Round 3
Silas fires his bow and hits Greypelt for 5 damage!
Michael stands up provoking an AoO which misses. Michael then strikes Greypelt with a mighty blow!
Percival holds action for now
Hecktor slices into the second wolf killing it instantly.
Gared (-2HP) bleeds some more but stabilizes!
Greypelt -15hp lunges for Hecktor! provoking AoO's from Michael who misses. Greypelt bites at Hecktor Hecktor is at 0 HP and prone!
Wolf1 -11HP whines in the corner, but is eyeballing Percival.
Lucanor <----- we are here.
Round 4:
Michael takes a step to the west and yells to the group, "Try to get into flanking positions on Furball here! Co-ordinate your attacks, aim for the vitals, and make it count! Bring him down hard!"
Michael then drops into a more defensive posture and takes a calculated swing at the Warg's hind legs.
The other wolf bolts for the exit... just decide whether or not it dies.
Combat over!
Everyone is level 2 now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also a search of rooms 15 and 16 will yield
100 pp, and a prayer book. The book is
written in dwarven
our devotion. Only Droskar can deliver us
from the failings of King Garbold
light crossbow, a potion of bull’s strength,
and a wand of light (CL 1st, 28 charges). In
the dark corner of the room grows a small
patch of ironbloom mushrooms, six in all.
Michael keeps the remaining wolf from leaving the room and tries to calm it down using a slow, soft voice and motions that are as non-threatening as possible.
"Easy girl, easy. Didn't exactly wanna kill you in the first place, but well, had to defend myself. Now, if you calm down and just come with us, we'll fix you up good as new, get you some food and water, and maybe try to teach you a few tricks."
Lucanor finishes off Graypelt with another stab to the throat to make sure its dead. Then cleans his blade.
Michael walks over to Gared, checks for signs of life, and when he finds them he breathes a sigh of relief.
"The idiot isn't dead. Thank the gods. I didn't want to have to explain that one." With a childlike smirk he then adds, "But now I've got the time I saved his life to hold over his head! Anyways, I'll let you guys get this stuff all gathered up. I'm gonna go see if I can't rig up a makeshift sled to drag behind Adrienne. There's gotta be some timbers around here that aren't completely rotten. Maybe the door to the room with that mummified dwarf could work."
Michael is going to leave the room, head back to area 4, and check out the door for room 5. If it still looks sturdy, he's going to try to break it free of its hinges without actually breaking the door.
Percival looks sad. "Awwisitoveralreadyiwasjustabouttohavefungetitstartedblowstuffup!"
After looking over the door for a few minutes and being unable to pry out the rusted hinge pins, Michael walks back outside to Adrienne. He leads her inside the yard and right up to the double doors before taking the hand axe out of one of his saddlebags. Taking his time, he uses the axe to chop away the wood around the hinges. With the door down, he puts the axe back in the saddlebag, digs out two pitons, and uses his warhammer to drive them into opposite sides of the top of the door. Taking some of his rope, he threads it through both pitons, ties a knot about 3 feet away from the top of the door, and sets it down on the ground before walking back to the group.
"I've got a makeshift stretcher sled made up. We can load Gared up on it, and maybe some of this stuff as well, and then get started on heading back to town. If we don't grab everything, then that's fine by me. I was planning on coming back here in a couple days anyway, and if you guys come along we can pick up the rest then. I like this place. With a little fixing up it could be useful, but first we've got to clear out whatever else might be living here. Probably wouldn't hurt to find a priest of Torag to come in and consecrate the place too, if that Droskar guy was an evil dwarven god. What do you guys think?"
"Gared! OhyeahrightIforgotabouthimholdon!" Percival pulls out another bottle from his bulging overcoat and looks at it for a moment. "HuhholdonIseenowsoobvious!" Bending down over Gared, Percival nimbly tugs out a single hair from his head, dropping it into the bottle, following it with a small puff of dust from a retrieved pouch. Swishing the concoction around, he tilts it up and pours it down the fallen warrior's throat. "That'llbejusttheticketforhim!"
Gared rouses from unconciousness to witness the scene before him. With a grim countenance, he nods and slumps against the stretcher as though he has found some inner peace.
"We need to get the ingredients to the town," he croaks, "More people will die unless we move quickly."
"The wild man awakes!" Michael exclaims. "You're lucky we're friends, because otherwise I'd have left you for dead with that foolhardy charge. We could have at the very least waited until we were in a more advantageous position to take that thing on. Next time, keep your head about you. Anyways, you owe me one. In fact, you owe us all one."
Percival simply gives his patient a quick smile and darts over to pour another concoction down Hecktor's throat.
"Good healing, Doc. Anyone else need a little healing, or are we now good to go?"
Hecktor gulps down the potion. He wakes up and nods at Percival.
"Thank you Lawson. I owe you a drink.
He looks back to where he'd last seen Gared. Slightly shaking his head on the rashness of the guy, Hecktor is relieved he didn't end up as a corpse.
After geting up and shaking his shoulders, he says;
"Seeing as we are still alive, i'd like to address the following,
Should we take the mutt's head along for a possible reward or leave it's corpse be?"
Despite his weakness, Gared fixes Michael with a firm glare.
"You don't know the whole story, Michael. The Sheriff told the townsfolk my parents were slain by bandits to keep them from being too frightened, but I always knew the truth. I saw that beast as it charged our wagon. Mother was ripped from us instantly and I only survived because my Father held it together long enough to drive the wagon within sight of the town. That beast is likely the cause of most of the lycanthrope sightings in these woods," Gared's voice dwindles as he pauses for breath.
"We need to check in on the Halfway House on the way back, just in case that girl has turned." Gared's voice falls into a dead silence.
As Hecktor speaks, Gared looks at him and shrugs weakly.
"Do what you will, the threat is past now," he states quietly.
Michael takes in what Gared says with an ear towards sympathy, but then gives his reply.
"I can't say that I know what that's like, but I'm sticking by my point. A little extra thought can go a long way. Now move over, we've got crap we need to put on there with you."
Michael heads out into the hallway and starts searching the bodies from earlier.
"You're right, you have no idea what it is like," Gared replies darkly.
Hecktor picks some of the worg's most vicious canines. One for reminders, and the other 3 for "they could be of use in some way."
He turns his head towards Gared,
"Hey Gared, you said the worg could be the cause of increase in werebeasts, is there a cure? Normally just werebeasts could transfer the affliction, as far as tales have reached me."
"I'm not sure he was saying that the worg caused lycanthropy. I think he was meaning that most of the sightings of werewolves around here have actually been people seeing the worg. Think about it, that thing was a huge wolf that could talk. If I hadn't seen and heard it myself, my first thought after being told about it would have been werewolf too. I say we take the whole thing back with us. No one would believe it otherwise."
Gared nods slowly, all of his energy expended.
"Yes, I believe that to be the case," he croaks hoarsely.
Michael checks the room and makes sure everything he can think of is packed up. He grabs the ropes for the stretcher and starts dragging it to the door before announcing, "I'm ready to head back to town. Make sure you've got everything, and let's get going. People are sick, we've got the stuff for the cure, and with any luck it'll actually work. But first we need to get back."
"Definitely, let's get a move on when we can."
Whenever you guys are ready to go you have to make a decision.
Go back the same way you came which is a 2 day journey or
Take the shortcut straight south which will save an entire day of travel. However it requires a river crossing, which might be dangerous.
You can make 2 survival checks for the first night's camp. (Day 4 night)
"If we cut straight south across the river, then we can cut out a day but the crossing might be difficult," Gared rasps.
"If we have a short cut, I'm tempted to take... lives being at stake at all with each passing day, but I'll trust your call, Gared. You're the woodsman here."
"I'd rather not attempt a fording with a guy who can barely stand on his feet. And we'd also run the risk of stuff breaking loose and getting whisked away. We barely got the stuff we need as it is. If we lose that root-thing from the witch's hut, where are we going to get another one?"
"I say we take a vote."
Gared attempts to recall if there are any safe crossing points on the river that would assist the party getting back to Falcon's Hollow quickly and safely.
"Deadwood Ford," Gared says, "We can cross there, and it will reduce our travel time significantly."
"Sounds like a good compromise, if not a promising name."
Ok gonna make some survival checks for Gared.
Gared finds a great place to camp for the night. The party is untroubled through the night. Everyone gains 2 HP.
Day 5 begins with a crisp sunrise and Gared leads you
in the correct general direction but a few hours are wasted as you travel towards the Deadwood Falls. You come to the Falls around 4pm on day 5.
The first thing you notice is the plethora of wildlife surrounding the falls. Birds don't take flight at your presence like they would normally do, a doe drinks nearby from a small tributary and watches you as you pass.
You see the ford about 100 yards ahead through the trees.
"I don't like this. It's too quiet..."
Michael is taken aback by the unsettling calmness of the animals nearby. He starts thrashing and stomping about in the undergrowth, making as much noise as possible, trying to spook some of them. When nothing happens, he stops.
"First we've got a witch's cauldron that comes to life and attacks us. Then a giant talking wolf. And now we've got animals that aren't afraid of anything. It's like we've stumbled into a child's storybook. If I see a spinning wheel or a giant tower with a long bundle of hair flowing out of the only window, I'm turning around and running away. This is almost too much as it is."
Gared looks around in wonder and amazement. He'd never seen anything like this before; it was so beautiful. Unfortunately his reverie is broken by Michael's thundering through the undergrowth.
"Enough, Michael," he chastises, "You criticise me for attacking the worg and then decide to go stomping off after harmless animals?"
Gared wanders around the glade, careful not to upset any foliage or fauna and approaches Falls reverently. It was places like this that Gared felt close to his patron deity, Erastil. Although he wasn't really a holy man, Gared couldn't help but kneel and speak a few words to his god.
"Exactly. Harmless animals, not a giant wolf. And I'm not charging headlong, I'm just trying to get them to react to me. This isn't right that they're ignoring us, especially with all the noise I just made."
Come the morning, Percival brews up a few more vials of healing potion and passes two of them around.
Percival frowns and thinks.
"Sir Stamford is correct; there is some magic at work here..." Percival frowns and, one hand in his voluminous pockets, begins to slowly edge forwards.
So Michael gains 4hp from day 4 and Gared gains 7. Don't forget that any HP you gain from leveling up is also gained to the total and the actual, and you gained 2hp from a good night's rest.
My calculations put Michael @ full hp and Gared at full hp as well with both Percival and Lucanor's ministrations. Dont worry about Hecktor right now, we are going to pretend that he is wounded and being carried on the sled.
"That doesn't give you an excuse to go rampaging around here like an angry bull, Michael," Gared says reproachfully, "Even if this doesn't feel 'right', that doesn't mean something is wrong."
Gared shakes his head at Percival's interjection. "There may well be magic at work, but that's not to suggest this place is dangerous. Although it could well become so if we don't treat it with respect." Gared delivers the last word with emphasis, in the hope that it causes the others to cease their train of thought.
"We should look at finding a way to ford the river," he continues, searching for some way across the waterway.
Gared it takes you a while but you find the best place to cross the river. At this place the water rises to about hip deep.
As you approach this position a delicate figure rises from the water, her long ears tapering to points above her head, her beauty painful in its perfection.
She motions to you to come closer (she is about 40' away along the bank)
Percival finds his voice lowered to a hush as the figure appears, but he is unable to hide the expression of irritation that crosses his face. "A river nymph; fey creatures, traditionally benevolent... but as all fey are, unpredictable."