Hal chomps down on one of the boars ankles causing it to buckle and roll. Both Ugly Stick and Spectral Spanker then thwap the boar in the rear causing it to squeal a piercing screech until it collapses at Hansel's feet. A twitch or two, and it's dead. A few pokes to be sure confirms this, with all of the fallen foes.

Wind blows, wafting the stench of death through the adventurer's before silence falls over the field of battle. The metallic tang belonging to the blood of the fallen hangs in the air.

A search of the bodies would reveal sacks of coin and gems.

Coinage:

• 100 gp
• 1,200 sp
• 2,200 cp

10 gp gemstones:

• Lapis lazuli (opaque light and dark blue with yellow flecks)
• Turquoise (opaque light blue-green)
• Rhodochrosite (opaque light pink)
• Moss agate (translucent pink or yellow-white with mossy gray or green markings)
• Obsidian (opaque black)

"Friends of.yours I'm assuming" Verr checks his spent arrows.and finding them unusable assists In the looting 

The dark Tiefling draws a relieved sigh as the last enemy falls after the fierce and ferocious assualt, slumping to the ground to catch his breath. "If those are your friends I would hate to meet your enemies." He chuckles dryly, glancing over at his new companions to check up on them. They all stood although some of them, including himself, had taken quite a beating and he could definitely use a rest before pressing on. He whistles on his dark mare to join him and sends his invisible familiar up ahead to warn them of any enemies still lurking about. "Say, you wouldn't have any healing magic to spare?" He asks the fierce feral-looking girl that had taken an interest in his tail earlier.

Hansel overhears the tiefling's request, and calls out: Sune's beauty is more than sufficient to restore your vigor, my friend. Just look this way!

Then the cleric tosses his golden locks back, holds out his mirror-like shield and closes his eyes. The shield quickly begins to brighten to a reflective sheen even more radiant than any polishing could accomplish. The effect lasts but a moment. but all who look at it feel the dazzling power of divine perfection wash over them, and the most injured of the onlookers have their blemishes removed....

Channel Divinity: Restore Life. As an action, you can restore 20 HP. Choose any creatures within 30 ft. of you, and divide those hit points among them. This feature can restore a creature to no more than half of its hit point maximum. You can’t use this feature on an undead or a construct.

(If I'm not mistaken, it's only Neph that's below half his max HP, and it will only restore him to half, but I never had occasion to use it before, so might as well save people's spell slots)

"Well that was a mistake for them," KD says, coming down to the ground and mending Hal back to good as she gives him appreciative pats.

She tries to reorient herself along their path and she wonders how these orcs got to be here. "Do we need to dispose of their remains?"

And she'd be happy to take the time for a short rest if others would like.

The dark Tiefling glances over at the goldie-locks with a healthy skepticism, watching as the sunite calls upon the divine power of his goddess, with a less than impressive result. "Thank you for the radiant display, it was quite something but the effect was barely more than superficial I'm afraid, but I suppose that is what Lady Firehair is all about." Nepharios says with a teasing tone, then turning grim again and giving the sunite a grateful nod. "Perhaps we should stay here an catch our breath before pressing on?" He then suggests, looking around at his newfound company. "The buzzards can have the orcs for all I care." He adds in a callous tone.

As Nepharios teases Hansel, the spectral unicorn nuzzles at one of his wounds, amplifying Sune's healing. With a soft whinny, the wind scatters it's spectral figure into twinkles of stardust.

Nepharios
Healing Spirit: +4hp

"We can take a short rest prior to continuing." Fae speaks up as she inspects her own wounds. "We should be coming up on the location indicated in the map Auric discovered on the body back at the manse. That means we will be coming up on the Circle of Thunder within a few miles." She finally looks up to gesture to the bodies. "This could have been a patrol party, proof enough to me to confirm that we are close. And if that's just a sample of their force, then we should be prepared as we can be." The wizard suggests. "So let us mend our wounds, reflect on this battle, sort your spoils, and ready yourselves for what may come."

"Snack time!" Nova chimes. "Pumpkin! Get your pumpkin!" She starts handing each person a hunk of pumpkin she gathered from the manses pumpkin patch. When she hands the last one their chunk, she goes to take a bite of the final piece but Fae stops her. She pouts and looks up with big begging eyes.

"Nova, you learnt this the hard way already. If you eat too much of it you'll get a tummy ache. You've had lots today. Eat your berries."

"That was today?"

Pumpkin: +1d6hp for anyone who eats some pumpkin

Fae leads Nova to take a seat and together they start mending their own wounds, and then helping each other care for the hard to reach ones. The wizard moves with etiquette and grace, while Nova shoves bunches of herbal leaves into her mouth to chew and break down into a poultice which she then spits out and applies.

Short Rest
(Smash that short rest button. Use those hit dice. And collect your long awaited xp!)

XP Received: 1200 to EACH player.
(Current xp total should equal 5128/6500xp)

Quote from ixi >>

Short Rest
(Smash that short rest button. Use those hit dice. And collect your long awaited xp!)

XP Received: 1200 to EACH player.
(Current xp total should equal 5128/6500xp)

 
CORRECTION
(Because I didn't appear to dish out other older encounter xp so...)

XP Received: 1794 to EACH Player
(Current xp total should equal 5722/6500)

Still sitting on the ground with grievous wounds, the dark Tiefling looks up at the nuzzling spectral unicorn, his grim countenance softening somewhat, making a motion with his hand like patting it gently. He then listens and nods as the handsome brunette speaks. "Sounds good to me." He says plainly, leaning back to rest against a rock, trying to make himself reasonably comfortable, giving the feral-looking girl a nod and a small smile as he accepts a chunk of pumpkin, eating it slowly while curiously watching the others. They seemd to work well together and had made short work of the ferocious orcs, that boded well for the upcoming main event.

Regained hp: 24 + Pumpkin: 6

After having rested Nepharios mounts up and is ready to proceed to the Circle of Thunder, sending Tenebrous ahead to scout.

Tenebrous perception: 16
Nepharios perception: 19

Auric:

The dragonborn mage rests and tends to his wounds as well.  The pumpkin is surprisingly delicious, and he partakes with thanks:

Short Rest 2 Hd + pumpkin:  16

(Should not be possible from 3d6+4)

"Much obliged " Verr says accepting the pumpkin bit

1 hit die. 7

Plus pumpkin 3

"So what's the plan?"

Quote from Scott_R_Simmons >>

This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.

Auric:

The dragonborn mage rests and tends to his wounds as well.  The pumpkin is surprisingly delicious, and he partakes with thanks:

Short Rest 2 Hd + pumpkin:  11

(Should not be possible from 3d6+4)

 (Original roll seemed to be 6, though I couldn’t get the rollover to work.)

"I would assume the plan is to proceed to this Circle of Thunder and put a swift stop to whatever is happening there." The dark Tiefling says grimly from atop his black mare. "I have a little friend ahead that should be able to give us a heads up when we are closing in and give us recon intelligence sufficient enough to make a more detailed plan on how to approch the problem." He adds, looking around at the others for more thoughts on this.

Trying not to get pumpkin juice on his clothes, Hansel accepts Nova's offered slice and eats it daintily. 1

He also takes a rest with the others, using the power of his goddess to repair the rents in his and others' clothes.
Mending and Short rest healing (use as many as needed to reach max): 7, 4, 5

Nepharios keeps an eye out during the rest while his trusty familiar flies on to scout ahead. The tiefling was diligent atop his horse and would be able to confirm that there was nothing watching them here. They had successfully dispatched all the foes patrolling this area, for now. The group was safe to complete their rest and it wasn't until they were about done that Tenebrous would report back what they saw.

Coming from the south west, Tenebrous would scout the Circle of Thunder. Ominous storm clouds gather in the sky as you approach a ninety-foot-tall hill with trees spreading across its slopes. Circling the hill rim they first spot three cave entrances.

Atop the hill is a ring of eight upright stone structures, each one consisting of two 10-foot-high vertical stone slabs spaced 5 feet apart and topped with a 3-foot-thick flat lintel stone. In the middle of the circle, two ghastly humanoid figures dance around a deer carcass, each wearing the rotting head of a boar as a mask. They are joined by twelve frolicking smaller capering creatures.

As Tenebrous reports back, the dark Tiefling still astride his black mare calls his new associates to a halt, quickly and efficiently informing them of what lies ahead. "I don't expect these savages to be particularly chatty so either we sneak up on them, possibly using more of that fire magic to turn those dancing shrubberies into crisp, or we strike from afar, focussing down those masked cultists first." Nepharios callously presents his suggested plans of attack. "You all better know your group's strengths, lets use them." He adds firmly, seeming eager to get this over with before any ritual they might be performing right now is completed.

Auric:

"Arcane Fire shall I mete out upon these cavorting miscreants," says Auric resolutely, "Though my reserves of mythical power are somewhat depleted."

KD accepts the pumpkin with a nod and eats it 2hp richer. She rolls another HD for 6hp.

Hal offers to help scout, but defers to the better scouts in the group.

"Do we want to attack the group on top, or sneakily check out those openings into the hill?" she says when hearing about the place.

Hansel favours going underground first.

With the assistance of his familiar, the dark Tiefling tries to determine if it is feasible to sneak inside the caves without the ritual performers noticing, although he would much prefer putting a stop to the ritual before turning to any looting.

Perception: 20