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Undari moves a bit further away from the greased owlbear, surprised that neither one have yet gone down from the pounding they have received. He swings at the orange owlbear with his scimitar, hoping to coordinate with Thorek and take down at least one of them.
Undari steps away from the downed owlbear and focuses his effort on the orange owlbear with Thorek, hoping they can take it down together.
Gaius does his best to remain a small target behind the boulder. "Nice swings gentlemen, keep it up! Take one down then the other!" he cheers from safety. Glad to have some people to fight with me instead of trying to hamper and run!
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Strafing to the side to try and keep the owlbear between himself and Undari, Thorek makes a halfhearted attempt to dodge, trustsing his armor and magic to keep him safe from the beast's claws. Coming to a halt at the edge of the grease the dwarf lashes out in a vicious sweep with dorn-dergar.
Lily lets fly another arrow and accurately hits the angry bear. "That's more like it," she beams out happily
Undari's scimitar delivers a near fatal blow to the one owlbear, but the beast manages one more roaring round of ineffective claws and beak before Thorek's latest swing finally cracks the creature's broad skull and lays it low.
The remaining owlbear rises and, fueled by its maddened, ever-growing fury, shrugs off the webbing and claws its way through the grease to lumber towards Thorek. As it moves, though, Lily's arrow sinks into the back of its neck, eliciting an enraged hooting.
An arrow from Bree and bolt from Boudra finally end the battle by felling the second owlbear.
As the second owlbear collapses, Thorek wills away the golden flames on his weapon and sighs.
"Any of you know if these things are good eating? We're near enough that we could dress them and get them back to Hidden Hope, even as big as they are."
"They will probably be a bit tough, but edible enough...and just about anything works in a soup. With a little help I can field dress them here and we can just take back the edible bits," estimates Undari.
"As much as I'm curious about the taste (I bet they taste like chicken!), do we have the time to do that now?"
"The hides should be useful too," Gaius points out, but only after leaving his Boulder of Safety due to his certainty the beasts have perished. "I agree with Bree, might be worth just sending word to the camp and letting them deal with the corpses. The trail has been kind to horses thus far, I could ride out and back likely faster than anyone else," he offers.
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Undari's assessment of owlbear meat is quite accurate, but he also recognizes that their musculature makes its difficult to separate edible cuts from the rest of the gristle and sinew.
Gaius recognizes that the feathery hides would make for cloaks that a collector might pay well for, if not for the fact that the creatures were matted with blood and dirt even before you slew them. The claws and beaks would also be of value to the right buyer.
Nodding at Gaius, Undari says, ”A reasonable compromise. I’ll get a good start with the field dressing and we can head out when you return.” Looking at Bree, he adds, ”If that is acceptable to you as well, Bree.”
"You know a bigger concern I have is why are they so close to our camp. Its not like I remember seeing them around before on our excursions," Lily says with a confused tone.
Bree nods to Undari. "It's not like I want them to go to waste."
"Hmm, perhaps the hobs are driving some of the local animals, intentionally or not, into new habitats. Or maybe we just missed them?"
"Good thinking Bree, that's probably correct," Thorek nods as Gaius mounts up. "Good work everyone, we made short work of them. With any luck these beasts are the only ones of their sort we run into!"
Noticing he is bleeding after the rush of battle leaves him, Undari tends to his wound before starting to dress the first owlbear. No sense risking an infection with an open wound and all...
By the time Gaius returns upon his magic steed, the owlbears have been field dressed and Undari has attended to the wound received in the heat of battle with the beasts. The carcasses are left for your followers to retrieve and bring back to Hidden Hope, but you yourselves continue slicing through the forest on the trail towards Fort Nunder.
You make it much further this time, ranging a full ten miles from Hidden Hope before your travels are interrupted again. You enter a clearing littered with several large, felled trees - each cleanly cut and shorn of its branches. A man's voice, cracked and hoarse, calls down from the lone lodgepole pine that still stands in the clearing.
"Halloo! I need some help up here!"
Tracing the voice with your eyes, you discover an elf perched among the scraggly branches of the narrow pine tree, sitting about 60 feet off the ground.
Immediately suspicious of one who would defile the forest so, Undari narrows his eyes and looks around for potential ambushers.
What the hell is he doing in a tree? Not eager to engage with strangers before the leader of the group does, Gaius continues to slink in the back. Seeing Undari's eyes scan the perimeter, he follows suit.
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Speaking quietly to Thorek, Undari says, "Assuming this is not some sort of trap, I can go fetch the treed elf...but I don't think he'll like it."
Undari looks at the downed trees--do the clean cuts seem to have been done by natural creature, or by the tool of a woodcutter?
Cupping his hands around his mouth, Thorek shouts at the elf from about sixty feet off. "You there! What happened here and why do you need help?"
Then he looks back at the others and shrugs.
The work of saws and axes is very evident upon the downed trees. Likewise, their branches have been removed cleanly with similar tools.
The treed elf shows desperate sincerity. His voice carries the sound of one who has been trapped without food or water for quite some time, and his face looks correspondingly haggard. Furthermore, you can see that his left hand is red and swollen, as though badly injured.
"My name is Vardalel. Vardalel Prennder," he replies to Thorek, pausing to rediscover his voice in his parched throat.
"I was part of a logging expedition out of Erages. We found a copse of rare wood here, and we were almost finished when a patrol of hobgoblins arrived. My colleagues fled while I was up here, removing branches before we cut the tree. I tried to get down but broke my wrist. I've been stuck up here for two days. I was beginning to think I would die up here."
Undari asks the others, ”Could I have a length of rope, please, knotted or with a loop if possible? Unless someone else has a good way to get him down.”
Assuming he is given one, Undari will start putting together a rope harness for the rescue attempt—a loop at the bottom and a knot or two for ease of holding on... If someone else has applicable magic, he will defer to them instead.
"Whooooooaaa now," Gaius says, moving up to stay Undari's hand. "We will need a better plan than that. The structural integrity of that tree is just about shot. Unless it gets reinforced or we manage to get up there without touching the tree, it'll come down when we put more weight on it," he explains while pointing to a thin, but precarious, crack in the trunk.
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"Good eye, Gaius. Do you have any magic that might work? I have one thing that might work, but it would be risky," Undari says after thinking awhile.
Thorek frowns, displeased at the delay in their journey. "Any chance you've got a spell of gentle-falling, Gaius? If not he could just jump and we'd heal him up."
Undari will start working on his herbs to make the proper poultice for the situation (it should take about half an hour, I think). If the others get the ropes working first, fine, or they can wait for him to finish.
Bree donates her rope to the effort.
"Thanks Bree, use mine too and tie these off together, would you?" Thorek wanders over to where Undari is sitting and peers over the druid's shoulder. "I won't pretend to know what you're up to. Is it to help our new acquaintance there?"
”Ah, yes Thorek. This is a herbal poultice that should allow the treed elf to climb down the trunk like a spider.”
He continues, pointing to another tincture already set out on the ground, ”As we are concerned about adding weight to the treetop and perhaps making it fall, I thought sending up a tincture for his arm and then the climbing poultice to apply to his hands and feet would allow him to come down on his own.”
Pointing at his cloak, he concludes, ”I hope to use this magic cloak to summon a few squirrels to do the delivery of the items up the tree—hopefully the added weight will not over stress its structure.”
Undari hastens to add, ”Of course, the idea with the ropes is good, too, if we have enough rope and nearby trees...”
Gaius gives himself a hearty facepalm. "Of course! I was thinking of my lack of spells for flight, I completely forgot that I have one for falling!" Turning to Undari, he continues. "Would you rather you use your poultice or my spell? It is all the same to me, the only real difference is time, I think."
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Gaius gives himself a hearty facepalm. "Of course! I was thinking of my lack of spells for flight, I completely forgot that I have one for falling!" Turning to Undari, he continues. "Would you rather you use your poultice or my spell? It is all the same to me, the only real difference is time, I think."
________
”That spell seems the best one to use, Gaius, if you can prepare it relatively quickly,” responds Undari.
Gaius nods to Undari and briefly scans his book. In a handful of seconds, feathers start to materialize and swirl gently around his hand. "Jump, my magic will save you!" he shouts up the tree. If the Elf does so, the feathers quickly leave his hand and begin to swirl around the Elf, carrying him gently down to the ground.
________
A look of incredulity crosses the elfin lumberjack's face for a moment before thirst and desperation quash his reluctance. Nevertheless, he cranes his neck to look around the trunk, warily eyeing the ground below, as he steels himself for a fateful jump.
Finally, with what little strength he has remaining in his good arm, Vardalel pushes off and lets himself slide from his perch. About halfway down, Gaius' quickly cast spell takes hold, and the elf begins to float like a feather the rest of the way.
He lands safely, although his fatigued legs buckle beneath him and he ends the softened fall toppled onto his right side.
Undari will move up and check the injured elf, pulling out his herbs and specialized healing tools in addition to supplying some fresh water for him to drink.
(DC 25 heals 6 hp plus 1 hp per patient’s level)
Magic can solve so many issues! Gaius is beaming as the spell performs as predicted, but the look on the Elf's face takes a little nick out of his pride. Doesn't take a Dwarven Cleric to see through that apprehension. Just because I don't have pointy ears doesn't mean my magic is any less magical...
Leaving Undari to tend to Vardalel's wound, he starts walking in circles to occupy his thoughts with the scenery while evicting those of the Elf's doubt.
________
Vardalel gulps down the water as though it could wash away the past two days. Undari recognizes that his left wrist is badly broken, but it has not developed an infection or blood poisoning. With his ministrations, the wound will heal normally, and the elf should regain use of his hand.
"Thank you. Thank you so much," he pants for breath after drinking deeply. "But it's probably a bad idea to tarry here long. Another hobgoblin patrol is liable to come through here. Well, it might've been the same patrol passing through repeatedly.
"Right after I first got trapped up there," he says, pointing back up the tree, "I saw the hobgoblins lure a band of rangers into a trap. They slaughtered all three of them. I...I wanted to shout a warning, but I knew the hobgoblins would just pick me off, too."
Hearing the tale from Vardalel, Undari's countenance darkens. He calls to Thorek and says, "This is our first clue about the rangers. Should we wait for the hobgoblins and make an ambush of our own, or should we just bury the victims and move on?"
Turning to Vardalel, Undari asks, "How often do the patrols come by, and what kind of trap did they set to ensnare the rangers? Do you know where these rangers came from?"
"The patrols came in squads of four every eighteen hours, I'd say. I don't know if they were different patrols; all those hobs look grotesquely similar. When they caught the rangers, though, there were six of them.
"Five of them lurked in that shrub-lined dell over yonder," Vardalel points to the edge of the clearing, "While the sixth lured in the rangers. Once they were within the clearing, the other hobgoblins leapt out and slaughtered them. Outnumbered two to one and caught unawares in the open, the rangers never stood a chance."
Following the elfin lumberjack's directions, you find the dell where the hobgoblins hid - and where they left the bodies of the slain rangers. Their bodies still wear the gray-and-green ponchos distinctive to the Chernasardo rangers, although they are quite soaked in drying blood. Investigating further, you find that the Ironfangs stripped the bodies of most of their gear and wealth, but they overlooked a potion and six arrows in a concealed sheaf upon one of the rangers.
"How long ago was this, Vardalel?" Thorek walks around the ambush site, checking the hobgoblins' hiding place and any tracks that can be found.
"My worry is that there might be another camp, and more beyond that. If there are we should start thinking about relocating Hidden Hope."
Undari will cast Detect Magic and try to identify the potion. If those hidden arrows are magical, he will try to identify those as well.
(and if applicable)
Carefully, Gaius begins relieving the rangers of their cloaks from five feet away and anything else that could identify the corpses as members of the Chernasardo. Once the cloaks have been pulled off of the bodies, he lays them in a pile and begins cleaning and folding them. "Since we're looking for the Rangers and enemies of the Hobgoblins anyways, might be a nice show of good will, eh? Do we have time to bury the bodies?"
When Thorek mentions Hidden Hope, his face darkens a little. "That... that might, uh, be best. But that could probably, maybe, you know, wait until we get back, um, right?" I don't think I could get there and back, even on a horse, without catching something's attention. I was lucky the first time I did it!
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"It was about two days ago, on the first night after I became trapped," the lumberjack replies.
Thorek finds the overlapping tracks of the hobgoblins easy to find and trace. They lead right in and out of the dell where they left their victims, then onward out of the clearing.
The potion and arrows all radiate magical auras, and working together, you are able to identify their properties.
"If you need some time to...bury the bodies, I could still use a moment to recover before departing," Vardalel says with downcast eyes. "I feel a great shame that I did not warn them, so I wish to see them properly buried."
Speaking quietly to Thorek and Gaius, Undari says, "If the ranger fort is anything like it was described, it could be a good defensible location -- unless the Ironfangs already know where it is."
Having inspected the items, Undari checks for hobgoblin tracks after consulting with Thorek about what he found.
"We don't have enough information to make any decisions yet. We'll stick with the current plan," Thorek answers Undari. "We have time to bury them."
Walking over to where Vardalel is resting, Thorek hesitates a second. "Do you live around here, Vardalel? We've a hidden encampment where the survivors from Phaendar have set up. They could--we. We could use as much help as we can get and you seem to know the area. If you need a safe place to stay Hidden Hope could be that place."
"Yeah I'm with Thorek. We don't know anything about the status of the fort and the rest of the army doesn't know about our other camp. It would be foolish to not figure out what is up with it. Do you think anyone is even around to help us?," Lily says while slouching up against a tree.
”Hard to say, Lily,” responds Undari. ”Let us pray to Erastil that some yet survive, and we can help them.”
Of course, Thorek,” says Undari, ”We will have to see the situation at the Fort before we can propose any relocation...perhaps I am too optimistic about the chances of our Ranger friends,” he concludes, looking sadly down at the corpses.
Undari silently starts to help with the burial process.
Undari follows the tracks that Thorek found in and around the dell. After slaying the rangers, the Ironfangs apparently departed to the southwest.
"My home's in Erages, on the far side of Lake Encarthan, back in Kyonin" Vardalel says, ruefully shaking his head. "The plan was to sell most of the timber in Longshadow, then take our profits along with any rare woods back home."
He looks around the clearing, then slaps his uninjured palm upon his thigh in feeble anger.
"They took my fiddle, too!" he exclaims, as though this one indignity overshadows all the others.