(089) Moonlight Backtrack

[Eris]

"No fire for us tonight, I think, but I'll take first watch." says Freid, "Somebody relieve me in a couple of hours."

[coffee]

"I'll take next watch," Karl says. "Wake me when it's my turn."
And with that he stretches out and drops off to sleep, not bothering to remove his mail. His sword rests next to his hand.

[ehiker133]

Leudigar shrugs, settles himself in, and says, "I'll take third watch..." and is in a light sleep almost before he closes his eyes.

[Eris]

Freid counts to 100, then puts out one finger. He does this for all 10 of his fingers, then digs a shallow groove in the ground and thinks to himself, "Ten minutes."

He continues with his counting and marking grooves in the ground until he has 12 grooves saying to himself, "That should be about 2 hours."

Rising he stretches and moves over to Karl and shakes his shoulder, being careful to avoid Karl's possible attack from being startled, then whispers to him, "Karl, it's your watch. Wake Leudigar in a couple of hours."

All assuming that there are no encounters that pop up...

I'm figuring that Freid counts a little faster than 1 per second, maybe about 100 per minute. If it's now around 1 am, then there should be about 2 hours per shift.

[coffee]

Karl wakes quickly, but realizes there is no threat.

"Very well," he says with a yawn. He sets himself upright while his comrade takes his ease, then finds a friendly star to track the time with. Since they wheel about the sky in the same fashion every night, that should give him a good approximation of two hours while also letting him keep an eye on the party's surroundings for any threats.

[mgtremaine]

Zem fell asleep at once and expects to sleep until awakened for his watch.

[coffee]

If nothing disturbs us, Karl will wake Leudigar after two hours.

[ehiker133]

Leudigar is awakened easily by Karl when it's his time for watch. He takes his turn and wakes Zem after two hours...

[waysoftheearth]

And so the chilly night passes without remarkable incident...

The dawn is a long while coming, and grey when it reluctantly arrives. There is a briskness to the morning air that suggests colder nights are not far off... but at least the daylight reveals the lay of the land about more completely. Once everyone has arisen and grumbled after the cold and the lack of victuals to break their fast, the company makes to survey the surrounds.

A mist persist still in the many dells and troughs of the rolling plain of rocky, grassland. If the sun rise is to the east, then that must be north, perhaps not altogether off the course they selected in the dark. Behind them, away in the south-east, is a daunting curtain of highlands; doubtless the mountains they lately visited and descended onto these plains from. Ahead, in the north, is the green haze of Wildwood. So... if Thuul be his Able Guide, then Leudigar judges that Ket likely lies some days march into the north-west. Sooner than that, he would expect to encounter the outlying farmsteads and agriculture that lies within a couple days of the town itself...

[ehiker133]

Leudigar once again takes inventory of his pack and recommends the others do, as well, since who knows what might have happened between the here and then of the previous night.

Once that is ready, he takes a heading to the north and west in the direction of Ket.

"Do we move at a faster pace, hoping to find food and shelter at one of the outer farms? Or do we move more slowly so we can forage and hunt as we go," he asks the rest of the small band as they head out with the sun at their backs...