Calene snaps to attention. "Do you mean to back up, or that you require backup?" she asks in a slightly less than calm voice. She attempts to dismount her horse, putting herself between it and the owlbear.
She attempts to leap from her saddle, but gets her leg lightly caught in the stirrup. She nevertheless dismounts, and begins a light chant. "Protect the horses. Break the bear. Owl. Owlbear."
Hearing the commotion behind the party, Brandark rides back along the party, drawing his lance as he goes.
Make sure I have a way to get to it. Brandark yells while he is moving.
Sitting on still on her horse Elektra starts to cast a spell.
Garrath attempts to jump down from his horse , and manages to not tangle himself with the horse. He then waits for Brandark's charge from horseback before he charges the Owlbear himself, looking to cleave through the beast's feathery hide.
From horseback, Kelvin shoots into the melee.
The Owlbear rises out from the dense brush and engages the party. Shalelu notices the movement out of the corner of her eyes, and alerts the party. Kelvin maneuvers away from the beast, while Elektra weaves a spell.
Calene jumps from her horse and begins to inspire the party with her oration. Garrath too dismounts his horse and waits for Brandark’s charge.
The Owlbear takes a step and attacks Kelvin’s horse, rendering it unconscious and maimed.
Shalelu sticks an arrow through the beast's feathery hide.
Even with his horse taken out from under him, Kelvin manages to land on his feet and still shoot at the owlbear.
Seeing a horse go down, and with people still in confusion in front of him, Brandark mutters.
Come on Abacus, we got to go the long way.
Might as well see how useful this sword is
Hey Bird brain Brandark yells Pick on someone your own size
With that, Brandark kicks Abacus up into a trot rides past Shalelu, and down on the Owlbear, while drawing the sword, and igniting it.
With a florish Elektra finishes the spell and Garreth feels his body thicken and his body enlargen. Then she moves to the side to give the fighters a chance to attack the beast.
Now that he is flanking, Kelvin continues to shoot at the owlbear.
"End it before it ends the horse!" the priestess shouts. Calene steps to the left, and withdraws her rapier before sending it flicking out towards the owlbear. The weapon makes a soft sound of moving air as it speeds towards the beast. She ends her performance, but its effects continue to linger on.
We intend to, lady Calene Brandark grouses,
Hey Bird Brain, over here. He yells at the Owlbear again You want to chew on a horse, try this one.
Continuing Round One
As Kelvin manages to cleanly jump clear from his falling mount, he hears Calene's brilliant oratory, and sends an arrow into the large beast.
Garrath grows.
Brandark maneuvers Abacuzar toward the feathery menace.
The Owlbear reacts to the Dwarf Cavalier's approach, by lashing at the diminutive rider.
But only manages to create a casual breeze in front of the Cavalier.
Following behind the Dwarf's attack, a large Garrath with a large Falchion, cuts deep into the Owlbear. Feathers and blood spray through the air. The Owlbear howls in pain.
Round Two
Calene draws her Rapier and slashes as she engages the Owlbear, but only manages to shave more feathers off its hide.
The crippled creature, nearly surrounded lashes wildly back at the oversize Human that just cut deep into its side.
Shalelu sensing that the end is near for the feathery monster, sends two more arrows toward the Owlbear.
Shalelu once again manages to get one of her two arrows into the beaat's feathery hide.
But it was Kelvin's arrow to the head that finishes off the angry Owlbear.
Victory is yours!
Calene stabilizes the badly wounded horse.
Brandark looks around, to ensure that nothing else is coming, then puts out the longsword and scabbards it.
While riding over to where he dropped his lance, where he dismounts, and picks it up.
Everyone all right ?
I don't feel comfortable leaving this indicating the owlbear, and our injured horse here,
Lady Calene, can you provide healing energy to the horse, so that we can leave the area.
"Certainly! I suppose our resident giant could use some healing as well," Elara says, nodding at Garrath.
"I don't suppose an Owlbear pelt or meat would be worth taking with us?" she says, nervously pointing to the felled creature with her rapier. From a safe distance, naturally.
I don't think it is worth it, nor am I going to go through the effort of butchering it.
Shalelu will look at the party, "Let's dump the Owlbear's body into that ravine. We need to move on. Owlbears hunt alone, but they often have a mate. Kelvin, ride with me. Your horse needs to rest. It is getting dark."
The party manages to make it to the coast without attracting any other creatures or the Owlbear's mate. It is night. The sky has only a few wispy clouds. Thistletop is almost a mile to the North, but cannot be seen from this beach. Of course, Thistletop cannot see you as well. Shalelu leads the party a couple of hundred yards off the beach to a grassy clearing surrounded by a thick thorny brush nearly twelve feet high. There are two ways into the clearing, one to the beach, the other to the Nettlewood Forest. There is a cool breeze blowing off the coast.
"It is unlikely someone would be able to surround us here. We cannot make a fire; otherwise we would draw attention. The horses can graze here too. Let's set up watches," Shalelu says almost without emotion. It is easy to tell that she has been here before.
After unsaddling, and taking the leather barding off of Abacus, Brandark looks at him Well Abacus, guard the other horses
He then looks around the party, As the dark does not interfere with my sight, I will take middle watch.
Shalelu will take first watch to make sure nothing tracked the party.
"Thank you Calene, for healing Estrela" and Kelvin coaxes his horse to her feet, and pulls an apple from his backpack and feeds it to her.
At Shalelu's suggestion, Kelvin nods his agreement. "Yes, she will need the rest" and he climbs up on the horse with Shalelu, holding onto the reins and leads Estrela.
At the campsite, he removes the saddle and other equipment from his horse, rubs her down with a brush and allows her to graze and recover.
"I can take any watch, so plan on the watches that our spellcasters need so they can recover their spells for the morrow."
Using an hours time to write another scroll in candlelight Elektra joins the others trying to flavor the dinner with fresh raisins and cinnamon.
During his shift, Brandark looks around, and keeps an eye out on the horses, and using his own darkvision.
Shalelu hears something on first watch and quietly goes out to check. She comes back, "Whatever it was, it was big. It moved away." The rest of the night was uneventful.
Just after first light, Shalelu drafts on a piece of parchment the route to Thistletop. "The approach to Thistletop has denser foliage than around this camp. Goblins lair in the approaches. The entrance in may be hidden."
As Shalelu noted, the briars and thistles that grow so rampantly in Nettlewood are even more dense and tangled here, close to the shore. Although not quite dense enough to block the sound of waves crashing on the unseen shores to the west, the undergrowth is certainly thick enough to block sight and access to the coast along the path Shalelu drafted. Few trees grow this close to the edge of the sea, but the briars themselves often reach heights to rival them; here, the patch is nearly twenty feet high.
The party reaches a dead end wall of briars and thistles.
Garrath sleeps till his watch, and then keeps a wary eye on things, trying to let Elektra have the time she needs to do her writing. Hearing Shalelu's announcement about something moving off, he chuckles, "Whatever it was, it must have heard that Shalelu the hunter was around and stayed clear.
During breakfast, Garrath sits near Calene, "It is good to have you with us, little wisewoman. I will stand between enemies and you. After saying that, he'll move to cleaning and getting ready.
During his morning routine, Brandark asks Shalelu to come over where he properly introduces her to Abacuzar.
This is so that he will listen to you while I am not here.
After breakfast, he then takes 10 minutes to show Shalelu how to properly bard Abacus.
Abacus, help guard
Upon waking, Kelvin nods to the others "good morning" and then goes and checks on Estrela, making sure that she has grazed and that her wounds have healed. He then rejoins the group for breakfast, and when it is time to head to Thistletop, he walks slightly ahead of the group down the path.
Coming to what appears to be a dead end, he signals everyone to stop and begins to search around for a hidden way into the briars.
Kelvin discovers a cleverly constructed rigid mat of thistles and nettles that hides the entrance to what looks like a tunnel.
The door is covered in briars and thistles.
Beyond the door is a four-foot-high tunnel that winds through the dense briars and nettles. The floor is hard-packed earth, with patches of wiry plants growing stubbornly here and there.
Thistletop Start map up.
"Brandark, Garrath, let me open it. But you be ready in case there is something there." and the rogue opens the door, and moves quickly back out of the way, longbow in hand.
Calene wakes an hour early and begins a meditation, renewing her bond with her god and strengthening her resolve for the day to come.
"Thungk yew, yoo too," Calene mutters while nodding gratefully to Garrath, her eyes still half-closed. She lazily puts her breakfast into her mouth and chews slowly. She looks forlornly at her bedroll.
By the time they reach Thistletop, Calene appears much more alert and awake. She takes note of the surrounding area and heaves a heavy sigh. "I suppose I should have expected this from a place called 'Thistletop,' but I'll admit I hoped for decidedly less...thistles."
Brandark sets himself up near the thistle mat, and waits for Kelvin to open it.
Kelvin, anytime you are ready, I am.
He then draws the longsword but doesn't ignite it.
Garrath grins, hefting his greatsword with practiced ease. "Ready when you are."
Hold on, if you don't mind. Brandark asks I have to grab something from the camp first
He then runs back to camp, grabs his axe, and then runs back.
Grins at Kelvin, Ready now
Brandark hunches over, and hefts his shield, then enters the tunnels moving to the left.
Well, we cannot stand here looking at this all day.
Garrath grunts his agreement, "Hmmph, I say we go left." his mouth turns up in a smile, "Good things always happen for us when we turn to the left. Or is it interesting things?" He shrugs, "Either case works."
You can see where the way to the left opens up a bit. It is curious that you do not see anything up to the left, except for more briars and thistles.