(Looking towards the road) "Shall we?"
"We shall"
Wyvurn will gesture for Miralda to lead since he has does not know where Wolvishton is.
Strikes up a chorus of "On the Road Again" with Caspian. Wolvie howls along.
The rest of the journey out of the highlands is uneventful. Coming down into the lowlands, Miralda suggests a stop to camp. "We'll have to skirt the Great Erb Forest to reach Wolvishton, and we're out of spells -- a dangerous combination."
Caspian picks up the song on the road again fairly shortly and looks skywards hoping that one night he will get to go into I love a rainy night for the crew.
@Miralda
"Who's out of spells?"
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Jaegr makes a joke, which he could use some help with his timing and not growling the words while saying it, "I haven't cast one yet!"
Weather:
Unfortunately for Caspian's song, but fortunately for everyone's comfort, it's a clear night. The temperature drops below freezing, though, letting you know that you're pretty far into autumn.
Kelgan is glad to finally be getting somewhere. He attempts to engage Miralda in small talk throughout the trip down from the highlands. That evening he continues to work on his drakebone dentures, but the presence of the lady in their midst distracts him.
Diplomacy checks for everyone to determine attitude!
P.S. Kelgan's latest set of dentures end up looking like broken monster fangs that protrude from his mouth at all angles, and he ruefully starts over on a new set.
Caspian eyes Kelgan's newest set of teeth....
"For eating tough meat?" he inquires.
He turns to the elf and jokingly adds....
"Does anything eat elves?"
Diplomacy
Despite getting off on the wrong foot, Jaegr likes the elf well enough.
Kelgan's crossbow brought down a mountain sheep, and you talk over a dinner of boiled mutton, which Kelgan describes as a "great hill dwarven delicacy." Your new guest clearly finds it unappetizing at best.
Miralda is obviously deferential towards Jaegr, both in awe of his combat prowess and unsure of his social status -- whether he is an emissary or spy from the King Under the Mountain is surely a question at the forefront of her mind, but one she is too polite to voice.
On the other hand, she is somewhat curt towards Caspian, obviously viewing him as more of a servant or sidekick than a full partner; this might be a cultural thing, hailing back to the conditions of servitude that halflings are held under back in Aviona. Either that, or she simply fails to share his sense of humor!
Miralda is terrified of Wyvurn. Not only is he extra-scary-looking, what with the burned face on top of his already ferocious ugliness, but he also (indirectly) threatened her. She sits as far from him as possible and eyes him nervously; having seen evidence of his capacity for stealth, she's half-afraid he'll pop up behind her when she least expects it.
To wrap up the reactions quickly, and with due apologies for stepping on toes:
:
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Miralda finds herself surprised to be tolerant of Kelgan, given the barriers of culture, race, and social class. She even gets over his teeth, despite Caspian's japes.
She is neutral towards Cricket.
To Kelgan: "You have no lizardfolk army with you, so I'm assuming the diplomatic mission went poorly -- but that's no reflection on your talent; it's to be expected when dealing with the savage tribes. I am curious, though, if you saw any evidence of Ellanda on your travels, especially near Skarn Keep?"
Caspian thinks long and hard about his lack of training in comedy, especially in regards to elves. Once the fire is set he picks up his bag-pipes and focuses on playing a haunting tune.
Perform (music)
Miralda claps delightedly. "I haven't heard that song in years! It's an old tune, from before the devil-worshippers from the east conquered Aramni. I've never heard it played on those dwarven pipes, though -- usually it's violins. It's amazing how well it sounds on the pipes."
"We had a companion from the lizard tribes that was overcome with grief once he saw his village slaughtered."
Miralda's brain finally catches up with Wyvurn's comment. With some degree of timidity, she asks, "What happened to the village? Could it be connected with necromancers and curses and kidnapings, do you think, or was it an unrelated tragedy?"
"I've not seen hide nor hair of your niece, more's the tragedy. We sought her out at the keep and the lair, but no trace of her could be found. I've heard of a new boss in the highlands, though I've no proof he's involved in her disappearance either."
"The village was destroyed by bullywugs. Not linked, I think."
"'Bullywugs' are frog things, or something like that? I don't know anything about them. Hopefully not important, like you said."
"The village was destroyed by bullywugs. Not linked, I think."
"Not so fast Kelgan, there were Ogres and Bullywugs plus someone casting summoning spells. Not to mention somehow the village shamans were kept from defending the village and great lengths were done to make sure no one was able to remain able to talk int he afterlife. Miralda, let me recount everything that was found at the village."
Jaegr will recount about the state of the village, what was found with his tracking and what he deduced from his warfare check.
After he is done, "They seemed well organized for being bullywugs and ogres. Those ogres you were fighting didn't even have enough sense to get to you, how did they direct that kind of slaughter and cunning? It may not be this necromancer, but with the amount of death in one place on both sides....maybe it could have been? Someone was controlling the action and directing them."
"Ogres attacking both the village and me, after the keep, is not outrageous -- in these wild lands, ogres are not so uncommon, I suppose. But let's pretend for a moment there is a connection. It sounds to me that perhaps the clawed caster you surmised, though not the necromancer by any stretch, could be one of his agents. But why would he care enough about a lizardfolk village to attack it as you saw? This makes no sense to me -- unless one of the lizardfolk saw or heard something. But it's a long, difficult hike from the moors to Skarn Keep, so that seems more than passing unlikely."
"One thing I can say, is that a wise caster directing and supporting fighters can make the fighters themselves triply effective. For a creature able to summon and control ogres, and with clawed feet, I'd surmise a hag or suchlike, although it's hard to be sure. It's said hags are notoriously anxious to be owed favors from mortal casters; they bargain for spells, for souls, for humans to forcibly mate with, or whatever else they can get. This one stood outside the wet areas, as you describe the scene, so it's like as not a black hag, not a green, if it's a hag at all."
"Summonings at work sounds exactly correct, from what you say. I'd guess, though, that this was done separately from keeping the tribal shamans occupied, because summonings are notoriously time-consuming in the midst of battle. I'd guess the hag or other controller directed the fight and counterspelled the shamans, if any (preventing signs of their use of magic), and possibly ate them or enslaved them afterwards? And that means a second caster handled the summons, perhaps a bullywug priest, if they even have such."
You're impressed to see her think. She's no fighter, that's for sure, if a couple ogres could tree her so easily, and she's probably pretty far out of her depth when it comes to investigation. But when it comes to sheer mental processing power and knowledge of esoteric magic lore, you'd be hard-pressed to find better.
Jaegr shrugs, "Makes no sense to me either, but I am just a miner from under the mountain who found himself up here on the surface. What necromancers or other wizards want are beyond me. Sounds a good enough of an explanation to me, doesn't mean it has to be more than it is, or like you said the hag could work for the necromancer."
As Jaegr mentions being a miner he looks inevitably looks at her reaction to that as it always seems the surface dwellers believe he is more important than he really is.
For once, she seems to pick up on your tone as well as your words!
"...'Just a miner'? Surely all your people are not so astute at reading the signs of war, and at participating in the heat of it, or else the Kingdom of the Elder Mountains would rule the world."
How are watches during the night being organized? This close to the Great Erb Forest, that might be an important detail.
She is neutral towards Cricket.
** spoiler omitted **
Cricket tries to go to bed first so that he can get a kickstart on his spells. He cuddles up with his living blanket and falls asleep.
With his darkvision Jaegr will take the shift that is darkest in the night.
OK, let's assume a 12-hour camping and 3 shifts, for the sake of argument, so that everyone gets 8 hours total. Cricket and Miralda sleep 1st and 2nd (to regain spells ASAP), and are therefore on watch 3rd shift. Jaegr is on watch 2nd, and Kelgan maybe 1st (to spread out the darkvision). Caspian and Jaegr seem inseparable, which makes the following camping arragement:
1st Watch: Kelgan, Wyvurn
2nd Watch: Jaegr, Caspian
3rd Watch: Cricket, Miralda
Unless anyone objects -- for example, if someone mistrusts Miralda and prefer she takes 1st watch so that Kelgan or Wyvurn can keep an eye on her.
If it matters, each watch rolls Perception for the higher-bonus watcher, with the other person Aiding Another for +2 to the check.
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LOL!
OK, Wyvurn and Kelgan are very hard to surprise: rocking a +9 bonus, (+11 with aid another), no matter how we slice it they can reliably pull a DC 21 by simply Taking 10. At the first sound, Wyvurn nocks his bow, and anything approaching flees. First watch passes uneventfully.
Second watch gives us Caspian's +8, with +2 from Jaegr, who rolled a 15 (let's keep that!). Their overall result is 25.
Sometime in the wee hours of the night, Caspian spots a pale, bipedal form skulking towards the campsite. He nudges Jaegr, who quickly spots another, and you quickly become aware of two more.
On closer inspection, they appear gaunt and corpselike, with long, filthy nails and fangs.
Jaegr bellows out to wake the others, Then he'll threaten one of the creatures with his pick axe hoping it will scare them aware or at least delay them long enough for the others to shake off their sleep.
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...Miralda, you kinda look like a boy elf...ummmm...yeah, like that...Huh?!? What?!?
Cricket wakes up, sees the gaunt corpse thingies and emits the Tuelvi warning cry which sounds like a little girl shrieking.
Initiative:
Since Cricket doesn't have any spells, he's going to have to fight with his staff. Wolvie doesn't fight undead, so he'll cower in the back.
They don't seem to scare easily, or else their hunger exceeds their fear.
Cricket exchanges the staff he has out for the wooden one beside him, and whacks one of the creatures with it.
A solid whack doesn't quite put the creature down; the follow-up fails to connect.
Jaegr moves to the largest grouping of them (or the closest one otherwise)
The monsters are creepy-looking, but weak in a stand-up fight; Jaegr's first blow destroys one of them.
Kelgan springs into action, snatching up his shield and moving to defend the elf.
Caspian starts an inspiration with his bag-pipes, both to aid his companions and to rouse any of the heavy sleepers!
Initiative
Caspian also makes a lore check to identify the nasties since he spotted them first.
Knowledge lore
Caspian is pretty sure they're ghouls; they eat corpses, and aren't above making people into corpses and then eating them. Their touch can paralyze their victims.
Initiative:
Miralda obviously was on the alert, rather than paying much attention to whatever she was supposedly doing at the time of the attack. A magic missile from her wand fizzes into the ghoul that Cricket struck, felling the creature.
"Ghouls! don't let them touch you!"
Capian switches to his Requiem inspiration creating the haunting melody to act as a halt undead spell....
"Let me stop them and then we can see how many there are."
DC 15:
Through some bizarre quirk of bad luck, both ghouls are somehow able to resist the effects.