'I'm glad Liam am Boggel know the woods, I would be lost,' Happily following along, crossbow in hand Naomi asks, "where do we want to set our trap for Kreed's men?"
The dwarf looks around.
”Here I’d recon. Where the path was close in. We wait until they are lined up. Hit em with a volley and Wolf and I can rush in followed by those of you which had missile weapons.”
”If you want, Boggel and I could take the rear so they can’t just bolt back down the path. The whole time we can be shouting, “Lay down your arms or die” or something like that to see if they’ll surrender.”
The other four only reach varying degrees of lesser drunkenness, owing to either tolerance or less indulgence. By the time they trek to the forest to trail the party, these four will have likely regained their coordination and faculties.
.....
Liam and Boggel easily lead Naomi, Wulf, and Helgrim to the darkwood grove.
From atop an earthen rise, cloaked in bushes and undergrowth, you espy the grove, which is thickly ringed with a veritable wall of fir and pine trunks.
Therefore, aside from the likelihood that this arm of the forest was only recently exposed by the Consortium's inexorable logging, you reason that many loggers avoided this stand of "cheap" wood, not realizing the rare treasure that lay beyond.
.....
Beyond this barrier of trees lays a thin band of more open ground, although dominated by undergrowth and brambles.
Encircled within this natural "moat" grows the thick copse of towering Darkwood trees.
The darkwood trees' boughs form a dense, impenetrable canopy, and trying to pick out the lairing tatzlwyrm seems a daunting challenge.
"A light skirmish is great, and if we can keep them bottled in the fighting would be easier as I only fight one or two at a time." he says as he looks at the others still haggard and farmer-like, even with his leathers on.
Boggel skitters up a tree to see if he can get a better view from above.
Watching Boggel climb the tree, she looks from Helgrim to Wulf, "Those are great ideas, bottle neck them, offer them a chance to surrender while we cut off their escape."
She looks around the grove a little then at their ranger, "Liam, where would be the best place to do that?"
Tock keeps the men back, watching from afar for now as the party edges towards the grove.
"Yes I assume Kreels men will outnumber us as he seems to be the type to believe numbers equal strength, but in the right circumstances numbers mean nothing." He says as he begins to work through some of his maneuvers he learned as a child and later in the military.
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Timothy continues trailing Tock and the men, happy to see that at least two of the men won't be much help in the fight, with so much alcohol in their system. What he's not so keen to see if Tock leading the charge.
So much for just wanting to run the bar, Tock,Timothy thinks to himself. Well, you made your choice. Just hope you can live with it.
"Okay, its time to go back down the trail and set the ambush. I didn't want to get this far in in the first place. Let's do this."
"Sounds good Helgrim, lets set our selves up and when they get close will attack" He says with a grim smile before he kisses his staff and begins to work the staff about him with speed and precision.
"That's why we are going to need the first volley of arrows on target. Hopefully we won't have to kill anyone if we have surprise, take some shafts and they are caught off guard. We will come out all fists, blades and elbows and hopefully they'll lay down their arms. If one wants to fight, I'll target him first and make an example of em."
"Now lets get out of here before the wyrm thing comes flying down out of a tree or something."
'That's a good plan.' As Naomi follows behind Helgrim and Wulf she cocks her crossbow and asks, "Where should I stand? Once we fire the first volley and charge out, I will call out offering them a chance to surrender."
She looks cautiously at Wulf and Liam, "Unless you identify them as men totally loyal to Kreed, then I don't think we have a choice." She lets the rest of her statement trail off, leaving the obvious unspoken.
Liam takes out his sling and his pouch of stones, loading one. "We'll choose the path once we reach the fork." Liam says, somewhat cryptically. "Let's get under cover." He suits action to words, slipping behind a convenient bush and watching back the way they came.
In the trees, Boggel's natural coloring makes him almost invisible.
He does what he can to keep a sharp eye out for anyone, logger or dragon-kin.
These interruptions provide Miss Chadwick and her compatriots time to slip ahead and out of their sight.
The party slips away from the grove and evades detection by the Consortium men on their heels. Backtracking, you return to a spot where the trail passes through a shallow gully, leaving elevated ground shrouded with trees and shrubs on either side.
You barely have enough time to take your places among the cover before you hear the Consortium men traipsing down the trail.
Boggel and Liam in particular note that at least one man among their pursuers is doing a very poor job of concealing his approach.
Wulf Stands near the fork and waits ready to strike after the others fire.
From around a tree-shrouded bend in the trail, the Consortium men hike into view - six in all.
You notice that Ergin Tock is among them, bringing up the rear. His pace is slower, and he looks around nervously.
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Timothy watches as Tock steps this way and that, always checking, head on a swivel. Of course, Timothy's pretty adept at remaining undercover, and so he hides out, not wanting to be seen.
You told them that the men were coming, and now you expect reprisal. What's your game here, Tock? he thinks to himself.
Helgrim hold his shield and waraxe close to his chest. Stealth was not his strong suit, but he hoped that he and Boggel were hidden well enough that they wouldn’t lose surprise before the larger group ahead of them engaged.
He eyeballed Tock trying to read the man. Satisfied, he determined he wouldn’t target him first.
Wulf shifts his feet and slips into what he thinks is a stoic Stealth position along the path.
Boggel waits for his chance, arrow nocked, bow drawn.
For a tense, almost panicked moment, Naomi worries that her nervous breathing or a rustle of the brush near her will give away her presence.
However, the Consortium men march onward, seemingly heedless of the hidden danger around them.
Tock turns his eyes in Naomi's direction and stares. He slows his pace, falling well behind the other men, but says nothing.
'Good, bad or otherwise, Tock at least has the sense to stay back.' Stepping slightly closer, Naomi draws an arrow back to her ear, her bow creaking ever so slightly, then lets it fly at the front thug. Calling out "The questions simple, do you thugs want to live or die?"
Boggel also shoots at the lead thug, hoping for a good grazing shot.
He succeeds with aplomb.
Helgrim charges out to engage the rear most thug! He swings his axe in a mighty Dwarven Waraxe in under hand swinging arc. The dwarf is holding nothing back hoping the savagery of his assault will send a message to both the thugs and Tock. He swings as though attempting to take the thug off his feet and send him into the trees!
”You dare stalk me!”
”Throw yourselves down in surrender or DIE!”
Liam's first stone flies well in front of the thugs, a minor concession to mercy, giving them this one chance to surrender.
Liam looses a stone at the nearest ruffian.
"What now b!++~es?! Who's next?!"
Naomi and Boggel's shots wound the lead thug.
Liam's stone pelts another of the Consortium strongarms, who soon finds himself on the receiving end of Wulf's staff as he bursts from the brush and charges forward, leaving the man reeling.
Helgrim's mighty charge is utterly devastating, and his upward swing nearly cleaves the rear man in twain and splits his skull open, leaving the body to flop wetly to the trail.
The deadly dwarf's ultimatum strikes fear into the thugs' hearts, and panic plays across their faces.
The wounded men fall to their knees while the other two throw their palms up plaintively, begging for mercy.
Tock - having watched the lightning-quick ambush crush the men's will to fight - turns on his heel and bolts away.
"Weapons on the ground" He says as he stands glowering down at the men.
Where is Tock? The Wiley devil.' Looking around as she reloads her crossbow, Naomi walks nearer the men, looking to Wulf, "Do you know these men?"
Nodding to Helgrim "Well struck Master Dwarf."
She then glares at the men, 'Once Wulf tells us what he know's about these men we can decide their fate.'
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Timothy steps out, and intercepts Tock. He levels his rapier at the man.
"Turn around, Tock," he whispers under his breath. "For the friendship we once had, turn around."
He nods to Wulf, Naomi, et. al. "They're your only hope now. With what happened here, and we both know Kreed doesn't take failure well." His eyes harden. "Especially when you caused the failure."
He calls out to the group. "My suggestion would be to keep this one alive. He'll be useful to you." He quickly adds "If you can trust him, that is."
He then smiles and nods to himself. "I'm beginning to enjoy this game."
He calls out again "I'll enjoy hunting you all down," and then begins to walk away, down the path, at his normal brisk pace.
Before he departs completely, he'll turn back to Tock. "Oh, and make sure you do right by them, Tock," he says. "They really are your last hope."
There's just something innate about Timothy that isn't as scary as he'd hope, however.
The thugs unbuckle their weapons and toss their swords, daggers, and cudgels to the ground.
Wulf has seen these men loitering around the Rouge Lady when he uses the northwestern gate to travel between his farm and town. He does not know their ilk by name, but he recognizes them as thugs on the Consortium payroll and who moonlight for the Redrock Guild.
One of the men, unsteady on his feet and smelling of alcohol, turns to the trail's edge and begins vomiting, pushed over the edge by the heavy scent of fresh blood.
Having been kept from escaping, Tock shuffles nervously on his feet, clearly worried about his fate.
"They are Thugs, part of the Consortium and just the Consortium" He says looking at the others as he collects their weapons."Hmm interesting, Swords? Cudgels and small blades are the tools of a normal farmer and villager, swords are a little more than the average citizen of Falcons' Hallow can afford"
Instinctively moving away from the vomiting man, Naomi Looks at Wulf, nodding her head in understanding. Keeping her crossbow on them as she speaks, "We're her to help 'Falcon's Hollow.' Up until now, you boys have been part of the problem, not part of the solution. We're going to give you a chance to rectify that. You want to help the 'Hollow' you live. If not we kill you here and leave your bodies in the woods."
She nods the direction of the Darwood Grove, "The Tatzlwyrm that mauled Ben lives there, if you want chance to live, your going to help us kill it. You live and your hero's to the town, if you die fighting it, you die hero's. But make no mistake you agree to this, your our meat shields. You march up to the wood and we follow you. When you get in the wood itself we will toss you your swords and then you can find the wyrm. You run from the woods, we kill you. You turn on us, we kill you. You decide not to do what we tell you, we kill you."
She nods back to Helgrim, standing there with his axe still dripping with blood from where he cut their associate in twain. "If my Dwarven friend, here, get's a whiff of you double crossing us, we kill you. And he's got a powerful nose. What will it be, meat shields to the Tatzlwyrm and hero's or a clean death here in the dirt?"
She looks at Tock, "Don't worry, I haven't forgot about you, you'll be the one herding these four in."
Liam materializes out of the bush, arms folded across his chest.
The way they look at Naomi with awed fear, one would think that Iomedae - or rather, Milani perhaps - herself had descended to Golarian to pass divine judgement upon these men.
The sudden appearance of Liam further spooks the cowed men, but they know better than to flee in fright.
Although some among them are drunk or wounded, they quietly trudge back towards the tatzlwyrm's lair.
At the treeline, on the verge of the grove, Tock leans in to Naomi and whispers tensely.
’I believe he wants to live.’ Turning to Tock she whispers, ”Should I be relieved you betrayed your own? Or worried that you might do the same to us?” She breaths a sigh, ”You will be behind the men, to keep them from turning on us. We will be right behind you and kill the tatzlwyrm before it can get to you.”
Going over to Wulf, she asks, ”Will you give me Tocks sword? Then through the other four swords into the grove, they can pick them up there.”
Turning to the condemned men. ”Your weapons will be in the grove, you may pick them up there. Make no mistake, you are the bait. When the wyrm attacks we will fire upon it. If you live, we will let you go free. Live or die, we will tell the People of the Hollow you fought the wyrm. Perchance there will be some small redemption in that for you.”
Keeping her crossbow leveled at Tock’s chest, she hands him his sword, ”Drive them into the Grove. When the wyrm shows itself we will kill it.”
"Well hang on one stinkin minute! This Tim guy just said he'll enjoy hunting us all down. Is he one of your allies or not? You two are always sneakin around talking and such."
The dwarf starts walking towards the main with the rapier who is trying to depart.
"Where are you going?"
Wulf nods and does as he is asked. He goes and plants the sword's tip first in the ground and then comes back to give Tock his.
"If he tries to kill us so be it 'Grim. If not then I care not, right now we focus on this scum and their leader."
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The dwarf starts walking towards the main with the rapier who is trying to depart.
"Where are you going?"
Timothy smiles as he turns back around.
He gives a little flourish, and says in Common "Now try not to get yourself killed before I have my fun."
With his sword reclaimed, Tock hesitantly goads the men into the grove. They whisper bitter words at him, the meaning of which you can easily guess.
Beyond the shelter of the trees, the men take up their weapons when they are tossed to the ground. They make no move to resist or rebel. The fight has been taken out of them, which makes their survival against the wyrm an uncertainty.
One of the men, wounded and with little spirit other than fear upon his face, approaches the stand of darkwood trees, carrying his sword in a trembling hand.
In an explosion of leaves and branches, a scaly serpentine body bursts forth and seizes upon him with tooth and claw.
The wyrm grasps his now unmoving body and begins to drag him back into the tree boughs. The other Consortium men raise their weapons and, with a howl of desperation, prepare to charge the beast.
*********In the Grove*********
"Strike true! We won't lose a man if we can help it!"
Helgrim rushes in swinging his Waraxe.
"Archers! Target the wyrm!"
'Hhmmm, maybe I should learn dwarven, I need to remember to asks Helgrim to share what all that was about.' turning from Tock for a moment, Naomi watches the conversation between the men. Turning back, she motions Tock forward with her crossbow.
'Good, hopefully these ruffians see our willingness to fight along side them.' Nodding in agreement with the dwarf, Naomi, breaths a prayer as she moves into the grove. "Protect them, Everbloom." Stopping near Tock, she draws an arrow from her quiver, quickly nocking it and fires at the wyrm.