Marcule

Continued from At Home, Dividing Treasure

The DM: It is a cool day, with a fresh southeast breeze and a steady rain falling from a grey sky.

Lexent: "Well Vafrandir, Should we spend time looking into the other disappearances, or hurry straight back to the hole?"

Vafrandir: I don't mine popping over to Kristensen's. I suspect it was a crime of opportunity, but it won't hurt to let him know. Also, if we have opportunity to restore anything to these people for what they've lost, I think we should take it.

Lexent: "I agree. We should be able to compensate their losses out of what we find in that horrid pit, assuming we survive it. Though, I didn't want to make any promises before we can resolve the situation."

Lexent: I head toward Kristensen's property.

Vafrandir: I'll accompany. "True, we don't know what will be usable or useful to them. Or indeed if we'll even survive...that last fight was close."

The DM: I’m afraid it is just a crime of opportunity. The calf was with its mother when they took it. Kristensen will say it’s a pity, as his milk cow is five years old and he was going to butcher it next spring, when the calf began to give milk. Now he guesses he’ll be without a milk cow for at least a year, if he can convince the 5 yr. old to bear another calf. He wears your ears off with farmer talk.

Lexent: When it is polite to do so, we thank him and take our leave. How much of the day do we have remaining, and has the weather improved? Weather's about the same.

The DM: It's noon.

Lexent: How long do we estimate that it will take to return to the goblin encampment, and how far distant is it from the ship?

The DM: 9 miles, it's a 14 hour walk.

Lexent: That being the case, I recommend that we head in that direction and can camp this evening. In the meantime, would it be possible to get a map showing roughly the relative locations of and distances between Treborg, the ship, and the goblin encampment? I'm having a hard time keeping it straight in my head.

Vafrandir: Sure. It's rainy, but I don't want to hang around too long for the weather to improve.

Lexent: It sounds as though we are in agreement. I begin heading back toward the goblin encampment.

Vafrandir: Away we go. The cart is still plenty full with supplies.

The DM: Let’s say you’re on the edge of Treborg, facing east. For the first three miles moving towards 1 o’clock on the compass, there are scattered fields and woods that are carefully maintained. Beyond that, moving at 2 o’clock, for two miles you climb a low hill made up of shield granite. At the peak of that ridge, four miles from Treborg, at a speed of 3/4 mile per hour, you come to a “fork,” but only in your mind. There’s no specific landform or cairn, it’s just a place you’ve been to half a dozen times now.

The DM: Turning towards 12 o’clock from this fork, you roll level on the cart, getting around some of the water courses at ½ mile per hour, for two miles, until you get to the top of a valley that swings slightly towards 11 o’clock. From there, descending at ¼ mile per hour, after ¾ of a mile you bring the cart adjacent to the crashed airship.

The DM: Going the other way from the fork, you roll level for one mile (2 hours) eastward, towards 3 o’clock. You do this until you find a fairly easy going footpath that takes you towards 2 o’clock for three miles, at 1 mile per hour with the cart. That’s 13 hours altogether. At that point, you have taken the cart as far as it will go; you climb through the rocks for one more mile, at ½ mile per hour, as it’s tough going. That’s nine miles altogether and it brings you to the skeleton dungeon.

Ryfolke (west) & Ioglefeld (east)

The DM: That should be enough info for you to make a map. There’s a big mountain to the north of the skeleton dungeon and to the east of the airship, that’s the same mountain. That mountain is the first of a string of mountains that leads NNE into Hordaland County (you’re in Rogaland). There are three low mountains between the crashed airship and the sea, and a loose group of mountains east and south of the skeleton dungeon. This last group reaches to the fjord south of the dungeon and separates Ryfolke from Ioglefeld.

The DM: Not every mountain I’ve described is shown on the map. Remember, the map “mountains” are just symbols. One hex is 6.67 miles.

I’m going to go back now and correct the compass headings, as Treborg is farther south than I’d exactly remembered. So bear with me a moment and I’ll get those fixed.

Ah, there's really only one change. You head the first three miles at 1 o'clock, not 2.

Good enough?

Lexent: Good enough to start, although I'm not sure about the distance from Treborg to the fork I see three miles, then two miles, for a total of four. I guess that you've given us that four miles as the crow flies. I'll work on plotting that out. In the meantime, we are heading for the 'fork'.

Vafrandir: Agreed.

The DM: I am giving distances as the crow flies. The actual winding and wending is taken up with how long it takes for you to make real progress in the period of an hour.

The DM: If you build a little cairn at the fork, we’ll start calling it “the cairn.”

Vafrandir: How long would that take?

The DM: Assuming you have to find the rocks there, shall we say 1 hour per cubic foot? With no part being more than 2 cubic feet resting on a 1 sq.ft. base.

Vafrandir: What other advantages would it give besides convenient shorthand? I'm trying to weigh the time cost.

The DM: Off hand, it will make it easier if you have to find your way out here after a snowfall; it can be seen at a distance; others given the directions I’ve just given you will find the cairn as a stepping stone. And the taller you build it, the further away it will be seen by someone looking for it but doesn’t know where it is. Makes a meeting place as well.

Lexent: And possibly a good campsite on the way to the ship?

The DM: That’s up to you. Cairns exist all over this part of the world because the stones were available and most parts looked the same as other parts. They get improved upon, become monoliths ... which in D&D might acquire a druidical value. Campsites are not merely places to rest; they can have briar encirclements, post holes for better tents, slabs to cut meat on, poles for drying meat or skinning furs; piles of wood that are uploaded to this place, etcetera.

Lexent: Okay, If I'm counting correctly, getting the cart as far as it will go toward the goblins will take 13 hours. From the 'fork' to that location is 5 hours, so it will take us 8 hours to get to the fork. Once we get there and set up camp for the night, I spend any remaining time working on a cairn at that location.

The DM: Ten hours is the work you can normally manage in any given day. Beyond that, I make a malady check, because you’re getting tired and prone to making mistakes.

Lexent: And how much 'work' have we done already in talking to Kristensen?

The DM: Call it 2; travelling.

The DM: Let’s actually call it 3: getting out there and getting back, to load up your wagon and get going.

Lexent: OK. Does everyone feel comfortable trying to make it to the fork today, or should we select a different course of action?

The DM: It will take you 11 hours of total travelling time today to get to the fork; that’s one extra hour, which means a 2% malady check to everyone in the party. I point out that just such a check almost meant Pandred falling overboard and drowning.

Setting Out

The DM: Okay, until tomorrow. Out.

Lexent: In.

Lexent: I edited that map with the paths described to us yesterday and put a copy. Does that seem to match up with everyone else's understanding?

Lexent: If one of you wanted to check my work, I don't think that would hurt either. It still feels like I was missing something.

Vafrandir: My vote is to travel safely today and camp before reaching the fork. That will give us some time tomorrow morning to discuss or build a cairn if we so choose. Time is important here but not such that we necessarily need to push our strength on the first leg.

Lexent: I concur. We set out.

Vafrandir: Before we leave, what else need we bring? Clubs might honestly be useful if there are more skeletons.

Lexent: Well, I don't know how we would go about getting those except by collecting them while travelling unless we wanted to make a trip to Stavanger. I believe Alexis has rules for using found items as weapons.

The DM: In.

Marcule: Lexent, I'm good to join you in your faith.

The DM: I take it you can’t upload a picture to the wiki, Lexent. I hadn’t realized your permissions didn’t allow that. I hadn’t realized that a part of your journey led you through forest. Can’t we please presume that the north path of your journey passes just to the east of the dark greenery?

Lexent: My paths there are simply following the headings provided. I have no particular intent to 'follow' them while travelling unless that is indeed the correct course.

Lexent: And yes, I am blocked from doing so. I am given the message that I do not have permissions to edit via the API.

Lexent: I take 'protection from malevolence'

The DM: If anyone has an axe, you can make clubs fairly easily.

The DM: Waiting for a consensus on travelling.

Lexent: Do I correctly understand from the old wiki that they would be more prone to breakage?

Lexent: I do not have an axe, it is on my list of items to purchase at the next opportunity.

Vafrandir: I believe Pandred has handaxes. Would these work? In any case, I'll join the consensus on travel.

Pandred: In. I have several kinds of axes. I will make the clubs. I will make five such clubs.

The DM: Clubs break on a 1 in 4.

The DM: Then we’re agreed on travelling, once the clubs are made?

Pandred: Yes please.

Vafrandir: Agreed.

Lexent: Agreed

Marcule: Agreed

The DM: And ... you're off. Pandred starts out strong on the inside, but Vafrandir on his left is gaining ground ... oh now its Marcule! Marcule is coming up fast ...

The DM: No one said anything about waiting for the next day, so after seven hours you’re still an hour short of the “fork.” I’ve rolled and there are no random events on the way there. Do you wish to camp here or go on another hour to the fork?

Lexent: I am fine with camping here.

Pandred:So am I, but for my understanding: Does that mean it took an hour to make the clubs, seven to get here, and that comprises a full day? Therefore we're eating a check to get to the fork?

Lexent: No, We spent three hours in the morning looking into another livestock disappearance. Out of ten hours available that left us with seven.

The DM: I’m taking it that you make the clubs, Pandred, while they’re off to see Kristensen. That happened today, and soaked up three hours of your travel time.

Pandred: Great, thank you both.

June 30

Come the morning, it is still raining; the moderate wind makes this somewhat unpleasant, and since you marched yesterday in the rain, and are awakening in the rain, it is getting just unpleasant. It's on the low side of cool.

Lexent: "Well, the only way out is through." I propose we continue as far as we can with the cart toward the cirque where the goblins were camped and see what has occurred in our absence. Is there any particular hazard due to the weather?

The DM: I haven’t made any specific rules for hypothermia, but with the temperature down around 11 C, and constant rain, and being soaked through (who here is wearing gear that’s waterproof, ie., muleskinner’s hat, sealskin, leather cloak? Sooner or later hypothermia will result. I'll probably handle that with the malady table.

You can’t just ignore the weather and keep tramping through it. Rain makes mud, makes it slippery; what’s Marcule’s spellbook wrapped in?

Lexent: Will resting here in the tents to wait out the storm avoid those hazards?

Marcule: It is just in my backpack.

The DM: Yes.

Lexent: In that case I propose we wait out the storm.

Vafrandir: Seconded.

The DM: The rain dimishes to a drizzle by early afternoon, so that by 3 pm it is a steady mist, but not droplets. Continue waiting or move ahead? The temperature is continuing to fall, so that it is no longer cool, it is brisk.

Pandred: I vote to press on.

Lexent: Seconded.

Vafrandir: How does the trail look? Too muddy? I'm sure its a bit sloppy at least.

The DM: Remembering it is the slickness of the stone more than it is mud; the country is designed to drain quickly, so mud isn’t an issue except when it is coming down. You bring down your tent, pack camp and start out for three hours; one hour to get to the fork, then two hours gets you a mile to the east. This gets you to the easy footpath and it is 6pm. You have four hours of daylight. The rain has stopped, there’s blue sky and puffy clouds, and it feels brisk as hell. but your wet clothes are drying out, though you feel raw to the bone.

Lexent: I suggest we use at least the next three hours to get up to the base of the cirque.

Pandred: So be it. I'll scan the goblin encampment with my spyglass as soon as the area comes into view.

Vafrandir: Before we leave the cart I'll spread one of our extra tents over it for some protection from weather.

Marcule: I cast warm on my clothes.

Lexent: Do we want to try to move on past where the cart can go, even though that would put us near the goblins after dark?

Pandred: Dunno about that. We have reason to believe there was a second group of live gobs.

Pandred: Out.

The DM: remembering that the goblin encampment is in the bottle of a gulley, so it can’t be seen from far away. The cart is protected. Marcule can warm everyone’s outer clothes in a pile. This is probably a safer place to camp again.

Vafrandir: Then we shall camp. Hopefully the weather is better tomorrow.

Lexent: Seconded. I can take a double watch if needed as I only require 4 hours of sleep to be rested.

July 1

The DM: give me 3 lbs. of food each (accounting for a lot of resting that day). It’s cold camp, but I’m not using those nutrition rules, not yet. You build your camp and settle in; eat, sleep, and are awakened at 3 am by a thunder storm that rolls in on a strong wind and drops 3 in. of rain in six hours, into 9 a.m.

Vafrandir: Accounted. Wet indeed. May be tricky going up the rocks.

The DM: It continues to pour rain like the sky is a tap until 6 pm., until there are pools of water three inches deep in every crevice and low place, and there are rushes of water rolling down between the rocks that you’d need to climb to get up towards the dungeon.

Marcule: "I think we are going to have to camp"

The DM: Seems like nothing but obstruction.

Lexent: "Indeed. It seems almost as though nature itself is warning us against this venture."

Vafrandir: Certainly seems that way. At least water's not an issue...

The DM: After six p.m, the rain finally stops again. you have about 3 ½ hours of daylight; the wind is down to a gentle breeze and the temperature is even colder, being sharply brisk. It’s the low 40s F.

Vafrandir: Barely leaves enough time to get over the lip. Hm. What say the rest of ye?

Lexent: Well, we can spend another night here and diminish our supplies, or head for the encampment and risk having to come back down a treacherous climb in the dark.

Lexent: I'm ever so slightly more inclined to press on, but could be persuaded either way. How are our supplies?

Vafrandir: Supplies are fine. We have enough for even several days of hard fighting.

Lexent: Is there any opposition to the idea of going ahead?

Vafrandir: I'm for it, after a little thought. We can sit here on our thumbs or we can make action happen. I choose the latter.

Lexent: I start making my way up the mountain.

The DM: You get your feet wet. You climb up through the rocks and reach the top after two hours, when again you can see the tarn and begin crossing the rocky moor towards the gulley.

As you near the gulley, without seeing yet the tents or any of the site, there is a grinding, cracking sound, inconsistent, that builds and builds until it becomes quite loud, about 60 yards from the edge.

Vafrandir: An avalanche? Or something else?

Lexent: Can we yet see where the rothe had been, and if so, are they present?

The DM: The sound doesn’t happen and then stop. It has been ongoing for as long as you’ve been within range to hear it. The rothe are still where they were, scattered over the landscape, at this time on the opposite side of the tarn.

Lexent: Two questions: Do the rothe seem agitated by this sound? Is the sound itself growing, or are we merely drawing closer to it and thus increasing our notice thereof?

The DM: It might be why the rothe are on the other side of the tarn; you don’t know, as you have no special knowledge of animals. The sound is only getting louder because you’re getting closer. Standing, or perhaps crouching here, 60 yards from the edge, it isn’t getting louder now.

Marcule: I would like to scout to the edge of the gully.

Lexent: You and I are of a mind Marcule.

Lexent: I start circling around the edge toward the side where the rothe are, going for no more than five minutes, to see if the sound either increases or decreases.

The DM: Lexent is a lumbering scout; Marcule is much more stealthy, and can get closer and remain unseen to a better extent without the cleric’s help.

Marcule: as an assassin I will do much better if I proceed on my own. I appreciate the backup but I think it best if I risk my life at this time.

Lexent: "Of, course." I wait for Marcule.

Lexent:[OOC] I missed the word "to" and thought you had meant around the edge of the cirque.

The DM: This is a dirty trick, but this is a good place to stop. Been a frustrating day, I know, but we can manage this tomorrow. Out.

Lexent: No Worries. Out.

Lexent: In.

The DM: In.

The DM: Marcule will move to the edge of the gulley, then quickly return with news of what he’s seen. There are two skeleton dire wolves, like the one you fought, patrolling around the goblin camp. The goblins you killed haven’t been cleaned up, but are laying where they died nearly a week ago.

Lexent: Did anything Marcule saw provide an explanation for the sound?

The DM: It's the sound of their bones sliding over each other and cracking together as they lope in circles.

Lexent: Two Questions: How close can the party move and still be sure of not being noticed? Are there any places around the gully that look particularly defensible?

Pandred: In. Per stealth rules we could guess about 24 hexes, assuming the undead wolves have no special ability to perceive us retained from their wolf-selves or granted by magic. Any closer would risk being spotted, with an average of about 15 hexes in current conditions being where we'd be seen. Intervening terrain may mitigate this.

Lexent: Thoughts on how to proceed? It seems like no matter how far away we start, we wont be able to get many ranged attacks in before they can close with us.

Pandred: No, we won't. Who among us is wielding the clubs? I made enough for each of us with one extra, but is there anyone who has a bludgeoning weapon otherwise?

The DM: Thank you Pandred. I'm catching up. Rules for approaching anything are included in the [stealth] page. Take note of group movement.

Not being directly adjacent to the gulley right now, you don’t have any idea what place on it would be defensible. Additionally, you have no sage knowledge of such things, Lexent.

Lexent: Understood. I was hoping either Marcule or Pandred might have some insights, though.

The DM: the godentag is a bludgeoning weapon.

Lexent: As is the staff, I believe. With a +1 to boot.

The DM: Yes.

Pandred: If the staff is truly +1, giving it to Marcule to offset the penalty to-hit may be wise. Vafrandir and I will each take two clubs, so we can throw upon approach, and IF we give the staff to Marcule, we should give the fifth club to whichever of you has the best to-hit for the same purpose.

The DM: assuming the staff is +1 when in a non-cleric’s hands.

Lexent: Pandred previously felt that it was comfortable and powerful in her hands.

Lexent: And Marcule felt that it felt particularly well balanced.

The DM: I’m only pointing out that it hasn’t been proved yet.

Lexent: Right. I have just seen a lot of hopeful evidence that it is. Father Arvin was able to determine that it was a +1 staff as well, but again, no direct evidence that it would be so in the hands of a non-cleric.

Vafrandir: In.

Vafrandir: I'll take the two clubs gladly. Hopefully this will help a bit. But two dire wolves, hm. We'd do well not to be surrounded, but I'm not sure there's a whole lot of good fighting ground on the slope. At least we're not cramped into a small hallway.

Pandred: I think we should risk Marcule getting it if only because a club and a staff both deal 1d6, and he won't be using a shield anyway so the hands requirement is moot. A magic weapon of any stripe will have superior break resistance as well.

Lexent: I hand the staff back to Marcule and begin securing my shield to my arm. "Pandred, can you see any particularly good locations to be fighting from?"

Pandred: OH OH! How did these get up here? Wolves can't climb ladders! We should observe and see if they lead us to another entrance, or scour the area nearby ourselves! There has to be a proper cave opening somewhere.

Getting Ready

The DM: The ground is largely open; both Pandred and Vafrandir can attest that there are no particularly defensible places.

Marcule: In. I will take a club but i am not proficient. I take the staff "I am not anxious to use this object"

Lexent: "I don't know that we have much daylight left to observe, and I certainly am not keen on fighting these beasts at night."

Marcule: "I agree with Pandred there must be another way for them to get in".

Pandred: "Forget it, victory lies ahead, and nowhere else! HROAGH!" I will begin the approach, as fast as the slope allows: club in one hand and shield in the other.

The DM: Okay. Give me about half an hour, I have to deal with something else.

The DM: I assume you’re not running at the edge in single file, but as a wave; can you please designate your order, from left to right?

Marcule: (OOC: Thanks everyone for the treasure i'm sorry i was absent for the divide. I promise if I live to level I will be sure to let people know. haha. its a crazy build but it has its advantages.)

Vafrandir: I'll fall in beside Pandred, though as I recall I'm quite slow down the slope.

The DM: "beside" Pandred is hardly helpful. I need to put your people on a map. Order, left to right, please.