Calitynia was a tiny bit surprised when Wilberforce transformed to a dire wolf.  Now it made more sense why he would want to scout on his own. Following along well behind their now wolf companion, she pauses a moment as he returns and grabs Ori's clothes with his teeth. She could see the edge that dropped off into a valley, but hadn't been able to see much else.  But if Wilberforce was urging them back, she figured they should follow.  Not saying thing out of caution, Cali starts to move back towards town as well, waving her hand to the others to urge them to come along as well. 

Daryan hestiates as the dire wolf returns. It could not be far to whatever made Wilberforce return to drag Ori back to Vogler. He could only assume he spotted some threat, likely the creatures in black cloaks. Par-Salian expected a detailed report on this threat and he had to see this for himself as the kender's last report had been less than comprehensive.
"You go ahead, I need to see for myself what is back there, it won't take long I promise, see you back in Vogler." He says and disappears into the woods in the direction the dire wolf returned from.

(Daryan casts invisibilty and plans to sneak close enough to estimate numbers, equipment, allegiance and most importantly, what kind of creatures the black-cloaked ones are, and the  return to Vogler.)

Stealth: 18
Perception: 8

As Daryan disappears, DireWolf-Wilberforce lets go of Ori. He indicates with his head that Ori should lead the others back to town as previously discussed. Once he is happy the others are moving back to town, he follows Daryan using his sense of smell. He will stay back far enough from Daryan so as not to give him away, but he should be able to provide support and maybe a quick get away if required. He is also surprised that Daryan has survived so long with his current lack of general awareness of the surrounding forest. It reminds him of travelling with Greenshield.

Wilberforce will double down on his awareness of the surrounding area and will warn Daryan of approaching trouble if appropriate.

Perception with advantage 14 (game log)

[OOC] I assume with the Wander feature Wilberforce would be able to describe the camp (settlement) in some detail even if he cannot describe the number of people 

Daryan can't miss the scene that Wilberforce saw earlier: a camp down in the valley, with low fires, tents, and many, many soldiers and cloaked figures. As he turns to make his way back, a patrol of five, two clearly humanoid with chain armor and three cloaked, crosses the path he has taken. However, he had smartly turned invisible and kept to places where his tracks would not be left obvious, and they quickly pass by without noticing him.

Wilberforce continues to shadow Daryan until they get back to the others. Trusting Ori to keep the others safe

Shagrin again grabs ahold of Wilberforce. "No, we'll remain. He says to Cati turning back to the dire wolf he continues with "You're the fastest now. Take your report back to Lady Becklin. Whatever is over that ridge Daryan will tell us. Your job is to take the message and prepare the keep. Ours is to hinder the advance."

Quote from MrJanuary812 >>

Shagrin again grabs ahold of Wilberforce. "No, we'll remain. You're the fastest now. Take your report back to Lady Becklin. Whatever is over that ridge Daryan will tell us. Your job is to take the message and prepare the keep. Ours is to hinder the advance."

[OOC]I think that we are a bit out of sync on this, given that we are nearly back. Also at this point Wilberforce is a Dire-Wolf and a bit hard to grab. Although fair point that Wilberforce hasn't actually passed on any details. This is probably because he is mostly concerned with keeping the others safe rather than reporting back. 

[OOC] Wilberforce could provide a ride to someone when he gets back from shadowing Drayan. If a Kender turns up talking about armies they are not likely to be taken seriously. However he probably won't leave unless everyone is also heading back. They would need to be someone convincing, who could cling on to a Dire-Wolf. Or we go for mouth carrying, in which case he will carry Shagrin in his mouth like a Dwarf chew toy :-)

Calitynia shakes her head at Shagrin's suggestion. "Lady Becklin told us to just get information. I presume Wilberforce has information," she gives the dire wolf a questioning glance. "Daryan too, I guess. Wherever he went to."  She then looks back at Shagrin. "I'm not sure what 'advance' you are talking about hindering, but that sounds exactly the opposite of what we were asked to do." 

(OCC: Not out of sync, you posted actions before anybody could react now you have to retcon. Shagrin grabbed a handful of fur before the wolf could leave. Wilbers not with Daryan because he hasn't left yet because technically neither have the rest of us. I also realized I hadn't made it clear to who I was addressing so I edited the post to clarify.)

[OOC] OK. Don't mind a retcon. Happy to make a save to avoid the grab

"Which is exactly why we're sending Wilber back with a report. We will slow them by harrying their scouts. Possibly gaining valuable intelligence while summarily preventing them from gaining some in the process." responds Shagrin to Caltynia.

Daryan, from what you saw over the ledge there must be many soldiers for a camp this large, hundreds or thousands. From the patrol you saw, the armored humans were well equipped with scale mail, shields, and swords. The cloaked ones appeared to be carrying short swords. It looked like the cloaked ones were hunched or otherwise disfigured in form, but you weren't close enough to get a look at their faces. Neither the humans nor the cloaked ones bore distinctive emblems that would tell you what their allegiance might be. You could try getting closer to one of the cloaked figures to discern more about them, but even invisible they might detect your presence up so close from noise or the tracks you make.

For the rest of you: Shagrin has an idea for Wilberforce to go alone while the others harry the army's scouts (if I'm reading it correctly), Wilberforce wants to go back with someone non-kender because he doesn't think a kender will be taken seriously (if I am reading it correctly), and Calitynia wants the whole party to go back because that's what they had agreed upon with Becklin (again, if I am reading it correctly). Ori and Pelo have not yet weighed in. One issue in resolving this is that Wilberforce can't speak in animal form; he could, to allow some rudimentary communication, paw in the dirt to write simple phrases.

 Addendum: Daryan saw several horses in the camp. Additionally, there are some standard siege weapons: catapults, battering rams, etc. But perhaps most worrying is a huge metal contraption on wheels, crafted to look like a dragon but clearly artificial. It's not clear how it works, but its neck appears articulated and jaw looks like it could open.

As Daryan gets back to the others he becomes visible again. "Thanks for waiting around but we should really get going now." He says with a wink and a quick smile, patting the dire wolf. "Oh, and there's a veritable army over there, no discernible allegiance, they don't seem to be moving but we should hurry back and report to Lady Becklin and the militia captain so that they can prepare any defenses should the army decide to march this way. We could of course consider snatching one of their scouts for some harsh questioning." He adds, ready to head back to Vogler.

Perception to notice any black-cloaked creatures: 20

Daryan lost track of the ones that crossed his path earlier, and none are apparent where you all are.

Upon hearing that there is an entire army close by, Ori chimes in "I believe our best course of action would be to return to the militia and pass on the information that we gathered. I am not sure that trying to capture a scout would be worth the risk - we may have a limited amount of information but at least we are able to return it to town. If we are all captured, or worse, killed, then we leave Volger completely defenseless and unprepared for an entire army"

"With a large army near at hand, it is best we at the very least withdraw a ways.  The information we have is critical for Vogler. I say we stay together and report to Becklin," Calitynia states firmly. She then looks to Shagrin, "We may run into patrols anyhow - best we all face them together. And I'm sure we can return to harry these foes - but as part of a coordinated effort."

She doesn't add her own thoughts that Vogler may not have much chance of withstanding such a large army. But she hopes with sufficient time they might get aid. 

Daryan nods in agreement to both Ori and Calitynia and starts heading back to Vogler.