5 May 13

LW GM: ***LOG START***
LW GM: Dust sits at watch, leaning against the cave wall. The moon pokes it's head from out behind the trees, reflecting in a puddle near the cave entrance. A spider skitters across the… moon? Reflection in the puddle? Is there a difference? No, the puddle, it's clamored up top a rock now, stamping it's front legs at Dust disapprovingly. Avan shakes Dust awake, ready for his turn at watch The spider is gone, save for a rapidly receding shadow.
LW GM: Avan's turn at watch is uneventful. Soon enough the moon makes way for the sun, and it is morning.
Rhavi: "bloody rocks…"
Levin does a breakfast of chunks of cold sausage shoved into partially-hollowed pieces of bread, over which a cheese spread has been applied.
Rhavi: "Much better than ship's fare. Thank you, Levin."
Levin: "No problem."
Avan savors this too. Definitely not a recipe he would find at home.
Rhavi: "So…today is the day. Everyone ready?"
Avan: "How else might one prepare?"
Rhavi: "Enjoy the meal, look at the clouds and die with a song on your lips. Or live if that is the will of Ishir."
Levin: "Do we exactly have a choice as to whether we're ready or not? I'm thinking 'no', but…"
Dust: "You could always choose to run. If you run far enough, perhaps you will die last."
Rhavi: "Bah! Running to it or from it will not change the end."
Avan: "I choose to believe that it is the will of Ishir that we are victorious."
GrimBeard: "Nun o' us are gonna die."
Levin shrugs. "Death to those who would bring ruin to the world."
Avan shrugs. "If I do, then I have. I am dead until and unless I return home. It is my circumstance."
Rhavi: "You have touched the sea. You can return when this is over."
Avan: "That is my preferred outcome."
Rhavi: "Which way would be best to approach? You wood-wise types would have a better understanding than I."
Levin rolled up 1d10+3: 7 (7)
Levin suggests one route.
Avan rolled up 1d10+3: 12 (12)
Avan suggests a sneakier route.
[OOC] Avan: Pass Without Trace finally gets a use
LW GM: General woodlore is of little use in coming up with specific tactics to approach unseen in unknown terrain in advance. You have been here. Once. However none of you can claim to know this area.
[OOC] Avan: Avan's tapping specific stealthlore.
[OOC] LW GM: Don't walk on dried leaves and brittle twigs.
[OOC] Avan: And hard, packed dirt leaves less footprints than mud.
Rhavi: "So it looks like straight on then?"
Avan nods. "Speed would be advisable, and any route may be guarded."
Avan: "If we go this way, we can hopefully avoid anyone coming from behind. Whether there will be anyone ahead, that I can not say."
Rhavi mounts up
[OOC] LW GM: Especially as most stealth would require you to let loose the horses, which would add at least a day.
GrimBeard does the same.
Levin mounts up as well.
[OOC] Avan: Quite.
Avan is up, and away once the party is moving.
Avan: "Perhaps we can simply run over them?"
LW GM: Keeping to rocks and hard packed earthen section of the trail, and avoiding branches that may be broken by your passage, you proceed towards the fort.
LW GM: The rains have been erratic lately and there earth is mostly dry and nearly rocklike in it's inability to leave prints.
LW GM: Around noon, you notice the woods growing darker. You look up and see huge lengths of web that conspire to block out the sun even more than the thick canopy already did.
Levin quietly loosens his sword.
Rhavi: "Wonderful."
Dust glances up and around, gauging the distance to the fort, and the likely chance of eight-legged devouring beasts descending from on high.
Avan: "…could we start a fire on this web, somewhere other than where we are, to attract our foes over there?"
Rhavi: "Would that not burn the whole forest down around us?"
[OOC] LW GM: I remind you that the rains have been erratic and things are rather dry at the moment.
Dust: "The whole forest? Unlikely. The part we are currently in? Probably."
[OOC] LW GM: Which is not to say that a forest fire wouldn't kill a whole lot of spiders. And party members.
Rhavi: "It occurs to me…why are we bothering to try to be quiet? We're marked."
[OOC] LW GM: I believe you are hoping that you are marked in the way that 'somewhere in Sherwood forest is Robin Hood' rather than 'Robin Hood is at these GPS coordinates'.
[OOC] Levin: ^
Dust: "That the demon can sense our presence is certain. Whether that sense is like sight, precise and detailed, or hearing, vague and diffuse, is uncertain. We lose nothing from stealth, and potentially gain our lives. That is reason enough. And, if the demon can simply see us?" Dust shrugs. "Perhaps our antics are entertaining."
Rhavi: "Fair enough then."
Avan: "If the demon could simply see us, the demon would surely have attacked already this morning."
[OOC] LW GM: Perhaps it did.
Dust: "Perhaps. Or perhaps it is an intelligent creature and has a plan."
Rhavi: "Like us bringing the means of its destruction to it."
Dust: "Certainly better than them being placed in the hands of brave Sommlending Knights."
[OOC] Levin: *pres X*
LW GM: Dust's head jerks up as he sees a nest of spiders, the larger than a man kind. They do not seem to have noticed you yet, but the trail leads directly under the nest.
Avan spies that motion, and follows Dust's vision. "Burn them?"
Rhavi: "What?"
Levin unships his bow and draws an arrow, but stops there; it's clear he's waiting for a signal.
Rhavi looks up from the webbing he has been studying
Rhavi: "Are you crazy? There is a whole nest up there. The forest fire we talked about would start up in a blaze right in our faces. Can we just go around them?"
Dust: "Not and stay on the path." Dust studies the spiders, watching their movements, judging their mood.
[OOC] LW GM: The path is surrounded by brittle undergrowth. Leaving the path is very doable, but it will be both loud and leave a trail.
Dust rolled up 1d10+3: 8 (8) ((Animal Kinship))
LW GM: The spiders seem to be tired. It wouldn't take much for them to fall asleep, and once they do they are unlikely to wake up again for anything short of a direct attack.
Dust closes his eyes. "They are weary. Should they sleep, they shall remain asleep for hours, as long as nothing threatens them. Such as a fire."
Rhavi: "Then we wait?"
Levin rolled up 1d10+3: 6 (6) (Predict likely spider intentions should we slowly move as to go by, without malice intended.)
Dust closes his eyes, exerting his mindforce to nudge the spiders into slumber.
Dust rolled up 1d10+3: 5 (5) ((Animal Kinship))
[OOC] Rhavi: Oh this is a webcomic scene waiting to happen.
LW GM: It is obvious that the Cener have tampered with the spiders, creating a film that burns Dust's mind when it tries to make anything more than cursory contact. Still it is not hard, though painful, to convince the spiders that they have stood guard long enough and should take some earned rest ((-5EP))
Dust winces, shaking his head. "Give them a moment, perhaps two. Then… it should be safe."
Avan: "Lead on when you are ready."
Rhavi nods
Dust motions them ahead, catching up once his head clears.
Levin takes point 'til Dust is able to catch up.
Avan watches the nest as they pass.
Rhavi rides under the spiders warily
[OOC] LW GM: Everyone make a half rank roll to be sneaky sneaky.
Rhavi rolled up 1d10+3: 8 (8)
[OOC] Avan: Any bonus for Pass Without Trace?
Levin rolled up 1d10+3: 5 (5)
GrimBeard rolled up 1d10+3: 11 (11)
[OOC] GrimBeard: I am NinjaBeard
Dust rolled up 1d10+3: 6 (6) ((Sneaking))
Avan rolled up 1d10+3: 9 (9)
[OOC] LW GM: @Avan - Yes. half rank.
[OOC] Avan: 14, then
LW GM: There was a worrying moment as Levin and Dust tripped over what looks like a molted skin, causing a piece to break off with a loud crack, but the spiders don't respond.
Dust motions them on ahead, one hand held up for silence until they've passed the point where monster spiders will drop on their heads to eat their brains.
[OOC] LW GM: I'm making the assumption that you are leading your horses on foot at this point as it would be quieter.
[OOC] Levin: Yes.
[OOC] Rhavi: ….of course…..
[OOC] Dust: We stacked all the horses on top of each other and are letting Grim carry them.
[OOC] Levin: :V
[OOC] Avan: Something like that.
[OOC] GrimBeard: Awwwwwww man!
[OOC] Dust: Captain, control your dwarf. He's scaring the horses.
LW GM: Once you leave the nest behind, you mount up again and ride towards the fort. You soon enter the clearing where the fort is. It is a field of carnage. Bodies lay everywhere, men and spiders both. At this distance you can see no activity in the fort.
Rhavi pauses at the edge of the clearing remembering the last "dead" bodies they came across.
Levin: "Dust? What do your mental disciplines tell you of the fort?"
[OOC] LW GM: We'll get into that next session for now it is time for the dreaded…
LW GM: ***LOG END***

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