[Game Thread] Chapter 1: For Love or Money

[Insacrum]

"I would agree with Lunigen. If these Assassins, whomever they are, attacked the caravan and Ned, it's possible that they are the ones responsible for killing the group that was sent after the bandits yesterday.

"They could also be harrying the bandits themselves. By dealing with the assassins first, perhaps we can negotiate with the bandits in a civil manner." Ollona looks at the two dwarfs specifically when she makes this last statement.

"I'm not sure I know anything else about these tracks, other than what I mentioned earlier." With that she picks up Chompy, reharnessing him to her backpack.

[DukeofTuring]

Marcus listens to Holly's claims, shrugs, then says a quick prayer over Ned's body similar to the one he gave earlier in the morning. He rejoins the conversation as Drognan begins speaking. Once Lunigen has finished speaking, he contends, "With all due respect to the good knight and the elf, I think we would be getting sidetracked chasing down Ned's assassins. These beastmen, or mutants or Sigmar knows what else, they can be found in woodlands across the empire. Normally, I'd be all for tracking them down and wiping them out, but we already have a job to do, and gods know how long we could spend chasing them through the woods, their woods mind you. We'd do as well to decide to chase down all the wolves in the forest, or all the rats in a city, or something. Later, if we have the time, but not now."

"I vote we take the late Ned here, follow our trail back to the ruins of the caravan, then bring all of the dead back to the ferry. The ferryman can keep an eye on them or bring them across, and we can follow Wil back to the site of the ambush, then the criminals that we're looking for."

[Quadra Wield]

Holly listens to everyone's suggestions and found herself liking Marcus' plan the most. Her job was to find the bandits, whatever creatures attacked Ned or the caravan were of little importance to their job right now.

"I agree with Marcus, no use trying to find whatever these things are, who knows how many there are or what their abilities are. The bandits are the only reason I'm out here." Holly turns her head towards the paladin and says "Unless you can think of a reason for me to go out of my way, delaying my job, to go after whatever manner of creatures these are?."

Holly crosses her arms across her chest and leans against a tree, waiting for the group's decision.

[punkrockguy]

Striding froward into the middle of the group discussing what to do next the Runesmith hold his rune encusted Axe and Sheild towards the ground and says, "Grungni bless the path ahead of us, guide us in our hour of uncertainty." and as he raises from his prayer he looks at each of the figures gathered and states "Honouring the dead with a proper burial in these dark times is more important than killing these bandits, the revenge can wait, we must see that these lost souls are given proper rites and are rememberd, lest we forget."

Moving to the motionless body of the one that wil, the young boy seemed to know, Grimnah bends low, folding the mans arms across his chest. Seeing that the mans hands seemed rough and hard as nails from what could only be years as a blasckmith, Grimnash lowers the tone of his voice to a calm soothing level and says "May the eyes of the Smith watch over you."

[Insacrum]

Ollona sees that a lot of the group is more interested in taking the dead back to town; such a waste of time. If the group is not interested in the prints, who was Ollona to point out that even bloodhounds on a trail often miss seeing the trap. She was going to have to make sure that she kept an eye and an ear out for anything that might be out there. With that in mind, Ollona reknocked an arrow to her bow, ready for any attack that might come at them.

”If we aren’t going to follow the prints, then I think we should at least continue looking for the bandits. There is no point in dealing with any of the bodies now. They are already dead, they won’t know the difference if we deal with them now or later.”

[dbaque]

With more than a little reluctance, since he scarcely wishes to start up an argument with the companions he's just met, Lunigen speaks up again: I was going to hold further counsel until the rest of the group has spoken their mind, but I don't want there to be any misunderstandings. If I am under any misapprehensions, do let me know.

He turns to address Marcus: I don't think these crossbow assassins are natives of these woods. From what I've gathered from the lad, please correct me if I'm wrong, these ambush killings are a rather recent phenomenon. Our caravan heard no rumors of special dangers in these woods. I doubt any of you have either. From this, we can only conclude either that native creatures suddenly started ambushing travelers without warning or that some new set of creatures have moved in recently. I think the latter more likely, so these are hardly 'their' woods.

Second, from what the lad described, the ambush of his friends seemed to be by the same crossbow-wielding creatures as slew Ned and our traveling companions, not the bandits. A trail from the ambush site would just lead us towards the creatures.

Turning then to Holly, he states matter-of-factly: I thought I had already given you a reason, huntress, but I'll endeavor to make it clearer. If we die, the job fails. If the hostage dies, the job fails. The ambushing creatures are making both of those scenarios much more likely than even the usual dangers of these woods. While the first scenario isn't terribly troubling since we all seem rather capable of handling ourselves, the second scenario is much more worrisome.

Pray, correct me if I'm wrong, but the job is the safe return of the hostage. The creatures are apparently ambushing travelers along the way to the bandit's camp. Who's to say that they won't ambush us on the way back? How capable do you imagine this hostage is at avoiding death from a sudden hail of crossbow bolts? I don't know how capable everyone else is, but I know I certainly can't protect someone from that. So, to answer your question, huntress, we should deal with these creatures to avoid bringing the hostage home with a back riddled with quarrels.

[darthcharon]

Wil hesitates as the conversation becomes hostile. "W-well, you guys are the experts but... whomever these ambushers are... do you really think its a good idea to follow them? I mean, what if its another trap? Maybe we can talk to the bandits... If they aren't the ones who shot at us, maybe we can convince them to help us deal with the real danger. After all, if these guys keep killing people, eventually its going to get bad enough for the imperial army to get involved, and they won't want that. The only reason they are ignored now is because they don't usually kill, and they only seem to pick on a few wagons. Enough to get by, but not enough to be worth hunting down. Of course, the war probably made the bandit's presence seem trivial by comparison, but its over... right?"

[dbaque]

Sensing Wil's growing agitation & that of the party's, Lunigen closes his eyes & takes some deep breaths to calm himself. Opening his eyes, he says in a soft tone: My humblest apologies, all; I really do not wish to foster a quarrel. My eagerness to face these ambushers may be getting the better of me. I do think my concerns still have some merit, but it doesn't do any of us much good to hurl advice, bad or even good, at each other. Please take no offense at my enthusiasm.

Lunigen listens & considers Wi's words. There is definitely wisdom in what you say. We know little of these creatures beyond their penchant for & skill at ambushing. We really only need to address the ambusher problem some time before we try to escort the hostage home, not before we meet the bandits. I would side with a plan such as he proposed. Dealing with a common foe could provide a good start for negotiating, and the bandits may have useful intelligence &/or aid.

[DukeofTuring]

Marcus listens to Lunigen's arguments with increasing irritation that is not abated by Lunigen's apologies. "I don't know why you're so certain that these ambushers will attack us, and I don't think that the recent spate of attacks is evidence of some newcomers to these woods. If we travel to the site of Wil's ambush and find tracks towards the same area of the forest as these tracks here, then we can just ignore the tracks and continue on in the direction Wil knows the bandit camp to be located in. If we do find tracks leading towards the bandits, that would be even better. Regardless, we do of course need to have everyone's opinion first." Marcus turns towards his thinking companions and waits for their opinions.

[Quadra Wield]

Holly listens to Ollona's argument and nods her head in agreement. The bodies were of no concern to Holly or the job. She then listens to Lunigen's arguments and was about to interject that he may, in fact, be right before Wil bought up the point that the bandits might help the party with their ambushing creatures problem. Holly did think it strange that bandits were attacking Wil's party on first sight, so it made sense that the bandits weren't the ambushers at all.

With her back still leaning against the tree and her arms still crossing her chest Holly states, "Well it seems like we are in a sort of agreement then. We will go to the ambush site, and find the bandits.Tell me the way kid, I'll try to scout ahead so we don't get ambushed by whatever manner of creatures these are." Holly sighs, and waits for Wil to lead the group towards the ambush site.

[KronosWarrior]

The incessant jabbering of where to go was starting to annoy Drognan. Either option seemed just as good, what did it matter which way they went. Whatever the case he would just follow wherever the group went. Reaching up to his head, he had Sylvia hop onto his hand and patted her head. She shook her tail at him then flew up onto his staff and perched atop it.

[darthcharon]

You travel for some time in the forest, in the direction of the bandit's camp. It becomes clear as you travel that the terrain is shifting, the soft dirt being replaced with hard rock as you come acoss a series of foot hills. The sun has reached it's zenith, signalling noon's arrival. If you don't find the camp soon, you won't make it back to town before sunset, and you may have to camp out here, probably not a safe idea with whatever is going around killing things still out there. Also, heavy clouds have begin to fill the sky, suggesting that it may soon rain.

[DukeofTuring]

Once he notices the sun's position, Marcus asks,"Wil, any idea how close we might be?". Turning his head towards the rest of the party, he continues, "Obviously, sleeping out here would be a risk with whatever it is running through these woods. We could return to town to sleep if we don't find the bandits, but we would take longer overall."

[Quadra Wield]

As the dirt changes to rock, and the forest to foothills, Holly barely notices a cave at the base of one of the hills. The cave is well hidden by foliage, whether deliberate or just by age, she did not know. She turns to her companions, and walks back towards them. When she gets within talking range she nonchalantly says,

"There seems to be a cave at the bottom of that hill." Holly points at the specific hill. "Seems like a good place for bandits or whatever to hide."

She stands in front of the party with her left hand on her hip, waiting for the group's answer of whether to enter the cave, or to continue on to the ambush site.

[Insacrum]

Ollona listens contently as she describes some of the features of the land she hand managed to track. "Well, we might as well look it over, if we don't find anything in there, we've at least found a place to rest for the night, instead of having to head back all the way to town."