Runestones for a Human

Attempt #1
Time: 21JUN 1100-1500 PDT

Participants:
 * Gotch Iki-iki (Basse)
 * Grakul (Dan)
 * Lee (Kat)


 * Syval (Chris)

Mission Summary
"Guys! We'll be back in time for 420."

-Grakul

Outcome
Mission Failure- Majority of party was killed.

The Ramblings of a Child
"Everything was going great! We left on the 8th of April and it was a beautiful day. We left at mid-morning and headed SSE towards the mountains at 5 o'clock.  We traveled through prime and into second, when I spotted six animals in the distance. I recognized these large creatures with humps as Cammits, quadrupedal creatures that are seemingly non-hostile. The cammits saw us from there spot 150 feet away from us and proceeded to ignore us. As we went into Tone we had traveled about 24 miles towards the Jagged Peaks and decided to set up camp where we were, only about a mile north of them. This is where everything began to go wrong.

While Grakul and Syval were setting up camp, I was a few feet off of them and Gotch was doing a perimeter around our camp. From behind Gotch came this creature? Being? I'm not quite sure what to call them other than terrifying. It was a 4 legged reptilian-like thing with a tail like a scorpion's and an eyeless face. It was the color of sand and terrifying for me to even be near. This thing, lets name it Phil for the moment, was swung at and angered by Gotch. A fight broke out and in that fight both Grakul then Syval were killed by Phil. Paralyzed in fear, Gotch and I watched as Phil just laid on our fallen companions. We managed to get a little ways away from camp after coming to our senses, hoping to be able to flee from this horror story. Phil was able to teleport behind us, preventing us from escaping. I was told to stand beside Gotch, to which I did as well as close my eyes in fear, for if I was going to die I did not want to watch it. I heard it attack Gotch. I listened as it murdered him. It killed my friends and as it kept plunging it's stinger into Gotch over and over and over again. It started out as frantic, but as I sat in fear blindly listening it turned rhythmic before stopping at together. I sat like that for many minutes, eyes closed and shaking in fear. Even after I was sure it left I kept my eyes closed, using my scarf as a blindfold. I crawled around searching for our extra supplies, momentarily forgetting I was alone. As I heard more noises and they grew close, I took a risk and took off my blindfold and opened my eyes, seeing two quadrupedal creatures with snake heads coming for me. Oddly enough as one went to leap at me, Phil came and began to fight them, allowing me to stand and run in the other direction.

I kept at a forced march after that for about two hours, wanting to get back to main camp in one piece. As I kept on suddenly Phil had appeared right in front of me, causing me to close my eyes and put on my blindfold again. I attempted to make my way around them, but tripped over them in the process, allowing them to being to drag me away. Tagging gently at my leg caused Phil to throw me some distance away and continue to drag me after a moment. As I was trying to think of a way to run without getting myself killed they began to bite me, but not trying to kill me? If they wanted me dead they could've done so many times before, but that did not stop them from knocking me out. I don't know what Phil did after that, all I know is I woke up a little ways away from camp without any of my gear or gold. I am unsure if I can be content was my life, knowing I did so through cowardice. I only hope my party members have found themselves without anymore terror."

A Caracol's Observation
A Caracol, by the name of Khalil, walks into the tavern on the afternoon of April 9th. He offers the following tale of the Ersine, and its party, that wore his hearthring last.

The group headed out around Prime, after getting their supplies together, being led by the odd by efficient path-finding of the young human; Lee. Thanks to this, they made much better time than Gotch had originally estimated making many of their supplies an unnecessary surplus. Within one day’s travel they managed to get within roughly one mile of their destination, the Jagged Peaks, and began to set up camp. However, before they could even light their campfire, Gotch felt a presence behind him. When he turned to look, he saw a strange quadrupedal reptilian creature with a stinger tipping its tail. I shall henceforth refer to this creature as a Blink Gree. Despite having no eyes to perceive him with, the Blink Gree was just mere feet away from Gotch and he swung his weapon at it out of pure reflex while calling to his companions. Based on what took place, the Gree is both difficult to spot and to hit. It has the ability to obscure its exact location though some kind of illusory capabilities. Additionally, it is either very fast or has the ability to teleport as well. The Blink Gree seemed to stabilize, if you can call it that, after being struck once but quickly regained its shifting form again. Unfortunately, the Gree made quick work of the older Human within the group leaving Gotch paralyzed with the shock of what he just witnessed. The Aelf attempted to make a run for it and was quickly brought down as well before being dragged back and placed atop the first corpse. When shock finally left him, Gotch slowly began to back away from the Gree while making his way to his remaining companion.

The pair attempted to flee but the Blink Gree appeared behind them again, cutting off their escape route. Gotch held his ground, staring the Gree down as it approached. The Gree seemed to hesitate, waiting for something before suddenly lashing out at Gotch again. He growled something about opening their eyes, that I do not fully understand as my perception of his memories grow hazy around this point. I can say, the Gree is frighteningly strong and houses a potent poison in its singer based on the final blow that caused Gotch to succumb to his injuries. I do not know what became of that human. Although I get the sense that creature, the Blink Gree, does not take kindly to being perceived visually. How it even can detect this, I do not know. I don't look forward to heading out into the desert but it looks like I'm next up.

Attempt #2 - Supervised Minors
Time: 6JUL 1100 - 1400 PDT

Participants:
 * Harlot (Basse)
 * Valdroundt (Nate)
 * Lee (Kat)


 * Yara (Zhan)

Mission Summary

 * "Turns out 'just outside of camp' is the worst place to be."
 * ―Yara

Outcome
Mission Failure - Harlot and Valour killed

Yara's Query
"You know, this has been the third and fourth person I've seen die just outside of camp. I'm beginning to wonder, what's keeping these godawful beasts from just coming into camp and slaughtering us all? That frog could devour half of us in a second flat.

No, shut up, it's a frog, not a worm. It has eyes. That makes it a frog.

Point being - never think that being close to camp means you're safe. It just means it's going to suck more when you die. And then your group will feel bad... and curse the day that rocks were invented by the gods. And frogs.

Anyways, thanks be to the gods for one thing: Lee isn't walking around in her underwear anymore! Hip hip!"

An Aelf's Lamentation
Deep into their drink, a pale-skinned aelf suddenly whips about in their stool and sends a pair of empty mugs toppling to the floor. "Can you believe it!? It's like the first thing they did when the ring came back was pick the happiest person in this place just to bring them down! I mean, I volunteered to come down here and they gave me this accursed thing! It is cursed I tell you. Every person who has worn this ring has died quicker than the last. And now I'm next. I haven't even figured out where the thing I'm looking for is yet. And I'm NEXT. Eight measly hours. I don't even know what's out there besides flying rocks that'll take the whole world from you. I tell you what, if the wind starts picking up while I'm out there I'm going to hunker on down. I'm not even sure why I have to go at all. Maybe this is a mistake, I need to talk to someone about this."

It seems as though the aelf's ramblings would never end if not for another mug set before him which he greedily drinks before slipping into a stupor of low mumbling.