RED OAK: ARCHIVE

[Longman]

Ooo.

Who's hot-bunking with who?

[Woe]

Haha. Wrong idea. Four people, three tents. Since one person will always be on watch, only need three tents at any one time.

I actually considered buying a large tent. It's half the price of four tents and over double the space. I couldn't quite buy into the "let's set up a pavilion when we go into the backcountry." Is there anything in Red Oak that would be a four man tent or a two man tent, where the price and weight is less than four small tents?

[Longman]

I've checked your characters out an they look OK but I suspect you are misreading the table on page 38. You are starting on human elf and dwarf for light, then reading from 'halfling' on heavy.

The dwarf gets 65 and 165, for example, not 65 and 110.

It doesn't matter right now because no one is heavily loaded except Tiana. Am I rite?

Anyway I will check this more carefully if you happen to pick up lotsa heavy treasure, but in the meantime it all looks cool. Let's play.

In answer to the tent thing - you can get a 2 man tent for 10gp, weighing 15 pounds.

[Woe]

You're right. I was misreading that. I'll update the characters tomorrow with medium tents and recompute encumbrance.

[Longman]

Friday May 2nd.

Raining ( )

Our heroes head out of Huw Carr's Farm, where they have gathered the previous night as a base to launch the expedition, and roasted a boar.

There are 7 people in total, all on foot.

The first EP is spent entering either B12 or B13.

(If you wanted to go a totally different way, let me know).

You are in the woods again.

GO!

[Longman]

No worries at all. Take your time.

When you're ready, head over to the new play thread.

[Woe]

The party sets out at a healthy clip toward where the singing was heard. B13-C14-D14. As they arrive in D14, they'll slow and keep an eye out for advance scouts, ambushes, traps, and tracks to solve the humanoid/other discussion Talin and Freya were having.

Assuming no encounters, they'll first try the same path as last time: follow atop the gully opposed to inside it.

[Longman]

B13 - zilch. That's 2 EP in that hex now.

C14 - also zilch. You have spent along time in this hex now, all up.

It has been raining a lot in the break, old tracks will have been covered over but new stuff will be a bit easier to spot and follow. No goblins, but there are animal tracks, signs of bears etc.

Nothing obvious in D14 other than the gulley.

You push up the small hill on the western side of the gulley, the same I described earlier. The rangers, mage-mule and dwarf stay behind down the bottom, 100' away.

You can't see anything in the trees, the sack has gone. No noise coming from below. It has stopped raining.

Can't find a suitable pic. The gulley is about 200' wide, the sides are rocky and mossy, about 80' high, and the floor is covered in trees and shrubs and ivy. The sides of the hills are also covered in trees.

PS - by this point it is becoming apparent that one of the 0-level rangers, Geredd, is very nervous and a bit of a doofus. The other 2 seem OK. Geredd seems to think that there's goblins around every tree and walks around with a throwing knife, taking big exaggerated steps and aiming the knife at everything.

[Woe]

Kilian tries to talk Gerald down. He has a gruff bedside manner, something akin to "Son, you should put that knife away before you hurt yourself."

Assuming no tracks, the party will continue to the edge of the gully atop/outside of it and circle back through it. IOW a 2EP search in this hex, with Gerald on rearguard.

[Longman]

Geredd (the Welsh form of Gareth) is intimidated enough by the dwarf when he is talking to him but Tiana catches the young man practicing his knife moves anyway, when he thinks that Kilian isn't looking.

You come down from the top of the cliffs and into the north end of the gulley.

A variety of tracks become apparent at this point, human, going several different ways out of the gulley - east into the forest, and also, south. Unfortunately, Talin cannot follow either of the main ones, and nor can the other proper ranger, Caradoc. (Damn!)

Cautious exploration of the gulley confirms that humans have definitely been using this as some kind of base and there are numerous tracks around as well as a fireplace, food remains, etc.

The real giveaway is the dead body. Human male, quite fat, seems to have been attacked by something and then half-eaten. Bear is #1 on the culprit list. All agree he was killed yesterday. He is covered in ants. It's kinda gross.

No one recognises the body.

There is some stuff scattered n the ground near to where the attack happened, and a small sack which has been ripped to pieces.

A mirror
A lantern
A book on signaling
Flint and steel
Oil
Rope (80’)
Brandy
A banjo
A trashy gay porno manuscript with bad spelling and even worse illustrations.



That's only 3 EP so far, the gulley was easy to search. You want to spend another, or get moving? There are bears about, that's for sure.