Lucius Cypher

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

Buddy looked at you intently, however he soon nods. Seemed that he agreed with you. He took out his axe and stood defensively by the wagon as Ferric and Andras got their crossbows out. "Don't worry about us, we'll take care of ourselves if it comes to it. Just be safe." Ferric said to you. "And if you're going to use those oil barrels, here. I was saving this for myself but you'll need it more than I would." He handed you another flask of Alchemist Fire. Once everyone was ready they moved forward towards the goblin scouting party.

Everyone was doing a decent job being hidden, though Shortfang made a little bit of noise as he loaded his crossbow. The mechanical sounds of his weapon echoed lightly in the canyon, however it doesn't seem like anyone else noticed it. Eventually the party, or most of it at least, would find a convenient rock to hide behind as they watch the goblin scouts. Sure enough there was six of them and it seemed like they were making or found a camp. There was an old moldy table that two goblins were in the process of breaking down with their swords, while two more were rumaging around the bedrolls on the ground. Another goblin was looking through a pile of rocks. Lastly, likely the leader of this band, there was a tall hobgoblin that looked similar to the one you faced before, however he had a shield and an axe. It looked like he was using his axe to chop some branches off the tree, and near the tree were a few sacks and two barrels, likely the oil barrels that Shortfang told you about. Additionally Syfr was also nearby in the tree, his owl form so far unnoticed by the goblins below.

"Doesn't seem like they spotted us yet. How do you want to do this Sylvia? We'll follow your lead." Pylia says as she has her warclub at the ready. Shortfang had his light crossbow out as well, one of the steel tipped bandit bolts loaded into it.

Rolls and Info

Sylvia (21/21)
Shortfang (28/28) | Syfr (1/1)
Pylia (24/24)

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

Roll stealth please.

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

Shortfang seemed worried. "No go alone! Goblin near barrels, five small, one hob. Go together, kill quick, then we use barrel, yeah?" Pylia nodded with Shortfang as she strapped her shield on. "I agree, no way we're letting you go in there alone. If what Shortfang said is right, they've already sent a scouting party up ahead, and if any of them get away we'll lose the element of surprise. As long as we don't make too much noise, we ought to be able to take out the scouts, which will give us time to set up the oil barrels so we can use them to our maximum ability. When we're this severely outnumbered, we need to cooperate with each other more than ever."

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

Shortfang continued to concentrate through his familiar, trying to see whatever it is he sees before he responds. "Not one cart can take. Have to climb down cliffs. Not easy. But..." Shortfang paused a few more seconds as Syfr was investigating. "I see... See barrel. Syfr smell smoky barrels." That's when Ferric chimed in, having stopped the cart when he heard the talk about goblins. "You know before they abandoned this pass, as most of the military were human, they had oil barrels in order to fuel their lanterns and braziers. I bet if you could set a spark off on those, you could create a sizable explosion! Goblins might be strong in numbers, but no matter how many there are, a well placed bomb ought to take them out!"

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

"Not a problem dear. If you ever come by, simply knock and I shall be there." Muriel waved the party goodbye as they departed. Buddy pulled the cart behind the wagon, and both vehicles had chains on their wheels to provide them extra traction in the mud. It worked swimmingly; though it was a bit bumpy at times, they were able to easily traverse the uneven and dredge terrain. The only issue was that as they went down hill, they'd need to be very careful about their speed as to not let the vehicles over take their engines, or in other words, not to go so fast that they'd flip. Thus it was an equally slow descent as it was heading up. Thankfully since you all had a full meal in your bellies, you had plenty of energy to spare.

As per usual, Shortfang sent Syfr out ahead to scout for dangers, spotting a few harpies in the distance by they seemed to be distracted at eating a mountain goat they managed to hunt. However about four hours into the journey Shortfang alerts the party of something up ahead. "Shortfang see goblins, live ones. Just six, but they looking for something. Scouts." Shortfang waited a few more minutes to allow Syfr to look around more, and suddenly he sucked his breath in sharply. "... Big horde. Lotta goblins. One... Two... Five... Lotta goblins. Two... No, three hobs. Shaman. And... Ogre." Shortfang gulped. "They got lotta dead animals. Big hunting party. Dunno where they goin, but they on path down." Hearing this made Pylia look grim. "T-Thirty of them? If it were ten or so then... Then we could take them, maybe with some help, but that many all at once..."

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

"Thank you. It's made from a local wild mountain goat called a spiral horn. They're quite capable climbers, and for the lucky few who can catch them, their horns are quite valuable and their fur make for resilient clothing. I used to see more of them around here however since this pass had been abandoned, instead of the goats flourishing more monsters have moved in and driven many of them higher towards the peak." Muriel sighs softly as she finished her meal. She didn't have much as she gave most of it to the guests. "If you go further down the mountains, do be careful. I've heard that a tribe of goblins have taken up residence in the ruined fortifications. I'd go clear them out myself, but they're smart enough to hide if they don't think there's anything worth taking. They'd ignore a lone warrior or hunting but they would be more willing to go after caravans or travelers like yourselves."

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

It wasn't long before everyone started smelling something rather delicious. It looked like Muriel moved the roasted meat into a pot to be braised in a soup made of smoked nuts and berries, giving off an earthly sweet scent. Smelling this got Shortfang sitting up. "Uh.... Wait for Shortfang? Shortfang... Needs a minute okay?" The kobold got off the hard ground with some difficulty, stretching himself out as best as he could. "Ah, next time Shortfang sleep outside. No used sleep on hard floor." Pylia booped him in the face with the bedroll, however he caught the bedroll tightly and pretended to fall asleep while grasping onto it. "Shortfang I will toss you off this cliff if you don't wake up!"

After a few more minutes of foolery, Shortfang does put away his things and escape Pylia's wrath. Muriel was almost done cooking as everyone else went outside to prepare to leave once more. They take a little while longer however as Andras came up with an idea to put chains onto the wheels of the cart and wagon, so that they'd have more traction going up the wet slopes. Ferric did have some steel-link chains, usually for sealing doors and such, and wasn't against using them since he didn't really make much money selling them. It was around this time that Muriel was finally done cooking and offered everyone to have one meal with her before they'd leave. She created a braised goat with mountain nuts called Harspud and some wild berries, served with a bowl of wheat gruel and a mug of cold rain water.

"I must apologize for making my guests cook yesterday, all I had was a bit of meat which I knew wasn't going to satisfy everyone. I usually live here alone, so a bit of goat over a fire is enough for me, but guests should have something finer than that. Fortunately I left early this morning to forage some berries and nuts to add to this otherwise bland meal." It wasn't half bad. It was rather salty, but the the sauce from the nuts and berries gave the meat a tender flavor that could be described as a sort of sweetness to it, almost like a jam but much more runny. The gruel was oddly pleasant with a hint of sweetness in it. A few more bites and you may realize that the gruel was made not with water, but milk.

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

Shortfang mumbled more and didn't seem like he wanted to get up. "Shortfang sore... Shortfang sleep more..." Pylia was getting impatience as she rolled up her bedroll and wielded it menacingly. "I'm sure beating him with a bedroll won't hurt him too badly, right Sylvia?" Pylia seemed to only be asking you to threaten Shortfang, but it's possible that she's also looking for your permission to lay a smack down. The others at least were able to muster themselves easily enough, and Muriel began cooking some sort of roasted meat with nuts and berries.

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

“No no, I shouldn’t make my guests make my meals. I shall prepare breakfast for you all. It would seem some need your help anyways.” Sure enough Pylia was trying to wake up Shortfang but he wasn’t budging. The healer tries to lightly slap his face but all he did was roll over and continue sleeping, making Pylia exasperated. “Shortfang, if you don’t get up I will toss you into a puddle. I know you can hear me!”

Keratia: Tales of the Arisen One

You can tell that she hasn’t been asleep. It seems like she’d actually been awake for some time now. You also realize that yesterday when she refused your sandwiches, she seemed embarrassed. And as you saw last night in her cellar, all she really had for food was that chopped up animal carcass. If you had to guess, she was completely unprepared for visitors yesterday and feels some level of shame that she wasn’t really able to host you all properly, offering no food or drink, just shelter. Wherever she went likely had something to do with that. You may notice she seemed to have a slight bulge in her dress, likely hiding something she went to get last night.

You can thus deduct that she does t have any particular hostile motives, she simply wants to make up for being an unpleasant host yesterday. However it still begs to question where she went and how, which your insight alone wouldn’t be able to figure out beyond theories.