Allansia Wildlands Campaign.

Brocc sighs and grabs his spear, ready to fight if it comes to it.

Hatch uses thaumaturgy to increase the volume of his voice and loudly says "Halt, who goes there? You have been spotted, so slowly come into the light if you're friendly, or be gone otherwise." His tightening grip on his axe showed his intent if they did not follow direction, whoever these mysterious figures were.

Intimidation 23

The six figures froze and then ran off in the other direction at speed.

The rest of the night passed peacefully, with morning came the sun and bird-song.

"Jesus Hatch, that was... frightening! Thanks... let's get some rest."

In the morning, Tom would be anxious for the party to eat and then head back out, trying to find the tree landmark which will lead us to the entrance of the mine. 

"Just have to remember everything out here is not an enemy." Brocc says as he lays back down.  In the morning he would stretch and be ready to move onward.

"I did say they should come in the light if they were friendly," Hatch replied to Brocc before settling back down into his bedroll to fall back asleep. "If they ran they probably weren't friendly."

The next morning he would inquire about their plans for breakfast.

(Didn't think whoever those figures were would book it. Guess that's what happens on a crit to intimidation.)

Breakfast was assembled from rations and last nights left-overs, a quick investigation of the stand of trees reveals more human footprints .

Setting out the group eventually found a well worn path through the hills, and to an intersection where badly weathered signs pointed southeast apparently towards the towns of Coven and Dree.  Marking cart tracks on the trail south west they come across runic carvings on a trackside stone. ( If you speak Dwarvish it is a 5 mile marker...even if you don't it certainly looks dwarvish).

"Seems like we are on the right track."  Brocc says with a nod to the sign.  "Shall we continue?"

"Yes, continue," Hatch agreed, walking as briskly as he could.

The companions followed the road for some time following the cart tracks, after several hours they began to come across skeletal remains at the roadside, apparently orcish in nature.

A number of the skulls were pierced with steel crossbow bolts.

Another mile or so down the road the companions came to a large rocky hill rising above the rolling landscape, set into its stone face were two metal gates, five men tall and equally wide, closed and imposing.

On the blasted area before the gates no plants grew and the area was littered with chunks of blasted bone and a deep crater , more orc skeletons lay piled at the edges...many of them showing signs of having been fed upon and chewed by scavengers...

Tom has been quiet taking in all of the surroundings. He's downright creeped out at this point. "What the hell happened here lads...?"

"I remember the giant from town said to look out for a tree... on a hill... for a secret entrance to the mine, although there doesn't look to be much of that around. Perhaps one will be obvious once we... go through these gates?"

Tom is going to try and see if the gates are open, to get an idea of what might be ahead. 

The gates are tightly closed, with no obvious signs of how one would open them.  They are smooth, unadorned metal apart from some squared geometric patterning at the base .

It may well be possible to climb the hill by ascending the rocky slope of the hill.

"This has got to be the front door of the mine. That giant wasn't kidding about the battle, woah."

Tom's still looking at all of the death around them.

"Should we climb and look for that tree?"  Brocc asks the others, looking at the slope of the hill.

"Might as well get to the high ground where things might be clearer to see," Hatch agreed, heading up the rock slope.

Athletics 11

The group climb to the top of the hill, some having a harder time of it than others, from this vantage point you can see a fair way across the hills noting small plumes of smoke scattered across the horizon possibly hill men or orc camps or villages, to  the west can be seen the green-black trees of Darkwood Forest on the edge of the hills.

More important immediately is the sight of a single rather battered looking tree on the northern flank of the hill above a slight cleft in the stone.

Even more importantly Tom sights something descending out of the sky at high speed towards the group....

 ......ten metres long and looking like some sort of scaly long necked bird, it has a long tail, a toothed beak, and a plethora of horns or spikes around its head and down its spine.

It is brown in colouration, lighter on the underside, with red eyes that gleam with animal cunning. 

Rufus eyes the descending terror and the crevice by the tree to gauge if they can cross the distance in time.

Perception: 5

"If you are looking for a fast death, then by all means, come on."  Brocc calls up to the beast, doubting if it can understand common, but uncaring.  He readies his spear and prepares for combat.  He takes the dodge action.

"Woah, that was a tough climb. Hey, there's our tree....." then Tom sees the monster-ish bird hovering overhead. 

"Shit, it doesn't look happy... hmmm.... it looks familiar...."

Before they try and cross over to the tree, or start any type of attack, Tom's going to take a moment and recall if he's seen one of these freakish huge hawk monsters before during one of his hunting expeditions with former comrades. Nature 16