Smiling Jack, says, "someone else take the thieves tools, I have some, but it is not logical for me to carry the spare. The Bards memories are enough for me to take, I choose nothing else, but I will be glad to carry another's claim if their load becomes to heavy."
Ardwynn nudged Jack's shoulder, "Steady on. Sometimes fighting monsters can make one feel like a monster in turn. Trust me, beheading these things is the smartest, safest thing for us and the countryside."
She turns and answers Smiling Jack, "I have my own on me," she pats a small leather wallet on her belt.
(( OOC: Just put it in the Party Inventory... for whom ever might need it later? ))
As the others geared up to follow Smiling Jack towards the path he had found, Reg knelt in whispered conversation with Elen and they exchanged a number of items between themselves.
Barn hesitantly puts the Thieves' Tools in his pack as a backup, though he has no idea how (or even when) to use them, only that Smiling Jack and Wynn probably know so... if they lose theirs... the big man puts his hand sadly on Oengus' shoulder in solemn thanks, as if the bard is still alive, merely resting.
Once the ghouls are beheaded and set ablaze (well away from where Elen sits and Oegnus' corpse), and once Elen has used her Cunning Folk remedies to heal Barn and Reg, the big man turns to Caelen, halberd in hand and ready to follow in the chase after Ned and Clotha.
"W-we can go now. Don't n-need to wait an hour. Elen, she... she healed Reg all the w-way, and I'm g-good. Thank y-you ma'am. We shan't forget you."
Smiling Jack, does not have a shovel so grabs a bowl/plate from his mess kit and a crowbar and finds a suitable spot to start to dig a hole to bury his idol Oengus.
Reg prepared the herbs appropriately for Elen. They exchanged conversation as they each worked. Her healing talent for him and Barn was impressive. But even with it all, the man worked solemnly. He understood what the woman was asking of him…death. He wasn’t used to helping others to pass. He had done it before, a few times, but only when the suffering was great. Elen wasn’t going to get better, no mater how Reg might have wanted. So, the man capitulated in helping her…pass on. It was a comfort to spend the time with her, it gave him hope to know that people like her still worked to keep the evils at bay. He willingly absorbed everything she shared with him. “Wish that we had met earlier in our lives. I fell like there is so much more I could learn from you. But know that I will take what you’ve given as far as I can. Now, drink this…and suffer no more.”
Jack finds a small glade off the road ringed by celandine and cowslip flowers and dominated by a single tall aspen tree breaking through the dominant oak and ash of Gallows Wood. He, and others if they wish, dig into the rich moss and loam and find a place between the roots to lay Oengus to rest.
Before speaking with Reg at length, Elen is supported over to the gravesite where she calls on the aspens fae heritage to forbid trespass here by those unwelcome and she place a large flat anvil stone from her satchel over his face, " Just in case."
After speaking with Reg and taking the tincture from him she nodded thanks to the others, " I will stay with him and sit the Lykewake, to keep him at rest.....and do not fear my own rising, I will not, that has been fated long ago."
...........................
She patted Regs hand as they departed, " Find others. Learn more. Return Ereworn to what it was."
Following Jacks guidance the companions followed the southern path for some hours seeing nothing more concerning than a sounder of wild boar that crossed their path.
The sun was beginning to drop towards the horizon as the companions emerged from the trees, onto the banks of a broad river, The River Ereworn, which flows past almost soundlessly.
There is a barren looking island in its centre. Crumbling, shadowy ruins dominate it. There are some noticeable imprints in the mud by the riverbank; clomping boots, the scrape of smaller feet. It looks like this is where Ned and Clothilda crossed over to the other side of the river.
A large flat bottomed rowing boat is moored in the reeds. A tall cloaked figure is bent over it as if checking it for soundness, a scabbarded sword hangs at his belt and he has shoulder length brown hair and tanned handsome features.
Smiling Jack maneuvers himself to a position near the rear of the party. Ignoring the hunger pangs that usually start this time of day. Setting the feet to provide a solid base. Arrow pointed down in a non threatening pose, but still in position to draw if needed. Listening to his party's voices as they move to hail the stranger.
Barn instinctively steps up next to Caelan protectively but not threateningly, halberd held in both hands but lowered.
The big man begins to put together that crossing the river to the far bank (or to the island with the ruins?) might involve parlaying with the unfamiliar brown-haired figure and perhaps using the large raft, but finding the right words for the subtlety of the situation eludes him.
Instead he respectfully inclines his head to the stranger and waits for a more talkative or charismatic person (Caelan? Wynn? Others?) to speak up.
A slight shift in the light breeze brings a distinctive scent to your nostrils, it smells like the well dressed traveller before you has dunked himself in an entire vat of lavender oil.
The man clears his throat self-conciously, " Well met, I am Thomas......sometimes called Thomas the Wayfarer. I am a seeker of the lost.....story's, legends and the like. I was about to head across to those ruins, would you care to join me?"
" Forgive my forwardness but you do not seem like bandits in demeanour or dress......what is your purpose in Gallows Wood?"
"I... I'm Barn a-and I was j-just going to ask you the s-same question," Barn blurts out, adding a belated "Sir."
" Ah, I am no Noble. Merely a humble traveller."
" But perhaps if we leave some small compensation the true owners won't mind if we borrow it. ", he glanced at the darkening sky. " Though we should perhaps hurry.....it will be dark soon and being on the water after dark can be dangerous."
Glancing around at his companions awkwardly, feeling a bit absurd to be the one doing the talking, Barn still squares his shoulders and plows ahead.
"Ah... sir. I m-mean not sir, not s-sir, uh, Mister Thomas, er... Mister W-Wayfarer," the big man ventures, perhaps inauspiciously, "You asked our p-purpose? We are chasing Old Ned who stole the g-girl Clotha from town. His tracks seem to lead h-here and maybe across the r-river."
Barn wipes his brow with his free hand. Trying to talk about all this stuff is hard work!
"S-so I think we'd all be h-happy to join you across the river. And to those r-ruins if that's where Ned took h-her. I h-have a gold p-piece I can leave for the b-boat owner like you say, only... why are YOU g-going to the ruins, sir... ah, Mister Wayfarer? As you s-said, we're not bandits. Are you a b-bandit? And um, I was w-wondering, why do you say b-being on the water after dark so d-dangerous?"
The big man walks forward and tries to scan the waters of the river and its banks for possible hidden or submerged threats, but finds himself too preoccupied by the effort of holding a conversation with Thomas the Wayfarer to notice anything whatsoever.
Smiling Jack's attention is wandering as the smell of lavender is occupying his mind. He hears Barn talking about danger on the river, he to checks it out.
Glancing around at his companions awkwardly, feeling a bit absurd to be the one doing the talking, Barn still squares his shoulders and plows ahead.
"Ah... sir. I m-mean not sir, not s-sir, uh, Mister Thomas, er... Mister W-Wayfarer," the big man ventures, perhaps inauspiciously, "You asked our p-purpose? We are chasing Old Ned who stole the g-girl Clotha from town. His tracks seem to lead h-here and maybe across the r-river."
Barn wipes his brow with his free hand. Trying to talk about all this stuff is hard work!
"S-so I think we'd all be h-happy to join you across the river. And to those r-ruins if that's where Ned took h-her. I h-have a gold p-piece I can leave for the b-boat owner like you say, only... why are YOU g-going to the ruins, sir... ah, Mister Wayfarer? As you s-said, we're not bandits. Are you a b-bandit? And um, I was w-wondering, why do you say b-being on the water after dark so d-dangerous?"
The big man walks forward and tries to scan the waters of the river and its banks for possible hidden or submerged threats, but finds himself too preoccupied by the effort of holding a conversation with Thomas the Wayfarer to notice anything whatsoever.
Thomas nodded, " I noted the tracks before and was most confused......there's no pause and no tracks within the riverbed itself and I saw no other boat.......perhaps, like Gatanades, they simply strode upon the waters surface.....if that is not too blasphemous a thing to say."
As Barn looked around at the others Caelan was looking at Thomas with a lthoughtful expression, Reg and Ardwynn seemed distracted by some Riverside herbs.
" Oh....I simply meant that when its dark it is harder to tell what is happening and the river is fast flowing and deep.....and I know very few people who are strong swimmers....I am certainly not."
" I was told a tale of ghostly monks and decided it might be a tale worth telling...for that is my trade."
Smiling Jack's attention is wandering as the smell of lavender is occupying his mind. He hears Barn talking about danger on the river, he to checks it out.
Perception in game log 18.
The River Ereworn is indeed very wide at this point being some 60-80' to the central island which looks to be about 100' or so square in its oblong shape.....and then another 50-60' from the island to the other bank. He estimates the channels either side of the island are likely quite deep..
Smiling Jack, says, "someone else take the thieves tools, I have some, but it is not logical for me to carry the spare. The Bards memories are enough for me to take, I choose nothing else, but I will be glad to carry another's claim if their load becomes to heavy."
Jack shivers a little in discomfort. Chopping the heads off while a necessity, freaked him out a bit.
He stands to the side and kicks a lump of sod, useless.
"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
Ardwynn nudged Jack's shoulder, "Steady on. Sometimes fighting monsters can make one feel like a monster in turn. Trust me, beheading these things is the smartest, safest thing for us and the countryside."
She turns and answers Smiling Jack, "I have my own on me," she pats a small leather wallet on her belt.
(( OOC: Just put it in the Party Inventory... for whom ever might need it later? ))
As the others geared up to follow Smiling Jack towards the path he had found, Reg knelt in whispered conversation with Elen and they exchanged a number of items between themselves.
Barn hesitantly puts the Thieves' Tools in his pack as a backup, though he has no idea how (or even when) to use them, only that Smiling Jack and Wynn probably know so... if they lose theirs... the big man puts his hand sadly on Oengus' shoulder in solemn thanks, as if the bard is still alive, merely resting.
Once the ghouls are beheaded and set ablaze (well away from where Elen sits and Oegnus' corpse), and once Elen has used her Cunning Folk remedies to heal Barn and Reg, the big man turns to Caelen, halberd in hand and ready to follow in the chase after Ned and Clotha.
"W-we can go now. Don't n-need to wait an hour. Elen, she... she healed Reg all the w-way, and I'm g-good. Thank y-you ma'am. We shan't forget you."
Barn is ready to resume the pursuit.
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)
Xarian (Fighter3):Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia (Sorcerer2):BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1):Culuril's Strixhaven
Smiling Jack, does not have a shovel so grabs a bowl/plate from his mess kit and a crowbar and finds a suitable spot to start to dig a hole to bury his idol Oengus.
to find a decent spot
Perception 21
or
Investigation 8
Reg prepared the herbs appropriately for Elen. They exchanged conversation as they each worked. Her healing talent for him and Barn was impressive. But even with it all, the man worked solemnly. He understood what the woman was asking of him…death.
He wasn’t used to helping others to pass. He had done it before, a few times, but only when the suffering was great. Elen wasn’t going to get better, no mater how Reg might have wanted. So, the man capitulated in helping her…pass on.
It was a comfort to spend the time with her, it gave him hope to know that people like her still worked to keep the evils at bay. He willingly absorbed everything she shared with him.
“Wish that we had met earlier in our lives. I fell like there is so much more I could learn from you. But know that I will take what you’ve given as far as I can. Now, drink this…and suffer no more.”
Jack finds a small glade off the road ringed by celandine and cowslip flowers and dominated by a single tall aspen tree breaking through the dominant oak and ash of Gallows Wood. He, and others if they wish, dig into the rich moss and loam and find a place between the roots to lay Oengus to rest.
Before speaking with Reg at length, Elen is supported over to the gravesite where she calls on the aspens fae heritage to forbid trespass here by those unwelcome and she place a large flat anvil stone from her satchel over his face, " Just in case."
After speaking with Reg and taking the tincture from him she nodded thanks to the others, " I will stay with him and sit the Lykewake, to keep him at rest.....and do not fear my own rising, I will not, that has been fated long ago."
...........................
She patted Regs hand as they departed, " Find others. Learn more. Return Ereworn to what it was."
............................
61
Following Jacks guidance the companions followed the southern path for some hours seeing nothing more concerning than a sounder of wild boar that crossed their path.
The sun was beginning to drop towards the horizon as the companions emerged from the trees, onto the banks of a broad river, The River Ereworn, which flows past almost soundlessly.
There is a barren looking island in its centre. Crumbling, shadowy ruins dominate it. There are some noticeable imprints in the mud by the riverbank; clomping boots, the scrape of smaller feet. It looks like this is where Ned and Clothilda crossed over to the other side of the river.
A large flat bottomed rowing boat is moored in the reeds. A tall cloaked figure is bent over it as if checking it for soundness, a scabbarded sword hangs at his belt and he has shoulder length brown hair and tanned handsome features.
He looks up as you emerge from the trees.......
Smiling Jack maneuvers himself to a position near the rear of the party. Ignoring the hunger pangs that usually start this time of day. Setting the feet to provide a solid base. Arrow pointed down in a non threatening pose, but still in position to draw if needed. Listening to his party's voices as they move to hail the stranger.
Barn instinctively steps up next to Caelan protectively but not threateningly, halberd held in both hands but lowered.
The big man begins to put together that crossing the river to the far bank (or to the island with the ruins?) might involve parlaying with the unfamiliar brown-haired figure and perhaps using the large raft, but finding the right words for the subtlety of the situation eludes him.
Instead he respectfully inclines his head to the stranger and waits for a more talkative or charismatic person (Caelan? Wynn? Others?) to speak up.
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)
Xarian (Fighter3):Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia (Sorcerer2):BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1):Culuril's Strixhaven
Smiling Jack and Caelan-
A slight shift in the light breeze brings a distinctive scent to your nostrils, it smells like the well dressed traveller before you has dunked himself in an entire vat of lavender oil.
Smiling Jack wiggles his nose, makes a bit of an off-putting face. Using the smell to bring up a past memory.... (But drawing a blank)
Insight game roll log 11.
Jack looks on curiously. He hopes the party has enough funds or trade to give the man in order to cross the river.
"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
The man clears his throat self-conciously, " Well met, I am Thomas......sometimes called Thomas the Wayfarer. I am a seeker of the lost.....story's, legends and the like. I was about to head across to those ruins, would you care to join me?"
" Forgive my forwardness but you do not seem like bandits in demeanour or dress......what is your purpose in Gallows Wood?"
" Is this your boat?"
"I... I'm Barn a-and I was j-just going to ask you the s-same question," Barn blurts out, adding a belated "Sir."
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)
Xarian (Fighter3):Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia (Sorcerer2):BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1):Culuril's Strixhaven
" Ah, I am no Noble. Merely a humble traveller."
" But perhaps if we leave some small compensation the true owners won't mind if we borrow it. ", he glanced at the darkening sky. " Though we should perhaps hurry.....it will be dark soon and being on the water after dark can be dangerous."
Glancing around at his companions awkwardly, feeling a bit absurd to be the one doing the talking, Barn still squares his shoulders and plows ahead.
"Ah... sir. I m-mean not sir, not s-sir, uh, Mister Thomas, er... Mister W-Wayfarer," the big man ventures, perhaps inauspiciously, "You asked our p-purpose? We are chasing Old Ned who stole the g-girl Clotha from town. His tracks seem to lead h-here and maybe across the r-river."
Barn wipes his brow with his free hand. Trying to talk about all this stuff is hard work!
"S-so I think we'd all be h-happy to join you across the river. And to those r-ruins if that's where Ned took h-her. I h-have a gold p-piece I can leave for the b-boat owner like you say, only... why are YOU g-going to the ruins, sir... ah, Mister Wayfarer? As you s-said, we're not bandits. Are you a b-bandit? And um, I was w-wondering, why do you say b-being on the water after dark so d-dangerous?"
The big man walks forward and tries to scan the waters of the river and its banks for possible hidden or submerged threats, but finds himself too preoccupied by the effort of holding a conversation with Thomas the Wayfarer to notice anything whatsoever.
Barn's Perception: 4 (Nat. 1)
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)
Xarian (Fighter3):Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map | Ophelia (Sorcerer2):BillM's Icewind Dale | Shin(Wizard1):Culuril's Strixhaven
Smiling Jack's attention is wandering as the smell of lavender is occupying his mind. He hears Barn talking about danger on the river, he to checks it out.
Perception in game log 18.
Thomas nodded, " I noted the tracks before and was most confused......there's no pause and no tracks within the riverbed itself and I saw no other boat.......perhaps, like Gatanades, they simply strode upon the waters surface.....if that is not too blasphemous a thing to say."
As Barn looked around at the others Caelan was looking at Thomas with a lthoughtful expression, Reg and Ardwynn seemed distracted by some Riverside herbs.
" Oh....I simply meant that when its dark it is harder to tell what is happening and the river is fast flowing and deep.....and I know very few people who are strong swimmers....I am certainly not."
" I was told a tale of ghostly monks and decided it might be a tale worth telling...for that is my trade."
" And no, I am not a bandit."
The River Ereworn is indeed very wide at this point being some 60-80' to the central island which looks to be about 100' or so square in its oblong shape.....and then another 50-60' from the island to the other bank. He estimates the channels either side of the island are likely quite deep..