Reverie chuckles at Jack. ”I guess so. Then, should I join the exercise and practice a little?”

"*Cough* I don't know. Do you have something to practice on? I mean, I would practice insults and songs, and my handiwork, but one can only do so much without proper Practicing equipment."

"Unless... You'd like to spar....." Jack gives a wicked smile.. "Unless ye are scared. in which case I don't blame ye. Now then.... I bet ye are, so lets go to the Dwarf now."

Trimyrai: (to the party) "You want practice huh? how about a game of catch and fire?"

"A game of what?"

Trimyrai: (to the party) "Catch and fire. Its a game of two archers. The first archer is in full plate with an apple tied to their helmet, the second archer has a blindfold on, and as much or as little armor as they like, less is preferable in my experience. the first archer tries to shoot the second, and the second tries to catch the arrow and then shoot the apple on the head of the first archer. obviously injury is very possible."

“I don’t have a bow, so I’ll pass. Sounds.., fun, though.”

The party heads to the dwarf weapon smith, and let him know that you are willing to make his mine/tree area safe of stirges. He says that he will see you at the crack of dawn outside his shop. He is making arrangements for his shop to be closed tomorrow.

He will have a hand crossbow + quiver of 20 bolts ready in the morning, which will go to Theren. Sometime during the hunt, let him know which of these you'd like as the rest of your reward (pick one):

• splint mail for Reverie (to replace her chain mail)
• silver-plate 2 of your weapons
• silver-plate 1 of your weapons, and Theren & Trimyrai replace their leather armor with studded leather

You head back to the inn, and enjoy a meal with a decent amount of ale. (Posts 1096-1105 are while you are drinking.) When Trimyrai and Jack start talking about catching shot arrows with their teeth, the group decides it is time to get some sleep before the conversation escalates  even more.

------

It is the 26th of Autumn Thirdmoon. Your group is awake before the sun is up. You let Handy (the night manager) know that you will be keeping your rooms for two more days, although you won't be having any meals that day. (I have deducted 1 GP 5 SP from your characters.) You arrive outside the shop, which has a "closed for the day" sign on the window. The dwarf weapon smith is waiting outside. He has a hand axe and a hammer on his belt, and a half-full backpack. He hands Theren the crossbow + bolts (I have added this to his equipment). There are two younger dwarves with him, wearing empty backpacks and carrying two sacks apiece.

"Ready to go?" he asks.

Trimyrai: (to the dwarf) "Morning, i believe my companions and I are ready for the hunt."

“I’m ready. Yeah. Reverie, ye ready?”

(So, armor, silver, or both.)

Your group of 8 heads west on the street. Before you reach the docks on the bay, you walk up to a large stone bridge, the only one you've seen spanning the river. You cross south, then continue west along the coastline. The town guards let your group pass by, as they recognize the smith and his apprentices.

Your group goes at a fast pace. There are no roads or trails, but the dwarf smith has been here before, so is able to lead your group along easier paths. Your group goes 2 hours to the south west, getting into the border of a forest, and then head 3 hours to the west. When the breeze is from the north, you can smell the salt from the ocean/bay, but you are far enough away to only see hills and trees.

(At this point, you are arriving at the area where the stirges took over his mining area... If there was anything you wanted to discuss before the hunt begins, you had the opportunity during the past 6 hours.)

Trimyrai: (to the dwarf) "What do these creatures look like again? and do they have any weaknesses?"

“Mosquito Bats. Dont know if there are any weaknesses, and since they are mosquitoes... maybe they suck blood? I don’t know.” Jack attempts to look for a stirge Nest.

Perception:10

Reverie looks around the place as she hums in thought. ”Probably, or maybe they create the sounds of Mosquitoes. Probably hard to catch.”

The dwarf and his companions crouch down behind a large boulder. It is noon. They break out rations and some diluted beer, and offer some to your group. (Dwarven cooking leaves a lot to be desired, but you won't go hungry.) He points several hundred yards away, to three openings in a large hill. The openings are roughly in a row, 30 yards apart, with the largest being the furthest away.

"Those were the three caves where the stirges were nesting. We had been getting our resources (ore and wood) around here for about a month, when that swarm came invading. They are the size of a bat, easy to kill singly. But if they get close enough, they latch on and drain a lot of blood. We saw a handful of them dry out a full grown elk.

"We hired two adventurers, a spell-caster and a fighter. They got all the way to that first cave. When the stirges came flying out, a wave of magic flame took out most of them, and the fighter slashed down the leftovers. After that cave was clear, they went to the next one and wiped out that nest.

"They went into the last cave, but they never came out. We were collecting ore from the first cave, when we realized we hadn't heard from them in a while. We tried to get closer, but we heard wings beating and screeching, so we high-tailed it out of there... We are craftsmen, not warriors."

One of the apprentices mutters something in Dwarvish, and the smith snaps back at him. Trimyrai is the only one who understands the language, and says to repeat that in Common for the rest of the party. "This dummy here imagined he heard bird songs from the big cave... But stirges screech like bats, not like songbirds."

(I'd say 2 silvered weapons or 1 + studded armor)

"Bird songs, you say?  Might be there's more than stirges in that cave..." Froskan says, looking around at the others.  "What do you think, do we go in after them, or should we try to see if we can scare them into coming out to us?  I could try to use an illusion to get them out."

Trimyrai: (to the party) "While i have hunted before, i haven't hunted Stirges before, so i'll follow someone else's lead."

Trimyrai gets his longbow ready.

(One silver weapon and studded armour sounds good to me too xD)

"I am fine with any plan of everyone. However, it seems quite risky just to enter the third place, even the warrior and a spell-caster died in there." Reverie hums for a moment. "Froskan's plan sounds quite good to me actually, but do you think we can scare them out so we could fight against them?"

Froskan shrugs.  "We can try.  A lit rock like we've used before could startle them out if they're like bats.  Or a loud sound, perhaps that of some predator, from Minor Illusion?"

"Or if we can get close enough to see them and they're grouped together, I could try dropping a Snilloc’s Snowball Swarm in the middle of the group.

 "They actually sound all so good," Reverie smiles a little before she looks to the others. "What do you all think?"