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<blockquote data-quote="Hairy Minotaur" data-source="post: 3624352" data-attributes="member: 11574"><p><strong>Scout =/= tracker</strong></p><p></p><p>The party meets with the returning group of scouts, learning about numbers and overall strength of the goblins they’ve encountered. </p><p></p><p>“Their aim’s getting better though, I got hit in the breastplate yesterday and someone else got hit in the leg last week. Still haven’t killed anyone though.” Reports a guard</p><p></p><p>“That’s troubling, they turn into crack shots just as we arrive, how convenient.” Turgar laments</p><p></p><p>“Quit being paranoid, they’re stupid little snots. One cough from you later and they’ll be running for their lives, so calm down. Here have a cigar.” Menthos advises</p><p></p><p>“I am concerned that these goblins only crime seems to be that they are annoying, I don’t think they’ve done anything to warrant their extermination.” Xanthos replies</p><p></p><p>“What? Kador sent us a pacifist? Look buddy, I don’t know what tree you un-hugged yourself from, but around here goblins are disease carrying filthy thieves that would love nothing more than to rid themselves of us. So, unless your plan is to stand idly by why they slaughter your friends when you inactivity gives them the chance, then I suggest you strike first, strike hard, and strike down the pukes.” A guard admonishes the shifter</p><p></p><p>“Maybe you’re the ones who aren’t supposed to be here, I don’t recall you spontaneously generating in this spot. The goblins have more right to this land than you do.” Xanthos defends his beliefs</p><p></p><p>“We work the ground, grow our crops, and protect the caravans as they head out into the plains. The goblins hide out in caves, strike from the dark and obliterate all forms of lesser life they come in contact with. I’d liken them to a vampire than a meek little mouse you would have them be.” The guard presses on</p><p></p><p>“Just because you can’t reason with it, doesn’t mean you need to kill it. Humans breed like fleas and suck the life out of the forests just the same; perhaps becoming the hunted would put the shoe on the other foot for you.” Xanthos responds</p><p></p><p>“Don’t try any of your woodsy mumbo jumbo on us; we’re not some illiterate hicks you can use inflection and innuendo on to get away with not meaning anything. I’ll be real plain and simple for you, if I see one of those goblins; I’ll kill it even if I have to go through your stubborn ass to do it.” The guard finishes</p><p></p><p>“That sounded threatening; perhaps I should lead a frost worm to your north wall and watch as it slides right in to the heart of the matter?” Xanthos replies</p><p></p><p>“Fight!” Menthos yells</p><p></p><p>“Alright you two, quit trying to see who’s got the bigger package and get back to the job at hand.” Kessen advises</p><p></p><p>The six guards back down after realizing this quarry would fight back a lot harder than six goblins. Xanthos however still fumed at the guard’s words.</p><p></p><p>“If that is your line of defense, then this keep will surely perish. I weep for the loss of life that will come.” Xanthos says to Menthos and heads off to cool down</p><p></p><p>“What did I say?” Menthos asks incredulously</p><p></p><p>“How about fight?” Turgar answers</p><p></p><p>“Well, without my encouragement Kessen would’ve never spoken up, they looked like two blind bullywugs in a tongue slapping contest.” Menthos replies</p><p></p><p>“They have those?” Haimish inquires</p><p></p><p>“Of course not, he’s blowing smoke up your rear again, that’s what he does, that’s all he does.” Kessen answers</p><p></p><p>“My good man, would it not be prudent to affix your gaze upon the horizon of your future rather than to assail yourself with the unfortunate task of trying to dissuade me from pursuing my respective career path which you have so eloquently pointed out lacks a basic fundamental that you seems to posses in abundance?” Menthos answers </p><p></p><p>“Crap.” Haimish spits</p><p></p><p>“What was that? You sound like him only it made sort of sense, at least it wasn’t a metaphor.” Kessen reply trailed off and got quieter at the end after he realized his reply was bolstering Menthos’ argument</p><p></p><p>“Doopa say we go find some goblins, squish them, then come back and eat lots.” The ogre offered</p><p></p><p>The party agreed and went to collect Xanthos for their journey.</p><p></p><p>“Come with us, maybe you can try some diplomacy on them?” Turgar stated</p><p></p><p>“I don’t think that would result in any breakthroughs.” Xanthos replied</p><p></p><p>“Well, when they attack you your ethics will enable you to fight back and kill them for us.” Menthos advised which provide to be the obviousness that Xanthos was overlooking.</p><p></p><p>The party headed out towards the east first and into a rockier terrain as opposed to a rolling hill terrain that dominated south of the Majestics where Kindoras was situated. The party scouted all afternoon until:</p><p></p><p>“Hey Kessen, we’ve found nothing out here, why don’t you put you vocation to good use and scare us up a set of goblin tracks?” Menthos asked</p><p></p><p>“I don’t know what goblin tracks look like.” Kessen dismissed the warlock</p><p></p><p>“What? You’ve never seen a goblin track? Didn’t you come from the Plain of Cairns?” Menthos inquired</p><p></p><p>“Yes, but that hardly means I’ve seen a goblin track enough times to know what it was and how to track it.” Kessen replied irritated at the request</p><p></p><p>“Here, I’ll show you.” Xanthos said and transforms into a goblin and walks around the area for awhile, “can you follow some tracks now?” </p><p></p><p>“Sure.” The scout replies and takes a hard look at the ground and heads off in a northwesterly direction </p><p></p><p>After three more hours of what Menthos gets annoyed, “What are you doing? </p><p></p><p>“Following goblin tracks.” Kessen answers</p><p></p><p>“To me it looks like you’re aimlessly wondering with a purpose to waste our time.” Menthos answers</p><p></p><p>“Oh yeah? Let’s see you try and track then. I’m the scout here!” Kessen replies</p><p></p><p>“You’re right, you’re the scout, but even I can tell they didn’t go any further north.” Menthos answers</p><p></p><p>“Prove it!” Kessen demands</p><p></p><p>“How do you know that Menthos?” Xanthos asks</p><p></p><p>“There’s snow on the ground, and thirty feet ahead of you is a mile wide fissure with ice covering it.” Menthos answered</p><p></p><p>Both Doopa and Turgar looked ahead and concurred with the warlock’s assessment</p><p></p><p>Embarrassed, Kessen admits to not knowing how to track.</p><p></p><p>“How can you possibly scout if you don’t know what’s ahead of you?” Haimish asks</p><p></p><p>“I never needed it, I was always one to lie in wait and ambush people, not go find them to ambush.” Kessen replies</p><p></p><p>“Great, can anybody track?” Xanthos asks</p><p></p><p>“What? You’re the nature lover can’t you track?” Kessen asks</p><p></p><p>“No, when you have the nose of a wolf or a fox, looking for tracks becomes less important.” Xanthos answers</p><p></p><p>“What about the ogres then?” Kessen inquires </p><p></p><p>“I’m a dragon shaman, I track dragons.” Turgar replies</p><p></p><p>“How do you do that? They fly? Do they leave a vapor trail?” Kessen pushes the blame and embarrassment from himself</p><p></p><p>“How hard can that be? Look for the scorched earth and burned villages, an ooze could track a dragon.” Menthos answers</p><p></p><p>“It’s not as simple as that, there’s knowing which way they turn after a strafing to knowing which direction they strafe in.” Turgar answers</p><p></p><p>“Doopa, track food to mouth with eyes.” The ogre announces</p><p></p><p>“Gee that sound complicated, how many years did it take you to learn that trick?” Kessen asks</p><p></p><p>“Doopa practices at every meal.” The ogre says proudly</p><p></p><p>Menthos studies the sky while the rest of the party devolves into a shouting match, finding what he sought he heads southwest.</p><p></p><p>“Where are you going?” Haimish inquires</p><p></p><p>“To Kindoras Keep.” Menthos answers</p><p></p><p>“Bull, you don’t know where we are.” Kessen disputes the warlock</p><p></p><p>“Well, you see I saw that column of smoke rising in the west, and knowing the breeze is currently heading in a northerly direction up the southern slopes, I’m aiming for just south of where the smoke rises. It’s like I’m tracking the smoke, stick around maybe you’ll learn something.” Menthos admonishes the scout</p><p></p><p>The party rejoices as Menthos leads them back to the keep, although Doopa was saddened that no goblins were found, he was picked up by the smells of cooking pig.</p><p></p><p>“I figured you for dead; glad to see you lived long enough to eat dinner.” Gorn says gruffly before gnawing into a burnt ham.</p><p></p><p>The party ate up and decided to try a different tack in the morning.</p><p></p><p>Morning came and the party headed northeast from the keep this time. Keeping the Majestics to their right at all times, they decide to travel six hours following the tactic then turn around and head home the reverse direction. Fours hours into their trek the weather turned colder, and the wind changed from a eastern breeze warm off the plains to a northern gale down the Majestic’s slopes.</p><p></p><p>“This is an odd weather pattern for late summer.” Xanthos remarked </p><p></p><p>“Going to be early winter.” Doopa said sniffing the air</p><p></p><p>Another hour had Xanthos uncovering a viciously dismembered and partially eaten bullette.</p><p></p><p>“Whoa, that’s a big one.” Turgar announces</p><p></p><p>“Something huge tore into this.” Xanthos says as he sniffs the area and surveys the ground around the kill, “more like some things huge.” Xanthos announces pointing at the huge claw-like foot prints heading east towards the mountains.</p><p></p><p>“What do you think they are?” Haimish inquires</p><p></p><p>“I don’t know their feet are a cross between a troll and a hill giant, only much larger obviously.” Xanthos relates</p><p></p><p>“Finally something Doopa can smash!” The ogre shouts</p><p></p><p>“I guess we should check it out, the keep might need to know what’s out here.” Menthos argues</p><p></p><p>“Prudent I suppose, lets follow the tracks and see if we can’t sneak up on them.” Xanthos advises to the agreement of the group</p><p></p><p>Xanthos tracks the creatures into a sheer slope and spies the three huge purple giants turning around and heading back towards the party, he announces that he’ll go out about a hundred feet and transform into a large moose to lure the creatures out and once they try to engage him, he’ll fly back to the party and have them follow him into the party’s trap. </p><p></p><p>The plan is agreed upon, and Xanthos heads out as a moose, trying to moan as if injured. The commotion alerts the three beast and they approach steadily towards Xanthos, they pause about eighty feet from the moose and Xanthos is able to get a good look at them. He first hunch seems to be correct, the creatures are warty with greasy straight black hair and pointed noses like a troll, but they are built like a massive hill giant. Xanthos gets up to the eyes and notices a frightening conclusion as the giants reach into pouches at their sides and start chucking boulders at the “wounded” moose.</p><p></p><p>His plan unraveling, Xanthos decides to head back towards the party in the hopes that he’ll draw the giants out and cause them to switch tactics. Sensing something wrong, Kessen stands up from crouching beside a rock and starts firing at the creatures. </p><p></p><p>“Come get some!” Kessen shouts</p><p></p><p>Xanthos not yet able to speak common in animal form yet can only bay at Kessen in a vain attempt to get him to stop firing and hide again.</p><p></p><p>Too late though as the giants cease firing and clasp hands, the middle giant creates a shimmering door in front of himself and walks through it pulling it’s two companions with it. In an instant the giants have <em>dimensioned doored </em> into the midst of the party. Xanthos transforms into a lion and charges at the nearest creature, the giant raises his hand at the charging beast and Xanthos feels his life force drain away until he is left as what he was months ago, a naïve elf with limited shifting abilities.</p><p></p><p>“Uh oh, maybe this was not a good plan after all Xanthos?” Menthos shouts</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hairy Minotaur, post: 3624352, member: 11574"] [b]Scout =/= tracker[/b] The party meets with the returning group of scouts, learning about numbers and overall strength of the goblins they’ve encountered. “Their aim’s getting better though, I got hit in the breastplate yesterday and someone else got hit in the leg last week. Still haven’t killed anyone though.” Reports a guard “That’s troubling, they turn into crack shots just as we arrive, how convenient.” Turgar laments “Quit being paranoid, they’re stupid little snots. One cough from you later and they’ll be running for their lives, so calm down. Here have a cigar.” Menthos advises “I am concerned that these goblins only crime seems to be that they are annoying, I don’t think they’ve done anything to warrant their extermination.” Xanthos replies “What? Kador sent us a pacifist? Look buddy, I don’t know what tree you un-hugged yourself from, but around here goblins are disease carrying filthy thieves that would love nothing more than to rid themselves of us. So, unless your plan is to stand idly by why they slaughter your friends when you inactivity gives them the chance, then I suggest you strike first, strike hard, and strike down the pukes.” A guard admonishes the shifter “Maybe you’re the ones who aren’t supposed to be here, I don’t recall you spontaneously generating in this spot. The goblins have more right to this land than you do.” Xanthos defends his beliefs “We work the ground, grow our crops, and protect the caravans as they head out into the plains. The goblins hide out in caves, strike from the dark and obliterate all forms of lesser life they come in contact with. I’d liken them to a vampire than a meek little mouse you would have them be.” The guard presses on “Just because you can’t reason with it, doesn’t mean you need to kill it. Humans breed like fleas and suck the life out of the forests just the same; perhaps becoming the hunted would put the shoe on the other foot for you.” Xanthos responds “Don’t try any of your woodsy mumbo jumbo on us; we’re not some illiterate hicks you can use inflection and innuendo on to get away with not meaning anything. I’ll be real plain and simple for you, if I see one of those goblins; I’ll kill it even if I have to go through your stubborn ass to do it.” The guard finishes “That sounded threatening; perhaps I should lead a frost worm to your north wall and watch as it slides right in to the heart of the matter?” Xanthos replies “Fight!” Menthos yells “Alright you two, quit trying to see who’s got the bigger package and get back to the job at hand.” Kessen advises The six guards back down after realizing this quarry would fight back a lot harder than six goblins. Xanthos however still fumed at the guard’s words. “If that is your line of defense, then this keep will surely perish. I weep for the loss of life that will come.” Xanthos says to Menthos and heads off to cool down “What did I say?” Menthos asks incredulously “How about fight?” Turgar answers “Well, without my encouragement Kessen would’ve never spoken up, they looked like two blind bullywugs in a tongue slapping contest.” Menthos replies “They have those?” Haimish inquires “Of course not, he’s blowing smoke up your rear again, that’s what he does, that’s all he does.” Kessen answers “My good man, would it not be prudent to affix your gaze upon the horizon of your future rather than to assail yourself with the unfortunate task of trying to dissuade me from pursuing my respective career path which you have so eloquently pointed out lacks a basic fundamental that you seems to posses in abundance?” Menthos answers “Crap.” Haimish spits “What was that? You sound like him only it made sort of sense, at least it wasn’t a metaphor.” Kessen reply trailed off and got quieter at the end after he realized his reply was bolstering Menthos’ argument “Doopa say we go find some goblins, squish them, then come back and eat lots.” The ogre offered The party agreed and went to collect Xanthos for their journey. “Come with us, maybe you can try some diplomacy on them?” Turgar stated “I don’t think that would result in any breakthroughs.” Xanthos replied “Well, when they attack you your ethics will enable you to fight back and kill them for us.” Menthos advised which provide to be the obviousness that Xanthos was overlooking. The party headed out towards the east first and into a rockier terrain as opposed to a rolling hill terrain that dominated south of the Majestics where Kindoras was situated. The party scouted all afternoon until: “Hey Kessen, we’ve found nothing out here, why don’t you put you vocation to good use and scare us up a set of goblin tracks?” Menthos asked “I don’t know what goblin tracks look like.” Kessen dismissed the warlock “What? You’ve never seen a goblin track? Didn’t you come from the Plain of Cairns?” Menthos inquired “Yes, but that hardly means I’ve seen a goblin track enough times to know what it was and how to track it.” Kessen replied irritated at the request “Here, I’ll show you.” Xanthos said and transforms into a goblin and walks around the area for awhile, “can you follow some tracks now?” “Sure.” The scout replies and takes a hard look at the ground and heads off in a northwesterly direction After three more hours of what Menthos gets annoyed, “What are you doing? “Following goblin tracks.” Kessen answers “To me it looks like you’re aimlessly wondering with a purpose to waste our time.” Menthos answers “Oh yeah? Let’s see you try and track then. I’m the scout here!” Kessen replies “You’re right, you’re the scout, but even I can tell they didn’t go any further north.” Menthos answers “Prove it!” Kessen demands “How do you know that Menthos?” Xanthos asks “There’s snow on the ground, and thirty feet ahead of you is a mile wide fissure with ice covering it.” Menthos answered Both Doopa and Turgar looked ahead and concurred with the warlock’s assessment Embarrassed, Kessen admits to not knowing how to track. “How can you possibly scout if you don’t know what’s ahead of you?” Haimish asks “I never needed it, I was always one to lie in wait and ambush people, not go find them to ambush.” Kessen replies “Great, can anybody track?” Xanthos asks “What? You’re the nature lover can’t you track?” Kessen asks “No, when you have the nose of a wolf or a fox, looking for tracks becomes less important.” Xanthos answers “What about the ogres then?” Kessen inquires “I’m a dragon shaman, I track dragons.” Turgar replies “How do you do that? They fly? Do they leave a vapor trail?” Kessen pushes the blame and embarrassment from himself “How hard can that be? Look for the scorched earth and burned villages, an ooze could track a dragon.” Menthos answers “It’s not as simple as that, there’s knowing which way they turn after a strafing to knowing which direction they strafe in.” Turgar answers “Doopa, track food to mouth with eyes.” The ogre announces “Gee that sound complicated, how many years did it take you to learn that trick?” Kessen asks “Doopa practices at every meal.” The ogre says proudly Menthos studies the sky while the rest of the party devolves into a shouting match, finding what he sought he heads southwest. “Where are you going?” Haimish inquires “To Kindoras Keep.” Menthos answers “Bull, you don’t know where we are.” Kessen disputes the warlock “Well, you see I saw that column of smoke rising in the west, and knowing the breeze is currently heading in a northerly direction up the southern slopes, I’m aiming for just south of where the smoke rises. It’s like I’m tracking the smoke, stick around maybe you’ll learn something.” Menthos admonishes the scout The party rejoices as Menthos leads them back to the keep, although Doopa was saddened that no goblins were found, he was picked up by the smells of cooking pig. “I figured you for dead; glad to see you lived long enough to eat dinner.” Gorn says gruffly before gnawing into a burnt ham. The party ate up and decided to try a different tack in the morning. Morning came and the party headed northeast from the keep this time. Keeping the Majestics to their right at all times, they decide to travel six hours following the tactic then turn around and head home the reverse direction. Fours hours into their trek the weather turned colder, and the wind changed from a eastern breeze warm off the plains to a northern gale down the Majestic’s slopes. “This is an odd weather pattern for late summer.” Xanthos remarked “Going to be early winter.” Doopa said sniffing the air Another hour had Xanthos uncovering a viciously dismembered and partially eaten bullette. “Whoa, that’s a big one.” Turgar announces “Something huge tore into this.” Xanthos says as he sniffs the area and surveys the ground around the kill, “more like some things huge.” Xanthos announces pointing at the huge claw-like foot prints heading east towards the mountains. “What do you think they are?” Haimish inquires “I don’t know their feet are a cross between a troll and a hill giant, only much larger obviously.” Xanthos relates “Finally something Doopa can smash!” The ogre shouts “I guess we should check it out, the keep might need to know what’s out here.” Menthos argues “Prudent I suppose, lets follow the tracks and see if we can’t sneak up on them.” Xanthos advises to the agreement of the group Xanthos tracks the creatures into a sheer slope and spies the three huge purple giants turning around and heading back towards the party, he announces that he’ll go out about a hundred feet and transform into a large moose to lure the creatures out and once they try to engage him, he’ll fly back to the party and have them follow him into the party’s trap. The plan is agreed upon, and Xanthos heads out as a moose, trying to moan as if injured. The commotion alerts the three beast and they approach steadily towards Xanthos, they pause about eighty feet from the moose and Xanthos is able to get a good look at them. He first hunch seems to be correct, the creatures are warty with greasy straight black hair and pointed noses like a troll, but they are built like a massive hill giant. Xanthos gets up to the eyes and notices a frightening conclusion as the giants reach into pouches at their sides and start chucking boulders at the “wounded” moose. His plan unraveling, Xanthos decides to head back towards the party in the hopes that he’ll draw the giants out and cause them to switch tactics. Sensing something wrong, Kessen stands up from crouching beside a rock and starts firing at the creatures. “Come get some!” Kessen shouts Xanthos not yet able to speak common in animal form yet can only bay at Kessen in a vain attempt to get him to stop firing and hide again. Too late though as the giants cease firing and clasp hands, the middle giant creates a shimmering door in front of himself and walks through it pulling it’s two companions with it. In an instant the giants have [I]dimensioned doored [/I] into the midst of the party. Xanthos transforms into a lion and charges at the nearest creature, the giant raises his hand at the charging beast and Xanthos feels his life force drain away until he is left as what he was months ago, a naïve elf with limited shifting abilities. “Uh oh, maybe this was not a good plan after all Xanthos?” Menthos shouts [/QUOTE]
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