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 Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 11:08 am
 Was Roamer getting tired? The buck had to admit, he didn't always understand the meaning of the word. In his youth, he had spent many moon cycles on end traveling the Barrens, healing it and searching for new, damaged areas. Being so far from the niceties of Homewood had rarely weighed on him then. But some years had passed since those early days. Now the restlessness was beginning to weigh on him, asking him ever so gently to stop, catch his breath, maybe consider one day settling down. Sometimes, in the back of his head, he heard a thought that wondered if he had gallivanted enough. His answer was always no. The mere thought of quitting his travels to put down roots in Homewood made his wandering feet itch. Maybe what he did need was simply rest. That wasn't in the books just yet. He and Ysalone had recently left Blackbriar Bog and returned to the Barrens to do some more work before stopping by Homewood for a short break. Roamer had planned out a somewhat extensive zigzagging journey back through the Barrens, hoping they'd be able to do some healing while they were here. The buck looked up, feeling parched. He reached for the energy that thrummed within his consciousness, drew on one of the smaller threads of it. His horn came alight with a short burst of blue, and above him a small cloud opened and began to drizzle above his head. It wasn't enough necessarily to drive away the incessant heat of the wasteland, but the sprinkle of water on his back felt refreshing enough. "That's not too bad, is it, Magma?" he asked, glancing back at the brightly colored cockatrice that rode atop his withers. "If it gets hotter, I might call up a heavier rain."
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 5:35 pm
 Indira had spent a few days lurking around Homewood, licking her injuries, as it were. Her jaunt out the Ruins had been an unfettered disaster. She'd broken a leg and been 'rescued' by some far too peppy buck. She hadn't seen him since, which was the only bright point in her recent days. Well, and not dying at the bottom of some Other build monstrosity in the ruins, she supposed. Now that her confidence was slightly restored, she was back in the Barrens. It felt more right to her to be back out under the sun. After all, this was what her gift was meant for! She was doing her best to focus more on her surroundings this time, though the Barrens just felt safer to here. No rusting, rotting floors you could plunge through. Just parched earth as far as she could see. Even Fleet seemed to have calmed considerably. She was riding on her shoulder, scouting the distance as best she could. "Huh ... What's that?" The jackalope pointed an ear. Indira turning, squinting into the sunlight. It looked like a ... cloud? A very small cloud? That alone was uncommon in the Barrens, but shouldn't a cloud of that size simply burn up immediately? Perplexed, the doe adjusted her course, veering towards the cloud. Before long she could make out a Noul, accompanied by a cockatrice. She put her ears back, annoyed. Finding some other wanderer out here hadn't been what she was hoping for. This was not a discovery of note, or something she could help heal. She let out a huffy sigh, sure this stranger could see her by now. She couldn't just turn around and leave, that would seem suspicious. Best to just get it over with, cross paths and continue on. She trotted up, doing her best to put a neutral expression on her face. Coming close, but not too close, she gave a polite head bob. "Hello, fellow traveler." Fleet was tense on her back. Well, this certainly didn't seem awkward. She wracked her brains for a quick piece of small talk, and how to then extricate herself from the situation. "See anything of interest out here? We've just come from Homewood, so haven't seen anything of note ourselves." wc: 375
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 9:25 pm
Up on Roamer's back, wings folded loosely to his side, Magma nodded and craned his head a bit to take a look at the ground. Roamer's drizzle had dotted it with moisture, but it didn't look much better than before. This was just a surface solution. The cockatrice shuffled his wings a bit, settling them a little closer to his back. "Better," he agreed, sounding... not disappointed, but not appeased either. "Might as well shower it all though. This measly drizzle won't do much for this land. Doubt anyone else will come and help heal it any more than you."The buck began to nod, and was just about to reach for those threads of energy again when he noticed a dark shape approaching. He paused, eyes narrowing into a careful squint as the figure came closer. Tension in his legs suggested he was ready either to fight or flee, depending on the potential threat, and it wasn't until the shape was close enough to be recognized as another noulicorn that he released the tightness in his muscles. "Well, better not rain on a stranger," he said matter-of-factly. "They may not appreciate it."Roamer waited until the noulicorn was clearly within earshot. When she spoke, it was clear that... she didn't necessarily want to be here. His blue eyes, slightly narrowed, drifted from her to the tense jackhop on her back as he wondered what her game might be. Did this doe want or need something? Con artists were not unheard of out here in the Barrens... He wanted to be alert to any suspicious behavior. "Hello, noulja," he said, with a measured amount of politeness, watching her with a gaze that he hoped wasn't too outwardly suspicious. Watchful. "I would say nothing of note in the immediate area. No new landmarks that would be map-worthy, anyway. I've only just come from Blackbriar Bog. Here... nothing but this patch of dead land. I was about to summon a rain to help hydrate it."
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 10:10 pm
Fleet was closely focused on the other pair. This was clearly no blackhorn, but that didn't mean they were safe. Yet, at the same time, they also didn't seem to be a imminent thread. She relaxed, slightly. Probably safe for now, at least. Indira nodded along politely. Small talk small talk - Atmos user? That made her ears perk up. She hadn't herself crossed paths with an Atmos user since she'd been granted her own gift. That was interesting. And it sounded useful. While her own gift seemed designed to help push the distance she could travel, being able to water the parched ground just seemed ... useful. And direct and to the point. She could appreciate that. "Your gift allowed you to summon rain? If that was what Grandfather Tree had given me I don't think I'd ever leave the Barrens." Indira couldn't help the excitement creeping into her voice. Since receiving her gift she'd done her best to resist the relatively plush life available to her in Homewood. It was clear that Grandfather Tree hadn't wanted that for her, based on the gift she'd been given. Maybe this traveler had had a similar experience ... Her friends at home had mostly ended up with gifts best utilized in the Homewood ... This encounter was proving to be almost ... heartening. twc: 217 wc: 592
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Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 11:06 am
Ahh... Another eager healer. Roamer could hear the excitement tinge the doe's voice. That seemed to be hint enough that she and her jackhop didn't wish them immediate harm. The buck relaxed a bit more. Maybe she simply wasn't social. He could relate to that somewhat. So much of his time had been spent traveling alone, and it wasn't until he'd accidentally landed himself an apprentice in the form of the chattiest, cheerfullest doe in all the land that he'd learned to appreciate the company. Long days traveling were often better with a friend. Who knew? Roamer nodded, letting a small smile tug on the corner of his lips. "It does, and it has certainly proven useful for a wanderer like myself," he agreed. Indeed, for so much of his adult life, he had felt this insatiable need to work toward something, to help restore the land. No doubt a large part of that came from how apparently useful his ability could be. After all, a nice rain had the ability to transform a place, no matter how fleeting that change could be. "I do find it hard to go back to Homewood sometimes, when my skills are so much more applicable out here. So many places need a fresh rain now and again. The Barrens, especially. And the bog."The way he said it made it clear that the bog held an oddly special place in his heart. Healing it was his new goal. Something within him desperately wanted to see that putrid place freshened up and habitable once again. "If you don't mind potentially getting wet, I can show you."
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Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 1:18 pm
She was now listening attentively, nodding. It was just so nice to hear another mention going back to Homewood wasn't easy. And someone who was further along their journey than she. "The Bog? Needs rains? There isn't enough water out there are is?" Her lips quirked into a smile. To her, the Bog was just a stinking heap. She didn't think her own gifts could do much there. Here though, they let her press further out, and maybe discover something of use. "I certainly wouldn't say no to some rain. Especially out here. And then I can save my gift for further out." Getting to cool off now would let her wait longer to need to make use of her gift of endurance. Then a thought struck her. This would be an excellent time to see exactly what happened out here with a little rain. She attuned to the special place in her mind, and her sight suddenly shifted to infrared. She glanced to Fleet, "You ready for a quick shower, friend?" Fleet nodded. "It's scorching, I look forward to it." The jackalope looked back towards Roamer and his companion. "Have at it, lux." twc: 195 wc: 787
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Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 2:46 pm
It seemed they had arrived on some common ground. Roamer was pleasantly surprised to see the doe become much more interested in his words. He nodded thoughtfully to her questions about the bog as the lingering smell of its putrid air came to him again. It was almost like he could smell it, even here. "It's not necessarily that there's not enough water, but everything there is... poisoned," he said, looking for the right way to portray it. There weren't many positive aspects about going to the bog, but the last thing he wanted to do was frighten anyone off from it, especially when it so needed help. "My belief is that rain from atmos healing will help wash away that poison and help refresh the water sources that are contaminated."It was no easy task. Roamer had been thinking, lately, that if he could convince an Atmos Ascended to take on the bog as a personal project, that perhaps the progress there would go much faster. But that was a job for someone possessed of far more charm than himself. "I figured it wouldn't put anyone too out of sorts to get wet out here," Roamer added with a small smile. "It'll just dry off again in a minute."He reached for those familiar strands of energy in his mind, this time calling upon a more powerful one than before. His horn lit, and above them in a 30-foot radius, a rain cloud began to form. It rumbled together, pulled from what little moisture there was out here in the Barrens, to become a dense gray cloud. It lingered above them for a moment, and then unleashed a steady rain upon the four creatures. Soft, fat drops of water smacked into them and the dry ground underfoot. The first raindrops were soaked up almost instantly by the ground, but as more drops followed, the dryness began to disappear. "There," Roamer said as the rain began to soak into the ground. It turned from a chalky shade of tan to a deeper brown, not nearly wet enough to be mud, but clearly better for wear than it had been a few moments ago. The buck looked quite content as the rain continued to fall, soaking their coats. "That's more like what this place needed. More like what it need always, too."
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Posted: Mon May 04, 2020 9:55 pm
While she didn't have a special place in her heart for the Bog, it was interesting to hear about from this Noul who seemed to. Maybe diluting the poison would make it a little more bearable. "Perhaps at some point I'll pay the Bog a visit, see how progress is going." Indira turned her eyes skyward as water poured down onto them. She closed her eyes, enjoying the cooling sensation. But she didn't keep them closed long. With her special vision she watched how the ground itself reacted. While to plain eyes perhaps it would just look like a light soaking she was shocked to see the change, and just how far it went. She sucked her breath in. "That did ... so much. " Certainly the ground would still look cracked again when the surface dried, but she wouldn't be surprised if the quick rain would filter down, perhaps to some long dried out aquifer beneath, and perhaps begin restoring it. Already she could feel her coat drying. She let go of her gifted vision, her normal sight rushing back. "Thank you for showing me." She bobbed her head politely. Makes me want to push even harder out here. Help make more progress." twc: 202 wc: 989
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Posted: Wed May 06, 2020 5:37 pm
Roamer studied the way that the doe watched the ground, suspecting that her ability allowed her to see more than just the surface moisture. The way she reacted suggested that the changes made by a rain like this went farther than the naked eye could see, and the buck was pleased to see that it had left an impression. "You're welcome," he said kindly. "Thank you for staying to watch. Sometimes, it's hard to see how much our small actions do for Vykeli, but... I suspect you can see some of the immediate effects better than most."He smiled, reveling in the brief coolness that the evaporating water brought to his skin. Now that he had made it rain, it would be time to return to the resting spot he and Ysalone had decided on to pass the remainder of the day. There was only so much traveling a noulicorn could withstand out here in the Barrens, after all. "My name is Roamer, by the way," he added, remembering that they hadn't yet exchanged the typical niceties. His initial wariness had faded, now that he'd seen a little more of who this doe might be. "I'm glad I was able to meet you. It's always a pleasure to meet another who feels equally driven to make a change. If you've visited the bog by our next meeting, please let me know what you think."
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Posted: Fri May 08, 2020 11:44 am
All too soon the brief respite from the rain seemed to be over, the sun beating down endlessly, baking the earth. Indira hoped the ground would hold the water for a while longer yet, even if she was dry again. She nodded her head politely. "Indira. Thanks again for letting me watch. Not too many Atmos users I've encountered." She look to the horizon, where the mountains were mostly just a blur. It was time to push on. "Maybe we will meet again. I think I will have to pay the bog a visit one of these days ..." With that, and another nod, she began to lope off towards the smudges of mountain in the distance. Time to see what else awaited her out there. twc: 125 wc: 1114 moonrazor Seems like a good end point?
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Posted: Fri May 08, 2020 1:00 pm
Ellanoire Perf, I'll go turn it in!
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ll Flourish ll generated a random number between
1 and 100 ...
90!
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2020 8:42 pm
MOONRAZOR: REDEEMED
you found a stone!
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ll Flourish ll generated a random number between
1 and 100 ...
56!
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2020 8:45 pm
ELLANOIRE: REDEEMED
you found some bones!
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ll Flourish ll rolled 1 20-sided dice:
7
Total: 7 (1-20)
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Posted: Sat May 09, 2020 8:46 pm
FLEET SEARCHES
No plants found.
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