OOC Nobrik give me an aerobatics check or athletics for his vault over Quatt. I will also need an animal handling for the cart, Eron. You can have advantage on the animal handling check.
Once the party is underway they make it out of the city proper onto the north road called the Parchwood Way towards Turst Fields and the Black Valley.
"We don't know what to expect, " Cal calls out as the party rides north answering a question posed earlier while he was distracted by Beryl! "My fellow priests have stopped answering us," the young cleric goes on with a frown. "The original message was pretty cryptic however from the priest in Turst Field. Disappearances and a glowing fog from the Dawnmist Pines, " he adds speaking of his hometown and the surrounding area.
"We will figure it out Cal," Beryl replies with a soft tone. "I think these folks are very capable," she adds smiling tusky mouth smile at the party.
OOC it's a day's ride to Turst Fields. Y'all will make a series of travel rolls as the day progresses. I would like y'all to take this time to introduce your PCs to one another!
“Excuse me Quatt, sorry for eavesdropping, did you say that you could tell your mushrooms to harm people? I’ve never heard of that even with other druid or ranger folks. Is it magic? I’m learning to sense planar activity myself, Silf over there(Eron blushes just thinking about her) is I believe from such a place, though our planes are naturally connected too. I feel very privileged to get to meet all of you.” Eron gives Quatt a respectful nod.
"Do horses often talk where you come from?" Blair says, intrigued by Silf's whimsical tale. He guides the grey mare over by its birdles, climbs up its back and tells Silf, "Come."
While he encourages the horse into a brisk trod, he turns to see what has gotten Silf so excited. He catches a glimpse of the ranger's blushed profile under his hood, the smile on Blair's lips deepens. He half-turns and whispers to Silf, his eyes smiling. "You're making him blush."
"Dear Quat, I wasn't worried, big guy! I was just fascinated. All of the things on this side of the Fey Wall interest me! In some ways so similar to the world I know, and in some ways so different. All of life is worth knowing and protecting, for that is my greater calling. The pathway of the Ancients compels me to battle against all that is evil and ugly, all that would destroy for it's own sake!"
Nobriki gathers himself, and beats his sword on his war gong shield to get the others attention. Acting much more important than he really feels.
"Ok ladies and lads, fiends and friends, we don't know what we are up against here, but is anyone good with coming up with a strategy? All I can tell you is that I have practiced with my shield a bunch, and I can protect someone near me. Also, if I know who will be on the front lines with me, I can empower myself and a couple of others to help you strike true in the name of my beautiful mistress Titania!"
“Hmmmm, only the ones with horns, I think,”says the little fairy, who sits on the horse facing backwards. She rests her back against Blair’s, holding on tightly to the horse’s fur. “They talk sometimes, but sometimes they don’t.”
Silf watches Eron, Nobriki, and Quatt curiously. The tortle is most interesting to the fairy, she’s never seen anyone like Quatt. She remembers a story she learned as a child referring to a turtle’s shell as its home. She envisions herself sipping a cup of tea with Quatt inside a tiny room in the tortle’s shell. Nobriki is a different story. She recalls a memory from the past, thinking about Nobriki’s fantastic jump and remembering how the satyrs she’s met love to perform daring feats. Eron should’ve been the least interesting; she’d spent time with plenty of humans in the village near her forest, and, other than the children, they were sort of boring. Silf finds something about this human interesting, though she can't quite put her finger on it. She turns back toward Blair and begins speaking much more quickly.
“Anyway, after the horned horse left then I saw a unicorn, and he told me to come here and help this lot hunt monsters, well not really hunt monsters but to try out to hunt monsters, because those are really two different things aren’t they? Hunting and testing, I mean. I mean I guess in order to hunt I have to pass the test, and to pass the test I need to do well on it, because I really need to hunt some monsters. It wasn’t just like some random unicorn, it was a really, really, really, really, great unicorn who spoke to me. At first I thought he was the same horn-horse coming back, but then he said he's not a horse, he's a unicorn, so I figured he's probably telling the truth.” She suddenly tries to impersonate a deep and serious voice, “HE SAID: SILF SEELY, YOU ARE NEEDED TO FEND OFF THE MONSTER HORDES. TAKE THE POWERS OF THE FOREST AND SEEK OUT THE CITY WITH THE BLACK KING. Well, something like that.”
After a pause, she tilts her head up toward Blair and whispers, “Lots of things make him blush, methinks. Why did you come to hunt some monsters, Blair?”
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Walks in [insert absurd situation].
Honorary Leader in the Pixie Peewee Powderpuff Pals!
So the talking horse with the horn was not a unicorn? Blair wants to ask, but Silf talks too fast for him to say anything. The fairy’s tale seems too magic for him to raise any questions, so he decides to just listen, letting her lively words and pure wonderment take him into a different world. He knows fairies only act childlike, Silf’s probably had more experiences than him, based on what her tales say. He's never seen a unicorn, for example. Still he couldn’t help but chuckle softly as she imitates the great unicorn’s deep, resonating voice. “He chose you for this task, so the great unicorn must think you’re quite capable.” Blair says easily, “I’m sure you’ll do fine.”
Riding on horseback, chatting away with new friends, with the morning breeze of early spring blowing on his face, and the picturesque view of pastures around them, Blair couldn’t feel much better. He doesn’t want to go back to the days wasting in taverns, drowning his sorrows, dark thoughts eating away at him. It’s easy for Blair to make friends, but he knows after the singing, laughing and drinking, he’d still be alone. There’s an empty hole in him all those pleasures couldn’t fill, every time he tries, it just makes him feel worse afterwards. But he doesn’t want to go that deep with Silf. So he says, “I once made a promise with someone.”
He touches his flute lightly tucked into the waistband of his brocade robe, somewhat wistful “We wanted to see the world, write great stories. But he left before he had the chance to become the great monster hunter he always wanted to be, so I thought I could do it for us both.” A smile visits his lips. “He taught me to play the flute, actually.”
When Silf says she thinks a lot of things Eron blush, Blair turns his head to glance at the ranger. Hiding a playful smile, he says. “I think you’re right.” He slows down the horse so they’re riding side by side with Eron, and comments. “You’re very good with the horses. Don’t you think so, Silf?”
“Naturally, figuring out our strategy is part of the purpose of the test.” Blair answers Nobriki. “I hope I wouldn’t be on the front line much. But, you have my encouragement.”
Quatt looks first to Eron, moving a hand up to touch one of the mushrooms on his shell, "Well yes, I mean they wont jump off my shell and start stabbing at you, but I can tell them to have their spores hurt someone who is near to me. They can also use their spores to make me healthier." He puts his hand back down to rest on his staff. "I didnt grow up among my own kind, I was found in the caves by my Myconid family, they raised me, taught me how to speak with the fungus, so perhaps that is why you have not heard of such things, you just havent gone deep enough yet."
Quatt then looks to Nobriki, "I can be up close if needed," He raises his staff and gives a whacking motion in the air with it,"but most of my magic is for healing. There was no real need for me to know more than that in the caves, I wasnt usually tasked with scouting so I only really needed to know how to heal those that got hurt."
He slows down the horse so they’re riding side by side with Eron, and comments. “You’re very good with the horses. Don’t you think so, Silf?”
Eron looks at Blair, “What can I say, I think our horses are brave and wonderful. They don’t have swords or spells but they face danger just like us. I would defend them just as I would defend any of us here.” Eron tries to look heroic but his eyes look over at Silf, and he’s sure he sounds comical. His face does redden but he feels confident as his words were true.
Responding to Nobriki’s query, “I am a front line fighter good with my swords. I have some healing ability also. If needed, as I told Quatt, I can find planar portals too. I can also speak with any animals along the way should we need that.”
Silf listens intently to Eron talking about the horses. This human seems to value animal life more than most of the people she’s encountered. The fairy’s eyes widen slightly and a little tear rolls down her cheek. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about a horse, probably ever!”
She turns her head the other direction toward Blair and says in a very loud stage whisper, “Eron seems to be very nice, Blair.”
“I think we can be friends,” she continues whispering, very loudly, assuming on Blair’s behalf that he and Eron will also become friends. The little fey then looks to Quatt and Nobriki. The tortle seems nice enough, but the jury may still be out on the satyr.
“I can smash monsters in the face with my quarterstaff if I need to!” The fairy mimes smashing a monster in the face with her quarterstaff, pulling a suddenly mean face. “But I’m mostly doing magicky things like burning monsters’ faces off or blasting holes in their chests, so it may be best for me to not be out in front. Maybe in the middle somewhere.”
She sits for a moment and hopes she can burn and blast, she’s never really fought a tough monster to test her burning or blasting capabilities. "OH! I almost forgot, I can use my unicorn magic to do a little healing here and there, too! OH! I almost double forgot! I also specialize in fairy trickery, fairy deception, fairy chicanery, fairy hijinks, fairy shenanigans, fairy skullduggery, and a little bit of fairy funny business. Pretty much fairy business in general.”
Silf folds her arms and watches Nobriki, wondering if he'll have any comments to her vast list of fey abilities.
The party travels for about half the day, taking breaks along the road to water the horses and noticing most travelers are headed to Westruun not further north. As the sun begins to sink in the late winter sky they are soon the only travelers on the Parchwood Way towards Turst Fields and the Black Valley. As the sun slips into twilight, the party comes around a bend in the road and finds two men attempting to fix the wheel on a wagon on the side of the road. An ox gazes in the grasses nearby but there doesn't seem to be any one else besides the two men around. Having traveled for a little more than an hour since sun began to set and seeing no other travelers coming south towards Westruun, one can assume these men haven't seen anyone else to ask for aid.
Blair narrows his eyes, trying to get a better look at the two men fixing the wheel under the waning sunlight. They are the only people on the road around here. He pulls on the reins a little, as they get closer to the men, he calls out from the horse, "Do you need help?"
Eron first looks at their efforts to notice what has broken, then the condition of their Ox (if he’s been whipped...) Slowing the cart at a distance about 35’ from the scene. Eron waits to hear their response to Blair’s hail.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
A couple of things happen all at once:
Blair calls out to the men to help. They do not seem overly tired from their labor and the bard knows a bad performance when its it front of him! As he pulls up on the reigns causing the whole party to pause, Eron notices the two men too. From his vantage however they are indeed affixing the wheel to the cart but it looks wholly intact! If not for a badly tied bandage around a spoke and part of the wheel to only appear broken! The wheel is not in fact broken! As for the oxen in the tall grass, it looks just like it seems. A beast of burden gazing.
As the party hesitates the two men pull blades as another 3 spring from the grassland near the ox!
Blair stops the horse as he sees the furtiveness in the men’s movements. They don’t look like they’re tired, and they didn’t call out for help when they approach. Blades unsheathed, metal gleaming in the twilight. “Bandits,” Immediately drawing his horse back, Blair calls to others, “with bad acting!”
OOC Nobrik give me an aerobatics check or athletics for his vault over Quatt. I will also need an animal handling for the cart, Eron. You can have advantage on the animal handling check.
Once the party is underway they make it out of the city proper onto the north road called the Parchwood Way towards Turst Fields and the Black Valley.
"We don't know what to expect, " Cal calls out as the party rides north answering a question posed earlier while he was distracted by Beryl! "My fellow priests have stopped answering us," the young cleric goes on with a frown. "The original message was pretty cryptic however from the priest in Turst Field. Disappearances and a glowing fog from the Dawnmist Pines, " he adds speaking of his hometown and the surrounding area.
"We will figure it out Cal," Beryl replies with a soft tone. "I think these folks are very capable," she adds smiling tusky mouth smile at the party.
OOC it's a day's ride to Turst Fields. Y'all will make a series of travel rolls as the day progresses. I would like y'all to take this time to introduce your PCs to one another!
Sometimes a Nat 1 tells a better story than a Nat 20 ever could.
OOC. Nobriki did the incredible leap.
Eron’s animal handling 11 8 with advantage.
*Sha-gravis *Fjörn Bhrünt *Leif Aulderoot *Saltstrider *Eron Colborn
OOC Eron is operating the cart. Cal and Beryl ride together, Blair and Silf, then Quatt and Nobriki in the cart?
Eron easily keeps pace with the people on horseback.
OOC I need Silf to make a d10 roll, please, for travel!
Sometimes a Nat 1 tells a better story than a Nat 20 ever could.
Silf settles herself onto the horse with Blair and rides along, watching the side of the road intently.
(ooc: sorry, I'll have a longer post later! I rolled a 4 in the game log!)
Walks in [insert absurd situation].
Honorary Leader in the Pixie Peewee Powderpuff Pals!
“Excuse me Quatt, sorry for eavesdropping, did you say that you could tell your mushrooms to harm people? I’ve never heard of that even with other druid or ranger folks. Is it magic? I’m learning to sense planar activity myself, Silf over there (Eron blushes just thinking about her) is I believe from such a place, though our planes are naturally connected too. I feel very privileged to get to meet all of you.” Eron gives Quatt a respectful nod.
*Sha-gravis *Fjörn Bhrünt *Leif Aulderoot *Saltstrider *Eron Colborn
Acrobatics: 11
Nobriki - Satyr Paladin - Oath of the Ancients
"Do horses often talk where you come from?" Blair says, intrigued by Silf's whimsical tale. He guides the grey mare over by its birdles, climbs up its back and tells Silf, "Come."
While he encourages the horse into a brisk trod, he turns to see what has gotten Silf so excited. He catches a glimpse of the ranger's blushed profile under his hood, the smile on Blair's lips deepens. He half-turns and whispers to Silf, his eyes smiling. "You're making him blush."
"Dear Quat, I wasn't worried, big guy! I was just fascinated. All of the things on this side of the Fey Wall interest me! In some ways so similar to the world I know, and in some ways so different. All of life is worth knowing and protecting, for that is my greater calling. The pathway of the Ancients compels me to battle against all that is evil and ugly, all that would destroy for it's own sake!"
Nobriki gathers himself, and beats his sword on his war gong shield to get the others attention. Acting much more important than he really feels.
"Ok ladies and lads, fiends and friends, we don't know what we are up against here, but is anyone good with coming up with a strategy? All I can tell you is that I have practiced with my shield a bunch, and I can protect someone near me. Also, if I know who will be on the front lines with me, I can empower myself and a couple of others to help you strike true in the name of my beautiful mistress Titania!"
Nobriki - Satyr Paladin - Oath of the Ancients
“Hmmmm, only the ones with horns, I think,” says the little fairy, who sits on the horse facing backwards. She rests her back against Blair’s, holding on tightly to the horse’s fur. “They talk sometimes, but sometimes they don’t.”
Silf watches Eron, Nobriki, and Quatt curiously. The tortle is most interesting to the fairy, she’s never seen anyone like Quatt. She remembers a story she learned as a child referring to a turtle’s shell as its home. She envisions herself sipping a cup of tea with Quatt inside a tiny room in the tortle’s shell. Nobriki is a different story. She recalls a memory from the past, thinking about Nobriki’s fantastic jump and remembering how the satyrs she’s met love to perform daring feats. Eron should’ve been the least interesting; she’d spent time with plenty of humans in the village near her forest, and, other than the children, they were sort of boring. Silf finds something about this human interesting, though she can't quite put her finger on it. She turns back toward Blair and begins speaking much more quickly.
“Anyway, after the horned horse left then I saw a unicorn, and he told me to come here and help this lot hunt monsters, well not really hunt monsters but to try out to hunt monsters, because those are really two different things aren’t they? Hunting and testing, I mean. I mean I guess in order to hunt I have to pass the test, and to pass the test I need to do well on it, because I really need to hunt some monsters. It wasn’t just like some random unicorn, it was a really, really, really, really, great unicorn who spoke to me. At first I thought he was the same horn-horse coming back, but then he said he's not a horse, he's a unicorn, so I figured he's probably telling the truth.” She suddenly tries to impersonate a deep and serious voice, “HE SAID: SILF SEELY, YOU ARE NEEDED TO FEND OFF THE MONSTER HORDES. TAKE THE POWERS OF THE FOREST AND SEEK OUT THE CITY WITH THE BLACK KING. Well, something like that.”
After a pause, she tilts her head up toward Blair and whispers, “Lots of things make him blush, methinks. Why did you come to hunt some monsters, Blair?”
Walks in [insert absurd situation].
Honorary Leader in the Pixie Peewee Powderpuff Pals!
So the talking horse with the horn was not a unicorn? Blair wants to ask, but Silf talks too fast for him to say anything. The fairy’s tale seems too magic for him to raise any questions, so he decides to just listen, letting her lively words and pure wonderment take him into a different world. He knows fairies only act childlike, Silf’s probably had more experiences than him, based on what her tales say. He's never seen a unicorn, for example. Still he couldn’t help but chuckle softly as she imitates the great unicorn’s deep, resonating voice. “He chose you for this task, so the great unicorn must think you’re quite capable.” Blair says easily, “I’m sure you’ll do fine.”
Riding on horseback, chatting away with new friends, with the morning breeze of early spring blowing on his face, and the picturesque view of pastures around them, Blair couldn’t feel much better. He doesn’t want to go back to the days wasting in taverns, drowning his sorrows, dark thoughts eating away at him. It’s easy for Blair to make friends, but he knows after the singing, laughing and drinking, he’d still be alone. There’s an empty hole in him all those pleasures couldn’t fill, every time he tries, it just makes him feel worse afterwards. But he doesn’t want to go that deep with Silf. So he says, “I once made a promise with someone.”
He touches his flute lightly tucked into the waistband of his brocade robe, somewhat wistful “We wanted to see the world, write great stories. But he left before he had the chance to become the great monster hunter he always wanted to be, so I thought I could do it for us both.” A smile visits his lips. “He taught me to play the flute, actually.”
When Silf says she thinks a lot of things Eron blush, Blair turns his head to glance at the ranger. Hiding a playful smile, he says. “I think you’re right.” He slows down the horse so they’re riding side by side with Eron, and comments. “You’re very good with the horses. Don’t you think so, Silf?”
“Naturally, figuring out our strategy is part of the purpose of the test.” Blair answers Nobriki. “I hope I wouldn’t be on the front line much. But, you have my encouragement.”
Quatt looks first to Eron, moving a hand up to touch one of the mushrooms on his shell, "Well yes, I mean they wont jump off my shell and start stabbing at you, but I can tell them to have their spores hurt someone who is near to me. They can also use their spores to make me healthier." He puts his hand back down to rest on his staff. "I didnt grow up among my own kind, I was found in the caves by my Myconid family, they raised me, taught me how to speak with the fungus, so perhaps that is why you have not heard of such things, you just havent gone deep enough yet."
Quatt then looks to Nobriki, "I can be up close if needed," He raises his staff and gives a whacking motion in the air with it, "but most of my magic is for healing. There was no real need for me to know more than that in the caves, I wasnt usually tasked with scouting so I only really needed to know how to heal those that got hurt."
Eron looks at Blair, “What can I say, I think our horses are brave and wonderful. They don’t have swords or spells but they face danger just like us. I would defend them just as I would defend any of us here.” Eron tries to look heroic but his eyes look over at Silf, and he’s sure he sounds comical. His face does redden but he feels confident as his words were true.
Responding to Nobriki’s query, “I am a front line fighter good with my swords. I have some healing ability also. If needed, as I told Quatt, I can find planar portals too. I can also speak with any animals along the way should we need that.”
*Sha-gravis *Fjörn Bhrünt *Leif Aulderoot *Saltstrider *Eron Colborn
Silf listens intently to Eron talking about the horses. This human seems to value animal life more than most of the people she’s encountered. The fairy’s eyes widen slightly and a little tear rolls down her cheek. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about a horse, probably ever!”
She turns her head the other direction toward Blair and says in a very loud stage whisper, “Eron seems to be very nice, Blair.”
“I think we can be friends,” she continues whispering, very loudly, assuming on Blair’s behalf that he and Eron will also become friends. The little fey then looks to Quatt and Nobriki. The tortle seems nice enough, but the jury may still be out on the satyr.
“I can smash monsters in the face with my quarterstaff if I need to!” The fairy mimes smashing a monster in the face with her quarterstaff, pulling a suddenly mean face. “But I’m mostly doing magicky things like burning monsters’ faces off or blasting holes in their chests, so it may be best for me to not be out in front. Maybe in the middle somewhere.”
She sits for a moment and hopes she can burn and blast, she’s never really fought a tough monster to test her burning or blasting capabilities. "OH! I almost forgot, I can use my unicorn magic to do a little healing here and there, too! OH! I almost double forgot! I also specialize in fairy trickery, fairy deception, fairy chicanery, fairy hijinks, fairy shenanigans, fairy skullduggery, and a little bit of fairy funny business. Pretty much fairy business in general.”
Silf folds her arms and watches Nobriki, wondering if he'll have any comments to her vast list of fey abilities.
Walks in [insert absurd situation].
Honorary Leader in the Pixie Peewee Powderpuff Pals!
The party travels for about half the day, taking breaks along the road to water the horses and noticing most travelers are headed to Westruun not further north. As the sun begins to sink in the late winter sky they are soon the only travelers on the Parchwood Way towards Turst Fields and the Black Valley. As the sun slips into twilight, the party comes around a bend in the road and finds two men attempting to fix the wheel on a wagon on the side of the road. An ox gazes in the grasses nearby but there doesn't seem to be any one else besides the two men around. Having traveled for a little more than an hour since sun began to set and seeing no other travelers coming south towards Westruun, one can assume these men haven't seen anyone else to ask for aid.
Sometimes a Nat 1 tells a better story than a Nat 20 ever could.
Blair narrows his eyes, trying to get a better look at the two men fixing the wheel under the waning sunlight. They are the only people on the road around here. He pulls on the reins a little, as they get closer to the men, he calls out from the horse, "Do you need help?"
Perception (to see the men better): 15
Eron first looks at their efforts to notice what has broken, then the condition of their Ox (if he’s been whipped...) Slowing the cart at a distance about 35’ from the scene. Eron waits to hear their response to Blair’s hail.
Perception for cart 24
Perception for Ox 9
*Sha-gravis *Fjörn Bhrünt *Leif Aulderoot *Saltstrider *Eron Colborn
A couple of things happen all at once:
Blair calls out to the men to help. They do not seem overly tired from their labor and the bard knows a bad performance when its it front of him! As he pulls up on the reigns causing the whole party to pause, Eron notices the two men too. From his vantage however they are indeed affixing the wheel to the cart but it looks wholly intact! If not for a badly tied bandage around a spoke and part of the wheel to only appear broken! The wheel is not in fact broken! As for the oxen in the tall grass, it looks just like it seems. A beast of burden gazing.
As the party hesitates the two men pull blades as another 3 spring from the grassland near the ox!
Everyone roll initiative!
NPCs/Bandits 19
Sometimes a Nat 1 tells a better story than a Nat 20 ever could.
Blair stops the horse as he sees the furtiveness in the men’s movements. They don’t look like they’re tired, and they didn’t call out for help when they approach. Blades unsheathed, metal gleaming in the twilight. “Bandits,” Immediately drawing his horse back, Blair calls to others, “with bad acting!”
Initiative: 18
Initiative: 1