In the Hammer’s rest the evening passes pleasantly, Gila and Dalak recover their composure and return to the bar. Through the evening a number of Dwarve spend some thime talking to Kerim, and you all over hear snippets of conversation. The words Donkey, Hand Axe, Cooking Pots, Grappling Hooks, Velvet and Linen all come up in the conversation. Occasionally Gila or Dalak are called over to translate a word or phrase for those Dwarves who have a limited grasp of the Norse language.
At one point a fairly distinguished looking Dwarf comes into the room, and you notice that the other Dwarves all treat him with respect. He takes Mandrake to a quite table at the back of the room and they talk quietly in Dwarven for a while.
Peter gets involved in a long conversation with an older Dwarf concerning the benefits of various herbs, and at one point they both go to get note books and talk animatedly about recipes, and the way various herbs can be combined.
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In the morning there are eggs and various types of mushroom for breakfast, and another serving of the grey ale to wash it down with. In the stables the animals are prepared for the day and the pack animals are loaded with there various goods.
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Opportunities here to role play the leaving and to decide if anyone is going to ride pack mules or donkeys.
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The party continues on its way. Again it is a fairly pleasant day, there is no rain and only light cloud cover as you make your way into the wilderness. You know that you will not reach Mistaton in one day of travel, but if you move quickly you should only need to spend one night in the wilderness. The country side is still much like it has been on your previous days of travel, with general scrub growth around you, but this time the hills are behind you. A quick look at the map will show that soon you will enter a region of swamps and marshes.
Late morning, you suddenly hear a wolf like howling from the left hand side of the path, and out of the scrub rise four large dog headed figures, they are dressed in various pieces of armour and are armed with large clubs with decorated with metal spikes. They are accompanied by three wolves. They are not yet in melee distance, but are closing rapidly towards you, making deep grunting and howling noises as they approach.
OOC: BTW, if anyone is interested, I'm out of town for a couple of days, until Friday.
Early in the evening, Rolf goest off to find his bed among those in the dormatory, but he finds little sleep during the night. He can feel the oppresive weight of the mountain hovering above him and the dim, hazy light is such a poor replacement for the sparkling stars which are his usual night time companions.
After hours of fitful tossing and turning and the loud snoring of those about, Rolf gives it up and rouses himself. Making sure of his belongings, he searches for facilities to wash up. Afterwards, he roams about the Hammer's Inn, keeping in mind that most still slumber. In time, the increased noise from the kitchen warns him of the impending breakfast. It's as good a distraction as any. Moving to a table, he stares down at the meal, masking his distaste at the fare, but he nods and thanks his server.
The eggs he digs into, but he picks at the mushroom medley and sips sparingly from the grey ale with an obvious lack of enthusiasm. Gods, but he'd trade one of his sisters brood for a roasted haunch of deer and a keg of decent brew. Finally, having eaten as much as he could stomach, he leaves the remains of the meal behind and seeks out any of the others, looking for any distraction.
Finally, Kerim gets those damn mules ready for the trail and Rolf smile grows the nearer they reach the open sky. Passing through the huge gate, Rolf pauses. The morning air is sweet, tugging lightly at his pony tail. He stretches out his arms and, with a quiet sigh, let's them slowly fall to his sides. Grinning like a boy, his step takes on a merry spring as he leads the others onward.
As the sun nears noon, Rolf is brought up short by the sound of a wolf howl. "'Ware the scrub!" He calls as he whips his bow and strings it with an experienced twist. By the time the beasts begin their charge, Rolf has an arrow notched and ready. "Hold or die!" He calls out [in Norse].
[If they continue to charge...] Rolf let's fly arrows for as long as he can before trading the bow for his sword. Moving a little aside to give himself, and especially Callum, plenty of room to swing the massive blades, Rolf steps forward to meet the charging foe.
[If they halt...] Rolf eases the tension on the bow string and calls out again, "Who seeks to molest travelers on the Counts roads?"
Callum is trudging along at the head of the line, occasionally asking those nearby questions as he tries to improve his grasp of the Norse tongue. At the sound of the howl, his head goes up and a huge grin spreads across his face. He sees the Dogheads and immediately pulls his sword free and drops his pack to the ground. He judges the speed at which the beasts are approaching and realises he must act immediately.
======== Whether they halt at Rolf's shout or not ========
He rushes forward towards the nearest one, already winding up the massive sword for a blow and hoping that his companions will not think any less of him for fighting as he is, even if it's not against an honourable foe. When within striking distance he looses the energy he has built up in the sword's swing.
OOC:Rolled a 13 to hit. I don't have the books at work and I haven't calculated a THAC0 but I think that'll hit up to about AC5. If it connects, that's 23 points of damage (check the log if you don't believe me. Must have rolled 18 on 3d6). As far as crits/fumbles go, what I tend to play is double damage on a natch 20, automatic fumble on a 1 (sword dropped, stuck in a tree etc) so no attack(s) next round while weapon is freed/retrieved. This means you can throw in a dex roll to hang on to the weapon in precarious situations. I know we don't get it in PBEM, but the look on someones face when their gallant fighter is holding the bridge against a squad of angry trolls and he's just thrown his sword ( 3 vs regenerating creatures) into the river has some humour value.
Madelyn awakes early and without disturbing Elsbeth, spends an hour in meditation. She washes dresses and sets too polishing her shield and armour. When Elsbeth awakes she will ask ‘I hear life in the kitchen, would you care to join me for some breakfast?’ She will make her way (with or without Elsbeth!) to the common room, and enjoys breakfast. She gets her stuff together and heads down to the stables to saddle Keldon and joins the party when they are ready to leave.
Enjoying the ride, Madelyn is at the front of the party when she hears the wolf like howling. She immediately turns Keldon and heads (right-hand side) around to the back. As she does this, four large dog headed figures and three wolves appear out of the scrub.
Madelyn hears Rolf shout "Hold or die" and hesitates to see what the creatures reactions will be
IF THEY CONTINUE TO ATTACK : Madelyn will set her lance to charge and push Keldon on with her heels to attack the far left dog headed figure
OOC: Rolled a 19 to hit armour class –5 (strength bonus of 3, charge bonus 2). If that hits :o) do 18 points of damage (double damage with lance)
IF THEY HALT : Pull Keldon up to a halt at the rear of the party and set lance ready for a charge
As part of his haggling, Kerim has acquired a donkey, he asks Mandrake and Smilo "Would either of you like a more comfortable ride?" as he pads the pack saddle with a blanket.
OOC: Sorry about length, will post something longer later.
"Smilo. Smilo. Smilo. SMILO!" The cot is kicked. The thing under the blankets groans. "Smilo." "Do me a favor," moans the thing under the blankets. "What?" "Kill me. For I'd surely rather die than feel this way." "Get up." "Yer a creul un." "MOVE!" "Alright. Alright, you don have to yell." A wooly head sticks out from under the covers. A bald spot visible right in the center of it. Eyes stuck shut, it tries to cluck its tongue a few times, only to find it swollen and dry. "I'll never let spirits touch these lips agin, as God is my witness. Wots to eat?" [When Mandrake mentions the cart] "My thoughts exactly!" Then pulling his beard, "err, you know ow to drive un?" [When Kerim offers the donkey] "Why, thank you." [When the gnolls attack] No sense tryin to sneak up behind a body ere, thought Smilo, lessin an oppurtunity comes up. Best get out the sling and stay behind and left of the big folk. [If the critters charge, he'll let a bullet or two loose. Could we get an ASCII map?]
Rolf can get two arrows off, one towards a dog head, the other will have to be towards a wolf [unless you are prepared to risk hitting Callum], because Callum's charge brings him very close to the line of fire. Madelyn moves along the side of the party away from the enemy, to get into position to start her charge (you are going next, promise). Callum, however, meets the centre doghead head onwith his sword already moving for the stroke. The doghead is caught trying a huge sideways strike on the advancing Callum, but Callum is faster.
The great sword comes around in a long rising arc and strikes the dog head on the point of the elbow. The momentum allows the blade to sever the arm and continue on its way, a split second later the blade hits just below the doghead's ear, taking a thin slice across the scalp. Blood fountains from the arm, covering Callum and a grey ooze dribbles down the side of its head, the fore arm falls to the floor but the slice of skin and bone from the top of the creature head rises almost vertically in the air before falling slowly to the ground.
OOC: Map in next main post - 1st moves now to put everyone in location.
As the creatures come rushing upon the group, Mandrake dives from his mule (he was too engrossed in mulling over the previous night’s conversation to beat Smilo to the donkey) and scurries with amazing speed to hide behind the nearest bush.
Once there he digs in his pack and comes out with a parchment and peeking out through the branches, he looks for a bush a few yards past or to one side of the attackers and casts ventriloquism on it. He then makes a lot of rustling noise and calls something out in a strange language, making it come from just behind the bush.
“Yazool dez fa atax ma frez!”
Peter breakfasts quietly and then goes to help load the mules – heading straight for the food sacks and cooking equipment. Just as everyone is about ready to leave, he calls across to Rolf: “Rolf, we have food supplies for a few days yet, but you need to consider how, and where, we are going to stock up”.
Strolling along during the march, he will wander off occasionally and will move up and down the line making light conversation with Elsbeth, Smilo, Mandrake and Kerim as the mood takes him.
The howling startles Peter and the blood drains from his face, for a split second it looks like he is going to bolt into the undergrowth, but then he draws himself up resolutely. He moves close to the mule train and stands holding the halter of the middle mule, taking care to keep the mule between himself and the dogheads. Some of the colour returns to his face.
His eyes are fixed on Callum, and he watches, with something akin to awe, as the man runs into battle whirling his great sword. At the culmination of the blow, and the spectacular death of the doghead, his eyes widen and his face visibly drains of colour. Suddenly he retches, but controls himself before vomiting. Again, but with more visible effort, he pulls himself together and stands resolutely at the mule’s head.
Having enjoyed an early breakfast, Elsbeth accompanied Madelyn out to saddle the horses. She was still in a chipper mood, humming softly as she spoke to her horse, ready to meet the day.
When traveling, Elsbeth had switched sides with Madelyn as necessary, only wincing slightly from her ride the previous day. She was somewhat closer to the back when the creatures burst from the underbrush.
The woman's eyes widened as she saw the creatures and their wolf companions, a shiver running down her back. Her first inclination was to give her mare freedom to run away, but her new friend's reactions ended that thought as quickly as it occured. Still, she had spent enough time around her brothers to realize that fighting from horseback was reserved for those warriors skilled in such.
She was neither.
Sliding nimbly down from her horse on the side closest to the attack, she watched in awe as Callum hurried to the attack. The resulting blood would probably revolt her later, but now her mind was on her task. Reaching into a pouch about her neck, she carefully pulled free a mistletoe. Cupping it gently, she sang words ancient and unknown, her left hand sketching runes upon the air. About the furthest dogheads and wolves, the plants began to writhe and grow at a furious rate, their tendrils reaching for the advancing creatures.
[OOC: Entangle, placed to catch the largest most attackers furthest from the group. She takes no chances of entangling her own accidentally and places will miss some of the creatures to ensure this.
OOC: John, I'm going to assume that Rolf is using the sheaf arrows, the flight arrows are what he uses in hunting. If you want, we can back up a bit and modify damage for flight arrows instead if you feel that's more appropriate. I'm using the damage stats from the Arms & Equipment Guide.
Rolf managed two quick shots with the bow, putting the second arrow into the air before the first strikes mark. [Attack Rolls: 14 and 17 - Damage Rolls: 6 and 8. I know, but I got them through the dice link on the page, verify them if you want. :) ] Seeing Callum rush in, Rolf just barely manages to adjust his aim towards one of the charging wolves. Putting the bow aside, he reaches over his shoulder and in a motion smoothed with experience, pulls his sword free. It's an impressive blade, though somewhat shorter in length than Callums. Gripping the hilt in both hands, the blade starts to slice through the air, waiting for something upon which to slake it's thirst.
As the blood and gore splatter over him , Callum throws his head back and lets out a howl more terrifying than any that the Dogheads uttered. He transfers his sword from hand to hand, allowing him to rip off his bearskins until he stands there skyclad. His skin seems like a bag containing two fighting cats as it stretches and bulges, and if anything, he seems to be getting larger, his huge muscles expanding and writhing under his skin. His body twists and distorts his joints into unnatural shapes, his knees and elbows bending backwards. His already spiky hair stands up to hard points and energy seems to crackle around it. His lips draw back almost to his ears, revealing bizarrely pointed teeth and an impossibly long, writhing tongue in a mouth opened almost a foot wide. His nostrils flare to the size of apples and his eyes roll back in his head showing only whites, which almost glow, as the blood and gore on the rest of his naked body begins to steam and sizzle like water spilled on the fire.
Hacking the head from the dead Doghead in front of him, Callum leaps howling towards the next one.
OOC: Lance, I only have one thing to say to you.
SPOILSPORT!
Kerim rises early, tucks into the breakfast provided and loads the Mules. He pads the donkey's packsaddle to make it more comfortable. Before breakfast, he will lay out his prayer mat and, facing southeast, he will offer up prayers for a quiet day.
He will thank Mandrake for apologising to Gila for him.
After breakfast, he sees if he can acquire some oats for the mules and horses.
As he travels, leading the mules, he appears distracted. If the Gnome and Halfling have no animal skills, he will tether the donkey as the lead animal and chat to the rider as they travel.
On hearing the Wolf's cry, he will loosen his Cutlass and prepare to fire his sling.
He fires a sling bullet at a Wolf (hitting AC 4 for 4 points of damage).
He looks around, sees Callum and Rolf hit the creatures, Madelyn preparing to charge, Elsbeth and Mandrake cast spells, Smilo prepare his sling and Peter hide behind a Mule. He shouts to Peter "Come here and hold the mules so I can fight these things unhindered".
OOC: John - let me know if there are any oats, and how much they cost.
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