Journey to Lands Far Far Away (RP)

The waft of smoke that manages to get in as Ezme checks in on him makes Albert cough again. He had just managed to stop the fit, but there he went again. Through the coughs he tries to say "I'm... fine... just a... scratchy... throat" pointing to his neck. The cloak felt quite comfortable, though. He could tell it was well made. "Bees... gone?" He adds finally, the coughs now slowing down again as he adjusts to the new air quality.

His eyes were watering from trying to hurl his lungs out. But as long as he wasn't sure about the bees, he planned on staying low and covered.

'' Ok guys... I think we're officially lost. The good news is, we've shaken off the wasps.''
Roald hates to admit it, but he can't lie to his friends.
'' So, what's next. My suggestion is to go for higher ground, maybe climb a tree to get the lay of the land. We know the others were heading for water too, that will be our best option ''
While waiting for Daryl or Theo to come up with a better plan, Roald takes some time to catch his breath and look around. There is a small hill nearby, that would be his choice...

Lille lies on her back, looking surprisingly comfortable for someone who’s pinned against a cliff edge by shadowy pursuers. But when she turns from scanning the skies, her concern is obvious in her eyes. "They are staying back from the smoke." The relief in her voice is evident but short-lived. "I don’t know how long it will take for them to lose interest." Her brow furrows as another cough escapes from Albert. "Perhaps wet a corner of the blanket to hold over your face. We might need to wait them out a bit more." She looks to Ezme, hoping the other woman has some water. With her right hand, she adds an extra branch to the fire, making sure her movements are slow and that she moves her stung limbs as little as possible.

'' Look! There is some smoke! ''
Roald heart jumps with relief.
'' There must be people there, maybe it's our friends, or maybe just someone to get us back on the right track ''

For now Roald has no idea how to describe the campsite, but he reckons there aren't many roads in the forest so maybe they could get lucky.

Per Lille's suggestion, Ezmaray pulls out her water skin and wets a section of the light blue blanket for Albert, offering it to him.

As she does so, her eyes scan the forest worriedly. "If others come looking for us, they may run into trouble," she warns Lille. She studies Lille for a moment, then glances back at Albert, eying them both for rashes or swelling behind the sting sites. Of the two of them, she's currently more concerned about the older man.

Once his coughing seems somewhat under control, the trapper speaks to Albert, hoping to distract him from his uncomfortable condition. "....You spoke of some sort of tower," she says. "What do you think is happening, here? Is this more..." She hesitates and glances self-consciously at Lille. Then, when the wood nymph seems distracted by tending the fire, Ezme leans in and continues in a softer voice. "Is this more dark magic?"

Ezme is not used to the idea that magic could be anything more than false rumor and fairytale, and she feels a little uncomfortable bringing the subject up at all. That being said, there was no denying the things she had witnessed over the past few days, and something was very odd about these shadow hornets....

With the help of Lille's idea and Ezme's water, Albert is able to slow down his breath and end the coughing fit. Now that all they can do is wait out the bees, there's some time to try and relax anyway.

He sighs when Ezme mentions the tower and reaches into a pocket to pull out a handful of coins. After he grabs one specific coin and puts the rest back, he shows it to Ezme. "See this? We found this symbol inside a strange temple filled with dark creatures." The coin shows the image of a wolf with goat horns. "We call it 'the horned wolf' and we're trying to figure out what it means. Hopefully that will help us in our task to cleanse this temple." He takes a slow breath. "When I got stung, I had the same sensation as I did inside that temple."

Albert realizes that he's probably saying things that require some more explanation than these few words. "When we're back on the road, I'd be happy to give you a better idea of what's been going on. This is probably not the time to get in to it."

Lille continues to lie quietly on her back, watching the insects while listening to the other two talk. She turns her head when Albert pulls out the coin but doesn’t recognize the strange animal on it. The dark creatures in a temple sound like something out the children’s stories Jordash used to read to her. Everything in that book had seemed so unreal, but then so would the mysterious mists and the shadows wasps, if she hadn’t seen them for herself.

She had never been fully sure what it meant to an "adventurer", but all this was far more strange than she could have imagined. At the mention of his task to cleanse the temple, she perks up a bit. Perhaps I can be more useful there. If we can get out of this first..

"How far from here is the temple?" she asks as she checks on her sting sites, prodding them gently and looking for any changes.

"It's probably about 5 days walking from here." Albert estimates. He's not quite sure and would have to check a map to really get a good idea. His estimation was based on the places he's visited since. There may be a shorter way to get back to the temple. "That's not where we're headed right now, though. And I don't think these bees are directly connected to it." He adds. "But this darkness could have a similar source."

He remembers Lille's idea of burning the hives. Raynor's fire would probably be a proficient way to deal with them if they are indeed similar. It worked well on the evils in the temple, after all. "We definitely need to burn these hives." He looks up from under the cloak to check if the bees are dispersing.

With the smoke still swirling around them, Albert lets out an involuntary cough again but manages to stop going into another fit by returning to the safety of the cloak.

Roald looks worried at the buzzing shapes above the blankets and coats.
"Oh, this is not good, not good at all"
He is afraid to come closer and put him and his friends in the same spot.
"Any ideas guys?"

The wasps seem to be afraid or at least annoyed by the smoke, ...
A cough coming from one of the huddles attracts his attention.
Albert... his lungs must be burning...
Roald realizes time is of the essence...
He restraints himself from shouting out to them, the element of surprise might come in handy for his plan.

"Listen up, we're going to make 6 torches and fight those insects with it. Make sure to use a lot of birch bark and resin so they catch a spark quickly and don't go out while waving. We light three of them, the other three are for our friends. "

Roald lays the torches at his feet, thinks for a second and decides to toss in the sticks for the fire as well.
I hope this works...
He kneels over the torches and takes his flint and dagger. The torche are well built, as instructed. A good amount of loose material on the outside.
"Good job guys, get ready to walk up to the bees, there is no need in running. Let's make a circle to cover each others backs, if one of our friends emerges, toss them your spare torch."

"Raynor, god of conquest, god of fire
listen to my deep desire
Bless these torches in your name,
bless your warriors all the same.
Help destroy what does us harm
rid us of this evil swarm"
With that last word, Roald strikes his flint and sets the torches ablaze.

Carefully but decisive they walk up to the bees. The are all carrying two torches, one lit, one spare, and some sticks to toss onto the fire if the opportunity occurs.
Roald, getting there first, starts weaving his torch at the bees.
His cloak closely wrapped around him restricts his movement a little, these damn things are fast and of course hard to follow.

" We' ve got spare torches!!! Let's burn these little pests!!!"

"Roald!" Albert shouts happily as he tosses off the cloak to see what's happening. "Theo, Daryl, you guys made it." He watches as they come closer, torches in hand. A familiar warmth radiates from the group of 3, making Albert forget all about his cough and the smoke stinging his eyes.

He runs to the edge of the smoke but stops when a barrier of bees blocks his way to his friends. "Throw me a torch." As one of the torches sails through the air, Albert tries to catch it.

That familiar warmth was not just the heat of the flame. As Albert catches the handle of the torch a surge of Raynor's inner fire flows through him and the unlit torch bursts into flame. Without giving it a second thought, he starts to sweep in front of him to clear as many of the bees as possible to try and get to his friends.

He can hear a few 'ooh's and 'ouch'es, making him that much eager to disperse the swarm quickly.

Lille adds to her smoky fire occasionally, but in between a thought occurs to her. Since she was stung while lighting the fire, the bodies of the wasps should still be close by on the clean swept ground. She rolls over slowly, and searches while prone until she finds the two bodies. She pokes them with her fire prodding stick to check that they’re dead and nudge them closer, then conducts a more thorough exam.

When the others start to approach she lifts her head with a relieved expression at seeing them not only alive and well, but also coming with the torches. By the time Roald is close enough to call out, Lille is poking the others next to her. "Time to go, the others are here with torches." She unties her belt and refastens it around her waist. She springs to a low crouch with a little stumble as the blood flows back into her tingling leg, but recovers and grabs Roald’s spare torch. "I was stung twice," she informs the rescue party, "but I am fine otherwise. We may need to find some sweet fruit or honey to lure them off if we can’t kill all of these."