The Old Road
Western Borderlands
High Spring

All through the lands of the west runs a road. The road. It has different names in different lands, but most places they call it The Old Road.

The Old Road runs along the foothills of the Gran Mountains. It hugs the coast of the Clean Sea. It is little more than a dusty lane in Mercadia, but it is a wide and level and impeccably maintained trade route in Khresh. In Old Sumarra the right to use the Old Road is passed down from generation to generation. In the endless desert wastes of Godfall it is an trail of ancient stone markers called the Miraj Way, so difficult to follow that the people of that land call anything elusive and deceptive a 'mirage.'

By the time the Old Road reaches the Eastern Empire, it's little more than a broken game trail used by hunters and bandits and smugglers.

But if one had knowldge of that broken trail one could follow it past Havenport (the busy port town at the very edge of the empire), northeast to skirt the northern coast of the Azure Sea and then out, out, out beyond all knowledge into the Borderlands.

If one were looking down at the Old Road, at a particular spot a little over a week outside of Havenport, a spot where the land is flat and the grass thick and green. To the north the land is high and thickly forested. To the south the land falls to the noisy Goblinwater River.

There are nine people here. And two thick, sturdy, contented horses (who are grazing on that thick, green grass).

Six of them are people of varying skills and talents, chosen by Duke Joryana and personally asked to undertale this dangerous (possibly foolhardy) mission. The other three are: Barrad, the horsemaster (a sullen, lazy man who seems to care for his horses and his own hide) and Plut and Grom (father and son) the porters, who were both affable, if dull.

As the horses grazed, Barrad was talking:

"And I'm saying there's more tracks round here than just ours. I knowed it was perlious when I signed up, but gettin' waylaid by brigands in the middle of the plinkin wilderness is another thing altogether. An' I won't take my horses one more step. And if her Ladyship were here I'd tell 'er the same."

OOC: Welcome to the Borderlands! In your first post, feel free to give us a bit of an intro if you like, how you came to be asked on the mission, what it's been like so far, etc. You've been on the road for about nine days. You have plenty of rations and provisions (although the horses are carrying most of them, as well other materials for making and breaking camp.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. And have fun! I'm really excited about what's to come.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:40, Wed 15 Mar 2023.

Kovann had been brought onto the Duke's adventure, at first due to his unconventional combat style, and then upon discovering his skill at various crafts, how they could be beneficial too.

Kovann was slender for a dwarf, though still very stocky compared to many races, and moved with grace and purpose. Simple trousers covered his legs, whilst his torso was often bare when the weather permitted it, showing a variety of tattoos and scars.

During their travels so far, Kovann can be seen practicing different combat moves each morning. Punches and kicks, backflips and rolls, actions which some may consider very un-dwarflike.

At lunch when they stop to rest and eat their rations, Kovann breaks the mood by playing his flute. Whilst he is not as accomplished with it like a bard, it is obvious he has training with it. His tunes are uplifting, with traditional dwarven tunes that others may not have heard before.

In the morning, as Barrad raises his concerns about the risk of bandit attacks, Kovann kicks his spear up off the floor and catches it deftly in one hand. "I can go ahead and scout, see if there is anything that could cause us trouble. Would that put you at ease, Barrad?"

Ayanna marched along.  There was a slight charge of excitement in her as they got further away from civilization.  She would have felt safer with a squad of men.  Her glances at the others indicated doubt.  It seemed more like a group of advisors and sages had been sent along.  At least the dwarf looked competent in a fight.

She wore scale armor, carried spear and shield with a short sword at her belt.  She was used to giving orders.  She had to check herself the first morning when she looked at Finnick and wanted to bark at him to get packed and get moving.  This group weren't soldiers.

That was the reason she was selected.  The Duke saw something of herself in Ayanna.  She was a young officer at one point in her life too.  Plus, there might be fighting and having someone with experience couldn't hurt.

She watched the Dwarf the first morning to see what he was about.  The flips raised and eyebrow.  She had never heard of such a thing from a dwarf.  The second morning halfway through his routine she asked in dwarven, "Care to spar?"  She indicated her own spear.

The third evening she was getting more comfortable with the group.  She pulled out a deck of cards and asked if anyone played.

Finally, the mention of tracks, "Stow it Barrad.  Any idea what kind of tracks?"  She knelt to examine them herself, perhaps to determine whether they be man or beast.  She nodded to Kovann that it sounded like a good idea.

Survival check 12

While dressed in the fairly typical clothing one would associate with a user of magic, Kojik had joined the expedition at its onset and had been a fairly quiet member of the trip thus far. Not that he didn't speak up now and then, but he tended to keep his observations to himself until he put them to clear voice and narrative. The fact he looked fairly young for a human might add to this as well. Probably in his mid to late twenties, he was still young by human standards of course. An adult, but one who was clearly someone who had led a life thus far in scholarly pursuits rather than any hard, physical labor. The fact he would frequently opt to ride on the back of the wagon to take a break from walking added to this fact, though to be fair he kept up decently enough on the whole. The trip thus far was giving him a bit more practice at that it appeared.

Kojik took the opportunity of the paused trek to hop down off the back of the wagon itself, having opted to sit there for a time during their current portion of the journey. Walking was all well and good some of the time, but it was not something he tended to do on the regular. At least over such varied terrain as the Old Road had presented to them thus far. While the landscape around them was serene enough, almost picturesque, it was good to take a little time now and then to just sit down and rest. Of course, the bouncing of the wagon wasn't exactly the most comfortable of rides either, but one took what they could at times.

Stepping around the wagon to listen and join in on the discussion, he glanced around to where the heart of the matter seemed to be with regards to tracks as he spoke up.

"Flat terrain here, which would make any sort of ambush a little more difficult I'd imagine. Forest to the north," he mused aloud, loud enough for Barrad to hear as well as the others, but speaking as if more to himself to summarize their setting than anything else, "Good for hunting and who knows what else I'd imagine, so possibly some hunters up there. River to the south it sounds like, fast moving given the noise I'd reason, so difficult for anything to come that way.. Seems any tracks here would either be possibly someone going to the forest or maybe other scouts of the Duke heading the same way we are," he guessed, shrugging.

Kojik gave a nod to Kovann's suggestion, adding in, "For that matter, I could have my familiar go up and scout around a bit further ahead if that put you at ease. If it turns out to indeed be some of the Duke's own people we're noting the tracks of at this point, I'm not sure how good it would appear to be spooked by our own people so far into the trip," he pointed out with a slight twitch of his lips.

Gill gave Barrad a friendly slap on the shoulder. "Don't worry mate. We're more than a week out of Havenport, what are bandits going to do be doing around here - rob the birds?"


Not so long ago Gill had still been working at Havenport's wharf, unaware his life was about to drastically change. He had thought he'd live out his life on those docks - surrounded by the salt water, seagull cries and fishy odors. Although to be honest, he'd never given too much thought as to where he saw himself in the distant future. Knowing the people around him, helping where he could, having the water close by. It was as good and as comfortable as things could get. Or so he thought.

Mere weeks ago, he had had the meeting with Duke Joryana. The first of many. It was tense, he had to prove himself unlike ever before - he felt naked under her critical gaze. For whatever reason, he was invited to join this venture.

The morning of their departure he saw his last client. It was a young boy, he knew him well. "You've got to be more careful, Jake. I'm not going to be around for a while." Gill traced a line around the gaping wound in the boy's shin. With his other hand he slowly pored a bowl of salt water on the knee. The stream of water magically followed his fingers, first around the wound, then encapsulating it, closing it. By the time he was done and the water had flowed off the boy's leg, the wound had closed. "No more climbing those crates, alright?" He smiled and tousled his hair.

Now they were in the middle of nowhere. Only fields and forests around them. Havenport seemed so long ago, and so far away. Thankfully the sound of the rushing water in the distance gave him some sense of familiarity. Yet he strangely felt good, like he was on the right path. He looked around at his companions. Strange and worldly people, very different from the simple dockworkers and fishers he grew up with. But they seemed friendly, and he was ready for something strange and different.


"See, Kojik is going to send his bird up to scout the area. We'll be fine. Why don't you go grab us all some of that fine jerky. The world looks a whole lot different with a filled stomach." He gave Barrad a reassuring smile.

Finnick had been engrossed in a historical volume he had taken along with him on this journey from his home collection.

The first few days had been queasy ones, to be sure.  Voraciously reading while being jostled about in a moving wagon was not for the faint-hearted.

"I say,"   The diminutive gnome said his bushy, snow white accentuating each glance as he looked up from the tome.  "Why have we stopped?"

The question was asked in all earnestness.  Barrad's initial hesitance, the teamster's voiced concern and the others' observations having gone completely over his head.

The gnome was only barely dressed for the occasion, and it was obvious by the way he had conducted himself whilst camping under the starlight, that he was more suited perhaps to the comforts of a well-stocked larder and a feather mattress.

The elf watched the scenery pass as they walked.  She had traveled far in her years, but mostly between more populous areas. Still, it was populous once, and would be again, if all went well.  She looked out for signs on the ancient kingdom that once covered this land, but what signs there were remained hidden for now.

At lunch, when Kovann played his flute she took her lyre from the luggage, and played a rhythm to accompany his melody. When his song was done, she applauded him, "Well played, Master Kovann!"

She reassured Barrad when he expressed his concern, "a road is meant to be traveled. It's most likely only hunters and other rustics using it, but we'll keep an eye out just in case." She Strung her bow, and nocked an arrow, and kept allert.

Barrad scowls and grumbles a bit to himself. "I just didn't hear nothing about bandits when I signed up. I'm getting paid to survive the wilderness, but maybe not enough to fight hordes of desperate outlaws. Might be my pay needs reconsiderin."

OOC: (Passive Insight of 14 or more, or anyone who wants to roll Insight, DC 14)

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
He looks like he's trying to decide whether or not he has the standing to refuse to go any farther unless he's given more money.

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Selfish coward he might be, but Barrad is no dummy. There are quite a lot of tracks around here. Old and confused tracks, but some of the are definitely human(oid) and others are for sure horses. Whether it's bandits or not is hard to say, but either a sizeable group has come by here sometime in the past month, or a smaller group has passed back and forth a few times in the same time frame.


Barrad nodded with a sly look. "So you don't know then? That's interesting. Her Ladyship sent another party, all tough and fancy like yours, out here about six months ago. But they never comed back. Lost two of my horses on that little spin."

Meanwhile, Kojik sends Grover the owl up in a widening gyre to have a look over the area. It is, indeed, quite empty. The land between the road and the river is sparsely forested and not great for ambushes. Across the river are what looks like marshlands and swamp, thickly treed.

However, in the forest to the north, Grover can see the shaking of leaves and the flight of small birds that indicates something large is moving beneath the trees.

It's not moving directly toward the party. But it's not not moving toward the party.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:29, Thu 16 Mar 2023.

Kojik silently listened on and let the others deal with Barrad more directly, his own attention kept on his familiar as the owl took wing and lifted into the sky. He circled around, getting a long look of the area and moving further out to see what was about.

As the bird began his return and reached within distance to share what he had seen, Kojik absorbed the information quickly and then passed it on to the others promptly for further consideration.

"Regardless of concerns for what has been here before, the area around us is relatively empty. Nothing between us and the river, not even a good ambush spot if someone was of a mind to have one. The other side is marshlands and swampy terrain, so undoubtedly not a primary concern.

However, there is movement in the forest to our north. Something fairly large is moving through the forest, causing some of the local birds to take flight. Couldn't tell what it is though; could be some forest creature or several. Or even men on horses. Whatever it is though, its definitely moving through the woods now. It doesn't appear to be coming directly towards us at least, but its not exactly going away from us either," he notes.