Nathaniel and Forfax hold first and second watch, nothing out of the ordinary seems to happen, when the third watch comes, Nathan dismisses Forfax after he has spoken with him.
"I see you're troubled, I can imagine why. I'm sorry I didn't bring better news for you guys."
He pauses for a moment and looks up at the sky.
"You know I'll bet they are watching you now, watching over you and are proud of you. I have my parents also already amongst those stars, though they died a natural death I can feel your sorrow about your own."
"Go to sleep Forfax, Scout is feeling just as anxious as you, I can tell. Dream about your family, try to put your mind at ease, live as though they can see you, make them proud."
He pats Forfax on his shoulder and takes the watch from him.
When Taliesin takes watch he notices the soft scuffling in the woods, something is scurrying there amongst the trees, some 60 ft away. When he looks that way, he hears the scurrying turn into loud steps which move away quickly.
The fighting men and women seem invigorated and pull down great goblins atop great direwolves, though they be weaker themselves. The souls of the dead seem to gather on the back of a huge horse of light, guided by a glowing figure in a sand and gold coloured hooded cloak. Amongst the dead are indeed your parents but they seem to smile as they notice you.
"We are always with you Forfax, we will be fine with our rider. She watches over us and over you as well. Be strong and make us proud." They say before the horse of light neighs and gallops up into the heavens.
|
After hearing Nathan's words of comfort Forfax gives a week smile, but his heart isn't really in it. Being exhausted in both body and spirit he heads for his bedroll and as soon as his head touches the ground his mind delves into a very vivid dream.
In the morning Forfax packs up his bedroll while his heart soars. He finds a quiet spot and drop to his knees and starts to pray softly, "Erin I know you were the rider who came and saved our town and I thank you. Please take care of my parents, back home they were all I had and I love them dearly. Please let them know that when all of this is over I will return to Greenbrook and care for our farm like they always wanted me to." He then stands and goes to join the others for breakfast feeling much happier then he ever thought he could ever again.
At breakfast he tells the others of his dream, of how valiantly our families fought and of how the cloaked celestial figure came to invigorate the remaining fighters and to bring the souls of the dead to a better place, though he will leave out his suspicion of whom the celestial rider was.
Both of you make me a Perception and Survival check; DC 10 and DC 13 respectively.
GM
Following this mostly uneventful night, your group heads down south hugging the treelines with Nathan scouting out the grasslands to the west and a forest to your east. Nathan reports more small goblin camps in the west, spotting about more camps along the next two days before you come at the first mountainous outskirts of the Krewlod mountain range.
Every evening Arvinth and Taliesin or David contact, Arvinth reports no real changes, fortifications getting along nicely according to Lord Midway. "What is your situation now? Any news?" He asks with a crackling voice through the sending stone.
It is here that Nathan returns to you all after the morning sweep to say he found tracks of two wolves walking side by side.
"Those tracks are too straight for any wolf I've seen, wolves tend to walk more around, not really in a long straight line. The tracks look fresh enough, possibly a day old. And either these are the heaviest wolves I've seen or they are carrying something along."
Nathan you think we can catch up to these wolves? they maybe warg he have fought one of them recently. Well if we can catch up to them we can kill them off i think.
"No there are not enough different tracks for that. These wolves walked bseide each other, but it can't really be more than two. I've never known wolves to pay attention to set their paws in the first his tracks. Well I could follow the tracks, depending on their speed we could catch them within a day or it might take several days."
Investigating the tracks yourselves you can see that Nathan is right, if there would be more wolves here, they would have had to follow precisely in each other's footsteps.
Nathan is already some 40-50 feet ahead of you, the tracks easy enough to follow on the forest floor.
Well lets go says Taliesin following nathan
Elenzar nods in agreement.
Nathan follows the tracks but sometimes he has to turn and find the tracks again, his eyes losing the prints in the midday sun. Eventually he finds the tracks leading out further to the south and into the rough terrain. The prints seem fresher, but losing their consistency on the hard terrain. Some tracks can be distinguished on the rockier terrain, but Nathan takes longer about finding them now.
At sundown he returns and shakes his head.
"We were catching up to them, but no way I can find them now in the night, the tracks are getting very difficult to follow. I would advise no fire tonight lest the hunters become the hunted."
Works for me nathan. he says opening a trail ration pack.
Nathaniel nods.
Same as we did so far
David doesn't know any magical creatures that fit the description Nathan has given you. The idea of normal, perhaps slightly larger wolves still seems likely.
Sitting huddled together, each of you under a blanket eating some of your hard rations and drinking water. The first watch of Nathaniel passes uneventful.
During Forfax's second watch he sees a small orange glow some 3000 feet away. The light is slightly elevated above the landscape. It looks like a small fire.
Nathan keeps a close eye on the glowing light further down south and waits to see what happens to it.
Late in the evening the light dies down until it completely disappears.
When the fourth watch comes (Elenzar/Taliesin/David) he will tell them about the light and tries to convince him to wake the others an hour or two earlier than usual.
"Perhaps we can investigate that lightsource in the early hours of the morning. If that was a campfire we could try and take the lighters by surprise."
I am all for ittaliesin will get ready
"Sounds good"
Early in the next morning, Nathan is woken by Taliesin and Elenzar and seems to remember his idea of last night.
"Seeing most of the others are up and about as well, except for Nathaniel still putting on his armour, Nathan nods. "Seems you all are ready, can someone help me into my armour? So we can get a beter chance at a surprise attack."
Nathan sits atop his horse and points out where he thinks he saw the light coming from. "We should move swiftly, but silently. Get your weapons ready."
As the two riders and the four walking Greenbrookers climb the hill they can see the black remains of coal and soot stain the grassy hill at the top. Two large spots are visible on the hill, one is laying down, the other standing with its head turned to the south, away from you. The creature is about 200 feet off.
"We should get close enough to see what exactly it is we are approaching. That should be close to bow or crossbow range. Perhaps a good shoot or so can get us the jump on the one standing and leave the sleeper to approach, subdue and question."
Yup Elenzar, get in as close as possible using stealth, those that want to use ranged weapon take their shots while those who rely and close combat move forward. If these are wolves try to stay under the wind as we approach. And for the ones who like to fight from horseback get in as close as you think you need then wait our attack then come in.
as taliesin starts heading toward the targets
Elenzar pulls his crossbow out and makes sure its loaded. I really need one of those fancy ones I read about that reloads itself. He then slinks as quietly as he can after Taliesin. Trying to get a look at who it is they are approaching. I hope I can get a look at this guy at the edge of bow range because that is a long way to sneak quietly in the dark.
He stops annoyed with himself. He squats lower and looks in the direction of the camp to see if he has stirred a reaction.
The shapes on top of the hill seem to notice Elenzar as he tries to make his way up not too silently.
Low growling can be heard as though the shapes are large watchdogs as the one that stood paces around the hill on four legs.
The one that was lying down stands up as well and seems to shake loose.
Elenzar, David and forfax seem to think the shapes look like wolves or large guard dogs, without getting closer, Nathan can't really be sure as well, but he doubts that they are direwolves.
Nathan rides his horse up the hill until he is about 100 feet distance from the wolves and halts there waiting for you.
"Well, so much for a surprise. Best get ready."
Nathaniel grabs his mace and raises his shield.
taliesin will cast a shield spell and will stand along side of nathaniel
|
|
David, upon waking will check his belonging and make sure everything is in order.
When spotting the creatures on the hill, he watches as Elenzar tries to approach the wolves. He watches as he crushes a twig, that spooks the wolves. David will approach, within 100 feet, and begin chanting a spell, hoping the wolves will is not strong.
The wolves seem to get anxious seeing three of you close to 100 feet, but are not pursuing to attack you. Instead two other figures seem to be standing behind them, donning their armour and equipping their weapons.
One of them is actually forgoing his armour and carries something else towards the wolves on the hill.
Forfax and David can tell it's some sort of saddle, especially Forfax can recognise such a thing easily nowadays.
Elenzar moves closer to within crossbow range keeping pace with the others.
|
|
Forfax looks to the others "Careful everyone, we're not just dealing with regular wolves here, they have riders and their getting ready to mount." With that he gives Nathan a little nod and hopes he will follow Forfax's lead. He lowers his head, raises his bill, and charges hoping to take out one of the riders before it has a chance to mount.
As the figures had become appearant....
"Great, goblin cavaliers of sorts?"
When Forfax charges Elenzar closes the distance to the camp and takes a shot at the nearest target.
Well our riders should be more then a match for those who try to flee with the important stuff says taliesin moving closer toward the enemy
The one with the saddle in his hands yawns and falls asleep, while the other curses in Goblin aand grips his sword in two hands as the riders come up at them.
Elenzar's shot pierces the wolf's flank, just before Forfax charges at the goblin standing behind it.
Forfax's bill finds home in the shoulder of the goblin and wounds him in such a way that he loses his two-handed grip on the sword. Scout however is dragged down and is now prone.
The wolf yelps in pain and focuses his attention on the new threat.
The wolf attacks Nathan back and ravages at his horse.
He bites at Nathan's brown mare, but can't bring her down.
The goblin swings at Forfax, before growling something to the other wolf.
The other wof growls menacingly at Scout and draws nearer to him, he carefully circles the prone horse, ignorant of the goblin's yelling.
Round 2
Reload
Repeat
Elenzar shoots and hits the same wolf again, but this shot merely pierces the bottom of its jaw, the bolt still latched in it.
Forfax strikes the wolf hard and it whimpers, standing barely on its legs.
but the wounds have made him hesitant and Scout easily avoids his bite, the wolf however is not so quick and gets a horse bite in his neck in response.
The wolf falls to the ground, blood trickling out of many wounds in its body.