DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Fantasy SKT: The Storm King's Thunder 3K - Evermoor Way

DM

The remainder of the first night on the road is uneventful. The distant fire burns all night, but once acquainted with the denizens of that camp, Whisper does not alert on any other danger.

It's still early as the party prepares to get on the road.

Jaliera

Still half asleep, Jaliera rises and starts the morning preparations. As she does so, she relates their encounter to everyone.

Davroar

He silently admits that that was the most comfortable sleep he has had outdoors with the magical hut conjured by Sindar. Ready for another day of travel after listening to Jaliera's tale he asks everyone, "We going to stick to the road, or should we check what these giants were digging for?"

If they did find another large metal rod Davroar doubts the giants would cover up the holes out in the middle of nowhere, so perhaps they can figure out if the giants were successful or not.

Jaliera

"If it is not too far out of our way, then I think we should check. I can send Whisper to see if she can find a large hole. Maybe we'll be lucky?"

<Bern>

"I agree that a bit of investigation would be useful", he said with a nod.

Zhu

She nods as well. "It would be good to know."

Arus

He'd slept well enough. Though Leomund's Tiny Hut lacks the luxuries of The Pearl-handled Pipe in town, it is still a superb shelter in the wilderness.

After a light breakfast, Arus busies himself with feeding and saddling his horse, listening in on Jaliera's story as he does.

"Yes." he agrees, adding with a smirk, "Let's just hope they weren't digging a giant latrine."

DM

As the party made their preparations to depart, Whisper circled looking for threats, looking a bit further down the planned route as per her usual orders, and finding nothing of interest returned to Jaliera to indicate such whilst awaiting more orders.

Jaliera

She calls Whisper in whilst she talks to the others.

"The barbarians said that the young fire giant had been digging in the hills south of their camp. Shall we head that way and when we are closer I can see if Whisper can spot anything?"

<Bern>

"I think it might be we could learn something important", he said with a nod. "But we =are= on a schedule, so cannot spend =too= much time ... at least now."

Sindar

"Sure, the more information we learn the better." He also seems pleased that his ritual helped them spend the night on the road.

Davroar

He shakes his head in agreement with Bern and says, "Yeah, you're right. If it's too far south, then we might as well just stick to the road."

Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, he will start walking knowing that the sun creeps higher into the sky for every minute wasted standing here.

DM

It looks like the nearest hill to the south is about 2 to 3 miles away, suggesting it would take about an hour to travel there by foot.

Zindra

"Bern, I didn't realize there was a schedule other than to not let the doppelganger's trail get too cold. What is our deadline?"

The scout was hired by the party but there was never any time constraint explained to her.

"We've talked about how we have to learn about what is going on with the giants. If those damned fire giants are digging over yonder, I for one want to find out what that is all about. And if we can pay them back a bit for what they did in Triboar, then it wouldn't it be a time well spent?"

<Bern>

"While I know that our 'employers' want 'things solved' ASAP, as far as I know there is no ... 'deadline' for that", he said with a shrug. "And while I can not ignore '=my= problem'", he added, "I can't help but think that we may learn something useful if we talk to the giants."

Kriv

"The giant problem is a pressing one. We can afford a couple of hours. If need be we'll put the effort in to make up the time."

Jaliera

"I think we should stick together. Whisper will be of more use. If we find anything that sends us in another direction, we can then do that. And if trouble finds us, then we have more chance collectively."

"Shall we go?"

She sets off.

<Bern>

He suppresses a chuckle and then turns to follow.

Zindra
"It sounds like we all agree to check out what the giants are doing. Let's get organized."

The party was mounted and needed to be so. Fortunately with Whisper in the air, able to see small prey like rabbits from a mile away, Jaliera would get a great sense of the tactical situation way before they would encounter any giants.

Zindra led her horse to take a position on the right flank and followed Jaliera.

Arus

Ready to move out at first light, Arus is quick to mount up.

"Aye," he agrees with Jaliera, "we'll save time in the long run by staying together. Less time spent finding each other later."

If there are giants abroad, they'll need every sword and spell they can muster.

Once the party are underway and horses warmed up, Arus will manoeuvre his to the rear, adopting their normal travel formation. Two columns.

1. Zindra+Bern
2. Kriv+Sindar
3. Davroar+Jaliera
4. Arus+Zhu

[OOC Is Jaliera mounted? I kinda thought not but don't fully trust my memory these days

[Yeah, iirc Jaliera's mounted on a dire jackalope.]

DM

The party heads south toward the hills, Whisper searching ahead for any threats, occasionally returning to Jaliera to convey images, and if desired, hovering about 100 feet above her to offer the ability to see through the familiar's eyes.

About half an hour into the travel, Whisper has relayed images of some unusual digging. Not a giant hole, but many giant holes.

To be precise, there is no large excavation as if digging up something from deep in the earth below, but there are several smaller holes; smaller being a relative term as they were likely dug by a giant. It gives the impression that whoever was doing the digging didn't know precisely where to dig, and was poking around in many places.

Whoever it was is nowhere to be seen.

But on a subsequent pass, Whisper does report a sighting of a beast! The image relayed is that of an ogre, laying on its back. It's not clear whether it's alive or dead.

Fortunately for those concerned about time, it's more toward the direction they were traveling earlier. If they were to turn to the east they'd encounter it.

Or they can continue southerly toward the polka-dotted landscape.

Jaliera

She relays the information to the group.

"I think we should look at the ogre and the holes as we are in the vicinity."

Davroar

"Or we could just let sleeping ogres alone?"

He is not wanting to get into any fight if they can avoid it.