Woden: You think the silver stag amulet you are looking at to be worth roughly 39 GP.
An oddly precise number, but most fitting, you think.
Yes, it is definitely 39 GP, no way it's not.
Oomlowt's eyes bulged at this news, only to shut suddenly in pain at the increased sunlight. "What a-a specific number!" the kobold stammered. "I don't know if we can split that evenly. Hell, why did that thug even have the thing anyway?"
"39?"
Garhan looked at Woden, then stared the stag intensively again.
"It looks like it could be."
The tiefling's eyes shifted into the sky, he did some counting again.
"Hmmm... If we assume this is worth that much... If one person gets the stag that's almost 40 gold pieces worth, and the other two get 40 pieces of gold as well... That would leave us with... 35 more gold pieces... Ahhh..." the tiefling scratched his jaw and neck.
"One person takes the stag as well as 11 pieces of gold, the other two get 52 pieces? Or... What do you think?"
Oomlowt thought it over. "No... I think this is too important." The kobold adjusted his glasses. "I know bandits. They don't carry things this valuable without cause. We need to know more about it before we pawn it like some bauble. We'll keep the stag until later, and split the current gold we have four ways." He thought about how he had almost stolen the spoils from his allies and felt a twinge of guilt. "I'll take 28 pieces while the rest of you get 29. I think that's fair, don't you?"
"I didn't even think about that..! You might be right, Oomlowt!"
The tiefling is impressed. "You seem to know a lot about bandits."
"Sounds good to me, though I don't mind if I have to get one piece less than someone else, either."
After this determination, you all decide to rest up for the rest of the day, preparing for the arduous exploration and bandit slaughtering in your future.
Naturally, you each regain two hitpoints, if you lost any, from this rest, bringing up your totals in the morning.
Oomlowt:
Current HP: 8
Garhan:
Current HP: 8
Woden:
Current HP: 10
Gird:
Current HP: 11
When you wake up you need to survey your map and decide where you will search for the bandits, and ultimately, begin your exploration of the land, as per the charter's instructions.
Once you guys have picked a hex to go into, I will explain to you how exploration through them works. Just, draw an arrow or something on the map, and link it in one of your own posts, once you figure out where you want to go.
Also, have some things I forgot because I am a terrible GM.
XP Rewards:
For the three bandits killed, you each receive 101 XP, and for Happs, you each get 50 XP, bringing all of your total XPs up to 151 XP.
Garhan woke up an hour early and had some lovely talk with his goat mentor.
His prepared spells for today are Stabilize, Bleed, Detect Magic, Summon Monster and Mount.
Garhan is eating some delicious old cheese for breakfast and exploring the tattered map given to our brave heroes.
"Hmm..."
The tiefling stares at the map intensively and swallows his food before opening his mouth.
"So, we should probably head out to look for the bandits, right?"
Garhan spreads the map on the table and points something with his finger.
"I think we should follow the road, then. I'm not a bandit expert, but I'd imagine they'd be somewhere near the road, at least."
Garhan nods at Oomlowt's plan.
"You seemed to know a lot about bandit hierarchy yesterday, so I trust your gut on where to go, Oomlowt.
...Do kobold talk about their gut?
Intuition?"
Kobold wasn't sure what this discourse on his anatomy had to do with decision making, but decided it must be some euphemism common to the mammals and decided to roll with it. "My intuition bladder is rarely wrong!"
Arriving at the table, Gird rolled her eyes at her teammates linguistic trials.
"I honestly don't have care. If you and Omelet are okay with this course of action, then I'm satisfied with where we're going."
Looking at the coins in her purse, Gird groaned. She was going to miss the money.
"By the way, would you happen to know of there's any sort of rural village nearby?"
Oomlowt cleared his throat before sheepishly trying to meet the half-orc's eyes. He chickened out in an instant - the woman was just too scary! "I believe we are fairly isolated, if I read the charter correctly. None of the colonies in this area lasted all that long on account of bandits, monster attacks, and other calamities. It's our job to cleanse the country, so to speak, so that they can eventually settle the area."
"Oh, okay. Well in that case, I'm up for whatever. Bandit hunting sounds fine." Gird smiles internally. No villages, no places to turn over her hard earned cash!
"We better move as soon as we can, then. Before the bandits are on the edge. They can't have noticed their acquintances missing yet, so we should still have some sort of element of surprise on our side."
Garhan finishes eating his breakfast, puts the rest of the cheese on his pocket, and eagerly looks at all his companions.
"Should we, then?"
The tiefling got up and stroke a pose, pointing at the door with his extended right arm.
"Then let's go!"
And after that, he casually walked to the door. Calanthe was still at the stables, the boy'd have to get his goat before this band of heroes would take off.
And as Garhan strode heroically out, everyone else gazes stupidly at Gird, as she tries to stuff food in her backpack.
How do you even HOLD that much food at once?
Didn't see the point of rolling Perception checks, because it's funnier this way.
Oomlowt tried his best to stop salivating at the sight of Gird's food out of fear - err, respect for the half-orc. "Nothing. Nothing at all. Let's get on with the quest!
Garhan heroically trots to the stables, where his faithful familiar is already ready to go. Well, pretty much, since she's not sleeping anymore or anything; the goat had gone back to sleep after communing with Garhan earlier, but now seemed to be as chipper as an unimpressed goat ever was.
"It's time to go bandit hunting!" the tiefling announced cheerfully to his familiar.
The goat raised an eyebrow and got up into her feet, yawning.
Goatspeech:
"You seem awfully happy about that. Don't you remember what happened yesterday? Was "bandit hunting" really all that fun when you got stabbed?"
Calanthe spoke to Garhan, though to everyone else it sounded just like plain old goat sounds.
"Uh, well..." Garhan scratched the back of his head and cleared his throat. "T-that was a mistake caused by my own actions! It won't happen again, I'm sure!"
The goat raised and eyebrow and made a "tsch"-like sound, but didn't say anything more. Calanthe started walking to the gate, making it clear she was ready to go.
Garhan sighed. He was still happy that Calanthe was willing to come along, even if the goat was angry about yesterday. Or at least to Garhan it seemed like she was angry.
Giving up on subtlety, Gird proceeds to shove the rest of the non-perishable food into her pack. I'm going to eat like a king! Standing up and straightening her pack, Gird picked up the pack and headed out after Garhan.
Oomlowt strode up to his faithful hound and scratched the canine's neck. "Who's a good boy, Woofles?" he asked the dog quietly. "Is it you? Is it you?" The kobold then flipped up onto the saddle on the dog's back and gave it a sweet pat on the head. "We're going to have an adventure today!"
"Yes! Adventure!" Garhan exclaimed, walking to Oomlowt.
"So, Oomlowt, how's your vision? Do you want to borrow my cape?" the tiefling asked. He figured it'd be best to eliminate Oomlowt's possible blindness from the start.
"I think my eyes have adjusted as well as they can," Oomlowt said. "I'll have to close them periodically, and it'd be better if the day was overcast, but I'll survive. Plus Woofles will warn me if there's any danger to see, won't you big fella?" Oomlowt scratched the dog's neck again, eliciting a happy bark from his beloved hound.
"That's good to hear!" Garhan nodded, relieved.
"It's good to see he's got your back! Even if he's just an ordinary dog!"
The tiefling paused to think for a minute.
"Or... Can you speak with him?"
"Um... both?" Oomlowt said. "Training dogs to understand simple verbal commands is pretty elementary. We don't hold conversations, sure, but what would we talk about anyway? Dog things? Nah, we communicate just fine, don't we Woofles?"
"Oh, of course, your friendship is truly amazing even if you can't conversate, defenitely!" Garhan waved his hands nervously.
"I was just curious! About if he's a regular dog or not."
Garhan nods, shedding a small tear. He is moved by this great, warm relationship between a man and a beast!
...A beastman and a beast?
No! To Garhan, Oomlowt is a true man!
Meanwhile, Calanthe sits by the gate, waiting for people to follow her. But it's not like people would move by her pace anyway. The goat sighs.
Goes and joins Calanthe over by the gate, waiting for everyone to follow. A bit jealous that Garhan and Oomlowt get to have fun with their animal companions, but does not show it.
Garhan wipes off the manly tears he shed thinking about a romanticed image of Oomlowt and Woofles a great heroes of war, or something similiar.
"Uh, we probably should get going", the tiefling mutters and walks to the gate.
Calanthe quietly stares at Woden.
Calanthe takes a bite off Woden's hair.
Mmmm, elf hair, delicious.
"Oh no! Calanthe! Stop!"
Garhan takes the goat by the horns and tries to pull her off Woden.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"
Garhan manages to pull Calanthe away from Woden after struggling with the strong-willed goat for a second. The goat keeps on munching the elf's hair.
"Calanthe, that was horrible!" the tiefling cried out to his familiar, who just threw a poisonous glance at the young man. Garhan turned his nervous face to Woden.
"I'm so sorry Woden! She... Does weird things!"
"I-I'll try!" Garhan yelps, turning to Calanthe with an angrily upset face.
"That was extremely rude and mean!" Garhan hissed to the goat.
Goatspeech:
"He looked at me funnily",
Calanthe answered, though to the others it must've sounded like "Baaa-aaaa baaa", or something similiar.
Garhan didn't look happy about this answer.
"That's no reason to eat his hair!"
After all of this drama, you all head out to move towards the part of the map you had marked.
Now, a brief explanation on how you're going to go about exploring.
First off, each Hex is 12 miles (19.3121 kilometers) wide from opposite corners, and compromises about 150 sq. miles (241.401 sq. kilometers). Depending on whether or not you want to simply walk through the hex or fully explore it depends on how long it takes to travel through the hex. Full exploring the hex obviously takes much more time than passing through.
Another factor that affects speed is the speed of the slowest party member, which determines the speed of the party, and thus how fast it takes the you to move through the hex.
Finally, there are three kinds of Encounter Sites you can, well, encounter in a hex:
Landmark Site: Large structure or city; automatically discovered upon entering a hex, and it is up to you whether or not you visit it.
Standard Site: Unless you are traveling specifically to this site, you will not encounter it until you fully explore the hex, in which case it is automatically discovered.
Hidden Site: Identical to Standard Site, except that if you don't already know its location, you must make a specific skill check (which varies from location to location) to locate it during exploration.
It is now the 8th of Pharast, the day is young, and you're about to get down to business.
But I must ask one question... are you going to be just passing through or exploring this fine morning?
Oomlowt reread the charter. "Well chums," he said, "It seems Oleg is safe for now, and our orders are to explore this land. I think we should take some time and scout the area. What do you say?"
