LPDnD: Life is a Highway

[Blackferne]

If we're safe where we are we may want to see what the commotion is and maybe see what we're facing from the east.

edit: I'm having a hard time visualizing the situation, I assumed we would want to stay on the ridge

Basically from your perspective you are overlooking a lower area that is a camp.

Imagine this without the boats, river or bridge. Populated with more trees and where teh golf course is on the other side of the river you guys spotted drow camp:

[Whiteness]

[ooc] Ok, I'm on the same page. Jimer's comment about moving below the ridgeline just had me confused on directions.

[Furiel]

Yep, there is a time to fight and a time to sneak. This is a time to sneak.

[Blackferne]

So is it:

1) sneak and leave
2) sneak and watch

Not sure what is going on.

[Furiel]

Sneak and leave is what I understand, but there would be something to be said for staying and maybe cleaning up the survivors.

[Whiteness]

I can't deny that sounds good to Syric, but aside from that I also am nervous of attracting the attention of the attacking party

[Jimer Lins]

Trinal prefers sneak and leave.

[Whiteness]

Syric will follow the consensus

[Staris]

Stavis would prefer sneak and leave but wouldn't be apposed to staying and watching should the group wish to get intel on what the two groups are doing.

[Blackferne]

The party crouches behind some bushes and makes their way over the ridge and follows a rockline NW to avoid the noise and the drow camp. The clank clank clank noise stops at some point, you hear shouts, then a deafening boom which you feel like lightning had struck the camp and you felt the thunder racing through you. Then there is silence. Then the clank clank clank starts back up.

[Jimer Lins]

Very quietly, Trinal says "I don't like that at all. Let's keep moving." We'll move out carefully and avoid the noise.

[Whiteness]

Can we tell if the noise is coming towards us or going away?

[Blackferne]

From your current position it is not coming any closer west.

[Jimer Lins]

It's probably some kind of war engine or arcane device that we don't want to tangle with, no matter who's behind it. We'll keep moving and out of sight behind the ridge.

[Whiteness]

Very quietly, Trinal says "I don't like that at all. Let's keep moving." We'll move out carefully and avoid the noise.

Syric will nod and follow Trinal.

[Blackferne]

The party continues on in the northwest before correcting towards the NE as the original plan had been. The forest edge on the east gets further out as the northeast arm of the forest continues. You make good time after coming across a deer path. That night you hear the drums and horns a little fainter and mostly to the south. Watches go by uneventfully.

The trek continues in the morning as a storm comes to the forest. The water soaks you through and through as you trudge on in the rain. It is miserable and you make maybe half the distance you did the day before. The rain continues into the evening when you stop to rest.

[Jimer Lins]

Since we haven't seen or heard anything today and we're all miserable and wet, Trinal will cast Create Campsite once we get to our rest point.

A five-square radius is cleared and set up for camping with our tents, bedrolls and such set up, and a nourishing hot meal is prepared. The camp is hidden, but as part of the ritual I make a nature check which is the DC to notice the camp.

[dice]0[/dice]

[Blackferne]

Daylight comes and the cloud cover remains but the rain has stopped. You start back along the NE course you've set. As you walk you notice that the north and east both have large volumes of smoke in the air. The fires are probably 20 miles off, but they are huge like a forest fire.

[Jimer Lins]

"Bloody hell, it never ends. That's right in our path."

Joun, can you post a link to a map that shows where we are? Are there any rivers in the area?

[Blackferne]

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Oje ... sp=sharing

I have you right on the line of F3 and F4. There aren't any major rivers in teh forest but are various streams, some of which flow north towards that big river.

[Jimer Lins]

"Hrm. Well, let's discuss this. We could proceed northeast and try to bypass the fires, which if they're set by an enemy force, would be problematic. We could try following the course of one of these streams and maybe use that to get through the fireline. We could go southeast and try to go around the fires. Or we could wait to see if there's any change in them. Anyone have other ideas?"

[Blackferne]

"NW deeper into the forest, possibly closer to the drow colony, then cut back once we think we've passed the fires." Victae suggests. "Ultimately we need to go more north than east to get to Silver Deep."

[Jimer Lins]

Trinal nods. "Not a bad option overall. We should avoid going further north than we need to until we can bear east, because we want to stay away from the river valley here," he says, pointing to the main river to our north. "There's likely to be a lot more activity, settlements and towns along it."

Unless anyone objects, Trinal thinks Victae's idea has the most merit. We should definitely move during daylight, though.

[Staris]

"As large as they are its likely they are lit and left to burn so North North-East to get us as quickly out of the forest as possible would me my suggestion. Once a large enough fire is set its difficult to control and from what the enemy has shown all they are really concerned with is burning the forest down."

Stavis looks a bit glummer at the remembrance that the Drow in the past have used such tactics on woodland elf communities.

"But Victae's plan has merit so let us be off."

[Whiteness]

ooc: Is the smoke stretched from N to east or are we looking at two separate fires?