The Necessity of Travel

Mar 29, 2024 3:31 pm
You all have your own reasons for leaving. They aren't reasons that just suddenly happened. They've been at the back of your minds for a while now, but last night, when the village elders called everyone out to discuss the food situation, it sort of pulled everything to a head. Even with as bad as things had been going, it hadn't really occurred to you - or to anyone else - how dire the situation had really gotten.

Winter was three months away, and the harvest was half what it had been the previous year. And last year had been bad. Last week, the head cleric of the church packed up and left. His pack was found on the side of the road a couple days later. Where he went, no one knows. There were many complaints from villagers that they had nothing left after last year. Many of the villagers relied on the traders for coin, even though they came only once a year.

For a month, the inn would be bursting at the seams, and that money would be used to pay taxes and used to fill up stores before the traders left. The Blacksmith too, made good coin, repairing the traders wagons. Oxana was often able to use the scraps to craft smaller pieces that she could sell. Now, with no traders, there was no coin, and people hoarded what little they did have. The village elders discussed how to pool resources, but not everyone was enthusiastic about sharing what little they had.

Even what used to be considered the easy things - food from wildlife and herbs for healing - were not as plentiful. The village used to have the younger girls help out in collecting herbs, but it's now almost a day's travel to find anything, and they can't be sent that far. Even the wildlife seems to have left for somewhere better, leaving the hunters to travel further and further. So at the meeting last night, the elders encouraged the younger ones, the ones in good health, to assist in the exploration to find new hunting grounds and more prolific forests. There was no arrangement, no organization, just a request.

And so, on the following morning, once the sun was high enough in the sky not to be in your eyes, each of you decided to go - though your reasons for going all varied from what the elders asked.
OOC:
This is your chance to figure out the interplay between characters and to figure out where to go first. Do you want to follow the elders' request? Even if you do, no one back home will know if you wander off to visit your own areas of interest. Is there something more important that you want to do?

Here's the map of the area around you that you know about or have at least heard enough about that it's not strange to you.
Immenost's Surroundings Mostly it'll be one hex per day, or two if you're on a road. If you go into the hills or mountains, or swamp, it's half a hex per day.

Also, the Great Oak is NOT to scale. I only had one tree.
Mar 29, 2024 6:43 pm
Jorgen looks around at the small group that has come out. He is afraid of what lays ahead, and is not having much luck at hiding it with his fidgeting, wild-eyed looks about him, shuffling from foot to foot. He tries to settle the pack on his back. As empty and light as it is, he still feels the weight of the beer cask. He taps his staff on the ground in a discordant rhythm as he tries to control his anxiety and fear.

"I hope someone knows which way to go", he mumbles under his breath.
Mar 30, 2024 2:02 am
Brother Irwin hides his arms in his sleeves. Though the sun is out, the air still stings with last night's chill. The scribe knows he probably looks out of place in his monastery robes, hardly fitting for travel, yet he had nothing better. The best he could do was to draw and tie the garment higher about his waist, leaving his scrawny legs bare.

Leaving home is supposed to be an eventful thing, but standing at the settlement's border and looking back, Immenost looks the same. No new insight comes to the scribe. It could be a day like any other.

Before the abbot made the request, he'd already nursed the thought of striking out on his own. The sense of purpose that once filled him, bent over parchment to be painstakingly inked with holy scripture, had never come back. Now that he'd been asked, there really was no reason not to go. He would do his duty and send word back if they came across a place of plenty, but... perhaps not in person.

The monastery didn't really need him. With how carefully ink and parchment were rationed out, there were days where he had the sense that it held more people than there were things for them to do.

"God, keep us in health on the road." The traditional words make him feel better. He hopes the prayer eases the others as well, at least a little.
Last edited March 30, 2024 2:02 am
Mar 30, 2024 2:40 am
https://i.imgur.com/ODXWh03.jpegOxana closes the door to the cottage she lives in with her family and looks about the village. There was a loaf of fresh bread on the table and a pot of stew above the embers of the fire. She'd thrown some fresh kindling and dried moss into the forge before grabbing her bag and making her way to the village square and then east towards the main road. She hoped her family would be alright, she hoped she would be alright and she hoped to find a solution to whatever ill wind there was that had blown across their village for the last few years.

With her bag slung over her shoulder she made her way through the dirt square where once a week markets used to be held and traders from out of town would come to sell their wares. The markets now were more like once a month and it seems like ages had passed since a trader had arrived from down the road. At the crest of the first hill on the road out of town she saw several familiar looking figures staring back at the village.

Oxana waved and continued walking towards them.
Last edited March 30, 2024 2:46 am
Mar 30, 2024 4:39 pm
Tatianna walked back into the shop. She kneeled in front of a few flowers and an altar. "I don’t know if you can hear me grandmother. If you can please watch over me and those I will travel with."

She stood and walked out giving a last look into the little place. There were a few plants still growing, and she hated that leaving them would mean they would probably die but, she had seeds for them and they were still common enough. She shut the door and walked onwards, not north like her vision quest but, instead east. She made her way to the exit of town and stood a few moments with Brother Irwin and Jorgen.

She didn’t say much for those few moments, letting the wind blow and listening to the sounds of the day. Brother Irwin whispered a prayer and she nodded in acceptance of the short blessing. She noticed Oxana walking up and saw the smith giving a wave. She waved back and then waited for her to come closer. Once Oxana was close enough Tatianna asked, "Do we head to the next town first? If they do have things we need then how can we even afford to purchase them?"
Last edited March 30, 2024 4:39 pm
Mar 30, 2024 6:06 pm
Johnsan pulled his pack closer to his body. He had not had a large hunt in weeks, and had been surviving off what small game he had managed to track. When the Elders had asked for volunteers to explore the nearby area in search of better living conditions, Johnsan was eager to join the adventuring party. He was ready to set out, hoping to ignore any distractions and focus on finding a better life.
Mar 30, 2024 8:56 pm
Oxana shrugs at Tatianna uncertain of what to do next. Her face is, for once in her life not streaked with soot and sweat and her clothes are similarly clean.

"I don't quite know." she replies glancing over at Brother Irwin and grinning wickedly, "Have we tried sacrificing Brother Irwin to the fae spirits of the woods yet?" There's a smirk on her face and teasing the Abbot and his staff has become something of a favorite pastime for Oxana. "The ones that make dangerous women such as ourselves dance naked under the light of the full moon." She pulls Tatianna in close and twirls the two of them about for a moment before breaking away and giggling.

"When was the last time we heard news from the village of Agnon's Wood?" Oxana asks looking at the others, "It's been a while but they're often hungry for our fish, maybe we could see if they're interested in trading."

She ponders this a moment pushing her back a few strands of hair that escaped her braid following the twirl. "Oh, I have a gift for you." Oxana says to Tatianna, reaching behind her back. "I'm practicing so I can make a masterwork for the guild and I thought I could make something for the best herbalist in the north."

Oxana pulls out a leather wrapped package and hands it to Tatianna. "Open it," she says with an excited grin, "I hope you like it."
[ +- ] The gift.
Mar 31, 2024 3:01 am
Brother Irwin blinks, then smiles a little awkwardly at the young woman's jest. Since his early lessons in the monastery, he was well aware that faith did not have so strong a hold in some others as it did him. The abbot had told him that things are different closer to the heart of Empire, but that is a long way off from here.

They just want to get a rise out of you, he tells himself, but that doesn't stop a flush from spreading on his round cheeks. "I am certain the, ah, spirits, won't have anything to do with us if we keep to the road. Not that they exist, as such..." He looks over the four others, their faces not exactly familiar to him, but no one could truly avoid knowing each other in a settlement the size of Immenost. "A chance for trade can't be what we're after, can it?" he adds. "Not when the fishermen's nets come back empty half the time. If we had fish in plenty, we would have eaten them ourselves."
Mar 31, 2024 2:38 pm
Tatianna giggles as Oxana spins her in a dance adding to the teasing with a stated, "Well I am a witch you know." She’s been called such a time or two as she and Grandmother still worship the old ways but, none have troubled them much beyond some name calling.

She feels her skirts twirl in the dance and a warmth deep in her stomach. Her friend, maybe even best friend, has always been there for her and, oh how Tatianna would love to dance in the wood like that. Still she best keep those feelings secret, it would hurt far too much to have Oxana push her away.

The beautiful scythe just adds to Tatianna’s determination to keep her secret. "I hardly know what to say. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever been given. I will treasure it always and hope that it will be used in my craft." She gives Oxana a hug.

When Brother Irwin asks she says, "I need to find more herbs. Foxglove, Nightshade, turmeric, lavender, and so many more seem to have just stopped growing wild nearby. I can grow some things but, those and even chamomile are difficult to grow in the garden. Still, a trip to the town will, at the least, give us an idea of how things are beyond our own backyard."
Apr 1, 2024 3:41 am
Oxana sighs, "I know we've naught to trade, I doubt they have much to trade either what with them being so much closer to the ice."

She shrugs, "We haven't heard from them in a bit and the last cleric left and disappeared." Oxana looks about anxiously, "Hopefully four of us are enough to discourage whatever it was that happened to him."

She spins her hammer in her hand dexterously before returning it to her belt, "Did anyone bring an axe?" She asks suddenly, "Something to chop wood and make a fire with?"
Apr 1, 2024 11:10 pm
"Which way then?" He looks around the group, before stopping at Johnsan. "You know out here, so where do you think we should travel too Johnsan?"

Jorgen is impatient to be moving. He feels the eyes of the villagers on them, although there is no one in sight. But he is sure they are there, and judging them for hesitating in their quest.

"We must go somewhere other than this ditch," he now turns to Brother Irwin. "What would your gods advise Brother, and is there a prayer you would say to bring us safety on this journey?"
Apr 2, 2024 1:52 am
"God," Brother Irwin says in reply to Jorgen, "and He is not mine. We, all of us, are in His care." On the young man's behalf, the scribe presses his palms together and murmurs a quick prayer.

From the way the others are glancing at the road, it's clear that they want to set off. Brother Irwin shifts his pack and feels the lightness there. He hadn't packed for a long journey, not that he had the means to do so.

His eyes look too at Johnsan, the one who'd spent the most time beyond the settlement, for the direction they would head toward.
Apr 2, 2024 2:24 am
Oxana nodded looking back at their village on the edge of the ocean from the dirt road that ran through barren fields.

"We can make up our minds when we get to the cross roads." Oxana said.

They'd been walking for only a short while when Oxana spoke up again, "The world feels as if she is dying." She said pushing a stray lock of hair back from her face, "In our valley the sun bakes the fields and the rain does not come, streams have dried up and the snow that does fall upon the great ice never seems to melt."

The young smith glances about at the horizon looking for signs of life, "It is as if the spirits of the world have forsaken us."
Apr 2, 2024 2:22 pm
The road you set out on stretches far ahead, further than even the horizon you can see. Those of you that have traveled before know that it stretches out even further than you've gone, though in reality you know you haven't really ever been very far at all. You travel between patches of scrub and half-dead grass that looks much the same as it did when the last snows melted a couple months ago, along a road that is starkly different in its pristine condition. Whoever built this road built it so that the rains - even as paltry as they come now - wash it clean, and the workmanship is something to marvel at. It's been here longer than the elder's grandfathers, but even it is showing signs of wear - a small crack here, the symbol of the Imperial Forge worn halfway away there.

There's not much new to look at for a couple hours, and then around late morning, a smaller road forks off to the northwest. A small wooden sign which can only be read from the other direction proclaims it to be the road to Agnon's Wood. It's a day's travel there, some of you know, but it could be worth it. On the other hand, as Oxana says, they may not have much to trade either. The blight upon the ground doesn't give much clue how far it spreads, and they are very near the Great Ice.

Do you stay on the main road, or go to visit Agnon's Wood?
OOC:
I do plan to post about three times a week, but that's as needed, so please don't feel like you need to cut off RP to move on a particular day. I'll be checking regularly and moving ahead when it seems consensus is reached.

I also don't plan to split you guys up much, but if there is reason to do so, we can. When and if it happens, however, the goal will be to resolve whatever caused the split as quickly as possible to get you guys back together, so whichever group is moving faster will be setting the pace for the other.
Apr 2, 2024 6:00 pm
She knows the old ways her Grandmother taught them to her. There is a name for what is happening now, and she can't help herself as she replies to Oxana. "Part of why I can't find herbs is because of the cold. Dare I say this is Fimbulvetr, the final winter before..." She stops herself, "No, I must have hope, we must have hope even if the spirits have abandoned us." She refuses to say the word, refuses to let herself think about Ragnarök and the end of all things. This is just a blight, some strange thing, not the final winter before the end of all things.

When they reach the crossroads she looks north and then east. "Agnon's Wood, I've never been, it feels like it is too close to the ice. Maybe it is better to check south, Ourward is close to the river, even if we can't trade much we could, at the very least, fish. We could bring people from the village, and they could fish. If you all wish to go north, I will come with you but, my preference is to push onward."
Last edited April 2, 2024 6:01 pm
Apr 2, 2024 10:28 pm
OOC:
Can we or would we normally be able to see smoke from the village from the cross roads or no?
Apr 5, 2024 2:03 am
Oxana nods, "I doubt Agnon's Wood has anything of help for home." She looks down the road in the direction of the other town.
OOC:
Is the path much over grown? or does it look still used?
"I worry we have perhaps waited to long hoping for a better harvest when we should have gone in search of help weeks or even months ago." The red head frowns looking back along the imperial road, "At least the tax man didn't come this year."

In the back of your mind you all remember the fight Oxana put up last year over taxation and the half dozen or so lashes she'd earned from the tax man for her arguments.
Apr 5, 2024 2:34 am
"Probably better he didn’t come. I might have been with you arguing this year." or worse, she had nearly given the tax collector a cup of tea laced with quite a bit of nightshade after they had hurt Oxana last year. Luckily grandmother had still been alive and able to caution her granddaughter.
Apr 5, 2024 3:38 am
"What do you lads think?" Oxana asks looking again at the dirt track, "You're a tracker Johnsan, has anyone been down this road recently?"
Apr 5, 2024 10:25 pm
Brother Irwin scuffs the grass with the toe of his sandals. With not a single visitor to the village in his recent memory, who would be travelling this road? He keeps the thought to himself while the young woman waits for Johnsan's answer.
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