Pensive Offers Healing; Gully's or Bust
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Scattered to the winds...
So we go to deeper darkness. Pensive ducks his head beneath a branch and feels a drip of sweat crawl down his spine. Sweat or blood? His arm is stiff and painful where the arrows had cut into him.
Others were hurt worse. Pensive slips down from his horse, and makes his way to Garyth. The captain is talking with Rennick and Osred, and Bragga-- Pensive pushes into their circle, and draws what few healing supplies he has left from his satchel.
OOC: Pensive will use what healing supplies he has left to help Garyth; then Osred; then any of the other soldiers who need it.
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Scattered to the winds...
No one else has anything to add?
From: Mike
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Scattered to the winds...
OOC: A quick question. I assume we haven't had time to stop and bury Kenneth yet? He's probably getting pretty stinky by now.
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Scattered to the winds...
No, it's only been four or five hours since the attack.
Burying Kenneth, and making plans, is exactly the RP I was expecting, actually. The remains of the town have made it under the edge of the forest, but that's it at this point.
From: Mike
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Scattered to the winds...
OOC: I'm planning on doing a turn like that, and I also have a short dream sequence for the next time Garyth sleeps, but I've been a little busy. I'll try to get to it some time today, but I can't make any promises.
From: Ty
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Scattered to the winds...
No pressure.
I just wanted to make sure I didn't do the next turn before everyone got a chance to do their stuff.
Now that I know you want to do something, I'll wait.
From: Ty
Subject: Gully's or Bust; the first night
Kasen moves Storm over to the kneeling wizard. "Hand him up to me, friend. Storm and I will take care of him." Sa'id eyes the knight suspiciously for just a moment, then helps lift Farron up to him. Kasen settles the unconscious man in his arms, and begins riding to the east. Sa'id gathers up his horse and the pack animal and follows.
Though he worries about Farron being forced to move a long distance after his grievous injury, he knows that Kasen is right. They had to put some ground between themselves and the point of the attack. Perhaps Elise had the magic to find them anyway, but there was no reason to make it easy for her. And besides, Farrons injury was not a wound liable to open and bleed. His hurts were deeper than that. Sa'id didn't think being handled roughly could hurt him further than the shade already had.
After a couple hours of riding, Kasen finally calls a halt next to a small stream and a copse of trees. "We will rest here for a few hours." He hands Farron back down to Sa'id, and the wizard tries to make his friend as comfortable as possible on a bedroll.
"Try to get some sleep," Kasen says, then begins stripping off his heavy armor.
From: Raja
Subject: Re: Gully's or Bust; the first night
Had Pelor answered his prayer?
That's all Sa'id can think as he rides after Kasen and Farron. Pelor had saved him through Cadfael, then abandoned Cadfael to die at Elise's hand. Now the god had pulled Farron from the brink of death directly, in response to Sa'id's earnest prayers. Hadn't he? ...or did Pelor simply do his utmost to keep the instruments of his will alive, casting them aside when their appointed task was complete? That was what fit the facts. Cadfael's reward for the sacrifice of his very sanity had been death, his soul consumed by the Devourer through the obsidian dagger that should have been used on Promise.
The necromancer is still brooding when Kasen calls a halt. He helps the knight stretch his friend out on a bedroll, gratified to see that Farron's breathing is still steady. Pelor takes good care of his instruments. He lingers a moment by his friend's unconscious form, hand resting on the other's shoulder. Whatever your motives, Pelor, Sa'id thinks to himself, I am grateful for my friend's life and my own. I will do your work... but I will not sacrifice so much of myself that I wither and die when your grace leaves me. I will not follow you blindly. I will destroy your enemies only because they are my enemies also. For my life and Farron's I owe you this service, but do not think that Cadfael and Farah are forgiven so easily.
Maybe never. I do not appreciate being manipulated.
Fak'ir alei'ha, Pelor. Think on it.
He gives Farron's shoulder a gentle squeeze, then rises and moves quietly over to his own bedroll. His eyes are closed before he is even prone, and he falls asleep almost instantly...
---------------
He stands over Farron's corpse, obsidian knife in his hand. There is blood everywhere, spattered on Sa'id's arms and chest. "Sed," a voice calls from behind him. He turns to see Kasen, sword drawn, standing maybe twenty paces away. "What have you done?"
"My name is Sa'id," he replies quietly. Kasen looks past him then, eyes widening. Sa'id turns again, and sees Farron rising... but not Farron -- a rotting zombie, eyes dangling from emptied sockets. Hands burst from the ground behind the dead wizard, lifeless bodies clawing their way to the surface. Sa'id nods at Farron, then faces Kasen once more. He can see the fear in the warrior's eyes, revels in it, a grin springing unbidden to his face. He raises his blood-soaked hands -- they burst into flame, but he is not burned. Behind Kasen, Sa'id can see Garyth and the others now. Garyth moves to stand with Kasen, sword drawn. Rennik's wolf growls.
"Burn, then," Sa'id murmurs, waving the zombie horde forward with a flaming hand.
---------------
...only to awaken what feels like seconds later, choking on bile, shivering from the clammy feeling of cold sweat coating his body. Visions of flame and death, slipping away from him even as he tries to remember what he saw.
Sa'id lies there, trembling, for some time. He listens to Farron's breathing, counting the seconds between each breath, ensuring the breathing is even by calculating a rolling average of the interval between the last ten breaths. It takes no significant effort, but is enough to relax him. Gradually he drifts off...
From: Jake
Subject: Re: The Exodus; Scattered to the winds...
Same here, my plan is to write it tomorrow or Sunday. If the game's moved on by then I'll do it as a retroactive thing.