Before leaving, the Acralacan slammed a fist against her mailed chest and straightened herself. "They call me Pale Isra", the not physically pale warrior introduced herself to Ulrich. "As you command, I will go with your warriors." With a last bow, she turned to exit the tavern, though the Qyrian's speech stopped her.

It served to help her recognise who the man Noburo, and those other ones that were to invade the forest alongside her, were. And as Pale Isra listened, she spared him some thoughts. This... Daimyo was a strange one, possessing mannerisms, armour, and weapons she had never seen before. Elusine's influence was so great it seemed to draw in even the most exotic of people, she concluded, not without a tranquil smile.

Sufficiently impressed by his titles, she quietly followed him outside, and with an attentive dark eye, watched how he interacted with what seemed to be his fellows. Her leading hand rested on the hilt of her blade, the other arm laid atop it, in a gesture that was half-heartedly hiding a readiness to strike. Thuggish, yes, but just as much a declaration of intent to defend the 'Kensei'.

"Maybe, maybe not. They have just lost the skirmish and they have retreated, however I don't think they'll expect us to retaliate so soon, especially since they might think most of us will go to the mines, since that's the obvious choice. They also don't know we captured one of them alive and that we know where their base is which means we have an element of surprise."

"In any case, I thank you for your help lady Asta, you are most kind and considerate, especially in a time like this. Just stick close to us and we'll get through this just fine."

"I..what the Hell are you..?!" Arthur was confused and angry at Cyntheria for being handed a list, then witnessing her slicing her hand open in some kind of vow. He looked on in with his mouth agape; the large man bristled.
"I WON'T BE SOME LIMP ERRAND BOY!" He shouted after her, tossing the list aside. "WHAT DO I CARE ABOUT YOUR DAMNED BLOOD VOWS, I WANT MY SON BACK!"
Arthur raged at Cyntheria as she ran away. He struck his axe on a nearby post, effectively embedding it deeply into it.
"Damned cursed foreigners..." Arthur slumped against the post with his back and drooped down along it. He buried his face in his hands, the look of a man utterly defeated and hopeless.
@BloodySoulStealer @TuskatheDaemonKilla @Casavay @Colapse @ItsTime
OOC: Pretty much anyone who recently got outside and were near the tavern could witness this.

Asta seemed to relax a bit at Noburo's reasoning, still her edge was showing with what seemed like a permanent scowl. She tilted her head to the side a little to see past Noburo. More warriors emerged from the tavern. Asta's gaze followed Elisa a bit (her magic still made people wary of her), before her scowl deepened at the sight of Isra. At Arthur's shouting Victor turned to look what it all was about, but throughout it all he had a blank face. Asta just sighed and shook her head slightly.

"This is the most traffic and action this garbage town has seen in years." She said with a dour expression. "I just want to strike back. Assholes destroy our homes and steal our children. They have been getting away with it too." Asta spat in anger. "Fucking useless crusade..." She added.
"If our Order had known, we would have been here to stop this." Victor said in a tone filled with compassion.
"Save it." The words came out of Asta like vitriol. "I'll go get my gear and meet you all at the western edge of town." She said before walking away.

"That lady sure has spirit. If Ulrich was to handle her, there would be a lot more shouting. He doesn't handle backtalk really well." Victor said with a light smile once Asta was gone. "I need to pray and be blessed by Lady Gwyneth before we go. I bet all this goes for good stories once you get back home." Victor clapped his hand on Noburo's shoulder with a small laugh.
@Colapse

Ferifan's work with her ritual went well enough. The rain pattered pleasantly on her sheltered space, which seemed like an old outdoor storage space now ransacked, and the chalk seemed to stick well. A moment into her drawings, a black cat ran into the same shelter as she was working in to seek cover from the rain.
The cat shook the water off himself and started to clean himself. A moment passing the cat started to brush against Elisa's legs purring and looking to be petted.
Other than some cat paw prints in her chalk lines, all was going well.
@Maleth

Cyntheria could hear the pain and frustration in the mans voice as she kept running. She felt bad but was not about to put any of there lives in danger. She knew it could be the loss of either a father, a child or even both. She would not let them die if she could help it.
She ran up towards the mines and made sure to leave a trail along the trees for the others to track her down. She got up close enough she could see the opening and where Benjamin and her ran. She looked around and started trying to collect anything she could to make a poison to weaken it and possibly to smoke it out at the same time. She hurried to find what she could and to figure out how to speed up the time to make one too. She was making sure to time it right for when the others would arrive. She focused on the actual work but couldn't help but smile thinking how it was something good and that a child could live.

With the ritual seemingly fine despite the addition of paw prints from the cat sharing her shelter, Elisa stopped her ritual-making for the moment and gave the cat a little pet. Afterwards, she went back to work on the ritual, moving away from merely drawing out the preparations and onto the magical 'meat' of the ritual.

That meant giving the ritual the kick-start of energy it needed, and then letting the Mage's drawn creation bring forth more energy and then aid her in focusing the raw magic into the form she needed it in. Needless to say, she was hoping the cat-paws didn't do anything to upset the ritual (and if it added anything extra, well that'd be something else for her book of magic.)

"If we come back home," Noburo sounded a bit more jaded than he intended, lowering his head a bit in front of Victor. "I apologize. My thoughts strayed back to Qyris, my land and my family. I just hope they, like myself, will weather the storm ahead of us all."

"Go and pray Sir Victor, I shall remain here with the rest and await your return."

Ferdinand looked at Arthur from the distance they held and turned away. "An untrained hand is as much a hindrance as an injured one. He would die and no one would be left to take care of his children." He said to no one in particular before he began walking. Thankfully the woman who cut herself seemed to purposely make a trail to follow. Rather kind of her really considering Ferdinand had no idea where the mine was supposed to be. He placed the axe on his shoulder and walked on legs that felt brand new humming a quiet tune.

The Pale flinched at Arthur's outburst, half-drawing her sword in a moment of startled activity. She realised quickly enough, however, that the man had not gone completely berserk, and that nobody else seemed unsettled. And so, the Acralacan simply let her sabre slide back into its sheath and watched the father despair with idle interest. The pain of loss was familiar to her, but she had no children or other wards of her own, and beyond compassionate sympathy, she realised that she found herself not truly able to empathise.

Not that one needed to fully understand the pain of others to wish to alleviate it. Or, at the very least, avenge a wrong.

"What troubles this man?", Pale Isra asked the noble commander, "They took his child in the raid?"
(@Colapse )

@Colapse

"Names Red Tarsinis, Noburo. Of the fallen house of the blazing suns." Red said as he met the samurai that would be leading the group it seemed. "The Girl that stormed out her emotions seem to be in control of herself or her anger is." Red commented watching her storm out in a fit. grabbing his bow from his back he readied it in case they would need it in the forest for a more silent way of fighting besides him bashing someone to death.

The cat looked on as Elisa's rituals came to conclusion. She had drawn the attention of some townsfolk as well, curious to see what the witch was working on. They did keep their fair distance, not wanting to get cursed or anything.
When she finally had finished the ritual and came the casting, its powers lit up the shelter as the energies came pouring in. The lines drawn on the ground seemed to jump at Elisa, encircling her body like arcane bandages. At first she felt a bit sick and felt like gagging. Then the rush of power coursed through her veins and she felt young as ever.
As the energies faded from sight, she felt amazing. Like she could jump over a man easy, wear plate armor like it was nothing, catch a greasy pig in 30 seconds flat.
Then she sneezed and the sides of her nose tickled. The sneeze came again, a bit harder this time. Then again. Now it was beginning to get her light headed, and her nose tickled like crazy! Feeling her nose, she didn't feel anything growing out of it. Not yet anyway.
The black cat had remained observant and surprisingly calm when obscure energies had been summoned from nothing. Sitting in the corner, the cat curled into a ball and settled into sleep.
@Maleth

As for those who were headed for the bandit camp in the forest, they were joined by Victor, the group led by Asta. She was ahead of the main group, urging people to keep quiet unless it was necessary to speak. The forest did provide some sort of cover from the rain but mostly it just made the forest trip a bit more worse.
It didn't help that there was absolutely no path whatsoever but Asta still seemed sure they were headed the right way.
She paused on occasion to inspect broken brances, stepped on twigs or a depression on the undergrowth. The deeper they went into the forest, more and more tracks even the untrained eye could spot were found. Torn bark on a tree, footprints, piece of torn fabric and so on. It started to get cold with all the rain. It wasn't a warm day either.
Ori was shivering a little, used to a lot more warmer climate the Acralacan ranger grumbled and cussed in his native tongue quietly. He leaned on a tree to gather himself a bit but found its surface sticky with resin. He had stained his hand and shoulder with it, making his trip all the more uncomfortable.
Others were starting to feel the cold too, even Elisa regardless of her ritual. The trek through forest was taxing already with the thick undergrowth this deep in.
Further ahead Asta signaled a stop and waved all of them over. She had found the corpse of a deer that had been eaten. It was covered in all sorts of strange slashes on the little amount of meat that still remained and numerous weird bite marks. Honestly it was mostly picked clean to a skeleton, only stretches of skin and little muscle left. The area around the deer was drenched in blood, even the trees around them. In fact some of it seemed to reach several meters high into the tree, like something had scuttled along it.

"This is not right."
Asta said and poked the corpse with a stick, worried frown on her face. Elisa could hear some sort of movement up in the trees, her ritual enhanced mind hinting at something up there but when she turned to look there was nothing there. To her sight anyway and the damn nose kept itching.
A bit further ahead of them, almost hidden by the forest's undergrowth, they found something even more strange. A small spider-beetle like creature's corpse, with an arrow stuck in it. It looked like a spider with a protective shell around it. The shell seemed to have done little to stop an arrow.

Ori picked it up by one of its legs and dangled it in the air, inspecting it with disgust and interest. Worse yet, the damn thing stank really bad.
"Now that then is just vile." Asta said and held her nose. Now it was Victor's turn to poke the spider corpse with a spear as Ori dangled it.
"Your fauna is as appealing as your people."
Ori said with a mocking smile at Victor and tossed the corpse on top of the deer corpse. Ori's lover jaw gave away how much he was freezing, taking some edge off the quip. Asta quickly stepped back from it, for it really did stink bad, not to mention how revolting the beast looked.
"Figures an Acralacan would say that. Your home is nothing but sand and starvation, seeing a country with actual life in it must be frightening."
Asta said back, her voice was a bit different thanks to holding her nose.
"What does some backwater peasant know about the world? I suggest you shut up and stick to being a commoner and a guide."
Women weren't so privileged as men in Acralaca, so it colored Ori's opinions on top of all his arrogance. In Ostyaka however, men and women were seen as somewhat equal. Women usually had a more favorable standing. Victor's diplomatic attitude seemed to be wearing thin for he said nothing, only hefted his spear a little and glared at Ori.
Asta was about to say something back, before she noticed something moving between the trees. She gestured everyone to lower themselves and so they did. There were five armed figures from what they could see moving with purpose, two of them seemed to share the burden of carrying venison. They seemed to be unaware of the crusaders spying on them.
Elisa's nose started to itch again and she was close to sneezing.
@Maleth @Colapse @Vulpas @Casavay

The entrance of the mine was a bit different. It had web covering it, thick as rope. Ulrich was standing before the entrance, holding his icon of Elusine, praying silently. His gold plumed helmet was resting on a rock next to him. Urghak yawned loudly and leaned on Ferdinand's shoulder, bored and not caring for Ostyakan religion. After a moment Ulrich whispered into the icon, kissed it and put it back on his neck. The icon shone brightly, dispelling the darkness of the mine effectively. He put his helmet on and with one great swing of his greatsword, slashed the webbing apart. Some of it stuck to his blade, really hard to get off.
"Finally, lets get in there."
Urghak said and hefted his club on his shoulder. Ulrich ignored the barbarian, Urghak was beneath his notice.
He entered the mine, greatsword at the ready.

Inside the mine, Urlich's pendant illuminated everything around him. Some more webbing covered the walls the deeper they went. Then they started hearing the shouting and screaming echoing from deeper inside the mine, Ulrich seemed unfazed by it and kept moving. Once they arrived at the small hub area with only two tunnels open, first thing they noticed were the wrapped bodies dangling from the ceiling. Some of them seemed still alive, for once in a while one of them wriggled and struggled. Otherwise all the walls seemed to covered in web too.
Smaller Doomspiders scuttled away along walls and down the other two tunnels to hide from the intruders.
The tunnel that used to be barricaded had its obstacles now shattered and traps sprung to no real effect. Some blood trails were down that way, apparently the beast was at least grazed to bleed some. That tunnel is where the screaming and shouting was coming from too. Moving forward again, down that particular tunnel they had to wade through some debris the shattered barricades had left behind. As the sounds came more and more clear the more they advanced, they started to hear a lot of moving from behind them as well.
Turning to look, it was a small horde of the Doomspider's offspring. They filled the whole tunnel behind them from the look of it, scuttling on the ceiling and walls, eager to bite into the intruder of their nest.
"RUN!" Ulrich shouted and sprinted forward, presumably with everyone else doing similarly.

All of them soon found themselves in a chasm area with a rope bridge closing the gap between sides, they saw men battling against a similar horde below them at the bottom of the chasm, swinging torches and weapons at the numerous spiders assaulting them. The drop seemed to be fatal from this height if one would jump.
"Get across!"
Ulrich shouted and stood his ground in front of the tunnel they just came from. He sliced two small doomspiders in half when they lunged at him and stomped one dead under his boot. Urghak joined Ulrich's side and smashed the spiders to puddles, violently splattering their innards everywhere. No sign of the big one, yet.
There was also a narrow path to the right that led down to the bottom, snaking along the rock wall back and forth.
On the other side of the bridge, five men with torches and weapons drawn ran down the bridge, wide enough to support two of them side by side. They startled when they noticed the crusaders, some were close to panicking. The bridge creaked and wailed from too much weight on it, still holding for now.
"Let us pass or we cut the bridge!" The one in the lead shouted at the crusaders, near halfway over the bridge.

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