<div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Status</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>AC 19  (touch 15, flat-footed 14, -2 against improvised weapons)</strong>, HP 105<br/>Profane Gift (Telepathic link to Ishtar, +2 Dex)<br/><br/>Spells remaining: 7 of 7 1st, 6 of 6 2nd, 4 of 4 3rd, 1 of 1 from bonded object.  Uses of bow left: 3 of 3.<br/>Quiver: 10 common arrows, 10 silvered, 9 cold iron, 2 Tangleshot, 5 adamantine arrows, 2 greater hushing arrows, 8 +1 Dragon Bane, 1 Rayne's Resumption, 10 Holy, 3 Merciful<br/>     (pack: 25 common, 5 silvered, 9 cold iron, 1 tangleshot, 5 adamantine, 8 +1 Dragon Bane, 8 Holy arrows)<br/><br/>Dixon HP: 42<br/></div></div><br/>"Yes.  This must be pretty well-organized, though to what end, I can't imagine."  Rayne nodded at Youmu, but her mind drifted back to those moments of awareness - assuming it wasn't a hallucination.  Whoever held them wasn't in complete control, or at least, wasn't without problems of their own.  Youmu's confession that the G4's work was largely for morale, and could easily be overturned... that didn't do wonders for Rayne's morale.  She remembered the one interaction with an admin -<em>he</em>, certainly, wouldn't be above erasing everyone's progress if it amused him.  Though out of that encounter, she had gained the alliance with Ishtar, so... "It's not hopeless, I'm sure.  I don't think they are in ... perfect control.  Maybe it's wishful thinking... oh, pun not intended.  But I'm counting on slipping through some cracks in their awareness until we can get free, that's why I'm going with Sylvia today."<br/><br/><hr/><br/>"Thanks, Sylvia.  Obviously, filling him with arrows and healing was my basic plan, but this is much better.  I really ought to get a bunch of these made.  Or just some blunt ones, and take the penalty."  As always, Rae-lynne realized she had a lot to learn, but was fortunate to travel with others who were more savvy.<br/><br/>Savvy, but tired.  "Sure, of course.  I slept like ... umm, I slept well last night.  Knock yourself out, I'll keep watch."  That she could do, although as it transpired, she either failed at it, or there was nothing to be seen before her quest-partner returned, refreshed and bearing refreshments.  "Oh, nice!  Thank you, Sylvia."  Rayne munched happily, chasing it with gulps of beer and keeping her eyes scanning the treeline.  But it was the Horizon Walker who caught the flash of white in the trees - so obvious, once pointed out, that Rayne couldn't imagine how she'd missed it.<br/><br/>It was an impressive beast compared to the usual random lot that populated the forests... and she wondered how intelligent it might be - it almost seemed to make itself more apparent to accommodate her admittedly less-then-professional tracking abilities.  It followed a mostly-straight path, and broke branches or brushed against trees often enough that she had little difficulty in making out the course for the pair to follow.<br/><br/>Still be-spectacled, Rayne grinned at Sylvia's compliment.  "Oh yes... Rayne the mighty hunter.  The White Stag's taking pity on me, I think - I'm not usually much of a tracker.  I'm just good at skewering anything that falls into my path."  Even so, she puffed up a little, as she led the elf through the woods after their quarry.  She was looking up at a particularly thick tuft of white fur on a dried branch when Sylvia's whisper directed her eyes downward.  It was an obvious trail of a large group, though Rayne wouldn't have identified the source.<br/><br/>She remembered what the aftermath of such orcs looked like, in Stag's End, and whispered back.  "Ugh... though I suppose taking out a dozen orcs would be a nice bonus, a good deed on the way to the Stag."  She looked both ways along the orc-trampled route.  "Looks like they're going our way - can you tell if they passed more recently than the White Stag, or the other way around?  They... they couldn't hunt it, could they?  You said it was a different animal for each questing group.  But... NPCs, I don't know if they work with the same rules."  She picked at the fur-tuft.  "Or it could be coincidence."<br/><br/>To carry on, or camp... "I don't much like circling - who knows if the stag might change course?  We could wind up backtracking and losing all sorts of time.  Camping..." That was the choice she'd made, before entering the Blighted Wood, and it had almost done her in.  She gave a tiny shudder.  "Umm, that's no guarantee of safety, and also costs us time.  No... I'm not worried."  Not entirely true, but... "We can both see well enough in this dark, and I tend to light up the night once I start shooting arrows around.  But I think we'll have to move more quietly, and so, slowly."  She knocked a Holy arrow... it wouldn't combine with her ability to Enhance nonmagical arrows, but ought to work well against orcs.  The ones that had taken the village were evil, no doubt about that.<br/>