Into the Woods (not the musical)

[Deleted]

Date: Junipos 7th 200ATD


Description: 
Several shipments of goods leaving from Hillsfar for Rosterford have mysteriously vanished. There has been no evidence as to the fate of the shipments or those who traveled with the shipments. Scattered around Hillsfar and Sorath are a number of flyers indicating that the Guild of Commerce is looking to hire individuals to travel with the next shipment in the hopes of preventing its disappearance and possibly finding the culprits. Any interested parties should seek out John Gregor at the Hillsfar Trading Post.



Objectives:
-Escort shipment to Rosterford from Hillsfar.


Losing Conditions
-All Players Die


Rewards
-1500 Gold
-2 stat points


Roster:- Max 5
Allyria
Arthurius
-
-
-


Recommended Level: 1-2
Monster Level: 1-3

[Allyria Allenmorde]

Junipos 7th, 200ATD
-Scarlet
-Morning

Allyria was traveling under the guise of Scarlet. Her freshly created persona for adventuring purposes. It would protect the meek half-drokagr entrepreneur from any criminal backlash if she were seen plundering ruins for books and other things that were decidedly illegal. Her face mask wasn't overly menacing, and the red cloak stood out enough for the attention to be drawn on that, as opposed to the person inside it. Classic misdirection. Make something flashy and that's all the people could look at.

She arrived in Hillsfar in the morning on the seventh. Not because of the flyers that had been put out in Sorath or Hillsfar, she hadn't been to Sorath in weeks at this point. And it was her first time in Hillsfar. She had come because she heard they had good materials for sale for Alchemy, and tailoring. Then she saw the fliers and saw an opportunity to make some coin, and gain some much needed adventuring experience.

The flier said to seek out John Gregor at the trading post. She went to up to the trade materials and supplies post and asked the question directly.

"Where can I find... John Gregor? It's about the supply shipment for Rosterford."

---

Allyria Allenmorde (Scarlet)
HP: 400/400
Stm: 79/80
MP: 275/280

Sudden Sight
OfVrnI6v -Success
-The Past

---

Suddenly, you are no longer in the trading post. You are on a road in the woods. You hear a scream, looking back you see a cart escorted by several men, one of whom is now little more than an icicle. The remaining men turn to the woods, terrified of what may come out. Then the vision is over, and you are back in the trading post. - Xynestro

---

After Allyria had asked the question she witnessed something curious. She had gone from the trading post to the road in the woods and back to the trading post. It had seemed like there was almost no time that had passed while she was enduring the vision. A slight headache crept into her head afterward as a side effect. It would go away in time. She was getting better at dealing with the visions physically. Mentally however she couldn't control it as well as she would have liked. ·

[Arthurius Vallance]

Arthurius arrived at the trading post very shortly after Allyria, not that he actually had a clue who she was.

He looked around for a few moments, made a few purchases of items that interested him, hopefully they would help him in his studies, so far all he'd done was gather herbs, he now needed to move on to the next stage and distill them, then he could actually begin to make some sort of alchemical mixture from them. He had found enough ingredients and their properties now that he felt as if he could make some sort of potion should he try hard enough and devote enough time to it.

Anyway, he'd come to this trading post to trade, but upon hearing that there was a job open he rushed over to take it, wearing his new armour was something he was still trying to get used to, it felt bulky considering up till now he'd worn just regular clothes. His spear poked out from over his shoulder, being proudly displayed on his back, where he could grab it fairly easily should he need to.

Arthurius, not knowing what other shops there were exactly, walked back up to the alchemical supplies shopkeeper he'd purchased items from earlier, " Excuse me, do you know where I can find John Gregor? I hear he has a job he needs doing?"

[Deleted]

To the red lady, another lady simply pointed to what appeared to be a wheezing blob seated in a chair by the window. "Can't miss him."

Hearing his name however, the blob began to waddle forth. In one hand he held a kerchief with which he dabbed his forehead which was drenched as sweat, as was the vast majority of his body to include the rather large mitt he extended to the young woman who had responded to the Guild of Commerce's need. "Welcome, welcome." His voice somehow both deep and nasally, "My name is John Gregor, but you can call me Mr. Gregor. I'm so glad you responded, I was afraid we would have to postpone the shipment." No small amount of saliva sprayed with each "s" that he enunciated.

When he heard his name again, he took a few heavy breaths before speaking up, "I'm over here, so glad to have you." His breath slightly strained from the exertion. After addressing the newcomer he re-extended his sweaty hand to the young lady. "Now, what's your name?"

[Allyria Allenmorde]

Allyria adjusted her face mask a little as the saliva started flying out of his mouth with every 's'. Her internal monologue prevented her from listening to half of what he said.

Oh no, he's sputtering and spitting everywhere. He needs to stop before something terrible happens. And he's so sweaty... and he's reaching out for my hand... staaahhhhhhpppppp.

She took his hand and gave it a good shake.

"Scarlet. What is the shipment, where is it, where is it going in rosterford specifically, and do you have any ideas as to what happened to the prior shipments?"

She thought she had the right to know. After all, she was probably risking her life to save this guy's goods. Well, to make sure this guys goods got to Rosterford. It had better damn well be important. Her vision had disturbed her a little bit. A man turned into a Popsicle. Ice cold baby. Allyria thought about making sure she picked up some supplies before she left to secure this shipment.

---

Allyria Allenmorde (Scarlet)
HP: 400/400
Stm: 78/80 -1
MP: 255/280 -5 -20

Sudden Sight
dtc0yD4J -FAILED

Foresight:
-Allyria's powers of divination have improved. She now knows what will happen in the immediate future, and uses it to reduce her natural handicaps in everything she does.
-Applies Divination knowledge to all rolls where the threshold is less than 50
-If the threshold is 50 or higher, has no effect.
-MP cost: 20

Diplomacy: (To get more information)
Dip Stat: 20, Difficulty: ??, Foresight (Div III): +15 Threshold: 5 - 50

-Failed·

[Arthurius Vallance]

Arthurius looked at the man claiming to be John...surely not. He was so covered in bodily fluid, and he seemed to insist on sharing his fluids with everyone around him everytime he spoke. Arthurius cringed slightly, but then corrected himself and walked up to the man who would hopefully soon give him a job.

He wasn't the only one there, a woman who'd just introduced herself as Scarlet was also there, it seemed that he would have help on this particular journey whether he wanted it or not, sounded good. "Arthurius" He said, he realised the question wasn't actually directed at him but they would need to introductions at some point if they were to be working together, and now seemed like a good time. Scarlet was already prying for information it appeared so Arthurius didn't have to bother with all the questionning, it seemed like there was someone else here to do it.

Although it wouldn't show he was slightly worried, sure the armour Tyr had made him was pretty amazing, but he still had next to no idea how on earth he was supposed to fight, he didn't have any real experience so most of his movements and fighting style would have to be made up as he went along. What he did know was that his armour was pretty good and that if he hit someone with the pointy end of the spear it should hurt them, a lot.

[Deleted]

After shaking Scarlets hand he turned and offered the same to Arthurius, "Pleasure to meet you both!"

He began to explain what was going on as best he could, turning from one to the other as he explained, spraying them each rather equally with each passing 's'. "Well as you likely know, there's not much too Rosterford. It's mostly a ruin, and they struggle to take care of themselves. Most of the shipments were relief supplies, food and the like. However we have lost stone, lumber, and iron as well. Some within the guild had hoped to help rebuild the town, make it profitable instead of a drain on the national economy." John paused for a moment to catch his breath, standing and talking was taking its toll on the man's horrid physique. After a short bout of wheezing he continued.

"Our shipments and the people who escorted them have mysteriously vanished, we couldn't even tell where they disappeared on the road. This shipment contains food, stone, iron, and axes. Supplies to build and to help them harvest their own lumber. The carts and the horses that pull them will be their's to keep for that purpose. Cail Wodget, the owner of the Rusty Widget, will be the person to seek out once you arrive. He has been awaiting these supplies for some time." John dabbed the sweat that was dripping off his face with the thoroughly soaked kerchief that he held in his hand.

"Let me sit and rest for a moment, give it a bit in case we have any late comers, then I will show you to the shipment." With those words he lumbered back to his chair and sat down basically laying his head in the window. "Feel free to make use of the facilities, and I'll answer any other questions you may have to the best of my ability."

[Allyria Allenmorde]

Allyria listened to Mr. Gregor answer her questions. So it was a basic shipment of construction and relief supplies. It made sense. She had yet to go to Rosterford but she had heard the gossip about how it was sort of a shit hole ruin of a town. She believed the gossip of course. Most people would, it wasn't like there wasn't any contradicting information. So the supplies were supposed to save the shit hole. Allyria thought that was more of a job for the Drokagr Initiative. They were famous for relief efforts. Hillsfar didn't appear to have its shit together as much as some of the other towns. It was interesting how they were the ones footing the bill to help... that was the question she needed to ask. Who the fuck was going to pay her?

"Who's paying for all this?"

She meant the reward money too.

Allyria as Scarlet cut an intimidating look with her face mask and her scarlet cloak and her weapons. Almost like she was bred for fighting. She perused the wares of the trading post and made some selections, then forked over the money.

---

Allyria Allenmorde (Scarlet)
HP: 400/400
Stm: 77/80 -1
MP: 250/280 -5

Sudden Sight
fIWZnbEd -SUCCESS!

-- The Present

---

-Inthread purchases from Hillsfar Trading Post:
4 Minor Healing Potions
-4 gold.

Requesting Vision information on the current mission.
Order of magnitude: 8 (where 0 is a perfect vision and 33 is a garbled mess)·

[Arthurius Vallance]

Arthurius was glad for his armour, it was good strong armour that wold protect him from many hits should he need it to, it would be very useful if any fighting happened. But a bonus to it that he hadn't thought of nor even imagined before was the fact that it protected him from most of the spray that came out of this man's mouth.

It was a good thing he needed this mission or he may have become rather angry with the man, as it was he hid his anger and just got on with things, listening to the man's explaination and shaking his hand, trying to be polite in the hopes he'd be hired for this job. 

So now it seemed they'd wait for any latecomers, hopefully they wouldn't be waiting long, his hands itched for something to do, hopefully if others were to come it would be very soon, although he wasn't sure if only the two of them would be able to do much themselves, Arthurius was as of yet untested in battle and he had no idea of his companion so it could be quite interesting. 

[Deleted]

Vision: Somewhere in a wooded area, several men are traveling. They are armed and they walk with purpose. Then they are gone and you are in a small clearing. The trees are frosted, and the ground is covered in what appears to be snow. You see a group of people standing in the clear, as your vision closes in on one of them, you realize he is frozen. As you look around the clearing, you notice they are all frozen. Then your vision ends.

"The guild of commerce is funding this little operation. As I mentioned we were hoping we could make the city a bit more productive and potentially profitable, instead of a resource drain in the middle of the wilderness." John recovered from his energetic introduction and figured they had waited long enough, if any more were to join he would have to direct them down the road. He stood from his seat and lumbered forward, "All right you two, follow me." He led the two out of the trading post and to a stables. Inside were several Cruinthian horses and two wagons. One man seemed to be inspecting the wagons and another was feeding the horses. As he entered John called out to the two, "Bigsby! Gerret! These two will be acting as your escort today."

John gestured towards the two, pointing to them each, "Scarlet and Arthurius, Bigsby and Garret. They will be driving the wagons today. We have some horses that are part of the delivery to Rosterford, you can use them in the meantime. Make whatever final preparations you need, and then you best be on your way."

The two drivers nodded and nearly simultaneously greeted Scarlet and Arthurius, "Nice to meet ya!" Bigsby returned to feeding the horses, Garret continued talking, "I hope you're ready for whatever is out there." then he too returned to his work. The two men were rather average looking, if not a bit muscular. They clearly weren't fighters, they didn't carry themselves as such, but they were likely hard working men.

[Allyria Allenmorde]

"Likewise."

Scarlet said as she whistled for her own horse. It was a steady beast, and that was good. Allyria didn't need some kind of flighty animal under her. Horses were already dangerous at both ends. It was better to be seated across an animal that she knew how to control, and trusted her. The visions that continued to trouble her made her think that some kind of cold or frost aligned mage was in charge of whatever bandits were raiding the supply line.

When the others were ready to go, she would begin moving as well. Taking up the rear of the column naturally. Once they were on the road the question that kept turning over in her head was: "Why not hire a mercenary company?" Hunt down the bandits before sending out the supplies. Or, better yet, if the guild of commerce was footing the bill anyway, send out a decoy shipment with the mercenaries, and another company of mercenaries in reserve and reverse the trap?

This felt like a way to get killed.

She wasn't going to get killed for these people. That was for sure.

---

Allyria Allenmorde (Scarlet)
HP: 400/400
Stm: 76/80 -1
MP: 245/280 -5

Sudden Sight
p90nsU3f

[Arthurius Vallance]

Arthurius was just now figuring a major loophole in this entire operation, he had no clue actually how to ride a horse...

They expected him to ride a horse the whole way there and he wasn't completely sure how he would stay on for long enough, he knew it'd be quicker by far but it'd only be quicker if he could hold on for long enough surely?

"Hey" He casually greeted the workers, whose names he quickyl forgot as he didn't see them as much use to remember, he was here to do his job so he could get some money, no more or less than that as far as he was concerned. He wasn't in the same situation with money that he had once been in, but you could never have quite enough of the stuff, especially when you were in his line of work where rare herbs and the like could pop up at a moments notice and be sold for incredible prices.

Arthurius waited until the line began moving, mounting up his horse as best as he could and hoping above all he wouldn't fall off, he then dropped back with not a fair share of cursing so that he could place himself by his new companion. Arthurius turned to his new companion, not talking particularly loudly as them being overheard could cost them the job, "I apologise for having to ask this but do you have much combat experience? "

---

76/80 SM

[Azuloth]

-Closed. No Penalties. Mod inactivity.-

-This may reopen if the mod returns to an active status.-