Dry Spell

[Brain]

"I was hoping you would say that, Eolan." Slyfen has his backpack open in a flash and presents his food to Eolan to pack how he sees fit onto one of the beasts of burden.

(OOC: It seems we have no further business in town, so we can move on to the trail. I'd like to place Slyfen as a sort of advance scout, ahead of the rest but not out of sight.)

 

[Krug]

"You can create food and drink?" says Belisha, amazed. "Your magic is wondrous instead!" Belisha uses her minor magic to try to amuse the kids, but find there's not much one can do when children are thirsty, though she does elicit some smiles.

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

The Journey Begins

You spend the rest of the day resting and recovering from the journey that brought you to Green Glade. Although you are nervous about what threats you might face in your quest, you are also excited about the prospect of battling this Relgore and his band.

That night at the inn a bard plays his lute for the crowd. The sound is soothing to the bones, and the songs of glorious heroes past fortify you for what may come. Although you find it difficult to fall asleep, when sleep does come, you sleep deeply. You do not awaken until dawn.

Day 3

After packing your belongings and preparing your animals for the quest, you see the inn keeper to pay your bills. However, you find that Lord Bootlum has already paid them. Everything being taken care of in town, you take a collective deep breath and set off down Allthrop road.

Once you make your way through the west gate, you can see the lay of the land around you. You are still in low, rolling grasslands. The grass is about 18 inches high on all sides, and is universally brown. The elf takes up a traveling position some distance ahead of the rest of the party to scout the way. The road is hard packed dirt, and is quite flat. Here and there, it makes its way through small patches of woods. Although the trees look as distressed as the grass, they still provide some relief from the cruel sun. Around noon, you stop to eat under the shade of a small stand of trees.

You stop to rest and eat two more times that day. You see no signs of Relgore or his humanoid gang. However, you have sighted several animals. They seem to be stirred up and confused, with the recent loss of their water source.

Very far in the distance, through the heat-shimmered air, you can make out a range of mountains. As the sun sets behind them, you make camp for the night. Your thoughts are all focused on the challenges that lay ahead of you when you reach the lake tomorrow.



OOC: It looks like you guys have the food weight thing figured out, so I'm not going to keep track of it beyond assuming that you have enough food and water for a week, and that the mule is carrying it. Belisha, I think the only person riding is Eolan, so I didn't procure you any other animals. I need to know if any of you will be standing watch tonight, and whether any of you are planning to sleep in their armor. Slyfen, assuming the road stays relatively flat, how far ahead (in feet) do you want to be travelling? Spell casters, if you want to change any of your prepared spells for Day 4, please let me know now. Hardin, I still need to know what your daily spell prep time is. By the way, you guys are all doing a great job of getting into the game spirit, so I'm awarding 200 XP each. You should see it on your character sheets.

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

The Journey Begins

Sorry, double post.

 

[Galethorn]

Sitting on the edge of a large rock, honing the edge of his sword, Eolan looks around the camp.

"I'll take the first watch," he begins. "It still hasn't cooled off enough for me to bed down anyway."

(OOC: When the first watch ends, I will presumably take off the chain shirt to sleep)

 

[Krug]

"I can take watch too," says Belisha. "Don't worry I can speak to Narkus to wile away the time.. softly, of course. And he's a good watch-animal as long as he doesn't go running after field mice."

 

[Brain]

"How about I take second watch, and then Hardin takes the third, and Belisha the last? Each watch lasts two hours, and we rest for ten in total."

OOC: Slyfen will stay 80 feet ahead of the party assuming flat terrain. He will look around with his spyglass if he sees something interesting on the horizon, or every hour of travel if nothing was particularly interesting. While walking, the spyglass is stowed away and he carries his bow in one hand, although not in a threatening manner. He will sleep with his armor on, and Eolan can too if he wants, for they are wearing light armor.

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Hardin preps spells at dawn. The next day he'll swap out a hold person for an augury spell.

 

[Krug]

"I am fine with that," says Belisha, replying to the question about taking last watch. "I do like to wake up early in the morning anyway."

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

Day 4

OOC:
Here are some things you should know about the terrain to either side of the road. The tall grass makes movement difficult for Small or smaller creatures (they must pay 10’ of movement for every 5’ actually moved), but also provides them with concealment (miss chance 20%). It provides Medium creatures with limited concealment (miss chance 10%), but does not hamper their movement. Large or larger creatures take no movement penalties and gain no concealment from the grass.

Since Belisha didn’t need to prepare spells this morning, it was no big deal that she took last watch last night. However, she should probably take first watch from now on, as she needs 8 hours of rest (can’t even use Search) in order to prep spells.

Hardin, I’ll assume you took your armor off to sleep last night, so you’re not fatigued today. However, from now on, I’ll assume you’ll be sleeping in your armor unless you tell me otherwise.



Day 4

You wake up in the morning wondering whether today will be the day you must best Relgore and his band. After breakfasting and giving Hardin a few minutes of peace to meditate and prepare an augury, you set off again into the west on Allthrop road.

The road gently curves to the right or left from time to time. Slyfen scouts about 80' ahead of the rest of the party, occassionally checking the surroundings with his spyglass. The surrounding terrain stays largely as it was yesterday. However, some ways off to the south and west, a large woods comes into view. You can see that it covers acres and acres of land, and that behind it rises a hill perhaps 50’ tall. The hill in the distance looks to be covered in withering brown shrubbery of some sort.

However, your goal is to make it to the recently dried lake, so you return your attention to the road. Based on Nerius Bootlum’s information, you expect to reach the lake around noon today. It is now around ten o’clock in the morning, and the temperature has already reached the low 80s.



OOC:
At this point, Slyfen makes a successful search check (DC 15, die result 15 + 10 = 25), and notices an area of disturbed land about 30’ ahead, south of the road. It looks like a large animal has been burrowing there…

I have attached a map of the current situation in html. Just change its extenstion from .txt to .htm and you should be able to view it in a web browser.