"He seems rather out of sorts, no use bugging him constantly for it. We should continue onward and just get out of here. I assume the more we wait the more dogs go missing," she says with a hand at her hip. That Half Orc was up to something, but what?
Robert shakes his head as Tomos heads away. "That's not like him. He is acting very strange and I would swear he has more than enough stuff for his trip. We should probably follow him at a distance and see what he is up to. If I recall correctly all the dogs have been taken to the north as well so it won't be too far off track. Let me go check in with Rebecca if I can find her next door and then we can go. We don't want him to see us following him."
Robert then heads to see if Rebecca is next door as she was last reported to be.
Rebecca pokes her head around the doorpost as Robert knocks on the schoolhouse door. She smiles broadly as she sees who it is.
Rebecca pokes her head around the doorpost as Robert knocks on the schoolhouse door. She smiles broadly as she sees who it is.
Robert smiles at Rebecca as she appears and says "I'm back in one piece but heading out again unfortunately. I was hoping to have some more time but Tomos is acting strange and we are going to see what he is up to. I may be gone for a couple days."
Euda watches the half-orc trudge away with some annoyance. She almost lets the moment pass without chiming in at all but, after Robert trots next door, she can't help but suggest, "we should just follow him in plain sight and if he complains that we're following him just lie badly to his face like he did to us and then insist its none of his business. I already have a donkey loaded up with camping supplies so he'd be hard pressed to say we weren't already planning to go camp..."
"Tomos definitely isn't the camping sort. I don't know that he's up to anything nefarious, but it's definitely suspicious."
"I could probably tail him without being too obvious and leave some sign that the rest of you could follow if we leave the road."
Maria would keep back with the rest of the group as it seemed they'd all want to trail the half orc carpenter. With a mischievous smile, she'd look over to Robert, "I am assuming the missus is alright. I do hope you two love birds get to see each other again."
Keeping to the edges of the road, ducking into hedges from time to time, Fezzen keeps on Tomos’ tail. The carpenter spent the first few minutes of his journey looking back over his shoulder a lot, keeping Fezzen on his toes, but once he was sure he wasn’t being followed, seems to have stopped worrying about it. He still moves quickly, eventually turning off into a field two farms past Robert’s. Once he enters the woods, the operation could become one of tracking rather than stealthily following, meaning Fezzen could wait for the group to catch up. Tomos, despite not having a history of lots of camping, does seem to have woodcraft skills, making his trail a little harder to follow than Robert would like.
When Robert returns he smiles at Maria and says "You know full well that she isn't my misses yet and she is good. Thank you for asking. I will get to see her again assuming you don't burn us all up. Now, lets get after Tomos and see what he is up to."
Once in the woods Robert looks to the group and says "If any of you have some skill in tracking your help would be appreciated as Tomos is making this tough."
What direction does Tomos seem to be going now that he is off the road. Any rough idea if it is where the dog trail was leading?
He’s heading northwest. If he continues straight, you will cross the trail from yesterday significantly to the east of where you eventually stopped.
"No trouble in paradise," she says grabbing a book from her satchel backpack. The book featuring the title The Fear That Lurks on its cover. She'd begin to read it walking along with the rest of the group, sending out Jervis to follow close by to the group as they made their way.
"You shall now that like the fated Taldan prince you shall not be roasted by the terrible dragon before you meet your princess again, Mr. Macintyre."
Not much of a woodsman, Fezzan closes the gap to keep Tomos in sight. He marks the road where they leave it and makes sure to leave a trail that can be followed.
As Fezzan does his best to stay hidden and follow the half-orc and everyone else does their best to follow him, Euda watches the wizard’s bird fly around as instructed. “Uh, couldn’t we have the bird follow Tomos and then we could follow the bird? He might recognize Fezzan but nobody’s gonna think anything of a bird in the woods…”
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Gunnar notices that Fezzan continues to follow along and doesn't stop but that the bird also goes up to follow as well making it easier in general so Gunnar feels more at ease but if able to speak to Fezzan will say let the wizards animal lead the way. Much less dangerous and better use of resources.
"Jervis is not a bird, he is a bat. He is my familiar, a connection that we share empathetic," she says. She'd snap her book shut before calling out through mental connection to find their ally.
Fezzen continues along after Tomos, leaving an obvious trails for the group behind. He has to get closer to keep him in view, but the trees give him lots more cover, and Tomos seems more focused on his destination than who might be following him.
You cross your trail from the day before and continue on northwest. If Tomos is the dognapper, he clearly isn’t continuing on where he left off. By late afternoon, you emerge from the forest into the open hilly moors to the northwest of Lyon’s Brook. Long ridges lie in parallel, broken by large natural structures of boulders and bedrock.
Shortly after sunset, as the gloaming gathers around you, Tomos descends into a large hollow, and Fezzen doesn’t see him emerge.
Maria had called back Jervis as they went heavier into the forested areas surrounding town. No point in making him work so long in the day light anyway. She began to read another book entitled Pre-Thrune Cheliax: Life before the Devil reading it after finishing a chapter in the other book.
"For a man on vacation he sure seems to move like a man at work. Maybe he feels he is watched?"
When Tomos enters the hollow and does not emerge. Fezzan settles down in a secluded spot and waits for the rest of the party to catch up.
When Euda and Fred (and the others) catch up with Fezzan, the young girl quietly asks, "He's just sitting around down there? Sometimes people don't really notice me... I could try to creep up to the edge and see what he's doing, or if there's a cave or something down there?"
As the group stops Robert says "Fishing huh? I would recommend one or two that are really good a being quiet go down there and see what he is up to. He may just be stopping for the night and that is a good place to have a fire and it not be seen."
If you’re moving up to the lip of the hollow, give me stealth and perception checks.
Euda stands there awkwardly while nobody directly answers her question. She debates whether Robert's statement was meant as a sort of response and then, when nobody else says anything about whether she was one of those people or who the other might be, she shrugs and creeps tromps toward the lip of the hollow.
Peering into the hollow, Eudamonia spots a small, sandy pool at the bottom among some large boulders which occupy much of the bottom and sides. She sees no sign of Tomos or a camp, but can smell woodsmoke from somewhere.
Fezzan heads off on a different approach than Eudamonia, so to lessen the chance of the both being caught together.
Fezzen also sees no sign of a camp or carpenter, though his sharp eyes see that there are likely some caves or hollows behind some of the large boulders.
Fezzan regroups back with the rest of the party to fill them in on the details.
"I think that there's some caves back in there that Tomos might be camping in. Can't say for certain if he's up to anything odd though."
"A cave is odd," the young wizard speaks, wondering what could be the reason Tomos was using a cave to camp in rather than such good weather and area out in the open.
Euda forces a smile despite her own failure to notice what Fezzan had. Then she sheepishly offers, "did anyone see any mining tools with his stuff when we were at his place? He could be bringing supplies to the dognapper hiding in a cave, or he might have just found some tin or something that he's trying to lay claim to before other people find out?"
Nobody saw any mining tools, though you didn’t get a very good look inside his house.
Robert thinks for a moment and says "He is probably stopping for the night and camping in a place he knows about. Why don't we pull back a little and set a watch over his leaving and then we can follow him. That bat would make a good watch during the night and would even be able to search the caves without arousing suspicion."
It is near camping time, as the light is fading.
Setting up camp, you keep watch over the rim of the hollow. With the moon as full as it is, you’ll be able to see the moment anybody crests the rim. Meanwhile, the bat heads off to fly around the hollow. Maria senses apprehension from her familiar, more than when the bat was just watching Tomos. While she can’t be any more specific than that, the general sense she gets from the empathic link is that either Tomos is in trouble, or he’s not alone down there.
Maria feels the strange connection, getting an uneasy sense back from her familiar, "Something isnt right, she says getting up from the fire, "Jervis has a feeling that Tomos might be in distress. We may need to investigate this down in the tunnel right now."
Euda looks with some concern at her half-erected brand new tent. Then she nods at Gunnar’s words and gingerly sets the pole and twine she’s holding on the ground.
I hope we get back before dark… as much trouble as I’m having setting this up in the light, I can’t imagine trying to do it in the dark…
She walks over to the handsome man and places her hand on the hilt of her dagger. “I’ll go with you.”
Robert looks at Gunnar and then Maria "I hope you are right or we have blown all our work Maria. Let's go Gunnar. We can try to be quiet but I doubt you and I will manage it."
You sneak down into the hollow. Robert is able to pick up Tomos’ trail in the moonlight, leading towards a cluster of boulders against the northeast edge of the hollow. The trail leads towards an impenetrable barrier of bushes, except as you get right up next to them, you see it’s a clever combination of branches and painted canvas hanging down across a cave opening. Faint light flickers from beyond the drape.
Pushing it aside, you see a short opening leading to a cozy cave. Some furniture, well-made from logs and branches, gives the place a sense of home, or at least of someone who has been there awhile. A small fire crackles in the centre of the room. Tomos sits on the far side, stirring something in a pot on the flames, while a tall, human woman sits with her back to the entrance. Her hair is long and wild, like that of a woman who has t had access to a mirror for a very long time. Her clothes are worn, and she wears a cloak of animal skins. In short, the woman bears every resemblance to the description of the escaped convict woman Bonita, and she’s casually discussing the recent prices of meat in town with Tomos.
After a moment, the woman cuts off her conversation and stiffens. Tomos looks up and sees you in the passageway (there’s nowhere for you to hide), and goes pale in the firelight. His companion stands, turns, and says in a strange foreign accent, ”Hello. Welcome to my fire.”
-At our camp-
Maria turns to Robert with a melancholic look, "If not we disturbed a poor man on vacation."
-In the cave-
It appeared as if Maria would be proven right as they entered the cave and found the scene before them. She had called back Jervis back to her as they had entered the cave, keeping him close under in her satchel bag. Her brow furrowed, somewhat weary of what was now before them, "Who... who are you? I'm sorry to interrupt anything."
”She’s none of your business!” Tomos shouts, advancing to get in front of the woman. ”I told you to me leave me alone, and now you’re following me?”
Robert looks at the woman and then Tomos "Of course we are Tomos. You are a terrible liar and everything you did said 'Follow me! I'm up to no good.' And here we find you with the fugitive Bonita that the rest of the town is out looking for. We had some missing dogs to find and you acted so guilty we just had to follow you." He shakes his head and then says "Now, Miss Bonita can you give us one good reason we just don't tie you up right now and drag you back to town?"
hey, that's that woman everyone is looking for... well, everyone except Tomos, I guess, seems like he knew exactly where she was... this doesn't seem like a murder cave though, and that doesn't sound like murderer conversation... if she's not what everyone thinks she is, we should talk to her and find out what's really going on... and if she is what everyone thinks she is and we start a fight with her Tomos will protect her too- an experienced murderer would probably be a difficult fight to begin with and when you add a strong guy like Tomos, who probably doesn't really deserve to die just for sitting a fire with someone, we could be in some trouble... we should probably try talking to them politely and maybe we can just work things out... I wonder how a wild woman would respond if I tried talking to her the way we talk to each other in polite society... oh, sh!t...
Euda is suddenly snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of Robert displaying all the conversational finesse of an angry farm boy. She fidgets nervously and forces a smile as she makes sure her hand is far away from her dagger.
Bonita shakes her head. Despite her wildly unkempt appearance, her voice is calm and her demeanour is stern and impressive. ”Probably not. I could tell you that I am innocent of all the crimes you’ve been told I committed, but you likely wouldn’t believe me. I could tell you that, with no other place to turn, I came to my half-brother in violation of all the customs of my people and clan, and have lived in this cave for over a month now, suffering upon Tomos’ generosity to survive, as I could not risk hunting and being spotted. I could tell you that, as an emissary to Taldor for the Shoanti people, I was passing through Skathen when I paid my respects to the local lord, a Baron Tibus Mareto, and quite unexpectedly discovered a treasure trove of artifacts of my people which has clearly been looted from the dead. I could tell you that when I voiced my outrage to the baron, he set upon me with his guards in all defiance of diplomacy, and how I was forced to incapacitate them and remove the stolen items, and how I was soon caught and imprisoned with no trial or counsel. Is that sufficient to avoid this bondage you propose?”
She cracks a smile. ”And are you certain you could carry it out if you tried?”