[CLOSED] OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS

[katabasis]

WHO: Marcus, Julius, Tsenka, Silver, Matthias
WHAT: Hunting apostates
WHEN: Sometime in Harvestmere
WHERE: Somewhere in Wildervale
NOTES: OOC Info

Despite what the words 'isolationist mages' might imply, it's difficult for any group of people to completely fall off the map—particularly, when they've arranged to leave behind a forwarding address. Returning to the abandoned homestead the group once occupied reveals a concealed cipher, a message written in some old field code from the days of the Mage-Templar war, which points them roughly in the right direction. With that context in mind, little rumors picked up on the road or in public houses while moving in it take on new life.

A woman traveling with children who neither look like her or one another could be refugees from anywhere, or it could be a mage passing through with a number of young charges. A stranger who owns no land appears with a set of tools for repair, stays for two days until the job is done, and then disappears again. A ghost story about screams heard coming out of some dark wood, recounted in a tiny tavern by a shepherd fresh from fields which lie at the edge of the trees, might be a particularly over-embellished tale of an animal's wail or it might be someone's clever idea of discouraging anyone from traveling certain wooded paths.

Indeed, given a few hours travel through that dark wood during daylight hours and the group will eventually catch sight of a cluster of scraggly buildings in various states of salvage through the trees.

Comments

[delphian]

“You noticed,” is an agreement, delivered as she lights the end of her pipe and breathes out, deeply. Not that she expects it, necessarily, to stop him any more than she's used to it doing; she's never thought Marcus oblivious, only purposeful. His own purpose.

On the other hand, there's questions and then there are questions, and if they actually want an answer...

Maybe asking isn't the way to get it.

“Marcella might speak on it,” eventually. Marcella wants them here. What does that mean?

[luaithre]

"She might."

And she might not. They are promised one evening, welcome as guests, and her hospitality could have its limits too, generous though they have been with their food and their time. In exchange, Marcus is sure, of gossip and intelligence—news of the war, of the conclave in Cumberland, of the business of far away lands. Of Riftwatch's happenings, the amount that Marcus is comfortable in giving them, which is possibly slightly more than most others would be.

But he'd noticed. "Sima and I had a house together, at the first settlement. And it felt like every day I was trying to fix something that was wrong with it, but I knew even less about how we'd go about building a new one completely than only trying to keep it dry. I tried to imagine what she would have suggested we do about it."

Not that the Tranquil are totally incapable of opinion, but even while perfectly logical, their logic could be imperfect. The absence of sentiment does not always mean the presence of objectivity.

"About any of it," he adds.