GREYFORGE: ARCHIVE

[Longman]

er....you sure you want to use Cholum for that? The reaction roll is modified by Charisma, and Cholum isn't exactly Clooney. Also he doesn't have any animal skills.



(By the way - Cholum needs to lose armorer if he is going to be a ranger. He has to take woodscraft as his background skill. That's part of the deal.)

[Grendelthebrave]

Well then... Thanks for the heads up. I've updated Cholum's character record.

Seeing as everyone else is at a +1 for Charisma, and Chevo is slightly more gifted in the wisdom department, perhaps it could play out a bit more like this:

Cholum's eyes go wide at the massive beast in front of them. He goes to raise his bow, his hand shaking slightly, but Chevo stops him, his hand resting on the ranger's wrist. He makes a silent keep quiet gesture to Cholum and turns toward the bear, standing as tall as a Dwarf can, while backing away slowly, making soothing sounds towards the bear. Chevo will whisper between whoa bears for the rest of the group to back out slowly and not make any sudden moves.

[Longman]

And the DM rolls the reaction dice at +1. The result still isn't that hot, and the bear charges up towards you. It has a move of 40', so a double move goes 80'and gets it to within 20' of you! That's close!

Your go. Milly is feeling extremely faint.

[Grendelthebrave]

Chevo will bravely brace himself behind his shield, and will 'act defensively' in the face of the charging bear. He'll shout to Cholum, "Hit it in the flanks, I'll hold it here!!". Cholum wide eyed will wait until the Bear engages with Chevo, and if it does, will circle around and start loosing arrows into the massive flanks of the beast.

Thann will circle around until he feels like he has a decent chance of not shooting Chevo in the back and fire with his shortbow. He'll tell Milly to stay behind him.

[Longman]

The bear charges at Chevo, gets nearly all the way to him, and then stands on its hind legs and roars at him. It does not attack him. He thinks it might be just trying to scare him but he isn't sure.

I will allow you to shoot (Thann and Cholum) if you want, but you have to say so now, otherwise it's the bears action again. Chevo could also attack it if he likes, or go on full defence.

Something weird happens with Milly. She gets a vision of the situation exactly as it was about thirty seconds ago, before the party walked over a small rise and saw the bear among the berry bushes. But, she also knows that the bear is there because she knows what happens after the party saw the bear.

(Basically she has gone back in time a few rounds, but has a vision of what is about to happen.)

If she wants to continue with this vision, and try to do something in the past, that will cost a spell-point. She has no idea what will happen because this sort of things has never happened to her before, at all.

[Grendelthebrave]

Chevo will stand as straight as his courage will allow, but stay on full defence. Thann and Cholum will keep their bows drawn and will loose as soon as the Bear makes an aggressive move towards Chevo (or either of them for that matter).

Milly will try to extend the vision, letting herself become absorbed by the vision.

[Longman]

The bear backs off...its attempt to scare the dwarf didn't work and it scampers back to about 20 feet away and turns back to look at you again.

Milly almost extends the vision but fails, narrowly.

Unless you want to keep that situation going, the bear eventually moves off and leaves you alone.

You are still in R03. The foraging is good here and you all manage to get a free day's worth of food. That is 3EP in this hex (but only 1 of it exploring). Nothing else happens here.

Incidentally you still can't find the trail or the tracks of the goblins. They would really have a long lead on you by now, and Cholum is suggesting it is pretty unlikely you will catch them up again.

As far as you know you are about 18 miles north of 'Uppers' where goblins live. (Moving onward or back is recommended.)

[Grendelthebrave]

The group lets out a long breath after the bear turns away. That was close all their pale faces seemed to say to each other.

Chevo spends some time looking at the map with Cholum and Thann while Milly towers over trying to get a look. "Hey, you guys don't even know latitude from longitude, give me that!" Thann looks up, shrugs and lets her crouch down, to advise Chevo where they are.

Soon after, the decision is made. They will return to Greyforge, load up with many more rations than the previous attempt and return.

OOC: At this point today we've spent 3EP and one spellpoint if I'm following correctly. Does the footpath leading West count as a 'road' for 0.5 EP travel? Either way the group will head as far west as they can before night fall, and set up camp.
In fact, looking at the map they should be able to make it back to the ruined town that was near the crossroads at N04 shouldn't they? That might be a decent spot to hide out in a burnt out husk of a building, unless Cholum or Milly detects some sign of traffic in the area.

EDIT: One of these old cellars is what I have in mind:

The crossroads exploration shows the extent of goblin depredation in the area. All the old buildings and Inn have been destroyed and the place is abandoned. A full 3 EP worth of searching does find a few below ground areas, including the cellar of the old Inn. These do not contain anything of value, but might be a useful place to hide out or camp in future. The inn cellar has a solid oak trapdoor inside it - removed by the goblins, but it might be possible to put it back in place.

[Longman]

The remainder of day 6 -May 6 in fact - is spent backtracking and trying to find the trail that Cholum lost in Q03.

Refinding the trail in Q03 takes a full EP. You do eventually find it. From there it is .5 EP to walk along it.

You get back to the crossroads at N04 with half an EP to spare. Cholum detects no signs of activity here or any place before that, except for animals. You can go down into the cellar of the old First Crossroads Inn and make camp. You can even replace the door if you wish to do so. (There is nothing down here, but it is a lot more fun than camping up in the wind.)

The night passes uneventfully although you do hear more wolf noises - this time without the big alpha wolf noise you heard recently.

Milly has a 'flash' during her watch shift in which she is seeing things through the eyes of a small goblin. A pair of goblins have gone out overnight hunting, and have gotten stuck in very bad weather. They are holed up in a small talus cave (spaces left in between boulders). The goblin is freezing cold. The dream lasts about 15 seconds. She gets the impression they could be somewhere close by, but they are not an imminent threat.

Day 7 - the horrible weather has come back again overnight. The first person to stick their head up above the cellar is greeted by icy wind and driving sleet. Same deal as before - you can push on, but you risk hypothermia (con rolls).

Cholum's advice would be to push on anyway, at least until you hit the main road.

PS - I have decided that 'paths' do count as .5 EP if you walk straight along them. But the problem is they can be tough to find as they are overgrown. So that rate may vary as you go.

[Grendelthebrave]

Alright, the team will push on, food isn't about to start falling from the sky. While they follow the trail, Milly will try to keep thinking about the rocks she saw in her vision, lest the party stumble onto a similar formation.

The team will drive hard north along the path from whence they came in the first place. M04,L03,L02,K02,J01, then cutting West along the more established trail at J01 into I02. THe group will carry on further if they can once they get to the side road, though I'm expecting that the weather will leave them travelling at a somewhat less than 0.5 EP rate.

Cholum will hunt as they travel.