"Obviously people should notice so many people going missing... but I've got a feeling that whoever was responsible for the Change already anticipated this and took steps to prevent it. Whoever they are, they must have immense resources to pull it off, which doesn't bode well for our chances. To be honest, the work that we do is as much to make ourselves feel less helpless as it is to help others... don't repeat this, but a single admin could replicate or undo all the good we've done these past weeks, with a few commands."<br/><br/><hr/><br/>"Thanks for your permission to touch your... Dix," Sylvia smirked as she petted Dixon. "Oh right, you'll need this to capture the White Stag. Just shoot it as normal and work in a bit of non-lethal damage somewhere, it doesn't have to be a lot. When its HP drops to zero it'll go unconscious due to the non-lethal damage instead of into bleedout and it'll be captured. Heck, even if it does go into bleedout, you can just cure it and then knock it out again. Otherwise, well, we'll just have to follow its tracks until we catch up with it." She opened up the trade interface with Rayne to gift three<em>merciful</em>arrows.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Merciful Arrow</div><div class="spoiler_body">Merciful arrows deal 1d6 extra non-lethal damage and convert all physical damage to non-lethal damage. Elemental damage is not affected.<br/></div></div><br/><br/><hr/><br/>"Ha ha, very funny," Sylvia yawned. "With two of us, we can alternate shifts to look out for the white stag. You just got up, right? I've been up since the last watch of the night."<br/><br/>She returned to the inn to get a much-needed nap, leaving Rayne to keep a lookout for the appearance of the White Stag. The time passed uneventfully with no sign of the mystical animal's appearance. Had it not shown up yet, or had it appeared but she had missed it? Sylvia returned at noon, bearing mugs of beer for refreshment and honey-spread slices of bread for lunch. They were eating when the elf suddenly pointed in the direction of the forest outside town. "What's that?"<br/><br/>At the edge of the treeline, a tall and regal stag, its color the pure white of freshly fallen snow, was looking at them! The moment Rayne laid eyes on it, it stamped its leg once and took off into the trees.<br/><br/>"The White Stag!" Sylvia cried out excitedly. "We're on! Let's see if we can find its tracks and follow it."<br/><br/>Rayne just barely managed to find the stag's tracks. Most prominent was a clear hoofprint in the soil where it stamped its leg, but the forest topsoil was firm enough for the rest of the prints to be faint and hard to find. Fortunately, in its haste the stag snapped low-hanging branches in its path, also leaving tufts of white hair snagged on twigs, enough for the arcane archer to follow its trail.<br/><br/>"Nice," Sylvia commented, "I guess that's one less thing I have to teach you." They followed the tracks into the forest, which led them to a game trail and meandered on a while. "Hold up, look at these," Sylvia whispered. She pointed to the ground a bit away, which was trampled flat by the passing of many booted feet. "Orcs. The forests north of Stag's End are orc territory, the warbands wander around and never stay in one place for long." The white stag's trail led in the same general direction as the orcs.<br/><br/>The sun was hanging low in the sky - the accelerated outdoors day of EHO was coming to an end. "What do you think? If you aren't afraid of running into orcs in the dark, we can press on. Or we can try to go around the long way to avoid the orcs and pick up the trail later. That, or camp here and wait for morning when the orcs are less likely to be up and about."