Early the next morning, before the first sun is fully up, I'm poking people to get ready. I can practically feel the bastards who hurt Rachel getting away from us.
When everyone is with us and ready to go, we'll return to where we found the tracks and start tracking in earnest.
I will ask around to see if assistance with following the trail could be had.
No one is willing to go with you out in the wilderness for who knows how long. After breakfast you all get on your horses and head back to where the tracks were spotted. The storm last night was brief and the tracks are still presence for Qwantithalica to track them. She follows the tracks north for a three hours where they end at a river. She moves up and down the shore on both sides for about a hour each way but does not find where they came out of the river.
Before we leave for the trail, I'll have packed four days worth of rations and feed, just in case. Watching what Q does, I'll try to learn her techniques for tracking the hobs. Once we reach the river and lose the tracks, I'll say "No sign of boats or skiffs or anything they could have boarded here? Where does the river flow to?"
After spending the previous day learning about the making of ale, beer and mead. I wash up and spend the rest of the day with Kelvin. After dinner we retire for the night.
I am up and dressed in my armor ready to go by the time breakfast is being served. I gather up 4 days of rations and some dried meat and some feed for my horse tucked away in my saddlebags along with my bedroll. Going to the stables I saddle up and meet the group at the gate ready to follow them finding the enemy to put an end to them for good.
Upon arriving at the river and watching Q search, I wonder if they just went into the water and swam to wherever or is there some secret entrance near it. I voice this thought to the group.
I spend my time at the stronghold dwelling on my pain and anger. They must be destroyed so this doesn't happen to someone else.
Following a rest less night I rejoin my companions astride Ghost. As Thalica can't find the trail again, I cross the river on Ghost. I let him pace up and down the far riverbank in search of their scent.
I scratch my head and say, "If they went any real distance in the river, is it more likely to be downstream, we could try combing the area in that direction for however much light we have left."
"We could also split up and do an extended search in both directions, but that would be dangerous, for more reasons than just the hobs."
"What do people think?"
Edited: daishain on 28th Apr, 2018 - 12:07am
The next morning, Travis is awakened by Jason about going back out again.
He gets up, both feeds and groom's his horse. Gets a week's rations. Even stowing some feed away for the horse.
Cleans up, has some breakfast sees Jonathon.
"Morning, Jonathon, no I'm afraid I didn't find anything special yesterday, but that won't deter me from trying again," he answers.
I too would seek to put prepare myself for an extended stay within the wilderness, setting up a pack with food and other items, my armor as well as my Badge of Valor visible and lyre.
I let the others go scout and seek out the hibgoblin trail, ready with rapier, crissbow, and more bardic aid. Though on askong what we should do, I will say this, "Though there could be some benefits of doing such, haven't we all generally learned that splitting the party almost never goes well? To the point that one could almost say it is one of the core party rules of Dungeons & Dragons ."