Quest #15 "Taking Down Captain Bing"

[ravenn4544]

Alordan tries to view the patrol or the work group as best he can from where he is. Can he see anything that may indicate that it's the same group of people that they fought here the day or two before?

[tkrexx]

Lightfinger observes.

He commits to memory all available information, visual and verbal, before skittering back down from his vantage point and making his way back to the party with his finds.

Can he hear what the builders are saying? Are the heavily armed/armored? Any obvious spellcasters?

[Bluehorse]

Monocar

Did you find food?

[Urson]

Luther

Luther refuses to react to Monocar's comment. He listens attentively to Lightfinger, keeping one eye on their surroundings.

[OGRE MAGE]

Emancipation
Earthday, The 4th of Goodmonth
Early Afternoon, Hot, Sunny, Very Buggy

The men on the trail are too far away and obscured by the foliage to be identified closely, but they don't look like the friends you made the last time you were out here. They are talking to each other but you cant hear what they say over the normal noise of the jungle. There appear to be about 6 or 7 of them in total and it is fairly easy to tell that they must be a patrol of some kind.

Lightfinger spends quite a bit of time climbing, watching, and eventually returning to the rest of the group. He tells the others everything that he saw from his elevated vantage point. There are a couple of dozen men in the clearing, all of them appear to be busy with the construction of some new long thatch storage huts. The thief couldn't hear any of them speaking to each other, but they seemed to be in a hurry with their building. He didn't see anyone who he thought might be a mage or cleric, but the men are all clad in leather armor. There are several of the long bamboo rafts pulled up on the bank of the river now. The thief also saw weapons, including bows and crossbows, set up all around the clearing.

Actons?

map:
viewtopic.php?f=446&t=6346#p316912

Luther R3 26/26
Lightfinger T4 19/19
Talaris C1 9/9 3/3 first
Monocar F3 31/31
Chauncey MU3 16/16 CL, DM, RM 2/2 first 1/1 second
Lerrick C1 8/8 3/3 first
Alordan R3 18/18

[ravenn4544]

Alordan shakes his head and whispers quietly. This is the same crew as we ran into before. They must surely know about us. How do we separate them and capture them for questioning? Other ideas?

[Bluehorse]

Monocar

Alordan shakes his head and whispers quietly. This is the same crew as we ran into before. They must surely know about us. How do we separate them and capture them for questioning? Other ideas?

Any of us sound girlie? at the looks of whatchu talkin about Monocar, he puts his hands up. No seriously... What if someone that sounds girly were out in the bushes and cried out for help? These fellas think, oh! girl! haven't seen one of those in a while, time to be a big damn hero, get some smoochie smoochie... you know what I mean. While they come traipsing through the woods we come from both sides and whamo, we ambush them, maybe get lucky and only have to cut one, maybe two in half in the process...

[ChubbyPixie]

"We mustn't draw attention to ourselves!" stage whispers Chauncey hurriedly, afraid Monocar will enact his plan. "This nearly resulted in disaster last time," he adds, neglecting to mention it was he himself who revealed their position to the mercenaries. He puts his fingers to his temples, furiously trying to think of a viable plan that won't get them killed or discovered.

Finally, turning to the rangers he says, "If we could follow this patrol, remaining hidden for but a little way back down the path, we might be able to waylay them with the aid of magic, without danger of being heard by the rest of the camp over this jungle cacophony. They won't all succumb to a Sleep enchantment as we have seen, but I could Web the bunch of them together. Or, alternately, should one of them become separated from the rest of the pack, I might Charm him into aiding us surreptitiously from within their ranks. Do you think we could hurry back quickly enough not to lose them?"

[ravenn4544]

Alordan nods. "I like the idea of taking them unawares a little at a time. Capturing them and disarming them is the way to go - then we can at least figure out what's going on here"

[OGRE MAGE]

Sorry guys, I should have been more clear. It took Lightfinger a lot of time to climb, observe, and then return to the group. That patrol you saw initially is long gone by now. Do you intend to follow them anyway? They are heading towards the beach, in the opposite direction you came from.

[tkrexx]

Lightfinger shakes his head.

Remember the traps, He warns, I found two in only a short time. We now have observed nearly 3 dozen men, tho these you lot saw patrolling may be of a different sort. Most of them are "building" at the exact same spot we found them earlier, likely surrounded by a layer or two of snares. No one has noticed if the pair of thugs who escaped us might be among them, but they will surely recognize any of us. It's very possible this entire scenario is an elaborate trap! They were caught unaware yesterday. If it were me, I'd be prepared for more trouble going forward, and I'd be VERY interested in who attacked them and why.

The Thief pauses a moment and shows genuine concern. We need to be very clever, more clever then them!

[ChubbyPixie]

"Hmmmm," says Chauncey, "Perhaps it is a trap.... Perhaps we should avoid this camp altogether and circumnavigate it at a distance greater than the 'booby' traps you have spied out, Lightfinger, and thus proceed directly to the main camp?"

[Bigtaff]

Talaris

"I would agree to ignore this smaller camp. I think it would be an unnecessary drain on our resources. Plus that's a LOT of bad guys to handle."

[Urson]

Luther

Definitely. With Lightfinger's help, Luther begins leading the group out and around the village, deeper into the jungle.

[OGRE MAGE]

Emancipation
Earthday, The 4th of Goodmonth
Mid Afternoon, Hot, Sunny, Very Buggy

Some members of the party express their desire to follow the patrol back towards the beach. They are quickly reminded by the others that the groups destination lies ahead of them and not behind. With the help of the rangers and thief, they regroup and sneak the rest of the way around the first clearing unseen. No more traps are found north of the clearing so the group slowly makes their way back to the trail again. Slogging through the untamed jungle is hard and takes much longer than expected, so the group is glad to get back to the much easier to traverse river trail. The trail here looks well trodden and wide open.

No more patrols are found along this next stretch of trail and by mid afternoon the party reaches another small clearing alongside the river. This one hasn't been completely burned to the ground like the last one and a few small thatch huts are scattered about the open clearing. There is evidence of occupation here. Boot prints here and there along with the smell of a lingering campfire are easily noticeable, though you don't currently see anyone around. Two long, thin bamboo rafts are pulled up on the bank of the river at the edge of the clearing.

As the group starts to look around this new place, they hear a loud rustling noise arise over the normal sounds of the jungle. The noises sound like something very large crashing through the jungle. It is coming from the opposite side of the clearing, in generally the same area of the river trail that continues north, further into the jungle. It is getting louder as it seems to be heading directly towards your current position on the southern end of the clearing.

Actons?

map:
viewtopic.php?f=446&t=6346#p316912

Luther R3 26/26
Lightfinger T4 19/19
Talaris C1 9/9 3/3 first
Monocar F3 31/31
Chauncey MU3 16/16 CL, DM, RM 2/2 first 1/1 second
Lerrick C1 8/8 3/3 first
Alordan R3 18/18

[Urson]

Luther

Look sharp! Trouble comin' Luther readies an arrow for whatever boojum this may be.

[tkrexx]

Lightfinger splits.

He bolts toward the river and skitters down the bank, hugging it close. He doesn't really want to swim again, but he would very much like to get an eye on whatever it is crashing toward them.

[ChubbyPixie]

Not sure where to run, Chauncey deftly steps behind a tree, dips his hand into his component pouch and silently curses himself for not making time to trade Avaala for the Invisibility dweomer before he set out. He peeks around to see if he can discern the cause of all the ruckus approaching the clearing...

[Bigtaff]

Talaris

Talaris follows the others example and ducks back off the trail and tries to hide the best he can while waiting to see what is coming."

[ravenn4544]

Alordan steps quickly behind the largest tree he can get to between him and the approaching trouble. He stands quiet and listens for a clue of what it may be...