Thrand says, "We can either kill it, or tie it up and take it with us, or set it free and see where it goes. Since our first duty is to protect the caravan, I suggest we tie it up and return to the halflings immediately. We can decide the monkey's fate while we ride." He takes a rope from his backpack and secures the monkey prisoner.
Thrand says, "You are awake at last! I had feared the worst." He explains to Garl that the gnome had been feverish and slept through a whole day.
"This monkey is nothing but trouble. Keep him tied up or set him free. He is your responsibility." says the knight as he tosses one end of the rope to the gnome. "I will be wanting my rope back when you are done with it."
The chasers return with their prize. Magistar Tulley Whiskerfoot comes up and grabs his box from them saying thank you profusely and then runs over to his cart to check the items inside. After ensuring all is in order he gets the halflings moving. "Hopefully we can make up the lost time and not get caught in the forest. It seems this forest is already becoming bad luck." he tells the party. Garl comes over to the monkey and tries to empathize with it. As soon as the monkey is untied, it scampers off into the woods.
The party mounts their horses and begin travelling once more.
Victrix watches the monkey go as she begins to ride along with the caravan.
Poor thing. Was probably just looking for something to eat...
"Is it weird?" Victrix scratches her head. "I wouldn't know."
Once Rolfe returns the chest full of coins, Thrand places the pouch containing the gem in Magistar Whiskerfoot's hands saying, "This is a beautiful stone. You should keep it safe."
Taking his rope back form Garl, he says, "See, nothing but trouble. I don't know anything about monkeys either. We don't have any back home, and home isn't that far away, so I imagine that this might not be its natural habitat."
"Great job catching the thing," he says to Victrix. "You are quick and nimble."
Victrix smiles, and her cheeks turn slightly pink. "I'm not THAT nimble. Hell, I just charged through everythin' that was in my way."
"Good job keepin' up with me as long as ya did."
"Thanks. To be perfectly honest, I thought I was going to drown in that stream. If my armor had been any heavier, I might have."
Victrix looks down at her horse, her expression turning guilty. "Oh... roight, I kinda missed that... I was too focused on catchin' the monkey."
He could have drowned, you bloody idiot.
The halfling's are ready to continue with their journey.
"No worries," says Thrand. "We all survived and the halflings have their treasure back." He rides alongside Victrix about a third of the way from the head of the caravan, letting the halflings lead the way and keeping his eyes open for signs of trouble.
Know Arcana to figore out if this might be a familair.
After conferring with Garl, Tanariel and the gnome believe the monkey was acting in the capacity of a familiar so thus someone was directing or controlling its actions.
The halfling caravan continues trodding down the road. The road takes you through the northern part of the Asnath Copse wooded area and after that you see the town of Asnath. Asnath is a decent sized trading town and the halflings haggle over prices to replenish their supplies. After spending the night camped outside the town near other travelers and under the watchful eye of the town guard, the caravan makes its way west and then south west towards Shandalanar where you depart from the company of the halflings and you take the road to Chesterhomme.
"Farewell, Magistar Whiskerfoot! Farewell, ... all you other halflings." says Thrand as he bids the caravan adieu. "I hope we proved a satisfactory escort." He turns his steed toward Chesterhomme and rides along the road less traveled.
After the caravan fades into the distance, he says to his companions, "With any luck, they will reach their destination without encountering any more monkeys. Does anyone know any songs or stories to help us pass the time?"
The grey elf will smile at the halflings and wave. May Yondalla guide and guard your steps.
Responding to the cavalier she will go into what she knows about his ancestors and the role they have played in Oereth.
[know hist
As Tanariel goes on about the historical migrations of humans upon Oerth the group continues along the path towards their destination. They pass farms and small little hovels along the way. They spend the night at a poor farmers homestead in the barn and become the talk of the area since a fancy nobleman and an elf plus their attendants stayed at the place. The next day they continue on their journey towards Chesterhomme.
The dark mass of the Ansath Copse looms just to the north of this small trade route, an ominous wall of unbroken green and shadow. Not far
ahead is Chesterhomme, the only town in the area. Rounding a bend in the road, you see a trio of mangy dogs playing a gruesome tug-of-war with some sort of humanoid corpse. Their snarls and barks break the silence of the otherwise calm afternoon.
Victrix dismounts from her horse and readies her axe. "Garl? Think yeh can get these dogs off the road?"
The elf will approach to a safe distance to see what the body is.
From your current distance the body appears to be a human male... the dogs obscure some of him and the body is quite ravaged and dirty.
"Away with you! Shoo! Shoo!" Rolfe says firmly, but with no sudden moves that might cause the hungry beasts to lash out.
Thrand adjusts the position of the shield on his arm and shifts his grip on the lance that he is holding until he is comfortable. He silently waits to see if Rolfe or Garl are able to influence the wild dogs' behavior, but is ready to charge the moment the dogs lunge forward.
As you get close to the carnage, the dogs still ignore you, however you can see more of the humanoid they are tearing into. It is a human male and it is quite dead. Even though the clothes are dirty, bloody and torn by dogs, you can see the clothes were once very neat and stylish. A foppish hat lies near the body.
Rolfe doubles back down the trail, falling in step with the others. "No saving that feller, but least we can do is drive 'em off and give 'im a proper burial. I can try to calm the beasts down, but the poor devils look half starved. I don't fancy getting between them and their dinner."
He listens with bated breath, willing to defer to the decision of his wiser companions. "What'll it be? Drive 'em off or make our way around?"
Thrand says, "I would like to get a closer look at the body and try to identify it. His family should be told what happened to him. Plus if these dogs killed him and aren't just scavenging, we should not leave them to attack other travelers."
Rolfe will mount up, readying his lance.
What an ignoble death. Still we do not know if he was noble by birth or occupation. remarks the grey elf.
Rolfe chafes under that comment, seeming to shift in his saddle. But the yeoman bites his tongue.
Victrix:
Thrand:
Rolf:
Garl:
Tanariel:
As the dogs continue ripping chunks out of the body you believe you see red feathers on the ground by the hat and in the hat.
Thrand waits to see how the dogs react to Garl. If they bite the gnome, he will charge forward and attack the dogs with his lance.
(reach) (action triggered by Garl's failure, if any)
Garl tries to handle the wild dogs but to no avail, as soon as the dogs detect your encroachment they turn and feel threatened by the wolf and gnome and attack...
Swift swipes at one and lands a solid blow... that dog yelps and tries to flee taking two to three steps before falling over...the cavalier charges in at the first sign of aggression from the dogs and lands a solid blow with his lance and skewers it. The last dog runs away...
battle over...
Victrix feels a pang of guilt at seeing the battle so quickly resolved. "...well, that settles THAT then."
"Aye, I saw the red feathers too..." She says as she moves over to examine the corpse further.
Victrix:
Thrand:
Rolf:
Garl:
Tanariel:
The corpse is a male human bearing several slashing and piercing wounds, at least one of them clearly fatal. These wounds are in addition to the chunks ripped away by the dogs. The corpse still wears an old-fashioned but ornate chain shirt and a sundered rapier lies nearby. His belt pouch has been turned inside-out and has a finely stitched 'H' on it and an empty box lined with white velvet about a foot long lies open near the body. The box has been pried open and damaged.
You can also detect the tracks of three or four humanoids in the area. Their orientation indicates that their makers might have fought with the human. The freshness of the corpse indicates that the fight occurred within the last day. Garl sees the glint of something shiny just in the woodline off to the right.
"Well done, Valor. Are you alright, Garl?" Thrand hops off his horse to clean his lance. While wiping off the blood and gore, he asks, "Can you tell how he died? Do you see a signet ring or a coat of arms or a letter - anything that might help us identify him?"
(remember red feathers)
"Can't have been the dogs, our man here's been robbed." he postulates, stroking his whiskers and searching the body. "What kind of devil leaves a feller to die on the road like this? Steady on... H? Could this be our Horvik? With the dagger?
"By Heironeous, I think you're right!" says Thrand. "Be a good man and put some of those feathers in the belt pouch. We will bring that along as proof. And that armor looks like an heirloom. We should bring that along as well. Say, it looks about your size, Rolfe. I don't think his family would mind you wearing it long enough to avenge his death. I don't suppose anyone has a shovel? No? Then we should pile stones over the body."
Thrand waits for Rolfe to strip the body of its armor and decide whether or not he wants an upgrade before helping to pile stones over Horvik's body. He puts the damaged and empty box in his saddlebags.
Before the armor is stripped the elf will reach into a spell component pouch, pull out a bit of material and begin to chant. Ast trete dret/ dret trete Ast as she casts detect magic.
Tanariel casts her spell and while she detects nothing on the body itself, she does get the feeling there is something magical in the woodline off the trail...
Can she follow it?
Victrix is silent as Rolfe & Thrand identify the body. "...great."
She moves to help Thrand bury Horvik.