[ We join Our Heroes as they march through the rain. And boy, they must just be lovin' it. ] [ Normally when it rained, they could find some shelter from it, often something rather conveniently nearby. But the brass here won't hear of it - you're marching today unless the road becomes completely impassable for some reason. ] [ And so you march along getting wet, even as the thick mud makes constant attempts to suck your boots off. Everyone had an umbrella spell up at the beginning of the march, but nearly all of those have fallen, by now. Every now and then you get a merciful pause when a supply wagon gets stuck in the mud - just like you're getting right now. ] [ Session start! ] * Ethan sighs as his "Large Cookie Onna Glaive" umbrella idea fails. "Ah well." * Sei is looking gloomy, but in an odd manner - almost as if it's good to have circumstances in which to be really *properly* gloomy. ( At last, I'm earning my right to brood! ) * Ethan munches the cookie instead, and resigns himself to being wet. * Nebrinel shakes her hair, which, aside from her skin, is the only part getting wet, since she has so much absurdly waterproofed clothing. "I do not know what you were thinking anyway, Ethan. If you were indeed thinking at all." Cookie large. Block rain. Ugh. * Ada frowns irritably, not even bothering to get out of the mud. It's pointless anyhow. [ For the record, the let's-burn-their-food idea worked; the enemy was forced to retreat back to a supply point, and you're now more or less following them. According to the scuttlebutt going around, they've picked up supplies along the way, but they're still heading north anyway. ] Cookies dissolve in water. A lot like milk, that. It was a crunchy cookie, though. You say that like it makes a difference. * Nebrinel rolls her eyes, and eyes the road. Well, it's crunchy. Rocks are crunchy, too. *grin* * Fyril trudges along off to the side next to Ada, and forlornly runs a hand through his hair, dislodging some water. He looks somewhere around miserable. (No, no, your technique's all wrong.) * Ethan shakes his head, holsters his glaive, pulls a wood-and-leather umbrella out of his pack, and opens it. * Ada eyes the umbrella. "And you thought the cookie would work better because...? * Nebrinel eyes Ethan, and says, "Yes, let's hear this explaination." [ The line starts back up again, the soldiers getting to their feat and continuing the march. A cold breeze picks up from the north. ] Because I wouldn't have to holster my glaive. If we get ambushed, it'd take me at least half a second to get my glaive out... (Show me, wise master!) * Ethan moves closer to Ada so as to shield her from the rain too. "You complaining?" *smirk* (z_z) (You want me to sleepwalk?) * Ada smirks right back. "Yeah. You could have taken it out sooner, and then I wouldn't be nearly this soaked." She pushes some plastered hair from her face. * Fyril looks up at the umbrella longingly, then off down the road, and sighs. He flexes his hands a couple of times. ... point. Just don't like not havin' my weapon in my hands when I'm walkin' around. * Nebrinel makes a huffing exhaling noise and starts walking. [ A nearby horse that an officer is riding makes a similar noise. ] (Whinney, babe.) ( WIIIIIIIIIIIILBUUUUUUUUUUR! ) * Ada pats Ethan on the arm. "I know." She gets back to walking. * Sei is sticking to the rear of the group, either pondering or staring off into space. [ And so you march some more. Scuttlebutt has come along - even while you're marching, yes - that you'll be stopping before long. Some are relieved to hear the news, others dismiss it as wishful thinking, Napper insists it don't matter. ] ... of course, if I had a heavier umbrella, I could use it as a weapon in a pinch... hmm... (In grunts, I assume.) ( Nope. "Don't matter" are his exact words. ;) ) (Ethan as Anji. Oh, the image.) * Nebrinel blows her hair up ineffectually, and plays with her gauntlets a little. "Or perhaps you could ask Ada to carry your umbrella and quit your bellyaching." ( Ethan as Ryouga is a bit closer. Although I dunno Anji. ) * Ethan frowns, and eyes Nebby. "Nah. The umbrella keeps you from getting close enough to me to bowl me over when you trip." * Fyril seems happy with the idea of stopping, but he doesn't say anything about it. He takes his satchel in hand and switches it to the other shoulder. * Nebrinel says simply, "The glaive would work better." * Ethan snorts. "Didn't work before. Figure I'll give the umbrella a shot." * Nebrinel frowns, but doesn't respond. * Ethan shrugs, and continues with the walking and the keeping Ada dry. * Ada is perfectly happy with being dry. She's looking a bit less cranky now. [ The road turns around a bend up ahead, and beyond that you see a wide stretch of foothills that are so gently sloping in parts that the low parts almost seem flat. Many of the hills are already occupied by camps and flags. ] [ Whether all of them belong to you, the enemy, or some to each, you don't know. ] ... well now. * Nebrinel peers off into the distance at the foothills. "How wonderful." [ Not long after that, a fog bank rolls in on you with alarming speed. As in, it appears and then is all around you in a matter of seconds. Thick fog, making it difficult to see more than five feet around you. One of the other soldiers comments sarcastically; "Gee, I wonder if that's magical." ] * Ada snorts, looking around. [ Ada sees fog! ] * Fyril squints and looks around, still trying to look off into the distance at the flags. Interesting. * Ethan glares at the fog. Bad fog! Bad! [ Word comes passed along from the officers on horseback - one shouting to the other - that the fog is safe to breathe. Which is probably quite worrisome if it hadn't occurred to you tht it might not be. ] * Nebrinel chuckles faintly, and starts moving over towards Fyril. * Ethan shakes his head. "Ah, the footsoldier... the food-taster for the officer corps." I feel so honored. * Fyril squints, and looks towards Ethan. "What? But they're breathing this at the same time. It's not just us." Well, look on the bright side. When the action starts, the officers have big bullseyes on them. *grin* [ The officers then start coming along the file and having you all put one hand on the shoulder of the soldier in front of you so you can keep together. This proves slightly more difficult than normal for Ethan and Ada, since they're human, and especially for Fyril since he's a kid, and the guy in front of him is Aelbur, who, if you don't recall, is well over eight feet tall. ] * Ada gives in to the short. She's short. (What do you mean, especially? I'm shorter than Fyril! Ethan's probably shorter than Fyril. ;P) ( Yes, but the people in front of you and Ethan are shorther than Aelbur. ;P ) * Ethan reaches up high to the guy in front of him, holding the umbrella up over himself and Ada with one hand as best he can. * Fyril reaches way up, fails, blushes, and just takes a hold of the back of Aelbur's shirt. Good enough. * Sei seems to be doing okay. [ You're led along in this fashion for a while, until you come to a hill, which you climb to the top of. The officers, who have all dismounted by now, line you up into something of a defensive circle. You're not sure how many of you are up here, or how big the hill is, or of many other important details that would doubtless be revealed if you could see past the person right next to you. ] * Nebrinel ends up next to Fyril, and says softly, "Well, how lucky can ya get, eh?" [ Things get really quiet, then. It seems fairly obvious that you're going to get attacked while this fog's here, and chances are you'll have a hard time knowing when it's coming. ] * Ethan puts away his umbrella, and draws his glaive. "Sorry, Ada." * Sei casts a spell. Don't suppose you know a wind spell to get rid of this fog... * Fyril says back quietly, with some fear in his voice, "Yeah... at least the people around me can fight." He tries looking back and away. I don't, unfortunately... [ The area around Sei becomes less foggy as non-fogged air swirls around him. It seems like the fog's trying to get into his little shield, tho. ] * Nebrinel says in a voice just loud enough to carry to the group, "If I were them, I'd be maintaining this, rather than letting it set. So unless we can get all our mages together, we'll never counteract it." * Ada looks at Ethan. "Forgiven." [ On the upside, the rain has quit. ] * Ethan shrugs, and drops into a charge-countering stance. "Well, if they wanna attack, they're gonna hafta get close enough that we can see 'em. And we'll prolly hear them before that." [ On the downside, there's suddenly people trying to cut you apart. Ada, Ethan, and Sei need appropriate defense rolls, and you all need to rol init. ] d6+9 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Nebrinel (d6+9) and gets 10. 2d6-3 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Ethan (2d6-3) and gets 9, a CRITICAL FAILURE!!! "I hope you invested in some good armor." 2d6-3 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sei (2d6-3) and gets 1. 2d6-3 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Ada (2d6-3) and gets 2. d6+8 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Ethan (d6+8) and gets 10. d6+7 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Ada (d6+7) and gets 13. d6+5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sei (d6+5) and gets 7. d6+5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Fyril (d6+5) and gets 8. [ Ada and Sei both manage to duck out of the way in time, but Ethan's attempt to deflect the blade sends it right into his side. ] [ It's Ada's turn, now! ] [ There's about a half-dozen guys with swords right in front of you. They are, in all likelihood, the ones that just tried to cut you all up. ] * Ethan winces as the blade catches a significant amount of flesh. "Dammit... sloppy sloppy sloppy..." * Ada glares, not bothering to draw her weapon. She points a hand towards the one that attacked her and whispers, "Lightning Strike." 2d6-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Ada (2d6-4) and gets 3. [ The guy in front of Ada is stuck by lightning, which has some interesting side-effects in the thick fog - one is that you all feel a slight tingle of the electricity (but take no damage). The other is that the bright light from the bolt seems to be reflected off every droplet of water in the air, and there's a lot of those. I need Body rolls with a +1 penalty for each level of heightened senses; sight. ] 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Nebrinel (2d6) and gets 6. [ Oh, and meanwhile? The guy is *toast*. ] 2d6+2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sei (2d6+2) and gets 7. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Ethan (2d6) and gets 5. 2d6+2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Fyril (2d6+2) and gets 11. [ Sei and Fyril go blind! ] (Great, now when I run away, I'm going to impale myself on something. =P) [ The rest of you just get funny multicolored spots in your vision, but can still see The Enemy, who are rubbing their eyes and cursing in the highly creative way that soldiers do. ] * Nebrinel draws Plaguebringer at the same time she sweeps her off hand in the air in front of her, with a strained, "Vacuum Blade!" [ Nebby's turn! She needs to roll for that attack. ] 2d6-5 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Nebrinel (2d6-5) and gets 6. * Ada opens one eye, then the other. And grins. [ Nebby's attack messes up the remaining smirking sneak... er, soldiers, who fall over and bleed a lot. ] (Whoo! BLEED!) [ And that seems to be all of it on this side. At least, nobody else is trying to cut you, at the moment. ] * Nebrinel rubs her eyes. "Damn, Ada, couldn't you try to warn us next time?" * Ada flexes the fingers of her right hand. "But that would ruin the fun. * Ethan peers out into the fog, trying to see (or hear) the next wave coming, while trying to ignore the nice-sized bleeding wound in his side. * Sei rubs his eyes. "That was quite something..." * Fyril blinks a lot, turns towards Ada's voice, and says panickedly, "Fun? I can't see. That's not fun." Er...could someone point me in the general direction of Ethan? Okay, fog is now officially added to the list of things that qualify as "Banes of my Existance"... follow my voice, Sei. * Ada sighs, going to Sei and guiding him towards Ethan. "There." Thanks. * Sei casts Heal on Ethan. * Ada turns to Fyril once Sei starts healing Ethan. "It'll wear off in a few minutes." How can you know that? * Nebrinel curses softly. She takes her offhand and grabs Fyril's hand. "Good question. Fyril, quickly... get behind me until you can see again." Because if it was bright enough to permanently blind you, my vision wouldn't be just find. 2d6-3 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sei (2d6-3) and gets 2. * Ada looks irritated now. She steps over to Fyril and says in a low voice, "It's my spell. I had better know." [ Bruthah Ethan is HEALED! Hallelujiah, puh-rayze tha' lawd! ] (Sei does not like televangelists. >_>) * Ethan pokepokes his side. "Good as new. Thanks, Sei. Now, where the hell is that next wave..." *looks/listens* Welcome. ( Yu felt like making the joke. Sei's dislikes are irrelevant. ^_^ ) * Fyril scoots behind Nebrinel, and shakes his head. "You ever use it in these conditions before? Can you know?" [ There's the sound of fighting about fifty feet to the northwest of you, which can be assumed to be another side of the hill. It ends before long, tho. ] * Ada frowns. "Yes and yes. Who uses a spell untested?" Fyril...Ada's as good a research mage as I am, if not better, and I don't hear you wondering if I'll accidentally displace someone's liver. Aah, my liver! * Ada thwaps Ethan. ... kidding, kiddi- ow. * Fyril shrugs, closes his eyes, and looks off the other way. * Nebrinel lets go of Fyril, and says as softly as she thinks will work, "Just stay there. Nothing'll get to you." She stares out into the fog in front of her. * Ethan grins at Ada, then gets back to being attentive. ... y'know, if that's all they got, I'm really gonna have to question Faydra's commanding skills. * Ada frowns and nods. [ The sounds of battle drift to you from across the field, of course. Apparently, this isn't the only fight happening. Fancy that. :P ] * Nebrinel says, "They still could be somewhat confused." I'd suggest we go help the others, but that would leave a big gaping hole in the formation. Until we can all at least see, I think the formation would be the least of our worries. * Ethan shrugs, and sets himself against a charge once more. Be nice if they'd be considerate enough to impale themselves on my glaive this time. [ Suddenly, the fog is gone - just like that. Across the area around you, you can see the aftermath of more skirmishes, and of soldiers retreating back to more or less defensible positions. The order comes along to set camp, and so you do. ] [ Session end. ]