Chapter 9 - At the Sambords

[tkrexx]

That be a good plan, yeahh, Hyde beams, These Goblins might know where to find them Orcs. Lemme take a peek out there in the dark, hah? To see if the rest of them rodents be out there listening to us?

[AleBelly]

Dandelion remains lightly wounded after my spell?

Updated on character sheet, but not on injury update. That's fixed now. Thanks.

"Any food? I'm very hungry" sobs the goblin.

The rest of the night passes uneventfully, one of the watchers stationed near the door in case of trouble. Hyde takes a look at the trio of tracks from the goblins that fled. They don't seem to be anywhere nearby.

A fingernail moon rises an hour before the sun. Clouds begin to dot the sky.

The watches complete, Yenny, Hellebore and her mother continue to sleep as the sun rises. Both need to sleep until 8am to regain the spells cast during the goblin incursion.

As the sun prepares to rise, the bound goblin thrashes about. "Where is my little friend? Get me out of the sun!" it hisses...

Date: 20 Hewing, Year 42
Time: 06:40
Conditions: 32F, west breeze at 8 mph, clear, 6 inches of snow on the ground
Known Spells in Effect: Charmed goblin?
Light bearers: Fire
Intended Direction of Travel: Hellebore's house
Injury Status: Dandelion slightly wounded, Yenny lightly wounded

[onlyme]

Dandelion awakes in a rather melancholy mood. She attempts every known trick to close up the arrow wound to where the scarring will be minimized. She looks for ointments that might aid in the healing. If this doesn't work, she may have to resort to a (gulp) pigment art, tastefully done of course, to hide the imperfection.

She cleans off her trident, making sure it sparkles like new. The way it diffuses light upon reflection always brightens her mood.
Eventually, her focus turns back toward the goblin and fellow adventurers.
"I suppose we need to clear this place, now they know we were here. As soon as we leave, they will ransack it. But lets do it quickly.

[AleBelly]

Moving things along...

Before going to sleep, Yenny had healed herself using the magics of Veles. Eventually, the spellcasters awake. The merciful party has allowed the bound goblin to hobble under a tree to avoid the sun as it pokes through the scattered clouds.

Hellebore's questioning reveals that the goblins had been surviving off makeshift camps as they hunted outside the safe zone or tried to steal from the rural inhabitants of the countryside. They may be the last surviving party of goblins from the lair that had been recently cleared. They know little of orcs, only that they are weaker than the pigmen and try to avoid direct confrontation unless they are far superior in numbers.

Hellebore's mother scoffs at the idea of vacating the house. "Two's enough if Lorilee stays" she says.

The two mounts made it through the night just fine, blissfully unaware of the doom that nearly befell them.

Plans for the day? Please let me know what spells your PCs will be memorizing.

Date: 20 Hewing, Year 42
Time: 08:10
Conditions: 34F, west breeze at 6 mph, scattered clouds, 6 inches of snow on the ground
Known Spells in Effect: Charmed goblin?
Light bearers: Fire
Intended Direction of Travel: Hellebore's house
Injury Status: Dandelion slightly wounded

[Zorroroaster]

Arnulf wakes and wanders outside to relieve himself a short distance from the house. He yawns, scratching his arse as he urinates into some bushes. He looks down to discover that the bushes are flowering. Roses, in fact. Sheepish, he puts himself back together and quickly sidles away from the scene of the crime, desperately hoping Hellebore's mother hadn't spotted him through the window.

He re-enters the house, and the cramped quarters make it hard to move around freely.

"Hi! Umm, good morning! I mean, nothing's happening, nothing wrong. Everything's coming up roses...why did I say that? No reason!"

In his haste, Arnulf trips over a bucket and sends himself sprawling. His spellbook tips out of his satchel, and lands on its spine. It's open pages seem to glare at Arnulf accusingly.

His face hot with shame and self-loathing, Arnulf moves to pick up the once precious tome and return it to his satchel where he won't have to see it. He looks down at it, almost reflexively. His eyes suddenly go as wide as saucers.

"I...I...I can read it..." he breathes. Hardly daring to believe his eyes, he gingerly picks up the book and leafs though the pages, his face screwed up in a grimace as he expects the worst. Nothing terrible happens. He grabs the nearest person in a bear hug and literally lifts them from the floor as he gives them a huge kiss on the cheek. He pulls back. Hyde is staring at him, a crazy fear in his own eyes. Arnulf quickly releases the embrace and brandishes his book.

"I'm back, baby! Who's your daddy?" He gambols around the room, capering and prancing as only a fat man can do. "I mean, it's a little fuzzy around the edges, it'll definitely take me longer to memorize what I need...but...I can feel it! Can you feel it?"

He jumps up on the table, banging his head loudly into the rafters but continuing on, uncaring. He croons.

"Can you feel the love tonight? Woo!"

Arnulf will memorize Sleep x2 and Light, taking whatever time is necessary to learn them.

[Marullus]

Hellebore emerges after sleeping in and performing devotions. She smiles, genuinely happy at Arnold's antics, and enjoys a bowl of her mother's morning gruel.

She goes out to check the status of the goblin, careful to observe if the charm took hold or not and then offering him a bowl of gruel to warm his belly as well.she talks to him of his skills, to learn how he could help them.

[Zhym]

Angus chuckles at the cavorting Arnulf. "Good to have you back, boy."

"I reckon that opens up our options a mite," he says. "It'll be easier to deal with them goblins now what the snooze missile is back in our quivers. I ain't sure even charmed gobs will fight for us, but what the hell—it's worth trying. Let's give Hellebore's plan a go."

He bows to Mama Frogmorton. "Thank you for your hospitality ma'am. Y'all stay safe, you hear?"

Once outside he looks for goblin tracks.

[AleBelly]

It will be awhile before they can leave...like 10:30 or so. Lorilee will stay put. Does everyone else want to follow Angus? If so, let me know what you're doing with the loot, mounts, etc. The party will move at the same speed as goblins if they take everything, so it could be awhile before they track them down.

On another note, I had some unexpected travel come up. Updates may be slow until the weekend.

[Zhym]

The goblins presumably hole up during the day though, so we ought to catch up with them even if we move at the same rate.

Alternately, we could leave loot and mounts here and move more quickly.

[AleBelly]

Yep, but they fled six hours before sunrise, so if they aren't lying in wait it'll take time to get there.

[Marullus]

Hellebore plans to follow with Angus. She also advocates leaving gear and such at the house.

Yenny tallied and divvied the treasure IC last night. Can we post and resolve that? Or do we just leave it all here for now and again sort it later?

[AleBelly]

There are an assortment of items recovered - coins and other valuable items. I didn't see anything concrete about how those were divvied up. The coin, certainly, could have been divided equally.

[tkrexx]

AA! AAA!! Hyde's not used to being picked up and kissed, so he seems a little confused. I ... Don't know who my Daddy be ... You can read them magics now, hah? He offers that big, hideous smile in approval.

[enn.in.me]

"I'm sure we could stash what we don't need here under the protection of your family while we chase the nasties, no? Unless somebody wants to head back to town.

Veles' blessing upon you Arnulf; I'm so happy to see you ensorcelled again. We will have to keep on our toes now."

[Zhym]

I don't know if we'll be able to make a really good split of the remaining treasure until we have an appraisal of gems and jewelry. Might as well just hold on splitting it until we get back to town.

That might cut Lorilee out of a share of treasure, but I'm okay with that. Call it the cost of abandoning a PC without a word.

[onlyme]

Dandelion certainly wants revenge, but she is somewhat sure walking around aimlessly in the cold isnt the best way to prepare for battle.

I will go with the group, of course. But should we be smart about it? Maybe track for an hour, and return? We dont want to Get lost in these conditions like yesterday...

[Zhym]

"I'm of two minds on that," says Angus. "One the one hand, whomping them goblins would remove a threat what's been harassing folks. On the other hand, there's only so much time and effort that's smart to spend hunting down one pack of strays. Now we know there's no second goblin hole, might not be a bad idea to go on to town and find out if Chet and Kal-el are still there."

He turns to Hellebore. "What do you think?"

[Nuke66]

Galan agrees, "We ought to hunt 'em down, no tellin' what we might find."

[Marullus]

"We've seen a lot of towns," says Hellebore, "and we've done a lot of talking. I'd like to do something before going back once more. Scaring folks off my mamma's lawn is my vote."

She sends Rrkox to look for Chet once more, hoping to inform him to come to the Shire if found today.

[tkrexx]

I think we ought get rid of 'em, yeahh, Hyde offers, Or make good pals of 'em like ya done with this one. I don't want 'em coming back here and making a mess while we be gone, no. Mama Hobbit makes good stew, hah?