Northern Dangers, Summer 669

[scarik]

Springvale is a fertile and pleasant domain with hamlets and villages extending for a dozen miles along the High Road toward Ravenswell. While the entire area experience easy growth due to the sacred waters it is commerce that determines which way the settlement has grown. Some folks take advantage of the black soils to the north and west, but pilgrims arrive from the south east and so that is the preferred direction.

The army takes a full four days to arrive after leaving Ravenswell due to the heavy digging they complete along the way in preparing earthworks to make camping safer along the way. They are exhausted from the labor and need a whole days rest so its good that the infantry were the ones doing all the hard work and that they are not the ones who need to get ready to go out and scout the land. Keen eyes can see black wings leaping and gliding aloft between hilltops, catching the wind as they can to see as far as their own avian eyes can reach.

The army stuff is not part of this thread save as background color. Riders and scouts fan out across the north. Vizmark and Goblin Riders take the western quadrant while Nomads and Paladins take the east. Thus each group has knights able to dress for full battle if needed and crush any enemy they encounter by hammer and anvil. In the center areas the dismounted scouts seek to get closer and learn the land as best they can to use it against the invaders.

[scarik]

Its nearly two weeks before anything begins to change. The scouts go out each day and learn what they can while skirmishing with enemy outriders. But soon they get a chance to ride deeper into enemy terrain and when the reports are collated they find gaps in the way the enemy is encamped. Two such opportunities appear, one in the west, the other the east.

In the west it seems rival Orc tribes are in close proximity and prone to infighting. They spend as much time watching each other as they do for the defenders of Springvale. A small band should be able to exploit this inattention and slip into their poorly fortified camps.

To the east there is more general confusion as that is where the forest Goblin wolf riders make contact with the Orcish forces. The enemy here are heavy on cavalry, but they have to come together in close terrain to make their reports. A bold band to launch a raid while they are bottled up.

Those who wish to make a personal foray should collectively decide on which of these things to pursue. The west will feature primarily Orcs as enemies. The East will be more varied.

[scarik]

The final reports return and it is decided that a small band of heroes will travel light in order to launch an attack against he western Orcs while a more potent armed force led by Sir Ji-ho will ride to meet up with the Dawi Slayers who went that way and destroy the eastern threats.

Macnav bobs his head in delight and says he will be back in the morning before he races up the nearest tower with awe-inspiring prowess then leaps off its top, spreads his wings and then seems to transform into massive raven with a wingspan over a dozen yards. He fades quickly into the distance and when he returns in the morning it is with Morwen both astride the giant bird. The dismount, Morwen gestures and seems to simply snatch the mighty creature into her sleeve where it vanishes from sight.


My understanding so far is that Morwen (with Macnav) and Earnan are going together while JJh is not.
Need to hear from Dramm.

Party size has to stay low to be sneaky, and most armor has to be stowed. Keep it under 12 total bodies.

[tibbius]

Dramm will go West, with Barnaby.

[roobeastie]

Morwen and Macnav are waiting for the others, looking forward to their arrival in their own peculiar way. Anyone with working eyes can see that Macnav appears to be grinning in an unsettling fashion, and appears to have added some sparkle to his ensemble with the presence of anklets.

[CarrieVS]

Earnan is more than willing to hunt orcs, and a small band, travelling light and stealthily, is far more to his strengths than the alternative. He joins the expedition to the west.

[scarik]

It is settled. Dramm & Barnaby, Morwen & Macnav and Earnan & Eithlin gether their gear and ready to set out.

Dramm is the slowest of the band afoot, but he has strong mounts. He stows his own dragonhide armor and that of his destrier on his sumpter and rides his courser to keep pace with the swiftfooted Elf and the blackwinged Ravenfolk.

Aedaen Halfelven (and his hunting cat) wishes to join them, and several of his companions volunteer to screen their lane of retreat alongside Morwen's skirmishers. Sir Tylar's knights and Zruk's wolf riders have control of the open grasslands for now as well so should things go poorly they are free to withdraw to safety.

So they depart, six people and as many beasts (a parrot, a lynx and 4 horses).
Earnan takes the lead, swift as the wind and silent as shadow, with Eithlin above to guide him.
Dramm forms the center, the solid rock on which they will form their defense if needed.
Morwen and Barnaby stay close to the Paladin.
Macnav moves back and forth, soaring above on wings empowered by Morwen's magic.
Aedaen guards the rear.

Every DM needs a DMPC and Aedaen is mine for this mission.

[scarik]

The blue line is your basic route. You are being sneaky so while it is only 4 hexes it will still take two days as you don't want to have to deal with Orcs after a march at night when your forces are better by day than the enemy.
Travelling light your party has a movement rate of 5 hexes.
Badlands hexes cost double to traverse at minimum and can have additional dangers.
You will camp near them then have all morning to get into position.

West Route.jpg (87 KiB) Viewed 216 times

[scarik]

The band travels in a winding fashion so as to stay below the hilltops until they find a campsite by a cleft in a hillside where they can prepare a fire and bank it where an enemy would need to be on top of them already to notice. They are just at the edge of badlands with their spires and mounds of jagged stone and thorny brush and they settle in with watchful eyes peeled.

Morwen, Earnan and Aedaen have time to discuss their magical options if they would like. Aedaen is a Swordmage with a ranger's heart but he has studied the bladesong, and like Earnan is capable of arcane archery. His magic is largely martial.

Aedaen's Spells Mastered:
- 1: Cantrip, Jump, Light, Magic Missile, Sharpness
- 2: Gust of Wind, Invisibility
- 3: Fireball

Nighttime encounter [1d6]=4 Enemy patrol.

As night falls the party grows somber for they know the enemy is rising now to send out their own scouts. Wolfsong begins to roil across the plains as it has each night, but for those attuned to the speech of beasts it is more fraught than before. From the beginning of their northern march it has been obvious that the wolves know that they have enemies among the others. At first the Orcsworn and the Forest Goblins are friendly toward Zruk's Plains Goblins but that time has passed and now their calls are bitter and filled with promises of violence. They each know the other is listening, but they have no alternative but to communicate as they always have so they try to code their positions and give off a great deal of noise to cover up which things are most important.

Just before midnight a howl breaks the night uncomfortably close by... Detection [1d6]=4 But it doesn't seem like they know their foe is so close. They pass by a mere Distance [4d6]=16 160 yards away to the east heading south to reconnoiter the lands under cover of darkness.

There are a dozen and a half Orcs riding Wargs in the scouting troupe.

Do you stay hidden, seek a fight, or wait and see if they return later that night?

[tibbius]

"Our task is to scout and return," Dramm instructs his companions. " Jumping into the first fray that we might would be valiantly foolish."

[CarrieVS]

Earnan toys with an arrow, but at last reluctantly agrees, "We are few, and our purpose is not to risk all in battle. But should we see a smaller band, well within our measure, I mean not to stay my bow: every orc we can hunt down is to the good."

[scarik]

That's a majority of the PCs.

The group holds and allows the Orcs and their Wargs to pass. Just before dawn Earnan has the watch and detects the troupe on its return trip. They are moving quickly in an effort to be back in their dens before sunrise. Soon thereafter the band is roused and ready to move on. Morwen is the least hardy of the troupe, but also the least encumbered, and for most of the journey Macnav shoulder's her travelling burden only leaving it by when he takes flight. Barnaby is the one many who don't know him would pick to be worst at hard living but he is as rugged as most warriors, and has a noble's education that included plenty of heavy lifting and tedious chores. Dramm is a soldier and while he doesn't enjoy the wilderness he was long inured to hardship even before his Vows gave him preternatural focus. Aedaen and Earnan hardly seem to even notice the elements at all as they are merely spirits passing through.

Macnav shakes the morning dew from his feathers and takes wing a short distance to the top of the nearest spire to watch the enemy as they disappear into the maze of ravines that sprawls before them. While the Ravenfolk have broad wings they are not, on their own, capable of bearing a person aloft for long. But something new has happened as Macnav can fly almost as well as Eithlin though not as gracefully nor as fast, but still far more capably than he ever has before.

Dramm, Barnanby and their four horses along with Morwen form the anchor of the formation as they move ahead into hard, enemy held terrain. Macnav casually ignores the verticality of the area, but still must be cautious to avoid being seen against the bright sky. Earnan and Aedaen are like shadows dancing across the ground silent and barely seen. At times even Aedaen loses track of Earnan.

After two hours of rough hiking the scouts return to the group to confer. They have spotted two Orcish encampments ahead sharing a relatively open depression among the rocky rises. They are as far apart as they can be and fortified with stones, ditches and low walls with spiked obstacles facing one another. Activity is low during daylight but each camp seems to have about a hundred Orcs with only a few, miserable lookouts forced to deal with the glare of day and keep watch. Mainly they watch one another, and the path approaching the area is clear from the south.

Earnan Explorer Skill [2d6]=10
Morwen Spy [2d6]=7
Dramm Sense Unnatural [2d6]=8

Earnan finds the wind in this place to be strange and hollow. It blows dust and dried scrub and occasionally gusts strongly and howls through the broken passages but it lacks music. To the north of the depression, past both Orc camps, lies a passage that makes him uneasy. It is too still. It is no wonder to him that these rival tribes are so vigilant with the anxiety that he feels.

Morwen isn't so attuned to nature as an Elf, but she is a creature of the wind and she too feels that the currents here are off. But she is not made uneasy by them for she knows the reason for that feeling. It is her entire reason for being. She can nearly smell the tainted magic coiling through these ravines and hear the pulse of it thrumming up from the deep.

Dramm twists his black ring to fight the urge to draw his sword. He barely notices the two Orc camps, his gaze is fixed upon the northern route as if it were carved in stone.

Your turn.

[roobeastie]

Morwen could see from the way both Dramm and Earnan were acting that neither seemed to feel entirely comfortable by the sensation the northern route, whereas she can barely hide her curiosity. She took a moment to assess the situation to the best of her ability, speaking slowly. "I wonder if there would be any chance of using the enmity the Orcs appear to have towards each other to our advantage..."

She could already imagine the Orcs fighting, creating a distraction that would both allow them to scout a little further, and possibly shore up their own defenses with any Orcs who didn't survive.

[tibbius]

"Do you possess the magic of disguise? Or you?" Dramm asks of Barnaby and Morwen. "Could we make a sortie on one camp in guise of the other, then fade away?"

[tibbius]

" Could Mastiff and her foster pups be off help somehow?" Barbaby wonders. The warg pups have grown fast. The noble bard can rest his chin on the shoulder of the taller one, when that pup stands proud.

[CarrieVS]

"I can conceal myself, or one of you, with magic," says Earnan, "but I cannot look or sound like an orc. Perhaps they might be fooled if one or two of us are able to creep into one camp and cause some mischief, laying a false trail that leads back to the other?"

[tibbius]

"I strain to think of tricks," Dramm says with abrupt grimness, "when all of me yearns to kill whatever lurks beyond these camps. Or kill again. I think it's dead already."

[roobeastie]

Morwen thinks for a few moments before responding. "I... actually have a few tricks up my sleeve, depending on how much time we want to take. For quick results, I am skilled in the art of mimicry..."

[scarik]

The two Elves can basically walk across the area using their Elven Cloaks with little fear of detection and both can cast Invisibility as well.
Morwen has a lot of spells she can use as rituals in this instance. She can make very convincing illusions in a 30' cube, throw her voice with Ventriloquism, cast Invisibility, conjure a wall of smoke (100 feet long), cast Fly or Haste to move people across the area quickly, or shapeshift someone into an animal using Skinchange. Or she can blast down a gate using Lightning Bolt (which she has mastered so can just cast freely with SP).

Its up to you all to choose how to proceed.

[tibbius]

Can Morwen cast a 30' cube illusion of just a tumbleweed, anchored on a small rock that one of us can carry (or kick along) as we walk across in a tight group?