On the road
3–7 Gingemes, 333
Fate
3 Gingemes
Urgency grips the journey at first, but after Angel's light—or Saulė's—spills its gold onto the world below, the tension slowly begins to lift. And then, just a few hours later as they cross into the tree line, it fades almost entirely in favor of the rhythm of the road and the song of the slowly thickening forest. To be safe, the caravan master stops the caravan for breakfast very late in the day indeed, but camp is raised at a normal time and dinner not long after brings with it the sounds of conversation, laughter, song, coughing, and other such human noises.
Over the next couple days, the pine and black alder and birch and spruce become thicker and larger and closer together, trading branches and birds and squirrels and many others between them. The scent becomes thicker too, and the mulch of the forest floor softer. Once, camp is set up in an abandoned den, deep and cavernous and smelling strongly of moist soil, the trickling of the nearby river filling it with a mesmerizing song.
On the third full day on the road, the trees pull back from a broad clearing beside the selfsame river that had guided the journey the day before. The skies are blue and clear, with the occasional shadow of some kind of bird crossing overhead briefly darkening the day like a blink. The leaves rustle and the trees groan.
But something worms its way in to the caravan. Talking thins. What sparse laughter rises becomes forceful. Self-conscious, almost. Everything seems too loud—Aaren's singing at once is obscene and a comfort which listeners cling to perhaps slightly too desperately. The air tightens, and everyone's movements seem a little stiffer, a little more sudden. Something wrong lingers in the air, vague and diffuse like a thick fog, not quite enough to inspire alarm, but crossing well past mere unease.
Slavina
Slavina graduates from "sleeping" in the cart all day the first day, to emerging for meals on the second day, and now today to sitting on the coach-watch bench just above Chauncy's hitch, adding some beads to Kelly's boots. She grows alert at the first signs of unnatural stillness, and combs the surroundings for signs of what surrounds them.
Rolling mystery+wayfinding please!
Fate
Go for it!
Slavina
5
Fate
(To Slavina) Something draws you onward through the clearing... there—it's hard for the eye to notice at this distance, but to Slavina it juts out like a large piece of broken glass upright on a dance floor. It's indistinguishable from this distance, but it holds more answers. Although... maybe more answers is not what you want...
Aaren
Aaren has been wrangling healing the physically injured and trying to make space for Daina, Slavina, Esta, and Janin to being shocked, scared, and greiving. It's been a lot.
So its a moment before she notices the oddness and closes her eyes to listen.
6 on Perception Notice.
Fate
(To Aaren) Aaren can pinpoint the underscore. Something some distance ahead—too far to be distinguishable by sight alone—sings this quiet, dark melody.
Aaren
(To Fate)
Can she tell how far?
And is it a big-song atmosphereic effect, or diliberate, can she tell?
Fate
(To Aaren) No. It's sort of little? Except is impact is very broad. And it's consistent. As in, not moving. Inanimate.
Daina
Daina looks around and her eyes narrow as she extends her senses. Feeling for a change in the creatures the last couple days had helped her get used to. She tries to sense anything 'off'.
5
Fate
(To Daina) Various critters all around have a constrained warmth to them. Like they're curled up in hiding.
Daina
(To Fate) predator and prey alike?
Fate
(To Daina) Hard to say based on warmth alone.
Aaren
Aaren lets her healing songs go for a moment, as the subtle feeling of impending danger grows.
For a breath, she is silent. Then she sends out her voices, like seeking tendrils, feeling out the differences in the air, in the symphony of bodies, in the heart beat of the wren, in the way the stone chants.
Singing Search 8, spend 5 legend.
Slavina
Slavina sidles up to the head of the caravan. She walks apace with the Caravan Master and says, softly, "May we stop for a few moments? I don't like the feel of this road."
Daina
Daina whines a little and her song is concerned. "Everything's gone to ground" she murmurs as she catches up to Slavina.
Fate
Kelly slowly reaches into the back of the cart, pulling out his spear. He nods to Esta as he does so, and she pulls out a whalebone knife from somewhere within her travel wear.
Janin, meanwhile, silently tries to bring his heart back up from his stomach.
Up at the front, the caravan master glances at Slavina, and then looks around. He nods, not quite daring to speak, then makes a hand signal which sends the caravan slowing to a halt.
What was the result of the roll?
Aaren
Mine? 8
Fate
Okay!
Slavina
Slavina removes her shoes and beckons Daina to come over. She holds out a gourd on a string, wordlessly, while pouring a coarse powder from a small paper pouch into another gourd still tied to her hip.
Daina
Daina gives a nod of her head and walks after Slavina, looking for Aaren to see if she's got anything. Limbering up to help in the dance.
Slavina
I'd like to do a wayfinding dance with Daina's help to figure out if we want more answers... can she do a dance roll or something to assist?
Aaren
In response to Daina's unspoken question Aaren sings, "Its far away, small. And... it doesn't move. I'm not sure it's alive. Slavina, will it get in your way if I try and protect us from its song?"
Fate
Yeah. [Wits + Dance] would be my first thought, but I'm open to others.
Slavina
"I don't know." Slavina says, quiet in spite of herself. "Can you protect the caravan but leave an open space where we're dancing?"
cool. I'm gonna type up a stunty pose in a mo
Aaren
Aaren purses her lips. "I'll wait until you're done." She sings, after a moment of thought. It sounded like a fun challange but, perhaps now wasn't the time.
Slavina
Slavina nods. She takes Daina's hand in hers, so that they're each holding a gourd in their right and a hand in their left. No music (except, perhaps, Aaren's ever-present voice). She steps once, twice, three times in sync with the not-music of the path, with the ebb and flow of the mist, speeding up until she and Daina kick off into a whirling, dizzying dance.
The gourd is filled with crystals.
Turn upon turn, the ground is marked with crystals.
Their sharp edges jut out from the slate ground. Tiny teeth. Tiny mirrors of that jagged fang ahead. Slavina keeps spinning with Daina in tow (or perhaps it's slavina who orbits the goddess). They move in an inexorable, mesmerizing pattern, the pattern of their breath and heartbeat. Her heart is full of blood. Her feet are full of blood.
Turn upon turn, the ground is marked with blood.
A pattern emerging - where Daina steps in well-shod feet, the slate is clean, glittering with crystal stars. Where Slavina steps it's marked with darkness. The two weave in and out, between and behind, until the pattern is complete and the gourds empty. Slavina lets go of Daina's hand.
Fate
Okay. Mel rolled a 7 for her contribution—I'm gonna say every other success gives +1 successes to Slavina's roll. Diff is 8.
Slavina
Cool. So between Mel's help and stunt, I'm getting +5 successes?
Fate
Yep!
Slavina
10!
Fate
(To Slavina) Desire for answers rest in the breast of the beholder. Your current path takes you toward it—there are other paths far around it that will delay your travel. Whatever waits ahead, it fills you with dread but it is not inherently dangerous. Still, danger may yet lie in wait. The roads are infinite.
Slavina
Slavina contemplates her circles for a while. Finally she turns to Aaren (and coincidentally, the caravan master) and says, "It's not dangerous, just scary. We could go around but it'll be a big delay."
Aaren
Aaren nods. "Let me see if I can turn the song into something less... gloomy."
Singing singing to change all the songs a bit so it doesn't effect us.
7
Fate
Okay!
The caravan master settles at Slavina's assurances, and then further as Aaren's song seeps in. He calls for the group to continue, his bark being the first to shatter the creepy silence. With a creaking of wheels, the carts get moving again.
Aaren
"Slavina, may I heal your feet?" Aaren asks, after she settles a bit.
Slavina
Slavina waits in place as the caravan starts moving, until the Chauncymobile gets close. She climbs up, carefully not touching anything with the soles of her feet. "Yes. Please."
Aaren
Aaren does, returning to the healing once she can balance it with her new responsibility as un-gloom-holder.
Fate
And so the group trundles onward...
But, as they continue on the path, they draw closer to something... something which stands out from the grass, sticks up from it, still where the grass moves with the slight breeze coming off the river.
When they draw close enough, the caravan master's eyes widen and he lets loose a scorching curse, digs into his shirt, and stops the caravan again, with such haste that two carts collide, sending some of the cargo tumbling.
It's a human skeleton, some bits of flesh still hanging from the bones. It's propped upright by a post and tied by ropes into a crouching pose, as if hiding in wait for something. Instead of a human skull atop the neck it bears the skull of a goat, also still a little fleshy. Instead of human feet, what look to be pig hooves are twined in place at the ankles.
Fate
The caravan master barks a name and shouts, „Get the axe!"
Daina
Daina is startled from her shock at the moment by the word 'axe' "ohh... hey maybe don't disturb that just yet eh?" she holds out a hand. "Could be a religious thing could be a trap.. let's take a moment ok?" looking to the caravan master, "unless you know something about this sort of.. em.. display?"
Fate
He takes the axe passed up to him, heedless of Daina's protestations. The only response he offers is „Ilvers!" before he continues heading towards the grisly figure.
Ilvers steps forward from his spot. "Ah..." He flails about mentally for a moment, hesitation strung throughout him.
Slavina
8 on Slavina's knowledge roll to figure out who this is for, what it signifies, and how to appropriately treat the offering
Aaren
Aaren is sitting on the seat of their cart, just a few back from the front of the line. She's been reading letters— and writing responses. But as the approch the grisly bone mosaic she puts down her papers and listens.
The dark song of fear and disqueit grows stronger and they approch, muffling the world around them.
Aaren turns her voices from healing her brother and Ilvers. They lift like small, flickering birds into the air, weaving the song of the group out of the silence. Not touching any individual, but keeping the song of the dark object away from the group.
11 on the Group Calm Song— negating the effects of the strange mood altering doom relic.
Fate
Calmness rolls through the caravan as quickly as the fear had taken it.
Soon, the ageless peace of the forest seeps back in—the shadows no longer seem to hide leering eyes and hungry forms, the branches no longer seem to reach out and grab at unwitting forms below.
As the serenity seeps back in, Ilvers clears his throat and addresses Daina more confidently. "That... is a symbol of Velnias. An evil thing. Leaving it be would invite great misfortune upon us."
Slavina
Slavina grows increasingly withdrawn as they approach the epicenter of the distortion. Aaren's song wraps her like a blanket, muffling the disquiet and anxiety as it begins to take hold. She hangs back behind the caravan master with the carefully neutral expression and rigid posture she wears when she is very worried.
"No, Daina, he's right." She looks around. "Get some oak branches. Quickly please." Slavina turns her attention to the Caravan Master. "I intend to burn the remains to cleanse it."
Fate
The first stroke falls upon the post with a resounding chunk!
In response, the caravan master merely grunts in something that sounds affirmative, and throws another sharp look someone else's way. With some urging from Ilvers, a few people break off to search for oak.
Daina
Daina hums a little at Ilvers and then Slavina "ah ok.. just wanted to be sure" she smiles a little before seeking for some old oak branches that are dried up and good for fire. Grabbing some herbs known for cleansing along the way if she spots any. assuming I dun need to roll for wood finding eh?
Fate
No, that's not necessary.
Daina
Daina brings back some wood but also asks someone a bit stronger to get larger pieces she'd left behind.
Fate
Kelly hops to it.
Slavina
While the others search for wood, Slavina lays out the bones on hard ground. She grabs a stout, straight branch off the pile Daina brings. After weaving some of the herbs into her wrist-ornaments for protection and cleansing, she raises the club above her head and brings it down hard on the skull, shattering it. She moves slowly down the skeleton - rib, femur, tiny bones of the feet - until none is left intact. When she's finished, she uses the club to rake in the fragments and sets it on top, breathing hard from her efforts.
Daina
Daina looks over "So ah..who is the evil thing this is to?" she questions curiously but also a little.. uncertainly. The idea was sort of .. strange.. things were different but ..evil was odd. Sort of springing up a bit of flame on her fingertips and letting roll across them.
Fate
The caravan master steps back to let Slavina work, occasionally lending a hand where it looks like she needs one.
Ilvers reaches into his shirt to pull out an amulet—it appears to be a miniature axe, made of well-burnished amber. (It even carries a faint scent to sensitive noses, rich and almost flowery.) "Ah... it's best not to discuss him. We don't want to risk drawing his attention. Well, more." He simply holds the amulet, rubbing it with his thumb.
Kelly watches, keen-eyed and intent, his eyes flicking over not only the proceedings but also somewhat around the proceedings.
Aaren
Aaren continues her song, still listening from several wagons back.
Slavina
Slavina gratefully switches off bone-smushing duty with the caravan master every so often. It's hard work, smushing bones. After catching her breath during a break, she says to Daina, "I'll explain what 'evil' is and why it applies once we're gone from here."
Daina
Daina lifts her head and sniffs a bit at scent but then nods a little and helps to arrange a pyre for optimum burnination.
Slavina
Slavina helps arrange wood, directing various caravan-helpers with quiet curt instructions as they build a pyre. Once it's built, she turns to the caravan master. "Please invoke Perkunas now. I don't know any songs for him. Daina, when he finishes the invocation you'll light the fire. Make it as splendid as you can without burning the forest down."
Slavina herself takes several big steps back from the pyre.
Daina
Daina smirks a little and waves Slavina back a couple more steps.
Fate
He nods to Slavina and begins a chant in Kalban, the cadence rote and well-practiced. Ilvers takes it up too, and after he does others join him.
When it ends, the following silence seems almost to ring like a bell, tolling reverence over the grass and through the trees and along the surface of the lightly gurgling river nearby.
Aaren
Aaren falls silent for the incantation and the following silence.
Slavina
She steps back like Daina says. When she gets a hang of the pattern of the chant Slavina joins the in a melodic counterpoint, taking high notes that float above the men's voices, her song-words reflecting and enhancing the poetry of the primary chant.
Daina
As they sing Daina works up a pair of flames in her hands, her fingers rolling in the fire, as the last note dies she brings her hands together and sets the pyre alight, urging the fire to burn high and bright, to eat the body parts and fire but naught else. Big smile on her face at the flames dancing despite the reason for the pyre.
Fate
The bonfire's crackle fills the clearing as if it were a great, captivating orator in its own right.
After a while, murmured conversation begins and some snacks are passed around from hand to hand, often accompanied by a skin of diluted alcohol. The calm casualness of all this slowly sends the air of reverence fading away—or perhaps it's the fading that gives rise to the casualness. Either way, Slavina, Aaren, Daina, and company are included in this companionable passing of time.
In the waiting, clouds edge in and the golden sunlight turns gray and eventually even darkens. This seems to be a comfort for the various people of the caravan, even as they pull out waxed canvas tarps and rope and begin covering the goods.
As the fire dies down enough to reveal the ash and embers it will leave behind, the first drops of rain falls. This evokes some triumphant laughter and banter from Ilvers, which in turn inspires others. It's then that the caravan master gives the order to continue, late into the afternoon.
Slavina
Slavina (still, as she has been, very subdued) joins in the casual companionableness, although she's very cautious about the alcohol. Before moving on, she carefully inspects the ashes and embers, and, if she deems it safe, scoops some into a small gourd for future use.
Fate
The rest of the week goes by unremarked. A rhythm settles into place, steady and comforting: wake up, pack up, walk, stop, eat breakfast, walk, walk, walk, stop, make camp, eat, sleep. On the tide of this rhythm the memory of the macabre skeleton figure drifts away to a comfortable distance.
Throughout this time responses come back from Hometown. No one quite knows how to react said recent events—not even Dad really knows. It has come and gone in an instant to them; and the idea of torture seems some distant, fantastical thing. So much so that Uncle Tommy's initial reaction is, "What the heck did Kelly do?" (Except Auntie Harley and Grantie Lilly. They seem pretty comfortable with being angry about it.) Dad offers what advice he can, which largely mirrors what Aaren's already done, and accompanies it with a "let Kelly know that we all love him very much."
In other news, though, Shea and Logan have managed to get Maria hyped for Mischief Week again. He'd been pretty indifferent to it until this point. Dragomir has yet to completely trample further boundaries, but every small little offense he commits has Mom almost wanting him to finally fuck up good. She's so ready for it. Even though she knows that it's not exactly constructive to think this way.
Vir and Vanya are both starting to get worried. No messengers have come this month, and the number of people coming from Domochlovek has dropped dramatically. It's not clear why this is happening. People from Domochlovek can't really articulate much to them either. It all seems the same to them, even though the air itself seems to have changed.
Borya grumbles about some of the things Janin's mom is teaching Milusha's grandkid, offering a half-hearted analysis ("half-hearted" meaning only six pages) of where each of those bits of advice and life lessons collapses. Krissie and co are doing well, each of them already gathering ideas about what to do once on their vacation to Old Town. Krissie also reports that Claire's beau is now her fiancee. Brian spends much of his letter dithering about whether he should move into his oldest's household (because he was recently invited).
The rain continues on well into the next week of travel, ranging between gentle spitting to stinging downpours. Thunder and lightning even fill the air one long night, but this is accompanied by a general mood of ease and laughter among the caravaners which belies the danger such storms can possibly hold.
It doesn't make the journey easy, though, or particularly pleasant. Long wet days are followed by nights occasionally punctuated by sudden, panicked wake-ups from Kelly or Esta (and once even both).