Intermission in Millhaven And Journey to Stomanell City

[Ithril]

The pressure of the packing in Pebble's wounds staunch the flow of blood, though it does nothing for his pain. By the time he reaches the top of the boulder, he feels strong enough to draw his bow again. Dorath and Igber follow behind, making sure their comrade doesn't lose balance.

Once Conweena and Traesta see Pebble is safely atop the rocks, they turn to join Harker to head off the approaching force. An almost hopeless prospect, but they do so with fatalistic determination. Conweena assured by the weight of her broad bloodied axe; Harker and Traesta similarly assured by the swelling feeling of the presence of their deity, though any evidence of it cannot be seen in the rain and the gloom.

As Pebble and Igber draw aim on their targets, Dorath quietly considers another option. From a hidden pocket he draws a small handful of fine sand, and quietly starts a strange incantation that neither Pebble nor Igber can clearly hear, accompanied by gestures that they cannot follow. His chanting finally culminates in a shouted command that they cannot understand anyway, and he throws the sand as they loose their missiles.

The seven creatures have closed on the three warriors. The defenders grip their weapons and their courage to make their stand though they are sorely outnumbered, their eyes squinting for the strain.

What happens next is difficult to explain, but the three discover the seven threatening creatures are flat at their feet. Just as they realize this, one of Pebble's arrows sprouts unexpectedly from one of the creatures, which doesn't move. The rest remain motionless, their grotesque upturned nostrils sputtering in the drizzle as the rain suddenly lessens. Dorath collapses to his knees, exhausted by the strain of harnessing the arcane energies. He doesn't fall from his perch on the large boulder though, and in another moment, regains his full strength.

The valley is suddenly, painfully silent. The stream nearby gurgling peacefully, and the dripping of the trees, still loaded with the rains of a moment ago - interrupted yet by the obscene noise of the sleeping humanoids in the brush, are the only sounds.

A ray of golden light pierces the sullen clouds for a moment, but it is gone just as quickly, and a gentle drizzle continues in the forest. The threat has been neutralized.

After a few moments, you hear the Wagoner "Hiellooo?! what's going on? Is everything alright?".

Full route.
Good job.

[sunphoenix]

Harker is at first confused, then in awe at the magic unleashed on their behalf... then he's laughing!

"Well done friend Dorath, Paldon has granted us great fortune to have you with us and your arcane skill saved us! Thank you...!!!"

Turning back to the slumbering beasts, "Now these creatures are similar to the ones that terrorized your home village are they not Coweena? It might mean they have a camp nearby with captives whose only hope is US! Quickly now, Tie up one for each of us, put the rest to the sword! Once we are recovered those tied up we will question until one agrees to show us to their lair. That one we can release for it's cooperation but the rest they die for their wicked hearts. But we must know if they have captives... if we slay all of them immediately we'll never know their lair location in all this rain. We save a number equal to us as captives as we know not how much 'convincing ' it will take to coerce one to be cooperative... knowing the fate laid upon its comrades!"

"Unless someone has a better idea of how to coax intel out of these beastly brigands?"

[redwarrior]

Dorath shakes his head, feeling the cooling water soothe his face. That went better than I had hoped. Is Pebble going to be well? Should we do something with these sleeping beauties before we get back to the cart? They will rouse themselves in about 5 minutes if we do nothing. his voice trails off as he seems to discard his next words as Harker starts to outline a plan.

[Rex]

Conweena

Conweena will go about the business of ending their lives. She will tie up the one that looks like a leader to question.

[gurusql]

Traesta

Traesta says "Great job Dorath, Paldon's light has shined down on us today. Their highway robbery is a Chaotic and Evil act and for the good of society we will have to end their lives." She will try to tie up the leader while Conweena does the more difficult work.

[ravenn4544]

Pebble stares at whatever magic just happened to cause all of the enemies to feint to the ground. "I've never seen anything like that before.." He knows of certain plants that take a headache away or keep the itch of poison ivy at bay - but nothing like this. The practical part of his mind appreciates it wholeheartedly, however, with this battered condition and his chances looking bleak...

He will gather any arrows he can from the dead. He can't bring himself to kill a sleeping person even if they probably deserve it.

[BackworldTraveller]

Igber
Igber follows Conweena keeping an eye on the un-naturally slumbering forms and then checking each tied creature for valuables, saleable clothing, and weapons...throwing knives would be personally useful (he's realised) as would cash! Do any have metal armour? Even leather pieces might have a value - and we have a cart to move them.

[sunphoenix]

Harker will set about collecting all the weapons of the beastmen and if he can get someone else to help he'll even go back and retrieve the weapons from the first group they did battle with and bring them all to the wagon ~ its loot and worth some resale for their troubles. If he can find a bow weapon from among the slain beasts he will claim it for himself along with some arrows.

To Coweena and Traesta he will comments, "We have no idea who among this lot is the leader which is why I suggested we tie up one for each of us in hopes we might out of lucky draw save the leader ... once they wake and we start questioning them. They may be barbaric beasts... But WE are not! We should behave like the civilized beings we are. We will spare at least the one who will be cooperative... you risk killing the smarter one if we spare only a single random one for questioning. The one who may cooperate we should let go back to his people to let them know the fate for those who attack human settlements or prey on human trade routes. If more then one is cooperative..we''ll cross that bridge if it present itself."

"They can clearly speak and understand our language ~ I want to talk to them; to find out if somehow they feel justified in unprovoked attacking travelers on the road. It's a stretch but perhaps it is some misunderstanding or some path to peace can be established if we can find some common ground. We know next to nothing about them short of they attacked us ...if I can find out why that might help us stop future attacks. They are not just 'common' bandits there was not a single human brigand among them.. they may in some twisted reasoning feel that had no choice!"

[Rex]

Conweena

"Talk if you must, but Wichtelmännchen are a curse upon the land. They will lie and they have no honor. There will be more near by, we must get moving and cover as much ground as possible before night fall."

[BackworldTraveller]

Conweena

"Talk if you must, but Wichtelmännchen are a curse upon the land. They will lie and they have no honor. There will be more near by, we must get moving and cover as much ground as possible before night fall."

This Wichtelmännchen has just saved your skin - And you talk of no honour! Now these brigand things are a true curse...They just jump on people and steal stuff and leave them for dead!

[Rex]

Conweena

"These brigand things as you call them are Wichtelmännchen, and none have ever saved me from anything. I have unfortunately had to deal with them before."

[BackworldTraveller]

Conweena

"These brigand things as you call them are Wichtelmännchen, and none have ever saved me from anything. I have unfortunately had to deal with them before."

Ah! My mistake.

[sunphoenix]

Harker raises his hands in placation, "Easy folks, we're all pretty angry with the unprovoked attack... but Coweena does have a valid point. It's getting into the evening and there may indeed be untold numbers of these ~ Wichtelmännchen'?' still lurking about or at whatever lair they may have in the area. We are still injured and not provisioned to fight a protracted war with these... beings. And if Corweena's tales are any assistance.. I conjecture these Wichtelmännchen see much better at night than us. We should use the better part of Wisdom and get out of here and down the road as fast as we can to find shelter... or at least as much distance between us and their remaining tribesmen!"

[BackworldTraveller]

Igber
If you guys head back to the wagon, I'll keep a watch up here and meet you when you've got the wagon across the ford. - You might want to check carefully that these creatures didn't pit the bottom of it.

And they have set several deadfall traps. We'll need to jam those in case someone gets vindictive

And they had a camp - There may be stuff from previous tolls there.

[ravenn4544]

Pebble is dripping from the rain and somewhat from his own blood. Tired and a bit scared but feeling good about facing the odds. "Camp? I like the sound of that right about now..."

[Ithril]

I have a lot of dialogue (good) and a lot of declared actions (also good) But I don't have a clear direction anymore to know for certain what you are doing.

Can I get a consensus please?

[Rex]

Conweena

Head to the wagon. Get it moving, probing for traps at the ford and the area where we know they were set up for the ambush and saw evidence of the traps.

[gurusql]

Traesta

Once the sleeping creatures have been dealt with as Conweena said.

[redwarrior]

To the wagon and get moving.

[BackworldTraveller]

Igber
OK Pebble - how about you and me scout that camp, and see what can be done to disable the traps - while the rest bring the wagon through. We can watch and warn and run (move away carefully in your case) if there's trouble.