[Alcoham Mountains, Duchy of Branbenburg-Puntia, Dalycon Union of Duchies]
(33th, Black Sea Moon (VII), 644 ASY)
"Three...Two...One!" Angelica groans in effort as she casts the fly spell of the five people around her. Free from the harness of gravity, the six people affected slowly lift upwards.
"Right, start heading north by northwest. The mountain that we are trying to reach is at a lower elevation than our current one. A depression angle of about 9.1 degrees and a speed of 10kph will reach our target," Daniel quickly does math in his head. Slowly at first, the small group starts moving towards their intended target. Beads of sweat appear and coalesce on Angelica's forehead.
"Ashe, how much spare mana do you have?" Tyson asks.
"Plenty? Why?"
"Could you give Angelica some? She seems to be struggling,"
"Oh? Ok then," Ashe waves her hand. Angelica's strain lightens considerably.
"So, what are we trying to find once we get there anyway?" Moricant asks.
"Elder Ooro, if I remember correctly. He's the one that we gave the sword to," Tyson responds.
"That's correct. We need to find their village. Although, I don't think that's going to be hard now… Finding the people might be harder…" Daniel points towards a collum of smoke.
"Oh, that's not good, is it…" Ashe mutters.
"Yeah, that's a fire. They usually don't end well when they produce that much smoke," Daniel replies dryly.
"Still, I'm not sure how much we can see of the actual village from this distance. The fire might not be where the village is," Tyson points out.
"Ok, this is really bad," Tyson sighs as they land. A field of black ash and a swarm of orange flames lick at the forest, consuming all that is around it. In its wake is a dozen or so ruined homes. Some were built from stone and are still relatively intact. Others were built from wood and thatch and have been reduced to ash piles.
"Yeah…" Daniel's voice trails off. "Hey Ashe, could you cast {Detect Intelligent Life} real quick?"
"Why?" Ashe asks.
"Because I don't see any bodies. Unless they were reduced completely to ash, I doubt any of them died in the fire. They may have burned their village as a defensive measure," Daniel responds.
"If you say so…" Ashe shrugs. As soon as she casts the spells, she sighs. "I'm not sure why you always get things right. Do you have some sort of premotion to things?"
"I've survived a burning building before. Burned corpses will show up," Daniel shrugs.
"Wait, did you find them?" Tyson asks. At this point, everyone but Daniel and Ashe has dispersed looking for people within the wreckage of the village searching for survivors.
"Yes, but also no. They are certainly alive, but I can only give an approximate location," Ashe shakes her head.
"So where approximately are they?" Daniel asks.
"Base of the mountain, down from where we are," Ashe says, pointing towards the east.
"Right, let's start walking," Tyson claps.
"Why walking? Can't we just fly?" Lucya groans.
"Ashe would just give our position away, and Angelica looks like she wants to murder you for just bringing it up," Tyson points out.
"Alright, that's fair…" Lucya sighs.
"What now…" A muffled sound escapes the elf's mouth.
"Shhh…Don't worry about it," A malevolent voice responds. A hand reaches out and clasps the elf's mouth shut. His eyes enlarge in shock. Two hands reach out to remove the offending appendage, but the arm refuses to budge. Slowly, life escapes the elf's eyes. Plutarch sighs.
"Really, I'm not sure how long I can keep this up. I want to return back to Glorya, but I have to keep running these errands. Xacont is really a slave-driver, huh," He mutters to himself. He takes out a small map. "Well shit. That wasn't expected at all…" He mutters as he notices a small red marking moving towards a small black one. Suddenly, he hears voices outside the small hut.
"Who's there!" An elvish voice calls out. Plutarch sighs. Why did they have to appear again?
"You will ignore me if you want to live," he growls. A sharp intake of breath is what he is responded with.