an extra point of exhaustion and none recovered would be a suitable punishment.

Jul 17, 2021 3:19 pm

OOC:

Yea, if she doesn't have a bedroll, that's no bueno.

But also as a Group, you all rolled well enough to overcome a Medium challenge on Survival, which I think is good enough to figure out that you can all do things like scrape up a pile of pine needles from timberline and cuddle up to share body heat or erect small wind-breaks or whatever.

I could see it being appropriate that she doesn't get a Long Rest, so no recuperation of Exhaustion (and no gaining back Long Rest abilities), but I don't think it's appropriate to take another level of Exhaustion.

Jul 17, 2021 3:23 pm

OOC:

I think the bickering reflects how exhaustion has ground our spirits down into hating each other. Marabi is more likely to throw Belaros off a cliff than share body heat with him.

Jul 17, 2021 3:29 pm

Skallagrimm Inactive forever!

OOC:

Heh, yes, that is fair. But also I do want to give "narrative weight" to the good dice rolls. So even if it's not sharing body heat, it's some other field-crafty thing that you can figure out.

The "special nighttime preparations" question was more with regards to safety/watch. But we don't need to dwell too much on it, as we can also assume you do the bare-minimum things like your did last time - watches, Alarm rituals - just without the benefit of four walls around you.

Jul 17, 2021 6:37 pm

OOC:

I told you Belaros was gonna get cranky.... after a good nights sleep and a hearty breakfast, he'll be back to his usual pompous self

Jul 17, 2021 7:14 pm

Scrol Inactive for 9 months

OOC:

I want to write something about how Marie makes some Alarm rituals and offer to share her bed with Marabi. But I have gotten my second shot today and the wife has claimed the computer. Tomorrow...

Rolen Telyrhen

Jul 17, 2021 7:31 pm

Rolen was quite silent the whole time. As the others set out to make camp, he wants to help too and decides to scout the area a bit.
He tries to identify the most likely approach paths of enemies.
At each one of them he makes two piles out of stones and connects them with a branch. If an enemy happens to approach you, he'd stumble over the branch, knock down the stone piles and therefore alarm you of his presence.
If he was a bit less exhausted he may have come up with a more clever plan but for now this has to suffice.

OOC:

Oh wow. A lot has happened during my absence ^^
I'm back and will post regularily again

Rolls

Identifying path and building traps (survival?) - (1d20+1)

(7) + 1 = 8

+ Disadvantage - (1d20+1)

(11) + 1 = 12

Jul 18, 2021 6:08 am

runekyndig says:

OOC:

I want to write something about how Marie makes some Alarm rituals and offer to share her bed with Marabi. But I have gotten my second shot today and the wife has claimed the computer. Tomorrow...

OOC:

I assume that Marie keeps her bedroll in the bag of holding, so Marabi will not sleep on it. She’d rather be exhausted than sleep on something that’s been soaked in magic.

Marié Dijon

Jul 18, 2021 8:03 am

Marié places an alarm ward around their camp to give them the best warning possible if something comes. Then she takes out her bedroll from her bag of holding and offers to share it with Marabi. When she refuses Marié suggests that she can sleep on the dirt next to Marié, not on the magic tainted bedroll, but next to it and still share a bit of bodyheat.

She has no words for Belaros - at all.

Jul 18, 2021 2:38 pm

OOC:

Same watches?

Shivering in the dirt, Marabi doesn't sleep well. In the darkness she whispers a question to Marie - the smartest person she knows.

"Mar-mar. I know I clattered that darkness good this morning. You know when everything lines up? It has that good-good feel? But my sword passed through the darkness, and hardly hurt it. Like it was not here-here. You know? What was that?"

Jul 19, 2021 7:40 am

Marié puts a warm arm around the chatting Marabi. I don't know who attacked us. They used magical illusions and those have no substance. They also summoned the plant creatures that attacked up, that is why they melted after we killed them.

I sure hope that we get some answers soon.

runekyndig sent a note to emsquared

Last edited July 19, 2021 7:47 am

Jul 19, 2021 2:30 pm

OOC:

Narrative pending...

You could each give can give me Nature checks if you'd like to form a Group Check, or a single person can give me one check with Advantage (representing Help).

emsquared sent a note to runekyndig

Clouds on the western horizon make the night seem to come on early, and it is a long, cold, and restless night.

Shortly after the onset of dark, a series of low, mournful baying howls begin. They can be heard far in the distance, but each time, it is enough to stir you from the depths of sleep... After the first sounding though, they're not heard again until an hour or so passes - when the sound comes drifting over the stone landscape with the wind. Then again there is a cessation for a time, and it is Rolen's watch before it is heard again, and this time it is noticably louder - closer. Perhaps a kilometer or two away? And then they are not heard again for several hours - during Marie's watch, but at that point they are heard for the final time that night. And the sound is close. Surely within a couple hundred meters. But it echoes off of the surrounding rocks and ridges and peaks in such a way that it is difficult to say which direction it might be coming from.

Rolls

Dice clatter behind the screen...

Jul 19, 2021 3:02 pm