Realistic or Modern Welcome To Shearport

[risaphoeniix]

Lita the Magpie - The Hedge


Lita moves her scrawny frame easily between the narrow gaps of the thorns. As she came up to a particularly low hanging branch of thorns, she remembered a game, vaguely, where one had to squeeze under a bar, lumbo? Yes, that must have been it. She leaned back to go under as if playing lumbo. When they reached the fork, she moved as if to turn down the left hand path. "Garden this way!" she called to the others around a mouthful of taffy.

 

[Inari]

Red


-The Hedge-


Lita’s stew comment earned a sour grunt from Red, and not long after came the fork. He paused to consider both paths, snuffling at the air almost unconsciously. He didn’t move after the Magpie. ”Prey is this way,” he countered, looking ahead into the denser reaches of Hedge.

 

[Ragoza]

Liam - The Hedge


Feck's sake, the bad guys would never leave a trail through some nice meadows and open fields. Still, the wolf knows best, and Liam has no intention of disagreeing with him.

 

[Grey]

Lucas Hood





Saying nothing, Lucas simply scans the abode of monsters with monsters' eyes.


And he'd rather wait for their occult expert to make a suggestion before going into the deep thorns.


[dice]3420[/dice]


[dice]3421[/dice]

 

[Axelgear]

Sackcloth


"Clap, snap, the black crack! Grip, grab! Pinch, nab! And down, down to Goblin-town, you go, my lad!" Sackcloth chatters, much more quietly than before, fixing his stare on the trail of their ostensible prey with murderous intent. Slapping his hammer against the palm of his hand, he moves to follow Red's direction.

 

[Alexandra]

Sage


The Darkling touches a finger to her lips.


"We can't afford to dally; there's a mighty storm brewing in here too."


She nods at Red's grunt, "You have the right idea, though whatever we're following seems terribly comfortable in the thorns; it seems to have moved through the densest patch it could find. I'm not so sure we'll be able to keep up if it strays entirely away from the path..."

Spoiler

Fuzz - is the dexterous thing that took the berries the same thing we're following?

 

[The Fuzz]

---> Sage





A thing that can slip through someone's garden and steal all the (red) fruit without getting snagged might be the same thing that can slip through the thorns and climb the branches of the Hedge. Correlation is not necessarily causation.


By the by, the tracks have left the path altogether by this stage.


Let me reconstruct: when Red entered the Hedge the first time, he didn't follow the tracks, he backtracked them to a small clearing with a brook running through it, where he figured out that something happened involving a child, and climbing trees/crossing the brook. If you guys are now following the tracks, they move along the path for some distance, but then leave the path, into the thorns, and (probably) up into the trees. Sage knows that there are scuff marks and broken twigs higher up, continuing along a line roughly parallel to the path you guys are on.


The path ahead forks. The right fork becomes narrower and slightly gnarly. The left fork curves off to the left, and is a little broader. The left fork leads to this greenhouse Lita knows about. The right fork, and you guys might need to know this, goes straight for a little bit, then curls around for a gentle half mile stroll which goes past the underwater hedge gate at the pier.

 

[The Fuzz]

---> Lucas





The Hedge is doing that thing where it tries to lull you into a sense of false security by showing you absolutely no signs of dreadful monster ambush whatsoever. The cunning bastard that it is.

 

[Inari]

Red


-The Hedge-


Red made a sound in his chest somewhere between a ‘Hmm’ and a growl as he followed Sage’s direction to the trail that seemed to continue up above. ”Even less time to waste, then,” he agreed with the Darkling, pushing his way off the path. He did his best to avoid the thorns, but at a certain point that was just a lost cause in the Hedge.


Red snuffled and searched as he led the way off the easy path, wary of the changing trail. Although prints might subside, scuffs in the bark and broken twigs littering the ground still created a trail that could be pursued. He looked back over his shoulder to see Liam and Sackcloth following him first, and he found himself smiling.

 

[The Fuzz]

---> Red





Ouch, ow, ow, ouch. Bloody thorns.


Through a combination of woodcraft and and brute force, you shove your way over to one of the boughs that the unknown track-makers might have climbed, but the little scratches on your arms and shins let you know how hungry the Hedge is.

Spoiler

Remember, every hour or significant part of an hour than you spend off the path is gonna cost you a point of Glamour, and I might warn you that you could in position to pick up a point of or so of Bashing damage, just from scratches and general pain in the arse.


Looks like y'all have some choices to make. Red suggests following the tracks through the trees, Lita wants to go check on the greenhouse where the shoes might have picked up cherry blossoms.

 

[risaphoeniix]

Lita the Magpie - The Hedge


Intent on dragging Red back to the path and to the greenhouse, Lita follows. "Hey! Where are you going?" she asks, hissing at the thorn scratches. When she gets to the base of the tree, however, her interest is piqued. Taking a quick look at the bough, she begins to scramble up.

Spoiler

[dice]3450[/dice]


[dice]3451[/dice]

 

[Grey]

Lucas Hood





"They're leaving the path," he half sighs, half growls. He begins walking down the trod, toward the left fork. "Damn foolishness," he mutters.

 

[The Fuzz]

---> Lita





The tree poses no true difficulty to you, and you can swing up into the boughs, leaving behind one or two feathers caught in the twigs and thorns down below, with a single scratch on your ankle. Can't get anywhere in the Hedge without being a little scratched up.


From further up, you can see that there are indeed scuff marks on the branches, heading off through the trees. The sky above growls and rumbles at you, and clouds boil and darken. Your new watch *pings* at you.

 

[risaphoeniix]

Lita the Magpie - Up the Tree





"Hey guys!" she called down, "something was definitely scrabbling around up here." She rubbed absentmindedly at her ankle and shook her head out. Exploring off the path could be fun, and she'd found all sorts of cool places, but it could make you feel kind of...thin. She remembered a time when she'd wandered off the path chasing an interesting bird and nearly stayed off too long, until panic set in and she'd scrambled back. "Need to not do that again" she muttered to herself.

 

[PixelWitch]

Zach


His brows knit in a mixture of confusion and waryness. The group was splitting.


I don't like this.


"This is a horrible idea..." He voices his concerns to no one in particular, unsure who to follow.


Sure, he could survive longer than most inside the Hedge, but leaving the path was always a bad idea...

 

[Alexandra]

Sage


"Lucas....Lucas, come back a minute. A quick look in the thorns shouldn't be too dangerous if we all stay here and keep watch. Lita; you have ten more minutes up there before I want you back on the path."

 

[risaphoeniix]

Lita the Magpie - Up the Tree





Lita nods. "Coming wolf?" she calls down to Red. Thinking to check the time, she pops open her shiny new watch.

 

[The Fuzz]

---> Lita





tick tick tick


It is now, apparently, Any Minute Now o'clock.

 

[risaphoeniix]

Lita the Magpie - Up the Tree





Huh...that's curious but not particularly helpful, she thought. What's any minute now?

 

[Alexandra]

Sage


"What have you found up there?" she calls, noticing Lita fiddling with something.

 

[risaphoeniix]

Lita the Magpie - Up the Tree





"Oh no, this is just my watch. It's anyminutenow o'clock! But there's also scuffy marks up here. Someone was using the branch to move around."

 

[Grey]

Lucas Hood


Lucas stops and watches, but doesn't walk back - it'd look foolish. But he watches the thorns where they left the path.


And don't let anything follow you back to us...

 

[Ragoza]

Liam


Do not like this at all. The Hedge feels claustrophobic at the best of times, and Liam is getting an increasingly bad feeling about this. He takes a moment to attune himself with his surroundings in case of horrible Hedge beasties attacking.

• Rolls

• 
  
  
  Invoking Wildwalker to alleviate environmental penalties.
  
  
  [dice]3536[/dice]

 

[Alexandra]

Sage


"It's any...what?" her face wrinkles further in confusion, "What time did you say it was?"

 

[risaphoeniix]

Lita the Magpie





"Anyminutenow o'clock!" Lita has already tucked away the watch and is squinting along the path of the branch.