The Green Woman of the Erin

[Longman]

You have no actual encounters overnight, but Anna does have a vivid dream.

It is mostly of a voice, calling "Help me! Help me! come to me! Free me! I am dying!"

She catches a glimpse of a figure in a green cloak, a red-haired woman, a bit like herself but older. It isn't the same as the hermit.

When she wakes she gets the sense the figure is somewhere, close by to the east.

That is about 2am. You can get back to sleep, or do something else.

[Woe]

OOC: Ugh! I don't have the brains for this!

A lot of it pivots on how adamant Anna is when communicating the dream. If she's extremely urgent, then she'll be able to convince Talin (who in turn will convince the rangers, and Kilian will grudgingly go along because he doesn't want to be the only one left at camp).

Did Ysa have a similar dream? For that matter, is it a full moon or none? I vaguely remember it being close to a full moon, but I'm not sure why (or even when that memory was from).

Before leaving, Talin will get as many details as Anna remembers -- how far, which direction, surroundings near the area, what the person/thing would be dying from.

[Longman]

Ysa did not have the dream. Anna is not very insistent at all and is scared to go out at night chasing after some dream. Full moon was on the 9th, quite a few days ago.

So, you going out looking, or what?

[Woe]

It's Anna's choice, inconveniently for us. If she's insistent enough then the patrol should move out, then they'll move out. If she can't articulate more than "I had a dream that bad stuff may happen nearby to someone" then that's harder to justify waking up everyone and moving out in the dark with the helhawks flying about.

I think I want to go out but I'm not sure how close it is. Is it close as in 100 yards or close as in next hex? Even harder because I'm worried about these helhawks picking off the party or the hag attacks them at night.

[Longman]

It was a dream. You have no clue how far away the woman in the dream was. Anna just sensed you were "not far" from her, somehow. Not a set distance.

Like I said, Anna is not being insistent at all, so if you are leaving it up to her, you aren't going out to take a look around.

Your call. I'll move this on soon, assuming you do not go out, and you wait it out til morning.

[Woe]

"It's real dark out there. I can't see anyone else, and I'm not sure how we'd find anything." Talin says.

"Aye, an' der are da 'elhawks too ta consider." adds Kilian.

"Anna, point which direction we strike out to find this woman." asks Talin quietly.

"Uh, well... I guess she's... kinda that way." she finishes weakly.

"How far?" continues Talin.

"Uh... not far. A few minutes, maybe an hour."

"Anna, we'll check it out at first light. We don't know where to go and it's too dangerous to start wandering around looking for something. Ok with you?" Talin checks.

Anna nods, then rolls back into her bedroll.

[Longman]

THE NIGHT PASSES UNEVENTFULLY!

The next morning, the weather is rainy, but still manageable. It is the 17th of September. You are in HO3. You already know there is a lot of wild trees here, especially close to the river. You best only use 5EP today or I will penalise you tomorrow.

The vision Anna had earlier was pointing in the direction of I04, or maybe J03. That's not very far from here. You could get there today. The river goes from here into I04.

This will be my last post for a fortnight.

[Woe]

Wow, we're much further in than I thought! I just looked at the map.

Two EP in I04, three EP in J03. We're looking for Anna's mystery woman. If Anna realizes where the woman is, the party will spend more time in that hex. Otherwise, they'll finish the night in J03 with the well-defensible cave that they find in the foothills (?).

[Longman]

Two EP in I04 -

The number of wild trees in the area becomes alarming. It is still possible to move in areas where there are none, but down by the river, they are particularly numerous, so you have moved inland a bit.

The number of animal trails in the area is less frequent and the rangers in the group have the sense this area is not well frequented by much at all, even birds. There are no signs of goblin or other humanoid trails anywhere, and haven't been for many hexes now.

Anna now has no sense of where any mystery woman might be. You are all in deep woods with a potentially harmful tree no more than 240 yards from you at any point. Some look like well developed monster trees, others look like it is just a few limbs that are unnaturally elongated.

At the end of the 2EP, several of you spot one of the limbs of a wild tree moving suddenly, low to the ground. It may have been chasing a small animal. It's about 40 feet from you now. You are not in range of its branches but some of you noticed a limb move in an unnatural fashion.

Do you press on? You are following the river as it gets narrower, into the hills, and the wild trees just get more numerous as you go.

[Woe]

I don't understand. The limbs normally move in an unnatural fashion. Trees with limbs moving is unnatural.

Does the tree appear to have caught something? Can we see if anything is caught in its limbs?