Season 1 - Episode 3: Into the Coastwood

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JoeCarr28
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Season 1 - Episode 3: Into the Coastwood

Post by JoeCarr28 »

You spend a quiet and restful night at Northridge Farm. The following morning you rise, breakfast (several times in the case of Paladin), gather your belongs, collect Jumbles, and assemble outside the farmhouse. Grenewell, Scathias and the farmhands are there to see you off and, with their wishes of good luck, you begin the next stage of your adventure.

After two days of warm sunshine, today the weather is not so good. Whilst it’s still mild and dry, a thick layer of cloud keeps the sun at bay. Hiker starts by leading you to the location of the goblin attack four days ago, and from there you strike north in the general direction that the kidnappers headed.

Once beyond the boundaries of the farm, you find yourself in gently rolling, open countryside. You make reasonable progress, although the going is somewhat slower than the road north of Marketstone. Hiker proves to be an able guide, but you quickly realise there’s no real trail to follow, at least with your meagre tracking skills. You search a couple of the larger copses of trees that you come across for signs of the goblins, but without success. Ultimately, your only option is to keep pressing north in the hope of finding some sort of clue as to their passage.

After several hours of steady walking, your ultimate destination becomes clear. Ahead of you looms a great forest, The Coastwood, stretching as far as the eye can see from west to east. You’ve all heard of The Coastwood, but none of you have ever ventured inside. Indeed, The Coastwood isn’t generally a place that anyone frequents. For a start, it doesn’t lead anywhere except to a rocky and treacherous coastline. The lack of human presence also makes it an ideal habitat for wildlife, some of it dangerous; wolves, bears and boars are all known to live amongst its trees. Apart from the odd bandit group seeking refuge from the militia, The Coastwood is generally considered to be an untamed wilderness that only the foolhardy or desperate would enter.

As you approach the edge of the forest, and with still no sign of an obvious trail to follow, you begin to wonder how on earth you're going to find the goblins if indeed they are hiding somewhere amongst the trees. But then, as you top the last small hill before the forest boundary, you spot a plume of smoke rising above the treetops about a mile into the wood. It looks like someone, or something, has a fire going.


5 pm, 26th day of Harvestide
Iain_IF
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Re: Chapter 1 - The Farmer's Lost a Wife

Post by Iain_IF »

I vote we climb a good tree and explore in that direction when we have more daylight says Paladin.
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Re: Chapter 1 - The Farmer's Lost a Wife

Post by SmootRK »

Iain_IF wrote:I vote we climb a good tree and explore in that direction when we have more daylight says Paladin.
"Aye. We should at least close in on the location and do a little scouting," remarks Nivek. He continues, "Goblins have good darkvision, and they are very active during the night, so we should remain cautious. Better to deal with them during the day when they are less active and less alert."

[assumes we make for that direction at a slower, more stealthy pace. Our burglars should begin their "burglaring".]
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Re: Chapter 1 - The Farmer's Lost a Wife

Post by actingkeith »

"Or they could be plannin' on having her for stew or roast tonight," Karl says morbidly. "And if we don't ketch 'em as the sun is goin' down, we're lost."

"Point is," Karl looks at Tannen, "what are yer orders, sergeant."
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Re: Chapter 1 - The Farmer's Lost a Wife

Post by swirler »

ooc: do we know how long she's been missing?
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JoeCarr28
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Re: Chapter 1 - The Farmer's Lost a Wife

Post by JoeCarr28 »

swirler wrote:ooc: do we know how long she's been missing?

Alma was abducted on the evening of the 22nd day of Harvestide, so four days ago.
Birthright
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Re: Chapter 1 - The Farmer's Lost a Wife

Post by Birthright »

Tannen grins to himself at Karl's addressing him as 'Sergent'.

"I think Nivek is right. We need to catch them during daylight hours if we're to have any hope of success.

We should head into those woods, but from the tales people have told about the place, we'll need to be ready for anything.

Maybe the little ones could scout ahead in case those gobbies have got enough brains to post sentries around their camp.

Let's all be cautious though, eh. No rocks-through-windows action. If the little ones see anything they should double back to the rest of the group.

Any other suggestions?"


[To GM: How difficult will it be to lead Jumbles into theses woods? Presumably if wolf-riders can navigate, it should be ok to lead a horse?]
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JoeCarr28
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Re: Chapter 1 - The Farmer's Lost a Wife

Post by JoeCarr28 »

Birthright wrote:[To GM: How difficult will it be to lead Jumbles into theses woods? Presumably if wolf-riders can navigate, it should be ok to lead a horse?]
[No real problems leading Jumbles into the woods, although obviously it will be very difficult to move stealthily.

Just to clarify, you've already done a full 8 hours of walking today, so if you're going to continue this evening you'll be moving into "forced march" territory. You'll also be moving more slowly through the woods - if your estimate is correct and it is indeed about a mile to origin of the smoke, this'll take you between an hour and an hour and a half, longer if you're taking care to scout and move cautiously.
]
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Re: Chapter 1 - The Farmer's Lost a Wife

Post by Birthright »

[OOC: Ah. Didn't realise that we'd done a full day]

Tannen glances up at the clouds, looking for the position of the sun for some hint as to how much light might be left.

"On second thoughts, perhaps we'd better make camp back in one of those smaller copses of trees we passed earlier and keep a look-out for any comings or goings in the night.

No campfire for us I'm afraid or any goblin scouts will see us from miles away"


Glancing at Paladin, Tannen adds: "That means a cold dinner, my little friend. You like trail rations don't you?"
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Eevans
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Re: Chapter 1 - The Farmer's Lost a Wife

Post by Eevans »

Hiker listened intently as the rest of the party discussed their next move. Hiker stayed quiet from experience. In all the years he had "ideas", they seemed to be disregarded as folly, so he knew better than to speak up, instead he twiddled his thumbs in a quiet way.

Mr. Tannen had mentioned no fire, which was all well and good for Hiker, he loved jerky and once the decision was made to make camp he followed the others diligently wherever they went. All he really wanted to do is to get Ms. Alma back.

Something had been bugging him though, something Paladin had said awhile back so when they were having their meal he sat next to the little halfling and asked, hoping it wasn't too foolish a question.

"Hey, uh, Mr. Half man, hows come we need to get Ms. Alma's hand? ... shouldn't we be gettin' the lot of her?" Hiker was genuinely confused about this situation and was hoping the halfling could help him out.
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