The Heroes' Journey Begins (in Merivale)

"Oh.... Yes.... Yes, of course," the Mayor replies as if coming back to his senses. "Yes. Thomas! Pass the hat! Folks, please, give what you can to these brave heroes willing to risk life and limb to help our village and save our Moonblossom. And provisions! Dried meats, bread, things that will last on their journey. Hurry now! The longer we wait the further those fiends get"

As soon as the Mayor finishes his exhortations, a good portion of the crowd, mostly the womenfolk, bustle off toward their homes while the rest remain in the square, speaking amongst themselves and fishing into their coin purses when Thomas, a slight and bespectacled young man bearing a strong resemblance to Mayor Tills, comes by bearing the aforementioned hat. The Mayor himself limps off, only to return a short while later with a small bag of coin which he adds to the collection.

In a short time, the townsfolk have assembled once again with a rucksack filled with provisions and hand them to you . The Mayor tallies the collected coinage and announces, "Thank you, thank you my friends. I know most of you don't have a lot to spare, but this is what we do. Merivalers step up together for our fair community. Heroes we have collected 70 gold crowns to compensate you for your brave efforts. Half given to you now as a token of good faith and good will. The other, I shall hold in safekeeping awaiting your return." he says, handing the jingling purse to Kessa. "Gods watch over you until you return safely to us with our beloved Moonblossom." he concludes, to which the crowd responds with their own words of encouragement and gratitude before slowly dissipating to seek the comfort and solace of home and hearth.

Before she leaves, Marla stops by to thank you for fending off the goblins and let's you know that when you return, you'll have free lodgings at the Inn for a tenday.

Please, keep the coin here for now. When we return with Moonblossom would be an appropriate time to reward us. For now all we need are those things that will aid us in the endeavor. Caldra speaks before any coin can be gathered. I am sure the village leaders can ensure all contribute fairly but for now provisions are what is needed. Food, water skins, and this fight just proved I could use a throwing weapon, ax dagger, or javelin, to stop the enemy from fleeing.

The Mayor nods, and replies, "The militia does have a small supply of weapons in storage, I'm sure we can find something you can borrow from there. Once you're back, our Colleen is as fine a smith as you're going to find outside of Fairhope - give her a few days and she can make you whatever you need," as he says this he indicates with a look of his eyes and a tilt of his head a tall, fit, sturdy woman with an absolute mane of red hair just leaving the square. " As to your compensation, I understand. I shall keep it safe awaiting your return."

@Caldra: Choose a throwing weapon from the militia's locker and add it to inventory for this quest.

"I'm ready" says Thorne, grabbing his share of the rucksack filled with provisions.

"Should we go?" He asks Kessa and Vilde.

The sun hangs in the western sky. You reckon you have a few hours before dusk, and the Goblins have already gotten a bit of a headstart on you. The townsfolk have supplied with dried meats, bread and other portable snacks to last for a few days, as well a few extra waterskins you fill from the village well.

All necessary preparations made, the road, the trail, and the missing fairy lie ahead of you. Who takes the lead in guiding the troupe?

GM Note: For this adventure, I'm going to abstract supplies and miscellaneous gear. As a group you have 4 Supplies, which you can cash in at any time for a piece of standard adventuring gear - torches, bandages, rope, etc.

Thorne steps to the front of the group without being asked, adjusting the strap of his quiver.

"I’ll take point," he says simply. "Their trail’s fresh."

With that, he moves ahead at a steady, ground-eating pace.

After grabbing a brace of javelins Caldra fastens her bandages worried about Moonblossom but also uncertain about her wounds affects should they encounter nor goblins. She is the shield of the party. But in her current tattered state she doubts she can stop more than a single blow.

@Caldra: Probably just a short rest (Catch Breath in Nimble terms) for now, as time is of the essence. Not only might the trail grow cold, but something Vilde whispered to the group after the Mayor asked what the Goblins might want with Moonblossom makes you doubt she will make it through the night. "You know, some practitioners of the darker arts use faeries as components in their more powerful rituals. Apparently their blood and wings are highly magical."

The tracks are fresh and clear, following the main road out of the town to the northwest for a few miles before breaking northeast into the wilderness. The area you find yourself in consists mostly of open gently rolling grassy meadows with a moderate sprinkling of trees. You can see from here, however, that the woods grow increasingly dense the further you head northeast - the direction the tracks are leading.

Thorne has no difficulty following them for another half hour or so until you reach a point where the woods have started to grow thick and the tracks split in three different directions. It isn't terribly difficult to make out the tracks in general, but with the vegetation, undergrowth and roots, it's challenging to try to discern the prints left by the ratrider and those of the other Goblins.

After some study, the hunter leads you down the leftmost path, which eventually takes you to the river in a place where it runs shallow and peacefully enough that you can ford it. As the sun begins to set, you find yourselves at the eaves of the Elderwild itself. Here the trees tower above anything you've seen in the surrounding countryside, or anywhere else for that matter. A faint mist seems to hover near the canopy, and the sounds of animal life, birds, insects, and the chittering of squirrels and other woodland creatures fill the air. Some of you feel an almost electrical tingle on your skin, which Vilde immediately recognizes as extremely strong magical energy.

Darkness will quickly be upon you, how do you wish to proceed?

Caldra looks around fire any signs of the goblins or other oddities before she glances at Thorne to ask

Do the tracks cross the river?
About how far behind are we?

@Psybermagi: Thank you! I need to learn more about some of the features here - like the private note textbox too. So much cool stuff! :)

GM Note: My bad for not being more clear - after you crossed the ford, the tracks continued and led you to the edge of the Elderwild and then into the deep woods there.

Kessa feels comfortable in the dark, but not necessarily in the forest. "Can you still track them at night?" Kessa asks Thorne quietly. "Not that we can be very stralthy if we're traveling by torchlight, but sounds like this fairly might get cooked tonight if we don't find her."

@htech: You could try, but it would be reeeeally difficult. Plus you get a sense from the unnatural abundance of wildlife sounds you're hearing during the day coming from the Elderwild, that the evening predators would be equally abundant. And if Vilde's hypothesis about the extreme magical energies here is correct, which it probably is, you might encounter some things that you'd rather not. Your spidey sense is telling you it would be better to wait til morning. Moonblossom may not make it, but your collective chances of making it back out again will be a lot better. Perhaps making camp a little ways back from the edge of the magical forest would be the wisest course, and it would allow Caldra to heal up a little more.

Caldra discusses the situation with the others and brings up the following points
1. The unknown dangers of the forest (see above)
2. The potential to lose the track should they wait the night
3. The urgency of the search to save Moonblossom
4. The potential for Moonblossom's demise being a premise for their earlier rush

I am uncertain how to proceed. I trust to the tracking expertise of Thorne and earlier he pressed that time was critical in tracking. And what if the goblin lair is in the forest and they plan to sacrifice her this very night? While I would rather not spend the night in a strange magical wood I am not sure sitting on it's front door is all the better. Some magics are known to respect boundaries and stay within them while other merely have a center from which they radiate out from. I see no good choice but would prefer action over being idle.

I say press on while we can, if we can? The last statement is a question and she glances at Thorne

@htech: It took about an hour to get provisioned etc in town. You made good time along the road, but it was slower going tracking through the woods, and this is their home turf, so they'll be moving much faster once you get into the Elderwild. At this point you're probably about 2+ hours behind them.

Thorne crouches, pinching a bit of dirt between his fingers and letting it fall as he stares into the gathering shadows beneath the towering boughs.

"Whatever lives in there… it’s probably awake by now. But time’s not on our side. I am afraid Moonblossom won't last long if we wait. We are more than 2 hours behind them."

He rises, checks his bowstring and dagger.

"So." His voice steadies, calm and resolute. "We press on. Torches if we have to—better seen than stumbling blind. We move quiet, quick, no chatter, no wasted steps. If they’re close, we’ve still got a chance to catch up before the ritual or if they stop to rest. I think they’ll relax once they’re inside the Elderwild, believe no one’s mad enough to follow."

He looks to each of them in turn—Caldra, Kessa, Vilde—measuring their resolve.

"I’ll take point again. But I’m not dragging anyone in there. If we do this, we go together." He nods once. "If you all agree… we move now."

Caldra shoulders her pack ready to go

As darkness falls, the sounds of the forest undergo a transformation - gone are twitterings of birds and the chitterings of squirrels, the low level but omnipresent hum of flying insects. In its place, the near deafening chirping of crickets, cicada, other things you cant be sure of, and the conversational croakings of frogs of all sizes. Listening past those sounds, there is only a deep quiet, punctuated by the random snapping of a twig and the calls of predators coordinating their hunts.

Thorne has a good sense of where the track leads into the Elderwild, but from the outside its impossible to follow terribly far.