Day 6b - PNK morph into PK

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Road Reconnaissance – Day 6 (cont 2)
After a hurried discussion, the party opts to move out with the two pathfinders, Ranlarke hands over the leather satchel to Wun. He then dismisses the party and the pathfinders the and the group head off to the bridge. By now it is mid to late afternoon, and the pathfinders set a brisk pace, with the lead pathfinder occasionally making hand signals to unseen observers.
The trailing pathfinder, a human named Gifrie, explains that there is a campsite about 3 hours up the road and the intent is to stop there. Either the pathfinders are used to travelling faster, or Gifrie is useless at estimating – because it is close to 4 hours before the weary party cuts off the road. By now it is getting dark and moving off road is slow. Neither pathfinder wants any lights and there is little in the way of natural illumination – eventually the group is reduced to moving crocodile fashion, holding on to the cloak of the person in front. After about thirty minutes of this the party enters a small copse, and the darkness is total. Then the lead pathfinder makes a series of animal sounds and leads the party down into a hollow. The party enters a clearing, two firepits throw off a small amount of light and people can make out about 8 other humanoids in the camp, two awake by one of the firepits, the rest huddled in sleeping rolls spread about the camp. Gilfrie leads you over to the nearest firepit, where the two humanoids offer you bowls of rabbit stew. Gilfrie also takes a bowl and suggests the party eats up and then grabs some sleep. There are several people on watch and so the party can feel reasonably secure here. Everyone is speaking in a low voice, so little can be overheard of what little conversation there is. Gilfrie indicates an area where the party can sleep and shows everyone where the latrine trenches are, nobody should move out of the clearing.
It is early morning when the party is awoken by a disturbance in the camp, surprised voices plus a kind of yipping/barking sounds penetrate everyone’s dreams.
Jumping up, the party sees that there are now about 15 pathfinders in the camp clustered around something. Moving over to investigate you see a small creature, around 3’ tall bound hand and foot. (Yup it’s a Kobold!). Gohde is with the group, and when he sees the party approaching he waves and comes over.
Gohde: “Well, that is what attacked those civilians, him….. I think it is a him….and a lot of his buddies. To be quite honest, individually not much of a threat but they seem to travel in packs and are ferocious little buggers… cunning too. Not a bloody clue as to what it is, some form of mutant lizardfolk possibly, seems like since the Elves arrived all sorts of weirdness has been going on.”
Gohde: “Anyhow, we have taken out two bands of these, both around 30 to 40 strong, but there is another much larger group that we are tracking – estimated to be about 200 but could be more. We are shadowing that group and early indications are that it will reach the road – not far from where you bumped into those big beasties – in about 4 to 5 days – they certainly aren’t moving quickly.”
Gohde: “Now I didn’t tell you this, but Cagrun will be looking to evacuate the civilians from Braerk as soon as possible, and with this weirdness just getting worse I suspect he will look to start as soon as you get back – unless his other scouts have picked up any info. So, my job will be to stop this warband from settling in the area or worse, deciding to follow the road up into Braerk. I appreciate that you folks have kind of just stumbled into this but some additional bodies to help contain these beasts would be very useful, I am pretty certain we can take the mob out, but there aren’t enough of us to prevent leakers. So you folks would make an excellent reserve line, plus any of the militia from Braerk that Cagrun can spare.”
Gohde: “If you are up for it, then I suggest you get up the road as quickly as possible – it is a risk I accept but if you keep your familiars out scouting ahead of you I think it is the most effective way. I cant really spare anybody to escort you since we are now shadowing the mob of beasties along with all of our usual patrols. Once you get there turnaround quickly and head back with whatever militia Cagrun can spare, will aim to rendezvous at the campsite where the big beasties were in 4 days.”
CLOCK TICKS ON MONDAY! YOU CAN HAVE BEEN ASKING GILFRIE QUESTIONS BUT WILL HAVE LITTLE TIME TO QUIZ GOHDE.
Cheers
Darrell
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