Thread #45919

ooc thread >>45916 →

last time
the group met an old lady and some injun folk
it got dark and they realized, hey, we left eddie on the boat
so they went to try and get him with the help of Night-Seer, their new companion, and fought a giant owl monster which they killed by stabbing its organs which were in a tree

sorry!

Night-Seer looks to the group. "What will do? Continue search or return to camp?"

"On the one hand, finding Vernon would be good. On the other, giant scary owls.
What do you two think? Is it worth searching more? Think he's somehow okay?"

"We heard his voice earlier, before that...thing attacked us. He can't be far." Raising my voice, I shout again, "Vernon! Are you there, Vernon?"

There's no reply.

Thomas shrugs nonchalantly.

"We came out here to save him, so that's what we should do. It's our responsibility."

"Well, really your responsibility I'd think, what with your, uh, monetary 'agreement'"

Do we have any inkling at all where that voice originally came from?

"Night-Seer, if we keep going, how likely do you think it is that we'll run into more dangerous things?"

"Night is full. Many dangerous thing waits for pray at night."

"We shouldn't need to go much further. Night-Seer, do you see any tracks that might be our man?"

"We brought him out here. What if he dies?"

"Tracks not much easy to follow in dark. " Night-Seer looks around. "Direction of voice only lead."

"If anyone can see at night, it's night-seer"

"Let's head towards the voice. See what we can find near there."

"I'm sure I have a last will and testament in my bag somewhere. Might as well."

"Let's get to it, then!"

The team heads in the direction they heard Eddie's voice come from. After several minutes of walking, they begin to feel a sensation of being watched. Night-Seer does not appear to be aware, however.

"Hey Night-Seer, I feel like I'm being watched. Is that something to be worried about around here?"

Night-Seer shrugs.

Thomas shrugs nonchalantly.

"Is there a Vernon that would like to stop playing hide and seek around here?" Thomas says rather quietly.
\

sense trouble!
#1d6 (3)

You don't notice anything indicative of danger.

Thomas peers into the darkness to feel out the danger
#d6 (3)
well shit
s

The darkness peers back into Thomas. It feels safe.

"Thanks darkness."

Night-Seer looks confused.

Have we noticed anything else as we've progressed aside from paranoia?

"If he's not responding back, maybe he can't hear us. There's way too many shadows and crevices he could be laying in, unconscious."

>>55413
You have noticed that OOC questions do not belong in the IC thread.

VV looks pensive.
"How do you find a person in the dark in a swamp?"

"Missing persons searches would probably avoid doing their searches in the night if possible."
I gently gnaw at my lip for a moment. "It might be counter-intuitive to spend all night looking for him."

Pausing after Night-Seer's // (Scratch this line)

Night-Seer shrugs once more. "By search in day as your friend suggest. Or if person is loud, can hear them."

"Let's try all being really quiet for a minute to see if we hear anything."

Cicadas buzz and crickets chirp. Occasionally some plantlife rustles, but judging by the sound, it is unlikely to be a human moving around.

VV sighs. "We have an obligation to save him, but I must admit that this is not my element. Perhaps we should go back."

"It would be nice to be in slightly less swamp-stuff again."

An owl hoots.

I shudder at the sound, hand twitching towards my bag.
"We'll have better light in the morning. Let's head back to the Indian camp."

Thomas fiddle faddles with his bag and, assuming the party is currently moving to go back, continues that way.

Night-Seer grimaces at the word 'indian' but says nothing. "Follow. I will lead."

Yada yada yada, the team returns to the encampment.
It is very dark and the fires have been put out. There is a newly erected tent. Night-Seer indicates that they may sleep in it until morning and heads off to his own tent.
Surprisingly, none of the natives appear to be awake. One might expect guards to be watching through the night if the swamp is as dangerous as previously claimed, but all seem to be sleeping soundly.

"Perhaps they believe this area is safe from the things that lurk in the swamp, and maybe they're right."

"Let
's get inside for the time being." I say, ducking into the tent.

"There's naught to do but sleep. We can search more tomorrow, I suppose."

When Felicity enters the tent, she notices a small pot with what appears to be stew in it. It is still warm. Perhaps the natives left it for the team.

"Oh, did they leave some dinner? How thoughtful."

I gingerly open the pot lid.

The smell of stewed beef wafts out, filling the tent.

"Hey, Felicity, I'm pretty famished. Are you going to eat some because if not, I'd like to have at it."

"Oh, yeah, yeah, here," I hand him the pot lid. "Go ahead, eat."

(There are also some bowls and spoons there)

Thomas serves himself a bowl. "Would any of you like some?" Thomas offers to set his friends' bowls up too.

"Maybe later. A hot meal like that will probably just put me right to sleep, and I feel like staying up a bit. You know, look out. Just in case."

VV eats a bowl (against her better judgement) and then rolls over and goes to sleep.

"That's fair. Don't starve yourself though." Thomas chows down.

"Oh I won't. Since once I do head to sleep I'm kicking you awake to take your turn at watch."

"They aren't bothering to watch, why should we?"

I lean in a little closer and get a little quieter. "And that doesn't strike you a little suspicious? Listen, I would love to have a blind trust in these natives, but we just got done killing some kind of owl...person...thing. Not to mention, they seem to have an amicable relationship with whatever's grabbing National Guard soldiers--white people. And if you haven't noticed your own skin colour, you're white too."

"About the first part, yeah it does strike me as a bit weird, but they have a completely different culture here so I just figured do as the romans do. But honestly, you've got a point about that second bit, though like you said I do kind of trust them. Maybe that's not a great idea on my part, and if it helps you sleep tonight I'll get up and keep watch."
Thomas makes a joking smile. "I'll be sure to scream extra loud if something happens."

"Sounds good. Now you two get some sleep."

Thomas lies down.

The crickets chirp loudly outside the tent. The air is hot and humid, but Thomas and VV appear to be sleeping well despite that. They don't even appear to be bothered by the mosquitoes.

The hours pass until the time for the switching of the guard arrives. Try as she might, however, Felicity cannot seem to wake Thomas from his slumber.

I move over to Victoria and try (in a more polite fashion) to rouse her from sleep.

VV refuses to respond, seeming perfectly content to sleep.

There is a rustling sound outside of the tent. It sounds like three or four people are moving around.

I stop moving about and draw myself together in the darkness of the tent, fingering the pistol.

Flashlights are now being shone onto the outside of the tent.

Resigning myself to the situation, I lay low, hoping I look merely like another body on the tent floor.

One of the men enters the tent with his flashlight. He shines it around the tent before announcing in a low voice that everyone has fallen asleep. He is a tall, lanky man with disproportionately broad shoulders that look like they should belong to a linebacker. He is wearing a /// an adhesive nametag; it says "Louis".
Another man enters the tent with his flashlight and peers around. "Ay, we 'ure got 'em this 'ime," he says to Louis. Louis grunts quietly in response.

One of them sets //// Louis sets down his flashlight and pulls out a pair of handcuffs. He approaches VV and starts to handcuff her hands behind her back.

The other sets down his flashlight and does the same to Thomas.
A third man enters the tent.

The third man begins to handcuff Felicity.

Felicity discretely sizes up the three men in the tent. Judging by the way they are moving and the way they are carrying themselves, she can tell that none of them are carrying a firearm. None of them appear to be carrying anything more than perhaps a switchblade knife.
The fourth man, remaining outside the tent, however, remains unknown.

As the man handcuffs me, I put all my conscious effort into feigning sleep as accurately as I can.

The three men successfully handcuff the team and carry them out of the tent where they load them into the back of a truck.
Night-Seer sits in the back, seemingly free. The doors to the back of the truck slam closed and the truck's loud engine starts up.