Aubree will talk to the people at the construction site, particularly the elves, as they might be more generous with her with information.

In reply to Aubree Farwalker (msg # 32):

Olewyn who had largely been silent will see if there is anyone with a spare arrow or two they would be willing to part with. She considers what is being said and finally interjects with her own thoughts.

"The towers would even be of use to my clan should we come north. This... This will help many people. I would like to see it succeed."

(Is she asking about anything in particular?)



There's no shortage of arrows right now, and others are glad to share with you.

Aubree will ask for a few arrows as well, since they were in more dangerous areas than they realised.

She asked about general information.   How far along they were, what the general path was going to be, and if there were others deeper in the woods they needed to look out for.

In reply to Aubree Farwalker (msg # 35):

Olewyn will only take enough to restock with thanks given to those willing to share. Their kindness will not be forgotten. Olewyn does however linger near Aubree to listen in on what the elf learns. This is vital to their journey.

"Have you seen signs of larger predators?" It is not only goblins they should fear.

 Marthine does not take much, if anything, only taking stock of what is available.  When Olewyn asks about predators, the Skin-Changer listens carefully.

 "Yes... anything that poses a threat to your safety ought to be taken care of."

"Ah! Well!" Arno points out a wooden structure nearby. It's three stories, and it has steps that turn and turn and lead up to the top. The top has a peaked rooftop, but is open on all four sides. "See, we went with steps instead of a ladder in case anyone gets wounded and you have to move 'em down after the fighting's over-- cursed hard to do that with just a ladder. We'll have a system of lanterns-- if one goes out, that means trouble, and everyone at the next tower'll know to come running to help. Too many lanterns'll mean that you're not in trouble, but someone up or down the line past you is, so to come help." Arno points down the road. "See, you can just see the next tower down there. They're a bit closer together when the road curves, but it doesn't do that often. It's mostly pretty straight. The stretch we've worked on so far has been, anyway. We've finished four of these towers so far, and we're working on the fifth now."

"Almost done with the fifth," someone tells Arno. "Just about ready to start on the sixth."



"Haven't seen any, but we've seen signs," says a dwarf.

"Spider-webs," says an elf. "Dark creatures, grown more dangerous by the black magic of The Necromancer. But we haven't seen any so far."

"And sign of goblins, twice," says the dwarf. "A broken arrow, at one point. A recent carving, at another-- they mark the trees with their tribal signs, with various meanings."

"I know some of the marks," adds Lacriel. "I will be watching for them."

"Still, everything we'd seen so far was south of the road," says the dwarf. "I had thought it safe to let Arno and his cutters venture north for lumber..."

Aubree nodded to the dwarf, smiling at their achievement.
"I'm not precisely sure where our Adventure will take us, but if we get a chance to check in with the other towers, we certainly well.  A bit of communication never hurts, after all.  This is a mighty accomplishment, my friends.  You should be very proud."

"Oh, we absolutely will be," says Lachriel. "We'll be passing them all, and scouting the road farther ahead to make sure it seems safe. We'll also be scouting off the road as well, to make sure no one's preparing any ambushes."

She does not mention what happened to Aldo and his fellows-- it's just too obvious and painful to need to be pointed out directly.

And so, a meal is eaten, and everyone except for those on watch eventually go to bed for the night. The workers offer to keep watch for you tonight...

...But nothing bad happens during the night.

After a pleasant-enough breakfast, you all set out, in the morning, travelling west on the road...

(Y'all seemed not-sure what to say next, so I thought I'd move things along. Gonna pause here so y'all can do reaction posts if needed...)

After a filling meal (humans and dwarves loved greasy food, though Aubree had to admit there was something appealing about it), Aubree was shown a guest sleeping pad.  It was less luxurious than she was used to, but that was what Adventures were all about.
As the people settled down for the night, Aubree pulled out some travel games, including a deck of cards and a chess board like game from the elves.
Later one, she broke out her elven flute, and played some elven melodies, and also a few human ones she'd heard recently.

Breakfast was much the same as supper, with flavors consisting mostly of salt and grease, but it was oddly satisfying and filling.
Elven food was about nutrition and fuel for the body.  Humans, and to a lesser extent dwarves, seemed to use food to express love and affection.
Aubree had to admit that she approved.

 Marthine seemed to enjoy the fare... any baked goods, almost, but not quite, as much as that from Lake-town!  As far as Aubree's offered entertainments, the normally... strange, short woman attempted to play the games with her.

 Her own contributions to entertainments included stories about her anywhere from eleven-twenty cats.  She actually got carried away telling tales of their silly antics, laughing as she did.  Perhaps this near-anthropomorphism of these meowry mousers was stress from the recent fracas, perhaps it was just Marthine being Marthine.

 But, while rest was welcome and the woman's dreams weren't the worst, better days were to come... and she had to see to that with her companions.  Following her breakfast and gratitude to her hosts, Marthine took to the road with elves and woman.

Lachriel leads the party west. Every time one of the three-story watchtowers is almost out of sight, the next one comes into sight.

Effort has been made to widen the road, too, around each tower.

Each tower has a garrison of five fighters, with horses or ponies. Each has at least one elven archer and at least one human fighter in the complement.

The garrisons are all happy to see the party passing, and there's much smiling and waving.

Finally, Lachriel takes you past the last fully-completed tower.

The next tower does indeed look almost finished. "This one should be finished before sundown today!" a dwarf says proudly.

The next tower you come to is barely started, but the structural supports for the first two stories are already in place. Dwarves and men are also hard at work widening the road on either side of the tower. "Don't want any wagons running off the shoulder in the future because of the watchtowers!" chuckles a woman.

"This area has already been scouted," Lachriel explains. "Our job today is to scout the area for the next tower, down the road, and to make sure there are no surprises nearby. Ready to continue? Any questions?"

Aubree enjoyed their wander through the woods, and waved to all the sturdy men and woman guarding the road.  She'd play her flute as they walked by, hopefully providing a bit of entertainment during what was probably a long day of mild tedium.

As they reached the more uncivilized areas of the forest, she put her flute away and readied her bow, ajd inventoried her various pouches.

"I'm ready, my friend.   On to Adventure, eh?"

In reply to Aubree Farwalker (msg # 45):

"I have none that will not be answered by pressing forward."

Olewyn had been content last night. These people reminded her of her clan. Perhaps by leaving her people to see the world she  was coming to find that people, at their heart, had much more in common than she thought.

It was a thought to explore while they scouted out the land.

"This is going well. I think once we have scouted it will be safer for the people at work down the road. I suppose I should ask how far we will be between this tower and the one yet-to-be-built?"

 Marthine only shook her head at Lachriel's question.

 She found herself quietly enjoying the flute, but still remained vigilant.  Her hand was on that staff of hers, the weapon finding itself less and less tap-a-tap-a-tapping on the ground, and more just rested against her shoulder.

 "Yes, and what should we be on the lookout for, outside of the unusual?"

"Anything at all unusual. Any sign or sound of movement. Any sign that anyone or anything might have been around recently. Be sure to look not just at ground level, but also up in the trees. Watch for any sign of unusually-large spiderwebs or cobwebs. If you happen to see any footprints once we're off the road, get my attention quietly and tell me. Truly, I even want you to tell me if you smell a strange smell, or if you just feel as if someone's watching you."

"About as far as the distance between the others-- about as far as an arrow can fly over level ground."

Thinking, the two humans realize that about as far as an arrow can fly over level ground is, in elvish thinking, a bit farther than humans might think.

Aubree remembered her studies, with Radagast would speak of how anything, strange smells, sounds, and even strange tastes, could be a clue about danger.
The wizard was wise, but had a weird habit of putting almost everything new into his mouth, like a human toddler.   It was a strangely effective method of investigation, though.  At least when he did it.


She nodded to their guide and took to examining everything

In reply to Aubree Farwalker (msg # 50):

Why are elves like this? A question many a child of man has thought since the first time a human had to deal with that kind of explanation. At least she knows it is less than a league. That is a unit of measurement that she can deal with.

"Then that should not be too terrible."

There she stayed polite and did not lose her calm demeanor. On the outside.

 Marthine does not seem to think that Lachriel is at all being unreasonable or silly, and in fact nods her agreement to her.  "Understood."  But, well, arrow-flights were another thing entirely... there were so many factors that went into that sort of a measurement!  She seems like she is almost beginning to say something, but at the last minute... does not.

 Instead, she sets about her duties as needed.

In reply to Marthine (msg # 52):

Olewyn starts to silently look for signs as they travel. She wishes to see if she catches anything that should stand out. However she neglects to look up because hers are not the only eyes looking for danger as far as she knows.

Is that a bent branch?

Olewyn pauses to inspect something with a careful gaze not knowing if it is a sign of something to be weary of or in a branch is just a branch.

( Olewyn rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,1. )

zip!

Olewyn disappears.

Wait, what? How could she just disappear? Did she fall in a hole? There was a sort of movement, but it--

--Oh, there she is, hanging from a branch overhead. A giant spider has webbed her up with a web like a noose, and she's dangling by her neck (well, and her left arm/shoulder, so she isn't strangling yet, but still).

(1. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! A giant spider has webbed Olewyn by the neck and she's hanging from a big tree limb overhead!

2. Olewyn is in the perfect position to attack the giant spider with her dagger right now, but she'll start taking damage next round if she doesn't swing over to the nearest branch right away. (Alternatively, she could just cut the web that's holding her, but then she'd drop to the ground and probably take damage that way.

2a. Since you have Foraging: Surviving (in the wild), I'll let you roll 3d6 to try to swing to aforementioned nearby branch.

3. Note: Olewyn has not lost any Toughness points YET. The bad consequences (besides giant spider attack) is that she's in a very awkward position right now).

4. Everyone else, feel free to use ranged attacks to attack the giant spider. Doing that won't cause Olewyn to fall. (Aubree, you're not close enough to use your magic powder at this time.))

Aubree blinked in surprise as her friend Olewyn seemed to vanish, but that expression was replaced with alarm when she saw the spider.  Radagast had warned about such vile, monstrous creatures.  Nefarious predators who disrupt the natural order of things.

Too far away to use her alchemical powders, she quickly drew her bow and shot at the spider.

OOC:
13:51, Today: Aubree Farwalker rolled 3 using 1d6 with rolls of 3.  Bow shot
This message was last edited by the player at 18:55, Thu 23 Mar 2023.

In reply to Aubree Farwalker (msg # 55):

Olewyn tries to swing herself using her skills in climbing. Surely she can get away from this spider long enough to untangle herself from it's web. She is much better with her bow.

( Olewyn rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,3,1.

 )

It doesn't quite work how she would like because she cannot quite manage the angle she would like. She can tell something is about to not go in her favor. Again. At least she has friends to help.