Blink gave a carefree shrug. "Want me to go first?" Blink followed after Nana, catching up shoulder to shoulder.
While she would have preferred a torch or something, it didn't really matter much to her. She had been hunted in the light...she had been hunted in the darkness.
Her eyes scanned the surroundings, looking for potential threats. She made herself aware of the sounds and sights of the area and let her eyes adjust accordingly.
Perception 2 successes
Tiphon nodded, sands shifting up and down around the globe of his head. "For now. I will assess this place. I know this place." Certain. As he followed Blink through the portal, the Elemental scanned about with his burning red eyes, assessing the influences on the Hedge to learn more about what they were walking into...
Bookkeeping.
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The thick rain clogged clouds, layer upon each other caging the sky the trio will walk under, appear light, unfettered, in comparison to the ever oppressive twisting vines, sharp nettles, and yes. The Thorns.
What lays before them is a sorry thing, once a true road the Lost had taken for themselves, now is a scant trail of walked dirt.
Knowledgeable Nana, and keen eyes Blink spy the artificial way the path is shaped, notice the way those immortal breadcrumbs, stones and pebbles do not lead farther then the bend.
In fact, they lead underneath a thatch of dead vine and bramble.
Tiphon knows that dispute appearances, the Hedge here has been shaped, slowly bent to someone else's will. From what they know of the Freehold, it isn't one of Sacramento's Lost.
His attention is also snared by the the small stones, grey like the clouds above, marbled with eerie blue veins are a beacon. From where they have been dropped, it seem likes the ever inching Thorns, actively grow around where they've been dropped.
They are unlike anything the Wanderer had ever seen before.
Nana nods to Blink with the suggestion. “Yes, probably wise I stay in the back.” She points to the thatch that marked the end of the trail of stones. “There – do you think it is some sort of burrow? How curious are you both?” What wasn’t wise was barreling down into a nest of some kind -- but they'd already passed into the biggest den of all with the Hedge itself.
Tiphon crouched down to stare at the stones, at the burrow --
"Look at how they grow, how it comes from the stones."
He pointed at the stones as he said it, the sand frowning through the whipping whirlwind of concrete reinforcement.
"This place has been made this way intentionally. Stay... frosty."
The way he said it was stilted, strange, alien, as though he had once been hip but had just forgotten how in spite of being totally aware of how a collected person might have said it. Teeth grit and the desert wind about him intensified for a moment as the storm raged again in the face of what had been taken. The rage fueled the Sand, and his body gained the mighty resilience of the Elemental Wyrd itself. The grains condensed into a stronger, more solid body even as burning eyes searched for the traps or dangers of tended Hedge.
Activate Elemental Blessing to add +3 Health Levels.
Blink's face was framed with a blatant smile. Scary burrow; Check. Weird Stones; Check. Gloomy Weather;Check - Looking At Shit That May One Day Be Ours; Priceless
Blink gave a nod to the two of them, giving a helpless shrug. She tightened up the straps on her backpack, and pulled the blade out of the small of her back; it was a rather uncomfortable spot. Now, with a blade in each hand, she crept forward slowly. "Should we take it slow and as quite as possible?""
Blink didn't want to be the dumbass creeping around while others are just tromping about. She cared little, either way, with how they wanted to proceed as she proceeded along the path - towards the hole?
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Nana, spindly Wizened Chirurgeon retreats to the back of the group. One did not place those who can mend in a situation where they could be rent.
Blink's whisper, while quite, seems to echo around the bend, and down the covered....whatever it was.
For Tiphon's sharp mind and keen eyes, he knows that with the Thorns shaped thus, traps are to be expected. From his position he can see small dragonflies and glowbugs, shinning various shades of yellow, red and blue, flitting around the thatch of vines and brambles.
"There," he noted, his arm coming up to point at the bugs dancing about the thatch. "Watch carefully, and be prepared for traps. Stealth is not my forte. However... let us see. Let us be certain." A frown crossed the Elemental's sandy face, and he reached into the backpack, producing a chunk of concrete. He lobbed the heavy chunk into the thatch to see what would occur...
Better concrete suffer what could come from disrupting the crude covering than Blink's pretty face.
With Tiphon’s pointing out of the thorns collecting about the stones, they absorb Nana’s attention. She crouches down to further scrutinize. “How odd,” she mumbled to herself, as if everything wasn't bizarre here.
She spoke to the others without looking up from the strange rocks that seemed to feed the Thorns themselves. “For note, I have something of an understanding with luck and can bring either of you under the Contract’s terms if needed. All it requires is contact – not that I assume we’ll want to be splitting too far from each other if it can be helped.”
I'm always a little unsure when Wits is more appropriate than Int when it comes to in the moment analysis of things, but her pool is the same either way!
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