With Gwydian remaining behind to protect the skiff, Navarre, Jody, and Gumm lead the way, charging through the forest in the direction of Gilmith. The slower Gram and Mock do their best to keep up. The trees are thick here, and the five must take care to avoid tree roots and trunks.

After about fifteen seconds of sprinting, the group sees a large black bear up ahead, and to the right of the bear, Gilmith, arrow drawn, bow aimed at the bear.



OOC: The bear is another 20 yards ahead of Navarre, Jody, and Gumm, and 35 yards ahead of Gram and Mock. Gilmith is to the right of the bear.

For those running to Gilmith's aid, roll vs. HT. Fit gives +2, Very Fit gives +4. On a failure, lose 1 FP from running.

Yes, you can use Hero Points to reroll Will rolls for Shadow Points.

At the end of each adventure we'll have a Fellowship phase, where your character can engage in any number of actions. Some of these actions will allow your character to roll to remove temporary Shadow points naturally. If travel is involved (say Gilmith goes to the Elf King's halls in Mirkwood, or Mock goes to visit the Dwarves in Erebor), then you'll be able to roll to remove Shadow Points once. If you stay in the same area (so you remain in Lake-town during the Fellowship phase), then you'll be able to roll twice.

This is your 3rd day of travel. In 5 more days, you'll be back at Lake-town.

For the briefest of moments Kodran had wondered what was going on.  He has had plenty of interaction with elves and heard hundreds of stories of them from his father.  Being attacked by a bear wasn't something that tended to happen often to elves.  So when the vision of this mad bear came into view and he could put all other crazy theories to rest the ranger beats a path for the elf maiden.


OOC:
Assuming we continue to find/ forage for food at the current pace, when will we totally run out of food and begin missing meals?  At what point in time, like how many days before we reach Lake Town?

Run straight for Gilmith.  When I get close begin yelling to try to distract the bear.  When I get a few yards away Fast Draw my sword.

In reply to Loremaster (msg # 360):

Mock slows as he approaches, readying his axe and shield.

"I thought you elves were friendly with forest animals?" he quips, loadly, as much to get it's attention as to actually tease her.

Gumm roars at the bear, trying to intimidate it (or at least distract it).
This message was last edited by the player at 11:22, Tue 14 Jan 2020.

Jody, racing along on huge hobbit feet, pinches a lead bullet from his pouch on the run.
 With a seamless stutter-step, he smoothly loads the stone in the staff sling, and whirling it, closes range...

"I say, Old Bear!  Desist and stop and that!" he yells, continuing "I'm coming, Gilmith!"

The bear continues to pursue Gilmith, now and again lunging out with its sharp claws or teeth, but the Elf is able to keep her distance. For her part, she looses a couple of arrows at the animal. The bear is able to get out of the way of the first, but not the second, and it grunts in pain as the arrow embeds itself in the bear's shoulder.

The shouts and jeers of Gilmith's companions seem to distract the bear, and it looks toward the others and growls, backing up and adopting a more defensive posture.





OOC: Gilmith, you can post in this thread now, too.

The bear appears to be stymied by the arrival of the others. Give me 15-30 more seconds of actions for each of you.

In reply to Loremaster (msg # 365):

Mock moves up to assist, though his short legs take him much slower than the rest.

Jody, seeing the bear adopt a more defensive position, slows down.  “I feel sorry for this bear - why would it attack you, Gilmith?” Jody calls out.

OCC: Jody isn’t going to attack the bear unless he is attacked; if needed, he’ll help defend an ally.

Gumm moves until he is standing in between Gilmith and the bear, but not blocking her line of sight in case she wants to shoot again.

While Gilmith knows that there is often little way to fend a bear off without being bigger than the bear itself... she also realizes that for a bear to hunt and elf that things must be significantly out of whack.  Ten times out of ten, a black bear will search for food scrounging from tree bark, berries, roots, or anything that isn't likely to put up a fight.  In fact the bear showing itself to her is something like as not, Gilmith will not see again.

But here they are, the black bear stalking her as prey, its eyes filled with malice though it seems to step back as the others begin to swarm from the side.

"I don't know what's wrong with it!"  Gilmith shouts, pulling another arrow from her quiver, though the thing slips in her grasp and falls to the soft ground below.

"It's stalking me and won't leave!  I tried to scare it off!"  Another arrow jumps into Gilmith's grip, which she pulls back to her ear in the bow string, aiming for a moment at the bear, hoping for a clear shot as it is distracted with the others.

OOC:  Continue fast draw with declared shots to the vitals.  she wants this thing put down before it can hurt anybody.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 02:49, Fri 17 Jan 2020.

As the ranger bursts onto the scene at first glance nothing seems out of place.  A woman is defending herself from a bear attack.  While the young traveler and protector hasn't heard of many unprovoked bear attacks, especially on elves, it can happen.

But as Navarre continues on his trek to help something rings over and over in his head.  "It's stalking me and won't leave!”  Its the shock in her voice that sticks in his mind like a thorn.

Kodran has heard of animals that go mad.  Sometimes for some reason they just go crazy and attack anything and everything.  Is that what was happening here?  Or is it something else?


OOC:
Move as quickly as I can to get between Gilmith and the bear, but dont block her line of sight so she can aim at the bear.  Do not attack the bear unless it moves to attack one of us.

The Elves of Mirkwood take care to protect their home from dangerous threats, most often Orcs or Giant Spiders, but when attacked by hungry denizens of the forest, the Elves have no compunctions against defending themselves. Although black bears are omnivores, their usual diet consists of berries and insects, not Elves. Gilmith fumbles one arrow, but she nocks another on string, pulls back, and coolly buries the arrow in the bear's vitals. With a thud, the bear sinks to the forest floor, dead.

OOC: The bear attack was a result of one of Gilmith's travel rolls. If you choose, you can spend 1 hour to butcher 125 forage rations weighing 2 lbs each or 2 hours to butcher 250 forage rations.

Successful Naturalist rolls will indicate that you should not eat bear meat raw, as it can cause sickness or even death from trichinosis. You'll need to cook it well, much like with pork. Taking time to convert the meat into trail rations will take 8 hours of preparation to dry the meat.

Kodran rushes in to aid the elf maiden.  He wonders what would provoke a bear into attacking an armed person.  In the end it would seem he overlooked the most obvious.  Perhaps this garden variety bear was just hungry.  But as Gilmith so proudly points out this happy accident solves their starvation issue.


OOC:
Given that there are 8 PCs in this group and the 2 NPC dwarves, and we're pretty close to being out of food I vote that we delay the trip 9-10 hours to convert the meat into trail food.
 
This message was last edited by the player at 04:03, Fri 17 Jan 2020.

Jody, hearing Gilmith, moves to close with the bear, his staff sling still whirling.  When Gilmith drops the bear, Jody pockets the sling bullet again, and moves to her. “Are you ok? That was horrible! What happened?”

OCC: I agree with Navarre

In reply to Jody (msg # 373):

Mock keeps moving forward...

Gumm heartily agrees with turning the bear into rations, and offers to aid this noble purpose in every way possible.  He's stunned to learn you aren't supposed to eat bear meat raw, however.

Gwydian examines his fishing gear and cleans it. The shouting having stopped, he assumes all has returned to normal.

Gilmith takes a tentative step backwards even as the bear falls, uncertain at first if the thing is truly down... though after several moments it becomes apparent that the thing is not about to move.

"Well, at least that solves our food problem."  Though Gilmith is relieved, her face still shows concern, for killing the bear will end up as an enormous waste... though there is no doubt in her mind that something will come along to polish off anything edible off of it.

"I don't know what happened Jody."  Gilmith answers the halfling, shaking her head still in a little disbelief.  "It snuck up behind me, like it was stalking... but black bears don't chase and eat big game, let alone elves, unless they are starving that is... or maybe sick..."  Gilmith pauses for a moment, the wrinkle of concern ironing out of her face as she smiles at the others.  "Thanks for showing up though!  Taking its attention certainly made a huge difference, it wasn't able to keep chasing me and wasn't looking properly when I finally managed to get a good shot.  You guys saved my life!"

OOC:  Packers start coming this week - so I will continue to be otherwise engaged.  I'm on board with turning as much of the bear as we can (and can carry) into rations... though I failed my naturalist roll to make sure sure we knew we had to cook it, I can't imagine thinking that eating bear meat raw (or unsmoked, undried, etc.) was a good idea...

Gumm looks closely at the meat for any sign that the bear was diseased, and asks the others to do the same.  He also tries cutting into the creature’s lungs and other organs while searching for anything that doesn’t look right, although he has no expertise.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:36, Sun 19 Jan 2020.

With the bear dead, Navarre and Gilmith clean their knives with water and begin to dress the carcass. First, the bear's leg is tied to a tree to prepare the body. Navarre cuts a line down the middle of the bear from its chest to its scrotum. With Gilmith's help, Navarre pries open the bear and begins removing its internal organs, each washing their knives throughout the process.

Gumm is about to cut into the lungs when Navarre holds up a hand. "Yeah, check 'em, but let's get 'em clear of the body first. Ya don't want the organs to burst while they're still in the body."

Next they drain the bear's blood. They briefly debate whether they should remove the bear's hide, but Navarre figures they can sell the hide to a taxidermist, so they begin skinning the hide from the carcass and remove the head from the body. Then they begin butchering the meat from the bear, cutting it into long thing strips, and use the carcass to carry what they gather back to camp.

Back at camp, the two work together to make a frame of limbs and vines to hang the meat from and build a fire in the middle of the frame to dry most of the meat. Jody takes the rest and roasts it over the fire, burning it quite badly, and distributes it to the others.

Chewing on his portion, Thibault says, "Rather tough, Jody. Needs salt and pepper."

"Beats starving," Wyar says, shrugging and tearing into his with gusto.

The next few days go by in relative quiet. On the fifth day out, Mock points out a raven that is flying high overhead. Balin, who has by now gotten over his grumpiness that the group will not be continuing on to the Aerie of the Eagles, cheers at the sight. "I wouldn't doubt that bird's from the Lonely Mountain," he says, smiling.

The seventh day finds the company reaching the Stair of Girion, and together they port the boat over to the Long Lake and spend the night with the Lakemen, who are quite surprised that the company has grown by two Dwarves.

On the eighth day from leaving the lair of the Mewlips, the group nears sight of Lake-town. Coming to meet them is a massive gilded boat shaped like a swan, with Glóin at the prow. The Dwarf is beaming, and the boat, rowed by twelve men, takes up an honor guard position at the side of the company's skiff.

Once at Esgaroth's pier, Glóin greets his brother and Balin warmly, clasping both around the shoulders and laughing with joy. Then, he turns to the company.

"I thank you heartily for bringing Óin and Balin safely back. We are in your debt." He gestures to one of the porters, who brings forward a wooden cask, stuffed with gold and silver.

OOC: And thus we have reached the end of our first adventure! You may make a final post if you wish. I'll contact you over the next couple of days with your CPs, but for now, each character receives $2,000 in gold and silver. Glóin will give Wyar $500 in gold and silver for his work as your boatman.

Navarre called Wyar Wyatt at one point, who was the character in Keep in the Borderlands and was based, as was Wyar, on Wyatt Ferris: https://nerdarchy.com/wyatt-fe...ers-to-playforwyatt/.

We'll be moving into a brief Fellowship phase after this adventure. The Fellowship phase is basically downtime between adventures to rest, learn new skills, and/or remove some Shadow corruption. Think about what your character might be doing in the next few months. I'll post some suggestions tomorrow for activities to take during the Fellowship period. Some examples for now would be taking a trip back to a character's home, spending time working with a craft, writing, or training. Activities that involve time for contemplation (like working on a book or creating a work of art) will offer the chance to remove Shadow corruption.

Jody, at some point as they close in on the town itself, has slipped into his fancy cloak and hat, and at a good opportunity with Gloin and all, breaks out the banjo and announces that he’s composed a song “Still working on it, really, but here it goes - ‘The Company’:

Well we’ve been rovers in th’ wild for many's the day
And we’ve rescued the envoys and more so they say
And now we’re returning to cheers in great store
But ‘ere long will we play the adventurer some more!

And it's hey, yay, ever
Hey, Yay, Ever some more
Will we pllllllllly the wildlands
Hey, Yay, Ever some more

We went down from Laketown and into the Mirk
All these fine gents and one little firt
We found an elf-maid, a jewel, and two dwarves lost away
& a fell temple that we’ll go back to some day!

And it's hey, yay, ever
Hey, Yay, Ever some more
Will we pllllllllly the wildlands
Hey, Yay, Ever some more

So here’s to our company, of folks all fine
Navarre the sword, Mock the axe, and Gwydian the tine
Gilmith the fair and Gumm always the grump, and Jody, that’s me, as tall as a stump!
Perils an’ fell mewlips we faced & came out the winner
The ensorcelled bear, well it became our dinner!

And it's hey, yay, ever
Hey, Yay, Ever some more
Will we pllllllllly the wildlands
Hey, Yay, Ever some more!!“

Jody smiles and bows; “and you good sir, thank you for having confidence in us; For the Company, huzza!”
This message was lightly edited by the player at 14:43, Sat 25 Jan 2020.

As soon as he can, Gumm will spend some time bonecarving, and learning more about how to survive in the wilderness.  And swinging his axe ever harder, of course.

In reply to Gumm (msg # 381):

After spending soo much time near water, Mock wants to learn how to fish. From the bank, of course, but the idea of sitting by the side of the water contemplating life and what has happened appeals to him...as does learning how to find food near rivers...

He also takes the time to enjoy Jodi's song. Not good as a Beer drinking song that would appeal to Dwarves, but perhaps with some adjustments...

He also buys some spare rations for next trip. Because he anticipates there will be one...perhaps going back to deal with the Mewlips?

Edit: also, do we need to pay a months cost of living?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:53, Sat 25 Jan 2020.

Though her task had been simply to escort the group out of the MIrkwood, Gilmith continues with the group on to Lake Town, knowing that they probably no longer needed her aid (after all, the bear she had found... or rather had found her had given them quite a bit of meat) though she was beginning to enjoy the company of the odd troupe.

As Jody sings his song, Gilmith claps along and joins in on the third refrain, her soft soprano complementing the hobbit's tenor quite well.

As the evening wears on, Gilmith begins her slow realization of her impending departure.  Of course, she had to go home, at least just to report on the actions of the group...  Though, when Balin announces his intention of a quick turnaround before heading off again, back to the Old Forrest Road, Gilmith smiles to herself.

Well now, it wouldn't make any sense to head back to the forrest, just to be sent right back out again to tail them, now would it?

One day turns into two and two into three.  As the raft makes its way back to Esgaroth and the Lonely Mountain Kodran has plenty of time to reflect and get to know his new friends better.  He delights in the companionship of his fellows and the varied spread of their  backgrounds, tastes and habits.  Humans, hobbits, dwarves and elves are all so different in small ways but these people are so alike in big ways.  For instance these are good people who thrive in making the world a better place.  They like to help others and share what they have graciously.

As the days pass Navarre becomes distinctly aware of his mood and how its improved during their journey.  Days ago he felt stressed, oppressed, gloomy and sometimes sullen though his instincts told him that he wasn't as down trodden as some of the others.  Was it the weight of their task?  Was it the challenge of finding the proverbial needles in a giant haystack or was it something more?  That place, the Mirkwood forest, seems to give him the chills of late but he can find no rational cause for it.

And so as the ranger ponders the philosophical side of the expedition and his attitude he comes to a conclusion that he's known for a long time but recently become conscious of.  There is always hope.  There is always light to go to, if one has the will to chase it.