Omen: 1, 9

  “Heave!”

  “Ho!”

  The porters, who were cousins that appeared to be twins, dropped their panquin.

  “You’ve finally returned!” Jeremy, also known as Remy, said.

  “Our prayers were successful,” Jeremiah, also known as Jeremy, said.

  “Did you pray for my safe return or the gold in my pockets?” Adam asked, shaking their hands.

  “That’s right,” the pair said, befhing.

  Adam smiled. “Good. Now, let me introduce you to the party. This is, as you know, my brother Jurot. These are the most magnanimous Kitool, and the most… Jaygak.” Adam leaned in to whisper. “Be careful, she’s not human.”

  “We know,” Remy said. “She’s an Iyrman.”

  Jeremy nodded, enthusiastically shaking their hands. “It’s our blessing to porter for three Iyrmen.” He gave a look to Remy, who smiled and nodded iurn.

  ‘We’re definitely not dying today.’

  “Well then, shall we?” Adam asked, motioning a hand towards the main road.

  “Sorry about Nobby,” Remy said. “He had some family busio attend to.”

  “It’s alright,” Adam said, nodding his head, smiling slightly. ‘Let’s hope he’s doing alright.’ He chuckled lightly.

  They went to the bakery, where Jurot pced down the basket to one side.

  “Are you here for your prework bread?” she asked.

  “That’s right,” Adam said.

  “Didn’t you just e back yesterday?”

  “That’s right,” Adam said. “We’re going to be sying a few bears today.”

  Kitool and Jaygak were stayihe sides, gng at the bread, before they he posture Jurot had taken. They gnced between Jurot and Pam, before catg each other’s eyes. Jaygak smirked pyfully, but Kitool shook her head.

  Jurot paid for the bread and the group all ate the jam buns.

  “So you do this every time you quest?” Jaygak asked, noting the looks she was getting from the people around. At first they were terrified, quickly stepping aside, but notiattoos, the people quickly calmed.

  “Every time,” Adam said. “It’s our prework ritual. Our post work ritual too.”

  Jaygak nodded. “It’s a good ritual,” she said, lig her lips.

  “Thank you,” Adam said, smiling.

  Jurot and Kitool took the lead, helping one another in order to track their prey. Jaygak and Adam kept a, leaving the two to track.

  “It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?” Adam said, looking up at the clear sky.

  Jaygak nodded. “The summers are hotter to the south, but they get pretty good around these nds too.”

  “I don’t like the heat too much,” Adam admitted. “I’m much more used to clouds and rain.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “The Greynds,” Adam said.

  “Oh, you’re from the Greynds?” Jaygak asked, her eyes fshing with surprise, before she narrowed her eyes.

  “No. That’s a real pce?”

  “Yes,” she said, still eyeing Adam up. “It’s near where my people are from.”

  “Oh.”

  “Bears,” Jurot said.

  “Three,” Kitool said, gng at the ground. “Bck.”

  Jurot nodded his head, but motioowards another set of tracks. “One brown.”

  “Bck bears will be simple to deal with,” Kitool said.

  “The brown…” Jurot stared at the prints befng to Adam. “We deal with it. Brown bear first.”

  Kitool wasn’t going to go against Jurot’s words, not after seeing Adam dispatch Amokan and Timojin with acrity.

  Jurot led the way, with Kitool following behind, switg from assisting him in trag to keeping a instead. Jaygak and Adam remained with the porters, who were iween them and the pair of Iyrmen.

  Jurot stopped, noting the dire of the wind, and began to circle around the area. The porters silently pced their panquin down before following, until the Iyrman raised his hand, motioning for them to stop.

  “We’re close,” Jurot whispered.

  He pced his hands on the porter’s shoulders, motioning to the nearby trees. They had their hands on their javelins.

  “Stay back, on guard,” Adam whispered. “More bears? Scream. Run to us.”

  “Away?” Jeremy motioned back towards where they had e from.

  Adam poio the three Iyrmen around, and Jeremy and Remy he safest p this forest was he trio of Iyrmen and the half elf.

  Jurot led them forward, having donned his shield. The others had equipped themselves too, with the porters clutg their spears. They didn’t want to leave their panquin, but they uood it wasn’t a good idea to take it with them.

  Jurot and Kitool go one another and nodded, raising a hand back towards the others. Jaygak stayed back, behind the porters, since her armour jioo loudly.

  Stealth D20 + 1 = 10 (9)

  The bear grunted and looked over towards Adam, in his shiny silvery purple puthral armour.

  “Oh,” Adam said, his fingers gripping tight around his bde. “Hello there.”

  The bear sowards Adam, the rge brown mass easily t over him, but it screamed in pain as an axe sank deep into it’s hind leg, and a dart struck it in its side. It turo see Jurot, shield up, face red, fming axe in hand.

  Battle OrderD20 + 1 = 12 (11)

  Jurot khe brown bears, and he uood they o kill it quickly. However, there was a moment of hesitation as he raised his shield and brought his axe down across the creature’s hind leg again, deepening its wound. The bear roared in pain as he dug into it, deepening its wound. He would have swung more wildly, but there was something which seized his heart for a moment.

  A staff struck it across its jaw as Kitool nded beside it, spinniaff around before striking its side with her knee, bringiaff up to defend herself against it.

  The brown screeched in pain, and wildly struck her with its cws. Kitoht her staff to meet the blow, but it tht through her stomach as though she iece of paper, blood spilling onto the floor, her guts torn apart. She fell, seds from dying.

  “Kitool!” Jaygak cried from afar.

  It ss might jaws against Jurot’s shield. Jurot stumbled backwards, having not expected Kitool to fall so instantly. Her body was quickly growing cold, turning near pale from the mortal wound.

  Mana: 8-> 7Spell: Healing WordD3 + 3 = 5 (2)

  “Get up Kitool!” Adam shouted, feeling the magic c through him, before it took to the woman, knitting her wounds shut.

  Attack (Fnking)D20 + 8 = 26 (18)Hit!1D6 + 2D6 + 5 = (2)(4, 5)16 damage!

  Adam leapt into the fray, his white bde in hand. He charged at the rge bear’s side, bringing his bde down across its chest, causing blood to spray over his shield. His bde, fshing white hot for a moment, was full of liquid crimson as the bear slumped before him.

  “Kitool!” Jaygak shouted skidding down beside the woman.

  Kitool coughed up blood, gasping for air as her eyes fshed open, wide. Her face was covered i, pale, and for once her face was full of emotion. She tio gasp for breath as she reached down to her torn, bloody clothing, feeling the flesh which had been torn apart not moments ago.

  “Are you alright?” Adam asked, dropping to a knee beside her, reag down to hold her hand.

  Mana: 7 -> 6Spell: Cure Wounds1D6 + 3 = 7 (4)

  Quickly the colour in her skiurned, and though she was still panting for air and covered i, she wasn’t on the verge of dying.

  “I’m alive,” she said, blinking wildly. She swallowed, quickly gathering her bearings, inhaling deeply before letting out a soft exhale. “Thank you, Adam.”

  “Any time,” he said, smiling. “How are you feeling?”

  “I am okay,” she said, nodding her head. ‘I almost died. If the wound had been just a little deeper…’

  “Let’s stick to bck bears for now,” Adam said. “One unlucky hit from a bck bear we handle. One unlucky hit from a brown bear, I’m not sure I bring you back from that.” He gnced back at the porters. “Or you.”

  The pnced between one another and heir heads.

  “I ’t say I disagree,” Jeremy said.

  “Me her,” Remy agreed.

  Jaygak hugged her friend tight. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t able to do anything.”

  Kitool hugged Jaygak. She had nth in her legs, still thinking about what had happened. One moment she was at the height of her power, the moment, she was almost dead. ‘So this is why father didn’t wao leave so soon…’

  Victory!Brown Bear+50XP

  Adam stared at the experience he had gained. ‘Seriously? This is way harder than making magical ons…’

  Kitool gathered herself during the hour as Jurot parted the brown bear, before helping the porters load it into the panquin.

  “Should we head back?” Adam asked. “I don’t mind ending the day here.”

  Kitool noted Adam gowards her. “I am fio tinue.”

  “We tinue,” Jurot said.

  “If everyone else thinks so, the’s do it,” Jaygak said.

  Adam then go the porters. “What do you think?”

  “As long as you pay us well, we don’t mind,” Remy said, nodding his head.

  “Alright, let’s go,” Adam said.

  “Heave!”

  “Ho!”

  Kitool, who had calmed down from her near death experience, kept a as Jurot led them away. He found the bck bear tracks with ease, and followed them, leading the rest of the party.

  He had been too busy to think when he was butchering the brown bear, and though he was busy with trag, he was thinking about what had happened. Kitoht beside him, falling so easily.

  It wasn’t just Kitool falling which bothered him, but the fact that he hesitated against it.

  ‘Fear?’ Jurot thought. He had faced Balrog with no fear, charging forward to strike the man. Adam had promised him o, and he had ma. Balrog was a mightier foe than the brown bear, a, when it came to the brown bear, he failed to strike as eagerly as he should have.

  He had been too deep in thought, and had actally walked in to see three bck bears, each beginning to stand onto all fours as they he approag strangers. Yet it was one of them which had caused them to shudder.

  Jurot, with his axe in hand, gritted his teeth. His entire body filled with hot red rage, the veins in his arms popping. ‘Me? A son of the Rot family fearing bears? How dare you shame me this way!’

  Without hesitation, he grabbed his axe with both hands a into the air, bringing it down with his full force. The bear, terrified by this sudden attack, jerked away, causing Jurot’s blow to strike the ground.

  Battle OrderD20 + 1 = 13 (12)

  Kitool, shocked at Jurot’s sudden outburst e, stepped forward, but her body grew cold. She tossed one of her darts, which struck the bear beside Jurot, but her body refused to step closer from her position.

  “Hey Jurot,” Adam shouted, darting forward. “Leave some for me!”

  Warrior Spirit: 3 -> 2

  Attack (Fnking)D20 + 8 = 11 (3)D20 + 8 = 10 (2)Omen: 1, 9 -> 19 + 7 = 16Hit!1D6 + 2D6 + 6 = (5)(3, 6)20 damage!

  Adam, filled with his Warrior Spirit, struck wildly towards the bck bear Jurot had tried to strike, which had the lightest cut from Kitool’s dart, but he almost missed wildly. Feeling too embarrassed to miss after deg something so cheesy, plucked a Thread of Fate.

  A baker in Red Oak, plump with dark hair, almost drooled as a pair of devilkin Iyrmen appeared, a rge number of jam buns.

  Adam’s bde, which was going to miss, swerved and cut the bck bear’s neck , causing its head to drop beside him. He inhaled deeply before flexing his muscles.

  Onward Soar: 1 -> 0

  Mana: 6 -> 5Spell: Hex

  AttackD20 + 7 = 18 (25)D20 + 7 = 10 (17)Hit!1D6 + 2D6 + 1D6 + 6 = (6)(2, 6)(3)23 damage!

  “You damn bck bear!” Adam shough quickly lost his anger as an unfortable wave of emotion flowed through his body after mentioning its colour. His spell struck the beast and seized its muscles for a moment, before he cut its head off as it tried to bite his shoulder, the bear’s head dropping beside him.

  The st bear stared at him in utter shod fear, quickly turning to flee.

  “Raa!” Jaygak roared, leaping into the fray beside him, swinging her beautiful bde wildly, but pletely whiffing, her sword cutting through the air instead of flesh and fur.

  Attack (Opportunity)D20 + 8 = 23 (15)D20 + 8 = 12 (4)Hit!1D6 + 2D6 + 1D6 + 6 = (1)(1, 5)(4)17 damage!

  Adam, gripping his bde with both hands tightly, stepped forward and thrust into the leg of the bear, causing it to stumble.

  Jaygak, taking the opportunity, drove her bde deep into the creature’s leg, causing it to fall down before them. It panted and groaned, before Jurot, raising his axe high above him, gring down at the creature, split its skull in half.

  Kitool and Jaygak he look e on his face, which wasn’t the usual rage of a Rage Dancer, but instead, something far more personal.

  Victory!Bck Bears+75XP

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  So begins the sughter. There will be no more bears near Red Oak!