Anton nods in agreement with Alderen, dismounts, and ties up his horse before quietly drawing his sword and creeping north to flank the boars.
Sounds like fun! Tiberu follows Anton's lead and ties his horse before moving into postion. His spear ready he leans forward ready to charge on Alderen's signal.
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Alderen blows a bird whistle signaling to charge now, and then follows Gisdrok out of the woods. Gisdrok charges in carrying two spears stoping half way and readying one to throw. Aldreren slows when he realizes that he is passing Gisdrok, but still reaches the boar to attack missing the male board entirely.
Round 0
Tiberu: 9/9
Anton: 10/10
Gisdrok:12/12
Alderen:
Male Boar
Female Boar A
Female Boar B
MAP
At the signal Anton rushes the nearest boar, his blade held at shoulder height.
Tiberu moves quickly into a sprint at the sound of the whistle and charges the boat nearest him trusting to his luck to guide his spear.
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TIberu skewers Female Boar B, bringing it to the ground. Anton charge is inhibited by a branch lying in his path, his stumble causing his great-sword to miss Female Boar A by inches.
End of Round 0 (Round 1 starts now)
Tiberu: 9/9
Anton: 10/10
Gisdrok:12/12
Alderen:
Male Boar
Female Boar A
Female Boar B: dead
MAP
Round 1
Tiberu pulls his spear from the fallen boar and turns to the large boar hoping to wound or fell it before it can bolt.
With a quick slash the tip of Tiberu's spear strikes home finding a space in its rib cage a plunging to the base of the metal point before pulling free.
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The Boar give a grunting roar as the steel sinks into his side. The Boar stumbles but is not killed.
Round 1
Tiberu: 9/9
Anton: 10/10
Gisdrok:12/12
Alderen:
Male Boar: 16 damage
Female Boar A
Female Boar B: dead
MAP
Round 1
Pulling his sword free of the earth brings a cascade of turf and leaf litter, and then with a roar Anton brings his sword down again at the nearest boar.
He then sidles around the animal to put the edge of the clearing at his back.
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Gisdrok throws the spear that the male boar, killing it. Alderen moves behind the last female boar and stabs at it with his spear, glancing off it's think hide.
The female boar attacks Anton scoring a hit along his side
End of Round 1
Tiberu: 9/9
Anton: 6/10
Gisdrok:12/12
Alderen:
Male Boar: 18 dmg dead
Female Boar A
Female Boar B: dead
MAP
Antron curses in Chelaxian and strikes again at the boar.
Round 2
Tiberu moves forward to help surround the last boar.
Taking advantage of the distracted animal he thrusts his spear at its side releasing a spurt of blood as the point pulls free.
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All three of the boars lie on hone ground dead and dying, Alderen stands up and give a huge WOOP! of joy. "Well that went well, just like I said. Although Anton, you do seem to have gotten a bit to the beasts horn there at the end" He move first to Anton but seeing he is not significantly injured he starts to dress the boars and calls out to the carriers to bring the poles and other tools now that the danger has past.
Let me get that for you. It only seems fair someone else help patch you up after all the patching you have done.
Tiberu heads over to Anton and casts cure light wounds.
With Anton healed Tiberu will help dress the animals and get the ready for the porters.
Anton scratches the pink new skin on his thigh and then takes a small cord to wrap up the gash in his armor until he can formally patch it later.. He bows deeply to Tiberu and then ruffles through his bag to get his whetstone, setting to re sharpening his greatsword while the others dress the boars. He picks a quiet stump just outside the clearing to listen for any other activity in the forest.
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Once the boars are cleaned, dressed and loaded on the pack animals the group moves on to a new clearing to eat a lunch that was brought along. While the lunch is being unpacked and set up Alderan looks around with a big smile "Looks like everything is going well today, I bet we can get that Innkeeper to cook up not just this boar but a whole feast, and we can have a small festival for the whole town. It will be nice, especially since the last one was interrupted."
The Lunch is set on a small folding table with camp stools, and the hired servants serve you cold meats, salads, and bread that had been baked that day. After lunch Alderan suggests that you ride straight back to town and give the boars to Amekio to give her time to prepare all the food, and give Alderan time to gather people for the celebration of your Heroism, and hunting prowess.
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After returning to town you learn that it will take at least a day of cooking to roast the male boar and it two companions. Amiko decides that one boar should be butchered for dinner tonight and food tomorrow. She and her cooks helpers set to preparing a Boar Chili for dinner and the two others for a day of slow roasting. Tiberu, and Anton leave Gisdrok entertaining Alderan and head into town after a nice meal. They reach the Cathedral in time to see the end of the Father Zantus finish the prayer that will officially open it. The whole building glows with a soft light for a few seconds before settling back to a normal looking building. Father Zantus agrees to show Tiberu and Anton around the Cathedral and explain the building of the structure. A brief discussion about the nature of the seven gods that are housed here, and why this one cathedral serves all seven follows. Tiberu brings up the events that occurred in the graveyard, and Father Zantus expresses his confusion as to why these items were taken and what purpose they can possibly serve. The Father also mentions in the discussion that Nualia’s body was never recovered from the previous church, she was completely burned and incinerated, which is why only a marker was placed near the monument for the previous Father.
The next morning Tiberu, Anton, and Gisdrok go to see the local Academy dean as he knew Nualia, and may have some insight as to what may have happened to cause the previous building to conflagrate. Sadly this yields to results as the Dean is just a simple old man with a basement filled with Knickknacks and mementos from his adventuring days. All three of you spent most of the day in this school looking for information, and when you return to the Rusty Dragon you find that the Feast is ready to get underway with two roast boars and several courses of succulent sides. You all drink and celebrate and the night fades into wine soaked obscurity, however you do remember that the celebrations rival, if not exceeding the celebrations of your first night here.
The following morning you all wake with hangovers, when you head down to the common room, you are served Boar Steaks, and beer scrambled eggs with fresh Rye bread, to soak up the hangover. Over this meal Aldaren tells you he is heading back to his townhouse in Magnimar, and extends his invitation to come for a visit so he can show you around the town, and show you off to his friends there. After he gets up and leaves Sherriff Hemlock strides into the Inn looking around. When he sees the three of you finishing breakfast he comes over to ask if you would join him in a meeting with Mayor Deverin, himself, and Shalelu Andosana, a local Hunter, and survivalist who spends her time scouting the area and hunting goblins. The Hunter has returned to town more than two months early with odd news that the Sheriff thinks you may be interested in since you are investigating this odd attack on sandpoint and the surrounding events.
Back two months early? It must be something important. Let's get going.
Tiberu stands up from the table grabbing one last but if eggs as he does.
Thank you Amiko. It was delicious.
With that he was ready to go.
While mulling over the previous day's information gathering can Tiberu think of an outsider that may ask for a tribute in the form of the items taken?
Looking around smugly, Anton crows Just as I said- it would take a few days for these so-called leaders realize they needed our help. Dim intellect, however, has not extinguished wisdom, only delayed it. I'm ready; take us to the Mayor, Hemlock.
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There are several outsiders who would take the bones of a vertious man, and the marker of a virgin does sound like something some demons and devils like but nothing comes to mind for theses items.
Hemlock sputters for a moment the sighs and leads the three of you out of the Inn and to the town hall.
Tiberu will follow the Sherif.
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You enter a nice office on the second floor of the CIty hall. There are already two people sitting in this room Kendra Deverin, the Mayor of Sandpoint, and a roughly dressed elf, who sits at her ease fully armed and armored. They are currently deeply involved in a conversation when you walk in. The Sheriff introduces the Elf as Shalelu as he walks over the the remaining seats. Shalelu is a local survivalist, mercenary, and bounty hunter who works loosely with the local Guard. She usually stops by once maybe twice a season to provide reports for the town leaders on the area goblins and other dangers in exchange for a bag of gold. She last passed through town only a month ago and wasn’t expected until the last week of autumn.
He goes on to recap her report that Sandpoint hasn’t been the only place in the region that’s had goblin troubles. In short, there’s been an increase in goblin-related raids along the Lost Coast Road, particularly in the dale between Nettlewood and Mosswood. Only a day ago, a farm south of Mosswood was burnt to the ground by a group of goblins. Shalelu was thankfully nearby, and while the farm couldn’t be saved, she did rescue the family and drive off the goblins; the family is staying at a nearby farm for now, but the goblin problem is obviously not going away.
At this point Shalelu and the Mayor have finished their conversation and Shalelu looks the three of you over. “Belor’s told me of your work against the goblins—well done. I’ve dedicated the last several years of my life to keeping them from causing too much trouble around these parts, but they’re tenacious and fecund little runts. Like weeds that bite." She grins sardonically.
“Anyway, there’s five major goblin tribes in the region, and, traditionally, they’re pretty good at keeping each other in line with intertribal squabbles and the like. Yet from what I’ve been able to piece together, members of all five tribes were involved in the raid on Sandpoint. A fair amount of the Mosswood tribe goblins I dealt with yesterday were already pretty beat up, and there was a lot of chatter about the ‘longshanks’ who killed so many of them. Now that I’ve met you, it seems obvious from their descriptions who they were talking about. Seems like you’ve made an impression. In any event, the fact that the five tribes are working together disturbs me. Goblin tribes don’t get along unless they’ve got something big planned, and big plans require big bosses. I’m afraid that someone’s moved in on the goblins and organized them. And judging by these recent raids, what they’re organizing seems like bad news for all of us.”
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With a gusty sigh Sheriff Hemlock announces “I am taking a few of my men south to Magnimar to see about securing additional soldiers to station at Sandpoint for a few weeks, or at least until the extent of the goblin threat can be determined.” He shakes his head at the need to leave the town somewhat unguarded “While I am out of town, I asked Shalelu to sniff around Shank’s Wood, Devil’s Platter, and other places where goblins live to see if she can discover anything else about what’s going on. However she is not well suited to keep the people here feeling safe. The locals seem to have taken to you, and seeing you around town will do a lot for keeping worries down over the next few days.”
To be honest I thought you would have been looking to hire us to get more actively involved but if what you need is a few extra hands to keep things quite while you are gone I am sure we can work something out. Tiberu glances at the others to make sure they don't object before he continues.
Have you heard anything that might help identify the "Longshanks" who has been organizing them? Goblins are almost always their own worst enemy. I don't know the tribes around here well enough to know what could unite them but I am sure we won't like it.
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"Until we know more about what is out there I don't want to hire anyone to go crashing around. Shalelu knows the area so she will be able to scout the area and get more info. Hopefully she will discover the person or creature uniting them and what the goal is. Once we have that information and some support from Magnimar we can move on then and clear them out!" the sheriff smiles and looks around for any other questions or ideas.
Anton gazes long and hard at Hemlock: So your plan is to use the town's treasure to hire some shiftless Magnimar scum. Brush the honeydust off their noses and strap on a rusty shortsword, then come back to eradicate a species that tunnels like ants and breeds ten times faster than rats. Brilliant...
He turns to the Mayor: You should hire me to fight things! But, for the right price I am willing to safeguard Sandpoint, although I have not heard any mention yet about price.
Pointing at Shalelu: Tracker, you should not look to the goblins. They are waves on the beach during a storm. Find the source of the wind and the goblins will return to squabbling over pee-holes and eating tree bark. Look to the trail from the graveyard.
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Sherrif Hemlock seems suprised "Pay for more soldier? No, as we are a dependent city of Magnimar they are required per the charter to provide us aide in times like this, in a few days I will be back with professional soldiers from the Magnimar garrison. Hopefully Shalelu will have been able to find out more on what is going on, and find out who, or what, is uniting these things. Including of course any further information that can be gleaned from those foul goblins who took the Fathers bones. I leave that up to her discrestion she know more about tracking and hunting these things that I."
Shalelu nods alone with the sherrif "If we can find the creature who is putting back bone in the goblins and break it then we will break the backbone of this united force and they should go back to fighting amongst themselves, and the danger to Sandpoint will be past. I will take a look as the trail that leads out of the grave yard and see if I can find the 'odd man out' of the tracks, if I can then I should be able to track them back to their lair. Otherwise I will need to resort to snooping around and seeing what information I can... squeeze... from the strays."
The Mayor shows a lopsided smile "Well I had hoped that your earlier heroism was a indication that you felt some affinity for our city and would therefore want to protect out of a sense of civic duty... I can offer you a monetary reward if you stick around here for a few days and make a good show to keep to people calm until Sherrif Hemlock gets back with the soldiers. Would that satisy?"
Excellent! It sounds like we have a plan.
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Sheriff Hemlock nods and walks out of the room with Shalelu chatting about the next steps. After some haggling with the Mayor you agree to be paid 2 gold each per day, 10 days up front, and combat pay of 20 gold total per combat for the group. The Mayor does not seem pleased with this deal but she is clearly willing to pay for the services. As you leave the office to head back to your inn you run in Shalelu, she is clearly waiting for you.
"I am heading over the the Rusty Dragon for dinner and a room for the evening. I was hoping you might join me, I wanted to hear more about your fight with the goblins. In return I can tell you all about the local tribes and their habits."
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She walks with you to the Inn and then pulled out a chair at one of the tables and orders a round of drinks for all of you. The meeting and negotiations took several hours and it is now past noon and heading into the early evening. As you tell her about everything you have done and seen here since the festival was interrupted true evening comes and you are served a portion of the Boar chili in fresh baked bread runners. Over dinner you talk of local politics and history, nothing of note or significance just dinner conversation.
Once the food is eaten and taken away Shalelu leans forward and with a gleam in her eye she tells you of the local goblins, there are five major tribes in hone area. The Birdcruncher goblins live in caves in the Devil's Platter. The Licktoad live in the Brinestump Marsh. The Seven Tooth goblins live in Shank's Wood, these raid the local junkyard for gear. The Mosswood goblins live further east, as the largest group they could be a problem, but in fighting has always held them back. Finally there is the Thistletop goblins who live of the coast on a small island.
The goblins also venerate any creature who in infamous enough, they refer to them as Goblin Heroes. There are five currently active in hone area, Big Gugmut(of the Mosswod), Koruvus(of the Seven Tooth), Vorka the cannibal(live in the swamp but is of no tribe), Ripnugget is the leader of the Thistletop tribe, and finally Bruthazmus(bugbear ranger in nettlewood).
You learn all of the above over the course of the whole evening of moderate drinking. When most everyone has gone off to be Shalelu heads up to sleep as she needs to be up and gone early tomorrow.
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Early the next morning you all wake and head downstairs for breakfast.
You are served a fair breakfast, with well watered beer. After this meal you head out to do you morning 'patrol' through town as you agreed to do with the mayor.
Tiberu will spend the evening comparing notes on goblin habits and combat techniques with the elf before heading to bed.
At breakfast he notices Ameiko has been un characteristically absent. Especially especially considering a Shalelu was in town for the evening.
Tiberu will ask the bar maid where Ameiko has been.