Shienvien — Roleplayer Guild

	Using Linux FF38.0 (to which it just updated this morning ... perhaps I should play waiting game and see whether the issue persists now). I know my main laptop definitely has been having the issue, as has the netbox (both with this site, and this site only); not entirely certain about the heavy-duty desktops, notebook, other laptop or cell. Cell actually has been set to not store cookies, so logout on closing browser is currently the expected behaviour. I could try Chrome on netbox and main laptop and see whether it still logs out every now and then, but I'd prefer not to spawn additional windows (Chrome doesn't support some addons I need on a semi-constant basis and breaks the outlay of some sites I use, so switching to it as a main is pretty much out of the question).
	Nothing in laptop/netbox browser settings (on Linux-side, anyway) that should cause such behaviour, haven't removed any site cookies manually, et cetera, et cetera. 

	(...I am definitely not going to purge my rather customised browser just to see whether reinstalling it would fix something it is extremely unlikely to fix and which only occurs on one site.) 

Aemoten

	His stay in Reniam had long exceeded several normal human lifetimes, and he was a warrior who had been through war and many a land alike. He had seen a lot in his time ... but no literal devils, or demon lords who - despite retaining all of their old manners - masqueraded as gods, as the case more accurately was with Rilon. Not before today. And that had been an experience none of them had needed or deserved. 
	He had originally woken up feeling good, only to be soon greeted with an infamous dread artefact that thirsted blood and a devilgod taking personal interest in them specifically, been attacked by recklessly fanatical birds, practically had his ribcage crushed in by a maddened drug-addicted beast, been completely healed, then forced to use a significant portion of his magical energy to defeat a lunatic who could shrug off being nearly decapitated as if it was nothing, which in turn left him with quite severe magical exhaustion. - "Magical exhaustion" felt like a strong understatement that quite did not do the the associated condition any justice. He had been coughing up blood, and he did not even know whether he would manage to stay conscious through the day. 
	...And that was just him; the woman he loved had gotten the brunt of everything, his two other humanoid companions each had their own newfound troubles, Etakar had fought something and evidently won, but not without injuries... All in all, it had not been a good day this far. He could not even recall one quite like that. Strangely enough, the most hopeless scenarios he had been in had predominantly been contrastingly mundane. Just humans and man-made weapons, nothing more. No gods. No devils.
	But in the end, the four of them were still alive, though two of the guards were not. And as long as they were alive, there was still hope. Things could get better. They eventually always did, even if it sometimes took time. Luck fluctuated. They desperately needed rest, and some of them needed to heal, but they were all alive. And they had managed to get the chance to clean themselves up as much as possible. At least they would not be marching into the city with their faces half-covered in dried blood. Even just that was ... something. And once they manage to get to the city, they would be getting their rest. That much he would make damn sure to arrange. As long as he manages to stay awake, anyway. One thing at a time...
	Things had been packed. The animals were ready. Etakar had gotten up with a tired sigh. They were as ready as they could be, though a large part of him insisted he just gave up and collapsed where he stood. No. He had draped the blue coat over Thaler's shoulders an suggested she rode with him - it would have been faster than going by foot -, but she wished to walk. It was perhaps slightly surprising, but if so, then so. He was not going to try to convince her otherwise. So be it, then. Let's go. He had already informed the others on roughly what he expected of them once he let go of Thaler's hands and turned to face the others. That was about how much he was still capable of at the time being.

	For a brief moment he continued to look at them, expression weary, but once more oddly determined. It also came along with functioning on pure willpower alone, the focused look. 
	"Let's go," he noted again, and then turned towards the animals, somewhat unsteadily making his way over to the paladin's great white horse, setting his hand on the saddle, foot in the stirrup, and pausing to take a few deep breaths. His throat was raw, his chest hurt, and it took conscious effort to suppress another coughing fit. He still tasted blood. If there was the time, he would have liked a cup of tea, and even more so rest, but there was none. 
	Even such simple thing as heaving himself up to the saddle took significant effort, and required him to pause for a bit, as his vision darkened again. He took to blindly gripping the horn of the saddle until it subsided; at least the paladin's horse was a fairly calm beast. Hopefully Jaelnec realized that a large part of why he had asked him to ride close was to have someone who could keep an eye on him. He could sleep in saddle, or at least close to it - but if he was to begin sliding off then, he would just jolt awake. If he actually passed out ... suffice to say, he would hit the ground or worse, get stuck and be dragged along. Not a very pleasant outlook. 
	It took half a minute before he slowly straightened and looked around, seeking out his companions who - with the exception of Thaler and obviously Etakar - had hopefully mounted by now. If they had not yet, he waited in silence until they did, habitually wrapping the reins around his right wrist and hand as he waited. There was not much to say. Nor was there even time to bid the guardsfolk - who all appeared to have vanished into the buildings - farewell. He did hope Alaine would suffer no repercussions for helping them.
	Just as wordlessly, he would turn around the horse and urge the animal onward. They were finally leaving this place behind. 

	The foreign warrior's posture dropped soon. He was mostly riding with his head bowed low, only occasionally seeming to force himself to look up, at the path ahead. He did not urge the horse to move any faster than a walking pace; there was no point, not with one of them going by foot. He did not think of much aside of making sure they were still headed in roughly the right direction. One thing at a time.
	Etakar was walking much more heavily than a person who had seen his normally nigh silent stalking manner or moving around would have expected. His left forelimb was stiff, partly bloodied, and while the noble beast did a good job hiding it, supporting even a small portion of his weight on it was extremely painful, and became gradually more excruciating as time passed. After half a dozen miles of trailing behind the others at the same slow pace the others were keeping he finally let out a slight annoyed sound from the back of his throat, lips ever so slightly drawing uncharacteristically back into what was either a subtle annoyed snarl or gritting one's teeth, and rose onto his two rear legs once more. A quite unnatural thing for a dekkun to do outside of climbing and some combat.
	The noble beast's manner of moving on two was strange; he was not quite running, though he was certainly moving fast. It was more akin to slightly unsteady speedwalking with oddly drawn-out strides and forward-leaning posture. With shoulders like his, it was probably impossible to not appear somewhat slouched. He covered over a mile that way in one go before dropping back to fours, and then simply waiting for his companions by the side of the road. Lying down and getting up would have been more painful, so he opted to simply stand on three until the others caught up, overlooking the path like a guardian statue.
	The next section of their journey he once more covered on fours, but no longer adjusted his speed to match that of the others - he was moving at his own pace now, ahead of his companions. Felt less arduous. From there onwards, he kept alternating between moving on two, moving on fours, and waiting for the rest of the party after each section.

	At least the weather decided to hold. It was still damp, cold and cloudy, but it was no longer pouring as it had been for a couple of days before the last day. Several rather monotonous hours passed, but monotony was perhaps a blessing after everything that had ensued that morning. Matched how they felt, though - or at the very least how he did. Drained, physically and emotionally. Really only capable of focusing on one thing at a time.
	They were, however, not going to reach Zerul City entirely without encounters as Etakar - perhaps unsurprisingly, considering his keen senses and the fact that he was mostly moving ahead - did notice something, or someone, not too far off the path, and for some reason insisted upon investigating. There was no arguing with him, and in a land where dekkuns were not a common sight, it was wiser to go along. Perhaps the noble beast knew it just as well as the foreign warrior himself ... else he would not have pointed anything out. He would have just gone and looked alone. 
	"That way," Aemoten just laconically noted as he tried to sit more upright once more and lead the horse after and next to the noble beast ... something not even this horse was too fond of. Natural instincts, he supposed. A horse would be an easy dinner for a dekkun if they were not generally capable of outrunning them on flat, hard terrain. Admittedly, they would be turning off the road, and hence it was probably harder for Thaler to move around... She still had the replacement cane he had made her as a stand-in until she got the chance to replace her sword-cane. No. She would manage. She had always done surprisingly well moving about, in spite of her blindness. Olan could probably aid her if she needed it; he himself would most likely just end up leaning on her even if he decided to unmount and offer to be her eyes, if she would even accept. "Should not be long." He hoped so, at least. 
	The noble beast seemed to lead them over what had once been a field, now covered in shrubbery, towards some taller trees in the distance. As it turned out, there was a small clearing before the larger trees began, and in that clearing lay the fresh corpse of a very dead lohk. A fair amount of its flesh was gone. 
	The downed brute was not unaccompanied, however. Under a tree nearby, a large black creature slumbered, somewhat canine in appearance, but with a mane that was intricately braided and a metal gauntlet of some kind adorning his one arm. There also were two humanoids, a man and a woman. The woman had a wolf by her side and appeared very humanlike, very fair-skinned and green-eyed, the only hint of inhuman heritage being the slightly blueish tint of her lips. The man, black-haired and with a short black beard, was much more ... distinct. His skin-color, a patchwork of green and brown stood out. (And one would think that his complexion marked him as being foreign easily enough...)
	The man seemed to have momentarily consider grabbing the crossbow or spear next to him as he stood, but evidently opted against it, and simply got to his feet as soon as he sighted them, eyes flickering from Etakar to him, them back to Etakar. Seemingly concluding that Etakar was not going to assault him head-on, he took a couple of steps forward to meet them, stopping and waiting for them to come nearer. The man had a knife in his hand - he appeared to have been carving or otherwise working on something where he sat, but appeared otherwise unarmed, if a bit uncertain on the newcomers' intentions. 

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