In a secluded area just outside the main clearing, Lieutenant Kerrick stood behind a mess of bushes and vines, leaning against the broad trunk of a stunted redwood. His hood was pulled low over his face and his head was down. Many of the gathering scouts had yet to notice him as his patterned robes blended in with the twigs and leaves of the brush.
When Victoria and Iris arrived and found no Lieutenant Kerrick in sight, and a crowd of confused adventurers looking around or even outright searching, Victoria quickly guessed what the game was. She activated her auravision and inspected the area, but found nothing. After a moment of observing the other adventurers, however, she picked out a few who were no longer searching and were now talking quietly amongst themselves. She followed their discrete glances to where she assumed he must be hiding, and activated her auravision again. After a moment of close inspection she identified traces of his aura blended into the aura of the surrounding plants like mixing paint of similar shades.
"Can you see him?" Victoria asked Iris, leading her through the area.
Iris scanned her surroundings with an inquisitive eye as they walked, shaking her head when she saw nothing. A hand unseen by her periphery landed softly on her shoulder.
"Oh fuck!" she shouted, and blipped away.
Lieutenant Kerrick released a hearty roar of a laugh and emerged from the brush. He let the laugh trail off into chuckles without composing himself, then threw back his hood and addressed the staring crowd.
"I'm Ranger Kerrick," he announced in a deep, confident voice, "the Dreamweaver would prefer you call me lieutenant for the duration of this expedition, but ranger is the title I've earned,' he stopped and looked up into the trees, "you can come down now."
Iris blipped to the ground behind Victoria, sheepishly avoiding eye contact with the ranger.
He laughed again, "it's all in good fun, young one. If you scream like that in the field you'll probably die, though."
Iris she said nothing as her cheeks reddened.
"Alright," the ranger clapped his hands, "let's get started."
The briefing that followed was an intimate and in depth conversation about tactics and search patterns. Ranger Kerrick actively engaged with questions from the crowd, and placed jokes throughout to lighten the mood and keep attention. Iris found his casual, friendly demeanor a striking surprise compared to her initial expectations of a quiet, stone faced rogue.
"What if we locate the web but are unable to return and report?" an adventurer asked.
"That is the one and only circumstance where it is acceptable to signal, but only if you're in imminent danger. I would still caution against it, the last thing you want if you're stuck or injured is to draw more attention. If you're stuck in the web, however, you can trust the spiders are already on the way. My sergeants or I will respond swiftly to anything that appears to be a signal or a sign of trouble."
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After a few more questions, the ranger began his closing statement, "I cannot stress this enough, it's up to us to look out for each other if one of us gets into trouble. The fighters will be too far away to help, if they even know you're in danger at all. Spreading out is key to covering ground, but you should always know where at least two other scouts are at all times, if not, you're too isolated. Is that understood?"
The adventurers nodded and quietly confirmed.
"Good. I'll see you all early in the morning, right here, one hour before sunrise," he returned his hood to his head and stepped backwards into the brush as he continued, "if anyone asks, all I did was stare at you in silence for an hour, I have appearances to keep up." A moment later, he had disappeared into the forest.
"Is he what you expected?" Iris asked Victoria after he was gone.
"Not even remotely."
On their way back to their campsite, they stopped by the healer's tent. It had sparsely been necessary so far, but many healers were bustling around to prepare for the expected influx of patients when the expedition began in earnest. They spotted a muddy and angry clerical sitting on a cot, then both winced as another cleric broke the man's nose and immediately began healing it again.
"Hmm, still not right," the cleric observed.
"How many fucking times--" the injured man shouted in a hoarse, nasally voice.
"How many times did he break it in the duel?" the cleric asked.
"Like, five or six?"
"Then probably three or four more times, if you ever want the shape back," the cleric broke the man's nose again, causing an angry scream.
After a few moments of waiting, another cleric approached them and eyed Victoria's slung and bandaged arm. He nodded, then led them to an empty cot. He grimaced as he unwrapped the bandages to reveal bruised and swollen purple flesh.
"When did this happen?" he asked,
"two days ago," Victoria answered.
The cleric gave her a shocked and annoyed guffaw, "you should have come sooner. Way sooner."
"I've had worse, and we got busy," Victoria said, even as the unraveling bandages revealed a horrific scene.
For the next hour, the cleric carefully and delicately tended to her injury with precisely placed bursts of healing and manual repositioning of bones that made Iris dizzy and nauseous to even see. Victoria remained stoic throughout the procedure, only occasionally wincing or snarling. The cleric finished with a broad application of continuous healing along the shoulder and upper arm, and a thorough lecture on the importance of timely healing.
As they left the tent, Iris gave Victoria a concerned look, "how did you do that? That looked really painful. Has it been hurting this whole time?"
"It really didn't start getting bad until this morning," she said, "Titus's healing held me over even though he couldn't fix the bone."
Iris was still concerned, but left it alone.
They returned to their campsite to find Autumn preparing lunch.
"How's the arm?" Titus asked as they approached.
"Mostly better, still sore," Victoria replied.
"The clerics didn't give you any trouble, did they?"
"No, why would they--" Victoria gave Titus a flat look, "did you break that guy's nose?"
"He had it coming!" Autumn interjected.
"You know they're still trying to fix him, right?" Victoria lectured.
"Really?" Titus asked in excitement, then tried to look serious, "I mean that's awful, whoever did that to him should feel terrible."
Victoria turned her glare to Eli, who had a guilty look in his eye as he hid a tightly clenched smile behind a fist.
"They had to keep breaking it over and over again to get the shape right," Victoria said in the tone of an angry parent.
Both men erupted into laughter.
Eli forcefully composed himself, "no, this is serious," he briefly cracked a smile before reigning it back in, "that was very irresponsible of you Titus, you disobeyed my direct order. As the team leader I do not encourage this kind of behavior."
"You're right," Titus took on a solemn, guilty expression, "I shouldn't have broken it the sixth time."
Eli cracked into laughter again.