"Sunset, I'm good either way, but I could certainly go onward a bit more as well."
"It might be a good idea to find a place that only has one exit to defend. Although that would leave us trapped if attack wouldn't it. I don't know, I'm not a strategist, maybe Gyldyr or Koridur would have a better idea about tactics and what would be best. I just don't see us being able to defend too many point of entry well."
Sunset does yawn and stretch, flinging her arms up and out with little droplets of water flying away.
"Yaaaaaahhhh...I is tired an' all..." She sighs and then simply begins unbuttoning her shirt.....
And 'Yipes' a little when her freind drops her sleeping blanket over her head.
"I swear," Her voice comes from under the large blanket slightly muffled, "Every time I goes an' gets ready fer bed, m' blanky just leaps out an' falls all over me!" And the mound of blanket continues to wriggle and squirm as the Blond haired Elf continues what ever it is that she is doing.
This is usually the time when players post watches, sleep and schedule guard times; and the gm rolls for wandering guards/monsters and springs any planned things....
"Well looks like we're staying here Gloisil says with a slight grin." He really is starting to feel more comfortable around those that are in the party.
"I'll take first watch if no one objects."
A muffled "Okeys!" Comes from under the blanket that is Sunset. After a few more shifts and wiggles a pile of clothes pops out and then Sunset's head emerges from the top.
"Okeys, then. Where are we goin' t' make th' fire place?" She asks. "Last time I went swimmin', I wus in'a place t' take me duds off first. So's I think I be needin'...." Her voice trails off and a rosy colour rises in her cheeks. "Um...never mind, I remembered somat I fergot..agin'..." She ducks her head and scoots over to snuggle against Desidera.
There is pleanty of rubbish to burn; scraps of wood; bones and the like at the ruined fortification accross the main hall. The Ork and goblin will collect some; how many watches will you have and for how long. figure it is about 4pm now; so you will all get hungry for dinner fairly soon; then you probably want to stay hidden until roughtly dawn if you assume goblinoids are mostly nocturnal.
I am guessing most of the party will be up until 8 or 9 pm game time; fixing their gear and whatnot and watching while some sleep.
The small fire that Desidera was tending was not something that she really knew how to make bigger, since there was not that much fuel to build something really large and sustain it for any decent span of time. So she had some meager flickering flames going in an alcove, but if they wanted something large, they would have to find more fuel.
Desidera really doubted that anyone particularly wanted to go forage after the encounter with the thing in the water. Absently, she fingered the pearls at her throat that Sunset had brought from Gloisil, and shifted a little so she and Sunset would be more comfortable.
Really, she knew she couldn't sleep completely, since she had to watch over everyone, and make sure there were not any particular difficulties in healing, or that there were not any late effects from the hurts that the... thing in the water had inflicted. Even still, her eyes drooped, even as she thought that.
"Sec'nd... watch", she managed, waving a hand at Gloisil before she snuggled up to Sunset for a slight nap.
Gloisil pulls out his kettle and spoon, and with some water and a few food items, sets it on the fire and with a few magic words, soon has a delicious smelling vegetable stew simmering in the pot, enough for everyone.
Once it's ready he says, "Alright everyone dinner's ready, come and get it."
Once everyone has eaten, and things are cleaned up, he prepares his bedding and sits down to contemplate their task until it is time for him to take the first watch when the other party members start sleeping.
Sunset's eyes open before her tummy makes a sound at the smell of the warm stew. Still wrapped in her blanket and Desidera she does her best to simply shift the both of them closer to the warmth and food.
"Thank'e Gloisil." She manages quietly, still sounding sleepy, to her freind the Gnome.
|
Koridur takes his bowl and thanks Gloisil promptly. Eating with distant eyes he thinks back on the days events. He thinks about this new magic blade and what effects it could possibly have. Could it hurt him? Could it make him hurt his friends? He didn't know the answers to all those questions but one thing he does know; if he doesn't use it, his new found friends could be in peril. He shakes his head at the thought of anyone getting hurt and remembers his duty in the shield wall.
"I'll take any watch no one else wants. Let me know what I can do to help."
About the weapon; not currently; perhaps more will be apparent when it is used.
Kurg:"I guard some; now or later?"
Mox: "I make sleepy guard mojo"
he goes to the entrance and set up a pile of sticks, bones, and rocks from his bag, very precariously pirched on one another; he chants over his jenga style tower of trash all the while; then sprinkles powered dust on it; look at it critically; nods; then goes to a corner and is nearly instantly asleep, though he apparently mutters in his sleep and shakes his staff.
ok; GM note. Perhaps I am not being clear.
in a dungeon there is wandering monster rolls every two hours; thus if the party beds down for 8 hours; that is 4 rolls of a possible occurance; so, as GM; I need to know who, if anyone, is on watch at all times; by my calculation; it is early evening for the party; so, there are probably about 12 hours the party will bed down if they wish to move when the goblins are least active; so thus; I need to know the watch schedule and generaly who is awake at what time, otherwise we will proceed with the assumption that those few who meantioned watch will watch a bit then sleep so the party will have many hours with no watch.
Gloisil gives a nod and brief smile to each of his companions as they come and get some of the dinner he has prepared. After everyone has been served, he then sits down next to Sunset and Desidera.
"Desidera, soon this will all be over and the world safe again, or as safe as it can be. Then we can all meet at my village under the moon and stars and share another meal together," Gloisil says to the young girl.
Then flashing a smile in Koridur's direction he teasingly says, "And we can quit pretending to be a dwarf, living in dark hole."
"Gnomes are used to living in dwarf tunnels under the ground, but I think for a human it would take a long time to get used to not seeing the sky."
ok; just waiting for other guard watches; it would be nice if someone took the leader position of the party and set for a list of who is on what watch; that way I can just skip to the watch in question if and when there is an event.
If you like; we can use the same watch/sleeping order each time; or change as party deams necessary.
Elves, regardless of what kind; all do a mediditation of remembrance; thus they can do this sitting or laying down; even standing; but is much like sleep as you are unaware of your surroundings while you drift through memories. Elves; living hundreds of years have a whole lot of memories. It is theorized that this meditative remembrance keeps the brain healthy and keeps the elf grounded in this plane of reality; ie in harmony with nature. In computer terms; think of it as a nightly data compression, defrag, and reboot and update server connections.
Elven bodies dont need rest or regeneration like other races.
Gyldyr doesn't volunteer for a watch unless specifically asked and immediately goes to sleep.
"Well everyone, how about a suggestion for an order for keeping watch. If we all took a turn we would each only need to watch about an hour and a quarter."
"My suggested order would be for Kurg to take the first watch, then myself, then Mox, then Koridur, then Desidera, then Gyldyr, and finally Sunset."
"If we were watching over a shorter rest period then we would only need to watch a little over an hour each. Anyway what do ya all think, does this seem equitable?"
A brown arm and hand emerge from the blanketed bundle that is Sunset and Desidera. It waves, gives a 'Thumbs up' and then disappears back under the protective warmth of the folds.
With the agreement of everyone on the posting of a guard, and with the others turning in, Gloisil says, "Sleep well y'all, or as well as you can."
With the realization that his turn to watch is not far away, and that he will have plenty of time to rest after his watch, Gloisil stays awake during Kurg's watch. He spends his time considering the task that they have been given and what he has been through already.
Sure thing; such stuff is up to the players; I just have the environments responses :)
"Well everyone, how about a suggestion for an order for keeping watch. If we all took a turn we would each only need to watch about an hour and a quarter."
"My suggested order would be for Kurg to take the first watch, then myself, then Mox, then Koridur, then Desidera, then Gyldyr, and finally Sunset."
"If we were watching over a shorter rest period then we would only need to watch a little over an hour each. Anyway what do ya all think, does this seem equitable?"
Kurg takes first watch as others drift off; he seems resolute in his stance in the doorway that nothing will pass him; the doorway and the room darkens somewhat....
Koridur
you wake up with a start; realizing you have way overslept your guard shift; beinng a dwarf and very familiar with underground time passage; you realize that it is what should be Gyldyr's shift. Sitting up a little; there are three someone intersting things.
1) There is a strange darkness in the room your sleeping with the others; and swirls of blacker than black darkness from which eerie soft howls and growls sometimes come from.
2) Apparently Kurg; after waking up Mox, who is gone, has bedded down under/beside the blankets behind the "Biscuit" Sunset who as Desidera whose shift was completely missed in front of her.
3)There is a knight/warrior you seem to have a passing bleary recollection of standing in the doorway. Apparently on guard, he looks tired; he sees you sit up and nods.
Elsdyn; hehe may have misspelled that yet again.
After a survey with the Ranger up top; you guys manage to find several severely wounded Ork and Dwarves among the carnage of probably 1500 dead goblins and 300 or so dead Ork and Dwarf. Curiously, of the 6 dwarves that lived; 4 dont wear anythings besides tattooes, wild haircuts and bizzarre hair styles and most of them are grumbling that the goblins should have brought some trolls to get the job done right. 9 orks survived probably due to their very heavy armor and a quiet banter of competition is between them and the 2 normal looking dwarves about the fight; Dwarves say they won because they killed more gobs; Orks say they won because more of their troop survived; yet, each speaks to the other with respect born of shared blood of warriors surviving a very very tuff fight.
The Ranger says he can tend to the wounded easily enough by himself, but fears packs of ghouls will come soon; so he will move these wounded out of the area; but you should go back and check on the party inside as they might be in trouble and if they loose; this whole bloodbath was without any victory.
As you head back down into the dungeon; a few fae more or less join you, sprites by the look of them all guirded for war, they are more or less leading the way. You run into the Halfling Bob wandering the halls; you know halfling wanderlust, he came upon you and said hi or you never would have seen him; you update him on the situation; so he says he will see what he can find...uh; provisions, among those up top, as healing heroes need to ....eat a lot.
so you move down pass the machine rooms that you were familiar with down a long stair down to a broken tower; what was once a strongpoint for the dwarves; read back a a few pages for description. Beyone that is a wide hall. The fae are waiting on the other side; glowing softly and seem to be arguing. As you join them you see the party all asleep in this room with a well; smells like a lot of rot in here and lot of garbage pulled out of the cistern that is here. The fae seem to be arguing about the Black Ork sleeping with the Sea Elf arms all akimbo; some are for; some are against; they are still arguing when the strange looking goblin that was with the ork, dwarf and party returns down the hallway. he looks very dazed and is limping; trailing some blood and some awful smell. he looks at you with very vague recognition; beds down in the great hall against the wall about 10 feet from the room entrance and quickly goes to sleep, his belly so full it is distended.
Seeing nothing for it; you stand guard until someone relieves you, your a bit tired. The Fae's arguement ends in a huff and their party splits; half goes in one direction; half the other.
Elsdyn eyes the group one at a time and seeing they seem to not be the worst for wear he looks back over at the goblin. The limp has him a bit worried but since the goblin did not seem concerned nor did it act as if anyone had followed it he decides to just mention it to Desidera when she awakes. Better to let a full fledged healer look at things when they are rested.
Even though a bit tired, he feels it is unlikely they would not have left a guard deliberately. Therefore their bodies must need it far more than he and this would not be the first time he would go without sleep for a few days. So he positions himself at the best spot he can find to intercept any enemies that might appear and stands at the ready, his concerns upon his sleeping comrades safety rather than his own bodies signals for sleep.
Koridur?....
Ok; to keep the game going....
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Koridur grunts bit softly; looks over at Sunset, Desidera and the Orc unknowingly snugging and the likely explosion to come.
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<softly in his rough voice>
"Well, your back" nods to the knightly looking Elsdyn; "Mox was on guard though I think it pretty silly to put a wisp of a Goblin on guard duty, luckly he didnt murder us all in our sleep I says. So where is the little bugger; fun off did he?"
takes a swig from a flask and passes it to Elsdyn for a drink and readies his armor and weapons for guard duty.
"alright; I am ready; I relieve you, get some rest; anything to report?"
Elsdyn, as you stand there; you notice it is much darker than normal dark in the room and sometimes you hear strange howls and the trod of heavy footsteps and sometimes darker than dark swirls seem to gather, flow; and dissapate.
Elsdyn smiles back at the dwarf.
In dwarven.
"Greetings master dwarf, in our previous meeting I believe we did not formally greet each other. I am Squire Elsdyn Fedwick." Elsdyn offers a proper dwarven bow/handshake as would be appropriate.
"The goblin...Mox, returned as I found thy camp. He is over yonder resting." Elsdyn motions in the direction of Mox. "I believe he was scavenging food from somewhere and had a limp when he returned. I was going to ask Desidera about him when she awoke."
"Though I have not seen anything, it appears there are things about. This darkness seems unnatural, does it not? And I hear other creatures moving about. It may just be the fey that are about, but I am unsure."
"Think thee we should scout about a bit before I bed down?"
"Nay" says Koridur "twas agreed that gobs are more active at night, being nocturnal, thus we hide here; I think the darkness comes from some item upon the Ork to hide us, but it does make the skin crawl; taint natural. The beasty we defeated here was strong enough to keep the gobs at bay until they learn of its defeat."
"Very well then, a pleasent night to thee."
Elsdyn will find a spot near the rest to be down for the remainder of the night. Armor off, weapon and shield within easy reach.
Awakened by the discussion of Koridur and Elsdyn, Gloisil wakes to see that the Knight Elsdyn has rejoined the quest and waves in way of greeting towards the knight, saying in a groggy voice, "Welcome back, glad you are safe and have returned to aid us once again. Well talk again in a few hours, I need some more sleep."
Gloisil then rolls over and drifts back to sleep as best he can in their current situation.
Congrats!
Koridur; whom do you wake up; you figure the time to be about 4am after you have stood watch a couple hours.
yes Gyldyr is aquainted with Elsdyn; who stood guard at the door/hall in the gnome room and dwarf room while you guys investigated.
Just to move us through this scene; unless you guys have something to say or do.... we can always back it up.
Koridur politely, for a dwarf anyway, asks Desidera if she stood her second watch; She sleepily says "no, Kurg didnt wake her, but I think Mox was on watch though after Gloisil, though I asked for second watch; we all agreed to the Gnomes order so I am after you."
<she frowns, what time is it; I feel more rested than I thought>
About 4am surface time replies the dwarf.
so, Koridur takes his rest; Desidera stands watch; notices Mox outside the room in the hall; sleeping very restlessly. She burns a candle in the room for a faint glow <also helps her keep track of time> then after a couple hours; she awakens Gyldyr <but notices his restful features are dark and angry; perhaps even hateful in his meditative sleep.
"Gyldyr, she taps him with her staff on his knee, it is your watch; something went wrong with the watches; so yours is the last watch, the group should be becoming awake soon."
Rather than going to sleep she begins her morning prayers.
It is 6am game time; edit action or begin to awaken when you wish.
Mox awakens shortly after the guard change and goes down the hall to take care of bodily business, he returns and sits in the center of the hallway squated down holding his totem stick; but he stares quite unblinking at Gyldyr , watching, watching; sometimes with little mutters.
Gloisil awakes in the morning feeling as refreshed as possible for sleeping in an unknown place. Feeling keenly the urge to be moving on, he begins preparing a quick breakfast and then lets everyone know when it is ready.
As he is doing so he more formally welcomes Elsdyn back and asks his pardon for the sleepy welcome he gave Elsdyn during the night.
After eating he then packs his gear and prepares to set out again. As he does so he says, "Well my friends and companions, we need to move as far ahead today as possible and there is a lot of ground to cover I fear, let us be on our way."
With all the hustle and bustle around her, Sunset comes to wakefulness. She yawns, stretches, wiggles and flexes. From under the blanket arms and legs variously appear, flex and disappear. Finally she sits up, blinking in the pale light generated by Desidera's candle and the small flame of the groups camp-fire.
Sunset mumbles something and a small orb of light 'pops' into being. the better to help every one get ready for the new day. Still humming a soft tune Sunset does her best to 'clean up' using 'Prestidigitation', offering to help Desidera as well, then goes about changing from 'blanket' to 'geared up' and set out with every one else.
"Right-y-O! Lets GO!" She says once dressed for the new 'days' adventures, though her voice remains subdued, given where they are.