Feast is definitely in the mood to rip something apart and the wolves they encounter in the clearing fit that bill.
Had she been a more empathic creature, she may have felt some sort of kinship with the wolf caught in the trap.
Unfortunately for these wolves, however, Feast is angry. And always hungry.
Had she been in a less horribly maimed state of mind, she might have finished the first wolf off with one swing of her Greataxe. The mighty weapon remained sheathed, as Feast could only draw from the most primal of her instincts, ones she had been using since childhood.
Now wasn't the time for quick kills. Now was the time for blood and flesh. For her to feel it in her mouth, and teeth, dripping down her chin and neck. For the warmth of the gore to cover her hands and face.
Now was the time to Feast.
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It only took Eugen’s deft fingers a couple of minutes to help free Feast, but with the fresh injury her blood’s definitely up as she spots the wolves in the clearing ahead. Flinging off even the flimsy pretence of civilisation she normally wears, she descends on the lead wolf in a savage fury. The wolf snaps a bite at her [readied action] as she dives at it, but its fangs fail to find purchase on the hide armour she wears. Feast’s own jaws, on the other hand, do find purchase as she rips a bloody gob of flesh from the canine’s neck! Thrashing and whining, the wolf is quickly put out of its misery as Eugen’s conjured acid spatters against its fur with a sizzle and an acrid scent like burnt meat and vinegar. Stepping forwards, Victor’s mighty two-handed sword makes short work of the remaining, wounded, wolf...
[Everything died (well, is down and bleeding to death) before Tashewren’s turn came up, so he didn’t have to spend that round of bardic performance. A quick check reveals nothing of obvious value in the clearing, unless you want to take the bear trap? You can search the clearing more thoroughly and / or Feast can stay to eat the wolves, but you’ll be losing time in the pursuit if you do. In any case, once everyone’s ready to move on...]
... Feast quickly picks up the assassin’s trail, leading away from the clearing down one of a number of game trails. After following the crude natural pathway for roughly twenty more minutes it abruptly emerges from the treeline just before a gorge, around twenty feet wide, cutting its way like a great wound through the forest in both directions. Across the far side of the gorge the forest continues, the undergrowth and trees as dense as ever. Maybe twenty feet down from where you emerged from the trees two weathered wooden posts on your side of the gorge match two more on the other side, but there’s no bridge crossing the gap – instead, the remains of a rope and plank bridge can be seen still attached to the posts nearest you, disappearing over the lip of the gorge. The sounds of fast-flowing water can be heard from somewhere far below. Standing near the posts on your side of the gorge are three grimy-looking men dressed in rough-spun working clothes and leather armour. Each man carries a woodsman’s axe [a battleaxe, in game terms], with a practical-looking knife thrust into each of their belts. The men see you, but just move so that they’re standing between you and the remains of the bridge, saying nothing, but holding their axes across themselves in two hands. One man, with stringy brown hair and a full beard, stands in front of the other two (a rather ugly bald man, and a younger-looking man with tousled brown hair and just a little stubble for a beard).
[There’s an edge of clear ground 10ft wide running along the gorge on either side, with the dense undergrowth and trees – difficult terrain with cover and concealment – of the forest beyond that]
Once Feast is free and the wolves are down, Victor takes one of the bear traps. You never know when they will come in handy.
As they continue on and stumble across the men at the bridge Victor firmly grips the hilt of the sword, ready to draw if the time comes for it.
“My friend Feast here is tracking her next snack, we followed his tracks down this way...”
Tearing the wolf apart calms her somewhat. She doesn't take long to recover from her explosion of anger, and after a few quick mouthfuls of wolf, is ready to continue tracking their main quarry. She first binds her leg somewhat, trying to stop the bleeding.
Still wounded and bleeding, however, running into a group of men blocking their advancement causes her to flex angrily. She is more cautious though. These aren't a pair of wolves, these are armed men. Normally no challenge, Feast is still quite injured.
Zhen chuckles upon seeing the men, their weapons drawn. "You seem to be under the impression that you can stop whoever is in pursuit. How wrong you are. You are no warriors. We could crush you in mere seconds. How would you like to test my theory?" Zhen says with glee, his hand drifting to his blade as he leans forward.
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The three men show no signs of reacting to the various threats from your group - veiled of otherwise. Even Tashewren's rather masterfully menacing words fail to stir them... which seems weird... it's not just that they seem un-intimidated, but they don't seem to react at all - not one extra twitch, or exchanged glance, or anything, and definitely no words. They just keep looking over the various members of your group, their axes held ready, their eyes seeming to be drawn to whoever starts to get close to them...
[If anyone takes a peek over the side of the gorge, it looks to be about a sixty foot drop into a fast-flowing river. The twenty foot long plank and rope bridge which used to span the gorge is hanging down the edge on the gorge on your side.]
Victor lets out a sigh and shakes his head and says; “We don’t have time for this. We are losing precious time.” He begins to step forward, draws his blade and attacks the far left man.
Feast nods and draws her Greataxe. She then moves, and swings it at the man with the beard.
Zhen rushes forward, drawing his blade to slice his opponent - the man on the right.
Eugen is fairly certain he can see where this is going.
He reaches into a pouch and flings his hand out in Zhen's direction, and barks out another strange phrase as the dust that had been in his hand comes in contact with Zhen's 's back.
There's a hissing noise as Zhen's swells in size rapidly, with his height at the end of his growth easily hitting 12 feet, and judgign by the marks his boots leave in the ground his weight has grown proportionately.
Eugen then slinks back into the woods, aiming to be as concealed as possible so as to get a cheap shot as best he can.
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Staying as much behind the protective cover and concealment of the treeline as he can and still see his colleagues, Eugen starts to cast his spell [Enlarge Person is a full round casting time, so it'll come into effect just before his initiative count on round two...].
Unsheathing his strange-looking sword for the first time since the group met, Zhen rushes forwards, the almost fragile-looking (well, compared to the stuff his more local counterparts are carrying...) blade just managing to slip past his dexterous target's guard and leather armour both to slice deeply into the flesh of the man's chest. A crimson arc of blood sprays out and the man cries out as he collapses... and then something strange happens. The blood spattering both Zhen and his victim vanishes like smoke... as does the man's flesh, leaving nothing but the bones of a human skeleton to collapse within the man's clothes and armour...
Tashewren takes the noble course of action (standing at the back and letting the lower orders do the dirty work)... :)
The two remaining men move to intercept Victor and Feast... giving Zhen an opportunity to slice through the back of the bearded fellow! [AoO - I generally just assume people take these when they can, and I roll all the appropriate dice for you, again to keep things moving]. Once more blood sprays, and the man screams as he falls, but when he hits the ground there's nothing but dried bones in his clothes and armour...
The third and final man (the bald one) charges Victor, swinging his woodsman's axe two-handed as he goes. Victor turns the blow aside, leaving the man to momentarily bury his axe into the soft turf, but the bald man ducks Feast's attempt to take his head off and parries Victor's back-swing with the haft of his axe as he pulls it free. The man's making appropriate grunting noises as he exerts himself, but still not actually saying anything...
[Next turn...]
Eugen finishes casting his spell, and Zhen swells to impressive size (although the edge of that gorge is looking mighty close now that the space for his feet shrank... ;) ).
[Currant order is: Eugen - Zhen - Tashewren - soon-to-be-destroyed-enemy - Feast - Victor]
Victor smiles as both him and the bald man are struggling in this stand-off. Victor make a level swing trying to make a clean removal of his head.
"Don't trust your eyes! These aren't men we fight, but the undead."
Zhen steps to the middle skeleton, hoping to take advantage of his increased size. He brings down his enlarged blade without mercy.
Eugen finishes casting his spell (if anyone couldn't tell, it's been a while since I played a wizard), then punches out and lets loose a telekinetic fist at either the most wounded skeleton, or whichever one is still standing.
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Eugen punches air - Feast and Victor feel the breeze as the telekinetic blow goes wide of its mark. With a step, Zhen brings the blade of his sword vertically down on the last of the woodsmen. The man's bald head splits in twain in an impressive spray of gore... which once more vanishes like smoke as the man collapses as nothing but a pile of bones held together by armour and clothing...
[Apart from bones, there's three woodsmans axes (battleaxes), three daggers, three sets of leather armour, and three sets of rather shabby working man's clothes. None of the 'woodsmen' appear to have been carrying any coins or even personal mementos or the like.]
Once Tashewren finishes dragging up the fallen rope bridge [although with Strength checks like that he may need a hand... ;)] it can be seen from the clean break that the ropes securing the bridge were definitely cut with a blade, and recently (with the last few hours) too. The assassin's trail ends at the bridge, unless you can somehow cross the gorge...
[It'd be a DC 20 Acrobatics check to jump the gorge, with a DC 20 Reflex save allowed to catch the edge of the other side if the jump's failed by 4 or less. It'd be a series of DC 15 Climb checks to climb down the edge of the gorge (60ft at quarter speed), followed by a DC 15 Swim check to swim the river and another series of DC 15 Climb checks to ascend the opposite side of the gorge. Feel free to come up with something smarter! :)]
Feast looks across the bridge, and then back into the forest, searching for a tree that looks big and thick enough to cross the chasm.
She looks at her Greataxe, but decides to use the ash men's axes instead. Picking the first one up, she begins hacking away at the tree with all her strength.
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As the fight finishes, Tashewren takes a moment to stop and clap for his fellows.
"Might impressive, there! Can we get back to the real mission, now? It seems the rope has been cut, so we're going to have to find another option."
As Feast begins chopping the tree, he'll chuckle.
He calls to the rest of the group. "Yes, my fellows, with the big sticks, there. Come help my Feast. We will catch this one yet."
Zhen looks at Tashewren coldly. "Leave the menial labor to your savage there. My will comes only for things of war, not bridges."
"Besides, your beast seems able enough. Hopefully it won't crush itself chopping the tree down."
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Feast quickly locates a perfect candidate tree, a fifty-footer near the edge of the treeline and already starting to lean the right way. A bit of skilled hatchet-work should cause it to fall across the gorge, and it looks sturdy enough to take the impact and remain relatively intact too.
[With Feast's great roll she'll have the tree felled solo in a half hour. Others can help with a successful DC 15 Survival check (and an axe) with successes reducing the time taken proportionally).]
With the final axe-blow the mighty tree falls, taking branches off its fellows as it crashes past them, and flexing a little as it smashes down across the gorge with a dreadful racket that causes birds to take flight and woodland creatures to scurry away in protest... Once settled, the fallen tree looks quite secure and, even with a slick, mossy, covering doesn't seem too much of a challenge to cross [it'd be a DC 7 Acrobatics check, so you don't even have to roll for that one].
Across the gorge Feast and Zhen both manage to pick up the assassin's trail (starting from where the bridge originally terminated) - a trail that plunges back into the darkened depths of primal forest [difficult terrain undergrowth, with plenty of concealment and trees for cover]...
... After about an hour forging ahead through the untamed wilderness...
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Zhen looks at Tashewren coldly. "Leave the menial labor to your savage there. My will comes only for things of war, not bridges."
Tashewren clicks his tongue. "And here I thought an essential component of war was the construction of bridges. Very well. Just know that the longer we dally, the farther our target becomes."
Tashewren will light touch Feast on the shoulder, a he notices the spider.
He readies himself to move, should the beast attack.
“I am beginning to wonder what gods this assassin serves for him to pass by all these difficulties with great ease...”
Victor draws his blade readying himself for when this beast appears.
After hearing her Master's warning, Feast is on guard, though still not sure what she is facing. Cutting down that tree was tiring and so, once again, she craved for something to sink her teeth into.
Eugen, being incredibly fit for a wizard (12 whole strength!), and not having the airs of his fellows, at least attempted to help out
His lack of knowledge of non-urban environs unfortunately prevents him from being of any great help, but still, he can at least help carry the trunk.
Thanks to the extra set of eyes always on him, Eugen notices the arachnid creature, and readies himself to let loose another orb of acid when the beast strikes.
Zhen sees his comrades readying weapons, and chooses to place his hand on the hilt of his blade. He cannot see what he is up against, but feels confident in the fact that it will fall quickly.
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Eugen's arcane chanting and gesticulation is followed by an acidic hisss and an unholy squealing from above the group... which is, itself, followed by multiple glistening white strands lancing down from the direction of the squeal to spray across, and adhere to, the quick-reacting wizard. The strands of web now covering Eugen lead upwards, where they twist together into a single rope-like cord, still connected to the spinnerets of the pony-sized spider hanging upside-down from a ceiling-like sheet of webbing twenty feet above. The giant spider's eight beady eyes are fixed upon its latest meal as it begins to gather in the web that has snagged Eugen, threatening to hoist the wizard into the air...
... Meanwhile, the thousands of coin-sized spiders which appear to inhabit the same web start to swarm down the nearby tree-trunks, heading towards the rest of the group...
Seeing the spider swarm heading his way, Tashewren moves, as best he can through the thick undergrowth, to at least provide them with one less target...
... Victor draws his blade and readies himself, but the giant spider doesn't seem interested in descending, and smushing a few of its diminutive brethren (out of the thousands heading for the group) seems like an exercise in futility...
[You are all standing in difficult terrain due to the undergrowth - so half movement and no running or charging. There are plenty of trees about (for cover or climbing) of course... although I can't imagine cover will do much against a swarm...]
[Eugen is entangled (half speed - for a total of quarter speed for him at the moment, -2 penalty to attack rolls, -4 penalty to Dexterity, needs a concentration check of DC 15 + spell level to cast spells without losing them). It'll be a standard action and a DC 12 Escape Artist check to break free, or a DC 12 Strength check to burst the webbing - although Eugen will take a -4 penalty to the Strength check if he goes that route. He's not been lifted into the air yet... but that seems to be the giant spider's intent for its next action...]
[Round one is next... order will be Eugen, Feast, Zhen, spiders, Tashewren then Victor - but feel free to post out-of-order (the order is just the order actions will be resolved in). You can also post a few alternative actions if you like, dependent on what happens before your character goes, if that helps.]
“Come down to me, beast!”
If the creature does come down OR if it is in the air and I can reach the webbing I will cut at it to free Eugen.
If the creature is in the upper webbing and Eugen is being raised higher. He will try to lasso Eugen and climb up to the spider.
Zhen realizes he is quite out of his element here - his weapon cuts men, not tiny bugs. And the real target hides above him, far out of reach.
Zhen pulls out his shortbow, aiming upwards at the spider. He lets an arrow loose.
Feast cannot reach the massive spider and so she walks to the entangled caster, grabs the web line that links him to the eight legged monster, and pulls it towards her.
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[Well, it's been the better part of a week since Eugen last posted, so I'll just say he tries to break free...]
Struggling, Eugen manages to detach himself from enough of the web strands that he's no longer in danger of being reeled in... [and no longer entangled]
Wading through the undergrowth, Feast grabs the spider's web-line, before it can react to Eugen's escape and, with a mighty tug, pulls the over-sized arachnid off it's web! The monster spider crashes to the forest floor amongst you, its eight legs twitching in the air as it struggles to right itself...
Un-slinging his bow, Zhen nocks an arrow, pulls, and sends it flying into the side of the monstrous spider - dark ichor spurts from the thing as it squeals once more. Between the fall, the arrow, and Eugen's opening splash of acid, the giant spider's beginning to look the worse for wear - it starts to right itself... when Feast takes a bite [AoO as it stands from prone], causing more ichor to spurt into her mouth as the spider squeals one last time, twitches, then slumps immobile to the forest floor...
... just as Feast, Eugen, Victor and Zhen get swarmed by the giant spider's less-giant-but-more-numerous little friends. The masses of coin-sized spiders crawl over the party, finding their ways into every nook and/or cranny they can, their painful little bites quickly accumulating as they rapidly go from annoying to dangerous...
[Eugen takes 5 points of damage, Feast takes 2 points, Victor takes 4 points and Zhen takes 3 points. Each of those four also need to make a DC 11 Fortitude save or take 1d2 Strength damage. Vasterius (Eugen's raccoon familiar) takes 6 points of damage and starts to bleed out...]
Tashewren laughs [hey - it is an evil game, right? :)] and moves even further away from the danger...
[Victor has an action left this round (since neither of his posted options turned out to be relevant thanks to Feast turning out to be the tactical genius of the group... ;p ) and you can all post your actions for the next round too.]
[EDIT: sorry, those damaged by the swarm also need a second DC 11 Fortitude save to avoid being nauseated from the swarm's distraction ability too... nasty little buggers that they are...]
Seeing that the beast has been slain, Victor begins to move away from the swarm of spiders that has overtaken the group. As he gets far enough out of the way Victor does the stop drop and roll method to try to knock the little spiders off of him
Yelling “Get em off! Get em off!!!
Zhen curses, feeling the stinging bites of the spiders. He tries to move outside of the swarm, seeing his sword useless.
Eugen moves thirty feet away from the swarm and the rest of the party (Vasterius is in his familiar pouch, so he moves with Eugen), and, hoping they're not to small for this to work, sends out another orb of acid.
Just as Feast was wiping the blood of the fallen spider of her face, thousands of tiny ones swarm her and begin to bite.
Feast brushes them off, nothing more than an irritation, although those that get into the wound from the bear trap sting a little bit. The blow flies of Belkzen bit harder. She looks for what direction they should go in.
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Victor moves through the thick undergrowth away from the swarming spiders, with Eugen, Feast and Zhen following suit, although with the samurai's armour slowing him down, he fails to out-pace the spiders...
[There's difficult terrain everywhere at the moment, so it takes Eugen a full round to move 30ft (no chance to cast as well). I'm assuming Feast is moving, and not just brushing at spiders, otherwise she'll drop this round... and it'd be a shame for that Barbarian fast movement to go to waste... The grease from a grease spell isn't inherently flammable (it's a first level spell that's already pretty good...).]
The spiders keep biting poor Zhen for a while longer... but the mass of their swarm seems to have turned its attention to their fallen giant counterpart and, as the samurai keeps moving away, the wee beasties remaining to harass him crawl off and head back towards their fellows...
[Zhen takes an additional 3 points of damage. In addition, Victor takes 1 Strength damage and Zhen takes 2 Strength damage from the spiders' poison, and both need to save again - Victor at DC 11, Zhen at DC 13 (as he's been dosed again). Save or fail that'll be the last save for Victor (the poison has a 2 round duration), but if Zhen fails again he'll need a third save (also at DC 13) because of the higher dosage he's taken. You might as well roll 'em all now, as the spiders aren't interested enough to keep chasing you when they can eat 'mommy' instead...]
Meanwhile Tashewren is wandering (let's be honest) pretty randomly away from the danger (about sixty feet away from the rest of the party, even if they headed in the same direction as he did) when a figure suddenly drops from a tree maybe fifteen feet in front of him. She's a tanned and athletic young woman with long, powerful, legs which are covered in short chestnut colour fur. The fur is dappled with white spots, and her legs end in cloven hooves. She sports a diminutive tail, long ears and tiny horns and wears little besides a simple loincloth with a pouch on the belt, a quiver for arrows, an intricately carved boar’s tooth on a simple thong necklace, and a friendly smile. Thankfully her long brown hair falls strategically enough to cover her modesty. In her hand she carries a simple looking shortbow, at her belt are sheathed four primitive stone daggers with basic leather wrapped hilts, and slung over her shoulder is a curved signal horn and a waterskin. Her large and expressive brown eyes meet Tashewren's with a look of curiosity. She says something to him in a pleasant, lyrical, language he doesn't understand, then frowns for a moment and tries again,
'Are you a man, pretty one? I've had little reason to use the tongues of men before...' she glances over Tashewren's shoulder, back towards the rest of the party, adding, '... are your friends alright? The eight-legs have nasty bites... probably not a good idea to crash through the forest like deranged bristle-backs near where they hunt...'
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Tashewren's face lights up at the appearance of a creature, and one that doesn't mean harm, to boot! this was something he could handle.
He smiles a wicked smile. "Yes, my dear one- I am indeed a man. As for my friends," he looks back towards them "well, just minor scratches, though we will probably require some rest. Is this your home, dear one? It is beautiful, as is the language of your voice- I've never heard it's like before. I am blessed to have heard it."
He gives a small bow. "I am called Tashewren," he says. "May I have the honor of knowing yours?"
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'I'm Fallow,' the cloven-hoofed young lady replies, 'the forest is my home, yes... I guess you must live beyond the river?' she gestures in what Tashewren takes to be the rough direction of the gorge he and his compatriots recently crossed, 'Mother says I mustn't cross the river - that's where the realm of men begins. Men set traps with metal jaws and hunt for sport and chop down all the trees and...' she trails off as a twinge of worry creeps into her soft, lyrical, voice. Taking a step backwards she eyes Tashewren with a little more suspicion as she continues, '... you're not like that, are you? Maybe...' she glances around nervously before concluding, to herself as much as to Tashewren, '... maybe I shouldn't be talking to you...'
Victor moves to keep pace with the rest of the group
He looks behind at Feast and whistles at her and motions for her to follow him.
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"Of course not!" Tashewren lies. "I just recently finished disabling the traps on my side of the river; my loyal companion, Feast, actually was injured by one. In fact, a great Baron, a leader of my people, has been hurt by a man who laid traps such as those, and we are hunting him to put him to justice. That is why we have crossed the river, so that we may stop the traps that hurt people."
He pauses, looking at her without moving. "Fallow, we're not like that. We're the good guys, I promise."
"Already, I am seeing the downsides to this service. I've lost some feeling in my arms, and that's not going to help my swordplay." He looks over the welting red spots that cover his legs and arms.
"Now, where did Tashewren get to?"
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[Tashewren and Fallow are close enough that their conversation can be heard by the rest of the group (i.e. you'd all make the Perception check by taking 10), although with the trees and undergrowth you may not see them until you get closer. They can hear what the rest of you say too, of course. You can all gather together without further incident (unless someone wants to cause an incident).]
Listening to Tashewren's words Fallow appears to relax a little. Taking a step closer to the nobleman, her eyes glance up and down his form for a moment and a smile tugs at the corners of her mouth before she shakes her head slightly and her eyes meet his once more, a more serious expression gracing her pretty face as she replies,
'Mother says that the Barons of men have an ancient agreement with we of the forest to not hunt or cut down trees on this side of the river... but that some men are bad and not even your Barons can stop all of them...' she looks thoughtful for a moment, then adds, '... I've not seen any other man come this way, but there was a woman. She was in dark clothes and had a... a...' she seems to struggle with finding the right word for a bit, then tries, '... one of those strange machine bow things that hunters use? The needlessly complicated looking ones? She had one of them on her back. She moved much more quietly than you and your friends (although that wouldn't be difficult...) - I think she has some elf-blood.' The cloven-hoofed young lady pauses to think once more, then points in a roughly southerly direction and adds, 'She's been through here before, I think she visits Granny Gullveig's cottage... so I guess she's probably a bad sort..?'
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Tashewren's face lights up at Fallow's suggestion. "Fallow, could you tell us where Granny Gullveig's cottage is? We would very much like to talk to her, discern if she had any part in hurting our Baron." Hos face takes a darker tone, and he replies "If she has, then we will have to take more drastic measures."
Victor, trying to run through the underbrush to get away from those nasty little spiders, comes to a complete hault as he comes upon Tashewren and the woman in front of him.
“You almost lost your hired beast back there. Unless you have the gold for a new one you may want to tend to her.” eyeing the creature that Tashewren is talking to up and down, and trying to not sound aggravated/frustrated “Who are you... miss?”
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The cloven-hoofed young lady frowns a little as Victor arrives, clearly noting the bear trap he's carrying... but then smiles,
'Of course,' she mutters, 'pretty Tashewren told me you'd been removing traps...' she seems lost in thought for a moment longer, then looks Victor in the eye, 'I'm Fallow,' she replies, 'I'm glad to meet you...' she glances at Tashewren, then concludes, '... good guys.' Seeming to think for a moment, Fallow then says, 'Granny Gullveig's very dangerous - a witch who brews potions and poisons. She makes dead men work her garden and deals with all sorts of bad types. I guess I could take you there, but I'm really not sure it's a good idea...'
[She'll need some convincing, and a successful Diplomacy check, to agree to that...]
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Tashewren turns as Victor approaches. "Victor," he drawls, "I'm so glad to see you well. Do those spider bites hurt? Here, I'll tend to Feast, then if I have anything left I'll see to you as well."
He turns back to Fallow. "Fallow, I must see to my companions. Could you please lead us to Granny Gulveig? As I said, this person we're tracking is very dangerous, and has caused wanton destruction. Any attempt to stop her from hurting others, well, we must take it. However, I doubt we'll be able to find her in our current state. If you just lead us to Granny's place, well, we will be indebted to you." He dips his head as he says this, to make himself look meek. "Don't you want to stop people from being hurt?"