RED OAK: ARCHIVE

[Woe]

I just realized I should be more explicit. Unless there's a nice inn on the other side of the river with warm ale, the river crossing is tomorrow.

[Longman]

Yeah, I am liking the way Tiana is developing. Just wish she had a few more HP...

There's no inn , so you spend the night up in the hills of H11 making it 4 hours in total for that hex and it is well explored on both sides of the river now.

You can hunt, if rations are getting your dwarf down, but then you'd have to light a fire...

You don't exactly have an encounter, but you do hear something round about midnight, coming from across the lake.

It sounds like a very big bear. Kilian is puzzled and can't figure out how it could possibly be so loud.

Also, when it gets properly dark you can see what is probably a camp-fire, due east of you. Talin marks the exact direction with an arrow, and when it gets light the next morning, it is pointing to the hill in L11.

It was raining intermittently in your area, when you saw the fire. It was lit from about 9 til about 3 in the morning.

Do you want to change plan on the basis of either of those things? Otherwise you can pack up camp tomorrow morning. Let me see if I have the course right.

H12 - 2 hours
H13 1 hour, just enough to get up the hill and back
H12 - a third hour passing back through this area
G12 - a final hour finding somewhere to rest.

Is that right?

You are pretty fresh in the morning so if you opt for an extra hour it probably won't do you any harm...

[Woe]

After a debate whether to head toward the campsite or continue up the hill, Kilian's argument about warm ale turns into a discussion about provisions. The final decision is to explore the campsite area in the next foray. The campsite itself would be cold (and that might be a good thing) but Talin may be able to identify some signs. Tiana will mark the area on her map.

Definite continue to go up the hill, but I was planning for a hex search as well. H12 -> H13 -> G13. Typo before. Obviously, really interesting stuff at H13 may invoke a decision. Otherwise, it's get closer to the lake and first thing tomorrow, F12.

[Longman]

OK.

The next morning you break camp and cross over the river in the coracle.



Tiana takes it out of her pocket and enlarges it.

This goes according to plan, with the dwarf roped to her, although when you are in the middle of the river it occurs to you what a disaster this would be if Tiana got attacked and lost concentration while doing this.

Anyway you have not gotten very far into H12 when one of the eagles starts buzzing around overhead, and is clearly looking at you. Then you head south and it flies away again.

I take it your move rate is 2+2+2. You spend 2 hours in H12 and you don't find anything although it is a pretty dense hex.

You then move up the hill and see forest all around. I'll update later. Nothing major to immediately grab your interest. You can still see the island in the western side of the small lake.

Then you move back down into G13 and start moving towards the lake. This forest is very old here. You get a good vibe from the whole area. No sign of goblins all day or yesterday, except the dead one.

Again after you have been in the hex an hour, the eagle notices you again, and flies off toward the lake.

About twenty minutes later you hear a very loud bear roar coming from the north-west. You don't know how far away the creature is.

[Woe]

(eagle)
Freya waves 'hi' at the eagle as it is looking at the party. After seeing the dumbfounded look from the dwarf, she realizes how silly she's being and stops. If I read the map correctly, the eagle flew south the first time and northwest the second?

(search speed)
Three hour searches per hex. It's the thorough (not exhaustive) search rate not the mark trail rate. It seems safe to take more time right now, good vibes and nothing recently chasing the party. I know there's situational reasons why it won't be 3 hours/hex but the general idea is thorough.

(roar)
"Maybe it's the wind." Freya says nervously.

Do the elves or Talin know of a bear species that roars that loudly, especially loud enough to be heard from miles away? Talin and Kilian will look for a defensible area -- rock formations, clearing, abandoned dwarven fortress. Tiana will remove her bedroll from her pack. Nobody else notices the odd behavior.

[Longman]

I have to go out after this post.

The eagle flew back towards the small island lake on both occasions.

The noise sure wasn't the wind. You don't know what could be making a sound like that, Not not a normal bear, that's for sure.

The most defensible area around here is probably up a tree. No fortresses, sorry.

In terms of the search speed - we need to get this sorted out.

You have a total of 6 effective 'hours' of movement, 7 at a pinch, because 3 of you are only moving at 30.

That means you can't do 3 hours in each hex, and then nominate 3 hexes in a day. That's 9 hours and you will get exhausted.

I might have been misreading you - are you nominating 3 hexes for the day, or are you just setting a general course for the next few days?

On this occasion I read it as your course for the day, and allocated 2 hours evenly per hex. It's kinda too late to change it now, because stuff has happened.

In future could you either pick 2 hexes at 3 hours, or, 3 hexes at at 2 hours, or some other combination that adds up to 6 hours. It will save confusion.

I know it seems slow but searching 9 square miles of forest really would take a while.

[Woe]

Ok if we move the move discussion to the rules thread? I'm ok with current state but yes we should sort this out.

Time check. 4pm? It's the end of the traveling part of the day? If only two roars, the party will find a safe place to rest and retire early. Two simultaneous watches tonight (Talin+Kilian, Freya+Tiana) with an extended rest period to avoid fatigure in the morning.

Only two roars throughout today? I can just see them happening frequently enough to keep everyone awake all night. That'd be worse than Kilian's snoring!

[Longman]

It's about 5-ish, the sun is going down. You are close to the middle of G13. You have used 6 Exploration Units (EU). If you want to move from here you will have to use a 7th and risk getting tired.

You start looking for a place to camp and then get distracted by the fact that the roaring sound is definitely getting closer and it's kinda freaking you out.

It's coming in from the north west. It's hard to estimate, Talin thinks it could be under a mile away at this point.

You can also sight one of those pesky eagles flying out overhead.

[Woe]

Tree: bad. Bears can climb trees. If this bear is as big as it sounds, it can probably use some of these trees as toothpicks.

Fortified defense: none. Kilian is wondering why he ever bet Freya (whatever the bet was... that he could outdrink an elf?).

Hiding: pointless. Those eagles have the party sighted.

Fleeing: The bear will probably outrun the party. Even if it doesn't, there's that part about the eagles tailing us. And yes, while there's the proverb about just running faster than your buddy, that won't work when the bear probably runs as fast as everyone combined.

The party will prepare for combat and pray to every (good) god they know of that the bear is both sentient and willing to parlay.

Tiana will unfasten her blanket on the ground, and then wonder why Freya decided against buying oil. Everyone else, bows out and HTH weapons at the ready.

[Woe]

On second thought, does Talin think that Freya (+Talin?) has enough time to set up some snare traps? It'd have to be able to catch something BIG and I don't think we have time for anything complicated -- probably just an oversized rabbit noose. Cage trap would be ideal but again, no cages nearby.

Kilian thinks hard about constructing some fortifications. Trenches are out, but maybe he can devise an abatis or barricade that faces the incoming roaring bear-thing.