"That's one option, or you can try talking to these guys. I'm sure they get around these woods, perhaps they can tell you what's out there by telling you what they're avoiding, where and why. Or we can the other way. if they bolt, we can still try to pick a few off."

"So, what's the consensus - talk or take? We can fairly easily take one down, if that's all we want to do. Packing it around might be a bit of a mess though. I didn't bring any game bags." Still keeping in touch with Ariel, I also listen and watch for any other threats while we chat.

"We can try and talk first if we have animal carcasses then they can probably be sniffed out before hand,"  Travis says.

Spot/Listen 12

  i roll my eyes in irritation.  " There are more Rachel's here than i realized. Jonathan,  It was your idea originally to have meat to offer up to any dire wolves we encounter.   " I shrug in confusion.  '" I can speak with these deer.  The only issue then is we have no meat for any dire wolves we might encounter and i wont be able to speak with them if we run into them the same day.  In my opinion its better to save that for any dangerous animals we might encounter.  Lets just move on  and I'll rely upon the spell for any wolves we might encounter.  "  I walk to the back of the group again with Caesar.  He looks at me cautiously as he senses me being a little out of sorts   

"Sorry if I offended you, I did bring meat haunches from the kitchen. I was just spitballing ideas to have options. These just happened to be the first animals we came across. If you want to save it for when we have encountered more hostile animals that's cool, we can still take a couple of these out."

"There's no need to go off on each other. Let's take a deer or two. We can set up a travois behind the bigger horses and haul it that way easily enough. It shouldn't take long."

I suggest setting up a simple ambush. Hide most of the group along the game trail ahead of the herd, have a few outriders following the herd just close enough that the attention of the deer is on those behind them. Shoot down one or two, and let the rest run off.

The party is able to set up a simple ambush on the deer and soon you have two downed deer as the rest of the small herd bound off to the west.

I get out the disc to hold the two deer, "There we go, and if we don't run into any dire wolves we have fresh meat. I gotta ask, can we call these Sleipdeer?" I say as I snicker.

"Well, so far so good now we have a contingency plan if we face carnivores again," Travis says.

Spot listen# 10

"It's better than calling them OctoElk, I suppose." I reply as I help with the loading. "Makes me glad I don't need to eat anymore, with the magic of the stone. It's kind of freaking to eat something that looks unnatural to me."

"Well, sleipnir had eight legs, these only have six, so.... hexadeer? 

You are able to load the deer up onto the disk and continue on with your northward treck.  You feel that you are being watched but Ping and Ariel do not see or detect anything around you.  I will need a random roll of a D20 by one person to see if you are still going the correct way since you are now in unexplored territory that none of you have traveled before or tell me how you are sure you are going north. 

The usual method of keeping track is to track where the sun is at for rough direction. I use my paper and pencils to make a rough map. While other people keep doing the spots and listens, I'm keeping estimates of distance and marking terrain. I would like to teach others what I know about basic movement in squad tactics at some point, but I'm still getting used to doing this all from horseback.

4

Grant and Jonathan feel that the group is going in a general northward direction but that could be anywhere from NW to NE 

I'll smile as we load up on deer, glad to have some bribery material less precious than our mounts to work with the next time we see those dire wolves.

"I'm still not too sure if my direction sense can even be used in a place where there are magical reasons that the sun might not always rise in the same place, and a second sun that could cause aberrations. What if some deity somewhere decided that today was going to have a long tea time? Or a mountain range looks more aesthetic in the South instead of East? My Boy Scout training cringes at the thought." Still, I look at the trees, shadows and other features, seeing if some natural growth might actually indicate a constant direction like moss sometimes does. 

"If there were magical reasons for the sun to be off, we would probably have noticed it by now. "

  I look to Jonathan and smile   " You didnt offend me.  I was just a little confused and overreacted i guess. " 

" Good job on getting the venison.  That should help us quite a bit.  If we do meet some dires out here again I hope Ghost is  their alpha. We would have no problems then. " 

  As we discuss the northern direction i smile.  " That 5th edition feat would be quite handy right now.    There was one that the secondary power was that you always knew where true north was.  It would be very helpful.  " 

As you continue now in a more northward direction it is not long before Ping and Ariel both tell you that they see a number of Hobgoblins ahead.  They are to the east and to the west both groups heading in your direction.

Feeling the rush of adrenaline as the new gets whispered around the group I instantly go into planning mode. "So, do we want to keep chain pulling until we're out of spells and then pull back? Watch them and see if they're looking for something? Set an ambush? Rush them focusing on the Stone Carrier?" I look around the group seeing how people react to the quickfire options thrown out.