Mal, finally turning round and seeing the unfolding attack realises that he is unable to get within Melee range without abandoning Ink and Chensica, Instead he moves 10ft forward in front of the cart with mace ready in one hand and shield in the other, he shouts a mighty rumbling war cry in an attempt to get some of the attention of the attackers.

Mal readies an action to attack any goblin that comes within range or tries to pass him to attack Ink or Chensica.

Ink leans into the oxen and says, "You see? Mal's on your side too!"

From the trees you hear a high pitched scream that drowns itself out into a slow gurgle as Crom’s arrow finds its mark.

At the sound of a lion coming from the trees, you see the goblin on the left in the trees look around in fear and lower its bow in a panic. 

The third goblin, that had attacked Calantha, is thrown to the ground gushing blood from a mighty chest wound.

The goblin that is looking around for this lion is suddenly struck by glowing darts, the first one knocks it off balance and it is simultaneously pierced by the other two before it drops dead.

After this brief flash of violence, the trail falls quiet.

Calantha wipes her sword off with a cloth. It's sticky with goblin blood. She frowns down at the bodies. At least there were only four of them. If it had been more, they might not have gotten off so easily. Even so, as she glances around at the group, she notices that Ragnarok and Crom are injured. She moves toward the half-orcs.

"You should have Mal look at your wounds," she tells them, coming up alongside. "I believe he knows a bit of healing magic."

After talking to the half-orc, she returns her gaze to the dead horses. There can be no doubt they belong to Gundren and his bodyguard. But where were they? Were they are all right? Had they managed to escape the goblins? After they recovered a bit, they would need to search for any signs of the dwarf and his bodyguard. After all, if the dwarf was slain by goblins, none of them would be getting paid.

Crom waits a moment more, listening out for the sounds of any more goblins, before limping over to retrieve and stow his bow. Now that the adrenaline of battle is beginning to fade, his leg has begun cramping up, protesting the damage it took from the goblin's arrow.

"Well fought, and thanks fer the concern." he says, nodding respectfully to Calantha as he passes by on his way to Ragnarok.

"Let's get ye back to the cart, friend, and see about treating them wounds," says Crom, offering his support to the wounded barbarian.

"And we should think about gettin' off the road if we're to linger. Mal, it true ye've got some healin'?"

Ink strides forward keeping his eyes on the ground, looking for any clues about the fate of Sildar and Gundren. He walks a tight circle around the dead horses, and then widens his investigation in ever expanding circles. "Let us see what we can see..."

Investigation: 18

Even as he asks Mal about his healling, Crom realizes he still hears the notes of Chensica's rousing tune reverberating in his head, and he is struck with two things. An inspiration, and a sense of urgency.

"Sorry, Calantha, you actually mind helping him out? I want to  check somethin"

With that, Crom scramples up the bank beside the road and starts looking for the tracks left by their ambushers. Tracks that might lead them to answers about Gundren.

The woods were familiar territory to him. Many nights spent outside, far from the warmth of hearth or home saw to that. And he was familiar too with the unique signs of a Goblin's passing. With any luck, he'd be able to pick up the trail

Survival: 18

+1 

(Inspiration)

"I think I might be able to find their trail," he calls down to Ink. "How about you, find out anything useful?"

Calantha approached Ragnarok. She beckoned for him to follow her to the cart where Mal was still sitting. She heard the sounds of Ink and Crom investigating the scene behind her. It seemed that Crom would be able to pick up the goblins' trail, perhaps leading them to wherever Gundren and his bodyguard were, but did goblins normally take prisoners? It seemed more likely that the dwarf had been able to escape somehow and was maybe hiding in the woods. Either way it would be smart to hunt down and slay any remaining goblins in the area.

Ink provides a brief summary of his findings. "This has been a common ambush location for the goblins...others have been attacked here it seems...these horses once bore Gundren and Sildar, that is obvious...and this, this map case, shows signs of a scuffle...a bit of blood upon it, and the strap is broken. The map? Gone."

The gnome stands upright and concludes, "Not a great deal of help, friends. I'm sorry."

Ink returns to the oxen and wagon and jumps into the seat. "I'll remain here then, eh? We can't all run off, leaving our delivery unattended upon the road."

As much as she wants to hunt down and slay any remaining goblins, Calantha realizes the gnome is right. They still have a job to do. Still, if Gundren and Sildar are hurt or in trouble then the job may be a bust anyway.

"Ink is right," she says. "We can't leave the cart unattended, but these horses belonged to Gundren and Sildar. They hired us to protect their cargo but I believe it's also our duty to find them and help them if they have been wounded or taken captive by the goblins. What do you all think?"

As the fight grows silent and still Mal returns to the cart and sits stretching his old bones out after the running and jumping on and off the cart, He smiles as both Calantha and Ragnarok approach

"you younguns handled yerselves well, as I expected you would. Aye I do have a little healing but not much at all, Looks like the lady luck has left me somewhat since my glory days" he taps the shoddily hammered out visage of Tymora on his shield.

"Yer lookin pretty rough there, don't be shy." he beckons forward in the general direction of Ragnarok and then leaves his hand hanging in the air palm faced forward.

as Ragnarok approaches and Mal places his hand on the half-orc, Ragnarok feels divine energy flow through him (healing 5HP) and then abruptly stop, Mal lifts his hand suddenly and looks of to the side disappointed and somewhat shamed.

"thats as much as I can offer for now I'm afraid, We would do well to buy some healing things to help out too when we can, Y''know just til I'm back in good graces" he smiles wryly up at Ragnarok from his sitting position, "besides next time we fight I'll be able to help out a bit more, deflect some blows or take some hits too."

Crom re-emerges from the woods and slides down the northern embankment on his good leg, catching the tail end of the discussion below.

"So there's good news and bad news. I think I may have found Gundren and Sildar's trail leading up to the northwest. The bad news is it sure don't look like they were walking. Dragged, more like, and accompanied by goblins. Ink's right about this being a well-used goblin ambush site. I counted at least 12 o' them by their tracks. With the four we took down today, there'd be no fewer than eight left, but if they're taking prisoners, there's likely to be more o' them wherever they's takin' our employers.

I don't know what the right call is here. I don't want to lose the trail, and every moment Gundren and Sildar spend missing makes it more likely that they are dead and we unemployed." Crom hesitates, "Not that it's just about the money o' course. But I agree with Ink and Calantha that we can hardly leave the delivery here, and I do like Mal's idea of bein' a bit better equipped." He looks up in the sky to note the sun's position, hands on his hips.

"I mean, I could scout out the trail, see what we're up against, while ye complete the delivery and stock up. At least when ye' return, we might save some time and have a better idea of what we're up against. Besides, too many of us walking into unknown territory at once would certainly make our presence known. But it might be smart for me to take one other along with me fer backup. I dunno. It's risky to split up, but it also feels like we need to be two places at once. What do ye think?"

"no repayment necessary, but keep me in mind when we next find a drinking hole" Mal brightens as he chuckles to Ragnarok, seemily cheered by the half orc's words

"We should gather and think about this" Mal calls out to everyone and gestures for them all to meet by the cart. After listening to crom's information Mal muses deep in thought before speaking up.

"splittin up isn't advisable, Always look after what's already infront of you before trying to look after the rest, and right now we need to have eachothers backs, like a squad.

We're dealin with goblins, I'm not suggesting underestimating them, but goblins when you get them in a group are jumpy, superstitious and greedy, easy enough to outsmart. If they have a map but no way to read it then Gundren should be alive at least, they'll keep him for information on the map, this gives us a little more time.

what we need to do is keep going, we stock up on whatever supplies that we can take from the cart if there are any, we take the cart an hour down the road and stash it off in the woods out of sight and out of the area of this ambush site, then we double back on foot and track the goblins to this camp.

if all goes well and luck is on our side we can keep the cart hidden, rescue Gundren, loot a goblin camp, get back on track and have no need to split up and risk thinning out our numbers what do you guys think?"

"Thank you, Mal," Calantha acknowledges the genasi's praise. "I've no doubt your experience will come in handy during our next skirmish, and your healing has already proved to be invaluable."

Then she turns to Crom and listens to his report. It's as she feared. She was hoping it wouldn't come to it, but it really did seem as if the best course of action might be to split the party.

"As much as I hate to say it, I agree," she says to Crom. "We must continue to protect the cart and the best way to do that is to get it to its destination as quickly as possible but we also cannot leave our employers to whatever horrible things the goblins have planned for them."

She assesses the rest of the group quietly. "It might be best if I stayed with the cart. I'm not very good at sneaking around in this armor, and it might be best if you can take the goblins by surprise."

~~

Calantha listened to Mal's plan and nodded. It was way more sound than splitting up the party. She didn't relish sending Crom and someone else hunting down the goblins alone. Not for the first time she was glad that they had the older man's experience and strategy here to guide them.

"Actually, that sounds like a much better plan, Mal!" she said. "Your experience is truly invaluable."

Crom crosses his arms and nods. Keeps us together, and costs less daylight than heading all the way into town. Also gives me a chance to treat my leg and rest up. I like it.

That being said, I say if we're to get movin', we should do it quick. It's still early, so the goblins who ambushed us probably aren't expected back at their base anytime soon. Even so, if any others DO come out to check on them or swap shifts, these dead bodies will probably put the whole lot o' them on alert, and they may try to cover their tracks.

Any objections to Mal's plan?

Ink looks a bit forlornly at the oxen as he ponders the notion of hiding them and the cart. After tapping himself atop the head with his staff, he muses, "Grandfather Gimble often said that life is a series of hard choices. This appears to be one of them."

The gnome straightens himself up, looks at Crom and says, "No objections here."