Smiling Jack looks at the ground to see if he can pick up the barrel trail. Jack occasionally looks up at the tower, and wonders...who built it... and...why?
Relocate the barrel trail survival 14
If he locates the trail, he waits for the others to start down it, if there is a discrepancy Jack assumes he screwed up and follows the others.
To look for any other ambush Perception 19
Jack notes the same trail of the barrel that Caelen had seen earlier....
(( OOC: was hoping for at least a 10... so she could talk about what religion says about 'miracles, healing, and saints'... other than BURN THEM AT THE STAKE ))
Ardwynn has only the vaguest of recollections of some things a wandering mendicant priest said as he passed through the village a few years ago before being chased down and arrested by Black Riders.
She does recall something about Gatanades being a fisherman.....or something.....from some far away country....something about teaching loaves to fish....or fish to make bread.....something like that....the old priest was kind of long-winded and mostly seemed to drink and sleep the short time he was in town......
Caelan let the old man go, watching until the trees swallowed his bent figure and the last muttered blessings faded into birdsong and mist. Only then did he turn fully back to the ground, the hunter’s calm settling over him once more like a familiar cloak. “Are we all ready to head back out?”he asked, looking back at the group. “We still have a missing child to find.”
He crouched low, one knee sinking into the damp grass, fingers hovering just above the dew without disturbing it. “All right,”he murmured, mostly to himself. “Let’s see where you ran.” His eyes traced the clearing in a slow arc. The barrel’s passage was still there, flattened frost, crushed stems, a faint groove where wood had scraped stone. But Caelan wasn’t looking only for the obvious. He leaned closer, studying where the trail thinned, bent, and where the dew lay untouched beside it.
OOC: Survival Check to get back on the trail and see if he notices anything else: 21 (rolled in game log)
Ardwynn grabs a blade of grass and places it between her hands. She somehow turns it into a low, moaning whistle to grab Grung Jack's attention that they are moving out.
Barn nods vigorously at the notion of continuing the chase for Clotha, the barrel she is in, and her kidnapper immediately.
Glancing behind to confirm Wynn, the two Jacks, Oengus and the trapper (Reg) are following, he settles into a steady trot two paces behind Caelan, halberd in hand, chain mail armor clanking rather unstealthily with every step he takes along the barrel's trail.
As the group begins to get going again, Reg packs his things up. While he hopes to have finished the casting, but he doesn’t delay the others in the chase for the inn keeper’s daughter. As before, without further direction to change the plan, he maintains a position on the flank.
While he would find the scroll and gem interesting, he would most likely be unaware of them for now. Not having seen the interaction with the leper and being preoccupied with his spell would make him oblivious to their importance for now.
Caelan let the old man go, watching until the trees swallowed his bent figure and the last muttered blessings faded into birdsong and mist. Only then did he turn fully back to the ground, the hunter’s calm settling over him once more like a familiar cloak. “Are we all ready to head back out?”he asked, looking back at the group. “We still have a missing child to find.”
He crouched low, one knee sinking into the damp grass, fingers hovering just above the dew without disturbing it. “All right,”he murmured, mostly to himself. “Let’s see where you ran.” His eyes traced the clearing in a slow arc. The barrel’s passage was still there, flattened frost, crushed stems, a faint groove where wood had scraped stone. But Caelan wasn’t looking only for the obvious. He leaned closer, studying where the trail thinned, bent, and where the dew lay untouched beside it.
OOC: Survival Check to get back on the trail and see if he notices anything else: 21 (rolled in game log)
Caelan easily stayed on the barrels trail, scanning of the surrounds indicated the passage of wildlife such as deer, badgers, hares and foxes......no sign of Neds passage....but with the fay he suspected there rarely was.
Ardwynn grabs a blade of grass and places it between her hands. She somehow turns it into a low, moaning whistle to grab Jack's attention that they are moving out.
Barn nods vigorously at the notion of continuing the chase for Clotha, the barrel she is in, and her kidnapper immediately.
Glancing behind to confirm Wynn, the two Jacks, Oengus and the trapper (Reg) are following, he settles into a steady trot two paces behind Caelan, halberd in hand, chain mail armor clanking rather unstealthily with every step he takes along the barrel's trail.
Barn walked among his.....friends?.....the old beggars words of sainthood and holiness still causing some consternation.....
As the group begins to get going again, Reg packs his things up. While he hopes to have finished the casting, but he doesn’t delay the others in the chase for the inn keeper’s daughter. As before, without further direction to change the plan, he maintains a position on the flank.
While he would find the scroll and gem interesting, he would most likely be unaware of them for now. Not having seen the interaction with the leper and being preoccupied with his spell would make him oblivious to their importance for now.
Reg had just managed to complete his hurried ritual and detected the faint stirrings of illusionary fay energies dissipating along the path of the barrel...
..............................................
After another half-hour of trudging along the path the light amongst the trees has improved slightly, and you can see the pale yellow circle of the autumn sun struggling to dissipate the ghostly mists that wreathe the forest. You enter a small grassy clearing and immediately notice a familiar-looking barrel lying abandoned in the middle of it.
Suddenly you hear a shrill cry of distress coming from a hollow oak tree standing in the middle of the clearing, and you see Clotha’s blonde head poke up from the hollow in the tree. Her cry is stifled instantly and something pulls her down into the trunk again. For a brief second you see the face of her kidnapper. A grey pinched visage peers at you from under puckered, hooded eyes, his sharp yellow teeth sticking out from his lips in a malevolent grin. Then he is gone.
Seeing young Clotha held captive against her will in the tree, and remembering how bullies had treated him growing up, Barn's face starts to turn red with outrage and he begins to call out angrily, but his speech impediment brings the words to a spluttering halt.
The big man grips his halberd in white knuckles and turns hopefully to Wynn and Oengus as companions who might be able to say something useful.
Smiling Jack pulls up the shortbow and is looking at Ned's head down the shaft of his arrow. The shot is lined up and the setup is technically flawless.
In a shaky voice, lacking confidence, and full of immaturity... Jacks asks for permission,
Ardwynn steps up near Smiling Jack... "Be prepared but try to NOT shoot me in the back."
She moves up and halves the distance between Barn and Caelan before stopping to hail the tree.
"Hello the tree! Is it 'Old Ned' I am addressing? We don't wish to harm you; we have come for the young girl you rolled up here. Can you come out and speak with us?"
Smiling Jack, grins a bit hearing Ardwynn's plea about her back. Realizing Ned ducked down, Jack let's out a half breath, inhales a bit and focuses equally on breathing and on shooting Ned when he pops back up...and acquiring him, if given the go sign.
...when or if? Jack just does not think all is well, something is gnawing at his gut. Something is off. Jacks starts looking around as he concentrates on Ned popping up,. Maybe he will pop up in another location?
Perception is rolled on character sheet. It was a 10.
Jack notes the same trail of the barrel that Caelen had seen earlier....
Ardwynn has only the vaguest of recollections of some things a wandering mendicant priest said as he passed through the village a few years ago before being chased down and arrested by Black Riders.
She does recall something about Gatanades being a fisherman.....or something.....from some far away country....something about teaching loaves to fish....or fish to make bread.....something like that....the old priest was kind of long-winded and mostly seemed to drink and sleep the short time he was in town......
Caelan let the old man go, watching until the trees swallowed his bent figure and the last muttered blessings faded into birdsong and mist. Only then did he turn fully back to the ground, the hunter’s calm settling over him once more like a familiar cloak. “Are we all ready to head back out?” he asked, looking back at the group. “We still have a missing child to find.”
He crouched low, one knee sinking into the damp grass, fingers hovering just above the dew without disturbing it. “All right,” he murmured, mostly to himself. “Let’s see where you ran.” His eyes traced the clearing in a slow arc. The barrel’s passage was still there, flattened frost, crushed stems, a faint groove where wood had scraped stone. But Caelan wasn’t looking only for the obvious. He leaned closer, studying where the trail thinned, bent, and where the dew lay untouched beside it.
OOC:
Survival Check to get back on the trail and see if he notices anything else: 21 (rolled in game log)
Smiling Jack gets back to third or 4th (?) position as the others start down the trail again.
Ardwynn grabs a blade of grass and places it between her hands. She somehow turns it into a low, moaning whistle to grab Grung Jack's attention that they are moving out.
Barn nods vigorously at the notion of continuing the chase for Clotha, the barrel she is in, and her kidnapper immediately.
Glancing behind to confirm Wynn, the two Jacks, Oengus and the trapper (Reg) are following, he settles into a steady trot two paces behind Caelan, halberd in hand, chain mail armor clanking rather unstealthily with every step he takes along the barrel's trail.
Tanis (Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Barn (Paladin1): Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra (Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest
Joren (Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha (Monk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Quyen (Adept1, ba5ic system): ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord)
Xarian (Fighter3): Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map
Jack follows the group thinking that this should be interesting.
"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
As the group begins to get going again, Reg packs his things up. While he hopes to have finished the casting, but he doesn’t delay the others in the chase for the inn keeper’s daughter. As before, without further direction to change the plan, he maintains a position on the flank.
While he would find the scroll and gem interesting, he would most likely be unaware of them for now. Not having seen the interaction with the leper and being preoccupied with his spell would make him oblivious to their importance for now.
Caelan easily stayed on the barrels trail, scanning of the surrounds indicated the passage of wildlife such as deer, badgers, hares and foxes......no sign of Neds passage....but with the fay he suspected there rarely was.
Jack looked around at the others....a somewhat ragtag group....but there was strength there...
Barn walked among his.....friends?.....the old beggars words of sainthood and holiness still causing some consternation.....
Jack had not witnessed the beggars miraculous healing......but he knew something strange had happened.....
Reg had just managed to complete his hurried ritual and detected the faint stirrings of illusionary fay energies dissipating along the path of the barrel...
..............................................
After another half-hour of trudging along the path the light amongst the trees has improved slightly, and you can see the pale yellow circle of the autumn sun struggling to dissipate the ghostly mists that wreathe the forest. You enter a small grassy clearing and immediately notice a familiar-looking barrel lying abandoned in the middle of it.
Suddenly you hear a shrill cry of distress coming from a hollow oak tree standing in the middle of the clearing, and you see Clotha’s blonde head poke up from the hollow in the tree. Her cry is stifled instantly and something pulls her down into the trunk again. For a brief second you see the face of her kidnapper. A grey pinched visage peers at you from under puckered, hooded eyes, his sharp yellow teeth sticking out from his lips in a malevolent grin. Then he is gone.
Seeing young Clotha held captive against her will in the tree, and remembering how bullies had treated him growing up, Barn's face starts to turn red with outrage and he begins to call out angrily, but his speech impediment brings the words to a spluttering halt.
The big man grips his halberd in white knuckles and turns hopefully to Wynn and Oengus as companions who might be able to say something useful.
Tanis (Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Barn (Paladin1): Damian_May's Ereworn Under the Shadow | Lyra (Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest
Joren (Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha (Monk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Quyen (Adept1, ba5ic system): ConstancePhokas' Nentir Vale (Discord)
Xarian (Fighter3): Luna_Dust's Marks on the Map
Smiling Jack pulls up the shortbow and is looking at Ned's head down the shaft of his arrow. The shot is lined up and the setup is technically flawless.
In a shaky voice, lacking confidence, and full of immaturity... Jacks asks for permission,
"Do...do...do I...I...ahh...I... sh...shh...shoot?"
Ardwynn steps up near Smiling Jack... "Be prepared but try to NOT shoot me in the back."
She moves up and halves the distance between Barn and Caelan before stopping to hail the tree.
"Hello the tree! Is it 'Old Ned' I am addressing? We don't wish to harm you; we have come for the young girl you rolled up here. Can you come out and speak with us?"
Persuasion: 17+4 = 21
"Well that IS interesting!" Jack says louder than he expected.
He goes up to the tree stump and looks down.
"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
Smiling Jack, grins a bit hearing Ardwynn's plea about her back. Realizing Ned ducked down, Jack let's out a half breath, inhales a bit and focuses equally on breathing and on shooting Ned when he pops back up...and acquiring him, if given the go sign.
...when or if? Jack just does not think all is well, something is gnawing at his gut. Something is off. Jacks starts looking around as he concentrates on Ned popping up,. Maybe he will pop up in another location?
Perception is rolled on character sheet. It was a 10.
Óengus will use Bardic Inspiration to add 4 to Ardwynn's persuasion attempt (Extra convincing).
"I cast Fireball."
"Are you sure you want to do that?"
"I cast Fireball."
"It's a 15 by 15 room."
"I said I cast Fireball."