The party waves goodbye to GRIM, RAIF, and several dozens of grateful halflings. As a going away present, they give you each three days' worth of spiced dry snake jerky weighing three pounds. If you don't care for it, at least be courteous toss it on the ground once you're a day's ride away.

Basically unladen apart from their riders, DAI's chocobos are able to move quite quickly. The first day's worth of travel puts the party well past the point where they had turned south to raid the goblin encampment.

The party settles down to rest. It's definitely odd only having the three people, especially for ZEIG and DAI who have lost two childhood friends so far on the journey.
SILI, go ahead and play your songs. Remember, you can Take 10 on Ballad/Paeon if you wish. I'd have rolled them for you but I didn't know what you wanted to do.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:59, Thu 01 Mar 2012.

Sili will indeed take 10, for a total of 22 for ballad which I believe barely makes it.

20:47, Today: SILI rolled 22 using 1d20+12 with rolls of 10. Perform (Oratory) (Readiness on Party).

Ballad: +6 MP
Readiness: +2 Initiative for the day.

The Windsday strong is comfortably bright yet piercingly warm. Gusts of wind begin to blow through the trees. The sounds of rustling leaves and an occasional cracking of a tree branch make it harder to hear. At times the gusts reach up to 35 miles an hour coming off of the flat surface of the river. While the three of you may have had some small issue pressing against the wind, the chocobos seem cheerily unaffected.

SILI's song from the night before restores DAI's energies so that he can spend them on two more chocobos for this day. At this rapid rate of travel, the party will arrive just on the edge of the drow settlement by an hour before sundown this evening. As yet, no indication of drow patrols or presence has been noticed.

Assuming you all ate out of the Survival Pouch. Pausing here due to my RL game starting in ten minutes. You will reach your destination at the end of this day. Any changes to what potions people are carrying, etc, should be stated. Feel free to, you know, talk and stuff.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:22, Thu 01 Mar 2012.

DAI chuckles a little. "Wow...it's been a couple days and we haven't run into some murderous giants...or goblins...or fucking Ghouls. Sort of like the calm before the storm..."

19:42, Today: DAI rolled 22,17 using d20+15,d20+15. potions: elemental armor(water).
Aaaand I think I botched both of those due to the DC increase on job specific potions >.>
rolled for the 2 days we've been traveling so far

DAI, you would have only had one day to craft, so only going to use your first roll. You already crafted for the previous day's previous day and then for last night. You can't roll ahead for tonight.

Gonna let ZEIG have some time to craft his shiz for one day, too.

We can assume SILI takes a 10 on Ballad to restore DAI's 2 MP from summoning chocobos. And unless he posts otherwise, we'll assume he takes a 10 on his P(oratory) check to give you all a +2 bonus to initiative every day.

You guys basically have last night's activities to resolve, and then declare anything about your characters before you arrive at the drow settlement tonight.

20:13, Today: ZEIG rolled 18 using 1d20+11. Craft (alch) Cure for a 2nd.
20:13, Today: ZEIG rolled 19 using 1d20+11. Craft (alch) Cure.

1 cure potion, 1 halfway finished

Zeig makes his potions and stews silently.

Gonna be honest with you. I somewhat doubt you get to finish that potion. Let's just say you fail to complete it in the time required and put the supplies back into vials.

ZEIG creates another potion of Cure before setting off.

The day's ride, again, is relatively uneventful. The normal sounds of the forest are mostly drowned out by the winds tearing through the branches and rustling the leaves. Some wider parts of the river, which is already quite wide, have small white crests of waves forming.

As expected, about an hour before sundown, the tress begin to thin and before you at a slightly lower elevation lies the drow settlement. The forest has been cleared in a miles-wide swath around it, though it looks as if there are some decent-sized saplings beginning to retake the land. You had been told that the river pours over a large cliff downward into the ocean. You do not see a beach of any kind, and it appears there is some kind of relief between the ocean and the edge of the land you can see, so this makes sense.

The town lies on both sides of the river with a 20'-wide stone bridge joining the two halves. The houses are made of a mixture of stone and wood that has been painted with dull grays and browns. A third of the streets are covered with lattices covered in thick, brown-looking vines of some kind. Quite a large fraction of the other roads and alleyways simply have wooden awnings and archways covering them. No lights are visible, and none of you can pick out any movement ahead. Any potential sounds coming from it would be completely ruined by the gusting wind.

All in all, it looks to be able to easily hold 3,500 souls, maybe quite a bit more, as it's likely most if not all of the houses have elaborate basements.

In the far, far distance to the northwest, sitting atop a mountain with rugged cliffs facing the party, lies the northwestern keep. Though on the edge of visibility, it'd be at least a day's ride at your current rate just to get to the path at the foot of the mountain leading up to it assuming you left from the town's edge on the other side of the river first thing in the morning.

You are roughly 3/4ths of a mile from the edge of the settlement on the southern bank of the river still mounted on your chocobos.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:16, Fri 02 Mar 2012.

"These Drow are pretty bad news. We should approach with caution."

Zeig wonders to himself about how they might get information or an antidote from the drow, looking doubtful about any prospects.

DAI had been considering this for some time, but what way could they approach cautiously without looking like they were sneaking around? "Do Drow even speak Elven? Or...would that just piss them off?" DAI wondered, though it wasn't like he was the most skilled diplomat to begin with...he wasn't his grandfather.

Sili reassures Dai on that front. "In and of itself, that will not be an issue. I speak Drow. But now that we're here, I have something to ask. Do you have a plan, or is this one of those "charge in and get heroically killed" kind of missions? I don't do those, myself, but I'll wish you luck. I speak well enough, but frankly, they'll probably kill us on sight. If we're lucky."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:52, Fri 02 Mar 2012.

Not to interrupt, but for future reference:

Knowing what languages a race speaks and other languages they might also usually speak is like a DC 15 Knowledge (Geography) (by region) or DC 10 Knowledge (Local) (by species).

And I know it's been a while, but keep in mind everything you've heard about the Drow is that nobody has seen one for a while, or any that they have seen haven't been in great shape.