Our heroes leave Rankor Heights on two missions from The Harpers' Guild - Find Jacob and bring back Eburacon's irreplaceable songbook, and deliver a letter to the hermit Pippen.

Farden is very much right about that.  The Ferisedan lands from here to Utsk are quite safe.  It's all domesticated and well protected.

Despite the bickering, the party is still able to improve their combat abilities through Farden's training.  He shares several warrior techniques and insights that will come in handy if applied in future combats.  Getting the group to act as one is much trickier.  No one agrees on formations or strategies.  We'll just have to see if the party can come together in future fights or if Tora's dire predictions will come true.

Around noon on the second day of training you decide to start the trip to Utsk.  Riding along the road in beautiful clear weather is easy travel.  You make good time and spirits are high.  You camp just off the road and take watch shifts just to get back in the habit.  The night goes by without any trouble and you continue on to Ustk, making it to the Ferisedan village just before nightfall.

Here's your old watch order:  Holly / Mord / Glumr / Snow   How would you like to fit Farden into the rotation?

The next leg of the journey is the dangerous part.  The hills and marshes west of the loch and east of The Dark Woods are hard to navigate and just crawling with dangers.  On the way to Rankor Heights you encountered mysterious Alligogs, dire animals, and hordes of goblinoids.  Those in particular are your first concern.  You must hug the shores of Loch Grmikel to avoid the three huge smoking pits swarming with goblins.  You're a bit hesitant without Cuma's guidance, but Holly and Glumr are very capable guides dispite being unfamiliar with the area.  They get you through to an uncomfortable, but defensible campsite.    The first night in the swamps passes uneventfully.  Early the next morning Glumr discovers a considerable number of goblin tracks and goes out ahead to scout.

He returns with news of an established camp of about 20 to two dozen goblins in your path.  They have two hobgoblin officers.  There are also four dire wolves in a wooden cage kennel.  Even though some of the goblins are non-combatants, they still outnumber you by 3-to-1 which is a magic ratio that tends to raise goblin morale and bodes ill for the human side.

A daytime ambush is a tempting option.  Goblins prefer to fight at night when their superior vision gives them a large advantage.  On the other hand, the sheer numbers are daunting.  You could try going around them, but you're running out of wiggle room.  It's possible that their patrols would either spot your group or your tracks.  Outrunning them will be hard in this terrain.  Turning back is also an option.

"My friends, I'd like to take the last watch so that I may have a morning prayer with the sunrise.  Would that be okay with you Snow, since you currently take that spot?   Else I will take an earlier watch and have you wake me just before sun up."  Glumr asks.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:09, Tue 01 Feb 2011.

"Middle watch is fine for me." replies Farden.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they come across the goblin camp, Farden thinks the odds are too heavy. "If we had a defensible position nearby, I'd goad them into attacking us and lead them into a point where we can make a stand. Without such a place, I say leave them alone."

There are a couple of logistical reasons for Snow taking the last watch.  First off she needs a full night's uninterrupted (more or less) sleep to recover her spells.  Secondly, she tends to make breakfast before you all wake up.

Holly suggests that Farden takes on Glumr's night watch, and that Glumr either joins Snow or herself at either end of the night.

As to the goblins, she simply says, "Sometimes it is better to avoid than provoke! At that level of outnumbering we will be pushed, and I'd rather like to see another dawn. Lets go around them and leave them to their marsh."

"Agreed... We should be extra cautious though least they get the sneak on us.  Goblins are just looking for some travelers to come through there I'm sure.  Unnatural bastards."  Glumr says and spits in disgust.

There are not a lot of options for avoiding them.  You can continue to stick to the shore, which is out in the open and very twisty and meandering.  You'll be easy to spot and travel will be extra slow.  You can stick to the lowlands.  This means a lot of swamp slogging.  You could get mired down - maybe getting blocked and having to backtrack, or even trapped for a time.  However the lowlands are visually protected by the intermingled hills.  Lastly, you could try a mix of low and high ground.  Cuma mostly stuck to the high ground on the way south, but his path will lead you right up to the goblin encampment.  Sticking to the high ground exclusively isn't really an option if you want to avoid the goblins.

Anyone can lead you along the shore, but if you chose one of the other two options either Holly or Glumr will have to lead you.  It's tricky business navigating these swamps.  You'll have to pick lowlands or mixed and a guide and that person will roll survival (or they can take 10).

Farden favors the mixed terrain.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:48, Wed 02 Feb 2011.

Glumr suggests that we take whatever route allows fastest travel on horses so that they may move faster than goblins should they try to follow.

If Snow has a full compliment of spells, and Glumr wants to do morning cooking, Snow wont mind trading places with him.

Mord doesn't care what route they take.

"How about we put Farden in front of us and I go before you, just to keep things simple."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:06, Thu 03 Feb 2011.

New watch schedule:  Holly / Mord / Farden / Glumr / Snow   You all get slightly shorter watches now, which is nice.  The only down side is I have to roll a "5-sided" die to determine when stuff happens.  ;-)

Sounds like a mixed path of high ground and low ground is the party's choice.  Now Glumr or Holly needs to trailblaze for the group.  Whoever leads may make a Survival roll or take 10.

Glumr decides to guide the group through the lands.

I get +10 survival
Glumr rolled 24 using 1d20+10. Guide the Group.

Holly is happy for Glumr to lead the group, aware he is more likely to spot trouble, and keep out of it. For herself, she is happy enough to be out and about in the world, spending time with Moonlight who has quickly taken to Farden joining the group.

Farden takes the rear of the group, occasionally turning around in his saddle to make sure nothing is coming up from behind.

Snow goes where ever Mord tells her to be in the march order.

Settling in besides Snow, Holly asks in a whisper, "What do you think of Farden? Will he fit in?" For herself she is a little miffed that Moonlight has taken a like to him and she hadn't. She knew they needed to work better together in a fight, something they had tried to discuss before, but it had been a bit hard to take from a newcomer.

"What are you kidding?  He could be Glumr long lost twin brother.  They're both lunk heads.  He'll fit in find if I can manage to avoid strangling him."

Holly almosts laughs at Snow comments, and has to agree in part. Deciding it might be better to let the men sort out who is boss in the camp, she falls in near the back and watches the terrain as they progress. At the chance of a break, she calls Moonlight over and begins a few of the training exercises they had started back at the farm.

Glumr's pathfinding does the trick.  You don't so much elude the goblins as stay a step ahead of them.  Several times during the day Holly and Farden spot goblin scouts keeping tabs on the small Triplefang group.  Moonlight is notably anxious whenever a dire wolf mounted goblins gets near.  It seems the extraordinary horse can smell the wolves at quite a distance even through the odd stink of the swamps, and provides an excellent early warning.  The other horses are either unable to smell the wolves or it doesn't bother them.

Still, this situation provides a real problem as nightfall approaches and you look for a place to put down camp.  If the goblins have been following you and find your camp, they're likely to attack while you're sleeping, assuming they can amass large enough numbers.  None of you relish the idea of facing a nighttime ambush, badly outnumbered.  Glumr locates a somewhat flat area on a hillside which is shielded by scrubby vegetation.  The potential campsite is sporadically covered by a strange fungus none of you has seen before.  It doesn't have a sufficient place to keep the food out of reach of bears and other hungry creatures, but it might make you trickier for the goblins to find.

Camp here or press on?  Do without a campfire?  Please fill me in on any special preparations you'd like to make for your safety.

"I suggest a cold camp. With goblins this close we don't want to make it any easier for them to find us."

Farden shows no distaste at having to feed on cold rations. Even though he'll pay for it tomorrow, he chooses to sleep in his armor.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:23, Mon 07 Feb 2011.

Holly automatically replies, "I suggest we keep going. If we have to, all night. We either find somewhere more defendable, or we don't let them catch up in numbers.", before turning to Mord and Snow for support.

Mord nods his head agreeingly, "That sounds like a good idea, Holly."

Farden ponders for a moment. "True, we have horses. If we push it, only their wolves will have a prayer of catching us. Those, we can handle."

He re-mounts his horse. "Let's go then."

OOC: Forced march for the horses. When the horses grow tired, we dismount and lead them.

"Snow nods, we should keep going.  It's possible we might lose them in the night, we can always make camp for a quick bit of rest come morning, we wont be well rested but it might be worth it to stay ahead of the goblins.  We dont want to engage goblins at night, i believe they see better than us, and we would be at a notable disadvantage."

"Let me catch my breath and my bearings here."  Glumr says to his friends.  He thinks to himself one nights march we can do, but what if it's another day and night on top of that?

OCC - How much farther is it till we clear the goblin lands?

"We should... adopt a nocturnal atitude, and travel by night and rest by day.  If they're going to attack us while we sleep, i rather it be during the day, when the sleep watch has better lighting to see them sneaking up on us.  If were going to engage a band of goblins at night, not ideal, but at least we'd all be awake for the encounter."

You're 1 day into a 4 day journey through the swamps and hills.  Travel through this terrain on horseback is a pathetic 8 miles per day.  It's hard to tell how far north the goblins stretch.  This isn't part of The Dark Woods, so it seems to be territory that the goblins have expanded into recently.

Here are the gruesome rules for a forced march:  (I'm quoting these directly from the SRD)

A character can walk for more than 8 hours in a day by making a forced march. For each hour of marching beyond 8 hours, a Constitution check (DC 10, +2 per extra hour) is required. If the check fails, the character takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. A character who takes any nonlethal damage from a forced march becomes fatigued. Eliminating the nonlethal damage also eliminates the fatigue. It’s possible for a character to march into unconsciousness by pushing himself too hard.

Regarding horses:  ...(horses) can also be ridden in a forced march, but its Constitution checks automatically fail, and, again, the damage it takes is lethal damage. Mounts also become fatigued when they take any damage from hustling or forced marches.
A light horse has a CON of 15 and 19HP.

Still want to attempt 8 more hours of forced march?  Every hour of forced march mounted will cover about a mile.  It's about two hours per mile on foot, but it won't kill your horses.

We dont have to 'force march' eight hours, just a  little farther to make sure the goblins arent active would be nice.

"We might get lucky and find somewhere more defendable than a grassy dry bit of land." Holly says, glad that everyone seems willing to go on a little longer. "Moonlight seems to know when the wolves are near, so that gives us some advantage, and Snow has a point. We move at night and sleep during day."

It's just a CON check, not a FORT save.  Looks like it should be +6

Farden's horse ends up with  11,19,23,17 which is good enough to avoid any fatigue or damage.

I'll make 4 CON rolls at +6 against DC 10, 12, 14, and 16 for everyone's horses.  For simplicity's sake lets assume that Moonlight, Mutt, Jeff, the cart horse, and the floating eye emerge from the ordeal unfatigued.   If things get too bad for anyone's horse at any point, we'll assume that you guys dismount and finish off the 4 hour trip on foot to spare the horses.

Here are the results:

11,10,24,17 Glumr's horse takes 1D6 (1 point) damage during the second hour and becomes fatigued.

7,11,13,9 Just as twilight falls Holly's horse steps in a hole and injures itself.  You all stop to check it out.  (5 points of damage) The wound is bleeding, but there's no structural damage.  Holly casts a cure minor wounds on her horse and you keep going.  Sadly, things do not improve.  The forced march in the dark is very hard on the horse.  It takes another 5 points of damage over the next two hours.  Holly decides to try a cure light wounds.  (cures 6 of the horse's 9 points of damage) and refuses to ride the poor animal any further.  You continue on foot.  Holly gets a 4 on her DC 10 CON check.  She takes 4 points of non-lethal damage and is fatigued from her 1 hour forced march.

This changes things slightly for Farden and Glumr's rolls.  Farden gets just a +1 (12) on his DC 10 CON check, so he's OK.  Glumr has endurance and gets a +4 (15) on his DC 10 CON check.  They're both fine.

17,7,19,8  Mord's horse doesn't fare too well either.  It takes 4 points of damage during the second hour and becomes fatigued.  Much more shocking, the hour on foot tires the unstoppable Mord. (5 points of non-lethal damage and he becomes fatigued)

25,23,15,8  Snow's horse does fine, but the hour on foot tires her. (6 points of non-lethal damage and he becomes fatigued)

You're tired.  Some of your horses are injured.  You're still slogging through swampland in the hazy moonlight.  The good news is you seem to have eluded the goblins.  You slump down after midnight at the first reasonable chunk of ground and start your watches.

The first three shifts are thankfully uneventful.  Some strange wolf sized predators come nosing around on Glumr's watch, but he is able to scare them away with several arrow shots.  As rough as the night travel is, Glumr and Snow agree (I thought I'd never type that phrase) that keeping watch in full daylight is a lot easier.

The switch to night travel affords you an additional 4 hours of rest time at the camp, which restores all of your non-leathal damage (the horses are still injured).

The next night it looks like you're outside the goblin danger zone.  You don't run into any scouts at all.  Light from a nearly full moon keeps you from having to provide your own light source and draw more attention to your travels.

The next night you make it out of the swamps and onto the remains of the old road.  You set up camp just outside Kammarra for a couple of hours until morning.  It might be wise to stock up on food here.  You're down to a little over two days worth of food (13 pounds).   Your clan will typically restock your food for free, so if you can get to Crim you'll be good.  Crim is about 50 miles west-northwest, which is two days on horseback over grasslands, and you'd burn a day here switching back to daytime travel.  Food is 5sp per pound.  5 pounds feed this group for a day.  Of course you can also travel half speed and forage for food, which is free.

Don't forget that you have a hermit to visit on your way to Crim.

If such a thing is possible, Snow is even more miserable.  She's officially traveling outside again, in a swamp, playing hide and seek with goblins, and slushing through the marsh.

She sleeps good and it's a good thing we're not attacked cause she sleeps really good through the day exhausted from the force march.  She's actually willing to leave the meal preparations to Glumr for a day and is pretty quiet for most of the trip.  She's impressively quiet, that usually means she's pretty miserable.

She's Triplefang, and if it was ever in doubt, they should be put to rest.  Triplefang do not complain about hardships they just deal with it and she was doing a pretty good job at it for the moment at least.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:20, Wed 09 Feb 2011.

Farden had been tired that first night - a forced march was a very different proposition from guarding slow-moving caravans. For a moment, he'd been afraid he'd lose his horse. He didn't begin to relax until they were well away from the goblin lands.

He studies Kamarra in the distance. "It'll be good to eat a properly cooked meal and sleep in a decent bed, but I couldn't afford it." he observes wistfully. "Oh well, no matter. Let's stock up."

Snow lets the presumed slight at her efforts to create cuisine go.  She was really too tired to care.  The change in sleeping cycles was harder on Snow who was use to waking and sleeping at specific times, having them flipped made the rest less restive.

Personal hygene started to go a little, she combed her hair less before she slept, tying it loose in a pony tail.  She was less picky about where she slept and woke with bits of twigs or brush in her hair.  The one concession she didnt seem willing to make was cleaning herself.  Every morning before sleeping she would freshen herself clothes, and as many of the others to keep the stench at bay from too many days without a bath.

"Will it be possible to have a hot bath and warm bed when we get there?", Snow asks wistfuly.

There's not much to Kammarra.  There are a few homes, some barns, a hit-or-miss open air market, the docks, and a public longhouse.  There's also a brewery just outside of the village.  The food is good at the public house.  They specialize it freshwater seafood, bread with tasty spreads, and plenty of strong beer.  Sleeping in the public house is, in Snow's opinion, a vast improvement over sleeping on the ground it's not quite as comfortable as home, but it's cozy and safe.  Heated baths are one luxury she'll miss from Idora's.  Around here people just bathe in Loch Grmikel.  It's summer, so the water is pleasantly warm.

"I should have enough coin to make sure we all get to stay in a warm bed, have a hot meal, and get cleaned up.  Likewise, if we slow down a bit and save our food and coin, Holly and I can forage for some foods while it's easier than harder."  Glumr is looking forward to getting to Kammarra.  Fresh fish and a strong ale full of hops sound like the perfect cure to the walking blues.  Plus the group can stock up on supplies before moving out towards the hermit's place and Crim.

Wait no longer.  You're there.

Farden checks his coin. "I've got enough to cover my own stay for one night. It'll be good to sleep in a proper bed."

OOC: Looking for a room at the inn, if this place has any such thing?

"First we find a room at the common house and then a couple pints of Pete's Tremendous. First round's on me."  Glumr says with a grin.

"I'll find a stable, for the horses if you want, i'll meet you at the common room.  I want to do a lil shopping after, so dont wait up for me."

It's easy to find a room at the common house.  It's just one long room.  It's also easy to find pints of Pete's Tremendous.  It's good stuff - not too strong, not too bitter, deep flavorful taste - a well balanced ale.

Finding the barn is easy too.  It's right next to the common house.  There are fewer horses than last time you were here, and that translated to a very small market.  There's a Ferisedan farmer selling some early summer vegetables, fruits, and some very standard grain.  Fresh fruit would be a welcome treat!  There is also a regular who deals in basic tools and standard utilitarian items.  He has a woeful selection, but if there's something you need he might have it.  He's also willing to take some of the unwanted items off your cart at a reasonable price if you'd like.

Once there horses have been seen to, Farden is going to get himself a bath, then dinner, in that order. He's then going to do basic maintenance on his gear, before turning in for the night. Maybe join the others for a round or two of ale.

Holly follows Snow with the horses, glad to have a chance to have them checked over and fed properly for a day. She had used her healing powers during the rest before coming into town, doubting she would need any other spells in the safety of the village.

"How much coin does everyone one have?"  Glumr asks his friends over some ale. "We should buy some food for the next leg of the journey.  Next time we split up coin that we come across, we should put a share aside and use that for incidentals like food, staying at the inn, boarding for horses, and the likes".

"How long is the next leg? I have seven pounds of rations still with me that I can contribute to the pool. I have about five gold pieces on me. Four if you count what this evening is likely to cost."

Snow sees to it that the horses are taken care of, she gets them all a bit of grain, and a treat or two.  They got everyone through the swamp, and she figures they deserve it.

---

Snow still has a purse of 9 gold, 20 silvers and 13 coppers on her.
(petty cash)

She wont start worrying about money till this is gone.  She'll cover the cost for the horses without thinking about it, paying for at least the night for now till she talks to her cousins to figure out howl long they're going to be here.

Snow has listed (10) days of rations, but it's been 10 days of rations for a while now.  I've figured while she was in the city the meals were part of the room.  I'm not sure how many days have passed since.  Mutt and Jeff eat a full day of rations or half a day?

OCC - This is the day before we made it to town here.  So basically we have like 1 day of food left, or are more or less out of food.

Snow cheerfully does what she does best then and goes shopping.  After wandering about town and looking for provisions she estimates how much food they eat and starts to gather supplies.

She does most of the cooking and is pretty good at caculating how much food they'll be eating.  She also has been learning on the road, that the horses need to be fed as well and includes a few sacks of grain for them as well.

---

Five people, Two dogs, and Five horses.

Presuming the horses can graze grass, but still needs some grain to supplement thier diet to prevent 'issues'...

Snow gathers long term supplies a
(10) days worth of trail rations (50#) for (5) people

(10) days worth of trail rations (10#) for Mutt and Jeff (presuming half rations?)
(10) days worth of grain (100#) for (5) Horses (presuming a 2 pounds of grain per horse to supplement diet)

cost for a week of trail rations...

25gp People food
 5gp Dog food
 5sp Horse food

She hates trail rations and presumes theyre a necessary evil, but will also pick up 'fresh' food, which should last for three days as well.

(4) days of 'good' meals (20#) for (5) people
(4) days of 'poor' meals (4#) for Mutt and Jeff
(4) days of grain (40#) for (5) horses

cost for fresh food

10gp People food
 4sp Dog food
 1sp Horse food

Total shopping bill
41 gold

Snow covers the bill with out bothering to discuss it with her cousins.  She has no intentions of starving on the road, and isnt about to fight Mord for table scraps so she makes certain everyone is fed.

Gold already deducted from her character sheet.

(I'm presuming we have to pay for our food and stuff?  It was mentioned that we might get free provisions, if so, Snow will cheerfully keep her coins in her purse.)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:14, Tue 15 Feb 2011.

OCC - Wait... When Glumr asked how much coin you had, you said 9 GP, but then you just paid 41?
This message was last edited by the player at 16:56, Tue 15 Feb 2011.

Holly only has a couple of golds in her pouch, and begins to consider how she can fund her own living expenses. At least back in the plains Moonlight can find food for himself as needed, but she would need to eat and that meant either hunting or buying. Considering her skills, she tried to work out how best to pay her way.

Food was including in the price of your stay at Idora's.  I kept track of the food on the wagon on the way to Rankor and the way back.  Individuals might be carrying some rations in their personal gear too.  I don't keep track of those.



Kammarra is a Ferisedan village.  You'll have to pay for food here.  Crim, which is 50 miles away (2 days travel on horseback), is a Triplefang village.  They'd provide you with food for free.  The animals can graze or hunt for their food while you are traveling over grasslands, which you are now.  None of them would object to being fed, though.

If you just wanted to get the just the fresh food you mentioned that would be plenty even if you run into some complications along the way to Crim.  You can pick up the trail rations and grain for free in Crim when you get there.  That would save you a little over 30gp.

That night the moon is full and strong winds howl (so do Mutt and Jeff).  Even though it's not raining it's a good night to be indoors.  You're able to drift off to sleep easily enough despite the noise.

The next morning the warm, dry winds are still blowing.  As your getting ready to leave a very young Ferisedan girl warns you not to travel.

"The Rakely winds are a bad omen.  When they blow, and the moon is large, ghost wolves prowl the horizon.  They will bite you when you look away."

She's very well spoken for a girl her age, and seems to have a lot of conviction.  But the ghost wolves are just nonsense.  You're much too old to believe in them, aren't you?
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:31, Tue 15 Feb 2011.

Okay, that simplifies things...

Snow goes shopping... for people.  The horses can graze as we go, but snow will still pick them up 'something' since she thinks they deserve it.  She still has her 10 days of rations, since they werent part of the wagon supplies being consumed.

We're two days away from someplace where we can get free food, and we still have a day worth of supplies on the wagon.  So at the moment we dont HAVE to pick anything up.  Since the wagon has a day of food, and Snow has enough to cover the party for two more days after that.

The tempation to buy some fresh food is probably too much for snow though, and she'll pick up some free veggies, restock spices, and maybe even a bit of meat to cook for the first day out from the town to cook.

---

She'll pick up...

(1) day of 'good' meals for (5) people
(1) day of 'poor' meals to throw at Mutt and Jeff
30#'s of grain, along with a nice bag of apples for all the horses, including moonlight would be six horses.

Total cost for above is 2gp, 9sp, which snow will subtract from her personal funds.

Glumr...
Snow said she had that much in 'petty' cash, before she'd start worrying about coin.  I never said she had that much total.  Even after giving away a significant amount of her 'treasure' to her mum and dad, and buying her horse, and making gifts for her cousins, she's pretty good about money and still has enough to live on for a good bit of time away from home.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:08, Tue 15 Feb 2011.

Snow is and Holly are probably familiar with at least a hint of the lore if not the full story behind her tale.  She's a little quiet regarding the warning as she recalls what she knows about it.  She gives Holly a glance to see if she knows anything about it.  Arcane or Religious orgins seem the most likely for such a story.

"What makes you caution us so?", Snow asks curious.

---

Snow can take 10 on
ks:Arcana and come up with a DC 13
or
Spellcraft and come up with a DC 15

"Has many people seen these ghost wolves?" asks Farden mildly, while trying to remember anything he might have heard on the subject.

09:27, Today: Farden rolled 16 using 1d20+2. know: religion.

"You shouldn't wander about with monsters out.  I'll bet they bite strangers who are in a hurry first," says the girl nodding assuredly.



"No.  You can't see ghosts, but sometimes you can hear them.  Ghost people whisper.  Ghost wolves bay.  Maybe your dogs can understand them."

Mord scoffs and rolls his eyes at these alleged ghost wolf stories. "Over-cautiousness is as dangerous as recklessness. We'll be careful, sure, but don't let these stories of legend frighthen or affect your judgement," he says to the group as a general statement.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:05, Wed 16 Feb 2011.

Farden turns away from the girl and grins at the others. "Indeed. Besides, if we do run into ghosts, wolves or not, the solution is simple - run. Run like rabbits chased by demonic ferrets in the very hour of midnight!"

He's been putting his things on and getting ready for the day's travels. "Shall we be on our way?"

Holly finds herself clutching her shoulder as she remembers back to an old time. Looking over at Moonlight, she considers the story they have been told, and tries to remember the stories she was told as a child. As the other move off, she begins to hum an old tune from her childhood by the sea, and wonders if the eye knows it.

"The my Aunt, who's home we stopped at, used to warn me of such things.  I've never seen any evidence of such creatures, but surely stories of such things come from some basis of truth."

Snow pats her backpack and nods to the small child with a reassuring smile, "Is okay.  I packed extra, the ghost wolves wont bite me if i feed them first.  I'll feed them enough that they'll be too full to want to nibble on me.  This will work, yes?"

Holly smiles at Snow reassuring the young girl. With luck they'll have a quiet time of it, and she can teach Moonlight a few more tricks as they travel. She watches him as he wanders off, nibbling at whatever tufts of decent grass he can find. Certainly Holly thinks he has come through the swamp without any damage, and seems fitter than ever from the constant moving they have been doing.

You bid Kammarra farewell and move onwards.  Your plan is to reach the Hermit's valley before nightfall, set up camp, and search around for him in the morning.  The winds blow in your face most of the day, which doesn't seem to bother the horses much, but does cause your hair, cloaks, etc to flap behind you rather dramatically, and makes you look to be traveling even faster than you are.  Another odd note, you can't help but feel that the full moon has been out in the sky a great deal longer than it should be.  It's unnerving once Holly points it out.  You keep waiting for it to set, but it doesn't.  It merely hovers close or at the horizon, where it look downright huge.

You are nearing the valley and riding though a typically untamed sea of tall grass when you come upon something by surprise.

Everyone please make either spot or listen rolls.  Also, please roll initiative.

Farden couldn't see much in the grass, but something made his ears prick as he looks around. Whatever he heard, his horse seemed to have picked up on it too.

09:32, Today: Farden rolled 13,18,17 using d20+3,d20+1,d20+2. spot, listen, initiative.

09:32, Today: Farden rolled 10,21 using d20+4,d20+4. horse's spot, listen.

Snow was moving along, alert and on edge.  The child's story whispered in her ear from time to time, and Holly pointing out the moon didnt help settle things in her mind.  Snow was feeling jittery and was looking at EVERYTHING.  That was the problem, everything felt dangerous and suspicious, and she knew it.  She made an effort to relax, and gave things a second look, maybe a third before acting on it.

---

23:15, Today: Snow rolled 27 using 1d20+7. Spot stuff. (Critical success)
23:16, Today: Snow rolled 11 using 1d20+5. Inititative. (not so impressive reaction)

Mord walked with the group through the tall grass, his axe drawn just waiting for something to make his day.


22:31, Today: Mord rolled 18 using 1d20+1. Spot.
22:30, Today: Mord rolled 10 using 1d20+2. Initiative.

Although Moonlight doesn't seem bothered so much by the state of the moon, it has the effect of Snow on edge, which is why perhaps she notices the danger first. "Whats that?" she says.

[Moonlight rolled 4+4= 8 to spot. Holly rolled 19+8= 27 to spot. Holly and Moonlight on Init of 8...]

Glumr thinks he hears something...


OCC - Do we know the DC for the spot/listen check?  All we can say for sure is Snow sees something.  I cant say a 22 would hear anything or not.  Tune in next week to find out...  Same bat time... Same bat channel.

Glumr rolled 22 using 1d20+3. Listen in the wind.
Glumr rolled 10 using 1d20+4. Initiative.

Outside in the cold distance a wildcat did growl.  Five riders were approaching and the wind began to howl.

The Triplefang are an alert lot!  No wildcat is going to get the drop on them.  Snow is first to spot one of the troublemakers menacingly crouched to strike from the grasses, but Holly and Glumer quickly point out others.  There's time for anyone who would like to to quickly dismount their horse to fight on foot.  This will require a DC 5 ride roll which will take place in round 0 before any other actions and will not effect round 1 actions.

Init
----
eye 20
Farden 17
wildcats 12
Snow 11
Glumr 10
Mord 10
Holly 8
Moonlight 8

The floating minstrel eye belts out triumphant opening chords to an energetic song.  It has sure been a while.  The sounds instantly get you ready - your heart pumping full speed.

Everyone now receives +1 to hit and damage for the inspirational music.

Farden is next to act.

I need ride rolls from those who would like to dismount quickly and a round 1 action from Farden.

http://zachery.path.med.umich..../wildcat_battle2.jpg

Farden nimbly alights from his horse, as fighting from horseback was beyond his skills. Even as he gets down, his hand pulls out a javelin from his pack.

Hurling the javelin at the nearest wildcat, he then draws his longsword and prepares to defend himself.

Turn 0: Dismount to J11

Standard: Javelin attack on #7 (-2 for range)
15:19, Today: Farden rolled 15,4 using d20+2,d6+3. attack, damage.

EDIT: Forgot to add bardic song. That's 16 to hit for 5 damage.

Move: Draw longsword
This message was last edited by the player at 04:38, Thu 24 Feb 2011.

Snow wasnt one to be a showoff, particularly with something like her riding skill.  Slowing her horse down, she swings a leg off the saddle and slides the rest of the way down.

"Be right back...", she whispers to the horse as she gets ready to step in line with Mutt and Jeff.

"You two ready to earn your meals?"

---

Dismount to stand in - F7 (G7 if you let me)

08:09, Today: Snow rolled 11 using 1d20+1. Ride DC 5.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:32, Wed 23 Feb 2011.

Glumr dismounts and shoos his horse away from the wild cats.

Glumr rolled 8 using 1d20+6. Dismount.

Farden hurls a javelin into the largest of the wildcats as it charges him.  Farden pulls his sword waves it in a repeating figure eight pattern to keep it back while he holds wildcat4 at bay with his shield.  Wildcat1 rushes forward and bites Mutt in the leg.  Wildcat2 and wildcat3 doubleteam Glumr.  Two at once is too distracting for the archer.  One of the wildcats is able to get a rather nasty bite in on his arm.  Wildcat5 prepares to leap at Mord in an attempt to dismount him, but Mord's horse rears up at the last minute, thwarting the wildcat.  Wildcat6 circles around to flank the eye and bloodies it badly with a vicious bite.  The eye does not look like it could take another wound like that.

Mutt takes 3 points of damage.  Glumr takes 6 points of damage.  The eye takes 6 points.

I need round 1 actions for everyone (round 2 for Farden).  Mord and Holly must either spend their move action dismounting their horses this round or make a DC 20 ride check to control their frightened horses.  These riding horses are not trained for combat, and a pack of snarling, biting predators is making them very jumpy.

http://zachery.path.med.umich..../wildcat_battle2.jpg

Round 0 - Holly easily dismounts from Dun whilst calling to Moonlight to Defend the Eye.
[Moonlight moves to G14/H14 and Defends the Eye. Holly moves to F12.]

Round 1 - With the cats now on the group, Holly decides not to use her spells offensively, instead taking the time to protect herself. 'Not even a chance to talk with them' she thinks to herself as she steps away from Dun and moves towards Moonlight and the Eye, and behind the cat.

Moonlight strikes out with a hoof against the cat attacking the southern side of the eye, and he manages to clip the cat on the shoulder.

{Holly casts Barkskin (Std Action) and moves to G16 to Flank the Cat in H15. Moonlight strikes with Nat20 with hoof, rolled a 19-1 for Crit poss. Rolled 1d4+1=2 for normal damage and another 1 point if Critical strike.}

"Mutt.... Jeff... KILL", Snow hisses as she hefts her Longspear to get get ready to stab the cat.

Mutt and Jeff snap and bite at the intruder, Jeff distracts it while Mutt snaps a bite into it.  While her dogs keep the wildcat busy, Snow circles around behind the distracted feline.  Pivoting hard she stabs her spear into the distracted cats body.

---

Doggy H7 moves to H6

08:57, Today: Snow rolled 7 using 1d20+3. Jeff Bites.
08:57, Today: Snow rolled 16 using 1d20+3. Mutt bites.
08:58, Today: Snow rolled 6 using 1d4+2. Mutt damage?. (to wild cat #1 ~ H5)(6 damage if hits)

Snow free... order dogs to attack
Snow moves... F6~F5~F4~G3~H3 (flanks wildcat)
Snow standard... sneak attack wildcat #1 (H5)

09:02, Today: Snow rolled 13 using 1d20+3. Snow's Longspear.
09:04, Today: Snow rolled 5,3 using d8,d6. Damage with sneak attack?. (8 damage if hits)
This message was last edited by the player at 14:08, Thu 24 Feb 2011.

The cat hurts Glumr arm, blood drips down wetting his fingers.  He takes a step bak from the balls of fangs and claws and fires two arrows point blank into wildcat 2.

Glumr takes 5' Step to H9.

Glumr rolled 15 using 1d20+8. Shoot Cat2.
Glumr rolled 14 using 1d20+8. Shoot Cat 2 (again).

Glumr rolled 6 using 1d8+2. Arrow Hurt Cat 2!.
Glumr rolled 6 using 1d8+2.

Farden whips his sword out in an powerful slice, neatly cutting the throat of the wildcat he'd injured earlier. Then, continuing to keep the other wildcat at bay with his shield, he quickly repositions himself to defend Glumr.

Standard:
23:13, Today: Farden rolled 17,12 using d20+6,d8+4. attack on #7, damage.

Free: Dodge on #4

Move: to I8 around the horses

Mord plans to get off his horse and kill some felines!


Mord rolled 12 using 1d20+2. Ride Check to dismount horse.

5' step into J12

Mord rolled 13 using 1d20+5. Attack wildcat #5


This message was last edited by the player at 05:52, Fri 25 Feb 2011.

Don't forget to add in the +1 to damage for the eye's music.  I modified Snow's sneak attack damage and Moonlight's critical hit damage to reflect this.

The dogs and Snow take down one of the Wildcats.  Wildcat2, peppered with arrows and badly injured, runs off.  It's a little over 100 feet away.  You can fire missile weapons at it if you want, but you suffer an additional 50% miss chance due to concealment in the tall grasses.  Wildcat7 despite being heavily injured stands and fights, snarling and biting just as viciously as ever.

The eye floats back towards the cart, drizzling a trail of blood and other humors.  The inspirational music plays on.  Farden slips gracefully away from his opponents, leaving Mord to hold the right front.

Farden shows a strong acumen for defense as he holds off the remaining wildcat in front of him.  Wildcat7 encircles Mord and gives him a chomp.  The other two cats are less effective against the big warrior.  Wildcat6 faces off with Moonlight, but can only graze the quick moving horse.

Mord takes 4 points of damage.

Lets have a round 3 action for Farden and round 2 actions for everyone else.

http://zachery.path.med.umich..../wildcat_battle2.jpg

Farden takes a sharp swing at the cat in front of him. If it goes down, then he's going to move around to support Mord, otherwise he's going to stand his ground.

09:52, Today: Farden rolled 17,8 using d20+6,d8+4. attack on #3, damage.

If #3 is down: Move to I-10, Dodge on #7
else: hold ground, Dodge on #3
This message was last edited by the player at 04:28, Tue 01 Mar 2011.

"Mutt... Jeff... ATTACK!", Snow orders pointing to one of the wildcasts (J08) as she hustles herself into position to help take out the Wildcats.

Jeff makes a uncooperative sound as he follows Snow, leaving Mutt to attack the wildcat alone but is a little confused at Jeff's absence so his attack is a little tentative and misses.

"You chicken.", Snow grumbles at Jeff.  Distracted by Jeff's sub par obediance Snow's moment comes and goes as she misses with her effort to finish the wildcat off.

"HANG ON MORD"

---

10:17, Today: Snow rolled 12 using 1d20+3. Animal Handle - Jeff.
10:17, Today: Snow rolled 14 using 1d20+3. Animal Handle - Mutt .
10:20, Today: Snow rolled 8 using 1d20+6. Mutt attacks. (miss)

Jeff follows Snow to K-06
Mutt moves to I-07 and attacks (missing)


Move - Base move to L07
Standard - Flank attack wildcat at J-08
10:23, Today: Snow rolled 6 using 1d20+3. Snow sneak attacks.  (miss)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:24, Tue 01 Mar 2011.

Glumr draws and arrow and turns and fires at Cat 7.  Previously wounded and covered in it's own blood, the arrow flies straight into the cats eye, piercing it's brain and dropping it dead to the ground.

Happy with the results, Glumr draws a second arrow and fires it at cat 4, trying to give Mord some relief.  The arrow hit's the cat and lodges in it's right haunch, sticking out and waving as the cat moves.

Glumr rolled 17 using 1d20+8. Shoot Cat 7.
Glumr rolled 10 using 1d8+2. Arrow Hurts Cat 7.

Glumr rolled 24 using 1d20+8. Shoot "Cat" 4.
Glumr rolled 6 using 1d8+2. Arrow Hurts Cat 4
This message was last edited by the player at 16:19, Tue 01 Mar 2011.

With Moonlight in a good position for defending the eye now it had moved back, he struck out with both hoofs at the cat before it. Holly was skirting the cat to move into position to help out Mord, and missed whether any of her companions hoofs hit. Sliding her sickle into position she prepared to take on one of the cats attacking Mord.

[Holly moves around the cat and Moonlight to move to a flanking position in J14. Moonlight hits AC13 (?) for a possible 3 points of damage - 1d4+1 +1Eye]

I don't like to move PCs in combat without their permission, but there's no sign of Mord.  I acted for him so we can move this along.  Hopefully he'll be back for round 3.

Glumr does indeed finish off the largest of the wildcats.  Glumr's second arrow injures and distracts wildcat4, leaving it open to Mord's follow up attack.  With a short, swift underhand sweep Mord knocks the wildcat back, off it's feet, and out of the fight.  Moonlight does manage to kick the wildcat.  He's wearing it down.

The panicked horses finally clear out of the way, opening up the field of battle.

By round 3 Farden's target has been taken down, so I'll assume he wounds wildcat3 instead.  No move necessary.

Wildcat3 is quickly finding itself surrounded.  It backs away a step and goes after Snow, a much easier target than the well armored Farden.  Not easy enough.  The wildcat misses badly.  Wildcat5 rotates out from between Mord and Holly, it snarls and tears at Mord to no effect.  Wildcat6 manages to bite Moonlight a little.

Moonlight takes 2 points of damage.

You seem to have this fight in hand now.  No one is in serious danger.  You should be able to wrap things up soon.

I need round 3 actions for most of the group and a round 4 action for Farden.

http://zachery.path.med.umich..../wildcat_battle2.jpg

Holly feels the pain as the cats teeth nip at Moonlight, and decides to charge in that direction without really thinking. She swings, and almost curses as the cat moves aside so she misses, but she is happy to see that in doing so the cat moves into range of Moonlights hoof which catches it squarely.

[Holly rolled 3, +2BAB, +1 WpnFocus, +1 Eye, +2 Charge for a 9 total. Miss.
Moonlight rolls full attack, at 9 and 17. +1 eye, +2 Flanking, -2 BAB for one hit AC18. Rolled 3, +1STR +1 Eye for 5 damage.
Holly AC11(Charged), Moonlight AC16]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:40, Fri 04 Mar 2011.

Glumr draws an arrow and fires at Cat 5.  The arrow pierces that cat's face and it drops to the dirt, dead.  He then turns and fires at the cat attacking snow and unfortunately misses.

Glumr rolled 13 using 1d20+8. Shoot Cat 5.
Glumr rolled 10 using 1d8+2. Hurt Cat 5
Glumr rolled 9 using 1d20+8. Shoot Cat 3.
Miss!

"Mutt... Jeff!  Attack!", Snow calls out with a bit more urgency.

Mutt gamely lopes after the wildcat Snow is engaging, and Jeff finally figures out that Snow isnt playing 'chase me' with him, and also moves in to attack the wildcat.  Snow sees the dogs moving in to attack and positions herself to help surround and confuse the wild cat.

Snow manages to draw the cats attenting with a few menacing motions and jabs of her spear but doesnt manage to do any damage, the distraction how ever does let Mutt and Jeff tear into the Wild Cat for some pretty serious damage.

---

12:35, Today: Snow rolled 13 using 1d20+3. Animal Handle Mutt (DC 10).
Mutt charges to J8 to attack
Bite +2 melee (d4+1) damage, Eye bonus +1, Charge +2
12:40, Today: Snow rolled 22 using 1d20+5. Mutt bite. (+2 for flank)
12:42, Today: Snow rolled 5 using 1d4+2. Mutt Bite damage. (5 damaage to K8)

12:35, Today: Snow rolled 18 using 1d20+3. Animal Handle Jeff (DC 10).
Jeff charges to K7 to attack
Bite +2 melee (d4+1) damage, Eye bonus +1, charge +2
12:40, Today: Snow rolled 14 using 1d20+5. Jeff bite. (+2 for flank)
12:42, Today: Snow rolled 6 using 1d4+2. Jeff Bite damage.  (6 damaage to K8)

Snow moves to M8 to attack..
BIB +1, Eye bonus +1, +2 for flank
12:40, Today: Snow rolled 9 using 1d20+4. Snow Stab. (miss)
This message was last edited by the player at 17:44, Fri 04 Mar 2011.

Farden pounds across the field, rushing in to take the wildcat harrying Moonlight in the side, with a quick, accurate slash.

Charge to I13
Attack cat 6
12:23, Today: Farden rolled 18,6 using d20+8,d8+4. attack, damage.

Neither of the dogs are flanking the wildcat, so Jeff's attack would miss.  However, Mutt's bite is enough to finish off the wildcat anyhow.  I will assume that Snow moved to M12 instead to flank Mord's wildcat.  She missed, but perhaps the +2 flanking bonus will help Mord.  It never comes down to that.  Glumr picks off wildcat5 with a shot to the head, and then moves to I10 and fires on the last wildcat.  Someone's horse is in the way and the shot misses.  Mord, Holly, and Farden rush over to help with the last wildcat, but Moonlight takes care of the cat himself.

Mord, Glumr, Mutt, Moonlight, and the eye were all injured in the attack.  Only the eye's wound is serious, though Glumr and Mutt could use some medical attention too.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:20, Mon 07 Mar 2011.

"Vicious buggers." observes Farden, as he wipes the blood from his sword and sheathes it. He then sets off, to gather his horse before it could wander off any further.

Once he gets his mount under control, he'll lead it back to the others. "Do we need to stop for the injured, or can we continue on?"

Farden doesn't have much trouble calming his horse now that the threat is gone.  Glumr and Holly are both naturals around horses.  Holly might be a bit busy tending to wounded, I'm not sure.  Glumr has more lucky calming and gathering other horses than his own.  In any case it's not hard to get things back underway if that's what you want to do.

Quickly checking Moonlight, and seeing he is quite happy for her to deal with the others first, she asks him to help round up the horses as she moves to the eye. Intrigued to see if it would allow her to heal it, she points to the wound and offers her hands forward beginning her spell. If the Eye moves into contact, she will cast her spell on it to remove some of the damage.

Moving to the others to check them out, she says thanks to Farden for his support in helping Moonlight.

[Holly will offer to heal the Eye, using CLW spell. Will then check on the others and offer CMW]

Glumr checks the wild cats out, looking to see if the symbol they found in the past is marked on these cats as well.

Do I need to do a search roll for this?

Farden wanders over as Glumr examines the wild cats. "What are you looking for?" he asks curiously.

Snow shakes off the worse of the blood from her spear and wipes off the tip with a little bit of a rag.

"Good doggies...", she comments to Mutt and Jeff, and rewards them both with a bit of beef jerky from her pouch.

Snow takes a few moments to catch her breath and look over the cats they just killed for usable material.

'Lets see... does this look like they could provide us with a bit of fresh meat for a meal?  Are the skins, skinable and useable for material for fabric/leather crafting?', she thinks to herself as she looks over the kills.

14:02, Today: Fritzholm, on behalf of Holly, rolled 6 using 1d8+3. CLW on eye.

Holly heals the eye, which now looks fully recovered.  The eye seems to be in much better spirits.

Glumr finds the brandlike @< mark on a wildcat and shows it to Farden.  The same mark is on all the other wildcats that you check.

There are 6 carcasses.  You could easily get up to 100 pounds of meat if you stop and spend the time to properly butcher them.  The group ate a lot of wildcat meat on the way to Rankor, so you're pretty sure it's safe.  The skins are a little trickier.  No one is a proper tanner here (that I know of).  There's enough fur to craft 2 "furs", though they wont be much use for months.  (It's summer now.)  See the Character Creation post for more information on furs.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:15, Tue 08 Mar 2011.

"Interesting. Got any idea who they belong to and why they're coming after us?" asks Farden.

Snow can work with it in its finished form, though she's no skinner.  Glumr, mighty hunter that he is might be the closest to knowing how.

"Glumr?  Can you skin these?  I'm thinking the pelts might be useful, or at least sellable.  I'm going to cut up one of the cats for a meal.  We can make an early camp to cook them now, and i'll smoke some for dinner tonight."

This isn't an altogether bad place to camp except for the lack of a tree to put the food up in.  You're probably going to have a lot of meat lying around anyhow.  One possibility is to throw a two or three wildcats on the cart and truck off a ways.  scavengers can then have at what you leave behind and will hopefully leave your camp alone.  (The abandoned meal is a lot easier than fighting human for food.)

Either way you eventually set camp somewhere to cook and smoke the fresh meat.

Glumr will sign on sooner or later to answer Farden's questions, but for now I'm going to skip ahead a little.


Around sundown you've all settled in around the large bonfire (uses up the last of the firewood on the cart).  The howling winds have finally died down and the skies clear.  Mutt and Jeff start hopping around barking at something.  Moonlight, on the other hand, does not seem concerned.  Snow and Holly get up to check out what the commotion is.  It turns out to be a fox.  Snow is about to let the dogs chase it off when it says

"Hey there, what's cookin'?"

The strange voice has Farden reaching for his sword and looking around for a speaker other than the fox. Talking foxes, while not impossible, were still a bit of a stretch for Farden's worldview.

Holly put her hand out flat, hoping that the others wouldn't jump into an aggressive mood without letting her step forward.

Bowing slghtly, she asks, "Welcome friend, we are removing some feline curs from the neighbourhood. You will find meat out to our rear, or perhaps we could invite you into taste some of the more tender pieces we have cut out of them?"

From her point of view, it was not that unusual for animals to communicate with her, although she normally had to call upon the power of Obad-Hai to aid her. Looking over to Moonlight and then the Eye, she checked if either of them was wary of their visitor.

"I am Hollykahn, of the sea and the land." she said, before slipping a sound that Moonlight understood but the others wouldn't.

"The mark is that of the ancient goblin god _Krammishir_, the enemy of Obad-Hai.  We found a small shrine that was creating trolls that bore the mark and we were attacked by other cats the same as these.  It bothers me to see this mark as it means that god is growing in power and followers. It could throw the natural balance off in our lands.  This god and the dark woods in the south, plus the lizard people from the sea of sand in the north east, the times are starting to turn a bit dark if you ask me."

OCC - I forget the name. I'll find the post once I'm in a more convenient spot (I'm posting this from a big meeting I'm in)
Added the name for you - Fritzholm

---



"I've not really done that before, leaving that task to the folks in the clan who are skilled at it.  If you want to give it a shot, we could try to tan the hides after we butcher the meat."

---

Glumr does camp things around camp, helping out where needed.  Sitting down at the fire, he rolls up some leaf and is enjoying a smoke when he hears the voice greeting them.  His only response is to blow a smoke ring.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:28, Thu 10 Mar 2011.

Snow nods, "I know a little about this stuff... mostly from talking to merchants when i'm shopping for it.  Between the two of us we might be able to get something done.  If we ruin the hides, were no worse off than if we didn't try."

---

Snow is +2 for either a craft or profession check, which ever you think is more appropiate.  Since no one is 'proficient in it' i would suggest using the 'lore' rule, where you can try stuff, but success is limited to a 'ten'.

I'm hoping the two characters working together might yield a synergy bonus of some sort.  There are five hides for them to experiment on, law of averages... something should be useable to craft with or sell?

The fox gives the dogs space but he doesn't seem overly worried about them or about Farden going for his sword.

"Oh, hi Hollykahn," he says.  "I'd be happy to have a bite or two since you're offering.  I've never had wildcat before.  It's mostly mice, grass, crickets, and shrub berries."


Moonlight is paying the fox close to no attention at all.  The eye... well it is itself a much stranger oddity than a talking fox.


We'll assume you skinned all the wildcats before butchering some of them. (no roll necessary)  You've got 6 raw pelts.  One is considerably larger than the others.  You're not far from Crim.  Why don't you wait 'til you get the to try tanning the hides.  There's bound to be kin there who can give you some tips.

Since only the fox seems around and friendly, Farden relaxes the grip on his sword, and goes back to preparing to camp for the night. He's not very sure about the etiquette of talking to animals, so he'll let Holly handle the conversation.

Snow is use to Holly doing odd things like that so pays it no mind.  She tries to cleaning of the worse of the blood and gore from the skins before rolling them up to take to the tanner.  She's already mulling over the possibilities of what to do with them.

Maybe Hide armor for Farden, Mord or Holly?  Something fashionable for herself?  A nice gag for Glumr for those moments he opens his mouth when it should be shut?  no... there was enough hides for that.... maybe some armor might work out, Snow would talk to the tanner on his thoughts on the project and the cost in time to fashion such things.

Holly invites the fox into the camp, and sits down offering it a place close to the fire and her. Taking the chance to offer the more tender pieces of meat and the kidneys, Holly asks, "What brings a fine creature like yourself to our camp? With these creatures around, it is not safe for normal people to be around. What titbits would you prefer? I'm sure we have enough to spare."

Adding a few words in druidic, she lets the fox choose its meal options.

The fox sits closer to the campfire than Holly does.  His fur seems to ripple and flicker with the crackling of the flames. It's probably a trick of light.

"I appreciate the offer, but I'll do fine with the regular stuff.  I don't have the tongue I used to.  I smelled you traveling this way again and thought you might be open to a strange but simple request," says the fox.


"I'm tired of living in the ground.  I know it sounds strange to have animal complain about its den, but...  I don't enjoy it.  Even with the knowledge of many worlds there are some things you cannot do with  paws," he says, showing Holly his front paw.  It looks normal enough.  "One of those things is to build a cottage.  There is a woodsmith in Crim, a designer of homes and structures.  His name is Nathan.  Do you think you could convince him to build me a cottage before winter?"

He turns back and looks hopefully.

"I'd find some way to pay you back."


"So, that's what I'm doing here.  What are you up to?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:59, Wed 04 Apr 2012.

Snow starts to go about the task of making a fire pit, and looking for sticks to soak in water to use for a spit for the meat she wants to cook.  She helps Farden skin the cats, though tanning them to be useful will take a little more time.

Even if they didnt have time to wait for the hides to be made usable, it was possible they could get some coins for turning them in for someone who did.

Glumr tips his hat up and addresses the fox with a laugh.   "haha...  I am Glúmr Triplefang, son of Hólmfastr.  We are traveling ourselves, mostly running errands while we try to make some spare coin...  trying to figure out what is happening the the lands.  But you must forgive me, I've never seen a talking fox before."  Glumr blows out another smoke ring into the fire pit.

"We do happen to be traveling to crim.  And I would be happy to take a moment to find Nathan and try to convince him.  I will say he might think me a bit mad when I tell him I have a talking fox in desperate need of a cottage before winter.  Likewise, I expect him, a man of trade, to expect some compensation for such a thing.  And unfortunatly, we are not currently having an excess of coin to even consider the option to compensate him for such a thing."

Glumr pauses for a moment "That being said, I will seek him out and do my best to get him to help you.  So tell me, my new friend.  What is your name and how is it that you speak the tongue of man?"

Holly let Glumr ask the questions she was about to ask, glad to take the moment to consider the way things had been going. Cutting up some of the meat from the cats, she offers a good chunk to the fox, and slices off some steaks for herself and the others.

"Does it strike you that your world has changed so much in such a short time?  Gold and silver were not as big a problem not so long ago.  I don't keep a collection of either, but I should start some day."

"Hold that thought..." he says after you ask your questions.  Holly pops some meet in his mouth and he chews for a while.  "Thanks."

"I have known your language longer than you have.  Wow, that sounds like bragging, doesn't it?  I really don't mean it to be.  Lets just say it would be impossible to live where this language is spoken all the time and not learn it.  The dwarves, demons, spirits, fairies and goblins speak it too.  It shouldn't be too shocking that I do.  I pick things up very quickly and never forget them."

"If I tell you what to call me I'll seem strange and foreign, but If I let you name me you'll think of me like a pet.  What would you like to call me?"

Holly remembers one of the childhood stories, of a very sly old fox indeed. "Would you mind if I called you Renard? We have a tale among my mothers people, of a sly fox who could out think anyone and everyone. When he got too good, the other creatures ganged up on him, and trapped him in a pit they had dug. But he escaped by tricking them again. As you are older than ourselves, would you mind being called Renard?"

Holly hoped that the words of caution would transfer to the others. She trusted the fox, for he had not tried to trick them so, and as for feeding him, she was happy to feed any hunter of the night and day. Holding out another piece of meat, she wondered whether she could remember more of the tale to tell over the camp fire.

"Sure, Renard is fine.  Just don't get any ideas about ganging up on me."

"That's the last thing we would want to do."  Glumr reassures the creature  "But I think you misunderstood my question.  What I meant was that, for all our understanding, foxes are not creatures who can speak mans tongue. You are the first I've heard of. How is it that you can do it?  And if we are traveling to Crim, why dont you join us and we can talk to Nathan together?"

Holly makes a light laugh and says, "Doubt us youngsters could outsmart you Renard. And besides, Mord would take at least an hour to dig the pit, so you can stay for that long at least, can't you?", with a smile on her face.

At Glumr's suggestion of Renard joining them, she adds, "It would be nice to hear more of your life, for it must be interesting being a fox. I always wanted to be like Moonlight, running over the plains at full gallop." With that, Holly looks out into the distance, imagining the freedom of it.

"You're right.  Foxes can't talk.  That must mean I am not a fox.  I'm really very close to being a fox, wouldn't you say?"



Reynard shakes his head.

"I avoid towns and villages.  It's not good to let too many people know about me.  They'll soon get the idea that I'm a monster and come to hunt me.  Humans are even less accepting of oddities than the goblins are.  In fact it would be better not to tell Nathan I talk at all."

He turns his body to face towards the eye.

"Harmless as you seem, your days are numbered in that form.  It's only a matter of time before the humans turn on you."

Reynard looks around at your faces.  You're not taking that prophecy well.

"Wait.  I'm not saying these humans will turn on you...  just humans in general.  You know that's your nature, right?"



"Oh yes.  It's very nice.  I can rest my mind completely and let instincts take over most of the time.  A fox leads a simple life.  I hunt and forage and sleep and fuck another fox or elemental from time to time, but nothing of that is the stuff of stories.  When I told you I remember everything that was a bit misleading.  It's hard to remember every day of my life when I relax my mind.  Maybe I can do it and maybe I can't.  What you want to hear is an interesting tale.  Something noteworthy with my mind sharp and active.  Let me tell you about the time I met Ehlonna..."
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:39, Tue 08 May 2012.

Reynard finishes chewing his meat and swallows.  He declines Holly's offer for more and settles down, lying on the ground to tell his story.

"Let me tell you a little about Ehlonna first.  She's a rare one among gods.  While she was born immortal, she was not born a goddess.  She just sort of became one by her own actions.  Cool, huh? "

"A very long time ago there was a plague of wraiths.  They rode nightmare steeds bringing death and ruin to these lands.  Dead humanoids and horses would rise again to join them.  It was a mess.  At least other plants and animals stayed dead when they killed them.  Really they were mostly interested in killing humans, goblins, and horses."

Moonlight gets a bit ruffled at this as if he could understand the fox.

"Hey, don't get bent out of shape, you.  This was a LONG time ago." Reynad barks at Moonlight.

"So one day I'm nosing around.  I can smell all sorts of interesting things,  wraiths and their mounts not to far away and a very clean lady.  Normally I'd steer clear and give the wraiths all the room they needed, but I was curious.  I went to take a peek at the lady.  She was standing with her back against a tree big tree and her sword drawn.  She looked right at me and put her finger to her lips to shush me.  Shhhhh..."

"I knew it was the goddess Ehlonna.  I can tell a lot about someone just by being near.  She wasn't big and strong like a lot of female warriors.  She had long limbs, and gold hair, and was dressed all in white.  It's stunning to be in the presence of a real goddess, I assure you.  Pretty soon I heard the nightmare riding near.  It wasn't going fast.  The wraith was searching around for something but he didn't know what.  If he had known he would've run!  I hunkered down in the grass so I wouldn't be seen or heard."

"Well, when the undead beast rode past the tree Ehlonna stepped out and swung her sword all the way through from the front of the horse to the back, slicing it right into two parts.  The cut made this sound like metal scraping against metal and the wraith flew off over the head of the nightmare.  It was lying there face down and Ehlonna held her sword point down with both hands and impaled the wraith through the back.  Just like that.  One swing and the Nightmare was finished.  A single thrust and the wraith was set on the path to dust.  It was all over in less than a second.  She's so quick and her moves are so efficient."

"Then she came over to tell me to leave and be careful, but she knew what I was just as I knew what she was.  I can take care of myself."

"That's it really.  She called her unicorn, which isn't a real unicorn, and rode off," Reynard says sitting up and stretching before lying back down again.

"You want to know what really smells bad?"

"A dead wraith."

Glumr listens to the Fox's story and blows out a big smoke ring as he thinks about the significance of it all.

"Well...  I am a follower of Ehlonna, a protector to the balance of nature, and an enemy of goblins."  Glumr tells the fox.  "For one, you have nothing to fear from us, and likewise I will protect your secret.  Likewise again, I will stand with our eye friend here and protect him... er.. it.. umm..  well protect the eye against anyone who would do it harm.  And, unfortunately, I cannot contest what you say of man.  I am weary myself when I must come to enter their cities."

Glumr continues. "What I have gathered from your story is that you too must be some sort of immortal or elemental creature who is as old as Ehlonna herself.  I would be happy to help you in your quest for a cottage.  Perhaps I could ask Nathan so simply build it for me.  I will cross that bridge when I go to town.  I expect you wont have trouble finding us once we leave?"

"So since you are such an old and wise being.  I was wondering if you knew anything of Eburacon and his music?  Or what our eye friend is?  There is some relation between them.  I have pledged to help this eye creature, but am unsure of what to do to help it. I am performing a quest for the Harpers and have found that the eye seems to know of Eburacon's lost music.  Would you have any information on such topics?"

"Sure I knew Eburacon.  He was obsessed.  We traded some secrets - things he never could have discovered on his own, but you know how secrets are.  I'm not going to tell people much about them."

"You sure do have the Harpers on your mind, don't you?  Eburacon was a harper, eyeball here's a harper, and the guy who has the book you're looking for is a harper.  Funny that none of you are.  It's all someone else's problem."

Reynard laughs at the irony.  Then he looks over at the eye.

"The wandering minstrel eye was a human journeyman harper.  He's been cursed by a warlock for seeing something he shouldn't have.  Curiosity killed the cat, but it's only cursed your friend.  If I were you I'd get that curse broken before he bites it.  The sands in his hourglass are draining away."

"As for the book housing Eburacon's music, you're on the right trail, but you have a problem.  The harper you're chasing is smarter than any of you.  Will you be prepared when he outsmarts you?  Few people are."

"It feels good to start paying you off in information for the cottage.  That's my best currency.  In the morning I'll take you over to show you where it should be built.  Oh, and no, I won't have any trouble finding you if you come around these parts."

"First... What do you mean cottage?  A small house for man?  or a fox sized dwelling?"  Glumr asks, making sure to put business first.  "And information can be easily worth more than coin, so that is greatly appreciated.    Since you know so much about the eye, have you his name?  And would you know who could break such a curse?  I expect it's not as easy as heading to the nearest temple and asking a priest."

"It does seem that we are wrapped up in harper business.  But I believe them a good and worthy group.  You say this harper we are chasing, Jacob, is smarter than us?  How can you be so sure?  Can you tell me what you know of him?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:35, Thu 17 Mar 2011.

"A normal human cottage would be best.  It would attract less attention than a little munchkin house.  More comfortable for my rare visitor too.  Of course I'll need an entry flap.  I'm no good with knobs and latches.  Just tell him you have a pet."

"I'm not interested in names, typically.  I do know how to break curses.  I just don't have the hands for it.  Your best bet is to find the warlock who cursed him and convince him to undo it.  Barring that, yes, go to the nearest priest.  He or she will need to overpower the curse, and few can do that.  Maybe you can find one with a knack for curse busting."

"Smarter than you?  Yes.  Humans don't like to hear that.  'How could anyone be smarter than us?' they wonder.  Stronger, faster, prettier...  all of those they can swallow, but smarter?  Impossible.  He fooled the master harper, and she's brilliant."

Reynard laughs.

"It doesn't mean that you can't best him, but it will require twice the planning and some luck too.  You must prepare for what you'll do when the unexpected happens or next time I talk to you you'll be telling the story on how you too were duped."

"Lets see, what can I tell you about him?  The harpers aren't the only ones he has taken.  Your foe has seen the strength of the guilds.  He may be organizing one of his own, an unofficial shadow guild of sorts.  His strength is as much in his followers as in his wits.  Maybe you can undermine this?"

"Perhaps a ploy to join his guild?" Glumr ponders "We will need to plan.  Have you an idea where he is conducting his business?"

"Some things you will need to discover on your own," says Reynard.

The evening winds up and you fall into your watch roles.  The night passes uneventfully.  In the morning Reynard leads Glumr and anyone else who would like to go along to the site where he'd like a cottage.  Who wants to travel with them?  Is there anything else the others would like to take care of in the mean time?

Farden had sat quietly through the night's discussion. He had kept his ears open and looked thoughtful throughout. The only real comment he made was, "Smart enemies are always more dangerous than strong ones." He also seems to take more care than usual in maintaining his gear.

Come the morning, he decides to accompany Glumr to see the spot for the house. On the way he'll ask Glumr, "You never did explain what the marks on those cats were about."

OOC: Seriously, what's up with those marks?
This message was last edited by the player at 06:06, Sun 20 Mar 2011.

Holly stays at the camp, aware that GLumr seems to have taken on the responsibility of looking after Reynard. Spending time with Moonlight and the Eye, she asked Snow for a simple band of fur for herself, and set about cleaning it while waiting for the others.

Farden, here's what Glumr told you about the marks:



I'm not sure that the party knows much more than that.

OOC: Right, I forgot. In that case...

Farden turns to Reynard the Fox,as they are walking, and asks him, "Tell me, Reynard, have you heard anything about the followers of the goblin god Krammishir? We seem to be running into signs of activity on their part."

Glumr takes interest in this as well  "Aye...  We seem to be seeing the mark on wild cats that have attacked us, and we destroyed a shrine of Krammishir before it gave birth to a few Trolls."

"Oh yes.  Krammishir is always lurking in the shadows.  He's not really a goblin god, but the goblins have sort of adopted him.  They don't much care for the natural way of things.  Nature has almost wiped them out twice.  A lot more humans than you can imagine have joined up too.  They'll pretend to be worshipping Elhonna or Obad-Hai, but they're secretly strengthening Unnature.   There are promises of quick and easy power.  Maybe even immortality.  The short-lived are always grasping at that."

"Krammishir is responsible for all manner of unnatural occurrences including weres, undead, and abominations.  These cats acting funny is small stuff.  It always starts small.  But believe me, it's going to be a big mess before too long and the fate of these lands hinges on whether Krammishir triumphs or not.  Ready to face that, or would you like to deal with the harpers' errands?"

Reynard leads you to the south where there's a strange indentation in a hill where you wouldn't expect it to be.  It's completely shielded from view on three sides and there's a lightly wooded area on the 4th side.

"There should be plenty of raw materials here and it won't attract much attention.  I've driven off all others that claim this as their territory.  Good job on the trolls."

Reynard bids the Triplefang adventurers good luck and farewell.

You can ask him more before you leave, but I'm going to move ahead.

The guys arrive back about 3 hours after they left.  the day is clear and hot.  It's nearly noon and you decide to have a heavy meat lunch before setting out.  What's your next move?

Glumr thinks to himself... Face that or the harper's errands?  He thinks that maybe the two are starting to turn into one and the same.  But maybe that's just coincidence... First things first.

"Onward to Crimm to deliver our message and seek out Nathan.  I will bring him to the spot to build the cottage and I expect will have to pay him from my pockets... We shall see."
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:48, Tue 22 Mar 2011.

Farden nods agreement and packs up his things for travel, and mounts his horse. Onward!

You follow Genessa's directions to the general area where you expect to find Pippen's home.  You weave back and forth on horseback in the lowlands for a while.  About 90 minutes after you left camp you spot a small cottage.  This immediately forms Glumr's mental image of what Reynard's cottage should look like.  It's kind of strange to see a building out here with no trails.  Even isolated lodges typical have trails leading to them.  There's no smoke coming from the chimney, but it is the middle of a quite hot day.

Mord is carrying the letter.  I haven't heard a peep from him in almost a month.  If you're still with us, Mord, I suggest you do a little roleplaying here.  However, this shouldn't discourage other players from posting what they're doing.

Farden will circle once around the cottage, checking for signs of life. Then he will give out a call, "Hullo in the house! Got a letter for delivery here!"

Glumr stops his appaloosa about 50 yards from the house looking around for signs of life.  He rolls up some leaf and puts in his mouth but doesnt light it.  He's not sure what to make of this atypical place.

Holly slips off the back of the Dun, and whistles for Moonlight to take up a defensive position near the eye. She isn't expecting trouble, but knows it is best to be prepared. Looking around, she concentrates on the area around the cottage rather than the cottage, knowing the others will be watching that.

Farden notices there are some traps set up on the downslope of the roof over the entrance.  There are three of them and they  look a bit like a bow and arrow with shorter arrows and no archer.  Whoever set them up wasn't trying to make any sort of secret of the traps.
There's a cellar entrance around the back side of the cottage.  The shutters on the windows are all drawn down and closed, which is unusual for a sunny day.  A couple of minutes pass and there's no response to Farden's greeting.

Moonlight is relatively calm.  Holly feels comfortable that nothing out of the ordinary is going on here right now.

So...  anybody wanna do anything or do you just hunker down and wait?

Farden considers is impolite to barge into someone else's house. He's willing to set up camp for a bit.

Glumr looks around to see if he can track down this guy.  He looks around, lights up his leaf, and blows a couple smoke rings.

Glumr rolled 16 using 1d20+10. Track Pippin.

Glumr has found some tracks and is on the hermit's trail.  Would everyone like to go with him?  On horseback or on foot? (Glumr has to track on foot.)  Do some or all of the rest of you want to stay here?

Glumr suggests you go on foot if you want to come with him

Farden suggests that Mord follows Glumr. "My armor slows me down and makes me noisy. If there is trouble, the two of you will have better luck sneaking or running away. The rest of us will look after the horses."

Holly, Farden, and Snow plunk down to rest and watch over the animals and the apparently empty cottage while Mord and Glumr head off to follow the tracks.  Soon the pair slips off out of sight.

Pippen's tracks are a little different than Glumr is used to.  He isn't trying to cover his tracks, but he seems to wander and moved erratically.  You come across a few small animal traps he's freshly baited.  It looks like he's caught something in one of them and removed it within the hour.  He can't be far off.

Sure enough, over the next rise you can see a big scruffy man with his back to you about 20 yards away.  He's got very long black hair and is wearing furs.  Not very unusual for the clans, really.

Snow glances and wonder what the guys are waiting for.  They werent there for trouble and they had something to drop off.

"We're not here to hurt you or anything.  We actually have a message for you.", Snow calls out as she gets off her horse.

"Mutt... Jeff... Stay.", she comments to them pointing to an area near her horse.  She reapeats the command once or twice if they look a little playful and eventually they listen to her.

She then turns and notices no one seems to be doing anything.  (Not noticing the traps...)  Snow starts to move forward to knock on the door to see if anyone is home.

"Who are you talking to?" asks Farden, looking around, wondering if the house was occupied after all. "You see anyone, Holly?"

OOC: Mord and Glumr and Pippen are all out of sight to the rest of us, and some distance away. I think we should start communicating by PMs until the group reunites, that way everyone knows where everyone else is.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:21, Wed 30 Mar 2011.

Snow shrugs, "Just because you dont see anyone doesnt mean theyre not there?  Maybe they're hiding and wondering if were dangerous or something?"

Snow waves at Mord, "I mean, look at him.  Mord hardly looks friendly and cuddly to strangers?"

"Well, not cuddly to strangers perhaps." Holly says, before realising she had said it aloud. Covering herself with a cough, she turns to Farden and says quickly, "Nothing spotted from here, and Moonlight is not paying much attention to anything, so I think we are safe. We are being careful is all."

"I see." says Farden, in the tone of one carefully not saying what he is thinking. He finds a place from which he can stand guard over the area, and relaxes to wait for Mord and Glumr's return.

OOC: Once more - Mord is not here! Neither is Glumr. At least, at the moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:54, Wed 30 Mar 2011.

Your point is well taken Farden.  Snow is waving to Mord when he isn't even there anymore.

Let's not go to PMs just yet.  I feel that something the whole group might find amusing is bound to happen soon.


Snow dismounts as goes over to the cottage.  It's true.  Hermits are not known for being overly social.  It's reasonable to assume he might be hiding inside.  She calls out and then goes to knock on the door.  There's no response.  (and the traps do not trigger)

If you would like to try to peek into the cottage or look for telltale signs of hiding hermits, please make a search roll.

"Umm... I'm coming in now, i'm not emptied handed so like... umm... dont shoot me with a crossbow or anything."
DM note: Crossbows are not in use in Triplefang lands.  That said, the traps are suspiciously crossbowlike.

Snow leans her longspear up against the wall outside and knocks one more time before trying to enter the cottage to look around.

Snow enters and looks about and makes a decent job of noticing anything interesting.

12:25, Today: Snow rolled 17 using 1d20+7. Spot stuff.

If no one is around she does a brief search and tries not to be too nosy, but... its in her nature to be curious.

12:27, Today: Snow rolled 11 using 1d20+4. Search for stuff. 
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:32, Wed 30 Mar 2011.

The cottage door does not open.  Like a chest of valuables it seems to be locked.  Snow kneels down and peers in the keyhole.  It's dark inside.  The front door is quite solid.  Snow does notice the traps up above and decides to move to someplace the arrows are not aimed at.  She circles around to the back, fiddling with the shutters as she goes.  They are barred from the inside, but might be openable with a little trickery.  The cellar door in back is not nearly as sturdy as the front door.  It's held closed by a small exterior lock.  You could probably get the door open with a couple of whacks from a hatchet.  However, it's likely that the cellar is not connected to the rest of the cottage.

Snow picks up her long spear steps to one side and triggers the trap off while (presumeably) standing to one side.  Once that's done she'll go back to the door and glances over her shoulder as she slips a hair pin out to attack the lock with.

She grimaces as the rusty lock mangles her hair pin.  "Drat."

Glancing around she checks for a window to climb through being more careful this time about the traps now that she's found one.

---

13:35, Today: Snow rolled 8 using 1d20+3. disable device/lockpick.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:37, Wed 30 Mar 2011.

OK, this is all a little tricky.  Disable Device and Open Locks are two different skills.  You have Disable Device but not Open Locks, which is trained only so no lockpicking for you.

According to the description of Disable Device a simple trap is DC 20 and if you fail by more than 4 it goes off.  You missed by 12!  So I should be giving you a reflex save, but I'm going to be nice this time and say that the first of the 3 traps above the front door fires off when you tinkered with it, coming a little closer to hitting you than you'd like.  (You were standing far enough off to the side.)  This close call dissuades you from monkeying with the other two traps.

Do you have a method you'd like to use to undo an interior bar holding the shutters closed?  You feel safe that the windows are not trapped.

Farden winces as Snow barely dodges one trap. He decides to go over and check the window instead. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary, he'll get some tools out of his pack, and try and get the window open.

Take 20 on the open lock check, that's a 22.

Turning to where Farden is casually resting, she goes over and asks, "Do you find the other tribes are as disorganised as our little band? The boys wondering off and Snow trying to find a way into a place that is supposed to be friendly?" Glancing over her shoulder, she winces as the trap goes off and nearly hits Snow. "I think we are having one of those 'lets get into trouble' days. If trouble finds us, I'll send Moonlight to look after Snow, and go find the others."

Turning to Snow, she calls out, "Careful cousin, that nearly hit you!"

Farden looks up from his attempts to open the window. "Hey, it's not like we plan to steal from the guy. I just want to make sure he's not inside. We'll lock the doors and windows as soon as I check."

"Hello friend!"  Glumr waves and yells in a friendly voice to the burly man, wanting to get his attention before startling him.  "Be ye Pippin?  We've been sent by the harpers to find Pippin.  Can ye prove to be him?"   Glumr asks the man.



OCC - I dont like to do that... We all kind of try and play based only on what our characters know and not on what we as the gamer knows.    I like to read it like a novel where we get to see other characters who arent with the main character.  Makes it more fun that way.   And the GM plays it that way so he's not going to spoil any plot elements doing that way.  Just sayin'  :)
This message was last edited by the player at 19:53, Wed 30 Mar 2011.

With the right tools Farden works at the shutter until finally, a few minutes later, there's a wooden clatter inside and Farden pulls open the shutters.  Farden and Snow look at each other for a moment and then one or both of them scrabble up through the window into the cottage.  Enough light is let in the window to make out the basics.

The cottage is one room.  There are shelves along the wall you just climbed through.  The shelves are loaded down, floor ceiling with various tools, implements, weapons and a lot of arrows, with the exception of two books on very bottom shelf in one corner.  The back wall includes a fireplace which is not currently warm, surrounded by a few pots and spits.  There's a tinderbox and a messy pile of firewood.  There's also a bunch of small bones and trash bits of food strewn on the floor near the fireplace as well as a large barrel.  You're somewhat disturbed by a pair of bloody hooks hanging down by chains from the rafters near the back wall.
In the back corner is a pile of cloth and furs.  It looks like a nest but you can make out an old ratty blanket.   There are some coats, robes, and trousers hung from hooks along the side wall, and two wooden lockboxes on the floor.  In the front corner stands a well made table and single chair.  The table is next to the largest of the shuttered windows.  There are plates, knives, tools, and some half-built devices as well as an unlit lantern and an empty pitcher on the table.  Next to the door there are three cords.  You're guessing they trigger the traps on the roof.

What you do not see in here are any hermits.

"WHA.. ???" the man says jumping around to face Glumr and Mord.

At first he moved sideways as if to bolt and run but doesn't.  Instead he throws a small mammal carcass from his hand onto the ground and squints at the two Triplefang, edging slowly closer.  He draws a LONG knife.

"Who you said you was?  Harpers?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:43, Wed 30 Mar 2011.

"Right, he really isn't here. Out we go." Farden will get back out through the window, then help Snow back out. After making sure they haven't left any clues, he's going to close the window and do his best to lock it up again (or make it look like it is locked).

Snow might be more curious or nosey, so she can still do other things before you help her back out the window, if she'd like.

Once you're both back outside.  Farden closes the shutter most of the way with the wooden bar held in place by the thin tool you used to dislodge it.  You carefully slide the shutters closed and hear the bar click into place.  You're pleased, but also a little surprised that it worked the first time.

(Actually i dont recall saying i was entering, just looking for a window since the door was stubborn, but she'll just leave after a quick glance around.)

She follows Felden out lingering behind him, to fall in his shadow she'll see what's going on before coming out from around her bigger cuz.

Farden walks back to guard position. "Well, the house really is empty. Guess we wait and see if Mord and Glumr can track the guy down."

He settles in to wait for the others' return.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:54, Thu 31 Mar 2011.

Holly had taken the time to rub down Moonlight, and talk to the Eye, whilst waiting for someone to find someone. She wasn't worried about what the others were up to, as she hadn't had any restlessness from Moonlight, and he seemed quite capable of spotting trouble near the party.

With a little more spare time on her hands, and with Moonlight badgering her for an apple, she moved off to sit in a patch of long grass. Watching a group of ants going about their orderly lifes helped her relax a little after the days of hardship in the saddle. At least now she wasn't suffering as much as when they had started out from Silvergate with the horses.

Glumr holds his hands out in the universal sign of no harmful intent.  "Nay...  Not harpers.  We are simply messengers charted with delivering a letter.  The sender be a harper, but I promise you sir our intent is to simply deliver written word."

Glumr wonders why this man would seem so upset to hear from the harpers.  "What be you name sir?  I am Glúmr Triplefang and this beast of a man is Mord, a member of my extended family.  I promise you we have no ill intent.  We just wish to deliver our letter to its recipient, and perhaps share a meal if you have time to join us, else we'll be on our way to Crim."

The hermit inches forward, boldly brandishing the knife.  He sniffs at the air and moves closer while weaving side-to-side a bit.  Glumr and Mord stand mostly still as he approaches.

"Pippen, messenger, Pippen." He mutters.

When he's just beyond arm's reach Mord holds out the wrapped letter.  Pippen squints, peering at the package before snatching it.  He uses the knife to cut open the package and pulls the letter out from within.

Pippen tosses away the packing.  He straightens up and brushes his hair back away from his face.  You're surprised at the transformation that has come over him now that he's holding the letter.  Nothing physical has changed, but his whole manner and stance is different, less feral and more...  civilized?  It strikes you much like it would to see a dog stand on its hind legs and walk around like a man.  He clears his throat and begins to read the letter aloud.

"Pippen you bumbling, dimwitted nincompoop..."

"...if this letter finds its way to you alive it can only be due to a staggeringly improbable series of miracles that you have managed to feed and cloth yourself all these years without any functional human assistance.  Why I have entertained crowds in the marketplace, bringing them to tears with laughter at the simple notion of you being able to tie you bootlaces on your own.  So absurd is the image of you doing a single mundane daily task without grievous injury to yourself that even the word incompetence fails to do you justice.   Your total lack of any conceivably useful skills is rivaled only by your stubborn, witless foolhardiness.
More than likely you have found a pack of wolves with no sense of smell that are raising you as they would one of their own pups, even though you have a far poorer mental capacity than said pups and lack the common sense of a newborn," Pippen reads.

There is a fire kindling in Pippen's eyes as he pauses.  He grips the knife handle tightly, white knuckled.  Scowling, with his teeth somewhat grit, he continues reading the letter out loud.

"Never-the-less you have clearly done one thing right in your wretched failure of a life - leave our fine city.  The air is now more fresh and breathable without you pervasive stench.  Children are free to frolic in the streets.  The gods no longer glance away from Rankor for fear of laying eyes on their terrible, twisted, fetid, revolting creation.  Best of all, the populace is now a great deal smarter for not having to hear your imbecilic prattle.  There might be no worse torture than having to endure the mindless verbal drivel that passes for your anecdotes, or to bare witness to one of your countless agonizingly wrong theories.  Anyone within earshot of your tellings slowly has his reason and intellect drained away by the sheer stupidity of your constant stream of wrong-minded jabber, you irritatingly useless gasbag.  Additionally, your very voice is so grating on the ears that one find himself considering puncturing his own eardrums just to be free of it.  We are only just now calming the babies still crying from their last hearing of that nerve-grating hullabaloo emanating from your miasmic maw."

He stops again.  Anger clearly bubbling up, barely contained just below the surface.  There's also a hint of confusion as if something's missing.

"Looks like there's more on the back," Mord mentions helpfully.

Glumr is shocked to hear the contents of the letter, but not surprised considering its source.  "Don't heed that miserable cur's words."  Glumr says to Pippin, trying to offer him some comfort.  "Arthur is the most worthless man I've met.  He had nothing but a similar string of pleasantries for me and my companions.  His words carry no weight with me, nor should they with you."

I doesn't seem like Pippen has even heard Glumr's words.  He merely flips the letter over, blinks a few times and then continues reading.

"Try not to drop this letter you drooling, oafish, butterfingered knucklehead.  You have the reflexes of a stone statue and the agility of a lumbering, drunken hippo.  Your inept, graceless, awkward fumbling movements mark you as an unparalleled klutz so legendary that the minstrels sing of your maladroit muddlings in disorderly mistimed and inharmonious refrains that merely impart a fraction of your true inelegance."

"Still, the full measure of your clumsiness is rarely realized even by those who have the distinct misfortune to be around you by virtue of being vastly overshadowed by your appalling cowardice.  I cannot imagine a creature so timid and meek that it would not send shocks of terror up your weak, gelatinous spine causing you to turn tail and flee leaving behind a trail of screams and shrieks of fear so pusillanimous that it was cause even a least brash sissy to blush in embarrassment at the thought of having utter them.  Simply calling you gutless to your face is surely enough to cause you to piss yourself and tremble miserably as your eyes dart frantically searching for the most lily-livered escape route," Pippen furiously spits out the last few words, literally frothing.

"Alas, there is no longer any escaping these numerous pathetic deficiencies of your nature and makeup.  You must face the facts written so plainly here in front of your barely adequate eyes that you, Pippen, are a useless, loathed, ignorant, inane, noxious, repugnant, fallacious, honorless, ungainly dolt.

Sincerely,
  Arthur"

"Arthur..." he repeats. "ARTHUR!!!"

With that he flings the letter aside and mindlessly leaps at Glumr taking him fully by surprise and plunging his knife deep into Glumr's shoulder less than an inch from his neck.

Glumr takes 5 points of damage.  I need round one actions for Glumr and Mord.

In the absence of Mord's player, I would like Farden, Holly, or Snow to play Mord for this encounter.  First to respond gets to control Mord.  Just roll unmodified d20s and I'll adjust them with the proper modifiers.

Big man that Mord was, he didnt want to hurt Pippin just yet, at least not till he concluded that Glumr had suffered a fatal injury.

"Hey now... none of that.", the big man grumbles as he moves to restrain Pippin.

"We're just the messengers no need to get nasty about all this now be reasonable."

Normally, Mord should have been able to wrestle the smaller down with ease, but the suddeness of the attack caught Mord by surprise.

---

08:48, Today: Snow rolled 8 using 1d20. Mord Grapple Pippin to the ground.
+ BAB
+ str Mod.
+ dex Mod.
target number = Pippin's Defense.

(At least i think that's the way it works...)

"Ack!  Apparently this guy has never heard the saying 'Dont slay the herald'"  Glumr says to Mord in jest.  His shoulder hurting from the stab wound, Glumr draws his...

OCC - Will finish this post once I figure something out with the rules.

Pippen tries to slice Mord as he closes in, but Mord is expecting this and swiftly sidesteps the downward slash.  Mord grabs Pippen from behind wrapping one arm around Pippen's left arm and body, and gripping Pippen's right wrist with his other hand.  He squeezes Pippen hard, lifting him off his feet and knocking near all the wind out of him.  Pippin tries to stab Mord in the leg to get free, but Mord is too strong for him.

Pippen missed his attack of opportunity.   Mord succeeded in his touch attack and Pippen got such a miserable roll on his opposed grapple check that I'm not even going to make Mord roll for it.

Pippen took 5 points of non-lethal damage this round.  He's probably close to being safely knocked out.

Glumr can take his round 1 action as well as his round 2 action if he'd like or he can assist Mord in grappling Pippen.  This will give Mord an additional +2 to his grapple checks.

Mord has a number of round 2 options.  Such as trying to pin Pippen, grappling for non-lethal damage, or attacking Pippen with his own knife.  Mord is at +6 for grapple checks (+8 if Glumr joins in).  Pippen opposes with +2.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/comb...lAttacks.htm#grapple

"Calm down lil fella, i dont know my own strength and might break something if you struggle too hard."

---

Is there maybe an option to disarm him from a grapple?  If not pinning him down to keep him from hurting anyone would be the next logical effort...

21:20, Today: Snow rolled 4 using 1d20. Mord's generic dice roll for... whatever.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:21, Thu 07 Apr 2011.

...Fists out and punches Pippin square in the <POW!> nothing... Pippin squirms and the punch lands square in Mord's face.  "Whoopsie!" Glumr says in surprise.

Glumr rolled 4 using 1d20+3. It's Punchy!! - Critical Fail
Glumr rolled 8 using 1d20+3 - DC Fail
Glumr rolled 3 using 1d3.   - Mord's Damage

Glumr pulls back again to land another punch (Round 2) and this time hits Pippin right in the jaw.  "Better!" Glumr says to himself.

Glumr rolled 20 using 1d20+3.
Glumr rolled 3 using 1d3.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:29, Thu 07 Apr 2011.

Mord grunts, and says something along the line of, "It's a good thing you hit like a girl.", before making an effort to wrestle Pippin to the ground and pin him.

After a bit of scuffling Mord and Glumr manage to subdue the mad hermit.  He slumps to the ground and his knife falls from his hand.  Mord is able to pin an unconscious Pippen with ease.

Glumr grabs his knife and puts it on his person where it wont accidentally cut himself and then pulls some rope out to bind Pippin.

Glumr wrapped some rope around the knife to keep it from cutting
Rope bind check waits for escape by pippin, so no roll.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:22, Fri 08 Apr 2011.

Mord makes a comment along the lines of...

"Hey that was fun... two out of three, except no knives this time, it's less fun if theres blood involved.  Holly!  Glumr's  been stabbed."

As loud as Mord is he's no where near close enough for Holly to hear him.  You're well beyond shouting distance of the cottage.

Go ahead and roll the rope use check.

Glumr rolled 22 using 1d20+9. Bind Pippin.
(There's a +10 against 'Escape Artist' roll, giving pippin a 32 DC.)

Glumr binds Pippin, leaving his feet free so that he may walk.  "Let's take you back to the rest of my friends and see why you are so stabby"  Glumr says "and so we can get me patched up.  Come on Mord, let's take him back."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:55, Mon 11 Apr 2011.

After tying Pippen up you splash some water on his face to revive him and hoist him to his feet.  He's groggy at first but soon comes to his senses.

"Stranger..."  Pippen mutters.  "Dint mean to stab you."

"Got carried away."

You can have any or all of the conversation with Pippen on the way, but I'll assume you're back at the cottage to get the others involved and move things along.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:11, Mon 11 Apr 2011.

"Well you should have listened to me instead of what that bag of wind wrote" Glumr looks cross. "Now I'm all bloody and you're all tied up.  What was that all about anyway?"

"It about when I go free and go right to Rankor to crack his skull.  That what."

Pippen is still pretty steamed, but his anger is no longer misguidedly focussed on you.

Holly sees that Mord and Glumr are on their way back, and with someone between them. Calling out to get Snow and Farden's attention, she notices that Glumr seems to be favouring one side and that the big man between them is constrained. Slipping quickly forward, she asks "What happened you two?" just as she notices blood on Glumr. Glancing worriedly at the new visitor she is glad to see his has been tied up and quickly moves in to see to Glumr.

"You OK Glumr? How bad is the cut?", she asks as she considers whether he needs to receive her healing powers or just stitching up.

Glumr's stab wound is deep and still bleeding, but not life threatening at all.  You think it'd heal naturally with proper bandaging and a couple of days of complete rest, but CLW would do the trick a lot faster.

Farden took in the tableau and shook his head. "Let me guess, Arthur was his usual charming self in that letter of his. And this is Pippen. Good to meet you. Have you cooled down enough for us to untie you?"

Pippen looks around at all the people and animals.  The dogs start barking at the hermit, then at each other.  Then Jeff starts chasing Mutt around barking at him.  Pippen grunts and kicks at the ground.  He looks up at Farden as Farden is finishing his question and nods Yes.  Pippen then turns to stare at the cottage.

With the wound deep, Holly is concerned that it might be dangerous and casts a healing spell over it to seal up the inner wound at least. When she calls forth the energy to seal the wound, she is taken aback by the strength of the positive energy as she watches the wound seal completely. While doing her work, she takes a good look over their new captive.

[Holly casts CLW on Glumr. 1d8+3 for a roll of 11 HP replaced by CLW spell.]

Glumr rubs his shoulder, now healed, and moves it around to test it out.  "Thank you Holly... Much better".  Glumr turns to Pippin and moves to untie him.  "Now if you don't behave ye self, you're likely to end up a pin cushion from my arrows...  unless this big fella tears you in half first.  So swear to your word that you'll behave and I'll cut you free."

"In the meantime, I'll help break camp. We came to deliver a letter, it's been delivered. We have other things to do."

Farden is going to pack up and get mounted for continuing the journey.

Pippen more mumbles than swears an oath, but they're sincere mumbles, so you untie him.  There's not much camp to break.  Your group is ready to go without much delay, but you're surprised at how quickly Pippen has grabbed supplies from inside his cottage.  He bolts out the front door, pausing only to lock it tight, carrying a pack and an axe without so much as a "goodbye".

Around dusk you ride into Crim.  The market stalls are closing down and packing up.  People are either heading home or filtering into the pub and beer garden for the evening.  Glumr and Mord have fond memories of several days spent in the Crim beer garden.  You hitch the horses outside the common house and make note that there's plenty of room for your group for the night.

Here's a refresher list of some of the folks you met last time you were in Crim:
Baywald - Elder
Bid - Hunter
Lady Gilfa - Merchant
Maureen - Merchant
Tora - Warrior leader (camped in the wilds)
Harj - Druid (with Tora)
Balki - Runner (with Tora)

Glumr moves to stop Pippin "Wait...  I know you're planning on going after that cur, but you should just let it go.  Dont let his words anger you, he had nearly the same thing to say to us when we met him.  Just ignore the bastard."

Holly steps forward and places her hand gently on Glumr's arm. "I suspect that annoying man desperately needs Pippin's help, and knows that in his words he would get Pippen there quicker. We do not know their previous history. Let him go. He will calm down before he gets there."

----------

Looking around the village, Holly tries to see if any of the Tora band are in. She would like to have a chance to talk with Harj again, and perhaps take the opportunity to explore more of the local terrain. Certainly her training with Moonlight was continuing well, and he seemed happy enough at the moment in the group of other horses.

"Are we to visit Tora again?" she asks as they move in.

Glumr and Holly's wise words are all but lost on Pippen who barely breaks stride to hear them.  He is a man with singleminded intent.

You do find Rutland, one of Tora's warriors, in the village.  Tora's band is not in Crim, though.  Reserve warriors are swapped in from time to time and Rutland has recently gotten some time off.  He could take you to see Tora if you need to and could probably answer any questions you have about how things are going in the southern borderlands.

Farden is just going to relax and look around, it's been a while since he was last in Crim.

( * Sorry for absence * )

Snow nabs Mutt and Jeff by the collar and bring them both to heel, "Stop that guys."

Her cousins had gotten into another scuff which was really no surprise.  She watches quietly for now to see what had happened.  Holly was tending to Mord's Glumr's knife wound and she was well suited to the task and needed no help from Snow.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:23, Mon 18 Apr 2011.

Glumr is going to clean up a bit and then go to the Ale house.  In the morning he is determined to find Nathan the woodsmith (and will probably inquire about him at the Ale house).

Holly finds out that Rutland is in the village, and tries to remember which one of the hunting party he was. Not too sure, she asks around, wanting to find out if anything unusual had been happening in the area, and to catch up on gossip while she is doing it. She is not sure of the others want to go out to see Tora, but she is also interested in where they can safely go so she can spend some time training Moonlight with a new trick. He had gotten the hang of defending people, or rather the eye, and now she hoped he might follow that with some attacking skills. Remembering back to the cats attack, she had to admit he probably didn't need much training for that. Her concern was when his instincts didn't teach him when to act.

Farden will go over to the tavern, order an ale, and keep an ear open for interesting bits of gossip. He'll also ask the bartender if anything particularly interesting has been happening.

Unsurprisingly, most or all of our adventurers end up in the beer garden.  The evening's festivities and social interaction is just getting rolling.  You all take your place together at one of the two long tables.  One of the pub's young ladies swings by to greet you.  Your choices are ale or wine, both served up in a "boot", a tall wide mug the size of a boot.

The waitress will stay and chat for a short while, but she's got other customers to serve too, so she's not up for much conversation.  The bartender is inside the pub.  He'll talk at length about brewing spirits, but isn't much for idle gossip.  Your best bet is to chat up the other customers.  Some of you are better at this than others.

You can probe specifically for information about Jacob (Gather Information, specify Jacob in the roll description DC 17), or just go for the general dirt. (Gather Information, specify General - no DC)

One of the merchants drinking in the beer garden tells Glumr that Nathan gave up his farm several years ago and built a house / workshop for himself, his new wife, and another couple.  Nathan is an excellent craftsman.  He is plenty busy, so someone else is better off with his farm anyhow.  His workshop shouldn't be hard to find.  It's over by the school and looks similar - not surprising, Nathan built the schoolhouse too.

Rutland is one of Tora's frontline skirmishers.  He admits that he has a bad eye, which keeps him from being an effective archer.  Holly remembers him being there at the camp, but there was little else remarkable about him to distinguish him in that short encounter.  Rutland says that Tora's band is doing well.  The goblins haven't made any organized offensive moves recently.  Disorganized raiders and stragglers are still a fact of life, but are growing less and less common.  Heinrich sent 5 more warriors, which means they'll have more reserves.  Tora is still looking for an elusive leader so she can split the band into two units.

Farden seems more interested in relaxing after their journey, and doesn't try to hard to pick up information.

12:21, Today: Farden rolled 7 using 1d20-1. gather info (general).

Glumr enjoys the ale and tries to spark up some conversation about Jacob.

Glumr rolled 12 using 1d20. Gather Information Jacob.

Holly spends some time discussing things with Rutland, without any real need for information. In the end she turns the subject to other matters and general things going on in the world and the town.


[19:42, Today: Holly rolled 19 using 1d20. Gather Info - General. ]

Snow decides to order the same drink Mord orders.  She wasnt going to come close to finishing it, regardless of what she ordered.  She would nurse her drink through out the night, and pour bits of it to add into Mords drink as the evening wore on, often swapping drinks with Mord outright, when he did one of his famous chugs to put a dent in the cup.

She would spend the rest of the evening mixing and mingling, with a mostly empty 'boot' picking up as much local gossip as she could with well positioned easedropping and occassional input from herself to nudge wayward conversations that sounded interesting and potentially useful.



12:38, Today: Snow rolled 14 using 1d20+5. Gather Info.

Strange that only Glumr asked around about the guy you came looking for.  Perhaps the rest of the party is being subtle and trying not to tip the fact they're looking for this harper.  If you do have a plan it might be a good idea to discuss it with the group so you can all get on the same page and work together.





After an evening of talk and drink you regroup outside the common house.

Glumr meets up with his friends to discuss how their evenings went.  "Well my friends, I asked around about Jacob and found that nobody I spoke with knew anyone by that name or by his description.  A pretty lady told me some harper folklore, but nothing to help us."

Glumr shrugs.  "I did find out about Nathan.  Tomorrow I will go see him about the cottage.  Did the rest of you ask around about Jacob or Harpers?"

"Not directly," Holly says, "But it seems that there is a stranger in town who might fit the bill. Has challenged Stenoiff to a duel. Stenoiff is one of the men Heinrich sent down. The challenger was a 'charming man' apparently, which fits Genessa's description. Duel is at noon. Might be worth a look."

Holly wasn't into blood sports, or anything like fighting, but it might be interesting to see if this was indeed Jacob.

"Sounds better than anything I got. I'll be there at noon. Although why a man on the run would draw attention to himself like that is beyond me."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:12, Thu 21 Apr 2011.

Snow shrugs, "I didnt learn much.  I mostly found out theres going to be a brawl of some sort that the locals are excited about tommorow.  Also... some odd bits about the goblins, but not much useful about... you know who."

There's time for the party to go see Nathan well before noon and still have plenty of time to come back to see this duel.  Glumr, and anyone who would like to join him approaches what you think is Nathan Triplefang's workshop, but you are a touch uncertain.  You speak with a woman who is outside tending plants.  She's a small dark skinned woman with long, straight, black hair and a nomadic eastern nomadic accent.  She introduces herself as Salla Ray Triplefang, Nathan's wife.

"It is always good to meet more clanmates.  Nathan is visiting Baywald, but I'm sure he'll be back soon.  Do you have time to wait?" she says.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:13, Wed 04 Apr 2012.

"I plan on going to the dual..  It's the best lead we've got right now"  Glumr tells his friends before he heads over to Nathan's.

----

At Nathan's...

"Lady... I've got nothing but time"  Glumr says to her with a wink.  "What do you reckon 'Soon' will be?  Today, tomorrow?"

Salla laughs.

"Oh I'm sure it'll be today.  He won't miss lunch.  We have his favorite lamb and onion cakes."

You sit down on a stool made from a simple log stump and chat a while with Nathan's wife for less than an hour before he returns.

"Nathan, this is Glumr from Volge," she introduces you to him.  "I'm sure he's yet another needs something built.  By the look of him I'd guess... a barn or stables."

Nathan shakes you hand.  He's a tall, handsome fellow with a solid build but wouldn't be mistaken for a warrior.  He's dressed drably with a many-pocketed leather vest.

"What can I do for you, Glumr?"

"Cooking?", Snow perks.  She was always interested in watching someone new cook to pick up little nuances on different ways to do things with food.

"Can i help?  I'd like to watch and maybe see how you season the lamb and make the cakes."

Snow's inclined more to help out and learn than try anything too adventurous in someone elses kitchen.

---

22:19, Today: Snow rolled 11 using 1d20+6. Cooking Check.

Snow introduces herself to Salla Ray Triplefang.

"Sure.  They're easy to make, but you can never have too many cooks."

When Nathan arrives all four of them go outside to talk.

Let's move this to the side conversation item.  That one hasn't gotten use any yet and it's feeling unwanted.  Also, we can move things along to the duel and the other players will not have to wait.

A crowd of dozens has gathered at the drilling field to see a duel between stocky, shortish, black-haired Steinolf Triplefang and a dark clad stranger who has not yet arrived.  Rumors swirl about the reason for the duel.  One claims the stranger killed Steinolf's goat.  It seems unlikely that he'd have a goat with him if he'd just been sent down here this month.  Another rumor claims the duel is because the stranger swept away the girl Steinolf fancied, but the most believable one you've heard so far was that Steinolf poured beer on the stranger.

Eventually the stranger shows up.  He is indeed dark clad, wearing impeccably clean black leathers and a wide brimmed hat similar to Glumr's.  He does not meet Genessa's description of Jacob.


"Alright oaf, you know how this is done.  Let's make it quick," shouts the stranger.

"You asked for it," Steinolf barks in response.


The thick, muscled warrior hefts his axe and charges at the stranger.  The stranger draws a short club with a heavy, metal, end and blocks Steinolf's two-handed overhead chop.  Before Steinolf can pull his axe back for another swing the stranger pulls a long knife seeming out of nowhere with his left hand.  Steinolf was not anticipating an attack from the left hand and is caught by surprise as the blade slips between his ribs.

Steinolf winces and grunts, pulling back away from the knife.  The stranger moves in closer and whacks Steinolf on the leg with the heavy club.  The blow is just a glancing one.  After trading ineffective, most defensive swings Steinolf is able to land a light cut on the stranger, who immediately pounces on the warrior, striking him solidly along the ear and side of the neck with his club.  Steinolf is dazed and injured.  By the rules of Faol Batte he must go down now and accept defeat.  He slumps honorably to the ground.
The stranger straightens up and gives the gathered crowd a short bow.  He gives snow a smile and nod before turning to depart.
The crowd is a little unhappy about the results, but they enjoyed the fight.  A couple of kids are helping Steinolf up and people are either milling about or heading back to their regular activities.

Farden turns away from the fight. "Entertaining, but not who we're looking for." he says to the others.

Holly moves towards the stranger, already seeing that Steinolf is being attended to.

"Do you need someone to look after those scratches stranger?" She says as a way of opening up the conversation. She vaguely remembers seeing him before, back in Volge, but more than that is missing from her memory at the moment. She is also interested in finding out what the reason was for the duel. From what she had seen, both participants had acted with honour.

"By the way, my name is Holly."

Farden turned around as he saw Holly heading for the stranger and sighed. Well, getting to know the fellow could lead to some information. He just hoped they didn't get sidetracked.

Glumr notices the stranger's recognition of Snow.  "What's that about?" he asks her "Do you know him?"

"Greetings my dear Holly.  Your impressive reputation precedes you," he says taking your hand and kissing it lightly.  "I am Leonardo, but you may call me Leon.  It is very kind of you to offer your healing expertise.  Shall we adjourn to the nearby shrine?"

There are three shrines in or around Crim, but you suspect that he's referring to the Shrine of Ehlonna which is the closest to the drilling field.

"As it turns out there is a matter I'd like to discuss with you and your cousins.  It appears that we share a common problem."

All of you are close enough to hear at least the gist of the conversation except for Mord who has wandered over to give Steinolf his appraisal of what he did wrong.

"We've met briefly.", Snow makes a non commital shrug, "It looks like Holly is off to chit chat with him.  I'll make sure she doesnt get into too much trouble.  I guess you and Farden look in on the other fellow?"

Without really waiting for agreement, Snow trots off after Holly to avoid being left too far in the dust.

"Actually, given how he handles his blades, if there is trouble I'd better be on hand. Glumr, you and Mord handle Nathan."

Farden will follow Holly and the man, and see what the fellow had to say.

Snow stop in mid trot and shrugs, "If theres trouble it wont be blades that solve the issue.  Though i suspect there wont be any."

"Not ideal, but I suppose i can keep Glumr out of trouble.", Snow gives Glumr a look as if he were a terrible chore to be dealt with.

She waves him on, "Lets go then."

"Nathan's been dealt with.  Why dont we all accompany them and hear what the man has to say.  He said he has business for all of us.  Let us all hear what the business is."  And with that Glumr walks off after Holly and gestures for the rest of the group to follow.

"Leonardo." Holly thinks on it for a moment. "I think I have seen you in Volge before today. But let us discuss this at the shrine. I'm sure some of my cousins will join us."

With that she moves towards the shrine she assumes he means, and looks over her shoulder to see who is joining her. Seeing Moonlight in the distance, she hopes he is keeping out of trouble, and then turns towards her new acquaintance.

Crim's shrine to Ehlonna is a peaceful spot.  There is a light wooden, vine covered structure to protect the altar and seating without blocking too much sunlight.  It has an open, yet sheltering feel to it.  The sparse decorations consist mainly of braiding and knotwork as well as unicorn imagery.  There's also a life sized statue of Ehlonna with her sword drawn dramatically at the altar.

Leonardo goes over to the priest to make a small donation and say something short and quiet to him.  The priest nods and goes off to attend to other business leaving you relatively alone with Leon.

He sits down on a bench where the four of you can sit nearby.

"I am about to state some assumptions.  Please pardon me if I've jumped to any wrong conclusions," he says politely.

He leans forward towards you and speaks softly but clearly as if letting you in on a secret.

"You have recently made a trip down to Rankor Heights.  Your return to Crim is a natural one as it is on your way back to Volge, but I can't help but notice that you did not depart in the morning as I suspect you would if Crim was merely a stop along the way.  This leads me to believe you have business here."

He has a confidence about him with a hint of conspiratorial grin on his face as he reveals his theory.

"Furthermore, there are others here from Rankor.  Since the Harper's Guild is based in Rankor it is not too big a leap to assume you might be working with them.  Am I right so far?"

Leon's accent is ever so slightly mysterious.  Whether you notice it or not, his words have a way of captivating you.  It's as though they are more interesting than if someone else had said them.

As Glumr enters the shrine, he stops at the alter and offers a short prayer to Ehlonna in thanks for his role in the world.

While listening to Leonardo, Glumr rolls up some leaf and lights it, blowing small smoke rings into the air as he listens to the stranger.  He is intrigued that the man knows so much about them as the group has done little to make their travels noteworthy.

Glumr decides to listen to his cousins as Snow and Holly seem to have some repertoire rapport with the man.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:52, Wed 27 Apr 2011.

Leonardo coughs a bit and waves a hand past his face briefly, giving Glumr a sideways glance, and waiting for a response from the group.

"Just because two sets of people have recently come from Rankor don't mean anything. We are returning home, after all. So why don't you tell us what you really know?" asks Farden mildly.

Leon regards Farden doubtfully.

Farden, please make a bluff roll DC 23 (yikes!)

OOC: Not even gonna bother to roll, there's no way I can make that.

Holly smiles, happy to see the competition, and perhaps happy to let it go on for a while. She had expected Snow to step in, but now she did.

"Leon, you have made some assumptions there, that I would say are nearly correct. Though we have been working with the Harpers for longer than that. I'll explain that later, once you prove yourself. For now I will ask what you know of a man named Jacob?" Holly then describes the man they are looking for.

"Can I ask what makes you so interested in the Harpers?"
[We have been working with the Harpers for a long time, because we have been working with the Eye!]

Leon nods.

"Yes.  Jacob is the centerpoint of this situation.  The bard has put together a small organization of grifters and other lawless types.  As chance would have it, Elias, one of my former students, has joined up with Jacob.  While I do not condemn this choice, I do insist that he act as my agent while inside this organization.    So far he has been completely lax in this duty and has leaked no information."

"I can point you directly towards Jacob if you will agree to bring Elias to me,  'kidnap him' if you will.  I think he will see reason when I speak to him directly."

"I'm sure this last point is clear, but I'll state it specifically.  Do not accidently kill him.  He's no good to me dead."

He looks around at you, still not as receptive to his plan as he hoped.

"This is good, is it not?  I show you to the man you seek and you bring me back my apprentice.  We all come out ahead."

"Knockin' people out and tying them up is one of my specialties"  Glumr chimes in.  "I have to say this sounds like a good deal in exchange for that information. Can you tell us about Elias?  Is he a mountain of a man?  Worst case we take him out in a fight and have to patch him back to health.  I cant speak for all of us, but I'm in."

Glumr turns to his party "Anyone against this course of action?" he asks.

Holly looks over at Glumr and wipes her hand down her face to give herself a second to think. The chance to get to Jacob sounds too good to be true, especially as it only involves a small case of kidnapping! Looking back at Leon, she sighs, "It is not as simply as that though. If you say Elias is free to make his own decisions, then it seems he has done so. Unless he has broken an oath then I will not force him back to you. I have no real idea who you are, or what plans you might have for Elias. For that reason alone I would need more information. Another point is why are you seeking information on Jacob and his little band?"

In addition she asks, "What skills does Elias bring to Jacob?"

"Elias is not overly imposing and powerful like your companion Mord.  However, you'll find that he fights in a skillfully unorthodox manner."

He continues on to give you a physical description of Elias so you might recognize him.



Leon laughs amicably.

"Now now Holly, I am not going to torture or imprison the man.  I fully expect he will speak freely to me.  I am his mentor not some cruel overlord."

"I do not know the extent of what Jacob's group is up to.  All I can gather is that they are built to infiltrate, manipulate, and and possibly intimidate.  My student is skilled in persuasion and misdirection.  He is but a talented novice at the craft, but would fit right in.  It is likely that you know a great deal more than I do about Jacob.  If you'd care to let me in on any of it I'd appreciate it.  Until I talk to Eli I'm afraid I am in the dark."

"You have no idea who I am?  I am humble Leonardo," he says with a seated bow. "A perceptive man with freedom, knowledge, and a wonderful collection of unique skills.  I trade favors and position myself to be useful.  I am a man in control of his own destiny.  What I am *not* is a spy, a fanatic, a sinister agent, or a threat to you."

"Suspicion is a important trait, my dear, but do not let it get in the way here.  I am hiding nothing," he says holding his arms wide as if to somehow indicate full disclosure.  "What I propose is simple and straight forward, laid out before you.  It benefits us all."

Glumr rolled 5 using 1d20+2. Motive?

"Does that lay any of your fears to rest Holly?" Glumr asks her.  "I think this is a good opportunity for us."

"He still hasn't really answered my question on why he is so interested in Jacob and his little band." Holly frowns as she looks at Glumr, "BUT. I agree this is an opportunity for us, and one I will not upset by not agreeing to ask Elias to return with us and speak with him."

Holly moves forward and carries out the healing required to bring Leon back for full health and remove the ravages of the duel. She had promised, and healing him would not compromise her in any way. She would heal anyone she felt needed it, even if they were being more cryptic than she would have liked.

Holly looks at all of the others and adds, "You can tell him what you want about Jacob, from what we know. But not everyone is as worthy as a cousin", before moving off and giving a whistle to Moonlight, "I need a run, but will meet you back at the village in an hour." With that she moves off at a slow walk, before slowly increasing her speed as she meets up with Moonlight.

Holly let many thoughts run through her mind as she left. She didn't trust this man, for some reason beyond her being able to put into words. At least she knew Snow could keep the boys in check by herself. As to the other feelings running through her mind and body at the time, she was happy to keep them to herself. If it came to it, she knew she could rely on Snow to understand.

Letting out a holler, she caught Moonlight side with a playful tap and ran alongside him until she began to blow hard. It always cleared her mind to run like this with her friend beside her. Pulling the run into a long arc, she prepared to move back towards the village and a clean up.

[Holly uses an appropriate spell, either cure minor or cure light, to remove the damage done in the duel and return Leon to full health.]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:08, Fri 29 Apr 2011.

Am I right to assume Holly storms off without doing any healing?  She started this entire interaction by offering that.

Time for the group as a whole to either agree to this or not.  If not what's your plan?  Is there a plan?

Leon looks to Snow after Holly leaves.  "You've been awfully quiet.  Surely you don't doubt my motives.  See if you can talk some sense into your cousin.  This is a good opportunity for both you and I."
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:06, Fri 29 Apr 2011.

Holly post updated to include healing as appropriate. She did promise...

"My sincere thanks," Leon says flexing his completely mended elbow. "I'm sorry we could not see eye to eye on this matter with my student.  Perhaps things will still work out for the best."

"I think we should take Leon up on the offer.  We've got little else to go on to find our man."  Glumr says to his companions.  "Besides, sounds like these folks are not good honest folk.  My mother always told me 'You ride with outlaws, you die with outlaws' and in this case we're just bringing him back here.  Hardly something to loose sleep over."

It has been a week (real time, not game time) since Leon proposed to tell you where you can find Jacob in exchange for nabbing his student Elias and bringing him back.  Holly was not pleased with those terms, Glumr was.  There has been plenty of time for the group to come to some sort of consensus on this subject.  Since that hasn't happened, I'm going to force the game in the direction of advancing the plot.

"I can vouch for Leon," says Snow.  "He's not family, but I've trusted him before with no harm coming of it."

This elevates Leon from stranger to former ally in Farden's eyes.  He nods.  "OK, I'm in."


"Good," says Leon with a relaxed smile.  "There's an old burial site less than two hours north of here on foot.  It hasn't been used in generations, but it's full of tunnels and passageways.  By now the smell should be no worse than any other subterranean location.  It is secluded and defensible.  I'm not sure what they plan to use the site for, but I do know that it's a meeting place.  Jacob should be there now, as should Elias and presumably others.  I surmise that their business will not take long to conduct and they will once again scatter on their separate ways, so time is of the essence.  I will return here to the shrine between dusk and midnight the next few days to see how things have gone and hopefully speak to Elias."

Leonardo has given you a detailed description of Elias and good directions to the burial site.  You also have, from Genessa, a description of Jacob, and a rough idea of what the songbook looks like.

It's quite early in the afternoon and you're all fully healthy and well rested.

Holly returns after spending some time with Moonlight, and searches out Snow to find out what Leon had said. On hearing of the shrine to the north, she considers for a moment, and says, "In that case we better go scout it out. If we leave now we should be able to reach it before sunset, even without using horses. We could ask one of locals what the terrain is like out that way".

She still thinks the deal was a bad one, but was always willing to back up her cousins when it came down to it.

One of the farmers from north of the village tells you that the land out by her is grasslands much like the vast majority of the Triplefang lands.  There's a very mild upward slope as you go north and the area you describe is higher ground than the valley to the east.  There's only one small creek of note which accounts for the scarcity of farms up that way, but it's good grazing land and you can sometimes find wild herds on that high ground.

She hasn't heard of any burial grounds to the north.

OOC: Sorry for not posting earlier.

Farden would have been in favor of the deal, the only problem for him being whether they could trust the man. When Snow vouches for him, that removed his last doubts, and he came down in favor of the deal.

When the expedition sets out, he doesn't object to going on foot, even though he is the slowest in his heavier gear. He was obviously not worried about walking in armor. He's going to bring up the rear, and let the stealthier members scout ahead.

"I could ride part way there, scout the area, and come back or meet you half way.  We should take a peek before we do anything so we know what we're up against.  I should be able to sneak in undetected and meet up with you.  We should take action just after dusk."

"I think it's a bad idea to split up.  Little good comes from spliting up when youre not in a land youre familiar with.  If we go, we should go together.", snow comments quietly not really having alot to say at the moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:49, Fri 06 May 2011.

Farden nods. "I agree with Snow on this."

"That is fine and probably smarter and safer.  Let's go together and get close to the place.  Once we get there, you all can hide and keep an eye on me from a distance while I take a close look.  I should be able to hide and move silently so I will be undetected.  I'll figure out what's going on and come back so we can plan our attack."

"That works better than losing you out in the wilds cousin." Holly says, glad that everyone seems to have learn the lesson in keeping together.

Once you've solidified a plan you set out on foot.  (Now would be a good time to mention any gear you normally carry that you'd like to leave on the cart or any items from the cart you'd like to take with you.)  The walk is easy and pleasant even though you face a mild uphill grade most of the way.  When you get nearby the site you see a small building on a not-too-distant hilltop.  From here it looks like a temporary shelter typically crafted by area nomads.  Leonardo didn't mention any buildings or camps, but his directions do indicate that the burial ground should be somewhere within sight and to this side of that hilltop.  The grasses are high and it's tricky to find a hole in the ground until you're very near it, but Leonardo said there was a small stone arch marking the entrance.

You hunker down in the grasses.  Even the eye bobs down out of view.  Glumr can sneak out ahead from here and either scout the hilltop structure or search for the stone arch/hole in the ground.  He'll be within sight and shouting range in case of trouble.

I need a Hide roll for Glumr.
I also need to know whether Glumr is checking out the structure on the hill first or looking for the entrance first.
If Glumr is looking for the entrance I need a Spot or Search roll.
Anyone with a +5 or better spot may attempt a DC25 Spot check from here.

Farden draws a javelin and readies his shield, and he settles in to wait while Glumr scouts ahead.

[09:19, Today: Holly rolled 19 using 1d20+8. Spot check vs DC25. ]

Holly takes a few seconds to take in the lay of the land, and whether the temporary shelter looks lived in at the moment, before settling into the long grass and letting her hands entwine the grasses a little and dig into the earth as she waits. She can see that the information was right, with a little more water available, this could indeed be good land for the clan.

"Be careful cousin." She says to Glumr before he sets out.

"I'm going to go check out the structure first and make sure that everything is clear before checking out the entrance.  You should be able to keep an eye on me and see if I run into any trouble."  Glumr says to his friends.  "If I do run into some, I'll pull out my ever burning torch to signal I need your help"



Glumr puts one of his healing potions into a pocket in his leathers and takes his backpack.

Glumr rolled 23 using 1d20+10. (Hide while I check things out.)

Holly suggests, "Might be better to run back to us, so we can ambush them with my entangling spell. This grass gives us an advantage, so lets use it."

Glumr nods to Holly and crouches low to move out.  You see the grasses shift as he makes his way towards the hill, but soon lose sight of even that as a light breeze blows across the field.  It's calming, sitting out here with only the quiet sounds of nature around you.

As Glumr slips stealthily up the hillside he gets a better look at the structure.  It's made of crude posts and a stitched hide tarp.  There's a campsite set up around it and maybe a small dying fire.  Glumr hears movement and ducks down out of sight.  There's a man, nearly the age of the elders, in grey pants and a cloth robe that hasn't seen much wear.  He doesn't meet the descriptions of Elias or Jacob in the least, both of which are much younger men.  The robed man stretches idly and sits down on the slope of the hill just out of Glumr's vision.  After a few minutes of waiting, Glumr scoots forward even so slowly until he can once again see the man.  He's just sitting there gazing off east doing nothing.

Farden just sits tight, waiting for Glumr to return.

Glumr sneaks back to the group and reports on the old man.  He adds "I'm not sure what he's doing.  He could be a lookout or he could just be passing the time.  I dont think he's our man.  Based on his position, I dont think we can find the entrance without him noticing us.   If you guys back me up, just in case things go wrong, I think I can sneak up behind him and subdue him with a rope and leave him all tied up.  Then we're free to search out the entrance."

Glumr pauses "The other option is I could sneak past him and try and find the entrance.  Depending on where it lies maybe we could get to it without being observed.  I dont think all of us would be able to sneak past him as I did.  What do you all think we should do?  I vote for subduing him."

Holly agrees to having him subdued, as long as Glumr understands that he isn't to kill the man unless there is no other option. She knows there is a chance that the man is a lookout, and it that is the case she hopes Glumr is successful without making their prey aware of their presence.

"Killin a man who doesnt need killin is the last thing I'd do" Glumr reassures Holly.

Snow is travelling light, she's left her backpack on the cart along with mutt and jeff who she orders to 'guard' the cart.  They both settle down happily and look pretty lazy but, Snow knows they'll get unfriendly if strangers come anywhere near the cart now.  She leaves her mess kit, but carries the rest of her 'travel' gear with her.

She has doubts about sending Glumr but suspects they would let her go so she settles and watchs Glumr move on ahead with quiet studious concentration.  Her eyes narrow slightly as they flicks slightly left and right watching the field GLumr is moving through for activity or dangers.

---

20:51, Today: Snow rolled 24 using 1d20+7. Spot check.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:52, Wed 11 May 2011.

Farden shrugs. "I'm no good for sneaking. Want me to go up openly and distract the fellow, or shall I stay here and keep an eye out?"

"Just follow a bit behind so that when I jump him, you can rush up and give me a hand binding him.  If you could gag him to make sure he doesnt alert the other subdue him, I think we should be able to pull it off"  Glumr says

Wow, that was close, Eagle Eyes!


Glumr and Farden loop out the long way to the campsite, using the hill itself as cover.  When they get close Farden drops way back and Glumr sneaks up ahead.  Glumr gets his rope ready and moves into position behind the older man, who is now standing and drinking from a waterskin.

I need another Hide roll from Glumr.  I'll also need a Rope Use roll.  Whether things go well or go wrong, Farden is about 200 feet behind Glumr.  He can quad move for 3 rounds to arrive and help.

"I could take take him out without killing him if you want, and probably with more certainty than Glumr...", Snow offers talking as if to no one in particular as she kept an eye out for trouble.

A little sneaking... a little spellwork... and a good whack with the hilt of her dagger was likely going to subdue the old guy with little more than a headache Snow thought.

If Snow would like to join Glumr in sneaking up on the old guy she can make a Hide roll also.  The two of you will only be as  hidden as the lower of these two rolls, however.  Also, anyone who would like to tag along on this mission can go with Farden without a Hide check.  There's no point in leaving anyone behind.

Holly goes as far as she thinks is safe, and then waits with Farden.

Glumr prepares some loops of rope and hides behind the man.  When ready, Glumr springs forward throwing the loops around the man and yanking him backwards to take him down quietly.

Glumr rolled 27 using 1d20+10. Hide from old man.
Glumr rolled 16 using 1d20+9.

Glumr thinks he has it well in hand, so Snow is incline to exhibit a little faith and not argue the point and let him go.

The entire crew moves into position a short sprint away from the campsite as Glumr sneaks up on the old guy in the gray pants and new robes.  Glumr readies a wide triple coil with a slip knot and pounces on the man seemingly from nowhere.  In one fluid move he tosses the loops of rope over the man's body and around his arms.  The man struggles.

"Hey!  What the heck is going on here?" he exclaims.

Glumr pulls the coils tight, pinning the man's arms to his sides, and yanking him off balance.  He tumbles onto his butt and Glumr threads the loose end of the rope back, through, and around his wrists, eventually binding them behind his back and tying the rope off around his waist.

There isn't any need to sprint to cover the distance in a hurry.  Glumr has the situation in hand, but the rest of you can make your way over to the campsite.

The man finally gets a good look at the mysterious rope artist.

"What's the meaning of this, you brute?" the old guy demands.

Snow waves her cousins on ahead, she gets up and follows along though more slowly.  She's wary this feels too 'easy' to her.

Farden jogs closer, but at the same time his eyes are scanning all around him, in case there is someone else nearby.

"Keep an eye out to make sure we've not been heard"  Glumr says to his friends in a hushed voice.

Glumr bends down on the man and puts his hand over his mouth to prevent him from yelling. "We're not here to hurt anyone nor rob you.  If you try to yell I'll have to knock you unconscious.  Do you understand?" he asks him.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:51, Thu 12 May 2011.

Holly follows quickly behind Farden, and moves to look into the temporary building to see if anyone is inside. Prepared with her Sickle drawn, she hopes the watcher is the only one here.

Farden alertly surveys the area.  There's no one lurking about and many clues indicate that the old guy is up here alone.  His camp / quarters lead one to believe he's living up here day and night like a shepherd, but with no animals to watch over.  Unlike the hermit, he doesn't appear to have been out here for years.

The old guy looks irritated and frustrated, but he nods when Glumr asks him if he understands.

Snow catches a glimpse of stone in the distance down in the field.

Snow slows her pace for a moment and looks at her cousins who seem to have things well in hand, and will be busy interrogating the old guy and the interesting 'stone' in the field.  The field was full of stones, though there was something about 'this' one that seemed out of place.

Snow deviates her path from joining her cousins to looking over this stone of interest.

Glumr, still kneeling by the man, says to him "Good.  Cooperate and I'll untie you when we leave and you wont be any worse for the wear.   Now I want you to tell me what you're doing up here and what's going on down there."

Glumr sees Snow moving out into the empty field alone and yells at her in a hushed voice "Snow wait!  I dont know if it's clear down there.  I couldnt get past this old man to see if the field was clear."

Glumr rolled 16 using 1d20+3. Spot Trouble. (Making sure nothing is waiting to ambush Snow)
This message was last edited by the player at 18:26, Thu 12 May 2011.

Seeing nothing unusual, Farden moves up to join Glumr and the old man. He is now looking at Snow to see what she is so interested in.