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

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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?