Suddenly there is a sound in the brush to their left some distance to their left....
Smiling Jack has his perpetual smile on again, thanks to Caelans, rebuke, Jack needed to hear that to feel the purpose and seriousness of the situation, as well as ignore the personal and stay focused.
Jack hears the noise, looks toward the noise and also in other directions. Jack has been checking the ground the last hour for any signs of tracks. to verify the front two people's choices ands in case something was missed and pointed to another direction.
Perception 10
Survival 23
Nature 13
As the trees create smaller lanes/alleys of shooting, Jack is considering swapping out for his rapier or if the trees are really close a dagger. OOC- not sure if the trees are actually limiting the shooting (shortbow is good for limited maneuver), but wanted to acknowledge the change in the forest.
OOC Natural 20 on Survival for tracking. and if there is more then one creature, that is why Jack is looking around and not just at the noise. Nature is just because the forest changing and the "following" seemed like a good potential.
Jack tenses his senses on a knife edge but relaxes a little as his keen ears determine the stattaco sound of sharp small hooves piercing leaf litter.....roe deer....likely a herd just keeping an eye on the group but this deep in the woods probably not too worried about the humans.
There is another set of hooves out there as well though, larger.....and more....deliberate.....perhaps a red deer but the brush seems too thick for them....Jack is perplexed....and then they are gone....whatever it was did not run off and unless it is now standing stock still as the group leaves it behind it has simply vanished.....
Still there seems no danger for now. Looking up it is now late morning....you have been travelling for some time.....
The party continues on emerging suddenly at the edge of an empty stretch of overgrown road that runs in front of you from the northeast to the southwest. Suddenly you hear the sound of hooves and the rumble of wheels. Round a bend in the road to the west comes a black carriage of a type none of you have seen before drawn by four black horses.
The carriage slows, then draws up opposite to where you stand hidden in the undergrowth of the forest. No driver or groom is visible on the driving seat of the vehicle. The four horses are jet-black stallions, with black feather plumes set into their manes. They champ at their bits, snorting fiercely. One of the carriage doors is open and black curtains drift out of it in the forest breeze. The interior of the carriage is completely dark......
The overgrown road runs from the northeast to southwest and the forest crowds in on both sides of it, though as always animal trails abound in all directions.
Smiling Jack walks from the rear of the group to a position a lot closer to the carriage, and looks it over.
He heads to Caelan and Barn, but speaks loud enough for all to hear, "Not sure if any of you have heard of Gond speak of a carriage, but said that Duke Darian sends a dark carriage into the woods every day, ...and this looks like that. The horses are about to turn around and head back were they came from.... Gond said that anyone dumb enough to seek an audience with the Duke has only to step inside, and they’ll be borne off to the castle...I now think I understand that... Gond also said as a warning If you see that carriage, then for the love of God, stay well away from it! None return from Castle Ereworn.”
"While Ned could have entered the carriage with Clotha, I...doubt it." Jack looks around at the faces of all and continues, "I don't think we are that far behind Ned and if he got in, this carriage would not be here..." Jack looks around past the road, avoiding his new found comrades staring looks toward him, breathes and continues, "With just animal trails off the road ...I think Ned arrived at this road and ...followed it... My belief is Ned either turned left to the NE or right to he SW." breathes, turns toward the party and continues, "Based on this Carriage, I believe he went to the SW."
Quickly sidesteps his last statement, and stutters..."If you think I am very wrong and out of order to speak, I will follow you all which ever way you choose."
Barn stands stock still like a statue, his gaze locked on the dark carriage, knuckles white on the haft of his halberd and teeth bared. His low rumbling voice growls softly, as if trying to turn something over and over in his head trying to make sense of it and never succeeding.
"Is there anything g-good? Anywhere in this entire w-wood?" The big man exhales softly and closes his eyes. "I f-feel the trees calling to me. S-sometimes. But all we have s-seen are tricks and traps and d-death. And n-now that."
Caelan froze the moment the road came into view, not at the sound of wheels, but at their absence. No driver. No groom. No birdsong reacting. Just horses breathing like bellows and a carriage that drank the light around it. His hand lifted slowly, palm down. Hold. He did not look at the carriage at first. He looked at the woods, left, right, behind them, gauging how the trees leaned, how the undergrowth opened or resisted. Only then did his eyes slide back to the black shape on the road. At Jack’s words, Caelan listened without interruption. No rebuke this time. No correction. When the boy finished, Caelan nodded once, sharp, approving. “You weren’t out of order,” he said quietly. “You were observant.” His gaze fixed on the horses now. The feathered plumes. The way they stamped but did not wander. The open door that invited without inviting. “We do not approach that carriage,” Caelan said, voice ironed flat. “Not to look inside. Not to test it. Not out of curiosity, courage, or desperation.”
He shifted a half-step so Barn was just behind his shoulder, grounding the big man without touching him. “That thing is not here for us,” he continued. “And that is exactly why it is dangerous.” Jack’s conclusion earned another nod. “I agree. If Ned had taken the road with Clotha, there would be signs, damage, panic, blood, something. And if he’d taken the carriage…” Caelan’s eyes narrowed. “We wouldn’t still be standing here discussing it.” At the faint, coaxing whisper from the carriage, Caelan’s jaw tightened. His hand went instinctively to the charm at his neck, not in prayer, but in memory. Old stories. Old warnings. “Don’t answer it,” he said softly, more to the group than to Jack. “Names, promises, comforts, that’s how it starts. You look. You listen. You step closer.”
He turned slightly, angling his body southwest, eyes tracing the line of the road disappearing into the trees. “Ned avoids authority. Avoids roads unless he must. If he reached this place and sensed that…” a brief glance at the carriage, “…he would move away from it, not toward it.” Barn’s words drew his attention back. Caelan didn’t answer immediately. When he did, his voice was steadier than the place deserved. “There are good things,” he said. “They just don’t announce themselves in this wood.”Then, decisive. “We wait only long enough to be certain the carriage turns away. No longer. Once it moves, we cross the road, swiftly, and take the southwest trail. We don’t follow the road itself. We shadow it from the trees.” His eyes met each of theirs in turn. Jack. Barn. The others. “And whatever you hear,” Caelan added quietly, “you ignore it. Candy. Puppies. Castles. Mercy. None of it is real.” He lowered his hand. “Stay close. Stay quiet. And remember, Clotha is still alive. We don’t let this place convince us otherwise.”
The coach remain still for some time, nothing approaches it even birds and insects seem to give it a wide berth, then suddenly with ferocious snorts the horses wheel violently around and race away back to the east.
Staying within the treeline and following the road to the south-west they find a puddle with the imprints that seem to match a certain hobgoblins boots and the drag-marks of two smaller bare feet. The trail seems to lead roughly to the west following the edge of the road for now.
Smiling Jack suddenly finds a small fragment of cloth from Clothilda’s dress snagged on a nearby bush.
Looking further west you see the forest trees looming over you on either side. Cresting a rise, you find yourself overlooking three gallows set on top of a small mound.
An old woman hangs from one of them. She is dressed in a peasant’s coarse, woollen cloak. She hangs from a rope tied behind her back and she is moaning softly. You hear her muttering something about ‘them’ getting her.
Smiling Jack-
You fancy you see dark figures inching towards the old woman through the shadowed undergrowth.
Smiling Jack sees the crawling shadow, raises his bow, aims at the dark figures, pulls the string, let's go of the arrow, and shouts, "Barn, the gallows, she's alive."
Rolling in game log to hit an 8, so assume missed.
Ragged pale figures crept out of the woods and surrounded the old woman but as long as she kept muttering to herself they seemed incapable of actually touching her. The figures were dressed in ragged remnants of clothing and even from as far away as the group was they smelled foul as if they hadn't bathed in months and perhaps rolled in offal at some point....
As the companions neared the figures heads turned to regard them with interest and perhaps a little......hunger?
Suddenly there is a sound in the brush to their left some distance to their left....
Smiling Jack has his perpetual smile on again, thanks to Caelans, rebuke, Jack needed to hear that to feel the purpose and seriousness of the situation, as well as ignore the personal and stay focused.
Jack hears the noise, looks toward the noise and also in other directions. Jack has been checking the ground the last hour for any signs of tracks. to verify the front two people's choices ands in case something was missed and pointed to another direction.
Perception 10
Survival 23
Nature 13
As the trees create smaller lanes/alleys of shooting, Jack is considering swapping out for his rapier or if the trees are really close a dagger. OOC- not sure if the trees are actually limiting the shooting (shortbow is good for limited maneuver), but wanted to acknowledge the change in the forest.
OOC Natural 20 on Survival for tracking. and if there is more then one creature, that is why Jack is looking around and not just at the noise. Nature is just because the forest changing and the "following" seemed like a good potential.
Jack tenses his senses on a knife edge but relaxes a little as his keen ears determine the stattaco sound of sharp small hooves piercing leaf litter.....roe deer....likely a herd just keeping an eye on the group but this deep in the woods probably not too worried about the humans.
There is another set of hooves out there as well though, larger.....and more....deliberate.....perhaps a red deer but the brush seems too thick for them....Jack is perplexed....and then they are gone....whatever it was did not run off and unless it is now standing stock still as the group leaves it behind it has simply vanished.....
Still there seems no danger for now. Looking up it is now late morning....you have been travelling for some time.....
The party continues on emerging suddenly at the edge of an empty stretch of overgrown road that runs in front of you from the northeast to the southwest. Suddenly you hear the sound of hooves and the rumble of wheels. Round a bend in the road to the west comes a black carriage of a type none of you have seen before drawn by four black horses.
The carriage slows, then draws up opposite to where you stand hidden in the undergrowth of the forest. No driver or groom is visible on the driving seat of the
vehicle. The four horses are jet-black stallions, with black feather plumes set into their manes. They champ at their bits, snorting fiercely. One of the carriage doors is open
and black curtains drift out of it in the forest breeze. The interior of the carriage is completely dark......
The overgrown road runs from the northeast to southwest and the forest crowds in on both sides of it, though as always animal trails abound in all directions.
Smiling Jack walks from the rear of the group to a position a lot closer to the carriage, and looks it over.
He heads to Caelan and Barn, but speaks loud enough for all to hear, "Not sure if any of you have heard of Gond speak of a carriage, but said that Duke Darian sends a dark carriage into the woods every day, ...and this looks like that. The horses are about to turn around and head back were they came from.... Gond said that anyone dumb enough to seek an audience with the Duke has only to step inside, and they’ll be borne off to the castle...I now think I understand that... Gond also said as a warning If you see that carriage, then for the love of God, stay well away from it! None return from Castle Ereworn.”
"While Ned could have entered the carriage with Clotha, I...doubt it." Jack looks around at the faces of all and continues, "I don't think we are that far behind Ned and if he got in, this carriage would not be here..." Jack looks around past the road, avoiding his new found comrades staring looks toward him, breathes and continues, "With just animal trails off the road ...I think Ned arrived at this road and ...followed it... My belief is Ned either turned left to the NE or right to he SW." breathes, turns toward the party and continues, "Based on this Carriage, I believe he went to the SW."
Quickly sidesteps his last statement, and stutters..."If you think I am very wrong and out of order to speak, I will follow you all which ever way you choose."
Jack swears he hears a voice from the carriage...
I have candy.....and...a puppy....come...closer....
"No no nonono I fell for that the last time and look what it got me." he mutters.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Barn stands stock still like a statue, his gaze locked on the dark carriage, knuckles white on the haft of his halberd and teeth bared. His low rumbling voice growls softly, as if trying to turn something over and over in his head trying to make sense of it and never succeeding.
"Is there anything g-good? Anywhere in this entire w-wood?" The big man exhales softly and closes his eyes. "I f-feel the trees calling to me. S-sometimes. But all we have s-seen are tricks and traps and d-death. And n-now that."
Barn(Paladin1):Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4):VitusW's Silverwood Forest | Nivi(Rogue5):Erik_Soong's Netherdeep
Joren(Fighter6):NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Quyen(Adept1, ba5ic system):ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord) | Seri(Druid1):Hunter_Orien's Saltmarsh
Xarian (Fighter3):Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia (Sorcerer2):BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1):Culuril's Strixhaven
Caelan froze the moment the road came into view, not at the sound of wheels, but at their absence. No driver. No groom. No birdsong reacting. Just horses breathing like bellows and a carriage that drank the light around it. His hand lifted slowly, palm down. Hold. He did not look at the carriage at first. He looked at the woods, left, right, behind them, gauging how the trees leaned, how the undergrowth opened or resisted. Only then did his eyes slide back to the black shape on the road. At Jack’s words, Caelan listened without interruption. No rebuke this time. No correction. When the boy finished, Caelan nodded once, sharp, approving. “You weren’t out of order,” he said quietly. “You were observant.” His gaze fixed on the horses now. The feathered plumes. The way they stamped but did not wander. The open door that invited without inviting. “We do not approach that carriage,” Caelan said, voice ironed flat. “Not to look inside. Not to test it. Not out of curiosity, courage, or desperation.”
He shifted a half-step so Barn was just behind his shoulder, grounding the big man without touching him. “That thing is not here for us,” he continued. “And that is exactly why it is dangerous.” Jack’s conclusion earned another nod. “I agree. If Ned had taken the road with Clotha, there would be signs, damage, panic, blood, something. And if he’d taken the carriage…” Caelan’s eyes narrowed. “We wouldn’t still be standing here discussing it.” At the faint, coaxing whisper from the carriage, Caelan’s jaw tightened. His hand went instinctively to the charm at his neck, not in prayer, but in memory. Old stories. Old warnings. “Don’t answer it,” he said softly, more to the group than to Jack. “Names, promises, comforts, that’s how it starts. You look. You listen. You step closer.”
He turned slightly, angling his body southwest, eyes tracing the line of the road disappearing into the trees. “Ned avoids authority. Avoids roads unless he must. If he reached this place and sensed that…” a brief glance at the carriage, “…he would move away from it, not toward it.” Barn’s words drew his attention back. Caelan didn’t answer immediately. When he did, his voice was steadier than the place deserved. “There are good things,” he said. “They just don’t announce themselves in this wood.” Then, decisive. “We wait only long enough to be certain the carriage turns away. No longer. Once it moves, we cross the road, swiftly, and take the southwest trail. We don’t follow the road itself. We shadow it from the trees.” His eyes met each of theirs in turn. Jack. Barn. The others. “And whatever you hear,” Caelan added quietly, “you ignore it. Candy. Puppies. Castles. Mercy. None of it is real.” He lowered his hand. “Stay close. Stay quiet. And remember, Clotha is still alive. We don’t let this place convince us otherwise.”
Smiling Jack nods to acknowledge Caelans order, and grins at his praise.
Jack stands ever watchful as everyone follows Caelan and Barn, then starts to follow once his place in line is available.
From the rear, as we move out:
Perception 7
Survival 17
Nature 16
The coach remain still for some time, nothing approaches it even birds and insects seem to give it a wide berth, then suddenly with ferocious snorts the horses wheel violently around and race away back to the east.
Staying within the treeline and following the road to the south-west they find a puddle with the imprints that seem to match a certain hobgoblins boots and the drag-marks of two smaller bare feet. The trail seems to lead roughly to the west following the edge of the road for now.
Smiling Jack suddenly finds a small fragment of cloth from Clothilda’s dress snagged on a nearby bush.
Looking further west you see the forest trees looming over you on either side. Cresting a rise, you find yourself overlooking three gallows set on top of a small mound.
An old woman hangs from one of them. She is dressed in a peasant’s coarse, woollen cloak. She hangs from a rope tied behind her back and she is moaning softly. You hear her muttering something about ‘them’ getting her.
Smiling Jack-
You fancy you see dark figures inching towards the old woman through the shadowed undergrowth.
Smiling Jack sees the crawling shadow, raises his bow, aims at the dark figures, pulls the string, let's go of the arrow, and shouts, "Barn, the gallows, she's alive."
Rolling in game log to hit an 8, so assume missed.
Do NOT take me out to buy a lottery ticket!
Ardwynn >> Initiative: 5
Jack Initiative 6
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Initiative 17 rolled in game log
Seeing Jack shoot an innocent tree trunk and yell to Barn the others are alerted ( and those that haven't may roll Initiative)
Enemy Initiative- 20.
Ouch. Ok....anyone that happens to beat that may act. I'll wait for the rest of the Initiative rolls before posting.....or at least most of them.
Barn's Initiative: 15
Barn(Paladin1):Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4):VitusW's Silverwood Forest | Nivi(Rogue5):Erik_Soong's Netherdeep
Joren(Fighter6):NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Quyen(Adept1, ba5ic system):ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord) | Seri(Druid1):Hunter_Orien's Saltmarsh
Xarian (Fighter3):Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia (Sorcerer2):BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1):Culuril's Strixhaven
Caelan's Initiative: 11
Reg initiative: 6 (from character sheet).
Ragged pale figures crept out of the woods and surrounded the old woman but as long as she kept muttering to herself they seemed incapable of actually touching her. The figures were dressed in ragged remnants of clothing and even from as far away as the group was they smelled foul as if they hadn't bathed in months and perhaps rolled in offal at some point....
As the companions neared the figures heads turned to regard them with interest and perhaps a little......hunger?
( Everyone may act.)
Initiative-
Ghouls- 20
Smiling Jack- 17
Barn- 15
Caelen- 11
Jack- 10
Reg- 6
Ardwynn- 5
Oengus- 3
Smiling Jack tries again, takes a breath, exhale part way, then let's the bow string release.
Hit on 16 if it hits, then 9 piercing damage.
I assume I take a long side step or 2 to Jack's right to clear the group and aim at ghoul C or ghoul D.