Istiel and the elves gracelessly climb trees 40' back from where Septimus advances to to cast his spell. Unfortunately, the bears are spread out so that the mother and only one of the cubs is affected.
The cub flops back asleep, and the mother sniffs the air suspiciously, making a low growl of warning that gets the other cub on alert.
She paws the sleeping cub awake, scenting the air, and the three disappear into the forest.
Hassan waves with his sword to signal the elves to loose their arrows, "At least we got one of them."
He shoots a glance at the soldier beside him, "If she breaks this way meet the charge then try to surround her."
Septimus will stay behind the soldiers after casting the spell, his quarterstaff looking kind of weak against a bear.
On seeing Hassan's signal, Istiel shouts "মায়ের উপর আলগা!", instructing her comrades to fire on the mother bear.
She knocks an arrow and carefully fires at the bear as it moves over to its sleeping cub.
The mother bear looks up in consternation, hearing arrows whipping through the brush around her. She prods the sleeper awake, and the three disappear into the forest, heading straight towards Hassan and one of his soldiers.
Walton just shakes his head and squints as he stares at the water surrounding them, as if expecting an attack at any moment.
Day 9 the 10th of Gozran
While Gaross is no warrior the talk of shark-jawed natives and hostile fey has worried him. His tools don't make very good weapons. His hammer is too light and short, and the few chisels he has are designed to cut stone not flesh. He is determined though that if he has to fight he will give a good accounting of himself. In order to do this though he needs a decent weapon, and since he has no gold to buy one and there are none to be bought even if he had gold, he decides to make one.
After he finishes his work on the forge for the day he walks along the stream searching among the rocks and boulders there for a large peice of Granite or Basalt.
to find a good piece of stone that will suit his purpose
Once he finds a suitable peice of stone he takes it back to the camp with him to work on the next day.
Istiel shouts as the bear approaches. "Move back some, Hassan! We need a better shot! Have your soldiers move in behind it, flank it!"
Istiel and Hassan, you're up.
The flanking soldiers crash through the undergrowth, moving to intercept the bears and the one by Hassan falls back 15' looksing frightened, but he raises his cutlass, prepared to stand his ground.
Round 1
Istiel knocks another arrow in her bow, steadily breathing outward as she lines up a shot on the advancing mother bear.
Round 1
Hassan shouts to the soldier beside him as the bears break towards them, "Fall back, give the elves their space! Stay behind us Septimus!"
Retreating a short distance, Hassan raises his scimitar in both hands, ready to meet the bear's advance if needed.
As they make steady progress through bay, Cueta scans the shoreline looking for any threats. Her thoughts meander to the coming fight, and she turns to Manari. "Manari, can you tell me everything you recall of the shark-teeth? We know they came at night, when you had fires lit. We encountered ours under similar circumstances. Did they display any tactics, or did they just charge at your people? Were they armed, like ours, with stone axes? Did you ever encounter them during the day?"
Gair looks up from his diligent planing, "Do not fear Walton. There are many who will stand between yourself and any dangers we encounter. You'll be on your way back to Newspring soon enough. Just be ready to pick us up when the time comes."
The mother bear, hearing movement in the forest all around, pauses and growls aggressively. The cubs come to a stop behind her. The mother cuts to the left, towards Newspring and towards two of the intercepting soldiers.
A snap of teeth that should have ripped the woman's throat out misses when he flinches back and stumbles over a root. The cubs use their mama as cover and dash around behind her.
Septimus will stay back and only move forward if someone is seriously injured.
Round 2?
Istiel orders the elves to fire another volley as she knocks her own arrow, firing at the bear.
Round 2
Hassan curses seeing the hail of arrows failing to find their mark. Shouting for the soldier to follow, Hassan rushes forwards as fast as the undergrowth will allow.
"Strike and fall back to us! Try to pull them this way!", he shouts to the two soldiers engaged with the bear.
Meanwhile:
Manari seems nervous and preoccupied as the group sails across the bay. The memories of her first days in this new continent seem to weigh heavily on her. When Cueta speaks she rouses herself and frowns in thought before speaking.
"Axes and some threw javelins," she says. "For the most part, they simply charged and attacked." She thinks a bit more. "I don't think their intent was to kill us all. Not at first, anyway. They came in small group and seemed more interested in capturing than killing, until we moved into the forest. That was when they started to come at us harder.
Meanwhile, on the other boat:
Walton listens to Gair and gives a bleak laugh.
"Sailing the boat is my worry," he says. "I'll be where I'm supposed to be. You concentrate on keeping those things off of us."
Newspring:
The two soldiers find themselves engaged by the mother bear, attacking bravely but overwhelmed by her ferocity. The first is taken to the ground, mauled horribly, and the other looks a bit sickly. The cubs move past the melee, rushing into the forest towards Newspring.
The third soldier charges alongside Gair, and the other two rush towards the combat from their flanking position.
Arrows fly through the trees, one finally striking the attacking bear, who bellows in protest.
Hassan continues to push through the trees to reach the bear.
The desert warrior shouts loudly and tries to draw the bear's attention away from the remaining soldier.
Septimus moves forward staying behind the soldiers trying to get to the badly wounded one.
Istiel takes the moment while the bear is mauling a solider to line up a solid shot, firing into the mess below.
"Manari, we're they able to capture anyone? If so, how many? Did they take the captured towards the beach? The forest?"
"Which direction did they attack you from? We saw some of the bastards leave on canoes as we approached the beach. Now that I think about it, it seems very likely that they have a settlement on the coast, further to the east. Perhaps, if we are unable to trap any shark-teeth, we should scout along the coastline."
"I wonder why they got more aggressive when you went into the forest? I guess their settlement could be in that direction as well, and you were unknowingly getting closer to their children or treasure. Or perhaps, a site that is holy to them, or enemies that they don't want us knowing about? I suppose that we will know soon enough."
Bear Damage=18
Screaming in fury as his comrade falls, the soldier slashes at the bear with his longsword in a two-handed grip, drawing blood. Hearing more and more enemies approaching and wounded twice, the bear takes a last swipe at the man and begins to retreat. The soldier, though bloodied by the beast's attack, manages to draw blood again as the creatures dashes away.
The other soldiers continue to rush towards them, as arrows fly uselessly through the trees.
"Take the far side!, Hassan shouts to the soldier with him, chasing after the bear to come up on the opposite side of the beast from his partner.
"I can't be sure," Manari says. "When the first people were taken, we were so shocked we really had no idea if they were alive or dead. We heard screams, but it was dark. There was no way of telling where they went, or where they came from."
She sighs. "The truth is that we had little time to think about their motives, until we reached the cave, and then... all we had was conjecture. As they came at us by water, I thought maybe their attacks in the forest were an attempt to herd us back to their chosen hunting grounds." She shivers.
Once septimus reaches the badly wounded man he casts heal light wounds.
Ben frowns at his brothers negativity and moves to the bow to watch Vallen carve on the oars. After watching the Dwarf carve for awhile he asks You are having a forge built aren't you Vallen? . . . . When you have it built would it be possible to for you to create halfling sized tools and weapons?
Round 4
Istiel sees the bear begin to flee towards Newspring. She calls out to the elves to fire one more volley at the mother bear before it gets out of range, and then to take to the ground and chase after it.
Vallen carefully picks at the oar with the edge of a knife, adding texture to the cliff face. "Wood gives up too easily. Stone is strong and proud, it makes every effort to resist the form you attempt to give it. Take a knife to stone, why you'll be making a new knife. Take a knife to wood, and its feeble attempt to put splinters in your hands are but the last gasps of rebellion." Looking up as Ben approaches, the dwarf nods.
"Oh aye, Gaross should be smoothing down the foundation right about now. Going to have a right good stone floor, one you can roll a coin across the whole room without it so much as jumping. I can easily make some tools for you and your family, Ben, it's all about ratios and proportions. I'm not trained at making weapons or armor, but given our circumstances... I believe I'll have to do some studying on the matter with Horn'tos."