Mash is not able to detect any poison on the arrowheads. They seem to be clean.
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*** END of Round 1: *** Mash: Takes a closer look at the weapons of the shadow she has sneaked behind. The arrowheads are somewhat distorted, but they are surely not those thin and slender ones the group has seen before. Then she calls a warning to the two Orcs.
Shadow : The Shadow is completely surprised by the warning call behind him and turns around - obviously shocked that someone was able to sneak up behind him. He needs some long moments to detect the small Sporechild in the overgrown forest - but then he let go of his bow and pulls out a curved sword.
*** Round 2: *** Mash: Takes a closer look at the weapons of the shadow she has sneaked behind. The arrowheads are somewhat distorted, but they are surely not those thin and slender ones the group has seen before. Then she calls a warning to the two Orcs.
Shadow : The Shadow is completely surprised by the warning call behind him and turns around - obviously shocked that someone was able to sneak up behind him. He needs some long moments to detect the small Sporechild in the overgrown forest - but then he let go of his bow and pulls out a curved sword.
*** End of Round 1: *** Mash: Silently moves closer to the enemies without any of them noticing.
Shadow : The hooded figure has a longbow at his hands an arrow on the bowstring.
Defiantly Orcish, never said otherwise
**** Round 1: **** -- Mash:
Orcish diplomacy performed by Urak: Warg-Charge and grapple at the top of a tree in the middle of a magic field of unknown powers! ;-))
Round 1:
Initiative:
Shadow 3 Shadow 2 (undiscovered, yet) Mash Uruk Urak Shadow 4 Quick Shadow Shadow 1
Urak, Mash:
Now that you know that there is something you are able to detect 3 silhouettes distributed around the trees on the opposite edge of the clearing. Two of them are very well hidden and you cannot make out any details. The third one has stumbled onto the clearing, maybe he was tripped by a root? He/She/It wears a long dark coat complete with a long hood covering its entire face, a slender sword and a bow strapped on the back. All of his/her/its appearance is somewhat blurry as if under water or behind dense fog. Uruk: You have a hard time croaching into the small hideout Mash showed you, but after some time you made yourself comfortable. Because of you position it is hard to look around without leaving the hideout, but after some time a silhouette stumbles into the clearing as if tripped by a root. He/She/It wears a long dark coat complete with a long hood covering its entire face, a slender sword and a bow strapped on the back. All of his/her/its appearance is somewhat blurry as if under water or behind dense fog.
I will handle combat like my first try of tell-tale combat: You just go roll actions/attacks, give a bit of flavor if you wish to, like "Alice charges forward, using the distraction of the arrow fired by Bob and hits the Giant square at the knee with her hammer resulting in an audible cracking sound like breaking wood." - then I will use those - maybe slightly changed if your descriptions does not fully match the final situation or the damage does not result in the effect described. After one round is over I will put up a narrative summery of the round. I will possibly reorder initiative a bit such that your enemies will mostly act all before or all after you guys, such that we minimize the need to undo/change your actions because of random-stupid GM-minion actions ^^ Wall of GM Stealth-vs-Perception Rolls:
Knowledge Arcana / Spellcraft 10+:
The abrupt change of time (from day to night) suspiciously sounds like some incredibly powerful magic twisting time itself!
The Wolf wolfs the flesh down with hasty gulps, tail between the legs and eyes cast down.
Wall of GM Dice:
Mash Uruk Urak Wolf
Spoiler: After some time at the nightly clearing you really begin to get worried. What's if this one of the infamous geas - wonders or curses of nature itself bestowed upon disturbers' of its most holy places. Or have you fallen into another plane looking superficially like that one you knew? Urak:
As you discuss this weird place with the other two, you have the feeling that there is something moving at the edge of your vision at the edge of the clearing. Something darker as the night. Something alive ...
Uruk:
As you reached the point were Mash and Urak have vanished the world around you changes abruptly. The sky - one moment the blue of a late afternoon - turns to the midnight black of the deep night. And the heap of bodies - mere moment a few meters in front of you - is all but traceless gone. Urak - on the rear of the clearing from your point of view - seems to struggle with his wolf - the latter trying to throw off the other Orc. Mash meanwhile simply stares at that bizarre situation in front of her eyes only one steps to your side - you nearly overran her as everything changed. After the first surprise about Uraks entry has ceased, shortly before he is able to cease the struggle with his wolf, Uruk makes his running entry.
After a few moments of relentless buckling and a few "light slaps" on the back of the head, the wolf calms down, clearly exhausted by the stress and sudden "fight".
Mash, Urak: After the dynamic entry of Urak, he seems to have some problems with his wolf trying to throw him off - obviously displeased by the situation.
Urak: Your wolf is clearly taken aback by the sudden change and is close to panick!
Urak:
You made it halfway through your taunt before the world around you changes abruptly. The sky - one moment the blue of a late afternoon - turns to the midnight black of the deep night. The sounds of the climbing Uruk vanishing in an instant and the heap of bodies before you is all but traceless gone. And as you look down, Mash stands mere inches before you. Mash:
As you near the place were you first entered this strange, nightly clearing Urak suddenly plops out of nowhere, mere inches in front of you, shouting at the top of his lungs. Uruk:
Just as you climbed to the top of the tree, Uraks patience seems to have run out. He walks towards the place Mash have vanished, shouting on the top of his lungs: before simply vanishing without leaving a trace. Even more: you cannot even hear him anymore, although he clearly was mid-word as he vanished
Urak: While circling the clearing you are unable to find anything of interest. The heap of bodies is still there in the middle of the clearing, you are unable to find any signs of possible ambushers nether in the bushes nor on the trees and Mash is still ... gone.
Mash: You detect an excellent hideout inside the near circular clearing (it is about 25 meters in diameter). As you inspect the clearing closer, you spot a few clearly visible tracks coming from the opposite way you entered the clearing - that is the direction you originally came from before circling the clearing and entering it from "behind". Those tracks seem to vanish in the middle of the clearing. As you look harder, you also detect two nearly invisible tracks coming from the middle of the clearing and vanishing completely as they reach the north edge of the forest.
Mash: You cannot spot the two Orcs at all. As you reach the edge of the forest .... it is still the middle of the night!
Mash:
After you circled the small clearing, finding no wannabe-ambushers, you move carefully into the clearing. As soon as you pass the trees surrounding the clearing, the heap of bodies suddenly vanishes and it is suddenly the middle of the night. Uruk/Urak: Mash vanishes in the undergrowth nearly the instant she told you she would do it. After some minutes you notice her at the opposite side of the clearing, obviously about to enter the clearing. Then again she vanishes, but this time you are near certain that this time it is not due to her skill at stealth.
Sona nods towards the to Orcs, then turns and settles beside one of the guards, taking out the arrows and start treading the little wounds they made.
You follow the trail deeper into the forest, where it becomes harder and harder to follow the trail through the overgrown forest. Survival/tracking 15+ inside a forest:
Despite the difficulties you are able to follow the trail until you reach a clearing after another hour. From the last trees surrounding the forest you can easily see a heap of bodies in the middle of the forest. Most of the bodies seems to be armored with the typical elven town guard breast plate, a few are covered in what looks like camouflage coats. Despite the heap of bodies you are not able to detect any blood or other signs of a battle. else: You loose the track after another 40 minutes, but are able to catch it after two hours of extensive search. After you rediscovered the track and followed it for another 20 minutes you reach a clearing in the forest. From the last trees surrounding the forest you can easily see a heap of bodies in the middle of the forest. Most of the bodies seems to be armored with the typical elven town guard breast plate, a few are covered in what looks like camouflage coats. Despite the heap of bodies you are not able to detect any blood or other signs of a battle.
With another Plring another note gets handed to Mash.
Spoiler: If you want to, I will stay with them, maybe I can help one of them recover until you make it back?
A quickly written note informs you that Sona is also not able to cure them without searching for an antidote.
Craft Alchemy 17+: For every dose of Poison a average person will sleep for 1 to 7 hours depending on the resistance of the person.
Sona's Note: "They are not dead! Sleep poison on the arrows."
Leaving two confused and embarrassed guards behind, you set on a nice walk through the great forest, the sun high on the sky. As the sun begins already to set, you finally reach the side of the latest ambush. It looks awkwardly familiar to you. Six trade carts, half of them completely looted. Surrounding the carts are the bodies of at least twenty guards of all races (most are Elves and Dwarves). All seemed to be shot with those sleek arrows you already know. The main difference to the last ambush place you have been, is the fact that the guards have no other wounds beside the arrows sticking in their bodies and the fact that the horses which have pulled the carts are still here. They all have been shot with at least eight arrows.
Survival 10, while searching for Tracks:
You detect a lot of tracks surrounding the three looted carts and around the trees to both sides. Survival 15+, while searching for Tracks:
In addition to the above you also detect a track leading into the thick of the forest to the west and some lighter but fresher footprints of a couple of people following that track. Checking the Bodies of the Guards: Those guards were pretty good equipped, with decent armor and weaponry, but only two of them got as far as to ready their weapons. Spoiler:
You detect that the guard you are currently checking is still alive! As you examine the arrows, you detect that they are poisoned.
Elfish: "What do you talk about Orc? I don't know of this Falafel you are looking for, and if you want to fight bandits, just walk to the north, there should be plenty of them somewhere in the forests after all those attacks."
After you have dropped most of your belongings in your new room, you head to the North Gate of Gondolin, ready to take on the trail for newest ambush. You all notice that Félafrin really took most of the town Guards with him, as the North gate is currently only manned with four Warriors - instead of over ten at the time you reached Gondolin for the first time.
Intelligence+Perception::
You notice that this is the very first time Sona interacted with any of you after you reached Gondolin. In fact, after a bit of thinking, it seems to you that you never noticed her being with you in the town at all. She had simply been not there, somewhat appearing just now in the middle of your group, 'talking' in her special way to Mash like nothing ever interrupted your walk through the forest at all ... Sona's Note to Mash::
Isn't this nice! Ahh, I really love this weather, nether to warm nor too cold, a little breeze is going, and we are taking a nice walk along the great forest... So nice! The north street is significantly broader and better maintained than the southern road, obviously the road is used well - by travelers on food as by trade carts. But not today. You walk for at least one hour without meeting anyone or anything on the road.
The old Elf beams at Mash, obviously glad at their compromise.
The room has no real geometric form, it feels somewhat like you are inside of a crazy-grown tree. Two crossing spheres of light enters the room from two large hexagonal windows in the ceiling, filling the room with the golden light of the day. First you are completely confused by the walls, with all their small coves and the non-standard angels of EVERYTHING, but after a short inspection you discover that those coves and bulges are in fact clever furniture. Inside of a wooden cove is some kind of locker (for which the thick Elf gives you a golden key), in three different edges of the small room are beds, which can be pulled out of the wall, and after Uruk pulled a vine dangling from the ceiling, a big table gently drops down from the top. All in all the small room is in fact full of hidden storage space, and clever handled features.
The Elf seems to follow Mash's every word, and even flinches as she asks him for another - cheaper - place.
Mash: "I can make a special price for you under this circumstances ... how does 1 gold piece per day in total until you return to you? If you want to stay over night and have some really good meals, then we can talk again, little Seedling. But you have to give me your word, that we will have a nice talk about your kind one day. I was a well-known collector of this worlds history and all its inhabitants before I settled down here in town and opened this place. But please don't talk about this ... special prize with my other guests, or they will also want to make such an arrangement, you know...."
You follow Uruk through the city towards the north gate.
Perception 10:
You notice that the streets are quite empty, compared to your first encounter a few days ago. There a significantly few traders on the street - beside the ones with a local store - but even some of those have closed their doors in the middle of the day! Also you pass not even one town guard patrol on your travel. As you close on the north gate you are able to see a tall building which near black frontage is of stark contrast to the white marble frontage of most of the town and as Uruk leads you directly towards it, you can soon read a sign near the entrance: The Darkwood Inn, Owner: Elric Grapewine.
Uruk:
You are the only one who knows of a place to sleep. You stayed for a few days in the Darkwood Inn, a big palace-like house near the north gate build from the namegiving Darkwood, making the Darkwood inn near impossibly to miss, as its near black frontage is of stark contrast to the white marble frontage of most of the town. The Innkeeper is a whine-loving Elf named Elric. The rooms are luxurious - at least for the standards of Uruk - and quite expensive (5-10 gold pieces per day, including 3 meals a day) but with a very good cook.
You make your way through Gondolin, heading straight to the guard post.
Perception roll 15+:
You notice that there a remarkably few merchants on the street. Maybe your first impression was false? Or is something going on? The guard post is only guarded by one single elf, looking very tired. He lets you in without making a big fuzz about your arrival. You head down to Félafrins office … but it is empty. There are even more papers on his desk and on the floor. Perception 20+ or exhaustive search: You find a half finished letter at his desk, under a few dozen notes from daily duty reports. The unfinished Letter
After some discussion you finally make your way back into town. . As you reach the southern gate, four guards make you stop after noticing the three big chests on the wolves. The smallest of the guards steps to Sona, after a quick glance over your group, and tell her with the voice full of routine: "That makes five percent duty of your trade goods. Pay now or let some pledge of appropriate height here and pay after you sold your goods in town."
After Uruk asks her to try and open the chests, she immediate sits down, one of the closed chests before her, the set of tools you found in the Orc smith beside her and starts her work on the very difficult lock. Both Orcs are amazed at her dexterous work and her persistency but soon they get bored, as it seems to take ages for her to finally understand and best the lock.
Mash, Disable Device 30: After about one hour you are finally able to open the first lock on one of the chests. As you are about to open it you detect a thin wire connecting the lid of the chest with the front. You are sure that this wire has to be some kind of trap to prevent unauthorized access. You can open the lid for a few centimeter before the wire is fully tensioned. Through this gap you can see some metallic bars in a uncommon color, some finely crafted books and a letter signed with a artful sealing wax.
Last chance for noting down loot from the dungeon, before we proceed into Gondolin were you most likely want to sell some of those things...
You continue your way back to Gondolin.
The bunch of bugs Urak eats tastes like a mixture of bare burnt wood and old, half-rotten mushrooms and after some moments his tongue began to get dumb of their poison - lasting for about one minute.
After this unfriendly start into the day you quickly left the now deserted base of the Orcs and Goblins, heading back to Gondolin - heavily loaded with looted gear and the three heavy chests.
Mash, Uruk: One of them is the guard you both have asked for the way to the guard building at the very beginning of your adventure. You think that you have seen the second one at the gates at the time you left Gondolin.
A great, quivering mass of freshly grown Fungal Grawler's has followed the smell of burning flesh and had begun to swallow the dead goblins to still its newborn-unsatisfiable hunger. The unnatural quick an tiny creatures gave the group a hard time, especially since the brute force attempts did not work at all against the unending mass of tiny creatures. It was not before the group used burning torches, alchemists' fire and a burning goblin used as a improvised club, that they were able to inflict serious damage to the swarm. After some time they were finally able to kill even the last of these disgusting bugs (with a huge smash of the still burning Goblin). Mash's Knowledge nature check: Mash remembers that she once heard a conversation of a group of wandering Gripplis adepts, that matured Grawlers let loose spores upon their dead, which will soon grow into new Grawlers, an ability which new-born Grawlers thankfully did not posses.
more mysterious gm dice:
As Mash gets closer to the camp she gets on the big stone near the hedge she also took position on their first ambush on the camp. As she takes in the scenery before her, a small gasp escapes her...
Uraks shift goes without incident - except a short "discussion" after waking up Uruk for the second watch where the two Orcs exchanges deadly gaces and some grunting. Uruk's guard shift consinst's mostly of him keeping annoying little bugs from him, smashing them with his plane fist or throwing them in Urak's direction. After his turn he wakes up Sona. Mash takes her watch after waiking op from a soft hand on her shoulder and a very quiet play. "Good morning Mash. I have seen nothing unusual."
Everyone give me one Perception check and the order of your watch.
omnious GM-rolls:
While setting up your camp at the goblins place, Urak is really silent with a thoughtful expression on his green face (so he really thinks?) and finally brings up an idea of how to use the campsite for your advantage. Surprised by his intelligent idea you move your camp a few dozen feet into the forest and prepare the campsite.
After you took as much as possible from the dungeon you set your camp at the surface, ironically were you ambushed the goblins.
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