The man himself is not wearing armor.
Argrim curses and shouts at Rammellorn, both in Dwarven, "Get out of there!"
He hustles back toward the others and shouts in Common to the others, "Short swords! Rat swarm! Bring slings and fire! Now!"
I need bludgeoning arrows. I though these things stayed underground! He thinks to himself.
DMPC: Rammellorn's AoO
Startled by the toothy little fellows, he hacks at the tiny beasts with his long axe.
;
He hacks and swings mightily, tiny creatures scatter in pieces. He notices that the attack did not do as much damage as it should have.
'I shall not flee but stand my ground."
Fire!? Varl yells, watching as Rammellorn's axe fails to do much damage to the rat swarm. I have some bottled fire if that would do da trick?
Rammellorn will bellow,
RD1 Summary:
Rammellon hits with his AOO for 6HP of damage
Initiative order:
Rat Swarm - swarmed Rammellorn causing 1 HP of damage. Rammellorn made his save.
Varl -
Argrim -Doubled moved to Z23 to yell for help.
Rammellorn-
RD1: Rammellorn DMPC
Rammellorn will drop his long axe and pull out his warhammer
;
With a war-cry of praise to Torag, he smashes more of the swarm which is looking ragged.
Initiative:
Swarm
Varl
Argrim
Rammellon
RD2: Rat Swarm
Continues to chew at the meaty dwarf.
plus possible disease and distraction, DC 12 Fort Save to avoid being nasueated for 1 Rd and the following damage from filth fever:
;
He brushes off the filthy bite disease.
"Whatever you do Varl, get out m'way. I'm going back to help that stubborn dwarf." Argrim growls in Dwarven.
Aye, aye I be moving! Varl yells while rushing around the woodpile and bringing his axe to bear on the swarm of rats.
Varl moves to AB18 and swings his ax true the blow being the final one on the swarm, most are dead but others scurry away back towards the woods.
Rammellorn kicks the dead critters away from his feet and longaxe, which he reaches down to pick up. Wiping off the gore.
There is a mostly eaten carcass of a hound behind the woodpile, there is small humanoid foot which doesn't like it's a human child's. It looks more gobloid to your eye.
Looking at the grim scene, Nibb tries to search for clues about what happened...
Nibb you observe 5 sets of small foot prints which surround the dead man. It's apparent they chased him and cornered him, it looks as if the prints actually begin in back of the house. You, also, notice that the thick blood gob on the farmhouse is still tacky suggesting the death is only a few hours old.
Nibb then, carefully, walks following the tracks back to their origin... once he is sure that other members of the Short Swords are following him.
"Nevermind! Rats are dead!" Argrim shouts to the other group.
He walks toward the rat swarm and fist bumps Varl, "Good kill," he says in Dwarven. To Rammellorn he directs in Dwarven, "You're either crazy or stubborn. Those rats can't fight at range, so they can only hurt or disease you if they bite. Ah well, that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Argrim finds a stick and spends some time investigating the scene for clues about what happened.
====================================================================
The Northern Group follows the tracks around the back corner of the house, you can see thorny bushy and trees. There is a broken back door. The prints that you follow reunite with a larger groups. There is a large set of footprints at the back door, then a dozen smaller sets. It appears as if something heavy was dragged away from the back door towards the south end of the house.
The hound is a normal sized dog it looks like a hunting dog from what remains. You all can pick up footprints that follow an partial clearing near the house. Those prints head towards the house and also away from the house. It looks like two heavy items were being dragged at some point. Oddly enough at southeast corner of the house you can see a large tree that has been toppled into the farmhouse, it does not look like an axe was used but rather pushed.
Argrim you can't really tell anything more about the foot. You do notice that the rat swarm appears to have come from the woods to the west.
"Let's check out the back." Argrim takes point and leads when Varl and Rammellorn follow. Seeing all the prints, he pulls out his battleaxe.
Argrim when you and the others get toward the southwestern corner of the farmhouse you can see there are woods towards the back of the house. You can see that the swarm came from that direction in the woods, there is rabbit, small game trail through the underbrush.
"You lot ok? In need of any patching up? "
Seeing all the tracks, Karnog begins to suspect a whole warband did this to the house.
"Find anything of any use? Any survivors? "
Nodding his head Varl takes the compliment before following in behind Argrim. I wonder what that heavy thing was, that was being dragged away. Then looking towards the tree that appeares to have been dropped onto the house, Varl frowns behind his beard. Woulda taken some read strength da push a tree over.. anyone seen any big footprints?
Then looking towards the tree that appeares to have been dropped onto the house, Varl frowns behind his beard. Woulda taken some read strength da push a tree over.. anyone seen any big footprints?
"Yah." Argrim replies to Varl extending two stubby fingers. "Two big sets. Should be fun."
"Okay then. Lets round up anything of value, and start tracking these baddies down. You thinking giants?
Also, everyone ok? I can help you out if you got hurt from those rats you were yelling about. "
Aye, Looks like goblins and some giants. Varl says nodding If anyone can follow the tracks lets do so. If we don't find them by nightfall the farmers will likely be dead and on spit.
You all realize it's definitely a war party consisting of goblins, plus at least one ogre or hill giant, but there are some other prints medium size, which could be human or a similar size. The house is smoldering and you can see the back door is smashed in, along with the breach from the tree. Certainly enough room to get insides for a sweep, if necessary.
Tactically, you think the rat swarm probably came after the fact smelling blood and flesh. They have hole and tunnel somewhere in the woods but where at you don't know. The attack itself shows a degree of planning and intelligence which itself is unusual.
I say we do a quick sweep through the farmhouse, make sure there's noone still alive in there. After that we can run down the rats and see where they came from before we head towards the goblin warband. I don't want to leave anyone trapped in the house, and If we find the cave the rats came from it might be a good fallback point if we can't fight off all the goblins. Whatever we do though, we need to decide quickly.
"Perhaps in the farm there could be a clue as to why this farm was burned down."
"Aye, we should seep the farmhouse for survivors. Hopefully they had a cellar for protection." Argrim agrees with Varl.
"After that, we follow the tracks. If that war party took prisoners, they are not long for Golarion."
"Good point Varl. Let's clear the house and then chase down these gobbos."
Karnog heads to the smashed in door and takes a look.
perception
Doing a 20 minutes search of the inside of the farmhouse reveals one area that is blood stained, there is a broken dogslicer there, along with three small short spears. There is no body. There is a cellar and the trap door is wide open. The entire farmhouse looks looted and the remainder being destroyed.
Your search does reveal the following items that have been missed by the looters. Two small child's dolls both that look worn and one has a missing eye. There is a dagger laying under the debris along with a meat clever, then lastly, a partially filled quiver (13 arrows) and short bow is hidden behind the smashed front door.
"I can see if I am able to pick up the trail after we go through what remains of the house." Vatilda lets a few dwarves in front of her before she enters.
"...and just a quick look. Might be better to catch up to those responsible before they get to where they are going."
Kalim picks up the two dolls. He looks at them intently.
The dwarves and Kalim would certainly know that the dogslicer is the preferred weapon of goblins.
"Anybody need a masterwork dagger or composite shortbow? Vatilda, you can track? Great. I'll take point with you. Kalim, hang on to those dolls. We have some children to save. Let's go." Argrim summarizes and looks around for the consensus to head out...
The dagger is masterwork quality and the short bow is composite 12 Strength. The clever and quiver/arrows are common.
Once Argrim says the word, Vatilda is out the door heading to where the tracks heading south were found. She found it difficult to focus with the phrase "...children to save" repeating in her head.
It is easy enough to follow the tracks southward, you can see one set of large prints, what appears to be 15 to 20 goblin prints and then 8 to 10 medium size prints. The trail extends for two miles and into the edge of the dragonmarches. There is clearing in the trees, there is debris and blood stains, and a few torn pieces of clothes, leather and food items. The ground is trampled and it clear that the large group rested here.
Survival aid another
"Any idea how much ahead of us they are? This seems like a fairly sizeable band. How about some tactics for separating them out and taking them down in smaller batches?"
As they travel, Vatilda starts to become more confident in her tracking. "You're correct, it a large group. Easily three times our number."
"We should try to take them unaware and in smaller groups from range. I can lead a sneaky team to get close to their pickets. We can surprise them, and then run back to the non-sneaky team. Hopefully, we can repeat the tactic several times. Who else's sneaky?"
Clanking along in his fullplate with a shield in one hand and his dwarven waraxe in the other Varl chuckles. Don't look at me. The dwarven warrior states, sounding more like a constantly shifting box of hammers then a quietly stalking dwarf.
Vatilda you see that the group you are hunting actually splits from the opening in two separate directions. The smaller feet of the goblins turn East towards the coast road and the foothills. While the large feet and the human size prints follow the edge of the Dragonmarsh towards some low hills overlooking the marsh. The two heavy objects are split, one heading in each direction.
Your best estimation is that the tracks are 3 to 4 hours old.
"I am not particularly sneaky as a matter of recourse, but I do not wear metal armor."
After exploring a few paces of both directions, Vatilda passes on the information she has gleaned from the tracks; pointing out the diverging paths.
"They separated. The goblins went east toward the road. The others seem to be skirting around the Dragonmarsh there... And as you see by the drag marks, each of the groups appears to have taken one of the heavy objects."
By Torag's hand, let us draw them to us from range. Perhaps then, someone can sneak in and rescue the captive.Rammellorn suggests, still trying to forget the nasty swarm.
Goblins, nasty vermin! Rammellorn says to himself. spitting on the ground.
After Vatilda explains that the tracks diverge which one's do you intend to follow? Tracking both sets does not appear to be an option at his point.
"Let's not waste time with this decision or split our numbers," Argrim suggests. "Let's kill the goblins first, because we know what they are. Vatilda, mark the other trail, so it's easier to find it again. Let's go."