(5A) Ancient Fortress of Kotelia - Table A (Inactive)

Game Master mdt

"Then, we're all set upon heading back up later tonight, absconding with his weapon, and then returning with ale?" Cygnus asks, tail thumping.

Stealth and Perception Checks for those sneaking back up

"Kayniik try to sneak up, let's see if one eye is sleeping sound. Someone stay to watch camp? Kayniik sneak better without plate" Kayniik ask perparing to get up the to the cyclop.
Perception: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5
Stealth: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (12) + 12 = 24 If without armor it's 4 higher.

"We watch camp. We no sneak good" Mork grunts as he stomps a foot on the ground

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Are you wearing your armor, Kayniik?

Stealth: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24
Perception: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (4) + 8 = 12

For this sneak job I will try jump out of it and leave it at camp with Mork and Gork. I don't plan to get close tot he cyclops if he is not sleeping.

Ciaran nodded at Mork and Grok's statement. "I'll try to prepare something in case you need to make a quick getaway again, best not to risk all of us going up without a backup plan."

Mr. Pasternack checked the skies for the moon and cracked his neck to the right and left, rolling a hand along it, "Alright, let's go for another round." He walked fairly smoothly into the night, eyes reflecting what light was available. Turning back to the others, he motioned them on, taking the lead, "We'll see how old one-eye sleeps."

Stealth: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (13) + 10 = 23
Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21

The trio waits for dark, and sneaks back toward the top of the mountain where the cyclops was. As they approach...

Botting Pasternack

Pasternack sneaks back and informs everyone else that he saw a second cyclops, and heard what sounded like children, or someone drowning cats, he wasn't sure which.

"Then perhaps we should try ale and food? That would surely allow us a bit more friendliness with them!" Cygnus chuffs quietly.

"Cygnus might be right. Meat should work well for one eyes aswell as us. Kayniik think"

Mr. Pasternack rubs at his neck some, looking away, "Well, let's make it not cat-meat. Kinda too bad that he invited his folks over, I couldn't get much closer with them noticing."

"So... do we continue to move up stealthily, or do we return for the food and drink and then 'deliver' it? I could drop it off nonchalantly, then back away slowly, before teleporting again... then wait a bit and repeat it with another gift. Or... you could anonymously leave both, if you prefer, Paster."

"Kayniik think teleporting might spook them turning the cyclop to swing his big axe at Cygnus' head. Have to be very careful doing it that way. Think he understand the white flag of peace?"

"Yah. Big ol one eye not nice. Not think he like if we use fancy tricks about him" he nods in agreement

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"Alrighty, Paster, if you're willing, go ahead and sneak some food and booze up to them. If you're not, I'll teleport it to them and give them a bit of time to realize it's a gift from the friendly neighborhood exploration committee." Cygnus says, bobbing his head in agreement with the general consensus, but unwilling to fully volunteer Pasternack for an idea that was his own.

"Kayniik don't speak giant. But Kayniik can sneak up if you like?" he says bobbing his bighead and showing his best smile for a goblin.

Let me know for sure what the plan is... and what food and drink are you going to give them? Not sure you'd have brought enough food and ale along to make an actual gift to two giants (even with a two headed giant with you). ;)

Mr. Pasternack frowned some, "Sure. This won't be awkward at all. Alright, bundle it up. I'll sneak it in." He'd wait around until they decided how much to give them

Mr. Pasternack tied the bundle around his midsection, securing it against his back and the tie under his nose like a proper bandit, he made off to climb up and sneak in.

stealth: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

Cygnus bought a lot of food before we left, and I'd intended to have supplemented that with Survival rolls (I've rolled everytime it seemed applicable) to feed us. I'm an aid another (or Guidance) away from being able to feed the full group, barring outside conditions modifying the DC. (counting Mork and Gork as needing two meals) So we should have a surplus of food, realistically. The idea for Booze was that Mork and Gork probably do a pretty awful job of fermenting things we find to make ale for himself, so he's probably able to make something awful to share. I think the term 'rotgut' applies. :)

Fair enough

Perception: 1d20 ⇒ 15

Pasternak get's about 50 ft from the top, when there's a sudden roar and a giant rock slams into his chest, shattering bones and making blood spill from his mouth as he staggers!

Damage: 2d8 + 8 ⇒ (7, 1) + 8 = 16

Needless to say, there's an angry female cyclops looking down at Pasternak, her arms in a position as if she'd just thrown a rather large boulder at someone.

The two headed ogre sat quietly and waited for the return of their companions. Not much to do but wait. Since their skills in staying quiet was as good as the next giant

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Mr. Pasternack slowly climbed up the side of the mountain and looked up just in time to see a boulder tossed at him. Releasing a pained, "Blergh!" he ungracefully rolled down the mountainside. The boulder rolled off and Mr. Pasternack pushed himself slowly up, "They're..such cheats." Hear that, cyclops? Probably not.

Mr. Pasternack leaves the mountainside, holding his side. He returns to the camp if the giant doesn't toss another rock at him. He sits down at his tree, "Afraid not friends. Let's leave them be and go someplace else. Perhaps we can invite some wizard to deal with them.." It wasn't hard to tell that the ol' cat was definitely bitter.

Kayniik walks over to Pasternack to giv him a bit of healing. "Here this should help. Kayniik think we have to mark this area and return another time and see if they are still very hostile. They might simple be very aggressive because of thier child."
Cure moderate: 2d8 + 3 ⇒ (4, 7) + 3 = 14
Converts weapon of awe into healing.

"Grumpy one eye folks... Not like it much"

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"I'm willing to try my way if you'd like. Either way, I'd suggest we move on after a bit of rest." Cygnus offers.

Agree Kayniik don't think we can keep camping here, we need to explore more and return home with news good and bad."

"Right. So... uh, delicate question, Mork and Gork. Are you literate?" Cygnus asks, tail thumping.

GM ready to move on when you guys are, so, are you going down and around, or just cutting west or east and then turning back toward the city?

"We can do the reading thing... writing hard...." they lift their large hands
"Puny writing things break too good"

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I say we go down and around, to early to return to town I think.

"Hm. Well... I suppose I could just leave a package nearby. If you can't write something like 'gift from Kotelia' on it, then it loses most of its meaning. And it isn't as though I'm ignoring our injuries... or the fact that they keep attacking us." he chuffs, "But I'm quite worried that we're going to come here and take his land, just because it has height advantages or something of the ilk, and then we'e no better than the ones who wish to take Kotelia from us. So... the goal is to broker some sort of small peace so they don't try to kill people on sight, so that the people they try to kill on sight don't return the favor in kind."

"Maybe try and write on ground with stump...? But me thinks one eye can't read very good" he scratches his head a bit. Avoiding Gork. He may try to bite him

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I posted, it got eaten apparently

The group spends a day or two backtracking down the mountain, and then a week hoofing it through drifted snow. The near constant winds in the mountains blow the snow down off the peaks and into the cold valleys, where it drifts and freezes, making the going a horrible mess.

A week later, the group makes it around the mountain they had previously climbed. They have almost reached the northernmost leg of their journey. For now, they have a decision to make, turn west deeper into the mountains and deal with even worse weather, or change routes and turn east to move out of the mountains and into the forests. Map updated

Note that this is Summer weather, the farther north or west you go from Kotelia, the harsher the weather gets. Northwest of the mountain ranges it's frozen all year round.

That's odd. We were going south and east, Kittiface! I just looked at the map and you seem to have reversed our colors. I'd wanted to head south to the edge of the forest, then turn east and loop back up... but... now I'm just confused. Sorry that I never noticed that you'd inverted the A and B. Kind of frustrated with life atm, I'll get back to you on other things. For what it's worth, I'd rather go east, since I've never had any interest in traveling in mountains.

Edit: If you need us to, because the other table picked to climb through the mountains and some other group is doing the area to the east, okay, otherwise, Cygnus is going to suggest avoiding them as we didn't equip for mountain climbing at all. New route would be east along the river, then southwest after we hit the river's merging location.

You've never gone south and east, you've always gone north. Not sure how you got turned around. Hope life picks up though. You guys have flexibility to change directions if you need to.

Yeah, the issue is that the other group chose the mountains and we picked the forests. I gleefully ignored the 2-3 times you listed we were heading north, because... I don't know. I think it may have been the fact that the Elder Souls map was always upside down. Since both routes begin in forest, I never caught on until we hit the mountain, then just went 'oh, a large outcropping where our maps were wrong, no big.' and never consulted our local map. So it wasn't until I just looked at the map and noticed the gigantic 'B' over where I thought we were that I went 'ooooh. Wait, nope, nope, nope.' The real travesty is that they got the pretty blue color in the divorce.

Poke poke?

Seems my last post got eaten or I forgot to hit submit, I was waiting for others to chime in on the course we go.

"Kayniik say go east, forest more interresting then big rocks. At least there is a good chance to find snacks crawling around the forest floor. Also less climbing invovled Kayniik not fan of climbing have weak arms." Kayniik says jumping and pointing towards the east.

little one is adjusting. So I think I'm back again =^^=

Mork points to his shoulders
"Can carry. Easy. Not heavy. Not on Gork side. He messy eater"

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Cygnus shakes his head and chuffs. "We shouldn't go into the mountains, most of us don't have fur, and even having fur may not help much. We also didn't bring any climbing gear, really. We wouldn't have to worry about cold nights thanks to the campfire bead but everything else.." Cygnus says, before scratching at his neck. "I think we should head east. There should be a river near, we can follow it until it splits and then follow it most of the way back to Kotelia. It seems likely that if our enemies aren't using the rivers, we can do so rather successfully to expand our defenses outwards."

Kayniik agree with Cygnus. Very bad climber need magical help to get up those mountains. Go to river easy to get fresh water and perhaps some fishies for dinner? and get a quick dip Kayniik reeks of armorsweat." The goblin says with a big leer from ear to ear, looking a little unsettleling if you didn't know him better.

The group, deciding the mountains are too much for them, turn east, and find a stream to follow leading down.

Eventually, after a week, the stream turns into a large stream, and then into a small river as they leave the rocky mountains and re-enter the forests. Moving down stream along the banks, they eventually come to a major fork in the river. Another river joins the one they are following, flowing up from the south west to meet theirs. They have the option of fording the new river and continuing to follow the previous river, or of moving upstream on this new river.

"What you think? Follow old river or new?"Kayniik says pointing in each direction. "Kayniik not best of swimmers but will do his best to cross if you ask it."

"The stream should lead us most of the way back to Kotelia, if the maps weren't flawed. I would definitely rather head back with the information we have. We're more likely to find a larger threat down river, but we're more likely to find useful resources upstream, I think. Besides, there's always the possibility of returning this way with a magic boat or something, to make travel in this direction more ideal."

"Ah nice nice, return home tell what we seen. Avoid big threat yes! You get no arguement from Kayniik, not good warrior."

"Yes." he rumbles
"Return and fix ouches. Maybe rest. Mork have ale to mend wounds!" he says with a big grin
Gork nods

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"Sounds good, you got something a small gobo like Kayniik can handle to drink?" The goblin asks giving Mork and Gork one of his biggest smiles.

The group spends a day or two travelling up the river, when they come to a dock built into the side of the river. There are wooden pilings driven into the bottom of the river, and roughly hewn planks forming the surface of the dock. The group has never seen an actual dock before, but 'wooden thing in the water' pretty much sums it up.

There's an obvious stone lined trail leading off to the south from the dock.