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Heralded by a cock's crow, morning dawns after a quiet night.
Martha has breakfast waiting -- fried cakes of cornmeal and eggs. On top of the table is a rough clay sculpture. The forms are blocky and thick, but it is certainly Jamorin shoulders hunched and legs straining to topple the horse and rider from below.
"Randall's asleep," your hostess apologizes.
Aljohar smiles at the little figure. "I can see why. Did he work all night? This certainly conveys the action of the scene!"
"This looks nice. I appreciate the details on my own game board, but if I ever need another one designed, I'll know where to check," says Linokashtai. "If that's some work that Randall might accept, since he may consider himself beyond crafting the Twenty Square soldiers."
Aljohar eats a hearty breakfast so they can stay on the road as long as humanly possible without stopping to eat. "They have a long start, but surely they had to rest. They keep marching, they'll kill their horses."
"We need to hurry, that rider will have reported back by now," Lydia comments, eager to be gone.
Aljohar stuffs the last of a cornmeal cake in her mouth and nods. "Agreed. I said my dawn prayers and am ready. Many thanks to you, kind hostess, but we must hurry, as Lydia says," Aljohar concurs in a cornbread-muffled manner, "Ready, Lino?"
She quietly takes Martha aside and offers her remaining 3 gp in compensation for their meals. "We've put you out terribly and don't have time to work off our debt. Please accept this, our prayers, and our sincere thanks for your hospitality."
Outside the farmhouse, waiting for the others, Lydia kicks off her boots and rubs her feet through the grass, breathes in deeply and closes her eyes to drink in the sounds and smells around her. She feels her feet root deep in the earth, the wind whisper through her fingers, the dew on the grass, and the fire in her heart.
"Now to the hunt," she whispers.
Jam wanders in for some breakfast and blinks at the clay taking shape on the table "Wow... I never expected to be immortalized in a sculpture. I'll have to see that when it's all done."
Seeing the others all ready to leave, he quickly finishes up his breakfast and looks to their hostess "You and Mr. Randall have been incredible, we really appreciate your hospitality, but it looks like we need to get goin."
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Martha sees you out the door and watches you down the lane. As you reach the twin menhirs, she calls out, "May Balinor guide your hunt and Dol Arrah inspire your arms."
On the road the morning is cool. The trampled trail in the dirt road is still plain to even to the unskilled eye. After a few hours Lydia frowns. Her more skilled eyes can see that the bandits must have ridden through the night. Their lead will be greater, but their mounts slower than yours. The question of whether you catch them will turn on how far away safety for the bandits lies.
By noon you've come over a dozen miles north. The road bends unto one of the outcroppings of rock spreckled across the land here. The outcropping provides a long view to the northwest. For leagues and leagues the land folds and slopes gradually downward in cloud-shaded greens or sun-bleached yellows or distance fogged indigo all the way to the grey inland sea of Lake Galifar. Behind you to the east a broad field is a golden foreground to the bulk of the Black Caps, also leagues away.
You enter a deserted hamlet. As you begin watering your horses, a few timid townsfolk, emerge and ask cautiously about your mission. They are quick to tell you that the bandits are nearly 8 hours ahead.
An hour outside of town, Lydia frowns again and retraces her path 100 yards to a small hedge-lined lane between fields. The bandits have split up and four or five of their number rode east down the lane. The others continued north.
Linokashtai keeps her eyes open as she rides Horace down the road. Should it be brought to her attention that the bandits have split off, she remarks, "Four or five we may be able to intercept." She tries to remember if either of these path goes anywhere noteworthy.
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To the east the branches serve small farms and eventually meet the trail running along the base of the mountains. Some branches continue into the foothills and mountains proper.
The branches going west also serve farms, but many of these are larger and more prosperous. These roads eventually mesh with a heavier network of roads nearer the port of Xandrar.
Before the war the road you are on was built to support construction of a Orien trade road that would have traversed the cliff-strewn coast where the mountains meet the lake. The trade road would have led to Arcanix in the kingdom of Aundair and completed a loop around Lake Galifar, but it was never completed. Some of the trade road along the cliffs was destroyed early in the war to close a potential invasion route from Aundair.
Knowledge (geography):
"Why didn't they all go east into the Blackcaps?" Lydia asks, somewhat rhetorically. "All that's north is the Lake and the old cliff road..."
Jamorin shrugs his shoulders at Lydia's question, though it was likely rhetorical "Who knows? maybe they have a secret base hidden under the lake."
"They may have something else there," says Linokashtai. She pauses a moment and continues, "Or they think they can lead us that way into an ambush or into losing speed. They may know we are seeking out smaller groups, since we've been trying to cut off smaller splinters so far."
"Either way, we can't follow both groups," Lydia shrugs. "The smaller group will move faster, the larger group will be harder to take down."
"We may get the most utility from taking the small group and gleaning information. We can't throw our little scouting force against an entire camp, after all, and even if we gather a larger force, intelligence about the layout will be key to planning an attack," Aljohar suggests, "We already know where they're going, and the wagons aren't taking anything critical to the village. I vote to take and question the small group."
"I agree. But we'll need to travel fast."
Linokashtai nods once and says, "I can only push Horace so hard. But I think he will be fine for the duration of the pursuit. I would rather face a smaller squad ready to face us than a very large group who is unaware of our presence. Surprise brings only so much benefit." She nods to Lydia and says, "I will follow your lead."
"I vote we take the smaller group. If we went for the larger group we would have to worry about the possibility of having the smaller one sneak up behind, and this all assumes we could take on the larger group. To much risk to follow the larger at this moment."
"We should, however, be careful. Even if we need to be fast, they may well be setting up an ambush for us."
"Everyone keep your eyes open, we're very close behind them," Lydia warns.
Linokashtai keeps her psicrystal with her to help her watch for anything unusual.
AS they resume pursuit, Lydia channels the eyes of the falcon...
Perception:
Initiative:
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The sun is below the horizon and the gloaming summons shadows like rising mist below the trees lining the lane when Lydia stops her horse. Your line collapses on itself as the stragglers catch up.
Fifty yards off the lane a faint illumination brightens the undersides of the trees leaves and silhouettes the nearer trunks. In that direction a horse neighs.
Lydia releases the falcon from her mind as she slides from the saddle, and motions everyone to silence. With and gestures she indicates that she will go forward and flank on one side, and indicates to Jam to take the other. Then she quietly composes herself and reaches out to the owls of the night to cloak herself in shadows and muffle her footfalls , and advances. Before she gets too close she begins to softly incant the spells to grant her better aim and deadly arrows . Then she glides through the shadows toward the fire ...
Stealth:
Linokashtai focuses while Lydia heads over, to try and speak telepathically with the Shifter before she's out of the range to establish the mindlink.
Should Lydia accept, she holds up her hand to indicate all non-Jamorin party members wait.
Jam carefully follows after Lydia nodding to her signal he moves over to take the opposite flank, as he moves he slips out what looks to be three shafts of wood joined together in the middle with short length of chains. Most likely he intended to use this as a weapon, until now the others probably only saw him fight unarmed, though it probably seemed fitting that he'd use such an unconventional weapon.
Aljohar slides from the saddle and quietly takes the reins of the scout's horses, not venturing forward. She has no illusions about being a decent scout, and waits patiently for them to do their job.
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Jam and Lydia move quietly through the woods. The men around the campfire are oblivious to their approach. One sits next to the little fire, tending a pot. Another stands nearby trimming sticks to feed the flame. A third reclines farther from the fire.
Beyond them are the horses, and amongst them the fourth man works at grooming.
Lydia starts slightly at the unexpected voice in her head, then relaxes and continues ahead.
Three around the fire, one tending the horses. I don't see Yellow Bow there, she says to the presence in her head. She pauses and sweeps her gaze about and up and down not just over the campsite but any vantage point that might be useful to ambush any ambushers...
Perception:
Karl hangs back with Aljohar, his lack of experience with scouting or any military maneuvers shows in the grimace on his face. He tries to turn it into a smile, though there's a tightness in his voice; "Is it always this tense?"
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The cook stands and brings the pot over to the recliner. He kneels down and spoons some of the pot's contents -- probably -- into Recliner's bowl; the view is obscured by bushes and Recliner himself. Trimmer squats and feeds a few small pieces into the fire. A muted exchange between him and Cook follows.
Linokashtai whispers the information that's passed to her by Lydia into Aljohar's ear. She looks over towards Karl after he asks his question and simply shrugs. By her tight-lipped expression, she just doesn't want a whisper carrying all the way to the vintner's ear.
No Yellow Bow? He seemed like more skilled than the rest of the rabble here. Four of them, it should not be difficult to overpower while we have the jump. I am staying back with Aljohar and the others until you are ready for us to approach and assist.
[ooc]No, Lydia was being paranoid![/no]
I'm going to circle the camp, make sure I have the far man firmly in my sights. Start advancing with the others now, quietly as you can but don't panic if you make a noise.
Lydia moves to circle the camp.
Stealth: