So, we've had an exciting past few weeks here in Elgria. Our somewhat rugged adventurers are cutting their teeth on taverns, goblins, and, later, the dreaded ten foot pit.
Week number two was a little tough because we were missing half of the party. Yet, our hardy boys pressed on. The party decided to head back to the Soggy Bottle to wait for the return of Ranger Rick, to no avail. Luckily, Salty Sneed was feeling a little generous with the ale, and while she continued to pour it down Abelard's throat, Alric and Biff decided to get some info about their mission and the surrounding area. Biff managed to impress some of the locals with his wit and charm, and he ran into a mysterious gentleman with an eyepatch who was ready to volunteer some information. He hadn't seen the woman that Biff was looking for, but was very knowledgeable about the forest. He told Biff and Alric a whole bunch of stuff, including that the Sugar Forest to the north and northwest was the home to the elven population on the Cape. Apparently the elves seemed a bit ticked lately, and it was rumored that there was a group on the fringe that was becoming a little hostile to the local humans.
Biff and Alric didn't want to wait any longer for Rick, so they told Abelard they were going to head out and look for Ivella. Abelard told them to go ahead; he seemed very interested in staying to speak with Sneed for a little longer. So, the sorcerer and the barbarian headed out north, along the rocky cliff coast of the Cape of Sirens and into the Sugar Forest. They had no evidence of the missing bride-to-be, or her lady in waiting, but still they pressed on. After a few hours in the forest, the men heard a rustling in the trees, only to discover that they were surrounded by a band of elves.
One of the elves hopped down from a nearby tree, and demanded to know why the men "were walking armed through the Mallendor." She was tall, for an elf, with dark, green-streaked hair. Biff tried to reason with them, only to fail with a horrible diplomacy check. Alric took a try at speaking, with the intention to provoke, not soothe. The men could see at least six elves with their arrows trained on them, and Biff tried to smooth things over again. Their lives were spared, but they learned very little from Al'londia and her band of elves. They seemed disinterested, if not hostile, to the activities of men. She let them know that she did, in fact, see two women walking in the forest, and she and her scouts overhead them speaking. They were talking about a boat, and the Caves of Sorrow. She grumbled a little about men, and also about goblins. Al'londia gave them passage through the forest, noting that they were "not bannermen." Biff breathed a sigh of relief, though Alric seemed a little disappointed that his axe was not going to bathe in elven blood.
The two pressed on, knowing little about the Caves of Sorrow, and less about the forest. At nightfall, they came upon a clearing. It looked as if there were something, a child, maybe, laying on the ground. They looked around, but didn't see anything else unusual. Alric went ahead to check it out, while Biff waited near the trees as a lookout. As Alric approached the body, it stood up and giggled as a spear came flying out of the trees to his right and pierced Alric in the shoulder. As Al'londia had alluded, elves weren't the only creatures in the forest. The hideous creatures, afterwards identified as goblins, traded blows with our heroes. Overall, I was impressed with the strategy of this fight. They are both new to the game, but employed pretty good tactics despite the fact that the goblins got the jump on them. Biff hid behind a rock to cast spells, while Alric cleaved heads with his great axe. They dispatched the goblins rather quickly, and this time, remembered to loot. They discovered three unusual things: a large pouch of gemstones, a note that said, "Yoo doo gud wif dem elfees. Yoo brin men now. All men. Even onnez wif buubs. Moon is hav! Need bye fulll! Muss hurree!" Complete with backwards letters and written in purple ink. It was signed, but the name is illegible. They also discovered an incredibly ornate dagger. It's encrusted with red jewels, though it is obviously not for display. The dagger appears to be made with very high quality steel. Molded into the end of the hilt, is the head of a leopard.
Alric and Biff quickly deduced that this dagger must belong to Ivella Smythlei, seeing that the leopard is on their coat of arms. Biff hung onto it, and he was surprised to find that it made him feel pretty good. Just north of the clearing, the two saw what looked like the remains of a struggle. Small trees had been flattened and the ground was pretty tore up. Unfortunately, neither of them have any woodland survival skills, so they couldn't really make out what happened. They could just tell that something was amiss. Darkness had fallen, the half-moon shone down upon them, and they pressed on.
After an hour or so, they were ambushed by four small lizard-like creatures. The fight was not going well for the adventurers. Alric was already beat up from earlier, and Biff was low on spells. Ambushes on parties of two can be pretty rough. Two lizard-creatures surrounded Biff, while the other two engaged Alric. Biff got hit pretty badly, but decided he wasn't going out without taking at least one with him. He decided to give his new dagger a try. Surprisingly (or maybe not) the dagger increased Biff's melee skills, and he managed to stab one of the lizard creatures right in the heart. However, the severeness of the wounds set in for Biff, and he fell alongside his enemy. Alric, seeing his friend fall, roared with fury, and unleashed a rage upon the remaining creatures. He managed to take them all out, and still have two hit points to spare. He somehow managed to stabilize Biff, and that is where they rested for the night.
This is where we wrapped for our second week. I had more things planned, but with party members absent it didn't make much sense to continue. Luckily, the break enabled Biff and Alric to level up. This week was pretty fun. Biff and Alric do pretty well on their own, despite the fact that their character classes have no healing powers, nor do they have much in the way of tracking or wilderness survival. They both are quickly learning the mechanics of their classes. Alric with his axe, and Biff with his charm and spell-casting. Though I feel kind of bad for Evan(Biff) because he has a lot of ranks in Bluff and Diplomacy, yet his rolls have been astoundingly horrible. The only time he really succeeded was in the tavern with the eye-patch man. I had a feeling tonight might get one of them killed, because Rick was unexpectedly absent. Before the game started, I did have to do a bit of revising, but on the whole I was pretty impressed.
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