Round 2

Fat Belly Wolf (BW5) gives in to pure terror and turns his back on Aidwyn to escape [[Aidwyn, if she wishes, can make an Attack of Opportunity]].

White Spot Wolf (BW1), although less terrified, is definitively demoralized by yet another supernatural manifestation and retreats, without lowering its guard.

Mud Dirty Wolf (BW3) steps back from the cart, shaken and unsure what to do.

Dawnborn takes the opportunity to lightly caress Aidwyn's back, murmuring to her: "Shine bright like a diamond!" and the young heroine feels pervaded by a feeling of heroism even stronger than that which usually animates her.

Gaer, seeing that White Spot Wolf (BW1) seems to have had enough, moves towards the other two still looking for trouble, trying to get a clear shooting path and aims his light crossbow at Foul Smelling Wolf (BW4).

Gaer's Attack: 13 Damage: 5 (piercing)

Round 2

The dart tears off the tip of the large wolf's tail, and it growls in frustration and anger in response.

Zentromya lets the despondent White Spot Wolf (BW1) recover and flies on Mud Dirty Wolf (BW3), against which it emits, from its trunk, a high loud sound - similar to that of a horn - mixed with a cascade of luminescent sparkles.

Radiant Damage: 23

Mud Dirty Wolf (BW3)'s Constitution saving throw: 16

Round 2

Mud Dirty Wolf (BW3) - perhaps protected by its own dirt? - seems to be burned less than his predecessors by the sacred light of Elysium. He leaps menacingly upward, as if to bite the miniature gold-furred she-elephant, but she is too high.

Aedion, excited, continues to fly out of melee range, almost above her mother's head, communicating his enthusiasm to her: "Well done mom! Our family is winning!"

Round 3

A new round begins: Roxana, Rash, Spira and Aidwyn are up, any order!

Combat Stats (those interested can peek):

"Yeah, I do my best," Rash tells Anita with a chuckle.

Then Rash has his familiar go ahead and take the help against Foul Smelling Wolf... providing a distraction which Rash will use to strike the wolf with his staff, casting booming blade as he does so.

Staff
Attack - 11 (wow, even with advantage... sigh); didn't bother rolling damage

Round 3

Anita's humor and the foul smell of the wolf distract Rash even more than Rash's willing familiar distracts the wolf... Net result, the Staff charged with the magical power of thunder hits the ground, without the beast being affected.

Roxana, Spira and Aidwyn are up, any order!

Combat Stats (those interested can peek):

Not hearing any answer from the Dawnknight, Spira calls again, "I'm knocking the catch loose!  Tell Balfby its not full dark yet, but we're in pretty dense pine forest in winter.  Let her decide."   She knocks the catch loose, then looks over at Rash.  "Good idea!  An extra weapon or so always helps."  And following his example, she uses a momentary lull in the battle (B.A.) to summon Angharradh's floating spear of moonlight (spiritual weapon).  It appears in front of Foul Smelling Wolf (BW 4 I THINK ... please put the codes in the grey list too, it would really help with my organization issues), and Spira has it strike at the huge head in hopes the sudden light in its eyes will either dazzle or scare it.

=========

Spiritual weapon attack: 9; damage on hit 5

Round 3

[[ OOC: @OisinmacCameron: You're right, my bad; I'll do it ]]

Spira decides to knock the catch loose, so that Balfby can get out... After all, the magical beast will know whether it is safe for her to do so or not!

The she-Yeth Hound remains in the shadow of her awning, but she growls menacingly, as if she were about to lunge out...

This also definitively undermines the morale of the last two Dire Wolves, who begin to retreat towards the thicket of the woods - and this saves Foul Smelling Wolf (BW4) from a shot from an eldritch spear, which appears and hits right at the point where he was standing moment (and one step) before.

If you want to chase the retreating wolves or make a last farewell ranged attack against them, go ahead... after that, however, the surviving beasts disappear among the thick vegetation, probably in search of more ordinary prey.

Gratz! Combat won.

Aedion, rejoices: "Well done mom! They were big and ugly, but you made them flee!"

"...And we all got away practically without a scratch!" Anita sighs in relief, not yet completely confident in putting the crossbow away "Mangy was already quite scary to me... meeting the oversized version of him... and moreover in a pack... it's an experience I would have liked to avoid!"

Kunnari, meanwhile, pale as a corpse, after finding himself caught between a hungry Dire Wolf and a combative Balfby, agrees: "Yes, Anita, I would have gladly done without it too..." then looking at all of you "You guys are awesome".

Roxana has no interest in killing any more of the creatures as they flee.  She lowers her bow, though does still hold it in her hand. "Is everyone alright?" Having heard Anita's comment about 'practically without a scratch' she adds, "Even if it's something small I can grab my healer's kit and patch it up."  (OOC - Can heal 1d6+4 to anyone needing it.) 

"One of the big wolwes collided with Aidwyn..." Dawnborn is quick to point out "The clash probably left some marks under her armor".

In the meantime, silently and quickly, Gaer so approached the girl from Longsaddle and murmurs to her, after placing his hand on her thigh to draw her attention: "Thank you! You were very quick to make Snowshine move away from the fray... In this way we were able to contribute as best we could. You continue to prove that you were born to overcome dangers!"

"WE made them flee, Aedion.,"  Spira corrects the little couatl.  "Everyone working together ... including you keeping watch to warn us of any surprises coming so the rest of us could concentrate on the fight.  Well done!  Before you come down, take a peek and see if there's any trouble ahead of us ... or anything unusual besides rocks and trees, really."

=========

Aedion's Perception 18

Standing proud, both in recognition of his contribution to the battle and in the important task entrusted to him, Aedion soars on his small wings, checks carefully, and when he descends confidently states: "All safe, mom! The big beasts have gathered, but they are continuing to move away from us! And there are no others along our path!"

“What a great nephew I have!” Gaer then exclaims, smiling fondly at both him and Quspira "He will certainly follow the example of the most daredevil of the family and become an excellent ranger!"

Roxana blushes lightly at the praise from Gaer. "I hardly even helped. You're far too generous!" she says. But she does wear a pleased smile that the group took care of the threat so easily. 

"And you're far too modest!" Gaer replies "Doing your part sensibly on a regular basis is often more important than performing an isolated act of heroism".

"But if for some reason I find myself in danger, surrounded by wolves the size of horses," he adds and winks "feel free to perform even an isolated act of heroism, okay?”

Once you set out again through the tangled (if mostly bare) vegetation of the Lurkwood in winter, you are soon slowed down by a strong storm, with the rain falling already frozen, giving the impression of annoying little needles of ice with which a sadist enjoys disturbing you.

You are so tired and annoyed, in the late afternoon... when the storm is over, but Aedion and Rubybreeze communicate (each in their own way) with Gaer and Spira, who then warn everyone else: there is an armed band of goblin, hobgoblin and bugbear, a little further on... There are dozens and dozens of elements - it could easily be even a hundred. And they are advancing, fully equipped and in war gear, in your direction. Unless you decide to hide, or change your route slightly, you will meet soon...

Roxana just shakes her head, smiling at the comments from Gaer. 

When later Ruby and Aedion report on the large armed band, she comments to the others. "Of course we cannot hope to face a large group like that. But where do you suppose they are headed?  Should we warn somebody?" 

"They're coming in our direction..." Gaer ponders, looking for an answer to the girl from Longsaddle's question "And we're coming from Grunwald... Could they perhaps be headed there to carry out a raid? Unfortunately I don't know this area well enough to know if there may be more likely destinations for that big band. And we've been traveling for most of the day, so getting back to Grunwald would cost us at least as much time... Perhaps Quspira or Rash could magically alert the Silvanus druids who gave us hospitality?"

"Or, if you want," Zentromya telepathically suggests to everyone "after we find set a camp for the night, I can teleport myself to Grunwald... Possibly together with some of you. That way we could warn them of the possible threat. And the next day I would be in able to teleport myself and my companions back to the night camp - and we would all be ready to resume our journey".

"Anyway, I would give priority to the 'hiding' phase..." Anita doesn't feel too safe, perhaps mindful of how she, in her time, had behaved towards Wumgu's goblin tribe...

Rash can't help but chuckle at Kunnari's assessment.

"Yeah, we are pretty cool, aren't we?" the half-orc says with a smile. Then he becomes serious.

"I agree, let's make ourselves scarce before an army of goblins show up... goblins generally aren't the nicest creatures at the best of times, but I've also heard that they tend to hold grudges for a long time..."

"If we don't have to worry about getting back to Grunwald, thanks to Zentromya, our choice is to hide or to try and move out of their path."  She tries to evaluate the terrain and what she knows of the area to try and decide if the group could effectively hide, if they could effectively ride out of the way, and which might be easiest. (Survival: 6)

The girl from Longsaddle looks around, but without being able to find a suitable hiding place for a large and cumbersome convoy like that of the heroes who wants to hide from the eyes of an entire army...

The only possibility Roxana can think of is to leave immediately, deviating east or west (your original direction would be north) and hoping that any scouts of the goblin small army do not notice the tracks - or are not interested in investigating.

It is hard to say whether, in the long run, it will be more convenient to deviate west or east; initially the terrain seems equally difficult in both directions.