Session 6-03.3

1629, Earth Season, Harmony Week, Clayday

A text-based session that followed Rest In Pieces, Rushes (Session 6.3-1), (Session 6.3-2) and one interlude:

Dramatis Personae

Events

Maalira wakes up to find someone made a little bivouac for her out of her cloak, to keep the sun off.  The others are around.  Kolyey is asleep and the animals have vanished.

“What.” It doesn’t sound like a question, but it does sound grumpy.

There is the sound of someone moving outside the little grass-woven tent.¹GM: I decided your cloak was like that because it’s cute.

Maalira very carefully pokes the cloak directly above her. “Cloak. Mine. Huh.” She pauses. “…hello?”

Footsteps happen.  Berra peers around the top of the cloak.  “You’re awake.  Good.”  She looks earnest, scarred, and upside-down.

“Berra.” The relief is unmistakable. “What happened?” “I think you fainted.  Keeping someone alive or else when a spirit attacked you?”  Berra looks thoughtfully, helpfully worried.²

GM: Maalira, I believe you fainted after using all your magic to keep someone alive; that person is not now in evidence.  They are the warrior that Berra chopped up on you.

Maalira swears. “I healed someone. I couldn’t let him die after protecting him, could I?” She tries to move and winces. “I might have overdone it.”

Berra says wistfully, “He got away.  We were asleep for a while, all of us, I think.  I woke up first and it was getting hotter.  Wow, your dress is a mess.”

There’s a snore in the distance.

Berra tilts her head to the side.  “I think Kolyey’s gonna be alright.  She’s probably not up for waking but I could go kick he… go check.”  She does not move yet, just stays to check Maalira is well.

Maalira tries to peer at her dress. “Oh no, it really is.”

“The magic’ll help, right?”  Hopeful Humakti.

“When I have enough energy, yes,” Maalira says. “Right now, no.”

Berra nod-nods.  “Want me to move the cloak?”  It is just on sticks.  Maalira could deal with it trivially.

Kolyey groans. “Oh, my aching head.”

“Oh, she’s awake.”  To her credit, Berra does look over towards her co-warrior.

“Yes please,” Maalira says. “I need to help Kolyey.”

Berra just picks up the cloak and kicks the sticks away.  “Kolyey, stay down if’ya wanna,” she calls.

On cue, Kolyey says, “Thanks. Tell that iron sword of yours that I am mad at it.”

“Uh… oh, yes.  I think Lord Eril might have already.” Berra’s expression is a worried wince now.³GM: Maalira, do me an INTx3? M: Pass intx3. GM It’s entirely possible, given Berra is reacting hugely to other things, that she doesn’t realise what she did, by wounding someone under your protection.

Maalira half-smiles at Berra. “I’m about to sit up. If it goes wrong, feel free to catch me or at least make sure the ground doesn’t hit me too hard?”

Berra nods and offers a hand.  “You’ll be fine.  You’re strong.”

Maalira takes Berra’s hand and achieves upright.

Berra stays exactly ready to catch her.  Kolyey might as well go whistle.

She looks down at her dress and wrinkles her nose. “It’s worse than I thought.” She thinks. “You said they got away, after I healed them?”

Berra nods.  “I think so.  I was out for a while.  Lord Raven made… uh, an interesting choice?”

Kolyey sticks her head out and looks for her zebra. No zebra.  Lack of stripe.  Zero hoof.  No floof. She groans and flops back inside the tent.

Maalira cocks her head at Berra. “What did Lord Raven do?”

Berra closes her eyes with the enormity of what she is saying.  “He decided to have it out with the Hero.” Berra adds, eyes still closed, “I think he’s a very angry spirit, in some ways.”

“Oh, you think?” Maalira mutters. She stretches each limb carefully, checking for injuries perhaps or stiffness or fatigue. Then she swivels on her backside until she’s facing Kolyey.

Berra hovers, careful. Maalira looks up at her. “Can you help me to my feet and get me over to Kolyey? I should be able to get rid of the headache.”

“Sure.  Or we could call her over here.  She’s a soldier.”  Berra does offer a hand as well as a choice.

“She’s the one with the headache,” Maalira says, taking Berra’s hand and rising carefully. Berra is a strong, steady, calm person.  Two of those things are only true when helping White Ladies to their feet.

Varanis appears suddenly and heads over to Kolyey to offer her a hand. The Vingan is covered in faded red welts, almost as if she’d been whipped or clawed badly, but had time to mostly heal. Kolyey takes Varanis’ hand and gets to her feet. “Thank you, Thane.” Kolyey looks fine.

Maalira squints at Varanis. “What happened to you?!”

“You’re welcome,” Varanis replies to the Humakti, still holding on to ensure she’s stability. To Maalira, she says, “Best as I can tell, Dezar went mad for a bit. I think it was the Storm Khan’s doing.”

Maalira groans slightly. “Well this is a mess.” She starts towards Kolyey.

Berra goes alongside.  “We’re going to have to get our mounts back, and the Telmori have disappeared.  So, Varanis and Xenofos and I made breakfast.”

Kolyey appears healthy, except for a death-dealing headache.

“Well, I built the fire, anyway,” Varanis admits. “People don’t seem to like my cooking.” She glares at Berra.

Maalira’s stomach gives an audible rumble, and she sighs. “First headache then breakfast. I mean, getting rid of it. The headache, not the breakfast.”

“Your cooking is fine as long as nobody has to… eat it.”  Berra gives Varanis an innocent look.

“Thank you, White Lady,” says Kolyey.⁴M: I passed a first aid roll btw

Xenofos approaches bareheaded,  carrying his helmet upside down. His face lights up when he sees Maalira and Kolyey upright. He offers the helmet to Maalira. It is filled with water. “I woke with a headache too,” Varanis mentions, wrinkling her nose. “It was awful. But some water and time helped.”⁵GM: Yeah, this is what happens when you lose at Spirit Combat; your spirit is emptied out, and you come round a bit later.  Maalira, you probably slept while not strictly unconscious, so recovered a bit.

Berra says, “Humakt’s good to me.  I recover quickly.”

 “Humakt is good to us all. Shall I track our mounts, Commander?”

Berra shakes her head.  “A few more minutes won’t make a difference to them, and it’ll keep us in better condition.  We woke to a battle.  Go get some food down you.” Kolyey goes to eat.

Maalira looks into the helmet, then at Xenofos.

Xenofos shrugs. “My waterskin is on the back of Curly.”⁶His bison. Also, Xenofos has the same red welts as Varanis.

“Maalira, do you know much about Rushes to Battle and his clan?” Varanis asks.

“Not really, no,” Maalira says, still holding the water like she’s not entirely sure what to do with it.

“Drink?” Berra suggests. “Oh, right.” Maalira carefully drinks from the helmet, adding water to the mess down her dress.⁷V: Wet tunic contest! B: Berra wins.  She doesn’t enter the contest, though. M: It is a white dress, so… V: Varanis might give the wet-white-robed woman an appreciative glance.

“I’m wondering about how likely they are to retaliate and what form it might take.” Berra makes sure that Maalira is getting the slightly salty water down her in the drinking sense and then nods approvingly to Xenofos.  “I think he was mostly holding the war band together?” she says, nose wrinkling under the scars as she thinks.  “And the … the man we ransomed that one time, people disapproved.  I think that I think.  I’m not sure.  I’ve done a lot since then.”⁸Berra is entirely unfazed by Wet Tunic Maalira.  Maybe she hasn’t noticed.

Varanis nods thoughtfully, but adds, “I guess I’m considering what might happen if they spread stories in Prax about us consorting with Chaos.”

Maalira splutters water. “That would not be good.”

“Then we fight them.”  Berra pauses, and then adds, “Which would not be good.”

Maalira sighs. “Can we at least eat first?”

“‘S’over there. You lot eat, I’ll keep watch.” Varanis waves in the direction Kolyey went.

“We can’t cook, but we can heat up food.  We did that.”  Berra looks to Varanis.  “You sure?” “Go. I’ve got this.”⁹V: Also have to catch Witiges and take him to the groomer.

Kolyey is stoically eating her breakfast. Maalira hands the helmet back to Xenofos and sets off towards the food.¹⁰I have to go water the garden before I forget and lose the light – back in 10.

Berra goes off to wrap herself around food, in the way she does – fast.  “I had a think about the animals…”  She looks around and who is doing what, shrugs, and shuts up.

 “Mine bucked me off and the White Lady’s bison tried to stick its horn in my head,” Kolyey calls over.

“A thing attacked Xenofos.  Impala.”  Berra shrugs again, this time as a change of subject.  “But I meant about getting them back.  I forgot now though.  Maybe it’ll come to me.”

Kolyey nods. “They will look for water eventually,” she points out.

Maalira looks up. “My Lofty tried to do what?!”

“She tried to stick her horn in my head,” Kolyey replies.

“Why would she do that?”

“What, she went for you?”  Berra pauses with a full spoon.

Kolyey nods.

Berra frowns.  “Everything started attacking, except us.”

“That’s… not good.” The White Lady looks worried.

Kolyey nods again. “At least I feel better now.”

Berra says, “Once we’ve eaten we’ll feel better still.  Then we can get together and look at what we’ve got.”

“A mess,” murmurs Maalira around her mouthful.

“Not much,” Kolyey says. “Anything that wasn’t on our mounts was probably stolen by the young Storm Bulls.”

“Each other.  The clan here.  Our wits.  Enough time.  And yeah, a mess, but we hadn’t loaded up the animals for the morning yet, and the Storm Bulls ran away when they heard that their leader was dead.  So, we’re going to assume the bisons and zebras are alive because it’s useless to think otherwise, and look for Lofty first.”  Berra seems relaxed.

“You’re very calm about this,” Maalira observes.

“She is the commander,” Kolyey points out. “She has to stay calm.”

“I had a while before anyone else woke up.”  Berra nudges a pot away from the fire to let it cool.  “An’ that.  In the speed of a battle I have to make decisions fast.  Here, I need to make decisions right.”

Maalira gives Kolyey a look. “I have seen her not calm,” she points out, but then she smiles at Berra.

Berra nods, admitting the justice and truth of that.

Kolyey looks back at Maalira. “If she doesn’t stay calm now, then morale will go to Humakt’s Hall.”

“Nah, I think we’re fine.  But also, I think we’re fine.  That is – we all got a shock.  But there’s only one really important thing right now and that’s the animals.  To find them, we don’t want to split up, but… oh yeah, that was what I was thinking.  There are other Telmori around here and I wondered if Varanis could ask them to help.  And also, we shouldn’t split up.  So we eat, we leave things here, and maybe we try to signal to the kids up in the forest, or find a herder.  But then we look for the animals together, once we’re all fit to walk.  And once we know that, we know that we don’t have to worry about stuff.  I was worried, but… no point.”  There is a thread of logic there, for certain.

“The Telmori will probably want to eat the mounts. Perhaps we should find the impalas first,” Kolyey suggests.

“Depends which Telmori.  They all did seem impressed by Varanis.  We’ll look for Lofy… Lofty first.  And then whatever’s closest.  None of us are much good at tracking, though.  The best we’ve got is the boy Harmakt, and he’s an hour away.”  That gets a light scowl from Berra.

Kolyey simply says, “Drat.”

The captain of one other troop adds, “Extra ideas are good,” but then she falls silent.

Kolyey looks at Maalira.

Maalira shrugs. “Berra’s decision. Though, I would like Lofty back unharmed.”

“Varanis’ decision, but we’d have made bad decisions if as just …. if we just set off.”  Berra rolls out her shoulders, which she always does when getting ready for a fight.  “Those that have water bottles, make sure they’re full.”  That last part might be a familiar phrase or quote, by how she says it.

• 1
  GM: I decided your cloak was like that because it’s cute.
• 2
  
  
  GM: Maalira, I believe you fainted after using all your magic to keep someone alive; that person is not now in evidence.  They are the warrior that Berra chopped up on you.
• 3
  GM: Maalira, do me an INTx3? M: Pass intx3. GM It’s entirely possible, given Berra is reacting hugely to other things, that she doesn’t realise what she did, by wounding someone under your protection.
• 4
  M: I passed a first aid roll btw
• 5
  GM: Yeah, this is what happens when you lose at Spirit Combat; your spirit is emptied out, and you come round a bit later.  Maalira, you probably slept while not strictly unconscious, so recovered a bit.
  
  
• 6
  His bison. Also, Xenofos has the same red welts as Varanis.
• 7
  V: Wet tunic contest! B: Berra wins.  She doesn’t enter the contest, though. M: It is a white dress, so… V: Varanis might give the wet-white-robed woman an appreciative glance.
• 8
  Berra is entirely unfazed by Wet Tunic Maalira.  Maybe she hasn’t noticed.
• 9
  V: Also have to catch Witiges and take him to the groomer.
• 10
  I have to go water the garden before I forget and lose the light – back in 10.