Defenders of Highgate, Chapter 3

[Annalia]

Hertz

"I would not be surprised for this sole man being a messenger sent to warn of our presence." Hertz commented. "They would know we'd have to rest before making our next action, and so I doubt such a messenger would need to run. If it was a scout, we were lucky and he went right by us. Nothing says he wouldn't find this encampment on his way back, however."

Although by far the oldest - all proportions kept - of them, Hertz was in a fairly healthy shape. He looked somewhat tired, but did not sneeze or showed any signs of a cold.

[oliana0]

Oliana

Oliana looks around at the conversation and barring a order to head out or move on, she will go back to her studies.

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Given no further orders and the apparent desire to sit and rest, Carter finds a nice spot in the sun to sit and work on assembling one of the traps he purchased but never had time to deploy.

He keeps his flail nearby just in case and wears his armor in the hopes it will keep him warm and help ward off the cold that seems to be going around.

[anIceFan]

Nalik

Torn between letting the sick party members rest, finding out more about the orc encampment, and exploring the mysterious tracks, Nalik decides to explore the tracks.

Everyone get ready to move out. We are going to see if we can find out more about those tracks.

Hertz, can you lead us to these tracks? I want Hengist to take it easy for a while.

Oliana, Have Fenny fly ahead a little and alert us if there is any activity.

Lets all be on the alert.

Spoiler

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I decided not to break the group up for now.

[Annalia]

Hertz

"I can, yes." Hertz confirmed with a nod. His belongings already packed and with him, he waited for the other party members to ready themselves. Once the group is ready to move out, Hertz will lead them to the tracks Hengist had discovered earlier.

[Torger]

Hengist hauls himself to his feet, blowing his nose in an embroidered linen handkerchief. Unless assigned a different position, Hengist will attempt to eliminate signs of their having stayed here, and then follow to the rear, moving at half-speed to ensure that there is no signs of the party's passage.

Spoiler

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Half-speed fro me is still 20 feet.

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Carter tries to push himself up and gets stuck mid motion and plops back down to the ground. He twists around to get up using an alternate set of muscles and with a bit of a groan manages to stand. He readies his flail and prepares to move out.

He takes his position nearly at the rear of the formation, just in front of Hengist.

[Holocron Coder]

Deladus

Rising to his feet, Deladus turns to the side and sneezes tremendously. Looking somewhat sheepish at the noise, he grabs his gear and joins the group, tending towards the middle of the group.

As they travel, he'll occasionally reach out with his senses, testing for danger.

[dauphinous]

Bootprints
midday, warm, clear

The late spring sun has a warming effect, and a drying effect. As the walk goes on, and on, and on, the ground underfoot gradually becomes less spongy and more firm. Undergrowth aids this, and by the time Hertz gets to where he's fairly certain the tracks should be again, most of the dirt is only just damp enough to not be kicked up by footfalls. As he already knows where the prints should be, Hertz locates them with a few minutes of searching.

They are bootprints, as Hengist said, and about the same size as those Hengist himself leaves in his wake normally. Whomever left these tracks was going southeast, which would be directly towards the spot the group just camped in, and turned here to go north. It is quite a sharp turn.

[anIceFan]

Nalik

Once Hertz points out the tracks, Nalik studies them for a moment. Unfortunately. they never resolve to more that footprints to him.
To Oliana:
Have Fenny fly out along the direction of the tracks and see if she can see anything. No farther than you have contact.

Hertz and Hengist:
Did you follow them back that way at all?
He points back to the direction the tracks came from.

If they answer affirmative:
Do they continue straight in that direction?

[oliana0]

Oliana

Oliana looks up from her work and stares a bit blankly at Nalik. "Yeah, Fenny can do that, I guess." Seeing everyone else packing up to go Oliana rolls up the papers she was working on, packs away all of her various supplies and as gently as possible packs everything away in her pack.

Oliana chips and chatters a bit to Fenny, who also shoots Nalik a glance and hoots a bit back. Oliana rolls her eyes at the bird and then points in the direction where they plan to go. The bird looses its wings flaps silently a bit then pushes off flying a few hundred feet in the distance and landing on tree branch.

Oliana turns to Hertz and requests, "Just let me know when and if we need to change directions a bit before so that Fenny can be warned." Oliana moves as lithely and lightly as a half-elf wizard can.

When the group gets to the tracks she chirps out to Fenny and the owl flies off further. "He can go out about a mile."

Spoiler

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Fenny's Spot: +6, Listen: +14
How much time has Oliana been able to spend and does the stop in the process damage any of the components if she's working on a potion? I'd planned for her to make the tiny hut entry then move on to a potion.

[Annalia]

Hertz

"We didn't follow the trails back, no." Hertz said, silently cursing himself for not thinking of it. "By the time we'd reached the rocky spot, enough time had passed we thought good to report."

[Holocron Coder]

Deladus

Estimating the distance they had walked and the directions of the tracks, Deladus says, "This may seem like an odd suggestion... but these tracks seem to have little to do with us. They came nowhere near last night's camp and are not heading towards the orc encampment to report." He frowns. "I'm just unsure that finding normal tracks in the woods should be so interesting."

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Being at the back of the column, Carter doesn't really get to appreciate the little footie prints. Not like he could tell what was what anyway. If a druid walks through the forest and no one finds his trail, was he using Pass without Trace?

*Snort* Carter tries in a less than quiet manner to clear out a blockage in his nose. Clearly not thinking clearly, Carter absentmindedly starts spinning his flail around and around to pass the time.

[oliana0]

Oliana

"If we make camp, where we make camp, I can cast a spell that will shield us from view and entrance of outside folks and creatures. Once we are all healthy again we can go blow that Orc camp out of the water. Or we can keep following this path, unhealthy and half-prepared."

[anIceFan]

Nalik

And I am sure that the Orcs will just sit patiently while we rest and cure our sniffles.

Nalik pauses to let the heat leave his voice. He realizes that the stress of the past few days is getting to him.

It would be wonderful to spend 2 nights in the same location, and I am sure that we will use that in the future. Right now, I need to know what is going on out here. We know where that Orc camp is, and we have alerted Highgate command. It is not our job to make an assault against their camp, although we might hit them later. We will follow these footprints as best we can. Carter, Hengist, Deladus, I want you to act as a rear guard. Follow about 5 minutes behind the rest of us. Oliana, keep Fenny out ahead to let us know if she sense anything unusual.

Spoiler

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So order would be
Sarrok Hertz Oliana Nalik
Following Hengist, Carter Deladus
I think I have put all the sneezers in the back group.

[Torger]

Hengist nods once at the order, blowing his nose, once again, in the beautifully-embroidered handkerchief, before taking up his position at the very rear, continuing to ensure that there is no sign of their passing. His congestion has made him sound like a spineless Thrall, and as such, he chooses to speak little.

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Carter, not having totally paid attention is caught a little off guard by Nalik's suggestion that the Orcs will just wait for the group. He was about to chime in, but decided he was too tired to argue with the little fella. So, he accepted his orders with a sigh. Great, I've got 5 more minutes to rest before I need to go anywhere.

Carter sits down and leans back against a tree. *Snort* Maybe I should get me one of them rags like Hengist has. I could just use an old shirt I suppose. Probably work just as good... and I wouldn't be able to smell the stink on account of my nose being stuffed up.

*cough cough* *akhem* Carter clears his throat, trying to move stuff around so it isn't so irritated.

[Holocron Coder]

Deladus

Saluting with a small smirk, Deladus groups with the other sick people and waits for the others to depart, counting once they've gone.

[oliana0]

Oliana

Oliana shrugs and plods along feeling the avian thoughts of an owl floating through the air.

Spoiler

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Oliana won't ask Fenny to fly out in the open. If the tree lines stop, she'll notify Nalik and tell Fenny (however this works, empathicly) to wait for them.

[WarBrute]

Sarrok Balderk

Sarrok nods and moves to the front of the group holding his head in his hand. He stifles a sneeze before they begin heading out.

[Annalia]

Hertz

Silently following the orders, Hertz remained at the head of the group, ready to lead Nalik and the others down the path he'd taken so recently.

[dauphinous]

Hertz, having followed these tracks through the mud before under Hengist's expertise, is able to lead everyone to a spot where the undergrowth creeps onto rocky ground. There is a small amount of clearing in the tree cover, perhaps 40 feet in diameter. In this area, there are large rocks and shrubs, but no apparent signs of passage. The tracks just stop at the rocks.

Getting from the initial point of contact to the rocks takes about half an hour.

[lawful_evil]

Carter

Carter trudges along in the mud behind almost everyone else occasionally watching Hengist perform his magical footprint eraser trick. When the column stops so quickly after starting to follow the tracks Carter gets tense and listen intently for sounds of an ambush and scans the trees on either side of the trail.

[Annalia]

Hertz

"Well, here it is." Hertz stated simply. "Whoever made these tracks most likely crossed the rocky clearing and erased trace of his passage. Perhaps we could go around to try and spot where he left the clearing and entered the forest again."

[anIceFan]

Nalik

When the group reaches the clearing, Nalik silently curses the weather that brought a cold to his primary tracker. Nevertheless, he instructs the rest of the group to wait until the trailers arrive. Once they are all together they circle around the clearing so that Hengist can attempt to locate the tracks again.

[Torger]

Hengist, looking comically miserable, passes over, around, and through the area several times in a search for signs of passage, and finds nothing. There is nothing here. Either he flew, or vanished, or took sudden pains to cover his passage, but I can find no evidence of his departure. Odin's Eye, he could even still be hiding somewhere in this crag.

[Annalia]

Hertz

"We have seen orcs fly before." Hertz commented. "This could be one of them."

[anIceFan]

Nalik

When you were here before, did you explore the center of this clearing?

[Torger]

Hengist rousts himself from hrere he was busy feeling miserable, perched against a tree. No, Huskarl. No further efforts were made.