Having agreed to divert from the path to head over the distant ridge and investigate the smoke, the party found a relatively well traveled game trail that lead in the same general direction, and took to it. It was during the trudge up the somewhat steep hillside densely populated by evergreen trees of various kinds, that the party felt and heard the first signs of what they would come to find out later had caused the smoke. While the group was following a zig in their zig-zagging trail the ground beneath them suddenly shook with a tremulous force, and then the relative silence of the natural world was shattered by a bone-chilling, monstrous roar that itself could be felt vibrating through the ground. Seconds later the sun was blotted out by a great shadow, and all four of the companions dodged toward and started all but hugging the nearest tree trunk they could find. Soaring danger close to the tops of the trees above them the sky was suddenly dominated by the form of a red dragon. The massive creature swooped down the hill just above the trees, and then flapped its wings, gaining height and flying off into the western distance. For the nonce the entire group stood perfectly still and said nothing. When the initial shock of having seen a creature of pure fantastical myth, creatures that had only recently been seen alive in their flesh to prove the legends true, within a bowshot of their own bodies wore off, everyone breathed an audible and heavy sigh.
"Light preserve us..." Strix finally whispered.
After it seemed that everyone had proper time to process what they'd just seen, heard, and felt, the group had a renewed sense of urgency to crest the ridge of the hill and see from whence came the column of black smoke. When they finally crested the ridge-top the fears that had begun to settle in after seeing the dragon fly overhead were realized. Down in the valley below them an area of the ground was scarred and scorched, every ounce of snow in the blast radius was melted, and even the wet grass underneath had been burnt to ash. That wasn't what had caused the column of smoke, though. No, that truth was much worse. In the center of the burnt circle there was a still burning pile of bodies. Even from this distance Morbrukk could see that two of the charred carcasses were white-furred sabre-tooth tigers, the preferred mount of the D'rak war captains. Beyond the burnt area, marching in an east by northeasterly direction was a group of at least a dozen dragonborn geared for war. They wouldn't be able to know for sure until they got closer and were able to get a closer look at the pile, but it appeared as though the dragonborn and their dragon ally had just destroyed an Orc raiding party.
Strix lays her hand gently on Morbrukk's shoulder and stands silently for a moment before speaking gently. "There is a time for anger and a time for vengeance - I know ye' want it, and I promise ye'll have ye're chance - but, that time is not right now. There is no way that the four of us can hope to claim victory against that force. This is exactly the reason this mission is so important - to ensure we can defend against a force that has a dragon at their command. Once they are at a safe distance we can honor your dead brethren in whatever manner ye' choose."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Watching until the dragonborn unit disappeared over a distant ridge, the group finally made their way down the hillside to the valley below and out of the trees to the snow covered plain of tussocky grass. The stench of burnt flesh was everywhere, and the closer the group got to the pile of smoldering bodies, the more apparent it became that what happened here was exactly what they'd thought. The charred metal weapons that couldn't be burned by the fire were all of D'rakish make, and the tusks on the skulls of the various corpses were a dead giveaway, literally. Morbrukk took some solace in the fact that there were also a number of dragonborn corpses on the burn pile as well. His kin had taken some of their enemies with them to the grave. Judging by the number of corpses the dragon had been the difference in the fight, though, as there were more than a dozen orc corpses, and their sabre-tooth tiger mounts, but only a handful of dragonborn bodies were in the pile.
Strix and Harbeck shared a look. It was a boon to the dwarves that one less D'rak raiding party was traversing the Druraka range, so they really couldn't be too upset about their deaths. Even so, it was more than a bit frightening to think about an army that had no fear of enraging the D'rak. During The Goblin Wars, the dwarves had learned just how tenacious and deadly the orcs could be when organized for war. That the dragonborn army cared little about angering them, meant they didn't consider the D'rak a threat, and that was a frightening thought indeed. Especially to a group whose sole mission was to see if their defenses were ready for a war with that very army. Looking at the destructive scene around them, all the dwarves could think was, "no, they weren't ready, and they'd probably never be ready." The reality of things started to settle in to Strix and Harbeck's hearts, then. It would take the full force of the armies of multiple kingdoms to defeat such a foe. Perhaps it was time for Queen Runondi to return to the negotiating table with Thorain and figure out exactly how to set their bigoted history aside for the common good?
Of course nobody standing next to the burning pile of D'rak corpses could do anything about that now, except perhaps inform their superiors of what they'd witnessed. Perhaps even that needed to wait, though. This little diversion had taken the group far from their original path, and twilight would be falling soon enough. It was time to decide what to do and where to go from here.
"Morbrukk, is there anything ye'd like to do for ye're brothers in arms? We'll be needing to find shelter for the night and return to our original course as quickly as possible."
"I also need to inform Gryld." She adds softly.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
"Yes we should continue checking our defenses as these dragon kin can become a danger to us, but for now lets try to find a camp site away from the smell of death and burst flesh"says Kelsin
"Very well then," Strix says. "Let's find shelter and camp for the night."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Shelter was a little less easy to find than the previous night, but Harbeck found a small dell back up the hillside, a dell that looked remarkably like an old wind worn footprint of some creature that would make a giant feel small. The imagination of what kind of creature that would be boggled the minds of the four travelers, but it didn't deter them from setting up camp, and making a fire there. Sunken as the ground was, there was very little threat of anyone seeing the light from the fire, unless they were flying overhead, but that was a threat of a completely different kind anyway.
The night passed smoothly and without interruption and the group was serenaded by the recurring calls of several different nocturnal animals that scurried or flew about the forest. As the night waned, the stars and moons became covered by a thick layer of clouds, and by the time the sun had come up it was well hidden behind that cloud layer. Before they had even broken their fast, snow began to fall in large heavy flakes, and it didn't look like it was going to end any time soon. Snowfall or not, the group had a mission to continue, so they pulled their furs and their cloaks tight, and set out to regain the trail they were following toward their next destination.
15
Before even midday, the group who were trudging along silently were suddenly assaulted out of nowhere by a blast of arctic air so powerful it froze them in their tracks. Everyone's skin began to blister from the freezing air, and the entire group looked to see that a massive white wolf had stolen up upon them without them seeing or hearing it. Clearly it felt like they would all make an easy meal!
(OOC: Really bad start for you all, your enemy rolled a stealth check that was beyond anyone's passive perception. And it rolled higher initiative than you all. Thankfully everybody made the Dex save against the cold breath. Even so, everyone took 9HP of damage. You all are up. Winter Wolf is 10' away and all ground is difficult terrain because of the heavy snowfall.)
Faces the wolf. "I'm not in the mood to be made into a meal by the likes of ye," she says. Then lunges forward towards the wolf and casts Inflict Wounds.
Attack: 24 Damage: 26
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
In a moment of violent fury that exploded upon the hapless wolf, its body is lacerated and decimated by a blast of necrotic magic so powerful it all but killed the massive white furred beast right then and there. Yet, the giant beasts of the Druraka range are not so easily killed. The she-wolf snapped at Harbeck with incredible speed and force, but Harbeck easily butted the jaws aside with the haft of his greataxe.
(OOC: Dice were your friends there. Breath weapon failed to recharge, and the bite attack missed. Your turns again, and the Winter Wolf is bloodied. Kelsin, if you attack this round it will be with advantage because you successfully hid with that stealth check.)
Strix swings her Warhammer: Attack: 16 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll.
"Be on with ye'!"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Kels fires another arrow at the beast with advantage
Attack: 17 Damage: 10
Then cunning action to hide
Stealth
19
(OOC: My hovering image of that shows the damage was rolled as d20 with advantage? That's clearly not right. Also, I obviously jinxed the dice algorithm since both Strix and Morbrukk missed...)
Even though Morbrukk's and Strix' attacks miss the wily winter wolf, Kelsin's arrow buries itself deep in the flesh of her shoulder. Hampered by the blow, she attempts to hobble off, but Harbeck (rolls in game log) slams his greataxe into the nape of her neck almost severing her head clean off. As the whiteness all around is sprayed with arterial blood from the wound, Morbrukk curses, "Damn it all, I wanted that hide intact! It would have made a great fur wrap. Winter wolves are prized trophies in Thgol'd'rak." Then the half-orc's demeanor softens and bit, and he smiles and says, "Oh well, maybe I can just sew it back together."
(OOC: If you want to skin the wolf for it's hide, it will require either a Nature roll or a Survival roll. If anyone helps with the skinning, you can roll with advantage.)
Based off the patient endurance with which Morbrukk skinned the hide of the white winter wolf, cleaning off bits of bloody flesh in the white snow, and then rubbing some lamp oil on it before he rolled it up to keep it supple while it would spend time in his pack as the group continued to travel, made it quite clear that he wasn't joking about such hides being prized trophies to the D'rak.
That beastly enemy defeated, the group continued their trudging hike through the mountains, as the large and heavy flakes of snow continued to fall all day. Thankfully, just as the group was starting to feel their muscles cramping with fatigue, they came over the top of a ridge and saw one of the most beautiful sights anyone traveling through the Druraka range in the winter can see, hot springs! In the valley below them steam rose from several different pools of melted snow that were being heated from underneath by flows of underground lava. A quick look for hostile creatures or hunting beasts showed none, and the group bounded down the sparsely treed hill to the nearest hot pool, disrobed with little shame, and dipped their travel-aching bodies into the steaming hot water.
"Ohhhh, that's the stuff!" Strix said, lowering her entire self including her head into the water and using it to scrub some of the mud and gore from her hair and body.
Having agreed to divert from the path to head over the distant ridge and investigate the smoke, the party found a relatively well traveled game trail that lead in the same general direction, and took to it. It was during the trudge up the somewhat steep hillside densely populated by evergreen trees of various kinds, that the party felt and heard the first signs of what they would come to find out later had caused the smoke. While the group was following a zig in their zig-zagging trail the ground beneath them suddenly shook with a tremulous force, and then the relative silence of the natural world was shattered by a bone-chilling, monstrous roar that itself could be felt vibrating through the ground. Seconds later the sun was blotted out by a great shadow, and all four of the companions dodged toward and started all but hugging the nearest tree trunk they could find. Soaring danger close to the tops of the trees above them the sky was suddenly dominated by the form of a red dragon. The massive creature swooped down the hill just above the trees, and then flapped its wings, gaining height and flying off into the western distance. For the nonce the entire group stood perfectly still and said nothing. When the initial shock of having seen a creature of pure fantastical myth, creatures that had only recently been seen alive in their flesh to prove the legends true, within a bowshot of their own bodies wore off, everyone breathed an audible and heavy sigh.
"Light preserve us..." Strix finally whispered.
After it seemed that everyone had proper time to process what they'd just seen, heard, and felt, the group had a renewed sense of urgency to crest the ridge of the hill and see from whence came the column of black smoke. When they finally crested the ridge-top the fears that had begun to settle in after seeing the dragon fly overhead were realized. Down in the valley below them an area of the ground was scarred and scorched, every ounce of snow in the blast radius was melted, and even the wet grass underneath had been burnt to ash. That wasn't what had caused the column of smoke, though. No, that truth was much worse. In the center of the burnt circle there was a still burning pile of bodies. Even from this distance Morbrukk could see that two of the charred carcasses were white-furred sabre-tooth tigers, the preferred mount of the D'rak war captains. Beyond the burnt area, marching in an east by northeasterly direction was a group of at least a dozen dragonborn geared for war. They wouldn't be able to know for sure until they got closer and were able to get a closer look at the pile, but it appeared as though the dragonborn and their dragon ally had just destroyed an Orc raiding party.
Strix lays her hand gently on Morbrukk's shoulder and stands silently for a moment before speaking gently. "There is a time for anger and a time for vengeance - I know ye' want it, and I promise ye'll have ye're chance - but, that time is not right now. There is no way that the four of us can hope to claim victory against that force. This is exactly the reason this mission is so important - to ensure we can defend against a force that has a dragon at their command. Once they are at a safe distance we can honor your dead brethren in whatever manner ye' choose."
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
"These are dangerous foes if they have a Dragon as an ally. I also agree that we should wait and learn all we can of them" says Kelsin.
She will wait for the dragonborn and dragon to leave before approaching the dead.
Watching until the dragonborn unit disappeared over a distant ridge, the group finally made their way down the hillside to the valley below and out of the trees to the snow covered plain of tussocky grass. The stench of burnt flesh was everywhere, and the closer the group got to the pile of smoldering bodies, the more apparent it became that what happened here was exactly what they'd thought. The charred metal weapons that couldn't be burned by the fire were all of D'rakish make, and the tusks on the skulls of the various corpses were a dead giveaway, literally. Morbrukk took some solace in the fact that there were also a number of dragonborn corpses on the burn pile as well. His kin had taken some of their enemies with them to the grave. Judging by the number of corpses the dragon had been the difference in the fight, though, as there were more than a dozen orc corpses, and their sabre-tooth tiger mounts, but only a handful of dragonborn bodies were in the pile.
Strix and Harbeck shared a look. It was a boon to the dwarves that one less D'rak raiding party was traversing the Druraka range, so they really couldn't be too upset about their deaths. Even so, it was more than a bit frightening to think about an army that had no fear of enraging the D'rak. During The Goblin Wars, the dwarves had learned just how tenacious and deadly the orcs could be when organized for war. That the dragonborn army cared little about angering them, meant they didn't consider the D'rak a threat, and that was a frightening thought indeed. Especially to a group whose sole mission was to see if their defenses were ready for a war with that very army. Looking at the destructive scene around them, all the dwarves could think was, "no, they weren't ready, and they'd probably never be ready." The reality of things started to settle in to Strix and Harbeck's hearts, then. It would take the full force of the armies of multiple kingdoms to defeat such a foe. Perhaps it was time for Queen Runondi to return to the negotiating table with Thorain and figure out exactly how to set their bigoted history aside for the common good?
Of course nobody standing next to the burning pile of D'rak corpses could do anything about that now, except perhaps inform their superiors of what they'd witnessed. Perhaps even that needed to wait, though. This little diversion had taken the group far from their original path, and twilight would be falling soon enough. It was time to decide what to do and where to go from here.
"Morbrukk, is there anything ye'd like to do for ye're brothers in arms? We'll be needing to find shelter for the night and return to our original course as quickly as possible."
"I also need to inform Gryld." She adds softly.
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
"Yes we should continue checking our defenses as these dragon kin can become a danger to us, but for now lets try to find a camp site away from the smell of death and burst flesh" says Kelsin
She will then look for a decent camp site.
"Very well then," Strix says. "Let's find shelter and camp for the night."
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Shelter was a little less easy to find than the previous night, but Harbeck found a small dell back up the hillside, a dell that looked remarkably like an old wind worn footprint of some creature that would make a giant feel small. The imagination of what kind of creature that would be boggled the minds of the four travelers, but it didn't deter them from setting up camp, and making a fire there. Sunken as the ground was, there was very little threat of anyone seeing the light from the fire, unless they were flying overhead, but that was a threat of a completely different kind anyway.
The night passed smoothly and without interruption and the group was serenaded by the recurring calls of several different nocturnal animals that scurried or flew about the forest. As the night waned, the stars and moons became covered by a thick layer of clouds, and by the time the sun had come up it was well hidden behind that cloud layer. Before they had even broken their fast, snow began to fall in large heavy flakes, and it didn't look like it was going to end any time soon. Snowfall or not, the group had a mission to continue, so they pulled their furs and their cloaks tight, and set out to regain the trail they were following toward their next destination.
15
Before even midday, the group who were trudging along silently were suddenly assaulted out of nowhere by a blast of arctic air so powerful it froze them in their tracks. Everyone's skin began to blister from the freezing air, and the entire group looked to see that a massive white wolf had stolen up upon them without them seeing or hearing it. Clearly it felt like they would all make an easy meal!
(OOC: Really bad start for you all, your enemy rolled a stealth check that was beyond anyone's passive perception. And it rolled higher initiative than you all. Thankfully everybody made the Dex save against the cold breath. Even so, everyone took 9HP of damage. You all are up. Winter Wolf is 10' away and all ground is difficult terrain because of the heavy snowfall.)
"Yeah I know feeling Morbrukk. Well lets get going and finish this job" says Kelsin after a quick breakfast of ration and water.
She will look for the trail once more
Survival 22
Faces the wolf. "I'm not in the mood to be made into a meal by the likes of ye," she says. Then lunges forward towards the wolf and casts Inflict Wounds.
Attack: 24 Damage: 26
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
"Ack, I am freezing. Time to die wolf" yells Kelsin
She quickly fires an arrow from her shortbow at the wolf
Attack: 25 Damage: 5
Then cunning action to hide in a snow drift or behind a tree or boulder
stealth 24
*Harbeck swings his axe at the winter wolf, bring his weight down on it.*
To hit: 25
Damage: 16
In a moment of violent fury that exploded upon the hapless wolf, its body is lacerated and decimated by a blast of necrotic magic so powerful it all but killed the massive white furred beast right then and there. Yet, the giant beasts of the Druraka range are not so easily killed. The she-wolf snapped at Harbeck with incredible speed and force, but Harbeck easily butted the jaws aside with the haft of his greataxe.
(OOC: Dice were your friends there. Breath weapon failed to recharge, and the bite attack missed. Your turns again, and the Winter Wolf is bloodied. Kelsin, if you attack this round it will be with advantage because you successfully hid with that stealth check.)
Kels fires another arrow at the beast with advantage
Attack: 16 Damage: 7
Then cunning action to hide
Stealth
25
Strix swings her Warhammer: Attack: 16 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll.
"Be on with ye'!"
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
(OOC: My hovering image of that shows the damage was rolled as d20 with advantage? That's clearly not right. Also, I obviously jinxed the dice algorithm since both Strix and Morbrukk missed...)
(Well I inputted the attack correctly so I am not sure why its showing that.)
(I rolled the attack with advantage again in game log)
Kelsin
Hit: 20 Damage: 10
Even though Morbrukk's and Strix' attacks miss the wily winter wolf, Kelsin's arrow buries itself deep in the flesh of her shoulder. Hampered by the blow, she attempts to hobble off, but Harbeck (rolls in game log) slams his greataxe into the nape of her neck almost severing her head clean off. As the whiteness all around is sprayed with arterial blood from the wound, Morbrukk curses, "Damn it all, I wanted that hide intact! It would have made a great fur wrap. Winter wolves are prized trophies in Thgol'd'rak." Then the half-orc's demeanor softens and bit, and he smiles and says, "Oh well, maybe I can just sew it back together."
(OOC: If you want to skin the wolf for it's hide, it will require either a Nature roll or a Survival roll. If anyone helps with the skinning, you can roll with advantage.)
Based off the patient endurance with which Morbrukk skinned the hide of the white winter wolf, cleaning off bits of bloody flesh in the white snow, and then rubbing some lamp oil on it before he rolled it up to keep it supple while it would spend time in his pack as the group continued to travel, made it quite clear that he wasn't joking about such hides being prized trophies to the D'rak.
That beastly enemy defeated, the group continued their trudging hike through the mountains, as the large and heavy flakes of snow continued to fall all day. Thankfully, just as the group was starting to feel their muscles cramping with fatigue, they came over the top of a ridge and saw one of the most beautiful sights anyone traveling through the Druraka range in the winter can see, hot springs! In the valley below them steam rose from several different pools of melted snow that were being heated from underneath by flows of underground lava. A quick look for hostile creatures or hunting beasts showed none, and the group bounded down the sparsely treed hill to the nearest hot pool, disrobed with little shame, and dipped their travel-aching bodies into the steaming hot water.
"Ohhhh, that's the stuff!" Strix said, lowering her entire self including her head into the water and using it to scrub some of the mud and gore from her hair and body.
Kelsin lets out a satisfying sigh "I needed this. Especially after traveling through the snow and that ice wolf"