Spes spens the time quietly during his watch, feeding the fire, moving coals out to cook with, and enjoying the bread making all together.
the rest of the night is uneventful. The morning comes Blamo and Drewan awake to the smell of fresh bread and a distinct lack of beetles.
Blamo wakes up, completely forgets about what he's supposed to do and is munching on rations.
Drewan looks at the goblin wearing the shiny, "What next? Follow the trail?"
"Hm?"
Blamo looks at Drewan, who just said something to him, whatever it was, and nods empathically. He keeps on nodding, even while he's eating.
The trail led in the general direction of last nights fun
Drewan eats some rations, as well.
"We left the trail over there when we set up camp. It was going that way."
Drewan is easily able to follow the path he had been the previous day.
As they travel he find skeletons of several animals, possibly stripped by the beetles. Upon arriving back at the clearing from the previous night our heroes find a lean to from a few days prior, with a cold fire pit. There do not seem to be any tracks leaving the site.
Drewan searches the area for skeletons that might belong to those we are chasing.
Drewan finds no skeletons.
"Huh. I don't think they flew away."
But he looks up into the trees, anyway.
Again no signs of anyone there in the trees around the clearing.
No tracks or skeletons in the clearing, nothing in the trees, and only tracks leading to the clearing.
Blamo pokes the fire pit and tries to see if it can still be ignited.
with some fresh wood it could be...
Blamo has too short of an attention span for that and plays around with the fire pit, using a nearby stick.
Drewan and Spes find that Blamo is completely distracted by the fire pit. He smacks the ashes with a stick and dances as he makes fire sounds.
He carries on this way for minutes before they realize that he might not stop.
Seeing Blamo in his confused state, Spes, finds a small rock and tosses it high in the air to hopefully land near Blamo. As soon as he lets the rock fly, he looks at Drewan. so, where to next? I don't think anybody is here.
Blamo picks up the rock and starts chewing on it before continuing his dance.
It is now mid day.
Drewan looks around, still confused as to what happened to the ones they were following.
"Well, we can retrace our steps to where the other trail parted from this one. Unless you have an idea for figuring out where these went."
Blamo shrug-dances. "Sleep here? Blamo bored now."
Spes shrugs and chews on his old holy symbol. He begins to unload his bedroll and other things to rest the night.
Drewan...um...do you think you might be able to catch some mice or something to eat?
Spes then looks closer at Blamo and Drewan, he focuses and a wave of healing energy bursts out from his new loaf of bread. Everyone smells faintly of sourdough.
healing
"But it's only...." Drewan shrugs, "OK, sure, I will see about hunting up some variety. Thank you for your blessing."
Drewan will spend the afternoon trying to find some food.
Drewan returns with rabbits a gopher and Wild Turkey, Drewan ate all the mice. By then Drewan thinks that there is perhaps 2 hours of daylight left.
The night is shaping up to be a warm one.
Blamo still snores.
Blamo drops the stick into the fire pit. "Make fire!" he cries and heads to gather wood for as long as he remembers to.
Luckily for Blamo there is a forest nearby. He finds lots of sticks.
Spes makes a delightful meal out of the game Drewan brings back.
Darkness falls. Time for a watch to be set.
Drewan will nap in the afternoon and take first watch before waking Blamo for his second watch. Whether Drewan sleeps during Blamo's watch is doubtful.
Blamo eats, plays around with the fire, and falls asleep.
Blamo and Spes both snore quickly.
Drewan is on his watch for maybe an hour before the skittering starts again. Within minutes the clearing is FILLED with the beetles. Though Drewan sees no beetle man. There is enough moonlight to see the entire clearing.
Drewan keeps the fire going and stays near it. He'll work to make sure the others aren't engulfed.
A few hours pass then Drewan sees from the mass of beetles a small creature humanoid shaped rise from the beetles and begin to dance.
The catfolk observes.
When it comes to Blamo's watch, Drewan moves over to him and whispers, "Beetleman is back. Time to burn him."
Blamo continues snoring and mumbles something about VENGEANCE. It appears he's a deep sleeper.
"BeeeeeeeeetttttllllllleeeeMMMMMMMAAAAAANNNNNNN!"
Whispers, "Vengeance. Burn the Beetleman!"
"VENGEANCE!"
Blamo wakes up and stands, seeming to attempt grasping something invisible until he's conscious enough to realize it's not there. He catches sight of the Beetleman and screams in rage before fumbling with his backpack to take out a torch, lighting it before charging, yelling about vengeance and BUUUUURNing all the way.
Drewan sits and watches the fun. And keeps the fire burning bright.
40 feet You can charge, and make an attack. You all will have the initiative, but NOT a surprise. All can act. Beetle man is 40 feet away, and the area is covered in beetles.
Blamo charges, still shouting, and swings his torch at the Beetleman.
Blamo charges through the beetles cacking insanely. The bugs flee from the light of the fire and Blamo slams the torch into the center of the Beetle man. Bugs pop and sizzle as they fall.
As soon as Blamo passes the bugs fill in behind him.
Confused at what is going on, Spes grabs a small burning branch and blows on the fire, letting loose a fire bolt of his own after the goblin. (Yeah it's only range 30 so no real damage to anything but next round it's go time)
Spes's bolt falls into the mass of beetles causing a sizzle and pop in the now raging mass of beetles
Drewan will begin building a second pile of wood for another fire on the edge of the current fire's influence, toward Blamo and his adversary.