Hound Hunt

Fate

10 Summes

At long last, the midday after Sasha!'s arrival (with his wives, no less!), the caravan reaches the town at which you part ways. Before we continue onward there are a few things I imagine all and sundry might like to address:

• Unfinished business with the caravan/caravan workers? (Nothing comes to mind off the top of my head)
• Sending Aurika off with a guide and a Cinderella carriage to the port town to pick up her family and then to Hometown
• Funeral for Milusha
• ???? (Probably there are more things—please tell me the things)

Slavina

Cinderella carriage, that's great XD

Aaren

I am comfortable addressing those things by saying, 'yay, they happened and it went great!' and have no other things I can think off to address.

Daina

I think we talked through the Aurika thing enough to not need to further address it? Perhaps just get a feel for her attitude towards the idea and oh giving her some money for the guide and stuff.. right?

Slavina

I'm good on those things.

While we're in town, before the funeral, Slavina would like to find a bookbinder to properly bind the manuscript she's been writing into a book. Then send it to Vojtik (care of Magdalena).

She'll also need to consecrate some new gourds since she smashed her old ones as part of the funeral. But other than a slight delay in travel time I don't think that'll affect much

Fate

Okay!
Aurika in general is pretty dubious about the whole thing. But she's got no better ideas and is terrified and stressed out of her mind and can only think straight when someone's singing her terror and stress away so... she's gonna go for it. It's not hard to find a guide, though this is the smallest town you've been to by far (Hometown excluded).

Borya will report that they got the book. And yes—you guys are in town for a few days to have the funeral and get new gourds before you can pick your journey back up again. Since that's a decent amount of time for an exploration of the town (when one is not otherwise engaged, that is), any things in particular any of you would like to do? Or any questions you have about the town or its folk?

Daina

any special fabric we can buy and send home? oh can we have gotten some badger skin to send back with our report of how dope Kelly did?

Aaren

Aaren gets any supplies the group needs after our split, and would like to check around about local dities, deities, and deathly illness of interest. (You don't have to tell me, just know that Aaren totes looked into it.)
Also any cool musical insterments we haven't seen before.

Daina

>.> any dance moves?

Slavina

Questions!

1. How big is it roughly?
2. Do they have any info on local road conditions, dangerous spirits, rituals, etc that we should know?
3. Can we get more candy here?
4. Are postcards a Thing in Nauvos Baltijos?

Fate

No special fabric. However, they have a large, well-maintained apiary with lots of cool things that make it work that Daina and Aaren have never seen before, such as an elaborate pipe system through which smoke travels when the beekeepers go out to collect honey. There's a lot of honey, candy, and mead in this town. Legend has it that Bubilas and Austeja, the Lord and Lady of Bees, stopped here to rest on their journey to the home of the gods and were well-tended by the bees so they blessed them with abundance. Some distance away is a massive beehive that has subsumed a grove of trees. It's sacred ground, so very few people set foot there without good purpose. Plus... an army of bees.

There's an instrument known as a kanklės. It's effectively a flat lap-guitar and it looks like a gusli (from Domochlovek) except somewhat smaller and has a different number of strings. There's also a pipe-type instrument made of horn known as a birbynė, which has a double-reeded mouthpiece!

There are definitely new dance moves, though most of them look familiar now thanks to the daily dance parties with the caravan workers.

Next questions forthcoming...

Slavina

OMG ARMY OF BEES O.o

Daina

can I get more bees for our hive from here? we have a hive on the cart right? scratches head or was that a weird dream I had..
I want to go visit the bees yall

Aaren

I thiiiink that might have been a weird dream, but that is a pretty cool idea! And I'm sure that Daina could grow a hive because she could just ask bees to come live in our cart!

Fate

1. It's roughly twice the size of Hometown, in terms of population, and a lot more sprawled out.
2. They have plenty of info in that regard. Keep on Medeinė's good side, watch out for mean-spirited kupolės, watch out for Velnias worshipers and bandits, the road to Ishganymas is open, if rather muddy. Most notably, there's a river nearby. It's a pretty standard river. EXCEPT! If you follow it down a ways to the southeast, you'll come to an area which looks really calm and nice. It's a narrow part of the river too—you can jump from one side of the other mostly no problem, provided you're a fully grown adult. But the rocks are mossy there so it's easy to slip, so jumping is very ill-advised. That AND that part of the river is inhabited by ravenous river spirits. No one who's fallen in has ever gotten out, EVER, nor have their bodies turned up elsewhere down the river. DO NOT GO THERE.
3. YES. YOU CAN HAVE ALL THE CANDY. THERE IS CANDY HERE THAT IS NOWHERE ELSE IN ALL THE WORLD.
4. Postcards are a thing in major Nauvas Baltijos cities, but not in this place.

Aaren

2. Gee, I bet I know where we are going.

Daina

Shipping candy home pls
Oh oh can Frankie deliver candy to my sibs?

Aaren

Aaren wants to buy both kinds of instruments to send home, and a book about the bee-keeping methods and history and stuff (might be interesting for our bee-keepers at home).

Slavina

1. Cool.
2. DO NOT GO THERE EVER? Great, let's go there.
3. Slavina's gonna get the candy. LOTS of candy. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
4. She's also gonna get Janin's help with the postcard thing, and send postcards to all her friends (Brian, Truong & Co, Krissy, Borya, Janin's family, Vijtek, maybe the union house secretary on behalf of the union?) and tie a piece of candy to each. Except the union house one, that gets like a whole bag of candy.

Aaren

4. It'll have to be postcards from somewhere else.

Fate

4. There's definitely paper/cardstock available here, and ink and pens.

Slavina

Oh. Whoops. I misread XD
Nevermind then, postcards can wait

Daina

the artist in me wants all the paper and ink ><

Fate

@Daina Which sibs are you referring to?

Daina

Veivka and Nick

Fate

No, he can't.

Daina

aw ok

Fate

Alright. If there's nothing else about the town I'ma move on.

Slavina

Works for me

Daina

I think we're good

Aaren

On board.

Fate

Great!
Here are the latest updates from Hometown:

1. Jerri finally Jerri'd Dragomir. He threw a self-pity tantrum and went off to go drink some more. She got on his case about it and he smote her. As a result she crashed through the brewery. She's roughed up pretty good: fractured skull, collapsed lung, fractured spine, a big fragment of wood pierced clear through the meat of her thigh, lots of bruising, lots of random lacerations/puncture wounds from the splintered wood, a couple missing teeth, etc. Luckily no one else was seriously injured; but it's basically impossible for Jerri to treat a lot of the bigger health problems in Hometown now—however she is getting a lot of assistance from the Arechavaletas and then some. Dragomir went into hiding in the Swan Maiden's House after that, then emerged a couple days later. He wasn't drunk, nor had he been, and he came by to apologize. (Apparently at some point he'd sneaked out to talk to Vanya and ask her for advice before he got to this point—Vanya corresponded with Vir about it, hence why Vir didn't go to Dragomir in that time and instead focused on everyone else who was freaked out by the whole thing.) Jerri told him that he should be her primary helper until she gets healed up, and he agreed. (Jerri came up with that without Ash's help, believe it or not!) So now he's learning domestic duties, how to heal folks, and a little about blacksmithing. He's not very patient but he's very careful about losing his temper now and also very careful about his strength. It's tense in the Arechavaleta household, still, because everyone's kinda afraid of Dragomir/mad at him (Auntie Jordan in particular is fuming and refuses to be around him and Tris and Aya won't let Dragomir anywhere near Jesse and the babies), but he's clearly taking note of it and feeling really bad about it.
   (Lesh, of all people, is also very angry with Dragomir. He spends a lot of time standing there, completely still, watching angrily, expression and all. Ash and Ger had to work together to talk to him about why that's a problem. On top of that, everyone's pretty worried about what'll happen when Auntie Harley comes back from patrol.)
2. Recently a pack of very strange, hound-looking... things came into Hometown. They were made of metal, smelled of oil, and sounded like steam. They were also stained with blackberry juice. They sniffed around the town for a bit, then left through the purple crystal pass. No one knew what to do (including the Bogatyr) so they just let them through, and Vir has a very deep sense of foreboding about it. There's something... wrong about them, like they're forcing the world to make room around them.
3. They got the candy, the instruments, and the book. Everyone's excited about the candy and the instruments, and Axel (Tris's husband) was... excited about? the book. (He's not very expressive, but he was very clearly quietly moved in some fashion or other.)

Slavina

GO JERRI
Also I am not liking the sound of those things

Aaren

1.Aaaa!!! Oh my goodness!! Wow, that was a lot more extream than I was expecting!
Aaren is going to freak for a couple of days about not being able to get home to help.

2. D: D: Oh Boy.

Daina

1: Jerry sounds bad off though worry
2: Can I send Frankie to check on the Berry Wolves back home?
2a: Slavina can we do a spirit walk about sort of thing and try to find what those things look like in the other world?

Slavina

Slavina could try to get more information about the things using wayfinding, but I'm not sure the information she'd get would be what they look like

Fate

I think she meant more going Between and tracking them down in Between to see WTF they are.

Slavina

Ah gotcha

Slavina

Slavina would be willing to try scoping them out with wayfinding, but would not jump straight to techniques that involve being too close to the Mystery Things, since that could be really dangerous without knowing more about them.
Okay. So Slavina's first brush info on the things:

1. They're machines, presumably from Domochlovek
2. Chlovak machines are TIGHTLY controlled by the coalition of engineers and the Tsarbog. They don't run amok like that.
3. Presumably, this means either that (with the Tsarbog gone) some have escaped somehow, or that the imposter-Tsarbog specifically sent them.

Fate

@Daina 2: Yes you can. A good deal of the berry wolves are totally destroyed. The ones on patrol all died, and half of the ones that accompanied the hunters on patrol died. The ones that remained behind at the Hunters' Lodge are fine, though.

Slavina

Awww poor plant babies :(

Aaren

Hey, that guy from Metin Ki Ra who wanted to be an engienneer, did he end up marriying one of... Vanya's sisters?

Slavina

Yup
OH MAN. WE CAN WRITE THE SISTER

Aaren

Are they still living in Domicholveik, or did they go back to Metin Ki Ra?
RIGHT??? Just what I was thinking?? Maybe he knows shit about what's going on?

Slavina

If I remember right, Vanya's youngest sibling, Sibling's husband, AND one parent were all engineers.

Fate

That's correct.

Aaren

So either their all dead or someone's gotta know. Aaren writes them a polite letter asking about strange mechincal creations careening through her town!!!!
(And yes, it comes off as an irritated letter-to-the-editor the first time and she has to fix it before sending it.)

Slavina

XD
Would she like (and Megan, would it be socially appropriate for Domochlovek) for Slavina to co-sign or endorse the letter, since she knows the family and helped Sibling Husband get established in the city?

Aaren

Yep.

Fate

Well, it's not socially inappropriate. I guess it depends in what capacity the letter's written.
Oh, right. Engineers.
Yes! It's socially appropriate!

Aaren

XD

Slavina

XD

Daina

Daina wants to try and send some of her energy to the wolves that are left, with instructions to grow armor as they feel needed, possible?

Fate

How would she do that?

Daina

ooh like maybe necklaces with purple crystals on them, that they can tap into ?

Fate

Okay. You can try that. You'll run out of purple crystals, though.
Rather, there won't be enough to go around.

Daina

Can't I send Frankie to snap up some more crystals?

Slavina

Mel, what if she sends one crystal with a ton of energy so all the berry wolves can use it?

Daina

that's an idea also
like a necklace for the pack leader or something
and they all gather round and it's real culty XD

Slavina

:D

Fate

Okay. That's doable.

Daina

Yay!

Fate

Okay! So!

Iona Ivanovic Almirov Kovac, in his official capacity as a Class в (Veh) Exalted Engineer, says that he cannot disclose the specifics of the intensely unlikely and outlandish feasibility of the existence of mechanical hounds. Outside her official capacity, she says that, regardless of that, the Tsarbog closed Domochlovek's borders weeks ago and so she's not sure which is more likely: that the hounds came from Domochlovek or that someone outside of Domochlovek somehow attained the engineering knowledge required to make mechanical hounds. Her husband and mamochka both corroborate this—furthermore, the legal workday limit for all engineers has gone from eight to four hours (making innovations highly unlikely) although now there is talk of a new law in the works to change the legal workday to twelve hours.

Aaren

Oh boy. D:
Aaren will send a letter back with candy thanking them very much for their time and also being approprietly friendly and socail.

Slavina

Slavina will send a - separate - letter back, also thanking them, and furthermore will provide instructions for how to contact us via a Frankie Dropspot in case they wish to do so. With the implication that since things are pretty ominous maybe having contact with folks on the outside could be good, especially folks who can foreward messages to literally anyone.

Fate

Alrighty!
We good on that, guys?

Daina

Sounds solid to me
like I can't think of anything to add

Fate

We ready to move on, then?

Aaren

I am!

Daina

Yeah, Daina wants to do the astral travel thing but in ooc they suggested a vignette durring the week, would that be ok with you Meg? might you find time?

Fate

Actually, if you're doing that I'd like to get it squared away now. Because it might be important.
Or it might change things.

Daina

okie does Aaren want to come with too? Kelly? his insight could be invaluable, if he can translate it to us that is..

Slavina

Slavina would not want Kelly along. She's uncomfortable with the thought of bringing a man Between, and would need time to experiment with it to get used to the differences.

Fate

In that case, Kelly will offer to trip-sit.

Slavina

That would be lovely!

Aaren

I think Aaren would want to come, but she'd have questions first.
Like:

1. How long is this going to take, then?
2. Look, will Esta, Janin and Kelly be safe without us for that long?
3. I guess we can do this in an inn, not at a camp site?
4. Chances of our souls getting seriously damanged?
5. Aaren's never walked around Between before. Would it be better for her to stay behind?

Slavina

Slavina's best guesses:

1. No idea, but Slavina is not willing to be Between for longer than one night at a time. She'll have Kelly call us back then whether we've found what we're looking for or not
2. Uhhhh probably? Let's do this in town though just because.
3. Yeah. In fact Slavina would prefer it.
4. It's definitely a risk. Not sure how big a risk. She's never done this before, so it depends a lot on Daina.
5. In Slavina's opinion, Aaren should definitely stay behind.

Aaren

5. Yeah, Aaren can keep your bodies alive if your spirits get stuck or something.

Slavina

Just to be clear, Mel, Slavina is willing to go along with Daina to provide insight and guidance. But Slavina has never done any kind of astral projection spirit-travel thing before and has no idea how it would work. So the ball is firmly in Daina's court.

Daina

Daina has done it before but she's honest that this would be a very far journey.. at least to the physical but one has to keep in mind that things are so very not one thing at a time In Between so perhaps it won't be so grueling, after all home is where the heart is and so forth, perhaps that can aid them in getting to home town at the very least and they can track from there. Which would then probably be more risky .. in Daina's uneducated opinion.

Slavina

Okay!
Um...... is it okay if we RP this?
I'll live if we don't but it could be pretty cooll......

Aaren

I'm okay with that.

Fate

That's fine. I agree, it could be cool. But I also want to warn you that we have three hours left. Depending on how things go in the RP we may not get to Tír na Tearmann tonight. If you're all okay with that, then I'm onboard.

Daina

Oh man make it tough why don't you Megs XD

Slavina

Honestly I'd rather start off in Tir na Tearman when we have a whole session's time ahead

Aaren

I am okay with that! I wanna know about the crazy mechaincal monsters!!!!

Slavina

Plus that, yeah :P

Daina

I am curious too tbh like especially with the making room for themselves.. can I see 'ripples' and stuff and yeah

Fate

Well, I'm not sure I'll be able to manage starting off in Tír na Tearmann with a whole session's time ahead. I predict we won't get there until halfway through next session at the earliest, if we stop to RP now. Which, again, is fine. I just want y'all to remember that things move a lot slower in the type-y types.

Daina

it's about the journey not the destination, aye lassies?

Slavina

Ah okay. I'm good with that, I really wanna know about mecha wolves and I think I could use the nuance of typey-type :)

Fate

Okay!

Slavina

Do you want one of us to set the scene?

Fate

Yes. I was about to volunteer Daina because she's leading this expedition, but you can pass the buck to someone else if you like.

Daina

I was thinking of Slavina for the .. protection she wants to enact and the ritual she'll likely use? but i can do it if you want to handwave that but it could be a fun setting for Loral to play with?

Slavina

Alrighty! I don't mind doing that, it might be good setup :)

Fate

Works for me!

Slavina

In a small Baltijan town, summertime
One of the two rooms they've rented in the inn (they're a big enough crowd now to need two) has been temporarily cleared of furniture. On the bare, pale patch of floor previously covered by a rug there are protective swirls marked out in little lines of powders, and small dishes overflowing with offerings to gods: Ken (a dish of mead and a string of barnacles), La Dama (water from a hot spring, seasoned with a drop of blood and a whispered secret), and the Yesen aspect of Svantovit (an aspen branch bound to a knife with horsehair). In the center are cushions to sit on and the prepared mushrooms.

Steam rises from Slavina's skin, so recently has she been in the sauna. Her garlands (made fresh this afternoon from protective plants) waft their scent gently with the rising steam.

Slavina enters the circle.

She sits down next to Daina and nods to Kelly and Janin. Janin starts up a low, heartbeat rhythm on a drum, while Kelly measures out an appropriate dose of shrooms. Slavina swallows hers, waits for Daina, then wraps her arms and legs around the younger woman so they are sitting chest-to-back. Much the same as when she first went Between with child-Daina.

She sways them both, gently, in time to the beat, until the rhythm and the drugs carry them away.

Daina

Daina actually did a few things to prepare like sitting in a fire and cleansing herself, burning off as much energy as she can to try and make sure no little bits of Sasha and family are still on her to draw attention. She'd ask Aaren to listen to her song to check.
Assuming that's fine she would wear clean clothes and have her hair braided with ribbons through out on some of the braids.

After imbibing the plant, with a smile of thanks to Kelly for prepping it, she settles back against Slavina and folds her legs around to hook over securely as she is easily drawn into the swaying. Her focus already on hometown, her hand clutching one of her bracelets as an additional focus.

Aaren

Aaren sits on the edges of the room, singing Hometown songs. Her hands are clenched around the mortar and pestle as she grinds mint for tea.
She listens intently as their spirits drift away.

Daina

as a heads up Daina has a plan for the moment they go between that she plans to tether them to themselves and each other with a spiritual vine thing if that's alright with Slavina, the vine will go away once we're back in our bodies? or that will be the idea. Does that seem feasible Megs??

Fate

That seems feasible but Daina will need to roll for it.

Slavina

Slavina would prefer to fuse their spirits together, if Daina is willing. She's more used to that and it feels more secure to her

Daina

[whoa ... uh how does that work?]

Fate

Okay. Since we decided offscreen NO spirit fusion...
To set up a vine tethering network... I'm thinking [Magic + Survival: Between] but I can be talked into something else. I think Knowledge: Backstory will serve specifically for Daina.

Slavina

is this a just daina roll, or should Slavina roll something too?

Fate

Depends. How would Slavina help?

Slavina

dunno. I dind't know if you needed a roll from each of us, hence asking :P

Daina

[maybe her knowledge of soul fussion to make the vines effective soul tethers?

Fate

That's doable.
Would that be something Slavina would do?

Slavina

sure! What say you to wits+wayfinding?
or maybe witts + spirit knowledge?

Fate

I'd go with the latter.
Every 3 successes = +1 dice to Daina's roll.

Slavina

9

Fate

So that's +3 dice. I'll give Daina a free +1 success if you type up a memory Slavina shares with Daina, and if Mel types up a memory Daina shares with Slavina.

Slavina

YES PLEASE

Fate

It has to be personal.

Daina

[if I roll Magic/Knowledge backstory is there a chance I'll get a high enough roll to 'remember' something about magic?]

Fate

Not, like, super personal, but somewhat intimate.
What do you mean by "remember"?

Daina

like something from her first life comes back to her, that she didn't take to mean much at the time but now gives her some new insight?

Fate

Well... technically there's a chance. I'd put the Difficulty for that at 40.

Daina

]XD Ok fair enough, was worth a shot right XD]

Slavina

Slavina climbs onto Daina's back and digs her fingers into the fur. Knee to flank, holding tight. Where they touch, they sink into one another. Just a little....

the fur of his mask and cloak buck under your thighs as you ride above the crowd. You're drunk on liquor and music and who-knows-what. They're whooping and jostling to touch Coyote's tail (or whooping and dodging as Coyote tries to grab their "tails") and you're throwing beads and candy and small flasks and bouncing to the music and to Coyote's bobbing shoulders. But...

...but something's wrong. You see a face in the crowd. Familiar. Someone who recognizes you? Are they going to try and take you back? NO. They can't touch you, they don't know you, you're RIDING WORLDFUCKING COYOTE so you climb to your feet, you spread your arms and shake your chest and HOWL and the whole crowd howls with you..."

Daina

Daina's breathing slows as she focuses on a memory of where they're meant to go, the room is cool at least on her hot skin as she feels a strange and quite bad feeling. Gentle hands guide her over a bucket and she's quite sick... horrible.. but she's also held and comforted when her body has betrayed her and she felt very vulnerable. A smile turns her lips as the forge warm and iron strong idea that is Jerri in Diana's mind comes more fully into being and the memory fades but the emotions seem to stay.
Warmth radiating from someplace around about her heart area as she breaths her way through the vision and into the other realm that isn't quite once place, or another but in between all doorways and gates, the shadow just at the edge of the window sill. A strange place but one that always has the possibility of leading home in some way.

Fate

As Slavina and Daina separate, as their spirits part, sliding free of each other, between them stretches a thick, ropy thing, their memories woven together, their experiences, their emotions, the reaching crawlers for this connection between them.
Okay. That done... you've got an extended roll. Lemme just type that up for you...
Hold up. I failed to call for a vine tether roll. Daina, please roll to see how strong the vine tether is.
You get +3 dice and +1 success extra

Daina

magic/gardening?
orrr wayfinding Fertility? which do you guys think?]

Slavina

I thought it was Magic/backstory?

Daina

oh right

Fate

Okay. That's 4 successes. You can spend a Legend to reroll if you want

Daina

ok and is it another legend as well?

Fate

No. You do not need to re-spend a Legend for a roll which you spent Legend on. You just need to pay 1 Legend to reroll

Daina

]k thanks]

Fate

Okay! It's 10 successes!
That's a damn strong trippy spirit vine.

Slavina

gooooooooood

Fate

The vine twines further and thickens, the heavy chain to the anchors that are the bodies and Slavina's spirit. That done, Daina is ready to traverse farther than she's ever been from her body.

Daina

Daina 'breaths deep' and looks around them imprinting feelings and sights even though it could well shift in the time they're gone it's better to have -some- idea of the 'where' to return to.
She smiles brightly as the vine grows healthy and strong, a singular tendril around her middle and others holding with tiny molecular level fusion at the tip of the vines tips. Turning her gaze to Slavina's self in the space she questions. "are you ready?"

Slavina

A ripple passes through Slavina and into Daina: Yes-no-always-never-atyourleisureLadyWolf

Fate

Ready for that extended roll?

Slavina

Yup

Daina

sure let us have it?

Fate

((Roll Interval: 2 hours
Total time: 10 hours
(i.e., you have five rolls to work with)
Pool: Magic + Knowledge: Backstory
(You may choose to roll something else, but the pool may not offer a 1:1 success rate, or may incur a Difficulty increase. Generally if you stick with Magic you'll be okay.)

Getting to Hometown
Total Diff: 15

Reaching the Mechanical Hounds
From Hometown Total Diff: 20
Straight There Total Diff: 30

You may be able to get intel about the Mechanical Wolves from Hometown, if they left any "residue" behind. But def not as much as you'd get by tracking them down.

Remember: Daina can receive help from other characters provided you can justify it to me. Daina can also spend as much Legend as she likes, with Legend = +1 success. She may spend it per roll or spend it after all the rolls are added up. ))

Aaren

Megan, can Aaren be singing Hometown and Daina Tracking songs to assist from the Other Side?

Fate

Yep! Every 2 successes = +1 dice for Daina.

Aaren

Cool! Guys I'm gonna try and stunt so I'll be away typing for a bit, go ahead without me if you can.

Daina

would magic / search or magic / survival work and still have a 1:1 ratio?

Slavina

Given a choice between Mystery/wayfinding and mystery/spirit knowledge, would one be more appropriate or effective? The idea is for Slavina to find the easiest path for Daina through the eddies and currents of Between

Fate

Both are appropriate.
So let's go with [Mystery + Wayfinding]
Again, every 2 successes = +1 dice for Daina

Slavina

Are we rolling all rounds at once, or one at a time?

Fate

One at a time, just so I can keep track. If I can get a handle on it, then I'll let y'all roll the rounds in a chunk.

Slavina

Okay. 7 successes, so that's +3 dice for Daina on round 1

Fate

Daina: Both rolls would have a 1:1 ratio. Survival would up the total difficulty by 5, though.

Daina

so magic search seems the better choice here I think and then +3 from slavina correct? and something from Aaren when the stunt/roll come through yes?

Slavina

Sounds good

Fate

Aye.

Aaren

All the songs go strange. At once, they begin to waver, like heat waves over the surface of the lake on the Day of Black Sun.
Daina and Slavina's songs meld at the edges. The women breathe together.

Aaren puts down her mortar and pestle and lays her hands on her lap.
Esta is sleeping, head on Kelly's legs. Janin is pacing, nervous and exhasted but not ready to rest.
"Alright." Aaren sings, lulling Esta out of her dreams. "Who wants to help me?"

She lifts her voices, one at a time, so that her helpers can follow along.
Weaving half and half, a great mixed fabric.
Daina, ears forward, nose low, going home, finding her way back. A song full of rapid, clattering beats. The bronze bells of fire and tiny cymbols sewn to the edge of a shawl, all banging together as the small woman shifts her weight in and out of the world—
HomeTown. Hearts beating in unison to one song, sung in three hundred voices. The smell of smoke and pine and ice as the night sky lights up with falling fire. A song that comes from the ribs, twanging strings plucked by hard fingernail. Voices roughed by winter and work lifting in the cold, crips air of pine-laced winter snow—

Aaren closes her eyes. Water gathers, catching on her lashes.

Rolling Singing Singing to help! Stunt Call please

Slavina

YUS

Daina

very cool :heart: yes

Aaren

8, so +4

Daina

2 magic 6 search 3 Slavina 4 Aaren =15 dice right?

Slavina

Yup!

Aaren

Don't forget you can channel and spend legend.

Daina

11 with loyalty ticked I need to roll uh... shit I don't remember what for extremity chance

Fate

Don't sweat it.

Fate

(( Okay!

Round 1/5
Successes: 11

Round 2 BEGIN! ))

Daina

am I rolling the same biz this time?]

Fate

You can if you want.

Slavina

you get +3 dice from Slavina

Aaren

+2 dice from Aaren

Daina

7succs

Fate

(( Alright!

Round 2/5
Successes: 18

You made it to Hometown. I'll give you intel, then we'll start Round 3. ))

Daina

woohoo!

Fate

It's there. The familiar, homey twistedness of it all.

It's changed. For sure. In just the couple short—or long—months you were gone, it feels so different. It's neither a sound nor a scent, not a sight nor premonition. Merely an impression. A weight on the chest, at the edge of sleep. The dry smoothness of bone. A hollowness. A wet saltiness, held back only by teeth buried in the ground like seeds, like tiny barricades, generations circling around each of the homes.

(A familiar breeze-like feeling is here too. Muted, subdued, like a calm, still summer day. Shea's nearby.)

Drifting thick through it all is the weaving of hot, scalding purpose which clouds around the vision. It's woven with something that feels at the very edge of familiar. Tortured hunting howls sung through many throats all open at the same time in different ways, which feels like the silent but horrible wailing of the dead.

Whatever it is, it's not of this world. And it's looking for something.
Round 3... BEGIN!

Slavina

Instead of rolling to help Daina, I would like to roll to conceal us if that's okay. I can stunt for it?

Aaren

+3 dice for Daina!

Fate

Sure!

Slavina

Go ahead and roll when you want, Mel, I'll type up my thing ASAP

Daina

8

Fate

(( Round 3/5
Successes: 26/35

Just waiting on Slavina's post and roll... ))

Daina

If we can come back through here I think Daina would like to try and dispel the 'stain' of the creatures if possible and Slavina oks it.

Fate

That'll take a Round, and she wanted to be done by dawn
Actually a round to come back and a round to try and dispel it

Slavina

Where Slavina and Daina's souls meet, a thrum of tight alertness (wariness? cautiousness?) vibrates. The knowledge that their eyes should not fall on you regardless of whether you are their intended quarry. She grips the vines and bows her head.

Their purpose clouds the air, thick and hot, like steam. Slavina knows steam. And through Slavina, Daina knows it too - how it roils and rises, how it fills the air, how it conceals so many things. She breathes it in with strange not-lungs and exhales it over herself and Daina, condensing over them like a gossamer-thin film of swirling clouds, their own purpose merely a ghost of a shadow.
Stunt please?

Aaren

I vote yes.

Daina

Yes, I like the steam being used to hide us that's really cool imagery of her 'breathing it out" to hide us :D

Fate

Two upvotes, two successes.
And I'll add 2L to your sheet, unless you want to spend it right away

Slavina

I'll spend it right away. Is Illusion/wayfinding appropriate, and what's my diff?
To keep us from being noticed by the hounds while we passively follow

Fate

It's appropriate, and no Diff. What you roll will be their Diff to find y'all.

Slavina

OOooh okay. In that case I'd like to also channel excellence.

Fate

Alrighty

Slavina

and since I'm trying to make us look like their own trail, does my mirror knack apply?

Fate

Sure!

Slavina

(16))

Daina

snaps by way of applause

Fate

Alrighty!
Round 4 begin!

Slavina

slavina'll help out now, assuming that hiding roll lasts for the remainder of our time?

Fate

Yeah.

Aaren

+2 from Aaren

Slavina

2 dice from Slavina

Fate

Go for it, Daina!

Daina

just 5 :(

Fate

(( Round 4/5
Successes 29/35

Round 5 BEGIN! ))

Slavina

+3 from Slavina

Aaren

+2 from Aaren

Fate

So +5 total to Daina. Roll?

Daina

14

Fate

(( Round 5/5
Successes 43/35

Okay, gonna type up your intel... ))
Also gonna make a roll here...
Dawn breaks like the slowed-down cracking of an egg, yolk barely visible through the hairline fracture.

Found them.

Apart, but together. Tethered, but not at all in the same way. With pieces of themselves, torn and tied and refitted. Anchored tightly, prisoners of iron and jewel. Apart but together. Leashed to... something. A unifying thing. Behind them a snail-trail of wrongness painted through the world, clear and easy to miss.

Blackberries. It cannot be helped—blackberries leak through like the sparking and spitting of a bonfire which will not be tamed, making the reflection in the mirror just a little off as if it blinked when the onlooker did not.

Another hunting cry follows. Two merged throats, this time. They break from the pack, baying down the blackberry-laden path.

And then sharp drumbeats, done in threes, vibrates through Daina's and Slavina's anchors, pound through their spirits. It yanks back, hard.
Extended roll over! You may post freely

Daina

hard enough that we're back in our bodies lvl or?

Fate

You're back in your bodies, yes. Unless you want to roll to resist, and stay past Slavina's stated boundary?

Daina

I want to stay and try and drop these things by draining their warmth.. does Daina have any reason to think she can't do that?

Fate

Well, she doesn't know if they have warmth. Certainly none she can recognize. But there's little recognizable about these things.

Daina

do I understand right that they're powered by flame?

Fate

Nope.

Daina

what's my roll to resist?

Fate

First thought is [Magic + Knowledge: Backstory]. Diff is 3.

Daina

3

Fate

You made it!

Slavina

Megan, can Slavina roll to resist the resist?

Fate

Given how Slavina and Daina are tethered together...
What's Slavina's goal? Does she just want to stop Daina, tug her back to their bodies, or just go back home by herself?

Slavina

oh dear. Um. Well, she's got Loyalty and Duty, so I don't think leaving Daina behind is optional here. So she's gonna try and tug them both back to their bodies

Fate

Alrighty. Slavina's Diff is what Daina rolled, which is 3

Slavina

Is wayfinding+charisma appropriate?
Or maybe wayfinding Presence?

Fate

I'd go with Presence + Art: Wayfinding, yeah

Slavina

I channeled loyalty, 12

Fate

Okay! Slavina manages to yank Daina away. Now y'all are back in your bodies.

Daina

Daina comes back to herself and looses a string of curses as she untangles herself and springs to her feet with a frustrated snarl. "We find them and then don't stay to learn about them what the hell?" she questions as she takes a few paces away and turns. Her throat rumbling with a growl as her golden eyes close and her hands ball up before relaxing and rubbing over her face.

Slavina

Slavina's eyes snap open and she leaps away from Daina like she was a hot coal. Her face, for just an instant, twists in a vicious snarl and her hands clench into white-knuckled fists. "How DARE you?!" she hisses.

Aaren

Aaren sings her releif as the songs of the bodies ease back to normal, as their spirits return.
Her songs change rapidly to calm and commanding as it becomes clear things did not go well, and she swells to her feet in a chreshendo of color and clinking. "Hold on." She sings, in an even voice. "Just for a moment."

Daina

"we were -right- there! we spent all that time and energy and then just come back with nothing for it!" she frowns glowers "it was worthless I could have gotten a decent nights sleep for all that was worth"

Aaren

"I said hold on" Aaren sings, and her voice commands silence. She borrow's Vir's authority and Ash's reason. "It is dawn." She doesn't have to raise her tone above speaking. "If you are going to argue about this, you will do it outside, where you will not bother our hosts."

She pauses, less then a note. "Please."

Fate

At the uproar Kelly jerks awake, scrambling upright and grabbing his spear in half-a-breath. This in turn wakes Janin, who scrabbles out of bed and onto the floor in an unthinking hurry; and Esta, who had taken up the most recent shift of drumming, tenses but otherwise doesn't act.

Slavina

Slavina smooths her expression into one of icy, bland neutrality and relaxes her fists. Her feet still tremble where they meet the floor. "If you were fucking someone and kept going past when they'd said to stop, would you say the same thing?" She speaks very softly, but in a voice laced with velvet-covered rage.

Daina

Daina frowns and shakes her head, her own voice having been lowered to polite levels but also still holding heat. "for sure weren't doing that .. or the spiritual version.. I feel like I made sure of that with the alternate tethering. I didn't try and keep you with me we got jerked back so hard, you could have gone back on your own, it's not my fault you chose not to."

Fate

At Slavina's chilling tone and words, Janin freezes, his eyes flicking between the two of them.

Kelly goes utterly blank and stands at alert rest, the butt of his spear tapping lightly against the floor as he turns it upright. (Esta, meanwhile, resigns herself to not understanding what's going on, instead half-waiting on some kind of signal from Aaren before moving towards Kelly to see if he's alright.)

Aaren

"Thank you." Aaren sings, as they lower their voices. "Perhaps another room, as well?"

Slavina

"Excuse me, Renina. You're right. I've been so rude." Slavina gives Aaren a genuinely respectful (if rather formal) Liudzi-style curtsey. "I could use some fresh air. Please call for me if you need me." With that she walks brusquely outdoors.

Fate

Janin hesitates for a moment longer, and then quietly follows Slavina out the door after offering everyone a nearly apologetic smile.

Slavina

Okay, so.... solving the thing?

Daina

right
so talking and stuff
how would that even go

Slavina

Oh gosh, that's a good question.
Okay, well, first off I want to nail down the timing since a lot probably depends on how much space they've had.
If Daina waits a few hours, I think Slavina will be unreachable for the next day or so as she'll have gone back Between.

Daina

Hmm ok so a day +some later

Slavina

So maybe this talk happens like 1.5-2 days after?
Yeah

Daina

would Janin talk to Daina about it while Slavina is 'away' ?

Fate

Only if it's clear to Janin that Slavina wants/needs help OR if Daina approaches him to ask questions. Primarily, though, he'd leave the ball in Slavina's court.

Slavina

Mkay. I think in their immediately-post-event talk it would have been clear to Janin that Slavina does not know how to approach this kind of thing so she'll defnitely need help. But I don't know that she'd request any particular type of help from him.
Mel, would Daina approach Janin do you think?

Daina

Hmm I think she'd make to approach Slavina but then realize she's not -there- and if Janin was around she'd probably look at him and be like "What's her problem.. you know she called me a ... she might as well have accused me of rape" looking a mix of sick and angry

Fate

Loral, would this be before or after Slavina and Janin talked?

Slavina

After

Fate

Okay. Janin would start by saying that he doesn't really know what went down, and may have misunderstood Slavina when she talked to him about it. But then he'd explain to Daina that it sounds to him that Slavina was in a very vulnerable position—she'd not done this thing in this way before and had no idea how any of this worked or what she should or shouldn't do so she'd made her boundaries clear (as in, "We stop no later than dawn" and "We observe only and don't mess around") and placed her complete trust in Daina. So when Daina pushed past her boundaries, she got extremely scared because it sounded like last time this sort of thing happened things went very wrong for Slavina and her family.

He'd be very uneasy about giving any specifics because he thinks that Slavina should be the one to decide what she thinks is important for Daina to know.

Daina

Daina would get quiet and frowny and explain that she figured that hard of a jerk and Slavina could go back if she wanted, she only wanted to learn something of real value before she left, and then Slavina just dragged her back... and then got mad at her.. though she guesses she can understand that much... that she didn't think she could go free of the bond. .. Daina on reflection isn't sure what the strength of it really was. She just assumed it wouldn't hold either of them if they didn't wish for it to. After all it was made of their intention. The part about things going bad for her and her family though would cause a pause and more troubled expression. She'd ask Janin to ask Slavina to come find her when she's ready clearly they need to talk.

Fate

Alrighty. Janin would totally do that.

Daina

cool so we have a time frame of when Slavina has returned
XD

Slavina

Yeah I'm assuming like the day after? Probably right before we start travelling again
So.... they talk. I don't know how this would go down exactly, but Slavina would be very detached. Like, speaking in a relatively unemotional way, not audibly or visibly upset. But if Daina can smell emotions (?) she'd definitely smell scared and angry

Daina

I'm not sure how strong her emotion-scent thing is.. like I think fear is a strong one that comes out easily to predators? but that could be me just assigning a thing

Slavina

She'd also bring Janin with her
(I think the fear smell predator thing makes sense, btw)

Daina

So Daina would basically do her best to be as dethatched as Slavina seems anyway. Though Daina and subterfuge aren't really a thing at least not with friends. It'd likely come across as ... just .. upset like.. her feelings are hella hurt and she's annoyed they couldn't find out more and these things hurt her wolves and she wants to find out how to protect her babies. She was trying to stay a moment or two long by herself and didn't know Slavina thought they were that bonded she would explain how she thought of it and Slavina dragging her back meant she couldn't find out more about this new threat which added to her fear of it as it's unknown

Fate

(Yeah, it makes sense to me too. Daina can smell fear if you want.)

Daina

I think that she can probably smell other strong emotions with people she's been around enough to learn it? does that make sense?

Fate

(Yeah, that makes sense too)

Slavina

Slavina would give an apology to Daina that probably sounds really sincere, but if you squint at it it's actually "sorry you feel that way." With prompting from Janin (I assume Janin prompts her?) she would tell Daina that Daina's actions made Slavina fear her spirit might literally be destroyed, or that there might be even worse consequences. And that this is a major breach of trust.

Fate

(Yes. Janin would totally prompt her.)

Daina

Daina would question why she'd feel like that.. they were in it together and Daina didn't feel that sort of threat..

Fate

Once it's clear that Slavina doesn't really know how to proceed, Janin would prompt Slavina by asking her what in her experience going Between might have informed this fear?

Slavina

Slavina would try to articulate it, but it's difficult because a lot of it is just a thing you feel intuitively. The highlights:

• Those things were/are terrifying, there's something intensely wrong and dangerous about them, and they were coming for us
• She was very very far away. She's never traveled like that before, and wasn't sure she could get back on her own
• That was the call to come back. We set it up for a reason. Ignoring your anchor call is not only dangerous in the moment (because if you've let it get to the point where you need the call, you might be beyond the point where you can get back on your own), it's dangerous long-term because the anchors lose power if you break them.
  Also because of last time she went Between with Daina, where VERY BAD THINGS happened.

Daina

Daina agrees those were scary af and that's why she wants to know what they are.. they bother her on a very serious level. She didnt' know bout the breaking anchors weakening them, file that away for later for sure. for my ooc confirmation it was when they went Between in Bakersfield?

Slavina

Yup, that's correct :)

Daina

Daina would question what went bad.. they weren't in a big town with a big guardian this time.. basically Daina radiates confusion

Slavina

Well, for starters Bozydar's spirit was nearly obliterated. He only avoided that by very quick thinking and by being able to take control and direct Daina's energy to shield/anchor them. But the spiritual shockwaves of Daina touching the seed were devastating for the family, leading to the death of Bozydar's infant sister, one of their carts being destroyed, and eventually the death of Slavina's closest uncle.

Slavina isn't sure, but she also thinks she may still be dealing with the effects it had on her and may be damaged permanently.

Daina

Daina looks shocked and slightly dubious, not that she thinks Slavina is lying but surely it couldn't reach out that far... could it? annnnd now she looks like she wants to cry and throw up at the same time.

Fate

Janin will check on Daina and ask if she would like some space. (He feels there's still more to be done, but it may be beneficial to process the emotions some more before continuing.)

Daina

Daina probably would take him up on that idea with a gutteral mumble of sorry to Slavina before retreating to likely throw up again for the second time in life and no Jerri to make her feel better