2 Farshaw trained guards, Suzette - a Westrock Aerie Page arrive, following Ryhalt.

Maggie, a really fuzzy raccoon, Princess Fluffy Tube, a ferret, Lucky Wagglesworth Von Greathound, a mastiff pup arrive, following Gerrick.

Sir Floppington the Soulful Hound arrives, following Rowenova.

Beakers - an austere raven arrives, following Orick.

Showing up with Sir Floppington is Scout Rowenova at swift speeds until then slowing down beside the water pit and peeking inside.

Eirene's been holed up for several months with a baby, whether carrying or nursing. But now that she's infant free she's come to put herself through the paces and, judging by the smirk on her face, fail with style. She keeps her guard close and her armored self wary now that they're outside of the city proper.

Arturo, a young but rugged looking Saikland Lionclaw officer, Rodolfo, a grizzled, powerfully built Saikland Lionclaw veteran arrive, following Vicarin.

Needing an adventure, even one not real, Ryhalt arrives with a wry smile. Dressed in his leather armor, he looked far different than he typically did when seen around town. He wasn't just going to watch today!

Gerrick wanders along the path leading to the obstacle course. The small horde of animals all in tow. He stops to look over the course, nodding in approval

Vicarin walks into the clearing shortly after Gerrick, clad in heavy armor in contrast to the others. Perhaps he aims to take the gauntlet in armor.

1 Saik Guard arrives, following Neilda.

Lisebet is wearing part of her armour, at least, leather pants and vest, and it is definitely not camoflaged. Blue armour with silver colored accents definitely stands out. She smiles as she catches sight of her brother. "Ryhalt, are you going to try the gauntlet too?" she asks. Yes, she said too.

1 Clement trained guards, Alphonse arrive, following Adalyn.

A messenger arrives, delivering a message to Orick before departing.

Ryhalt grins at his sister, Lisebet, and nods. "Yes. Should be fun. Probably won't do so great since I have been too busy the past few months to keep up fitness, but how bad can it be?" He chuckles like it's highly possible he'll do something utterly crazy.

Lou Grayson is already in the clearing, overseeing the final set up of the gauntlet. Willen, the trusty Senior Archivist at the Society of Explorers, informs her that people are already starting to arrive. She gives Willen a look of thanks and then turns her attention to those arriving. "Good afternoon!" she calls out. "Thank you all so much for coming. If you are intending to take part in the competition, please join the line so we can get started shortly."

OOC: line/getinline

Eirene has joined the line.

Rowenova has joined the line.

Ryhalt has joined the line.

Connal, a Northern Wolfhound, Honeymare, 1 Ravenseye Warrior arrive, following Rosalind.

Neilda is juuuuuuust in time, braiding her hair as she runs up, a leather thong in her teeth, "Ha-ree I hate!" (Sorry I'm late!) spoken around it. She gets in line immediately.

Lisebet has joined the line.

Neilda has joined the line.

Adalyn has joined the line.

Professor Orick arrives and gets in line, somewhere near the end to keep get a chance to see how this is done and possibly have the opportunity to bail before its is his turn.

Orick has joined the line.

Rosalind has joined the line.

Vicarin has joined the line.

Rosalind hurries, running as always. Red hair busts through the trees as she gasps,"Sorry Im late,"waving to everyone with a smile.

Lisebet shrugs delicately, shaking her head. "I'm still surprised always that I managed to pass the test to join the Explorers, so I expect to fail miserably. But it should be fun." She glances to the others also lining up and waves a hand. The petite duchess offers a "Nova! I see you over there."

Adalyn arrives on Neilda's heels, hastily moving to join the participants where they are gathering. She's only slightly out of breath after her jog to get here, her upbeat smile remaining despite the mad rush to make it in time.

Gerrick has joined the line.

As she and Sir Flop move to the line, Nova stops to offer a hug to Lisebet. "Hello! Good to see you! Running into you always makes me smile." She is, indeed, smiling to the Ashford. "How have you been?"

Lou grins as she sees all the people joining the line, clearly pleased to see so many people willing to be challenged. "The Explorers are an organization dedicated to finding adventure, exploring the lands, recovering lost history. While some of our purposes are very similar to the Scholars, we are a secular organization, and our exploration is not limited primarily to those things the Faith wishes to uncover. We can be hired out by nobles to scout their lands for ruins or to help with rebuilding efforts, we can be called to aid on expeditions to help find lost relics and history, or we can be called into service by the Crown or the High Lords for whatever projects they have." Lou says as she steps forward to address everyone with a spiel that has been clearly practiced and maybe used before. "As we undertake these missions or expeditions, there are any number of things we can encounter, and today is all about giving you a chance to encounter some of those things in a non-lethal way -- for our adventures are often fraught with danger, and a number of explorers have died or gone missing in the line of duty." She is quite serious when she mentions the dangers part. Some know of at least one who went missing.

Eirene claps her hands together, leather gloves slapping. "Hey," she says, raising a hand to... everyone. "Here to watch me fall on my face, eh?" Then Lou starts her speech and the severity of the truth behind it all. She knows at least a few who didn't come back, and she nods solemnly. A flash is pulled out of a pocket of her umbra coat and she takes a swig, a touch poured onto the forest floor.

Ryhalt laughs at Lisebet. "It had made me curious that you wanted to join, but still was proud that you made it. Making your older brother jealous, tsk." He grins at Lisebet, teasing. As Lou begins to speak, he turns to her and nods, looking a little yearning.

Lisebet grins at Ryhalt's teasing, but doesn't answer, as Lou starts speaking, instead listening to the opening speech.

Orick bows his head politely at the somber parts and listens attentivetly to the rest, looking around at the other entrants and quietly sizing up the competition with sheepish side-eyes.

Gerrick's smile is growing as the discussion of danger is brought up.

Neilda is going to tie up her hair when she drops the thong on the ground. GREAT GOING. "Hey, can you grab that?" she asks Adalyn, since she was hot on her heels.

Merek has joined the line.

"Because of the dangers involved, every person that wishes to become an explorer must pass an entrance exam. This is not that exam," Lou warns to those who might be thinking it is. "In fact, the gauntlet is usually just a bit easier than the exam we give, although today the difficulty has been ramped up just a little bit to give everyone a better idea of what it is we face. Don't worry, there's plenty of safety measures involved!" She assures them and there's lots of places where people might fall where there are soft landing spots available. "Information on the exam can be found within the Charter Hall of the explorers."

Once it seems like everyone is here who is going to participate, Lou begins, "The first thing most explorers do is investigate a topic of interest, to see what information they can glean and to see what direction they should be going in to find to find the ruins they want to explore, or that interesting place they want to go. Sometimes, we find leads. Sometimes, we find false leads. And, that sometimes means we're searching in the wrong place, but still might find something of interest." (@check perception + investigation at normal)

Rosalind waves over to Neilda and Rowenova with a grin as she goes and makes herself comfortable. She is ready to go, looking no different than well---any other day....Seeing Eirene, Rosa waves to her too.

Eirene checks perception and investigation at normal. Eirene is successful.

Rosalind checks perception and investigation at normal. Rosalind is marginally successful.

Ryhalt checks perception and investigation at normal. Ryhalt fails.

Adalyn checks perception and investigation at normal. Adalyn is marginally successful.

Neilda checks perception and investigation at normal. Botch! Neilda catastrophically fails.

Rowenova checks perception and investigation at normal. Rowenova is successful.

Vicarin checks perception and investigation at normal. Vicarin is marginally successful.

Lisebet checks perception and investigation at normal. Lisebet is marginally successful.

Gerrick checks perception and investigation at normal. Gerrick marginally fails.

Merek checks perception and investigation at normal. Merek is successful.

Orick checks perception and investigation at normal. Orick marginally fails.

Xyander has joined the line.

Eirene's sharp. And good at finding things. It's necessary as a doctor and, as some know her, an investigator of 'weird shit'. So it's not too surprising that she can find what she's looking for in the info presented. She snaps victoriously and wears a grin. "Okay, so this part, I got. That's all red herring, this is the relevant section."

Merek would come to run in the Gauntlet. He does need a break from things to test his skill, while he takes the time to adjust that dark attire along with the scarf. He does pick a simple investigation, while he nods a bit, then explains.

Xyander checks perception and investigation at normal. Xyander fails.

Vicarin solves one of the puzzles. It does take him a bit longer than usual but he does it. He nods tiredly after he's done.

Ryhalt hares off into the woods, searching for clues, but it's possible that he isn't searching for the adventure that leads to *this* gauntlet. Fail!

"Sure can," Adalyn chirps to Neilda, stooping to retrieve the fallen thong. She scoops it up, clasped between pointer finger and thumb, and holds it out for Neilda to take. "I'm glad to find myself beside you, Lady Neilda. Happy to see a current Explorer show us all how it's done." She hushes, conversational chatter kept to a minumum as she listens to Lou's remarks.

"Investigations, hm? Not my strongest suit, but we'll make do." That said, the Clement noblewoman immediately sets to poring through the information given, making note of a few vital pieces of knowledge.

Rosalind practically lives in the woods. It takes a moment, but she finds what she's looking for. Putting everything together, she grins. "Oh! This was terrible,"Rosa excitedly declares. "What else do we got?!"

Research! Riddles! Investigation! Neilda came ready for something called a _gauntlet_ and she's as distracted as cats, tying up her hair, fidgeting. "Oh, research, love research." She settles in with Adalyn and... shows her... some ways of looking at things. Imaginative, they are. Being generous. If they wind up going the wrong way -

Orick is working alone by choice and it takes him a little longer to find what he is looking for, out here in the woods is not his natural habitat and he longs for the confirms of his lab. Making the best of bad situation- he carries on and carefully seeks out his clues in stride with all the deliberate careful study of an old turtle. Slow and steady.

confines*

Research and Investigation. Yes. Gerrick is great at this. And with a large smile he looks at the puzzle and then stares at it. For much longer than he probably should. Long enough that Maggie climbs down from his shoulder and tries to help by pushing the pieces of the puzzle around and then rolling over onto her back. Gerrick picks her up and puts her on the ground, then tries to put the puzzle together. However he tries it doesn't work. "I think mine is missing a piece."

2 Farshaw trained guards, Suzette - a Westrock Aerie Page arrive, following Ryhalt.

Lisebet reviews the clues she's got, and she laughs softly. "I think we have to find the grey building with the red door," she offers, amused.

After hearing out Lou, Nova sagely nods before she move with Sir Flop to try checking out the immediate situation before then piping up, "Eureka!"

"Sometimes it takes several months of research to get to that place you want to go. For instance, it took about two years for us to find all the pieces of the puzzle. Some of it was because there were red herrings. Some of it was that not everything we found was relevent, and it took longer to research the topic. Eventually, you all find your information. Now you know where you want to go - or well, think you might know where you want to go. Now you need to get there." Lou grins.

"Much of the time our explorations take us away from the city of Arx. We're in the wilds of the Gray Forest. That means we're either walking or riding, and sometimes that riding involves moving over or around a set of obstacles." And, indeed, in part of the clearing there's a small arena set up for the gauntlet that includes a set of small logs or tiny bridges or other obstacles that must be encountered. "And, that involves some skill in riding - but not expert experience. Also, skill in riding means that you're not as saddle sore as you could be if you did not have such skill, as you spend long hours in the saddle and know how to mitigate the length of time without getting sore."

(OOC: I'll be using @check/contest for this roll)

"Sometimes it takes several months of research to get to that place you want to go. For instance, it took about two years for us to find all the pieces of the puzzle to get to Whitepeak. Some of it was because there were red herrings. Some of it was that not everything we found was relevent, and it took longer to research the topic. Eventually, you all find your information. Now you know where you want to go - or well, think you might know where you want to go. Now you need to get there." Lou grins.

"Much of the time our explorations take us away from the city of Arx. We're in the wilds of the Gray Forest. That means we're either walking or riding, and sometimes that riding involves moving over or around a set of obstacles." And, indeed, in part of the clearing there's a small arena set up for the gauntlet that includes a set of small logs or tiny bridges or other obstacles that must be encountered. "And, that involves some skill in riding - but not expert experience. Also, skill in riding means that you're not as saddle sore as you could be if you did not have such skill, as you spend long hours in the saddle and know how to mitigate the length of time without getting sore."

(OOC: I'll be using @check/contest for this roll)

Lou has called for a check of dexterity and riding at hard.
Eirene is marginally successful.
Lisebet is marginally successful.
Xyander marginally fails.
TIE: Adalyn marginally fails. Gerrick marginally fails.
Orick fails.
Vicarin fails.
Merek fails.
Rosalind fails.
Ryhalt fails.
Botch! Rowenova is simply outclassed. This is monumentally beyond them and the result is ruinous.
Neilda catastrophically fails.

A beautiful songbird arrives, delivering a message to Ryhalt before departing.

Lou checks mana and bubblegum chewing at hard. Lou is marginally successful.

Before Nova even gets to her horse, she ends up tripping on a rock which then proceeds to land her on her arse. She lays back on the ground and looks up toward the sky in silence with her eyes open wide!

Merek navigates along a little bit, though he doesn't manage to do a lot.

Lou has called for a check of dexterity and riding at normal.
Gerrick is successful.
TIE: Rowenova is marginally successful. Rosalind is marginally successful. Vicarin is marginally successful.
Xyander is marginally successful.
TIE: Lisebet is marginally successful. Eirene is marginally successful.
TIE: Neilda marginally fails. Merek marginally fails.
Orick marginally fails.
Botch! Adalyn is simply outclassed. This is monumentally beyond them and the result is ruinous.



Having arrived late, Xyander is dressed in dark leathers with a long sword strapped over his back along with a long recurve bow and quiver. Having been able to get a few pointers and informatino about the test before them, he is able to gather enough clues barely to be able to move on.

2 Farshaw trained guards, Suzette - a Westrock Aerie Page arrive, following Ryhalt.

Lou has called for a check of dexterity and ride at normal.
TIE: Gerrick is successful. Eirene is successful.
Ryhalt is marginally successful.
Xyander is marginally successful.
TIE: Orick is marginally successful. Neilda is marginally successful.
Rosalind is marginally successful.
Adalyn is marginally successful.
Vicarin marginally fails.
Rowenova fails.
Merek fails.
Lisebet fails.

And then her horse, trying to be nice, steps closer to help but ends up with a hoof on her cloak, so Nova just lays there as horse and dog nose her like... 'what are you doing down there'?

Vicarin tries to get on his horse but the beast bolts.

Although from SouthPORT, Eirene seems quite comfortable on a horse. No doubt from years of military campaigns and troop movements. She rides with a modest display of her skill as she guides the horse over the obstacles along their journey elsewhere, taking the reigns carefully in a gloved hand and tugging the horse in the right direction when distraction rears itself.

Rosalind looks up at her horse and grins. She nuzzles it a moment before going to climb on top, her foot slipping in the stirrup. She sees Rowenova fall, blinking at her. "Hey Nova, you okay down there,"as she sits on the saddle. Rosa grins once she DOES get herself comfortable.

Yes, Neilda is totally going to go the wrong way. But she is at least not going to fall off her horse. She may boggle (she /does/ boggle) from ... somewhere... way over there, ahem: "Wow, this horse isn't a /total asshole/. Whose horse is this? I may need this horse." Sometimes you need the horse you -can- ride.

Gerrick walks up to the horse and has a little treat for it in his palm that is given freely to eat from. Then walking around the side with his hand on the horse he grabs at the mane and swings himself up onto the horse with a little hop. Leaning forwards to pet its neck for a moment, before sitting upright and tucking his feet to the sides.

Lisebet can sit on a horse if it doesn't do anything outrageous. But she's not exactly a specialist at it. So, the horse goes over one of the obstacles, and Lisebet falls off, well, slides off more like, landing on the soft ground set up for just such an occurence. There's a soft oof, and then she sits up. "I'm fine," she says, a bit embarrassed.

Ryhalt chuckles that the next test is riding. Though he must not have much time to ride, he is comfortable in both mounting and maneuvering the horse around the course. While not born to a horse, arranging trades or other Dukely business often involves riding. Riding in carriages is boring!

Merek does try the best he can

Despite frequent dealings with feisty Duskshire mustangs, Adalyn is not the most commanding rider. Even so, she manages to guide her mount through the course without ending up whisper-yelling at him in pure frustration (a frequent occurrence when riding her own horse). "You're much better behaved than Dash," she notes to the creature, giving his neck a gentle pat.

Nova looks up at Rosa and then says, "Yeah, just decided to take a nap is all." She lamely says with a laugh before moving her horse's hoof off her cloak and getting up, her back popping on the way up. She gives Sir Floppington a pet, too. Then, the horse gets some pats on the neck.

Orick isn't comfortable in the saddle but he is at least capable on a horse and he does fairly well with calming the beast in preparation for the journey around the forest. The horses whinies initially in protest when he gets on but the rest of the trek is smooth riding save for a few awkward turn arounds and short stops at dead ends that require some /very/ careful backing up.

Eirene seems rather surprised at her outriding Rowenova.

Lou watches as everyone navigates the riding obstacles, some more expertly than others. She gives encouraging looks to Merek, Rowenova, and Lisebet as they have the most difficulty maneuvering through the obstacles. "And, though you have a general idea of where you want to go, and what signs you want to look for, finding them on paper is quite a bit different than finding them out in the wilds. We must look for the signs, and search for the place once we're out in the wilderness - and make sure our directions are correct, otherwise we might miss that turn, or that outcropping, we were supposed to use as a guide marker, because the directions we're working on are never exactly correct, particularly if it's a set of ruins we're out to explore and the directions are over 200 years old or more and only just newly rediscovered. Like the sailing route to Brightshore my team will be taking very soon! Sometimes, we need to double back and start over from where we know the signs are supposed to be in order to find the correct path."

Lou has called for a check of perception and survival at normal.
Critical Success! Adalyn is spectacularly successful.
Rosalind is successful.
TIE: Eirene is successful. Gerrick is successful.
Critical Success! Ryhalt is spectacularly successful.
Orick is successful.
TIE: Lisebet is marginally successful. Xyander is marginally successful.
Rowenova is marginally successful.
TIE: Neilda is marginally successful. Merek is marginally successful.
Vicarin is marginally successful.

Vicarin walks into the forest, navigating the obstacles and nearly trips a couple of times, but always manages to spot it at the last moment.

Since she barely started the obstacle course, Nova is in a prime position to be 'starting over' which is actually 'just beginning' for her. She manages to ultimately lead the dog and horse, doing so on foot, and finding the tracks which allow them to progress to the next piece. Though, just barely.

The Riven has spent more than one night in a forest finding a pathway to where they're going. She notices the trail markers and the subtle signs - not the fastest of the lot but with competence. "I'm doing way better than I thought," she says, following along.

Ryhalt chuckles at Lisebet, but smiles to see she is fine. Riding is dangerous in and of itself. Next up is the part that really has him grinning wide and happy. He takes to the forest like someone who wanders about it in the dark. Hunting with the owl pays off!

It is not a day for astounding feats of intuition, riding, or navigation from Neilda. One insight she _can_ use, though, is that everyone else went _that other way_, maybe... maybe there's something to it. She reviews; she finds that there isn't vast alignment with anything she's seeing with what she figured out; she follows. She /still/ doesn't fall off her horse. "I don't know where my head is today," she tells Adalyn, shaking her head with a rueful smile.

Xyander checks perception and survival at normal. Critical Success! Xyander is spectacularly successful.

Rosalind very easily finds her way around the forest, finding the marks from the horse. She smiles as she spots more, actually pointing to help along. So the HOPES she's helping. "Right over there,"she declares.

Orick enjoys spending hours reading maps for fun and occasionally uses the skills in practice so he manages just fine on this part of the gauntlet. He doesn't spend long puzzling over the key and the legend before he is off at a quicker pace than earlier, more confident on the horse now that the beast was becoming accustomed to his style and weight in the saddle.

When it comes to navigating her way through the proper route, Adalyn seems to be in her element. She pays careful attention to her surroundings, alertly noting a few signs that she remembers from earlier research and even spotting a shortcut that she seems rather sure of following. She sends a sympathetic grin toward Neilda, glancing back to note her progress. "Just one of those days?"

Lisebet gets back to her feet, listening to Lou, and she gleefully moves to the next part, finding the path through the woods, based on the info she has. She stops at one point, a fork in the trail, looking left and then right, then back again. And then she picks what is hopefully the right direction and starts that way.

Gerrick looks at the forest route and simply wanders along it. Maggie is following him and keeps trying to climb up to his shoulder. thus he stops in the middle of the path and just picks her up placing her on his shoulder where she lays her head on top of his. Then he continues the path making note of a couple ties and marks on the trees.

"You've now found the place you want to go, and you come upon the ruins." Or, in this case, the building facade, "But the door doesn't want to budge. You remember in your research that this particular set of ruins has a tricky mechanism designed within it in order to get through the doors. You find where the mechanism is, but the trick is to find out how it operates. You spend some time pondering on the puzzle, to work it out. Sometimes, it takes more than one attempt - which isn't an issue because usually you have time on expeditions to work such things out." The door holds a tricky mechanism that either lets people in or holds them back until they are able to do it. Eventually, everyone will get through.

Lou has called for a check of intellect and riddles at normal.
Neilda is successful.
Critical Success! Vicarin is spectacularly successful.
TIE: Orick is successful. Merek is successful.
Rowenova is successful.
Eirene is marginally successful.
Xyander is marginally successful.
TIE: Gerrick marginally fails. Adalyn marginally fails.
Ryhalt fails.
Botch! Lisebet is simply outclassed. This is monumentally beyond them and the result is ruinous.
Rosalind fails.

Eirene isn't as quick on this as she was on the other topics, but it only takes her a little bit longer than most to get the damn door figured out. "Damn, Neilda," she says to the Saik. "That was fast..."

Vicarin easily solves the riddle with little effort. It seems he's concentrating now.

Neilda grins at Eirene, smiling aslant. "Too bad the puzzles in the Archives are harder," she says. "This reminds me of the puzzle box Pasquale had made for me for my birthday, though." A glance toward Lou, then: "Did you have a big ol' giant of a northerner make this?" That would make sense.

As it turns out, Ryhalt's all about the adventuring, exciting parts, but the part that requires the patience to puzzle out a riddle? He gives up figuring it out for himself and sneakily watches how others figure it out.

There's a faint blink from Rosalind as she considers this riddle. She's not that great at such, and yet you can see the determination on her face as she struggles. "I uh--maybe if I move this here--." Nope, that's not either! "Spirits! I can't figure this out---"

Lisebet figures she should be able to work this out, somehow. But all she manages to do is succeed in jamming it shut. That might make it more difficult for the next person. Oops.

Orick isn't the fastest but he is one of the quicker ones and he gets through the puzzle with an adept application of logic, memory and (probably) a little luck. He has a cheek grin on his pointy face as he saunters through the door with apparent pride after getting through the puzzles without any major misshaps or amputations. That's a good day for a doctor!

Beakers - an austere raven have been dismissed.

Navigating her way through the wilderness? No problem. Solving puzzles? Apparently not so easy for Adalyn, at least not this particular puzzle. Her first attempt yields no results, the door mechanism refusing to grant her access. She takes a deep breath and begins murmuring to herself, likely trying to talk herself through the process. Attempt after attempt fails until finally she sits back and watches her fellow adventurers. "I clearly won't be the brains of the operation," she notes with a goodnatured laugh.

Again a puzzle. This time. This time Gerrick will figure it out. And nope. He sits in front of the door and ends up kicking it a few times then with a little jiggling of the door and a good solid kick it lets him through, it doesn't look like that was how he was supposed to get through it.

After being investigation partners with a certain Morien for some time now, Rowenova might not be the sharpest tool in the machine shed, but she does see where the riddle pattern is ultimately going and then puts together what is a clever answer with a half grin most wolflike.



This was a bit better, though as things are goin on, Xyander is trying to get his thoughts and feeling organized so that he is able to do what he must. Finding Nova, he makes his way over to her, he's able to navigate the forests on his own well. "Uh hi." he says looking confused.

After sliding the last piece of the mechanism into place, the door clicks due to Nova's efforts. She looks to Xyander. "Howdy!" says she before pushing on her unlocked door.

"Lady Cadenza Fidante once spent a whole month trapped in the basement of a set of ruins until she could figure out a riddle to do with the Pantheon. She survived on mushrooms alone!" Lou exclaims as people work on figuring out the mechanism. "No, Lady Neilda, I didn't have a northerner design it." A pause before Lou goes on. "However, successfully maneuvering a mechanism doesn't mean that you still haven't triggered a trap on the other side as you couldn't have known it was there. You never quite exactly know who or what might have been living in the set of ruins after the original person has left. And, so, you might be left with "gifts" in their stead for any intruders that might come to occupy their new place of living." Lou shakes her head. "Sometimes, they rig things so that you need to dodge out of the way of them, in order to waylay others." And those that do not dodge out of the way get swatted with something that stings but does not do any serious damage.

Lou has called for a check of dexterity and dodge at normal.
Rowenova is successful.
Merek is successful.
Critical Success! Xyander is spectacularly successful.
TIE: Ryhalt is successful. Eirene is successful.
Vicarin is successful.
Neilda is marginally successful.
Lisebet is marginally successful.
Adalyn is marginally successful.
Rosalind is marginally successful.
TIE: Gerrick marginally fails. Orick marginally fails.

Ryhalt laughs with exhilaration as he sights the danger of the triggered 'trap' and jumps out of the way. Back to fun adventure time.

When Lou brings up Cadenza, Nova turns to look her way (and in doing so dodges away from the item which swung to swat her as if it were all happenstance). "She and Lord Ignacio helped teach me part of what I now know about evasion. Also, she wrote some mighty fine books." She cannot help but to grin about the mentioned literary pieces.

Eirene's almost! Almost pegged. She manages to aviod the stinging swat in time and grumbles at her own slowness in comparison to the others. "Guess I need to be working out more now that the baby's born," she says with a scowl.

Vicarin avoids the swatting arm with relative ease, giving it a look of contempt.

Lisebet is about the absolute last to go through the door, and so the swatting thing is just about in her face. She yelps as she dodges out of the way. "Lou, you have a very tricky mind," she calls out, half amused, once she is back on her feet.

Neilda seems to recognize that glee in Ryhalt, and it's almost enough to distract her, get her swatted, ducking out of the way at the last moment. "My uncle once survived for months in a cave on mushrooms and stuff he picked off the wall," she says - maybe to Lou, maybe to just anyone.. There's a long sigh, after. "I miss him." Lot of missing, just lately.

Gerrick stands up briefly on the otherside of the door and listening to that a trap might be waiting for him he quickly steps out of the way for the swinging arm, though steps into it on its return swing. "oof."

Rosalind sometimes, on occassion, gets distracted. Shock face? Listening to others, she almost gets schmucked. By a hair! "Shite,"she hollars. "Whered that come from?"

Adalyn very nearly gets hits, managing to scramble out of the way at the last moment as she feels the brush of the object against her cheek. Far from being agitated, she grins widely in response. "A lesson I'll hope to remember next time. Mind the entrance." The plights of both Cadenza and Neilda's uncle earn a curious glance. "That's resilience."

Orick gets sideswipped by a couple of the traps but not badly enough to cause any harm.. juuust hard enough to knock the wind out of him and wipe that smug smile off his face from doing so well with the puzzle portion. He ambles on, a little more careful as he takes to his feet after being knocked back hard onto his bum, back smacking into a tree. "Nothing serious, just lost my footing." He's up and moving again in no time flat.

Lou chuckles softly at Lisebet's comment. "When I was in Everwinter to help Tarik Morien retrieve the Shield of Morien, I cannot tell you how many traps Mason triggered nor how many darts he took from those traps. This is tame in comparison. It could have been sooooo much worse, but he survived." She glances back to the gauntlet, "So, you've gone through most of the building. But, sometimes old ruins and structures are not the most stable or steady, and to search through them you must navigate the missing parts of them. That often times means either jumping or swinging from one side to the other." Lou says as she motions to the part they all come to next, individually of course, where there's an opportunity to either jump across or swing across -- which ever method they prefer. "Some methods are easier on the building to do than the other, which might become unstable." And, it looks like there's a pit of water that people might fall into if they fall down. The pit is only 5 feet below the section they either need to jump or swing across. It's definitely wet down there, but deep enough to safely break a fall, and there's a handy rope to climb back up if one does fall.

Lou has called for a check of dexterity and athletics at normal.
Adalyn is successful.
Critical Success! Gerrick is spectacularly successful.
TIE: Rowenova is successful. Vicarin is successful.
Neilda is marginally successful.
Xyander is marginally successful.
TIE: Lisebet is marginally successful. Rosalind is marginally successful.
Merek marginally fails.
TIE: Eirene fails. Ryhalt fails.
Botch! Orick is simply outclassed. This is monumentally beyond them and the result is ruinous.

Vicarin easily leaps across the pit, clearing it.

SPLAT goes Eirene, unable to cling to the rope as she goes to swing across. She gets quite wet and her leathters are soaked. She grins, though, at her own failure.

This would be where busy life comes to bite Ryhalt. Though he jumps for the rope and catches it, he doesn't swing far enough to reach the other side and ends up splashing down into the water. Chuckling to himself, he climbs out the other side.

When Lou mentions the Morien, Nova runs forth toward the pit and sails across, just barely landing on the other side, one foot slipping toward the pit but then the other one catches the land and she bolts forth beyond it before then shouting out in Northern fashion, "I heard about that!" then a hearty laugh! "Also, glad I did not get so weak in my knees that I would fall in the drink after you spake his name."

Neilda misjudges the distance a little, trying to do it ropeless; but that's fine, she has arms for to balance, and overshooting just means taking a moment to re-catch her balance.

Lisebet is laughing, though she sobers at Lou's answer. Nobody ever said she was the fastest explorer ever. But she does eventually get to the pit, and there's a delicate half shrug. She pauses there to comment. "It can be dangerous, and often is, that is true. I'm glad Mason made it." She then reaches for the rope and swings once twice, and on the third time, she lets go, landing on the other side. Barely. She scrambles away from the edge so she doesn't fall in.

Getting back up from the arm's assault and stumbling through the last two challenges Gerrick comes up to the pit and just resigns to an understanding through a sigh that he's going to be at the bottom of the pit. Though wants to give it a proper go, so he grabs the rope and swings across and right when he figures /welp time to get wet/ he lands on the other side of the gap. He's not wet, he made the swing. "Huh."

Orick takes a long look at the pit, the rope, the whole arrangement and he spends a considerable amount of time in study of all the components only to end up smack on his ass in the water trap a few seconds later. It happened to fast! His first mistake was taking the jump at a full tilt run, his second and more egregious mistake was missing the rope with his gangly arms. By some fluke of miscalculations he grasps at the air and drops down into the water with a big splash. Probably the only one who has to fish himself out of the mud, he takes his time and even climbing out proves to be an almost embarrassing endeavor.. but he gets there.

Adalyn gets a bit of a running start before launching herself across. The momentum carries her easily across the gap to land securely on her feet. The gleam in her eyes hints at how much she's enjoying hearing Lou's stories of past adventures as she navigates her way through this mini-adventure with her fellow participants.

Rosalind jumps up and slips the first time. Leading her to try again. Wiping her hands on her pants, Rosa jumps again, and gets through. Thank the spirits!



Seeing the course before them, some falling and others making it across. He listens to Lou as he runs and he too leaps across and he nearly misses the ledge on the other side but he is able to make it across and roll along the ground. He shakes his head as he does get a mouth full of grass. Spitting it out. "That sucked." he says as he gets to his feet.

"And, sometimes, you encounter other people in your explorations. People that might not always speak the same language as you. In this case, it might be shav'arvani. Goodness knows how many shav'avarni people populate our lost ruins. I know of four ruined castles on Grayson lands up near Stormwall that are occupied, all, by shav'arvani." Lou says, by way of explanation. "And in this case, these ruins are occupied by those who are not part of the Compact. You must somehow talk your way through getting back out with a scuffle in the language they speak so they know you don't mean them any harm." Lou pauses then grins, "Lest you get kidnapped like I did one time when scouting out whether or not there were shav'arvani tainted by the Abyss or not. Shard and I were sneaking through an area, and I got caught, and then captured. She had to do all the talking for me. Rest assured, I learned the language afterwards! Turns out, they were being held hostage by Abyssal tainted northern shav'arvani! And we ended up rescuing that village from their captors."

Lou has called for a check of intellect and linguistics at normal.
Merek is successful.
Orick is successful.
Lisebet is marginally successful.
Neilda is marginally successful.
Ryhalt is marginally successful.
Xyander is marginally successful.
TIE: Rowenova is marginally successful. Rosalind is marginally successful.
Adalyn marginally fails.
Eirene fails.
Botch! Vicarin is simply outclassed. This is monumentally beyond them and the result is ruinous.
Gerrick fails.

Eirene has no idea about any of the dialects of shav'arvani Northern. Southern. Islands. Nope. "I got no fucking clue," she says with a shrug, giving up. She's still wringing water out of her umbra overcoat at this point. "I knew I was going to suck at this," she says, despite having done well on the first party of it.

Neilda doesn't make it through this with any great linguistic insight - but casting back to scraps she remembers, translations seen in the archive. "I don't... /think/ that's bad for us," she says, and looks around to see if there's someone more language-learned than her - particularly to Vicarin, first. "That's good for us, right?"

Vicarin shakes his head at Neilda. "I can make neither head nor tail of it. Now if only it was Eurusi... " he trails off.

Orick has been a fan of languages for years, able to speak Eurusi since he was a teenager thanks to a close family friend, and his natural affinity for dialects offer enough assistance here that he is able to communicate successfully through a few words of Shav'arvani and a combination of gestures.

Though Ryhalt clearly doesn't recognize the language, the gets by with gestures which lead to a rough understanding of each other. Luckily he didn't gesture something too offensive.

Adalyn throws her hands up in defeat, knowing not a single phrase of shav'arvani. She resorts to an awkward attempt at using various hand signals and gestures, which only results in a very confusing, convoluted exchange and absolutely NO answers to be found. She glances to the others to see how they fare. "Note to self: consider studying languages."

It's an interesting question this one. Lisebet is actually fluent in several languages, including one form of shav'arvani. She certainly does her best here, listening carefully. "Dinner at sunset, watch out for the mushrooms?" she says, teasing. She does manage her translation, maybe missing a few small unimportant words here and there. Gestures and smiles manage to cover the rest.

Gerrick is feeling a little cocky after the last test and walks right up to the next one, with a /bring it/ attitude. This is his first mistake. He should know better, he does know better. He just finally finished healing from the second largest wound in his life. while the bandages are off, he's still sore and should be better at taking care of himself. He takes one look at the words then back up to Lou, "feck if I know."

Oddly, Rosa knows SOME languages, but really this one much. "I think it says something about that person smells and two heads, but I dont know..."

Again, her investigation work ultimately assists her where she would have probably failed if it were not for various projects with aforementioned Morien before piping up, "I bet some of this is swear words!"

(Nova) ^

Carissa, a Southport bodyguard have been dismissed.

Planchet the Lycene maggiordome have been dismissed.



Having been a scholar's assistant, this allowed Xyander to learn a few things and languages were some of them. As they get to the next area and Lou speaks telling them of her adventures, and how one must be able to speak to others who uses different languages other then their own. He has picked up some of the Shav'arvani. He's not fully fluent but he is able to grasp some of it.

Lou watches as everyone finishes the last bit, grinning as she does. She glances over at the notes Willen was taking and then says. "The results are in. Scout Rowenova takes first place with her efforts, followed closely by Scholar Merek, and then Lady Eirene Riven. It was a very close call for everyone, and I do hope you learned a little bit of what we explores go through when we go out adventuring. Though this gauntlet may make it seem easy, there are no nets or safety measures out there a we have here." She looks to Merek and Rowenova. "Rowenova, you have a choice between a dawnstone, duskstone, or a piece of mirrorsilver. Merek, you can choose after her."

Neilda smiles brightly for the successes; she had a little of her own, and doesn't seem particularly disappointed in nothing shiny to take home. She got to leap! And puzzle! And that's enough.

Stepping up to Lou, Nova smiles softly. "Thinking about your protege helped. Mirrorsilver, please. Thank you very much." Sir Flop wags profusely!

Ryhalt grins despite hearing the expected result and claps for the winners. Glancing to his sister, he walks over to her and gives her a hug. "The next adventure will be better."

Lisebet cheers. "Well done, Sir Merek, Scout Nova and Lady Eirene!"

Lisebet is overheard praising Lou.

Lisebet is overheard praising Merek.

Lisebet is overheard praising Eirene.

Lisebet is overheard praising Rowenova.

Neilda is overheard praising Lou.

1 Saik Guard leaves, following Neilda.

Lisebet returns Ryhalt's hug and she laughs. "This was fun!"

Orick is overheard praising Lou.

Vicarin is overheard praising Lou.

Rosalind waves to everyone before she takes off back into the wilderness. To do spirits knows what. "It was nice to meet and see you all,"she calls with a wave over her shoulder. She smiles and darts off.

Gerrick is overheard praising Lou.

Vicarin is overheard praising Rowenova.

Maggie, a really fuzzy raccoon, Princess Fluffy Tube, a ferret, Lucky Wagglesworth Von Greathound, a mastiff pup leave, following Gerrick.

Arturo, a young but rugged looking Saikland Lionclaw officer, Rodolfo, a grizzled, powerfully built Saikland Lionclaw veteran leave, following Vicarin.

Ryhalt grins to Lisebet and nods in agreement. "Absolutely, makes me want to get out more often. Might need it in coming days."

"I am a Master teacher with mastery in most exploration skills, so if you need brushing up on something, do feel free to let me know," Lou says in response to Ryhalt. "My combat skills, though, are a bit rusty. So, I mean, strictly exploration skills," she grins.

Adalyn cheers for the winners, then turns to grin brightly at Lou. "This was great fun! Thank you for hosting." Like Neilda, she seems perfectly pleased with the outcome, having enjoyed an afternoon of testing her exploration skills.

Adalyn is overheard praising Lou.

Adalyn is overheard praising Rowenova.

Adalyn is overheard praising Merek.

Adalyn is overheard praising Eirene.

Ryhalt nods to Lou. "I may take you up on that. Clevering your way out of a situation is a must for those of us who aren't stellar at combat."

"You are welcome," Lou responds to Adalyn, giving her a warm smile. She dips her head in a nod to Ryhalt. "Any time," she assures him. "Thank you all for coming!"