I'm so sorry to hear that, Vayelan. I've had a great time playing with you. I hope all is well in real life and this is a good kind of busy. Take care!
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Katrine nods, placing her bow back into its shoulder strap on her back. "Agreed. There's still plenty of daylight left." She whistles for Storm and makes her way back to where her horse and pack mule are waiting.
Katrine thinks for a moment, then shakes her head. "I think you covered everything." She nods to the fey messengers. "Good luck and good hunting."
While Katrine is very interested in the maps, the respectful thing to do is take care of the remains of the manticore's victims before examining potential routes east. So she helps Ahto and Faerin haul stones for the cairn, followed by a brief prayer for the souls of the departed. "If nobody else wants the ring, I'll take it. Might come in handy for scouting." Katrine is a pretty good climber already. With the help of the ring of climbing, she could climb more difficult surfaces. Spotting the group of fey, the ranger smiles and waves at them. "Hello, friends."
Katrine gets down on one knee to examine the manticore's tracks more closely. Beside her, Storm takes a deep whiff of the body, then starts sniffing around for a scent trail.
"Depends. If it didn't discard its victims' belongings, there could be some valuable items in with the remains." First, though, Katrine wants to see if any parts of the carcass are valuable enough to be worth lugging along on their journey.
Katrine moves to get a better shot at the creature, Storm on her heels. The wolfdog growls, but until it lands, he can't reach to bite it.
Katrine nods to Faerin, readying her longbow. Beside her, Storm's ears perk up at the signal for a fight.
For some reason I can't post in the IC thread, it's not going through.
Katrine's expression mirrors Faerin's, with an added element of 'here we go again'. "Trying to talk to a predator big enough to carry away a horse in each claw is a spectacularly bad idea. Rocs will be rocs. It's not going to move for the likes of us." She shrugs. "The River Kingdoms are a dangerous place to travel, that's nothing new for any merchant working the area. Put up some warning signs on the road and call it a day."
Katrine chuckles at Ahto's joke, inwardly marveling at his ability to keep a perfectly straight face. Note to self, don't play cards with Ahto. "Amazing, I never thought I'd see a roc in person. Here's hoping it finds a moose or something and leaves us alone."
Katrine readies her bow, motioning for Storm to stay under the cover of the trees. "There certainly is. I don't see a way to Varnhold that doesn't take us through the bird's territory, though. A raptor of this size is going to hunt over dozens, if not hundreds of square miles."
"No way am I staying behind. I'm the Marshal, checking up on outlying settlements is my job. Two days should be plenty of time for Storm and I to rest up for a journey." Katrine could use a little downtime to meet the people of Horace and familiarize herself with the settlement. Ever since she and Pelipe joined the council, it's been one thing after another.
Katrine sighs with relief as the pain in her ribs fades. "Thank you, Faerin."
"And how did an owlbear grow this large in the first place? There must have been some kind of magic involved. Either a mage was experimenting, or it came from the First World." The ranger pulls off her bearskin poncho and gloves, setting them aside, then draws her skinning knife to begin the careful process of removing the owlbear's hide for taxidermy.
Storm snarls and lunges forward, training forgotten in the face of clear and present danger to his mistress... just in time for the owlbear to succumb to Pelipe's magic and drop the wounded ranger. "Well, that was embarrassing. Oww, down!" Katrine winces as her worried wolfdog jumps on her broken ribs to frantically lick her face. "I love you too, honey, but that hurts." She takes a careful breath. Painful, but she can in fact breathe unobstructed, which is a good sign. "Ahto, Faerin, I don't suppose either of you has a healing spell handy?" Hmm. Would an owlbear of this size be edible? If so, would it taste good if properly prepared? Katrine has butchered, cooked, dried and smoked bear and moose before, but not a moose-sized owlbear.
Storm growls at the owlbear, hackles raised, but Katrine motions for him to stay put. She doesn't want him getting trapped by Faerin's plants. She nocks another arrow to her bow and lets fly, then another.
Katrine runs toward the owlbear, bow in hand and Storm at her heels, only to stop short as Faerin's spell takes effect. She motions for her companion to heel as she nocks an arrow and takes aim.
Katrine pulls up alongside Ahto on her horse. While she looks relatively fresh and ready to fight, Storm is lagging behind and panting heavily. "Would you mind casting your spell on Storm? This kind of speed is hard on him."
Katrine expertly guides her horse through the forest at a gallop, Storm running at full speed alongside her.
The owlbear is leaving such a large and obvious trail, Katrine could have followed it as a child. She and her faithful wolfdog are on the hunt!
Works for me. The race is on!
Katrine nods as she reads Ahto's letter. "Yeah, maybe give them an estimate of how big 'enormous size' is. Other than that it looks good." Once Ahto is done making any postscripts, the ranger pulls a piece of meat from last night's dinner out of her game bag and begins to read the scroll. After a few minutes, a large goshawk, probably female from the size, swoops down through the trees and lands on a nearby branch. Katrine gives her the meat and carefully ties the scroll to the bird's leg. "Off you go now." The goshawk takes off, turning in the direction of Horace. "Here's hoping she gets there in time." Katrine mounts her horse, checks to make sure that the lead rein to her mule is secure, and whistles for Storm. "Let's go!"
Yeah, couldn't find a form I could change into that was faster than a horse (which is weird because they have a regular falcon listed at speed 30ft...which should be faster) Wow, that is weird. The listing I found for a hawk has a fly speed of 60 ft, a bit faster than a horse plus it can travel in a straight line without regard to terrain. A falcon should be at least that fast.
"Animal messenger! Of course." Katrine puts her bow down and starts digging around in her pack. After a minute or two, she comes up with a scroll, a sheet of parchment, a pen and ink, and a piece of twine. "Here, Ahto. Write a warning to the town and sign it so they know it's legit. I'll call a hawk to carry the letter to the castle, hopefully someone will be there to take it."
"Damn. It's headed northwest, towards the river. If it can swim, it'll end up in Horace."
"Great, just what we needed." Katrine gazes off into the distance as she tries to think of what settlements or other landmarks are around here.
Ah, the friendly giant. Hopefully there's enough booze in Horace to satisfy his giant thirst. Katrine waves to Munguk as they approach. "Faerin knows nature magic. If anyone can figure out how to grow your berries, it's her."
Katrine is seated next to Faerin at the fire, Storm lounging on her other side with his head in her lap. "I'm not very good at the political stuff, I leave that to these two." She nods toward Ahto and Pelipe. "The Nymph Queen is bad news though. She wants Ahto to marry her, and gave him a year to think it over. Obviously he doesn't want to- spirits only know what she has in mind for a mortal husband- so we've got a year to either figure out how to make her back off or kill her." Clearly the ranger is fine with either option.
Katrine smiles and returns Faerin's nod. "It's refreshing to meet a like-minded person." She likes her new... comrades? friends? Are they friends?... but they're such city folk. Faerin gets it.
Katrine pitches in for the grisly job of setting up the funeral pyres. Hopefully their little ceremony, basic as it might be, will satisfy the spirits of the dead enough that they won't come back as ghosts. "As we are born from the elements, so we return to them in death. The circle of life turns once more." Once that's over, she joins the others in studying the trolls' map. "Feathered death... that could be any number of creatures." Probably not a roc or giant eagle, they prefer mountainous territories with plenty of room to stretch their wings. A giant owl is a possibility, though, as is a cockatrice. Sprits, please don't let it be a jubjub bird. One of those was quite enough.
Katrine lets out an aggrieved sigh, exchanging a look with Faerin. How in the worlds do these people even survive? Spirits save me from city folk. "Our responsibility is to the people of Tamlyn, and these trolls pose a clear and present danger. We would be remiss in our duties if we let them keep preying on our citizens. Sure, the trolls might say they'll behave, but I guarantee that the minute they think we aren't watching, they'll go back to their old ways. One of the ways I made a living before meeting Ahto and the others was mercenary work. This is not the first time I've encountered trolls who eat people."
He looks to Katrine and Faerin. "My thanks to you both, and to Storm as well. You exhibited exemplary courage in a moment when matters could have gone very wrong." Katrine smiles at him, happy that Ahto thought to include Storm in his thanks. "I'm just glad we all lived to enjoy our victory. You really need to invest in some better armor, Ahto." Next she looks over at Pelipe. "Great job with the ceiling! I was surprised, I hadn't thought it possible to break through to the outside in so little time. And, ah, would you mind using your cleanup spell on Storm?" The wolfdog's face and chest fluff are soaked in troll blood, the latter drying into stiff reddish-brown spikes. "Giving him a bath with his winter coat is, uh, challenging."
Nyrissa again. Katrine sighs. She really needs to make the time to practice battle tactics against fey. Maybe some of the more martially inclined First Citizens could be persuaded to spar when they return to Horace. "Yay, more politics. Just what we needed."
Katrine freezes for a moment, not expecting the troll to turn to stone. Sure, Faerin told them that sunlight would petrify a rock troll, but they were underground! She hadn't thought that exposing the troll to sunlight was an option. Clearly Pelipe was understating her skills with architecture if she managed to find a weak spot and break it open so quickly. Shaking off the shock, the ranger pulls a pale wooden wand out of her belt, but Stayven got to Ahto with a potion first. "Faerin, do you have any healing spells prepared, or should we go with the wand?"
Yeah, I would put the points into Dexterity. Point buy calculator permitting, of course. (What was the point buy for this game again?) Poor Ahto. Dude really needs some better armor.
Hmm, or maybe she meets a nature spirit who offers her a bargain. I’ll make you an even better archer, but you won’t be a spellcaster anymore. @GM: Can I reassign the extra points I put into Wisdom during retraining? I’m still deciding whether to keep them for Perception purposes, but I figured I’d ask.
Wish I'd known about the Divine Marksman archetype when I was making this character. The longsword thing is weird- an axe is far more practical for a ranger, you can use it to chop firewood- but otherwise it's pretty great for an archer. With Faerin and Ahto, Katrine's spellcasting and tracking abilities are redundant as far as party skills go.Well, I'd be willing to allow you to do some retraining during the downtime of the next kingdom turn(s) to adjust the character to align with your new thoughts and insights. Whoops, somehow I missed this post! I would appreciate an opportunity to retrain. Anyone have ideas for how Katrine might lose her spellcasting abilities IC, though? I don't think she's done anything to anger the primal forces of nature. Or we could just retcon it, give her wand and scrolls to Faerin, and say she was never able to cast spells to begin with.
Katrine motions for Storm to stay back; there isn't enough room for him to get to the troll without it being able to hit him as he runs. She takes aim and fires twice more, hoping that Faerin's acid nettles will make the wounds stick this time.
Katrine waits for Ahto to move; it will be easier for her to maneuver around him than vice versa at his current size. Once the First Councilor has stopped in front of the troll, Katrine whistles for her wolfdog and moves to where she can see the new enemy. She takes aim and fires as Storm races to her side.
If possible I'd like Ahto to move first, since he'll take up more room. It's easier for Katrine and Storm to fit themselves around Ahto than vice versa.
Wish I'd known about the Divine Marksman archetype when I was making this character. The longsword thing is weird- an axe is far more practical for a ranger, you can use it to chop firewood- but otherwise it's pretty great for an archer. With Faerin and Ahto, Katrine's spellcasting and tracking abilities are redundant as far as party skills go.
Ha! Pelipe pulls through once again. Storm lunges for the fallen troll king's neck as Katrine aims carefully and fires twice more.
Storm lets out a yelp as his mistress curses in Sylvan, both of them trying to dodge the unexpected fireball.
Hmm. The troll has thicker hide than Katrine thought. She takes a deep breath, focusing on each arrow at the expense of speed while Storm lunges at the troll once more.
Katrine whistles the command for Storm to attack, which he does with gusto. "That's just fine with me!" She fires a volley of arrows around Ahto's troll-sized form.
Katrine sprints forward and around the corner, Storm at her side. She holds off on commanding him to attack; hopefully Pelipe or Faerin can pull off another blinding spell that will make it safer for her companion to circle around and attack from behind. Instead she fires off an arrow to test the enemy's defenses.
Katrine fits an arrow to her bow, but doesn't draw it. Yet. "You're the boss."
Katrine gives Stayven an incredulous look. "Are you kidding me? Did you not see what was in their larder? We are food to them! Not potential allies! Any thinking being that eats humanoids in or near our territory is a clear and present danger to the people of Tamlyn." And she's made the proper response to such a danger perfectly clear. Animals are one thing. Most large predatory animals are smart enough to avoid settlements, and the ones who aren't are pretty simple to hunt down. But intelligent predators like trolls? They're a far more difficult foe, beyond the means of a village militia to fight.
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