"I think it'd be better if ya made the ground right in front of our camp a lil' rough for them to cross over, if they start makin' for us," Chrys whispers to Krackle.  She turns to Vesper and thinks.  "It's a good idea... how spooky d'ya think ya can make yerself sound?  Maybe whisper somethin' like Don't trust yer friend! or yer mama's best pie recipe in some foreign language they maybe don't speak?"

Vesper shrugs. "I can be spooky." She whispers. "I could send one of them a message and be all 'Who goes there? We see you. Don't come any closer.' Would that work?"

"Yeah! and then I can make the ground bumpy..."

Lumen just has prestidigitation which is within 10 feet so he’s not much help (sorry can’t post much today)

Lots of ideas here... what's the plan?

It looks like the plan is for Vesper to use Message to try and scare the creatures off and if that fails, Krackle will attempt to mold the ground into difficult terrain.

Ok, what does Vesper say in her message?

"Do not move. We can see your movements and there are more of us than you. What is your purpose for being here?"

Let me know if you need a check for this. And since they hear this as a whisper in their minds, they have no way of knowing where it's coming from, so they can't track it back to Vesper.

Vesper whispers her message, and immediately, you all see movement in the outlines of the two creatures. They rise back up, and you the odd shapes on the top of the two mounts as the strange extremities appear to shift slowly in a side-to-side motion. However, they remain at their current position. Neither creature makes any move to advance or retreat, nor do they make any sound. Vesper gets no reply from her magical communication.

Growing impatient, Chrys reaches for her lantern.  "I say Krackle does his thing, an' then we light this up, use it to light 'em up, and see what the hell they are," she growls.  "I was lookin' forward to gettin' some sleep, damn it!"

Vesper whispers back to Chrys. "I sent my message, but they didn't respond. Either they can't speak to me or they won't. But at least they're standing still, like I told them to. I guess you could fire if you want." 

Lumen was about to wake up to take the third shift... would he have had his long rest and gotten back his spell slot yet, or is that about to happen?

Krackle would nod to Chrys and scramble up to the top of the dirt lookout. once there he would squint his eyes hard as he holds his free hand open. In an instant he is able to produce flame out of the darkness. A second later he would heave the ball of flame towards the dark figures...

Attack: 20 Damage: 1

the kobolds brass scaled face would light up as the flames dance across his scales before the small fireball goes streaking through the night sky towards the creatures.

Krackle’s magical flame leaves his hand and moves swiftly out into the darkness. The range of the spell is only 30 feet, so he’s only able to send it to a distance about halfway between you and the two creatures. The flickering light illuminates the grassy terrain in a small radius around the flame.

It’s not quite bright enough to light up the two creatures, since they’re still at least 30 feet beyond. However, the trick works well enough to extend your darkvision abilities, and you’re suddenly able to discern what it is that’s lurking out there in the darkness. You now clearly see that it’s two bull elk, both with an enormous set of antlers protruding from the top of their heads. You guess that they were simply grazing, and with your well-hidden campsite, they probably had no idea you were even there.

As the flame moves towards them, both animals turn and run, bolting into the darkness. You can briefly hear the sound of their hooves as they sprint away, but it fades quickly, and within a few seconds, all is quiet once again.

"They were just elk." Vesper whispers to everyone, obviously unhappy about how the party was thrown into red alert over nothing. You also get the impression that she isn't fond of being woken up in the early hours of the morning.  "I'm going back to bed." She grumbles and in a few short moments, she puts her spot back together and resumes her sleep, leaving Lumen to watch over them.

Lumen, assuming he's had his full rest, will take the last shift, chuckling to himself about helpful, vigilant kobolds and terrifying elk that stalk in the night. You can see he's already composing a ballad in his head, and after a look at Krackle, Lumen resolves not to make it even pretend to mock the little guy.

Perception: 17

Chrys also crawls back into her roll to catch some sleep, although in the back of her mind she's silently cursing about the missed opportunity to have some elk steak for breakfast tomorrow morning.  No matter, it would've taken too long to clean and cure them, but still...  She falls asleep drooling at the thought.

Krackle would look down at his feet and kick the loose dirt. "They... They looked really big.. .giant even.." he would mutter before slowly crawling back into his hole and going back to sleep.

As the rest of you return to your bedrolls, Lumen assumes his position on Krackle's Portable Dwarven Watchtower and takes the third watch. Sitting alone in the dark under the ceiling of stars, he keep his own senses alert for any signs of danger or anything out of the ordinary that isn't a benign, four legged plains animal. 

As the time passes, he listens to the constant chirping of crickets and sees occasional displays of fireflies as the light up as tiny random pinpoints in the air around your campsite. He hums soft melodies to himself and thinks up words to yet unwritten songs, and at one point realizes that he's let his mind wander a bit too much that he hadn't been paying very close attention for awhile.

That's an easy thing to let happen to anyone who's passing the dark hours of night all by themselves. Many a traveler has lost track of time during their watch and let themselves be distracted by their own thoughts, or even fallen asleep on their watch. Many folk have paid for their distraction with their lives, or with the lives of their companions. At the very least, they've woken up only to realize that they've been robbed during the night. 

Fortunately, none of that has happened on this night, and as Lumen snaps his attention back to the task at hand, being the safety of himself and his companions, he remains alert for the rest of the night. The darkest hour of night soon passes, the stars begin to fade and the eastern horizon begins to glow with the pre-dawn light of the impending sunrise, which is about an hour away. 

Vesper enjoys a restful sleep as the rest of the night passes without incident. A little bit after the sun rises, she wakes up on her own in a much better mood than she was when her sleep was disturbed in the middle of the night. "Morning Lumen."