Solo A Repeated Day Part V

[Moritz Craven]

10 Fall 522 - 5th

For once on this odd repeating day, Moritz had not died. One moment he was sleeping, back with the caravan recuperating... And the next moment, he was waking up the same as the prior iterations, with Axle slamming down atop him. Today though he was much calmer, and yet also in much more of a rush. He knew what he needed to do, and all of the things needing to get done to make that happen. Now he just needed to do them one by one, like following a somewhat vague script.

First things first he explained to Axle he needed to find the leader of the caravan, who Axle casually referred to as Jep. Once more Moritz remembered he had never actually gotten the mans name... Or perhaps he had and had then forgotten, he was unsure which since he could not remember if he had forgotten...

Rushing out with the child in tow Moritz pulled the man aside, repeating his words from the day before. Just as before the man seemed unsure, though not outright saying he was lying... More like wondering if he was crazy or not... In the end Moritz recalled the words the man had given him the day before, using them as planned.

"I understand its hard to believe. But my visions, it is like living the same day again, with my actions changing what happens... On a prior version of the day, I asked you for a phrase, something secret you would understand. I don't know what it means, but on the prior version of the day I saw in my vision, you said to say... Violet Chrysanthemum on Christina's grave... I don't know what it means, but you seemed sure you would know it."

The man, Jep, was clearly shocked by the words. His eyes bugging in surprise he began to speak, not making much sense though. After muttering and saying some random things he seemed to finally calm down, which Moritz realized was the first time he had ever seen the man become perturbed. Once he seemed to process he did speak again, eyeing Moritz. "I don't know if your lying, a spy, or what, but I suppose stranger things have happened... But even if you know about... Well, whatever. What are you wanting? You have said what has happened in your vision, but what do you want? Then I will decide what to give you or not."

Nodding along Moritz recalled the mans words on the prior iteration, and found them quite similar. He was not prone to accepting things blindly, and was still cautious, but was not going to completely ignore things.

"Right so... I suppose my plan is simple. If we do nothing, the caravan will be attacked as I mentioned later this day, before sundown. However... On the last vision, I tracked the archers back to their base camp, and found it. So my plan is simply to go there and deal with them before they have a chance to attack us. To ambush the ambushers. Of course, I can only do so much alone, so if possible I would like help, some people to come along and fight. If nothing else we will distract them and take out a few men. If things go well we will stop the attack entirely."

Listening to his words, Jep seemed to consider them, before finally coming to a decision. "Fine, nothing you have said seems to be a lie... And I don't see what point there would be in lying, I mean you could have just left us to be ambushed... Of course maybe you are in league with the bandits, and planning to draw us off, to make our defenses weaker... That being said, I will only send a few men with you. And just to be clear, if it turns out you are with the bandits or slavers or whatever, they'll make sure you die first. Now, give me some time, to gather some people and equip them and explain things to them. You can leave once they are ready. Three men, thats all you will get."

Nodding Moritz agreed, considering what he knew.

"If possible I would like Anders to come. Other than that, whoever you think would be good at the task. Stealth though is a must. If we face them head on, our plan will fail. We need to hit them by stealth before they can prepare, or else the tactic will fail."

With that said Moritz set off, having some preparions to make of his own... Namely looking for Axle, and pulling Run along with them off to the side where he could try one last time to initiate him...

WC: 787

[Moritz Craven]

Once Moritz had found a nice quiet place with Axle and Run where he could do his work, he sat down with the dog up close. This time he did not dive right into the business of initiation, trying to instead make the dog more comfortable with him. He began by scratching it on the head and side, moving to the ears, and watching to see how he responded. He did seem to be well trained, but did not seem to be doing overly much in response... Finally he tried to move to the belly a bit, along the sides, but he felt that was probably enough for a dog he was from its perspective just meeting for the first time.

Pulling it in close he set his arms around its neck, so that he could control its gaze instead of relying on Axle. Then with a willing of his djed he activated his Iraso sight.

This time instead of picturing a wave or surge, he willed the djed in his eyes to slowly build and then to release as a slow and steady stream bonding the two. Rather than a unruly uncontrolled wave, he made one measured grouping which was concise both in terms of size and density... Mainly though he tried to control his djed finely, picturing it like he was threading a needle and then carrying that across.

The first time he had failed because he had kept the djed crossing too long. The next time it had been unstable, because his djed clearly had not come across consistently. So now he wanted to both stop at the right time, while also keeping his djed steady and consistent to avoid that problem. In theory, he believed, that should resolve things and end in success... Assuming, he admitted to himself, he had not missed something else.

Finally ready and having he felt properly visualized all aspects of things and the djed and his goals with it, he finally began willing his djed to emit from his eyes into Run's... A slow stream pushing across the void between them, ending at the dogs eyes and pouring through it. And on its way, subtly changing and shifting the eyes djed until it was that of an Iraso's...

He did not rush, not going too fast nor too slow, going he was attempting at just the right speed.

Feeling a bit of sweat down his brow Moritz kept at it, avoiding blinking and focusing on the task at hand. And then he felt it, the threshold, the point of saturation. If nothing else it had taken much longer to reach that point than the prior times... But then Moritz reasoned that such was a good thing if his theory on why his other attempts had failed was correct.

Willing the djed flow to stop Moritz pictured the excess just stopping and retracting, being pulled back into his eyes, feeling it settle. As he did once more there was that moment of sparking, of a path between them and of Axle growing excited, before the djed stopped.

Letting out a sigh Moritz wiped his face to clear off the sweat, peering into Run's eyes deeply to try and find out how things had gone. In the end though he was left unsure, From what he could tell things had gone well, seeing as Run's eyes seemed to have changed correctly to show the markings of an Iraso, while the dog also seemed to be acting normally and calmly. As far as he could tell things had gone well.

With that done all that was left for Moritz to do was to stow his things like last time, and then head off with the others who would be joining his venture. Namely Anders, and two others he did not know.

WC: 637

[Moritz Craven]

Once Moritz had gotten rid of everything he could not store in his Okomo form, and once the others were ready, Moritz headed off with the group down the road. Since the only path Moritz knew to get there was a specific one, it meant heading directly to the spot where the ambush happened. At that point Moritz, he believed, could lead them along the wilds to through the path leading to the camp of the attackers.

For that, and since they would be moving at speed, Moritz shifted to his Okomo form and led the way along the road. If nothing else he was able to keep up with the others as they moved at a good clip.

Along with him was Anders, wearing a few blades along with his bow and arrows which he was quite skilled in. He also had the newly initiated Run along, who was well trained and quiet as usual. There was also a man named Zach who Moritz had vaguely seen, which Anders had said was good in a fight. He seemed to have a few blades on his person, but mainly had a large axe across his back. Lastly was a tall woman named Meg who gave even Moritz height a run for his Mizas. Oddly though she seemed quiet, and when Moritz was not looking directly at her he often had trouble keeping track of where she was. She seemed to move with a grace even the practiced Anders could not manage, and seemed to have a fair number of knives and daggers secreted across he body as best Moritz could tell. All of them were short blades, none really long full length swords, but mostly were daggers and knives. What she did he did not know, but apparently she was the wife of the caravan's leader.

The small group was technically being led by Moritz, since he knew where to go, but practically Anders was in charge and was calling the shots. Being a hunter he was used to working in groups and making decisions. Not on the scale of the caravan leader... Jep? Jeb? Something like that, but Moritz had trouble remembering what his name had been exactly... Regardless while Anders was not used to leading on a large scale he was skilled in smaller numbers.

Nothing of importance happened until Moritz saw the now familiar shrubbery where the archers had hidden. Leading the group along the side and over he took them there, pausing for a bit to look around. At the moment there did not seem to be any signs of anyone being near, but still it was good to be cautious. Activating his Iraso sight Moritz looked around, seeing a few trails, but not anywhere near the numbers earlier. A few seemed to go in the general direction of the bandits camp, so Moritz reasoned those were scouts visiting to scope out the attack sight and where they would hide for the ambush.

Eyeing Anders Moritz made a nodding motion, motioning then with his face towards the woods. Anders seemed to understand, nodded in reply. "Good, we will follow. But we will leave a bit of distance. You aren't exactly the most... Unobtrusive thing around Moritz. A giant fluffy colorful goat thing with giant horns tromping through the woods, your going to attract attention. If we run into anyone just keep it cool, they'll probably think your some weird wild beast, and while you keep them busy we will sneak around. Oh and as you were told before, if it turns out this is a trap you won't leave these woods alive."

Moritz nodded again, turning and heading into the woods. Then he focused his eyes, looking for landmarks, and beginning to follow them one by one along the route from his prior iteration of the day.

WC: 641

[Moritz Craven]

Now that they were off the road and more or less going through the wilds, the groups traveling speed was greatly reduced. Still seeing as Moritz knew and exact route to take and was not wasting any time trying to find a path, more or less going a known route, it was not so slow as it would be forging a new path through the wilds.

Moritz for his part kept moving, keeping focused on his task and pretending like the people behind him were not there. All he focused on was the next landmark, the order of things, and keeping moving. It was still pretty early in the day, but if they were too slow it would be too late. The camp would be up and preparing to set off. They needed to get there quick enough to avoid that, and to hopefully catch them off guard.

After that the trip was quite quiet as Moritz and the others moved along silently. Eventually though it did become more interesting as they ran into a few people. Focused on his task as he was it took Moritz a bit longer to notice the others going in the other direction on the path. In the end they saw him at about the same time he saw them, and both froze. However once more Moritz played the act of a dumb animal, and kept his distance while moving about around them. If they neared him he would move a bit farther away, but otherwise did not act much.

Eyeing them he paused and cropped a bit of grass, stopping only as the two men began moving at him. Eventually they got annoyed and seemed to think he was just some animal, and began talking quietly. But being so close Moritz could hear them quite clearly. It also did not help that they were not truly that quiet, seeing as they were having an argument in the woods and assumed no one else was around. "Just kill the thing. What, and risk it attacking us! No, just leave it for the others. What, but its rare, its got to be worth something, I've never seen one before! Yeah but we are just scouts, we are just supposed to go check the site, and return with confirmation to go. Yeah, but it won't take long, lets just grab him and bring him back to camp..."

The two continued arguing for awhile, going back and forth. And over the course of their words they made it clear enough what they were their for. Moritz hoped the others were close by and listening as he hoped this would confirm things. When they finally seemed ready to act and agreed to head off Moritz moved in their way, forcing them to stop and eye him. A moment later, before they had a chance to react, a arrow came flying in and struck one man in the neck. He fell instantly, while the other began to draw out a blade. Moritz moved back to get away, as the angry remaining man came at him. But then as if stepping out from behind a tree she had been hiding behind the woman Meg appeared and run up behind the man. Grabbing him with one arm while placing a blade at his neck hard enough to draw a bit of blood, the man froze in his tracks.

After that the woman began whispering in his ear, talking quietly with the man, while Ander and Zach walked up calmly. Restraining the remaining man and checking the other for anyhing of interest Meg continued her talking, possibly an interrogation. In the end though she seemed satisfied, and sunk the blade into the mans neck while drawing it across. With a blank look in her eyes like she was opening a letter the woman stared at Moritz, before turning to Anders. "As best I can tell he is telling the truth. They were scouts. Which means there is a camp full of men about ready to come attack us."

WC: 676

[Moritz Craven]

From what they had learned, it seemed the scouts were meant to return and tell the rest to head out. Which, Moritz and the others reasoned, meant that they would not leave until they got back. Having run into them between the ambush site and the camp though they still had time. Of course, should the time pass where they should have gotten there and come back and Moritz and his group had not done anything, they would likely figure out something had gone wrong.

This however gave them a window. A window before anyone figured out they had been alerted to the bandits presence and their incoming ambush. If they could deal with them before then, then reasonably they would still be unprepared and vulnerable to an ambush of their own. Before they headed off Moritz listened as Anders spoke, explaining his idea for the attack. "All right Moritz it is. We will keep it simple, but simple does not mean bad. When we give the signal, and after waiting a bit for us to get into position, you will come at them from the front, where they are expecting an attack. Just go in slow, not in a rush, and draw their attention, which should pull in any guards. While you do that we will come at them from behind, and take out as many as we can of those not on duty. Those sleeping, or resting, or not ready for a fight. If we give a signal, you should attack, otherwise just keep them busy while we deal with the others."

Moritz in his Okomo form nodded in response, not overly upset that his role today seemed to be simply as a guide and a distraction. But, he admitted to himself, with his lacking abilities and stealth that was all he was really suited for. Plus he literally could not complain, being in his Okomo form. Instead he resolved himself to help out as he could, and to go along with the plan.

Once that was decided upon Moritz and the others set off, with the rest trailing a bit behind. Nothing else of interest happened for awhile, at least not until they neared the camp. They heard it before the saw it, but soon enough they arrived nearby... Once they did Anders signaled for Moritz to stop, and after ordering him to count to 5 chimes and then head in, the others headed off in a loop around the camp.

Silently Moritz counted, keeping an eye on the camp. It was not long before the others vanished from his sight, which left Moritz just to silently count... One minute... Two... Three... And finally, five minutes. With that Moritz began to move again, heading deeper into the woods towards the encampment of the bandits and slavers and all manner of ill begotten people. Doing his best to act as a normal animal Moritz simply wandered as if he had no goal in mind. Soon enough though a few of the guards noticed him, and let out a yell. A moment later two men came running over, stopping short of him.

As he had seen Okomo do, Moritz simply peered at the men with a look of disdain, ignoring them. Quietly he cropped at the grass. Meanwhile he listened to the men talking... "No, we should capture him! He's got to be worth tons. Go get Tan, he deals with the chains and stuff, he knows how to capture people, surely he can get an overgrown goat!"

Shortly after one of the men ran off, which Moritz noticed but avoided responding to. As he did he glanced about, trying to keep casual, but he did not see any motion or signs of the others. All he could do was wait, moving a bit off to crop on some other grass with a slightly different view, while waiting. He did not have to wait long until the other guard came back, this time with a big burly main equipped with ropes and manacles and things for bondage.

WC: 678

[Moritz Craven]

While the trio of men focused on Moritz, several others got up and began looking from afar, but most of the men were uninterested and soon went back to what they were doing. Working, laying in tents, playing games, or otherwise wasting time.

A few people in bondage moved around, the same people Moritz had seen the time he visited prior, but there were only a few. It seemed the rest were gone, sold or killed off in prior raids. Almost all were woman, the few men he assumed had already been sold or killed. Perhaps they had been craftsman, since any skilled fighter would have likely died in the attack...

The trio close to him focused intently, moving out to spread. Moritz for his part moved slowly away, no sudden moves or jerks for fear of setting them off, instead slowly drawing them away from the camp. He avoided as best he could being surrounded, but he knew that the more time he spent drawing them away meant the more time they would not be investigating his compatriots and their attack. If they could slink in without being seen or otherwise detected... Then who knew how far they would get before being found.

It meant Moritz role in the attack would be less and less, but in the end the victory was all that mattered, not his own personal glory. Finally though, Moritz did get his sign. As he was pulling them a bit further away he heard a yell, and saw as an entire tent caved in on itself. Perhaps someone had fallen and knocked it over as they were attacked? Moritz was unsure, but he felt he had given the others a good amount of time. Seeing the tent fall the trio after him tensed and turned back, seeing what was going on. A moment later Zach came out of the tent, swinging his axe and landing it in a passing bandits throat. By then everyone knew what was up, and Zach let out a loud roar of a yell.

As the trio after him turned and began to move back towards the camp Moritz leapt into action. Starting with the man with ropes and manacles Moritz tackled him from behind with his horns. This sent the man flying and he crashed into a tree, landing in a heap and not getting up. His body had struck quite hard, and something or other was clearly broken as he looked not quite... Straight...

The other two, the guards, sensing danger turned, Moritz however was able to spin and smash one in the side and knocked him flying before he could prepare himself.

The last man, holding a spear to keep Moritz at bay, began to move about, keeping his eyes on Moritz. Moritz for his part moved about, using his horns as both a weapon and defense. Suddenly letting out a loud baying "Aaaaah" he surprised the man, and dove in. Bringing his horns up he knocked the spears head upward, managing to come in underneath and smashing the man in the chest. This likewise sent him flying, but Moritz kept moving forward and trampled right over the man. Then checking on the other guard who was slowly rising Moritz returned and gave him another head butt at speed, running him clean over. He was unsure if it was the headbutt or trampling, but that man did not rise either.

Done with his trio Moritz returned to the camp, but it seemed the others were done. Meg stood off to the side, helping free some of the captured woman, while Anders and Zach moved about, checking to make sure none of the bandits were playing dead, and to take inventory of what all and who all was there.

In the end Moritz role was more of an indirect one, but all the same he felt it had been an important one. Now he could head back to the caravan with the survivors, and rest easily... Though he was left to wonder if the day would repeat again. He felt today was about as close to perfect as he could get, only taking five tries... But if he had to, he would try to improve things again.

WC: 708

[Moritz Craven]

Having resolved things in the camp, Moritz and the group prepared to head back to the road. After they made sure all of the bandits were in fact dead, they freed all of the captured slaves. There were not too many left, but enough that they would need to work on getting them back. For now the plan as Anders told it was to meet up with the caravan. Then they would bring them along to Zeltiva. Once there they could see about getting them back to where they belonged, but in the meantime they were better off with them.

It was that, after all, or abandoning them in the middle of the wilds between two cities, which was basically a death sentence for those not prepared.

There was also a few goods here and there. Food and drink and the like, though those supplies were limited. Clearly the camp was planning to replenish by raiding a group of a caravan, and so did not have much left. Oddly enough there was also quite a bit of knitted wool, likely leftover from sound prior caravan. They would take what they could, but their priority was the slaves that had been freed, and so they headed back to the road.

Moritz for his part helped out by carrying two of the slaves. Most of them were adult woman, but there was also two young teen girls. These were easily able to be carried by Moritz without any other burden, and it was mutually agreed that he would give them a ride to spare them the walk. Not having a saddle he did his best to give them a good berth, not going too fast or turning or tilting too much in an attempt to both give them an easy ride and also to keep them safe. Still one of the freed woman walked along with them, the mother of one of the teens. The other girl was not bereft of family, all dead or sold off already.

As they walked along Moritz listened as the others spoke, explaining what had happened. From what he heard it did not seem the bandits were big on innovating. They attacked in ambushes each time, lying in wait with archers only to sweep in with melee fighters. While they would switch up the location to avoid being found or hunted down by the knights, they otherwise kept up the same plan. He supposed in some way that made sense. If it worked, why change it? And besides recruiting new men to replace those they lost in their dangerous work, they did not visit cities too often. Instead they met up with other pure slaving groups and middlemen to offload cargo and slaves as fast as they could. In exchange they got money, food, supplies, and other necessities.

For a bit Moritz wondered if one of those they had freed might be a spy, laid as a trap... But no, he reasoned, that was too deep. These slavers and bandits were not deep, and would not plan for their random camp deep in the wilds to be found. That was perhaps being too suspicious. Perhaps if they thought they would be caught they would, but seeing as there was no expectation of a random Iraso time traveling or seeing the future in visions and reliving a day over and over, only to track down their camp... Well, such things were a bit silly normally to prepare for. And besides, Moritz reasoned, how would one even go about preparing for someone who could do that? If they did not remember then they could not defend against such a thing, only able to react to the current actions and like the others in his time here not recalling any details. For them each day was truly new, it was only for Moritz the traveler or one seeing visions that the day was repeated.

How that worked was still lost on him, but in the end he reasoned it did not totally matter. He did his best, and ended today as best he could. And for him, the experiences and things, each was real. Each day had really happened. What the truth was did not really matter, as he would do his best regardless of which or what it was, even if it was some other far off thing.

Thinking of such things their group did eventually make it back to the road. Anders had thought to leave a marker by the side, and as it was not disturbed they knew the caravan had not passed. With that in mind Moritz and the others headed back the way they had come.

It did not take too long to meet up with the rest of the caravan, barely a bell, before they met up. Once there there was many raised voices, as each looked about. The girls were taken off his back, and taken in by some older woman who wanted to care for them. At that point it was out of Moritz hands, and he simply changed back to his human form and helped as asked, otherwise he just watched and saw how all of their problems would be fixed as best they could... And eventually night would come, and another day would end.

WC: 885

[Moritz Craven]

Grade Award!

Name: Moritz Craven
XP Award:
Acting 2
Animal Husbandry 1
Investigation 3
Land Navigation 2
Leadership 1
Logic 1
Negotiation 1
Pathfinding 2
Persuasion 1
Philosophy 1
Rhetoric 1
Storytelling 2
Subterfuge 3
Tactics 1
Unarmed Combat 2
Wilderness Survival 1

Lores:
Negotiation: Using secrets to negotiate from a place of power
Pathfinding: Initiation requires both the right amount and concentration of djed
Prepwork important for initiations
Pathfinding: Successfully initiating a dog
Subterfuge: Acting as a decoy for an ambush

Penalties & Awards: N/A

Notes: N/A