Frontier Pathfinding - Sunday, September 29th, 2019

In the morning, Izelda made her way back to the church, expecting that was as good a place as any to meet up with everyone. Finding Deserea's mules, she befriended one of them with some goodberries.

Once everyone was together and a mule was harnessed to the wagon, they headed down the road to the east.

Late in the afternoon, Izelda, running ahead of the rest of the party and the wagon, came across a fork in the road. There was more traffic to the right, heading nearly due south. The other branch headed northeast. She jogged ahead to the south and after about a mile came across a faint and disused road heading east, as the main road with all the traffic headed southwest. Deciding that an unused track or a road heading southwest were incorrect, she headed back to the first fork in the road and headed a couple hundred yards down the road to the northeast.

Schmidt was driving the wagon when they got to the fork in the road. As Izelda before them, he decided to follow the route with the heavier traffic. When that road started heading back west, he also spotted the unused fork heading due east. He got down from the wagon and looked around. He didn't find any tracks heading down the unused road recently, but did find Izelda's tracks looking around and heading back up the road.

Turning the wagon around and heading back, they almost immediately ran into Izelda coming after them.

"I think we want to go the other way," Izelda explained.

"Yeah," Schmidt agreed, "this is heading back the wrong direction. I wonder why there aren't any signs. Do they expect everyone traveling this way to know where they're going?"

That evening as they set up camp, Biff suddenly turned and looked into the trees, his ears perking up. Schmidt called him back and started toward where Biff was focused. As he approached, he saw a white wolf just in the shadows of the trees, standing and watching. he slowly approached, trying to calm the animal and looking for others. As he got close, Schmidt offered the wolf some of the jerked mule they had in their packs. The wolf sniffed it and took it, stepping back a few paces to eat. After a few minutes, the wolf turned and loped off into the trees. There was no sign of any others.

The next day was uneventful until they were stopping to set up camp for the evening. Izelda had found a clearing in the trees near the edge of the marsh, but there was fresh flowing water, available wood, and a clear level area well above the water line.

As they were setting up camp, Biff turned away and looked into the trees. Locke saw someone in the shadows at the edge of the trees and headed that direction calling, "Hello, the trees."

Schmidt waved Biff to him and headed around the back of the wagons, to get himself and the wolf between whatever was in the trees and their wagon and mules. Locke stepped up and seeing that what he was approaching was a bugbear with a flaming yellow eye embroidered on the left breast of his armor, attacked. Izelda, seeing Locke attack, cast stonecall over the bigbear Locke was attacking, but pushed back to miss Locke. Deserea turned and looked out over the marsh to see if this was merely a distraction for a larger attack. Schmidt ran up to another bugbear he could see closer to his position, followed closely by Biff. Schmidt attacked the bugbear slicing him across his shoulder. Biff bit into his leg and pulled, trying to trip the monster, but Schmidt's attack was so brutal there wasn't much left.

Schmidt immediately looked around to see where these bugbears came from, and if there were more around. Deserea came across camp and reported that she couldn't see anything else coming up.

Leaving the mules and wagon, the group followed the bugbear's tracks to a small camp at the marsh's edge a couple hundred meters away from where they were setting up camp. There was a fire pit that was completely cold, and two large catfish partially skinned hanging over it. Deserea took the two catfish and started back to camp.

"I can get these skinned out and cooked pretty quick," she said as she headed back.

The rest of the group looked around the campsite looking for anything of value, but other than a few coins under the piles of skins and furs that the bugbears had been sleeping on, found nothing.

Deserea volunteered to take the first watch, as she was still dealing with the catfish. A couple hours after everyone had gotten to sleep, something woke Biff. Des shifted around the fire to where Biff was looking, keeping her back to the light, and saw, then smelled, something coming across the road. She shouted out in demonic, waking everyone.

Izelda, without getting up, cast entangle in the direction Deserea and Biff were looking.

Deserea started singing. Schmidt stood and cast leadblade on his claymore. Izelda moved toward the marsh, starting into the water. "Whatever it is," she said, "that smell tells me it's already dead." Locke started to put on his armor. The creatures quietly moved forward, toward the camp.

Deserea tripped the closest of the creatures. Schmidt stepped up to one and killed it. "They're ghouls," he reported. Izelda ran back to Schmidt and pointed to two more ghouls trapped in the entangle. Locke continued to put on his armor. The ghouls that were not trapped in the entangle moved up, one attacking Schmidt and another attacking and missing Deserea.

Deserea stepped back and tripped the one that attacked her. Schmidt attacked the one that hit him and moved away. Izelda moved to the mules and started moving them away from the combat, and trying to keep them calm. The ghouls again stepped up and one tried to bite Schmidt, but missed.

Deserea hit the ghoul closest to her and stepped over to the paladin. Schmidt missed the ghoul he was attacking. Izelda got the mules to move away and start into the trees. One of the ghouls bit Schmidt and another clawed Deserea.

Deserea dropped her whip and, stepping up to the closest ghoul, drew her sword. Schmidt killed the ghoul he was fighting and moved to the next one. Izelda got the mules calmed and started to turn back to the fight. The remaining ghouls were still stuck in the entangle.

Deserea moved up to the edge of the entangled area and hit one of the ghouls with her sword. Schmidt moved up to Deserea and killed the ghoul she had attacked. Locke got up, finally having his armor back on. One of the ghouls got out of the entangle and attacked Locke, but failed to penetrate since his armor was on.

Deserea moved over to Locke and attacked the ghoul that had tried to hit him. Schmidt hit and killed that ghoul. Locke laid hands on Schmidt, healing some of his wounds. Izelda brought the mules back into the clearing.

Looking over the bodies, one of them had a shield strapped to its back. On examining it thoroughly, Deserea was able to tell that it was magical, and was a shield of arrow catching.

After they all turned in again, Locke was standing watch. Again, Biff started, and Locke followed his gaze out to the east over the marsh. There was a group of people approaching. "Contact east," he shouted, laying his sword at his feet and pulling out his crossbow.

Izelda got up and looked across the marsh. Schmidt got up and pulled a potion out of his pack. Deserea got up and seeing Locke with his crossbow, grabbed her bow. As they moved into the camp, the party could identify this group of assailants as lizardfolk. As he was toe-to-toe with one, Locke dropped his bow and picked up his sword again, swinging as he rose and hitting one.

Izelda stepped up behind Schmidt and cast bull's strength on him, and Schmidt drank his potion of enlarge person. Deserea shot one of the lizardfolk who were approaching Locke. Locke killed one of the lizardfolk, and swung into the next to his left. Schmidt killed another who couldn't quite reach him yet. Five of the lizardfolk missed the giant Schmidt with their javelins, but the two who could reach him directly hit. Three others hit Locke. Locke took down another lizard as he tried to get past to attack Schmidt.

Izelda moved back and drew out a wand. Schmidt hit a lizard who was attacking the paladin. Deserea shot at another, but missed in the chaos around Locke and Schmidt. Two attacked Schmidt, one hitting him. One attacked Locke, missing. six threw javelins at Locke, but Izelda got the new shield up and all the javelins came to her, three of those causing harm. Locke swung into the crowd again, killing one and cutting through to another to the right.

Izelda stepped up and cast while Schmidt killed one and stepped onto the two lizardman corpses to his right. Deserea shot and hit one. Then five of the lizardfolk piled onto Locke, bringing him to the ground. Locke was able slice one with his sword as they piled on, and Schmidt hit and killed one that was trying to pile onto the paladin. The one that Deserea hit turned and fled ot the north. Locke was able to break the old the lizardfolk had on him.

Izelda hit one of the grapplers, felling him and Schmidt was able to kill another. Biff took off running after the lizardman running away. Deserea held her shot until someone broke out of the melee. The remaining lizardfolk withdrew quickly and cautiously, giving Deserea the shot she was looking for. Locke yelled after the fleeing lizards.

Izelda threw a spear at the retreating combatants, missing. Schmidt ran into the swamp after them, passing them. One of them tried to hit Schmidt as he passed. Deserea fired again, missing. The lizardfolk turned and ran to the north, diving into the marsh when they got to deep enough water.

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