Cross (Rivi) Private Thread

[TristenC]

Very well, then attend closely, she says as they draw nearer to the crest of the hill. A journey of unexpected length awaits you soon... Look for that alike in the unlike, even if it is only alike by being unlike. That which is is not as it appears to be, you know this better than most... You Will be hunted... your only hope is not to be alone when you are found... these things you must remember... Just then, the pair crest the top of the rise and another small hill comes into view before them. The road leads straight down into the tiny valley between... into a layer of thick fog that ripples and eddies like water with a deep current. The path emerges on the other hill, but rather than go around, she leads them straight towards it.

All our lives are filled with choices... you can choose this path, or another... but know that danger waits you at either... When they are about halfway down the hill, a small band of figures appears atop the other... it is difficult to identify them at this distance. A shout from the new group, faint in the distance, catapults them into action and they descend rapidly. At the front is a woman with flowing dark hair, attended by many men with weapons. If they continue down, at the same pace, Cross and the gypsy will reach the fog about the same time the newcomers do on the other side...

[Rivi]

cross takes a deep breath woking with others is somthing hes never done. not that he cant get along with others, hes just always on the move to the next magical wonder "well i don't shy from challenges" and he steps into the fog

[TristenC]

Plunging into the swirling wall of white-grey, his vision is instantly cut down to a few feet. There is a dampness to it that settles upon him in a cold, clammy way. A bit of light reflecting dimly through the mist from the sun above gives it an eerie glow as he travels, and he feels rather than sees the road at his feet. Voices shout and echo in the distance, calling to others hunting him... her voice is most prominent, and drawing nearer. Cross glances down at the old woman... who pats his arm reassuringly as she lumbers on. The tap, tap, tap of her staff on the hard packed road seems deafening to his ears, and he marvels that his pursuers are not immediately drawn to the sound...

Continuing becomes more and more like trying to walk through a pit of snakes without being bitten, something he had seen a circus performer do many times... until he was killed by a single asp... It was different here, he knew the snakes had been calmed and cooled down and made placid before the trick, but his 'snakes' were hungry and ready to bite... his snakes wanted him... hunted him... and the now frigid moisture in the fog settled into his bones. He heard something approach, and the gypsy wordlessly led him a step off the road onto thick, level grass. Cautious scraping steps moved where he had been, and his breath caught in his throat. I could reach out a hand... his mind began involuntarily, but he shut that vein of thought down hard.

Once the seeker in the mist moved on, so did the two striving to remain hidden... though not back onto the road. Whatever you do, do not stop moving, quiet voice beside him said. The arm on his felt lighter somehow, as if the old woman needed his support less and less. Cross looked, but the thickening fog was so dense he couldn't even see his own arm, much less hers. Vertigo threatened to unsteady him and he had to pause to keep from falling in his dizziness. The old woman's warning came back to him, and he took a tentative step. Moving his free hand to pat the gypsy's arm, he felt it pass through nothing but air until it met his own. Where?

Just then an clearing in the swirling mist opened before him, and he crouched instinctively. A cry of terror from nearby to his left froze him in place. Dannil, one of the 'knives' who had dragged him before Loraina that fateful night, crept backwards into the opening. He was much older now, being human, and more experienced... but he looked different to Cross for some other reason... A mask of utter horror distorted his features and he watched the fog with a maddening intensity, his glowing magical short sword drawn. Unseen behind him, a whip-thin tendril of mist creeps out of the massive bank of fog... Rapidly it thickens and swells in a bloated form like billowing smoke escaping from an alchemist's flask. Slowly it solidifies into the form of a man-shaped thing with tentacled appendages where it's chin should be and limpid black eyes... Illithid! Cross' mind screamed at him!

The ephemeral tentacles writhed and squirmed as they reached for Dannil, who whips around with sword up. A shriek of madness and fear erupts from him as he stabs at the misty horror with his magical sword. Stepping through the weapon unconcernedly, the... thing snaps its squiggling members forward and a great beak-like protrusion within pierces into Dannil's skull. His echoing scream decays into a gurgle as his eyes roll back into his head and his body quivers in shock and helplessness. RUN! "Gar" whispers hoarsely. The thump of boots running towards him can be heard on the hard ground to his right and behind him... the only ways left are to the left where whatever horrified Dannil first might still lurk, or straight past the dying man...

[Rivi]

cross summoned gar to his hand and started towards the dying man "nice to see you dannil" he said with a wince. he ran pass skirting around dannils soon to be lifeless body and ran. cross sprinted as fast as he could while visions of Illithid gave his feet wings. "well gar if i wasent to scared id be trying to figure out how this fog works, kinda neat" even thoght the dagger stayed silent and couldnet move he could almost hear the dagger rolling its eye

[TristenC]

[Ooc: roll a d10 and a d20 on unseen servant plz and post the result, or I can roll them if you like.]

Cross holds himself together long enough to 'greet' his old 'friend', but as the misty figure turns to regard him, he recalls how ineffective even Dannil's magical sword had been. The cold of the grave shoots throughout his body at the revelation, and he bolts full-speed through the mist. Fascinated, nevertheless, he wonders aloud to 'Gar' how exactly the mist works. Additional shouts followed him into the grey as he ran, some on terror no doubt at what he rapidly left behind him, others in pursuit. A faint glow before him reminiscent of daylight emerged, but the area to his right seemed to go more uphill...

[Rivi]

Cross seeing light decides that's the best way to flee

[TristenC]

Cross, seeing what he hopes is the light of day, flees in the new direction. He has hardly gone a dozen steps when the fog abruptly opens in another clearing, this one exposed to the sky but surrounded by the thick mist as it rolls around as if it were kept back by some magical barrier. Too late he sees Loraina in her Elven guise, not a pace from the edge of the misty border. He uses every faculty and muscle at his disposal to hault, but it is not enough as his momentum carries him into her. Fortunately, she is just as surprised and unprepared as he; and the two go down in a heap with Cross sprawled atop her. Instinctively kicking him off of her, she scrambles back a few feet in shock as he recovers himself enough to rise to one knee.


[Cross surprise roll 1d10 -2(heavy fog)
Cross surprise roll and dex check [1d10] = 5[1d20] = 17: Cross surprise roll = 5-2=3. Cross is surprised! Dex check to avoid collision: need to match dex (12) or less = 17. Failed, collision!
Lucky for you, she failed her surprise roll and dex checks too ]

[Rivi]

Cross raises to his feet, looking at the drow he's surprised by his own reaction - it was not fear, but anger. She has made his life one of fear and constant shoulder checks, basically making sure he is on the move always. "Loraina I think I've decided to stop running from you" he said with an intensity in his eyes rarely seen. His hand flexed on Gar's hilt but the fog moved menacingly closer, and his survival instincts kicked in. "I feel we will have to settle this another day, however." And he turned and bolted in the opposite direction.

[TristenC]

Gripping the hilt, the anger flooded him... and he could practically feel it pulsing from Gar as well, pushing out every other emotion. Eddies in the mist threatened to close in around them, and he ran into them rather than have them come for him first... Only after leaving the clearing did he realize what he had done. He would have taken longer to wonder at it had he not been literally fleeing for his life.

The way back seemed...wrong somehow... it wasn't long before the uneven uphill steps began to choke with brush and plant life... things he was certain had been nowhere nearby... at least outside of the grey-white... Struggling somewhat, he was unsure of his direction more and more... at least he thought absently, I know what I'm moving away from... A few minutes later the mist began to disperse and he found himself near a small road, hardly more than a dirt path... Nearby there sheep fat with winter wool grazing, tended by farmers. A modest, rustic-looking farm lay not far off. Trees lined the road to either side, peeking up out of the waning fog... Having encountered no trees in the mist, he concluded that he must have been traveling parallel to the road for some time...

[Rivi]

heading towards the farm he sheaths gar "you know as much as i meant that we should stop her i'm kinda glad we ran for her. i don't think i can match her yet but hey now my quest for spells has a goal i will become a mage to put that wicked creature in her place" his hands flexing "i need to study and buy some new spells and that means work" if theres anyone within range as he walks up and asks for directions to the closest town "besides that cron said something about searching out the alike by unalike or something and i imagine she wasn't talking about sheep"

[TristenC]

A young man and one much older are tending the sheep nearby. Cross approaches them and calls out, asking the way to town. A black-and-white dog barks once at him, but stays by the younger man's side. Once he is closer, the old man speaks, but it is a language he is unfamiliar with. Je suis désolé , je ne vous comprends pas ... parlez-vous d'Harmonia? The musical nature of it reminds him vaguely of Elven.

[OOC: The language is Harmonian, and being able to speak elven gives you a base 5% chance to understand the gist of any phrase or conversation. Spending a day where half the conversation around you is in Harmonian will add 1%/day to your total. You can always try other languages you know...]
[Lang check 5%, need 5 or lower: Cross lang check at farm [1d100] = 57: fail. Cross doesn't understand the farmer's words.]

[Rivi]

A frown crossed his face briefly. Switching to Elvan, a language that sounded vaguely similar to what they were speaking, he pantomimed while he spoke. "I'm... looking... for a town? Or an inn?" He motioned to his eyes and then up and down the road, finally pretending to sleep with his hands laid beside his head as though it were a pillow. "To sleep?" As an afterthought, he pulled two silver out of his pouch and gestured to them, figuring that generosity was a universal language.

[TristenC]

Cross mimes out his words as he speaks slowly in Elven. A look of bemusement crosses the old farmer's face. Should have figured on trying Elven first, I guess... He replies in perfect, if archaic, Qualinesti Elven. I'm Ambles Dacrue, and this is my grandson Elmert, he says, gesturing for the teen to come over. Harmonia is north, maybe half-day's walk... couple of good inns there, but the Wayfarer's rest belongs to an old friend of mine. Good place, it's straight in the south gate. You can't miss it. But tell me, where you comin' from? Sithicus is it?

[Rivi]

"Ambles Dacrue i apologize. your speech before was so close to elven i assumed it was some dielectric i didn't recognize. i once ended up selling a house i didn't own by mistake by a similar mishap." he said with one of his exaggerated bows hoping the humor would defect his odd pantomiming. he must still be shaken up from the experience in the mist "Harmonia? iv never heard of it but then again theirs lots i haven't heard of." cross had a look of confusion he had been studying the area for the magical artifact he was investigating but didn't recognize the name of the town. "Wayfarer's rest straight in the south gate. ill be sure to go there. any message for your friend?"he covered his eyes with a hand and looked up the road to the town. thinking about heading out as soon as possible. "no i'm not from...Sithicus was it? i'm a traveler and a scholar. not from any one place and that dose tend to get me lost in new lands, albeit iv never been quite this lost."another place he didn't recognize "Anything i should know about the walk to town?" asuming theres no issue they present with him going cross will hands over the silver in thanks for the directions.

[TristenC]

The old man fights back a smile at Cross' witticism. Message? No... no i suspect I'll see young Guilliam soon enough to tell him anything... Not from Sithicus, eh... If you don't mind my saying, you have exactly the look of the Sithicans... if you are from elsewhere, it might be best to blend in a bit... The people here are a bit leery of strangers, but they're better if they think they know something about you. I'd advise speaking Elven mostly... not many in town speak it, but there are enough who do that you'll be able to get what you need... um... where are you from then, if you don't mind my asking? He awaits Cross' response. During the daytime, if you stick to the road you should be fine. But keep an eye on the woodline all the same... wolves around here grow big and are pretty gutsy... had a pack attack my farm a while back in the middle of the day...

Cross can see that the farm itself is several hundred yards from any tree line... the wolves must have been brash indeed to venture so far out of cover during the daylight.