The night goes by uneventfully. Snap curls up on a rock nearby, and anyone moving who happens to look in the pseudodragon's direction sees its eyes on them. Otherwise, the creature appears asleep. Those on watch make sure the fire keeps going as the temperature drops throughout the night, dipping close to freezing by the time the sun is beginning to turn the eastern sky orange.
Not long after sunup, while the four are shivering and talking about breakfast (Snap has flown away), a strong voice calls from the north, "Hail, strangers!" The party turns to see the silver head of a dragonborn bobbing above some rocks about 30 feet away and heading their direction. A gloved hand is raised in the air in a sign of greeting. As the four watch, two more heads appear behind the first, following along. Soon, the dragonborn, a human male, and a female who could be human or elf (their ears are covered) stop about 10 feet away from the campfire, standing in a non-threatening way with the male and female flanking the dragonborn. "Good morning," the dragonborn says. "Mind if we join you by the fire? We have our own breakfast." The female pushes her hood back at that point, and her pointed ears can be seen through her straight hair. All three appear amiable enough, though the dragonborn appears to be the most friendly. It is almost certain that they are adventurers; they are armed with several visible weapons and are each carrying a pack.
"Good morning!" Jambiya says brightly. "Come on in! It's a cold one." She calls up her little weather vane to check the weather the next day. "My name is Jambiya Seldom-Kettlegrip, pleased to meet you." She dusts off some spots (on the ground or a rock or whatever), and then gets back to preparing breakfast.
"Good morning." Maldorn looks over. He raises an eyebrow and asks: "You three set out on your way this morning before breaking your fast? Did you know you were going to find amicable campers by a fire?"
He holds off on sharing his name until the strangers share theirs.
Erric looks up as Jambiya greets the newcomers, rhythmically patting at his bedhead until it collapses into a very reasonable facsimile of a decent hairdo.
"Are you real adventurers? You look it! I've always wanted to meet some out in the wild. The only ones I've met are in taverns telling tales. Were you walking through the woods all night? Do adventurers not sleep? We just slept here, which must seem boring to you. What's in your packs? We have nothing fun in ours. How did you meet? Was it in a tavern? We just met at a meeting at her dads' work. Do you like music? I play music. I can play music if you want. Oh wait."He looks at Ebokk. "Do you know them? Are they your friends?"
He does not roll an insight check. He does start to strum his lute a bit.
Ebokk just stares at them at first, he does not speak yet. As the adventurers arrive Ebokk makes sure he positions himself between them and Erric/Jambiya.
Responding to Erric No, i dont know them. What brings you here? Have you been watching us? he asks with suspicion in his voice
Ebokk will also try and determine if these adventurers have seen battle perhaps recently by judging their gear and weapons. Would he see if they have any wounds or if there is blood on them?
The dragonborn identifies herself – you realize she is female — as Tarrhak Sushann. The male calls himself Blade Sharpson. The elf, after rolling her eyes, introduces herself as Elisen. Tarrhak smiles a little sheepishly. "Actually, we camped just over there. We saw the smoke from your fire, and ... Blade," she says, exaggerating the name like she's saying it for the first time (the male puts his hands on his hips and nods stoically in response), "snuck over here to see if you were dangerous."
"I didn't get very close," Blade continues. "I saw your pseudodragon curled up on that rock and didn't want to give myself away, so I wasn't actually sure who was here, but we decided to chance it this morning. We're looking for some gnolls. Have you run into any?"
[insert any discussion you might offer concerning yesterday's encounter]
In response to Erric's string of questions, the trio tells him they are guild members who were sent from Neverwinter by way of Triboar to locate and gather information on a reported group of marauding gnolls who have been spotted in the area. All three claim to have stealth as their specialty. None of them have anything particularly interesting in their packs — just the basics for survival, but nothing that would weigh them down. Tarrhak slips up and calls Blade "Agnes" at one point, and he clucks his tongue at her in disappointment. Elisen promptly comments that Blade Sharpson is one of the more idiotic names he's come up with. Blade complains that no one is ever going to be scared by anyone called Agnes Whiteflour. "What do you think?" he asks Erric, "Blade Sharpson? Or, what about Bear Strongarm? I tried Patch Dreadful, but people kept asking me where my patch was."
Ebokk's perception check: 5 (rolling for you to save time) — They are wearing leather armor that doesn't look new, and that's all you can tell.
"May the wise ones give me patience." Maldorn says, impatiently. Before anyone has a chance to reveal anything, Maldorn tries to send this group away: "Yes, we saw a group of gnolls two days back." He point in the direction they came from. "They were led by a large one with white-ish fur. He had a mean looking-flail on him. Maybe six of them in total. The pseudodragon spotted them before they spotted us, so we were able to steer clear of them. If you hurry, you main gain on them."
Erric watches Maldorn fumble through his gnoll story, at first not understanding at all what the old ranger is trying to do, but slowly picking up on things... and then taking it in a different direction.
He grins at Maldorn, and then at the new group. He pumps his thumb at the ranger in a "get a load of this guy" sort of thing. "Wait wait wait. He's being way too humble! We did run into some gnolls, but we didn't steer clear of them. We engaged them! Like, I imagine, you real adventurers do in your sleep! This man here picked up some tricks after hunting for a few years and boy did he poke some holes in a few of them! I think some fell and stayed still, and are likely still there, if you wanted to go look at them. Perhaps there's more! If an impressive group like you is hunting a gang of gnolls, it has to be a lot more than the ones we tangled with, so I'd bet that the rest are not far away. I can show you the general direction -- I'm sort of the one among us who keeps everyone headed in the right direction. They'd get lost in the woods without me. Know all of Faerun like the back of my hand. But before I do, Blade, let me tell you why I think your name is awesome and you should keep it..." and he begins explaining in detail what a stage name is and why Agnes could actually be intimidating in the right context. He'll walk a couple dozen feet toward the direction he thinks they walked from, trying sincerely to point the group toward where the gnoll party fell.
Ebokk will also remain silent, nodding and grunting a bit at the stories told by Maldorn and Erric. Since Ebokk has no idea which story is true he will just nod at both.
While the story from the newcomers was being told Ebokk would try to see if they were speaking truthfully.
Insight check on whoever told our group that they are here for the gnolls 16
Ebokk, as far as you can tell, except for the male calling himself Blade Sharpson, everything they've been saying is true.
Tarrhak and Elisen exchange a look after Maldorn lies to them. Blade blows air through his lips, making a rude noise. "I'm a better liar than that!" he says brazenly.
At the finality of Erric's contribution, Tarrhak nods. "We thank you for your time and pray good travels to you all, no matter your goal. We'll take our leave."
"What?" Blade asks, clearly disappointed and a bit surprised.
"Come, Blade," Elisen says through mostly gritted teeth.
"Be safe and watch out for more gnolls," the dragonborn says as they begin walking away from the camp. "We understand it's quite a large group."
Blade continues grumbling as they move out of sight in the direction Erric pointed out to them. "But I wanted to pet the pseudodragon."
Not long after, even the sound of their walking is lost to the sounds of nature.
"I am sure you all remember what happened the last time we took a friendly stranger into a cave with us." Maldorn says once the dragonborn and her group fade into the distance. "I hope you don't begrudge me, but let them see to their mission and we'll see to ours."
Erric looks at the group as it walks off, sad to see them go. He turns back, listens to Maldorn, and says, "you might be right, but those were real adventurers! I forgot to get their autograph! Could we send either of our winged friends after them to ask them to come back, and they could sign, my scabbard? Blade Sharpson would look amazing on it."
He shows no sign of being disingenuous. He really thinks they were high-powered adventurers, and he's not asking in order to have Sagitta and Snap track them to ensure they're headed to the gnolls, he really would love an autograph. Oh, Erric.
"Erric, you might not have noticed, but we're real adventurers, too. You are, in fact, one of the best real adventurers I know of." She fiddles with breakfast. Without looking up, she adds. "I'm not convinced they've gone, actually. They as much as said their specialty is sneaking, and you have to admit we're a curious bunch, they are too! We've a whole day ahead, let's keep our eyes and ears open, just in case."
As breakfast peters out, she stands and says loudly, "I'm going to go find some berries for later. Snap, you want to come with?" Telepathically she asks Snap, We're going to go take a look around for those people who visited us this morning. I'll be bait, and you be sneaky.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
she/her Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
“Oh there weren’t more gnolls, I was just watching Maldorn flounder in that story and so I gave it my best shot to retell it closer to the truth so they would believe us and go on their business. There might be gnolls in addition to the group that attacked us but we have no idea.“Erric offers to come along with Jambiya, slowly realizing the plan.
"Sure, fellow adventurer," she grins. "Let's go pick berries together." Jambiya and Erric will go pick berries, which might just end up in her making goodberries. Meanwhile, Snap will hopefully sneak about looking for the other party.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
she/her Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Maldorn also provides a reply to Ebokk's question: "I think there were five or six of them. I guess it could be feasible that there are more of them but I am not so confident they would be able to quietly follow us for over two days without us ever noticing it. I mean, they are not especially sneaky creatures, are they? They gnarl and stink... We would surely have noticed something."
The night goes by uneventfully. Snap curls up on a rock nearby, and anyone moving who happens to look in the pseudodragon's direction sees its eyes on them. Otherwise, the creature appears asleep. Those on watch make sure the fire keeps going as the temperature drops throughout the night, dipping close to freezing by the time the sun is beginning to turn the eastern sky orange.
Not long after sunup, while the four are shivering and talking about breakfast (Snap has flown away), a strong voice calls from the north, "Hail, strangers!" The party turns to see the silver head of a dragonborn bobbing above some rocks about 30 feet away and heading their direction. A gloved hand is raised in the air in a sign of greeting. As the four watch, two more heads appear behind the first, following along. Soon, the dragonborn, a human male, and a female who could be human or elf (their ears are covered) stop about 10 feet away from the campfire, standing in a non-threatening way with the male and female flanking the dragonborn. "Good morning," the dragonborn says. "Mind if we join you by the fire? We have our own breakfast." The female pushes her hood back at that point, and her pointed ears can be seen through her straight hair. All three appear amiable enough, though the dragonborn appears to be the most friendly. It is almost certain that they are adventurers; they are armed with several visible weapons and are each carrying a pack.
"Good morning!" Jambiya says brightly. "Come on in! It's a cold one." She calls up her little weather vane to check the weather the next day. "My name is Jambiya Seldom-Kettlegrip, pleased to meet you." She dusts off some spots (on the ground or a rock or whatever), and then gets back to preparing breakfast.
she/her
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
"Good morning." Maldorn looks over. He raises an eyebrow and asks: "You three set out on your way this morning before breaking your fast? Did you know you were going to find amicable campers by a fire?"
He holds off on sharing his name until the strangers share theirs.
Erric looks up as Jambiya greets the newcomers, rhythmically patting at his bedhead until it collapses into a very reasonable facsimile of a decent hairdo.
"Are you real adventurers? You look it! I've always wanted to meet some out in the wild. The only ones I've met are in taverns telling tales. Were you walking through the woods all night? Do adventurers not sleep? We just slept here, which must seem boring to you. What's in your packs? We have nothing fun in ours. How did you meet? Was it in a tavern? We just met at a meeting at her dads' work. Do you like music? I play music. I can play music if you want. Oh wait." He looks at Ebokk. "Do you know them? Are they your friends?"
He does not roll an insight check. He does start to strum his lute a bit.
Ebokk just stares at them at first, he does not speak yet. As the adventurers arrive Ebokk makes sure he positions himself between them and Erric/Jambiya.
Responding to Erric No, i dont know them. What brings you here? Have you been watching us? he asks with suspicion in his voice
Ebokk will also try and determine if these adventurers have seen battle perhaps recently by judging their gear and weapons. Would he see if they have any wounds or if there is blood on them?
The dragonborn identifies herself – you realize she is female — as Tarrhak Sushann. The male calls himself Blade Sharpson. The elf, after rolling her eyes, introduces herself as Elisen. Tarrhak smiles a little sheepishly. "Actually, we camped just over there. We saw the smoke from your fire, and ... Blade," she says, exaggerating the name like she's saying it for the first time (the male puts his hands on his hips and nods stoically in response), "snuck over here to see if you were dangerous."
"I didn't get very close," Blade continues. "I saw your pseudodragon curled up on that rock and didn't want to give myself away, so I wasn't actually sure who was here, but we decided to chance it this morning. We're looking for some gnolls. Have you run into any?"
[insert any discussion you might offer concerning yesterday's encounter]
In response to Erric's string of questions, the trio tells him they are guild members who were sent from Neverwinter by way of Triboar to locate and gather information on a reported group of marauding gnolls who have been spotted in the area. All three claim to have stealth as their specialty. None of them have anything particularly interesting in their packs — just the basics for survival, but nothing that would weigh them down. Tarrhak slips up and calls Blade "Agnes" at one point, and he clucks his tongue at her in disappointment. Elisen promptly comments that Blade Sharpson is one of the more idiotic names he's come up with. Blade complains that no one is ever going to be scared by anyone called Agnes Whiteflour. "What do you think?" he asks Erric, "Blade Sharpson? Or, what about Bear Strongarm? I tried Patch Dreadful, but people kept asking me where my patch was."
Ebokk's perception check: 5 (rolling for you to save time) — They are wearing leather armor that doesn't look new, and that's all you can tell.
"May the wise ones give me patience." Maldorn says, impatiently. Before anyone has a chance to reveal anything, Maldorn tries to send this group away: "Yes, we saw a group of gnolls two days back." He point in the direction they came from. "They were led by a large one with white-ish fur. He had a mean looking-flail on him. Maybe six of them in total. The pseudodragon spotted them before they spotted us, so we were able to steer clear of them. If you hurry, you main gain on them."
-> Deception: 3
OOC: Of course....
Erric watches Maldorn fumble through his gnoll story, at first not understanding at all what the old ranger is trying to do, but slowly picking up on things... and then taking it in a different direction.
He grins at Maldorn, and then at the new group. He pumps his thumb at the ranger in a "get a load of this guy" sort of thing. "Wait wait wait. He's being way too humble! We did run into some gnolls, but we didn't steer clear of them. We engaged them! Like, I imagine, you real adventurers do in your sleep! This man here picked up some tricks after hunting for a few years and boy did he poke some holes in a few of them! I think some fell and stayed still, and are likely still there, if you wanted to go look at them. Perhaps there's more! If an impressive group like you is hunting a gang of gnolls, it has to be a lot more than the ones we tangled with, so I'd bet that the rest are not far away. I can show you the general direction -- I'm sort of the one among us who keeps everyone headed in the right direction. They'd get lost in the woods without me. Know all of Faerun like the back of my hand. But before I do, Blade, let me tell you why I think your name is awesome and you should keep it..." and he begins explaining in detail what a stage name is and why Agnes could actually be intimidating in the right context. He'll walk a couple dozen feet toward the direction he thinks they walked from, trying sincerely to point the group toward where the gnoll party fell.
Jambiya minds her own business and keeps her nose out of this mess, just nodding along.
she/her
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Ebokk will also remain silent, nodding and grunting a bit at the stories told by Maldorn and Erric. Since Ebokk has no idea which story is true he will just nod at both.
While the story from the newcomers was being told Ebokk would try to see if they were speaking truthfully.
Ebokk, as far as you can tell, except for the male calling himself Blade Sharpson, everything they've been saying is true.
Tarrhak and Elisen exchange a look after Maldorn lies to them. Blade blows air through his lips, making a rude noise. "I'm a better liar than that!" he says brazenly.
At the finality of Erric's contribution, Tarrhak nods. "We thank you for your time and pray good travels to you all, no matter your goal. We'll take our leave."
"What?" Blade asks, clearly disappointed and a bit surprised.
"Come, Blade," Elisen says through mostly gritted teeth.
"Be safe and watch out for more gnolls," the dragonborn says as they begin walking away from the camp. "We understand it's quite a large group."
Blade continues grumbling as they move out of sight in the direction Erric pointed out to them. "But I wanted to pet the pseudodragon."
Not long after, even the sound of their walking is lost to the sounds of nature.
"I am sure you all remember what happened the last time we took a friendly stranger into a cave with us." Maldorn says once the dragonborn and her group fade into the distance. "I hope you don't begrudge me, but let them see to their mission and we'll see to ours."
Erric looks at the group as it walks off, sad to see them go. He turns back, listens to Maldorn, and says, "you might be right, but those were real adventurers! I forgot to get their autograph! Could we send either of our winged friends after them to ask them to come back, and they could sign, my scabbard? Blade Sharpson would look amazing on it."
He shows no sign of being disingenuous. He really thinks they were high-powered adventurers, and he's not asking in order to have Sagitta and Snap track them to ensure they're headed to the gnolls, he really would love an autograph. Oh, Erric.
Jambiya smiles to herself as the group chatters.
"Erric, you might not have noticed, but we're real adventurers, too. You are, in fact, one of the best real adventurers I know of." She fiddles with breakfast. Without looking up, she adds. "I'm not convinced they've gone, actually. They as much as said their specialty is sneaking, and you have to admit we're a curious bunch, they are too! We've a whole day ahead, let's keep our eyes and ears open, just in case."
As breakfast peters out, she stands and says loudly, "I'm going to go find some berries for later. Snap, you want to come with?" Telepathically she asks Snap, We're going to go take a look around for those people who visited us this morning. I'll be bait, and you be sneaky.
she/her
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Ebokk watches the adventurers leave and keeps watching in their direction untill he can no longer hear them.
We dont need more people here now. Not when we are running out of time.
He continues with what he was doing for a moment. How many gnolls did you encounter? Could more have followed you?
“Oh there weren’t more gnolls, I was just watching Maldorn flounder in that story and so I gave it my best shot to retell it closer to the truth so they would believe us and go on their business. There might be gnolls in addition to the group that attacked us but we have no idea.“ Erric offers to come along with Jambiya, slowly realizing the plan.
"Sure, fellow adventurer," she grins. "Let's go pick berries together." Jambiya and Erric will go pick berries, which might just end up in her making goodberries. Meanwhile, Snap will hopefully sneak about looking for the other party.
she/her
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands.
Maldorn also provides a reply to Ebokk's question: "I think there were five or six of them. I guess it could be feasible that there are more of them but I am not so confident they would be able to quietly follow us for over two days without us ever noticing it. I mean, they are not especially sneaky creatures, are they? They gnarl and stink... We would surely have noticed something."
Aside from Jambiya wanting to pick berries, is there anything else anyone would like to do today while waiting for sunset?
Everyone should be full health after hitting those long rest buttons. Also, Maldorn's shoulder feels pretty normal this morning (no more handicap).
(OOC: Yay!)
Maldorn will spend some quality time with Sagitta, just playing a bit.
-> Animal Handling (if needed): 18