The furred man glances up at Amaya, looking up her up and down. He's got a great beard, braided and plaited in the dwarven style. His face is wrinkled, and his outfit is made from a wide variety of different furs. Slung across his shoulder by a strap is a large crossbow. He stays quite for a second before speaking. "..Borr."
The sheriff clicks his tongue and shakes his head slightly. "Don't mind Borr. He's just quiet. But he's a good hunter and he had always been willing to help out with this sort of thing before. He should be able to find wherever the scoundrels who did this are... And that's the plan for today. He finds them, you all deal with them."
Aviz nods at the sheriff's words. Excellent. Somebody to track for us. Aviz takes the long polearm off his back, holding it loosely as he prepares to follow the hunter. What a strange group we have gathered. I'm hardly one to talk about that though.
"Good.." says the blacksmith relieved at the idea of having an expert tracker among them "Aside from producing lights in the dark, my talent for tracking down anything is pretty limited."
She looks around, clearly clueless on where to even begin.
"Are the tracks still there and fresh enough to be followed?"
Bescha always slept more soundly on the large, overstuffed couch in the library of her home rather than the bedroom above - the bed always seemed just a little too large, and she preferred sleeping in the relative roughage of the empty downstairs library these days.
She rose with some protest of her knees - their popping echoed around the room - and tore into some stale bread and wine for breakfast. Just something light. Bits of the red liquid splashed onto her spellbook as she rested it open on the table next to her and looked over its contents, memorizing spells as she had practiced many times before.
She arrived a bit later than the others, her spell preparation taking a minute longer than usual, but ended up back with the rest of the group around the strange hole in the ground, nodding to the others with a neutral expression. "Shouldn't be a problem, sheriff. Probably just some young punks need a good talking to. Can't see what anyone would gain out of something like this other than some evil prank..."
Quellina removes her glaive and taps the blunt end on the ground soundly, then flashes a wicked grin. "Oh, we certainly shall deal with them, Sheriff. They'll regret setting traps in your woods."
She takes a position next to Aviz, taking a glance at the strange-looking man and his impressive weapon. "Aviz, are you up to lead the formation with me? Our weapons make us the best suited."
Aviz smiles and nods to Quellina. "Yes. I am happy to help and be...the vanguard."
Melethiel stands just behind them.
"Sounds like a good plan. you break their charge I break what is left of them"
She says unsheathing the elven blade.
"I'll stand wherever, it doesn't bother me too much" Amaya remarks, updating the group, giving the Sheriff a quick once over. She found it a little odd that the Sheriff was quick to pass over responsibility to a group of strangers but put her curiosity to one side, focusing on the task ahead.
"Let's just hope there's no need," Bescha says even as she rests a hand on the pommel of her hammer. That spirit made her grin, but it would be less than ideal if this turned into a real melee, or if there was more than one culprit... She places herself near everyone, trying to be within arm's reach of the others.
The Sheriff nodded, tucking his hands behind his back. He glanced between Borr and the party, smiling. "I'm sure you'll deal with the issue well. The mayor's given me some gold to give to you lot once this has been dealt with. Just come and see me at the jail when you get back." With that, he walked off back towards town, whistling a dainty tune.
Borr grunted, standing upright and dusting his hands off on his pants. He looked over at the party, glancing at everyone and grumbling a little bit before nodding towards the woods. "Wastin daylight." With that, he starts leading the way into the large pine forest.
Inside the pine forest, all sounds seem muffled. The noise of the village quickly fades away, leaving only the quiet crunch of needles underfoot and the quiet, intangible noises of the forest. Next to no animals can seen, only the occasional bird fluttering past or squirrel scampering from tree to tree. Borr seems to grow a little more relaxed here, occasionally stopping to crouch down and run his hand along the ground. It seems to those who are paying attention, that the trail is going at a diagonal towards the peaks beyond.
Borr, what can you tell us about these creatures?
As Borr leads them on Aviz keeps an eye out for anything that might by a danger to the group.
I too am curious about such creatures. Aviz thinks to himself.
Borr glanced at Flouncy with a raised eyebrow. "What are you talking about?" He glances around the forest, said looking for said 'creatures'.
The creatures you're tracking. Are they gremlins, or something else?
Borr shrugged, looking around the forest again and grumbling. "I don't know. Small boot prints don't give you much to go off of." He glances off at a deer as it scampers off away from the party. You're getting fairly deep into the forest now, away from the town. Wildlife is starting to become more abundant, and the mountains are getting ever closer.
Quellina holds her glaive in a ready stance, keeping abreast of Aviz. She decides to take a closer look at the surrounding woods.
The day continued as the group kept traveling forward and forward into the forest. The sun traveled across the sky as hours went by, without a single real change in the surroundings. It could have been described as idyllic by some, the calm of the surrounding forest, with the mountains growing ever closer.
Aviz finds great peace in the wilderness. His newfound allies are quiet as they focus on navigating the trails and keeping an eye out, and Aviz gets to observe them as they move. Some are much more accustomed to others at wilderness moving than others, despite what their demeanor suggests. He smiles. This is how he learns about people. By observing.
But his mind is torn away from pondering as his sharp eyes demand his attention. Is that... "Smoke...way off in the distance. That way." He points. "It is above the trree line. Does the trail lead that way?" He asks their tracker.
Amaya shoots the tracker a quizzical glance. "Are we expecting some sort of civilization around out here? Would perhaps some sort of campfire be a common occurrence in this sort of area?"
Quellina follows Aviz's pointed hand, and her grip tightens on her glaive.
"Good eyes, Aviz! Like a hawk," she says, grinning slightly.
Borr raises his eyes up to the treeline, looking at where Aviz is pointing before looking back at the tracks, then back up smoke. "Common enough... But if these tracks follow the ridge up ahead, they'd be going right to the fire..." He grumbled again, rolling his shoulders and glancing around. "I think we've found them."
Aviz nods, face turning hard. "Weapons." He says simply, taking his own in both hands. "Should we try scouting or talking to them first?"
"We still do not know what or who this thing is, how many there may be, or why the trap was set... it still could be an honest mistake," Bescha muses. She hadn't been very far outside of the village before, and this was a strange context to be doing so. "We don't know that they are dangerous. I believe we should talk to them before doing something rash like attacking on sight." She pointedly keeps her hammer hanging from her belt.
Aviz pauses. He hadn't considered that as an option. "Maybe I am too quick to judge. Should we all walk up to talk, or...hide some of us?"
Flouncy volunteers.
I can go take a peek. I'm pretty quiet when I need to be. I'll take a look and then come back here.
He removes his pack, leaving it with the group, and creeps towards the fire, looking for cover and trying to stay silent.
When he gets close enough to see or be noticed, he'll hide and observe.
+1 (traps)
Melethiel puts a hand on her chest and pronounces a few arcane words.
A film of magical energies envelops around her. She then takes Flouncy pack to safeguard
"It's true we don't know if they are hostile or dengerous, but given the trap, that would be a decent assumption. Let's gust be ready in case things go sideways"
Tempted as she was to join the halfling, stealth also being her strong suit, Amaya decides not to follow, deciding in the end that more people sneaking meant a greater chance of detection.
Instead, she waits for him to return with an update.
Borr settles in to wait without a sound, just going back into that crouch to study the tracks. The once peaceful forest now... seems to carry an air of tension.
With a loud racket as multiple branches slap into each other, Flouncy is violently launched into the air by the snare, dangling above the ground and bouncing slightly on the branch. The party can hear it, as well as the shrill yips and yaps in some foreign language that follows. Flouncy can hear them moving closer to him, fairly quickly.
Oh. Not good. Aviz looks at the others, then takes his weapon in both hands again. "Flouncy is in trrouble, we must move quickly." He begins moving towards where he heard the noise coming from.
It takes a moment for Flouncy to realize what's happened.
Well. First day out, and I'm swinging from a rope. Maybe the adventuring life isn't for me. I should have been a dancer!
Amaya rolls her eyes as the scout promptly walked into a trap within minutes of being left alone on his solo mission. With stealth blown, there was no point towards sneaking around so she walks towards the noise, keeping a sharp eye out for any further traps.
Quellina hears the trap and practically growls in anger. She starts moving towards Flouncy, but keeps her eyes peeled for traps.
Did we already blew it? Of course, what were we thinking? Apparently none of us is a trained and seasoned adventurer, could Melethiel expect anything else?
But on the other hand, getting in the first adventure and learning the hard way, that is probably how the seasoned adventurers started.
The half-elf unsheathed her curved blade and followed the group.
Flouncy grabs a dagger, pulls his torso towards his foot and cuts the rope.
When it gives way, he'll try to soften the fall (DC 15).
Bescha rolls her eyes as she pushes forward with the rest of the group, unsure of how to take this. Perhaps the lightfoot was overestimating his abilities, or maybe whatever trap was in place was beyond him... either way, this was not a good omen for how this encounter may go.
As the group rushes off after Flouncy, Borr slips off into the underbrush, vanishing from sight quickly as he does so. The party quickly spots Flouncy cutting himself down after moving forward, the halfling falling flat on his back as he does so... Just in time for the enemy to come into sight as well.
A group of six kobolds come into view, blinking rapidly as they stare at the party. They've all got brilliantly red scales, and the ones in front are carrying slings in their hands, hand-axes on their belt, and are wearing leather armor. The ones behind them wear simple black robes, but carry crossbows slung across their back. One of the kobolds in the back yips something in their odd language, pointing at the party in what can only be taken as a hostile manner..
Aviz moves in front of Flouncy, putting himself and his long reach between the halfling and the kobolds. "Keep your distance!" He shouts as he raises his weapon.
Amaya steps forwards dark energy crackling around her hands as she stands close to Aviz, before blasting the sphere of negative energy directly into the midist of the kobolds, trying to harass from range.