Friday 6 July 1280, Three Hours After Midnight (What Karnak Saw)

Varros believes the wounds on the goblins appear to be from a pitchfork and possibly another farm tool. He also believes that Karnak has spotted the goblins and that they are probably engaged with Belloc's forces, though no sounds of fighting can be heard. Varros shares his theories with the rest of the party.

Gaven agrees with Varros's assessment. "Let us follow Karnak and see the end of the goblin host."

"I too agree we should follow Karnak," says Duran. "If it were not so dark I would say that hill would be a nice vantage point."

You take off in pursuit of Karnak. He leads you on over the plains at a fast run, for maybe two minutes, when suddenly, from up ahead, you hear a hundred savage voices burst forth: "Urrah!" This is followed by the crystal clear sound of a finely crafted horn singing out into the night. Then the clashing of steel, shouts, snarls and blood-curdling screams. As you close, you see a large, vague mass of shadows, about a hundred yards onward, from which emanate these sounds.

In the midst of this gigantic tumult, you hear one commanding voice rise above the others in some unknown, but unpleasant sounding tongue: "Ithrak...ghonal...karaz!" The phrase rings out three times, and what appears to be a bonfire explodes into existence illuminating the mass of shadows and making clearer the shapes of men and goblins locked in mortal combat.

Then suddenly you realize the fire that just sprung up is not spreading, but rather moving, and it appears to have burning arms, legs and a head. You see it grab a man, raise him and hold him high in the air, until the man bursts into flame like a torch. Then the creature casts the dead man aside and moves to pick up another victim.

Slowing, and creeping closer to get your bearings, you see a battlefield formed in front of you that looks like this: 

 Red = Human Force, Grey = Goblin Force, Orange = Creature, Blue = Party

In the far distance, Belloc sits on his horse beside his archers, shouting and pointing with his sword to give orders. The creature of flame, standing perhaps seven feet high or so, wades into the center of the battle. A tall humanoid figure with a crooked staff walks silhouetted close behind it. The goblins appear to be organized into small companies of twenty, the men in companies of ten. Each goblin company appears to have one or two larger members, perhaps hobgoblins. You are about 200' away from the nearest goblins (the bowmen). The ground is quite open and flat, with no cover. But as far as you can tell, you have not been detected by anyone. All the enemy's attention seems to be on the battle in front of them.

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OOC: Actions?

Friday 6 July 1280, Three Hours After Midnight (Two Dead Goblins)

"Cover me Duran," whispers Varros. Varros moves quietly forward to search the bodies for any valuables and try to determine if the goblins were injured and why they were behind the rest.

Duran motions to Varros that he has his back. As Varros moves forward Duran follows quietly with his bow at the ready. Gaven and the rest of the party continue to guard the rear and flanks.

Examining the two goblin bodies, Varros quickly sees that these two were both already wounded. One has five thin, circular puncture wounds in his abdomen, in a straight line about ten inches long from the first to the last. The other has a severe gash across his leg, definitely made by some sort of blade, but perhaps duller than a weapons-grade blade – the wound is somehow less "clean" than a wound made by a sharp blade. Undoubtedly, given the severity of their wounds, these two were unable to keep up with their companions.

Varros finds a short sword on each of the bodies, along with a skin of some foul-smelling liquor, and a few weevil-infested biscuits. He also finds a few coins – between the two goblins, Varros picks up 27 sp.

Still nothing else moves in the dark scrub. It seems fairly clear that these two were alone, and that the host continued on its way – the path they trampled continues leading forward to the west.

Varros calls to Karnak and feed him, and ask him to scout ahead. The raven comes down, takes a bit of food appreciatively from Varros, and flutters off again just a bit further down the path from the party. He lands on a branch, waiting for the party to follow.

Another half-hour of marching brings you to the far edge of the stunted woods without incident, though the tracks have bent slightly back to toward the southwest, curving back over the flat open ground toward where the road – and Belloc's men – should be.

Now that you are out of the vegetation, the moon provides you with plenty of visibility once more. The trampled ground is quite easy to follow. As you continue along the path, you notice off to your left the shadowy form of a hill that stands out above the plain. Though it is difficult to tell at this distance, its top appears to bear a jagged crown, either of natural rock, or perhaps the remnants of some man-made structure.

Suddenly Karnak, who has been circling just ahead of you, appears agitated, as if he perceives something further on in your line of march that you cannot yet see. He seems to call down to you with a note of urgency in his tone, and he flies off hurriedly straight ahead, to the southwest.

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OOC: Actions?  In addition to the coins, I assumed that you guys would keep the swords and have Ollie carry them. Let me know if I should alter that (or if you want to carry the bad liquor and weevil-infested biscuits).

Time Update: It is now about 3 a.m.

Regarding fatigue, penalties (basic -1 to initiative, -1 to hit, that kind of stuff) will kick in once you've been active for 24 full hours -- so about 5 a.m. Of course, if you run into any goblins, they are likely to have about the same level of fatigue as you, considering their extended activity.

Also, just FYI, I have now added two new reference tools to the blog.

First, a new page entitled "Quests, Rumors, and Information." This is a running list of all such items you guys come across in your adventures. I thought it might be a nice reference page as you encounter more and more NPCs, who give you more info and potential things to do. You can see what was said, by whom, when and where.

Second, I added tags to every post, and an index. Each post is tagged according to the particular quest your characters are/were on at the time (so far only two: "Lovers' Grove" or "Goblin Horde"), according to whether a quest, rumor(s) or information were given in the post, any major locations or NPCs, etc. Hopefully this will make the location of past details easier should any of us need access.

I'll try to keep these up to date.

Friday 6 July 1280, Well After Midnight (Investigating the Noise)

Varros motions to Duran, puts his finger to his lips and then motions for him to move forward. Varros does the same and readies his bow covering the area of the sounds.

Duran nods to Varros and slowly stalks forward trying to utilize any cover. With his bow at the ready Duran will meet any threat with deadly force.

Gaven continues to guard the rear and keep an eye on the flanks, while Varros and Duran scout ahead.

Oloc begins to call forth the words for his spell, waiting at the ready.

Stan advances slightly forward and to the right of Oloc, in a position to guard the unarmored mage in case of trouble.

As Varros and Duran sneak forward, they encounter at first only an obstinate, suspicious silence. Creeping around the bend in the trail, however, they spot two goblins, evidently trying to hide themselves in the shadows of the underbrush. Unfortunately (for the goblins), a cloud shifts clear of the moon, momentarily illuminating the position of the goblin pair as bright as day. 

Varros fires immediately on the goblins. In the blink of an eye, he looses two arrows. Each strikes home perfectly – one in the throat, the other in the chest. Before they can  react, the goblins gasp, twitch and then lie still.

As you hold your breath listening, you don't hear any other movement or activity nearby. If there are additional enemies in the area, there is no sign of them.

*****

OOC: Actions?

Time Update: The time is now roughly 1:20 a.m.

*****

Combat Details

Surprise

Party cannot be surprised (heard goblins)

Party d6 = 1 (goblins surprised)

Surprise Round (Varros only: "Varros will fire immediately on Goblins" + "Duran will only fire if him or one of his group is spotted").

Varros

d20 = 20! +2 (short range) = 22; d6 = 5 (Goblin #1 killed)

d20 = 14 +2 (short range) = 16; d6 = 6  (Goblin#2 killed)

Friday 6 July 1280, Well After Midnight (A Dark Path)

Varros looks to the Free Company, "I believe Duran and I should scout ahead and the rest follow, if we move slowly and use our cloaks we should be able to move unobtrusively ahead and any rearguard we encounter will be at the mercy of our bows. Agreed?"

"That plans sounds fine to me Varros," says Duran. "I believe it would take to long to go around this obstacle."

As far as can be seen, there would be plenty of room to execute Varros' plan. The goblins were clearly none too gentle going in, so the path visible to you is quite wide -- about twenty feet from side to side, quite enough for six men to stand abreast, let alone two.

"I do not like the looks of this forest. We will be at a disadvantage, especially if we need torches?" Gaven sighs as he looks for the edge of the forest, "But I see no other way to complete our mission. I will guard the rear, since I am likely to be noisiest."

Fortunately, at least for the moment, it appears that moonlight will give you all the illumination you need, about thirty-foot radius, so you estimate torches won't be necessary unless the scrubby woods get denser than they currently appear.

Oloc frowns as the others consider entering the dark, tangled mass. "If you think it best to enter, I will defer to your judgement. My guess is the gobs have some home or camp therein. We will be at a disadvantage."

As you conclude your discussion, you hear a rush of wings and look up to see Karnak return. The raven drops down and comes gently to rest on Varros' shoulder. You notice immediately that he has a note tied to his leg.

"Perhaps it would be best to call Karnak to stay with us?" asks Gaven. "I'm not sure he would be able to see us once we are in the woods."

Untying the scrap of parchment you see the following message. "Will adjust position accordingly. Keep advised. – Belloc."

*****

Having weighed the dangers and delays, you begin to move forward onto the dark path according to Varros' plan, with Varros and Duran scouting cautiously ahead, making use of cover as they go, the rest following, and Gaven bringing up the rear. Karnak flutters softly from tree to tree as you advance, silently keeping pace with the group.

In this manner, the going is slower than it was out in the open but still certainly faster than it would have been to go around the woods. After about a half hour, Karnak, seems to stiffen, and Varros and Duran hear a sound from up ahead. Listening carefully, they hear what sounds like a quiet moan, perhaps of pain. Seeing Varros and Duran halt to listen, the rest of the party stops as well, and soon you all can hear it. The sound comes from around a slight bend in the trampled path, maybe thirty or forty feet ahead. The moan dies off for a few seconds, but then there is a slightly louder wimper, followed by a quiet but harsh "Shhh!"

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OOC: Actions?

Note: Map not to scale; clumps of trees are abstractions, not actual representations of individual trees.

Also: One thing that occurs to me is that I hope I'm not pushing you guys too fast to decide on actions. I do tend to post once everyone has made a comment, but if you ever think something needs further discussion before party actions actually go into effect, please just go ahead and close your comment with something like "OOC: I think we should discuss this more before the next post" and I'll hold off posting to let you guys discuss. While I want to keep the game moving, I don't want that to ever be at the expense of your group decision-making process. I think we can balance both.

Friday 6 July 1280, Just Past Midnight (Following the Goblins Northwest)

Varros looks to the sky and calls to Karnak loudly, holding out his arm to provide a perch, with the other hand he readies a piece of meat. Turning to Oloc he says "Perhaps you can make a tiny note to attach to Karnak stating that the host is moving to the Northwest?"

"That sounds like a plan Varros," says Duran. "After you send Karnak we should continue to track the Goblins."

Oloc agrees with the plan and takes out a small piece of parchment. He scribbles a short note with the key information for Belloc. Thinking about it, Varros also asks Oloc to include the news that the party will continue to trail the goblins from a safe distance and provide updates.

Once finished Oloc folds up the paper and hands it to Varros. "Let's hope he gets it."

While Oloc writes and folds the message, Karnak descends and alights on Varros' arm. It appears he is growing quite accustomed to Varros, and seems perfectly at ease at the fighter's wrist.

Varros gives the command to Karnak to return to Belloc and asks him to return with a plan. Varros also asks Karnak to respond if he understands. The raven cocks his head, and surprises you somewhat, as he gives what looks like a nod and a wink before taking off in a flutter of black feathers.

As Karnak flies away, Gaven says: "Let us trail the main host to the northwest."

You check your gear before departing, and Duran readies his bow as the party heads off following the trail. Though you all are weary, you feel you have a few hours' good marching left in you before fatigue begins to actually take a toll.

*****

With the buring farm behind, the long shadows it casts gradually blend into the darkness of the fields. Soon the moonlight is once more your source of illumination, and it provides plenty of light for following the ground trampled by a host of goblins. The night is also quieted once again, as very quickly even the crackling of the flames can no longer be heard. There is only the noise of the night insects.

About forty-five minutes' march to the northwest, you come upon a low, wide looming shadow in front of you – one of the wide spaces of scrub spotting these fields that Belloc mentioned in your first coversation. The goblin host's path leads straight into this broad space of densely packed gnarled trees, maybe twice as tall as a man, intermixed with harsh-looking, chin-high bushes with wicked four-inch thorns, and tall, weedy grasses. With the shadows cast by the moonlight, it is difficult to see anything inside the miles-wide patch, other than the well-trampled goblin trail that plunges clearly straight into the middle of the rough vegetation, disappearing into darkness after about thirty feet or so.

Otherwise you see nothing, and hear less. Even the insects that whispered during your march have now fallen silent.

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OOC:  Actions?