Expedition - Foxy: Bounty On The Goblin HQ - 02 June 2021

[Dram]

Baxtaw Fires his a arrow at each wolf.

Does Baxtaw get 2 shots per round? If not the first shot goes into the largest wolf.

1st shot
+1 MW Bow[1d20+3] = 19+3 = 22 Dam[1d8+3] = 4+3 = 7

2nd shot
+1 MW Bow[1d20+3] = 9+3 = 12 Dam[1d8+3] = 7+3 = 10

[Marullus]

Nope. One shot.

Baxtaw's shot is point-blank into one of the snarling beasts besieging him, dropping it instantly dead to the ground. Half-pint also fires, but in her exhaustion misses her mark.

The wolves are disoriented by the flame as the fur of several of them continue to burn; with four of their number lying dead it is too much for them. The pack breaks and flees, returning into the forest to lick their wounds.

Half-pint and Baxtaw, barely alive themselves, check Foxy and Shortbread. Foxy is able to be stabilized, but is in horrible condition. Shortbread was torn apart... There is no hope of saving his life, but he did die keeping their vicious maws off his companions.

The night passes, tinged with fear, as the pair wait in the campsite. Finally, about an hour after sunset, Clay and Grizzly find what is left of the party huddled in a scorched Ring of earth next to Shortbread's remains.

Wolf morale [2d6] = 11

[Rusty Tincanne]

Clay is relieved to find a few of his companion alive. He can barely resist the urge to badger them for heading out on their own in their condition. Instead, he tends to the wounds of Ms. O'Hare and Huckleberry before digging a burrow for the party. Maurice and Morr can keep watch while we sleep. Tell us what you know happened in the cave.
And to Shortbread. Clay retrieves the Horn of Jarkul, nuzzling it into his pack, then placing his pack and the other personal effects of the dwarfs in the burrow as well.

Clay will vote to leave the mounts to the troglodytes (they are likely dead now, anyhow), and heading back to town. We have a bunch of creature XP and a fair amount of treasure with magic items.

[Dram]

Baxtaw- Relays the events since they parted ways with the others. How did you in retrieving the lost loot? We do not have the strength to fight a Trog. Half Pint I believe your pony is lost.

[Marullus]

Clay intones prayers to Beith, the smell of the loamy forest enhancing around them as the rents in her flesh from the wolves' fangs heal together and disappear. It takes all the badger has, but he is able to bring Foxy back to consciousness.

With a more secure burrow dug and the group rejoined, Baxtaw and Half-pint are able to finally get rest. Clay also sleeps to restore his divine abilities while Foxy and Grizzly share the watch as the only two not suffering exhaustion. Grizzly finds the wolf pelts too burned to be attractive, but can skin them for meet if she likes. Shortbread's body is moved to a place of repose. The morning arrives and they are all able to face their decisions with clearer heads.

Share your tales and decide the next course. You need to deal with Shortbread's body, your three hireling's bodies, handle his (and Clay's) gear and loot, and decide if you go to face the trogs to find the Fate of the mounts.


Date: 8:00 am, 07 June 2021
Light: Sunlight/Dusk
Effects: -2 to hit from exhaustion
Injuries: Shortbread (dead), Huckleberry (grevious injury), Halfpint (grevious injury), Grizzly Woman (grevious injury), Baxtaw (grevious injury), Foxy O'Hare (Severely Wounded), Mors (mild injury)

CLW [1d6+1] = 2+1 = 3 [1d6+1] = 3+1 = 4
CLW [1d6+1] = 4+1 = 5

[Starbeard]

The Grizzly Woman passes the time during her watch skinning the wolves for meat. She tastes some for its quality, then tosses a skinned leg to the bear and cooks a few slabs over the fire, for the whole party if there is enough. During the night she tries to keep Foxy company by making jokes about dragons, and showing her the treasure they hauled back, though she has difficulty counting the pieces.

In the morning, she suggests they head straight for home. "It is too wild out here and we are too tired all of us to deal with much more. Leave the dead horsies and we should just go back to Gaul. The big question is if we haul our dead back too. This little spot looks mighty pretty and I reckon they would be happy buried right here. We could always come back and rebury them in Gaul if anyone feels strongly that way."

[onlyme]

Halfpint reluctantly agrees. She is too close to death as it is to risk fighting trogs at the moment. She will have to buy new gear.

[Rusty Tincanne]

Clay rises from the burrow and bathes in a nearby stream, exploring his new body: claws, fur, teeth, muscular frame and thick hide. All so foreign, yet familiar, as if he has always had this and his former self was a dream all along. He explores running uphill and down, pleased it does not feel clumsy. Then he tends to the wounded. My powers are weakened since returning to you. I can only ask Beith to heal three times. He packs a thick paste of mud on the wounds of Huckleberry twice, and then the Grizzly Woman, reasoning they are the best fighters in the group and the other three can fire arrows as needed in a conflict.

He inquires with Maurice if there has been any other activity from the dragon that he is aware of, buries Shirtbread and the hirelings, then he allows Morr to become better acquainted with himself, as the dog had been acting unsure about the giant badger.What do we have to secure treasure to myself and Huckleberry? We can move faster if we spread the weight about.


Bear x2
Cure Light Wounds [1d6+1] = 3+1 = 4
Cure Light Wounds [1d6+1] = 2+1 = 3

G Woman
Cure Light Wounds [1d6+1] = 3+1 = 4

[Marullus]

Current Hit Points:

- [AC 5] Baxtaw Greayburst: 1 / 16
- [AC -1s] Halfpint: 2 / 11
- [AC 2s] Foxy O'Hare: 5 / 18
- [AC 4] Clay Weatherwax: 17 / 17
- [AC 8] Grizzly Woman: 6 / 10
- [AC 6] Morr (Hunting Dog): 14 / 15
- [AC 6] Huckleberry (Young Bear): 9 / 17

[Rusty Tincanne]

does the s stand for shield? Foxy loaned hers to the dragon.

If we want to hunker down here for a day, we could do that. But just going back now, getting distance between us and the goblin hold, makes good sense if we arent going after the animals.

[Dram]

Baxtaw- Before he rest for the evening he prepares new spells. He will not partake in eating any of the wolf. He will eat some dry rations. When he wakes in the morning hearing the others talk about what to do next. he speaks up. I say we head back to Gaul. My health is not good, but I am willing to head back now to the safety of the village walls.

[Starbeard]

The Grizzly Woman fashions a travois and straps the treasure to it with her rope. If she needs to make two she will (and she has an empty large sack that can be used to secure the treasure better, as well).

She doesn't think that the bear will be happy or able to carry much treasure, but she does her best to see if it will suffer pulling the travois. If that doesn't work, she will pull it herself.

[Stirling]

Foxy O'Hare

"If the only rush back to Gaul is to restore our health and cash in the trove, that is fine. But it is an awful long way to hump loaded wheelbarrows. Maybe your owl can locate another place to rest up? I would rather rest up than trudge on painfully. Can Clay the giant badger not dig out a large sett with his badger claws beneath some spreading tree? We could line it with the pelts and bracken for comfort. The bear and dog would be fine in the nature anyway? I would even chance resting in the trog cave is it was only a single smelly lizard creature. We checked out the back passage previously and you had to be small to get through so unless the trogs have a secret door, 9elves could spot one easily enough), then it might just be a lone Neanderthal trog."

[Rusty Tincanne]

That is one thing I haven't understood, by the way. The only way to the cavern Halfpint found was through a spot any human or elf would need to belly-crawl through. Yet the pack animals were somehow forced through? It is for that reason Clay is assuming the worst for the animals. How could they have been squuezed through such a bottleneck? But there was no sign of a butchering, correct?

What are the chances the mounts are alive?

[Marullus]

One spot of the passage is too small for a human to be upright. You aren't having to belly crawl. I tried to be clear on that here:

There is no sign of the mounts - but upon examining the cavern floor, you find hoof prints leading towards the stream-carved passage trickling downward at the back of the cave. Tufts of Bluebelle's fur cling to the stone where her larger form was forced through the smaller passage, all three sizes of hoofprints in the mud.

They were all alive when they went, they went on their own hooves, and Bluebell was forced through under duress as she was too large.

[Rusty Tincanne]

It was clear, I just don't see how a human would have any difficulty fitting through a space a horse can, even under duress. I'm not a horse person, though, so I'll accept it if you say it's so.

[Marullus]

It is a contrivance. It is player character choices that matter most.

[onlyme]

Halfpint knows she (nor any of them) can hardly fight a fly, much less a trog or trog's army in a tight cave. She votes to get back to town and warn them of the dragon and everything else they've seen.

She weeps for poor Peck.

[Marullus]

Grizzly Woman butchers and roasts the wolves into a savory stew over the campfire for everyone who wants some; Baxtaw the elf turns up his nose at the fare. The Grizzly Woman inspects her travois with which she hauled the two treasure chests from the dragon's cave to this one. It looks sturdy enough to bear the trip home. She experiments with seeing if Huckleberry the Bear will serve as a plow-mare but she is having none of it - the bear will not be harnessed. Clay is able to make that choice himself, though, and can drag a travois of one is made for him.

Clay provides healing to Huckleberry and Grizzly Woman, half the group now in a more reasonable condition. He consults with his pygmy owl, Maurice, and learns that the dragon has not yet re-emerged, since entering the dwarven lair yesterday.

The group ventures tentatively into the outer cave once more and retrieves all the body parts of the hirelings, bringing them out to a place where the giant badger helps expedite digging a hole which you then cover with stones to make a small memorial. Kelso, Garvell, Cardan, and Shortbread the Dwarf now all lie beneath the earth near the cave which took their life.

The group considers going into the cave to save poor Asala the loyal donkey, Peck the Pony, and Bluebelle the riding horse. No voices yet speak strongly for retrieving them. Halfpint weeps for her pony as if she has already died. The final call falls to Foxy.

(Subtract -1 rations if you don't eat the wolf stew. Otherwise the stew covers the day.)


Each character can carry 60-80lbs and move at half speed. You can carry 80-160lbs at 1/4 speed. You can drag 320lbs at 1/4 speed with the travois. Right now, you have two coffers weighing 200lbs on Grizzly Woman's travois which will set your speed. You have the 60lb sack of dwarven personal items which Shortbread previously carried. You also have Clay's former pack, which Shortbread was carrying, because Clay can't carry it. Plus, you have your normal gear. If you're heading back, you need to decide if you just move at 1/4 speed and drag it on the travois or if you try some other method sans-mounts to keep all of you at 79lb or below. If you save your mounts, they can easily carry the stray items and you move back at normal speed.

Date: 1:00 pm, 07 June 2021
Light: Sunlight
Effects: None
Injuries: Halfpint (grevious injury), Baxtaw (grevious injury), Foxy O'Hare (severe injury), Huckleberry (moderate injury), Grizzly Woman (moderate injury), Mors (mild injury), Clay Weatherwax (uninjured)

[Rusty Tincanne]

Clay offers to drag a travois if one is built for him. He also offers to enter the cave to speak with the troglodytes, asking Baxtaw if he can charm a creature like the red-robed mages. If so, a deal would be more easily struck.