Darl, Gerard, Anastasia, Daniel

[Ryloc]

"Nice find." Gerard smiles. "I say we follow Daniel on in and get set up for tonight. I'll do a bit of foraging and looking around before we loose the bit of light we have left as well." Gerard turns to Zeke "Well old friend looks like we get a roof over our heads tonight and hopefully you can get some much needed rest." Gerard pats Zeke's neck.

[giggles]

Anastasia gives a glare to Daniel, "Well excuse me! It wasn't just me trying to figure out what you were trying to tell us and we got here as soon as we could when I told everone to hurry up and get it together..so instead of arguing about all this crap, lets get set up and eat and get rested up for the night. We have a long journey still ahead of us."
Anastasia begins pulling her stuff out and setting up for the evening.

[Manson-Mage]

As Daniel sets himself down he takes a good look around. Stripping off his shirt and shifting into reaper form . Once in reaper form, Daniels nightvision kicks in, he takes a more carefull look around the cave, taking in all details he can see.

[jawildey]

Now that Daniel, changed once again into the pale skinned, bat winged creature, is out of the light of the fading sun his eyes quickly adjust to the dim light of the cave. He can clearly make out a small pool of water in the back of the cave. Other than that and the aforementioned items, the cavern is bare. To Daniel, the walls seem to have almost a man made smoothness to them.

Jordan walks around the cavern, inspecting the walls. Bending down near the pile of rags Jordan runs his hand along the wall about two feet from the ground. "Looks like whoever left this old rag here spent more than a few days. Whoever it was has scratched drawings into the wall. There are still a few places that Wormwood hasn't healed over, yet."

While the others do their things, Anastasia and Ethram begin pulling packs out of the ATV and carrying them into the cave. One of the packs is the half empty food sack that Ethram brought with them. Anastasia turns her attention to laying out her bedroll for the evening.

Moments after Gerard goes foraging he comes across one of the stone-like pillars that has a hollow about four feet off the ground. Looking inside, he can see edible mosses growing on the walls. Pieces of the moss have been scraped away. The recentness of the scrapings varies from recent to almost completely grown back. There is enough harvest-able moss to feed Zeke tonight and in the morning if supplemented by some of Gerard's valuable stores of grain in his saddle bags.

Walking around the pillar he finds another hole in the pillar down next to the ground. This hole seems to be home to a colony of grubs that would make for a very nutritious dinner.

So far, Gerard hasn't found anything burnable other than the moss...and there's not enough of that to make a very good fire. He's not too surprised by this since wood is not natural on Wormwood and there is very little that's flammable to be had. Evenings on Wormwood seldom slip below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, so a fire for warmth is not necessary.

[jawildey]

Gerard gathers enough of the moss to feed Zeke and some of the grubs and heads back to the cave to show off his find.

{OOC: A note about Wormwood: grubs and such as well as mosses are normal food items for Wormwood. There are occasional other inter-dimensional animals roaming free, but they are rare. Larger cities and the church in general will have other more "exotic" foods from off-world; so, if you were all looking forward to a steak dinner, you'll have to wait for a more civilized location that may have imported animals to raise as food. If it weren't for the ability of Wormwood to provide things like food and water as it feels a need, the entire ecosystem of WormWood would likely collapse. Think of it as a desert that a godly hand has placed things needed for survival where it sees a need.}

[giggles]

Anastasia looks around at the findings but nothing really interesting looking to eat..."steak hmmm now that sounds good to me!!!"
She looks around and sees no one really notices what she said so she just thinks to herself what can be made up to feed everyone. She still looks around at their surroundings as you can never be to cautious at this point especially about the shade.

[Ryloc]

"Well I found a few things although nothing spectacular. That being said at least it's something." Gerard shows the others the lovely collection of grubs and moss. "Looks like your feasting on one of your favorites tonight Zeke good ole Wormwood moss. I wouldn't be surprised if he rolls his eyes at me one of these days as we have survived on a lot of moss and grubs in our travels."

[Manson-Mage]

"Well if u guys wanted them grubs cooked .. i might have a way to heatin them up. " Daniel says while looking down towards the fountain.

Daniel pays closer attention to the walls and surrounding area, wondering what happen to the previous visitors.

" Hey Jordan, what are those markings of there , you found?"

[jawildey]

Daniel pays closer attention to the walls and surrounding area, wondering what happen to the previous visitors. As he stairs at it in the fading light coming through the cave mouth, he notices a slight ripple to the pool as if it is being fed by a small fountain beneath the surface. The pool is large enough to resupply the water flasks and then wash up in, but too small for a proper bath.

Anastasia walks around the cave examining things again and still doesn't see anything different than what's already been found except that she notices the same ripple in the pond that Daniel was looking at.

"Hey Jordan, what are those markings over there, you found?" Daniel asks.

Jordan frowns for a second as he examines the drawings more closely. "Well, they are mostly primitive looking stick figures. The most prominent one appears to be a small person throwing something at a larger person. A rock or a knife maybe; can't tell for sure. Judging from the depth of the scratches it looks like whomever made it has gone over it enough times that the planet has mostly quit trying to heal that spot. The rest are harder to make out, but they look to be just random things like vehicles and other people. This one here" he says as he points to a spot on the wall "...could have been a gun." Jordan chuckles to himself. "Then again, it could be a feathered serpent. What do I know?"

Gerard and Zeke enter through the cave mouth after the expedition to find food. "Well I found a few things although nothing spectacular. That being said at least it's something." Gerard shows the others the lovely collection of grubs and moss. "Looks like your feasting on one of your favorites tonight Zeke, good ole Wormwood moss. I wouldn't be surprised if he rolls his eyes at me one of these days as we have survived on a lot of moss and grubs in our travels."

Zeke nuzzles Gerard's hair and ear affectionately and let's out a soft snuffling sound. His dark brown ears switch forward and back as he analyses the sounds and echoes coming from inside the cave. {OOC: unless you want me to continue inventing his look as we go along, you might want to send me a description of Zeke. Feel free to embellish the look of his tack as well.}

"Well if u guys wanted them grubs cooked .. i might have a way to heatin' them up. " Daniel says while looking down towards the fountain.

"I still have a few of the sandwiches left we had at lunch." Ethram adds helpfully. "If you can cook the grubs, it sounds like a perfectly good trail meal to me. Probably have enough left over for the morning!" He says enthusiastically.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you actually enjoy eating grubs." Jordan looks over at Ethram with a sly smile.

"They sure beat goin' hungry. Besides, all the fancy food and spices they server in the cities doesn't sit well with the stomach. That off-world stuff isn't natural. If Wormwood meant for us to eat hoofed beasts, it would have given them to us." Ehtram, with a bit of wistfulness in his voice, continues "Mmm...Mom's grub and tuber soup was the best around. She'd make a nice thick broth with boiled Tolkinien moss and then..." Abruptly trailing off he turns to Daniel. "Say, how's about cooking them grubs up. I'm making myself hungry."

[jthorson]

While the others get settled, Darl scouts the lay of the land, to try and determine how best to defend the cave should the group come under attack. Deciding that a circle of protection at the entrance of the cave might offer some manner of protection from lesser demons, he sets out to begin placing one there ... only to realize that he has nothing with which to draw it with.

"If you guys are willing to share the cost, I can leave you with a basic protection circle to help keep some of the lesser riffraff out," Darl offers. "That is, if anyone happens to have something we could use to draw it with."