The Caravan
Subject The caravan
The night is uneventful. Around midnight, Noctis returns and settles near Salix. Again the druid says the prayer that will allow his to speak to his companion and he learns much. A ways ahead, what Salix figures to be 2 hours flying time, is what remains of the caravan. The concepts are hard for the owl, but Salix gets the idea that there are many, many bodies. However, the only living things there are the scavengers. There is no sign of anything that walks on two legs. With that, the spell ends and Noctis goes off to eat and help keep watch.
The following morning the party mounts up and heads out at first light. They ride as cautiously as possible, but there is a sense of anticipation in the group. The rangers travel a bit ahead and to the sides of the party, looking for tracks that might have been made by the goblin raiding party. About an hour before noon, they reach the top of a ridge, and as they look down in the small valley, they see the remains of the caravan. The woods have thinned out a bit here and there is a fairly good sized field off to the north of the road. Even from this distance of almost ? mile, the bodies can be seen. They litter the field. There is also the burnt out remains of a carriage.
At the sight, Alatyr starts to ride down the hill they are on, but at Ran shout, pulls up short. Ran tells him ?If there is someone still alive, a few more minutes will make no difference. If there is an ambush of some sort, all you would do is cause your own death and maybe ours. Let's be careful about this.? Ran then gestures and the two hawks and the raven take flight, circling over the wreckage and the bodies. After a few minutes, the birds circle lower and lower until they are only a few dozen feet over the site. The scavenger birds caw and hop around, bothered by these newcomers but not much else. The hawks and the raven then come back to the party. It is obvious to those who handle the birds that they were not bothered by anything in the clearing. Ran turns to the rangers ?Would you two mind leading the way, that way we will not disturb and tracks you might be able to find.?
The rangers dismount and move forward, consulting with each other as they go. For the next 20 minutes or so they work their way around the clearing, looking at different aspects of it. Every now and then, one of the rangers will point out something to the other and they will consult. They eventually head back to the party to do their report. (Track DC?, Cai 15+9=24, success, Bel 19+4=24, success)
Bel nods to Cai, indicating that she can take the lead in the report. ?First, everyone down there is dead. A large group of goblins, probably more than 100, from the southwest attacked the caravan about 2-1/2 days ago. This matches with what Alatyr has told us. We think that the guards put up one hell of a defense. There are over 75 goblin bodies out there, along with the 15 bodies of the guards. The bodies have been stripped of anything worthwhile. In our experience, this looks just like a goblin raid on a passing caravan. The remaining goblins have moved off SW towards the Pass of Undulant.?
However, there are a few things that we picked up that do not make a whole lot of sense if this were just a raid. First, there are no signs of the Lady Rochelle. All of the humans out there are male. It looks like they have taken her captive. This is not surprising by itself as goblins often take people to be slaves. What is surprising is this.? With that the rangers lead the group to some of the dead guardsmen. Alatyr recognizes the body as that of the Lt. in charge of the caravan. The man has been almost cut in half. Pointing to the Lt.'s body and the three others besides him, all in the same condition, Bel explains.
?This was not done by any goblin. Some larger creature did this. Look at this? he says, pointing at the wound. ?This was done by an axe, and a very large axe. Goblins do not use this type of weapon. Also, we have been able to piece together much of the fight. These men put up a great defense. They were well trained and disciplined. They probably would not have been able to handle 100 goblins by themselves, but goblins are notoriously cowardly. You don't have to kill even half of goblin horde to make it run away. But I would say that there are over 75 goblin bodies here. There was something leading these goblins.?
OODM: OK guys tell me what you want to do now.
From: Karl
Subject The caravan
Salix looks at the destruction in horror. Such a waste of life. So many good men destroyed. "I'd suggest we bury these valiant men, " he says to no one in particular, "but time is not on our side. We should move on quickly if we've gleaned all we can know from this site. The sooner we find the Lady, the less time they will have to do anything . . . unpleasant to her."
Burial *would* be a courtesy, to these men at least. Surely it would be their custom. To Salix personally, however, it made little difference. Devoured by worms or by larger scavengers it was all the same. Once the life is gone, nature will reclaim the shell.
From: Abby
Subject The Caravan
Surin leaned against his pony, looking over the scene of carnage, "I 'spect we're going to go try to find these goblins, then, aren't we..."
At Salix's proclamation, he nodded, "I was just about to say that. Wouldn't do to have these good men lay out in the sun."
OOC: I sent this to my D&D group at first!! >_>;;;
From: Karl
Subject The Caravan
"I meant, " Salix says quickly, "that we don't have time to bury the dead, much as they would probably appreciate it. The needs of the living should take precedent. At least I hope the lady is alive. We should proceed with that assumption, at least." He looks to Ran for confirmation.
From: Kevin
Subject The Caravan
Harp struggles to keep his emotions in check upon seeing the carnage. He walks over to Alatyr and says:
"I grieve with you on the loss of your comrades. Hopefully, some day soon, we will track the culprits down and we can treat them the way they have treated your friends. They are no greater than that bunch we fought off not but a day or so ago.
Tell me, how do you normally treat your fallen brothers? Is there some way we can honor them for their sacrifice for their country?"
Harp will await a response.
Harp will also confer with Ran on the best way to follow the goblins
From: Abby
Subject The caravan
"I see." Surin says, sheepish, "Didn't mean to misunderstand you. Makes sense, the way you said it... Still, I'll feel bad leavin' 'em lay."
From: Mark
Subject Spell lists
I need all the spell casters to make sure that your spell list on SakeRiver is updated. If you want to make any changes do so now. I will be printing out the list and if a spell is not on there, you don't get it. This does not apply to Rob, as Bel-Ril is a sorccerer and does not have a daily spell list.
From: Karl
Subject Spell lists
Mine is already updated and ready to go.
From: Kevin
Subject Salix's prayers
Harp, if he gets the chance, will ask Salix:
Salix, how was it that you were able to get the forest to come alive like that back when we were fighting the orcs? While I am sure that we could have defeated them with out the forest's help, we were able to kill most of them with out them even getting close to us. Do you have the ability to do that all the time? How long does it last? While we are in this wilderness, the ability to have the forest work for us and against our enemies would be a great boon, especially against such small creatures as those orcs and these goblins."
From: Derrell
Subject The Caravan
Fal stares in horror at the carnage. He turns to Ran and says, " I say we hunt them down and make them pay. I do have one question, though. Does anyone have an idea as to how large the creature that sliced those people in two is?
From: Randy
Subject The Caravan
"This is terrible. I too wish we could bury these men but I do not want their deaths to be in vain. They gave their lifes to protect Lady Rochelle and we need to honor them by finishing their work. I suggest that if we have learned all we can from the site that we continue to track the goblins and their leaders. We will continue in the formation that we have organized. we must push hard to gain ground on them. We will now need to switch to a shorter watch period and make use of as much light as possible."
Ran turns his mount to the rangers. "Can you scout ahead and follow the tracks? Report back to us if we are starting to go astray."
From: Karl
Subject Salix's prayers
Salix replies, "I can call upon the favor of my god only a limited number of times per day and I must decide in the morning the type of favor I will call up on my god to grant me that day. In situations such as these, I usually plan to petition that particular favor only once per day. The effect lasts for about 4 minutes at my particular level of training. If we think this particular display of nature is more needed than others I might request, I can prepare its use as many as four times in one day, though I would sacrifice the other powers. For instance, the power to speak to our animal friends here," he says, indicating Noctis who appears to be sleeping on the pommel of his saddle.
From: Kevin
Subject Salix's prayers
Harp replies:
Then you are blessed in a similar fashion as to how my god blesses me, though to more obvious effect. I do not think that there is any reason to ask that of your god four times, given that 4 minutes would allow us more than sufficient time to deal with a group many times our size. It just seemed that that spell was very effective in giving us much needed time in our last encounter. Of course, I would hate to get caught up in the thing.
From: Nate
Subject The caravan
"Tell me, how do you normally treat your fallen brothers? Is there some way we can honor them for their sacrifice for their country," Harp asks Alatyr.
"A wide variety of drinking games when celebrating the life of a man well lived, well loved, and well honored. When a gaurd is slain, usually a chant and a long speech, by a member of the royal family, and a long and tedious burial. In times like these though, with so many deaths, I think it would be best to pray to whatever diety is yours to pray to, and then get back to our task at hand. When I return to Mnuhl, a more appropriate honour will be held for these souls."
OOC: Sorry Tall, forgot to change the address I was sending to.