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Before you can even begin to chase after the boy, you must first get through the bushes he had first appeared from. These are a thick tangle of otherwise-harmless branches that block the view of what's on the other side.
Erik and Rhiann are pretty confident the boar had been fired upon before it came into view, and it was the source of the sudden squealing sound. As you make your investigations, you hear footsteps coming through the underbrush. "Oi!" a voice calls out. From inside a nearby bush you see a young man pop his head into view, using his longbow to push branches out of the way. He looks no older than sixteen, dressed similarly to Kairee and the other bandits you've encountered out here. "That was my..." The words die on his lips as he quickly takes stock of the situation-- five well-armed combatants versus himself. For half a heartbeat, no one moves. Then he lets out an "Uh-oh!" and disappears back into the bush.
Suddenly, from around a large tree comes a wild boar-- so worked up into a frenzy by the arrow shaft sticking out of its withers that it charges right at you!
Before the boar can take so much as three charging steps forward, an arrow from Rhiann, a crossbow bolt from Adela, a splash of painful acid from Dare, and a rapier jab from Yuki all find their marks in rapid succession. The boar loses its footing mid-rush and slides forward on the forest floor, dead before it even stops moving.
The boar takes several successful attacks from the party, but is still on its ~~ Turn Order (Bold May Act) ~~
You hammer out your infiltration plans as the group continues exploring and mapping the area. Although you have at least some idea of the direction in which the Stag Lord waits for you, there is still plenty of land to cover in your chartered area.
GM dice:
* * * * *
Two days later, as you continue your trek through the southern portion of the Narlmarches, you hear rustling sounds coming from the underbrush up ahead. This is followed by a loud squeal, then the rustling gets much louder and faster. Suddenly, from around a large tree comes a wild boar-- so worked up into a frenzy by the arrow shaft sticking out of its withers that it charges right at you!
~~ Turn Order (Bold May Act) ~~
"No, I want to pick your brains some more. Are any of the Stag Lord's boys non-human? Any serious archers? Any heavy infantry? Any trained cavalry? " "Aren't seen none. If they're not human they keep it to 'emselves." At Erik's mention of horse and infantry, Kairee chuckles nervously. "Yer thinkin' we got knights out here, what gave up their lands an' titles fer this?" She gestures around vaguely. "Nah. I wouldn't underestimate nobody in there, but we got no 'sirs' or 'dames' out 'ere." Kairee gathers up her weapons and heads into the woods in the direction of the trading post-- a trek that, even for a single traveler moving swiftly who manages to not get off-course, will take days. No sooner does she leave your line of sight than a second Kairee reappears with Rhiann from a secluded spot. Yuki's disguise is uncanny, so much so that anyone else might swear the departed bandit had a twin sister.
"Kid, you can draw on things other than paper you know." Erik hands Kairee a dagger, "Take this and draw things out in the dirt here. I will personally pee on it after we're done with it to make it illegible..."
Kairee relaxes a little when Erik lowers and stows his bow, but shakes her head emphatically at his suggestion and makes no move toward the dagger. "Uh-uh. Aren't gonna risk one o' the others comin' up an' catchin' me doin' it. It's a big forest, but it aren't that big."
She pulls out 7 gp (some from a boot and some from a pouch) and hands it to the girl. "Hold on to that till you get to Oleg's. That's enough for a new outfit that you like that fits you, including boots, and a new gambeson that won't leave you chafed, and some extra supplies. Don't waste it or gamble it, or it'll be gone and I'll not be here to spot you." Kairee's eyes go wide at the sight of the gold, her expression that of someone who has perhaps never held so much money at one time. Her hands-- all concern of being seen apparently forgotten-- reach out to take it, ignoring Dare's slightly-disparaging comments entirely. She swallows, her mouth dry. "The, um... the camp," she continues, clearly racking her brain for something to say, "has got watchtowers on it. Hard t'sneak up on. I think the Stag Lord sleeps under the south one, there's like a room under there. Though I never been through every door, y'get me. There's a cellar, too, offa the pig roastin' room. That's where the stockpile goes."
Kairee stuffs the coins into a pouch at her belt. "Oleg. Rhiann sent me. Got it." Slowly, tentatively, she crouches to pick up her bow and shortsword. "Can I go now?"
"Thank you, that's good information... what's your name?" Rhiann asks warmly. "Name's Kairee. Kairee Faybre. 'Riginally from Restov, but I ha'n't been there in awhile." "What happens if word does get to camp? What happens when you make it back there (one way or another)?" Kairee shrugs. "Then they make ready. Somebody might already know yer out here an' that y'aren't one of us, but if they know yer close they'll want more eyes peeled. "As fer me... I won't beat yeh there."
"I don't keep roll or nothin', but like I said, the camp's always got folks there. Less'n a dozen at a time, usually." At the mention of a drawing, Kairee gives Adela a pained expression. "Look, miss, words is words an' I can always deny 'em, but puttin' chalk to paper makes it mine. Mine, y'know?" She pats her chest for emphasis. "I'd rather wear them feathers--" she glances meaningfully at Erik's arrow-- "than give the rest o' the crew proof that it was me what told yeh all this."
"Don't worry about Dovan, who ever he is, or what ever he did, im sure we will be able to get him out of the way real quickly" "I... wouldn't be upset if y'did. Watch out fer'im though, man's a real monster. Prefers blondes." Like me, she seems to add. "What do they do for food? Send out hunting parties?" "Same's you, I expect," she responds, nodding toward the furs and reused animal pieces you're carrying which seem to accumulate during an exploration of any great length. "Hunts, traps, an' foragin' parties. 'S plenty o' food out here, so long's yer not picky." "Say, who were you scouting for exactly? do you have a group in the close vicinity?" "Not a group, no. 'S usually someone in earshot, an' I'd never seen ya 'fore, so I passed th'word. Aren't no guarantees it'll get all the way to camp, but it might."
Upon Dare calling attention to them, the girl flicks her eyes down toward the sorceress's boots and wets her lips. "I... um..." The additional kind words from Yuki, and Rhiann's mention of the trading post, seem to make up the girl's mind. "That's the one what Happs'n'is crew tried ta scumper, right? I'eard 'e never made it back. Show o' strength that was, an' no mistake. Really think they'd take me there?"
She glances eastward before continuing, as though afraid of being overheard. "Stag Lord's camp's more of a fortress, really. Think it used ta be an old tower, or some such. Big place, maybe a hunnerd feet square, guarded like a princess's purity. It's up on this hill, like," she pantomimes a tall building with one hand, "an' has a path leadin' up ta the front gate." She pantomimes a walkway leading to it with her other hand. "They say if ya don't take the path, there's some kinna curse on the rest o'the hill. That's prob'ly just ta get us followin' the rules, but I weren't takin' no chances." She shrugs. "There's..." The girl trails off and counts silently on her fingers. "Three leaders under the Stag Lord himself. The big dumb one is Ox; the long black-haired one is Dovan." She pauses for a heartbeat. Sense Motive, DC 20 (hunch):
A shadow passes over the girl's face at the mention of Dovan, and she does her best to suppress a shudder. She definitely does not like this person. "Other one I don't really know, never talked t'im. There's more that live there, whoever sucked up the best this week I guess; I never been one of 'em. There's usually, like, six ta ten though. It's never empty."
The bandit blinks. "Who else, glian?" she says in a somewhat bewildered tone, using a slang term common among Restov's guttersnipes. "The Staglord. He's the biggest bad fer a thousan' miles, aren't'e?" She looks at the various weapons being carried in front of, and brandished at, her. "He'd have a place fer ya, if y'ask'im. Yer strong, I can see it, he'll see it."
The girl, dressed in boiled leather that serves for armor with a braid of dirty blonde hair down her back, unslings her bow and quiver of arrows and, making no effort to hand them to Rhiann, instead drops them at her own feet. She pulls her shortsword from its sheath and drops it as well. No other weapons can be seen on her person, her only other possession being a small sack at her belt. "Day-an'-a-half fer me. Longer fer you, with that wagon o'yers. Dunno how many we got; there's maybe a dozen allowed ta live there, the high-ups, y'know. Rest of us, we're here in the woods mostly. Jus' tryin' ta make an honest thievin', y'know."
"I'm comin,' I'm comin'." The bandit slowly climbs down the tree-- no easy feat, since she never takes her eyes off Erik's bow-- until she's standing on the ground in front of you, palms up. "Aren't gonna do anythin', see? Camp's 'attaway," she says, jerking her head in the direction she had been whistling just moments ago, "but it's a hike."
The bandit stays where she is up in the tree. "Round here? Aren't nobody I know of. Jus' you."
"Aright, aright, don't shoot!" The bandit holds up her hands and looks from one side to the other, then back at Erik. "Was jus' doin' calls, y'know, thassit! I wasn't gonna shoot cha or anythin'!" Sense Motive, DC 12: With the way the bandit is looking all around and not in any particular spot, you sense she is very much alone (or else skilled at pretending to be).
GM dice:
* * * * *
Three days of travel later, as you make your way through the trees, you hear the call of a thrush that doesn't quite match what you by now know thrushes to sound like. Following the sound, everyone except Dare-- who is, perhaps, too busy inspecting/admiring the magical backpack found on the trolls-- sees a bandit perched about 20 feet up in one of the trees, watching you and throwing a bird call toward the west (roughly in the direction you're currently traveling). When you make eye contact with her, she quickly ducks behind the trunk of the tree.
And with that, the second of the two trolls takes his final breath and lies still.
Neither troll had so much as a plate of armor or ring of mail to protect them, and they wore uncomfortably little in the way of clothing, so searching the bodies takes almost no time at all. Looped onto the rope belt of one troll is a well-used backpack with two side pouches, clearly sized for someone much smaller than they were and probably taken from some unfortunate adventurer. Detect magic:
Spellcraft, DC 24: Spoiler:
The large main portion of the backpack contains many common but useful items-- candles, chalk, rope, a lantern. In fact, as you scoop out handful after handful of small tools, there are far more of them than the pack seemed at first to be holding. One of the side pouches, similarly, contains so many gold and silver coins that it should have been full to bursting, surely none of which were noticed by the trolls.
Dare's magical flames continue to eat away at the troll-flesh, but it's clear his body is still trying its best to keep him alive.
~~ Turn Order (Bold may act) ~~
The troll lunges at Yuki lining up her blade to deliver a death-blow to his downed comrade, but Erik's arrow and Rhiann's magically-embiggenated blade bring him down at her feet before he can finish the attack. Yuki drives the rapier throw the first troll's eye socket and into his brain, killing him for good. ~~ Turn Order (Bold may act) ~~
The remaining troll, having felt Yuki's sting (and a very important, very impactful crossbow bolt from Adela), decides the fire-mage is in fact the most dangerous enemy after all.
Dare, through a combination of abjuration magic and her own survival instincts, manages to dodge two of the attacks-- but not the third. It manages to score deeply, leaving a dark red gash across her abdomen. The first troll, having received enough magical burns, deep gashes, and puncture wounds to slay many a beast, still clings desperately to life lying on the ground; his chest rises and falls rapidly, his seared flesh struggling to mend itself.
~~ Turn Order (Bold may act) ~~
The remaining troll sees his compatriot fall and, believing the elf-girl to perhaps be much more dangerous than she appears, turns to dispose of the new threat, lashing out with both claws and those horrendous teeth.
Unfortunately for the troll, she manages to dodge all but one of the strikes. ~~ Turn Order (Bold may act) ~~
The severely injured troll suddenly finds the business end of a rapier stuck into his liver, and with his regenerating flesh painfully seared, he succumbs to his wounds.
Oh hey, I'm a university staffer too! Our students finished finals a week ago, and yea I know how hectic this time is. Particularly for the registrar's office, but also for anyone who needs to get grades submitted.
~~ Turn Order (Bold may act) ~~
The two trolls charge forward, heedless of danger, accustomed to taking minor wounds and shrugging them off. One of them takes several arrows, two of which from targets he didn't even know were there until it was too late-- but if the two punctures hurt, he gives little indication of it. Even as they run toward you the wounds begin to heal, the arrows slowly pushing themselves out of the troll-flesh... ...Until, that is, Dare lets forth a cascade of magical flames. This they notice, and they both roar as the burn marks sear painfully across their hide. Knowing the danger this poses to them, one quickly changes targets!
~~ Turn Order (Bold may act) ~~
Neat idea, and maybe it's not too late! See my most recent post. It's even the kind of thing someone in Dare's position would ready (at least in my opinion).
~~ Turn Order (Bold may act) ~~
Dare remembers that troll-flesh heals cuts and bruises quickly and even regrows lost body parts, making them very hard to kill-- but if it's been burned away, the damaged flesh takes longer to heal.
The crunching of leaves and sticks grows louder, and very soon two hideous-looking humanoids emerge from the brush. Each is at least ten feet tall with rough, green hide, though if they weren't so hunched over they would no doubt be taller still. Their hands end in claws, and their bestial faces have large tusks and protruding lower jaws. Perception, DC 18:
You notice that the creatures are using their claws to part the underbrush as they walk, but they make no effort at all to avoid being scratched along the way. In fact, before your very eyes one of them receives a long cut across its thigh from a passing thorn; within seconds, the cut heals itself and vanishes. Knowledge (local), DC 15:
These are trolls-- large humanoids as tough as a castle wall but not particularly clever. They see several adventurers without difficulty and stop for just a moment. They speak to each other in a rumbling, throaty language. "սնունդ?"
Giant:
"Food?"
"Looks like food to me." "I take the weaker one." Then the two of them rush toward Rhiann and Adela respectively, claws extended. * * * * *
GM dice:
As they run forward, Rhiann's hair-trigger lets an arrow fly. ~~ Turn Order (Bold may act) ~~
GM dice:
* * * * *
Two days later, as you're trekking through the woods, you hear the unmistakeable, rhythmic-but-asymmetric crash-crash, crash, crash-crash of several sets of footsteps approaching to your left. While the sources of the sounds are too far away to be seen through the trees just yet, they're on a course that will intersect with yours shortly. Erik can tell by the sound that there are two creatures walking upright who are much larger than you.
Dare knows that the lack of scavengers and decomposition-assisting insects is indeed strange-- while unicorns have many magical abilities and properties, their flesh is no less tasty and nutritious than that of similar beings. Dare also remembers that a unicorn's horn is the conduit for its magical abilities and is said to be an incredibly powerful focus for healing magic.
I got halfway through typing up something to say exactly this before I realized that nobody has a high enough Knowledge (nature) modifier for it to matter. It calls for Knowledge (planes) in the book, but if anyone were capable of reaching it I would take either one. (You aren't really expected to be able to reach it, I guess it's more of an easter egg for any character that happens to have sky-high Knowledge checks.)
Knowledge (arcana), DC 13:
You know that a unicorn is an intelligent magical beast, far more cunning than most humanoids and stunningly beautiful in life. Common knowledge holds that unicorns are strongly associated with goodness and virtue. The unicorn's body offers no unusual resistance to being touched or moved, although since it weighs at least half a ton, such a feat takes several people . Erik finds no trace of anyone or anything that might have approached; if any evidence ever existed, it's long since disappeared.
If yes:
Adela has no particular information about the religious tendencies of unicorns, but knowing they're good-aligned and free-spirited, Desna and Shelyn are most likely to be held in high regard. If no: Adela has no firm idea of who unicorns might worship or revere, although since they're creatures of the forest, Erastil and Gozreh seem likely.
You all set out again the next day, making the journey back to the most recently sketched-out portion of your map in a few days' time. GM dice:
* * * * *
As the month of Arodus comes around, you come to a somewhat sunken clearing in the woods. The clearing is heavy with the stink of moldering plants, and a strange quiet surrounds the clearing-- the constant songs and chirps of various birds to which you had long since grown accustomed are noticeably absent. At the center of the clearing, the soggy ground becomes an insect-infested, stagnant, swamp-like pond, and sprawled at the pond’s southern edge is what appears to be a dead horse. Approaching the carcass, it quickly becomes clear that this was not a common horse but a unicorn, its horn broken off at the brow (and nowhere to be seen) and its body strangely untouched by insects or other necrophages. The stink of mold comes not from the body, which is weirdly odorless, but from the fouled water of the pond. Why the various insects and other scavengers in the area have avoided the body is a mystery. The body shows no obvious cause of death, although its eyes are milky and sightless-- this creature was blind at the time of its death. Heal, DC 20:
You can tell the horn was removed after death. The lack of any wounds, bodily fluids, or other signs indicate this was a magical death effect. Knowledge (planes), DC 30: There are tales that tell how the acts of some powerful fey creatures from the First World can leave their victims “marked” in a way that even their bodies shed a strange aura of repulsion to natural life—as if animals and vermin could sense the anger of such powerful fey and knew better than to involve themselves with such a victim.
GM dice:
The journey back to Oleg's is an uneventful four days, spent trying to avoid the stench of the tatzlwyrm head you kept for his benefit. Adela's magic keeps it from rotting, magically preserving it in a state of less-than-twelve-hours' decay, but it isn't what anyone would call 'pleasant.' Fortunately, no wandering predators interrupt the journey. The gruff trader is true to his word, rewarding you with a sack of gold for bringing him the head. "This'll go right above my armchair, it will," he declares proudly, taking it to his workbench. He's no taxidermist-- by the time you're ready to head out the next day, a large tatzlwyrm skull sits on the bench stripped of flesh and scales and ready for a thorough cleaning.
I have not seen anything in the adventure that suggests a required timeframe. Honestly the only reason I've been tracking the days is because your previous GM's did and I figured there was a reason for it-- although it also serves as a nice reminder of just how much time is passing in-game. As for travel time, I've been assuming you can spend 16 hours a day on the move with no ill effects. If you'd rather stick to the recommended 8 (to benefit from some specific ability you have or something) I'm happy to start doing that, but I haven't been.
Adela looks around for any new threats, and something catches her eye that didn't before-- not a living creature, but a particular long-dead one. One of the skeletons of what must have once been a human is still dressed in a fine set of armor. Once the skeleton is moved so this well-made suit of mail can be retrieved, Adela also sees a rotting leather backpack underneath, the contents of which have been well-preserved by the mud. Altogether, the pack contains: 90 gp, a pewter drinking stein, a silver ring, a jade carving of a female elven monk (fully nude and rendered in lewd detail), and a watertight scroll tube. Appraising the drinking stein:
Appraise, DC 15:
Spoiler:
You estimate the stein to be worth 10 gp. Appraise, DC 20: Spoiler:
This stein is worth exactly 12 gp; it's both useful and pretty to look at. Appraising the ring:
Appraise, DC 15:
Spoiler:
You estimate the ring to be worth 28 gp. Appraise, DC 20: Spoiler:
This ring is worth exactly 35 gp; it's untarnished and (relatively) unscratched! Appraising the jade carving:
Appraise, DC 15:
Spoiler:
You estimate the carving to be worth at least 70 gp. Appraise, DC 20: Spoiler:
This carving is worth exactly 85 gp to the right buyer-- one who doesn't have a jealous spouse! The tube contains, not spell scrolls, but a partially-completed map of the northwest corner of the Greenbelt. The person who drew it had apparently come from the north, reached the Skunk River, and was continuing downriver. Indeed, had you discovered this map earlier, a significant amount of your work would have been done for you-- large sections of the forest and the landmarks contained therein are depicted clearly, including the frog pond, the statue of Erastil, and the forgotten temple.
The remaining tatzlwyrm takes an arrow, a crossbow bolt, and a wave of magical fire which all prove too much for it. Almost as quickly as it had emerged, it cries out and falls over dead.
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