Chapter One: Journey Into The Fey Forest

Sigurd scrambled to his feet and adjusted his armor. He looked at the landscape now and saw that it was littered with rocks and realized that the terrain would be harder to navigate this battle. Watching the wasp fall he smiled, that solved that issue. He then watched the giant lizard fall, All that was left was the tribal warrior but he can't get there fast enough. Sigurd reached behind him and unclipped a hand axe off his belt and hurled it as hard as he could at the warrior.

[Atk Disadvantage: 19,19][DMG:5]

The Tribal Warrior turns just in time for the hand axe to connect with his shoulder. THe warrior screamed in pain as it embedded into his shoulder efectively making that arm useless.

[Tribal Warrior takes 5 damage]

THe Warrior screams in rage and takes his spear into his good hand and throws it across the field towards Sigurd.
Unfortunately it falls short and embedds in the ground between them. He screams again, pulls a small dagger and charges forward towards Sigurd, crossing half of the distance between them.

Zane watches as the warrior charges over towards Sigurd. He once again makes arcane symbols in the air, taking aim.

"Eldritch Blast!" He shouts again. The blast flies through the air towards the warrior.

The blast slams into the warrior'sback and he stumbles forward and falls to the ground, sliding against the jagged rocks. When he comes to a stop, his body slumps and he stops moving.

[Tribal Warrior takes 7 points of force damage and 4 points of fall damage. Tribal Warrior is now dead]

[Party gains 500xp for the encounter. Characters reach level 2 at 300xp. Congratulations! Everyone has reached level 2!!] 

Lopiena lowers her staff slowly, stunned that Sigurd's incredible throw had not only hit the tribal warrior but had distracted the enemy away from both her and Zane. Turning to the gnome, she half smiles, knowing any compliment will go straight to his head but some things just need to be said. The results can be dealt with later.
"Great shot, Zane. Thanks."
Turning away, she scrambles up the rocky slopes as fast as she can, reaching Ashwyn first.
"You might want to sit down. You don't look so good."
Using her staff as a focus once again, she starts chanting in low tones.

(Rolled 5 out of 8. Not great, but not terrible...and you said something about adding 2?)

As the Tribal Warrior fell to the ground, Ashwyn allowed herself to collapse to her knees and breathe a sigh of relief. Her body ached from the fall but a quick assessment of her own body didn't reveal any permanent damage. She turned her eyes to her companions. Sigurd had been hit as hard as she did but he didn't look very worse for wear. Then again, she didn't expect him to be. She was well aware of how sturdy his kind could be. Zane had been far enough from the beasts that he avoided any physical confrontation, but as Low scrambled up the rocky slopes, she noticed her arm was still bleeding.

Forcing herself to stand against her body's complaints, she moved carefully over the rocky terrain and approached her. SHe carefully took her arm into her hand.

"It's deep, but not the worst I've seen." SHe reached back into her pack and pulled out an old shirt, tearing a bit from it and wrapping it around Lo's arm to stop the bleeding.

Due to Lopiena's spell, Ashwyn regains 8 points of health.

Feeling her body strengthen fromLo's spell, she nodded her thanks to the young druid. SHe looked around the area at the fallen creatures. Her eyes landed on the Warrior. SHe approached him and knelt next to his body. SHe rolled him over to see his face. He was human, it seemed. She searched his body to see what he carried.

The Tribal Warrior was carrying a Spear, a Dagger, an an everburning torch [magical item: worth 1000gp]

"I have no need of these items. Does anyone want them?" SHe asked, offering the items to the others.

Zane leaned over to the torch. "This is a very magical item. Quite rare, in fact. What was a brute like this doing with it?"

Sigurd smiled when his Axe sunk into the warriors flesh, and when Zane finished him off with his magic, he felt his muscles relax.

Walking over to the carcass of the snake he tears a strip of it's scaly flesh from it's body and took a bite, the soft sound of scales crunching between his teeth. He watched Lopiena heal Ashwyn and smiled everyone was proving their worth and he made a mental note of it. Even the Gnome.

Making his way over to the body of the warrior he pulled his axe from it's shoulder and clipped it back on his belt with his other one. He surveyed the battlefield and grinned “Much better!” Kneeling down beside the body, he stared at it for a considerable amount of time before grabbing the stiffening corpse by the neck and pulling it close to his face. Inhaling, he was taking in the warriors scent, he was dead, and the dead don't talk but scent can tell you a lot about where someone came from and it was a better lead than nothing.

Lopiena looks up in genuine surprise; in the heat of the battle she hadn't even noticed her injury. "Thank you, Ashwyn. I think...our team is really starting to come together." Smiling, she examines the dagger and spear. "Nothing I can use here. Zane, you are welcome to the torch if you want it. What I want to know is...why did he attack us? I'm pretty sure he was speaking Sylan, which is usually the language of the guardians of the forest..." Sudden concern and guilt floods her eyes. "What if we're the intruders here, and we just destroyed one of the guardians?" Watching Sigurd take his meal (mental note, raw meat only, any type), she becomes increasingly concerned about what happened here. When Sigurd sniffs the body, at first she's alarmed, then expectant when she realizes his sense of smell could reveal some clues.

Ashwyn jumped at Sigurd's joyful exclamation. Seeing how pleased he was at their performance, she couldn't help but smirk. She shook her head at his jubilation and turned back to the warrior.

Zane happily took the torch and placed it carefully into his pack.

Ashwyn leaned back a bit as Sigurd picked up the warrior to sniff him. She watched him carefully for a moment. "Anything familiar? Have you smelled anything like it so far in the forest?"

With a heavy thud, Sigurd let the body drop from his grip and looked to Ashwyn “No.. Nothing familiar.. But if he had any friends then I'll smell them from a mile away.”

He sat on the head of the dead lizard and sighed leaning back trying to figure out what the next step is. “Take a short rest for now, take some time to recover and we'll continue on this path and find somewhere to camp, it's getting dark I don't think our minute friend would be able to get any sleep beside rotting flesh, Not to mention what the smell could draw. But if we run into another one of these warriors we'll take him alive if we can.”

Lopiena nods, saddened that they aren't any closer to findng out who the warrior was or his reason for attacking. The lizard is too big to bury, and it's rocky soil as well...she quietly murmers last rites for the fallen warrior and the creatures. Finally looking at the rest of the party, she starts walking toward Sigurd but hesitates.
"Uhm...is it ok if I try to heal you? You're hurt pretty badly."

Sigurd looked to Lopiena and waved her off "I'll recover fine on my own, save your energy." A long rest is all he needed and he'd be right as rain before long. Even if they were attacked again this very moment, he knew he had stores of energy to call upon if he needed them.

Ashwyn frowned when he said that Sigurd hadn't caught wiff of this smell as of yet. But she had no doubt that he would be able to if they ever came across it later.

She stood and stretched her arms around her body a bit. "I don't think it's a good idea to linger around these bodies. It'll only draw predators." She slipped the spare dagger into her belt and attached the spear to her pack. If nothing else perhaps she could get some coin for them later on.

"I'm okay to walk for a bit more. We should get some distance from these things before we bed down for the night." She looked down once more at the warrior. "I don't like how these creatures attacked us with such ferocity. I know that the Fey Forest rarely sees visitors but I have a hard time believing the Fey would attack us with such hatred. Besides, this man is human. He doesn't belong in this forest."

She looked around at her companions. "If others need to rest then I'll scout ahead and find some place out of the way for us to camp. Maybe I'm being overly paranoid, but I don't like the idea of camping in a clearing with a fire."

Zane scoffed. "Surely you can't be serious? No fire? How will we cook anything to eat?"

Ashwyn turned to him. "Do you really want another one of these *points to the warrior* to find us again? He could have easily taken us all out with his magic. I'd rather not be surprised in the night, wouldn't you?"

Zane stuck his nose up but he didn't argue either.

Ashwyn looked at the other two. Lopeina didn't seem to have much experience with adventuring, but Sigurd did. She turned to him. "What do you think?"

Sigurd nodded "no fire, we have dry rations for a reason. We'll travel until the sun drops out of sight. Then, those who can't see in the dark will sleep." He got up from the lizard and started walking ahead of the others. We have maybe 30 minutes of light so pick it up" he huffed.

Lopiena nods. "That makes sense. Zane, would you accompany me?" She smiles her warmest, but shudders inside...walking with Zane the previous few miles had been less than pleasant, and he seems to have his dander up. Better me than slowing down the other two..

Ashwyn made sure her items were secured properly before heading out after Sigurd.

She turned to Lopiena and Zane. "Try to stay close. I'll feel much better the more distance we can put between us and them before sundown."

Ashwyn carefully set her bag on the ground in a little crook between two large tree roots. "I can take first watch. I don't require as much sleep as the rest of you." She nestled down into the tree branches. Though it was pitch black to human eyes, Ashwyn's keen elven eyes allowed her to see as though it were mearly twilight. It helped that this forest seemed to have an unknown sheen to it.

Zane grumbled a bit but found a a spot where his small body fit decently well and he curled into the place. He decided against speaking but he begrudgingly nibbled at a pastry.

Sigurd glared at Ashwyn "No, you rest. Don't be stupid." Finding a decent spot with a good vantage point. "I'll take first watch. Gnome you'll take second. Two of us should be enough." There was a slight growl to his voice not really wanting to give Zane any responsibility but Ashwyn took a lot of damage in their last fight.

He took a deep breath, the cool night air filled and a wave of new smells filled his senses. "If anyone wants to fight me on this, I'll make sure you sleep."

Lopiena doesn't even attempt to argue; she's exhausted and knows it.  Resting her pack in the shelter of two large rocks, she removes a blanket, a (much worse for wear) roll, and some dried meat.  
"Thank you for keeping watch, Sigurd.  Zane.  And...everyone, it's been a pleasure travelling with you thus far."  
Climbing a large nearby tree, she sets up her blanket in a crook of two branches, using her staff as added support and balance.  After a few minutes of readjusting, she hesitates and climbs back down.  All but emptying her pack, she removes a sheathed dagger from the bottom of her bag.  It's a strange color, as though it were made of bronze, not steel.  She silently straps it around her waist, repacks her bag, and climbs back into the tree.

After a few moments of silence, she softly murmers almost as if talking in her sleep. "Sigurd, where did you learn how to throw an axe like that?" Not really expecting an answer, she closes her eyes to sleep.

Ashwyn glared back at Sigurd. She hated to be coddled. But as she made a move to stand her body protested and a soft groan escaped her lips. Giving up, she sighed and collapsed back down into her crook in the roots.

Glancing over at Zane, it was clear he had already fallen asleep with his pastry in his hand.

"Fine. You can take first watch. But no sense is waking Zane. All of you require at least 8 hours, do you not? I'll be fully rested in 4." She locked eyes with Sigurd, almost daring him to challange her.

"Will you be okay for 4 hours? I can cover the rest of the night after that."

Sigurd looked up to Lopiena and smiled "home, and a half century of practice he said softly so that if she was already asleep he wouldn't wake her. When Ashwyn asked him if 4 hours of sleep would be enough he smirked "I can stay awake for days at a time if needed. If you don't want to wake the gnome then just stay asleep and I'll wake you all in the morning." His voice was a rumbling whisper. Either this half elf was stubborn or stupid. Granted she proved her worth in battle, making up for her sub par performance against the first wasp but she still took a beating and needed rest and he was going to make damn sure she was going to take it.

Ashwyn sighed, slumping back against the tree. "I forgot how stubborn you people can be..." she grumbled.

"I'm not interested in arguing about who can stay awake longer than the other. If you want to take first watch, then I'll let you." She nestled down into the roots.

Her eyes fluttered closed. "I realize that you're used to doing things on your own... I am too... But it's not horrible to accept the help of others." Her body began to relax. "See you in 4 hours..."

Sigurd had accepted help when he decided to go on this adventure. He was used to working with others but felt more effective on his own, but it was something his father always griped about.

Once everyone was asleep Sigurd let himself unwind a little. The forest was peaceful even though it held so many dangers. He listened to the endless sounds of the infects and other animals go about their lives. Even though the forest was varying shades of grey it was still a nice forest. An hour had passed and Sigurd snapped a long piece of grass off. Placing it between his thumbs he quietly played a slow melody to himself to pass the rest of the time.

Ashwyn slept soundly against the roots of her tree. The ground was cool and felt good on her sore body. After about 4 and a half hours of sleep, she drifted back into consciousness to a soothing melody that she couldn't quite place. At first she thought she was dreaming, but as her eyes flitted open, the first thing she saw was Sigurd. The beautiful sounds were coming from him as he fiddled with a blade of grass. He seemed so focused on the song that she didn't want to disturb him.She just sat back and listened for a long while until the tune seemed to come to an end.

"A warrior and a musician? Seems there's more to you than meets the eye, Sigurd of Thunderknoll." She spoke in a desperately soft voice so as not to wake her other two companions. She knew that Sigurd's sharp ears would be able to hear her.

She was feeling strong and fully rested now. Were it not for her companions needing rest she could continue on right now. Instead, she stretched her long legs out in front of her and bent herself almost in half, stretching out the stiffness of sleep.

She looked around at the others. Zane had flopped over in his sleep, his mouth lay open and she was pretty sure that a small insect was poking in and out of it. Lopiena also seemed to be fast asleep in her little perch. She took the opportunity to inspect Lo's wounded arm. It seemed to be healing nicely. Ashwyn nodded to herself and then turned back to Sigurd.

"You're welcome to get some sleep if you like."

Sigurd pulled the improvised instrument from his lips "we are taught very early that one must know all the arts, not just martial... It keeps us well rounded. Civil even..." His mind wanders for a moment to his mother then back again. "I don't sleep often, I'll be alright. I trust you're feeling better?" His voice rumbled softly

He had watched how hard Ashwyn took the hit and he was genuinely concerned. He knew how durable his body was but the others weren't his kind so he didn't know what to expect.