Marklin grunted under the weight of the Gob. He was feeling the burns on his skin ,now that the excitement was over. " Hey Captain Eoni. Can ye heal  me?"

 The Warrior set the prisoner down. " I vote for the shelter three miles away."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:57, Fri 25 Aug 2017.

"Aye," Valthur agrees. "Whichever is closest gets my vote."

"I cannot call upon Avandra for more today," Eoni regretfully replied to Marklin's request for aid as she picked up a pair of swords to carry.  "I can look at it in the daylight on the morrow.

"Let us just get away from here for now," she continued.  "We can see how defensible this first shelter is.  Mayhap Jorr could lay a false trail past that would give us time to prepare if they do come after us tonight."

She had hoped to get at least over the causeway but now feeling the weight of the swords she carried, she hoped the nearest would suffice.  Now was the time she wished they had horses.

Jorr leads thr adventurers along the Dawn Way, heading south toward the Blackwater Causeway. Groaning under the weight of their captured gear, the adventurers trudge forward with the captive hobgoblin in tow. It takes roughly an hour to reach the log shelter. The small rectangular structure is composed of unfinished timbers set about a stone hearth, a single door and two crossflow windows. Jorr says it has not been inhabited in some time and now is mostly used as a camspite by travelers and caravans passing through the Witchwood.

Were it not for the dense vegetation that has grown up all around the shelter, it would be within view of the Dawn Way, as it is quite close to the road. To the south, the party can hear the ambient sounds of the low-lying flooded forest along the Blackwater Causeway.

"This is it. She's not much," Jorr says.

It's now probably three hours from dawn. Nobody has got a full night's rest.

"Well, I was on watch when the hobgoblins came by.... I may as well finish out my watch." Taerix stifles a yawn and sets his load down gently inside the shelter.

The captive hobgoblin has not offered much resistance thus far, though he has remained tight-lipped throughout and seems content to take in as much about the adventurers and the journey as possible. Each party member occasionally senses the hobgoblin staring at them, and their suspicions are confirmed when they look his direction and see his cold, calculating amber eyes boring into them. The hobgoblin's gaze lingers a few moments, then he looks dispassionately elsewhere, his face a mask of indifference.

He remains sulky and silent but otherwise compliant.

Sarah approaches Valthur, lingers a moment, then wanders off to search the few nooks and crannies the small building has to offer.

If she finds nothing of interest, when she's finished she finds a corner to sit in and nap; a place from which she cannot be advanced upon from behind.


[Private to Valthur Ironhelm: "We should kill the 'obgoblin," Sarah casually whispers.]

  Once they got to the shelter, Marklin went inside and deposited the prisoner into a corner. After the warrior dropped his pack, the Hobs bonds were checked, before Marklin found a bit of ground to lie upon. He set his new sword next to him and rolled himself up into a blanket and went to sleep.

Exhausted, Eoni dumped the two swords she'd been carrying inside the entry and found a place to sit down.  She was so tired she didn't even bother to take off the sodden padded jacket.  In this humidity, it wasn't going to dry and neither were they.

The heat had been oppressive during the day and wasn't much better during their night march.

"We need to keep an eye on the trail," she said with her eyes closed.  "Jorr, is there any way you could mask our trail in here?  Make it look like we continued down the path for a ways?"

Jorr arches an incredulous eyebrow and twists his mouth in mirth, "You take me for a darn miracle worker! What with the lot of you, armored-up and carrying spoils of war to boot. Tall order indeed!"

The weather-beaten man waves a dismissive hand and mumbles something incoherent to himself as he trudges off into the darkness, back toward the Dawn Way. Apparently he is going to attempt to cover the party's passage.

He returns a short time later and finds his sleeping mat and promptly lays down in hopes of getting some rest before dawn.

The Sister of Avandra's eyes hadn't opened since she'd asked if the woodsman could mask their trail.  She was sound asleep.

The small hours of the morning pass with little fanfare, though perhaps no less tense for the posted sentries. As dawn approaches, a thin veil of fog snakes its way through the woods, clinging to the earth like a grasping tendril and coating the soil in its dewy fastness. The morning is warm and moist and the croaking of frogs in the nearby marsh becomes almost deafening. Somewhere out there, Old Sixer sulks with all but a single head, the other five lopped off and sunk to the bottom of the flooded forest.

And what of the hobgoblin patrols? Have they been out searching for the perpetrators of the guerilla attack? Perhaps they have laid their own ambushes in the intervening time?

At any rate, it is now faintly light out and everyone has rested. The hobgoblin captive continues to doze as the adventurers begin to awaken.

Marklin had been roused from his resting place, and stood to his feet with great reluctance, He still was greatly pained by the burns he had received from the Demon Dog, and looked forward to getting healed by the Captain.

 The Warrior walked to the front door and relieved whomever was out there, standing guard, after he relieved himself.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:12, Mon 28 Aug 2017.

She was dirty, damp, and uncomfortable.  Upon waking, Eoni wanted nothing more than to march back to town and the inn.  Unfortunately, they'd accepted a job and it was far from finished.

"No one woke me for watch," she said, stepping out of the shelter to see whom was already up.  She stretched and surveyed their situation.

"They're on guard now," Eoni surmised.  "We'd be lucky to get another ambush off.  I think we should push on back to Jorr's cabin to regroup.  Hide the equipment we can't use and see what our prisoner has to say.  I do hope someone can speak it's language.

"After that, we set something up near the causeway and see what they do."

 Eoni and anyone else that happened to be awake could see Marklin pacing back and forth in front of the shelter. He looked every inch the sentry with his spear and shield held as he walked his post.

Valthur gives Sarah a long understanding stare when she walks up to him, however he stays in his place along one of the walls of the cabin and eventually falls into a slumber. The dwarf wakes from his rest feeling ready to take on another day of oppressive heat and humidity.

"I speak goblin," Valthur replies with a shrug. "But these bigger cousins have a language of their own. He should know enough of the common tongue to tell us what we need." He looks to Aldara. "When does the interrogation begin?"

He considers joining Marklin outside for a look at the surroundings, but decides it better to be close to the hobgoblin, just in case he has any ideas of escape.

Sarah glares at the hobgoblin.

Taerix goes outside to run through some exercises and sword routines while the interrogation takes place. Since he only speaks Common and Halfling, he's pretty sure he won't be much help there.

"Easy, Missy," Valthur quietly assures the young thief. "I know he's not a comfortable guest to have hanging around, but he might have useful information. Best to not rile him up."

 Marklin paused in his pacing,and nodded to Kane,when the Hobbit emerged from the shelter. " Are they having a go with the prisoner?"

"Any minute now, I'm sure."

"Oh, very well..." Moving along was a very good idea, although strangling hobgoblins was as good as charming them in Aldara's book.  Sleep deprivation, adrenaline, and near-death experiences made the mage even more, well, Aldaran than usual.  If she were rested, she would have argued that the chain armour around the hobgoblin's neck could have had a loose link that dug into its flesh when she tightened the rope, but decided against arguing with the others.  "Thank Avandra for your continued existence, beast." Her rope was left around its neck.

The next morning, Aldara wakes up to the sight of a hobgoblin sitting in close proximity.  She starts, but quickly remembers how the hobgoblin came to be so close, and goes about her morning as usual for being in a humid and miserable place like she is.  When Valthur asks about interrogation, Aldara removes the rope from the hobgoblin's neck, doing her best to look genuine and apologetic, but saying nothing.

"I speak Halfling, but aside from that and the common tongue, I don't speak anything else," Aldara says to Valthur when he brings up languages.  "So anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated."

Memorised charm person, sleep, phantasmal force for this period.  Casting charm person on our Burly Bully Buddy.

The mage weaves a compulsive spell with her hands, and speaks her words of power as she does so.  Her hand is waved across the hobgoblin's face upon completion.  "As for you, friend, would you be willing to help by answering some questions?"

The stoic hobgoblin slowly blinks, his eyes caught shit for several seconds  as its mind swims in the sweet elixir of Aldara's enchantment. Opening its eyes anew, he responds, "I talk bit of common tongue."

"What questions you have?"

The hobgoblin's eyes are locked on Aldara the whole time and he seems unable or perhaps unwilling to notice anybody else.

Outside, Eoni looked around for Jorr.  She wanted to know if he'd looked at the road this morning and if there were any signs that they may have passed in the night.

"Has anyone seen Jorr?" she asked.

OOC: It sounds like the hobgoblin is in the shelter being questioned and some people outside.

Valthur watches in amazement as the stubborn hobgoblin transforms into a somewhat loopier, less stubborn hobgoblin. He leans over to Aldara and whispers, "Ask him how many they have in Vraath Keep... and ask him what they have for treasure...and where it's hiding!"