[WFRP] The Bloody Crown XIV

[LeSwordfish]

"Makes sense to me," Ludo said. "How far away is that?"

[-Sentinel-]

3rd Sigmarzeit

"Let me ask you - is a criminal in the Empire pardoned when the one who sentenced him dies? Or does the sentence remain until the conditions for its end are met?"

"Fair," said Elsa with a nod of acknowledgement. "But I must admit, I didn't realize your people had this kind of formal justice. I thought they were ruled by the whims of whoever's in power at any given time. Clearly I've misjudged the Vrani. Were our circumstances different, I would have loved to stay among your people to learn more about them."

---

4th Sigmarzeit

"Even so, we are getting ahead of ourselves. We shall first need to scout the area where Grim's informants suggest Wadim was last seen. Once we're there, we'll see what we find and make our plans based on that."

"That seems to be our only option right now," Elsa agreed. "Best not take the horses into the mountains. I'll pay your gang whatever it takes to keep my Bastard fed until my return."

She got up to refill her tankard. "There's another thing I can do to thank you for your hospitality, Bardhyl." She jerked her chin at the campfire. "This fire? With your permission, I can make it last a very long time. Not sure how long, but a few weeks at least. It'll save you some wood, which I imagine is hard to come by around here."


OOC:

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If Bardhyl allows it, Elsa will cast Inextinguishable Flame on the campfire. With Magic 4, the spell lasts a year, though I doubt Elsa herself would know that.

Channeling 93: (d100)[8]
Inextinguishable Flame 7+/11+: (2d10)[1][1](2) - Ugh. Tzeentch's Curse plus a double 1.

Another attempt just in case. (d100)[94] - (2d10)[5][1](6) - And another failure.

Well crap. I'll wait for the results of Tzeentch's Curse before making a third attempt, because it's likely she won't be allowed to try again after that.

[rax]

4th Sigmarzeit

"A most generous offer, Elsa, but a fire that cannot be extinguished is also one that is always making smoke...and smoke makes it easier to find our cozy cave. We prefer to keep a low profile," Bardhyl declined the offer with a mischievous smile.

"As for your horses, I'm sure we will be able to present you all with a fully itemized bill for care and feeding when we get back," he chuckled.

[-Sentinel-]

"Hmm, good point," allowed Elsa, sitting back down.

She turned to Tatiana: "Looks like there'll be no avoiding goblins, Tattie. This time at least, we'll be sticking together. Hopefully they've learned not to f*** with us."

[LCP]

Tatiana gave Elsa a look that seemed to suggest she didn't share her mistress' bravado. Setting her jaw, she gazed off into the middle distance.

While the others settled down to enjoy the dubious comforts of Bardhyl's 'cosy' cave, Grim filled his chief in on the more exact details of when and where they had heard of the wild man. He kept his voice low, though there wasn't much cause to - Ludo got the feeling he still didn't trust them.

---

Wellentag, 5th Sigmarzeit

They set out from the cave early the next morning, accompanied by three of Bardhyl's men. Grim's directions had pointed them south, through the foothills, and so south they went. The stunted trees quickly died away, giving way to a mixture of bare rock and poor, stony pastures.

They found their first farmstead a little before noon - a place where Afrim said they'd heard the first report of the greenskins. A crude hovel thrown together out of earth and timber, it stood next to a stream that still ran with a trickle of muddy water. A low wall of haphazardly piled stones encircled a tiny field next to the stream, where a faint fuzz of green shoots was starting to show between the dusty furrows. Outside the wall, a number of goats ranged to and fro, nibbling the yellow grass.

A woman of perhaps forty was watching them approach. Her face had the deep tan of someone used to working out of doors, and her hair was bound up under a faded red cloth. She was carrying a bundle of firewood she had gathered from further up the hill - as they came closer, she set it down, watching them with the kind of wary regard that anyone living out here on their own would have for large groups of armed men.

She recognised Afrim, and returned his greeting - though not with much warmth. "You back looking for them goblins again?" she asked.

When they indicated that they were, she turned and pointed up towards the hills. "My daughter saw 'em not two days back. Tried to snatch one of our goats. Our Rolf ran 'em off squealing. Even caught one of them. Isn't that right, Rolf?"

A very large and shaggy dog that had been sleeping next to the wall raised its head, and gave a deep-chested wuff

"Nailed it up to the old tree up there on the ridge," she continued. "Hopefully it'll make 'em think twice about coming sniffin' around our beasts."

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa chuckled. She liked that woman and her dog already.

"You're a good boy, Rolf." She moved to pet him, but stopped herself. A dog trained to catch goblins could very well bite off her fingers.

"They're those goblins with hoods, yes?" she asked the woman. "Do they always come after dark?"

[RossN]

Jarla

Jarla had been quiet recently, wrapped up in her own thoughts and relishing the strange feeling of being away from Savonne. She did appear to come back to life again when she joined the others on their morning expedition.

Unlike Elsa she did reach out a hand to pet the dog. "What a beauty! I pity the poor goblin who met him!"

[LeSwordfish]

Ludo raised his hat politely to the woman. "Did you happen to see which direction they came from or went to?"

[LCP]

A deep rumble in Rolf's chest moved from a growl up to a bark and a snap of the teeth as Jarla reached out to pet him. It was difficult to make out much of the dog's face under his shaggy coat, but he didn't seem too happy. The woman didn't offer Jarla any further warning - she only watched to see what these strangers would do next.

"Don't recall you having so many friends last time you came this way," she said to Afrim. "Nor friends with such fine clothes." Her eyes roamed from Jarla's pistols to Sieghard's sword. "I told you before, we don't want trouble... but if it's trouble you're making, you'll find we're more than we're worth."

"They're those goblins with hoods, yes?" she asked the woman. "Do they always come after dark?"

"They're the only goblins I know of round these parts," she said. "One tribe's quite enough."

She leant on her stick, sizing Elsa up. "After dark's mostly when we've seen them, aye. I suppose it makes life easier when they're up to mischief."

Ludo raised his hat politely to the woman. "Did you happen to see which direction they came from or went to?"

"South and west," she said, pointing again up to the hill where she'd pointed out the tree, "up over the ridge. That's what Magda says. Though it was dark, mind."

[rax]

"You'll have no trouble from us, madame," Bardhyl reassures the woman. "The only ones we're looking to make trouble for would be the goblins. Was Magda able to tell how many they were?"

[LCP]

"Can't have been that many," said the woman. "Half a dozen, maybe. More'n that and I don't reckon Rolf would've scared 'em off."

[LeSwordfish]

"Do you know if anyone else has been attacked recently round here?" Ludo asked. "In the past few days?"

[RossN]

Jarla

Jarla hastily pulls back her hand from Rolf. "And animals usually like me... I hope he doesn't mistake me for a goblin."

[LCP]

"Rolf doesn't like strangers," the woman said.

"Do you know if anyone else has been attacked recently round here?" Ludo asked. "In the past few days?"

"Haven't seen more'n one or two folk out this way since then," she said. "We don't get many visitors this far west."

"There's another farm about four miles south of here," volunteered Afrim. "If the goblins went south, they may have seen them too."

[LeSwordfish]

Ludo nodded thoughtfully. "The next place to check then, perhaps."

OOC

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No more questions here - could head to that farm or try and find Goblin tracks in the mountain.

[rax]

"Can't have been that many," said the woman. "Half a dozen, maybe. More'n that and I don't reckon Rolf would've scared 'em off."

"You wouldn't happen to have seen - or heard of - an older man travelling with goblins hereabouts? Not the ones you ran off perhaps, but others of their kind?" Bardhyl added.

[LCP]

The woman shook her head. "Doesn't sound like something any right-minded man would do."

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"We're thinking he's probably not with them by choice," Sieghard said.

[rax]

"Or, as you said yourself, that he's not in his right mind," Bardhyl added.

[LCP]

Taking their leave of the farmer and her dog, the party followed her directions up to the ridge where her daughter's encounter with the greenskins had taken place. Sure enough, there was the stunted tree, its crabbed roots gripping on to the hard soil for dear life. The head of a goblin had been nailed to the trunk, its long tongue lolling out of its open, needle-toothed mouth.

Bardhyl's men made a quick survey of the ground, and soon made out something that looked like a trail. They followed it in the direction the woman had said, until they had left her farmstead behind. The goblins seemed to have been moving irregularly - sometimes the trail led due south, other times it veered west to higher ground, zig-zagging up through the rocky foothills of the Teeth.

By the time dusk began to draw in, they had followed it for some miles. Afrim pointed out a thin trail of smoke in the lowlands away to the east - that, he said, was the next farmstead that he had mentioned. Their high vantage point made it seem tantalisingly close, but reaching it before dark would be a tall order. Instead, Damjan pointed out a jagged spur of rock up on the nearest ridge. They had camped there before, he said, and it offered both shelter and a good lookout, should any greenskins come prowling in the dark.

They made camp in the lee of the rock, and settled in for a cold night on the hillside.

OOC:

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I'm going to assume you set watches. It's not important for now who or what order, but if you want to specify that for the future let me know.

---

Aubentag, 6th Sigmarzeit

Dawn from the foothills of the Teeth was a majestic sight. As the first rays of the morning crept over the vast expanse of the Downs below them, Ludo wished he was in a better state to appreciate it. Instead, like many of the others, he'd spent a good portion of the night awake and listening for creeping goblin feet, and so now only begrudged the sun its relentlessly punctual appearance.

No goblins had come near the camp during the night's watches, but some of those on watch had heard noises in the dark - whether of greenskins or lower animals, they weren't sure. As the daylight grew clearer, they made their preparations to move on.

OOC:

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You're in easy striking distance of the next farmstead if you want to start there - or if you'd rather have Afrim and Damjan keep following the trail, you can keep right on.

[rax]

"Well, we have the goblins' scent. I suggest we follow their trail as far as we can and see where it leads us. If we lose the trail we can head back this way and try our luck at yonder farmstead," Bardhyl suggested. Despite the chilly night and morning, he seemed in quite the chipper mood, energized by the hunt.

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

Sieghard raised an eyebrow. "Farm's right there," he said, gesturing to the buildings in the distance. "Surely it wouldn't cost us much time to ask around while we're here. Much less than if we have to circle back this way."

[LeSwordfish]

Ludo nodded agreement with Sieghard. "If we lose the trail later, we'll be grateful for whatever they can tell us here."

[-Sentinel-]

Elsa shivered in the cold. "Maybe pile up some rocks to mark the trail before we leave it?"

[rax]

"The farm's no closer now than it was last night. Distances can be deceiving here in the mountains," Bardhyl answered Sieghard.

"Lads - how long do you reckon it'll take to get to the farm and back?" he asked his henchmen.

[LCP]

Damjan looked at Afrim, who paused a while in mental calculation. "Two hours, I'd reckon," he said. "Maybe a hair more."

[rax]

"Two hours to hear much the same thing as before, I suspect. But if you still wish it, we'll do it your way, Commander," Bardhyl grouched.

[RossN]

Jarla

Jarla looked cold and irritable. She wasn't a total stranger to roughing it - far from it - but the forests of the Empire seemed like a luxurious paradise compared with the bleakness of the Borderlands. The fact that she'd been after wealthy travellers rather than goblins didn't favour he comparasion.

"I say we keep at it." She forced a crooked smile. "Seeing a farmhouse might be too tempting at this point for me not to call it a day."

[TheSummoner]

Sieghard

"You're the one who knows the area," Sieghard said to Bardhyl. He didn't seem too concerned one way or the other. "Whatever you think is best."

[LCP]

It didn't take long for the party to gather their things and get underway. Staying on the goblins' trail was the more challenging question - on this higher ground, the stony soil told fewer tales of who had gone before. They proceeded slowly, searching for clues in every bush or patch of dirt.

It was around midday when they found something more interesting than the scant signs they had been following. At the mouth of a rocky gully, where a dry stream-bed ran down out of the high hills, a profusion of tracks had trampled the earth almost bare. Some led north, the way they had come; others led south or east. All funnelled together at this point, where the gully led west up into the heights.

Afrim and Damjan hadn't visited this spot before. They spent some time studying the tracks.

"Mostly goblins," said Damjan, pointing to the print of a bare foot in the dust. It was too small for grown man or woman, but the toes were too large and long for a child, and left the tell-tale scratches of long, pointed nails. "Both coming and going. But see there," he said, pointing to another print, "that's from a cow."

"Must be a lot of them to make a road like this," said Afrim, surveying the trampled earth. "Couple of dozen at least… or more, depending how much they come and go."

The two trackers looked up together towards the defile. Narrow and deep, it wound down over the hillside like a scar. Even in the noonday sun, much of its bottom was in shadow; the stunted plants that grew around it clung only to its edges, where the light still reached.

As places to meet twenty or more goblins went, Ludo had certainly seen better.