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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 3777284" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #12 – “Choices. . . Choices. . .”(part 2 of 2)Osilem, the 24th of Quark - 566 H.E. (637 M.Y.)After spending another night at the Ray-Ree village, Bleys, Laarus, Markos, Telémahkos, and Victoria marched eastwards towards the King Stones.  They were led by Kermit and Duckhunter, and accompanied by Dunlevey, Falco and Tymon.  Timotheus was still ill.The horses were left with the Ray-Ree, the barbarians ‘gifting’ them the care thereof.  Kermit warned them that the horses would leave them vulnerable to predatory attack if they were left tied up in the wilderness, and their strong scent would make their camp more attractive to monsters. The halfling would lead them to a fairly sheltered campsite where he could find them again, as he would be returning to the Ray-Ree village to lead Timotheus to them once the tall warrior was feeling better.The land here was similar to that around the ruined keep at the old borderlands (1). It was a dry craggy plain broken up by the occasional mud pond surrounded by scrubby trees.  <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Ra%27s+Glory" target="_blank">Ra’s Glory</a> was unrelenting, and while Kermit led them by shaded routes whenever possible, the opportunities were very few, and despite a two hour break under some trees and being hounded by Kermit to drink lots of water, before night fell most of them were suffering from heat exhaustion. (2) They barely said a word as they stripped off their armor and lay atop their rolls, panting.  Kermit would take the first watch and would wake a pair of them later to take over, but they would be leaving before the sun rose again in order to get as many miles covered before they could be so afflicted again.Tholem, the 25th of Quark - 566 H.E. (637 M.Y.)The young nobles of the Charter of Schiereiland waited for the noontime hours to pass before preparing to try their luck in the area of the King Stones.  They had arrived mid-morning to a close copse of trees that provided shelter and was isolated enough from other such copses to allow anyone approaching to be seen at quite a distance.  From here they could see the silhouette a shady watering hole about six or seven hundred yards away.  Kermit explained that fresh water could be gathered there in the daytime, but that monsters and wild animals came there for water by night, so to approach it warily.He pointed to the dark outline of the rising landscape to the south.  “There is the gorge of the King Stones,” Kermit said before leaving. Before beginning their explorations, Bleys asked Telémahkos to bring out the map they had gotten from Joezyn Barhyte (3), and they lined it up to their approximate position.After a surprisingly brief discussion, they decided to go around the caves in the gorge and climb up to the forested hill above in search of the Flar’choo goblins and the legendary ‘box of wands’. (4)“If we are here for anything, let it be this ‘box of wands’ that we may use its contents for further good in our home lands, otherwise we are naught more than raiders” Laarus had said, and Bleys agreed, as Telémahkos and Markos rolled their eyes behind the priest’s back.They went over to the watering hole area and found that the muddy pool was fed by a spring and flanked with spears holding the skulls of some kind of small rat-like humanoid.Falco found sign of a goblin trail and he led them south from there. They marched southward and after a mere half hour they were climbing the gentle slope to the hill, and could see the sudden depth of the gorge off to their right.  It disappeared along with the rest of the landscape into a thick forest of curling brown leaves and yellowing grass.“This place is really dry,” Falco warned.  “We should be careful with any fire for fear a setting the whole forest ablaze.”  The scout led them along a narrow trail that eventually ran parallel to the eastern side of the u-shaped gorge, and they reasoned that after a couple of miles into the woods they would not be far from the lookout marked on map.  A fork in the trail they followed seemed to back up this supposition. Falco checked for tracks again and told them that there was frequent travel in both directions by small feet, most of it turning south there.  As they assumed the lookout was to the right, and so they decided to go that way.About a mile and a half later he put a hand up to signal the others to stop.  He was close to forty feet ahead and signaled to Bleys that he saw one figure by pointing to his own eyes and then holding up a finger.A lone goblin was standing behind a large tree at the edge of a sudden drop. It was about four feet tall, but stout. It had ruddy orange skin, and a big head with a broad face. It was dressed in leather armor studded with bone, and wore a small wooden helmet decorated with a piece of bone as well. The nobles and their retainers quietly fanned out.  Telémahkos and Bleys creeping forward with Falco, while Laarus and Victoria waited a bit further back not far from Markos and Dunlevey.  Tymon readied his crossbow as everyone did their best to be ready and get into defensible spots.Bleys held back as Telémahkos went around the left flank and Falco the right, both noticed a second goblin appear from the cliff edge.  They knew then that there must be some trail just beyond and out of sight, and they guessed it led to the lookout marked on the map.With a nod, Telémahkos and Falco let arrows fly, and in a flash both goblins dropped, but the second one tumbled back over the edge, sending up a stream of blood and a plume of dust.  There was a cry of alarm from below, and as Telémahkos hurried back towards Bleys, the others hurried forward, readying for any more goblins to appear.The next goblin to arrive poked his head up carefully as he climbed up to the edge, and took a crossbow bolt to the chest from Telémahkos.  The creature bellowed, but miraculously was alive, trying to draw an arrow to its own bow.  A bolt from Tymon and an arrow from Bleys flew over its head caused it to duck as it loosed an arrow at the watch-mage.  Bleys leapt aside, startled.  A shot from Markos’ gnomish crossbow, as he stepped up beside the mage, sent the goblin to the ground, even as another appeared, with a companion right behind it.“Dookaloo!” They cried in alarm.Telémahkos fired again, but when this shot missed, he dropped his crossbow and hurried into the chaos of battle, rapier drawn.  The latest goblin to arrive tumbled back down with one of Bleys’ arrows in its throat.  While the other leapt aside to avoid the worst from one of Falco’s arrows, only to step into the arc of a spear hurtled by Victoria as she charged in.  Laarus came around the other side of the large tree and smashed the skull of yet another goblin that had thought to make its way up a bit further along the edge.  Its brains were splattered against the tree trunk. The priest of Ra swung his flail and sent gray droplets in all directions.Now the last four goblins had made it over the edge in the mounting chaos, decided that perhaps it was best to flee back the way they came.Two readied spears to cover the retreat of the other two, but one of those was cut down with one heavy blow of Dunlevey’s great sword.   Markos let a bolt fly into the other, and Victoria moved in to drive it back.Bleys sent an arrow after one of the fleeing goblins, but missed, Tymon having better luck with the other.  A javelin from Telémahkos finished it.Flicking the corpse of the goblin she had skewered out of her way, Victoria ran up to the edge of the drop off.  She could now see that the path wound its way down through thorny bushes and rocky outcroppings to the plateau overlooking the gorge of the King Stones.  The plateau itself had a few bushes growing in the muddy ground that covered it, and the scattered remains of what must have once been great statues of black stone, clearly not indigenous to the area, were also visible. (5)Victoria saw the remaining goblin, ducking and bobbing as it hustled down the path.  “There it is!” Victoria called, pointing with her long spear awkwardly with one hand as she reached to her back for a shorter one to throw.  Telémahkos hurried over and flung his last javelin, and it yelped as it clipped the top of its head, shattering the piece of skull on his wooden cap. Less than a moment later, it stumbled as Victoria’s spear bounced painfully off one of the bone studs on the goblin’s armor, but it recovered and continued to run.  Telémahkos tumbled over the side and began to give chase, but an arrow from Falco caught it in the side of the head and it finally fell.  Not wanting to waste his effort, Telémahkos continued down to check out the lookout stealthily.He stopped and stooped to pick up a small bow and a quiver of matching arrows from the dead goblin, and was startled when he heard Bleys’ voice right behind him.“Do not be alarmed. I am using a spell that allows us to whisper messages back and forth unheard.” The watch-mage was at the top of the embankment, talking softly into his cupped hand.  “Describe to me what you see.”Suddenly there came from the plateau a steady drumming, punctuated with rapid triplets after a seeming random number of beats.  Telémahkos crept around the last outcropping and looked around the wide plateau.  He described to Bleys what he saw:  the small bunches of bushes, and the shattered black stone torso of a statue that must have once been twenty feet tall.“I hear drumming,” Telie said.“Yes, we hear it, too,” Bleys replied, as the sound was echoing out over the gorge and through the forest.  “Do something about it…”It was hard to tell where the drumming was coming from at first, but then, noticing how one of the small bushes wavered, Telémahkos raised the small goblin bow and awkwardly fitted one of the small arrows to it.  He gave a quick silent prayer to <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Bes" target="_blank">Bes</a> and let the arrow go. The tiny thing sliced through the air in a perfect arc, ending with the mortal grunt of the unseen goblin. Telémahkos hurried over and pushed the branches aside to reveal his goblin arrow deep in the eye of a goblin with a now bloodstained drum on his lap. Telie smiled. (6).“Done!” he replied to Bleys. Quickly looking around the watch-post camp, Telémahkos found little of interest and nothing of value, so he hurried back up the winding path to the others.“That drum was echoing all over the place,” he said. “There are probably more coming…”Reasoning that whatever additional goblins were on their way must come from the other side of the forked trailed, they hurried back in the direction in hopes of setting up an ambush.End of Session #12---------------------------------------------------------Notes:(1) This was where the party fought Hezra and her sons. (See Session #10)(2) The party had all taken non-lethal damage and were fatigued or exhausted from the march through the incredible heat of the area.  Remember, it is mid-summer.(3) To see the map <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Map+-+The+King+Stones+%28Old+Adventurer%27s+Map%29" target="_blank">click here</a>.(4) Bleys the Aubergine learned of the ‘box of wands’, from Garkhan the Green, <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Watch-Mage" target="_blank">watch-mage</a> of <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Weirspierogen" target="_blank">Weirspierogen</a>.(5) On the party’s map of the King Stones, the nearly illegible writing on it near the “lookout” area, said “broken statues’, though they were originally not sure if it might say “broken stairs”.(6) Telie’s player not only got past the 50% miss chance for the concealment of the bush, but also rolled a critical hit result, killing the goblin drummer instantly.</blockquote>

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