Jereth’s eyes grow large at the sight of the barding. A grin spreads over his face and he turns towards Aldem and bows his head before setting his lance butt upon the ground, leaning it against Alana’s shoulder and dismounting. “Your gift is very welcome Master Aldem. I shall do my best to honor it, and I know that Alana will appreciate it as well.”
His smile remains upon his face as he moves the lance aside, leaning it against the stable wall, and helps the servants buckle the barding over Alana. Each thick and metal studded sheet of leather is fitted carefully into place, with Jereth double checking straps, cinches, and buckles all the while. Alana’s eyes roll as the minutes pass by, but she remains still for the entire possess.
Once that is finished he borrows a small hammer and wedge the nearby stable. Taking Alana’s lift front hoof between his knees, and allowing her to lean slightly against his own shoulders, he places the wedge upon the packed dirt that has filled up her shoe over the past few days. A few strikes of the hammer later and he has cleaned out the hard packed earth, as well as a few small stones, from her shoe. The same process is repeated with all of Alana’s hooves as Jereth makes sure that each one is clean and ready for the hunt. With that done he gladly returns the hammer and wedge.
Meanwhile, Alana’s gaze has traveled over the other horses in the gathering, and her wicker when she spots the warpony seems almost matranizing. Here eyes quickly turn, however, when Dannie speaks to her own horse, and the pupils dilate slightly before she blinks.
She smiles up at the horse that is brought to her, running her hand along its flanks. She whispers a greeting to it, then steps back for a moment. She then places her hands on her hips, frowning as she thinks about how she is going to get on the horse.
She then takes a step forward and climbs on the horse. She lets out a yelp as she slides a bit, wrapping her arms around the horse's neck to balance herself. She sits back up, sighing in relief. She looks over to Aldern, "Ok, I'm ready!"
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Aldern smiles as everyone seems to assemble, though he flashes a bit of a concerned look towards Jinn as the sullen man stands silently at the edge of the group. He makes his way to stand beside Dannie before blinking a bit at the question and giving it some consideration. "I thought to use a bow myself, as the boar can still be quite dangerous animals should you get too close. But if you feel a spear is more to your style then I certainly would not take offense. I would hope to find a nice blind that we could lead it into to corner it as that would be most effective, but while the brush in the tickwood is quite thick, so is its creature's hide and most can push through it too effectively to be cornered so."
Thats ok, I like my bow. Boar, huh.. Before climbing into the hosre, he walks over to a nearby rock, overturning it. He picks up a worm there, and uses his gnomish affinity to burrowers to ask that it spread the word along the underground animals to let him of the elven druid know if a boar was near their location today. He then sets the worm back down and climbs the pony.
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The horses all appear to be palamino's, a soft caramel color suited to the plains that stretch in the open areas between the woodlands of the Lost Coast.
When Dannie begins to speak with it, the horse looks a bit startled for a moment before giving a little whinny to answer her, though it speaks somewhat slow and with extended thought for each of its simple answers.
"I am called cream." The horse raises its head a bit to show somewhat proudly a patch of white that runs down the underside of its neck.
"I don't mind, you are not heavy and I like to go running."
"I like carrots best. They crunch."
"My rider has always been the man who owned me. He kept us very well groomed and rode us often. He always tried to teach us to step on the little green men. I will try if I see them."
Aldern smiles at the thanks from the group, Jereth in particular seems pleased with his gift. "Of course. I saw your fine beast and suspected you had no interest in Hosk's animals. I thought that might be more to your liking."
Seeing Jereth take some time to tidy up Alana for the ride and that Damia seems to have scrambled up on her own, Aldern turns and moves back to his horse, allowing one of his servants to help him up onto its back.
While everyone gets ready, Hosk steps out the door of the stable, limping slightly as his leg is still bandaged. He gives a sour faced nod to everyone before making his way over to Tamai's side, looking to the gnome. "Be careful my friend. I'm worried about those little bastards running wild out there. Keep your eyes open for more then just boar."
Alder sidles his horse over beside Dannies, giving her a small smile before glancing around to everyone else. "If we all are ready? We've got about an hours ride ahead of us, so let us be moving."
<Assuming that no one has any remaining cause to stay behind, he'll lead the group east out of town and then slowly veer south towards the tickwood. The trip there has the group hedged in with a thick viney forest on one side, and open but just slightly marshy land on the other. Eventually he cuts through some of that marshland to a treeline where the forest begins. It is clearly much more frequented by foresters then the woodlands you were passing on the way here and there are regular hunting trails running through it.
Tamai I believe is the only one with track, so if you want to aid in the process of finding a boar you can, rather then just passing through the woods and hoping that one wanders into you. I will allow the others to make survival checks to aid in this, if they have the skill trained.>
Danni must be a little preoccupied, Mistress Keldonza fresh in her mind, for she is usually better at hunting game. Though I may have done well enough to assist. Thoughts of Shalelu, still fresh, find way into Danni's thoughts still.
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A rain from the night before seems to have washed away many of the previous tracks that could have led back to a boars den, and the group is forced to continue searching through most of the cool autumn morning.
Eventually however, Tamai does spot some hoof prints leading off down along a side animal trail and is able to direct the party that way.
After moving a few hundred yards along the smaller trail a momentary rustling is heard in some of the foliage ahead.
<Everyone is going to make spot and initiative checks for me. If you beat a 14 on the spot, you may read the spoiler below and will act on the surprise round>
Perception (1d20 6=15)
init (1d20 2=19)
Tamai slows his pony to a stop and holds up a hand pointing silently at the animal.
Jereth has not been relaxed from the moment they left the outskirts of Sandpoint. His posture is ridged, and his lance is held straight and high, but his yes never cease scanning the area around him. Alana seems agitated as well, and she doesn’t miss an opportunity to attempt to nip at the other horses in her agitation, something for which she earns a reproving swat on the head for from Jereth.
His alertness serves him quite well, however, when the rustle of leaves alerts them to the presence of another creature. He pulls Alana up slowly with the reins as well as a signal from his knees. Then he gently eases his lance from the leather cup next to his stirrup and rolls his right shoulder to loosen the muscles.
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<Just to keep things moving smoothly, I rolled Jinn's perception and Initiative. I'll post our initiative order below and I'll have a little map up on the google apps site shortly.
To answer your question Dannie, its probably about 50 feet away through fairly rough terrain. That means its probably not going to be able to charge you immediately, but to do a wild empathy check you have to be within 30ft and it takes 1 minute of talking, which means if the creature if hostile(rather then just unfriendly) you probably won't get that long. However, since it is treated as a diplomacy check, I would let you rush it at a -10 in the same way.
Initiative Order:
Damia 22 (No surprise round)
Jereth 21 (Surprise round)
Dannie 20 (Surprise round)
Tamai 19 (Surprise round)
Jinn 10 (No surprise round)
Firepelt 8 (Surprise round)
For the most part, high initiatives and a lot of proof of why you don't want me to roll for your character ever.
The three of you with a surprise round action can declare your standard or move. Assume that the trail you are on is straight at this point and about 5 feet wide(you had slipped out into a deer trail to follow the tracks) and the rest of the area around you is difficult terrain with enough tall slender trees dotting it to give concealment beyond 10 feet. Currently the creature is 50ft away directly off the trail.>
Edit:<The map is up on google docs, titled 'boarhunt encounter'. The foliage is rough terrain and gives concealment beyond 10 feet. A square entitled 'larger tree' means that it blocks the entire square and gives cover behind it>
Fast Dismount Check DC 20: 10
Danni would of liked to dismount quickly, but she falters slightly, having time to only dismount before the Firepelt takes action.
Jereth grips his lance tightly and gazes with intent eyes upon the strange creature that he sees hidden in the undergrowth. Unable to make it out completely at this distance he grimaces. The undergrowth limits the usefulness of his charge, and he finds the idea of charging a a boar, or whatever it is, a little distasteful. He regrets not buying a simple spear before leaving. Leaving such thoughts aside he stands fast, and readies himself to come to his companion's defense should the creature prove more formidable than they expect.
Tamai nocks an arrow, and waits to see what happenes. Not knowing how Aldern feels about killing animals that arn't the quarry, or it it was worth hitting the animal where he can see it.
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Aldern for the moment seems entirely unaware of what is off in the brush, still squinting out into the other side of the thicket, looking for any signs of boar.
The animal, however, is clearly aware of the party. It disapears from sight for just a moment, but the soft rustle of leaves is obvious as it approaches. More of these sounds, as well as a low growl are heard approaching from the east, and it seems the animal is not alone.
Within just a few split seconds the first bursts from the trail beside the group and the second comes out on the trail some distance behind. The two animals are big cats, looking much like mountain lions, but with fur the color of red flame. As they come out they snarl, surprisingly aggressive for the large horses and riders nearby which seem they should spook the animals.
<Tamai, you may take your delayed action now if you wish and it will bump your initiative. Otherwise, we are to the top of the round, which would be Damia, followed by Dannie. Redone initative below since I forgot to put Aldern on the first.
Damia 22
Jereth 21
Dannie 20
Tamai 19
Aldern 12
Jinn 10
Firepelt 8>
Tamai aims and fires his bow
10 to hit for 9 damage.
Damia lets out a yelp as she sees the firepelt approach her, tightening her grip on the reigns for a moment to keep the horse from panicking. She then lets go of the reigns, stepping down from the horse in front of the beast.
She takes a step forward, lashing out with her foot, hoping to get a good hit.
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As Damia drops down from the horse, the firepelt snaps out at her with its jaws, catching her thigh with a firm bite(7 damage) and trying to pull her into a grapple.
<Make a grapple check against it, your attack will still go off whether you are in the grapple or not(since you are unarmed striking)>
She lets out a yell as her leg is bitten, slamming down her fist on the snout of the creature to have it drop her leg from it's mouth.
Jereth reins Alana back with an expression of consternation. He orders his steed to back away with a movement of his knees while holding his lance steady. "Back off slowly everyone. We don't want to be hand-to-hand with these animals."
(Storm Burst)
Storm Burst (Su): As a standard action, you can
create a storm burst targeting any foe within
30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The storm
burst deals 1d6 points of nonlethal damage
+ 1 for every two caster levels you possess. In
addition, the target is buffeted by winds and
rain, causing it to take a –2 penalty on attack
rolls for 1 round.
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<Rolled for Dannie on DMTools, I covered the spread almost, 16+1=17 on the attack roll, but only 1 damage>
The sudden burst of wind and energy seems to startle the cougar which lets out a yelp and a low growl though it looks about somewhat frantically for its mate.
Tamai looks as if he is dead on for his second shot, but in the scuffle of the moment Damia manages to stagger in the way and he has to pull the shot slightly, sending the arrow into the dirt.<You missed due to it being in melee and you don't have precise shot yet
Jereth, if you want to bring in your action, you are up. Once that is there, I'll pose for Aldern and Jinn too.>
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Rearing back, Alana lashes out with her hooves and tries to bite at the firepelt before her, managing to catch the animal a glancing blow with one of her heavy legs before stumbling back a step to put the creature within reach of Jereth's lance.
The paladin jabs his lance down, barely managing to hit the big cat, but luckily stabbing it solidly. The firepelt snarls in pain and seems very wounded, but seemed to be remaining on its feet, however two arrows fired in quick succession from Jinn standing just behind Jereth put it down.
Aldern turns on his horse, drawing a rapier and charges forward towards the last remaining creature, but his ploy seems to have failed as his horse rears up, spooked, and dumps him to the ground, leaving him bruised.
Seeing the man fall to the ground at its feet, the remaining firepelt lashes out with a series of attacks, managing to catch him squarely with one of its claws, leaving Aldern bleeding.
<Ok, here is the new initiative order below, we are back up to the top of the round.
Damia 22
Dannie 20
Tamai 19
Jereth 18
Aldern 12
Jinn 10
Firepelt 8>
Jereth watches the firepelt before him fall and grimly nods towards Jinn. His attention is quickly snatched away, however, by the sounds of Aldem in trouble. Grasping his lance firmly Jereth quickly maneuvers Alana around until both horse and rider are facing towards the snarling firepelt.
“YAAAAAA!” Cries the young rider as his heels thunk against Alana’s newly armored sides. With a lurch the horse starts forward at a full gallop even as the sharp and bloodied tip of Jereth’s lance lowers towards his target.
(OOC: Take a 5 foot step into Jinn’s square and then Charge Firepelt.)
Attack Roll
Damage Charging Lance damage doubled for a total of 20 Damage.