Surprise round
Galin attacks from a distance with spear through Acolyte.
Torian and Jilhanna strike the wolf and cause immense pain to it but Galin's attack goes wide as the wolf swiftly dodges and darts away from the group. As it runs away, Torian manages to slice down at it's neck and end its pain, and the body falls down to the forest floor. As you all brace yourselves from the sudden exertion, those of you who stepped away from the fire feel the chill of the air begin to work its way into your extremities.
Torian cleans his axe of the blood from the wolf. "Pro'a'lly naught th' only one o' 'em. Eye'll ta'e last watch 'n' wake yoon ah dawn." So speaking, the dwarf examines the body to see if anything can be salvaged for either selling or keeping as a trophy.
Isabella winces at the bloody corpse. I feel sorry for it, but at least we made it as quick as we could.
Still feeling extremely tense, she says "I can take first watch." Looking at the wolf again, she adds "I don't think I could sleep right now anyway."
Seeing Torian looking at the wolf's body, Galin moves to assist.
"I'll go ahead and sleep now, let me know when your watch has passed Isabella and I'll take the second watch."
Isabella sits down by the fire to keep herself warm during her watch as Torian retires to his small tent, Jilhanna goes to her and Isabella's large tent, and Galin enjoys his large two person tent all to himself.
The rest of the night goes off without a hitch and the group wakes up to sounds of Torian's morning routine. Jilhanna wakes up and fixes a nice big breakfast, for herself at least, happy to be on the way when the time arrives.
Waking and watching with no incidents, Torian finds a flat rock around sunrise. Pulling out a scrap piece of metal that the town's smith had graciously given him and his hammer, the dwarf proceeds to hammer at it for 10 minutes on the flat rock after intoning a brief prayer to Torag. The sound, as promised, wakes up his companions. Finishing, Torian puts away both scrap (somewhat flatter) and hammer before beginning to take down his tent and the medium tent he is carrying. Finished, he snags one of the sausages Jihanna has finished heating over the fire, giving the halfling a wink. "Thank-ye, lass. Tis 'ard werk wakin' th' lot o' ye."
Isabella doesn't hear anything during her watch, and the night passes peacefully. Come morning, she's feeling a bit more like her usual self.
She doesn't dare snatch a sausage, (she's seen what happens to people who get between a halfling and breakfast), but she breaks into her own trail rations with gusto.
"Morning. Did everyone sleep well? I hope we can make it to the crypt without any more surprises."
She packs up her own tent, and shoulders it once everyone's ready to go. This thing is still ridiculously heavy, but I have to admit it was nice having four 'walls' around me. Made it easier to sleep.
"Alright Galin, lead the way!"
Who knew tents were so spacious. What a good night sleep.
upon looking at the map, "okay, well, looks like this is the way. onward!"
Galin starts down the path.
During the previous night, Torian looks at the wolf’s pelt and realizes that, with the slashes, it probably wouldn’t be worth much even if you could get it off in decent shape which isn’t likely considering your companion’s skills. The large Canines might make a good souvenir and if you brought back the ears to Guard Captain Gregor Wisslo, you might be able to curry a small amount of favor.
Galin manages to guide you all quite adeptly in the morning after breaking down camp. The chill from the night never quite goes away because of the cloud cover. Due to Galin’s excellent navigating, you arrive at The Grey Lake only a couple hours after leaving, in mid morning. The travel is fairly easy, with the map taking you through relatively easy terrain. Jilhanna breaks out one of the honey cakes just as the trees begin to thin, revealing a field of short, green grass that leads to the shores of a wide, calm lake reflecting the overcast sky above. The four of you are thirsty and ready to refill your water skins but a dense fog hangs over the center of the lake, obscuring the far side. Near the shore of the lake, a dark form lies next to the water.
Torian removes the four largest canine fangs for himself to possibly work into a future weapon as ornamentation, then removes the ears to present to the town upon return. Perhaps then they might include a weapon er two in tha' cart in subsequent years.
Securing them inside his pack, the dwarf proceeds to go to sleep.
Torian tries to take a look at the form without getting too close. As has been common most of the time since they left town, his large axe is in hand, as is his shield.
Isabella stops short as she see the form next to the lake. What is that?
What do they see, oh...
Neither Torian or Isabella can tell much about the form but there doesn’t seem to be anything threatening in the area. Because the forest thins out before you get to the lake, you have great visibility until you get quite a ways out onto the lake where the fog starts to obscure your vision.
Grumbling to himself about the light messing with his ability to see clearly 'topside', Torian cautiously approaches the form to examine it in person.
"Wait, let me go take a look first and see if anything looks out of place. It might be another 'prank'." Jilhanna fumes as they get a bit closer.
Jilhanna drops down low and starts out from the edge of the trees, darting from rock to rock, hiding behind the smallest tufts of grass when it seems impossible and nears the form, the rest of you watch as she remains still for several minutes, and then darts up to the form and seems to inspect for a few moments and then returns in a much more relaxed state, but still on edge, her expression more disgusted.
As she nears she says, "Coast is clear it seems, its a body but I couldn't find any traps nearby, I think its safe to take a closer look."
The rest of you go up to the body and receive a grisly sight. The body is quite decomposed, not to the bone, but it has seems to have sat for quite some time. It is humanoid but a closer look will be needed to find anything out about it.
DC 15
Torian examines the body, the scene being too murky and his identity being too mangled for him to pick out.
"Augh... le'ek agh these punture wunds." The dwarf points to the strange semi-circles on the corpse's abdomen, pulling back as the foul odor gets to him. "Whew. Tha' poor 'uns been 'ere awhile. Naugh ah recen' kell... 'n' naugh like'y t' be them wolves eithe'. Too much meat lef' fer a starven' animal. Torag watch o'er him."
Isabella grimaces as she examines the body. What happened here?
"Whoever this poor fellow was, it doesn't seem likely he was from Kassen. Clothes are too fancy. Must have been a traveler who got caught by something."
She steps back, the smell getting to her. "I don't like the idea of filling up our waterskins here. Galin, you can just create water, can't you?"
Jilhanna riffles through the body's tattered clothes and grabs a pouch, shakes it a bit, and it jingles. When she opens it, she says, "Oh, nice! this guy was loaded!" Further exploration nearby on her end and she notices a blade sticking out from underneath a bush, "Wow this is a nice blade! Too bad its so huge. You people are all to big, anyone want this?" She says holding up a MW short sword.
Torian takes the blade from Jihanna and examines it in the light, weighing its balance point and feeling the way the grip of on the hilt fits in his hand.
"Aye lass, this'n be ah very 'ell craften swerd. 'alance be 'ust reight, edge 'n' ahlignmen' pre'ise t' ah faul." He starts to frown as he says this. "Eye'm naugh th' smertes' dwarf en th' bunch, bah 'e," Torian gestures to the corpse with the blade, "weran't killed by nermal means fer 'ere. Naugh enough beet ought'ah 'em fer wolven, naugh enough ta'en fer ah robber, naugh 'ocal enough fer folken t' ha'e ah grudge." Pointing again to the odd wound. "'n' how 'e get them odd marks on'em? Naugh nat'r'l, tha' be." Shaking his head, the dwarf holds his nose as he looks on and around the body for the blade's scabbard.
He sheathes the blade and offers it to Isabella. "Eye'm appreciaten th' craftsmanship, bu' I prefer me axes."
"I wonder what would have tried to take bites without trying to eat him?"
Galin shares his recollections if he has any.
"That appears to be a fine blade indeed! Someone should be able to get some use out of it at least."
"Ah yes, I can indeed summon some water for us. Here we go," Galin summons enough to fill any containers that lack water.
"I'm not much of one for weapons in general, but it could come in handy. Let me know if you change your mind." Isabella takes the short sword with a shrug, then holds out her waterskin for Galin to fill. "Thanks! I don't want to go near that lake if we don't have to. This is much better."
"So, are we ready to go? Whatever killed that person might still be nearby; I'd rather not stick around."
Assuming no one wants to do anything else at the lake, she falls into line behind Galin as the group continues their journey.
Galin takes a drink of his own water splashes a little on his face, "I wish I had provisions for a proper burial. We should remember this spot. Maybe we can make it back to put him to rest later, but I agree, we should keep moving."
Torian takes a refill from the gnome and shakes his head. "'est 'e lett'n th' town know upon ret'rn o'im. Naugh sense in risken th' flame burn ou' 'n' the folks be'n upset. 'sides, he ain' goin' nowheres 'n' th' wolven ain' touchen 'im."
Using very specific markers on the map, Galin manages to guide you to the gorge near the crypt quite quickly, avoiding most of the rough terrain. This far into the Fangwood, the trees become gnarlier and tougher the canopy cover becomes thicker. While causing an eerie atmosphere, this overhead cover helps the travel because as right after the group stops for lunch, clouds begin to roll in. You don’t notice at first, but the tenperature drops and begins to darken. A couple hours after lunch, it begins to drizzle. The trail leads ever deeper into the Fangwood, through a twisting maze of trees and confusing ravines. As it tops a small rise, a broad valley spreads out before it, the opposite side of which looks like a writhing serpent. Yet between the two lies a steep hill sloping down into the valley, the rainfall making the ground slick and treacherous.
You have reached Serpent’s Gorge. The descent into the valley looks to be a difficult one but easily broken up into 3 legs. The first leg involves navigating some treacherous tree roots. The second appears to have a couple steep slopes and the third has a lot of runnoff from the rain making it especially slick.
Isabella examines the descent, lips pursed thoughtfully. "Hmmm. Galin, I think this is where that rope and grappling hook are going to come in handy. Jilhanna, you're pretty good at keeping your feet, right? Better than the rest of us anyway.
Okay, here's my suggestion. We take this one leg at a time. We connect the rope to something, then Torian, Galin, and I use that to descend. Jilhanna then unties the rope and takes it with her. She won't have the benefit of using it, but she's a lot more nimble so hopefully it won't matter. Repeat until we're all at the bottom. What does everyone think?"
Securing his axe and his shield, he hands his pack to Isabella. "Eye'm goin; ferst. Eye'l give ye th' signal tha' i's all clear. Pass down th' packs after, then come down yerself."
Torian manages to navigate most of the way down the first difficult passage, but his foot trips on the tree roots and he almost slips, but manages to keep himself steady just barely with the rope.
With Torian there to collect the packs, passing them down is a simple matter.
Torian steadies himself after nearly tripping over the roots. Checking around for danger, he finally gives the 'all clear' sign to his companions above him, taking the packs off the ropes as they slide down to him and setting them in a pile on one of the sturdier sections of the ground. He then stands clear to ensure that whomever comes next does not have to worry about landing on him.
Isabella winces, seeing Torian nearly trip. Gotta be careful here. After passing down the packs, she slowly makes her own way down the first leg.
Isabella, having watched Torian, manages to dodge the more treacherous areas and makes it down with no mishaps.
Galin watches those who go before and walks out as slowly and carefully as he can.
“Ahhhhhh”
Galin’s trek down that slope seems to take for ever compared to the others as he takes his time and watches his footing very carefully. He reaches the same spot that Torian almost fell and, knowing that he had trouble there, takes special care around those roots but still slips. His hands clench on the rope and he wobbles. The others watch with trepidation as Galin’s foot slips once, but regains his footing. He moves to take a step and his other foot slips...but he rights himself. Slowly, he takes a step and both feet slide out from under him and still he manages to hold onto that rope. He stands and works his way down and hounds the others, shaking from how close he came to falling.
With all the others past the mass of tangling roots, Jilhanna unites the rope, throws it down and takes off down the slope to join them.
She joins them a few minutes later and says, [b]”What was the big deal guys? You probably need a snack!”[b]
Through the clouds, you can see that sun is past its zenith and you will be pushing it to make it to the crypt by sundown at this rate.
"Alright, time for the next leg. I think I'll go first to scout out the area, if you don't mind getting the packs down."
Best to get a move on, time's a wastin'
Isabella hands her pack to Torian, then gulps as she looks down the steep slopes. Making sure the rope is securely fastened, she starts making her way down.
"Sounds like a plan, I'm right behind you."
Galin heads out using the rope, but not having fallen last time has the confidence to not go so slowly.
Torian just shakes his head and waits with Jihanna at the top until Galin clears the landing before passing down packs one at a time.
Once clear, Torian follows himself, going slowly this time to compensate for the armor he seemingly refuses to take off.
Jilhanna follows the same procedure, untying the rope and throwing it down, then merrily dancing down the slope to join the others, easily handling the steep slope.
With everyone past the steep slope, the last hurdle is the runoff from the rain that has now soaked you to the bone. The chill in the air is all the worse, but you know that if you can get down to the bottom of the gorge, there are some trees that will provide cover and break the wind up some.
Relieved once everyone's made it down the slope, Isabella grins. "Alright, one leg to go. Same procedure as before?"
Tying off the rope, she starts making her way down. However her overconfidence proves to be her undoing and she immediately slips.
The others watch as Isabella starts down the last hurdle, and everything seems to be going well but halfway down, her legs get swept out from under her by the flowing water and she plops down into the mud and slides down a few feet but manages to snag a large rock and halts her fall. She rights herself and finishes her descent, caked with mud.
"Be careful everyone, it's, uh, very slippery."
While waiting for the others, Isabella cleans her mud-caked clothes. I am so glad I learned this spell.
Torian, seeing Isabella slip, rushes down to help her... a bit too quickly, as he too stumbles down the slope at a spot earlier than she did.
Fresh off Isabella's stumble, Galin takes more care, to go a bit more slowly once the rope is set.
Torian stumbles down the slope and hits his foot on a rock on the way down but he Frits his teeth, pulls himself up and gets himself down the slope. The mud has squished it’s way into the creases of his armor and his boots making the rest of the walk down the slope is miserable.
Galin again just barely makes it down the slope to join the others.
Jilhanna prances down the slope, sliding down the mud balancing on her feet and jumping to the end with a flourish. ”Ok, Galin, how much longer to the crypt do you think?”
"whew, that was quite a ride." Galin catches his breath after 2 near misses.
"Well, if we keep moving I think we should be able to get there before sunset. A little more stable shelter may be nice."
Isabella winces as Torian stumbles down the slope. Ooh, that looked like it hurt.
"Would you like me to clean your armor for you?"
That chore taken care of, she nods at Galin. "Yes, let's get going. I'd rather not camp out in the woods another night, particularly if there might be more wolves around!"
Dart crests the hill, noticing the others at the bottom untangling themselves. He gives a grin, and can't help but try to show off a bit. He jumps onto the steep hill sliding down the mud, every so often he jumps onto a tree root when needed. He leaps the remaining gap, landing softly on his feet in front of Isabella and Jilhanna. He glances about for a few seconds before speaking.
Ah, well that was certainly more fun than it looked. Dear Isabella, I couldn't stand you absence He states with a grin, and if allowed will take her hand long enough to place a small kiss on it.
Ah, now, as to the secondary reason I am here..
He turns to Jilhana, and a slightly more serious look grows on his face.
Jilhanna, Old Jimes asked me to come get you. He seemed quite flustered about something. Rather unlike him considering his normally cheery demeanor. I feel it may be something important but he wouldn't tell me. Anyway, I was sent to get you, and, take your spot in the group for now. I would say sorry for the trouble, but, know you, I doubt that hill behind us poses much of a problem. He gives a small chuckle