Pharast 24th - Today is a very dull day

The group awake feeling fully refreshed from an uneventful night, sleeping in relative luxury (with a roof over their heads).

After a large breakfast the group leaves Oleg's and head west to collect the batch of potions brewed by Bokken.  A very jittery and wired Bokken dances over the place in sporadic movements and making very little sense before eventually handing over the goods - it would appear that the hermit was busy making potions all night, along with a special fruity chemical brew for himself which was clearly aimed at securing the hermit the number one spot on 'most likely to be a wacky mascot NPC'.

Turning back the way they came, the party ride east and south-east on their valiant steeds, spending their day riding all the way to the calm clearing surrounding the previously discovered statue of Erastil.  An event-less journey, the only point of note was a moment when Miro fell off his riding dog and smacked his head against a tree stump as a result of falling asleep due to a lack of things to steal, kill or threaten.

Once at the statue the group set up camp for the evening.

Pharast 23rd - A Bandit in the lap

The night passes pretty uneventfully, apart from the small incident of Falgrim Sneer trying to break free from his bonds during the night.  However without a dedicated 'Use Rope' skill that he wouldn't have invested points into anyway, Falgrim's incompetence at escaping was overshadowed by Kyrander's ability to tie excellent knots.  This resulted in the captive bandit rolling down the hill into the thicket of fangberries and spending several minutes trying to lie very still as the party, in no particular hurry, retrieve him from his predicament.

In the morning the party head north, back to the hermit Bokken, in order to hand over the quantities of fangberries that he had asked for.  Delighted with the fragrant batch of fruit, the herbalist offers a couple of freebie potions along with a permanent discount on his stock and so the party take advantage of this by placing an order for a number of cure light wounds potions which they will come back to collect the next day.

As the group enter into Oleg’s trading post, Kyrander throws the tied up Falgrim almost into the lap of Kesten Garess [who as you may recall is a knight belonging to House Garess.  Kersten and a small group of soldiers had arrived in response to Oleg's request for aid, after our party had taken care of the problem.  Kersten had also promised a reward of the group could locate one Mr Falgrim Sneer]. Kesten almost chokes on his afternoon ale, as the tired and beaten Falgrim lands on him and starts begging to be taken away from the bunch of Neanderthals.

Shortly afterwards, Kesten and his men gather their steeds along with their prisoner and leave for Restov so Falgrim can be brought to justice (and will bring back the cache of weapons that the wanted man's bounty promised).

Taking the advantage of having comfy beds reserved, the group decide to spend rest of the day in rest and sleep at Oleg’s.

Pharast 22nd - The Sleeping Bounty

The group awake, feeling refreshed after an uneventful evening and after finishing off the remaining pork, the 6-strong team (Ranger, Rogue, Cleric, Sorcerer, Druid and Badger) decide to explore to the south east, a location that lies just west of the Sootscale Kobold's lair.

After a number of days travelling through thick woodland with scattered streams, occasional marsh patches and dense foliage, the group enjoy spending several hours on horseback, riding through plains and low hills.  In a weird way it was a nice change for the group to travel and explore a wide expanse unblighted by ruins and lacking hidden caches of treasure.  Beyond natural creatures, there is also very little in the way of threats both to them and the common traveller - however that peace soon threatens to end when from atop a hill Natalia spots three figures off in the distance, dressed in recognisable bandit gear (they all seem to have a certain look about them, regarding their apparel) and travelling on foot in a direction leading away from the group.

Otto rolls up his sleeves and shouts "watch this!" to the others; with a wave of his hands and a mutter of words his sleep spell hits all three of the figures and they fall to the ground asleep.

Miro draws his bow and aims at the sleeping figures with the intention of despatching them before they wake from Otto's spell (after all, the bandits could be faking it - over the course of the last week everything else seems to have been able to shrug of Otto's sleep spell).  Just as Miro lets an arrow fly,  Vaneer shout notices and shouts for him to hold fire, too late.

Arching high all eyes watch the arrow as it plummets towards the sleeping bodies, fortunately for the three prone men, the city-raised Miro hadn't calculated for the spring breeze and the arrow misses one of the men by half a foot.

Confused, the group look at Vaneer for an explanation and so the Cleric of Erastil reminds them that they had been asked to keep an eye out for a rogue mercenary named Falgrim Sneer, who was hiding in the greenbelt and that seeing that all the bandits in the area apart from those at the stag lord's keep had been dealt with, this left them with two possibilities....

1 - These bandits have travelled directly from the stag lord and could provide valuable information for the group.

2 - One of them could be the mercenary they need to bring in for justice.

A moment of silence sits over the group as they take in Vaneer's words and they quickly realise that they may have been a little hasty, so they agree to inspect the slumbering figures before deciding on their fates.

Everyone but Miro (who continues to harbour a desire to fire on the sleeping men) rides down the low hill towards the tangle of three men and on closer inspection find that one of the bandits does look like a wanted poster they had seen at Oleg's Trading Post; Falgrim Sneer, their quarry!  Kryander sets about tying Falgrim up, whilst the other two bandits are executed as per the group's remit.

Atop the hill Miro notices a glimmering light caused by the sun reflecting off something metallic, several miles to the south.  Once the group are finished with the task at hand and start to load up their prisoner and recover the bandit's ill-gotten goods, Miro descends (after determining that there was no immediate threat in the vicinity) and subtly conveys to the others that they are being watched from afar by someone with a telescope.

 

Trying to act "normally and unaware" whilst being watched, the party head west with Miro and Kyrander attempting to cover the group's tracks as they move.  After a little while Falgrim eventually wakes up and spends the next couple of hours trying to bargain with his captors for his freedom, but to no avail - his bounty is worth more than he could hope to offer them!  The party also question the bandit regarding his activities and locations in the Stolen lands, but Falgrim has little more to tell them than they already know.
 

Heading west, the party finally locate another bounty as they come across a large spread of bushes, full of plump pink berries, nestled in a small valley between two hills.  Natalia and Kyrander quickly confirm that these are indeed the fangberries that they had been asked to collect.  Otto, wondering why the berries were given such a ridiculous name, narrows avoids being prickled all over when going to pick a few of the berries; the bountiful fruit bushes sport many tiny sharp fang-like thorns all over the bush, which explains why the rare fruit hasn't been eaten by the local bandits and animals.

Sensibly, Vaneer suggests that the team begins setting up camp for the evening whilst he casts Barkskin on himself, granting the cleric a layer of protection which is enough to fend off damage from the tiny sharp bushes of terror which would have otherwise ripped into him.  Vaneer manages to harvest a good amount of berries for the potion-brewing hermit who had asked for these and also some for the group to enjoy after they finish off the night's rations.  Before the night's watch begins, Miro gags the pleading bandit, who hasn't ceased his bargaining for a good many hours, and threatens to throw him in to the fangberry bushes if Falgrim disturbs the halfling rogue's beauty sleep!


[In more peaceful lands and in less troubled times the actions of the party could be considered chaotic, going on evil.  However in lawless wilds with a remit that allows the group to explore and put bandits to the sword, their actions are justified as they try to bring peace and order to an uncivilised land.  Adventurers, cartographers, explorers, executioners and mercenaries - the group is a force to be reckoned with and can be called many things, but 'heroes' isn't such a word, yet...]

Pharast 21st - Troubled Bridge Over Water

The pork-fueled evening passes uneventfully for the group and after a reluctant pork based breakfast the group slowly collect their gear together, whilst Vaneer busily applies more healing to his travelling companions, making sure that there are no lingering wounds from yesterday's epic boar fight.  After this, the budding cartographers head east into more forest region.

After a couple of hours of travelling and with Miro constantly moaning about his over-porked belly, the group move from forests into plains once more.  After spending several hours thoroughly investigating the local flora and fauna they come across the 40ft. wide Thorn River cutting off their path through the plains, into which Vaneer almost fell, whilst leaning over the bank to refill his waterskin.

Not wishing to risk the currents whilst crossing the river the group opt to travel south along the bank to see if they can find a bridge or a point where the river narrows, because it was deemed the sensible thing to do and no-one wanted to end up damp for the rest of the day.  After an hour of  traipsing along the bank, the party of six (including Bob, the team's ferocious fighter, who is also the druid's badger companion and possibly the strongest member of the party) come upon an old wooden bridge stretching across the river.  On closer inspection, they could see that the bridge was indeed very old and ill maintained.  Not seeing another option the group decide to use the bridge to cross the river.

Miro, boasting as the most nimble of the party (and being a halfling is also the lightest), steps up first, with his riding dog close behind and slowly makes his way across the rickety bridge, losing only two planks of wood to the river as he crosses.

A smug Miro could be then seen on the other side of the river, daring the next person to come over. Vaneer leaves his horse to graze whilst he steps forward.  With a grin Vaneer looks over at Otto and asks the sorcerer to repeat what he was about to do...

Vaneer steps up to the bridge and nervously tests its structure as it creaks under the weight of his gear and breastplate armour.  Vaneer then shouts over to Miro that he could run across the bridge on horseback and not fall in or lose a plank! 

Laughing at this, Miro is more than willing to wager 5 gold on both the cleric and horse would falling in.

Vaneer then steps back from the bridge and before retrieving his horse takes a second to cast a couple of applications of the Mending spell on the bridge.  Chuckled, Otto also casts a few Mending spells to stabilise the bridge's structure, as Vaneer climbed his horse whilst Kyrander and Natalia chuckled at the now annoyed Miro on the other bank watching Vaneer successfully race across the bridge.

After Miro begrudgingly hands over the agreed wager, the group continue to head east until the evening, when they set up camp for another pork filled evening.

Pharast 20th - Out Baconed by the Bacon

In the morning, leaving the statue behind, the party head further east and continue through large swathes of forest, noting the geography and various wood types, fauna and flora on their comprehensive maps.

 

Mid-morning, the group stumble across an number of ruined buildings in a boggy area deep within the forest.  Whilst debating on the best way to explore the ruins (for charting purposes), Kyrander notices a large humanoid-frog-like creature skulking around the ruins and jumps straight into action, notching an arrow and shooting at the creature (known as a Boggard; primitive muscular toad-men that are taller than humans, usually evil in nature due to their penchant for sacrificing other humanoids to their demon lord deity) only to miss it.  Kyrander then notices that one of the creature's hands appears mangled and deformed and reconsiders his actions, but at that moment Otto joins the fray, casting a Sleep spell which fails to take effect.

Vaneer joins the combat, shooting at the Boggard and wounding it.

Kyrander decides to move around the two ruined buildings in an attempt to flank the Boggard, but spots a larger creature lurking with one of the larger buildings.

The Boggard decides to charge in the direction of Vaneer and Otto, but is luckily still quite far away from the pair that the Boggard's weapon couldn't yet reach them.

The larger creature within the ruins (a Slurk; a large toad-like reptile with sabre-tooth teeth and vast quantities of mucus) shoots a stream of slimy-snot-mucus at Kyrander, which the ranger is fortunate enough to dodge.

Miro attempts to sneak up on the Boggard from behind, but the frogman had already spotted the Halfling.  However, the creature's injuries make it too slow to avoid the halfling's attack which strikes severly and deep (thanks in part to Erastil's magic blessing from the previous day), killing the Boggard.

The Slurk moves into melee range and attacks Kyrander, seriously injuring the ranger with it's two great teeth.

Otto fires off a magic missile spell at the Slurk and Miro moves to stab it, in a successful attempt to distract the creature whilst Vaneer  was able to get close enough to heal the injured Kyrander.

The slightly healed Kyrander pushes himself up and swipes at the Slurk, dealing the killing blow to the large creature.

 

After a quick rest, a bout of healing for Kyrander and a spot of self-congratulations, the group explore the small section of ruins and uncover a small nest of ill-gotten gains and shiny gems which they 'claim'.  They then gather themselves and their gear together before heading further east.

 

It is mid-afternoon, as the party of explorers/adventurers travel through the forest when Kyrander notices large distinct animal tracks.  On closer inspection, both he and Natalia confirm that the tracks are of a large boar.  Remembering that they had a mission to track down and end a mean, cunning veteran boar named Tuskgutter who had killed many a huntsman, the group cautiously follow the tracks.  As the afternoon nears its end the team find that the trails splits off into two different directions and so Natalia and Bob, her Badger, follow one track, whilst Kyrander, Otto, Miro and Vaneer follow the other. 

This eventually leads to a clearing, in which there is a large fallen pine tree and a slightly larger-than-average boar beside it, enjoying a couple of common white-frilled truffles.

Hoping to get the drop on the boar Vaneer shoots from his bow, but misses his target and instead hits the fallen tree, startling the target.  In synchronisation, Miro fires an arrow and manages to hit the boar just as Otto casts another sleep spell, unfortunately the stoic boar managed to resist the enchantment and with it's single injury retreats to a den dug under the fallen tree.

With the boar now out of sight, both Vaneer and Kyrander move closer to the tree so as to get a line of sight on the boar and shoot it. 

Vaneer misses yet again, blaming his lack of skill on sub-standard physical training due to his intensive clerical duties that he had previously carried out back in Restov.  Meanwhile Kyrander is in his element, as the ranger scores a bulls-eye on the hiding beast, dealing a quick, clean kill with an arrow.

 

As the death squeal of the boar echoes out of the den, Miro, who stands at the rear of the attack alongside Otto, drops his guard for less than a second.  This is the moment that a larger, meaner, more cunning boar has been waiting for.  

The scar-adorned boar charges out of hiding from nearby foliage and mows into the Halfling.  Completely impaled upon the boar's tusks, the rogue takes near fatal levels of damage and is then thrown into a tree, unconscious and near death.

 

Tuskgutter shows himself to be a far more deadly opponent than the group had anticipated, with uncanny levels of intelligence, the boar made sure to use another of his kind as a distraction so that he could move behind the group and take out those utilising ranged attacks.  An effective technique, as the surprised group were about to find out!

 

The new fight begins with a standoff between Otto and Tuskgutter....

Otto makes the first move with a Sleep spell, but the aged and battle-ready boar shakes the spell off without effort - Otto lets out a curse; the spell seems very capable at taking out bandits but hasn't served him very well over the last few days against the various denizens of the forest.

Vaneer wastes no time and casts a Stabilise spell in the hopes that it isn't too late to save Miro's life, Kyrander judges the situation and surprises everyone by making a beeline for the nearest tree and climbs it hurriedly!
 

Being smarter than the average boar (and some humans), Tuskgutter ignores Otto and charges at the party's cleric, hitting Vaneer square-on and knocking him into unconsciousness.  Otto takes advantage of the boar's diverted attention by rushing past him to more substantial cover, whilst firing off a Magic Missile. 

Otto then begins a deadly dance with Tuskgutter as he moves around the large tree that Kyrander has climbed up, firing off several Magic Missiles, as the boar gets to make the occasional attack with his dangerous tusks constantly catching the Sorcerer in his side as they circle round nearby foliage and cover.  

Up in the tree Kyrander has been able to stabilise his position and finally starts firing arrow after arrow at Tuskgutter, with various degrees of luck.  As Otto begins to weaken and near his end, Kryander desperately pulls out several magical arrows which contain a flaming ability and starts to use these to much greater effect - his aim and damage output notably increase as he scores hit after hit on the stoic beast below.

Firing off another Magic Missile at the boar, Otto is unable to move out the way in time as Tuskgutter deals a fatal blow to the spellcaster, knocking him to the forest floor and very close to death's domain.  The boar then looks up at the last remaining party member up in the tree, lets out a snort and prepares to charge the tree!  Evaluating the situation, the ranger surmises that this boar is fully capable of felling the tree in one-to-two hits and in his sudden panic misses the boar with his next arrow.  However, as the boar rushes in, Kyrander fires off another flaming arrow and strikes the boar in a critical spot, enflaming the creature and finally killing it.

Although the ranger would prefer to stay in the tree for a minute or two to ensure that the boar is actually dead, his fallen comrades don't have that much time left in them and so Kyrander dismounts from the tree and hurriedly pours a cure potion down the cleric's throat, reviving him, before quickly ushering Vaneer to let out a surge of healing over all of the team which even manages to pull Otto back from the very edge of life-death.  

The team come together and Vaneer exhausts all of his healing magic in order to heal the group back up to full health.  They check and ensure that both boars are dead, take Tuskgutter's head as proof of their deed and meet up with Natalia and Bob before returning to harvest boar meat for their supplies.  

Kyrander and Natalia work together to find a safe and secure location to make camp early that evening and rest up.

The whole group had come very close to death at the tusks of a 'natural' creature, which showed them just how unpredictable and deadly the land that they were exploring could be!

Pharast 19th - The Stoned Blessing

The group rests uneventfully in the midst of the wilderness.

 

Once they had finished eating and packed up camp the party decide to head south east to explore the next section of their map.  Whilst exploring the densely wooded area, the group come across a 15-foot tall stone statue covered with vines and other vegetation.  A close examination of the statue by both Vaneer and Otto reveals that the statue is actually a statue of Erastil (God of hunting and farming) that has been abandoned for over a century, yet stands erect and undamaged by the passage of time.

The pair begin to pull away the overgrown vegetation from the statue and are soon aided by the rest of the party.  Shortly after they had finished cleaning up the statue, the immediate area seems to undergo a transformation as if a blessing of Erastil has been bestowed around them.  The vicinity around the statue will no longer be frequented by wild animals, granting a space where campers can sleep unhindered by dangerous wildlife.  Uninterested in the goings-on of the gods, Miro, playing with one of his blades notices that it's edge is sharper and more deadly than usual. The rest of the party check their weapons and also find that a keen spell had been blessed on each of their weapons, granting a benefit in combat for the next week.... Was this a 'thank-you' from Erastil, Vaneer wondered?

 

After exploring more dense woodland, streams and pathless forest throughout the day, the explorers return to the statue of Erastil before nightfall to set up camp and take advantage of its becalmed area.