Guston scans the area for any signs of bodies or potential survivors.
“I guess the only way forward is to follow those large... big... scary... footprints... *gulp*...
“Excuse me, lovely young lady, Miranda,” again that killer smile, “do you know what is in the direction that these footprints go? Perhaps it is a land of friendly, nice, and lovely people, such as yourself, who couldn’t hurt a fly, and they are just waiting for adventurers like ourselves to wander by so they can give us all their gold? Or is it the monstrous land of the wilderness, where the violent await to murder and torture? Pray it be the former.” Guston’s nervousness and agitation is so apparent that his scratching is stirring up a veritable cloud of face dandruff.
Miranda shakes her head at Guston’s questions and says “Orcs have made camp in the hills over there.” She points towards the west, where you see in the distance a number of gently sloping hills. “As much as I would like to say it is the former, it’s probably the latter.” She returns to her horse and scans the horizon once again. “That said, I agree with the halfling. We should hurry. Also, never call me lovely again. It’s creepy as hell.”
Guston looks a little insulted at Miranda’s rebuttal and mutters something about ungrateful wenches, and laments for his past glory days.
Then he turns to Fiora and says, “Right. Good works, and all that. It’s my duty to help you, I suppose.
“Could you do me a favor when the fighting starts, though? You stay in front. I’ll be the battle commander. Or maybe I’ll strike from the shadows. You know, like an assassin, not a beggar. This can be a chance to put my begging days behind me. Yes, the more I think about it, the better I like it. Striking from the shadows like an assassin. I got to play to my strengths, you understand. Won’t do any of us much good if I get killed on our first adventure!”
Guston gives a somewhat hysterical and forced nervous laugh and fidgets nervously with his mace. He looks over his shoulder fearfully as he reluctantly follows Fiora and the lovely young Miranda towards the hills.
"Stop trying to court the girls Guston. I think you'll be more charming for them, if you talk less. However i agree with sending them front, that way we can get a nice sight from the back."
Sorry for misspelling your name Guston, Disney has too much influence on me.
Vaga has remained silent so far, observing and pondering. He follows the other towards the hills, keeping keen eyes and open ears on the surroundings. He's not very comfortable riding a horse and wish this part of the journey would end soon, so that he can get down on the ground again and feel the soil to his soles.
Edit; btw @mashedtaters, it's funny how you keep refering to my well-clothed dwarf as naked, hehe.. he has a pants and a tunic, so he's not really naked He has no armor though, being monk and getting the WIS bonus to AC.
It takes nearly the whole day for the party to reach the foot of the hills. It is evening when you get close enough to hear sounds of battle, and as you approach the foot of the hills, dark storm clouds form over your heads. However, you notice that only the hills are covered by the clouds, almost as if they were focused on one spot. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning crashes down some distance away, followed by the sounds of guttural screams. As you reach the top of the first of the hills, you can clearly see a battle raging down below. You see a group of six orcs fighting a large half-man, half-scorpion creature. Its black armor glistens with orc blood as it impales one orc with one of its long. black spears. Its tail flashes forward, striking another orc, who slowly falls over. The remaining orcs try to rally, but another bolt of lightning crashes down, taking another orc as a trio of large dogs suddenly charge in and start tearing at them from the flank. Atop one of the dogs is a halfling man with brown hair whose entire body below the neck is completely covered in long thorns. He fires a bow at another orc, and the arrow flies true, skewering its neck and causing it to fall over. The remaining orcs are torn to shreds by the large dogs, and the battle winds down just as quickly as it started.
The halfling immediately looks up at you as you approach and smiles, the thorns surrounding his body receding until they no longer cover him. He waves and says “Hi!” The dog he is riding on, a Saint Bernard, sits down patiently and scans the horizon. The other two dogs, which you now see are a pair of wolves, are also keeping an eye on you from a distance. The scorpionman spares you only a passing glance as it examines the bodies.
Vaga elegantly jumps of his horse, finally standing on the ground again. Apparently this ranger creature and the scorpi-man aren't hostile, he thinks to himself. He raises an arm and waves in the universal way of saying "Hello!" and says in a kind voice; "Hello!".
Vaga stares at the halfling and the scorpi-man while doing this, assessing their strenghts and weaknesses, class, age and armor and weapons. He assumes the scorpi-man is some kind of druid base on the lightning attacks and that the halfling is some kind of ranger due him having both a hound and two wolves. An odd pair, those two he also thinks to himself while watching them.
He also approaches the pair in a non-hostile way, hoping his fellow comrades are right behind him. As he starts walking, he turns his head back and says "Let's go down and talk to them. Maybe you Fi can do the talking, being all charming?".
As he approaches, he slightly tucks free his club from the girdle, so that he can quickly equip it should the need arise.
Kaled wishes they have better spokesman than the mad dwarven monk or the half-sized paladin girl, but shows a surprising wisdom with keeping those thoughts to himself. He gives a appreciative nod to the unusual fighters instead, and starts to wonder if the sporpion creature could provide some poison for him to use somehow.
Edit; btw @mashedtaters, it's funny how you keep refering to my well-clothed dwarf as naked, hehe.. he has a pants and a tunic, so he's not really naked He has no armor though, being monk and getting the WIS bonus to AC.
Lol.
@Skatan Just re-read your description. I thought he was shirtless, I missed the reference to the tunic. I have been picturing this monk with nothing but breeches and wrappings on his legs this whole time.
I guess it’s still sort of applicable. Any dwarf without 5 metric tons of metal on him is nekked!!
Much to the surprise of himself (as well as possibly others in the party), Guston is right there behind the naked dwarven monk, though he is shaking visibly from fear as he imagines that giant scorpion tail impaling his chest and soaking its poisonous mucus into his flesh to melt him into a pool of gooey, flakey, cursed...
No! Mustn’t think about it! He is determined to find his redemption!
To help him get through his fear, he closes his eyes tightly and lightly grips the strong dwarven shoulder in front of him to prevent him from falling as they approach.
As you get a better look, you can see that the armor covering the scorpionman is not actually armor, but is really a hard carapace that almost completely covers his body, except for his face, which is a light gray color. His eyes are solid black. He carries on his back a pair of long, crystalline spears. He appears to be searching for tracks.
The smiling halfling man wears simple clothes and a forest green belt around his waist. He is barefoot, his hairy feet dangling loosely at his mount’s sides. He seems to be relaxed, but Vaga can see that his posture is poised to change at a moment’s notice. He has a shortbow on his back, as well as a quarterstaff.
The halfling cocks his head to the side as you approach, and he says “You don’t seem to be bandits. Are you bandits? If you are, then I guess that’s more fighting for us.”
Vaga, being first on the scene, with Guston just behind him and with his unpleasant breath in the neck, greets the two strangers. His perceptive gaze gave him some insight into the two fellows, but not enough. With Fi still being a bit behind the group of Vaga, Kaled and Guston, Vaga steps up and takes point. Being ever open and honest, Vaga wouldn't ever consider saying anything but the truth. It would just never even occur to him.
"Well met, strangers. Your eyes do not deceive you, as you say, we are most definitely not bandits. Quite the contrary actually, we're on the hunt for bandits ourselves. We're searching for a group of bandits raiding a caravan a few days from here (Vaga nods in the direction they came), and came about you and these... (Vaga looks around the corpses).. orcs. You don't happen to see if these orcs had a lot of building material with them?" Vaga proceed to scan the battlefield for the contents of the caravan. ".. and if I may ask, what is your purpose and why did you slay these orcs?"
Vaga notices as he looks around that the six orcs lying dead here were not the only ones to fall. Up on a hill to the right, he sees that yet more orc bodies are strewn about, mangled and bloody. However, he sees no sign of any building materials or civilians amongst the corpses.
The halfling looks around as if surveying the field and says “Hm, nope! Don’t see any of that here! Of course, it’s not likely that the orcs would take them back out of the camp once they had brought them in. Perhaps the camp would be a better place to look?”
The scorpionman looks back at Vaga and says “We are hunting orcs. That is our purpose. As for why, it’s because they are traitors. Savages who have abandoned theirs oaths of fealty to their king. We were hired to slay them for their treachery.”
Vaga is a bit surprised by their replies, but on the outside his stern face show no emotions. He waits until Fi has asked her questions and when a moment of silence comes, he asks a few more questions.
He turn to the halfling; "Where is this camp of theirs?"
He also turns to the scorpion man and asks "Which king are you referring to; a king of orcs who employ halflings and scorpion men to slay his oath-breakers?"
The saint bernard walks up to Fiora, sensing her interest, and licks her face. He is her size, so this isn’t hard. Mounted on top of him, the halfling smiles brightly at this. “Well, Butter seems to trust you! Yep, I saw them. They are being held captive.”
He looks over at Vaga and says “The camp is over that way.” He points over his shoulder. “If you want to go there, don’t just charge in. There are still a lot of orcs inside.”
The scorpionman scoffs at this and says “Some were born to hide. I was born to hunt. Stay out of the way when the fighting starts so you don’t end up skewered by an orc spear.” He looks at Vaga and says “Aye, that one. The only orc king in the region. You must be new here.” He smirks as he says this.
The halfling speaks up next. “If you’re going to free the people held captive, you should do it while you have some cover. Luckily, we’re here. We’ll keep the orcs distracted for you.” “Or dead,” the scorpionman interrupts. “I prefer dead. Gives me something to do.”
”Agreed. If these orcs hold innocents captive, we should free them immideately. Let us try and sneak in or distract them. No point in killing just for the sake of killing. “ Vaga throws a glance on the scorpioman when saying this.
“Alright then!” the halfling declares. “We’ll go first and draw their attention. The captives are being kept on the right side of the camp. You focus on getting them out safely. Pookie and Bill will keep you safe on your way out.” The two wolves perk up and almost seem to nod in agreement. “Let’s hurry,” the scorpionman says. “I am eager to get started.”
The camp isn’t much farther from where you are, so it doesn’t take long to reach. The halfling points you toward the right side of the camp and says “There they are.” You can indeed see five people tied up on that side. “Alright, I’ll provide us some extra cover.” The halfling begins chanting in a strange language, and as he finishes, a thick sheet of obscuring fog rolls over the landscape. Several alarmed yelps sound in the fog, and the scorpionman vanishes, charging ahead to do battle without a word. The halfling casts one last smile at you before he also disappears, astride the Saint Bernard.. The sounds of battle begin soon after. The wolves begin pacing around you, keeping watch for orcs.
Guston, having finally opened his eyes (though still not quite able to completely take in the sight of the scorpionman’s wicked weaponry) rushes ahead with the others, whipping out his stolen lockpick set and a sharp paring knife, and sneaking quickly behind cover as he goes. He’s not sure how the captives are bound, but he is prepared to use whichever method he needs to free them.
If he reaches the prisoner’s captivity first, he will search for any traps the orcs may have set that would prevent the captives from escaping. Then he will set about freeing them by whatever means are appropriate. He can’t tell from this far away how they are imprisoned.
He also pulls up his hood so as not to alarm the captives with his gruesome face alert the camp to their presence.
Edit: I changed the below to be in spoilers as I found it more appropriate.
Additionally, it seems that Chauntea may have smiled on him with one spell that morning (although he only got one, not two, as is his usual allotment). As he is a coward, he had prepared Sanctuary, expecting to need it as soon as battle commences.
Now that combat appears to be imminent, he casts the spell as they approach, though the words are heavy and guilt-ridden on his lips, and sound hollow even to himself.
Memories of his time casting this familiar spell as part of Chauntea’s rituals flood him. He sees himself on the edge of the podium, praying and exulting in the glory and virtues of Chauntea as his friends in the congregation laugh and smile.
Then he sees the angry, gaunt, and starving faces of some of his congregation swarming his family’s mansion when they learn that he had been hoarding food. He hears their cries of, “Hypocrite! Deceiver! Murderer!” as they smash in his windows and crawl into the house in their madness for food. He sees himself cowering in the corner in fear, and he weakly points out the secret storage behind his bookshelf.
Angrily, he shoves the memory, shame, and guilt away from his consciousness and tries to focus on the task at hand. But as he does, the Sanctuary spell fizzles and he falls out of Chauntea’s favor again.
He nevertheless continues on, thinking that perhaps death may be what Chauntea has in store for him, though he fears meeting with his god, and her followers that perished in his care, so much that his hands are shaking as he wields his thieving tools.
You make your way through the camp and come across the captives. They are tied up with ropes and fearfully glancing about, trying to figure out what’s going on. They spot you coming out of the mist and instinctively try to back away from you as you approach. The wolves hang back so that they don’t scare the captives.
Kaled steps to the first captive and start to cut the ropes with his dagger. "Keep calm, Roan sent us, we are here to free you." "Are you able to run?"
Vaga, having no knife or other sharp object, starts to chew of another captives ropes with his teeth.
@Skatan Bwahahahah!!! literal laugh out loud during break at a long day at work!
“Whoah!! Hold on a minute, V-V-Vaga!” says Guston in surprise, stuttering a little through his lingering fear. “Here, I’ll help you c-cut them free and you help them e-escape, sound good? It will be more efficient that way...
“First you walk around naked and then you try to chew through someone’s bonds...” Guston absently scratches his rash and, despite the seriousness of the moment, looks on the dwarf with a sort of newfound respect and fondness, despite his chide. He finds himself wishing he had that kind of singleminded commitment, though he hopes it wouldn’t go to such extremes.
Guston proceeds to work together with Vaga to rescue the prisoners. Strangely enough, he finds himself much more calm now.
Upon seeing your intentions to help, the captives calm down, and you quickly cut them free. With a quick and silent “Thank you,” they start running back the way you came. Miranda leads them out to safety.
It isn’t much longer when the sounds of fighting cease. As the fog finally clears, you can see the camp clearly. The bodies of many orcs are lying dead on the ground, and you can see in the center of the camp that the halfling and scorpionman have rounded up the rest, who appear to have surrendered. They are currently discussing the fate of their own captives. “Do you think the orc king will take them back?” The halfling asked. “Possibly,” answered the scorpionman. “If only so he can execute them himself. There is no fun in slaughtering helpless creatures, so I don’t care what we do with them.”
“Hmm,” The halfling ponders to himself as he sees you. A smile returns to his face, and he waves. “Did you find everything and everyone you were looking for?” he asks.
Comments
“I guess the only way forward is to follow those large... big... scary... footprints... *gulp*...
“Excuse me, lovely young lady, Miranda,” again that killer smile, “do you know what is in the direction that these footprints go? Perhaps it is a land of friendly, nice, and lovely people, such as yourself, who couldn’t hurt a fly, and they are just waiting for adventurers like ourselves to wander by so they can give us all their gold? Or is it the monstrous land of the wilderness, where the violent await to murder and torture? Pray it be the former.” Guston’s nervousness and agitation is so apparent that his scratching is stirring up a veritable cloud of face dandruff.
"I need to follow them. If anyone is still alive and needs help, it is my duty help."
She then starts heading toward the hills.
Then he turns to Fiora and says, “Right. Good works, and all that. It’s my duty to help you, I suppose.
“Could you do me a favor when the fighting starts, though? You stay in front. I’ll be the battle commander. Or maybe I’ll strike from the shadows. You know, like an assassin, not a beggar. This can be a chance to put my begging days behind me. Yes, the more I think about it, the better I like it. Striking from the shadows like an assassin. I got to play to my strengths, you understand. Won’t do any of us much good if I get killed on our first adventure!”
Guston gives a somewhat hysterical and forced nervous laugh and fidgets nervously with his mace. He looks over his shoulder fearfully as he reluctantly follows Fiora and the
lovelyyoung Miranda towards the hills.The halfling immediately looks up at you as you approach and smiles, the thorns surrounding his body receding until they no longer cover him. He waves and says “Hi!” The dog he is riding on, a Saint Bernard, sits down patiently and scans the horizon. The other two dogs, which you now see are a pair of wolves, are also keeping an eye on you from a distance. The scorpionman spares you only a passing glance as it examines the bodies.
Vaga stares at the halfling and the scorpi-man while doing this, assessing their strenghts and weaknesses, class, age and armor and weapons. He assumes the scorpi-man is some kind of druid base on the lightning attacks and that the halfling is some kind of ranger due him having both a hound and two wolves. An odd pair, those two he also thinks to himself while watching them.
He also approaches the pair in a non-hostile way, hoping his fellow comrades are right behind him. As he starts walking, he turns his head back and says "Let's go down and talk to them. Maybe you Fi can do the talking, being all charming?".
As he approaches, he slightly tucks free his club from the girdle, so that he can quickly equip it should the need arise.
@Skatan
Just re-read your description. I thought he was shirtless, I missed the reference to the tunic. I have been picturing this monk with nothing but breeches and wrappings on his legs this whole time.
I guess it’s still sort of applicable. Any dwarf without 5 metric tons of metal on him is nekked!!
Perhaps Guston will continue to call him naked...
nakeddwarven monk, though he is shaking visibly from fear as he imagines that giant scorpion tail impaling his chest and soaking its poisonous mucus into his flesh to melt him into a pool of gooey, flakey, cursed...No! Mustn’t think about it! He is determined to find his redemption!
To help him get through his fear, he closes his eyes tightly and lightly grips the strong dwarven shoulder in front of him to prevent him from falling as they approach.
As you get a better look, you can see that the armor covering the scorpionman is not actually armor, but is really a hard carapace that almost completely covers his body, except for his face, which is a light gray color. His eyes are solid black. He carries on his back a pair of long, crystalline spears. He appears to be searching for tracks.
The smiling halfling man wears simple clothes and a forest green belt around his waist. He is barefoot, his hairy feet dangling loosely at his mount’s sides. He seems to be relaxed, but Vaga can see that his posture is poised to change at a moment’s notice. He has a shortbow on his back, as well as a quarterstaff.
The halfling cocks his head to the side as you approach, and he says “You don’t seem to be bandits. Are you bandits? If you are, then I guess that’s more fighting for us.”
"Well met, strangers. Your eyes do not deceive you, as you say, we are most definitely not bandits. Quite the contrary actually, we're on the hunt for bandits ourselves. We're searching for a group of bandits raiding a caravan a few days from here (Vaga nods in the direction they came), and came about you and these... (Vaga looks around the corpses).. orcs. You don't happen to see if these orcs had a lot of building material with them?" Vaga proceed to scan the battlefield for the contents of the caravan. ".. and if I may ask, what is your purpose and why did you slay these orcs?"
The halfling looks around as if surveying the field and says “Hm, nope! Don’t see any of that here! Of course, it’s not likely that the orcs would take them back out of the camp once they had brought them in. Perhaps the camp would be a better place to look?”
The scorpionman looks back at Vaga and says “We are hunting orcs. That is our purpose. As for why, it’s because they are traitors. Savages who have abandoned theirs oaths of fealty to their king. We were hired to slay them for their treachery.”
"We are looking for some missing people from a caravan, have you seen any by chance?"
He turn to the halfling; "Where is this camp of theirs?"
He also turns to the scorpion man and asks "Which king are you referring to; a king of orcs who employ halflings and scorpion men to slay his oath-breakers?"
He looks over at Vaga and says “The camp is over that way.” He points over his shoulder. “If you want to go there, don’t just charge in. There are still a lot of orcs inside.”
The scorpionman scoffs at this and says “Some were born to hide. I was born to hunt. Stay out of the way when the fighting starts so you don’t end up skewered by an orc spear.” He looks at Vaga and says “Aye, that one. The only orc king in the region. You must be new here.” He smirks as he says this.
The halfling speaks up next. “If you’re going to free the people held captive, you should do it while you have some cover. Luckily, we’re here. We’ll keep the orcs distracted for you.” “Or dead,” the scorpionman interrupts. “I prefer dead. Gives me something to do.”
The camp isn’t much farther from where you are, so it doesn’t take long to reach. The halfling points you toward the right side of the camp and says “There they are.” You can indeed see five people tied up on that side. “Alright, I’ll provide us some extra cover.” The halfling begins chanting in a strange language, and as he finishes, a thick sheet of obscuring fog rolls over the landscape. Several alarmed yelps sound in the fog, and the scorpionman vanishes, charging ahead to do battle without a word. The halfling casts one last smile at you before he also disappears, astride the Saint Bernard.. The sounds of battle begin soon after. The wolves begin pacing around you, keeping watch for orcs.
"Everyone, pick a captive!" tells he to the others and go to free one immediately.
If he reaches the prisoner’s captivity first, he will search for any traps the orcs may have set that would prevent the captives from escaping. Then he will set about freeing them by whatever means are appropriate. He can’t tell from this far away how they are imprisoned.
He also pulls up his hood so as not to alarm the captives with his gruesome face alert the camp to their presence.
Additionally, it seems that Chauntea may have smiled on him with one spell that morning (although he only got one, not two, as is his usual allotment). As he is a coward, he had prepared Sanctuary, expecting to need it as soon as battle commences.
Now that combat appears to be imminent, he casts the spell as they approach, though the words are heavy and guilt-ridden on his lips, and sound hollow even to himself.
Memories of his time casting this familiar spell as part of Chauntea’s rituals flood him. He sees himself on the edge of the podium, praying and exulting in the glory and virtues of Chauntea as his friends in the congregation laugh and smile.
Then he sees the angry, gaunt, and starving faces of some of his congregation swarming his family’s mansion when they learn that he had been hoarding food. He hears their cries of, “Hypocrite! Deceiver! Murderer!” as they smash in his windows and crawl into the house in their madness for food. He sees himself cowering in the corner in fear, and he weakly points out the secret storage behind his bookshelf.
Angrily, he shoves the memory, shame, and guilt away from his consciousness and tries to focus on the task at hand. But as he does, the Sanctuary spell fizzles and he falls out of Chauntea’s favor again.
He nevertheless continues on, thinking that perhaps death may be what Chauntea has in store for him, though he fears meeting with his god, and her followers that perished in his care, so much that his hands are shaking as he wields his thieving tools.
"Keep calm, Roan sent us, we are here to free you."
"Are you able to run?"
“Whoah!! Hold on a minute, V-V-Vaga!” says Guston in surprise, stuttering a little through his lingering fear. “Here, I’ll help you c-cut them free and you help them e-escape, sound good? It will be more efficient that way...
“First you walk around
nakedand then you try to chew through someone’s bonds...” Guston absently scratches his rash and, despite the seriousness of the moment, looks on the dwarf with a sort of newfound respect and fondness, despite his chide. He finds himself wishing he had that kind of singleminded commitment, though he hopes it wouldn’t go to such extremes.Guston proceeds to work together with Vaga to rescue the prisoners. Strangely enough, he finds himself much more calm now.
It isn’t much longer when the sounds of fighting cease. As the fog finally clears, you can see the camp clearly. The bodies of many orcs are lying dead on the ground, and you can see in the center of the camp that the halfling and scorpionman have rounded up the rest, who appear to have surrendered. They are currently discussing the fate of their own captives. “Do you think the orc king will take them back?” The halfling asked. “Possibly,” answered the scorpionman. “If only so he can execute them himself. There is no fun in slaughtering helpless creatures, so I don’t care what we do with them.”
“Hmm,” The halfling ponders to himself as he sees you. A smile returns to his face, and he waves. “Did you find everything and everyone you were looking for?” he asks.
"Could you tell us shortly what happened? If there were others with the caravan, and where is the shipment?"