Chapter 1: Twisting Skeins

"I, myself, have little preference. A bit of action with those bandits would be a risk better avoided, but it could be good to clear them out. Let me see the map, if I may." Del'Rathan glanced over the paths before them, scouring his memories about the area while considering the possible risks to each side. He glanced over their numbers, and did feel a bit confident, but was wary of risking more than necessary.

//Knowledge is Power!


Knowledge (Local) roll about the waystation: 11 + 14 = 25

Knowledge (Nature) roll about the swamp: 7 + 12 = 19

Del'Rathan recalled passing the waystation before. A few times, actually. Before he and Avel were assigned to Terynsgarde, they'd been at the towers. Three isolated towers on a canyon, two of which were simple guard posts, the other was a mini-fort which hosted a polybolos that was used to kill monsters that came out of the sea. It required extensive training to utilize, Avel commanded a very basic mastery of the inelegant siege weapon, which for a frame of reference meant that unless the bandits were all siege technicians, it was more dangerous for them to use. The most dangerous element was the bridges over the canyons, which saw little use, and were not very well maintained, doubly so with the Vanguard doing most of the travelling through the area (and the fact that they rode dragons--though not true ones--exclusively) made demand for repair rather... low.

The mire was probably safer, although Del'Rathan also knew that it was formerly Krieg territory. In fact, it's where Alexandria 'died' and the Dread Rider was born in her place. He watched Ragothatrux glower a bit, though its growls were not remotely coherent. The fact that Alexandria was expressionless made her lack of retort all the more unsettling, probably because she was quick to write herself off in light of the whole thing. While there were rumors of wild magic within the mire, they were rumors after all. The Vanguard made it a point to tear apart anything that was reported in, but the spooky stories persisted regardless of whether or not they slew every single undead atrocity that came out of a given place at a given time.

"...Oh dear... We should scour the mountainside and see if Lady Eleanor is alive and well." Cherche murmured as she shouldered the bastard sword, Caim stalking off towards the tower without any sort of hesitation. "...Caim is a continual source of inspiration to all retainers. Dereliction of duty, recklessness..." Alexandria began. "Shite posture." She adds with a pause as he Tiefling twirled out the conjoined blade not even fifty feet away across the rickety bridge.

"Not that he can't handle himself, mind you. '87 was an impressive display. That said, safety in numbers should we join him. Easier terrain to bog down hostiles should we encounter them in the mire, especially with the bulk of you being spellcasters." Alex idly adjusted her axe on her shoulder.

Cherche ended up sticking with Callisandra, so one became three on the other end of the bridge, and in about a quarter of a mile, Callisandra could see the fort. The only real advantage was that it was early evening, allowing for a semblance of cover from the half-light. Caim said nothing, offering only a nod, at least at first. "I have little stomach for killing. I did it once, and would prefer to never do so again. The plan was to incapacitate the enemy and capture the fort." Caim admitted, his posture shifting from that of the loyal attendant to that of a proper guard. He was in rare form today, with his ever present smile since faded. "I just hope my spells are enough to protect the both of you."

"Because you are Calli's knight?"

"Because I am Tristan's friend." He replied simply. "And I like to think I am both of your friends." There was a faint sigh and he called their attention over to the canyon proper.

There was a stable platform over to the east which split the west-east bridge into two parts. The nearest portion was about fifty feet long only about seven feet across, meaning one person could comfortably move across (effectively only 5' with players able to move past one another), it seemed much more stable than the other portion past the twenty by twenty plateau, the second bridge was about a hundred feet long and thirteen across, mostly stable, though some spots were maintained better than others. (effectively 10' with players able to swap by, risk of falling into the gorge if too many are packed onto the bridge) with the gorge itself being a long drop, around a hundred feet.

To the south, about three hundred feet was another long bridge, about four hundred feet across, poorly maintained, with the same width as the closest bridge. The canyon could be 'safely' traversed using an arch to the north, though only in the loosest sense as the arch had to be climbed before one could walk across.

Alexandria wasn't too far behind, though it remained to be seen with Del'Rathan. Ragothatrux was now airborne about fifty feet above them, his rider brandishing her greataxe.

___

Jejune continued westward, one night had passed in her new body, and one day. It was mostly uneventful save for the periodic beats of a wyvern's wings on some sort of a patrol, a savage outrider, if she'd hazard a guess based on an almost prowling flight pattern. It would fly out past her with a rider scanning out the environment and then shoot back across the sky, and return and repeat for the better portion of the day. She came across the canyon and could see lights from the post, but then it dawned on her that the telltale guards were not where they should have been, and there was a disconcerting sign. "Traders Welcome" was crudely scrawled, a poor attempt to look harmless. This place had been over taken. Across the way she could see a handful of others (Perception Check to identify, another perception check to get a better idea of the area and presence of things on the east side of the canyon) along with the wyvern rider back in the sky, giving her some idea of the passage of time. She'd have eaten five times since she'd died.

Puling out his spellbook, Del'Rathan flipped through pages casually as he walked behind the others. "Nope... Not it... Still no..." He sighed and kept glancing through, before shaking his head and looking at the bridge. "If I'd remembered the state it was in, I might have been able to try something. But no. Ah well... who wants to risk the scary death trap first?" He smirks playfully, walking up near the closest portion of the bridge.

Carefully, he prods the earliest steps of the bridge with his staff, testing their give and looking curiously. "Do you think they have archers. I bet they have archers. I'd have archers if I were them. We start walking close and as soon as we are spotted it's just arrows. Arrows everywhere." He emulates something raining down with his fingers, before looking back across the bridge. "I still like this idea better than the swamp though, now that I think about it."

Jejune recognized Cherche and Callisandra, even at this distance. Cherche was taller than when they last met, still lacked any semblance of confidence but was outside of her lonely little tower. She had a vague recollection of one of the men with them, Caim, as someone who was playing chess with Cherche the last time they'd met and promptly left once Eleanor and Calli had arrived. Sometime later, the same man had gotten Cherche out of the tower by cheating Lexi's stipulation (and risking his head in the process). Cherche was to remain hidden until she proved her lineage. Caim noted that Cherche was in fact, the spitting image of her mother... in front of her court.

((To speed the process along... it's a DC 10 Dexterity check to move at half speed along the rickety old bridge. 15 for full speed. Failure by 5 or more means you break through and get stuck (Action to unstick yourself, DC 5 Athletics. Reflex 15 to not get stuck to begin with). Failure by ten or more means Caim had better know Feather Fall (he does), or a spell to one shot himself before Lexi gets her hands on him (he does).))

Alexandria shot across without a word to the others, staying as low as she could, to the point where the wyvern's wingbeats could be seen stirring dust on the plateau up ahead. "...Crossbows, more likely. Archery requires actual training and the military's been trained to kill archers as priority targets." Alex's brazenness stirred Cherche to move along first. She moved to the bridge, froze, and blanched. "We believe in you." He promptly drew a spool of rope, tethered one end to Cherche, and one to himself. "In fact, I'll bet my life you can do it." Cherche seemed a bit reinvigorated by the display of selfless faith, and kept moving, quickly and confidently across the bridge. After she was out of earshot, Caim looked to Callisandra. "Frankly I'm more surprised she didn't cry when you mentioned the draconic thing. Her lack of any proof of the lineage had her spending a lot of nights in tears and solitude. Not to seem out of line, milady." Caim said, carefully bracing himself. Frankly, the weight difference did mean that if Cherche fell, Caim would go with her in all likelihood.

A sigh escaped the appealing lips of the princess, “I know. Honestly, it’s all political bollocks to me. I know she is of the lineage. It’s rather plain as day to me… but of course they want ‘proof’ for some damnable reason.” She spat at the ground, her eyes focusing on Cherche as she crossed the bridge, “A big part of why I wanted to get out of Prosperity really, and why I was more than happy to accept Cherche to Terynsgarde and get her out of that mess. I’ll return there when I’m ready to crush those fools and give my niece the peace she needs.” Calli’s gaze finally moved from the young girl to the rest of her troop, “So, who’s next?”

"I suppose she should count herself fortunate we were so hellbent on getting her out of that tower." Caim motioned to Cherche once she got to the other end. "Once we get to the far side, I'll be staying on the defensive to get you and Cherche into the rhythm of formation fighting. If I'm going to get in trouble for this, we might as well glean something useful out of it, yes?" Caim asked with a goodnatured chuckle.

Cherche untethered herself and Caim pulled the rope back over, untied himself and tethered the post, then boldly took a step forward. Jejune hadn't alerted anyone, at least, not that she could tell. He did fine up to about halfway when he lost his nerve, looking back over to the others. He took a brief moment to recompose himself, brought himself the next third without much difficulty, then the next. He then tethered the other end of the post, and tested it. ((OOC: Now the 'ohgodwhyyyy--splat' failure condition is nullified unless someone rolls a natural 1, further, using the rope will allow you to take 10 provided nobody alerts the (very) drunk bandits and thus becomes rushed/threatened. Further, Del and Calli need to go make their perception checks as an opposed roll to Jejune's. As Calli lacks low light vision, she will be taking a -2 penalty.))

The wyvern rider shot under the bridge and over to the top of the tower, Ragothatrux masterfully rolling to let Alexandria drop on top of the tower on the other side, while the woman spitefully soaked the signal fire, tried to get an idea of a soft landing spot before leaping. In fact, Jejune was more perplexed as to how she lost track of the rider once she hit land, as the unitarded armored woman vanished from the brush as soon as Jejune heard her leaving. Or what perplexed her more was a third party involved here, the torches at the southern tower dying bit by bit, leaving only the eastern (main) tower to deal with. She had to have miscounted the number of Avalonians present.