CAMP
When Glinsael retreats from the final wolf it remains growling for a moment before backing away and vanishing into the grass.

Grom starts going over the area, picking up and gathering what supplies they can easily find.

Plut comes up to the party, wringing his shapeless hat in his hands. "Sorry, masters, I couldn't be more help. My boy was afraid, see, and I had to do right by him. We're not much used to fighting, us."

Kojik takes some minutes to cast his floating disk spell. As soon as it appears, Grom starts placing what he's gathered on it. He touches it once with his finger, gives out an excited giggle, and runs off across the road to grab some more fallen supplies.

He's quickly out of sight.

OOC: Don't forget you've got a big, giant wolf corpse lying bleeding into the dirt just off to the side. Not saying you need to do anything about it, but it's there.

---

HORSES
They're sturdy draft horses and not runners. All the same, they made it across the road, down the slope on the other side and out of sight very quickly.

Barrad immediately starts cursing and swearing about the accursed monsters and the savage wilds and the danger to his possessions and his person.

He starts up after Ayanna as she marches off. "Thank you for your help, Lady Knight. I need my beasts, but I don't want to be wanderin' here in this gods-forsaken place without protection."

The tracks are fresh and easy enough to follow. They did seem to get quite a ways away. Down a rolling hill, around a rocky hill, into a lightly treed area.

On the ground in front of the trees is the wagon. What's left of it, anyway. The traces are torn and twisted and one wheel is a mess. Fixable, but in pretty bad shape.

"You'll want to be getting Daddy Dimwit and his feeb son down 'ere for that, I expect," Barrad mutters.

As best as they can see, the tracks go through the trees and take a sharp left turn a very steep slope (presumably to the riverbank).

They can't see the river from where they are, but they can hear it. It's fast and strong  and roars away over the rocks.

And is that the sound of high, musical laughter mixed with the sound?

Nature Check, DC14

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
That's the sound of Nixies. Small, aquatic fey who live in rivers. Not generally aggressive, but they can be dangerous if threatened.

---

Ayanna nodded at Barrad’s assessment of the damage.  She frowned at the nicknames.  She didn’t think now was the time to discuss it though.  She might not be very sensitive and wouldn’t want to risk losing the horse-master so soon.  Then again, given the probable fate of the horses, he might have nothing to do.

Fixing a wagon, chasing down horses, that she could do.  Musical laughter out in the wilderness?  She knew enough not to mess with something like that.  Better to wait for the scholars to arrive.

“Take a seat Barrad.  We’ll wait for the others.  Something is out there and I’m not going to stumble into it alone.  We can’t help the horses if we are dead.  Besides, my shoulder is killing me.”. Ayanna found a comfortable looking place and eased herself down.  She was confident Finnick would get them organized and be along soon enough.

(I’ll wait for the others to catch up.  Get a short rest in if she can.)

Gill sighed in relief. "Well that could've gone worse!" As soon as the wolves appeared, as soon as they had bolted again - with their leader now dead. He helped the others picking up what cargo he could find onto the magically created disk (he himself also carefully touched the magic disk in awe neat!), occasionally checking if any of them were injured or needed help in any other way.

At some point he came across the lifeless body of the large wolf. His gaze lingered for a moment as he wondered who or what had caused this beast's suffering. (Survival? Animal handling? rolled a 5.)

When all their belongings were retrieved, he wiped the sweat of his brow and peered towards the river. "Do you think they found the horses? Perhaps they need some help retrieving them?" Unconsciously he had already started to take the first steps in their direction. The sound of rushing water attracted him so.

Kevan was so focused on dealing with the dire wolf leading the pack, he didn't see another of the pack lunge towards him, it's sharp teeth biting down onto his knee.

The shock and adrenaline briefly distracted him from realising what had happened, and it was only once the dire wolf was down and the rest of the pack scattered, did Kovann realise what happened.

When Finnick asks how he is doing, Kovann smirks and laughs it off. "Oh, I'll be fine, some rest is all I need. Had worse when I toured various fighting pits. Each scar is a reminder of a fight won, delaying death once more, and another story to tell."

As they organise themselves, Kovann points to the dead dire wolf.

"What are we doing with that? Doesn't look in a state to eat. Leave it and let nature take it's course?"

Do we take a short rest at some point?

Kojik shrugged his shoulders at the question of the dire wolf, glancing over in that direction as he helped arrange stuff on the disk to make sure it was secure - and not overloaded.

"Maybe not to eat, but maybe someone could skin it? I can't imagine too many have a wolf pelt quite that large. Someone could make a cloak out of it maybe or something useful. I'd hate to just let it be wasted.. considering what the poor beast looks to have gone through anyway. At least let his death not be totally in vain," he suggested.

"I'll need to try to get all this stuff to the wagon though pretty quickly; the disk only lasts for about an hour, though I can always recast it.. but that means reloading it too," he adds with a bit of a smile.

She smiled at Finnick, but it turned to a grimace when she moved, "Thank you for your concern. I have only a little magic to heal with. If we can take a rest here, I'm sure I'll be fine." She helped load some of the supplies that weren't too heavy.

"Yes, yes."  Finnick replied, agreeing with his fellows.  "Before we rest, however, we should regroup."

Taking a moment to confer with his weasel, the gnome instructs the familiar to seek out Ayanna and Barrad.

"Lead us to them, little one."

Finn will gather the group and then follow his weasel toward Ayanna.

Barrad is restless and paces back and forth, muttering under his breath.

They's right there.

Aint' safe.

Worse than wolves about, I wager.

A couple of times he seems about to set off on his own, then eyes Ayanna and thinks better of it.

Then there's a loud splash. A very loud splash. As though something very, very large has just fallen into the water.

And with a cry Barrad jumps up and runs toward the sound...

OOC: quick beat for Ayanna while the rest of the party catches up. I try to avoid this sort of thing, but the next scene will depend heavily on what she chooses to do next.

“DAMMIT BARRAD!  GET BACK HERE OR I’ILL SHOOT YOU IN THE ARSE!”. She shouted as she readies and loads her crossbow hoping the click lets him know she is serious.  Ayanna wasn’t likely going to be able to run him down in her armor.  She certainly didn’t want to run after some idiot trying to get himself killed.  Making it so he couldn’t walk right for a few days and the painful reminder of this moment from every jostle in the road?  She could live with that.

(Ayanna Bhunnel rolled 7 using 1d20+3.  Intimidate)
This message was last edited by the player at 16:08, Fri 24 Mar 2023.

Rakas the weasel was a very good boy. He was very small, and very quick, had a very talented nose, and loved nothing more than doing the best he could and making the beardy guy proud.

So when he was told to follow a trail, he was on it faster than... well... faster than almost anything.

His nose lead him across the road, down a wide hill, through a lightly treed area (which for sure had a bunch of mice in the grass and he would really love to have himself a little mouse but he couldn't have a mouse because he had work to do and he really was a very good boy), and then into a small clearing.

At which point, he got worried. Because the trail he'd been following kept on through the clearing, past the angry shouty lady, around a corner and down a sharp, steep slope.

BUT he knew the angry shouty lady. And sometimes she had treats.

So what's a best boy to do?

He took a look back to make sure the beardy guy and his friends were keeping up (the beardy guy had a bad habit of falling behind, but a good boy always waits). They were right there. Good.

Rakas took a breath. Decided that the shouty lady must be who he was supposed to find (plus maybe she had treats), and ran up to her and put his little paws on her feet and looked up at her, his little eyes blinking.

The rest of the party, pretty close behind, heard Ayanna shouting, heard the click of the crossbow, but arrived in time to see her standing there, not being very intimidating (despite a valiant attempt), looking away down where the tracks lead.

And no one else.

OOC: Okay, you're back together now. Thank you for indulging me. Off we go!

Also, Finnick, I assumed your familiar was a boy.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:40, Fri 24 Mar 2023.

As the party made their way down the hills, Gill kept close to the cargo-laden magical disk. The disk moved very smoothly across the hills and fields and in between trees; still, most of the time kept a hand on the goods, making sure none of it fell off. Only when they saw Ayanna in the distance did he let go and hurried closer to her.

"Where's Barrad?" He asked worriedly, and he quickly peered over the next hill crest to the river below. (if the river is already in view from there; Perception roll 5)

Ayanna pulled herself to her feet.  "Ran off that way."  She pointed toward the river.

"I heard something that sounded like Fey.  Barrad wouldn't wait.  We heard something and he thinks the horses went into the river.  Wagon here needs repair before it might be of use again too."  She looked to the father and son to see if that was something they could handle.

"Does anyone know anything about the Fey?  All I've heard is they lure lone travelers to their death."  She put her crossbow away and leaned heavily on her spear.

The warrior was preparred to go look for Barrad and the horses but waited a moment for any information that might be useful.  She didn't want to walk into something unprepared.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:55, Sat 25 Mar 2023.

Seeing that there wasn't going to be a rest, Glinsael repeated, "I'm sure I'll be fine," but this time charged with magical energy, and joined with the group.

"The fey is a broad topic. Maybe we should find Barrad first, unless there is something specifically  threatening about these fey."

Bonus action: cast healing word on herself
12:44, Today: Glinsael rolled 6 using 1d4+3.  healing word.

Once the group managed to catch up to the wagon and Ayanna, Kojik moved around to try getting the disk up and positioned to let the supplies it was carrying fall into the wagon once the spell ended. He looked to use a board as a ramp for it to be guided up, but once it was over the wagon he let the spell end to drop the items back inside - as carefully as possible at least.

Hearing the subject of discussion and that Barrad had disappeared, he shook his head and agreed, "Depends entirely on the type of fey I'd guess.. some can just be troublesome and some dangerous from what I understand. A few can be helpful even, though I'm not sure our lucky is that good at the moment," he added with a bit of a wry smile. A poor attempt at humor.

"Hopefully he didn't get too far though."

Kovann walked with the others until they eventually found Ayanna.

His injury didn't slow him down, but it was certainly uncomfortable. Kovann did his best to not let it show. It would only distract them, and right now there were more important things to cover.

When the topic of fey is brought up, Kovann shakes his head.

"Fey? Only tales and stories from books. Didn't come near Gun Galaq, and not like fighting pits would be to their taste. Why do you ask?"

He then takes a breath.

"After getting gnawed on back there, I'm not exactly in any rush for another fight." He adds, looking at the others.

"Fey can be reasoned with,"  FInnick said.  "After a fashion."

"It's better than trolls at any rate."  He said, trying to find the silver lining.

The gnome's bearded face scrunched up as he thought about their predicament.

"It would probably be best to let Barrad do as little of the talking as possible though."

From down the slope, above the sound of the rushing river, a loud, angry voice rises:

"Hey! You stay away from my horse! Hey there!"

Another quick high tickle of musical laughter, three quick small splashes, then:

"Help! Masters, help! Help!"

---

Through the treed area, to the left, down the steep slope, is a wide flat stony clearingon the shore of the Goblinwater.

One of the horses stands off to the side, idly munching on rivergrass.

The other horse is in the river, near the middle, trying to swim upstream. But the current here is swift and strong, and it is losing the battle. Just down stream the river tumbles and breaks over rocks and cataracts.

Barrad stands just in the river, the water up to his knees, his face frantic. He calls to the horse several times to no avail.

"Master, please! I can't swim!"

OOC: If anyone wants to do anything, or prep, before running down, just tuck it into your post.

"Can anyone treat Kovann?"  She rather have the dwarf by her side ready for a fight if it came to one.

"Let's go, but if it comes to negotiating with Fey, one of you handle it."  She wasn't sure she trusted that which she didn't understand.  Ayanna certainly didn't understand Fey.  Perhaps this is why the first group disappeared and a more studious collection was selected this time.

---

Down the slope, the warrior took in the scene.  No Fey were visible.  That was good.  The horse being swept into the rapids wasn't.  Ayanna cursed.  One horse was fine, she ignored that one and rushed forward to the water's edge.

"Rope!  Can anyone lasso the horse?"  She started fishing her 50' rope out.

Glinsael followed Ayanna down to the river bank. There was little she could do to help the horse in the water. She wasn't strong or skilled with animal handling.  She looked around to see if there was something she could use.

When Ayanna took out a rope, Glinsael got an idea, "we need a hand" she said, and a misty looking hand appeared in front of her.  It took a hold on the lasso loop, and levitated it over the water.  She waded out into the river, but called back to Ayanna, "I can only reach so far, please help me stay upright in the water. Someone hold the other end of the rope and feed it out." Once they were all in place, she looped the rope around the horse so they could guide it to shore.

Action: casting mage hand and holding the loop end of the rope it has 30' range

Move: just starting to wade into the water, but I don't want to get far yet if the river is strong, and the mage hand can reach the horse. If Ayanna can support her, Glin can wade out deeper.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:15, Sun 26 Mar 2023.

With Ayanna's help (and anyone else who wants to join the chain), Glinsael just manages to snag the lead with her magic hand.

But Ayanna has to wade out really far in order to give Glinsael the distance she needs. The elf is barely touching ground and the water is up to Ayanna's chest, and the current is quite strong.

Seeing that someone is helping his horse, Barrad backs away from jumping all the way in (although he still looks pretty wound up).

OOC: Ayanna, Athletics check, please, DC 12. Assuming someone helps you (and I think that's a fair assumption), you can roll with Advantage. Success means both that you kept hold of Glin and that you managed to pull her back enough to hand you the lead. If you fail, that means one of those two things didn't happen, and you'll need to decide which.

Glinsael: that was a good idea. Please take Inspiration.

"Here, I've got you." Gill grabbed the back of Ayanna's belt (or, if she's not wearing a belt, an arm around her waist) to keep her, and in turn Glinsael, from being swept away by the rushing water.

Gill was not one to easily get in a hurry - as his companions undoubtedly have come to realize after a week of traveling together. And he was the last to come down the slope that led to the river bank. Yet when he finally arrived and saw that Glinsael and Ayanna had already rushed into the water, he made a quick sprint and followed after them. He was a good swimmer and familiar with the water's treacherous movements.

When (and if) they had made a few paces away from the deeper water, he shouted to Ayanna: "Just keep hold of the rope, I'll pull Glinsael back!" By him taking over making sure Glinsael wouldn't get swept away, Ayanna would have both hands available to pull the rope and hopefully guide the horse out of the most dangerous currents.

---

Helping out.
Could even throw in a Guidance for this or a future action if time permits.

Ayanna was glad for Glinsael's magic.  If it could guarantee the loop made the horse, that was a much better option than praying a lasso attempt made it home.  Range seemed to be an issue, but was still the easier option.

They waded deep.  The current was rough here.  She couldn't image trying to swim against the worst of it in the middle.  That made her wonder why the horse was in the middle in the rapidly moving current.  Even entering in the shallows, it should have been able to turn around and climb out.  No time to worry about that now.

The bard made her play and Ayanna's grip on her arm tensed slightly as she willed her on and celebrated the success.  She adjusted her footing, ready to pull the bard back when her foot slipped on the rocks!  Her free hand flung out wildly to grab for something, anything to keep them from being swept away.  Gill was there.

The dockworker had an infectious attitude and she had liked him from the beginning.  They might pull this off yet.  "It's going to take several of us.  Grab some rope and pull.  We'll ease it toward the bank.  Once it gets its feet under it, the horse should be able to climb out."

At which point Barrad hopefully could calm it down and they could all get back to the wagon for a breather.

Teamwork saved that failed roll.  Athletics check 25

Ayanna Bhunnel rolled 5 using 1d6.  Bardic Inspiration.
Ayanna Bhunnel rolled 20 using 2d20+4, dropping the lowest dice only with rolls of 1,16.  Wade the river w/ advantage.

Kojik came down the slope to the river a little more carefully than some of the others, perhaps a bit more unsure of his footing than the rest. He moved towards Barrad to help the man get out of the water while the others dealt with the horse in a chain fashion, waving to the man back to shore to distract him from the swimming horse.

"They're getting the other horse, help me secure this one so it doesn't decide to go for a swim too," he suggested to the man, indicating the horse that was lazily munching away at some of the grass at the water's edge. If Barrad was dealing with one horse, it would distract him from the other - not to mention keep him from 'drowning'.

"Barrad,"  Finnick called out, keenly aware of his short-statured limitations near a swift moving river.  "I say, get out of there.  It's not safe."

Rakas poked his head up from the wizard's robes and chittered for good measure.  If one didn't know better, the little fey weasel was echoing its master's sentiments.

Finnick will assist Kojik tending to the non-swimming horse.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:40, Sun 26 Mar 2023.

Watching others go into the water, Kovann was hesitant. He knew he wasn't very strong, and with the water going up to the chest of the taller members of the group, Kovann knew he wasn't a very strong swimmer and would only make the situation worse.

As such, he helped Finnick and Kojik with the other horse, looking at Finnick. "Not sure how well we would have fared in the river. Looks pretty deep."