[Pathfinder] Scotley's Kingmaker IC continued.

[Scotley]

Brondelleon casts his gaze about in the low light to see what kind of tracks are available to be see, to see if he can detect humanoid footprints.

This far out from the fort there are no obvious trails. You did see a foot print or two near the river ford. Goblin mostly, but one that you are sure was a human sized boot print. The print was likely a few days old. Hard to say if it were a bandit or some other sort of local. You heard at the trading post that there were some trappers in the area.

 

[Scotley]

Kyria takes advantage of the gathering darkness to try to sneak closer to the fort and stalks around its walls, looking for the guards, for weaknesses, for anything they might be able to exploit.

Kyria manages to approach to a sheltered hillside some 100 yards or so from the fort where she can observe from relative concealment. A narrow path of hard-packed earth winds up the hillside approaching the Stag Lord’s fort—this path is 30 feet wide, 300 feet long, and provides no cover. The remaining hillside surrounding the fort is a swath of hill devoid of shrubbery save for isolated thorny vines, but periodic large boulders provide better cover for a stealthy approach. The fort is on the shores of lake Tuskwater. The lakeside approach is hard to see from here, but seems to be a boggy bare region devoid of cover and perhaps hard to cross. As she watches Kyria notes that the guards move about the walls in no particular pattern and seemingly watching different areas at whim. They are vigilant and at any given time there are at least two watchers. They seem to focus on the cleared approach. They seem to show little interest in watching the bolder-strewn hillside. Are they so confident they can be careless or do they know something else about the hillside? The walls themselves are intimidating, a thick wooden palisade, 15' tall and covered with spiky sharpened branches. While climbing the wall should not be all that difficult (dc15) getting up and over it without injury would require some extra effort. As Kyria continues to watch she does notice one anomaly. There is an odd depression southeast of the fort. It does not look natural. The fort appears to have been built near the ruins of some older long gone structure and this odd depression might have been a part of that. There is a trail of sorts leading to the fort. A good bit of traffic must come and go. Likely many of the visitors are mounted. Certainly the raiders at the trading post were mounted. As Kyria tries to observe the inhabitants she is sure there are at least 8 to 10 men within, though the place is big enough to house twice that or more. If they are as tough as the smaller groups encountered thus far a straight up attack by the party on the fort would be suicide. Clearly, this is the biggest threat in the land.

 

[Shayuri]

Kyria creeps back away from the fort, then hurries to return to the others to make her report.

"Walls are guarded...doesn't seem to be a patrol pattern, but they have enough men on the walls to put two watchers at any given moment from what I saw. The hill's cleared mostly, but there IS a way around the hill that has a series of big boulders. Seems like a good way to get close, but I dunno...they don't seem to be too worried about that direction, which makes me think there's something else going on there."

"Now, around on the other side..." she draws a crude 'map' in the dirt with a stick and taps what would be the southeast side, "...there's something in the ground here. Could be some old building that partly caved in or something. And that COULD be interesting, if the old building at one point had a connection to the basement of what's now this fort. It's a little ways from the wall, so we might be able to get to it without being seen."

 

[Scott DeWar]

"Ok, that underground structure sounds good to me. We sneak out at first light then?"

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Rhote replies, "I agree that we should check out this possible structure first. We may have an advantage if we go at night, as long as the bandits are all human. I can see well enough in the darkness, and elven eyes are also pretty sharp."

 

[Scott DeWar]

"I am of part elvin blood, so I can see well enough in the dark as well."

 

[Scotley]

By the time Kyria returns and gives her report darkness has fallen.

GM: So what's the plan?

 

[Scott DeWar]

" Well, if all are in agreement, sire, May we rest for the evening?"

 

[Shayuri]

"I think we'll have better luck if we go for the building under cover of darkness," says Kyria. "It's some distance from the walls, but a sharp-eyed guard could still see us. If we're to camp, we should camp nearby it."

 

[Scott DeWar]

"So we should travel now, under cover of darkness? Then rise while still dark and advance to the structure?"