Days 8 - 10: Kobalds, kobolds everywhere

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**Road Reconnaissance – Day 8**

The party heads over to the mess tent to grab some food, everyone is of the opinion that whilst happy to go with the flow for the moment and execute on Gohdes plan – you will defer the decision on the next steps until you have a chance to discuss it with Gohde as well.

In the mess tent, you spot the other group seated over in one corner and move over to join them and exchange experiences. The others happily make room on the benches and the next hour is spent in conversation.

The other groups experience is pretty much as described by Cagrun. one interesting observation they make is that Krafort, which used to be a small human settlement is now occupied by the Elves. Not just a military presence and that looks to be just militia, but obviously civilians who seem to be preparing to work the fields come spring. The implication is that the Elves are bringing settlers and are obviously planning to stay.

On the subject of the “monsters”, it is noted that the “elderly grandmother” is near 80 years old, somewhat senile and is talking about stories told to her by her grandmother in turn. At least half of the other group are somewhat cynical about her information, despite Cagrun obviously giving it some credence.

The other group is interested in coming down the road with you tomorrow, if only to get some action – and with mutual promises of aid you all find quarters to settle down for the night.

**Day 9**

In the morning, the party is woken at dawn by some of the militia, they are told to grab a quick breakfast and then find Elliser – who will be out by the South Gate. Walking to the mess tent, there is a general feeling of sullenness amongst the villagers, whilst in the mess tent itself the level of background chat is high and there is a feeling of excitement in the air.

Listening in on a conversation, you soon ascertain that the village will be evacuated the day after tomorrow, for most this means moving away from possible conflict with the Elves – but for the villagers it means leaving their family homes. You are surprised to see no sign of the other group, and a quick enquiry with one of the stewards reveals that they had breakfast about 2 hours ago, well before dawn.

Hurrying down to the gate you find Elliser in conversation with one of the militia sergeants, when he spots you he breaks off his conversation and comes over to meet you.

Elliser: “Good morning! We are pulling together a couple of squads to go down the road with you, they should be ready within the hour. Whilst you wait, let’s go for a stroll.”

A strange request, but you follow Elliser out of the gate and a little way away from the village.

Elliser: “Right, well as you can probably tell, Cagrun informed the villagers last night that we would be shipping out. The goal is to abandon Braerk the day after tomorrow, obviously people aren’t happy but orders are orders.”

Elliser: “The thing is, and keep this to yourselves, apparently King Alvera is in the process of negotiating a non-aggression treaty with the Elves. Cagrun and I think this is a pretty half baked idea, and any treaty will not last long, but in the meantime we are removing any military presence North of the river as instructed by Starport. Apparently there have been a number of reports of increased Orc and Troll activities, and more worryingly the Lizardman ambassador reported that Solara has been fielding Orcish troops – we assume mercenaries, but who knows? We know that the Lizardfolk are allied with some of the Orcish tribes, but only those opposed to the Trolls and Ghoulagabba. Anyhow, on top of that, this influx of mythological creatures has got the higher ups spooked, apparently we are not the only area reporting them.”

Elliser: “So clearing out these Kobolds is obviously of high importance, since we have close to eight hundred civilians to escort down to the bridge as quickly as possible. I’ve been left here in charge of the evacuation and the two squads of militia you will be with are certainly two of the more competent ones, some of them will probably make it into the regular forces if they wish. I will introduce you to Bradark shortly, he is the lead sergeant, and I suggest you follow his suggestions.”

Dougal: “Where is Cagrun now then? If you have been left in charge….”

Elliser: “Cagrun sent the other group off to perform some other task, I am not party to the details on that. He himself, headed out about an hour ago down the road, at a fair pace – going to confer with Gohde apparently, I think he was both surprised and pleased to hear that there are some Pathfinders in the area – particularly Gohde, who I believe he has worked with in the past.”

Elliser: “Anyhow, so the situation is pretty fluid, but lets get back and I will introduce you to Bradark, he’s actually ex-army and has selected the squads personally.”

Bradark Glitterhelm is a middle aged Dwarf, openly friendly to the party, the two squads of eight militiamen, primarily human, that he has drafted are all equipped with large shields and spears. About half of them are also carrying self bows with a quiver of arrows. Bradark has also requisitioned four pack horses that are laden with supplies.

Bradark: “I gather that we need to move out promptly and move reasonably quickly so thought best not to bring a wagonload of stuff.”

Everyone seems to be ready and so you set off down the road…..

The days march passes uneventfully, Bradark is obviously keen to chat with the party, in particular to glean as much information on the ‘kobolds’, he has obviously been well briefed since nothing the party can remember comes as a surprise to him. In terms of the militia marching with you, it becomes obvious that none of them are magic capable, but all are competent with the weapons they carry. Morale is reasonable, although there is some trepidation as to the potential upcoming fight.

You make good progress down the track, and camp just South of the woods where you fought the Ogres.

**Day 10**

…dawns bright and clear, with a heavy dew.

The camp is broken efficiently and you all head into the woods for the Ogre clearing, arriving about an hour after dawn. In the centre of the clearing, a figure is waiting for you and he rises to his feet as your force approaches, you recognise him as the pathfinder Gilfrie.

Gilfrie: “Wotcher folks, good timing – I just arrived about half hour back.”

Gilfrie: “So the situation is this, the beasties are camped in a small copse of trees about an hour or so away from here. Gohde is planning to hit them at noon, and we fully expect them to try and scatter, with you folks in place here we will have them pretty much bottled up. Up to now, there have been a number of skirmishes, so they are aware we are in the area. In general they are pretty easy kills, but in trees and similar cover they can be tricky buggers. Gohdes suggestion was for you guys to take up positions on the edge of the woods here with the intent of preventing them from getting under cover. The beasties definitely do not like the sun, and isn’t it a wonderful day!”

True to Gilfries comments, there is not a cloud in the sky, and it is almost unseasonably warm.

After some discussions it is decided that Gilfrie will support one militia squad and cover the Northern part of the treeline. Bradark with the other squad will merge with the party to cover the centre and Southern section, . Once this is agreed, Gilfrie concentrates briefly and then nods.

Gilfrie: “Okay, so Gohde knows we are here and will be in position….. good luck folks”

Everyone moves to the edge of the trees facing Eastwards and begins to make preparations. Avenues between the trees are filled with uprooted scrub, reinforced where possible with stakes, large bushes out to 30-40’ are chopped down to use in the barricades and provide clear line of sight.

The three hours seem to pass in an instant….as word comes down the line that the attack on the Kobold encampment is happening imminently.

At first there is no obvious sign that anything has happened, but then in the distance a faint noise is heard that grows in volume, the sound multiple yipping noises.

Kherak reports “many many little man things, more coming….”

Another message comes down the line…. Contact in 10 minutes.

At first it is just a few Kobolds breaking cover from the scrub ahead obviously making for the trees, these are swiftly despatched by missile fire and for after the initial flurry of activity there is a brief period when there is no further sign of the beasts. Although the yipping sound is now almost deafeningly loud.

Then a horde of Kobolds breaks cover and comes charging for the treeline, throwing darts as they come. The Kobolds are obviously firing blind, as most of their missiles go well astray. A couple of Entangle and sleep spells break up any concentrations of Kobolds that look to be making it to the defensive line. Very few Kobolds make it up to the tree line, most fall to missile fire, and soon there is a definite change in tone to the yipping noises they make.

Even as the Kobold charge is faltering, to the South is spotted two humans running in parallel with the Kobolds, firing bows and bringing down any stragglers that seem to be trying to veer away from the tree line. One last group of Kobolds emerges from the scrub but are brought down by a well placed fireball and then it is over apart from the coup-de-grace where needed.

All in all, the “battle” lasted at most 15 minutes, everyone in the party is uninjured although two militia took minor scratches from very lucky darts. A quick count reveals that around 60 Kobolds were made it to the clearing in front of the tree line to be massacred, and there is a trail of Kobold corpses stretching back to the Northeast.

Gohde and Cagrun, deep in conversation come up to where the party has gathered.

Gohde: “Many thanks for your assistance all, there are a few stragglers out there but I have some patrols out mopping up, these beasties certainly did not like fighting in bright sunshine!”

Cagrun: “I second that thanks, and as a small token…”

Cagrun tosses over a small pouch of money (party Gold: 100gp)

Cagrun: “Anyhow, I have brought Gohde up to speed on my thoughts, and really have to be getting back to meet the civilian convoy from Braerk. You are welcome to join me heading South if you wish but I hope you will listen to Gohde’s ideas.”

….and Cagrun heads back to the track, initially marching but soon breaking into a run and passing out of sight extremely quickly.

Gohde: “The militia have been instructed to make camp on the track to await the civilians, for myself and my troop we will be loitering in the area for another few days until the civilians are over the bridge and then most will be heading South as well. First in, last out – the usual Pathfinders briefing.”

Gohde: “So Cagrun tell me that you know about the farcical cease fire that is being negotiated, he and I are of the same opinion – that it will not last long. Even with all that is going on, the Elves are still far too keen to expand, and it will not be long before we are bumping heads with them again. Still, orders are orders, and so we will go along with things and just make the best of it.”

Gohde: “If you folks come back South with Cagrun or I, then you can obviously stay a civilians or enlist…or possibly end up being conscripted anyhow. That is always an option, but I would like to put some other ideas on the table. You folks are still pretty inexperienced, but I think you have potential and so am going to be as open and honest as possible without giving away state secrets and the like.”

Gohde: “Me and Cagrun think that we need to investigate one of two areas, there might be overlap – we just don’t know – but we need to understand more about the Elves and/or these legendary monsters and why and how they have started appearing.”

Gohde: “I have been asked to send a squad up to Northlake, under the banner of truce. I find myself wondering if this is just the high ups testing out how true to their word the Elves are – but anyhow you could accompany this squad and then have a nose about in the records there. Having you with the squad will be somewhat bending my orders but still should work, and I can give you a couple of names and a letter of introduction that should get you access to the research that was being carried out there into the Elves and ancient history.”

Gohde: “Or alternatively, we could be ambitious and try to get you up to Far Haven, this should be possible, but I will need to call in a couple of favours. I have a couple of contacts up there, but to be honest am not sure what you will find. In case you aren’t aware, legend has it that Far Haven is where Humans first landed on the North Island and so some of the records there go back to the time of the Elves and possibly even earlier. The original main library was held in the Wyldwood church there, however for reasons only known to Shanah, a pogrom was declared against Wyldwood in Far Haven by the Shanah First Sword. The Wyldwood church was destroyed and now Shanah is the dominant religion of the city.”

Gohde: “Of course there is always Stormhaven itself, but I would strongly recommend against that at the moment – even with the so called cease fire.”

Gohde: “….or of course you might have other ideas – I am open to anything. The whole existence of the Pathfinders is to be able to move fast and far, and we can assist you in general.”

SO WHAT NEXT??

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