"She mentioned the the Old Fish Trail?" Inari said, looking down the path.
When they are ready to depart, Yuki thanks Walthus for his hospitality, the breakfast, and, once more, tells him her condolences regarding the death of his slithering friends.
_________________________________________
A little while later, when the group is moving through the swamp and Inari brings up the Old Trail:"He did, yes. That the Goblins 'use' the old Fish Trail.", Yuki ponders as the group makes her way back along the path they used yesterday, keeping their eyes open for signs of a white-haired monster:"I am afraid we can't quite take on a whole Goblin village...but maybe we could ambush a group of them on the trail, take them prisoner, then learn more - does anybody speak their language?"
"Great plan!" She pauses when Yuki mentions the language barrier, "I can cast a spell that will allow us to understand them though".
"Thats great, Talene! If we can learn where they get their fireworks, that may be enough, without needing to go up against their whole tribe.", Yuki thankfully replies.
Going into this Marsh had seemed SUCH a good idea at the time. An adventure. Excitement. But honestly? Yuki was a bit afraid that this job was too large for them alone...seeing what had happened to Walthus made it a very present reality: Someone could die...some bad luck, one wrong decision...
Shaking off her feelings of inadequacy and insecurity, Yuki instead focused on her surroundings...having something meaningful to do helped, as it always did.
Tal moves along with the rest keeping her eyes peeled and her thoughts to herself, I wish there were more of us. The Godtouched had so many and we so few...
Perception
Perception
Mari takes the front riding Flax, using his superior olfactory sense as another ward against any surprises.
Now that the little group is more familiar with the terrain, and are also backtracking along their route from the previous day, they find the going somewhat faster and easier. During their trip along the road they see and hear only the calls of birds and a few small, mundane animals like the ones they had noticed the day before.
A couple of hours brings them back to the head of the New Fish Trail, and up the embankment to the Lost Coast Road. Turning south on the road they walk almost an hour to the point where another trail branches off toward the marsh. This one shows fewer signs of use than the one they have travelled on previously.
"Well, here we are. And we have no idea how far into the marsh the goblins have their village. I don't have any suggestions beyond trusting Lady Luck on this one...so I'm open for plans...if nobody has any better, we could simple go in until we find a spot that looks good for an ambush, then set up there. Goblins aren't known for being cautious, so we'd probably stand a good chance at surprising them, if any come this way-", Yuki suggests to the others, obviously not feeling very secure about her suggestion.
Indeed, depending on "luck", gambling on chance, that felt risky...but she had not managed to come up with anything more sensible, either, and not doing anything was not an option.
Tal smiles at Yuki, "Actually I think that is the design for most ambush plans. Let's scope out the best place we can find and make it happen, not too far in of course so we can flee down the trails and away from any potential reinforcements if things go awry".
"I'm not the luckiest fellow in the world." Inari says, looking a little uncomfortable. "Which, I suppose in this instance is a good thing. I guess. Running into goblins isn't generally considered lucky."
"I'll follow your lead."
The party follows the trail as it switchbacks down a steep, roughly forty-foot, descent much the same as the entrance of the New Fish Trail. Once you are at marsh level, the trail proceeds on, deeper in. Compared to the other trail, this one shows much less sign of use, with plant life encroaching onto it from both sides, making it narrower than the previous trail. Despite this it is still easy enough to follow.
"Don't goblins have their own language?" Inari asked.
After only a few hundred feet the trail takes a sharp bend to the right, away from the slope and straight into the heart of the marsh. A couple hundred more feet brings you to a wooden bridge spanning one of the river's tributaries. Despite the trail's relative lack of use now, the bridge seems sound.
"They do, but Talene said she can handle that.", Yuki answered, taking a look at the bridges surrounding area:"You think around here would be a good spot?"
The prospect of dragging a struggling prisoner over the bridge while screeching buddies of his were coming up behind the party was not very intriguing to Yuki-
"I thought Goblins just sort of grunted and drooled at each other or something." Mari says, having taken point; she, at times, leans down to pet Flax's side, the white wolf's ears up and alert; he was very well-trained! Mari herself also keeps herself alert, trying to listen for anything coming for them first. It wouldn't do to get ambushed when they were trying to ambush the goblins themselves.
Perception
"Let's take cover on the side of the bridge closest to the swamp egress. From there we can set up an ambush for small groups and hide from larger groups. We can see who comes from either direction if set ourselves up in teams of two on either side of the trail. Thoughts on my idea?"
The party locates a place near the bridge which gives them a clear line of sight across the bridge on one side, and several yards down the trail on the other.
You all conceal yourselves and wait.
"It's a good idea...but actually laying in ambush is taxing, is it not? I thought maybe we should have a spotter, a lookout telling the others...if 3 of us hide, and one person stays on the trail, a bit back, that may serve...see...here, I could keep track of the road, and if any Goblins show up, they may rush towards me carelessly, and run right into our ambush. I'll simply scream and pretend to run, that would be your cue to be ready for them..."
"Well that sounds incredibly haphazard and dangerous." Inari said skeptically for a moment as Yuki outlined her idea. "Sure. Why not?" he grinned.
"Your sister is going to be soon pissed at me for letting you do this..." he said as they started to walk.
With a smirk, Yuki answered: "Well, I'm the one running away to begin with - even if it's only pretending - so if there's too many of them, I'll have a headstart over the lot of you, surely Ameiko would be proud to hear you were willing to give your life to safe mine by delaying a swarm of Goblins so I could get away!"
Talene, Inari, Mari, and Flax take up concealed positions near the bridge. They split their time between keeping an eye on the far side of the bridge and keeping an eye on Yuki.
Yuki wanders back and forth on the trail and across the bridge, being careful to remain within sight of the others. She tries walking about, running, walking while singing, a broken wing lure, and standing around during the next couple of hours.
Her efforts are greeted with great hostility when she gets too close to a particular tree. A couple of squirrels chitter excitedly and pelt her with nuts. Otherwise the only response to Yuki is the occasional splash of a fish or frog in the water, and the mocking calls of birds.
Yuki lies down at the edge of the trail, near some rocks or tree stump, pretending to have fallen...then shouts, loudly:
"Plop, splash" goes another frog.
Talene groans as the waiting is obviously not the fun part of adventuring.
She turns to her companions, "Should we wait longer or try again tomorrow?"
Inari grinned watching Yuki's histrionics. "I don't know, she's pretty entertaining. Wonder how long she'll do it before she gets bored."
"I mean, it shouldn't take too long if they're nearby... but if they're not, uhm, well, I hope Yuki doesn't lose her voice. Mari murmurs. Flax lets out a low little growl of confirmation to Mari's thoughts. They both keep alert, of course.
After about 20 minutes of shouting, Yuki loses her patience, speaking in a normal tone:"I don't think this is working...should we try and move further in?"
Talene shrugs at Yuki, "Sweetie, I do but I don't. You are at some substantial risk ding this here much less deeper into these swamps where it'll be that much harder to get out".
Yuki seems rather depressed about their plan failing, so far: "It's still weird. If they really use this trail...we've been waiting half a day, and not a single Goblin has shown up. Think they use a different way in and out of the marsh, after all? Or are we just unlucky?"
Talene was right, of course, going further in meant greater danger. Learning more would have been preferable before doing so, but it seemed they had few options - the Goblins would be a threat no matter where in the Marsh they would do something...anything.
"Well, so far we have mapped out some of the marsh, not much but from what Walthus said we could probably flesh out more of it. Then we can get an advance from Veznutt and use that gold to purchase more supplies to help us out here. Sound like a plan? Not that uh.. my last plan worked out too well..."
"No better idea, either. But as said, it seems strange...if the Goblins give trouble outside the Marsh, they would need to enter and exit it. Unless someone directs them towards the Caravans they raid, they'd need to have scouts out there coming and going. So maybe Walthus was wrong, and they don't make use of the Old Fish Trail. We could circle around outside the Marsh, see if they have some other way in or out, then fetch some supplies that help us set a proper ambush, like, traps and stuff...maybe Walthus could help with that kind of stuff, too.", Yuki agrees.
"Well it isn't as if we've been doing a very good job hiding the fact that we are here. Goblins are sneaky and it's their home turf. I'd guess they have probably seen us, but we haven't seen them."
"Just leaving without doing anything to stop them here doesn't sit well with me... but neither is getting everyone killed running in, I guess." She gently pats Flax and mounts him, gently tapping his side with her heel to get him to rise. "Circling around the marsh once might let us find a scout or another trail like Yuki said, but if it doesn't, we can go back and get ready for another trip here. Is that what we're doing then?"
Tal shrugs, "Sure, one more circle can't hurt and if we do find something, we'll have a better idea of what we are up against the next time we come back".
The party backtracks along the trail and you are soon on the bluff above the Brinestump. Shortly, you are back on the Lost Coast Road traveling south. You watch carefully for other trails breaking off the road toward the marsh, but see none.
An little more than an hour later you come to the place where the road crosses the Soggy River. A large and sturdy bridge crosses the river there. The point where the river begins a quick descent through a ravine down to the marsh is easily visible to the immediate west.
After crossing, it does not take you long at all to realize the road now runs almost due south, while the bluff that marks the edge of the marsh curves away quickly to the southwest. If you want to continue to look for trails along the marsh's edge you will need to leave the road and march overland.
On the other side of the road you have commonly seen fields, some cultivated and others left fallow for the season. Although you haven't seen any houses, you have seen tracks among the fields that probably lead to houses judging from wagon wheel ruts, and the tracks of domesticated animals.
There are still a couple of hours at least of daylight remaining. What would you like to do?
"Let's keep heading back. Though following these wagon wheel ruts could be interesting".
"Maybe we can follow them when we come back?" Inari said looking down the trail. "I wish we had someone with us who knew more about the lay of the land. I kinda feel like we are stabbing in the dark."
Mari hums, though a slight blush came to her cheeks. "Maybe we can ask Shalelu if we come across her. She probably knows about this region way more than anyone else." Flax lets out an imperceptible huff, almost sounding like he's exasperated; Mari responds with a huff of her own. "Oh, you shush, Flax." She mutters.
"I think we should follow these tracks now. They'll lead to houses, and anybody living close by and willing to pass here with a cart may know which areas to evade, because Goblins come and go from the Marsh there...which is exactly what we are looking for-", Yuki meekly suggests...her plan to set an ambush had failed utterly, and her confidence was at an all-time low, but she didn't want to pass up the opportunity to ask some locals for their input.