GREYFORGE: ARCHIVE

[Grendelthebrave]

The party enjoys May 20 in Greyforge, while they'd only been gone for 8 days, it is still a welcome respite from sleeping outdoors.

Chevo will consider the offer from the Aleut traders, but decide that he's not going to sell it off to rivals. He'll leave instructions with the bird handler, that if villagers from the original tribe come through again before he's back, then they can have their bird back.

Milly is probably wondering about her lack of visions since the bizarre funeral vision. (OOC: forgot to address this earlier)

She'll try a place read near the entrance of Greyforge sometime in the evening, just to see if she can still do that reliably.

As far as re-equipping, the group will focus on food for the road, and maybe a donkey for hauling some of the extra weight around.

I see donkeys cost 8gp in the BF CRB, will that be the price here as well? Also the group will spend 60 gp on 42 more days of rations. (14 days * 3PCs) Their total for foodstuff will be at 58 days of food remaining, and they can throw some of it on the donkey for weight.

How much will it cost to feed the donkey for 2 weeks, or can it graze enough of its food?

And finally, Chevo will excitedly accept his father's men-at-arms for the quest to slay the Behir. I'll prepare a suitably dramatic departure speech for a future post.

Will the Soldiers deal with their own food?

Sorry for all the questions, getting excited to head off after the Behir.

[Longman]

The traders seems a bit annoyed, but there isn't really a lot they can do. They are due to head back north in a few days.

Milly's attempt at a place read outside the walls yields a vision of the party setting out, equipped with 6 soldiers, on a sunny day. This rather obvious vision is not very helpful but at least it is proof that things are still working.

That night (the night of the 20th) she has a somewhat more useful vision - - - she has a vision of the current group of traders being attacked by a large group of wolves (20) as they make their way north along the Anders Road. This is evidently in the future, as the group arrived by the safer western road on the other side of the mountains. (I'll leave it up to you if you decide to tell them or not.)

The soldiers have 10 days rations each, paid by Gurr. There's 2 axemen, two bowmen, and 2 pikemen.

The animal of choice round here is actually a large elk...I'll charge you 20gp and you can have the same weight allowance as a mule. One of the fighters can ride this creature, if terrain allows.

Do you want to head out on May 21? Or wait longer? If you had out, give me your intended route for day 1 of the new trip...

[Grendelthebrave]

Lord Elkminster

elk-painting-autumn-majesty-crista-forest.jpg (155.71 KiB) Viewed 2694 times

Equipment:
35 days rations (70#)

Encumbrance: 70# | LL:300#, HL: 600#

[Grendelthebrave]

"Well gentlemen, the Very True God has charged us with an important task on this expedition." Chevo addresses the assembled soldiers assigned by his father to the expedition. "We are ensuring the continued safety of future generations of Dwarves as we expand Greyforge, and continue to take back the lands from the Goblin menace!" He pauses for dramatic effect, the soldiers look bored.

"This Behir is nothing to be trifled with! As you may have heard, I have encountered this beast. Faced it down in the forest, armed only with my wits and my Axe." He holds up his fine Onyx-bladed axe. "I turned the beast back! If I didn't have to ensure that the location of the lair was brought back to Greyforge and keep my party safe I would have chased the vile beast back into its lair!"

Cholum and Milly roll their eyes behind Chevo's back at his grand tale. "This Behir is doomed!" Thann says, trying to sound excited and bloodthirsty. Cholum doesn't look convinced. "This isn't going to be easy." Cholum tells Thann, who immediately pales at Cholum's words. The newest member of the party, Lord Elkminster, beast of burden, chews expectantly.

"... So let's march forth, and slay this beast, for our descendants, our future trading partners, and of course, for GREYFORGE!!" Chevo raises his axe towards the soldiers as he finishes his speech.

All right then! Departing May 21, first thing.

In the spirit of taking advantage of our now swollen ranks, we will cut a slightly different path back toward the Behir nest.
The group will head down the main road this time, D02,E04,F04, G05,H05. Untili they reach the junction with the path at H05/I06.

How armoured are the soldiers? Will we still get 6 EP/day?

[Longman]

The 2 pikemen have chain armor. However, they are not actually wearing it. They will need to arm up when you take the creature on. So yes, you still get 6EP.

The two Axeman are the Ironshield brothers, Mangerin and Manning, and they have studded leather which is still move 30' but sleeps badly so they will have it off at night.

The two bowmen are in plain hunting leathers. Cholum is well known to both of them and one of them is a half-decent scout.

Chevo's charisma and reaction rolls are JUST sufficient to get him over the line. It's pretty obvious that the soldiers don't particularly want to be doing this and want to know what you are actually going to do when you ge there.

"All very well and good finding it's lair," says Manning. "But then what? Going to march in there are we? We'll get fried!"

Nonetheless they do trudge after you, on a fine sunny day,

If you are following the main road, that's D03, F04. They pass without incident. The road is in good condition and Lord Elkminster travels smoothly. 1EP down.

F04 - you come across some old buildings by the roadside. This is the remains of a small waystation. You already knew this was here. It is as far out as the hunters ever come in thes direction and sometimes they camp here.

G05 - nothing. 2EP down.

H05 - you meet a scrag which leaps out of the trees to the side of the road and attacks the two scouts while they are 30' up from the party.

Neither of the two scouts are surprised, so we go to initiative. Cholum and the scrag tie (2). The bowman wins, and shoots, doing a minor injury.

The other bowman shoots and misses. Thann shoots and misses.

The marsh troll attacks Cholum and misses with both claws but lands a bite on him for 3 hit points damage.

Now, the two axemen and two pikemen run up and attack the creature until it is totally surrounded. All of them land blows on it, including one critical hit. It takes 20 more hit points and is looking bad.

Finally, it is Cholum's go...what does he do? Change weapons, do fighting withdrawal, or just fire from within 5'at a penalty?

For future reference - what is your order, when out with the 6 fighters?

[Grendelthebrave]

What happened to Chevo in this exchange? If possible he'll want to swing some Onyx at the monster.

Cholum will drop the bow and start laying mace. Assuming the beast(or he) isn't dead by the time he gets it pulled out. Probably should have asked Gurr for a cleric

Otherwise, Thann will probably hold off his fire as the target is surrounded by friendlies, if that changes though, game on and he'll resume raining arrows.

[Longman]

Oops - forgot about Chevo.

He runs up as well - that creature now has fighters on 5 sides. Chevo attacks - and critically fails, leaving himself more vulnerable to attack next more.

Cholum moved back slightly and switches weapons. (Going from medium or heavy weapons is a combat action, so he can't attack as well.)

Round 2 -
Initiative - the axeman and pikemen both beat the troll and once of each type of fighter hits it. It gets cut to pieces before anything else happens. The bowmen were holding fire in any case.

Having 6 extra fighters sure does make you pretty tough.

Milly has a sudden first person flash vision of something rather large creeping through some 'scots' pine trees. She can't quite see what type of creature she is inhabiting but she thinks it is bipedal, ad therefore another troll seems pretty likely.

[Grendelthebrave]

If Milly has the opportunity, she'll try to hang on to it for an extra few moments. After it drops, she'll quickly look around, looking to see if the trees around the group here are Scot's pine as well. Regardless, she'll warn the Dwarves.

From her perspective did the new vision look taller than the previous scrag?

"I saw another one... walking through the trees.. we should brace ourselves."

Cholum will recover his bow and brace himself after Milly's warning. So will Thann and the other two.

If it seems clear, the group will continue down the main road, until the branch in the path.

[Longman]

She can't keep it going. She can't guess height either. There are scots pine all over the place - but, there is a noticeable area of them nearby, downhill from the road, about 300 feet. You can't hear anything, though.

The troll was naked and unequipped. It smells bad.

The party regroups.

[Grendelthebrave]

Milly will indicate at the noticeable area, "I think it might be in there... Something big"

The group will form a bit of a shield wall with the melee fighters:

Axe - Chevo - Axe - 1st Rank
Pike - Pike - 2nd Rank (Is there such a thing as 'reach' or Phalanx fighting in BFRPG?)
Lord Elkminster with Milly, 30' back.
The archers will walk on the flanks, Thann and one archer on the left, and Cholum and the other scout on the right.

Once they get within about 100', if nothing has jumped out yet, Cholum will make a wide circle around the right side and move silently as soon as he is somewhat out of view of the Copse, trying to sneak in for a better look.

Oh and for the record, usual marching order will be. Top being 'front'

behirMarchingorder.jpg (9.85 KiB) Viewed 2642 times

EDIT: sorry the formatting didn't come out the way I expected. Maybe I'll whip up picture.