Addie, day 11, after dusk

After a quick discussion to find out where Gem had already checked, the three girls went looking for Maya -- if the group had managed to agree on one thing over the past few days it was not to have people running off on their own.

Addie wasn't eager to go back and talk to Maya right now, so she subtly maneuvered Gem to the fore while she lagged a few steps behind. After all, Gem was the one who had noticed and who had looked in the caves. It wouldn't have been right to push forward and take charge, anyone could see that.

As they approached the fire the elf apparently realized what was going on because she looked back at Addie and gave a snort and a shake of her head. Then she stopped, staring at something briefly. She swore "Maria's tits on a tugboat!" before stepping aside so that Addie could see, and adding "Looks like we have more problems than just Niyaf."

There was a few moments of confusion as Paul and Sim explained about the hunters while Gem added in Niyaf's absence, but eventually all were up to speed, and facing the deadly facts of more dead kids.

As the voices died down, Addie finally added "When we were settling in here, I remember hearing Niyaf talking to some of the hunters, asking where they were going, when they were going out, things like that. It struck me, because a lot of the hunters were orcs and mostly she'd been avoiding them, because .... you know." She falls silent for a moment, then forces herself to carry on "Was she just being curious? Was she worried about food? Was she planning on following them for some reason? Or ... had she made contact with someone outside our group, and wanted to tell them where to expect the hunting party; it was mostly orcs ... "

Maya's look is grim. She looks over at Klarisa. "How many were in the hunting party? It looks like someone is hunting us and we need to come up with a plan. Right now, I want all hunting to stop. Who besides me can sneak through the woods and track whoever is after us? Dana, can you do some scouting as a bird while we gather some people together. I am not sure that just leaving is the best option, but what do the rest of you think?"

Addie, day 11, after dusk

The words of Erik, her combat instructor before all of this happened, come to Addie “Out in the real world fights are not between carefully matched weights and skill levels on neatly defined mat areas. Information is critical. Who are you fighting, and what advantages do each of you have? What escape routes do you have? Are they realistic? How can you learn more about your opponent before you commit yourself to escape or combat, to attack or defense – or to outright surrender?”

Part of her finds it a bit depressing how fast she can go through this assessment for their situation, but most of her seems to be carrying on mechanically, perhaps too much in shock at the news to feel emotion yet?. The checklist does bring one useful thing to mind, activating her link she sends messages to the others with matrix connection "Just a reminder: please make sure someone is watching the entrance to your cave, and that people are well back from the entrance. Just because we have caves for tonight doesn't mean that we shouldn't be careful." The last thing they needed was to have more of the kids killed while they talked.

“We don’t know who we are fighting, other than they have modern arrows and can pull off an ambush or sneak attack. They may not know how much magic we have, but on the other hand they might, and we should assume that they have scouted the larger group at least a little. Which isn’t a good position for us.”

“Should we move from here? Down here in the valley we can only really go forward or back, and back isn’t much of an option. Getting up out of the valley would be really difficult and slow right now, probably almost totally based on our magicians, and would spread us out. They’d probably expect us to either stay here or move farther down the valley. We might be able to cross the river, but there is a good chance that they could do so as well, or they could even be based on the other side. Pierre and Widget were talking about rafts, but we haven't tested the idea to see if it would work. So I don’t see us being in a very good position to escape them by running away.”

“So I think we desperately need to find out more about them. How many, do they have magic, and if possible what they want. For that matter, they killed some of us, but they are people -- if they aren’t toxic shamans or something like that maybe we can communicate with them? Find out more about where we are, what is going on? If they are, I don’t know, defending this valley as hunting grounds or something insane like that, maybe all they want is for us to move on, and if we go quickly they leave us alone. But if they a bunch of insane criminals or something, then maybe they just want to kill all of us, and our best bet is to focus on getting the fight on the best terms that we can.”

“For getting that information, I think most of our best hunters are dead. Jamal was out there today, he was the only one I think was close to you. Some of the stories he had about the games he and his sister used to do in the forests ... Drek, did you know that he’d still been hoping to get home for her birthday?” Her voice cracked on that last word, and tears start sliding down her face. She shouldn’t have thought about the personal yet. Caustic thoughts cascaded through her mindt: This is why she shouldn’t lead, too weak, too emotional, too attached to people.

"I think they're people. Well organized, well supplied, with transport. Any limitations on their force levels likely self-imposed, and as such temporary."

Raf spoke quietly.

His phone had not been where he'd left it, so he'd come back to see if anyone had borrowed it, caught the conversation. It could be heard from some distance in the still night air. As the resident fletcher, someone had immediately handed him the arrow. And it had all made sense. Maybe.

"Obviously just one theory. But if they clearly didn't make this arrow out here out here. And if they were stranded out here with a limited supply, they'd use it for food, not killing other people. En masse. For display. So they are well supplied, which means connected by transport to the outside world. They also took out our most effective fighting element. That means they could have, and still could, take us out at any time. That they have not done so implies some artificiality to their purpose. Translation: sport."

He handed the arrow to someone else. "So I think Maya's first guess is right on. I'm just taking it to its logical conclusion. It all fits. All the murder would help explain the background count. And, this is our first real evidence as to which, of all the crazy theories why someone went to so much trouble to put us out here, might be the right guess. There has to have been a motive, right, and one backed by extravagant wealth. The hunt has a long literary tradition going back to Connell's The Most Dangerous Game, through numerous Hollywood iterations such as the Predator series, and right up to Aztechnology's long-running Fittest franchise."

He sat down. "Doesn't matter. My father will be here soon. And Holloway, our head of security, with his people. They won't be limiting themselves to fancy bows, I can assure you of that. Best just to wait."

Maya listens to the others, alternatively nodding and shaking her head. "They got some of our best hunters, not all of them. That is why we have three hunting teams and two of them are in the camp. We do need more information and I think we should send Dana out as a bird or something while a couple of our remaining hunters come with me. The moon is quite visible tonight, which means that I will be able to see fairly well. Klarisa will detail two or three people to join me here."

"I think it's reasonable to assume that these people hunting us are aware that we are here. Do any of the mages have the ability to conceal three or four of us for a short time, until we can get away from the caves? And it is very good advice to make sure that everyone stays back from the entrances to the caves. Jim, you are good at wilderness survival, would you like to come with me? Cailin and Raferty? I am not sure of your skills, but do you think that you are good enough to come? Dana, I don't like the idea of you flitting about on your own. Would you please take Addie if she is willing or find another person if she is not?"

Rafferty got back up. There was really no point, with his father coming, but this could be a way to be kind to Maya after...well...if that had actually happened...his memory was just so hazy. "I've been a bit busy making bows, but my father didn't teach to make - and use - them to shoot at paper targets. I'm actually much better at hunting than most of the other designated hunters. I won't slow you down."

Maya nods at Raferty and gives him a big smile. "Thank you, Raferty, I appreciate that very much." Then she looks at the others in the group.

A big smile from Maya.

Rafferty was surprised at how much that meant to him.

Maybe the other thing had never happened at all.

Maybe after his father came, she'd come and live with him instead of spend life in the wilderness.

Maybe they'd get married.

He hoped his father would come soon.

He sat back down to rest while waiting for the next orders.

Addie, day 11, after dusk

Addie bites her lip, shoots an apologetic glance at Dana, then shakes her head and says "I'm not really the best choice for accompanying Dana, I'm sorry. Maybe Leslie? He seems to like animals and he has a pretty level head -- I think he might adapt well to the change. And he wants to help, he'd be happy to give it a try I think."

Her next words are directly to Dana. "Just ... watch out. If they've kept an eye on us, they might know about this magic and be looking for birds? You have mostly stepped away from everyone else for changing, so I don't know that they'd know, but it is possible for sure. Please don't push it, don't go and try to fight them. Nets and arrows and numbers could make things pretty hard, even for you." She knows it isn't fair, but she doesn't want to ever have another experience like waiting to see if Dana would survive the dogs. "Please ... for me?"

Addressing the broader group she continues "I'm not good like Maya or Dana, but I can be pretty light footed -- but it is getting dark enough that I'm going to be mostly blind. Maybe take Gem? Should be enough light for her to see fairly well, and if you haven't noticed, none of us ever hear her approach. And she's a survivor." Seeing the dirty look that the elf is shooting her Addie adds more passionately "Oh you know its true. You don't talk about what you've been through, but it is clear enough, I bet you could hide so that even Maya would have a hard time finding you! And I know you can turn off those tattoos, so don't try to say you are too obvious in the dark."

Once Gem has mumbled something like acceptance of this assessment Addie continues "Depends if you need another body, or night eyes, up to you, Maya."

"As for me, I'll talk to some of the others, make sure people are ready to move out quickly if we need to. Hopefully not in the dark, but possibly as soon as the sky is brightening? They probably wouldn't expect us to move out before dawn, and if Dana or the spirits can scout for a way up out of the valley then we wont be as easy to predict or trap." She wonders if trying to escape this trap will trigger the others to attack more strongly? But she keeps that speculation to herself.

"If we keep the fire burning low here, once that is done I'll climb a tree and watch for anyone approaching here, it only needs a bit of light for me to see quite well, I can warn the caves by link and maybe do something about it, depending on how many and stuff. I wish I could reach you lot by link, but nobody else who has one would be that good at sneaking through the dark. I'll need a bit of sleep, so will get someone else to keep watch from hiding if you lot aren't back by the deep of the night. And if you don't come back by dawn, look for us downstream."

Dana said "No magic, every passing day spellcasting gets harder and harder and may very well be impossible where we are going. This headache stays with me for quite some time now after every spell I cast and I need to be sharp.

We are going toward a city - but it is not like anything we encountered. The magic sphere there is even worse than here. If we do not hone our mundane skills we are all going to die. I suggest, we only use magic as a last resort. I am a capable combatant and can see in the dark, with or without magic. I will follow you - but if I have to cast spells to solve this problem then I see it as a failure. We CAN do that, on our own - we do not need magic to be strong - we need to be smart.

Clearly, her near death experience have changed something about Dana, more tactics and less muscle. For the last several days Dana did her best to hone her mundane skills - as she did ever since she arrived in this god forsaken place. Athletics, survival, and fighting skills. Mana was too bad to seriously considering practicing the magical arts. She feels like she needs to forget about these to survive to focus on being strong.


She tells Addie "The day I start being afraid of dying is the day I stop being a warrior and focus my life around you. Perhaps sometime I will do that for you, but right now, warriors is what we need to survive." She says and then thinks about kissing Addie, but there are too many people a side. She blushes - "I do not want to lose you it is good that you are staying at camp." . Freaking emotions, want what they want. Why can't I just kiss her and let everyone in camp know that we are together. They are already suspecting it, it is difficult to keep secrets in such a small group and we sleep together every night.

Dana looks at Maya "So how do we find the missing hunters without excessive use of magic? A week ago we had no tools, but we have spears and bows now and we have fire. You even seem to have gained the trust of these puppies. We better learn how to do this now, before we have these problems where magic is completely impossible - closer to the city."

Maya nods. "OK. No magic unless you have to. Raferty, Gem, Nim, Klarisa, and Tarok with me. Addie, you are in charge in my absence, with Cailin second and Lindsey third. Dana will follow us as our secret weapon. Bows and spears for the hunting group. Any questions?"

Rafferty hefted his bow, enraptured. How could he have...? She was tall and bold and all a boy could want. Soon his father would be here...no! He would take her from him...He picked out his best arrow. He wouldn't let that happen.

Day 11, Just After Dusk, Far side of the river

Scrabbling up the side of the valley after wading through the shallow but fast flowing river it doesn’t take long for you to find your missing hunters. Although the light has pretty much failed the details are all too graphic and even a cursory examination reveals that whatever happened it didn’t happen here, which means the bodies have been moved from wherever they were ambushed… without anyone apparently seeing anything! Except bodies isn’t quite right, as Fish still has a glimmer of life…perhaps if he can be revived he might be able to tell you what really happened?

Maya goes up to Fish and kneels at his side while spreading the rest of her people out to cover her. She gives her best shot at giving first aid.


OOC: Can someone please do my roll? I don't have access to my dice roller. Thanks.

Rafferty knelt on the other side of Fish, helping Maya with trained hands.

"Don't worry," he whispered to Fish, "my dad will be here soon."

Dana is tempted to use the heal spell, but then again perhaps she has grown soft and spoiled by magic.
She looks at Maya and asks... "is there anything you can do for him?"

Maya is a bit surprised to see Dana, but quite glad. "Raferty and I are going to try some first aid, but some magic after that would be great."

Maya was binding Fish's wounds expertly as Raf handed her necessities from what was left of the meager medical supplies, but he was fading fast. It was clear that the worst of his bleeding was internal, and there was absolutely nothing they could do about that.

Unless...Raf looked up at Dana, still standing nearby....

Maya looks at Dana and says, "I know magic is weaker here, but my skill is not going to save him. Can you please try some mojo?"

Dana feels a bit frustrated - how can they survive without her? If they cannot even bring people back from the brink of death.
She approaches Fish and places her hand on his chest. Whispering a few Hebrew words, something she picked up in her religious training, Fish's wounds diminish. It was not the miraculous recovery that Caillin pulled off to take Dana from the brink of death - but the boy was no longer in danger of bleeding out. Whatever was bleeding was now patched up.

She said softly "Fish... can you hear me?"

After the others head off, Addie stands in the dark for a few long moments, arms wrapped tight around herself, wondering how badly she is going to screw this up. Getting people to pull together behind a plan, getting people organized, climbing a tree, and watching, these are all things she knows she can do, things she has done before – but everything here seems to turn out wrong. Is she going to get everyone moving right into an ambush? Is she going to somehow miss attackers and fail to give warning?

Why did she even say that she would do these things? Why would anyone trust her to do them with all that she’s screwed up? They should have gotten … Oh, yah, that would be the problem -- who else was there for these roles?

With that she squares her shoulders and strides to the first cave.

Day 11, Just After Dusk, Far side of the river

Fish stirs and then cracks his eyes, spitting blood out past his tusks

“Mother fucker that hurts…!” peering around he takes in the other bodies and the kids clustered around him “fuckers appeared out of nowhere…no warning, they just started killing us! Didn’t get a clear look at any of ‘em. All dressed up to look like animals or some shit, fucking good camouflage to get close without any of us spotting ‘em…shit! What now? We step on some holy fucking ground or something? Why’d they just start on us like that? They didn’t even take our kills so it weren’t food they were after…”

Listening to Fish's story, Raf's mind raced, comparing the ork's story alongside his theory of this being an elaborately planned hunt, with he and his companions as prey. The camouflage fit, but why as animals. It could fit - maybe some sort of totemic adulation among the hunters? Who knew what went on in the minds of the sorts of people that would think this up and participate in it...And yet, to be fair, it was a wrinkle, suggesting some new element that needed adding to his theory...animal costumes or not, with an arrow like the one they'd found these were no isolated primitives....

Maya listens to Fish and shakes her head. "No, this is not something like that. The arrows that were used to kill the team are modern. I think that they are hunting us and this may be part of an explanation of why we are here; to be sport for them to hunt. I wonder how many other groups of people have been dumped out here for their enjoyment? Just because we have found no sign of them does not mean this has not happened before. Perhaps other groups have been kidnapped and dumped in other places to give these sickos a different sort of challenge."

She looks around at the others of her small group. "At least one of us needs to get Fish back to the camp. Klarisa, may I use Tarok for that? The sad bit about this whole scenario is that it is obvious that those hunting us know where we are and can ambush any of our hunting parties and then those of us who are even less capable. Maybe they have not had anyone try to defend themselves before and we might be able to gain an advantage by continuing on. Everyone, please look about carefully. Moving our people here must have left tracks that can be followed. And be careful. While it is easy to believe that these guys are overconfident, it would be wrong to believe that they are careless. They might leave traps or warning devices on the trail. Fish, how many did you see?"

Dana listened to Fish's story with racination. Animal clothes... that is appealing. "I wonder if someone could make me such clothes" she said loudly. Dana wanted to meet these people and pethaps to aquire such a bow.

"Finally civilization... If we hunt these people we will have modern weapons and armors. " She added.

Maya laughs softly. "Yes, but only if we hunt these people and live. Alright, anyone find any tracks that might help us follow these killers?"

Dana said "Well, this is the most civilized it gets I afraid. I mean..."

She thought "Something is terribly alien about this *world*? The background count should not increase as we approach a large city... unless something terrible is going on in that city."

I mean... Fragg it... these are these negative emotions are making me sad again... It happens every time I use magic. It feels depressing."She sighed "You guys are lucky that you cannot feel them. I am sorry... we are going to hunt these people, equip ourselves with their weapons and then proceed to that city to witness the disaster first hand. If we do not hunt them - they hunt us it is as simple as that."

Maya nods. "Yes, we need to hunt them and kill them or chase them away before they hunt us at leisure and kill us." She looks around, "If anyone disagrees, now is the time to say so. You can take Fish back and leave Tarok here.

Klarisa calls out that she has found some tracks leading off into the wilderness just as Fish manages to say that he thinks there were six men, but he is not certain if there were more.

Maya nods and thanks him, telling Tarok to get the boy back to the camp before asking her lead hunter to begin following the tracks. She reminds her that the prey may have put traps or alarms on the trail.

Dana nods, "Well I haven't killed anything significant in a while, it would be enjoyable to flex my muscles a bit. " She looks again on the grim scene and checks the dead, taking notes on the skill of the ambushers and their likely directions.

It should effect her - but things have not exactly been normal around them and after Grok and the dogs, she became a bit numb to casualties. Frustrated that she cannot save them all - but know that there really is no use for most people. In that place, the strong survive and the weak end up dead.

Addie, day 11 after dark, first cave (where Lindsey's at)

"So basically," she finished explaining to Lindsey, "Once there is light in the sky in the morning, the plan is we start moving out. Unless they have come back before then and tell us otherwise -- the other two options basically being that they come back and keep the plan to get out of here fast as we can, or they aren't back before then in which case we assume the worst and our best chance is to move out, fast."

Addie is aware of the other girls in Lindsey's group listening, and beyond them yet more kids. They all need to pull together for this, but Addie hope's that Lindsey can coordinate at least the ones in this cave, so she avoids any effort to be motivational. "So ... if any of your friends can help scout at all that would be great, but you know best what they can do. I'll go get the other cave warned about the early departure, and leave this one to you."

Addie was pretty sure that if Lindsey could get her girls moving, the rest would come -- the faces in that cave were mostly the ones that she thought of as either most protective of the group of girls, or most lustful for them, or both.

Heading to the other cave, she worried more. There would be Dot and Pierre and Rusty and Widget there, but also the core of the orcs -- the ones who'd been happy enough to back Mohamed. They'd followed Klarrisa during the retreat without creating too much trouble, but Addie was worried about how that one group increasingly stuck ito themselves. She hadn't managed to put her finger on what the dynamic was, at least yet, but she had a feeling that whatever it was, it was going to be trouble sooner or later.

Addie, day 8 flashback

Dana insisted "Practicing slow just makes you slow. Slow makes you dead."

Addie forced herself not to sigh. She loved Dana, but sometimes the other girl was SO single-minded! "Please Dana, I know you can land without getting hurt much, and I don't trust the others not to get hurt. I almost had the move down in training but I was too tentative, worried that I'd fling someone off the mats or really hurt them some other way. I just need to do a few run throughs. And after the throw we go as fast as you want as we work on our ground combat, OK?"

Dana had finally given in, and let Addie practice sacrifice throws with her. They'd already established that Dana was too strong, quick, and skilled for Addie to throw her with the moves that the blonde girl had more confidence in. But even with that agreement it was hard -- hard for Dana to resist, but not simply counter the move with her greater combat skill and experience. Addie grew more and more frustrated as Dana countered the throws and tossed out bits of combat wisdom as Addie picked herself up off the ground again and again.

Finally one time Dana promised "I'll just plant myself like a tree and you try." Addie gave up being gentle and through her weight into the throw -- and Dana went down with her. Her sense of elation held up even as Dana got Addie into a hold before Addie could even follow up on the throw. Three more trials gave similar results even as the sped things up and Dana started giving just a hint of resistance.

Realising that the bruises were already going to make tomorrow's hike interesting, Addie realized she'd better but an end to their practice "Thank you thank you thank you! I think I finally got the weight transfer down. And if you'll release this arm-bar, I think you've earned a kiss."

Of course Dana tossed her one more time, to remind her to never let her guard down, but by now Addie was expecting that. And kissing was easier when lying on the ground anyway, since she didn't have to reach up so far to get to the elf's lips. She barely even noticed her bruises for a few minutes.

Addie day 11, after dark, 2nd cave

She spent long enough outside to make sure that her eyes were adapted to the dark before she went into the second cave, but when she stepped inside she found that she needn't have bothered. A couple of the mini-torches -- Widget had made some from branches, scraps torn from the flats, and animal fat-- were burning and smoking away, throwing enough light for her eyes to see well.

Not that she liked what she saw. Seven orcs occupied all the area near the entrance, while Addie's friends and a couple of other kids were wedged into the narrower and rockier area at the back. Maybe the orcs were guarding the cave, or maybe they were just claiming the best territory. Looking at how they had spaced themselves, Addie felt that it was more the latter than the former.

Well, she'd just have to deal with that as it came up. "Listen up, I have news, and a change of plans maybe. One of our hunting group was ambushed, we think they are all dead -- Jamal and Fish and them. Modern arrows. Maya and Dana and Klarrisa and a few others -- a strong group overall -- have gone to investigate, find out if any of them are still living, can we find out who these people were, that sort of thing."

She gestured for quiet, and was relieved when the growing hubbub died down. "So the plan right now is we leave as soon as there is enough light for human eyes to see by. Maybe the others come back before then and call off the evacuation because of what they found, or maybe they come back and say that for sure we are getting out of here and carrying on downstream. Or maybe they aren't back by then, and we assume the worse and get moving fast! So everyone needs to be ready to be up very early, bring everything we have, and get hiking again."

"Now, any questions?"

There may have been a few, but they were over ridden by an orcish growl "Who said Klarissa could go? We can't risk her too!"

It took Addie a moment to make out the girl's name in that sentence, as the seemed to suck all the vowels out. It took another moment to place the speaker: Bulldog, one of the orcs who had always stuck mostly with his own kind. Younger than her and still gangly by orc standards, so only the size of the human security guards she'd seen at her grandmother's courtroom. A quick query of her link dredged up that he was from Vancouver and his parents worked at the port there -- so not street, but he seemed to have latched onto the street gang orcs from day one.

Some of the other orcs looked a bit uncomfortable at this outburst, but some of them looked equally concerned by the question. And Mohamed, still with one arm splinted and his chest bound, kept a blank expression but his eyes darted between them with interest.

Drek -- she hadn't thought of this possibility, that while they may follow Klarissa, they'd also come to feel possessive of the only orc girl in the group. Her first instinct was to deny that they had any claim on Klarissa, but then the words of her Ju-Jujitsu teacher came back to her again "Always try to pit strong against weak; strong to strong is only for desperate situations." He'd been talking about breaking holds and breaking fingers, but surely the same applied to breaking cliques? If they were feeling strongly about Klarrisa it would be best not to challenge that. So what was their weak spot?

She drawled back "Hoi Bulldog, would you tell Klarrisa where she can go and where she can't go?" That drew an awkward chuckle from a few of the orcs. "But you are right, she is important and I hate to see her in danger. Same with Maya who knows more about surviving out here than anyone else. And Dana who is our best fighter. But they all knew what they were doing when they decided to go. And just letting some other group kill some of us and do nothing? That couldn't happen."

Bulldog had climbed to his feet as Addie talked, and now he stepped close to before growling back "Maya and Dana, yah. But they shouldn't have taken Klarrisa, one of the others of us could have gone instead. Or you, why did she go and you stay?"

Frag, what was Klarissa to them, or at least to Bulldog? Mother figure? Alpha-female to the pack? Possible mate?

"Well, Maya didn't choose me to go sneaking through the woods -- probably didn't think I could keep my mouth shut for that long." That surprised a genuine laugh out of pretty much everyone in the cave. "To be honest, I think it is because Klarissa went to the small camp, escorting Caillin, early on. Maya got to know her, and trusts her. Same as you trust the people you know best, right?"

Bulldog did his part and nodded on cue and looked around at his clique of orcs. "And Klarissa, she trusted you" Addie subtly emphasized that word while looking Bulldog straight in the eye "to get things together and get ready to head out in the morning -- and to help set up a watch outside until then, to make sure the caves are safe. You can do that, right?"

It was a cheap trick, but it seemed to work. Bulldog straightened up as much as he could without banging his head into the rocks and growled "Of course, us orcs can go any time, travel all night if we need to, and with the moon tonight we can see good outside."

"Perfect, I knew we could trust her judgement." Addie hit him with her most winning smile, then bit her lip and looked a little tentative before bobbing her head and saying "Bi'ce" --thank you -- in terrible Or'zet. "Did I say that right?"

Bulldog gave a puff of laughter and said "You missed a sound, it is more like 'by-K-she'" emphasizing the glottal stop in the middle.

Addie repeated it as well as she could, and he gave a grudging "Better." She blew out a long breath and said "Could I walk with you" this time sweeping her gaze to include the whole orc group "and learn more? I only know a few words and don't say them well. I'd like to learn better, if you'll teach me."

Bulldog puffed up and blustered "We'll see about that tomorrow, for tonight we need to set watches and get some sleep, not natter on. Human girls always talk too much!"

Addie only permitted herself a small smile as he took command. Hopefully she would be able to walk with them tomorrow -- someone needed to reach out to this group before it made trouble again, and she didn't think Klarissa realized what could be brewing amongst these boys. For tonight she settled down to get her four hours of sleep, to be up and getting things together in the middle of the night.

[Cailin - 11th day - Main Camp] #167

The past week had started reasonably well for Cailin. She still wasn't fond of being in that group. But since it wasn't like she had much choice now, she did what she could. When the morale of the other children had lowered, she had tried to help in the evening, by telling stories which she improved with judicious usage of her Phantasm spell to make the stories alive.

Performance, Phantasm [5], drain (4): 11d6t5 3 12d6t5 3 13d6t5 6

In the days, she didn't try to lead anything, more to give a sense of unity to all the kids, to inspire them to greater things. More than realising they had to work together, she tried to make it so they wanted to. To have them want to understand the others, and go beyond the normal social clusters.

Leadership (Inspire): 15d6t5 7

Gradually, the mood in the crowd improved. No doubt part of their successes in the past days, but she tried to think she had helped a bit. However, as the mood of the other kids improved, her own dropped. From an almost pariah she had become accepted, maybe even more than that by a lot. But she felt it was only due to her spells, mainly her Heal one. That they only saw in her a walking cure and nothing much. When she, herself, hurt quite a bit. Her lungs on fire all day long. From time to time, she had abrupt reactions when asked something, reactions she explained as simple tiredness. But she knew better. Being a dryad in this environment... The longer they stayed, the worse it would become. Whenever she could, she went on the edge of the camp to gather reagents. It helped a bit, and it could be pretty useful at some point, but it wasn't much.

And then came the news of the Hunters. People killing them, for sports apparently. She didn't really agree about this idea of sending all of their best trackers, almost all of their best people to this hunt. What if while they were away, the Hunters raided the camp? The peace didn't last long, even now some of the orcs wanted to rebel. Again. She considered briefly "adjusting" their...leanings...but refrained, for now.

What she did however was to summon a bit Earth spirit. She had tried to avoid doing that as much as possible, especially when they became as moody as she was, but now, she had to be ready.

Summon Earth spirit [6] (Summon, defence, drain): 10d6t5 4 6d6t5 4 13d6t5 8
Summon Earth spirit [6] (Summon, defence, drain): 10d6t5 3 6d6t5 2 13d6t5 5

Her spirit summoned, she didn't ask him anything at that point, holding her service for a possible infiltration. Instead, she keeps watch by herself, peeking in the astral from time to time. Even with the dreadful conditions of the place, spotting metahumans is not exactly difficult.

Day 11, Just After Dusk, Far side of the river

The hunting party set off into the dark tracing the path that your friends were dragged down…hardly the ideal conditions for tracking, even with the enhanced senses available to you. Despite that the ambush site is found a short time later…amidst scrubby trees and rock the trail goes completely cold…it’s as if the attackers were flown in or something, there is simply no trace even as you spiral out trying to pick up their tracks.

There is grumbling then, about being too far from the main group and badly exposed. The air is cold and the stars above seem alien through the purplish haze…time to return…?

Maya is stumped. In her opinion, no one can do this without magic or technology. She turns to Dana and and says, "Frag. They seem to have come and gone. Is there a chance that they left some sort of signature if they used some mojo to conceal their tracks?"

To everyone else, she says, "One last quick look and then we have to return to the camp."

The "official" trackers had come up with nothing, trail gone cold. But Raf figured another set of eyes couldn't hurt. Especially if, on a hunch, he was looking for something they weren't....

Maya watches Raferty look around one more time then shakes her head. When he shakes his head, indicating he has nothing, Maya looks at the others. "The poor light and the terrain are just not cooperating much. We are leaving for the camp. Please fall in and let's move out."

Dana said plainly "Sorry but I cannot do these things, I only learned how to kill things with my magic. Perhaps you should ask Caillin - she seems to excel in non violent tasks.", there was little warmth in her words but it was nothing personal to Maya, just Dana's grim emotions from the massacre and frustration about losing the hunt surfacing.

Day 11, Towards Dawn, Main Camp

Maya and her team stumble into camp, worn out from their dark wilderness trek and frustrated at their lack of results. Now there is a debate to be had about whether you move on quickly, keeping a careful eye out for your attackers, or hole up here and wait for them…the problem with the latter is that you don’t have the supplies to withstand a siege and your hunters will potentially be vulnerable if they go out again…that is assuming they are even willing to risk themselves without support…

And then Addie is suddenly alerted by her ‘link informing her that it has detected a signal where none was moments before…and Cailin detects a glimmer of life in the treeline on the far side of the river, up on the ridge some three hundred meters from the camp. They are moving stealthily, hiding amongst the trees…spread out in a loose line across a front of about eight hundred meters… a guestimate would put them at about thirty strong…

[Cailin - 12th day - Main Camp] #168

In other circumstances, Cailin would have had no trouble avoiding a big "Told you so." Right now however, it takes her some effort. This "debate" had irritated her, since she didn't want anything else than go to sleep. Now however... It looked like she wouldn't be able to for a while.

With a grunt, she calmly says in a lull of the conversation "There are thirty people approaching. That way." she points in the direction of the far side of the river, where she saw some of the others.

Maya grimaces, but is glad that the return of the tracking party has brought everyone into one cave. "Life is unfair, people. We need to be ready for these killers. In my opinion, they are already too close to try to evade them and flee. Pierre, please move the younger people to the rear of the cave. Now, we do not have enough food to withstand a siege here. I am sorry to have to ask this of our mages, but we need all the strength we can muster. Illusions, traps, spirits, direct mojo, whatever. We do not have much time, so I am open to any sort of advice. What I do know is that if these are the same people that attacked our hunters, they are unlikely to want to do much talking, however, there is a chance that this is a different group. I propose that I go out to meet them and see if they will reason with us or attack. Magic backup would be nice. If they attack me, then we will have to do the best we can to show them that they are fucking with the wrong men and women. Any questions or ideas?"

[Cailin - 12th day - Main Camp] #169

Cailin snorts "Stay here. If they stop some distance away and only a couple of them approach, we'll know they want to talk. They're looking for us, let them take that risk."

By that time Dana was having a small dinner with Addie. It was too dark for Addie to see much by their touch and Addie has already eaten but Dana could use the company and the warmth of her lover. Dana was trying not to describe the violence graphically, though so much death just made Dana horny. Perhaps to counter death with life, perhaps because it did effect her and she wanted to feel loved. Perhaps because she simply was a teenager in love and horny was her natural state now that she discovered her sexuality.

To the havoc, Dana's body stiffened. She quickly got up and softly kissed Addie, just in case they were going to die. Frowning to be torn away from her evening - she walks toward Maya and Caiilin and asks "Are we doing the diplomacy gig or should we start killing... they are only 30 strong."

Maya watches as Dana comes up. She nods and says, "I would like to try diplomacy, just in case these are not enemies. For all we know there could be two groups of people out here besides us. Frag, this could even be another group of new arrivals like us. I do not want to start killing them if they are not the ones hunting us."

[Cailin - 11th day - Main Camp] #170

"Then like I said, just let them come to us and don't expose yourself. If they're like us, the last thing they'll want will be to fight and it'll be pretty obvious quickly. Diplomacy doesn't impose that you go to them." She shrugs "In fact, on that side of things, having them coming to us makes us appear stronger. Going out won't give you anything if they want to talk, and you'll be an easy target if they don't. Staying here doesn't hurt diplomacy at all, and keeps you safe." She cocks an eyebrow "There's an obvious choice here, don't you think?"

Maya grins and nods. "Yes, an obvious choice. I will agree that it might be better to wait here. But I also think that we should be as prepared as possible for them to be violent. How can we best use our asset?"

Dana said quietly I am going to make a secret exit - just in case some of the younger kids want to run. Keep me posted and enjoy talking. " With that Dana moved deeper into the cave and started molding the earth with her magic, slowly digging outside in an unexpected angle. Perhaps if they need to run - this exist will provide life. " Addie would probably charm them..." She thought - but still a second exit increased their options.

Raf was relieved that Maya had accepted Cailin's reasoning on the way to approach any negotiations - the logic was unassailable, and he'd been ready to back her up if Maya had not listened.

Nothing must happen to Maya.

And Dana's plan for an exit was also excellent. That gave them options for movement. But not enough.

"These caves are worthless. They offer short-term protection, but they can starve or smoke us out. Perhaps one static defensive position here, but we need to secrete mobile elements at some distance, which hopefully they will bypass as they approach us here. We'd need to make sure they see us here for that to happen, but it seems they already know we're here in any case."

[Cailin - 11th day - Main Camp] #171

"But if they have Mages or decent sensors, the people outside will be easy pickings..."

It was the first time in a long time that Cailin had spoken to him. He hoped it wasn't the last - she had a good head on her shoulders, and he respected her a lot. He should have had more respect for her religion before.

"That's true. There are certainly trade-offs and risks to any action. But the alternative is to be caught in here like rats...and if those sensors you are justifiably worried about detect Dana's alternate exit, then that will be all she wrote."