<div></div><br> <br>The Nomads have sent for aid from the freeswords, A beautiful healer known as the Rose of the hound has gone missing during a vision quest. The Freeswords bulletin laid out where the poster would be in the Flats, A large Cobra male wearing thin robes and and a blue soul gem sits on the edge of the camp, The bulletin stated that the request was file by a male Cobra named Dasta. The Cobra heled a powerful looking musket in his hands as he kept his side of the camp under his watchful and protective gaze.<br> <br>Fulror approaches the camped out cobra with at a modest pace, deliberate in his steps. He makes sure his presence is known, and calls out "Are you the one requesting help, for a lost healer?" He eyes the musket as he approaches, his hands always in plain view.<br> <br>Rainer stretches his arms way up at length as he comes ambling up to the camp hot on Fulror's heels, interlocking his fingers and turning his palms skywards. His fur bristles, then smooths again as he relaxes, throwing in a quick wave to the serpent on guard as he lets them drop back to his sides.<br> <br>David walks along with the others, his equipment stowed for the moment, and waves to the cobra with a friendly smile, "Hello there." he looks around curiously a bit<br> <br>Angus follows close behind Rainer, tightening the straps on his wrist mounted crossbow with a frown. Stepping up next to Fulror he gives the cobra a slight bow, and eyes the musket. "We are in need of freeswords?"<br> <br>Saibh follows behind Angus, having been messing with the string of her compact shorbow. She doesn't say anything, instead scanning the assembled mercs, offering the familiar faces a nod while letting Angus do the talking for now<br> <br>The Cobra nods to Fulror and gives a modest bow in greeting, "I am Dasta of the cold sands. Apperentice Healer and yes I seek aid." The serpents eyes are cold and his mannerisms leaves a feeling of pure detachment. "I seek the return of my Tutor, She was taken from me a few days ago. We were out picking herb to cure the Camp leader's rash when I climbed the plateu I saw a jackel walk up to my tutor and with a strange weapon in his hand caused her to fall over. While I do care of my Tutor I don't care about her more than myself so I waited until they were far in the distance till I came back to camp and told the Camp Leader what happened they decided to hire you. So I must follow orders, I know where they may be holding her but I will not take you in fear of my own life." The Snake reaches within his Robes and pulls out a map, "They were headed east which mean they are either suicidal and my Tutor is dead or they found the network of Caves were Lava Mushrooms grow. There are many dew elemental they roam to the east they do not enter the caves making them a safe haven to trave or even live in." He give the map to Fulror, "It has the entrance marked." The Cobra says before looking at them in arkwards silence, "Is there more you need..?"<br> <br>Fulror looks at the map and looks around him to see those who would accompany him. He grits his teeth and thinks the information over. Cave, lava mushroom, dew elementals, coward. He shakes his head to the cobra and says "No I believe we can handle this, you stay here and treat your leaders rash." before he turns to try and follow the map, muttering under his breath.<br> <br>Rainer can't seem to hold still today, and while the snake is recounting the story he's constantly shifting his posture, leaning to one side, then the other, then straightening... Crossing his arms over his chest, letting them dangle, tucking his thumbs into the waist of his pants... He angles for a brief peek at the map, gives the cobra another wave, and falls into step behind the wolverine, starting to hum cheerfully shortly after they're underway.<br> <br>David's friendly smile turns into a frown as he listens to the story and he shakes his head as he looks to Fulror, seeing his muttering he nods in agreement, "Yeah, that seems to be the case." as his frown deepens while thinks if he can remember reading about the Lava Mushrooms<br> <br>Saibh rubs the back of her head and murmurs, "Lava mushrooms?" She then tests the pull on her bow, doing a last minute cursory work over of the heavily curved thing. She looks to the snake, then down to Angus where she leans forward and whispers something to him<br> <br>Angus stiffens at the mention of a Jackal with a strange weapon, and his grip on his weapons tighten as his eyes narrow. When Rainer walks by him he grabs his arm, and whispers something to the energetic wolf before he turns back to the Cobra. "We will take care of it, thank you for your help." Turning around he smiles at Saibh, before he starts to follow Fulror.<br> <br>The Group walks away from this serpent who just shrugs and continues about his watch, "Do not thank me for my help, My Camp leader wished for your help, he just put my name on it. The crown would be better used to pay for a new healer instead of sending others for the old one."  The group makes is far according to the may be as they are near the cave which is in the distance on the side of a large cliffside. Outside of the cave entrance is a strange little cyclone of dust and wind that doesn't seem to move  away from the entrance.<br> <br>Fulror stops a good distance from the little cyclone, having no magical talents himself he examines it from afar and turns to his peers in the group. "Assuming it can't hear us, we should discuss what to do about this." he says as he looks back at it, looking at the map again to be sure they're in the right place. He smiles to Saibh and says "I don't have any talent with wind magics, but I'm sure someone here has some idea."<br> <br>Rainer halts in his tracks the moment he's seized, turning his head toward Angus with an inquizitive lifting of brows and an "Eh?" His fuzzy, triangular ear twitches repeatedly as the todd utters into it, he turns a pointed stare on Saibh for a moment ... then nods with a bit of a shrug, quite nonchalant. "Yeah, sure." After that he goes right back to humming, serenading the group for the rest of the trek to the cave until Fulror stops them at the sight of the extremely localized weather disturbance. "I could try hitting it with my swords." he offers, nodding sagely as he adds, "Adventurer Rule #8: A sharp blade has a thousand uses and counting."<br> <br>David blinks at the whirlwind and tilts his head curiously, "Wonder what it is..." he looks ready to investigate but looks to the others for confirmation, he looks at Rainer and tilts his head in confusion, "Adventurer rule? And wouldn't the sword just pass through or be flung elsewhere?"<br> <br>Angus claps a hand on Rainers shoulder as he stares at the whirlwind. "try another rule, your sword wont do much good." Turning to Fulror he points at the thing. "It's a howling elemental, not fully developed and rather weak. I think it's a sentry that is supposed to alert whoever is in the cave if someone approaches. It won't notice us unless we get to close, or make to much noise."<br> <br>Saibh looks from the elemental to the others, then asks Angus, "You sure that's what it is? Think there's an alternate way in then? Or.. uh, if we've got someone better with air magic, we could isolate it and remove it? Though I'd think doing that would be like letting it yell anyway.." Rainer's given a look of minor disbelief.<br> <br>The Wind continues to whirl in place in the only patch of most sand for miles in any direction. The area behind the group seems to be getting foggy as a stand storms seems to be approaching them but is just a few miles off.<br> <br>Fulror looks to the storm and says "We could wait for the storm to hit and go inside under its cover." He looks to the rest of the group for ideas. "I'm not talented with air magic, that will be up to the rest of you. I'm willing to try and distract it but that would only get us caught."<br> <br>Rainer contemplates the suggestion, or the hand on his shoulder, it's kind of hard to tell which. Fulror's comment serves to alert him to the oncoming storm, and he then angles his head to regard it. In the end, all he can do is shrug. Shrug, and then draw his weapons. Shrug, draw his weapons, and then charge headlong at the little wirly thing that stands in their way. "Rule 24: don't hesitate, just -act-!" Hands up, who saw that coming. Don't be shy.<br> <br>David looks at Rainer and shakes his head as he charges the elemental. "Why'd he do that? He's going to get hurt..." he looks at the incoming storm and sighs a bit, "We should help him." as he moves to help Rainer, unless stopped<br> <br>As Rainer runs past the fox he quiet calmly lashes out at him. He sticks his foot out and when the wolf stumbles over it he brings his fist to bear, shoving into his back with a downward motion as he sits himself. "Rule number 5 of Angus: Sit down, shut up, and if you try that again Rainer I will let my sister loose on you. Do I make myself clear?" He snarls, as he was not very happy, but doesn't look down at the wolf. "We wait for cover, then we move. Eitherway we are going in blind and I don't like it."<br> <br>Saibh had drawn an arrow and was in the process of lining up the shot when the situation is handled. She eases the string and slips the arrow away. She then looks to the sandstorm and asks, "You know, I may not be so sure of silencing the elemental, but I'd think helping the Sandstorm hurry along might be doable, especially between the lot of us right?"<br> <br>The group is lead by the most skilled of the part in air math to call the sand storm close to them, as they success with only a half hour of effort they are completely incase in the whirling winds. The voices of the party is nearly cloaked by the roar of the sands but as the sand covers them a glowing set of eyes can be seeing even through thick sand only a few meters from the group as the small whirl winds is gone. The eyes are only seen for a moment before something large exits the cave and continues east. Between the noise and the sand there is little chance of being spotted. The group makes their way into the cavern and is greated with a brightly light space with bright pink mushrooms that line the walls almost as if intentionally grown as a free light source. There is a soft dripping sound further ahead.<br> <br>Fulror shakes sand from his body and grumbles a bit, making himself ready for combat as he looks about the strangely lit cave. He looks back and forth, keeping his guard up and listening to the dripping as he awaits the rest of the party. He lowly says "Are you all alright?"<br> <br>"D'hoygh!" is the highly graceful proclamation of the wolf as his feet come out from under him around the same time a fist collides with his back, and Rainer hits the dirt face-first, skidding a short distance before halting. He flips onto his back with an expression that basically screams 'what the hell, man?' before doing... all he can do, which is to heave a defeated sigh and climb to his feet. "This is why I prefer to work alone." There's amusement in his tone and a smirk on his face when he says it, suggesting he's already forgiven and forgotten. STUFF HAPPENS WITH SAND! Settling just inside the mouth of the cave, he leans against the wall and crosses his arms over his chest, eyeballing the others as they file in. "I guess that worked too."<br> <br>David eeps a bit at those eyes and dashes/gets blown into the cave with the others, he looks over the others for injuries before looking over himself, "I'm fine."<br> <br>Angus is rather happy that those eyes don't get close to them before he enters the cave. With a sigh he removes his cloak and shakes himself, grumbling considering he now had a massive amount of sand in his clothing. "I'll live." He comments, keeping his voice down as he looks at the strange mushrooms and his ears swivel towards the dripping sound.<br> <br>Saibh shakes the sand from her fur and mantle. On her way past Rainer she murmurs, "Next time I pin your foot to the floor idiot" before cautiously padding forward, keeping to the sides of the passageway and looking for such things as rudimentary tripwires since, well, she would use a tripwire just  in case to alert of problems. She's also scanning a bit deeper for any movement<br> <br>The dripping ahead to be a dead headless Coral snake from the scale markings. The leg seems to be encased unpside down in the stone of the celing. The corpse is dripping through its stump of a neck as a small pair of sand cat cubs take turns batting the head back in forth, from the dress of the corpse the victim was likely a soldier. Deeper in theres seems to a be a room with a grated floor that leads to the next door. Various bars hang a almost like tree limbs.