Wayfinder Expedition to the Demon Wastes

The afternoon slowly passes by. You see Wulfgar and the padre talking quitely. Occassionally the padre tosses some bones or wooden sticks and seems to consult them keeping a careful list. The afternoon sun is waning by the time the 40 odd students are almost done doing threw. The last students go as the meal bell is rung in the guild hall.

<< Go Now, or your not in the game >>

The juniour officers start meandering to the meal hall, when the padre shouts the first order

" WHERE IN THE BLOODY FLAME OF THE SILVER KEEP DO YOU THINK YOUR GOING YOU PUSS FILLED BAGS OF ROTTEN MILK AND BULLS NUTS. GET THE HELLS IN A LINE BEFORE I NAIL YOUR BALLS TO THE SHIPS KEEL FOR GOOD LUCK YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING OAR PULLERS."

A rough line is formed. Those not fit enough or fast enough are laid into by the padre, his slender frame quivering with exertion, he rounds upon the unfit, the lazy, the slow, the unrespectful until only 24 remain.

Wulfgar nods seeming pleased, he says "Go eat, and be back before sundown. the Padre will have your kit ready for you" The Sun is almost touching the horizon, you don't have much time as the bemused and bewildered few.

You return to find the padre, standing amidst various packs. Signing lists as the real sailors, rough sea faring men from northern Aundair and Eldeen finally are seen. Their are barrels and crates and all kinds of sacks being taken to and fro. You are all hastily handed sacks and seperated according to your ships.

Duffle Sack contains.
Padded Armour and Jackets (Padded Armour, 5lbs no ACP )
Darkwood Shield (Large Wooden Shield, 5lbs no ACP )
Two Coils of Silk Rope
A length of Chain, (10')
A Padded Club
A short sword of good make
12 days Hard Rations, Water proofed.
A magical token of location
A potion of cure light wounds
A Bedroll
A Blanket
A Cold Weather Outfit
A Healer's Kit
A Climbers Kit

Reaper, Vigarr, Zaeg, and Bass ( as well as anyone else who completes attempts the course) are assigned to the same ship. Your First mate is Lazarus a tongueless and tattooed man with the air of a sailor and a soldier about him. Although he can't speak he makes it very clear what he wants. A heavy whip lays at his side ready for any who would do otherwise.

You see Wulfgar and Lazarus acknowledge each other, they are obviously old friends and happy to be working together.

You spend the night uncertainly , not sure if this was a good idea. Before morning you are all taken aboard a wagon with the sailors to Crescent Bay. Just as the dawn breaks you see your ships, Sleek Dragon headed Longboats, moored with square sails furled. The bronzy levwood they are made of glitters in the light. They look sleek, they look fast. they look dangerous.

You board and are out of port before most people are eating their breakfast. You are all quickly put to oar, your shields and weapons held in place to your side.

Row , Row , Row

welcome to the expedition to the demon wastes lazaruses tattooed face laughs at you.

as the sun beats down, food is finally handed out, and you can see that a few games where planned to ensure survivability. Lazarus reluctantly lets each of the junior officers take a turn at the helm, the feel of this living breathing longboat under your hands, you give it a try.

(Can I get three Profession: sailor checks)

Vigarr's excitement continues to grow as they continue closer to their destination. He puts his exuberance to use on the oar and pushes himself to impress the tattoed Lazarus, who seems to be close to Wulfgar. When Vigarr's put to the helm of this magnificant ship, with the feeling of the sea spray in his face, he feels exhilirated and handles the ship well. However, during his duties Vigarr finds himself thinking back to his past, navigating around Argonnessen with his tribesman and his performance begins to wane.

[sblock=Profession Checks]

Profession Checks (1d20+2=17, 1d20+2=19, 1d20+2=10)

[/sblock]

[sblock=Profession(sailor) checks]Results are 7, 4, 14.[/sblock]It's not easy being a sailor, as Zaeg finds out. The lashings, the rowing, the sudden waves... Zaeg almost wants to give up at a point, because this is most definitely not his element. If hobgoblins were meant to be at sea, we'd have fins! And we don't! So we're not supposed to be at sea! He thinks to himself in frustration. However, soon enough, be it thanks to the sea, or the gods, or just sheer dumb luck, Zaeg manages to get the hang of it, not fantastic, but at least the ship is still sailing. Zaeg doesn't miss the looks of disapproval on the sailors' faces though. You're not dead, live with it.

Base steps up to the helm, eager to proove himself capable. On the calm seas he barely manages to keep the ship on course, given the bearing from the first mate who glowers at the young monk. "...of course that was way back when I was back in the cyran army we didn't do a whole lot of sailing since the cyran navy did most of that and most of them were killed when the whole country went kabluey, but I did see one of those big fancy flying ships once, but it was way nicer than this one and none of the crew smelled like old cheese and vomit..." Without pausing in his diatribe Base deftly ducks under the backhand that the first mate swings by him at the insinuation. "...but that crew was all lily white and skin and bones and I bet that if they ever even saw a demon they would just pass out or start crying and stuff, so I'm way gladder to be here cause the wind blow away most of the smell and I'm sure the demons are gonna smell way worser than any of you guysand..." as he drones on his endless runnons take on a strange beat seems to keep time perfectly with the rise and falls of the boat on the waves, and the crew's rowing soon falls into the same beat coaxing a bit more speed from the sturdy craft.
[sblock=rolls]Proffession (sailor): (1d20+6=10, 1d20+6=13, 1d20+6=10) and Perform (Oratory): (1d20-1=16)[/sblock]

[sblock=Profession Checks]Prof: Sailor +3(Wis)-4(untrained) (1d20-1=12, 1d20-1=16, 1d20-1=6)

Since we can't normally use the skill undtrained I assumed there was a penalty. This, of course, did not prevent me from rolling high.[/sblock]

Shockingly Reaper makes herself useful on the boat, at least initially. She keeps her sea legs, rows enthusiastically, and even seems to take her turn at the helm seriously.

Her mood takes a inexplicable, drastic turn for the worse on the third day though, she's hostile and grumpy. She seems to be egging Lazarus to try to use the whip on her.

[ Everyone gain 1 rank in profession, your now trained suckas +50 xp everyone you can thank base]

The progress made by the fleet is slow crossing cresent bay. the bright ones of you realize that Wulfgar is getting accustomed to the new first mates and preparing for the fateful day when you sea maggots see combat. After two days of retching, strain, sleeping in shifts, everyone is tired and cranky. The going is slow as each ship takes time to hit the stride.

On the third day, something happened. Lazarus cocks his ear to something reaper said or did, and wasn't pleased with the responce, or lack thereof. Next thing anyone knows reaper is knocked clean out of the boat, and the first mate's whip is out. No one saw it move. The rest of the sailors go to help her, but lazarus stops them, and before you know it all of the junior sails or treading water, the other first mates apparently seeing what Lazarus did , and thought they would join in on the fun.

[everyone make swim checks yo]

The stronger swimmers help the weaker and soon enough everyone is enjoying themselves. Lazarous helps Reaper into the boat when the time comes, an easy smile upon his face. That nigh you make dock in blood crescent, and everyone is in high spirits. Tomarrow you make for the demon coast, the real thing. You all notice that the head long boat, captained by wulfgar himself is gone soon after you settle in.

Around midnight, the first mates come and gather everyone soused or not, some hot coffee is grabbed and within the hour everyone is in the longboats. You creep in the night, the stars your only companions besides the 40 or 50 other quitely grunting sailors beside you. The Longboats cut quitely through the water when suddenly an image appears infront of Lazarous, waving all the officers over, the message starts

The appearance of the wind mage fills the image for a second before it bobs , showing the shore and turns back to Wulfgar.

" We've found a small band of demon spawn, barely 100 souls all and all, but it looks like they are on a raid into eldeen, I think we can all agree its probably best for everyone if we stop them here. You will reach our longboat before dawn, and then we will strike."

everything is suddenly done with a sudden seriousness. The night passes quickly until suddenly your upon the Wulfgar's vessel. You all slip silently into shore as the windmage watches, walking amoung the clouds as if it was normal. The sailors gather shields and arms while a quick command meeting is struck, wulfgar speaks quitely

"Me and my Friends will engage the ogre these goblins have chained to the north. The rest of you will attack from the south. Its a smaller band then we thought, and only goblins" Rough laughter, Nervous Laughter come from the officers.

Only goblins

The Dawn is less than an hour away, Your Longboat is formed into a rough phallnax, spears and longswords and shield at the ready. You know you merely have to advance north at roughly an equal rate as everyone else. Lazarus has his whip out and is keeping most of the men in line, his whip barely being seen but always heard and occasionally felt.

[Give me whatever ever kind of roles you think is appropiate, if you want to do something fancy with the sailors talk to lazarous, you have simular sized groups about 100 feet to either side. The night sky is quickly begining to brighten, but it is still dark and overcast +4 hide/ the land is rocky and barren, being so close to the sea -4 to move silently. Sparse shrubberies cover your accent to the goblin camp, if your not sure you can do something post it and we'll see what happens]

Base Shifter Monk1, AC21 HP28/28 spot +5, Listen +3

Hitting the water lightly, Base floats back up to the surface without much fanfair. Seeing the flailing sputter that was Reaper a moment before, he kicks over and pulls her head back above the surface. Swim: (1d20+4=14)
_________

Base walks tall out in front though he weild neither the sword or shield, or even the padded armor. His entire bag in fact is still on the boat, and thats the way he wants it. He moves like a jungle cat across the beach without making a sound, ears wide open for the gutteral sounds of the "demon horde". Aware of every crab walking on the beach (and the throng of clumsy recruits around him) he continues forward in the dark, his dark vision reaching farther into the gloom than most of his ungainly associates.

Move Silently/Listen/Spot/Initiative: 15/20/11/15

OOC - Wouldn't the cover of the sea nearby give a bonus to move silently instead of a penalty?

Reaper manages let out an outraged yelp before she hits the water with a kerplunk.

After spending time with her over the last few days you'd expect she'd be up, hissing and spitting. But she doesn't surface.

[sblock=OOC]Uber hostile death girl would be transformed into a damsil in destress by rolling a 1 on her swim check.

I should have left my alignment "soft rock".

In game I'll say that she hit the water yelling. Sucked in some water, got confused, started to swim in the wrong direction and blacked out.[/sblock]

{ its not been my experiance that the sound of the sea actually covers anything unless theirs a storm going on, I was personally thinking more the rock beach making it difficult to step lightly, and the brush being crunchy under foot. I stated it a bit poorly.}

[also everyone survives the swiming test just fine, no need to break character concepts. But graf get your dude up to the same time as everyone else, Ie i need an extra post or something]

Vigarr lands awkwardly in the water and has the wind knocked out of him before he manages to pull himself up to the surface. Angry at himself for the weakness, he pulls himself back onto the longboat, sputtering and shaking the water from his body.
_________

Vigarr's heavy feet crunch the dry earth loudly as he stomps along the path, all he can hear is the footsteps of those like him. Vigarr carries his short sword in front of him, the light weight of it feels uncomfortable in his large hands. He keeps his eyes focused, knowing well that the goblins are adept at hiding, and peers at every shadow, determined not to be caught by surprise.

[sblock=Rolls]
Swim (1d20+10=12)
Move Silently; Listen; Spot; Initiative (1d20-1=2, 1d20+5=8, 1d20+3=21, 1d20+7=26) [/sblock]