"Indeed, my friend - perhaps some lessons from the experts would serve well," Justin teases with a smile as they ate their meal, finding more pleasure in each other's company than in the food itself. "And that was some fine skinning work you did, Brian! You'll have to make me a hat out what's left of the wolf's skin! Maybe even a mask with your natural abilities!"
After they finish, Justin lays out his bedroll and sets up his backpack to be used as a pillow. This will be the first time he's gone camping since he was a about 9 years old, and already it's a much better experience for him!
"We'll have to do this more often," the rogue mumbles as he lies under the stars.
Reaching out to feel with his arcane magic, Jerimiah can sense very faint nature based magic in one wolf, the rest were not affected by the magic. It seems to be similar magic as was noticed in the wolves that attacked you. If you remember, those wolves had fresh blood and flesh dripping from their jaws when they arrived to invite you to dinner. There is another source of magic...You can feel it coming from atop a small knoll that overlooks the dens. Upon going up there you can see a faint glow emitting from a Harry Potter like wand laying on the ground...It seems depleted of any charges, but it was recently used. Your knowledge of the arcane tells you that it was a nature based spell, it could explain the nature magic emanating from the wolf here and the wolves that attacked you earlier. Since it was a wand, anyone with sufficient skills in using magical devices could have cast the stored spell. You know it was cast here and may be able to follow any tracks after first light. You know more now then you did before. Your quest is to battle a growing evil, find its symptoms and follow those tendrils to their source...how evil is it to turn the alpha and some of his pack to kill their families even the pups and then to send them to their death...
Toby is filled with rage at this forced kin-slaying. She's seen some sick things working for the FBI, but this was right up there.
We need to find the psychopath who used that want and put a stop to this.
"Indeed we do.. It makes me wonder - were they expecting us to cross the wolves' path or did we just happenstance upon it?" With his brow furrowed as he thinks more about the evident evil, Justin hopes that this will be to the extent of what they have to face, though he knows in reality the evils are only going to become much worse.
"Hopefully it was just coincidence that we found these wolves like this.. Could you imagine how much more difficult our quest will be if we have people setting out to destroy us!" Trying his best to deny that they are being targeted, the rogue has trouble accepting that they haven't been discovered yet.
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like Frodo... Toby mumbles under her breath at Justin's suggestion that there might be beings 'out to destroy' them.
"I do not fear that they found our quest out. I feel they may have just noticed travelers...maybe they didn't know of us at all. The temple is secret, None know of it. Our quest is known to very very few. It is quite likely they did not know of us." thinking a moment on the situation...Lanx begins to question the possibility as well.
Survival at the wands location can merit tracks to follow. Knowledge nature or perception to assist. It might be good to have a scout look out for any concerns nearby note that is light.
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He holds the wand in his hands, after clearly revealing the implications of it. "Verabscheuungswürdigen unholde... It's likely this is merely a coincidence, something we simply happened across. If it hadn't been us traveling these roads, who knows how many innocent travelers would've fallen to their rage stricken maws."
Know/Nature to assist tracking:
Successful assist...but who is searching for tracks with survival?
Yes
Jeremiah would ask if anyone needs any healing before they move on.
Brian WhiteAngel
Then the group sleeps and nothing bad happens. Early the next day...? =)
In other words it is the next day.
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Hearing Toby's comment makes Justin laugh a bit as he recalls that his friends used to call him Frodo for being so short. "Looks like we're starting our own fellowship, just like Lord of the Rings, huh?.. I call being the halfling!"
As they setting out to try and track the sorcerer that warped the wolves, Justin sets his sights on atoning for his previous perceptive sins.
You can do it Justin.. You've tracked people before; this should be easy for you..
You see the tracks plainly heading further south from the knoll which is south of the dens overlooking them. The tracks lead from the north, heading west toward the knoll, then south away from the knoll. The footprints were made from a medium weight individual in soft shoes, no armor or heavy equipment weighing them down. You can see this ask in the tracks. Now you have the option following the tracks to where they went or where they came from. A rough map is typed below.
K=Knoll
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..K------------
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\_/
Noticing fairly easily that Toby is still heavily injured, he'd cast a CLW strengthened by an arcane point.
There were multiple hobbits, master Frodo, Dmitri muses as the group follows the tracks. When they reach the knoll, Dmitri huffs and says, Well, I think perhaps we should find the person and confront them. Though there are merits to discovering where they came from first.
"Frodo.. Ah, Tolkien." He muses aloud, only now realizing that the LOTR series was being referenced. He does look over Dmitri with his keen eyes, and frowns at the wound. "Do keep an eye on that if it get's worse... Hm, I should pick up a kit of healing once I come into more of the local currency..." His words trail off, and he seems to sour at the thought of picking up actual healing supplies, as if it left a bad taste in his mouth.
"Haha, well I'll be all of 'em. You can be Gimli! But about this trail..."
As he squats down to observe it better and look around, Justin thinks for a moment before remembering that he hates making decisions. Reaching into his Pathfinder's bag, he retrieves a gold coin and holds it up and asks, "How about we do this destiny's way? Heads , we follow the tracks; tails , we trace them back to their source. What do you guys think - sound good?"
With a grin, Justin flips the coin into the air and catches it. He waits for his friend's response before revealing the side it landed on, and he's grinning all the while and happy for getting to make a choice with his most preferred method.
"Well, well! Looks like the fates have made up their mind! Any objections with tracking these prints back to their source now?"
"I certainly do not object to following them for more information on where he came from, this could lead to more trouble for us, possibly...or to the information we need to begin making very good headway on our main quest. Time will surely tell. We still have the option of heading south in an attempt to catch up with them."
Jeremiah uses his glorious intellect to contemplate this situation... "Hm hm... I believe we may reveal more clues about our foe by searching the trail's source. If this weather holds true, we may certainly be able to follow them back the other way."
It would only be cheating if I gave away information you could obtain through legitimate means. I'd never do that.
Noticing fairly easily that Toby is still heavily injured, he'd cast a CLW strengthened by an arcane point.
Very thanks!
"I suppose that makes me Gandalf then, hm?" he speaks with a hint of amusement, which slowly dies off as he mutters something in his native language, his sense of paranoia starting to rear it's head. "Aber wer ist das Auge, das uns jeden Schritt...?"
Justin chuckles to himself as everyone is taking their respective roles and says, "It's decided then - we'll check out the direction these tracks originated from. Who knows - the fiend may even return while we're over there. Then it'd be killing two birds with one proverbial stone!"
You might be a little to Aragorn for a hobbit, Toby replies, enjoying some conversation she actually understands.
Appearing next to Jerimiah, "Ich glaube, dass du mich beziehen, mein freund, Jerimiah. Do I not watch over your every step? I may not act, but I care about your success."
He startles back, sparks teetering on the edges of his fingers. He grinds out in a harsh tone towards the man, "Ich sagte Ihnen nicht zu verwenden, diesen Namen mit mir herr Kotan ... Sie können es aus dem Paradox, weiß, aber du es von mir nicht verdient haben." He moves away from Lanx rather quickly, without much of a second thought. He seems to now be constantly looking over his shoulder to eye him suspiciously.
"Meine tiefste entschuldigung, Herr Spillane. Ich meine nicht, missachtung durch die verwendung des vornamens. Ich beabsichtige, freundschaft zu helfen, sprechen ihre sprache, die zunge von der sonne und dem mond ... aber es scheint, meine reichlich schritt oft erschreckt ... ich entschuldige mich noch einmal." Bowing respectfully to the spell caster.
Jerimiah seems to ignore Lanx.
"You are right, let us continue north."
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Brian darts ahead, then bends down, feeling the dirt. "I sense footsteps have past this way. A man, 37, has diabetes. He's been married for seven years, though he's 3 years divorced. He was carrying 14 gold pieces. He cut himself shaving this morning, and he had...hmmm...spinach and eggs for breakfast."
His face splits into a grin. "Nah, I'm jus' joshin' ya. But I do think we're going in the right direction."
Coming back to the road you can see the tracks leading north from the road on the other side. You are able to notice that there is a lot of distance between his steps, as if he was running. You can see the trail pretty well after having found where it continues.
(Thank you, Brian, I was a little confused it seems and posted that in recruitment.)
Justin laughs to himself as he hears Brian interpreting the footprints and adds, "Well, it seems we have the most skilled tracker in the universe in our company!"
The rogue continues along the path with the others.
"Good to know." He keeps his pace with them as best he can.
Survival, assist with prescription or knowledge nature...You have traveled a few hours north of the wolf den. Often I ask for a re-roll like this when the tracks change in some way making your previous roll invalid because you need to search for the change on in the tracks.
Brian! I think the tracks change direction here, Dmitri calls out, come take a look over here, oh mighty tracker Aragorn.
The tracks head really far to the west. You can see that it seems possibly curving north west. (For sake of moving the story along I'll ask that one person roll watch for each night, you all will have to camp not long from now and it seems that your path stretches for some time. You may have multiple days of journey.)
"I didn't anticipate they'd go on for this long... Do you think we should continue following these?" He seems a little worried, especially the fact they may loose the other side of the trail by following this one.
"Well, we're already this far.. It's up to you guys though - what do you all think would be more fruitful? Checking out where this baddie came from, or trying to catch up to where they were going?" As they take the moment to discuss a strategy, Justin helps himself to some of his trail rations and nibbles on some bread, thinking to himself, A good soldier's gotta have his calories. Gotta keep the energy levels up in case I need it.
Personally, I think we stop him if we find him, so I'd find it more usefully to follow than backtrack. But he's obviously got quite a head start, so I'm not sure...
During watch you can tell there is a group headed west to east, they are further north, (I'm going to suggest that the one roll for watch is good for the whole night, because I was hoping to simplify night watch for the multi day journey ahead.) Reporting this to the next on watch, they are aware of the movements noted. They hear similar during their watch, a group further north, heading west to east. The next person is aware of the movements and notices the same thing during their watch. At day break, the third watch reports that situation, three groups headed west to east, further north from the group. Lanx notes that he is not aware of any roads nearby...but he went through this area almost 20 years ago.