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Ingulf gives you a nod, and a half swivel of his head to indicate you should circle around from outside and to the left. He slips his great axe free from the bindings, and lifts if in front of him, letting his hand slide down to the hide bound handle and hefting its weight. He moves forward quietly, carefully placing his feet around stray leaves and branches on the ground. You drop down into a stalking stance and slip quietly through the knee high grass, skirting the outer ring of stones. You can see these look very old, and several are canted slightly to the side, as if the ground had shifted under them over time. Their faces seem weatherworn, but very sturdy, and you can make out some sort of irregularities in the surface of some of the sides. The outer ring is four rough hewn pillars of a vague rectangular shape, standing over ten feet tall and a 3-4 feet across each face, standing at each of the compass point. think Stonehenge type stones

The inner ring are sevem stones more fully carved, being a series of shorter 5' tall blocks of squared off stone, each side full of carvings or markings of some sort. In the center of the circle within the inner ring is a low flat stone, whose surface is about level with the grass, and it is to this stone that Ingulf warily approaches. His eyebrows raise in surprise and he beckons you over vigorously.

As you approach the central flat stone, you see some sort of strange inscriptions carved in its face, obviously very old, as they are mostly worn away by the elements.

The burly barbarian walking besides you stops in the mid-morning sun, wiping his brow as he looks around. He smiles at you as if to say "Its good to be hunting together" and points towards the river, which for him is rather eloquent so far. The past three days, he has said perhaps three words away from the campfire, using nods, pointing, and glances to direct your attention to various clues or items of interest. You wonder again how someone so large with a giant axe strapped to their back can move so silently through the woods.

You hear a soft rustle of him reaching into his sack of jerky for the fourth time today, and chuckle softly to yourself, for he is focused in this area as well. Yesterday he made you stop the hunt to stalk a wounded elk, which you both skinned and prepared in a matter of hours, apparently something he has done quite often, given his alacrity and skill with the skinning blade.

Nightime is a different matter. Around the fire, Ingulf likes to share tales, talk about things that happened during the day, and plan the strategy for the next day. Speaking softly in Hallit, his native tongue, he regales you with stories of winter hunts, brave fights with hug polar bears and ice wurms, as well as tales of hunts that did not fare so well. You in turn have told him about some of your monster hunting fights, watching him get excited listening to stories of ghoul hunts and brownies gone bad.

"By Crom, I still can't believe you didn't break that alchemists hand for burning your face. I would have at least given him a friendly rap on the head as a reminder to aim better!" He bashes the log he is seated on next to him, causing wood chips to fly out from the metal spikes on his gauntlet. You suspect his friendly rap would have caved in Udo's skull, but you smile at his Kellid nature coming out.

Mornings are the worst time however. Both of you seem to be plagued by nightmares, sometimes by vivid dreams of loved ones suffering horrible fates, and sometimes waking with just the vague sense that something awful has happened. Its one of the ways you can tell you are still following the right path. The Duk'kreeth as proven remarkably hard to follow, and only a few times a day do you find a small mark or hoofprint that indicates you are still on the right track.

This morning is different somehow, the air smells dirty, like a room full of soiled clothes, and the humid air hangs heavy in the grassy clearing. You have been traveling for three days through some of the heavier growth in the Narlmarches, and your leather has been marked by smashed bugs bent on sucking the life out of you, scratches from the thorny undergrowth that seems to thrive here, and no small amount of sweat. In this clearing however, there is no insect noise, no air movement to slowly stir the leaves, only silence, and a faint whiff of rotting corpses. Ingulf points to the far side of the clearing, where a low circle of stones sit, obviously too organized to be a natural formation.

Greetings!

This is the thread to use for ooc discussions or questions you might have regarding the game or storyline.

We will start with the first day you and Ingulf leave to chase the Duk'reeth.

Try to describe things and speak in character as much as possible, so we are both painting a picture so to speak.

Near as I can tell the way combat is handled is you state your action and include any rolls that are necessary in the post. For instance:

I charge the troll with my greatsword, hoping to kill him before the battle gets too heavy

Atk=14+7=21 Dm=7+5=12 hps.

Where the first number is your die roll and the 2nd number your bonuses. Try to also post what your next action will be so that I can continue the action or ask you to make a roll if necessary so we can keep things going.

If you want to say something ooc in the play by post thread, use the ooc code by putting a "" at the beginning and a "" at the end.

I will start the play by post and then wait for your response. If you know you will have a block of free time, like at Paneras or something, send me an email and we can try to post more frequently back and forth and get quite a bit done. We can also do more prior to the game on Sep 3 if you are back earlier.