Holly takes a walk, far enough away from the buildings that no-one can overhear them. Sitting down on the ground, ignoring the chill that stills exists there and looks up at Sunna, "I am afraid it is bad news. My colleagues have informed me that three armies are now on the march, thankfully we don't believe through Triplefang lands, but they will sweep all before them. There is nothing that can be done to stop them, which is why I need to try and convince the Elders to get out of their way if they do move through our lands. That is not going to be easy, although I have already called upon the church of Pelor for aid in passing on the message to those around us. The main threat seems to be to the lands to the east, and for that I must say I am slightly grateful. The undead threat we tried to slow down, and the goblins are moving up the east. The third threat might be anywhere, as no news has arrived yet." Holly takes a deep breath, wondering how much more bad news she needs to tell.

"We need to follow them. We need to find out why they travel north, and find out what is going on. There is a suspicion they are working together, in which case their may be more behind this than we thought."

"I need your help in convincing the Elders to stand aside if it comes to battle. I also need you to come with me and our little band to find out what is going on. It might mean a trip to see the dwarves, but may take us well outside the clan lands. As names in the Tome of Legends, I believe we can do that, and get back. Will you join me?"

"I have been told that the armies on the move are capable of destroying anything in their path. I haven't seen them, so can't comment, but my sources were confident they would sweep anything except one of the other two. I would have thought they'd want to keep their forces together until they get to the World Tree. I am no tactician, but that is what I would do." Holly doesn't like the idea of letting them simply walk into the vicinity of the World Tree, but she can't see anyway of stopping them.

"Do you know of anyone who has visited Yggdrasil?"

Adiel shivers slightly at the power of the name. Yggdrasil! The World Tree itself. He nods his agreement, without thinking. If they could make it there... well, anything would be possible!


"Well, the most famous person to travel to the World Tree was Elhonna." he smiles broadly. "It is said that she became a goddess there."

He sits in silence for a moment, letting that sink in. He then begins speaking smoothly and rhythmically, a memorized tale. "Yggdrasil. The oldest story of all. Before the beginning of this world, this plane, there was Yggdrasil. Ancient and unchanging, it birthed every plane that is, and every plane that ever was." Adiel takes a breath, his mouth solemn, his eyes excited. "The spirit realm, the land of the gods, this physical world, and many others, all spring from the World Tree. It is older than all of existence."

"Those who journey there may accomplish incredible things. Every plane, every world, has a manifestation of the World Tree. In our world, it is at the northernmost point, beyond the land of giants. If the world ends, it is said that it will be at the Tree, and a new world will be born from the ashes."

Adiel pauses for effect, his story over. "Needless to say, three armies headed for the tree is concerning. What do they know that we don't? I do know that going by sea will be impossible, but... other ways might not be."

Sunna listens to Adiel and nodsto his words. "It might be coincidence, but we have three armies going there and the Tree is said to feed off three wells. Maybe they want to do something to the wells, destroy the Tree. But we have to get there to find out."

"You really know a way to get there?"

"I would suspect they want to corrupt the Tree and the worlds. They could do that from the wells, and the Tree itself will change the worlds to their whim. Not a pleasant prospect for us, or anyone else." Holly listens to Adiel and Sunna for a while, letting her mind digest the information both are passing on. Some of it adds to Holly's own understanding and the teachings from other Druids, some is confirmation of her own thinking.

Sunna nods. "It would be interesting to know if the three armies have a common plan and possibly a common leader - or if it is possible to divide them somehow, make them go after each others throats. But I'm thinking too far ahead. First we have to get there. And fetch Mord before that."

"Moonlight will get him back to Volge, which is where I think we should be heading as soon as Adiel has finished any business in town. There is no rush Adiel, as I expect Mord to take a couple of days getting back. After complaining to Moonlight all the way back about running away from a good fight!" Holly smiles, imagining perhaps the conversation Mord would be having about the injustice of following Moonlight back to VOlge without a word of explanation.

Adiel nods. "I'd also like to talk with Reynard about this, before we go."

Sunna chuckles at the comment about Mord complaining all the way.

"That's a good idea", Sunna says to Adiel. Reynard is always interesting to talk to and he knows so many things.

"Well, he sent you a new friend, so perhaps we should swing by his little cottage on the way back to Volge. We might even catch up with Mord as well." Holly says, considering that the trip would likely prove useful.

First some timeline talk.  It's about 90 miles from Volge to Crim.  Unencumbered as he is, Moonlight could make the trip in two days under optimal weather conditions.  Late winter/ early spring snow and melt is less than optimal, so we have to allow at least another day, so on day 3 Moonlight will arrive in Crim.  It took Holly, Sunna, and Ragnar a long hard full day and change ride to make it to Silvergate in one day.  Thankfully, they had a mostly clear road to travel.  They met up with Adiel around noon on day 2.

Silvergate to Crim is longer than Volge to Crim and your horses will have normal encumbrance so it'll take you about 7 days to ride down there.  If Moonlight and Holly are on the same wavelength you'll probably run into Mord making his way back to Volge on the way.  Worst case (and unlikely) scenario, Mord will arrive in Volge about the time the rest of you arrive in Crim.

Is that the plan?

If we meet Mord on the way or afterwards just means a little longer for him to wait to join us. I think it might be a good idea to visit our friend Reynard, in case he can help.

OK then.  There's still plenty of daylight left, and it's a long ride, so you decide to leave ASAP.  You stop by Elder Eloy's to arrange food and water supplies for the journey and head out.  You're on the road to Volge for a while until you clear the forest.  Once you make it out to clear grasslands you turn southeast and ride through the wet, shallow snow.  Ragnar points out a relatively dry and clear hill on which to make camp for the night.

Sunna nods to Ragnar. "Looks like a nice place." She helps with building up camp as usual.

"So, Mord the Mighty is with you, usually?" Ragnar asks, after a while of silent working.

"I think Holly knows him best, as she traveled with him before I met her. Though I do know some of the stories that are told."

It's not the most pleasant weather for travel.  The terrain alternates between slippery snow and deep, wet mud.  There's a cold, light sleet shower on the second morning, but otherwise the skies are clear.

You had expected to meet up with Mord around day 3 of your trip to Crim, but to your surprise Moonlight has Sunna's sister with him instead.

In reply to Sunna (msg # 39):

"Mord the Mighty! I think you and Mord will get along fine Ragnar. I've known Mord for a number of years, since I arived in Volge as a young girl really. My cousin enjoys a little fight now and again, and our little adventures seem to provide him enough chances to show off his skills, so usually he is with us. He wanted to keep his axe sharp over the winter, so he has been fighting the goblins to the south. I have sent a messenger to ask him to come back. Hopefully he has grown bored with that little warm up and will join us at Volge." Holly had quickly accepted Ragnar, as the man was already proving useful. Talking about Mord was something else Holly was content to do, but hoped she didn't bore Ragnar and the others with tales of some of their early adventures in Volge.

Ragnar enjoys listening to the stories of Hollyand Mord. Even when Sunna chimes in here and there to "correct" one of them to the version that is now going around in the barracks, usually involving more goblins, more blood and more head-crushing.

"Ros? What are you doing here?" Sunna looks clearly confused and not very pleased to see her sister right now. "Did Mord sent you?"

Ros herself looks quite pleased with the situation. "No, I sent myself", she answers with a grin, "I thought I might get to join the fun, too."

Sunna frowns and is about to say something when Ros quickly and, almost apologetically, adds: "No, really, it was my idea, but I know where to fetch Mord if need be. See, there's this huge golin army up east and Tora wants to get to it quickly, find out what they're doing."

"Oh, Adiel, I think Tora wants you to join her, too. She said something about needing you and a lot of archers."

"Anyway, Mord did not want to follow Moonlight because there were goblins to be smashed. Less talking, more fighting, you know him. So I volunteered to come here. I know where he's headed and if there are things to be fought I think it won't be a problem to get him here fast."

"Damn him to the hells! We need to stop Tora and the others. If they take on the goblins they will lose, and we will have lost Mord." Holly says on hearing that Mord has ignored Moonlight and stayed to fight. The damning could have been meant for Tora, the other clansmen and women or Mord. For her it was meant for Mord. Holly hoped Moonlight was making his life a little miserable whilst he ignored Holly's call.

"Ros, thank you for coming here and finding us." Holly says, trying to stay calm when she knew she might be losing several cousins if they didn't act fast. "The horde they have spotted is bigger than they think, and if Mord goes rushing in the others will follow him. We need to stop him, so Tora can take the details of the size of the army into account."

"Ros, how far away is Mord, Tora and the others? If we leave immediately can we get to them before Mord can get into a fight? If we can't make it, we will lose more than just an army. We lose a chance to stop whatever is going on in the world."

Ros blinks several times in surprise. "Even bigger than what Tora said? 10 goblins to one Triplefang, reserves already counted in."

"Let me think a moment. They went east the day Moonlight arrived..."

Ros tries to make a rough estimate on how far away Mord currently is.

"What's going on in the world? Isn't that army of thousends of goblins enough? What else is going on? I don't mind talking on the way..."


OoC: the player is currently a bit at a loss as to where exactly Mord might be... and bad at math, too

Adiel looks worried. "That... is troubling. I wonder what Tora has in mind. She's clever, but those odds... that's a challenge, even for her."

"Do you think we still have time to visit our... unusual friend? His knowledge could save lives, too."

Here's the game map of Triplefang (and some Ferisedan) lands:

http://triplefang.yoyo-pete.co...hp?id=map.triplefang


and a timeline to help ward off confusion.

Day 1 - Sunna, , Holly, and Ragnar ride hard to Silvergate.
        Moonlight leaves Volge bound for Crim.
Day 2 - Party meets up with Adiel around noon.  Party leaves for Crim.
Day 3 - Moonlight arrives in Crim before sundown.  Ros and Moonlight head north.
Day 4 - Tora's warband (including Mord) head east on foot at dawn traveling light. (covering about 12 miles per day due to bad terrain)
Day 6 - Party meets up with Ros and Moonlight in central southern Triplefang lands.  ETA at Crim Day 8 (4 days behind Tora's warband)

On horseback with the cart and equipment the party is traveling 15 mile per day, so you'll only be making up 3 miles a day assuming you know where to go.  You'll need to find a faster way to catch up with Tora's warband.

One note: I screwed up and forgot to calculate bad terrain (snow and mud) for Moonlight, so he got to Crim much faster than he should've.  My bad.  Only helps the party and the plot, so I won't recon it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:28, Wed 22 Nov 2017.

"Hm, it's not as easy as I thought", Ros says, drawing some lines into the dirt. "See, they are going there and we are here and with the cart..." She trails off and frowns.

"If one of us was able to fly..." Sunna muses, "or to send a bird with a message.

Holly looked slowly over to Sunna, again wondering whether her cousin could read her mind. "Cousin, you had the same thoughts as me. I cannot allow Tora and Mord to die needlessly, when there will be a better time to let them potentially sacrifice themselves for the greater good. First thing in the morning Moonlight and myself will make off. I think that you all should get back to finding Reynard and then back to Volge. We will meet you there, either with or without Mord."

"Ros, thank you for finding your way to us. You might have just saved many lives. Thank you." Holly said with honesty. Without her information Holly might have lost her cousins in a worthless fight against an enemy not intending to stop moving north.

"We sleep and I leave in the morning. I will need all the rest I can get as Moonlight and myself will not be stopping once we start. Sunna and Adiel, you know what we need from Reynard. See if he can help. I will meet you back in Volge." With that, Holly gets up, intending to spend some time with Moonlight before sleeping.