CripDyke

Jesset also is glad to see Warrick move with more ease, but she is still concerned and makes herself available to help - or catch - him should he require it while mounting his beast. With a sigh at the ease he shows in mounting, she sets her care behind. "I shall guard the rear, as before Tanaar. Thank you again for meeting us." Then placing her horse in with the others, she sets about guarding the rear of a mounted column as only she can. She runs silently over the detritus of the forest floor, never quite touching it. Her footfalls land on a cushion of air scant inches above the ground. Then, with her incredible leaping ability, she launches onto a strong lower branch. Knowing the trees of the forest makes it easy to choose a place strong enough for secure perching, yet lacey enough for good camouflage. Hiding amoung the fertile tracery, she checks above and below for any signs of menace...allowing her companions to outpace her for a time. But soon she is off again, running on the Squirrel's Highway or the Horse's with equal ease...until she finds another post suitable for observation. On the ground or in the trees at almost any height up to a dozen paces, she spies from every angle. It is not that she does not trust Tanaar, for Stern's senses are infallible e'en if her own wisdom is not renown. But against such magics as her foes weild.... [/i]Chance is not to be trusted.[/i] Again she leaps, runs, and disappears, all to keep safe those she loves.

Distracted by Warrick's condition, it takes a moment for Jesset to register Stern's question. "Wha? Hmm, yes. Same order. Thank you, Stern. It won't be too long before we get...home." The last word is hard for her to release. It is impossible even for her to say if the word is more a source of comfort, or threat.

Whispering like a loving a breeze, words come forth from Aeolene who completes another spell...

Hey---- I"M SORRY PEOPLE! I thought I asked StormHammer to send you all a note, but it got confused and he just sent one to one game instead of all of them. I broke an arm in January and just got the cast off today. I've been unable to type and the few entries I've made on other games were when I talked someone into typing for me. Honest, I didn't know you were in the dark 'cuz I wasn't reading the threads!!! What a sukky situation for y'all, not knowing. Sorry a thousand times for that. There was just no way that I could type with my arm all done up. Even sittin at the desk required turning in an awkward way which was killin my neck. Got the cast off today. Goin to the chiropractor about my nect. But I should be able to game starting right away. I need to have a day to catch up on what we were doing, but I should post tomorrow night (TUES, Feb 22nd). Knowing that y'all are probably checking this less often 'cuz of the long delay, I won't give more than the next post til I hear from Everyone. Once we're all back up to speed, we'll try to accelerate the postings to the end of the adventure... see ya heroes soon. Now I gotta go check out the other threads. I understand my characters haven't been much use in a fight lately! --)->

what?? I pm'd you a spell and its effects days ago??? are you sure you don't have it???

Aeolene, uncertain of how to proceed until George's warning is confirmed, neither draws a weapon nor intervenes with prayer. Aurellius' would not be angered by a Wanderer seeking to bring strength and aid to her allies, but he might if a prayer to the Great Empress interrupted the summoning of the Golden One's blessing within His own church. With no safe course available to her, she sits erect on the bench, her battle-senses fully in tune with her body's reflexes, and yet she moves no muscle nor prepares any weapon...

Jesset, knowing the need for proper caution in this wood, invites others to join the line as they will, saving only some discretion in making sure the rear guard includes a proper warrior, and the van the same. As Stern has volunteered for the van, she welcomes him and the Druid to the front - for leading as well as guarding. She herself will take the rear if none other does. Tho' if there is another volunteer, she will accept their offer gladly that she might ride more closely to Warrick - fated to the middle as he is by the discomfitting disease he suffers...

Jesset smiles with a widening of her nostril-covers in an expression that her close friends have come to know as rueful happiness. "Tanaar - well met! It is long since I chanced upon someone along a trail that knew my title. Even the Phoenix Guard avoided it. Outside of the city, and the palace, none have called me servant for years. And even then, it did not carry the meaning that it does here in the Wild. Thank you. It is a good homecoming." She sighs with a large lift of her chest. "And a timely one. We could use a breaking of the trail. I did not think the next leagues would pass easily. It is certain that we have been scried upon. I hope that you can help us defeat that or it may be a long trip for all of us." After pausing a moment she glances behind her - with her gaze falling on the hin in particular. Knowing all but the newcomer knows her history, she presses on with a quiet question: "As we travel, any news you may have about your...colleague Karrock would be welcome. It would do my heart good to know you are not the only druid remaining in these woods..."

"I use'ta come here alot just after...". She hesitated. "It's a good place to come an' sit an' think about stuff. It ain't like your temple though. I kinda wish it was maybe a little bit. I like your windchimes." She halted again as the lady-mage seated nearer the front of the chapel took another long look toward the chapel doors. As the half-orc falls silent, her not-quite-human friend smiles at the thought of the sound of the chimes. "The Empress does have a beautiful sense of music," is all the priestess says. Aeolene smiled. For Janara the topic had suddenly changed to Joe's snoring and sleeping, but the Wanderer knew that such rapid changes of topic, the ones that occurred so frequently around her Archer friend, were no accident. An Archer of Aurellius she may be, but however shocked she feels at the idea, even scribes may be knighted if they have either the correct birth or a worthy history of service. Have you not yet learned the source of others reaction to you, my Archer? It is not merely your birth or your skin - thousands upon thousands of half-orcs are not treated as you are. The nuns do not berate their pupils for failing at the impossible. Whether even they realize it or not, my friend, it is their high expectations for you despite your birth that are the source of the attention and criticism. They see in you the same greatness I see and dream of you being knighted here. And yet they cringe at the thought you will earn your knighthood, be brought here for elevation, and fail in your manners... ...they fear others will mistrust them for trusting you. And they fear that the church may not send you where you are needed should you once fail in manners. Oh, my Jane - they do not fear for a moment you lack courage, skill, dedication or devotion. No, they worry that you have all these things and that your smallest failures in the cities or in the churches will deprive the neediest of your valor in the countryside. Someday...someday your Holy Mother may even tell this herself. Someday you may even be prepared for your ears to hear it. Taking her eyes off the beautiful fixtures of architecture overhead, she looks to the woman seated next to her and places a hand on her knee. "Well, then perhaps we should wake him before the facing cracks," the priestess responds, ignoring the last remark.

With all my points in Hide, they may not have been able to SEE my post, MTLH! lol!

Aeolene arrives with 'Jane', prepared for a ceremony of blessing. This one should be much less stressful than that in the graveyard, for no great work of magic must be performed, nor must any contain the lightning of positive energy for spinning and weaving into a cloth whose organized nature is almost antithetical to the nature of the raw material. Instead there will be a ceremony where politics and religion are the focus, not magic, and the only feat attempted will be calling the attention of Aurellius' to a servant that clearly has already basked in His blessed sight. He will certainly have no desire to turn away from George, among His servants. It should be an auspicious day. Aware that she is welcome, she does not hesitate to enter the chapel after paying proper respect to the Golden One at the door. But just as aware that she is consecrated to Another, she makes herself unobtrusive. The most logical place to sit - in the back, near Joe - is also the loudest, but Aeolene seems not to mind. The very soul of modesty and respect, the wind priestess murmurs quiet prayers to the two friendly gods that they might bless this man - friend of her friends - while she waits for the ceremony to begin. "A beautiful chapel," she says to half-orc friend. "If you are not knighted in the field as might be appropriate for a scout and friend of a Wanderer, I can't imagine a better setting for your own knighting ceremony, Janara."

Garr's tension spills over into Jesset's pose. For a moment BOTH look like quivering animals, nares flaring as lungs gulp scented air. But the calm of a Ranger born to these woods still belongs to the sinister-born woman. With their close connection, the skoli's poise stills the wave of tension and spreads back towards Garr like an echo. Hammer and the wolf also seem affected, tho' none of the non-lupin animals are. Holding herself delicately between her ill lover and the ring of unexpected visitors, she offers no threat, but hovers in a perfect balance between stillness and the beginning of action that only the most instinctive of animals can normally attain. [/i]Are they druids? Or true animals? If only... Aah! I still cannot quite make meaning from the language of canines. Tho' I sense I am on the verge...[/i]

don't fret, Janara! Aeolene'll try to help.... of course, she does everything 7 times slower than everyone else 'cuz of the long-lived-thing, but...

yeah... cd's had some difficulties gettin' online, but i've been checking & what's really important is the dm's posts. without mtlh ultimately we can't do anything substantive. (no aspersions. i know he's not the flakin' type, just statin facts.) so... i have one more week of rl hittin me hard, but after that, if mtlh can do things regularly, i'll be here, otherwise...it's been fun!

oy! that's got to be awkward! me, i hate the local nba franchise - more of an NCAA hoops fan, especially women's hoops. but the Blazers walk on water to buy their drugs in this town, or so thesaying goes, so I don't get many friendly looks when I decline to root for them, much less point out their glaring shortcomings!! i feel for your situation. good luck to you (and the pats!)