"We can't do that here" Iviana observed "The river is too wild here. They would just die, and we would die protecting them as they get in the water. We either scout out a place to cross or fort up"

"I think you have decided for us. We will fort up. I will meditate and try and recover enough spells to do some healing. Hopefully the others will return. Can you make sure any able bodied people are improving our defences?"

With that, she settled down to meditate as a precursor to regaining her healing powers

The heavily burdened "treasure recovery" group arrives mere minutes after the decision to stay put is made, four people greater than the last time they were seen.

"So, ah, what's goin' on 'ere then?" Arek inquired, dropping his load to the ground for a well deserved rest.

Brother Yew joined Arek and set down his backpack as well. He Looked at the other group and noted Gwythe's wounds, Celonor's corpse and the absence of the Prince and the Halfling.

"You were attacked?" he surmised.

Amathaon sat down to rest. There was little he could do to help his friends at the moment.

"We have had a run in with Bugbears" Iviana said "Killed Celonor . They've gone to get their friends. I did an Augury and if we cross the bridge into Nulb it's bad. Very bad. The glorious Prince did his brave thing and abandoned the wounded, and defenceless, ignored the advice of the Gods and went to Nulb. I can only pray that the God's will be Just towards him. If he'd not run like a cowardly dog, Celonor would probably be still be alive"

"We have a choice. We have magical boats that can cross the river, but it will probably be a journey of several miles to find a suitable crossing place. I suggest we wait, heal up, and then cross. Many of the wounded should not be moved in any event. A lot of them are unconscious and may die if we move them far."

"Perhaps while I and Arek meditate, the rest of you could ensure that the place is made more safe against the possibility of a Bugbear attack"

"Get some rest. We will organise securing." Ronalt replied. "Which way were the bugbears. So I can see their tracks."

Luthien frowns.

"What happened to the missing people?"

Gwythe the can you show Ronalt the tracks, and answer questions. I'm going to try and get healing magics back" Iviana settled back to meditate feeling relieved. At least the others were back now. That doubt and uncertainty had gone. They still had the threat of the bugbears, but even one load of healing magics would get people that currently had to be carried back on their feet.

Ronalt requested, "Gwythe, could you show us the area the bugbears were."

Yew went to inspect Celonor's body. The first thing he tried to determine was whether she was struck down from behind or did she face her attackers? He quickly noticed that the necklace he had given her was missing.

"Who has the necklace she was wearing?" he asks. "It was just a simple necklace with a single, small, brass pendant. It was given to me by my mother and I lent it to Celonor while we were in the temple."

"Bugbears must've got it. I came along a little after and found her like that."

Gwythe will lead Ronalt to where he first saw the bugbears, and then point off in the direction where he understands they clashed with the others.

"That is not good. It looks like she was hit from behind, so I suspect she was caught by surprise. If she had warning she would probably have been able to destroy them. The missing necklace is a Necklace of Missiles with one missile remaining. The wearer can pull the missile off and throw it up to 70 yards before it explodes in a fireball. Not a very powerful blast but bad enough to slay those who are weak or wounded. Pray they do not learn what it is but watch out for it. If you see a bugbear wearing it or reaching for its neck to pull and throw something, shoot it first if you have the chance."

"What sort of area does it effect?"

"The one I threw at those black-clothed guards in the great hall down in the underground temple blasted out to 20 feet from where the missile landed, but I believe that could increase to 20 yards outdoors. I have no idea why that should be so. Magic is a strange force that I really do not understand."

"So, it could easily take out almost everyone here?"
Rolf subtly sidled away from the bulk of the group...
"Time to go is it? As you can see the recent rain's washed out the bridge which has signs of sabotage too - chances are if the water hadn't done it, it would have collapsed under our weight while we were crossing it."
"Tindoome has two small twelve foot long rowing boats which can take three or four at a time, but the river is too wild right here. There's a ford about six leagues upstream in the wrong direction, or we can go a couple of miles downstream and cross at Nulb where they really don't seem to like Gwythe for some reason."
"Somebody mentioned the river might be calmer a few miles upstream allowing us to ferry across in the boats. We were about to do that."

[Language unknown: Ngnce urce me preastour lat?] the Countess asked of Sir Juffer.

There went the countess again. Iviana thought to herself Selfish as ever

"May I recommend sorting out the defences, while Arek and I meditate" Iviana repeated herself "Many of the wounded might die if we move them violently. Given half a day, they can all walk out of here."

"As I said if we move the Bugbears can hit us on the move, with our few able bodied people carrying stretchers holding the wounded. If we wait then the situation changes"

"The alternative is to accept that some of the wounded may die, but we feel that it is generally better to get to the otherside of the river."

She closed her eyes again

"I leave it to you lot to decide. Wake me if you want to move"

OOC Me I recommend fast forwarding, even if that means fighting the bugbears. But if you all want to move that's fine. Just to set the scene: many of the wounded are on negative hit points now from the earlier move, and getting them across on a boat is contra-indicated.
We could go to Nulb, but the Gods have indicated via Augury that this is a Bad Idea^TM We could ignore that if we want.

Arek nodded at Celonor's covered body.
"Ah cud anima' 'er too..."
"Wou'na ta' long."

OOC: DM, can you list who is in this group and a quick indication of their health and whether they are armed at all, etc.?

Iviana's group was recently described as "twelve people, five prisoners (two on stretchers) and Celonor's body." Gwythe is seriously wounded.

Arek's group consists of Ronalt, Arek, Brother Yew, Luthien, Amathaon (seriously wounded), Wonnilon, Sven, Kalador the zombie and a second zombie. They rescued 4 NPCs (carpenter, merchant, hawker and labourer) and equipped them with various armour and melee weapons, although we don't expect them to be very effective in a fight.

"You should talk to the Countess about what to do with Celonor's body," Yew suggested to Arek. "Celonor is one of her people, not ours."

"Looking at the rest of us I believe we would be well advised to head upstream to the ford as soon as we can, as long as that is not where the bugbears were approaching from. The bugbear scouts found the first group of us here, so this is where they will come back to first. If Ronalt and Sir Juffer use their skills to hide our tracks and make a false trail into the river we may fool the bugbears long enough to give us a good head start and, with luck, all across the river. Avoiding them altogether would surely be our best chance to avoid further casualties."

"Six leagues there and the same back is a long way on foot with wounded. Why not just go a mile or two upstream and use the boats?"

"I know nothing about boats and rivers. We should cross wherever we can," Yew agreed.

Iviana preferred the option of healing and forting up, but since the others didn't she just waited for them to work out what was happening