The Wolf

Continued from Slowly Healing.

The DM: It is still July 4th; the sky is covered by puffy clouds, there is no rain and the temperature remains cool and comfortable.

Lexent: "Vafrandir, would you be willing to assist me? I can't carry all that much by myself."

Vafrandir: I'm with you! Off we go.

Vafrandir: To be clear, we intend to move camp closer.

Lexent: Indeed.

The DM: Splitting the party, I roll and no ill-happenstance results from it. Marcule is able to get Pandred down the mountain, and might even be able to signal somehow with a spell or something (no idea) to let you know they’re coming. Together, without needing to say so, you make an agreement about some place you saw that morning, so you know just where to meet with each other. However, none of you are a ranger, so I will need a wisdom check from every person in the party.

Vafrandir: I roll a 1.

Lexent: 14

The DM: You both find your way back to the camp, and to the agreed-upon meeting place.

Marcule: I will do my best to take care of Pandred.

The DM: That place ... do you want it to have any special characteristics, commensurate with the area? It's alpine tundra, so there are no trees. Here are some suggestions of what an alpine range offers. Note the "Features" section.

Rolling dice, I do indicate the presence of a single hot spring, so that's probably going to win the choices. No "chalets" obviously.

Vafrandir: Yes, a hot spring gets my vote. Preferably against a rock face to help shield from wind as well.

Lexent: Your first sentence is almost word for word what I was writing. Hot spring, please.

The DM: That’s a safe bet, Vafrandir. The hot spring is little more than a trickle; it makes a pool only one foot in diameter before tricking about fifty yards downhill through an inch-wide crack in the rock surface, where it apparently returns to the subsurface. The pool is about 4 yards from the rock face, which is 18 feet high and forms an angle, 20 feet north-south and 10 ft. east west, with the hypotenuse towards the southwest. Stretching south and west is a small plain of glacial debris, with stones ranging from fist size to gnome-sized.

The DM: “small plain” = 500 yards across, tailing out where the slope breaks into 10 foot wide gulleys and ponds on the southwest edge.

Lexent: The perfect size for resting an ankle.

The DM: the temperature of the hot spring would be 65-70 degrees C; though of course no measurement of that kind would be comprehensible to the characters.

The DM: Let’s see; you can’t get the cart onto the glacial plain. The best you can do is park it 250 yards from the hot spring. The terrain is too rough for the wheels otherwise.

The DM: Marcule and Pandred, I need those wisdom checks. We’ll pick this up Friday, as agreed. Out (but I’ll check back in half an hour).

Lexent: That seems a manageable distance. How much farther from the abrasion zone of the cirque are we now than at the previous camp?

Pandred: 13 on my check. Missed it by 1.

The DM: In. I need that wisdom check from Marcule, so I'll have to roll it.

Lexent: In.

The DM: Marcule rolls a 12, missing his wisdom by 1. With both players missing, you get lost ... for an hour. But that will push you over the top of exhaustion, so its a 2% malady check for each of you. And you're fine. The pair stagger into the newly made camp, very tired, with Marcule's shoulders aching from supporting Pandred, who is just in steady pain.

Vafrandir: In for about an hour then back in the afternoon.

Vafrandir: "We were starting to get worried! Sit down, rest."

Lexent: "This has been a long day. I'll take the first watch while you all start getting some sleep."

Pandred: In. I do rest. You guys can continue scouting without me if you need. I can rest here and handle myself if need be.

Lexent: I am content to move to the 5th. I only need four hours of sleep and am willing to take extra watch shifts.

Vafrandir: I'm not saying we need fear the plateau - at least, any more than any other part of this extremely dangerous wilderness - but we might want to consider a better strategy if we go that way again. On the other hand, we should probably go back to the tarn and examine the area around the inside.

The DM: Rest starting at 8 pm, so benefits won't be felt until tomorrow evening.

July 5

The DM: Cool weather, clear skies, gentle wind blowing.

Lexent: I recommend that we all rest for at least today. Depending on HP we might send a scouting party up to within the cirque tomorrow, but today we should rest.

Lexent: I use the staff to heal Pandred for 3+1+2=6.

Lexent: I cast cure light wounds for 3+4=7 and apply that all to Pandred.

Marcule: OOC: sorry guys i wont be able to play today. next week should be all good see you then.

Lexent: I spend the day aiding Pandred's rest along with anyone else who is willing to stay and be tended.

Pandred: Plus bottle for 2. 9 so far.

Vafrandir: I agree. Let's rest.

Pandred: Bad math, missed the heal. 15 so far. Halfway is good.

The DM: Pandred can get 6 more from rest then. That's 21 total. Ankle is feeling a lot better.

Lexent: Ready to proceed to the 6th.

July 6

The DM: The next day, there is a steady drizzle, but it’s very nearly a mist and not much to be concerned about. Still cool, still a gentle breeze blowing out of the northwest. How does the day start?

Lexent: Not amazingly. I heal Pandred with the staff for 1+2+1=4

Pandred: 3 from the bottle says I'll be better by tomorrow. 28 as of right now.

Lexent: If we'd like I could finish the process off with cure light wounds and we could all head up today, albeit with our healing depleted.

Pandred: I think I'd rather sit tight and save it in case of random encounter. As far as I know we're still okay for food for a while here.

Lexent: Fine by me. Would you like Vafrandir and myself to do some light scouting around the tarn while you finish resting?

The DM: Pandred wasn’t hit, so technically he is the same as 2 h.p. below full. I can make a concession and allow 8 hours more rest to heal the last two points of injury, so you can begin moving about freely at 5 pm.

Pandred: How long to sundown? I don't think any of us wants to twist an ankle scrambling in the dark.

Vafrandir: Out. I'll help scout when I return.

Lexent: I think then that the best course of action is to all just rest for the remainder of the 6th and start out on the 7th.

Lexent: Prior to turning in for the evening I cast cure light wounds for 2+4 and apply 3 to myself. I don't think anyone else needs it but if so, I apply the rest to them.

The DM: Remember, sundown is very late at night. Sundown is 10:47 pm, and it’s not really possible to be in the dark, remember? Full night doesn’t occur until the 28th of July and lasts 29 minutes.

Pandred: I think we'll wait for now. Lex is turning in, I don't want to risk anything. Let's just ding up a new day.

The DM: Actually, not even then. Those 29 minutes are ‘astronomical twilight’, so there is still light in the sky. Fun starts when the seasons change and it is dark all the time.

July 7

The DM: the day starts with light rain, fading into drizzle about 9 o’clock am, when you’re finished sorting and feeding yourselves. The temperature turns brisk. These rest days need 2 lbs. food each; with an additional 4 lb. per person who fought with the goat.

The DM: I’m not consistently keeping track of the food; trusting you to do it. But I think the last day I actually asked for food to be scratched off (without looking) was the 4th, which means these three days are unaccounted for.

Lexent: So that would be 66 lbs. total, I believe (including Oddsdraken, but not Valda). My understanding is that Vafrandir is keeping track of that. The Cargo spreadsheet shows we have sufficient for that, but we might be starting to get just a little bit light.

Lexent: "Shall we head up, Pandred? and maybe bring Oddsdraken with us?"

The DM: You have to feed Valda also. It’s Nadia who can feed herself.

Lexent: They are both back in Treborg though, right? Our supplies there are quite sufficient, from what I can tell.

Pandred: They are. Odds can't fight, he's there to reload my crossbow and keep my fighting weight manageable. Since I dropped the Plate I haven't brought him around, but I keep meaning to change that.

The DM: You might consider hiring other men-at-arms. Between Pandred and Vafrandir, they can jointly count themselves above 10 in most leadership points, even though they have no actual abilities. You’ve led men before; so long as you keep the number small, 1-4, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Lexent: I leave behind my shield and the shattered remains of my Godentag and start up towards the cirque. "Do you think we should try to find how those wolves got out, or plunge straight back in?"

The DM: A trip back to Stavanger would be needed for that; but you could get Lexent’s staff identified and let Nadia’s wage earn it’s value.

Pandred: Joining Lex here. I'm okay to do another day of scouting, and regroup when we have Marcule on monday.

The DM: You make the climb to the cirque; presume that Vafrandir and Marcule are with you, but lagging slightly behind, so they can catch up when they’re able. For the moment, the two of you are semi-alone in your actions.

Lexent: Where is the herd(? flock?) of rothe?

The DM: Drifting to the east side of the plateau. As you reach the top, the rain has ceased and there’s an overcast sky.

Pandred: What does my little spyglass tell me? I know I can't see the dungeon itself in the gully, but let's scan the cirque for what we can see.

The DM: Nothing I haven’t already described. No evidence of other entrances, except that there are hundreds of rocks that could be concealing one, anywhere.

Pandred Yeah, that's fair. What do you think Lex, got any ideas?

Lexent: We should probably start by verifying that the gully is still as we left it, and then start working around the tarn seeing if we can spot an additional exit.

Lexent: I start toward the gulley, pausing to give the rothe time to adjust to our presence as necessary.

Pandred: Tagging along.

The DM: It’s been 9 days since you’ve been here, since June 29th. The scene is exactly as you left it.