Not seeing either enemy clearly, but fast enough to act and reach an advantageous position for his long, branched spear, Kieran rushes forward and stand ready to strike either boar as they'd move in!
Varian will stand up, drawing his blade and shield as he does so blinking the sleep from his eyes.
Beasts huh? Well, shouldn't be to troublesome, right boys?
He flourishes his blade and casts light on it mid flourish to give off a small show.
As you scrambjj on e to wake up and prepare, two ferocious wild boars cone crashing out of the undergrowth, charging at Elipho and Thraag. Thraag gets off a spell but realizes even as the spell fails that anibals are immune to his daze spell. Kieran manages an attack against the other boar, but his stab glances off the creature’s thick hide.
The boar runs full steam into Elipho’s boar spear. Shrieking in pain and rage, the creature crashes onto the spear point, ignoring its own fatal wound to try inflicting one of its own, though the crosspiece of Elipho’s spear prevents the animal from getting its full weight behind the attack.
The other bore charges Thraag, but steps into an old rabbit burrow and stumbles, allowing Thraag to avoid its tusks.
Initiative: Kieran, Thraag, Elipho, Boars, Marcus, Varian, Grahm
Stats
Elipho: -5
Red Boar: -25
Blue Boar: pissed off
Thraag blinks in surprise as his magic seems to have no effect and then steps back and flings acid at the creature as he draws his dagger.
Varian moves to finish off the boar that literally speared itself.
Well, not much to it then, ey? He says, as he attempts to run the other boar through with his blade.
Varian stabs the boar, his tiny blade an insignificant thing compared to the massive haunches of the porker.
Stats:
Elipho: -5
Red Boar: -31
Blue Boar: -1
Marcus steps up to the closest boar and focuses a punch at the beast.
But his aim is off and his strike isn't even felt by the beast.
Grahm and Kieran to go.
"Grahm! Let's flank it while it's distracted!" Kieran calls out, then steps back to attack while Grahm circled to its other side.
Inwardly, he noted he'd drastically underestimated Elipho as a combatant and figured an apology of sorts was probably due at a later time.
"Indeed!"
Grahm, free of his overly burdening armor moves with a speed uncommon to him, and moves to the other side of the boar with a 5ft step.
Holding his longsword in two hands, he strikes a powerful blow.
Kieran and Grahm team up to double impale the boar from opposite sides, dropping the massive creature with a squeal.
Elipho sets his spear and calls out to Thraag, ”lead it over here and get behind us.”
The other boar advances on Thraag, attempting to gore him, but fails.
Everybody is up.
Varian jogs up to the boar, thrusting the tip of the blade towards its side. Though, perhaps he is to used to dueling human opponents, as he is about two inches too short to deal significant damage as the blade pierces the boar.
Trying to stick to Elipho's strategy, Kieran withdraws his spear from the red boar's carcass and falls back, circling around the fire and trying to keep that between him and the boar. He strikes from that position at the living boar when Marcus moves to the side.
...Unfortunately, an ember from the fire strikes his somewhat okay eye just as he is about to lunge, and he misses.
Frustrated at the failure of his first attempted strike Marcus draws on his training, relaxes and fights.
Grahm stands there, staring at the boar that he had just fell, his face inscrutable. The sword falls from his hand. In this moment, no armor, no weapon, he looks like a young boy, not a squire.
Just waiting on Thraag.
Thraag steps back and sends another bolt of acid at the creature.
Marcus succeeds in punching the boar and Thraag inflicts some minor burns. The boar turns on Marcus, the closest target, and lunges with its tusks. The monk/priest is too nimble for it.
Everybody’s up.
Stats:
Elipho: -5
Red Boar: dead
Blue Boar: -16
Thraag sends another bolt not waiting for anyone to move.
"Grahm!? What happened! Are you injured? We're still in a fight!" Kieran calls out, and might have tried to reach the knight-mannerism'd man if not for Thraag, who seemed even less protected. Grunting, the near- blind spearman dashes over to get in front of him, and attempts to spear the boar from behind as it tries to attack Marcus!
With the boar facing him Marcus pounds away at it. One was already down. This one could be dropped as well!
Graham continues to stare down at his bloodied sword while Varian finds that the falling pig's death throes has ripped his estoc out of his hand, forcing him to waste time retrieving his weapon.
Did you seriously just punch an enraged wild boar?" Elipho cries out incredulously at Marcus as he grips his spear and charges the animal.
Elipho's spear penetrates right up to its cross piece. The boar lets out a fiendish squeal of agony, bloodies itself on the blade, soils your campsite, and dies.
After wiping the blade off in some leaves, Elipho claps Marcus on the shoulder. "Man, you are crazy! Epic, bat guano crazy! I like you!"
Thraag drifts back into the darkened forest.
Taking out a spare cloth to wipe the blood from his spear, Kieran slowly walks up to Marcus and Elipho. He kinda wished he'd gotten in more than just one hit, but he was more relieved that no one had gotten seriously hurt.
Save, perhaps, Elipho.
"Well done, everyone! Especially you, Elipho. I think I owe you an apology for assuming we had to keep you safe, when reality insists it was the other way around. Perhaps I can heal your wound there as penance?"
If the ranger has no objections to it, he briefly closes his eyes to focus, and a weak, yet visible field of positive energy radiates from him, tending everyone's wounds. He takes care to direct it away from the boars so that neither of them receives any.
"There. It usually goes a bit better, just as my spearwork... mother would give me an earful if she saw that, that's for sure."
He scratches the back of his head, slightly embarassed.
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Something flickered over the face of the swordsman, an indescribable emotion. His shoulders sag with a weight that had not been present before, even when he wore his heavy armor. He begins cleaning his blade methodically, and somewhat mechanically.
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Elipho throws one arm over Kieran and another over Marcus: the smell of BO is overwhelming. ”That feels better. Hey, even if we don’t find the dogs, this boar meat alone will make the excursion worthwhile. If we can get them field dressed and back to town in time, Clemis will pay 40 gp for each of these beauties. Any of you townies know how to prep a fresh kill?”
Marcus grins at Elipho's words. He isn't used to praise for anything so it takes a moment to recover. Fortunately the boar was finished. He replies, "Yes. I trained with the brothers of Irori. All of them were better than I am at fighting without weapons. But I am learning." He helps clean up the campsite, kneeling at the bodies of the boars. "Thraag? Could I get a little help hanging this boar? If we hang it and open it to bleed before it cools the meat can be made palatable."
"I survived on the trail for a while away from town, but never dressed a boar. Mostly all I hunted was small game as I was alone. I know that you have to bleed them before they cool or the meat has a bitter, 'wild' flavor."
"Well, I suppose we can always look on the bright side!" Kieran grins at the huntsman and tries not to be bothered by the smell of sweat and blood. Which, to be fair, was no more than expected given their day of tracking through the woods along with Elipho getting gored.
He kneels at the boar carcass and turns it around, then draws his knife. "My mon taught me how to do this and I've done it a few times myself. Not exactly to sell later, but the principles should hold up. The trick is to cut off its member first and pull it all the way back to where you can cut it cleanly," As he talks, he performs the motions unless someone stops him. "Then, you work upward from the disection and go around the intestines and stomach until you reach the diaphraghm and sternum, and you cut them straight through the middle."
It takes him a minute or two to get to that point. "Finally, with the larger cavity, you cut and take hold of the oesophagus near the top," - he yanks it out - "And cut out the entire intestinal tract on the way down along the edges, so nothing spills from within them to the meat outside."
Once done, he wipes the sweat from his brow with his still clean elbow, pulls out the intestines and stomach with his gloves and throws them aside. The unspoiled, meaty contents of the boar are visible along the inner area. "There. That should do it! If you have any advice for keeping it fresh longer, I'm all ears. Maybe we can stitch the skin back together temporarily or such?"
Marcus watches as the half-elf field dresses the boar, nodding to the steps. It is similar to small game, just more difficult by the size and weight of the animal. Once complete he speaks a quiet prayer to Irori and holds out his cupped hands, over flowing with clean water.
"Thank you for the lesson. By Irori's blessing I'll assist in cleaning up. And if you'd like to rinse your knife and hands?"
After a short time Thraag returns to the clearing with the Elder who holds his axe and is looking around to see if everyone is ok.
The Elder looks around approvingly and says,
"Thank you for the lesson. By Irori's blessing I'll assist in cleaning up. And if you'd like to rinse your knife and hands?"
"Ah, you know that spell too! How convenient; I'd certainly appreciate washing off the bits and blood, yes," the Oracle replies, and washes his hands and dagger when offered. Then he looks up at sir Eustus' ward. "Say, Grahm? Are you all right now? Managed to patch yourself up, did you?" he asks, giving the other young man an out if he needed it. Perhaps it was something he didn't want to discuss, after all.
"Hm?" Grahm looks up, seemingly finally taking note of where he was. "Oh. Yes. The boar didn't hit me." Much more quietly he adds, "It's much different than using a wooden weapon and dummies."
The spearman nods at the knight, seemingly relieved, or at least not pressing the issue.
After the second boar is prepared in similar fashion (preferably not by him since he'd just cleaned his hands and knife again!), Kieran looks up at the others. "Okay, so come dawn, what do we do? Do we take these boars back to the butcher to sell them? Or do we push on to try and find the dogs, and risk the carcasses going bad?"
"We should bring them with us, or at least some of it. The meat may be helpful if we find the dogs and need lures of our own. But taking time to go back just means we will probably lose the tracks we are following." Thraag says as he looks at the heavy meat.
"All right. Looks like we're going to keep on following the track. With some luck, it won't take that long, and we can return these before they go bad," Kieran reasons, then yawns. "I think that's about it for my shift, too. If no one has any objections, I think I'll go and sleep a bit now. Good night!"
With that, he makes for his medium sized tent.
Your group is not molested further that night.
Upon waking, you realize that the tracks are a bit harder to find, though you still can make them out. Other than avoiding major obstacles in the forest, the tracks have been quite straight: the dogs clearly have a destination in mind, or perhaps are being led by someone knowledgeable about the woods, though one who leaves no track of their own.
Thraag and the Elder will follow behind those with more skills at tracking and look for any signs of the animals as they go. Thraag hums a light tune about the lake as they walk and he looks nervously around them as he is not all that used to the forest around the town.
"Elipho, I forgot to ask earlier... but has anything like this ever happened here before, as far as you know? Any rumors or stories similar to certain types of animals vanishing?" Kieran asks, trying to follow the tracks as best he could.
Marcus stays back with the Thraag's. While he does know a little about tracking, he is no expert. "Maybe whatever is luring the dogs away is flying?"
Elipho shakes his head. ”No. That’s the thing. Nobody in town would do this. Taking sheep dogs just ain’t done. We shepherds look out for each other. It’s probably some annoying sprite or pixie looking to cause trouble, but I honestly expected we’d find the dogs abandoned by now. Those fey creatures can be trouble, but they get bored easily. If we keep going another few hours, we’ll breach the forest and be out on the moors before we hit the Brook and the Falling River Road. At that point, they could be anywhere, but no woodland fey is going to head out there away from their groves.”
"So what you're saying is that if we don't find them before we get to the Brook, we probably won't find them at all," the oracle states. "Actually... what is the Brook? is that a river? Anyway, if that's true, we have no choice. We have to push on, given how important these dogs are to the town."
Taking his spear, he resumes his walk forward along the path and through the foilage.