scotland ♔ yet how the wind revives us here

[untethered]

♬ Presentiment - Manami Kiyota

WHO || Belle, Gold, Emma, Hook, Lila [closed]
WHAT || Several Knights take a secret journey to try to help Amara...
WHERE || Oakhurst, Scotland
WHEN || January 15th, 2014 [forward dated]
HOW || Actionspam

It's probably a very good thing that Gold sweet-talked them a car in the nearby tiny Scottish village of Oakhurst, because it is freezing cold out and snow blankets almost everything around. Walking the seven miles up the Old Road to the ruins would be a bitch and a half.

Instead, they comfortably drove past rocky downs, near stands of old-growth oak covered in snow, and past two farms that looked abandoned. No other travelers were visible on the lonely road, which finally curves, passing east of a narrow ravine. Belle signals for them to pull over here, where, at the road's closest approach to the cleft, several broken pillars jut from the earth where the ravine widens and opens into something akin to more of a deep, but narrow, cavern. Two of the pillars stand straight, but most of them lean against the sloped earth. Others are broken and several have apparently fallen into the darkness-shrouded depths. A few similar pillars are visible on the opposite side of the ravine.

Comments

[unhand]

[Hook sheathes his sword and hovers near Emma to catch her if she needs it. He looks over the rest of the party to see how they're faring, then slips his hand into his coat pocket to pull out his bottle of rum. He pulls out the cork with his teeth and takes a swig before offering it to Emma. She looks like she could use it.]

And I've got drink. Reckon those golden apples are nearby?

[uncurse]

No way of telling, is there? [ she looks to gold for confirmation. detect magic ????? but she's not thinking to try it and also probably has a range of 0. she grimaces, holstering her gun and taking the flask from hook. ]

[bittersweeter]

We could ask this guy... [ instead of attending to emma because hook has that covered, she crosses to the bear thing. and very calmly, shoots it. (atk 22, dmg 6) ] Oh no wait, we can't. Oops.

[undealt]

[WOW LILA. That's creepy.

Now that Belle's checked out, Gold's able to assess how badly he's off. He's wobbly on his feet when he stands, keeping balance with his cane and he casts detect magic just for the hell of it. It's probably not going to work.]

[unhand]

[Hook doesn't really flinch at the extra murder since the big reason he didn't do it himself was that he didn't think of it. And he's worried about Emma. He's not doing perfectly well himself, all battered and bruised, but he's still standing freely.]

Perhaps we should rest awhile before we continue our search. Take some time to heal. [Looking at u Emma. But he does spare Belle a glance.] Got anymore of those potions?

[uncurse]

[ emma starts at the noise of the gunshot, straightening up. her gaze fixes on lila for a long moment, but she doesn't say anything about it, and her expression remains unreadable. she slowly tears her gaze away and looks at hook. ] And risk another one of those things charging in here while we're sleeping? [ she's just pointing out the flaw; she is pro-rest at this point but unwilling to state it outright. ]

[unhand]

We'll take turns keeping watch. I'll go first. If something comes, I'll wake you. [He gives her a soft smile, reaching for the flask.] Just rest up.

[bittersweeter]

And I don't sleep, so. He'll have company. [ although she is pointedly... not looking at hook as she moves back to emma to rifle around in her bag for an apple. ]

[undealt]

[Gold attempts to deal with the blood on his face from that great facial wound the freakin' skeletons gave him. Thanks, skeletons.] Well, I, for one, need the rest, and unless you want to face the next leg of this trip vastly unprepared, Ms. Swan, you'd be wise to do the same.

[LECTURING TIME. But no really, he is exhausted and he's going to find himself a corner and get in it.]

[uncurse]

[ wow lila that just makes emma suspicious. she looks between the two of them as she hands the flask back to hook. and gold chastises in the background. three generations of hell family. she wipes the back of her hand across her mouth. surely you should know why emma is suspicious of hook and teenage girls by now, lila. surely. and your boyfriend remains a mystery.

basically, her quick spark of discomfort is 100% justified and no one is telling her otherwise. but she moves to sit against the wall regardless. she gets some more food out of her backpack in case anyone else wants it, then uses the pack for a pillow and starts settling in to sleep.

did anybody think to bring a sleeping bag ... bc this girl sure didn't. ] Fine. We rest here for the night.

[unhand]

[Hook takes some of the food since oops he didn't think of that. Then he settles against a wall to keep a good view of both doors. Then he holds up the flask of rum, offering it to Lila.

Ok, Emma might be right about him being bad news for teenage girls. But in fairness, this is about helping her with horrible blowback nightmares, not trying to sleep with her.]

[untethered]

I've many more potions. You should all take as much as you need. [ she lays out several of them and takes one over to gold, extending it with a sympathetic smile. ]

[undealt]

Thank you, Belle. [YEAH, JUST GONNA TAKE THAT AND CHUG IT. Good times. He lingers for a second, like he might want to say something else, but he ends up just giving her a polite nod and a "goodnight" before finding somewhere he can sleep. AND NO HE DIDN'T BRING A SLEEPING BAG. He'll just sleep with his bag as a pillow like a peasant.]

[uncurse]

[ blah blah potions blah healing blah blah. it's great and belle is wonderful but emma is exhausted from the effects of the poison and all the stabbing she's been through. so she'll just ... settle for sleep for now and reassess the potion situation when she wakes up. it takes her a while to get to sleep, but her exhaustion sets in once she's there and keeps her in a deep state of rest. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ that's gross, emma. she shakes her head at the rum, she's already exhausted. but before settling down for anything, lila retrieves a handful of potions from belle with a somewhat tired sounding "thanks". one goes in her pocket for herself, one she hands off to hook, and the last two she sets next to emma in case she wakes up and needs more healing power.

she hovers next to emma for a minute before awkwardly patting her on the shoulder. wow much affection. then she goes to sit cross legged next to hook and eat a gross amount of apples and peanut butter. om nom nom dinner.

she swallows to talk, but she stays quiet, whispering to the pirate. ] It's going to be bad, just keep me quiet so I don't wake everyone up.

[unhand]

[Hook takes the potion and raises it to her before downing it (11 hp). He immediately starts feeling better. He frowns at her request... but he glances at Emma. She needs her sleep. They all do, really. Including Lila. And if that means finding a way to keep her quiet, well, seems the least he can do. The time for pushing Lila towards honesty can come later.]

Would gagging you help?

[untethered]

[ belle hesitates for a moment, considering whether to offer her bedroll over to anyone else, but you're all incredibly stupidly proud people and she's picked up on that, so she'll just quietly unfurl it against a wall and lay down, keeping her sword within arm's reach and her bag as a pillow. ]

[sternshield]

[ before he sleeps, erky looks over the body of the bugbear, systematically removing his items and laying them out:

his morningstar, which he swaps out for the one he took from the goblins since it's enchanted and better, 6 javelins, a waterskin, another bedroll which erky is happy to use, a sack containing a lot of silver and a little gold, and a potion. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ belle is a genius, tbh, while they're all just dumbasses for not even thinking about bedrolls in the first place. for the hoard, bb.

her nose wrinkles a little, because the idea of being gagged makes her want to gag, but... ] No, I'd probably flip out when I woke up and accidentally work you. [ speaking of, she's going to dig through her bag for her spare pair of gloves so she doesn't do just that. ] Just, when I start fidgeting, wake me up? Maybe. [ a sigh. ] I don't know, I don't have enough energy to keep myself awake or even work myself to sleep for enough time to make sure everyone else gets a decent amount of sleep.

[ there is no winning with blowback, pretty much. ]

[unhand]

[Hook nods. He's not sure what to do here. It'd be better if he could find a way to let her sleep the whole night and not wake anyone else up, but this will do, he supposes.]

All right, lass. I'll watch over you.

[bittersweeter]

[ she nods, shifting her stuff so she can lay down. really close to hook. after a second she mutters: ] Thanks. [ and then she drifts off to her couple hours of sleep. ]

[untethered]

[ sometime during hook's watch, he hears the distinct sound of something approaching from one of the open corridors... and it sounds like several somethings, that make scratch-scratchy noises against the walls as they approach... ]

[unhand]

[Dammit. He stands up, moving towards the corridor. He doesn't want to wake anyone if he can help it. They all need the rest. He draws his gun and tries to get a good look down the hall so he can gauge the threat level and maybe get a good line of fire. Because clearly shooting at things won't wake anyone up....]

[untethered]

[ there are 4, count em, 4 of those walking trees coming down the hall to the south, about 25 feet away from the door by now. annnnd they definitely see him. ]

[unhand]

[Awwww hell. Hook's confident enough when it comes to battle but he's not completely suicidal. He glances back at the others.]

Wake up, you lot! We've got company!

[And in case the shouting's not enough, he shoots at the first tree (atk 25, dmg 5).]