Having decided to get up as early possible to get started on what should be a long day of hiking, the party wakes from their flop-room at the Dark Titan Taproom to find a great breakfast waiting for them. After downing their meal of Smoked sausages, curds, goose eggs, raisins, and corn pone (just what the normal clientele needs for their hangover), the party goes to pay but finds out that the barkeep/owner won't take their money. Kaplea Staffbane informs them that Elder Foxhorn had taken care of things already.
This bit of good fortune bodes well for the group and they make arrangements for sack lunches. Some substitutions need to be made since the lentils weren't cooked up yet, but everyone gets a good sack lunch of a chicken half, chicken eggs, corn pone, and some blueberries. The group grabs their gear, sack lunches, and their newly acquired "suicide daggers" and gets a good start West out of town.
The rest of the morning goes by quickly and uneventfully. They stop for lunch on the side of the road and as they finish one of them notices a fair amount of dust being kicked up down the road back toward Badger Falls. The move off into the brush back from the road until they can determine that it is just their Halfling Caravan heading their way. They flag the caravan down and it does stop. The caravan master, Rorleerorlkin recognizes Anise and Myka. Vrykor asks if they can get a ride to the crossroads and while he mulls it over Anise asks the same question, but eloquently in Halfling. Rorleerorlkin gracefully accepts, eager to chat with Anise. Anise and Vrykor join him in the lead wagon while Myka and Gala get a ride in the last wagon.
The caravan is moving at a good pace as they have twice the number of ponies needed. Rorleerorlkin enjoys being able to engage "outsiders" comfortably in his native tongue and is quite surprised by the wonderous tales of spooks and spirits. He doesn't believe her at first, but when she mentions the newly banished Ansen, he believes everything. Ansen was spotted headed East towards Lake Hazard and while Rorleerorlkin knew he had been banished, he didn't know why. During the journey Rorleerorlkin is a bit amazed at Vrykor's rather cavalier attitude towards her two brother's demise.
The caravan makes it to their normal camping spot near the Sageem Road. The party asks if they can camp with them for the night and the Halflings readily agree, provided that Anise re-tells her wondrous tales of the party's exploits. Vrykor tries to help chop wood, but it really isn't necessary. Rorleerorlkin explains that his group travels a set route and they deliberately take an extra day to move through that route. This extra day is rotated through all of their normal out-of-town stops and they do all of their extra prep work on those days. Firewood is already cut, stacked, and being aged.
Over a dinner campfire Anise tells the assembled group the tales of how they fought the kobolds and
encountered the skeletons. She has to explain what a ghost is, but otherwise everyone enjoys the story. The Halfling's wagons are circled with the ponies held within the circle for the night. The party sets their own watch and it works out that they have one person on watch while the Halflings have two.
Around midnight one of the Halflings on watch notices that a group of goblins has managed to get right up to the camp. He sounds the alarm, waking Vrykor and Mykal. Anise was on watch and Gala is still sound asleep. Six goblins pour into camp. Right off the bat they knock Anise down and back, as well as one of the Halfling guards. That Halfling at least got in a really good blow, knocking back one of the two goblins attacking him.
Vrykor is up first and she rushes into the fray. She manages to keep two of the goblins engaged while protecting Anise and the Halfling. Soon enough Myka has her shield readied and is able to engage some of the goblins trying to make their way in. She kills the first goblin she comes to with a mighty blow, sending its halves flying apart in two directions. She then moves on towards the last two goblins that have managed to gang up on the other Halfling, who is finally aware of what is happening.
Vrykor is trading blows back and forth concentrating all her efforts on one of her attackers. Myka and the Halfling have one goblin stuck between them and the "free" goblin is concentrating on the Halfling. He goes down, but not without getting in one good final jab. Fortunately Myka isn't double-teamed for long because she lands another solid blow which guts one goblin.
Gala is still unable to wake up and Anise is rolling on the ground in pain, as are the two Halflings. Vrykor and Myka are exchanging blows with a goblin, but both of them have the upper hand and are able to dispatch their foes. Once the battle is over they rouse Gala and start patching up their wounds. Vrykor starts on her own wounds and Gala rushes over to help Anise.
A few strange arcane words are spoken and Gala's touch starts to knit Anise's wounds.
I try to stress the enormity of this revelation that they've just witnessed the first open expression of divine power the wurld has seen in millenia, but between meta-gaming and the fact most of my players were "buzzed" this just elicited more of a " meh". I'm not going to let this bother me.
Now the players know that the Gawds have returned to the Wurld, but they are more concerned with immediately pressing matters. The goblins have their ears removed and the bodies are stripped of possessions (some copper pieces and their short swords) before being drug out of camp. This battle lasted less than a minute and none of the other Halflings came out to engage the intruders. They did come out when it was deemed safe and all able-bodied men took over the watch for the rest of the night.
Sa'Mar, the 1st of Nardur'Kiev in the year 14063.
In the morning Vrykor sees if Rorleerorlkin wants to purchase the goblin ears and she is told no. She then inquires about the crappy goblin short swords and is offered 50 sp for the lot. Since that is way too good of a price she assumes that this is compensation for their efforts last night. The Halflings don't want the ears because they don't want to undercut any bounty the party might get.
Good catch!
The caravan moves on and the party tracks the goblins trails to an area relatively close to the camp. There they find the ground has been well trampled, not just by goblins, but by something "bigger", human sized (or so). It takes some effort but Vrykor manages to follow the tracks along a game trail. As the party heads into the deeper woods, Vrykor and Anise scout out ahead a little bit. Eventually they come upon a small campsite made up of nine rough bedrolls. Six are smaller and empty while there are three larger ones tucked up under the lowest hanging branches. While it is relatively dark in the woods, it is even darker where these three bedding areas are. Shoddily clothed feet can be seen sticking out from two of the bedding areas.
Vrykor and Anise sneak back to the rest of the group and report that they've found the orc warparty of nine. The group backtracks down the trail and does their best to mark on the map where they think that warband is at. Because of their relatively late start they do not get back into town until the early hours of the next morning. Before heading off to their flophouse room, the wake up Elder Foxhorn and give him the complete report.
NPCs introduced:
Kaplea Staffbane (Human Male: Proprietor Dark Titan Taproom)
Moons:
Arlora is half moon waning
Bardra'Kar 2nd Quarter Waning
Shadara is Full Moon
Light level: Dim
 |
| Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org |
encountered the skeletons. She has to explain what a ghost is, but otherwise everyone enjoys the story. The Halfling's wagons are circled with the ponies held within the circle for the night. The party sets their own watch and it works out that they have one person on watch while the Halflings have two.
Around midnight one of the Halflings on watch notices that a group of goblins has managed to get right up to the camp. He sounds the alarm, waking Vrykor and Mykal. Anise was on watch and Gala is still sound asleep. Six goblins pour into camp. Right off the bat they knock Anise down and back, as well as one of the Halfling guards. That Halfling at least got in a really good blow, knocking back one of the two goblins attacking him.
Vrykor is up first and she rushes into the fray. She manages to keep two of the goblins engaged while protecting Anise and the Halfling. Soon enough Myka has her shield readied and is able to engage some of the goblins trying to make their way in. She kills the first goblin she comes to with a mighty blow, sending its halves flying apart in two directions. She then moves on towards the last two goblins that have managed to gang up on the other Halfling, who is finally aware of what is happening.
Vrykor is trading blows back and forth concentrating all her efforts on one of her attackers. Myka and the Halfling have one goblin stuck between them and the "free" goblin is concentrating on the Halfling. He goes down, but not without getting in one good final jab. Fortunately Myka isn't double-teamed for long because she lands another solid blow which guts one goblin.
Gala is still unable to wake up and Anise is rolling on the ground in pain, as are the two Halflings. Vrykor and Myka are exchanging blows with a goblin, but both of them have the upper hand and are able to dispatch their foes. Once the battle is over they rouse Gala and start patching up their wounds. Vrykor starts on her own wounds and Gala rushes over to help Anise.
A few strange arcane words are spoken and Gala's touch starts to knit Anise's wounds.
I try to stress the enormity of this revelation that they've just witnessed the first open expression of divine power the wurld has seen in millenia, but between meta-gaming and the fact most of my players were "buzzed" this just elicited more of a " meh". I'm not going to let this bother me.
Sa'Mar, the 1st of Nardur'Kiev in the year 14063.
In the morning Vrykor sees if Rorleerorlkin wants to purchase the goblin ears and she is told no. She then inquires about the crappy goblin short swords and is offered 50 sp for the lot. Since that is way too good of a price she assumes that this is compensation for their efforts last night. The Halflings don't want the ears because they don't want to undercut any bounty the party might get.
Good catch!
The caravan moves on and the party tracks the goblins trails to an area relatively close to the camp. There they find the ground has been well trampled, not just by goblins, but by something "bigger", human sized (or so). It takes some effort but Vrykor manages to follow the tracks along a game trail. As the party heads into the deeper woods, Vrykor and Anise scout out ahead a little bit. Eventually they come upon a small campsite made up of nine rough bedrolls. Six are smaller and empty while there are three larger ones tucked up under the lowest hanging branches. While it is relatively dark in the woods, it is even darker where these three bedding areas are. Shoddily clothed feet can be seen sticking out from two of the bedding areas.
Vrykor and Anise sneak back to the rest of the group and report that they've found the orc warparty of nine. The group backtracks down the trail and does their best to mark on the map where they think that warband is at. Because of their relatively late start they do not get back into town until the early hours of the next morning. Before heading off to their flophouse room, the wake up Elder Foxhorn and give him the complete report.
NPCs introduced:
Kaplea Staffbane (Human Male: Proprietor Dark Titan Taproom)
Moons:
Bardra'Kar 2nd Quarter Waning
Shadara is Full Moon
Light level: Dim
