In all this, Adam pulled out a book and started weaving something in the air. His casting form was clean, cut, and the stuff of textbook rote. It the weaving took the form of a disk. He then pulled out a set of irons and clapped one to his leg, and another to one of the wagons. Not putting the pin in so he could pop it off if the cart ran off with him.

He then climbed into the disk and opened a book. He wasn't lazy, but he was efficient.

As the group prepares to depart, Sai makes a soft whistle. A moment later, his grumpy bird waddle out from under his hood and perches on his shoulder. "Keep an eye out," he says softly, and the owl takes off and circles above the crew. "Whichever of us knows the way, lead on. I'll keep watch as best I can."

Skyeye pointed to the builder who had spoken before. "I only just arrived today.  He probably knows the way."

The foreman says, "I gots a map. If wunna youse wants to scout ahead, youse can take it, otherwise, follow me."

Adam gave a thumbs up "Do mind if I copy that map? Don't really have one of my own as of yet." It wouldn't take long but it would help in the event he got separated. There was so much to do and not nearly half the time needed to do it!

"We's burnin' daylight. If you can copy the map with magic, real quick-like, go for it, otherwise, we oughtta get movin'" says the foreman.

"Head on then.  I do not know this area at all." Skyeye spoke plainly and waited for them to start off.

The foreman climbs into one of the carts, tells the driver to get moving, and the carts start down the road, following his directions. Most of the builders are on foot, as are you, but the carts move at a pace that isn't difficult to keep up with. Sai's grouchy companion flies ahead to spot any threats in the distance.

Taking up a position to the right side of the first cart, Skyeye kept an eye out for any tree sap, rabbit droppings, or even exposed slate rocks.  She didn't bother picking up the slate; just mentally mark their location on the trail; but she did pick up the rabbit droppings and scrap the tree sap from the trees before jogging to catch up with the carts.

Anything she collected she put in one of the sacks in the barrel.  She also made a note of any game trails or animal tracks she came across.

Skyeye, please give me a Wisdom (Survival) check. If you also want to keep an eye out for threats, both tasks will be at disadvantage (By default we use Passive Perception, which would get a -5.) If you will entrust your safety to your party members (and Sai's Owl familiar,) you can make the Wisdom (Survival) check normally, but your Passive Perception will be ignored (the owl's is probably better, anyway, and if it identifies a threat, it will call out, and you'll have a chance to roll perception to avoid surprise before combat starts.)

OOC:  I'll just go with the single Survival check roll this time.
21:07, Today: Orilo Skyeye Apuna-Maga rolled 19 using 1d20+3.  Survival check.

There is too much snow on the trail to spot slate, but fresh animal tracks are easy enough to find, as is rabbit scat and sap. Skyeye collects  3sp worth of droppings and sap, in the proportion of her choice.

The woods are peaceful on the way to the hill. About a half-hour from the town perimeter, past a small rise, you find a large hill gently sloping to the west. When you reach the top, you see that it drops steeply to the north, south, and west. From this vantage point, above the trees, you can see miles of forest, and you can see Smith's Gambit to the southwest.

As you survey the surroundings from your current vantage point, you notice, at the bottom of the hill to the west, some dead goblinoids, stripped of their armor and weapons. A few miles to the north, you see that someone has begun clearing a path through the woods, though you can't see the far end.

As previously mentioned, someone from town had been here recently, and had already spent an entire day clearing a space for a watchtower and a cabin before they were called back to Alemekia on personal business. They had also pointed out an abandoned badger den on the hill, which is still abandoned.

Due to the shape of the hill, anyone coming from the bottom (where the dead goblins are,) would either have to climb a nearly vertical incline for hundreds of feet, or walk 10-15 minutes east to the shallow part and 15-20 minutes back up, and anyone on top of the hill could pelt them with projectiles from relative safety until they're out of range.

While they walked Azu asked, ”Ms. Skyeye, why is bark best when it is fresh? Do you eat it? I’ve heard of some who smoke it, or use it to smoke meat maybe.”

When they reached the spot she looked down at the goblins. ”These goblins are dead. THere is nothing funny about that.” She frowned.

"Just Skyeye." she replied as she examined the last piece of sap she had collected.  "Eat?  No, but some barks are good as a brew for aches, colds, skin ointments, and other things.  The bark I will need is for the walls of my hut.  When sewn on to the frame fresh, or at least wet with water, it is easy to bent and will dry hardened into it's new shape."

Upon reaching the hill, she looked around at the natural defenses.  "I will need to put up some defenses on this sloping side, but otherwise it is a good defendable position."

She looked around at what had been cleared from the area, searching for things she can use to make a quick lean-to; as well as what kinds of trees and their sizes are available.

"Where will you be building your watchtower?" she asked the leader of the builders.

On top of the hill, the trees are pretty small, but if you go back downhill a ways, there are taller trees, spruce or something similar, growing up to about 15 feet high.

The foreman points to a spot, as close to the edge as is safe.


xx
xx = proposed watchtower spot
# = badger den

Shaded squares are cleared and flat.

Skyeye looks over all the trees, small as they are for her uses.   She wants to leave some of them as a natural wind break, but could use some of the others for her lean-to.  She picks a spot in the cleared area for both her lean-to and for her eventual hut.

Sai takes a moment to admire the view from the top of the hill.  As the others converse and the builders prepare for their work, Sai finds a place out of the way where he has a good view of anyone coming up the shallow side of the hill.

Azu became bored and began dancing...

Adam took out his quarterstaff and stuffed it into his bag so it stuck wayyyyyyyy up. He then made sure a stud in the very top had a nice light spell attached to it. All this before talking to Skyeye "If you care to keep an eye on me or move about with me I can see about any resources local to you. My hope is a tumor moss collection or something else of an arcane nature. If you have them you could sell it to the town for a good bit of coin and we would have a glut of health potions, for example."

"I will come with you.  Cutting a few young Spruce trees will make a quick lean-to for me to use while I am building my hut." Skyeye said with a nod of her head.

She set down the barrel and took out the sack she had been using for her collections.  This she tied to her jerkin.  She filled the bucket with snow and set that down next to the barrel.  She emptied out several things from her backpack into the barrel to lighten her load.

Ready to go, she gestured for Adam to lead on.

OOC: While keeping watch for Adam while he works, Skyeye fell a few Spruce sapling trees (the 15ft ones) for her lean-to.  FYI- a mature Spruce is 60-200 ft tall.

The local trees are stunted by the lack of spring growing seasons. Its amazing they even manage to survive, but somehow, they've adapted. The wood is every bit as sturdy as spruce trees found elsewhere. Since they aren't very thick, they fall quickly, however.

Adam, please make your wisdom (survival) check for finding the resources to map.

Skyeye made sure to not take trees too close to one another.  In this land of unnatural winter, the trees needed all the help they could get in growing.

As she felled each tree, she bundled it with the rest with her rope until she had six of them total.  She made sure to keep the branches all laying the correct way to keep them from being snapped off as she looped the rope around them.

She would then hoist the bundle over her shoulder to carry them as casually as a human would carry a bundle of sticks.

OOC: Found a calculator for estimating the weight of trees given the size.  I couldn't find a good guess on the diameters of spruce tree trunks so I guessed at 5 inches and 1 inch for the thickest and smallest diameters (which I'm sure is not correct but better to over estimate than under.  Six of them come out to 260#  Which is easily within her capacity to carry even if she hadn't divested herself of some of her things at camp.

20:17, Today: Adam Tachles rolled 16 using 1d20+1.  Survival. For a city boy scribe, Adam did know his way around trying to survive. He was, after all, one to have found himself in the deepest parts of the world having to slowly get his way back to civilization. He did, however, make sure his little light stayed up. Warning flags turned out to be a must when there was danger.

Over the next few hours, Adam successfully maps the resources as Skyeye gathers trees. When they return to camp, they see that the work appears to be just about halfway done, and the men are eating lunch.

Azu is performing a comedy routine for the men who were eating.