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After being fed a wolf leg, the animal seems contented as it chews on the bone. Theaton hears it reply with a full mouth, "Yes, please help. I won't hurt you."
Archival procures rope and a square of canvas tent, but it seems like a complicated and unnecessary plan. Since the sides of the pit are not reinforced, they collapse quite easily to form a steep slope. With a few minutes of work, the pit widens but shallows enough for the Thylacine to climb out, still holding a bone in its muzzle.
It eyes the horses loaded with animal products. Dropping the bone, it growls low. Theaton can understand it mutter, "More meat."
Zork shouts out, "Hold there unless you want to see that pit again with your corpse in it."
Grizzly growls back and Zork points his bow right at the creature waiting to see the next move.
It barks back at Zork, turns tail and runs off. Theaton hears it shouting, "I have no friends here." After a minute it is gone and the birdsong and swishing canopy of the forest return.
Continuing on, you explore the last square mile of forest. You finished early with a couple of hours until sundown.
A third quarter of your map is now filled! There are just the hills off to the east and the Swordlord's charter will be fulfilled and your work will be complete.
Out of Character: Full XP for resolving that encounter (Apologies for it being heavily weighted to the ranger). 125 experience points each and gain another 1200 XP for another quarter explored!
Map updated, where to next?
Seeing the animal flee Mykael watches it for a moment and then scans his surroundings before sheathing his sword and mounting back up. As the sun begins its descent Mykael helps prep a camp and offers to take mid watch.
After setting up camp he partakes in his usual routines. Prayer, practice, and maintenance of his equipment before he gathers some of the meat to cook over the fire. "We should probably return to Oleg's before finishing up our charter"
He nods his head toward the meat "How long will that last before going bad? Or do we have some means to preserve it? The meat and the furs do seem to be slowing us down a bit, perhaps we should sell it before we continue. Or we could dry the meat for use as rations."
"Yes cut it in strips and smoke it to make a lot of it into jerky that way it will last longer and help us use less rations. Plus the jerky will weigh less. As far as the skins we can stretch them and let them cure some to help too. I think that heading back to Oleg's is a good idea to allow us some time to sale some of the furs and resupply."
As we set up Theaton goes over the areas they have explored for the charter as what they have left. He will also tell them that the area of the river as it continues south opens into a lake and that is where the bandits main hideout is located. "It is a fort and I have a pair of eyes watching it. Hopefully we can get a good estimate on the numbers they have. I will have to get close to the lake and see if my spy as any news for us."