Rohuzar slings his axe back on his belt. 

“It’s time to call it. Ve are not in shape to pursue, nor do ve have the time. This is a task for Cliff and his company. Cut ears. Gather the courier’s body and horse. Bring back into town.” 

Rouuzar looks to the others for a consensus. 

History: 14

Grugga's nose wrinkles. "Ugh, fire wine. Are you sure you want to leave them, boss? We've got them on the run!"

If Rohuzar answers in the affirmative, Grugga will attempt to move something heavy over the trapdoor, like refilling the barrel with onions and chains.

athletics: 14

eh? manipulated dice rolls? I just changed a punctuation... They were 25 and 22 originally

History: 19

Leelan joins the group as they investigate the barn. His eye catches the oversized rat that the goblins seemed to keep as pets. A few quick notes (size, weight, measurements, etc.) on a piece of paper and he goes back to helping the party.

The gnome would approach the courier’s corpse and look for anything that might help identify him.

Investigation: 4

(I saw the rolls so you’re fine)

Leelan can’t find much to identify the courier.  He is partially stripped and any valuables he may have had (and all of his fingers) are missing.  Based on the clothes and riding cloak it’s the same guy, but other than that, you’ve got nothing to go on.

Grugga has no problem dragging over a barrel of onions and filling it back up and dropping in some of the chains. You’re confident they would have a hard time pushing this open… and if the passage down is a ladder instead of stairs, there is no way they could leverage it open.

Cliff cuts the ears off the two dead goblins and reports finding 14cp on them.  The leftover gear and weapons are junk.  The armor is just bits of old discarded leather, likely looted from victims, and their blades are bone or bronze.  The shortbows and arrows are poor quality as well.

“Nyet. Ve do not need a hole-hunt vith goblins. Ve discuss dividing reward at the inn, da?” He looks to Cliff and Kiteborne, heading back to the horse and into town. 

"I agree. I am.not crawling through a goblin hole again unless it pays well. If we see them again though we finish it."  Guilim says as he looks around and shakes his head, muttering something of a send-off in halfling to the courier.

"Yes, it would be prudent to fall back, although I'm a bit concerned with the goblins making off with whatever the courier carried with him." Aubrey says, ready to go back again.

You gather yourselves up and depart.  Back up the path you find Kurt sitting with Dandelion and the courier's horse.  He is sitting cross-legged on the trail with a little candle lit, flipping through the contents of the courier's saddlebag.  He looks up, notes the fresh injuries to Cliff and Rohuzar, and raises an eyebrow.  He tosses the parchments back into the saddlebag.  "Cahn weed ih.  Fansee skipt," he mumbles while holding the side of his jaw.  You also notice, for the first time, the name of the courier service, which is etched onto the leather of the saddlebag and the saddle as well:  Western Covenant.

***

Moving ahead, you hurry back to the Outer Loop Trail in the twilight and cover the last few miles back to Malvern's Town without incident and secure rooms at the Crowfoot Inn.  The old Orc woman, Phlox, is sleeping in a rocking chair by the fire when you arrive.  She provides you with room keys, but since you aren't hungry (goodberry), she retires back to her rocking chair.  Rooms are 4sp each.  

Did you want to work out financials with Kurt, Cliff and Kiteborne tonight or take a long rest first and handle it in the morning?  Also, do you or do you not gather up the courier's body to bring to town?

Rohuzar will be sure to gather the courier’s body over the horse’s back, examining it, his belongings, and his things on the horse back at the town. 

“Best to get this all sorted tonight.” 

investigation 22 

Grugga would like to see if he recognizes the language / script that Kurt couldn't read

Aubrey would help Rohuzar to carry the corpse of the courier to the horse.
He would then try to help Grugga and see if he can read the parchments.
History to know about Western Covenant: 9 

In the quiet common room of the Crowfoot Inn, the eight adventurers sit down to sort out the loot from this expedition.  The items collected are spread out on a table.

• The Ogre's head.  Redeemable in Silver Creek for 500gp.
• 2 pairs of goblin ears.  Redeemable in Silver Creek for 4gp... and just about anywhere else for 2gp.
• Three larger-than-normal scrolls.
• 14gp, 48sp, 48cp
• a 5lb crystal geode worth about 25gp.
• A key ring with two Ogre-sized iron keys.

There is also the matter of the deceased courier and his horse.  Western Covenant is one of several large horse courier firms that handle the majority of letter and mail carriage throughout the Empire.  Some nobles have retainers handle it for them, and the Emperor and his legions uses legionnaires, but otherwise most letters sent and received are transported by riders like this one.  

All of this dead fellow's letters originate in Weatherrock and all are addressed to Bardstown.  There are twelve, nearly identical scrolls, wrapped and sealed with a wax crest.  They are on high quality paper stock and look very official.  You all can tell the 'fancy script' Kurt mentioned is Old Imperial.

Aubrey:

 There is one other letter... on plain stock and bearing the same seal.

Aubrey:

It is a fine horse and likely worth more than 75gp.  On the other hand the may be some sort of reward for returning it and its cargo.  Perhaps the same for the body of the rider, though both Weatherrock and Bardstown are days away and he will start getting ripe soon. 

Aubrey informs the others of what he knows about the letters the courier carried. "There will likely be a reward for making sure these reached their destination." He says while resting his weary feet.

"Yes but may I remind you all that we still have a timed goal to accomplish. If we take many more detours we may as well return to Bardstown and consider this a failure." Guilim says when they are not around the other three.

Kiteborne unfurls the large scrolls recovered from the Ogre and examines them.  4

 He lets out a long whistle... his bardic impulses compelling him to add a melodic flourish to the end.  "The text is based on Giant, but the language of the arcane is universal.  Two of these are spell scrolls."  He unfurls one and shows it to Grugga and Aubrey.  "It's a spell called arms of hadar."  Looking it over, the incantations make sense to Aubrey, but Grugga cannot make heads or tails of it.  Kiteborne unfurls the other.  "And this helps explain a bit how the Ogre got the drop on us.  It's a scroll of invisibility.  He must have had another he used to prepare for our attack."  This scroll makes sense to both Grugga and Aubrey.  (Arms of Hadar is a Warlock only spell, while Invisibility appears on both of your class lists so it can potentially be used by either.)  "I'm not sure about the scroll of arms of hadar, but I saw one of these invisibility scrolls at a market in Easton... they were asking 600gp.  It hadn't flown off the shelf yet, and we are a long way from Easton, but I think it's fair to say we just about doubled our expected take on this job."

He rolls the scrolls back up.  "The other one... it's all in Giant and it's not magic.  Some little maps drawn but otherwise I can't tell what it is."

"So... how do we want to divvy this loot up?"

Aubrey admits to his team that he is aware of how to use the arms of hadar spell but would prefer not to. He would leave the divvying up to Rohuzar.

Grugga seems distracted and is also more than happy to leave the decision to their leader. He does suggest that a scroll of invisibility may be useful to the group at some point, but perhaps not any more than some money now.

Rohuzar ponders for several long moments before giving a sigh. 

“Cliff. You take head, ears, and coin. Ve take geode and scrolls. Fair?” 

Kiteborne looks at Cliff, who nods in agreement.  "Fair enough.  We were planning to head back to Silver Creek anyhow.  It makes sense for us to redeem the bounties.  I have a sneaking suspicion those scrolls will net you out ahead... but you did some good work out there and I wouldn't want to know how that fight with the ogre would have gone down without you."  He shakes your hands to seal the agreement, then packs up the bounty trophies and retires, along with Kurt.  Cliff hangs out a while longer, asking questions of you all about the Red Band... benefits, rates, training, etc. before he joins his companions.

You may all take a long rest... unless there was anything else you wanted to take care of tonight.

In the morning, Phlox has a medium sized bag of apple tarts waiting for you downstairs.  "Courtesy of the baker."  She also has charred toast with a fried chicken egg available for 1sp.

(Whats the plan for the expedition?  I need at least a vague gameplan, a marching order, and any special actions or preparations you will make.)

Rohuzar will take the toast and egg for sure, loading up on double breakfast today in preparation for the long day(s) ahead. 

Rohuzar will look to Leelan to set the final plan in order, but offer to keep take the lead on pushing into Maggie’s Wood.