Gm Wu's "The war within"
Game Master doctor_wu

Chardak pushes his waterskin and a dagger into the woman's hands. "Drink. Then lead us to the sleeping room."

Ella Homestead takes a two large gulps of water and then starts leading the party back down the cave towards the tunnel that they entered then she reaches a fork in the tunnel and takes the root to the left. The cave seems eerily quiet during this time. After taking down this fork she reaches a small cavern about 20 feet by 20 feet that is filthy and in a bit of squalor a young girl seems to be tied up in the corner but there are several really worn bedrolls and few ripped clothes and not much valueable here.

Jondar seeing the tied up girl and quickly rushes over to help her. "Oh, dear. Are you alright my child? My name is Jondar and these are my friends. We are here to rescue you.", he says as he kneels before her to untie her bonds. Once they are untied he gives her a drink of water from his waterskin and offers her some jerky.

He glances over his shoulder to the others and says, "I think we she get these two to safety before to go any further."

Chardak looms over the child and stares at her intently, "Girl, is your mother Karaina, the baker's wife?"

"I agree with Jondar, let's get them out of here and back to town."

Karthan can take them back on his horse while we explore.

"Good idea."

"That is good. He can carry our spoils as well so that we are not slowed by what we've won."

Good thinking Alex. If Karthan takes the woman and loot, does anyone want something they can use now from the loot list?

The girl responds "Yes" and then looks at Chardak as if trying to remeber who he is and says "Chardak is that you?"

Chardak looks down at the girl. "Yes. Your mother sent me to find you."

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21
The young girl tries to break free of the rope tying her and says "let me out" and breaks free of the ropes after seeing chardak and gives him a hug.

Chardak awkwardly pats the girl's shoulder. "Anna, are you well? Did they hurt you?"

After she replies, the half-orc gently pushes her away. "We must be ready in case more orcs are near."

The girl replies "they hurt me but I am feeling better now."

you all feel a slight chill in the air as Anna let's some of her fury leak out, from that the orc's injuried a little child.

"It's cold. Let's keep looking for orcs."

Chardak hefts his sword and looks at the other party members to see their opinion.

Ad libbing the kid's name as Anna -- bonehead move or RP genius? I freely confess I was just drawing a name out of thin air. Probably saw AB's previous post out of the corner of my eye.

So, doctor_wu, do you want to volunteer Karthan for taxi duty? Don't get me wrong, it would be great to have him around for a fight, but if we're going to send him into the sunset better sooner than later.

Good opportunity to do so.

Karthan says "Follow me if you want to return to southwatch" To the two rescued prisoners and takes most of the unclaimed loot with him and then goes out towards the horse. The two rescued prisoners follow him and head towards exiting the cave.

After leaveing Karthan seems to come back saying "We have explored all of this cave There isn't really that much more here. There is some more loot where we fought the half orcs but that is it. Not much else to explore I think we should travel back together. "

In this room there are only a few scant bedrolls and not really much of anything valueable there is an awfully worn rope that the young girl was in and nothing of much value.

Chardak nods and, ignoring the bricabrac in the sleeping room, follows Karthan out to the chamber with the dead half-orcs.

He prods the sack with the butt of his spear. If it doesn't move or squirm, he looks inside.

"Well, I guess we should gather up the rest of the spoils and escort these ladies to town for a hot meal and a warm bath. I know I could use one myself and my flask as run dry and that is almost too much for me to bare." Jondar says as he tussle the girl's hair.

"I agree, we should head back"

The girl responds "Yay I get to see my mommy" and has a big smile on her face.

The crossbows in the room with halforcs and longspears are still there. Karthan responds "there seems to be two smaller bags of coins on the the other two half orcs as well."

Anyone want to do anything before they go back.

"Ready, here," Lyle agrees.

The bag Chardak poked seems to contain silver coin and is the in the bag. KArthan picks up the longspears and the crossbows to and the half orcs seem to have many bolts on them.

After this the party soon leaves finding outside still a dusty room and Karthan noticies a small dagger and says" missed tihs on the way in to get here" The party arrives back outside to find it being around 10 in the moring and having the gorund be slightly firmer with no one esle in sight and seeming rather quiet.

"Well," says Lyle. "Shall we?"

Outside you need a survival check to follow the tracks back or risk getting lost.

Chardak agrees with Lyle and Karthan, "There is nothing more here. Let us go."

We'll pack the extra loot on Karthan's horse too?

Chardak takes a forward position to help guide the party on the way back.

Survival 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

Yes makes sense

Chardak finds the tracks of the party and orcs easily although the ground has dried a little bit and the trail gotten older both sets of footprints helping along the way. Chardak noticies the forest is quiet as if the crows are gone and have flown away the party comes down the steep hill alongside it and comes towards the stream where they notice The water still flowing but a tiny bit less than before as the rain has went away. Although a when crossing a small fish the size of a trout seems to dart away startled by the party. After crossing the forest a distant sound of the cawing of a crow can be heard. The forest is still mostly quiet after that. The party goes back and notices an almost bad smeel and the stop of the main tracks of the orcs but but the body of the dead town gaurd has been moved and taken from the area and a picture of a longsword seems to be drawn out in the dirt where the town gaurd fell.

"What is this?" Lyle asks with a rhetorical hint in his voice. He gestures and speaks a few arcane words. His vision slips into shades of grey, with anything magical glowing.

Lyle will cast Detect Magic. He'll concentrate on it for the full three rounds if he detects magical auras.

[/spoiler]

Lyle explains the properties of both to the party.

Lyle's conversation:

Chardak grunts and nods. "We should split them so if Jondar is hurt, someone else can heal him."

****

On the trail

Chardak kneels down to examine the ground near the longsword. He looks with interest at the various foot prints and shallow depression with the long sword drawing.

He tries to piece together what happened, which way the town guards and orcs went , and which direction the guard was dragged away in.

Perception to notice interesting stuff 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19
Survival, dragged guard 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17
Survival , town guards 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14
Survival , orcs 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (11) + 7 = 18

Know (local) about the longsword drawing 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

Just to be sure I'm reading it right, we're following tracks of both orcs and town guards back to town. We've run across the site of a skirmish with one casualty who appears to have been dragged away and the symbol of a longsword is drawn in the dirt where the body first lay?

No you returned to where you first found the body and fought the gaint maggots.

Got it. Chardak is still interested in where the body has been dragged.

The body looks like it was dragged back towards Southwatch.

We all notice this?

Yeah it is pretty obvious in the soft dirt

"Okay, so, who moved him?" Lyle asks in a sarcastic sing-song voice. He looks around the area.

Perception 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (10) + 6 = 16

"Maybe someone from town came and took the body back to be buried.", Jondar says, "but it's strange he or she would drag the body and not put it on a horse or cart."

After a little more looking it appears as if there is a horse footprint that stops up ahead after Jondar says something with a cart behind it. Karhtan then says "That is not my horse Gray thunder" And the evidence of it being dragged stop.

Lyle will point out the human footprint. "There's this print as well."

The mayor's wife responds "It is hard to tell who if anyone exacly if it is? I am not sure we should linger here too long."

"Let's get back to town, then we can come back and investigate," Lyle suggests.

[b]"Agreed, let us return to town.", Jondar says.

The party walks out of the forest as it things as they return to town. The ground seems to be drying out a little but still quite muddy. The tracks the party follow seem to follow a cart but they turn up a hill towards an area with a low fence close to Soutwatch. The young girl the Chardak rescued says "Yay I am close again"

Further ahead the party sees the same wagon ruts in the mud. as the party gets close they approach the geat and see the city walls.

Nesteruk felt proud of his deeds but had little to contribute as the group made their way back to the town of Southwatch.