(There you go... roll 1d10 now to determine damage you to do 'im...)

OOC: Yeah!

01:40, Today: Neide rolled 8 using 1d10 with rolls of 8.  Damage!

It's a good hit, and it greatly dismays the soldier in question... Especially since Neide keeps on fighting in spite of being hurt... can it really be just because the Westerner is chanting and singing...? (Answer: yes.)

(GM rolls dice)

This time, sadly, luck was not with the innocent, as the Easterner, Aden, and the cleric all take hits (one each). None of them goes down yet, though...

Neide is technically hit twice, but one glances off her scale mail... the other, however, hurts quite a bit. (After subtracting for armor, Neide takes 6 new damage.

However, due to one man's imperfect roll (which happens to be the one she hit), she also has a counterattack coming... roll to make a new attack... If you roll 7 or higher, roll for the damage you do...

I forget, would you prefer me to roll things like that for you, or do you wanna do 'em all yourself? I'm fine either way...)

OOC: I'd say I prefer to roll my checks myself, in general - aside from the ones that need to be made in secret etc., of course.

Anyway, here's Neide counterattack!

22:04, Today: Neide rolled 10 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,6.  Counterattack!
22:04, Today: Neide rolled 2 using 1d10 with rolls of 2.  Damage!

The soldier's armor seemed to protect him from most of Neide's counterattack, if not all of it...

Still, that was just the counterattack...

And yet...

The cleric casts a spell. "Hark!" he says loudly. "Bear witness! You attack a son of Veles, god of stone! His eyes and ears are everywhere! He feels every vibration, every footfall! He waits in judgment! Your goddess of vengeance has no place here! Begone!"

And he backs up and touches... a large rock.

And this... works, somehow.

Actually it absolutely does not work, for most of the soldiers. But it has an amazing effect on Lieutenant Aekins. Her eyes widen in horror, staring at the rock-- which gets her a knife cut across the back of her hand from the Easterner-- and then Aekins panics. "Retreat! After me! Retreat! Go! Move!"

The other soldiers look at each other for just an instant, like Seriously? It's a rock. We outnumber them. We can do this, can't we?

But then their training-- and the reliance on following chain-of-command that's been beaten into them-- kicks in, and they follow Aekins as she retreats.

The cleric pants. "...A spell... of fear... I don't normally ask Veles for it, but I thought it might be useful this time, so I prepared it... It'll last as long as I want, but it's tied to the rock, so we should move, because we can't stay here forever, and it only affects one person. Let's go!"

Wide-eyed, Neide watched as Aetkins - the scary, unrelenting Aetkins - ran away in abject fear. That was some powerful magic...

"Yes... let's go", she nodded, her voice still a little flat after what she just witnessed, "Before they come back..."

She eyed her companions.

"But... which way now? Where should we go so that we don't get found again?"

She turned to the Easterner.

"How much time have you spent in these woods?", she asked, "Do you any safe route for us?"

"Safe?" she says. "That depends... why are we running? I mean, if you just want to move far and fast, this path behind me could be good... But if we're trying to lose someone who might start chasing us soon... I'd go... north...? But maybe that's what they'd expect us to do...?"

Aden and the cleric fill the easterner in on how the three of you came to be in this situation, in as few words as possible.

"Ah," she says. "Right, then, don't want to go toward Trevisi. Then... bow about we go up this road, right now, fast... but only a little way... then let's turn off into the woods and go north...? How's that sound? It's too dark for anything but an expert tracker to follow us, I would think... and since our pursuers aren't mages... any objections...?"

"I'm fine with that", Neide replied, "How about you..?"

She turned toward Aden and the cleric.

"If you agree, let's get moving", she added, "Aetkins' men could come back any moment now - and I fear we might not have another chance of beating them"

OOC: If the rest of the group agrees, Neide will head along the route the Easterner came up with.

Five hours later, you seem to have given your pursuers the slip.

Aden suggests that the four of you make camp-- fireless, for now, just in case. The cleric and the Easterner are amenable to this idea... so you do so. It turns out that the cleric has packed blankets for all of you, which is quite useful...

"...Well," says the cleric, sitting down. "It appears to me that there are a few things we should talk about. Where should we start...?"

Neide sat down, too - then, she looked over her companions.

"Yes, we need to... catch up with some things", she said, turning to the Easterner, "I didn't have time to thank you for help back there... We'd be in a very tight spot, if it wasn't for you. I don't believe I caught your name? I'm Neide."

"Indeed, there was no time to offer my name-- it is Ondreya." She bows, and then sits down on the ground herself.

Neide nodded to herself, as Ondreya introduced herself.

"I see", she said, "As I understand, you come from the East? How come you ended up here in Sefonia?"

"It is part of the training of all mages and other scholars to see something of the world. Sefonia is preferred, since Ossau has most often fought Sefonia in the past... and has not always lost. It is considered wise to study such strength, so unlike our own."

"So you are... a mage?", Neide asked, "I saw what you was doing back during the fight..."

She turned to Aden.

"Come to think about it... what about these chants of yours, Aden? Were they magical, too? I didn't know you had this kind of power..!"

"I am..." confirms Ondreya...



"When I'm in a fight by myself, two against one, there's no time to sing or chant and fight too. With allies, though, I can try to inspire them in battle, and hope that they can help defend me..."

"But... how did you learn it? Is it some sort of magic, too?", Neide asked, "What else can you achieve with these chants? I think they made me feel less in pain during the fight..."

"It's hard to say if it's magic like our new mage friend can do. I think so, personally, or something similar. Others disagree. All I know is that I sing, and it works. The two main things I've mastered of that nature are 'Saoirse's March to the Sea,' which helps with fighting, and 'Veles' Blessing,' which heals." He glances at the cleric before continuing to explain to Neide: "We honor Veles in the Isles of Dhan, too... but we see him as a sea god, more than that of the earth... It's the sea that's important to us."

"Which we in Quayern find odd, but we're pleased that you, too, honor Veles, so we don't argue," smiles the cleric.

"It's all really amazing...", Neide said, still pondering on the magic and wonders she had witnessed.

She turned to the cleric of Veles.

"And what is *your* name?", she asked, "I'm embarrassed, but for all of the things you did for me and Aden, I didn't stop to ask about it..."

"Don't feel badly... there wasn't time, and other things were much more important. I am Kerran."

"Pleased to meet you, Kerran", Neide gave the cleric a smile.

"I already know that you can make wonders happen, too, Kerran", she said, then, "You freed me from jail and we all saw the spell you put on Aetkins... Out of curiosity, what else can you do?"

"A number of things, technically... I can usually heal, though I need to be right next to the person needing healing, unlike Aden... I can make something glow about as bright as a torch... I can sanctify food and water, or ground... Sanctifying purifies food and water of poisons or mold or other spoilage, and holy ground alerts me when something bad is happening, which can be good if someone sneaks up while we're asleep... It's easier to heal on holy ground, too... I can bless allies while in battle, though usually just one at a time... I can bless weapons, too, though more than one at a time is hard..."

Kerran sighs. "I can do all those things... technically. The issue is that I have to prepare my prayers ahead of time... and right now, I've got a maximum of two types of prayers at a time... I can't start my day prepared to heal and bless weapons and sanctify, if you understand what I mean... I have to guess ahead of time at what I'm most likely to need..."
This message was last updated by the player at 16:39, Thu 23 May 2019.

"It's still does sound... amazing", Neide assured Kerran. Then, she gave a short laugh.

"And when it comes to me, well...", she said, smiling, "I can swing a sword. And I can punch. That's all I can offer you three... Nothing thousands other people couldn't do, I guess!"

"I'm not so sure about that, not at all," says Kerran.

"I agree," Aden says to Kerran.

But they say no more about this line of thought. "Is there anything else you wish to ask, Neide...?" Kerran asks...

"Me? Not right now, no...", Neide replied, "I think I'd like to take some rest now, in truth. Unless there was anything you wanted to talk about..?"

Kerran smiles. "We're going to be spending a lot of time together traveling. I think anything further can wait until tomorrow... Let's all get some rest... I'd say we've earned it..."