Rikar draws his greatsword and charges towards the orcs, calling out "Goma, árás!" as he does so.
Not in a great position to charge or cast yet--not to mention, not wanting to abandon the fool mule--Misha takes only a few steps forward and draws her swords.
Glancing left and seeing Misha taking care of the mule, Dain makes a quick assessment of the situation at hand. He moves parallel to bard, getting ready to receive potential enemy charge.
Sezira steps up 5ft and draws her shortbow, readying an attack at the first one that steps out from behind the middle trees.
Attack:
Damage:
Redona gulps, wishing she'd taken a little more time to practice before now. Looking around, she also assesses the situation. Deciding her allies could use a little bit of divine help, she chants a few special words, gesturing with her divine symbol that hangs around her neck.
Borris runs directly towards two orcs, and misses his target.
Misha moves forward ten feet, and draws both short swords, reading herself for an orc charge.
Rikar charges and kills an orc, while his companion Goma runs with him and bites the downed creature.
Redona casts bless and everyone except Rikar feels the power of Sarenrae.
Sezira draws and readies her bow for an orc who steps out from behind a tree.
Josef readies a dart and waits for an orc also.
Dain moves next to Misha and readies for an orc charge.
The two orcs nearest Borris, each step sideways and swing their falchion at him, but both miss.
The two remaining orcs step from behind the trees, and the one almost in line with Sezira is wounded badly, and rather than throw his javelin, he runs away. The other orc before he can loose his javelin, is hit by Josef dart throw and falls dead to the ground.
Note: Rikar, as Goma is not your animal companion, "handling" him is a move action, although he will run up with you.
Note: Red X means the creature is dead.
Note: All but Rikar +1 morale bonus to hit.
Borris swings his mighty hammer at orc 2
Redona runs to E11, getting closer to the action in case she needs to help more directly.
Seeing his opponent fall, Rikar moves quickly around the remaining orcs, to put them between himself and Borris. He swings his great sword powerfully, but the orc manages to dodge the blow.
Misha calls out to their guide Dale, as he seems to be staying out of the fray, "Stay with the mule!"
She then moves up toward the fight, knowing even if it starts well it could end badly, sliding between two trees. Fueled by the adrenaline of the fight--and having seen it coming--she focuses her extra energy into her swing as she attacks the nearest orc.
Stealth check
Seeing no further clear shots and not wishing to shoot anyone in the back Sezira decides to get in close. Dropping her bow and moving swiftly forwards towards the trees, drawing her rapier. As she finds herself hidden from the enemy behind the trees she slows, stealthily moving forward and behind one of the hideous orcs. She hopes it did not detect her.
"You girly hanky-waving sissies! At least have the decency of closing to the enemy!" - swearing, puffing and cussing, Dain jogged across the terrain, trying to close what seemed like a very long distance.
Borris swings at the orc behind the tree, and kills it with a mighty blow.
Misha moves up to flank the remaining orc.
Rikar takes a step, with the help of Misha's flank kills the remaining orc.
Dale holds the reins of the mule, and looks at the group, Well your first fight as a group. Not bad for fledgling adventurers. As you recover from the encounter, he stands ready to begin traveling again, but waits for the group to finish with their emotions about this first fight.
Misha just laughs, resheathing her swords. "Those idiots! They barely knew what hit them, and it was their ambush! Is everyone alright?"
Redona eyes the Orcs' bodies with slight disgust, not wanting to touch them, even to get to their 'treasures.'
"Is everybody okay?" she manages to ask after a moment.
Evil perished once again! lets dispose of them so they do not corrupt the land! and ofcourse lets find what is valuable and could aid us in our Queste!
Borris Searches the evil corpses and starts piling them up to put them on fire maybe with some wood trough it!
"Oh, and thanks for guarding the fort as it were, Dale."
Misha takes note of Redona's discomfort and approaches the priestess, patting her on the arm if the contact doesn't bother her. "Not pleasant, but in rough country like this, one tends to get opportunistic fast." Some too opportunistic, she thought somberly, remembering her father. Her face flickers, but she forces it to resume its confidence. "But we've got a difficult journey ahead, so don't think too badly of our comrades for seeing what our fallen foes might have to aid us. Better we use it than another orc pick it up to ambush more travelers."
Misha paused. "And perhaps if you're not opposed, you could say a bit of a blessing on the pyre. I know it's not exactly your bailiwick, and they may be rough souls, but all souls should be seen safely off, I think."
Once she's done talking, Misha helps gather wood for the fire that Borris is building.
Redona nods as Misha comforts her. She resumes being quiet for a moment, but when asked to say a blessing, she waits until the right time, thinking of what to say. Sarenrae didn't really deal with the dead, and she usually didn't pray to other gods, but she believed Sarenrae would understand if she said a quick prayer to Pharasma.
She bows her head and assumes a prayerful position, sounding far more confident when speaking to a god than to a mortal like herself. "Pharasma, please guide these poor orcs' souls to their proper destination in the afterlife." She would say more, but she doesn't know what else to say. She knows little about orcs, and doubts anyone here has anything good to say about them. Prayers for the dead weren't really A cleric of Sarenrae's forte'
Rikar cleans and sheathes his sword, responding to Misha’s comment as he does so, "I think they would have been just as happy to let us pass, had Misha not spotted them. Orcs are much more likely to attack if they outnumber their victims.”
He sees Borris begin to gather wood for a pyre to burn the orcs, and says ”It might be wiser not to light a great big fire out here where there may be other creatures attracted to it. But if you all insist, we should be ready to move on quickly after it is lit.”
Looking at the ground where the battle was fought, Rikar then asks his companions ”In the confusion of battle I couldn’t be sure, but did one of the orcs run away? We might do well to follow him. If there are larger numbers of them about, it would be helpful to know that.”
After the short battle Sezira sheathed her weapon and retrieved her bow before checking on the others. Happy that everyone was accounted for and no one was hurt searched the orcs for valuables and anything that would identify their clan in case of a future encounter.
"One of them ran away after I shot him. He dropped his javelin. We should leave them, more will be back, I say we let them take care of their dead in their way and we keep moving as far away from here as possible."
If you wish to folow the orc ill be glad to help smite it!
survival to track:
Misha smiles wryly. "Sure, Rikar, spoil my moment of glory. But I'll choose to think if they'd been able to get the drop on us, they would have been happy to attack. Orcs aren't exactly prone to discretion."
She looks at Borris. "Easy, boy. Before you run off with your job half done."
She holds her hand in mid-air over the piled orc bodies and the drywood beneath them. "Do you want a fire or not?" she looks questioningly at the group assembled--and also toward Dale, in case their guide has any thoughts on the dangers of a fire here.
After the short battle Sezira sheathed her weapon and retrieved her bow before checking on the others. Happy that everyone was accounted for and no one was hurt searched the orcs for valuables and anything that would identify their clan in case of a future encounter.
"One of them ran away after I shot him. He dropped his javelin. We should leave them, more will be back, I say we let them take care of their dead in their way and we keep moving as far away from here as possible."
"Elven lass is correct. We should be out of here as soon as possible. The wilds have a way to deal with the bodies, it is not sensible to stay here any longer. As for the runaway orc - either we try and capture him immediately, or we forget about him and try to put as much as distance as possible between us and this place" - dwarf speaks slowly, but with utter conviction. Only times where there is any visible reaction in his voice is when he says the word marking his people's eternal enemy - "orc".
He helps others to check the bodies for anything of interest, but is very clear in his intention to get back on the road ASAP.
Rikar looks at Misha with a smile and responds, ”You misunderstand me. I said they are more likely to attack if they have the advantage of numbers. Your keen eyes kept us from taking a gamble on how they saw their chances - and the world is rid of half a dozen orcs. I would not have it otherwise, except for the one that ran off. On that matter, I agree with Sezira and Dain – we’d do best to leave the bodies lie and keep moving. Should they come back in greater numbers, I’d prefer to be far from here.”
While Borris is looking for the Tracks the others convince him this one orc might not be all that interesting!
a bit disappointed he says ok then let’s move on after taking what we need!
Hearing the general consensus form rather quickly, Misha withdraws her hand and shoves it in her coat pocket. "Okay then, did you find anything of note?"
Looking over the bodies, you find four sets of studded leather armor, four falchions, six sad looking javelins, and 17 sliver pieces.
Dale helps you load the armor and falchions on the mule and looks you over, well, lets get moving, Rikar and Dain are correct. Let the buzzards and scavengers take care of the bodies. We still have four days on the trail and I want to get some distance between us and these dead orcs. He starts moving out, after making sure that everyone is in line as before.
After four more days travel, you come to the end of the trail out of the mountains, and below you about an hour away is Meadowvale. Dale points out a trail to the side, that will take you to The Last Shrine, it is a temple of Iri, should be about an hour. He pauses for a minute to let you take in the sight of the small village, and then, well, lets get going. I want to get there before nightfall. You will have to stay at the Old Stone Inn, since it is the only inn in town and he starts down the trail.
After the orcs gear is loaded Sezira mutters something about selling it in town. Hoping someone will buy Orc armour. The weapons should fetch a good price. She doesn't object at all if any of the party wish to use the weapons or armour as their own. She has no training or skill with any of them. Agreeing fully with Dale she is eager to continue hoping they encounter no more before the town. She volunteers again for last watch over their campsite each night and spends it practicing forms with her rapier.
Upon leaving the mountains behind again and seeing the town for the first time she smiles. After a month of traveling together she would call all those with her friends and she turns to them and says, "Civilisation is beautiful isn't it? First thing I've been waiting to do is sleep in a proper bed."
Taking in the scene for a couple of minutes she then follows the party down the trail, pulling her hood up to appear human.
Being more "free-minded" than your typical dwarf, Dain also takes a couple of minutes to enjoy the scene. Of course, fact that it was their beautiful female elven compatriot that mentioned "proper bed", set a completely different tone for the scene.
Focus Dain, focus...let us go and get some good brandy down there
Shaking his head slowly, with a wry grin on his face Dain follows Sezira down the trail, not saying much, but displaying quiet obviously that he is in a good mood.
Misha agrees with trying to sell the gear in town, if anyone will take it. "Although I don't know if we'll get much for the javelins, shoddy workmanship and all. Might as well keep those and use'em in a pinch. The swords would probably fetch a good price with the right buyer, though. How are we going to divvy up the silver?"
Misha offers to spar with Sezira that evening.
As they arrive in town, Misha nods. "Proper bath is more what I had in mind." The facilities they had aboard the barge had been basic at best, and camping didn't make it any better. She looks over at the dwarf ogling the elf. "In fact I hope all of you take an opportunity to get properly cleaned up. Some of you smell like an orc's backside." She pauses for dramatic effect. "Might make a difference if you want to make a good impression later on."
As they get further in town, Misha asks around if there's a courier in the vicinity. She wants to send her sister a message to let her know she's fine and her travels are going well.
"I don't smell that bad..." Redona mutters in answer to Misha. She helps load everything, then watches Misha and Sezira spar if they do. Still, a bath would be wonderful. I don't think I've ever gone this long without bathing.
Misha just laughs. "I was not referring to you, my dear." And gives another sidelong glance at the dwarf.
Borris a bit sick is quetly walking along with the rest of the group
yes a bath that might cure me of my vold!!
|
"Yes, a bath and a hot meal sounds nice. I hope such a small village has the accommodations necessary for all of us. As for the equipment, I'd suggest we sell what we can and split the coin. Orc-made gear is hardly what we want to be using, anyways."\
Josef does his best to brush the dust of the road off before arriving in town. A hopeless gesture, but one he makes regardless.
Rikar looks down onto Meadowvale in the distance, then scans the mountains behind them, in case any orcs are still interested in them, though it has been days since they saw a sign of one.
He turns back to the group in time to catch the byplay about who smells like what, and chuckles quietly about Misha’s helpful hints toward Dain, thinking, I wonder if there’s anything to that? Would be an entertaining match, and the elf is a pretty one.
Out loud he says, ”A few days without a bath makes it much easier to hide out here in the wild. Your fruity soaps and such stand out when there’s a beast – or an orc – sniffing about for you. All the same, a pint alongside a hot meal will be a nice change.”
"If a beast is sniffing about for us in Meadowvale, I'll be concerned about the alertness of the their constabulary."
Rikar says quietly to Misha "Normally I'd agree with you, but someone is certainly sniffing around the lovely Sezira..."
Sezira takes Misha up on her offer saying she would welcome the opportunity to practice anytime. Sezira prefers unarmed combat when sparring and can go for many hours without tiring. She enjoys the practice greatly, remembering back to when her father first taught her to defend herself many years ago.
"Always look your oponent in the eye Sezira! The moment you take your eyes off theirs is the moment they have the advantage!"
"In fact I hope all of you take an opportunity to get properly cleaned up. Some of you smell like an orc's backside." She pauses for dramatic effect. "Might make a difference if you want to make a good impression later on."
At first, Dain just feels slight unease at Misha's words. He uses the first opportunity to "sniff himself out" when he thinks no one is watching, and can not help but conclude that the bard lady is right. His smell was not the prettiest thing around.
Almost at the same moment he opened his mouth to thank Misha in a way, realization its him She said "if I want to make good impression later on!". His face going red, and his ears burning, the dwarf continues to tag behind the rest of the party, using his short legs as an excuse. The amount of embarrassment he felt at that moment could not be easily understood or translated to others - he would rather charge a dozen of orcs single-handedly right now, than be in this position.
Following others quietly (pretty unusual for Dain), he walks into the town still unsure if he wants to bath at all, or just go and get drunk.
Redona follows in front of Dain at first but behind the others. She prefers not to feel like she is leading the group. After a few minutes she slows down even more to where she's pretty close to Dain.
"Are you okay, Dain?" Despite not actually being oblivious, she had yet to actually take notice of Dain's interest in Sezira. She did however notice that he was quieter than normal.
She was feeling more comfortable around the others after some traveling time, though she is still quieter and more awkward than the rest of them. Except for now. "You seem quiet..."
Sezira takes Misha up on her offer saying she would welcome the opportunity to practice anytime. Sezira prefers unarmed combat when sparring and can go for many hours without tiring. She enjoys the practice greatly, remembering back to when her father first taught her to defend herself many years ago.
Misha agreed to some unarmed sparring. "I admit it's not my strong point. My little sister always fully walloped me in that regard. All the more reason to get better, though."
Misha is first amused when she sees Dain slink off--that's what he gets for ogling an expedition colleague, she thought, as she had an odd sense of what was and wasn't "professional" on a venture--but then realizes she took more spirit when she had merely meant to take the piss out of him. She decides to let it drop for now--no reason to embarrass him further--but makes a mental note to buy him a drink whereever they lodge, and hope there's no hard feelings.
Walking down the trail Sezira is oblivious and doesn't hear a word of the others conversation as she it too inntent on getting to town after their long journey.
Walking up with Dale she asks him if he knows anything usefull for them about the land or any exploration he might have done. "Anything we might be able to use would indeed make us very grateful. How long will you be staying here before leaving? I have a letter to compose to send to my brother and family."
Looking on with amusement at the party interplay, Dale starts down the trial in the lead. When Sezira asks Dale about Moru Country, and how long he will be in Meadowvale, he replies to her I have scouted out the route to here, and little of the surrounding lands. What I can tell you is that the Shoanti tribes are not fond of outsiders, but unless one of you do something very wrong, they will trade at least, although they are rather closed mouth. I will be in Meadowvale for about one week, then I head back to Kaer Maga. I will make a journey back here every month or so to pick up any report you would have for Captain Thorn. Also, if there is something that you wish to purchase from Kaer Maga I will bring it back to you.
As you approach the village, Dale becomes more vocal than he has been the whole trip here. Meadowvale, the entrance to Moru Country. When we get to the Old Stone Inn, Leah, the owner, will have rooms for you. The Inn is a two story building of wood and stone. It has excellent food, good conversation, late parties and the rooms are fairly priced and quite comfortable he looks over at several of the group, and smiles. There are probably several adventurer type folks there, as well as around nine hundred folks in the town, including a blacksmith, clothes maker, cobbler, leather worker and other folks. Meadowvale does its best to help adventurers,, he say smiling. Continuing down the trail, and then as if thinking of one last thing, If you are out exploring and need to leave messages for me, or journal copies, talk with Uncle Tarlogh. He is a wily old goat, and not the most honest of men, but he will not do me wrong, which means he will not do you wrong either.
Entering the village, he leads you to the Old Stone Inn, which is in the middle of the village, right off the square. Approaching, he notices two young boys, Misha, this is Guillaume. He is one of the stable boys for the Inn. They will take good care of your mule and won't steal any of the equipment. He tosses him a sliver piece, Guillaume, do what the lady says and take care of her mule.
He then leads you all into the Inn. As it is around dinner time, the place is bustling. A red haired woman, perhaps in her late thirties, seems to be running the place and Dale says to you that is Leah. Two barmaids are running around serving drinks and food, and you see several others helping. He points out several folk, Uncle Tarlogh, a human male sits in a corner, with two men hovering around him and watching the Inn. Harrough, the captain of the guard is talking with one of the barmaids. Dale also points out what looks like four adventurers, I have not seen them in town before, and finally points out a human male, who is playing the lute. That is Seallan, the town minstrel.
I am going to get myself a room, stow my gear, and come back down for dinner, he says. I suggest you do the same. Old Jobe over by the bar can set you up. He then takes his leave and heads over to Old Jobe.
I'll do the same i could use a bath coughing Borris walks to the patron and asks for a room when answered he gets up to it and jumps in the tub they prepared for him. only faling asleep in it.
Redona follows in front of Dain at first but behind the others. She prefers not to feel like she is leading the group. After a few minutes she slows down even more to where she's pretty close to Dain.
"Are you okay, Dain?" Despite not actually being oblivious, she had yet to actually take notice of Dain's interest in Sezira. She did however notice that he was quieter than normal.
She was feeling more comfortable around the others after some traveling time, though she is still quieter and more awkward than the rest of them. Except for now. "You seem quiet..."
"What? Ah, yes, I was just...thinking...of...the adventure ahead, and what might await us..." - Dain was obviously lost in thoughts when he was approached by young Redona - "But you are right, young one, it is not like good old Dain to be quiet and contemplate the orcs and such. Here, let me tell you about that one time when our patrol was chasing a pair of goblin wolf-riders..."
And as easy as that, Dain switches to a "lighter" mood, telling stories (most of them obviously made up, but nevertheless amusing), gossips and even at one time humming a bawdy drinking song.
After they entered the city, Dain is more than willing to let someone else like Misha or Sezira do the "talking part", since they were obviously more suited for it. He would use the opportunity to present himself to Leah and Old Jobe, and request a room (can be a shared room, he does not mind) and a bath. After that unusual (bathing) part is done, Dain would hurry back to the inn, trying to engage in conversation either with captain of the guard Harrough or the minstrel Seallan.
His approach is rather straightforward (some would say simple): "Dain Harladorn, of the Pathfinder Society, at your service. My colleagues and me are here to explore Moru country and investigate the real stories behind some of it's more interesting legends"