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Grobly will look around at those that have chosen to travel together. Our tribe will do well. How long, or how far they would last only time could tell. But Grobly is always the optimist.
Lump looked over to Grobbly.
Not the only little one, I see.
Karkoran addresses Grobly and Lump and notes, "Do any of you have any specific requests before we strike out? As others have noted, the lake may be our best stop, at least temporarily, and then follow the river down from the highlands to find what we may. I do not know what abilities we possess to blend in, nor do I care, although it may impede us eventually in obtaining information or aid. In time, we can hope our deeds will show that we mean no harm to others."
Looking out across the plateau, "As you know, I am skilled in battle, and survival. I am a hunter, and Warcat joins me in fights. I am also a crafter and skilled in alchemy. Grobly, you and I have spent much time in Goodwin's lab. Together we will all forge our place in the world, whether the world wants us to or not. That much we must do to save our benefactor."
"If we find any locals, I can take care of them. Probably even make them like us. Assuming they can understand what I am saying. I can also heal us a bit, if we get hurt."
Grobly nods at Karkoran. Grobly had taken quite a liking to Alchemy. "We can go to the water is we wants. Maybe find caves that lead underground?" Bazzt does not seem to like this idea. "I can fights too! But we wont be fighting unless for a good reason. I can leads us through the wilds with eases. And foods should be easy for only us few. Ize been thinking about how to find the Master... I thinks we go find something old and ask what it knows.
Tayanlla strings her bow and looks about, taking the measure of her companions.
"I've spent my whole life trying not to be seen because of the reactions I typically get."
"Hmm, I can see how the snakes might scare people. Maybe we can learn some spells to cover that up, if the people will be afraid. Or I can try to get all their eyes and ears on me!"
Looking at the medusa's bow, Lump asks, "I see you have a bow. Do you hunt? Grobbly can fly and scout, Karkoran... can you or Warcat sniff out prey? Grobbly, I know you can start fires, so we can cook meat. I can find us some non-meat food, I think. We gotta have food and shelter. Can anyone make a way to carry water? Make leather from pelts? If so, maybe Grobbly can fly to the water and collect some."
In answer to the grippli "If we see something edible, I'm sure I can shoot it. Can one of you with divine magic just create water?
To the goblin she asks"Grobly, can you ride on the back of that big bat? If you get high enough, maybe you can see something interesting"
Lump looks to the side a second, then back to Tayanalla.
"Oh yeah, I can create water. I forgot, haven't had to do it in so long. If we have something to put it into, I can do it."
Karkoran paws a hole in the ground with his mighty hoof. Lining it with some plant leaves to create a basin that will hold some water.
"The water will drain out slowly but will suffice to give everyone time to drink. I can also create water, with no limit, therefore we can refill the tiny pool as much as we need until everyone has drunk their fill."
"Water is easy!" Grobly nods, indicating he knows the spell as well.
Thurning to Tayanalla, Grobly will nod again, all the more enthusiastically. "Bazzt is a good flyer! And I alsmost never fall off. I went flying for a short time before... We are up high! In mountains. Snow melts and makes a lake in the valley that way and runs down and down. [b]"I can go look again, if you want. Or we pick a direction and walk. Every direction is down!" As he says this he looks to the valley side in the distance and the mountains above them.
"Hmm... If you already looked, probably no need to look again. We have water covered. We should prepare or find shelter. Then food. Probably shouldn't go up yet, the snow is too cold for me. Maybe down along the river? Any objections?"
"I agree, we're more likely to find a local inhabitant if we head down along the river." Tayanalla answers.
Grobly nods in enthusiasm. "The others are going for the lake then down. We can just go straight down-" The goblin will point the closest direction the group might start descending to lower terrain. "What is there to prepare? I can find food on the way for us. Hunt at night!"
"Yes, sounds like we have a plan. Travel straight down, snag some berries, seeds or nuts on the way. When it is close to night, set up camp somewhere. Preferably with shelter. Then hunt at night. Then rest."
Lump slings his mandolin to keep it from getting caught on sticks as they move, figuring they'll want to hear their surroundings as they travel.
"Lump, why don't you and I go first? You're sneaky and I've got good eyes." Tayanalla suggests.
"Then, Karkoran and Grobly can follow behind with their critters"
"What do you guys think?"
Anyone else got any ideas or suggestions? Perception check as we start down the hill:
"Very well. A reasonable plan."
"Then off we go!" As they begin walking, the Goblin will keep up with the minotaur with little effort, skipping as he does so, obviously exited. Bazzt will begin to crawl after but take to the sky soon enough. "Don't worry about Bazzt, he can take care of himself, and he never leaves my sight." As Grobly says this, it becomes obvious the Dire Bat has begun a low, slow circle around Grobly, just above the tree tops. "Lets go be hero's!"
You see a greenish woman, following the group as make your way out. She moves quickly to catch up. You recognize her as your sister Ashe. "Hey guys! Mind if I tag along? I wasn't sure which group to join, but this looked like a solid no nonsense one. I am skilled in the outdoors and can help forage and hunt."
Ashe tries to pushes a stick into the ground to make a sun dial and tries to determine time of the day and perhaps what time of the season it is. She has been watching the flora and fauna in the area, and although not terribly familiar with mountain regions, she knows the basics.
"You are welcome to come with us. We be going down to the bottom of the mountains! Maybe find something old to see if they remember Goodwyn." Ashe remembers Grobly amongst those at the demi-planes druid grove, a rather ravenous force of nature.
Ashe by studying the sun dial stick and angle of the sun as well as examining the flowers in bloom, and stage of the new growth on the trees you are sure it is early summer, perhaps a few weeks before the solstice. By this time of the day a few hours have passed and afternoon rolls in. You are confident there are a number of birds, squirrels, rabbits as well as deer and mountain goats or sheep that would live up here. Possibly bears, and things like mountain lions as well. Other predators would be here as well, beasts, megafauna and possibly giants.
Inspirational Photos of the area you are in:
Lump follows Grobbly as the scout of their team.
"How far is it to the river? Tayanalla asks.
"We will do well to hurry, we can skip hunting and gathering move faster. While I can hunt and find us edible plants, I propose a better method.."
After chanting, "I have summoned dinner, it should arrive shortly if we are in luck. When the deer comes from the forest let it get close to me, and then we will take it. Thank the forest spirits and the Great Naga for providing for us."
"By the way Tayanella, love your hair!"
Grobly will shrug. "If we go that way, where the rest of our kin went, we could reach the lake by sundown. We go that way-" The goblin points in the way they are walking. "-and start going down before we find water, faster!" The goblin will stay unwavering in his ability to navigate; If he ever felt a way is lost, a quick scamper into the treetops could help reorient him. If that did not work, Bazzt could aid in further height to scout. "We go this way and we find something fun, first! Before our brothers. Just you see."
Grobly recalls it was about five miles.
Your movement rate is about 30' unless you hunt and forage. This is 3 miles per hour overland. This is halved since you are moving through trackless forest. You cover about 1.5 miles in one hour. With about 5 miles to cover you need about 3.5 hours to reach the lake, You started at mid-day and it is early summer. You will arrive at the lake soon.
Grobly keeps you on the solid path to the lake by climbing trees, or by using his bat, he makes sure you stay going the right direction and he knows best where the lake is. Karkoran as a minotaur cannot get lost, so he will keep you from circling around and at least can lead you back to where you have been.
Asheranthi summons a deer which walks from the forest calmly to her. As you organized, the group has no problem dispatching it, with Tayanella's arrows, or everyone surrounding it and clobbering it. Dinner efficiently served, you gut the deer, Karkoran carries the kill with ease and you move on, preparing to cut it up for dinner later.
"Easy dinner. Let's keep up the pace."
Karkoran crashes through the underbrush and enjoys being in the open wilds again. He felt a solid purpose now and focused hard on it, the fresh air and exercise kept the dark thoughts away.
"Keep the pelt, bones, and horns. We can make stuff."
"Keep a sharp eye out. If there are predators like bears, lions, or something larger in these woods they may well be attracted to the smell of the kill." Tayanalla cautions the others.
"And if they're big enough, they might not be intimidated by a minotaur ..." she adds.
"There are many of us, though. If we make the noise and show we are big an strong, smart ones wont be coming for our food. It is wet and full of life here! Why attack us when easy prey is close?" Grobly will seem completely convinced they wont be attacked for their fresh kill.
Ok, Asheranthi also has a large aerial bug that travels with you, although as a mindless vermin, the mantis is little help in scouting or even hunting as it pretty much eats anything it finds on its own. As a medium creature, it is also another mouth to feed. Your tiny crab takes much less food.
Day 1:
Approximate time: 3 PM
As you get into afternoon, you break from the trees knowing the lake is very near. Even before you arrived, you could hear the water, and the birds and the echoing of the waves lapping against the shore.
While the lake itself is not very big, this is the lowest point of the plateau, the depression serving as the 'bowl' for the lake, all the snowmelt flowing in this direction. During the off season the lake levels may be lower, but now, it flows briskly. Waters from multiple streams flow in the north, east and west sides. The south end of the lake empties its contents into a river, its waters crashing down through a gap in the mountains. These rapids signal the path from the mountains for those who cannot fly or traverse the treacherous peaks.
By not hunting or foraging, you are the first group to arrive as near as you can tell. You see no others on the shoreline yet. The water is cold, very cold, but fresh. As with in the forest, wood here is plentiful and more available in smaller amounts. Driftwood and other pieces of wood has washed up and lie scattered about the shore, deposits from the fast flowing streams that made their way back to shore. The breeze here is still strong, the cool wind counters the warmth of the afternoon sun. You gaze upon the waters, and you face east, the sun is at your back, shading you partially as the trees cast afternoon shadows. In some places the trees are close enough to the shore to show their reflection in the water. Birds wheel in the sky, and dot the shore in various places. Midges, dragonflies, butterflies and other insects spin through the air. Occasionally you see a fish jump into the air or surface to grab a meal from an insect that came too close to the water.
You take a moment and then need to decide on your next plan.
While you decide, have some more inspirational pictures:
Snowmelt streams
River
Lake
Lake Close
Lake Side
Lake Side
More Lake!
Grobly Aerial View
"This appears to be a suitable spot. We could take a few more hours to continue downstream, but may not find a suitable spot. Here we have the luxury of time on our hands. We also have to butcher the deer, and take time to cook it. We can take the time to make some crude wooden and or stone implements if we need them as well."
Tayanalla will look for any sign of larger animals of inhabitants, she won't know what the tracks are made by, but she'll point them out to the Druids if she sees anything.
Tayanella scouts the vicinity, her keen eyes missing nothing. The serpentine organs on her head, bob and weave, each mini head peering a different direction. No bird, insect or rodent goes unnoticed. Scouting along the shore, a bit up the shore you find the remains of an old camp site. Nothing more than a fire ring made of stones, it was clear that someone was here a long time ago, probably at least before the previous winter. What remains of the ashes are matted, packed and wet as if they had been through a season or more. You find nothing else of interest or importance in the vicinity, even scouring an ever widening ring around the old camp. You find no other artifacts or 'garbage' from whoever may have been here.
Grobly will spend the time scouting the lake by air, looking for any signs of architecture, new or old, or anything else that might prove interesting to the young Druid. Perhaps the lake itself might reveal some hidden clues from a birds eye perspective. When he returns, he will help crave up the meat, and ensure all the usable parts of the animal are tied together for transport. Tanning the hide would be all but impossible from the goblins perspective.
Tayanalla will draw a number of circles and triangles in a random pattern around the campfire. She'll try avoid leaving any tracks.
"and they said medusas were scary and don't have a sense of humor"
Karkoran will place the deer carcass on a large flat rock. Either using his teeth or another rock, smashed together to create a sharp edge, he will gut the deer, skin it carefully and scraping all of the fat and meat from the skin, then hang the carcass in a tree to drain. Karkoran 'the Butcher' applies his craft with expertise his vivisectionist abilities coming in handy. Keeping the brain and the stomach, he feeds the deer guts and other offal, to Warcat who will guard the kill.
Next he prepares an alchemical extract , taking a minute to mix an Ant Haul extract. Quaffing the extract, he triples his carrying capacity for two hours.
If no one else has gathered firewood, he will gather some. "Can anyone create fire?". If not, he will try one by hand with sticks or stones. Once a fire is going, he will drag large piece of driftwood or downed trees (drag weight between 10,000-15,000lbs) over and construct a shelter with the large wood pieces like a large tee-pee. He will build a wind break with more wood or pile up rocks or boulders rolling or dragging the heaviest ones.
"If others can collect evergreen branches we will weave them between the angled wood pieces. Lump can you do this?"
Once the fire is going, Karkoran will butcher the deer further and begin cooking the meat on spits. That which they will not eat tonight he will attempt to smoke, which will be an overnight project.
Assuming nothing interesting happens to interrupt, he will flesh out the deer hide more, scraping it clean and then he will mix the brains of the deer with some water in the deer's skull and cook it for about 10 minutes. He does this in a lower heat area, to keep the skull from burning too much, but allowing the tannin to cook. Then he buffs the hide with a rock and then tans the hide with the brain mix. He then hangs it inside the teepee to dry overnight. He saves some of the brain mix in the deer's stomach and hangs that safely out of the way in the skull bowl after dunking the bowl in the lake to cool it. "This hide will take another coating tomorrow and some stretching, then it can be used."
His butchery done, and the night possibly rolling in, Karkoran eats some of the venison.
Apply this roll to any survival stuff I need to make
When Grobly lands from his scouting, He will see that Karkoran had managed to deal with most of what was needed for dealing with the animal, and then some. Seeing the lean-to, Grobly will sigh. "I thought we were leaving the lake for lower terrain?" The make shift hut was at least as complex as anything Grobly had lived in (permanently)before Goodwin had rescued him.
Assuming the fire had been made while Grobly was flying, the small goblin will make a point of gathering a number of dry sticks and logs to create makeshift torches by soaking them in whatever was left of Warcats meal, allowing the oils to seep into the ends he did not want to burn. The goblin will then go about marking a wide perimeter around their hut with lit torches, He will then do his best to draw a picture of a Hobgoblin with a big 'X' over it on the flattest piece of wood he can find, using ash from the fire.
Placing the sign at the edge of their campsite furthest from the lake, Grobly will offer to take first watch. If no one has an issue with this, The Goblin will spend his time on watch night fishing with left over entrails from the deer.
Bazzt will become more comfortable as night sets, and set out to hunt along the lakeshore for his own meal. The Bat knows enough to not stray too far.
The minotaur sets about making a wooden structure for the night, dragging entire dead felled trees over for the shelter or massive chunks of driftwood, bone dry and bleached white from the sun and alpine air. Adding to it a rock wall made of boulders 2-3 feet in diameter completes the crude 'fortress'.
As night sets in the temperature drops, but you have a nice fire going by then either through the tried and true method of rubbing sticks together with the dry pine duff, or if someone has fire magic.
What are you looking at?
Several members of the group spot the various other groups arrive closer to darkness as the evening wears on. Tayanella and Asheranthi are keen eyed and see other groups appear at various places along the lake side, including the large group led by Tolheimia Brass. While they arrive quite late, they have large numbers and quickly establish a large camp with multiple fires. Their noise echoes across the lake as they employ whatever skills and magic available to them.
Grobly provides aerial views, searching for any other clues or architecture but comes up empty. Grobly you also spot the other groups as they arrive at the shoreline. The sun is setting quickly though and they are hastily setting up camps. You could visit some of the other camps if you wish. Most of them are dotted along the western shore of the lake, separated at most from each other by no more than a quarter mile at the most. You could get to the nearest camp in minutes. If you wish to stop in, let me know and I will coordinate a cross table visit.
I have spark to make a fire quickly. I can also assist Karkoran in hauling stones and wood, although I am not as large, nor do I have ant haul, I am still strong, and can work on the structure with smaller branches and logs, bending wet saplings and weaving them into the structure.
to Grobly: "I believe this is only a temporary shelter for tonight. On the morrow we will strike out downriver out of these lands as we search for this temple. I say we get an early start, we can leave as soon as it is warm enough."
As night comes on, Ashe will eat food and drink a lot of water. She has Purify Food and Drink, so lake water can be had, and if the meat wasn't cooked well enough she can use it on that too.
She makes sure her crab and velociraptor are well fed before retiring into the large temporary home. She gives the crab a good douse in the lake for a while.
"Yes, I can."
Lump will go around, never straying far from the fire. He will climb trees, pulling off the smaller and lighter branches as necessary. When needed, he will use a sharp rock to separate more incorrigible branches from their trunks.
Being small, he makes frequent trips to drop off the limbs.
"If any of the other groups are in need of food, we can assist. We can easily obtain more." He gnaws on a seared chunk of venison, tearing it off the stick with his oversized canines.
As the sky darkens and night rolls in your camp with Karkoran's massive structure no longer is visible on the shore, but you can make out fires of the other groups north of you. You hear voices and singing at times as the groups appear to have successfully all made it to the shores of the lake. Your group had gone as far south as possible, with the idea to follow the river in the morning out of the mountains. Most people appeared to have that idea, but a few thought it possible the temple may be located here, or wished to remain behind a it.
The stars dot the sky, and the wind picks up, causing ripples across the water. Snug in your pine tree and boulder 'hut' the group enjoys the venison.
Will you plan a night watch?
Ashe works industriously to get the camp ready. She will wedge medium sized poles into the ground in a perimeter around the camp, using some sharpened rocks to make crude pointed ends.
"I do not have dark vision, but tonight with the stars in the sky
above I can see as well as anyone during the day. Lump, can you play us a tune on your mandolin for me to sleep to? I will take watch in the morning with the dawn and prepare my spells for the day then."