I feel Rachel's pain in her voice, and I understand it. I look at her for a long minute deciding if I should respond. I feel I must, "Rachel what I'm about to say may not help at all. People make decisions in a battle, some are right, some are wrong, most a little of both. It's tough to make a rational decision when faced with an impossible situation. Here's my promise, while I still breathe I won't let that happen again… not to any of you."
I think for a minute and continue, "Regarding this place, I'm like you. It was new and fresh in the beginning, like living the game. For me it was finding the Halflings that changed things. Don't get me wrong, I still love it here most of the time, but that is tempered by understanding now. I don't know why we were brought here, but I choose to believe it's for a reason… I think it's to help this land and stop exactly what we've seen."
"Okay way to serious for too long" I think to myself. "Now, Grog talk no more. I go hunt. You gather nice herbs, make stew, sew clothes."
I wait for the biting remark with some degree of trepidation.
Out of Character: I'll wait for Rachel's response before I post and roll for our next patrol.
"Phew" I exhale slowly as I seem to have gotten away with a bit of male chauvinist humor. "Only if I don't kill 'em first Rachel. Only if I don't kill 'em first."
"Shall we go on our next patrol?"
Out of Character: KN, remember, if it's goblin tracks we may come across I get an additional +2 to my rolls.
Your next patrol turns up nothing too interesting. You do find some tracks of something large that was by the river to the North and east of the stronghold. Since there are no farms in that direction and no guards saw anything at the river you do not know what made the tracks. You do know it is not humanoid and not hooves.
"We might as well check it out, carefully that is."
"If there's something dangerous around here, we ought to know, even if that means turning tail and not coming back until we can muster support. Its better than losing track of it and risking the next sighting be when settlers lose their lives."