Wolves!
Elldar leads the way as Angrboda insists, with Angrboda and Jaegar following as the forest gnome navigates his way through the woodland undergrowth. The group notices that Elldar leaves no tracks, broken twigs, or the like in his wake, though the giants certainly do. Kaznak and Forge follow the giants, with Falryn taking up the rear.
Angrboda and Kaznak have no luck identifying plants and fungi on the first day of the journey northward. Angrboda does manage to find enough edible berries, nuts, fruits, and small animals for lunch and dinner during the first day's trip, however.
Elldar, Angrboda, Jaegar, Kaznak, Forge, and Falryn head north until around 3 in the afternoon, having traveled about 7 miles, when Elldar hears movement in the bushes ahead, about 90 feet away as Kaznak spies a wolf slinking through the bushes a similar distance to the east. Falryn notices the eastern wolf as well a second later, as Elldar spots the wolf that he heard to the north. Forge and Jaegar finally hear the wolves as they approach a little closer, as Elldar and Kaznak are alerting the group.....
Angrboda still can't see or hear them, Kaznak and Falryn aren't aware of any besides the eastern one, and neither Forge nor Jaegar can see where the wolves are despite hearing them somewhere to the north and east.
[sblock=OOC]Scouting group, roll initiatives! (...on InvisibleCastle)
Unnoticed threat(s) 22 initiative
Northern threat(s) 13 initiative
Eastern threat(s) 9 initiative
Other unnoticed threat(s) 4 initiative
If you beat a 22 initiative, you can post your 1st-round action along with your initiative. For future reference, if you'd prefer I roll initiatives for you, you can say so now and I'll note it down for future encounters to speed things up.
Post whatever Elldar or Kaznak might say or do to alert the group to the wolves, otherwise the rest of the group will remain flat-footed and inactive until after the wolves take their first turn.
I rolled Listen and Spot checks for everyone, since it determines encounter distance and speeds things up, and nearly everyone got great Listen checks or great Spot checks, but few got both. Angrboda got poor rolls, while most of the others got one poor roll and one good roll. Only Elldar and Falryn got good rolls for both.
Since only a few gave any indication of where they'd be in the marching order, I guessed for the rest and listed them accordingly from the front of the group to the rear. Elldar is leading at Angrboda's prompting, and Falryn is bringing up the rear. Elldar is pretty sure the wolves haven't spotted him yet, but they've definitely noticed the giants Angrboda and Jaegar. The two visible wolves (to Elldar, Falryn, and Kaznak anyway) look like normal, Medium-sized wolves.
Visibility in the forest around here is about 90 feet. There is light undergrowth in this area, which provides concealment (20% miss chance with targeted attacks) and every 5 feet of movement costs 2 squares (10 feet) of movement, so 5-foot steps, charging, and running aren't possible. You are all traveling through the relatively-light undergrowth between trees, so while there are trees a short distance to either side of you, none are in your current spaces. 5 feet of movement (costing 10 feet due to undergrowth) can get you to the same space as an average tree for cover (+2 AC, +1 Reflex).
Angrboda, Forge, and Jaegar remain flat-footed until they see the wolves, and with their Spot checks that won't be until after the wolves get close and attack.
I've assumed walking pace for travel so far, as I'm not sure if you wanted to hustle at double-speed to cover more distance. Hustling causes increasing nonlethal damage each hour beyond the first, so for now I've assumed you just walk at normal speed. Let me know whether or not you want to hustle part of the distance before or after the wolf encounter. All of you can hustle for at least 4 hours without much harm (0, 1, 2, and 4 nonlethal damage, healing 1 point of it each time from natural healing), but 5 or 6 straight hours of hustling would make pretty much anyone in the group pass out for one hour.
I'll put up a map of some sort after initial reactions and initiatives are posted.
Camp group, I'll move things along there sometime on Wednesday; right now, I need sleep.[/sblock]
