At Camp, Packing
Kevros has no stress in his hands and smiles when she grabs them. Thinking that her late husband may have made the containers he does not compliment on how well they stacked, "It surely appears to be that way and I think you are good to go for traveling."
At the River
He sees Katrina frown and then smile. He returns the smile to Katrina, "Hopefully, we can all remain dry with our decision."
Survival
Angeus looks up and down the river, then edges her mount to the edge of the moving water.
"I agree, a ford is likely, but we'd probably be able to swim the horses across as well. "
Kevros nods and shifts his weight in the saddle as his horse shifts her's in order to make them both feel comfortable, "I thought so, but you can never tell by looking at the surface water movement alone. Let's cross where everyone will be happy except for maybe the horses. They probably prefer to swim since they are hot from travelling." ... Kevros pauses ... "Although, I did know a horse that was so lazy she definitely would rather lay down here at the bank then spend energy to cross the river to cool down and maybe eat more tasty grass across the river." ... Kevros looks at Quince, "Quince, next time we camp and we are close to water, let's ride them into the water without any tack to cool them down and let them play for a bit."
"That will work. There is a bridge west of us I think. Though I don't know how far."
Kevros looks at Quince, then Tristan, perplexed by options with limited information, then points East then West, "So which way should we go since both East and West are our options? Which is the shortest and if they are equal, which is the dryess method?"
"We don't know those answers Tristan but good questions, if we go East we get near the kobolds again, so we should go West." Saren says, knowing that the group wants to get to the ruins ASAP without anymore delays.
"West works but I don't know how far the bridge might be. It might be a day or two. "
Saren nods his head at Quince's speculation looking at the others waiting for someone to make a decision.
Kevros nods at Quince, shifts in his horse's saddle which signals the horse it is time to start walking, then steers the horse in one fluid motion, he looks at Katrina with a smile, "Then we head West, stay dryer, and reach our destination sooner than if we headed East."
a bridge sounds much better ! Angeus says , flashing an approving smile at Quince
Heading West the group can see a large ford where the water appears to be more spread out. Hopefully will be not as deep.
Saren gets off his dragon and takes off its gear, as soon as it is free it runs out splashing up water. Saren takes off his gear and follows shortly after.
Seems we found a crossing point.
Tristan dismounts and leads his horse across as well.
Kevros looks at Quince with a smile, "Quince, didn't you say there was a bridge here?" ... Kevros laughs jokingly, "Hopefully, this is a shallow underwater land bridge."
"The map has a bridge marked possible that it is further ahead. A bath can't kill us"
Kevros smells his pits and nods with a smile, "Very True indeed" Then he looks at Saren, "Saren, how is the water?"
Quince dismounts and repacks Scram for a trip through the water. "Ready for a swim boy. It will cool you down some." He sees to the other horses as needed. He spends more time than necessary working with Angeus' horse and spending a little time with her in the process. "Your horse is ready it might be better to lead the horse through than ride it through."
Angeus laughs out loud at Saren and his dragon's antics, allowing her own horse its lead to approach the shallow water. It shows some hesitation until Quince comes by and murmurs in its ear...
After a moment, the horse shows its willingness to cross by pawing at the water, splashing Quince's boots with river water.
Laughing, Angeus dismounts and from across her horse's broad shoulders "Thanks, she might have been a bit of a handful.." she favours Quince with a brilliant smile, then bends to take off her boots. Tying them to her saddle, she sighs as the river water cools her feet, leading her mount across the ford.
"It looks like the water is no more than two feet deep, well except for that spot!!!" He says with much enthusiasm, pointing at his dragon as it tries to swim in maybe 5 feet of water and failing, it looks dejected and pouts in the pit.
"Let me check out the waterway before you advance to far, I got to work for my wage somehow and this is fun!" He continues to smile as mirth comes off his voice.
Saren jumps around continuing his quick swim jog, to make sure it is safe to cross over.
Once the group is 3/4 over he returns to his dragon and tackles it. The two of them go back and collect the gear to follow shortly.
Once he catches back up with the group he goes over to Quince, "The symbol was there before or did you get information from someone? It could just mean river crossing as opposed to a bridge."
The monks do a small ritual, at the edge of the water, shaking their heads at Saren's antics. They drink from the water, bath with some soap, shave, and pack all their belongings on the horse except for their robes. Then they follow the group through the water.
A few fish can be seen in the water and other little creatures, nothing of threat or magical to the naked eye. Though they are all gone and likely hiding from the stomping dragon.
It would be best now that we are on this side anyways to continue down a bit and verify there is a bridge. I would hate to report falsly on our findings. It can't me more than another hour or so out of the way. Sound good to everyone?
Hold on s sec, what are those. Tristan looks downstream to the large creatures crossing.
So what do you guys think. Perhaps if we try and find this bridge we should let these creatures go buy, but from this distance it is quite hard to tell, but I think they may be ogres as they are walking up right.
"I think this is the best we are going to get. I mean some horses are already in the water lets get through to the other side and not get caught in the water if those beasties are eager for a go. Besides I think this ford might be the crossing the map refers to. I guess the bridge symbol mislead me." Quince starts leading the extra horses through the water two at a time speaking to them in horse.
Sounds good Quince. I guess lets get saddled back up and get on our way then.
Kevros takes off his armor and lays it neatly along with his crossbow in a location where people can watch it on the river bank. He is now only wearing his clothes and sword. Next he takes off his horse's tack except for the bridle and reins, then climbs back on the horse back bare back. He then eases the horse and himself into the calm and deeper parts of the water but not too deep in which the horse is swimming instead of walking. The horse definitely likes the water and both frolic in the water as rider and mount. After he is done, he quickly dries in the warm air, and then dons everything back on himself and his horse. He dries off his sword with cloth that either dries or did not get wet. After a short time getting ready again, "OK, I am now ready to go as well. We both needed that!"
Katrina waited by Saren's gear until they got back. She chose to not get wet for the most part.
The group goes back to exploring this side of the river and finds some food as they explore. The night finds them calmly getting camp setup ontop of a low hill.
Getting safely across the river, Angeus is reluctant to step out of the soothing coolness of the rushing water.
Tying her mount securely, she approaches the water again, but shyly refains from pulling off her armor and plunging into the water like Saren. Instead, she leans way over and dunks her head, coming up ,catching hold of her water logged tresses and wringing the water out as she walked back to her horse.
"Ah, I needed that !" she sighs, wrigling her toes in the air for a few moments before putting them back into her boots.
Mounting she returns Kevero's comment "I'm all ready as well, lets get on the way!"
Once camp is set and supper is warm in their bellies, she takes a moment to take advantage of the elevation and sits looking out into the fading light.
Quince enjoys dinner chatting with the others. When he sees Angeus starring at the sunset he makes his way over and sits down next to her and puts an arm around her, "Copper for your thoughts."
She keeps herself busy with creating dinner for the group once camp is starting to be set up.
Most of the trip and exploring she had spent on the back of the dragon with Saren, but his mentality was too much of a boy or at least one who was not that mature. She spent the time thinking about her past and future.
The monks told the group they thought they saw something in the distance and would check it out before turning in for the night. They continued heading South rather than taking camp with your group, unless someone can persuade Nightwing to stick around for one reason or another.
Saren found himself exercising when the group started to setup camp. Once done he walked over to Kevros with a sad look on his face, "The whiskey is gone, why is the alcohol always gone?"
Tristan nods to the monks.
Call out if you need help. I'm going to bed down for the night.
Quince looks over concerned at the idea of the monks wandering off. "Nighwing, I appreciate your vigilance. It might not be the wisest to separate. We saw ogre's earlier. Better that we either all investigate or remain here and take precautions. It would be unfortunate if your party encountered them. We are more formidable with you and yours with us."
== Setting Up Camp ==
Keveros first helps Katrina unpack and set up everything before unpacking himself. He makes small talk with her about food, the nice day, travelling, how is she is doing, and where to set everything up.
== The Evening ==
Kevros helps Katrina cook by gathering food items and clean up. Later, Kevros looks at Saren, "Sorry my friend, traveling is always hard on everyone. Perhaps we will find some along the road?" Then he looks at Quince, "I agree with Quince, we either all need to look or we stay here and increase firewatch or guard duty."
"Nightwing, the others speak true, we'd all feel better if you'd camp with us tonite. We can all investigate what you've seen come the morn."
Diplomacy
When Quince's arm touches Angeus' shoudler, she instinctively tenses up, then realizing who it was, relaxes. A rueful smile is offered in apology as she resumes her gaze out into the dark. "It's nice having others to depend on" she says, turning to look at Quince's face in the dark "Before, it was just me or at best just me and a bunch of thugs, just looking for an opportunity to....well..you know." As she remembers, her shoulders tense up again. "It's nice, is all." she says abruptly, then quickly stands, taking a step then stopping to put a hand on Quince's shoulder, a quick squeeze then she disappears into the night.
Katrina speaks to Nightwing relaying what the group is trying to say, "It is safer for all of us, also one more day won't hurt your search, stay with us and we will help you with whatever we face tomorrow."
It seems that the group cannot persuade them to stay, just the ladies, with Katrina's and Angeus' sweetened demeanors toward Nightwing they convince the leader to stay with them and his fellow monks.
She thanks Kevros with his help, but asks him to work on something else while Nightwing gives her a hand with dinner. She whispers to Kevros, "You know the saying, too many cooks in the kitchen. You understand right?"
Dinner is delicious as usual. The watches go by and no threats are seen, maybe... Perception checks. Also state about what time your watch is for the night.
There are a few things the group might hear or see during the night.
The next morning the monks are up earlier than normal and seem antsy to be on the way.
Angeus takes the middle watch...and is visibly relieved that Nightwings and the monks decide to remain.
Perception
Tristen takes the final watch getting a good night of rest and helps Katrina with breakfest.
Quince hearing her words tenses up quickly but does his best to listen and remain reassuring. "It is nice to depend and be depended on. That's why we are here in a way. This land knows no justice because it knows no community. No sense of belonging beyond the moment and survival." He looks up playfully from his serious statement and winks at Angeus. "We'll show 'em." He watches her walk off a whistful look on his face.
Nothing was seen last night to report to the group. The morning seems like any other day spent exploring with the nice meal provided by your healer, Katrina.
Food is served as individuals wake up and soon the group is breaking down camp, getting ready for another day of exploring.
Then all of sudden the sound of horses can be heard coming your way. Arrows are in the air and screams of pain from Katrina and your horses as they are struck in the volley. Most of the horses bolt and in the chaos of the horses running from the group the aggressors show themselves.
A group of a dozen thugs and the Stag Lord.
Quince
Tristan
Angeus
Katrina
Kevros
Saren
Monks
bandit calvary (3)
Akiros
bandit archers (4)
thugs (7)
Stag Lord
Round 1
First the Monks
Then the Heroes, Go!
Lastly the Bandits
Map of the Hill, in progress, feel free to add pics.
The monks act quickly pulling their weapons as they charge forward to meet the enemy, Nightwing leaves the hurt Katrina behind. They must be readying their attacks for they only go out so far.
Dinner
Kevros smiles and nods, "I understand". Then leaves to unpack his stuff until dinner is ready.
Next Day
Since Kevros takes the last guard duty or is at least up at that time, he begins to pack before anyone else while keeping a watchful eye. He says "Good Morning" to those who are already awake and those who follow him.
At breakfast, Kevros compliments the chefs like always and since he is already packed, he helps Katrina break down the camp kitchen and anything else she needs help with.
Round 1
Kevros pulls out his crossbow and goes to Katrina to cover her, "Are you OK Katrina, I will protect you and I can still engage in combat from here" Kevros makes sure Katrina is out of harms away from the panicking horses and safe(r) from falling arrows.
Two of the riders approach from one side as the other comes from the opposite side.
Five archers rain arrows down upon the group as a line of thugs stand and wait for attackers to come to them.
"I will be fine, just need to get this arrow out. Focus on the ambushers." She says in a worried manner, as she works the arrow out, seeing that it is only an inch in it would be best to dig it out rather than push it through.
Saren picks up his blade and charges forward, "Perhaps they will have rum!" He has a huge grin on his face, obviously glad to have some normal adversaries.
, with PA
Quince calls to Scram his horse to him in a flurry of strange sounds. He looks around at the others. "Grelick morten aliren."
He draws his crossbow and fires at the Staglord. He barks at the Staglord with an open disdain, "Forwin belosan tern greshen."
Round 1
Tristan advances on the Thugs. Drawing his warhammer as he walks forward he lets it fly at the thug in front of him.
I will take these guys, circle around try and take out the archers.
Move Action: Advance 20' Drawing hammer while moving.
Standard: Throw Hammer