Bother Around Beregost

[Wilphe]

The mixed herd hurries off in to the distance, the only remaining traces of it's passing are trampled hoof-prints, a muddied stream bed, the smell of sweat and panic and the screaming on the far side of the river.

Korik slips silently across the stream in search of whatever is bellowing and fighting for its life. He is easily able to creep through the bushes with barely a trace of his passing catching his target unawares.

It is not difficult to find what he seeks, a large green insect the size of a carthorse holds a small badger in its viscious mandibles. The poor beast has already lost one of it's legs and as the halforc looks on the predator silences its screams forever by biting it's head clean off. There is a sickening crunch as it crushes and chews the skull.

Korik knows quite a lot about such beasts it seems. Such Giant Mantises strike from concealment, they are not something that would panic and chase a herd down, whatever the animals were running from it wasn't this. It was probably just lying in ambush. It would be a match for Korik in a fight, and if it got a hold on him the fight would end quickly. However, they don't move at all fast and it's already got a mean right now, so he could easily avoid it if he chose.

 

[industrygothica]

Korik sees no reason not to let the mantis enjoy its meal. However vile it may seem to most, Korik understands that it is the natural order of things. He himself kills to eat; that is how it must be done at times.

Instead Korik opts to quietly, and quickly, step out of the mantis's area and focus on whatever was driving the herd away. Assuming whatever it is is actually chasing the herd, Korik will find a nice well-hidden and comfy spot close to the tracks and see what approaches. He'll have his weapons at the ready just in case, along with Grim.

 

[Wilphe]

Korik slips quietly away and lets the insect finish up, moving up the trail some he selects a likely spot for his vigil about about a thrid of a mile from the mantis' position. Hopefully far enough away that the two hunters will not interfere with each other.

Hours pass. Animals are certainly moving southward away from the Cloakwood, and Korik sees none come back up the trail. That said he doesn't see any in panic driven flight like he did at the stream. A few deer nervously pad along the trail, sniffing the air and looking behind them as they go. Rabbits and berrygobblers hop along their runs through the undergrowth and squirrels run through the branches.

There isn't really any sign of anything that might cause these animals to be moving, but something certainly is.

A few hours before sun-down Korik sights a small humanoid on the trail. It's a stringy little goblinoid, not a goblin proper, but a tasloi - a type normally found further south, but the Cloakwood represents the furthest north they can normally be found. This one looks like a scout, wearing well-fitting armour pigemented into a mostly green camoflage pattern and carrying a small hand-crossbow with a shortsword at its belt. It too is heading southwards.

 

[industrygothica]

Korik's first instinct is to smash the creepy looking thing, even for a goblin. But he remembers Thalantyr's words about only scouting, not stopping. So Korik remains hidden, remains quiet, and watches. The thing is a goblin, there will almost definitely be more, and he's really not up for being outnumbered again anyway.

 

[Wilphe]

The tasloi makes it's way up the path and disappears into the distance. There isn't any screaming which indicates that it and the mantis avoided each other. About an hour later it makes it's way back the way it came.

 

[industrygothica]

Knowing what lies ahead, Korik continues on in the direction he was going, following a safe distance behind the tasloi. He will stay a bit off of the main trail if he can, trying to avoid detection, and a fight, if at all possible.

ooc: Does Korik know anything else about the things other than that they're not common here? Specifically, their structure, attack routines, or anything else that will keep him alive while he's dealing with them?

 

[Wilphe]

Koirk knows* that there is occassional debate between hunters as to whether Tasloi are really goblinoids or not, sometimes this leaves the taverns and sages and bards weigh in on the issue.

One side points to the fact that occupy a similar ecological niche to goblins, have green skin, are sneaky and worship Maglubiyet.
Their opponents counter by saying that they are antatomically different to goblins and speak a language that shares no grammar or syntax or other similarity with goblin proper.
Others say that if you are making arguments based on goblin grammar then you are clutching at straws.

It's fair to say that these disputing factions are tiny compared to the real debate about tasloi:
Whether you should avoid them if you can and kill them if you must
or whether you should kill them if you can and avoid them if you must

Overall they are very good at climbing and prefer to live in the trees. That's also where they prefer to launch their ambushes from. They also don't like bright daylight, and normally come out at dawn or dusk or stay under tree cover.



Korik hangs back, dogging the Tasloi's trail. After a mile or so it meets up with some more of its fellows on the trail, the half orc watches from the bushes as the scout makes its way back up the column whilst the leading elements push on.
There are a lot of them, too mnay to count from this distance. They are about a hundred yeards away so he could easily avoid them if he chose.


OOC:
* Okay it's probably not really K/Nature, but they goblinoids are a favoured enemy so that helps a bit

 

[industrygothica]

If Korik doesn't think they have anything to do with the spiders in the area, he'll go around the Tasloi. If it's possible that they are the cause, directly or indirectly, Korik will stay and observe for a while longer.

 

[Wilphe]

It's unusual to find them moving about in daylight but from this distance the half-orc sees nothing odd about them, and they aren't likely to be the cause of the mysterious mists Thalantyr is interested in nor are they going to be likely to want to have a parlay.Time to move on, the Ranger slips back into the trees and makes his way north.


A few hours later and several miles further north sees darkness begin to draw in. What arrangements does he want to make for the night?

 

[industrygothica]

If there is still a water souce nearby, Korik will make camp near it, preferably somewhere with a little bit of cover if possible.