"First things first," Ura says, crouching down by the unconscious goblin.  After removing his bindings, she takes out her waterskin and sprinkles a little into her palm, trying to pat the fellow awake.

Even though Uthal managed to stablize the goblin from dying, Ura’s attempts to splash him awake prove fruitless, and he remains unconscious. Considering he was just brought back from the brink of death, and what he could have potentially endured even before the party arrived, it makes sense that he’s unable to awaken for another 4 hours or so, at best guess.

"We need to bring him with us," Ura says to the others.  "Even if whatever got his wagon doesn't attack him while he's out, the animals out here might finish the job.  We can put him on our cart."

Uthal picks him up and brings him to the cart, placing him gently in the back. "Probably best he's away from this anyways." 

 With Uthal having tucked the goblin securing among the wagon's cargo, the party had no choice but to leave several of the crates and boxes, with the Archmeister's and Baron's seals burnt into the wood, behind at the scene. The additional wagon wheel and horse tracks in the dirt road disappear after a few hours, as the dirt road becomes rock and gravel, and then eventually cobblestone.

7

The road goes over a ridge, and as you all reach the top, down below you see a stone bridge stretching over a fast moving river, and beyond it, a city.  Nothing as impressive as the Cathaan capital, but easily much more than a 'one-horse town'.  However, what grabs your attention is a sound that you all hear.  The goblin had finally awoken, but had not at all regained his full strength or coordination. A few crates had fallen fallen off the rear of the wagon, and they and the goblin smashed to the ground, as he attempted to extremely unsuccessfully, sneak away.

Ander pulls his horse around and trots back towards the fallen goblin. "You there! We just want to talk. See?" He holds up an empty hand, trying to look reassuring. If the goblin doesn't respond, he tries Dwarvish and Elvish. "Don't run. Talk. Friendly."

Persuasion: 20

The goblin responds to Ander’s attempt at communication. It calms down somewhat as his actions manage to convince the goblin that he’s not a threat. However, none of the languages appear to be making any type of impact, and while the goblin no longer considers attacking Ander, he is still wary and remembers exactly what had transpired prior to his being brought back from the edge of darkness. 

The goblin says something to you in an unknown language before he takes off, in the direction you had all just come from.

Ura chases after the goblin and stops him before he can get too far.  She kneels so that she's eye level with him, and pulls out two of her rations, one of her daggers, and two gold coins, offering them to the creature.

 She stands up, and lets the goblin continue on his way, if he choses.

Ura, with a noticeably longer gait than the still wounded and slightly disoriented goblin, manages to cut him off, as he made his get away. He stopped and stared as she spoke to him in a language that he didn’t seem to understand, but when she offered him items, he took them. 

The gold coins, he stuffed in his pocket but the rations and dagger, he held in opposite hands, and he went around Ura. His steps were slower and more steady now, walking away, rather than scurrying or escaping, and rather than walk back down the road, he went to the side, off the cobblestone and towards the dirt floor forest. (Approximately 8 or 9 feet from the party.)

After a few feet though, he turned back to Ura and the rest of the party, and performed what could be best described as a game of charades that utilized primitive drawings. The goblin pointed the dagger at himself, and drew an arrow in the dirt. Then he pointed the dagger at Ander, and drew a parallel arrow, going the opposite direction. He then stomped out the first arrow, and then drew a symbol next to the remaining arrow, that looked like a ‘B’.

When he finished the last symbol, the goblin took a long pause, to just stare at it. After a few moments had passed though, he turned, without looking back to the party, a went into the woods.

 "... I think he doesn't want us to follow him," Ura says to the others.  She turns and looks at Ander curiously.  "I wonder why he pointed at you, though, instead of Anaeris, who shot him, or me, who shot the girl with the dead baby?  I really hope it was just because you were on the horse, and not because you're getting as world famous in the wilderness as Anaeris was in dungeons of Cathaan."

It seems like some of Ura's spunky (or grating, depending on who you ask) personality might be slowly returning, but she's still rather subdued as she trudges back towards the cart.  "Let's just get into the town... at least I have some sort of vague idea of what I'm doing when I'm surrounded by people," she mutters. 

Comprehension attempt (insight): 2

As far as Ura’s concerned, the goblin was a simpleton and enjoyed drawing in the dirt.

Uthal looks down and the drawings and then at the retreating back of the goblin. "Maybe he just doesn't like humans. You do all smell terrible." 

Anearis looks puzzled by the goblin’s attempt at communication. What was he trying to say? Why did he point at Ander in particular? What were the arrows pointing to? 

Insight: 17

Showing slightly wiser understanding than Ura, Anearis gathers a much wider range of contextual information, from the goblin’s drawings.

The initial arrow was intentionally pointed East, towards the direction, the party was coming from. The arrow represented the direction in which the goblin was originally headed. 
The second arrow pointed west, towards Midgar, representing either someone similar to Ander specifically, either in physical appearance or what he may represent. Perhaps human, or similar armor and dress.

The goblin stomped on the first arrow representing the goblin being ‘stomped out’ or destroyed, by the presence of the other arrow, representing something the symbol that didn’t just look like the letter ‘B’, but was in fact the letter itself, even though the goblin likely knew none of the common alphabet, or any written language really.

It then dawned on him. A sudden epiphany struck Anearis. 

He turned to his companions to explain what he understood.

"I think he’s telling us what happened to him. He was going east with his ‘family’, until something coming from the opposite direction assaulted them. That something looked like Ser Ander, hence why he pointed at him."

His expression turned grim.

"We’re probably on the trail of the perpetrators of the massacre. The people represented by this B. Could it be the Berossus?"

Ura manages to clap her mouth shut before she can tell the others that they scrambled the remaining goblin's brain so much that he'd gone stupid, thanks to Anearis's timely interruption.

Gods, I'm just the master of bad decisions today, she cringes.  When Tymora throws you off her wheel, she makes sure you get crushed.

Putting the thought to the side, she mulls over Anaeris' conclusion.  "While it wouldn't surprise me in the least to hear that those Berossus bastards fled out here and are making the same kind of trouble they did in the city, I have to wonder - why would a goblin even know or care about that noble family?  Aren't they from Cathaan?  You know, infamously human-loving, we-don't-like-you-foreigners-or-wilderness-types Cathaan?"  She scratches her head.  "Or is the Berossus family name so widespread that it's even spoken about in the wilderness?  I really have no idea," she tells the others.

Uthal just shrugs and turns back to the road. "Someone could have had a B on their uniform or something like that." 

Anearis waits until the goblin is out of sight to turn around and sit back on the bench of the wagon.

"Come. We shouldn’t linger here. We need to get to Midgar as fast as we can."

Ura nods in agreement, though she doesn't bother sitting next to Anaeris this time.  She simply hops up into the back of the wagon, in the space that they cleared for the goblin, and settles in morosely, watching the forest that she had wanted so badly to enter disappear behind her.

As the party descends, down towards the bridge, the view of the town beyond it becomes clearer. The bridge appeared as an entrance into the town itself, sitting on the river running by. On the river’s edge, a long stretch of well built stone, separated the waters, from the residents, but also gave the town a more ‘developed’ look to it.

Several water wheels and small wooden docks were built from the barrier, with boats and rafts crowding around them; though the two groups seemed separated by the bridge. The water wheels, of varying sizes, with several individuals seeming ‘working’ on them, stood to the south of the bridge ((your left from direction of the wagon’s approach)); while the boats seemed to almost create a blockade just north of the bridge, as if the only direction they could travel was up-river.

It didn’t take long, even at a relaxed pace, for the party to reach the edge of the bridge. It was easily wide enough that another party and wagon of the same size, could pass going the opposite direction, and neither would have to move over. At the edge, stood two little shacks, one on each side of the bridge, and coming out to greet you from each was a guard.

The guard from the north shack was familiar to the party, not the individual himself, but his attire. He was of average height and semi-muscular build. His armor was basic and identical to many of the guards of the watch you had all seen in the city of Cathaan. He held a simple spear, adorned with a streamer that matched the banner hanging from his shack. Both were blue with gold and silver designs, but nearly the same as the banners that hung on the outer wall of the capital city. Even the simplest mind could realistically assume him to be a Cathaan guard.

He looked to Ander on the lead horse and greeted him.

”Welcome to Midgar, the border city of Cathaan’s west. What business can we assist with?”

The guard from the south shack was slender, his armor almost silver in color, and his pauldrons, helmet, and wrists of his gauntlets/ankles of his boots all ended with an ornate point to the metal frame. While potentially sharp points, they don’t seem to have any type of practical use. The helmet had an open face that was curved around the eyes and cheeks, presenting the sharp features of his face. His spear resembled more of a halberd in shape but an incredibly thin one. And a red banner hung from his weapon and shack, both containing black designs of which none of you had ever seen.

While both guards of come out to greet you simultaneously, the south guard spoke immediately following the north guard, cutting off any type of response. “Well it’s obvious, they’re trying to escape your kingdom, into greener pastures.” The south guard turned to the party. “Good evening, travelers. And welcome to Midgar. The EASTERN border city of the nation of SHINRA.” He enunciated certain words, though possibly as much for the northern guard’s sake, as for the party’s.

The south guard bowed, and then turned to the north guard. The two scowled at each other, silently.