Expedition: Halfpint: Mapping the Forest - 12 Oct 2021

[Spearmint]

Oct 12th 2021

A gathering of adventurers sit over breakfast in the Golden Tooth Tavern..

Proprietor Hyde lays on some fine fayre for the guests, Lady Halfpint, noble of the Duke's Court and her companions, lesser known, but all eager to make a name for themselves. Certainly young hobbit Fairfax has shown an interest in the expedition trinkets offered on display behind the bar, each one telling a story as much in vogue as the renditions of the bardic songs. Dark skinned Amishona,sister of Amistadand ranger to the forest loggers accompanies the group as a guide. Svelte and mysterious Laila hones her blades quietly in the corner. Breakfast ticks over and the party convene outside, the cart prepared with the supplies and the mule Griff reined in after a night in the stables.

Date: 09 October 2021, 7:40am
Light: Sunlight
Weather: 39-52 F, moderately breezy, no rain, overcast skies with a promise of rain later.
Sunrise 7:28am, sunset 6:30pm; Gibbous moon waxing
Effects: None
Injuries: None

The expedition will start off. Please make a character post and also list any spells that you have prepared for the day. Thank you.

[Faanku]

Feigning distraction in her work, the young thief casts clandestine glances at the other members of the expedition as they arrive, some faces she recognises amongst them, others complete strangers.

[Bluetongue]

Fairfax Socrates

"Just 'a walk in the park!" he tries to sum up the expedition in advance. He has personal supplies for a few days.

"Just pack it tight on the back, the pony will take a small load." He looks at the iron shod wheels with approval. They will go off road without issue. Any last minute group supplies needed, potions, lotions, oils and wine?

[onlyme]

Halfpint greets them, secretly hoping they are more experienced at outdoor survival than their appearances.
She thought there was at least one more soul they were waiting for. But, in her eagerness to settle her bill, she forgot even what sort of chap it might be.
Make sure you have plenty to eat and clothing for changing weather. I plan to leave my mount within the town. I have lost one up north already and would prefer not to lose another. Unless, someone believes they can secure a groom.

[Bluetongue]

Fairfax Socrates

"Griff should stay with me, who else is going to lug all the treasure back to town? Besides the cart will double as my cooking stove and cabin." He says, determined to bring his pony along. "Unless we take to the trees or go underground there is no problem, right?"

He pats his horse and shares his hopes the 'late for breakfast' druid and dwarf won't be late for leaving.

[onlyme]

Halfpint nods.
True enough. However, I've known many a trips around here to go underground or to the trees.

[rossik]

A female old dwarf appears, almost from nowhere. Wrinkled as a tree, she approaches with a honest smile.

"Sorry, I'm late. The name is Berta, and I'm here for the adventure" she say, as she uses her Warhammer as a rest device. "Sorry", she catches a new breath, " I thought you were already leaving"

[onlyme]

Halfpint welcomes Berta as she introduces herself.

[Spearmint]

The trek to the forest.

Greeting Berta, the party shore up supplies, winter blankets and oil in abundance and sacks of fresh hay feed for the pony. There is no rush, the forest isn't going anywhere so the team depart from Gaul's northern gates a little after 8.00am. Zhym if you want your druid involved then post
as you join at the gates.

The forest road is unkempt and rugged, a thin track cut into the ground as if straight ploughed. Indeed deep ruts indicate use of heavy sledges to haul felled timber for Gaul's foundation and subsequent expansion. You follow in the footsteps of one of the first expeditions which encountered Pixie's in an oak grove some dozen miles away. Halfpint at least hopes for another encounter and better reception.

As the group approach mid morning and an equidistant point between forest and town you come across a quite boggy and churned up part of the road. Either side the grassland scrub shows many of the trees stripped of bark, branches broken and bent at odd angles as if aggressively pulled and chewed. No grazing herds pasture northwards of Gaul but you have heard rumours of strange Morlock inspired hybrids. A cloud of large buzzing insects flit like crows on a newly seeded field on a patch of ground to you right. The boggy ground must stretch a hundred yards in front of you and in patches either side. The tall grasses and brushwood scrub giving any creature much cover to hide in. Amishona, ranger to the group inspects the ground looking for indentifable prints and giveaway clues. It seems many creatures, foxes, roebucks, even a large toad may have passed recently though they all be nocturnal critters.

next actions please.

[onlyme]

to confirm we are going straight north from Gaul, and currently are in the hex to the left of 18 on the map?

Halfpint finishes some mindless chit chat with the others, as she checks the surrounding landscape. She whispers, probably redundantly, about the dangers possibly lurking.

[Zhym]

Thedla Toharta meets the group outside. He seems ill suited even for Gaul's northern facsimile of a "town." His mud-brown mane of tangled hair and shaggy beard frame a face that looks like it has never met soap. He wears animal hides under a wool cloak. A flail, shaped like a branch with several thorny brambles, hangs near his waist. A wooden shield is on his back.

"I will go with you to the forest," he says.

[rossik]

Berta looks to Thedla, not knowing his name yet.

"Hello, forest walker. Do you have any previous information about what we are about to meet among the trees?"

The dwarf looks to the otehrs as well, in hopes to find a ranger or anyone with better clues. She wants to explore and gain experience, but she doesnt want to risk her life

[Spearmint]

You are in the hex directly north of Gaul with the red road in it. You have walked at a steady pace up the road for about two hours and are just above the half way part of the hex about four miles along it. Each hex is 8 miles across N-S or E-W.

[onlyme]

Halfpint welcomes the new adventurer and will proceed once folks are ready

[Bluetongue]

Fairfax Socrates brings his pony to a halt before the boggy ground that splits the road. It is no problem to go off-road with the cart and he doesn't particularly see any problem going through the muddy patch..But then he sits on a cart not tramping up the path. Still if mud in your boots is the worst the forest offers ...

"The stripped bark and bent trees, hopefully just some hungry herbivores and we can move on right?". Can anyone identify teeth or scratch marks on the trees.

[Faanku]

Laila has kept mostly to herself since the outset, offering a few curt, polite introductions when pressed but mostly focusing on her surroundings. She evaluates the net worth of the newly-appeared ranger instinctively, then awaits an answer regarding the presence of valuable prey.

[onlyme]

Does anyone have any suggestions, other than to keep pushing and be alert? At this point, I am not sure of any...

[rossik]

Nope. I think we just must go on

[Spearmint]

On the forest road.

The party temporarily halt about halfway up the north logging road, standing before a huge area of boggy and rutted ground, the forest road churned up and awash with ankle deep pools of mud. The stripped and bent branches of shrubs and trees stretch in a wide area, either side of the patch.

Despite checking for signs of prints, nothing 'out of the ordinary ' is identified by Amishona. "A fox, some deer, scratches from burrowing creatures," she shares from her limited experience.

From previous forest trips you know Forest denizens vary from hybrid creatures of Morlock experiments and 'fey' creatures of legend, Pixie's, Centaurs, even some Cyclops farm miles inside and recently orcs have been sighted.

Pressing on the group keep a wary eye on the cloud of large buzzing insects which dive bomb some unseen feeding area and as you close by them, a stench of offal and decay wafts through the undergrowth. The mottled bottle coloured flies look exceptionally large, perhaps a foot or more in size and have slobbering, salivating mandibles and twitching feeder antennae. They are a strange sight to the trekkers who hump up the road behind the supply cart and Fairfax who steers the pony. As you cross the mud the stench of collected dung is very strong and you hold noses against the pong.

Suddenly, emerging from beneath burrows of roots and mounded earth, come several large beetles. They have dagger-like mandibles and from underneath the rear of their black carapaces, glands which drip a noxious fluid. What may have appeared as small dark rocks are a gathering of ferocious roaches which defend their feeding ground against intruders, the feasting flies and the party. About half a dozen 3ft' long beetles charge threateningly at the party along the road and surprise Griff who whines and bucks as the critters mill about.

initiative and actions please

[Zhym]

Thedla, man of few words who clearly hasn't mastered the whole "social interaction with other humans" thing, seems on firmer ground, as it were, with the giant insects. Holding his symbol of the birch leaf before him, he calls on the roots and branches of the land itself to rise up and entangle the beetles.