"I suppose we should do something with the bodies."
Savendir shrugs. "They are already returning to the dirt from whence they came."
"Let's be off, then."
Flavia helps clean up the mess as best she can and leaves a few silvers at Desna's shrine with a whispered prayer of apology. She looks ruefully at the remnant of her sunrod. "That came in handy, but I didn't expect to use it so quickly, and that was my only one. Did anybody else bring a sunrod or three? We should probably leave one with the people on watch, just in case. Say, what will we do with the guts there?" She points to the stack of corpses.
"I've got a few sunrods," says Enard. He makes no move to do anything with the corpses, though he wrinkles his nose and avoids them in the morning once they have started to stink and attract flies. If anyone is insistant on burying or burning them etc he grudgingly assists.
Enard sighs quietly as the group consensus appears to be to go across country, regretting the chance to dine and sleep at the Golden Kingfisher inn at Harse, but he raises no other objection. When it is time to go he shoulders his pack, vaults easily into the saddle and pats his scabbarded sword before riding north with the others.
As Uzrur rides along, he grins widely before laughing.
"Flavia, you have some of the best ideas. Ride into town with a bunch of dead bodies tied to a horse, stinkin' up the place. 'at won't attract the least bit of attention. Naah, best that we leave 'em here. A warning to any other bandits who may come this way."
He pauses for a second.
"Actually, did anyone bring a pike? We could string 'em up."
"Everything is a commodity, even bodies. I can't help that I think like that, Urzur, even if they are starting to stink. Leave them here for their friends to clean up then, if it won't offend Desna, and let's be off! Daylight is precious."
"I would appreciate some help dragging the bodies out of the shrine."
"Sure thing, Mason. Then we can get out of here."
Having moved the bodies of the defeated bandits away from Desna's shrine, the group mounts up and heads out through the Varisian lowlands. Savendir's superior tracking skills keep the party on track and after 5 hours of riding, you find yourselves at the edge of the Falcon River.
The river current does not appear to be too swift at the portion of the river you find yourselves. For as far as you can see, there are no bridges, boats or other means of crossing the river. It looks to be about 500 feet across where you are standing.
"What do you think?" Enard directs the question mainly at the druid. "Can we ford the river here? Or do we look for a better crossing, or try to swim the horses?"
"I hope you wilderness types can find a shallow place to cross," Flavia agrees. "Maybe Enard was right and we should have stuck to the more civilized lands."
"I'm glad that someone is beginning to appreciate my genius," whips the magus with a sideways glance and a raised eyebrow.
"I leave infallibility to the gods, myself. Wouldn't want to anger them by being right all the time," Flavia responds dryly. She dismounts, flips Blazing Doom's reins to Enard, and wades knee-deep into the river, searching for shallows that can be easily crossed.
Savendir looks at the river to see if it can be forded safely.
While the others figure out how to cross the river, Urzur silently keeps an eye out for any bandits or animals or other such threats.
"That's a mighty big river to cross. Maybe we should have stayed on the road."
As Savendir and Flavia study the river, they see that the river depth drops off quickly enough that it will be too deep to walk across. The horses will have to swim. Fortunately, the banks of the river appear to be low enough to allow the horses to easily enter and exit the river.
"Savendir, do you see any shallows where we could wade across?"
“Having seen how some of you lot ride,” says Enard, “I echo the suggestion of finding a more shallow or narrow place to cross.”
Savendir knows from his knowledge of the area that this river is the Falcon River. It flows from the east to west out of the Mindspring Mountains toward the village of Harse and then onto Palin's Cove and the Inner Sea. It is a fairly old river meandering through the Varisian lowlands.
As Savendir searches the area he finds that the river width is fairly uniform several hundred yards in either direction. The banks on either side are low, and easy to enter and exit. The river starts off knee deep by the banks of the river, but drop fairly rapidly to a depth of 15 feet about 30 feet off shore. He concludes that this part of the river is as easy to cross as any and does not pose any unusual dangers, aside from the fact that the horses will have to swim across for most of the river.
Blazing Doom:
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Flavia shrugs. "I'll give it a shot. It doesn't look too dangerous. If I disappear or something, you'll know it's safer to go back. At least there won't be any reefclaws in here... will there?"
She pats her horse's neck. "OK, Doom, it's you and me, buddy. Let's go!" She nudges Blazing Doom forward into the river gently and urges him to swim.
“No time like the present then.”
Enard rides Swift into the river, leading ‘Spare’ (as he still thinks of the other horse) close behind.
Enard's horse struggles a little in the river, and actually goes under water a few times, but his training as a rider allows him to keep the horse under control and he safely makes it to the shore in just under 3 minutes.
Mason's horse begins to struggle near the end of the swim and finally throws Mason into the water near the shore line. He manages to wade to the bank the final 20 feet. He takes about 3.5 minutes.
The bond between Blazing Doom and Flavia grows stronger as horse and rider make it safely across first with a only a little trouble. She makes it in just under 2.5 minutes.
Matsumoto's horse at first seems frightened as he enters the water and spills Matsumoto into the river. Fortunately, it's only a few feet deep and Matusumoto is able to calm the horse, remount and make it across to the other shore without further trouble. He climbs up on the other shore just behind Flavia a little over 2.5 minutes.
Unfortunately, Savendir and Urzur are not so lucky. Savendir manages to make about about 150 feet from the shore when his horse suddenly begins to struggle and Savendir falls into the water. He tries to swim next to his horse the remainder of the way.
Urzur's horse is quite skittish in the water. He falls off the horse as it first enters the water but manages to remount. However, after another 100 feet of swimming the horse struggles again and Urzur ends up in the water again. He decides to swim the remainder of the way.
All of the splashing and commotion in the river does not go unnoticed. A a series of splashes upstream near the northern shore catches everyone's attention.
Once on the far bank, Flavia dismounts and ties Doom to a tree about 10' from shore. Seeing some of her companions struggle, she grabs her 50' of silk rope and returns to the shore, wading out knee-deep and waiting to see if her friends need to be thrown a line. She should be knee-deep in water at the edge of the river with the rope in her hands when the splashes come from upstream.
Enard notices some of the others struggling, but Swift is quite skittish in the water, and it takes all of Enard’s skill as a rider to keep his saddle and keep the horse on course.
When he reaches the shore he looks back to see that Savendir and Urzue are in the water, but they both appear to be reasonably capable swimmers and don’t look in any immediate trouble. Given that, Enard opens up his pack, checking to make sure that his spellbook and scrolls did not get wet in the crossing.
Order of action
Mason
Flavia
Matsumoto
Savendir
Urzur
Enard
Source of splash
End of round 1
Everybody but Urzur sees the source of the splash:
On her turn, Flavia hurls the coil of rope to Savendir, retaining one end in her hands and bracing against Savendir's anticipated pull.
"Urzur, hurry! Crocs! Swim faster!" she calls urgently.
Mason says a quick prayer to Desna, before firing his crossbow.
"DESSSSSNAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"
Mason shoots a crossbow bolt at the swimming crocodiles but his aim is off and the bolt splashes harmlessly into the water. Meanwhile, Flavia tosses her rope to Savendir to help speed to the shore quickly. The rope lands within easy grasp of Savendir who is still guiding his horse across the river. Urzur hears Flavia yelling something about crocodiles and sees her throw a rope toward Savendir.
Order of action
Matsumoto
Savendir
Urzur
Enard
Source of splash
End of round 1
Mason
Flavia
Enard looks up from his pack at all the commotion, and notices the source of the problem.
“Damn,” he mutters. “We really should have gone to Harse.” He turns back to Swift, quickly swings himself up into the saddle, then turns and points a finger at one of the crocodiles. With the utterance of a few magical syllables, he sends two missiles of force streaking towards the beast.
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With the utterance of a few magical syllables, he sends two missiles of force streaking towards the beast.
Rokuro glances at something he sees out of the corner of his eye and does a double take at the large reptiles now gliding towards his waterbound companions. Quickly he rattles off some words in Tien and two small spinning disks of force streak towards the closest one, burying them selves in it's scaly hide before dissipating.
Matsumoto and Enard's magic missle's blaze for a moment as they hit the first crocodile. It pauses just momentarily as the pain of the fiery projectiles courses through its body and then continues swimming toward Savendir and Urzur.
Order of action
Savendir
Urzur (posted)
Enard
Source of splash
End of round 1
Mason
Flavia
Matsumoto
Savendir swims hurriedly toward the shore.
Urzur looks to see what the commotion is all about and sees the crocodiles swimming toward him. He tries to quicken his pace, but his stroke is awkward and he sinks beneath the surface.
The crocodiles swim swiftly toward Urzur and Savendir.
Order of action
Mason
Flavia
Matsumoto
Savendir
Urzur
Enard
Source of splash
End of round 2