Trails into Mirkwood

[Eclecticon]

Am I right in thinking that we're not moving into a combat encounter or anything at this stage?  If so, here's my next set of rolls:

Explore:

1d12 : 5, total 5
Rolled 3d6 : 1, 2, 6, total 9

Travel:

1d12 : 11, total 11
Rolled 3d6 : 3, 5, 5, total 13

[Eclecticon]

If we're counting these, then I'll spend a Hope point to make the Explore roll stick. 

[tomcat]

Yes - that encounter was narrative only and I will tell you all out of character - Anar met an Ent. Whether long lost, or an Entwife, we'll never know, but the tree-shepherd was interested to see what those that go on two legs were doing this night. Maybe, it even protected you all by its presence. 

Now, back to your results.

I will roll the others Travel tests just so we can move along:

TN 18 travel by PC

Grimbeorn 1d12 : 9, total 9
Rolled 4d6 : 6, 3, 3, 3, total 15

Hathcyn 1d12 : 4, total 4
Rolled 3d6 : 2, 1, 6, total 9

Anar 1d12 : 4, total 4
Rolled 2d6 : 3, 3, total 6

[tomcat]

RESULTS

• Arbogast spends a and gets a success and completes the prolonged action
• Arbogast fails on his Travel with an causing a HAZARD and incurring 2 fatigue

Has Arbogast's sheet been updated for the and fatigue increase? If not, I have done it - but feel free to change it back, if so. 

• Grimbeorn crushes his Travel test with a 24 success
• Hathcyn fails his Travel test with a 15 and gains 2 fatigue (you can spend a , if you want to change that result, Tom)
• Anar fails his Travel test with a 10 and gains 2 fatigue.

[tomcat]

Uneasy from the utter darkness and silence, the companions sat awake for a while until at last they felt it safe to return to sleep in pairs. Only the chirping of crickets gave them anymore challenge to find their rest.

With the coming of dawn, Hathcyn awoke to hear Arbogast pleading with another of their company. It was Eomund - the Eorling had had enough of the woods.

"Marshes and bogs? Woods that seem a greater threat than any living man I have faced? I think not. There is nothing tying me to this journey save the camaraderie that we have shared, but I must return. I will leave you folk to your wood and return to the sun bathed fields of the Vale."

"It is dangerous to go back alone, and we cannot stop our search to accompany you. Come with us - once done with this task, we can work together to get back to Rhosgobel."

Eomund stared a moment at the Fire-watcher, but then shook his head. He feared the wood, but not enough to keep him from returning...alone. "No, you do what you must, but I will return."

Grimbeorn and Hathcyn sat silent, and Anar picked at his axe-blade. The man was foolish to go it by himself, but there was no changing his mind.

They all watched as the tall Eorling grabbed up his pack and with hand on hilt, marched back the way they came. It did not take long for him to disappear from sight. Arbogast looked at Grimbeorn - the one man he knew that understood the dangers of Mirkwood - but the Beorning only shrugged. With a nod, the Fire-watcher directed the others deeper into the wood.

A day later, they found what they sought. The boat was there, half-sunk in the fast-flowing water of the Eldosa tributary. It was pressed against a web of thick roots that sank below the brown river, the torrent keeping it pinned. The companions looked all around the capsized vessel, but they saw nothing else within the roots or on the banks.

No bodies of drowned men or survivors. No sign of a camp where survivors might have hid. Nothing.

They jumped at the sudden call of "HELLO!" The cry seemed muted by the forest and somewhere a flock of birds took to wing. Arbogast looked to Anar, who  looked back. "What?" said the Dwarf. "If they live, it will let them know we are here."

The Fire-watcher's only reply was a look of scorn. Something would now know they were here.

Though it now seemed futile, Arbogast pushed them forward and the day passed into night.

Morning came and they broke camp once more. As they did, a sound softly carried through the trees, as if someone was crying - or struggled in some way. Again the sound was muted, but it revealed a definitive direction - someone was in need not far down the river.

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn shouldered his pack.

"Well, we came all this way we might as well see what fortune has set for us."

He looked at the trees and the flooded mire around them.

"Wonderful place Firewatcher. Incan almost see the charm of it. Almost. "

[Eclecticon]

... a sound softly carried through the trees, as if someone was crying - or struggled in some way. Again the sound was muted, but it revealed a definitive direction - someone was in need not far down the river.

The Fire-watcher stiffens, and though it is difficult to tell in the half-light beneath Mirkwood's canopy, it seems to his companions that his face goes white.  "No..." he murmurs, not seeming to realise that he speaks out loud, "not again!" 

Taking his axe in hand and unslinging his shield, he calls out to the others: "We must both make haste and be wary, for we will now learn whether we have come so far only to find ourselves deceived and in mortal peril!" 

Has Arbogast's sheet been updated for the and fatigue increase? If not, I have done it - but feel free to change it back, if so. 

I had updated the Hope, but forgot the fatigue like an idiot.  All fixed now. 

[GandalfOfBorg]

Grimbeorn is unsure of what is befalling the group, these happenings are beyond his ken.  This wood torments all who enter in different ways, all the more reason to never enter it but they have.  The Beorning follows suit with his friend and prepared for the worst.

[Telcontar]

Hathcyn grew frustrated quickly for it seems there was always some information or some hidden inowlwdge that was left out about the wood at there every turn. He calmed, this was a large place full of devilry and torment. The Woodman had lived within its eaves his whole life. Suck knowledge is not imparted in only a single trek.

"Firewatcher, what do you mean? One can better face a danger when it is less unknown. Have you seen this before?"

Hathcyn moved deliberetly while he spoke. Contrary to normal circumstances he put his traveling gear on instead of taking it off. In the wood, or if some dweomer should take them he would not be seperated from his friends and his gear. 

He stood the. Spear in hand and peered into the dark wood.

[tomcat]

Hathcyn spoke, but Arbogast was somewhere - or some when - else.

He moved with others of his folk around him, pushing through the forest floor undergrowth and branches that hung low from above. There was something there...moving...watching...giving no tell of its presence. It hungered for their fear. It hungered for the sweet juices that made up their bodies. It hated.

The forest moved.

Arbogast put his hand to his head as the whole forest seemed to move. A path was now in front of them. Clear and straight, as if Mirkwood opened a way.

A scream to his left. A cry to his right.

The Fire-watcher saw something massive fall from above and disappear into the foliage, but with it went one of his companions. There was a terrible rush of branches and plants - brown, spindly legs with matted hair moved with preternatural speed and then they were gone. So, too, was the man or woman that had stood there before.

Spiders!

He had fought them before. He had killed them and driven them away. But never had Arbogast seen this!

The trail disappeared and in its place was a woven funnel of black threads.

"RETREAT! WE MUST AWAY!" The Fire-watcher commanded his allies to fall back. They beat at the bushes around them to make sure nothing lay hidden, as they fell back in a semi-circle.

Two more shapes fell from above and two more Woodmen disappeared.

The band of warriors ran...

"Arbogast! Have you seen this before?" again came the question, as if from a long tunnel. He turned to face the Beorning, even as Anar spoke from ahead of them, "Look! The forest opens into a path. Maybe an old Elf-trail?"

[tomcat]

I need everyone to make a Corruption test TN 18 as you enter this Blighted place, please, which I will roll. 

Corruption
TN 18 wisdom by PC

Anar 1d12 : 7, total 7
Rolled 2d6 : 5, 2, total 7

Arbogast 1d12 : 4, total 4
Rolled 4d6 : 2, 5, 1, 5, total 13

Grimbeorn 1d12 : 5, total 5
Rolled 5d6 : 6, 1, 1, 5, 4, total 17

Hathcyn 1d12 : 6, total 6
Rolled 2d6 : 3, 6, total 9

[tomcat]

RESULTS

• Anar fails with a 14; gains 1 Shadow
• Arbogast fails with a 17; gains 1 Shadow (may use a to make the roll a success)
• Grimbeorn crushes the roll with a 22 success
• Hathcyn fails with a 15; gains 1 Shadow (may use a to make the roll a success)

[tomcat]

Arbogast - having been here before, must make a Fear test TN 18

TN 18 Valour 4

1d12 : 12, total 12
Rolled 4d6 : 1, 1, 6, 3, total 11

[tomcat]

Fuck! You guys are smoking these tests!  

• Arbogast succeeds with a 23 success; he does not succumb to the fear that tries to fill his heart

[Telcontar]

  thats because the LM is rolling them. I'll burn  I'm not going to start down that shadow path just yet and Grimbeorn is an example to us all.