Davi stalks up to the fight. Her every move is measured and she looks very, very mad. She circles around and closes in from behind to cut off that escape route. She pulls out her rapier but she waits on Soroza to make the next move.
Round 3
Soroza is up.
Soroza regards the hobgoblin coldly: "Your story ends today."
"Right. Hmmm." Anthony grunts as he walks over to the fox and begins inspecting the trap. He mentally kicks himself as he realizes its actually a simple mechanism that can just be pried apart. Motioning the small man to come, he says, "Help me open it. Its fairly strong."
He and Herral try to pry it open.
Soroza's blade is a deadly blur, hewing a gory trail across her opponent, leaving him unconscious and badly wounded before her on the rocks. As grievous as his wounds may be, if he is just left there there is a chance he could recover on his own.
Combat ends
Meanwhile, 500 ft away, Anthony and Herral work together to pry open the iron trap. The fox whines, but lays there. It seems its leg was badly injured, and it cannot stand.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"His name is Grung Knifetongue" Davi says in a cold voice. "Local hunter slash monster. He kills and eats anybody he catches wandering the woods. They should have tracked him down long ago but I guess they didn't care as long as his eating habits didn't slow down business" The last bit comes out in a snarl.
"If we took him back to town they'd just hang him. Leave him here and he either dies a slow painful death or he heals up and eats more people. Pharasma may have mercy on him but I will not." She slashes her rapier across the hobgoblin's throat
With a grunt and all his meager strength, Herral helps Anthony, however the man seems pretty capable. then when he sees the mangled leg, he dives down to bandage it up. However it is apparent that the trader has little experience at medical matters.
"Tis a terrible thing dun 'ere. All that trappin' to set up that there hobgoblin archer. This 'ere fox will be a week or more getting back to full health. Wish we had one of them there druids around here. P'haps our witch 'as a soft spot fur 'ealin'."
The hobgoblin expires swiftly at Davi's hand.
Adrac turns back to see Soroza and then Davi finish off the hobgoblin. He frowns, sighing. Of course. Certainly. I need to instruct them properly when this is over...
Stepping up, Adrac's hands return to folding behind his back as he eyes the two women sternly. "I trust your bloodlust is sated at last?" he asked, walking along swiftly back in the direction of Anthony and Herral. "Come. We've wasted a great deal of time on this distraction, we have to make up lost ground."
Herral explains the problem with the fox.
Davi wipes her blade off on the hobgolin's clothing. Once Adrac has moved away she sighs and murmurs "It's not bloodlust. It's justice. Some things need killing". There's a sad tone in her voice.
Self-conscious now, Davi looks at Soroza and nods her head at the other woman. "Thank you for catching him. I don't want to think about what he would have done if he'd gotten away from us."
Back with the rest of the group she crouches down for a closer look at the fox. "Poor guy. I've got bandages and poultices and such with me. It'll take me a bit to apply everything though. If we take him along with us I can do it once we've camped for the night. I can clear out one of Flower's saddlebags so he can ride in it."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The little fox weighs a mere 2 pounds and fits easily inside a saddlebag. It squeaks, but doesn't resist handling.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"I gave him ample opportunity to end things with minimal bloodshed. He made his choice."
Back at the clearing where they found the fox, Soroza nods at Davi. "Anything we can do for the little guy is going to be better than where he was. Hopefully you can get him patched up."
Anthony holds in a sigh as Herral explains the problem. He helps Davi get the fox into the saddlebags and nods in agreement with Adrac.
With Dalton's drawn map and the large body of water as an easy landmark to orient himself around, Herral easily guides the group through the forest.
You trudge along through the darkwood trees for hours. It is now the afternoon. The woods are filled with biting gnats. They are largely harmless, but are a real annoyance.
Anthony is likely not alone in his miserable slapping and swatting at the cretinous pests.
"Herral, how much longer?" Anthony asks. His usual stoic demeanor is turned restless by the gnats and afternoon sun.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"Tis the time it takes to cook a shanker pie, not including making the sauce an' lettin' it cool. So the pastry durn't go soft an' messy," answers the halflin' with a piece of root in his mouth.
He did offer the others a piece but the aniseed flavour is not to everyone's taste. At the blank looks, he tries again, [b]""Bout an hour to that thar forest older."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Davi swats the gnats away from her. "Insect repellent. That's what I'm going to do. Import it from Augustana, make a fortune selling it and then take over. I'll drop-kick Teedum out of town. I bet I could sell tickets to that."
Adrac continues along, quiet as he is eager to make headway. Impatient, seemingly. Much as he tries to keep a level head, it's clear that he can't keep up the kindly old man facade.
Adrac is worried sick.
Distracted as he was, he almost didn't notice the sight overhead. Eyes snapping up, he had just enough time to catch sight of, of all things, a dragon! A blue one, it seemed. Adrac quickly dropped to his knees as he urged everyone else. "By Irori's-- down! Get down!" he hissed, looking up and holding up a hand for quiet. After a moment, he exhaled in relief, standing back up.
"...that was a blue dragon. Looked about 20 feet in length, so it shouldn't be very old. But we are decidedly unsafe out here." Adrac said quietly, eyes scanning the forest. Things were turning out worse than he'd imagined - he was getting too old for surprises like this. "Herral. Tell me we're approaching one of our destinations."
Davi tries to remember if she's ever heard of dragons being in this area. She will share whatever she knows.
Davi knows that wyverns are a common sight in the Darkmoon Vale the closer you get to the Five Kings Mountains. They have a taste for horseflesh, though occurrences of them bothering loggers are rare.
Herral shakes his head to Adrac, he looks around, gets up and continues on his way.
"Tis the furst dragon I never seen. Thank you Desna for letting Adrac spot the beast."
After the elder warns the group of the dragon's presence, Anthony looks up and his jaw drops in awe of the creature. He whispers in a daze, "'Sjek wer svant tiliw wurunwa...'" He shudders a bit after the dragon leaves his sight, but still seems to be out of himself.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"If it's not eating us, we should keep moving."
Soroza has been quiet since freeing the fox, and her silence continued when the dragon appeared. What else was there to say? It was an incredible sight, and it was utterly terrifying.
On edge at the sight of the creature, as the group traveled on Soroza found her hand rested nervously on the hilt of her sword. She did not move it.
Anthony murmurs to Soroza and the group, "Agreed..."
He tries to remember anything he can about blue dragons but it seems he can't recall anything in his awestruck fit. Why couldn't he remember? What in the nine hells was a blue dragon doing here? In the Vale? He curses his forgetful head and trudges on with the party.
The group moves onward for another hour through the woods until the dense trees and thick brush of the forest give way, parting seemingly in respect for a titanic 300 ft darkwood tree that dominates a clearing. Several times taller than a temple minaret, in one direction the obviously ancient tree reaches into the sky with branches like a giant's arms, while in the other it plumbs the earth with roots thicker than a man's waist. Its limbs broad and strong, its bark thick and so richly colored as to almost be black, and its leaves the size of bucklers, the giant thing is less a tree and more a cathedral of boughs and branches.
"Be watching fur craatures in an' around dat thar tree. I be thinkin' taint safe here, when this be full of high up rooms an' plenty of wildlife hereabouts.
Herral looks up and all round they approach.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
After a quick snack, Herral starts to search round the tree for the first ingredient. There is so much at stake that the manling doesn't finish the second apple.
"So elderwood moss...not summat I be finding ever before. P'haps it'll take every set of peepers."
Adrac continues to keep his eyes on the sky as they travel, squinting carefully around. He knew this would be a dangerous expedition, but dragons? He was woefully unprepared for that - the last time he'd faced one, he had 3 other experienced team members with him... and that was simply to escape the beast!
His thoughts were interrupted by the sight of the large tree. Throwing caution to the wind, Adrac hurried over to the tree's base, immediately searching for the moss they needed. "It should be here... we must hurry!" he urged, eyes scanning the tree roots.
Adrac rushes to the trunk of the massive tree, but fails to notice the predator lurking in its branches...
Initiative Order
1. Herral
2. Davi
3. Anthony
4. Soroza
5. Adrac
6. Dragon
Slithering like a large snake, this predator has the head of a dragon and a pair of clawed arms to help it move along and grasp prey. It is eight feet long. A sickly green mist wafts from its open maw. It lurks amid the tree's leaves and branches near its trunk, watching Herral and Adrac intently.
Surprise Round
Soroza is up.
Spotting the bizarre creature in the tree, Soroza quickly drew her short bow and knocked an arrow.
"Adrac! In the tree, above you! Look out!"
The dragon hisses, remaining in the seclusion of the tree for now...
Round 1
Herral is up.
The halfling points up into the branches as he loads and fires his crossbow up into the creature's chest.
"Tis guarding that thar moss over thar! Watch that mouth."
The bolt flies up into the canopy.
Herral fires his crossbow at the dragon, but it only delivers a glancing blow, barely missing the beast.
Davi sheathes her rapier and draws her light crossbow since the creature is too far high up for now.
Anthony is up.
Anthony tries to get a good look at the beast to see if he can identify it from his studies...
But is unsure of whether he had the right monster. He keeps it to himself
He doesn't want to leave Adrac alone with the beast, especially when he can't figure out its abilities. He strides to Adrac's side and tries to look menacing to ward off the beast.
Alright, Soroza is up. :)
"Run this thing off or fight it, we need to get it out of that damned tree!"
Soroza takes careful aim with her short bow, then lets loose an arrow!
The arrow leaves a glancing wound, gouging out a few scales from the irate wyrm.
Adrac is up.
It's unclear if Adrac has noticed the dragon or simply doesn't seem to care enough to acknowledge it. "Leave it be." he replies, not even bothering to look up at the creature. "I have no doubt we're intruding on it's home, but we don't need to start another fight. Let's collect the moss and be on our way."
Of course, if the thing decides to come down on him, Adrac is more than ready to counter the beast. But for now, as it seems to show little hostile intent, he disregards it.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"It be the dark moss high on the shadowside of the thick branch. Nice an' close to yon beastie."
Adrac moves forward and collects some of the moss on the trunk of the tree.
The dragon hisses as he approaches his tree, and pounces on Adrac! Unfortunately, Anthony is too far away to help him. Adrac quickly springs into action, but the creature is too fast for him. It pounces at him, grabbing him up into its huge maw, and clamping down onto his abdomen, producing a torrent of blood. It then swiftly slashes into his throat with a great claw, knocking the old monk unconscious.. but it does not let go of the monk from between its great jaws.
Round 2
Herral is up.