21st of Kuthona: Leaving the Tower Behind

A crackling campfire gives off light in the dark. White, puffy flakes of snow fall from the sky, and no one is visible next to the fire. A young girl can be heard crying: she has dark hair, and her skin and clothes look charred. She is crying beside a lifeless body. Close by is an overturned caravan, and more bodies can be seen lying among the wreckage as more overturned and charred caravans come into view. Standing above them, with red hair and ruby robes blowing in the wind is a young woman with an aura of flames around her.

Alex wakes up screaming from his vision, and he finds himself on the floor in the dining room of the sorceress's tower. The group had decided to head back into the tower to make their camp for the night, exhausted from their efforts of reaching Eremine the night before. Now, in the early morning hours, the room is stifling, and Alex is covered in sweat. He sits up, and reaches out to touch the stone wall, which is comfortingly cool in comparison. The cold air of the mountains has already reclaimed this tower, and the stones absorb the icy outdoors. The rest of the group is roused from their bedrolls, and they sit up in various stages of alarm to stare at Alex as he tries to compose himself: Tarian has sat up and drawn his sword on reflex, but others, like Sara at his side, have not even stirred.

Alex breathes deeply, looking around at all the alarmed eyes on him, "I'm sorry...I...I must have been having a bad dream. I'm fine, let's just try to get back to sleep."

After a couple glances at Alex's state, everyone settles back down into their bedrolls to sleep. They sleep off the last hours of the night, and morning brings quiet and calm as the group packs their belongings. Tarian pulls the coffee out of his bag of holding and makes a pot, Sara and Alex quietly flirt with each other over their breakfast, and Myne examines the agate amulet with wonder and curiosity, wondering about the significance of the stone that glowed so blue for Eremine. She tucks it under her shirt, careful to conceal the valuable amulet, but keep it safe at her breast.

Eremine fascinates Myne, and she thinks back to the letters and the charred remains of another that were found in her bedroom. Her curiosity about Eremine's potential lover gets the best of her, and she heads back to the throne room where they found the charred bones of another person. Roth goes with her just in case, and while the two of them do not find out anything more about Eremine or her lover, they do find a couple of maps, one with a marked path from the tower to Kassen, and another with lands to the northeast of Ani. They bring the maps back to the rest of the group to discuss their findings and their next steps. They decide to push through the mountains south to try to make their way into Kish, and Roth recalls a pass through the mountains that would take them southwest, but would be the fastest route out of the mountains. Based on the distance and the relative ease of travel the pass would provide, they assume that they will be out of the mountains by the night of the 3rd day out. As they finish final preparations to leave, Myne attempts a new Remove Disease spell on Tarian's hand, which has no effect, to her disappointment, although she did not have her hopes up.

Upon entering the garden, they see that it is now cold, with a veneer of white sparkling snow coating every surface. Myne takes the time to try to find any herbs that might have been spared from the cold, and finds a bunch of mint, cloves, and oregano. They head south in the direction of the pass that will take them through the mountains with relative ease. It is a comfortable ride, the clouds move overhead, bringing with it a light snow that picks up slightly as they begin to descend.

The mountainside is packed with hard snow, but when the group begins to move over the pack, Roth feels the mountainside begin to move under his feet. Alex's horse stumbles on a rock, and he falls off the horse, his armor clanging loudly as he hits the snow. The sound startles Rauros, and he lets out a roar of surprise. They look up to see the top of the mountain give way, and what looks like a cloud of smoke slides towards them at an alarming rate. As they are overtaken by the avalanche, Roth, Tarian, and Sara manage to maneuver around the collapsing snow, while Myne pulls her way through. Myne turns to see Rauros being pulled beneath the snow, and turns to try to pull him out. She can't get him out, but she refuses to leave his side, so she holds onto him as they both get pulled beneath the snow. Tarian sees Lo get pulled under, and uses his grappling hook and throws the hook out close enough to Lo for him to grab hold of it and pull himself out. Sara sees Alex getting pulled under, and she casts an Empowered Fireball ahead of the wave of snow, which blasts the snow to a slushy mess in front of him. The snow settles, and they all dig themselves out from the snow, finding that it has pushed them far down the mountainside with little damage to themselves or the horses. With a few more hours of hiking, they make it to the pass they were looking for: a river bed that had dried long ago. The way is rocky, and there is very little vegetation. The sky darkens earlier than usual because of some cloud cover, and they find a flat patch of ground to make camp for the night. Roth volunteers for first watch, and Myne asks Rauros to join him. Tarian and Lo take the second watch, and Alex volunteers for the third watch.

22nd of Kuthona: Night Watch Escapades & Ghost Town

An Interrupted Night's Watch

Alex slowly surfaces from sleep in the predawn darkness as he feels himself being shaken awake by Tarian. The paladin runs a hand over his face, fingers dragging along his cheeks and chin to pull himself fully out of a dream he was having...a dream that he was glad the others were not privy to. He had never before known the touch of a woman, but as of late he had grown closer to the fiery sorceress within their group, and his thoughts must have drifted to Sara in his sleep. He blinks as he tries to suppress the lingering vision of kissing the length of Sara's neck as her eyes slid shut in pleasure. He closes his eyes hard at the remnants of the dream, vividly seeing himself pull her ruby red robes away from her chest, dropping the garment to her waist as she smiles invitingly at him.

He holds back a groan and opens his eyes again, focusing on the elf and murmuring, "Alright, I'm up. I'll be out in a minute."

He carefully dresses, shaking away the last wisps of the dream and trying to focus on the task at hand: his shift at watch is next. Tarian and Lo needed rest, having the roughest shift of all. Despite his dislike of the two, they had done their duty to the group by allowing Sara and Myne to rest and recoup their magical energies. Alex pulls aside the flap of his tent, and slowly walks out to the bonfire where Tarian and Lo were gathering up their belongings, stretching their arms and legs, and yawning with bleary eyes.

Alex whispers, "Go on, I'm here."

The two give him a smile of thanks and shuffle towards their tents as Alex drops his shield against a nearby tree stump and seats himself on a fallen log by the fire. He runs his hands through his dark hair again, still trying to wake himself up fully when he sees movement from one of the other tents. After a moment, Sara emerges from her tent wrapped loosely in her blanket, auburn hair slightly tousled from sleep and chemise swaying gently with her sleepy shuffle.

The sight of her sends Alex's blood rushing again as he gives her a smile that he hopes hides the dream that continues to linger in his mind, Gods, did she hear my thoughts or something?

He watches her return the smile as she bundles herself up further in her blanket and softly pads towards him.

When she is close enough to hear him, he whispers, "What are you doing up? You should be asleep like the others."

He watches her grey eyes light with a small orange glow that he supposed was a reflection from the fire as she whispers back, "I...I must have heard you guys changing shifts, and I knew I would not be able to go back to sleep. Would you like some company?"

Alex takes a hard swallow as he watches the girl continue to walk towards him; her form was one that had always been pleasing to any eye, but to Alex, the sight of her was waking thoughts and desires that he had never before entertained.

He nods at Sara, inviting her to join him on the log with a wave of his arm, and he admires her smile, her soft pale skin, her almost exotic almond-shaped eyes burning with the flames of the bonfire, Gods she is beautiful…

He inhales as she sits down next to him, and smells a light flowery scent from her bedclothes and hair, and has to take another deep swallow as she shuffles along the log to sit close to him. She gives him a smile before turning to the fire, giving a quiet, *mmmm* as she feels the warmth of the fire on her face. He wants to put his arm around her, but finds the sheer task of lifting his arm to be insurmountable. He settles for leaning close to her with the excuse of trying to keep watch over a difficult patch of brush beside her, cursing himself for his lack of confidence. They sit in companionable but somewhat awkward silence, enjoying the fire's warmth with Alex occasionally standing to take a walk around the perimeter of the camp to ensure all was well. After returning to his seat, fresh from a patrol of the bushes, he finds Sara still seated at the fire where he left her, but she somehow looked different to him, and he could not place why or how.

He tries to not let the feeling bother him as he sits down again next to her, and says, "All is still well. I'm surprised at how dark it still is...seems like morning should be coming soon."

He watches her turn away from the fire to smile at his return and whispers, "I'm glad for the darkness. I don't know if I want morning to come yet."

Alex takes a hard gulp as she places a hand on his leg, softly leaving it there as she turns and snuggles closer to him, placing her head on his chest with a sigh. Hesitantly, Alex finds the courage to put his arm around her, wrapping her up in her blanket and gathering her tightly in his arms. He hears her give a pleased hum, and she squeezes his leg as she snuggles deeper into his chest.

Alex clears his throat to say, "Um, are you warm enough?"

He curses the wavering sound that he hears in his voice, and takes a deep breath, watching her head rise and fall with his breathing. She lifts her head from his chest, placing her free hand over his heart to brace herself against him, and Alex did his best to not radiate with heat from her intimate touch.

She was inches from his face, wearing a soft smile with her eyes somehow still burning from the light of the fire...Gods...Iomedae preserve me…

She runs her other hand up his body to cup his cheek, cradling his face and pulling him down to her. She guides him to kiss her with forwardness he was not expecting, but he finds himself gladly obliging. He holds her tightly in his arms, leaning down to kiss her as she runs her hands through his hair. She raises herself up to meet his mouth, seating herself on his lap and holding the back of his neck with one hand. She grips the ends of his tunic with her other hand, and he thanks Iomedae that he did not bother to put his armor on before coming out for his shift...he would have been nigh impossible to break into. He feels her hand run up his stomach to his chest, and feels a brief tug at the back of his neck as she touches upon his pendant of Iomedae. He is surprised to hear her release a gasp and quickly pull her hand away from it, as if the pendant had somehow burned her hand.

Sara gasps as if doused with a bucket of water, and for a moment wildly looks around at her surroundings. She looks into Alex's wide eyes, and knows that her temporary lapse of memory did not go unnoticed by him. She is happy to see that she is seated on top of him, and that they must have been getting rather intimate, but is disturbed that she could not remember how she had reached that point.

She did not want to ruin the moment, Gods I have wanted him for so long, and leans in to kiss him again, hoping to cover his surprise with more kisses.

In her mind, she attempts to piece together what was missing: she had heard the paladin starting his shift at watch, and thankfully had been allowed to sit next to him for his shift.

They were sitting together in silence...and he had gone for another patrol...and now here she was, seated on top of him kissing him deeply, This is no time to ask questions! Just catch up!

She reaches out to return his touch, and decides her best course of action was to continue, blushing as she kisses him with the warm firelight behind her. Their kisses by the fire were not enough for either, and Sara takes the lead to bring a hesitant Alex back to her tent. They both felt the beginnings of love, and with the danger of the avalanche still fresh in their minds, both had the fear of not seeing another day: live for the moment rather than waiting on ceremony. In Sara's tiny tent, they spend the rest of the pre-dawn darkness in the warmth of each other's arms, with the sounds of sighs and soft giggles new lovers make emanating from the tarpaulin. Luckily, the rest of the morning passes uneventfully for the group, since their watchman was otherwise occupied.

Intimidated Bear & Burnt Hair

Lo is peacefully resting after a rough shift at second watch. Despite the cold, he did not find it difficult to find sleep; he must have fallen asleep as soon as he laid himself down in his tent. Now, his eyes pop open in the light of early dawn, and he hears something moving outside his tent. As the sound gets closer to the opening of his tent, Lo recognizes it as the breathing of a large animal. The flap of his tent moves, and the snout of a bear, then the whole head pokes into Lo's tent, and to Lo's horror, it's not Rauros…. it's a full-grown grizzly. Lo pulls out his lute, and plays an Intimidation song, and playing the harsh and crackling chords scares the bear. The grizzly rears up on its hind legs, which pulls the tent's stakes out of the ground, and as the bear takes off down the ravine, it takes Lo's tent with it.

The commotion the bear creates rouses the others, and Myne, Roth, and Tarian pull themselves out of their tents to protect the camp. They all look around at the quiet campsite with Lo standing in his birthday suit, and they notice that Alex, the person that should be on guard, is nowhere to be seen. His shield and sword are leaning against a tree stump, but all is quiet, and they notice that Sara did not emerge from her tent either. Roth tries to figure out what might have happened to Alex, and follows his tracks around the camp, pacing back and forth before veering off to Sara's tent. Knowing the romance that had been building between the two since Alex reunited with the group makes them hesitate to take any further action. Myne lets out a sigh of excitement for her cousin's romance, and they look to Lo with averted eyes to hear about the intimidated bear making off with his tent. Roth tracks the bear down the ravine, and finds Lo's tent crumpled and slightly ripped from the bear's escape, which he brings back to camp. Myne casts a Mend spell to repair the tent, and the group settles down to sleep for a desperately needed snooze before morning, trying their best to not notice any sounds coming from Sara's tent.

When morning arrives, the group begins to make breakfast and take down camp. As Tarian sips his coffee, Alex emerges from his own tent as nonchalantly as possible.

Wearing a wry grin Tarian says, "Morning, Alex. See anything interesting on your watch?"

The rest of the group shares a quiet giggle at Alex's expense, but Alex seems to not notice, "It was a quiet night. It passed uneventfully…"

Sara appears from her own tent, and Alex turns to greet her. The group grin collectively when they notice that Alex has a patch of singed hair on his temple.

Ghosts in the Mine Shaft

They set out for the day, following a small stream with ease. Around noon, they see a village in the distance, and considering how isolated the village is, and the fact that they see no smoke from chimneys, and no activity in the streets, they approach with caution. The stone buildings in the village are old, and it has clearly been abandoned for a long time. There are broken windows and doors that are hanging off their hinges. They see equipment lying about: pickaxes, wheelbarrows, and other mining tools. They see an abandoned stable, and among the small stone buildings they also see a larger central building. There is no door on the central building, and inside they see a desk in the center of the room with log books for supplies and shipments. It records the mining activity for the village, with the most recent entry being 50 years ago. There is a mentioning of Morrona, and there is also a mention of rare metals like gold and silver. In the margins, there are also notes of complaints from the miners about noises in the mine that have been shrugged off as air moving through the shaft. It intrigues the group enough to want to find the mine shaft and see if there is anything that can be discovered: some are hoping for valuables, others are hoping to find crystals.

They find the mine shaft to the east of the village, and next to the entrance they find a smaller building where mining supplies and materials were stored, but nothing of interest is inside. They decide to investigate the mine shaft, with Roth lighting a torch and Sara casting Dancing Light to make orbs of light. In the mine shaft, the walls are cold and damp. As they walk, their footsteps echo off the stone, and the smell of earth invades their senses. They do not go far into the tunnel before they come to a point where the mine ends abruptly, as if the miners dropped their tools and left the mine. Alex detects evil in the area, and they feel a breeze from behind them. As they turn around to look at the source of the breeze, they see a translucent man standing there. He is wearing armor, carrying a sword, and sporting a long beard. He points to them and shouts, "Invaders from Morrona! Leave this place, and pledge allegiance to Shramg the King!" Tarian knows that about 100 years ago there was a dispute over the lands. Morrona was just a city-state, and this mining village was mostly inhabited by northerners from Ani. There was a war over the valuables in the area, and those who lived in the mountains gathered under the flag of Shramg, but the war was won by Morrona, and Shramg traveled north to Ani and established the country there. When Tarian explains this to the group, the ghost looks at them again and shouts, "Leave my lands!" Alex knows that this man is a spectre, and when Myne and Lo try to talk to him, he seems to be angered even more, and walks towards them menacingly with ethereal sword drawn.

Sara casts Scorching Ray and hits while Roth fires off a Rapid Shot and hits it with three arrows. The spectre calls upon fellow fallen comrades, and three more spectres appear at his side to fight. The first goes after Tarian and slashes at him, the second goes after Alex but misses, and the third goes after Roth and misses. Alex ignores the spectre attacking him and immediately goes after the first soldier, running in front of Sara to block her and hitting it. Tarian takes a step towards the main soldier as well, and Lo prepares an Inspire Confidence song. Myne and Rauros attack the main spectre as well, and Rauros's claws make the soldier phase out of existence.

Sara casts mage armor on Alex, and as Roth lines up a shot at the third soldier Lo casts his inspire spell, and Roth hits the spectre three times with Rapid Shot. Lo casts Hideous Laughter on the same spectre that Roth aimed for, but misses. The first spectre swings his sword at Tarian but misses, and the second spectre misses his swing at Alex. The third spectre hits Roth, and Alex manages to hit the second spectre once. Tarian gives the spectre an angry look and hits the first spectre, and Myne and Rauros join Tarian in the attack on the first spectre.

Sara casts Flaming Sphere on the second spectre and hits, Roth attacks the third spectre with Rapid Fire and the hits make it phase out of existence. Lo attacks the first spectre with his short sword and misses, and the same spectre attacks Tarian and hits. The second spectre attacks Alex and hits. Alex swings into the second spectre and it phases out. Tarian, Myne and Rauros all lash out at the final spectre, and it too phases out.

From all around the mine shaft, they hear shouting echoing off the walls, "Leave this place!"

"Leave!"

They take the hint, and with nothing in the mine to keep them there, they rush out of the mine, and leave the abandoned village behind.

The rest of the day passes uneventfully, and as they descend further, the temperature begins to increase noticeably. The sun starts to set, and they find a place to set up camp. Lo, Tarian and Alex volunteer for watches, and the night goes by without incident.

23rd of Kuthona: Burning Hot Love

The group wakes up to the smell of smoke, and as they all peer out of their tents, they see a very un-clothed Alex and Sara standing outside the flaming remains of Sara's tent trying to fan out the fire. When they notice the group watching them, Alex grabs his shield for some cover, and Sara manages to pull her pack out of the tent before it is completely incinerated. As the love-birds attempt to compose themselves, the rest of the group busies themselves with breakfast and packing up camp.

It is noticeably warmer, and the pines are changing to more varied vegetation. With the sun out, the group makes good time through the mountains, but they do not completely leave the mountains by the end of the day.

As they set up camp, Sara pulls Myne aside with a small amount of fear behind her eyes, and looks carefully at Myne before saying, "Myne, since we have some down-time I want to redistribute some of the goods that are in my pack. I am somewhat fearful of holding onto so many valuable magical items... what if my pack were to be stolen?"

Myne gives her a confused but somewhat understanding look as she says, "Alright, Sara...if you want me to hold onto some things, I'm more than willing to help carry...what items did you want me to take?"

Sara reaches into her pack, carefully pulls out a leather pouch, and hands it to Myne.

Myne gives her a questioning look as she feels the weight of the pouch in her hands, and Sara replies, "It's the Starstone crystal that we retrieved from Eremine's tower…"

Myne takes a deep breath and says, "Sara, I will watch over this if you wish...I still do not quite understand-"

Sara interrupts her cousin and says, "It's fine. Like I said, I just fear losing things…"

Around the campfire, the group discusses watch for the night. They don't want the worry of a distracted Alex on his shift, so Rauros and Myne take first shift, Tarian takes the second, and Roth takes the third.

Sara and Alex leave the company the fireside offers, and find a secluded area not far from the protection of their friends and the glow of the campfire. Sara leans against a tree to allow Alex the opportunity to press against her in an embrace as they start to kiss. They had felt an insatiable need to be close to one another after their first night together, and now, at every opportunity they could create, they embraced and kissed each other deeply, allowing their hands to roam if they knew they would not be found.

Alex gently releases Sara as he senses something off about her, and whispers, "Are you okay? You feel...different tonight."

Sara closes her eyes, hums gently and says, "I...I am not sure. I can't believe I set my tent on fire last night...at least I saved my pack, though. It has my journal in it, among other things, that I would hate to lose. I feel as if I need to have others take my things because I might set them on fire!"

She thinks for a moment with her lips pursed and continues, "Wait here, please. I think I want to give you something."

Sara rushes through the undergrowth to Alex's tent, climbing inside and rifling through her pack until she finds what she wants: her journal.

She scampers back to Alex with a smile, holding out her journal to him and says, "Here. I want you to have it. Alex, I...I think I love you, and I can think of very little more precious to me than my journal."

Alex carefully takes the leather-bound journal, turning in over in his hands and caressing the cover before saying, "Sara, thank you. It has been on my mind for days now, but it is hard to put into words until you hear it spoken back to you...I love you too. I have something just as precious I can give you in exchange, and luckily, it's made of metal so you won't have to worry about burning it."

From his shirt pocket, Alex pulls out a handkerchief that he carefully unwraps, revealing an ornate, silver pendant on a fine chain necklace.

Holding it out to her, he says, "This was my mother's. It is the only thing I carry of hers, and I have been waiting for an opportunity to give it to you…"

He leans close to her ear as he places the necklace in Sara's palm, "You are more precious to me than anything."

Sara sighs, lifting her head up to wait for Alex to return to her mouth, and he gladly obliges.

As they kiss, Sara's thoughts drift once again to the fear that gripped her, Brave paladin...save me.