Road Reconnaissance – Day 2

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Road Reconnaissance – Day 2 (cont)
The afternoon is spent carefully packing up belongings to minimise noise when moving whilst Khurak flies out to carefully check out points of interest.
Khurak does locate the woodland spring that the other party are using, about 50 yards away from their camp, flowing south through the trees. Other than that, little of interest is seen, the nearby patches of woodland show no sign of human activity, and the other party themselves seem to relatively stationary.
As the sun begins to set, Caradoc, Joshua, Hamish and Joshuas dog Kirsten set out stealthily towards the patch of trees closest to the other parties hideout. As they approach, Joshua casts Detect Snares and Pits and the group move into the trees settling down to await the onset of evening.
The rest of the party in the meantime, move quietly (or as quietly as possible) down towards another of the intervening patches of tree, looking to stay out of clear visibility of the other parties camps and likely viewpoints.
Once evening falls, the small group led by Caradoc move off silently towards the other parties camping area, on reaching the edge of the trees. Joshua casts a couple of concealment spells on Caradoc and he moves in alone through the trees. As he gets closer, Caradoc takes a gulp of his potion of invisibility and attempts to get as close a possible to observe and listen.
There are 10 humanoid figures in the camp, all would appear to be human – although you do note that there would appear to be a bedding roll and rucksack for an 11th person. They are speaking common, but heavily accented – from your times as a youth in Stormhaven you recognise the accent as coming from the Western Kingdom.
The campsite is well ordered, with little light other than the glow from the firepit – which you note that everyone is carefully avoiding staring into. You would guess that many of the humans have only just awoken, in that they are rolling up bedding and generally stretching and yawning. Occasionally, one or other of the humans will look North – almost towards where you are hidden in the undergrowth – but looking past you and to your right somewhat.
Near the firepit there are 4 oil lanterns, unlit but open as if ready to light quickly. Next to the lanterns are 5 torches.
The humanoids are all wearing (or putting on) leather armour, with the exception of two of them who have chainmail shirts. Weaponry is mixed, although all have missile weapons of some form or other – predominantly shortbows, but with 1 light crossbow and a couple of staff slings. Some of the armour looks well worn and patched in places.
Snippets of conversation heard…..
“If they don’t come tonight or tomorrow then I guess we must have lost them…..”
“If you hadn’t….. Shut up, we’ve heard it all before”
“Lero says that his little bird will have recovered day after tomorrow, that’s when we will break North. Until then we stay put.”
“…this time, hit the f’ing Shaman first – if we can take him down in the first contact we stand a chance. If possible Acor and Birdame should get behind him and do their thing. Remember the bastard will almost certainly try to get Lero”
“We cant go bloody well South, the bridge is garrisoned with Alveran pricks – they will kill us on sight”
Caradoc is considering withdrawing at this point, when another humanoid comes into the camp from the North, he is wearing a strange cloth helm that appears to fully cover his face. As he enters the camp he pulls the helm off and tucks it into his belt.
“OK, they are out there, not coming closer yet…..but….”
The humans all immediately rise to their feet and begin preparing so as to be ready for a fight. The incoming human takes the hood from his belt and passes it to another of the leather clad humans who heads off into the trees to the North.
With all the movement and noise being made, Caradoc is easily able to extricate himself and return to Joshua and co. About an hour later the complete party is together.
From where the party is – it is about 40 minutes to the trees where the enemy camp is, longer if the party tries to maintain stealth.
…..WHAT NEXT???......
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