Raven Stealth: 24

"Let's not be too hasty there..." Raven says as the group passes and her companions start to follow them.  "We can't just leave him here alone." She nods to their still-sleeping companion.  "We may just have to follow once he wakes up, I think it unwise to do so now..."

Mindartis stealth: 8

"From my experience deep trance can mean a large variety of things, it's best we just wait it out," Mindartis says, "it's not like we can take all of them at once."

Elwin grimaced. That Quentin wasn't waking was worrisome. And, true, they couldn't leave him alone. Still...

"I'll follow for a bit, on my own if necessary. I won't track them for any further than a quarter-mile or so; if nothing happens by then, I'll come back. I'll stay pretty far back, too."

Seeing everyone's faces, he sighed. "We have to try. Their camp might be within that quarter-mile. It's a low risk gamble, and I'm willing to take it."

Sir Elwin, they are not being stealthy, their trail is clear as day, we won't lose them. What do you mean to find that we cannot all find together?

Elwin shrugged. "I don't really know. I just..."

He looked toward the gnolls as they strode on. "I hate the idea of losing time. I know, I know, there's not much chance of them killing the prisoners in the next hour or anything. Just..." Shaking his head, he continued, "I just hate seeing them within our grasp like this, and doing nothing. You're right. I know that. But..."

Turning back toward the parade of creatures, this time he focused on those who were bound. "I just hate watching this," he finally said, almost too softly to hear.

The gnolls move on past, without noticing you--you were not extremely stealthy, but they have a lot going on around them. The torches and animal noises fade into the darkness to the west.

((I take it that all the party is going to wait for Quentin, then?))

A couple of hours later, as the horizon begins to glow, so does Quentin. Slowly he rises into the air.  When the first ray of the morning sun touches him, his eyes open.  Suddenly the glow is extinguished, and he suddenly drops four feet onto the leafy forest floor, awake at last.

"Took you long enough," Mindartis laughs.

“Ow....you could have warned me Zanderfell.” Quentin replies rubbing where he feel before looking at everyone, “You’re up early.”

"Early?" Mindartis says, "We've been trying to get you up for a while now, we know where the gnolls are going. And they've got more prisoners."

“What?!? I was just trancing like normal. I mean a learned a lot of spells but still...sorry. Let’s go.” Quentin replies 

Wow, sleep learning! Did you get a bow that'll turn your instrument into a monkey at inconvenient times? Sorry. We cannot control what the spirits do to us. Glad that you are back Lord Quentin. Westward ho and gnoll hunting! We can talk about what you learned - and how it will win us this next battle - as we go

"I'm guessing you've met you mysterious Zanderfell then?" Mindartis asks. "We can catch you up on the way there, we should get going soon."

Del proposes marching order RM - DQE to save the DM from asking (and will take into account preferences and ongoing conversations etc) We are a couple of hours behind the gnolls, so we should go fast but get stealthy as we close. How about a Stealth 19, a Perception 14 and what the hell a pair of d20s 6   18 ?

Quote from skuk>>

 and what the hell a pair of d20s 6   18 ?

((I haven't used the last ones...yet. ^^ )

"Shall we pause and check this out, or continue on after the packs?"  Raven asks, as she nods to the village of huts up in the trees.  "I am guessing this is the sprite village we were sent to look into, but it does not appear the raiders stopped here this time around."

“Lets do a quick search and on the way back we can do something more thorough if the gnolls don’t have them.” Quentin suggests as he looks around quickly.

Investigation: 17

Even the lowest-hanging huts are above your heads. From the ground there is not much to investigate, and the long, sharp thorns of the brambles discourage casual tree climbing. You do get the feeling that the village is abandoned, though, and probably has been for a while.

((Do you want to try anything specific?))

(( Elwin can't think of anything more to look into with the village. ))

((retro)) Del thanks Galathir before we go, and warns him about the differences between different humanoids

Thinking back to yesterday ((post 1599)) this probably is the abandoned village, or one near it, but I agree we should keep going. I hope His Highness comes with the cavalry, speaking of that conversation. Or we get some arboreal help from Galathir, or we can summon some satyr forces with that whistle

"We should press on so as to catch those raiders sooner than later."  Raven comments.  When the others are ready she will continue on following the raider's trail.