(011) The Expedition North

[waysoftheearth]

eris wrote:

"Flewellen, you're free to join the hunting party if you want." Olaf says, "If you go off on your own, though, please be careful. This is very much, wild country."

"Thanks you, my friend, I will join the hunting party. But my skill with a bow is little, I will be but a tracker and a skinner," says Fewellen.

"From each what they can, comrade, and for each what they need." says Olaf with a proletariat smile.

"Allow me to comb the ground for precious herbs and roots while you track, however; a potent form of magic hides within even the most mundane juices and powders, and I foresee us needing all of the help we can get."

"Of course!" Olaf agrees, "Search for your roots and berries. You might find good eats among them as well as strong magic."

[waysoftheearth]

danhem wrote:
Ulric sets about searching the copse of trees looking for signs of anything unusual or tracks of recent occupation by animals, men, goblins, or worse.

[waysoftheearth]

verhaden wrote:
Mads the Fair

Mads will go with Ulric to secure the area.

[waysoftheearth]

tonneau wrote:
Gustave notes the sodden state of his garments with some distaste, "I fear I am more adept at the consumption end of hunting", he notes, "but I believe a campfire may be a possibility, if there is anything dry around here."
"I for one am not so keen on raw flesh..."

[waysoftheearth]

heartless wrote:

Olaf laughs aloud at Dieter's comment, "I'll be sure to shout *really* loud."

"So, who'll join me?" Olaf asks looking around "Who's a good hunter? Anwyn? Mads? Padrig?"

"I will be happy to try my hand at hunting with you Olaf. I used to enjoy the hunt for food back home in the forests", says Padrig.

[waysoftheearth]

coffee wrote:
Venturing as close as he can to the center of the copse, Dieter gathers up some fallen twigs and sticks. As sodden as they are now, the will at least form the basis of a fire.

He dumps a half a flask of lamp oil on them and lights it. At the very least, we'll have warmth for a few minutes. At best, the flames will dry out the sticks and form a decent fire for a while.

(Hey, it's worth a shot.)

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:
The company decides to investigate the copse and to establish a camp site as they march through the wet heath toward the thicket. It is agreed that Olaf, Anwyn, Padrig and Flewellen will continue on in the hope of some good hunting and gathering, while the remainder of the company head right into the waist deep thicket...

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:
The Camp Makers

Dieter, Gustave, Ulric, Mads, Caine, Taines, Victor, Boris, Fix all struggle mightily with the cart, having to haul it and the exhausted, resistant mule through the tangle of waist-deep, wet heath, until at last they force their way through the worst of it and under the patchy canopy of the low, gnarled trees.

There is little space too speak of, and trees are so low that they have to duck their heads frequently to squeeze between the twisted, thigh thick trunks. When branches and leaves are necessarily pushed aside, the often drop a spray of collected pooled rain water, further increasing the misery.

Finally, when the effort of pressing further in just seems unreasonably, Ulric declares that "Here will have to do,". It is a conjunction of four small spaces that could scarcely be called clearings, but one space is large enough for the cart, and if a single twisted tree were felled, two of the remaining spaces would more or less become one. The ground is covered in a thick bed of leaves, which provide a comfortable surface, and what is more, when the top half inch is scraped aside, it is more or less dry beneath.

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:
Gustave soon locates a few dozen black stones and boulders that might be used to circle a campfire, and hauls these a few at a time back to the site. They would ideally be positioned exactly where the tree is in the middle of the four-leafed-clover shaped camp-site, observes Fix, without getting up off the ground.

Meanwhile Dieter gathers up a pile fallen twigs and branches. These are plentiful, but in the main rather small and damp. It seems unlikely they will burn at all in this state, and that they will quickly be consumed if a blaze can indeed be encouraged with lantern fuel... he returns with an initial wet armload of the stuff.

Mads circles back out of the copse to check the surrounds once more, and notes that signs of the company and cart forcing its way into the thicket are as plain as day.

Ulric weaves his way somewhat further into the copse, and makes a wide circle around the camp site to see what else he can see... and another score of yards in he finds himself standing at the edge of a rocky ridge gazing down into a gully which is about twice a Mans depth below him, and runs further away into a gloomy, smelly quagmire...

[waysoftheearth]

waysoftheearth wrote:
The Hunters

The hunting party proceeds further on from the campsite, figuring to get far enough from the camp site that any game has not been frightened off already.

They soon adopt a plan where by Olaf and Anwyn stalk along a ways out from the copse with their bow and arrows at the ready, while Flewellen and Padrig push into the thicket and then make a good deal of racket in order to flush game out toward the waiting archers.

(1d6=2)

While it seemed a sound strategy, it fails to flush out any game larger than small birds, which are almost impossible to shoot down, and would scarce make a mouthful in any case. Anwyn (wisdom=6) wastes a few arrows on these, only laughing when she misses.

After an hour of exhausting (for Padrig and Flewellen) attempts at this, it is surrendered, and Olaf and Anwyn instead make for the stream and hole up in a hidden spot in the hope of catching an animal as it comes to drink. Meanwhile, Padrig and Flewellen continue to search the heath for edible and otherwise interesting vegetable matter.

The hunters again have ill luck (1d6=1) seeing only a few small snakes and water foul which they cannot bring down. Eventually Olaf decides that with all the recent rain, few animals will come to the stream to drink, and the pair grumpily head back to the camp, empty handed.

Meanwhile Flewellen and Padrig (1d6=6) have fared better. They have discovered a large patch of wild mushrooms and field pumpkins, and have gathered up quite a bundle of the stuff; enough for all.

Happy enough with this, they head back to the camp as the afternoon is just beginning to fail...