One absence Shela's eyes had missed on the first sweep was the wizard, Melvus. His stuff was still lying in a hidden corner, but him and his clothes were gone, spirited away by the same fog. Melvus awoke to find himself somewhere dark, and wet. It immediately dawned on him that he was underwater, and from the taste in his mouth, saltwater. There was no land within the immediate vicinity, but he could stop a bit of light above. It seemed that the surface of the water was about 10 feet overhead.

"Oscar Slow down" Cried Zam as she Chased after the sprinting Zombie, thanks to her small size she easily flew through the thick foliage of the forest when Oscar finally stopped she re-positioned herself onto his shoulder she then looked around herself and saw that they where lost "Oscar? where are we?"

Mortosh meanwhile had followed the group as they looked for the others "Where Could they Have Gone Zam?" When he got no replay he looked around for Zam "Zam?" he couldn't feel her presence "Zam Where Are You Zam?"

Dorat sighed in relief, it had seemed that his rousing speech had worked on the group of adventures! He stroked his long beard, something that he always does when he feels proud of himself. It still seemed like the people around the two were still quite weary of them, but he knew that Drazig would grow on them like he does with every person they encounter. However, there was something strange happening around these parts of the woods, people were disappearing like it was going out of style and there were almost no traces of the people that had vanished. It was most likely the use of magic, it can be very powerful in the hands of the right people, but that also includes the people that have bad intentions. So, while Dorat was deep in thought, releasing his control of the body to Drazig like he normally does, the Ogre smiled. "Yay! I have the body! Ha ha ha!" Drazig bounced around, balancing on one foot and switching to the other before getting tired of the little dance. The Ogre soon realized that the group were picking up some type of clue, and they were leaving without him! Drazig quickly catches up with only a few steps before trailing behind the group of tiny friends.

After the group arrived at the scene of the crime, which was a muddy road, the clues had run out! Oh no! Drazig looked at his partner, still in deep thought, and soon someone chimed in their two-cents in the situations. They talked with fear, or at least cowardice as leaving friends behind was something that Drazig refused to do! And if the fog ever came to Drazig! He would smash the fog until it is dead! The Ogre looked at Tobais and pounded his chest with one arm. "No! Leaving people behind is bad! I think we continue to find friends! Friends are good! That is why they are friends! Right?"

Shela

Shela groaned as she noticed another was gone from sight, this was getting ridiculous.

“Another one bites the dust,” she grumbled before looking over at the sleeping elf. “Get up!” she shouted as she kicked the bottom of the elf’s foot and rolled her eyes. “Your friends be disappearing into fog and you be sleeping? Ijit,” she sneered as she grabbed her bag and turned back to the edge of the cave walking over to it, gripping her hammer tight in her stubby fingers.

“Dun know about the rest of ye but I say we move out and get as far away from this place. Ya know, before another one goes *poof*. We trek hard we can reach next village by mid day morrow. I’d rather fall tired there than keep watch in this cursed place. What say the rest of ye?” she yelled out.

Sana

Sana groaned deeply as she began to come too, she had been going in and out of consciousness for what seemed like day and yet again it felt like mere minutes. She found herself resting on soft silken sheets in deep pillows. Sitting up quickly she pushed her hair out of her face and surveyed the rest of her surroundings. She was in some sort of large canvas tent and the sound of sick violins played in the distance. Sliding out the mass of pillow she stood up and looked down. She was not longer clothed in her archers attire. Black silk and lace skirts held against her hips and fell to her ankles, golden coins on silver strings held them around her bare waist. A billowing peasant top tied under her breasts and flowed of the same material of her skirt. Her feet bare.

“It’s good to see you awake,” a masculine voice stated as the tent flap opened and a dark haired man stepped in. She knew his clothing type as much as she did the ones that now dressed her. He was gypsy, just not of her troop.

“Who are you?” she asked as she took a step back.

“Jymsine,” he said with a flourished bow. “And you would be Sana of the Rawns, I must say the beauty of your people does not fall short of the stories,” he said with a Cheshire grin.

“Riight, and what the hell am I doing here?” she snapped.

“Ahh, fire. That is good to see,” he said as his deep ocean tinted eyes flashed cold. “You will make a fine pairing.”

“Excuse you?” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Pairing, partner, mate. How ever you wish to call it,” he said as she slid over to her and rested his hand on her shoulder. Sana smirked as she eyed him.

“Hate to break it to you, but I am already taken. Sorry,” she said confidently a she patted his cheek sarcastically with the palm of her hand.

“Nothing we can’t correct,” he said as he leaned closer. Sana pulled her head back away from him. He shrugged and turned around, walking towards the edge of the tent. “No matter, you’ll come around soon enough,” he said before disappearing behind the other side of the tent flap. Sanas eyes narrowed as she rushed over only to be greeted by two men in full golden armor, looking more like a Kings Guard than a hired hand to a gypsy troops.

“Back inside,” one of the men growled from behind his mask. Sana huffed and went back in, sinking into the pillows as she thought to herself.

“What the hell is going on?” she muttered herself.

Vaeri awoke from a dreamless sleep to find everyone gone. The fire had grown dim, the boar's ass lay bloody and neglected on the floor, belongings were left strewn about and the only one in the cave other than her was a dwarf in heavy spiked armor wielding a hammer. All this information was processed in a few instants, and without any commands from her mind, her body sprang up out of the sheets and in a defensive stance low to the ground and almost feral in nature.

"What did you do with everyone else?" Something in the back of Vaeri's head said something about the fact that she wouldn't have found herself in a situation like this if the dwarf in front of her had actually done something to the rest of the group. The rest of her mind noted that her bag was within arms reach, and she could get her axe out of it in maybe 10 seconds. 10 seconds she wouldn't have in a fight. She could feel the holy symbol against her chest, so she could still cast. There didn't appear to be anyone else to deal with. Still, she would not make any moves until she got a hostile movement from the dwarf. The spikes would pose some difficulty, but the cleric was confident she could find a way around them if she needed to.

Derrix sighed as he returned from the opposite side of the road, “nothing,” he growled as he started to make his way past the pair of girls who had led the way.

He turned to both of them, “we should reconvene in the cave and figure out our strategy and general plan to uphold.”

Without waiting for a response, he rose a hand as if about to salute over his golden gaze, but then a look of hesitation overtook his face and he simply nodded before marching off, his boots slinking in the mud with wet sounds.

"Yes, Drazig," Fiona said patiently, reasonably certain she said the correct name. "But searching right now is getting too dangerous. We can't afford to split up, with people disappearing like this. Derrix and Tobias are right; we should regroup at the cave and decide our next move." Really, Fiona just wanted to sleep. They'd been up early and ridden for a long time, passed through a storm, and now had to deal with these disappearances into the night. It wasn't the same kind of exhaustion as having survived multiple fights in a day, but she was extremely weary, all the same.

Zoe didn't really look like it, as they made their way back towards the cave together. She hummed to herself when the conversation lulled into silence, and her eyelids showed no signs of drooping. Fiona called out a few times into the woods on their way back, telling anyone still out looking to return with her to the cave. When they arrived, she immediately noticed the tension between Shela and the recently awoken Vaeri, who had missed everything that had happened, and everyone had been too busy to wake her.

"Easy, Vaeri. She's... well, not an enemy." Fiona had been about to call her a friend, but then realized that the word didn't apply in any sense yet, other than she wasn't actively hostile. "Sana's beacon attracted a few newcomers. That's Shela, this is Zoe, the swordsman there is Kazuo, and... well, there's also a corpse and an ogre. The corpse is Oscar and the ogre is Drazig and Dorat, I believe. We've had some trouble. Some people have gone missing, magically disappearing somehow."

"I like Shela's idea," Zoe chimed in, walking into the cave and taking a look around. With a flick of her hand the orb of light faded away, leaving only the fire that still burned to light the space around them. "We should go, and stick together. Maybe we'll find the poofed people on the road somewhere. Maybe we won't. Hope you don't mind me saying, but... nobody seems too broken up about this." Worried about further disappearances, sure, but there was no one frantically searching for a loved one here. As Zoe saw it, there was no reason not to move on.

"So come on, let's get packed up," she said, though she herself had no packing to do. Striding into the cave, she set her spear against a wall, and climbed quickly up to where Sana had hung the wet clothes, grabbing articles and tossing them down to the floor. "Chop, chop, no time to lose, right?"

Fiona sighed, coming down from her horse. It seemed there would be no sleep for her yet.

The Thief
Tobias rolled his eyes back at the dwarf's words and let out a mock moan. "I love it when women talk sensible to me," he said, already moving to help Fiona get their things together. He turned to address the two-headed ogre as he piled clothes together, gulping slightly at the creature's size. "Hey, ogre-guy - or guys, I guess - you any good at spooking horses?" He jerked his head over to the wagon, still in the narrow confines he had skillfully left it in. "Those ones might need a bit of a kick to get going at this hour." He stretched his back and rubbed his eyes, wincing slightly as he flexed a few of the newer scars. "You know what? I didn't even want to sleep tonight. This is fine." The thief grinned cheekily at Vaeri as he walked past her. "Morning, starshine. What are you doing up at the tender hour of shit's-fucked o'clock?"

The Corpse
Oscar addressed the voice again. "I don't know where we are. We should stay with the others, though. So we can find her." He stood stock still while the others discussed their situation. Finally, they began to move, and it became apparent to Oscar that they were trying to leave. Stiffly, without really looking, the corpse began grabbing objects that looked like they belonged to people and tossing them into the back of a wagon. He heard Tobias mention sleep, and worked the issue silently in his brain for a moment before opening his decayed mouth. "Want to sleep? I can carry you, if you want to sleep..." he trailed off, and peered into the blackness at the ogre silhouette. "Not... you, though."

Vaeri raised herself up to stand like a civilized person and looked at all the new arrivals with a skeptical eye. A dwarf covered in spikes, another dirty undead that she couldn't justify immediately chopping into little pieces, albeit one who did not bring with him a

Vaeri's train of thought came ot a screeching halt. What exactly was Zam? There was dark haired girl with magical abilities who looked about Fiona's age. Then again, Vaeri was bad at estimating human ages beyond vague terms. They aged so quickly. A scraggly, bored looking human with an odd sword and hints of elf in his facial features riding a jet black stallion and a ten foot tall two-headed ogre. All in all basically a mirror of the group that had been assembled yesterday. Vaeri sighed and gathered her stuff. Her clothes and armor were still kind of damp, so she threw her bag and armor in the wagon and laid out her shirt and cloak over the side to finish drying out.

"Good morning, Sir Tobias. I suppose I'm doing the same as you, just trying to adjust to the constantly changing conditions around me." Vaeri performed a curtsy to Tobias, using the bottom of Derrix's overly large shirt as a replacement for the more traditional dress. She climbed up to the seat where she had spent most of the day and crossed her arms. In the corner of her vision she spotted the swordsman, the one she remembered Fiona introducing as Kazuo ride up to the dwarven woman and say something to her. It was quiet enough that most humans wouldn't catch it if they weren't paying attention. Unfortunately, the ears of an elf were both a blessing and a curse.

"So are we just going to leave that ass behind?" Vaeri couldn't see, but Kazuo was pointing at the boar carcass sitting in the cave. His disgust had faded back into his hunger, but actively asking about taking others' food was still in poor taste.

Shela glanced over her shoulder towards the Elf and laughed. “Dats what ya get for sleeping through everything. I ain’t be takin’ no one from here. They went *poof*, ask Red,” Shela quipped as she stood there. As Fiona came over she nodded.

“See told ya. Some fog come a rollin’ in and poof several went. Except for that big lad the loud mouth seemed to have a thing for. He walked off with his horse of his own accord,” she said as she shifted her hammer back through the leather tie that lay at her waist, letting it swing against her thigh.

“Loud mouth gonna be aweful pissy if we see her again and he ain’t no’s where to be seen,” she smirked. “Tattoo gave me the ass but yous be more than welcome to it. Tender that piece is,” she sniggered as she trudged towards the path that led back to the road. Glancing over towards Zoe she shrugged slightly. “I gots no reason to be torn up about them people going *poof*, dun know them. Maybes someone miss them somewhere, maybe not. Dun matter, we keep moving. We find them maybe, we don’t maybe. Life on the grand adventure eh? People go *poof* by fog or steel or feet. They all be leaving at one point.”

“Come on folk, lets be moving out, gonna be a long night of walking and riding,” she said as she walked ahead of them. “I check the road and wait on ya,” she added before running down the path with her pack slung on her shoulder. “Maybe I go *poof*,” she laughed half challenging the fog to come for her.

“What is our course of action?” Derrix announced loudly, a serious look on his face as he stood elbow deep in a bag that hung off of Charroux, “by that I mean what is the actual plan? The tracks let off in the road, there are two directions on that road. We can assume the kidnapper went down the road one way as there is no tracks on the other side, but we do not know for how long or if he or she went one way or the other. “

“And you,” Derri pointed at the midget. He paused for a few seconds before closing his eyes, “nevermind.”

Where is a giant muscle bulging grammar correcting barbarian when you need one, He thought to himself as the midgets words rubbed against his ears like sandpaper to a cactus of stone.

"Well," Kazuo said, as he dismounted headed into the cave to get a piece of juicy ass,"If whatever took these people was something that could be tracked, wouldn't there be more tracks in and out of his cave. Other than ours? And wouldn't there also be some sign of a scuffle? I mean Sleeping Beauty over there was still asleep when Shela found her."

"I dunno. Seems like some magical bullshit's going on. I don't care where we go, but we should stick together, least until we're out of this forest. That way at least if somebody vanishes, we'll see who did and maybe how." By the end of his spiel, Kazuo had returned with a hunk of meat about the size of two fists pressed together. With practiced ease he gets on top of his horse again and began to cut off scraps of meat and pop them in his mouth.

Vaeri remained silent throughout Derrix's question and Kazuo's reply. She had no idea about all the details. She was just going to sit in the wagon until something was decided.

Fiona couldn't help but hope that the dwarf woman did poof. Of course, she felt quite bad about such thoughts, but Shela just rubbed her the wrong way for some reason. She knew some of the others weren't exactly her type, but the dwarf just irritated her, with the lack of any manners, forcing herself upon their company, and in general her callousness. Fiona hoped it was just due to her mood, having been up for so long, and now facing the prospect of being up even longer.

Having this other new girl toss still damp clothes on her head while she was trying to pick up her own didn't help. Grabbing her jacket and pants she fled the bombardment, tossing the jacket onto her saddle and proceeding to untie the cloth around her hips. The pants were dry enough now, so she squeezed back into them, before finding a pair of dry socks in her bags and then tugging on her still soggy boots. She looked up at the others while lacing them, having done it enough times to not need to look.

"We still have a job to do," she reminded the group. "I think we should keep going towards the next village, since we don't know which way to look. We'll keep an eye out, of course, and help if we can, but... Sana's tough, and can look out for herself. The orphans only have us to help them." It felt a bit cold to effectively turn away from those that had disappeared, but it seemed they were forced to choose between continuing with their work, or wasting even more time looking for... they didn't even know what.

"Fine by me," Zoe said, hopping down once the last of the clothes were in a nice little pile below her. "Sounds like a worthwhile job. I'm all for helping kiddos. And yeah, sticking together sounds good. No desire to get poofed here."

The Thief

Tobias hopped in the driver's seat of the wagon and directed the horses after the dwarf, his possessions slung over his back. The rain pattered on his bare back like needles, causing him to wince as it impacted a few of his scars. He'd had worse.

The wagon caught up with the dwarf shortly, and almost immediately began running his mouth, more to lighten his own mood than anything else. "So, what do you think could be doing the poofing? Vampires? Werewolves? Dragons? Demons? You think it'll teach me how to do it? Being able to poof like that would be really convenient for me, in my line of work. As, you know, an... entrepeneur. You seem like an experienced type. Ever killed a hellhound? Because I did. Fiona helped, but it was all me."


Oscar trudged silently after the wagon, taking care not to spook the horses with his presence.

Lob groaned again for the umpteenth time that day. When the shop-man told him that no one else would eat the dog meat, he chose to eat his fill and gain its power before burying the rest. Well somewhere between five to fifteen pounds of dog meat must have had its vengeance upon him for the barbarian was sick as a dog the next day. He had crawled into the back of the wagon and curled up in as small a ball as he could on his side. He had the red hounds pelt over his black bearskin now as extra protection but the cool rain felt wonderful as the rode for the most of the day.

Suddenly the rain had stopped, as had all the conversation. The silence stirred him as he looked around at the massive cave he suddenly found himself in, there was light to one end as far as an arrow flies, and to the other way it shined with a grass green light following the sounds of dripping water and bats fluttering in the dark.

Slowly, very slowly, Lob sat up and took in the scents of the area, he could find the stench of guano and decided the first thing to do was to hide his scent. First he washed himself clean in the dripping pools before handful by handful he smeared the scat into his skin to hide himself by another's nose. Next he took a few moments to return to the earth what he had taken and rid himself of the last of the dog meat from the day before.

Relieved and no longer in as much agony. The arboreal orc took himself up the wall with 'catch' in his teeth, there were plenty of handholds for the skilled climber to use as he loped his way into the darkness, relying on his infravision and his instincts to keep him safe in the cave as he passed between stalagtites like treetrunks. He found a outcropping about a hundred handholds into the cave and paused to take a new bid of his surroundings, the light from the exit now fully gone.

The green light was now being provided by glowing rocks, starstones as other tribes had called them. He took a moment to unfurl his club and brought the dragonbone smashing down on the crystal formation to knock one loose. He hoped the starstone would bring him good luck or be good for a gift to the lady with the axe when he gets back to the others.

That was something odd, he didn't smell any of the others when he had woken up, just as loud a silence as when he didn't hear them. He smelled him but that was all, he was truly alone in the cavern and that made him tread more cautiously.

Shela

Shela waited for the rest of the group to catch up, looking down the road both north and south as she pondered what was going on with all the *poofing*. Hoping that it was done with she swung up into the back of the wagon as they came up and dropped her gear in the back. Toddling to the front of the wagon behind the driver seat and gripped the top edge of the cracked wooden railing with her thick fingers. Listening to Tobias ramble on she chewed the end of her pipe and shrugged slightly.

"No, never have me killed a Hell Hound, killed a dragon though," she said as she held out the tooth that hung around her neck. Was a right ripping time with that one twas it!" she exclaimed excitedly. Green bugger, not too old, no too young. Just right like a good ale at the end of the day. Was with a group, lot like this. Me and me group was out on contract, don't right recall for who but they be wanting dragon skin. Payment was part of the skin, so I done had to tag along. Makes great armor and shields it does!"

"We tracked for months you see, dragons be hard to come by but we finally found the bugger. Twas a right tough fight. They move quick and be strong but they be smart too," she said tapping her helmet by her temple. "Fight lasted hours, we be tired but the group pushed on. Like storming a castle it was. Fire ripped here and there, charred our thief right down to a crisp! Nothing but ash he be by the time the fire died! Just standing there on him knees, even the pained expression molded into the ash! Until the dragon tail spun around and there he be done to the winds in a puff! Never forget that little trickster. Now what was his name?" she said tapping her chin a few times.

"Any ways, fight ragged on and we had to end it. Some fighter that joined us at the end picked me up and tossed me! I was livid! Never ye toss a dwarf! But he did and I landed with me legs spread right on the beasts snout looking into its eyes!" she said pointing her fingers towards her eyes. "Me arms not be long like yours so holding on, well it was like a toddler on a bull! But me managed long enough to toss one of these babies," she said tapping the large ceramic pot dangling from her side, "right into its mouth!"

"Then I be let go and man I flew to the ground like a hammer to an anvil. Just in time to, that little diddy went off and BOOM!" she screamed throwing her arms out. "Beast skull went everywhere! Picked out meat from me spikes for weeks. Only thing being left of its head was this," she said patting the tooth. "Nice little souvenir for a right ripping good time!"

Eyewing Cave

The cave kept going and slowly the sound of wings could be heard more clearly than before; laced with screams. On the ground lay hardened crystal like pools that looked to have once been a dark sap. The smelt of acid even in their dried state and would burn to the touch if anyone dared place skin to them.

Then it happened, there was a swoop and cutting through the cave was a large creature that had a single eye that size of its body with bat like wings move through the cave. From its eye dark fluid oozed and on the tips of each wing, from the fingers were long claws. It hovered there, its eye looking over Lob as it blinked. The ooze falling to the ground, instantly crystallizing.

Lob heard the screech and froze. The new sound was not the chirp of bats like before, this was different, a bad sound like the helhound that tickled his sense of danger with the acrid scent of acid that cut into his nose as surely as a thistle bur. Slowly he moved for a stalking position to strike from above.

Then he saw it at it saw him, an eye as big as him, an eye with wings. AN EYEWING! HE let out a terrifying roar, using the cave to enhance his primal scream at the top of his lungs to try and startle the thing as he threw the juggling axe at the beast. If he could take off a wing or even its enormous eye, then it should surely fall to the ground and be easy prey.

Kazuo rode beside the wagon, a blank expression on his face. Fom the looks of it, he was zoning out as a way to pass the time and letting Trombe do all the work of walking and keeping up with the rest of the group. Vaeri pulled out one of her books and poured over it in the darkness. Neither of them seemed to have listened to Shela's story.

Deep in the cave the eyewing bounced as it floated around. These creatures never slept and they never landed, something else was rumored to give them their unending stamina to stay seemingly forever in loft.

Its single eye focused on the half-orc before it, it had not seen it likes before but that was not unusual. Very few ever appeared in the cave and when they did it was usually some unlucky human that a fog had rolled in and dropped of. Almost like a proverbial sacrifice. Whether that was or was not the fogs intentions remained to be seen but there it was. Another to kill for sport.

The axe came quickly and the eyewing, even though ever watching, did not have time to move far enough out of the way. The blade tearing through the third and forth skin on the right wing; causing the creature to spin in the air and lose its grace. It flapped hard to stay in the air and shot an acidity ooze towards Lob, it missed, hitting a stalagtite next to him and hardening on contact.

Derrix looked over at Charroux, and the horse looked back, both their eyes seemed weary, but not of exhaustion. With a shrug Derrix climbed onto the horse and leaned forward on the saddle as they followed the wagon, trailing slightly behind.

Derrix's marred lips quietly mouthed words as he leaned forward, the ears of the horse twitching from the wisp of his breath escaping the words. A soft whinny shook the horses head and Derrix fell back into his seat, a small smile on his face.