Arc 1: Dreams of Heroism

[Bjorn]

It takes you about twenty minutes to find a decent site, by a tiny, pace-wide creek, and clear away enough of the thick underbrush to make a safe place for a small fire.  The voices that still whisper quietly in your minds tell you how to about this; a painstaking process, given the dangerously flammable nature of your surroundings.

Another ten minutes or so pass, and your feet have just begun to complain about the burdens of the day, when Brian's enhanced hearing picks up the sounds of footsteps in the distance.  Many footsteps, perhaps two dozen or so, and headed your way.

[Rezantis]

Nathan is, by this point, sitting down near the fire and rummaging through his bag for some food.

"So you're telling me that we have five more days of this?  With all that talk of 'things that need to be done' I didn't think a week's hiking was what she was talking about . . ."

[Brian]

"Footsteps," Brian says, raising a hand and peering towards the source of the sound, trying to cast his hearing out again to gather more information.  "Hey, wait.  She?"

[Rezantis]

"You know, the redhead," Nathan responds, making sure his sword is close at hand.

[Brian]

"Oh," Brian says, feeling a bit slow.  "Right."  Then he stays quiet, trying to hear whoever is approaching.

[Bjorn]

There are quite a few of whoever it is.  They're still some distance away, but headed in your direction at a good clip.  There seem to be two types of footsteps in the bunch. Some ghost along the ground, almost as hard to hear as Mifanetya.  The others are accompanied by the clanking of heavy armour.

[Brian]

"People are heading towards us," Brian says tersely.  "I hear armor, but sneaky-quiet feet, too.  I can't make out more yet."  He turns to look at the mighty Tim and Nathan.  "What should we do?"  Then he starts looking for places to hide, though he suspects that will go poorly.

[Rezantis]

"Think the elf's bringing people back?"

[Brian]

"I'm not sure," Brian says slowly.  "It sounds like they're together, but we never saw any Fae with armor."  He shakes his head abruptly.  "If they are humans, don't say anything about me using their magic."

[Rezantis]

"I guess we're just . . . lost . . . do you know where we are?"

[Brian]

"Far from home," Brian replies wryly.

[Bjorn]

On the tails of Brian's last words comes the new party.  Neither Tim nor Nathan hear them until they are upon you, testament to Brian's new-found hearing.

Before you are ten men in armour basically identical to that of Nathan's.  They are all massive, stocky men, and their visors are down, making them featureless to Brian and Tim, except that the one in the lead seems to be taking poor care of his armour; it's a bit rusty.  Nathan, however, knows that the rust has been carefully cultivated and patterned; this is a man of some rank.

On entering the clearing, there's clear confusion: a moment of freezing, then a rapid unsheating of arms, but they then freeze in place, carefully regarding all of you.

There's no sign at this point of the second source of footsteps that Brian heard; with the noise in the clearing from the armoured fellows, there's no way that his hearing alone can sort things out.