Drought and Death

[Deleted]

Astris surveys the horse dubiously, then takes Ikram's hand and climbs up with with much less grace than she would've liked. Once settled she says "I'm eating this on the road." while unwrapping a sandwich. It was an obvious statement, and it came out a bit more petulant than she liked. She's still not entirely clear what they are meant to do in the case of the blockage. For all they know, the whole thing could have sunk in, or there could have been earth moving enough to bury it. That would require a team of men several weeks to unearth. Oh well. No point to worrying about it until we get there. She eats her sandwich in relative peace, if not cool breezes.

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Eating 5 sandwiches. Yes, five. Regaining MP at 20% per sandwich. Mana 
Resting for the interim of the travel. +5 Sta
MP: 173/173 - SM: 5/20

[Deleted]

I paused. "All... right. That's, uhm... alright." Something about the tone of my wife's voice made me nervous. I settled with her in the saddle in front of me. I was unsure about how I was to eat this rather large meal, but it was likely that I wouldn't have anything additional to eat. It wouldn't matter, surely.

"Let's go." I said, and took the reins in my free hand. We must've looked a sight on the horse.

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Travelling to the Tesiak River. Estimated Time: 1 hr, 24 minutes, no road, plains terrain.
HP: 360 SM: 56/74 MP: 92/110


- Parent & Child bowl: +10 SM
- Parent & Child bowl: +10 Max SM

[Azuloth]

The Wylmonts had an uneventful journey on their way to the river. The hills and farms were easy to traverse with their new horse, and they made good time. There were plenty of people working out in the sun for the first few miles. Then the population grew more and more sparse until it was nothing but wild plains until the river. There they'd find a river that was a mile wide at the furthest reaches of its banks. Today it was quite low. The drought was having its toll here as well. Finding the pipe that pulled the water would be difficult through the silt laden waters of the Tesiak. Curious, somehow the waterway system got the water pure.

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Finding the waterway intake pipe is a skill check. In this thread, you will have 3 per day.
You may only roll for skill once per turn.

Ikram's Skill Stat: 16
Astris' Skill Stat: 15

[Deleted]

Spotting entrances to waterways was certainly no specialty of mine. We trotted the horse up and down the river as long as it would go that first day, but I saw no hide nor hair of the entrance or anything that resembled it. Hoping that it wasn't completely camouflaged by some cave in, I continued to scan down the river while giving Astris a chance to rest.

At around midday, I roused her. "I can't find anything." I said, shaking her shoulder as she slept, leaning against me. "Is there anything you might be able to do?" I ask.

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HP: 360 SM: 55/74 MP: 91/110
HX9_e796

[Deleted]

Astris furrowed her brow and rubbed at an eye. Horseback may be convenient to travel, but it was ill conducive to napping. Perhaps Ikram had managed to make contact with the world's lumpiest horse. This must be the case, she decided with her zero experience with horses in general. She looked around her surroundings with a bit of a glare, blinking in the sun. "Where in the world are we?"

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|Q3EW|_X Su..success?

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She rubs an eye and points off in the distance. "What's that?"

[Azuloth]

Under the water about fifteen meters away was the faintest glint of metal. The intake pipe. Through the silt Astris had spotted it, miraculously. Of course... it was fifteen meters out into the river. There it was roughly ten feet deep, and moving at a decent clip. Swimming to it would be only be aided by the fact that the water level was so low. Half the distance to the pipe was above water. The other half was under. The pipe itself was at the bed of the river where it had been placed. If Ikram or Astris were twelve feet tall or so, they could have waded out into the river and stood on top of it.

As it stood, one of them, or both, would have to dive to take a closer look at what was wrong with the intake pipe.

[Deleted]

From too little water to too much... I was not a strong swimmer, nor very experienced. There seemed little recourse, however, other than to swim down to it. Unless we wanted to shoot a hole through the pipe using Astris' magic—but that could destroy something or lead to... perhaps debris in the water? I sighed heavily as I dismounted the horse and strode towards the river.

The Tesiak was somewhat more imposing than I had thought it might be. Truth enough, I didn't really want to dive in. I'd rather Astris used some form of magic to fix everything—but overreliance would lead to her being caught eventually. I wouldn't be able to live with myself should that happen.

I started stripping down from my leathers to just my leggings and lumped everything in a pile near the edge of the river with my shoes. I looked around a bit, hopefully not obviously hesitating before deciding there was nothing left to do.

I waded into the river, rather than dove. I did not want to hit my head on some rock and die for the sake of showing off, afterall.

---

VsHXbJgn
HP: 400 SM: 70/90 MP: 90/110 (Increased to SM 90, as SM was increased by 16 points, and SM is affected +10 by the Parent & Child bowl. Increased HP to 400 to reflect levelling up, which was done in this thread. If that's incorrect, I can fix.)

[Deleted]

Astris half-scrambled, half-slid off the horse, tentatively holding it's reins while Ikram starts going for a swim. Her heels sunk into the softer soil near the riverbank slightly, causing her to need to right herself slightly. She watched him nervously. The current shouldn't be too fast...right? It doesn't look that way. What do they say about faster currents? Are they faster on top or below? I'll have to find out more later. She watched him with anxiety as he went. "Be careful!"

She looked over at the horse who was uncomfortably tall and close. "Try to eat me and I'll make you vomit rainbows."

[Azuloth]

Ikram managed to get in the water, and then the current and a loose rock combined forces with fate and swept him off his feet and down the river. It took him under, and kept him under. It held him under with its cold hands, sapping the life from him. The brisk waters of the river would carry him further down the river the longer he was in it.

Something started nipping at the edges of his clothing as well.

---

Ikram:
-Drowning 1/10

[Deleted]

Well this was not how I'd wanted my day to proceed. ARE THERE PIRANHAS IN THE TESIAK? My thoughts became panicked. It was likely, come to think of it. I had no idea one way or another, I just knew that this was not a good situation to be in. I tried to brace myself and began swimming towards shore.

---

vlly4ztZ
HP: 400 SM: 69/90 MP: 89/110

[Deleted]

Where did he g-...oh no. Astris dropped the horses' reins and ran down the beach, trying to keep pace with him. It's too fast for him. "Ikram!" She didn't have the faintest notion of how to swim, that particular endeavour wasn't on the list of things one learned as a noblewoman. She grabs up a stick along the way, thinking perhaps she could pull him in with it if he were to grab on. It was a flimsy idea but better than no idea at all.

[Azuloth]

The nipping was getting stronger. Hungrier.

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Ikram:
-Drowning 2/10

Simple post, but.. you know. The drama is all you guys.

[Deleted]

Cut by a thief, and then eaten by a river. How inglorious. This is absolutely untenable. Absolutely outrageous—and not how I intended to die. I pushed myself closer to the river bank and tried to brace myself in the stone. To brace myself against absurdity.

---

53vJfuKW


HP: 400 SM: 68/90 MP: 88/110··

[Deleted]

Astris watched Ikram struggle in the current. If nothing changes he'll drown and you'll have done nothing. She drops her stick and walks out to the water's edge. She focuses on pushing the water away from him, making it go past him, around him, over him, anything but drowning him.

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Bubble!
Thaumaturgy II(+10) + Shielding I(+5) = 15.
Mana /179
fBA2WchF
success

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··

[Azuloth]

Astris had managed to form a bubble around Ikram's head with her magic, thereby preventing him from drowning any further. He washed up five hundred feet from where he had originally started, the river's current having carried him until he was no longer in water so deep he couldn't get a footing.

Luck apparently was on their side.

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Ikram washes ashore.
"bubble" threshold: 25 (you forgot to add knowledge)

Noon hours starting.

Due to the weather stats are reduced by 10%.