GREYFORGE: ARCHIVE

[Longman]

May 7 - pushing on through the bad weather.

You get to L03 and are walking along the path when you hear the sound of something running, a two-legged creature. It sounds like it was about 100 yards ahead of you on the path, and is now running off the path to the south, to get away from you. You are not sure how big it is. You'd have to move around a bend in the path to see where it was, and where it went.

Thann, normally pretty hardy, is starting to feel the cold quite badly at this point, and is not at his best (-1 on all rolls). Everyone else is OK although Milly is shivering a bit.

[Grendelthebrave]

The group will power on and try to catch a glimpse of the creature they detected, or at the very least perhaps it has left some noticeable trail if the sleet is piling up at all.


Poor Thann is going to have to get cuddly with Cholum to conserve warmth at camp time

[Longman]

You round the corner at normal pace and approach the spot where the noise came from,. You can no longer hear it down the slope away from the path.

Then, a bugbear leaps out and attacks Cholum, who was in the lead. It is moulting between winter and summer coats and its camouflage was good. But despite its stealth, neither of them are surprised, so we go straight to initiative.

Both Cholum and Chevo beat the bugbear.

So it is right on Cholum (bow), having jumped out of the bushes on the side of the road. Chevo and Cholum get to act and then it will get its turn.

(PS you all got a HP back overnight. That's 2 since the last fight).

[Grendelthebrave]

"Sweet Bearded Maiden!" Cholum exclaims as the beast leaps out in front of the pair.

Chevo will strike first, chopping with his fine Onyx Battle Axe. Cholum will use the opportunity provided by Chevo's onslaught to drop his bow and draw his mace, he will then swing away if he can.

(I believe the current HP numbers in my signature are accurate, I had added one HP previously when they rested, and then one more right before this post)

[Longman]

No problemo.

Chevo swing away...and misses. Cholum spends the round changing weapons - a full action I'm afraid, in the case of a bow and a large mace. You will know this for next time.

The bugbear is attacking Chevo with a spear, and it misses.

I'm going to assume that Thann fires with his missile weapon, taking a full safety penalty (-4) for firing to into a melee. Have I explained how the safety penalty rules work yet?

Thann fires and misses.

Round 2 -

Chevo attacks again and hits quite easily this time and does 6 hit points damage.
Cholum also hits and does 6hp plus his extra bonus against goblinoids, for a total of 9.

The bugbear looks on death's door. It fails morale, turns and flees madly, attracting a parting shot from Chevo and Cholum. Chevo rolls a nat 20 and cuts both its legs off.

One dead bugbear plus a lot of blood. Not a scratch on either fighter or ranger.

There is total silence from the area down the slope where you heard humanoid footsteps 30 seconds ago.

[Grendelthebrave]

I'll have Milly try to do a Place Read to see if she can see the scene, trying to see if the creature that was fleeing was a human, or something non-terrifying.

Cholum will pick up his bow, then have a look to see if he can spot smaller tracks leading off into the bushes.

Thann will loot the bugbear's body. Chevo will stay alert for any new threats.

Was it 1 or 2EP to get to L03? We'll probably keep moving, depending what/if Milly sees anything.

[Longman]

Milly's attempt at the place read is successful (1SP) and she gets a glimpse of 2 bugbears waiting by the road, about 15' from each other - the male one you just killed, and another male one who is carrying a large sack, and who also has a hunting spear. She isn't exactly sure when this was - maybe sometime earlier today. Her best guess is that they were hunting for animals that use the trail, rather than laying an ambush for people.

The bugbear had about 6gp in assorted dwarvish silver coinage.

It has taken you only 1EP to get to where you are so far as you are on the path. Cholum has been this way before so it's much harder to lose the path on the way back.

The weather is still really terrible. This is partly why you got so close before you realised the bugbear was there.

[Grendelthebrave]

Going to give the gold to Chevo, then the party will gather themselves and head out, as Thann's chattering teeth are starting to get to Chevo, and he knows that they'll need to keep moving to stay warm.

The group will hammer on North until they hit the side-road, then straight west till Greyforge.

[Longman]

L02 and K02 pass uneventfully and no one gets any worse due to the cold. Steady movement is keeping you going. Tracking rolls indicate not much around here out of the ordinary. There's no sign of the behir tracks any more.

You hit the main road with relief and reach I02 without incident after 3EP. Thann is really starting to suffer and Chevo is also felling it now. It's a bit embarassing that the human is faring better than 2 of the dwarves, but there you are.

By the time you reach Greyforge, Milly, Chevo and Thann are all in a bad way and will take a few days to recover, but fortunately nothing happens. It's about 4pm when you get back.

You meet a few hunters on the road who are also heading back, and they say the late storms are really unexpected. People in Greyforge were wondering about you and hoping you would be OK, because everyone thought the last of the sleet-storms (Flischbeagh) would be over by now.

Expedition 1 is over. A goblin band, 1 bugbear, and several other encounters successfully navigated. I'll give you an idea about exp soon.

[Grendelthebrave]

The party is relieved to reach the safety of the halls of Greyforge... Chevo leads the party to clan Onyxbreaker's hall, where they will seek to rest and heal up before stocking up on rations and resuming their quest for the mysterious loot that this strange human has had visions of.

OOC: I can't think of specific examples where Milly's abilities helped the group, she may have kept a lot of her more 'legit' abilities to herself. Except! When she said to herself that she thought there were four of the goblins. Perhaps you'll allow a roll for Thann to remember her single comment, and give her a bit of Dwarven street cred.

Barring other encounters/happenings, the party will buy up a bunch of rations, the previously arranged 60 gp for 3 party members x 14 days. Leaving Cholum both light weight, and out for himself.