Tapestry of the Ages Korvesa: The Pursuit of Eddin

Tiko

Draconic Administrator/Mentor
Administrator
Mentor
Nexus GM
Orbryn kept a steady but restrained pace with his horse while they remained in the streets of the town. It wouldn't serve to barrel ahead and risk an accident before they where out on the open road. All around them, the town seemed deathly still. None of the chaos from the inn appeared present, but a heavy unease filled every corner of town. Occasional they would catch glimpses of eyes peering out from shuttered windows as townspeople waited for word or sign of what was going on.

Overhead the occasional squawking of birds could be heard, and a glance overhead would reveal the source of the sound. Alighted atop rooftops and sign posts where large raven sized birds watching the goings on of the town curiously. They where no ordinary birds though. Their beaks where lined with razor edged teeth and dozens of eyes opened and closed all over their bodies, seemingly in no sense of unison.

The birds where both a familiar and an unfamiliar element to those within the town. Historically Void ravens once spread across the lands in vast flocks. And though dangerous in large numbers, they where primarily carrion eaters and served as heralds to the more aggressively inclined of the void creatures who often followed in their wake. With the defeat of the Sealed One, the void ravens fell to disarray and became easy targets to purge from civilized lands. Over the years they had become presumed extinct. To see dozens in one place was unheard of.

Given the relatively small size of the burgeoning town it didn't take them long to reach the west entrance, and Orbryn brought his horse to a stop. This is where the half-elf presumably attacked the guardsman. The area was lit up by a pair of hanging lanterns to mark the town entrance in the dark of night, and blood spatters could be seen across the ground. A torn cloak lay abandoned on the ground, ripped from one of the combatants during the ensuing struggle perhaps.

He said nothing and simply waited for Ti'el to do her thing.

In the time Ti'el had known Orbryn, the elven man had never been much for idle conversation or lengthy chatter, but his silence had only grown all the deeper since their arrival at Korvesa. If he was perturbed though, he showed no sign of it. He simply seemed silent and watchful, or perhaps caught up in his own thoughts.
 
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As they cantered through the town, Ti'el took a look around. First, she glanced at the townspeople, as a glance was all they would allow before they disappeared back into their homes. Second, at the Void ravens, who smelled of something close to home, but felt more hostile, more alien.

The smell of copper was strong in the air but too familiar to the little vulx to bother her. She climbed off of the horse silently and padded over to the torn cloak, reaching her clawed hands down to grab it and lift it up to her face. All species of people had scents similar to one another but still unique, and this half-breed would be even more so. When she inhaled, her mind was flooded with images of red and silver streaks. She let out a breath and inhaled again, cementing the image and the scent in her mind before she looked up and discarded the cloak.

Ti'el was not as fast as a horse, but some thought that her boundless energy made up for the distance- that, if they left her to run and nothing else, she would sprint around the world in one go. It was with this energy, nose sniffing through the air, that she took off, a mere blur down the road as she caught a scent.

"This way!" she cried out, holding up a hand to gesture to them.
 
Pride had a bit of trouble managing the horse as they rode, something about him told him how to move but it all seemed vague in his memory. What he lacked, the horse made up for however as following after the other seemed like a common thing for it to do. This allowed his eyes to wander a bit as they rode, glancing up into windows as he felt eyes on them - curious looks but he could tell from the air that the whole town was frightened.

The flames did well to warm him in the night, and as they approached the gate his eyes were locked on the shadows that waited on the other side for a few moments. They were meant to chase after an individual out there, where if there were more of the creatures from before he imagined that would be where they were at their strongest. His attention shifted as the birds overhead squawked, their ghastly appearance an affront to nature in his eyes as he whipped the flame that wrapped around him towards a few. Actually striking and pursuing all of them would prove difficult, and he relented after a moment of instinctual anger. They had more pressing concerns ahead.

As the vulx dismounted and took in the scent from the cloak Pride watched on curiously. He didn't quite understand what she was doing, but the confidence in her voice as she urged them forward was enough for him to put the horse into trot. He'd follow her till he had a reason not to; her eagerness while appreciated did cause a fit of concern however, as he worried that running afoot may put her at more danger and may tire her out before they reached their mark. That is of course, unless she could tell he was near and in hiding?
 
Orbryn urged his horse forward as Ti'el took off at a sprint, and with that the trio where off. A hunt of sorts. Hunts he remembered. The smell of the forest, the blur of the foliage, the gnawing hunger of a starving child as he fled the jaws of the craigwolves at his heels. He remembered well the tendril of tangle root that snaked its way around his leg and left him prone in the dirt.

It was the absence of his tabard that brought him back to the present with a shake of his head. Without it, the cold bite of the air as they road into the night was quick to seep into his shirt and jar him out of his memories with a shiver.

Something about this journey he had agreed to take Ti'el on was apt to drawing up memories of a time long past. Today they where the hunters though, not the hunted. Best to keep his head in the now.

He hardened his eyes and his focus to keep track of Ti'el's swift movements in the dark.

Like Teressa before them, the group would discover a surreal and unnatural state of things the further they road. The road, the trees, the fences, and shrubbery all seemed to exist in some spots, while in other spots they seemingly fading into nothing but the black void for entire stretches of the run.

During these pockets of absence, Ti'el would struggle to maintain the scent trail but as long as they stuck to the road she would pick it up again soon enough.

___​

With Ti'el's speed and stamina coupled with the horses to keep pace with her, it didn't take them long to run down their quarry. Unfortunately it would seem they weren't the only one that had taken note of the half-elf's mad race through the night.

Up ahead, the glow of a torch could be seen flickering and waving in the air as Eddin shouted wordlessly into the night.

Closing in on him where a pair of blackened two-headed beasts of origins unknown. They moved with the feral grace of felines, but their barbed tail writhed and whipped through the air like a serpent, and their skin was an oily black that left them near invisible in the darkness.

Orbryn's eyes darted from Ti'el to Eddin and then to the beasts.

In a split moment decision he bent low over his horse and urged it faster to overtake Ti'el. The thundering of hoods drew the eyes of the beasts as Orbryn abruptly reigned in his horse, wheeling it around to place himself between them and the half-elf.

The beasts where all too quick to change quarry as they split to either side to try and flank Orbryn and his horse. One of the beasts let out an infernal wailing reminiscent of the edgewear swampcats of his home. The piercing cry left Orbryn's horse whinnying and turning in place while he struggled to keep it reigned in and under control. A war-horse it was not. His position would give Pride a clear flanking position on at least one of the beasts though.

Meanwhile Eddin was more than gracious for the intervention. That is to say he stumbled backwards, fell on his ass before turning to crawl away into the night with his torch abandoned on the ground.

"Ti'el!" Orbryn shouted. "Don't let him get far!"

It wouldn't do for the half-elf to slip away while they contended with the beasts.
 
"That he will not!" spat the little vulx as she raised her hands in the air, willing her magic forth to keep the half-elf in place. Though she imagined vines, she didn't have complete control over wild magic, so when a large branch groaned and snapped above, rustling loudly as it fell and landed in front of her target in a flurry of leaves, dust, and splinters, well, Ti'el couldn't say she was surprised.

There had to be a way for her to get past the beasts because she knew that the branch wasn't going to hold Eddin back forever. She lashed her head around and looked into the brush, darting towards it in hope that she could make a wide berth around the creatures while Pride and Orbryn fought them.
 
The journey was unpleasant. Gaps in the world and the eerie darkness unsettled Pride as he watched bits and pieces of what was natural intermingle with the strange environment they now found themselves in, a pained expression painted clearly on his features as they continued on the chase. He wasn't clear about what was happening here, but he was certain that it didn't belong which made him eager to find their target and get some form of answers.

It didn't take long for the trio to come across a light in the darkness, a flickering flame being brandished as a weapon as two shaded figures surrounded it. Ti'el had managed to take them right to the target, who upon noticing them quickly fell on his arse and started to crawl away. Orbryn had galloped ahead and set the pace, ensuring Ti'el and the half-elf had some form of cover from the beasts. Deciding between the two, Pride nestled close to his horse and whispered in it's ear - doing his best to soothe it as he led it to charge the beast down.

With a flick of his wrist the flame that had wrapped itself around him escaped in a long tendril, acting as a form of whip as it cracked down towards the shadowed creature that was closest to the half-elf. Limiting the dangers to the other two seemed natural, and that would be his first move - he would just have to hope Orbryn could handle the other after giving him the opportunity to surprise this one. With his own flame spent in his attack, Pride glanced towards the now abandoned torch on the ground - feeling a strange sense of warmth as he called out to it, a breathless whisper escaping his lips as he commanded it to grow. The flame crept across the ground eerily, giving chase to the half-elf before veering off the side opposite Ti'el.

Pride wasn't happy with setting flame to the forest, even if it was just undergrowth and grass, but the light it would provide and the fire he could call from it later may be necessary so he let it grow as he murmured an apology to the wilds around them.
 
Eddin let out a yelp of surprise as the tree branch fell scant inches from where he was crawling. His eyes where wide with terror and he had the look of a cornered animal to him as he regained his footing and bolted for safety - away from Ti'el and the rapidly spreading flames that sought to cut him off. His breathing was ragged though and the ache of fatigue had long since seeped into his muscles from his mad run from the town.

Meanwhile Orbryn trusted scarcely spared Ti'el a glance, seemingly trusting in her to handle the half-elf while he stared the shadow beasts down with calculated focus. Pride's flame tendril lashed the shadow beast and sent it skidding across the earth as it slammed into the ground on one side and Orbryn was quick to move against the other.

Piercing eyes held an almost luminescent glow to them as he raised one hand up, fingers curled as if pulling against a great weight. With the gesture, large roots tore free from the earth snaking and entwining around the still standing shadow beast's legs. It snarled and wailed, biting at the vines as it tried to free itself while the fallen shadow beast writhed and rolled itself back to its feet. A scorch mark down one side left burnt flesh visible to mar the otherwise uniform black coat of the beast. Its muscled coiled and tensed as it crouched defensively, uncertain where the attack had come from.
 
Ti'el turned her head to catch sight of the flames sneak up on her far left, snaking over to meet her target up ahead. These were Pride's flames, she was sure. She'd watched the man conjure them before- or did he just control a flame that was already there? Either way, he was giving her a chance to catch up to their quarry. She sprinted as hard as she could, little fox legs pumping one in front of the other in a frantic dance. She raised her hands in the air and willed for something to grab the half-elf's legs. "Vines!" she hoped, but yet again her control over wild magic failed her, even if her wish was granted as a small, fawnlike animal sprinted out of the bush between Eddin's knees.

Good enough, the vulx thought as she leaped into the air to descend onto the man's shoulders, trying to catch him off balance and send him toppling forward so he'd be eating dirt.
 
Pride put his trust in Ti'el that she could handle the half-elf now, and his focus shifted to the beast he was responsible for. With it rearing to the ground after the flame made contact he urged his horse forward, his free hand running his palm along it's neck as he whispered in an attempt to soothe and direct it.

His eyes however, never left the beast. It's marred flesh was not enough punishment for a vile creature such as itself, and as the flames spread on the ground he was conflicted - sad that the forest was being hurt, but elated that it served as fuel to banish the creature. He would have to snuff the flame out as soon as it was no longer needed, but as his horse approached the now bewildered beast who seemed unaware of what had just occurred Pride pulled from the new flames a longer tendril, the fire that was on the ground now weakening as he took it for himself and with another crack sent the whip towards the beast in an attempt to coil around and sear it.
 
As Pride ensnared the one beast with the flaming whip Orbryn tightened his own grip upon the other. The hellish shrieks that the beasts let loose where enough to chill one to the bone, but soon both fell silent and lifeless. One strangled, the other burned to death.

Meanwhile Eddin hit the ground with a loud oomph as the weight of Ti'el took the breath right out him.

"Please don't hurt me," the half-elf all but mewled into the dirt.

With the shadow beasts seen to, Orbryn lowered his arm and the vines subsided back into the earth. Patting his frightened horse upon the neck he soothed it while looking to their surroundings. The unnatural darkness that permeated this night would make it hard to spot further threats to the group if they weren't mindful of their surroundings.

"Make sure he's not armed," Orbryn warned Ti'el.

It wouldn't do to have him pull a knife on her as he had the guardsman back in town.
 
When they dropped, Ti'el had to hang onto the half-elf's collar so she didn't fly away. She pressed down on his shoulders, though her weight wasn't all that impressive. Still, the man had fallen over his own feet in fright! There was no way he was getting away from her!

Hearing Orbryn's warning, she nodded and gave him a check, finding nothing. "No weapons!" she yelled back, looking up to see how they dealt with the two creatures. Her eyes grew wide as she saw them both dead. "None hurt? I can heal," she announced. She looked down, then, brows shadowing her eyes as she glared at the elf.

"How did you make those creatures?" she said angrily. "What did you do!?"
 
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