Still with Edran
"You're an adventurer then? where do you call home? you're clearly not from around here.
I myself am not a soldier. I was taught to fight from a young age as a cleric of Iomedae, but I never thought I would be putting that training to use... If only I could take back all the times I complained to my father about how useless all that sword practice was.
I always wanted to be a healer, not a fighter. But here I am, killing hobgoblins to keep my people safe. People that are not at all interested in the faith my father and I preached..."
Daniil spends time around the camp tending to his gear and talking to Father Shamus.
Solace isn't up for much conversation, so she goes about the camp trying to find little tasks that need done. She'll go out and gather firewood if needed, help anyone set up tents or makeshift shelters and make sure that the food they gathered is being stored safely and being distributed fairly. She'll help with any other tasks that come up as well.
:: Rova 26 - Morning - Refugee Camp ::
As people go about their morning, the council breaks up. People are nearly ready to begin the days work now and groups will be heading out shortly.
.
Conversation with Nathaniel
Nathaniel's brows furrow for a second as he thinks. "While I wouldn't be able to truly smith anything out here, I am sure that I could come up with a way to keep your armor in working order, especially if you can bring me some of the hobgoblins armor."
Nathaniel remains thinks for a second longer, "Actually, if your group could bring armor and weapons back from your travels, I am sure Kining and I could make it fit just about anyone here. It would be quite nice to have our guards more heavily armored than they currently are."
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Conversation with Edran
Edran balks a little when Elyas asks if he is an adventurer, "No sir. Its just a turn of phrase. I'm a merchant by trade, though I guess all my wares are lost now. I'm from Tamran, though don't really call anywhere home currently."
"As for no one being interested in your faith. I'm sure that's going to change here soon, what with people calling you 'The Adroit' now. The stories of your quick quick blade and active mind are giving people hope." Edran finishes.
Another sense motive check rolled for you.
As Edran talks about being a merchant and being from Tamran, his voice is tight and he averts his eyes. His easy going manner disappears for a brief moment. Its back again quickly as he tells you of the name people have made for you, but your are certain he was lying about being a merchant from Tamran.
Thinking back on it, you didn't see him at all in the Market Green. He may have been there and you missed him because of how busy the Festival is, but you don't think so.
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With Father Shamus
Daniil and Father Shamus pass the time conversationally with ease. After a time Father Shamus clears his throat and breaches a topic he rarely speaks about.
"Daniil, I know we haven't had much time, but if you want to talk about what has been going on I am here." Looking a bit distant Father Shamus continues, "I must also say, that no one would think less of you for hanging up your weapons. If you ever feel like that is the best course of action. What you've done has earned the respect of everyone here."
"I am glad to be a source of hope to these people. Iomedae will see us through. Keep strong Edran, we may not be able to rely on help coming, but as long as we trust each other and work together we will come out OK"
Elyas doesn't want to push to far, but he really doesn't trust this guy. He wants to avoid a confrontation in the middle of the camp, so for now he bids farewell.
Once the work day begins, Elyas finds a time to pull Daniil and Falcon aside.
"What do you two think of this Edran fellow? He is asking an awful lot of probing questions about the rangers, militias, and locations of troops and forts.
He claims to be a merchant, but I believe he is lying about where he is from, and likely about his profession. I spent the day of the Festival talking to every merchant and offering blessings and prayers as I do every year. I definitely do not remember him being on the Market Green anywhere.
"I don't know what he could be hiding. But worst case scenario, the man is a spy for the invaders. It would be odd, but not unheard of, for them to hire or coerce help from a human. We need to get the truth out of him.
Will the two of you come with me and confront him away from the camp? I can't rest easy knowing there is someone untrustworthy in our camp
"Yeah, well, someone has to do it," Alezandu replies to his friend, evidently a little embarrassed.
He looks up quizzically at Lars' second statement. "What new name?" Alezandu asks.
”If he is a collaborator, that would not go well...for him,” Falcon says darkly.
"Well, we've found a couple things, I'll bring them to you as soon as I can!", Olivia smiles. "Thanks!"
She goes running through the camp in search of Claustipher.
:: Rova 26 - Morning - Refugee Camp ::
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Conversation with Nathaniel
"No problem Olivia" Nathaniel calls as Olivia runs off.
.
Elyas, Daniil, Falcon
The three of you have managed to find a relatively quiet spot, but there is no real guarantee of privacy in as someone can always wander by.
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Conversation with Lars
Lars grins a bit as Alezandu asks him about the name.
"Given the stories about how you vanish through the forest only to rise up to kill your enemies, a few people started calling you 'Spectre'. Your guys mission reports are turning to stories of heroes sent to save us almost, its no wonder they feel like you need better names!" Lars chuckles as he says this last sentence.
.
Scouting the Forest
After a few hours on patrol you hear voices coming through the trees, talking in goblin. You hide and wait and after a few more minutes they come into view about a hundred feet away. There's a hobgoblin equipped as one of their professional scouts, with light armor and a longbow. Behind the scout are two normal looking hobgoblins in medium armor with longswords and shields.
"I knew there was something off about the man." He paces as he thinks for a few moments, "Might be best if we feed him some false information and draw the Hobgoblins away."
"Not knowing how big the group they report to is, I think we should let them pass on since they have already gone past the camp without noticing it. IF we take them out, we run the risk of the main group coming up this way to investigate their disappearance and they might run into the camp. Perhaps we could backtrack and see where they are coming from and what might be coming up behind them."
”Spectre... huh,” Alezandu says, trying out the name. ”I suppose it could be worse. And it is nice to hear that we’ve been so inspiring.”
He walks along in silence for a moment, then muses aloud, ”Maybe I should start writing ‘Spectre’ on all my arrows, try to build up a reputation among the hobs. It might be useful if they start telling tales of ‘the terrible Spectre, scourge of goblinkind.’” Alezandu snorts. ”Assuming they don’t just kill us in a week,” he adds.
He walks through the woods talking with Lars a while longer, then meanders back to camp. When he hears that Solace is going scouting, Alezandu immediately volunteers to accompany her.
Once they find the hobgoblins he is about to suggest an ambush when Solace speaks. After a second he replies, ”That’s a good point. I’m certainly in favor of following their tracks and trying to determine where they came from.”
"I don't know that we have any false info to feed the man," Elyas replies to Daniil. "He already knows how many of us there are, and where we are located. He seems particularly interested in locations of militias and rangers, but we've already told him all we know, which is nothing really.
Elyas thinks for a minute
"We don't have any evidence that proves he is feeding info to the goblins. but we need to get to the bottom of this, or there is danger in leaving him behind in the camp.
"Perhaps we can confront him with our suspicion and see how he reacts. If he knows we don't trust him, but the truth is not as bad as working with the goblins, he might break down and tell us what's really going on. If he is working with them, he may not be able to avoid such a sudden and direct confrontation!"
"We could wait a bit and then let it slip that we found the rangers," Daniil continues as he paces. He stops looks at Elyas and offers, "and we could say that they are planning a raid to destroy the bridge the hobgoblins are building." With the first genuine smile he has had for days he adds, "If this diverts the hobgolin's attention we could conduct a raid on Pheandar and rescue any prisoners."
”False information. Sounds good. Best if he doesn’t hear it from one of us, though. Some of us should just talk about it in earshot of some townspeople. If he’s a spy, he’ll find out about it and be less suspicious.”
:: Rova 26 - Morning - Refugee Camp ::
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Out Scouting
Watching the hobgoblin scouts pass, Solace and Alezandu wait a bit and then retrace the hobgoblins steps. After a couple hours of travel you make it to a place where there is a split in the tracks.
One branch heads back the way you just came from, obviously created by the hobgoblins you've seen. The other branch curves back toward Phaendar.
Given the straightness of the routing before the two sets of tracks branched, it would be a good guess that they came directly north from the road.
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Back at Camp
Around noon as people trickle back into camp for lunch, those left at camp notice a small disturbance on the north side of the camp. There is a large group of people and everyone there seems anxious. Rhyna and Aubrin are called for as their aid is needed.
Alezandu stoops down to examine the tracks which curve towards Phaendar, attempting to estimate the number of hobgoblins who made the tracks and look for any clues they might have left behind.
Once they are both in the camp Claustipher spots Olivia approaching clearly with something on her mind. He nods for her to come and takes a few steps away from the others in case it is a private thought.
"My dear, you seem to be looking for me. How can I help you? It seems around the camp I am little enough help."
He realizes she is either looking for some of the items he caries or some such but still, he has been doing little else of note this day.
"Yes, yes!", she nods eagerly. "You see, I was worried we'd never find equipment that could fit my size but Nathaniel said he could resize it for me. So I was wondering if you could give me that suit of armor you said was magical, please?"
:: Rova 26 - Early Afternoon - Out Scouting ::
Scouting the Forest
Alezandu and Solace look around for anything on interest and try to determine their foes numbers. The second trail leading away seems the same size as the one you followed here, so most likely there are four to five hobgoblins in that group as well.
Something else you notice is that on a tree by where the two trails split the hobgoblins obviously rested for a bit, maybe for a meal. They carved a mark into the tree.
The mark looks like a dagger on a diagonal with the hilt in the top right corner and the tip in the bottom left. There are three small stars cut into the tree in a column above the tip of the dagger, and a single large star below the daggers hilt. About a foot below the dagger and stars two arrows are carved into the tree, one pointing towards each path the hobgoblins took. Under each arrow the same runes are carved though you do not understand what they mean.
Solace will attempt to duplicate the mark onto a random piece of wood or bark that she can scrounge up. Then, unless Alezandu objects, she will use her dagger to obliterate any sign of the mark while trying her best to make her scratches resemble the territory markings of a bear.
"Best to just get rid of that since we don't know what it is for."
After that, Solace is all for hustling to see where they came from and then to get back in time for dinner.
Eager to get going, Ian spends the evening pacing through the camp, asking everyone when they're going to get going to Gristledown, and pacing some more. When he's done pacing, he asks a few more people when they'll be ready to head out to Gristledown.
As they move on to the work of the day, Elyas spends some time thinking over Daniil's idea to mislead the potential enemyin their camp. He tries to come up with a good way of getting a rumor to the man without stirring up false hopes in the camp. in the end he pulls aside Mariam for a talk
"We didn't want to say anything to the whole camp, as we don't know for certain, but there may be help coming after all.
In addition to the rangers that seem to have pulled out, we found information about a army unit making it's way towards Shoren in 2 days time. We are going to send messengers to them asking for help, and possibly link up with them.
Be careful who you tell this too, we don't want to dissapoint too many people if this is yet another false hope!
Speaking with Olivia.
"Why of course my dear. Excellent to have somoene with that kind of skill around. One moment it is in my rocky friends pack." he gestures towards Ngithembekile and addresses him in undercommon. "Woza umzuzwana umngane wami engikudingayo ukuthola into efake iphakethe lakho."
After a moment of rummaging he retrives the armor for Olivia and follows her back to Nathaniel.
May be good to get to know this fellow. If he is a good craftsmen maybe I can help enchant some items once I get some of my old powers back.
Before Daniil starts spreading the rumor they agreed upon he hears the commotion on the other side of the camp and tries to find out what is going on.
Falcon also makes his way over to see the commotion.
Ian joins the others checking out the commotion on the edge of camp.
”Yes, we might as well cause them as much trouble as possible,” Alezandu replies to Solace, ”And I definitely agree that we should go check on the road.”
Elyas follows the sound of a growing crowd as he finishes talking and joins the stream of curious townsfolk
Hearing the noise Claustipher pauses and takes a deep breath.
"Now what bother is going on now."
Still soar, frankly resigned to always being soar, he hobbles over that way gesturing for Ngithembekile to follow.
:: Rova 26 - Just After Noon - Camp ::
As everyone runs over to the source of the commotion, you see two people lying on the ground coughing. Getting closer you see they are Celeste Flynn and Avaliene. Rhyna and Aubrin are looking the two over, seemingly looking for wounds.
After a moment Aubrin looks up, "Lorne, Father Shamus, you've been purifying our food and water after we gather it correct? These two have been struck with filth fever, but they have no wounds, not even scratches. They also haven't been anywhere when foraging that would have put them in touch with the disease."
"I believe we have been diligent about it. The two food sources are kept separate and generally only moved around by the camp oraganizers led by Marian and Edran." Lorne says. "Marian, Edran, have you been making sure the food stays separated properly?"
Marian replies quickly, "As far as I can tell we are keeping it separate Lorne. We don't watch it constantly so someone could be putting supplies in the wrong place, but I was pretty sure everyone knew not to do that."
.
:: Rova 26 - Mid-Afternoon - Scouting ::
Solace tucks her etching into her pack and destroys the marking on the tree. With nothing left to do but scout, Solace and Alezandu follow the trail back towards the road.
Following the trail back to the road, Solace and Alezandu find nothing other that the tracks of 8-10 hobgoblins that they are following. Once the two of you get to the road, you watch quietly for a moment. Once you are sure no one is around you head out to the road.
The tree closest to where the road and trail you are following intersects has the same symbol carved into it, with one arrow pointing down the trail with the same runes carved under it.
Looking at the road, it seems recently used by a fair sized group of at least 20-30. Notably, there are no ruts or animal foot prints so the hobgoblins have most likely not repaired the bridge and can only keep a relatively small number of people on this side of it since they have to back pack supplies around. Most likely they only have a rope bridge across the river.
Solace gives a sigh. "Well, hadn't really planned on going any further, but it would probably be worth it to know for sure what kind of bridge the hobgoblins have rigged up and how much they can carry across it. I suppose there's even a chance that we could get lucky enough that it is unguarded and we could cut ropes or something. That would definitely make the additional trip worth the risk..."
Alezandu scratches out the symbol on the tree with his sword, then turns and replies to Solace. "That certainly is tempting, but are you sure you're up to marching so far and so fast, particularly in that armor? We would be pretty vulnerable on our way back, and there seems to be no shortage of hobs in these woods."
"You're likely right. We can report back to the camp tonight and see if anyone is interested in exploring this further tomorrow."
Elyas' eyes narrow when it is mentioned that Edran is one of the 2 people in the camp in charge of sorting out the food stores. He isn't ready to confront the man yet, but it definitely doesn't help his current opinion of Edran.
There isn't a good space to do it now, but he plans on asking Marian to keep a much closer eye on Edran, and possibly to get him rotated to another job...
:: Rova 26 - Mid-Afternoon - Scouting ::
Olivia will go towards the comotions along with Claustipher. Once there, she'll approach the two who are injured.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine soon, but you need to rest for now.", she reassures them. "Can someone help me carry them somewhere quiet?"
Once they're moved, Olivia will try to help them get better.
:: Rova 26 - Just After Noon - Camp ::
"That's a good idea, we should move them." Aubrin says. A small group helps move the two patients to a quiet part of camp.
Olivia looks over the food and their water skins to see if they were the cause. Looking over the food it all seems fine, but the water skin has the remnants of an odd paste on the inside of the spout that is most likely the cause of the issue.
Ian scratches his head and frowns. It sure seemed like somebody was spoiling their food supplies. As if there wasn't enough wrong already. He helps Olivia pull the afflicted back to somewhere that they can rest, and then confers with the halfling warrior. "Olivia," he says... "Alezandu and Solace are gone, right? Who do we know that can follow footprints? I mean, I think somebody probably messed with our food. I'd like to find them."
Olivia stands up, turning to Celeste and Avalien for a moment. "Keep resting, don't worry about the camp, we have plenty of food and shelters for now."
"Thanks for the help, Ian.", she smiles. "I think with Alezandu and Solace gone, the best tracker in the camp is Daniil. I'm trained at it, too, just not as good as he is, and I'm not very fast, too, but I'll do my best if you need me."
Claustipher would take the time to look at the food and water as well as he helped collect some of it. Assuming he notices the odd paste.
"Well this material may well be the culprit. It seems familiar but I will need to examine it a bit. I won't be much good at tracking but will come along in case I am needed."
:: Rova 26 - Early Afternoon - Camp ::
Upon examination, Claustipher discovers that the paste is likely a mix of sap, dirt, and animal remnants that have rotted. This is certainly the cause of the illness.
Upon hearing what has happened Jet speaks up, "These two are from my foraging group. We generally all share the water skins so pretty near anyone in my group could have been affected." Jet's voice is strained and concerned as she speaks, obviously wondering if she to will succumb.
A hasty search of all the other water skins reveals no other attempts at sabotage, and Lorne and Father Shamus set about purifying everything again, just in case.
"I don't know what's happened here, but you can all just leave these two, and any others who fall ill, no me any my healers. We will be able to deal with them just fine and you are all more greatly needed elsewhere."
Daniil nods his head in agreement at Father Shamus' advise, Best we keep our eyes open. I don't think this is an accident. He pulls Elyas aside, "Lets keep spreading the rumor about the rangers."
"Who is in your foraging group?" asks Ian. He hates to say it (and he won't until he has to) but it probably was one of those in the foraging group that did it.
"Well, it seems very convenient that it would happen on two water-skins. On one, an accident. On two either carelessness or something much worse. Lets at least make sure everyone knows the proper way to keep things clean shall we."
Claustipher agrees that checking the bridge may be a good idea though his knees dread the walk.
Elyas nods solemnly to Daniil "Yes, things are definitely worse than we thought. I am still hesitant to do anything rash with Edran before we have proof, but this is certainly not helping his case...
Please be careful in spreading rumors, however. We don't want to cause more trouble than we solve if this spreads out of our control... false hope is a dangerous thing"