Fourth Adventure 07: Fort in Ashes, & An Unexpected Visitor

Rory awoke in the night to find himself in the wagon next to Hanuel and Kez, who were sleeping. He rubbed his eyes and groaned at the onset of a migraine. While instinctively looking up at what he hoped would be the calming view of the stars, he instead saw the sky filled with smoke, and the land dotted with debris and patches of flame. He turned his head toward the first person who entered his field of vision and murmured, "What the hell is happening...?"

Snarg looks back to the wagon, "Fort blowin' up; headin' to Al-Zavros; go back ta sleep so we ain't all sleepin' in the mornin'."

Caladrius looks at Rory solemnly. "Someone attacked the Fort... reports are sketchy but it sounds like it was our Burun friend. They took out the whole Fortress by themselves, not a lot of survivors." he shakes his head.

"Wh--how??" Rory asked. "How long has it been? Dammit, how could those soldiers have been so careless!? Wait, why are we leaving!?"

*Kez rolls over*

"Because we were ordered to."

Zeiss gets woken up by Rory.

"...Can you please stay silent? Some of us are trying to sleep."

Z, who overhears you, mutters back, "Even if we weren't ordered to this is a 'leave and don't look back' situation. Worst case scenario, we just started global war and it will be blamed on us. Rather not be around if it comes to that."

Hanuel snores lightly, not likely to be woken by anything short of yelling in their ear.

Zeiss, tired, ignores Z and goes back to sleep, muffling himself in his blanket.

*Kezrin rolls over choosing to ignore Z's words. She doesn't want to think about war, much less being the cause of one. She sleeps restlessly, tossing and turning. Its likely she would be awoken easily.*

You continue traveling towards Al-Zavros for the rest of the night. The going is rough as the weather and terrain are not conductive, and you have to make your way around a small chasm you didn't even see in the night until you were almost upon it. The sun has begun to raise when the town of Al-Zavros is in sight in the distance, when you spot something else. There appears to be a woman laying, unconscious, in the rough desert road you are only now approaching that leads into town, and she looks somewhat injured as she has several cuts and bruises. She is currently garbed in an elven-chain shirt with some type of simple robe affair, and is lying face down so you can't get a good look at her face yet.

Zeiss sees the woman. Maybe a soldier. He stays silent, his hand on his rapier.

tab runs up and checks the girl for signs of like

Spoiler:

Hanuel's eyes flutter open as the first rays on the shine shine at them. "Ugh." They slowly lurch to a sitting position, clutching their head, aching from a stress headache. "What did I miss?"

"Wait." Snarg holds up his hand, looks around the surrounding area nervously and then looks back to the woman.

Spoiler:

The woman does not look quite like anybody you've seen before. She looks fairly Human, but has a glint to her skin, like it's scaled, reflecting in blues and greens, and her features are sharp, like a Fairy's. She is not severely injured, only partially.

Snarg finds no other tracks nearby, nor indeed her own, and given the open sands there are no ambush points for miles in any direction unless one were to be in the town proper, which is a good mile off.

Hanuel hops off the wagon, and seeing the woman, pulls up their mask and casts Scan 2 on her.

"Er, I ain't knowin' how ya gettin' 'ere 'less ya flyin'," Snarg scratches his ear thoughtfully, "maybe ya do. Ain't never be seein' 'likes of ya kind 'fore."

Making several casting motions, he mutters some words in Undercommon and places his hand on her back. A white light flashes over her briefly.

Spoiler:

Rory looks on as others readily rush to the aid of the Elf. He was well rested, which he owed to exhaustion and the drink he shared with Tabran. He got out the bottle of white corn bourbon and took a drink. "Is there anything else I need to know about the night before?" he asked out loud.

Hanuel:
The woman before you is in her 20's, is of a race you have never encountered before, and of a vocation you do not recognize. She has an unusual aura to her, the type of which you do not recognize, and appears mildly injured.

The woman in the road slowly raises her hand to her head and groans quietly; her eyelids flutter, attempting to look around but not really seeing. "Flux," she moans, attempting to turn onto her side, "what the hell happened?" She blindly gropes to find the hand touching her, hoping to take solace in the simple contact.

"Yes Rory. You danced naked under the stars."

Zeiss observed the strange woman. An hand still on his rapier.

Spoiler:

"Well, that brings up more questions than it answers..." Hanuel pulls down their mask, and steps up behind Snarg.

"Er, ain't got any flux for ya. Ain't no one been 'ere 'sides ya that I'm seein'." Snarg says, a puzzled expression on his face.

"Are you alright miss?" Hanuel leaned down, taking out a water skin in case she was thirsty.