The party takes a breather
Subject Aftermath
"Nay, Kal. Salix is right." Ran speaks, sounding a little stronger than before. "If everyone is able, we will ride east to rejoin our companions and Lady Rochelle. Our duty lies with her making sure we can get her home safely. I can ride, at least for a while, but I am not sure how Harp fares."
Turning to Harp, Ran asks "Can you ride for a distance?"
From: Kevin
Subject Aftermath
OOC: Depending upon what Mark determines Harp will cast cure light wounds on him self - enough to get his arm healed. He would rather the other players be at full strength - he belief will be that having everyone except him at full health will be more important than everyone being partially healthy. He will not put too much of a fight at this point. He will agree that they should put some distance between themsleves and the camp. He will suggest that they search the 1/2 orc for anything he may have on him other than his axe.
From: Mark
Subject The party takes a breather
The quite of the moonlit night is broken by the panting of the party. In the still air faint hoof beats can be heard to the east. The party hardly notices when the eagle the Salix had summoned disappears. Ran limps over to the form of the fallen ? orc and plunges his sword into this chest, about where the heart should be, assuming this brute had a heart.
Ran hears Harp's ragged breathing. Looking over at him, he sees Harp's arm hanging at an unnatural angle. The ? orcs face is white and he is gasping for breath. Realizing that Harp was the only one who had not gotten any healing from their encounter with the werewolf just the night before, Ran calls to Salix ?Can you do anything to help Harp? We need to get moving as soon as possible...? As Ran starts to move to assist Harp he almost collapses. He stops himself, not sure if he would be able to make it any way.
"Can someone get the horses and bring them to us. We may have to camp here for a while to recover before we can go to catch up with Surin, Bel, and Rochelle. They should be safe for the time being. Surin is resourceful and I am sure he can keep them away from too much trouble." Fal raises his hand ?I will do it? and trots off to gather the remaining horses. Fal also sends Lenore out looking for Bel and Ebon. He knows it is a long shot, since Lenore is not her best in the dark, but it would beat having to search for them.
As Salix approaches he hears Harp muttering a prayer to the battle god while laying his hands on his broken arm. Salix sees the healing glow surround the broken joint, as Harp forces the arm in to position with a grunt. (CLW, Heal 5). Salix is not sure if he has ever seen Harp heal himself before. Usually the ? orc is willing to be the last one healed. When Salix gets to Harp he says ?Let me help you.? Harp is too out of it to argue. Salix touches one hand to the arm and one hand to the symbol on his armor and says a prayer to the healing spirit of Obad-Hai. Harp feel his broken elbow knit some more and is able to move it a bit. (CLW, 7, CMinorW, 1, total 8) Looking up at the druid Harp says ?Thank you my friend. Let me see what I can do to help the others.?
Harp gets to his feet gingerly. His whole arm is still very sore as is the other wounds from last night. He takes a look at Cai and Ran and determines that Cai is in the most need of aid. He is a bit self conscious when she takes off her armor and most of the clothes underneath so that he can inspect the wound. There is not much blood, the mail stopped most of the edge, but there are several broken ribs and a long welt across her chest. ?Let me do what I can tonight to ease the wound and I should be able to help more tomorrow.? Harp tells her. He bows his head and asks Heironious to aid this warrior. (CLW, heal 7) The healing warmth fills Cai and she can breathe easier.
Ran is the last person Harp looks at. While the cut is not life threatening, is looks painful. ?I am almost exhausted but I will do what little I can.? Harp tells him. (CMinorW, heal 4) The gash across his thighs closes some at Harps touch, but it does not close completely. ?Do not worry my friend? Ran says ?tomorrow will be another day and it looks like we will all live to see it.?
Cai, feeling a little better now that her chest does not make noises when she breathes, speaks up. "It shouldn't really be a problem to camp here. Knowing goblins as I do, they're not likely to mess with a group in our numbers, especially considering we just killed the half-orc who was able to cow all of them by himself. We could probably walk into camp, take their tents, and sleep right in the middle of them without any problems as long as someone kept watch. Not that I would suggest doing so. There can't be much more than a couple dozen adult males left in that camp."
Kal nods in agreement. "My friends, I ask that we instead return to the goblin camp and kill all its inhabitants. Without they're leader they will be easy prey, and those of us that are well bodied surely could defeat them. Afterwards we can burn the camp down, to prevent another goblin clan from taking shelter there."
Salix frowns at theses comments. "I know we are all very tired, but we should put some distance between ourselves and the goblin camp immediately. Whoever paid this brute to capture our Lady is likely to return. I'm betting he won't be happy to have lost his prize."
OODM: I will write more this after noon about Rochelle, Surin and Bel.
From: Randy
Subject The party takes a breather
"Aye, Salix, you speak truly. We should ride at least a little. Let us not waste time. We should be off immediately." Ran says to the group.
From: Mark
Subject Rochelle
?Free. Finally free.? That is all she can think about, for a while at least. The pounding of hooves fills her ears; horse sweat her nose. She does not know how long she has been riding. It could have been hours or minutes. All she knows is that she is free and that she will not be taken prisoner again. The past days, or has it been weeks, have blurred together. The horrible attack; watching as her personal guard was cut down. They had done well against the goblins. Probably could have held them off. It was that brute. He had come in out of nowhere and cut down Captain Orlong before any one had realized what was going on. He seemed to revel in the slaughter. All those men, dead because of her. She started crying again, unable to hold back the tears. Tears of anger and frustration, turning into tears of joy that she was free.
A sudden realization makes her grab the reins and pull the horse up. Those men who had rescued her, Dargrak would butcher them just like he did her guards. She would be responsible for their deaths as well. She could not deal with more deaths on her soul. Turning her horse she looks around. She has no idea where she is. She had been heading vaguely east. Or at least that is what the man had said. She looks around in the moonlight, realizing that she is lost. A bird swoops down at her out of the darkness, screeching at her, circling and heading off to her right. ?What a strange thing for a bird to do. It is almost like he wants me to follow him. But I dare not.? She then hears a faint voice calling her name.
It takes her a second, but she finally recognizes it. It is the voice of the halfling that had saved her. ?Over here? she calls out. A few seconds later an out of breath halfling pulls up beside her on a weary looking pony. ?My Lady, why have you stopped? We should keep going. The brute was just behind me when I left. I do not think my pony can run much faster than what I saw him do. We should continue heading east, just as we were told. Excuse me my Lady.? Surin picks that moment to lean over the other side of his pony and wretch some more. He fumbles for his water skin when he is done, trying to get the taste of bile out of his mouth.
?Sir halfling, I will not run away anymore. I have already been the cause of so much death. I can not bear the thought of being the cause of even more. You and your friends were brave but foolish to rescue me. You have not seen what that brute can do. I am afraid that your friends are dead as we speak, butchered by Dargrak. I have seen first hand, more than once, his love of brutality and violence. There were what, five or six companions of yours? I saw him cut down over 8 of my personal guard and have almost not a scratch on him. I fear your friends are dead.?
From: Rob
Subject The party takes a breather
Mark, I accidentally sent this to Josh only, but if possible I would like this to have happened, particularily about searching the half-orc with Detect maginc....
Thanks,
Rob"
Bel says " Kal, while I see your point, our first obligation is to get Rochelle to safety, and while she is far safer now than an hour ago, we are all still in grave danger. I hate goblins, but as much as I would like to finish off the camp, I feel it would be a mistake at this point."
Bel then goes over to the body of the half-orc and casts Detect magic on his possesions, looking for anything dangerous or magical. If nothing is sensed, then he will strip the body of anything that looks valuable or out of the ordinary.
He also asks if Harp would like to try the huge axe out, as he is probably the only character with a chance of lifting it....
From: Mark
Subject Bel
Actually Bel is not with the party at the moment.
He rode off as rear guard a round or two ago. He was going to go about 5 range increments away and then dismount. That is about 750 feet.
However the party should be back together here soon. Keep it in mind.
From: Josh
Subject Rochelle
OOC: Thanks for the vote of confidence lady. :-D
From: Mark
Subject Rochelle
Give him two more rounds and see what you would be saying. Oh yeah it would have been silent. ;)
From: Kevin
Subject Rochelle
Surin, smiles at Rochelle and says "Brave, maybe. Foolish, of that I have no doubt, but I would wager me friends back there will give as good as they get. There are those among our troop who have powers beyond the physical. Be that as it may, yer going back does nothing. If my friends are dead, then yer returning makes their deaths in vain. That canna stand. If by runnin, we get you back safely, then that's the way its gonna havta be. If they survived, they will be a'comin after us, and my friends will be annoyed that I dinna get ya farther away.
Come let us ride as we can east. Our feathered friend up there will look out for us and let us know if any come up behind us, for good or ill.
By the way, me name is Surin, and we were sent by your betrothed, Kight/Captain Angelwing.
OOC: Mark, will Surin be able to tell that they are going in the right basic direction? I don't know if there is a road here, a path, etc. He can probably tell which way north is but I just wanted to make sure.
From: Kevin
Subject The party takes a breather
Harp agrees with Salix. " We gain nothing by killing the remaining goblins in the camp. They will not come after us, especially with him, he points at the body of Dargrak, out of the picture. Our charge was to see Rochelle safely delivered to Knight/Captain Angelwing. The rest of you, except for Kal, agreed to the same task. If Kal here wants to walk back to the camp and kill a bunch of sleeping goblins, I am not going to stop him, but I will stay with my task." With that, Harp will move slowly over to his crossbow, head over to his horse and prepare to ride away east.
From: Josh
Subject The party takes a breather
Kal responds: "I am subject to the will of the party. We will
continue after Rochelle.".
From: Mark
Subject Surin and Rochelle
Actaully he has no idea which direction he is going. He was told to follow the bird. He recognizes the bird as Ebon.