The Ironfang Invasion: Fangs of War

Game Master vayelan

Bree nods in agreement.

Please make 'survival' checks for the next day, as you travel from the area around the wolverine cave.

Whoever (if anyone) is going to stay up the night on watch?

Thorek is quiet and withdrawn, brooding on the death of Innis and the implications thereof. Despite his melancholy, a bit of luck in the form of discovering a large wild berry patch lifts his spirits a little, though he remains subdued.
Survival: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

As night falls the dwarf quietly volunteers to take the watch. "I figure I won't be doing much sleeping tonight anyway, might as well put my night vision to good use."

Day 13 survival: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

Cedric is far too preoccupied with all the murder and the future to be of much actual use in providing food or shelter for the day. This, in turn, only makes him feel more anxious. As a result, he spends a much larger amount of time praying to Erastil for guidance than normal.

I think I need to make sure I rest normally, to fully recover my ability to help others recover.

Back near camp, Caladra heads towards her stream to fish in peace.

survival: 1d20 ⇒ 11

She returna to camp with her meager catches a few hours later. As the day winds down, Caladra looks for the others. "I have no problem taking a watch if needed. But understand if you rather me rest. I'm not the most... perceptive."

Cyrioul divvies up the tasks among the rest of the townspeople, and retasks Guinnep, Maighrit, Reta, Rose, Sera, and Thor to other duties. "You've been staying up part of every night for the last two weeks. We're going to take some of that burden from you for a couple days here. We'll have you assist Aubrin with the shelters, or Jet with foraging. Thank you for all you've done!"

Cyrioul then turns to Thorek, Caladra, Lily, and Bree. "The beauty of Cedric's faith is that you all get to enjoy the beauty of a night awake in the woods, keeping an eye on all of us, then pressing right on through to the next day. I'm sure you'll have a lovely time keeping each other awake."

Thorek watches at Cyrioul issues new instructions to the guards. "Someone should tell them its not their fault," he murmurs. "Them getting taken off the watch, right after Innis is murdered in the night? They'll perceive it as them having failed us or we no longer trust them, even if we didn't mean to imply that. I've a leaden tongue, but they should know it's not their fault."

"Good point... I'll have a chat with them."

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22

Bree chats with the 'now relieved of duty guards' and assures them that it's not their fault. "We really just want to give you guys a break. It's just time for someone else to share that burden."

While, initially, some looks are exchanged between the refugees, Bree's assurances certainly put their minds at ease.

1d20 + 14 ⇒ (11) + 14 = 25
1d17 ⇒ 17

In the morning, those sleeping near Reta notice a blood stain. Reta is nowhere to be found. After some searching near the campsite, her body, minus her head, is found partially hidden in some brush.

Cedric stands perfectly still, an expression of utter horror on his face. He can't help that this is his fault, and that he's leading these people to a bad end in the woods. He can't even bring himself to examine the body yet, he's too busy wrestling with the notion that they might have been harboring a murderer in their midst all along and he wasn't paying close enough attention to notice.

Cyrioul puts a hand on Cedric's shoulder. "I'm sorry, my friend, but we must now tell everyone. It will set neighbor against neighbor, but I don't think there is anything for it."

He reconfigures his ledgers, and prepares for another day in the woods.

"Nononononono..." Two headless bodies in two days is a lot to take in.

"I'm tempted to tie everyone up at night. Who ever the hell is doing this... how are they removing the head?" like is it cut or torn free?

Thorek also wants to thoroughly scour the area for tracks, taking a 20 for 27. Finding nothing twice in a row suggests whoever it is has Trackless Step or something similar.

The heads were severed after death with a short blade -- such as a dagger or short sword -- with vigorous hacking.

Thorek spends hours looking for tracks, and Thorek finds tracks to the body from the camp, and from the body off into the woods.

Thorek can spend the rest of the day trying to track whoever has done this, but, he cannot take 20 to actively track. If you go as a group, others can attempt to aid his survival checks, even if they don't have ranks in survival, since aid another is a DC 10.

Boudra steps forward and touches Thorek on the arm after he finds the initial set of tracks. Let me help you, she signs. I've come into these woods often to look for herbs and supplies. And, she smiles faintly, I'm quiet.

If he permits her, Boudra takes point, a steely glint in her eyes.

I think I might actually have the best Survival at +10. If so, happy to take the lead.

"Finally, something I can wrap my head around," Caladra says and attempta to help the others follow the tracks.

survival: 1d20 ⇒ 8

Thorek immediately alerts the others when he discovers the tracks leading away into the woods. Letting Boudra take the lead, he follows along at her side as a second pair of eyes. Survival (Tracking Aid): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

As the tracking group moves away from the camp, Boudra presses ahead with determination. I can't fail...it looks like it might even not be someone from the camp!

Survival (with one aid another): 1d20 + 10 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 10 + 2 = 30

Cedric begins to feel hopeful when the tracks that Thorek finds lead away from camp. As horrible as it is to lose two of his charges in as many days, if it had to be done he would prefer to find that it was an outside force and not a sleeper agent. Outside forces are easier to deal with. He follows along as Boudra and Thorek lead, staying quiet and hoping that they don't find a familiar face at the end of the trail.

Bree breathes a sigh of relief that the tracks go away from the camp. As much as she wants revenge though, she's also feeling a tad paranoid after the last attack. "Should some of us stay with the main group? I'd hate for us to be lured away by some sort of ruse."

"Maybe so, Bree, and the trail might be a huge loop back toward the camp. If so, we should ask around, see if anyone went missing for an extended period."

Hearing Thorek's report on the weapon of choice for the beheading, Cyrioul goes back through and re-takes inventory of all the weapons they have claimed from the Ironfang Legion.

"I can stay behind with another, more competent fighter, if you wish. They can help me make sure we have all our weapons accounted for."

Perception (Checking for weapons inventory, make sure nothing is missing): 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5

"I can stay with Cyr. If we are attacked, we'll use one of the thunder stones to sound the alarm. Good hunting."

"Thank you, Bree. Can you give me a hand with looking over these weapons? I feel like I might be missing something..."

(Especially with that roll >.<)

Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (13) + 5 = 18
"Sure. I can take a look."

At the camp, no weapons appear to be missing, but, remember, that you have issued weapons to many of the refugees.

Everyone who is following Boudra needs to give me a stealth check.

As Boudra gets away from the camp, without her even noticing, shadows begin to swarm around her, cloaking her in darkness as she grimly follows the murderer's trail.

Using cloak of darkness. Please let me know how much time has passed when the stealth check becomes relevant so I know how many hours are used up![/

[ooc]Forgot encumbrance...

Stealth: 1d20 + 6 + 2 - 3 ⇒ (9) + 6 + 2 - 3 = 14

stealth: 1d20 - 3 ⇒ (20) - 3 = 17

Feeling ar home in the forest, Caladra is able to move through the brush with relative ease.

of coarse i roll a 20 on a skill check

Thorek moves through the trees with the others, but while the dwarf is surprisingly nimble his lack of woodcraft is obvious, and is armor makes an uncomfortable amount of noise.
Stealth: 1d20 - 2 ⇒ (9) - 2 = 7

At the camp, no weapons appear to be missing, but, remember, that you have issued weapons to many of the refugees.

"Hmm, seems to be in order. Do you have any other ideas, Bree? Should we check on the ones that have been issued? See if any have seen recent use? I'm not sure how anyone would prove that, though..."

stealth: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (2) + 8 = 10

Lily is pretty jumpy and nervous in regards to what is going on.

Heh, did I mention the forensics class I had?
So there's 2 ways I can think of offhand barring modern tech. 1) when swords hit bone, they tend to chip or deform slightly. We could do a REALLY close examination of each blade. But, we can't distinguish new from old damage, so that's dicey. 2) bugs. No matter how much you try to wipe blood off of blades, traces are going to still stick, at least until the proteins degrade. Assuming nobody has heated their blades (which you don't want to do normally), insects, like flies, will be more attracted to blades which have fresher blood proteins on them. This is actually one of the most ancient forensic science techniques. I'm not sure what kind of knowledge check it would be to reason that out. I'm guessing knowledge nature? Possibly knowledge history based on someone else having done it in the past? So we would lay the blades out and see which ones insects go to more often. This, however, won't distinguish animal vs. human blood.
The short answer is, it's hard to find, let alone prove, anything. All that being said, I don't want to use OOC knowledge to solve IC problems.

Bree rubs her chin thoughtfully. "Well, we could take weapons away from people for a bit, perhaps under the guise of sharpening them? Perhaps one still has fresh blood on it. But that won't help us if we can't tell if a human was killed versus one of our flock. We could also check people's clothes for recent or unexplained blood stains."

1d20 + 7 - 10 ⇒ (20) + 7 - 10 = 17

Those of you following Boudra come upon a small campsite. It has all the look of one just immediately vacated. A bedroll is still on the ground.

Feeling the bedroll, Boudra feels it is still warm, as if someone heard you coming, and left hurriedly.

Do the blankets/tent/whatever consist of woven cloth, animal skins? Is there anything to suggest it belongs to an Ironfang hobgoblin as opposed to any other trapper with serial-killer tendencies?

"Well...this seems to settle that the killer wasn't one of ours. But who are they?" the dwarf helps pick through the camp for anything that might identify the camp's maker, or failing that anything valuable.
Perception Aid: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14

" Probably Ironfang. Told you they wouldn't think twice of using this tactic. "

"I admit, I'm relieved to learn that the murderer is an outside enemy and not a traitor...but it only underscores the urgency of finding a defensible place to hole up. We should get back to camp, whoever was here may decide to come back with a full squadron of Ironfangs now that they've been found out."

"Indeed," Cedric agrees with Thorek, feeling such overwhelming relief. Turning so that Boudra can read his lips he asks her if she can tell which way their quarry went when he vacated the campsite.

"It would be very bad to have tracked the enemy here only for them to circle back on us while we're away. It's a good thing we didn't all come."

"Right - good idea. We haven't been forced to slaughter any of the animals recently, so we shouldn't find much. I wonder if the others have found anything." Cyrioul starts talking with each of the townspeople alongside Bree to see if he can find anything.

That's crazy cool stuff, Bree! Thanks for sharing. :)

Caladra growls in frustration. "We were so close!" She listens to the others concsrns before saying, "We should press on before he warns his squadron." he words carried a rash tone of one thinking more out of emotions rather than logic.

"Caladra, we're badly outnumbered, we can't be sure that while we're chasing down this bastard that other scouts or patrols won't discover our encampment. Safer to keep the whole group moving and not be where they expect us to be. Let's take anything we can use here and destroy the rest."

Facing Boudra, he says, "I'll follow you lead, which way did they go?" Take 10 on the Aid Another for Survival, total 17

While searching the camp, you come upon a nearby hollow, where you find a grisly sight. Four skulls -- all human, tied together. Two of them look freshly cleaned.

Do you follow the trail?

All right. At this point I'm with Caladra. We need to stop this now.

Blood for blood, she thought. Caladra sneered at her own thoughts as well as the sight of the skulls. Iomedae demands justice for the crimes done to those we watch over," she says, starting to feel clearer. She needed to contol this more. She wouldn't be a slave to her emotions again.

"With respect, we should return to camp and flee. I'm handy in a fight but slow, if our quarry decides to go for reinforcements we won't catch them in time, not while tracking a hunter who knows they're being pursued. In a few hours we could be overrun, our best defense is to be gone before that happens."

"I disagree," Cedric rebuts. "Our antagonist is clearly humanoid and clearly intelligent. It found us, and there's little reason to believe that it won't again if it wants to. And it's quiet enough that it can murder us with impunity even if we're watching for it. This leads me to believe that we should put every effort into finding it and ending it right now, or at least continue trying until we come up with a concrete reason to stop. We can't afford to continue losing people."

What Thorek's trying to get at is that you have to move at least half-speed when tracking, while our quarry has no speed restrictions. Barring it tripping and breaking its leg, or finding an ambush position, we're not going to catch up. Esp because I'm a dwarf, if I aid Boudra we're stuck at *my* half-speed.

"Cedric, I got these burns because I didn't know when not to rush into a fight. We can't follow the trail as quickly as our enemy can flee. Our foe could be getting reinforcements, he could be looping back towards the camp and we wouldn't know until long after he did it! I want to keep them safe as much as you do, but the greatest danger to them right now is that they aren't on the move! We'll be vulnerable as long as we're in the forest, this foe can come at us from any direction--but if we get into a cave system we'll be as safe as we reasonably can be"

"You raise an excellent point, Thorek," says Cedric, thoughtfully. He hadn't considered the speed at all. "We'll just have to make sure that we're extra vigilant. It should help to know that we're defending against an outsider rather than a traitor. Perhaps Cyrioul has some magic that can help us guard our flank and reduce the amount of our perimeter that has to be actively covered until we can hunker down in a place with a discrete number of entrances."

Boudra looks torn, but ultimately nods in agreement with Thorek. Let's make for those troglodyte caves of which we heard tell, she signs. At least there we'll know where people are approaching from.

As she gives up, the shadows surrounding her slowly melt away. I'm assuming only 1 hour used up unless you tell me otherwise, Techno!

Perhaps we should invest in some Craft (Traps) to construct snares and alarms? Could come in all sorts of hand in a guerilla-themed campaign.

Completing their inventory, Cyrioul sighs and says, "Well, nothing I've found here seems to be implicatable. Let's make sure everything is packed to move. We might have to go in a hurry when the others return."