As Rickard relates his story, a smoldering rage begins to build in Cinder's chest burning away the effects of the alcohol. This man was a smith just like his own parents and some foul creatures not only attacked him on his own grounds, but stole away his young, innocent, daughter. The red of Cinder's eyes glowed like his namesake, his forearms bulged with corded muscle as his tightly clinched fists shook with barely controlled rage. When he next spoke, gone was naivety and intellectual curiosity that marked the young man before and his low voice hinted only at impending violence:

"Where is your workshop and which direction did the goblins depart? I will locate your daughter, then I will tear these goblins asunder!"

Thistle looks at the man on the floor with pity and turns to the others. „We are Adventurers and this seems like a noble cause, we should find this girl before anything happens to her.“

After putting a hand to his  persed lips and contemplating,  Manikin finally says, "as long as the coin is good I'd be more than happy to come along and save the girl, as best as we can. But I'm... curious as to why the goblins would have taken her and not just murdered her in her sleep.  Does anyone have any insight to this?"

"Thank you! Bless you all!" 

(The grateful Blacksmith goes around thanking the adventurers, alternately hugging and enthusiastically shaking the hands of the brave party who has agreed to help him. He thinks for a moment before speaking.)

"Of course, you'll be paid, I am a man of my word. As far as where they could have taken her... I haven't got a clue. I mean, I didn't even know there were goblins in these parts. I'm pretty sure there's a dead goblin in my workshop, maybe we can figure out where they went if we go back there?"

(He looks at you all expectantly.)

DM's Note: If you just want to go to the shop there's not really a need to RP, I'll assume you want to go. If you want to do something else first then please go ahead and post. Next post will be tomorrow night, so if you don't post by then I'm assuming you just follow the Blacksmith to his shop.

"Let me prepare my things," Cinder says to the group. He slides his arms out of the top half of his red scholar's robe, letting in hang along the back of his legs held in place by his belt. The black t-shirt he was wearing underneath his robes now becomes fully visible along with a leather shoulder harness that holds two hatchets, one underneath each arm [OOC: imagine one of those shoulder harnesses detectives wear in cop shows to holster their pistol under their arm, this is that with hatchets!]. He goes to his pack by the door and dons an over the shoulder harness that holds 4 small throwing spears in position over his right shoulder, each the length of one of his arms. He finishes the ensemble by buckling on his pack by a single strap which goes over his opposite shoulder. 

"I am ready" 

(The party follows Rickard to his workshop on the North edge of town. The signs of a struggle are everywhere: Broken pots litter the floor, splintered chairs and tables, etc. A goblin lays dead on the floor, a poker thus his chest. The layout of his workshop is roughly as shown:

"Well, here it is. I haven't really had a chance to look things over, I went for help as soon as I came to."

Spoiler for Thistle ONLY:

DM's Note: You are free to look around. A little note about Spoilers: When you get a spoiler, keep in mind that this is information only you know. It's up to you to convey that information to the rest of your party. If you don't tell them, they don't know.

Also, remember, if you're going to roll, the difference between Perception (I look and see...) and Investigation (I see and deduce...). You have to be specific about what you're looking at when you make an Investigation roll. You can't just say, "I Investigate the room." You have to say, for example, "I Investigate the Workbench." When you roll, make sure to add your modifiers. Look at your Character Sheet under Skills and add the number to your roll. 

Sorry for the crappy Paint drawing, it's not to scale or anything, it's just meant to give you all a rough idea of how everything is set up. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I want to make sure stuff is clear for you guys. 

Looking to Rickard, Cinder asks, "Can you show me exactly where your daughter was taken from? Also, did they take any items of note?"

As he waited for the man's response, Cinder searchs his memory for any goblin tribes in the area that he had learned about in his studies that may have done this. 

Spoiler for Cinder:

(Rickard looks around his workshop.)

"No, nothing seems to be missing. Then again, I didn't really have much to begin with. All my tools are here, the plows I was working on. My daughter was taking a nap in our Living Quarters."

(Rickard shows Cinder to the Living Quarters. There's nothing out of the ordinary: A kitchen table, a big bed and a smaller, cuter bed a few feet away. On top of the small bed you see Bess' little rag doll, a calico dress, big button eyes and hair made of yarn.)

"I will," Cinder says as he takes the doll and packs it gently into his backpack. He then looks around the room trying to figure out which way there girl was taken from the premises (whether out the main entrance, out the side gate, or some other means of exit).

Manikin walks over to Rickard and puts a hand on the shaken man's shoulder. "Sir, I implore you. Think for a moment, do you have any idea why these goblins would have kidnapped your daughter? In my experience, goblins are the kidnapping kind, and would sooner just murder you and your daughter outright. By your own admittance you don't have much, so its not like the goblins took her for ransom. Why would these goblins have such an interest in you?"

(Cinder Investigates the Living Quarters for clues, but finds nothing out of the ordinary. Manikin asks Rickard why Goblins would be interested in a simple Blacksmith and his daughter.)

"I have no idea why Goblins would kidnap my little girl. I didn't even know we had Goblins in these parts. We are on the edge of town, and beyond here is the Boar's Woods, but there's not much there except trees and maybe a couple of Wild Boars. Maybe they came from there?"

(Thistle, being a skilled Ranger, is automatically drawn to the tracks the goblins left. Using his Tracking skills he is able to perceive that there were about 7 sets of tracks. 6 appear to be Goblin tracks, and 1 seems to be from a small human. The tracks seem to be going to a fence on the far northeast side of the property. He lets you all know what he's found as he follows the tracks, eventually coming to a broken gate on the Northeast side of the property.)

"Well, there's how they got in. If we follow these tracks while they're still fresh, we may be able to catch up to them."

(Rickard looks hopeful.)

"She was walking! That means she's still alive. Oh, thank the gods!"

DM's note: If you all want to inspect anything else, go ahead, otherwise, you can follow Thistle as he follows the tracks. I think we lost Quack, he hasn't logged in in 4 days. I guess I'll just play on his behalf in case he comes back. I'll try not to railroad you guys, it's still your story and your decisions that will determine what happens. Also, just a hint to prepare you for future games: It's usually a good idea to loot the bodies of your enemies. You never know what kind of helpful stuff you might find. ;)

“Thank you for the items, Rickard.”

(The group takes a few more moments to look around, get their gear ready and is on their way. Thistle leads the way and his tracking ability really shines. Everyone seems to be thoroughly impressed as the young Elf as he guides the party past some rough terrain, even finding some sweet berries for everyone to snack on, never losing the trail.

Everyone is moving forward at a good pace for several hours, but it's gotten dark. Those in the party without some sort of darkness vision light torches. Suddenly, Thistle stops and puts his hand up.)

"... ..."

(A faint rustling noise, then some squealing is heard as a sense of danger fills the air.)

"Brace yourselves everyone!" 

(A pair of boars are rushing at you all full speed. Roll for initiative!)

DM's notes: Make sure to include your Initiative modifiers (Dex Modifier) on the top of your sheet when you roll. Also, just FYI, if Thistle hadn't been with you guys that boar would have probably snuck up on you. ;)

Cinder was in the midst of one his lectures about the local flora and fauna when the boars came at them.

"Ah!," he yells as he startles, "well there's a prime example of the genus right now! They were probably in a territorial dispute themselves, before we happened along..."

He continues droning on as he smoothly draws his hatchets as if they were extensions of his body.

13 for initiative for Manikin, who was following behind Thistle

Initiative: 12

Thistle Initiative: 11

Boar #1: 20

Boar #2: 8

For DM only:

(Thistle wields his bow, grins at all of you, and shoots an arrow at the first Boar.)

Attack: 17 Damage: 7

(Thistle's arrow is brutally precise, going right through the Boar's eye! The Boar is instantly dead. Showoff.)

(A loud squeal rings out as another Boar comes charging from the other side!)

Boar #3 Initiative: 15

Cinder, you're up. Guys, keep in mind, this encounter is designed to get you comfortable with combat. Make sure to add your 'To Hit' in the Attack Modifier, your Damage Dice and your Damage modifier. Try out your abilities: Rage, your best spells, go nuts. Blast these Boars to smithereens. :)

Cinder's face hardens and, once again, the intellectual is gone, replace by a violent half-orc with smoldering eyes. He rushes toward the closest boar, both hatchets out and held low. Stopping as the boar approaches, he launches a brutal swing with each axe.

First handaxe:

Attack: 15 Damage: 5

Second handaxe:

Attack: 5 Damage: 5

(Cinder's Handaxe sinks into the Boar's back, hurting him badly. A huge spurt of blood comes out and lands right in Cinder's eyes, temporarily blinding him! He tries to attack again with his other axe, but misses badly, trips, falls and lands on his face, taking 1 point of damage. You are now prone.)

Zlee, you're up.

DM's note: Sorry, Cinder, you rolled a 1, so something bad happens. Each DM is going to have a little different flavor as far as the consequences when you roll a 1. Just want to give you a heads up so you don't wonder. :)

Attack: 18 Damage: 6