Long Lake

[tomcat]

Hey Tom, yes.

I am fine with any skill being suggested and tested, as long as you can incorporate a reason as to why the skill would work. Now obviously, some skill cannot work on all things, but if you have a good descriptor as to what your PC is doing with the talents he has, then I am willing to give it a chance.

TN's might be higher for off-situation skills, but it is still something you can do.

[tomcat]

Arbogast pushed the boat through the frozen reeds and then onto the riverbank - the flat-bottom skiff scraping along pebbles and ice. The Fire-watcher targeted a location just upriver from the carcass so that the men could approach without stepping over any tracks or signs.

They each got out of the boat with weapon in hand and then moved to where the dead creature lay. Grimbeorn's eyes scanned the horizon before he bent his concentration on the subject. It was definitely a large sheep. It was skinned and stripped of all meat and then unceremoniously dumped on the shore. It was evident that other small animals, and maybe fish, had taken their own bit of nourishment.

A set of heavy footprints led from the river's edge and the men followed them away towards a large circle where snow had been churned to mud by iron shod boots. In the mud, also, could be seen the prints of large canines or wolves. Arbogast picked up a rib bone that was mashed deep into the mud and the man knew that the sole carcass on the riverbank could not have been the only animal to be butchered.

[Eclecticon]

Arbogast turns the bone, still fresh and white, over and over in his hands.  Marks of teeth and feet, and the position of the bone itself, all are clues in riddles nested one within the other.  When it lived, he thinks, was this creature a man or beast?  Was it slain in this place, or brought here already dead?  And was it food for those that slew it, or an offering to something darker still?

Though much will be forever unknown to the companions, much may still be gleaned...


I'm hopping on this 'rolling for things' bandwagon and trying my luck with a Riddle roll to see what Arbogast can puzzle out. 

Rolled 1d12 : 8, total 8
Rolled 3d6 : 3, 5, 1, total 9

[tomcat]

With an eye now bent for those things that might answer his questions, the Fire-watcher moved about the circle, too. He easily discerned the freshness of the prints of animal and orc - for certainly this was the goblins at work. They had large wolves with them - there was excrement near at hand, more bones that he found were chewed by powerful teeth and jaws, and he also found tufts of woolen fur.

Sheep.

Fen had been right, the shepherds' flocks were a target of the raiders.

He continued to look about, along with his friends. More bones were uncovered that told tale of more than one animal slaughtered. Finally, Grimbeorn discovered a broken knife among the frozen grasses that stood tall and dry in the cold wind. It was a goblin-knife, crude in make but lethal nonetheless.

The men were certain that the raiders had come with their pets, stole away with a number of captured sheep and brought them here. In the pitch of night, they had clearly slaughtered and stripped the animals for what they were worth, leaving only grisly bones and tufts of fur as a testament of their being here.

"Why the uncleaned carcass by the water?" Hathcyn asked out loud.

"Mayhaps they gave one of their stolen sheep to their wolves, whils't they did their own work?" answered Arbogast, trying to make sense of the riddle.

"No matter what the reason," said Grimbeorn as he stood back to his full height. "The raiders marched that way, back towards the wood." He pointed south and west. On the horizon, the eastern eaves of Mirkwood and the mountains that loomed out of the forest could be easily seen. Each man remembered those mountains, as it was just a few years past that they climbed onto the feet of Saer Aegas to confront the horror that resided therein. "I judge all of this was done sometime within the last three nights."

Their eyes traced northward along the wood-line. What of the Elves? Surely they have eyes upon these lands. Would they let a goblin raiding party slaughter stolen animals upon their doorstep?

[Telcontar]

  doug I want to use my Orc Lore to know if they make offerings to dark powers and if the sheep by the water may be one.

[tomcat]

Hey Tom, yes - Hathcyn has heard tales of orcs making offerings to dark powers, but the condition of the sheep body is too rough to determine whether that was the use of that animal. A lot of damage was originally done to the body and then there is the scavengers that have taken a toll.

Paul, any word on your friend joining us? I am not holding up the game for her, but if she wants to enter the game now would be the better time.

[Eclecticon]

Agreed.  I've pointed her to the site, but it's been so long that I couldn't figure out how to register a new account.  I suggested she email you (and gave her your address from your account details - I hope you don't mind) but clearly that hasn't happened.  I'll give her a hurry-up and see what comes of it. 

EDIT: An update - she has been wrangling thesis proposals and university enrolment procedures, hence the radio silence.  Doug, you should be hearing from her shortly.

[GandalfOfBorg]

"Arbogast, you've been here awhile, have you heard of anything like this from the Elves in their travels up and down the river?  Do you know of any nearby settlements of theirs that we might inquire of?"

[Telcontar]

"I'm sure if we spilled some wine on the ground and bent a couple of branches they'd appear. Perhaps we can throw in a dwarven wood cutting song to really secure the summoning?"

[Eclecticon]

Arbogast chuckles at Hathcyn's jest, but his laughter fades quickly.  "Many miles are we from even the marches and borderlands of the Woodland Realm, and this place is no man's land, nor that of any Elf!  Nor," he continues with a distracted air, "are the Elves known to be fond of settling anywhere for long, save only the Elvenking's Hall.  But here we might find hunters, sentinels or renegades alike of that folk." 

[GandalfOfBorg]

"Well then let us be off and pursue these dogs where they lay. No need to waste the day hoping fir help of the Sylvan kind."

 
Follow whatever trail is there to goblins...
 

Hunting -  1d12 : 6, total 6
Rolled 3d6 : 1, 3, 3, total 7

[tomcat]

His companions watched him stride off on the trail, taking advantage of the daylight that they had, and so they quickly pressed after Grimbeorn.

The heavy-shod feet of the orcs were easy to follow from the riverside, the trail leading west towards the woods. It was the land around them that began to change, lowering into a great frozen marshland where each footstep became treacherous. The trail would suddenly disappear under water and reed only to crop back up again across these divides. The trio had to maneuver around the bogs, so as to not get their own clothes and boots wet. Freezing hands and feet would hamper their task very quickly.

With each turn and rerouting of their course, Grimbeorn soon found himself bewildered by the marshland - the trail apparently lost. They looked around and could see that they were now deep within the marshes, but the distant woodline seemed just as distant. Looking back, their own path was obscured by the wetlands and snow that covered all.

Were they lost?
Hey Matt, the 13 on your roll was not enough to keep you on the trail, nor was it enough to keep you from getting turned around somewhere in the marshlands.

I am going to need a couple rolls from whoever wants to make it (might be best if the highest ranked makes them) - but you guys can help one another. The ones who are helping may make the same tests at TN 12 and if successful, give an advantage dice to the primary test maker. The primary test will need be a TN 18 success.

Explore to navigate your way in the strange land
Hunting to find the goblin trail

I recommend that Arbogast be the primary test-maker for Explore and any of the PC's could make the Hunting, as you all have the same skill there.

Lastly, I will need a Travel test TN 16 from each of you to avoid weariness (and Hazards).

[Eclecticon]

Yaaaaaaaay we're lost and freezing and miserable and everything is finally back to normal again! 

[Telcontar]

Ooc: i get an error getting to the character page. I think my hunt is pretty high.

[Eclecticon]

Arbogast rolls his eyes at his companions' attempts to navigate through the swamp.  Though it is not the deep wood with which he is most familiar, the trackless bog in which they find themselves is similar in many ways. 


Okay, first an Explore roll:

1d12 : 3, total 3
Rolled 4d6 : 3, 2, 2, 3, total 10

Then Hunting to help find the trail:

1d12 : 4, total 4
Rolled 2d6 : 4, 5, total 9

And Travel to get wherever we're going:

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