Seeing the Monk's eyes glaze over and his body go limp from the last blow of his urgrosh, Gilrak looks down at his sparring partner, wipes the blood from his brow and adds in appreciation "Good match there Monk.  Got the leg up on ya this time - but next time, I bet you won't let me have that head start now will ya.. With that, Gilrak picks up the unconscious Asher and lays him down in the back of the cart.  "Rest up Monk - perhaps we can have another go of it after dinner!

OOC:  Promise I won't try to catch you flat-footed next time.  That was probably the factor that made the match..  ;)

In reply to Gilrak Kilring (msg #35):

ooc: that's the way the cookie crumbles. Next time I'll remember to self heal before I get with in KO range.

Totmacher yawns loudly.

Aidrin pulls a book from his rucksack and begins reading, leaving his horse with the undoubtedly excruciatingly difficult task of following behind the cart. Such is his faith in his mount.

Gilrak - settling back in to the march eastward - notes something from the direction of the pack wagaon.  What was that?  Was their newly acquired packmaster going for a weapon??

12:47, Today: Gilrak Kilring rolled 20 using 1d20+7. Initiative Roll.

Watching the ersatz battle between the normally level-headed monk and the semi-psychotic dwarf, the halfling sighs and simultaneously exhales a stream of smoke from his clay pipe.  "Danu's tits, Gilrak.  All we need now's a buncha gnoll barbarians or some inbred clan o' hill giants ta set upon us wi' th' Narvilian knocked out in th' back o' th' wagon.  Can't ye find some'at else t' do...mebbe more constructive, fer starters?"

The long afternoon of the first day out from Borderton passes, wrapped in heat and molten sunlight.  The fields and pasturage that surrounds the town gives way to the rolling plains to the east, bordered on the northwest by the foothills and distant peaks of the Dwarven realm of Turgrad.  The ancient caravan trail climbs gradually out of the tall grasses of Jessander's prairie, eventually leading the party into the brushy country of the Dead Foal steppelands.  The vast, dim reaches of the Emnian forests can be seen as a distant, gray-green haze to the south and east.

The first two days and night spent on the trail are uneventful and warm--clear nights with little wind to stir the long stems of the tall prairie grasses, top-heavy with seed as the summer segues into autumn.  During the days, stragglers and refugees from the east pass westward, in various states of exhaustion, injury, despair, or combinations thereof.  At the beginning of the third day, as the trail begins its gentle climb from grassland to steppeland, the party meets a small caravan of a half dozen wagons.  Each wagon bears, impaled upon cottonwood branches sharpened and lashed to the buckboard, a brace of gnollish heads.  Asher recognizes the caravan's leader, a pessimistic but ruthlessly competent veteran hailing from the ghoul-haunted and half-ruined city of Lafal.  His story is short, but hardly simple:

Marauding gnollish bands have moved into the Jackalstooth Badlands, apparently to prey on the caravans and refugees that are attempting to make their way west.  The larger or better-armed caravans are capable of repelling the gnollish attacks, but the refugees are, in most cases, virtually defenseless.  Some of the caravans are serving as de facto escorts to the string of refugees, but many more of the folk fleeing westward are ending up in gnollish larders.  Additionally, the gnoll tribes seem to have mystics and shaman to supplement their attacks.  These gnolls, according to Asher's acquaintance, are the big spotted variety, from the high plains of the Lostland Wastes.  The biggest and strongest of the members are the females, and the loose tribal structure is completely matriarchically dominated.

Additionally, something or someone appears to have occupied the old and ruinous Fortress of the Spear.  Not gnolls, apparently, but something darker.  The Emnian elves have an ongoing Hunt in the region, which has resulted in carrion piles of orcs, ogres, and gnolls, but seemingly hasn't made the area any safer for anyone.  No safe refuge exists between the limits of Jessander's Prairie and Hunter's Bridge.

Thus apprised of the situation and potential implications, the party continues its journey up into the Dead Foal Steppes.

The hot weather continues, as the third day on the road draws near its close.  The carvan route has climbed gently but steadily from the lush, long-stemmed prarieland into a higher and drier community dominated by sagebrush, rabbitbrush, and small, twisted juniper trees.  The vistas are open and expansive, with clear views within and among the short, dryland plants that dot the landscape.  Pronghorn antelope can be seen occasionally in the distance, but none come very close to the dusty, packed-earth trail that constitutes the caravan route through this country.

As the sun begins to sink below the just-visible Turgrad mountain to the west, Garryn is engaged in a little game he has developed with one of the blink dogs.  The Paldorian rogue hefts a piece of femur from some long-dead antelope, spins, and hurls the bone as far as he can.  The blink dog sitting near calmly watches, disappears, and instantly reappears to catch the bone as it nears the end of its parabolic trajectory some 100 feet or so away.  The blink dog reappears again near Garryn, and--seemingly disinterestedly--drops the bone at the rogue's feet.

As the party begins to set camp for the approaching evening, the blink dog leader can be seen trotting back to the party from some apparent scouting to the east, following the caravan trail back to the party camp.  The big dog is accompanied by a small figure, whom he occasionally nudges with his nose to keep moving.  As the two draw nearer, it seems that his companion is a small human female.

The blink dog leader and his apparent charge come nearer.  The girl is small, painfully thin, and completely devoid of expression.  She is clad in ragged clothing that might, at one time, have been quite fetching.  As she reaches the group, the blink dog gently prods her to stop her leaden and robotic tread, moving in front of her to draw her to a halt.

The girl looks at the surrounding companions without any change of expression or hint of recognition.

"A bad woman ate my brother's eyes and made my daddy do bad things."  The little girl sinks to the ground, staring vacantly at nothing, as the blink dog leader looks quizzically at the rest of the group.

Knowing he is ill-suited to treat the young girl's malady - Gilrak looks to Perrato with a simple shrug of his shoulders..

In reply to Krianna (msg #43):

Totmacher directs his steed towards the dog and girl and responds, "Child - can you describe the witch to Totmacher?  In what direction did this occur?  Can you take Totmacher to this place?"

The girl continues to gaze at the ground, and shows no response to Totmacher's questions.

The blink dog leader barks and yaps at Totmacher's questions.  The blink dog that had been playing with Garryn picks up the antelope bone that the rogue had been throwing, and drops it on the ground.  She then picks it up again, and drops it once more.  She repeats this action again and again, dropping the bone a total of fifteen times.  Both she and the pack leader are looking eastward as she performs these actions, and the pack leader nudges the little girl with his nose as his mate is dropping and picking up the bone.

Gilrak looks to the blink dog and nods - "Sounds like about 1500 feet to me.."  Taking in their surroundings, the dwarf adds: "Not much in the way of concealment to hide our approach.."  Gilrak shrugs off the concern, preps his longbow and adds under his breath - "I hate witches."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:47, Sun 07 Sept 2008.

The caravan trail gently rises up over a small ridge, and disappears from view.  The approximate quarter-mile that Gilrak has surmised lies outside of the party's visual range.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:11, Sun 07 Sept 2008.

Asher slips a thunderstone from the pouch he keeps concealed beneath his sash, unshoulders his crossbow and begins to load a bolt.

"If the dogs know the location, perhaps the girl should stay here with Dondo?"

Aidrin's raven descends from above, having likewise been scouting, albeit from an aerial vantage.  The bird begins speaking to Aidrin in the fluid, liquid language of Phanarian.


Caylin mutters, "An emptiness?"  The halfling has his bow ready and is sorting through his quiver for arrows.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:27, Sun 07 Sept 2008.

Gilrak looks to the halfling archer - "Emptiness?  What does that mean?  - Has our witch cast a darkness down on her encampment??"  With that, Gilrak looks to the thief and cleric who seem lost in contemplation - "Well, someone rouse these two out of their meditation, and let's get moving.."

Caylin shrugs at the dwarf's question.  "Don't rightly know, Gilrak.  Th' bird told Aidrin that he couldna see or hear whatever's comin' up th' road yonder--called it an emptiness.  Sounds like there's a man at least, but whatever else is there is open ta question."

Gilrak, thinking this through as he tugs on his beard stops abruptly and adds "Did I hear ya right Caylin - did the bird say "comin' up the road"??  If so, I suggest we take up some positions - and quickly.  Aidrin, Perrato - anything you could offer up here??"

Gil


ooc:  spellcraft/knowledge arcana check?  anything in your list of spells that might counter this?
This message was last edited by the player at 18:25, Sun 07 Sept 2008.

"Emptiness...?" The monk rolls the word over in his mind.

"I do not believe I can shoot at nothing Archer." he then address the group at large, "Have any of you the skills to vanquish such trickery?"

The halfling allows himself a small smile as he picks out several arrows.  "Sure ye can, monk.  Th' beauty of shootin' at nothin' is that ye never miss."

Caylin straightens up, with his bow in one hand and a sheaf of arrows in the other.

' Dondo - move this cart off the trail.  it'll make for cover if nothin' else..'


ooc:  sent from my handheld while being herd like cattle at IKEA...

"The emptiness appears to be tied to this man, whoever he is. Either that or it is merely moving with him. Fiach could not penetrate it with eyes or ears." Aidrin calmly picks through one of the pouches in his robes. "If it is magical in nature then I believe we may be able to do somehing about it, or at least find out what it is."

He motions to the raven and it soars aloft, floating on a thermal.

OOC: Aidrin has dispel magic prepared, but I don't think we can attempt a spellcraft check until we're closer.

"Aye, the problem will be that you always hits something," Garryn says with a smile to Caylin as he pats the blink dog he'd been playing with and moves towards the girl. Garryn gently takes a hold of the girl and says, "Come with me child," as he guides her to the cart and helps her up. "Keep an eye on her," he says to Dondo, "keep moving, we'll catch up to you when it's safe or return here if you hear two short bursts and one long from my signal whistle or a blink dog or the raven visit you. Understand?" Once the girl is on the cart he begins checking his equipment and readying his bow.

"I don't know what a bird considers a 'nothingness' but a void cannot be a good thing. I don't want anyone to get near it unless Aidrin or Perrato can identify it...that means YOU," Garryn says looking Totmacher in the eyes as he returns from the cart. "Unless someone has another suggestion, I think we should fan out to foil any magics that will affect areas.  We should partner up to cover each other. Tot, could you stay near Aidrin? And Gil could you watch over Perrato?  I'll stick with Caylin. Asher, your so fast and you've got the best chance of surviving any magic attacks so you should stay near the center where you can quickly reach any pairing that gets in trouble. So, I'm thinking, Gil and Perrato  to the far left, then Tot and Aidrin to near left, with Asher on the near right and Caylin with me on the far right in a semi circle around the man and void. Does this sound reasonable? Any better ideas? Garryn says looking at his companions as he gives voice to his hastily laid out positioning for the upcoming encounter. I hope Aidrin can get some idea what were dealing with before its too late, he thinks as he waits for comments from the others.