The Only Way to Fly

[JadedDM]

The party pressed on, heading in the general area they believed led to the exit of the Silvanesti forest. At first, things weren't so bad. It was difficult, to be sure. Babushka had to hunt and forage every day just to keep everyone fed. And for the first few days, the party kept looking upward, wondering if a pair of green dragons would track them down, and swoop down upon them. But they never did. They never saw the kirath again, either.

Time passed. Days turned to weeks, which then turned to months. The leaves started to turn and fall. At first, it was rather beautiful. But the temperature plummeted. Locky had to constantly renew Endure Cold spells just to keep the animals alive. Everyone else had to do their best to bundle up.

Locky was finally forced to put some clothes on under her armor (she carried two sets in her backpack, so it was silly to not to). Now that she had Dekker back, Babushka was able to retrieve the spare set of clothes she had kept on the donkey. However, Imani and Malika had the most difficult time adjusting to the sudden cold. They were too accustomed to the blistering heat of Khur, and had never felt so cold in their lives.

It only got worse, though. Soon, the snow began to fall. And while like the falling leaves, it was--at first--beautiful. But soon it became the party's bane.

The small tent that Dekker carried only would provide shelter to one man-sized creature or two small-sized creatures. The party tried to swap out who got to use it each night, but it did little to make things better and sparked more than few arguments among the party.

It was nearly six months later, before the party finally emerged from the Silvanesti forests, and into the southern plains of Blöde. The snow-covered landscape almost appeared alien to the party. They had grown accustomed to being surrounded by trees, with a thick canopy overhead. That had been two weeks ago.

One week ago, while crossing the plains, the party spotted a strange sight in the air. What appeared to be a ship, being carried by a large balloon, was seen in the distance.

Airship.jpg (106.19 KiB) Viewed 11352 times

Shortly after, it seemed to crash into the ground. Not sure what to make of it, the party pressed on. The object has crashed in their path anyway.

This brings us to today; Deep Winter 14. In the distance they can now see the crashed ship. It is a strange thing to see--a ship sitting on the middle of dry land. The balloon lies to the side, deflated. Numerous small people appear to be working on getting it repaired...

[Breila]

Since the party had to rely mostly on Babushka for food, the gnome had become very tired and kept to herself mostly, out of sheer exhaustion. The sight of the sip and baloon, and the small people working on it, got her exited all of a sudden.

"I'll go and see, they might be gnomes, crafty as we are" she tells the group and heads off to greet them. She will approach cautiously at first, until she's sure they really are gnomes.

[Jenara]

"Gnomes?" Locky exclaims, "I love gnomes!" Grabbing Babuskhas hand she goes along with her, dragging her if she has to. "Do you think we might get to fly?" She asks a look of wonder on her childlike features.

(She pulls the donkeys along with her)

[Jerrard]

Jerrard shakes his head, "That Kender.." He laughs for the first time, trudging through the snow. "We had better follow her. How are you finding the snow my dear?" He asks Malika.

[JadedDM]

"Probably shouldn't let those two wander off on their own," Thuskar notes. In addition to his ordinary clothes, he was also wearing his desert robes over them for additional warmth. The white robes made him blend in well with the snow, or they would if not for the dark green cloak he wore--an old gift from Elvenoff that he never discarded.

Ulster grunts in agreement. Since the battle with the draconians, Ulster rarely spoke at all. He had become considerably more withdrawn, and tended to just grunt or nod or shake his head. He is also wearing his white desert robes over his clothes and armor for additional warmth. This, along with his pale skin and blond hair, makes him almost completely white all over.

Fikod, who didn't have a cloak or any extra clothes, hugs himself for warmth as he brings up the rear. "L-Let's hope they a-aren't gnomes," he says with chattering teeth. "D-Don't fancy g-getting blown up t-today."

Malika, wearing Jerrard's old clothes and white robes, has probably changed the most in the past half year. Having survived the harsh winter in the wilderness has made her haler, stronger. She's hardly thriving, but she's managed to adapt better than most of the rest of the party, surprisingly enough. "The snow's pretty much the same that it has been for the last three months," she replies to Jerrard. "I don't think it will change any. Still cold and wet."

[Breila]

Babushka turns around as Locky approaches her. She sees that all chances to approach stealthily have dissipated, if they had been there at all. At least they were covered by two warriors, should they meet hostility. So she waits for Locky to join her, and they approach the group openly, but slowly, watching their reaction.

[HorizonsDream]

In the beginning of their march out of the forest, Imani took the lead. She didn't really know where she was going, but she knew that they had to push on. The further they got away from that one village, the better everything would be. She was hoping that guilt she felt for leaving behind the elves that had helped them would go away after they got away from that village, but it didn't go away. The forest was sort of a constant reminder of that.

The times she was paired up with Ulster for a watch, she tried talking to him, but that proved to be a more fruitless endeavor than it had ever been. It left her with the impression that he was upset with her, which she didn't much blame him for it. It lead her to believe that if Ulster was upset with her, then the rest of the group was most likely upset with her as well. Though, she wasn't sure how to fix the problem, or even if there was a way to fix it. As a result, she backed away from taking the lead of the group. She kept in the back of the group, letting Babushka and Fikod scout out things as they continued to trudge through the forest.

Sadly, guilt wasn't the only thing that was getting to her. At first, as the temperatures were bearable. The desert, at night, could get pretty cold. Though, it just seemed to get colder and colder as the leaves started to fall from the trees. She had to dig out her old desert robes, and wear them over her other clothing just to keep warm. Then the first few snowflakes of winter started to float down to the ground.

Imani, at first, had been in awe of the snow that now covered the ground like a blanket. She had never seen anything like it before. Much like a child, in the beginning, she caught snowflakes on her tongue, tossed a few snowballs around (at nothing as she was pretty convinced at that the rest of the group was upset with her still), and even made a few snow angels when it was time for the party to rest. For a couple of days, the falling snow made her forget about how cold she was. It started to prove to be more than a nuisance after awhile as the snow would melt upon her clothes, which made her feel colder and more miserable.

Before long, she couldn't take how cold her face was, so she even dawned her scarf. Looking more like the desert princess that she use to be, she started to think of her son. She had told herself that he would have loved the snow, at least in the beginning. The fact that she didn't get the experience such a thing with him was a little more than depressing. She had never been away from her son for more than a day, and now it was going on months. Part of her couldn't help but wonder if he even remembered her.

Soon enough, during her watches, especially the ones where she was paired up with Ulster, she would pick up a stick and draw images of her son in the snow. They weren't very good, but it helped with passing the time, and forgetting about the fact that she was cold, wet, and miserable.

When they entered what look to be plains, without any tress around, Imani almost seem to rejoice. It was a change, and it meant that they had left the forest, but the land was still alien to her. It was nothing like Khur. Soon enough, she was actually missing the trees of the forest, as they provided some shelter from the wind. Out in the plains, she seemed to feel the cold even more so than she did in the forest.

The most interesting thing that had happened was watching the ship fall out of the sky. Naturally, she had never seen anything quite like that either. Though, upon seeing Locky and Babushka start running off ahead, she lets out a small sigh. "They always do that," she mutters as she starts following after them.

[Jenara]

(and now I have time for narrative..)

Locky had seen snow before, although never this much, at first it was fun but once she had been told off by everyone for throwing snowballs (especially Imani and Ulster who seemed extremely grumpy) she started to get bored..

A bored Kender is the worst thing for any party, it makes the road longer and the day's drag, Babuskha was extremely quiet, in fact way to quiet, she didn't like seeing her best friend so sad. Of course the Kender couldn't really understand the turmoil the Gnome was going through.

After a month she started to talk to Malika more, the Gypsy seemed to adapt so well, and Locky started to ask more of her people, the places she had seen, even the dances the woman performed (Next NWP dancing or Khur local history)
This kept her amused for quite some time.

(Same spells, but Sanctuary and Prayer for 3rd level)

[Jerrard]

"Even I havent seen this much snow." The mage responds, his hand brushing near the woman's leg as she rides beside him, he had been respectful, giving her space and letting her talk of her ordeal with the Draconians only when she offered.

The snow was better than the heat, he did what he could for the party to keep them dry with his Cantrips, even summoning a few magical snowballs to aim at the obviously bored Kender. He spent much of the time honing his spells and looking for ways to increase his effectiveness, as well as sparing with the two warriors, recalling the drills from his days as a solider.

His biggest worry was Ulster, the man had withdraw a great deal, and Babuskha was caught in her own ordeal, he couldn't imagine how she felt, but Ulster needed support, so he spared with him as much as he could, although the warrior was far more skilled than he ever was, the bumps and bruises were a testament to his skill

-----------

"Yes we had better, Ulster Thuskar, you go ahead with Imani, I will bring up the rear with Malika and Fikod." Seeing the dwarf shiver he summons a small string of magic from inside himself and wills the dwarfs clothes dry. "If they are gnomes keep alert, and we will need to watch Locky closely."

[JadedDM]

The party approaches the wreckage, with Babushka and Locky in the lead, Jerrard, Fikod and Malika in the rear, and the rest in the center.

As they get closer, they can now see that the small people running about the place are indeed gnomes. A small group of them are standing around a flat rock that they are using as a makeshift table, with numerous scrolls and papers on it. They seem to be arguing with each other over it. None of them seen to notice the party's approach.

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(OOC: Locky's spells are updated.

Jerrard uses a cantrip.)

[Jerrard]

(Jerrards spells are the same, but swap armor and identify for jump and enlarge)

[Jenara]

"Ohhhh gnomes, can we go and talk to them?" She asks excitedly, "Please?"

[Breila]

Babushka smiles at her friend, for the fist time in weeks perhaps. "Of course we will."

She approaches the group, and when she's close enough to call out to them without having to shout, she says: "Greesgottle'allersaitz"

(All her speech in gnome is colored red-browm, her speech in Common in blue. That strange word is, of course, a greeting, similar in tone to "hello everybody".)

[JadedDM]

The five gnomes standing around the makeshift table all turn toward Babushka with varying expressions of surprise. Seeing her, and her companions, four of them begin immediately shooting off numerous questions faster than Babushka can keep up with.

The fifth gnome, however, looks rather familiar to most of the party. She has lighter skin than her companions, and has dark, braided hair. She is one of the two gnomes who aided the party in retrieving the horses from the Pod-Caverns.

She puts her fingers in her mouth and gives a shrill whistle, which silences the other gnomes. Then, in Common (and at a slower pace), she speaks. "I remember you. Babushka...and Locky, yes? What an odd coincidence, meeting you again, way out here of all places."

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(OOC: Jerrard's spells are updated.)

[Jenara]

"Sunni!" Locky exclaims with a huge smile, "Well you see we were traveling, and we sort of got lost.. you see there was this man, a horrible one, he was married to Imani.." Locky grins again looking for the woman. "What is that?" She adds, looking at the fallen contraption