Wilberforce leads the party to the destination marked on Becklin's map. He keeps a careful eye, ear and nose open on the way for any trouble.

You travel out the northern gate and west into the forest. After about an hour of marching together and searching the area marked on Becklin's map, you happen upon some tracks. Some tracks are bootprints of humanoid shape, while others are barefoot and reptilian in shape. Attempt to follow the tracks?

Calitynia looks at the others, "I think we should try and follow the reptillian tracks and see where they might lead. Unless anyone has a better idea."  She starts to investigate the tracks herself, trying to get an idea of how many and where they might lead.  But she defers to Wilberforce to lead them from here. (Survival: 11)

Wilberforce says to the group 'Give me a few minutes. I'm going to see if we can get any help from the locals'. He then slowly takes his time, moving his old body in time with the rhythms of nature as he uses a natural ritual to cast

Speak with Animals

He then looks for any animals who may have seen something useful and asks them to describe what happened here.

Before proceeding Wilberforce decides to give himself a little boost and with a wave of his hand he says 'Come on Wilberforce, time to do your best". There are no other outward signs as Wilberforce casts Guidance on himself, however he finds it easier to focus on smaller details. Wilberforce then attempts to determine the number of attackers and how old the tracks are.

Survival with guidance 12 (game log)

Shagrin takes up a defensive position standing guard while the others investigate the scene. As Wilberforce starts to move Shagrin reminds him, "Stay within sight. Nobody wants to lose a guide."

The tracks are easy enough to analyze when Calitynia and Wilberforce put their minds to it. They head east towards the woods closer to Vogler, and north, towards a more hilly area where Wilberforce has a valley drawn. It's hard to guess how many there were but definitely several of both the booted and reptilian kind.

Finding an animal to talk to proves difficult, but Wilberforce eventually corners a rabbit in its burrow. "Go away, they'll find us both!", she says.

Pelo also takes a look at the tracks, trying to determine which look fresher, the tracks going to Vogler or the tracks going to the valley.

Survival: 6

(well, it was a good idea)

Daryan follows along in silence after giving Lady Becklin, the militia captain and Darrett a firm nod each. As the reach the site of the attack he calls upon the powers of his blade to fortify himself in the event of a fight. He then helps the others with trying to follow the tracks while keeping a lookout for threats. 

Survival: 15
Perception: 6

(Casting and recasting False Life at will once per hour but will roll that when an actual battle occurs if that's okay :-)

All of you together are wise enough to piece together, with each other's help, that the tracks going north are fresher.

Wilberforce turns the rest of the good and says ‘Listen here lads, lasses and lassos. Something has spooked the wildlife around here pretty good and we cannot just walk blindly into trouble.’ He looks at the towering (to him) Dwarves and Human clanking around in their armour and says ‘We aren’t the quietest bunch. So it’s best if I scout ahead a little. Ori has got good eyes and can keep you safe. I’ve got a few good tricks left in me, and while I’m not much use in town this is a forest and I’m not lacking in friends out here.’ He turns to Ori and says ‘Keep your eyes open for ambushes lass, there may even be puma’s around here. If you hear a loud thunder clap then come running. However if you see a big old wolf with lines on its back don’t attack it, it might be me. If you hear anything more than that, keep them safe and get them back to town. And don’t worry about me, it takes a lot to catch me in the forest’.

With that, Wilberforce disappears into the forest and heads North to look for trouble.

Stealth 22 (In game log)

Shagrin has been expecting Wilberforce to try to sneak off on his own. He grabs the kender before he can slip away...

(Shagrin's held action went off. Going to let Shagrin say something before we continue, if it comes down to rolls I suppose it is a grapple.)

Wilberforce doesn't try to resist. He just says 'Trust me lad'

Pelo says to Wilberforce, “We do trust you, little father, but accidents can happen to anyone. Going alone is not the best idea right now. Take someone you trust to be quiet along with you.”

Shargrin snorts a bit in denial but let's the kender go. "Okay, but no more than 200 paces. Then we all move up." 

"I suspect Daryan would be able to stay quiet as well as you Wilberforce. Perhaps the two of you can scout ahead?" Calitynia suggests. 

Wilberforce looks at Drayan and says 'It's your choice lad. If there is danger then I can get out of trouble pretty quickly. Few things can keep up with me in the forest and even less can sneak up on me. I cannot guarantee to keep you safe and if there is trouble then I may have to leave you behind to warn the others. Also you will need to keep up!' 

With that Wilberforce looks inside himself once more, he feels the part of him that is connected to the pack. That wants to run and hunt and howl. His body remembers and between the blink of one eye and the next the old Kender is gone and a mighty Dire-Wolf is there. The beast is clearly older, but instead of being meek it resembles the ultimate survivor and has a thousand white lines crossing the grey fur on its back. Time is pressing and Wilberforce gives Drayan but a moment to join him before he sneaks off into the forest.

[OOC] Dire-Wolf Wilberforce should have the same stealth (so using my old roll seems reasonable). Still has passive perception of 15 and will be actively using his ears and nose to look for trouble while in stealth (he has advantage on this as a Dire-Wolf). I’m unsure if Speak With Animals still works now that Wilberforce is an Animal. If it does work then he will check if other animals on the way know what is up ahead. They may be more scared of the wolf and try to answer. He also has a base speed of 50ft.  

As Calitynia suggests he would join Wilberforce in scouting, Daryan nods and is about to accept, but as the kender turns into a fearsome dire wolf, the white-haired half-breed almost goes after his blade before nodding again, motioning for the druid to go on without him. The solamnic knight was quite right, he could be silent when he needed to, even move unseen when that was called upon, but the dire wolf would likely scout better on it's own so Daryan stayed with the rest of the team, ready to follow the fresher tracks to the north.

Wilberforce moves on ahead. His DireWolf body optimised for the forest is quick even while being stealthy. Hunting comes naturally to Wilberforce in this form and he uses all his senses to check for his prey. If he can speak to any animals he quickly asks them what is ahead.

As the rest of the party walks behind slowly and carefully, dire wolf Wilberforce scouts ahead.

It is not long until the woods give way to a ledge overlooking a shallow valley. In the distance, dozens of low fires illuminate hundreds of red tents. Among them move patrols of shadowy, humanlike figures. Countless soldiers occupy the camp -- a whole army.

Wilberforce decides not to attack a whole army on his own, his first responsibility is to the team. He carefully heads back to the team. 

If he manages to reach them safely, he gently grabs Ori's clothes with his teeth and tries to pull her back to town (hoping this signifies to the rest of the group that they need to retreat).