Take out the Grblin camp near Marshfork

It was the afternoon of Petraag, 4th prime past Tumultuous, and Arnari was in the Freelancers Tavern, getting a glass of afternoon sangria.  She really did have to send a squad to join up with Tahu and Dryali.

Glancing around, she saw Meurig in earnest conversation with Kalleth, holding forth on knightly responsibilities.  "Come to my office when you have a moment, my friend," she told him, as she passed.  She eyed Kalleth speculatively as well.

Meurig was more than happy to fly on his hippogryph JollyHopper, post-haste, to Marshfork, although he was not sure of the way, not being from Duquesne.  She gave him the landmarks to look for and bade him leave next morning.

JollyHopper was fast, and Meurig knew the way, so he made it to Cliffgate in one day.  Leaving Cliffgate, he followed Arnari's instructions to stick to the river to get to Three Rivers, but missed that the river passed south of the town, and got lost.  It thus took him an extra day to get to Marshfork, but he arrived mid-day the day before the Fulcrum Holiday.

He spoke to Casimir Lightforger, the Mayor, who was pleased to see another Freelancer arrive, and promised to pay for his stay at The Cantankerous Goose inn.  Casimir was not sure when Dryali and Tahu would return, but told Meurig they'd been out scouting since Fyistag, and he would not become concerned until after the holiday.  Meurig settled down to wait.

Tahu and Dryali returned after sundown, and reported to the Mayor, but were not interested in spending time with anyone, including Meurig, until they'd had a chance to cleanup, which involved a long, hot bath for each of them.  Then they joined Meurig in the tavern to discuss plans.

Meurig wondered if there was a chance of parlaying, but Tahu and Dryali said no, these had been attacking travellers on the road.  They speculated whether the right strategy would be to fake a caravan to draw them out, or attack the camp directly, and decided to attack the camp.  <narrator voice:  because the GM said this was best.>

All this could wait, though; the next day was a holiday.

The next morning, the three Freelancers left for the grblin camp.  Dryali picked up another 4 days of rations, and Tahu picked up a healer's kit.  Since they knew where they were going, they got there in the late afternoon.

Meurig flew over in JollyHopper, but did not see anything; the camp was well-protected from overflights by the trees.  Dryali used a ritual cast to put alarm on the path to the southwest; he told the others it would have to be refreshed at midnight.  Then they settled in to wait, a bit off the path.

Tahu snuck over to the camp to confirm it was still used; he saw 5 wolves and 6 grblins.  When he got back to the others and told them, Meurig wanted to challenge the leader.

Tahu demurred, "I don't think that will work."  Dryali said, "when I last encountered these, we were escorting a cart, and they attacked Snowy, one of the mules!"

Muerig was taken aback by this and declared, "We will treat these as brigands!"

They kept watch, with Tahu taking the first watch, and Dryali taking the middle, so he could go refresh the alarm spell at midnight.  However there was no need; as he aroused from elven trance, the alarm went off, with 8 pings.  He told Tahu.

"Do you think they are coming, or leaving?" Tahu asked.  Dryali didn't know.  He had a different concern:  he could see fine, but was the light from the skyliths above enough?  "I have a hooded lantern," Tahu assured him.

They woke up Meurig, and tried to sneak up on the camp.  Of course Dryali failed in this endeavor, and made enough noise to wake up the entire camp, that being 2 grblins and 1 wolf.  So, the alarm was indicative of a squad leaving.

Dryali immediately created a force ballista.  It shot the farther grblin, killing him.  Meurig cast acid splash on the wolf, which cried in pain as the acid ate into its skin.  Tahu ran in and killed the other grblin with his shortsword, then ran up to the wolf.  The wolf, stinging, ran away, and Tahu slew it.

They poked around the camp, but the only thing interesting was the tent.   In the tent, Tahu found quite a bit of loot:

• 6 50gp gem: 1 citrine, 2 jasper, 1 quartz, 1 sardonyx, 1 star rose quartz
• 3 Healing Potions
• 1 Greater Healing Potion
• 1 Potion of Climbing 
• 45gp, 21sp, 70cp

They examined the camp and took thought what to do next.  Meurig suggested they arrange the camp to look from a distance like the occupants were still there and sleeping.  Dryali thought the Snake would be proud, but kept that to himself.  They curled the dead wolf up in the wolf area, and put the grblin corpses in bedrolls.

Dryali used a ritual cast to alarm the north path, and refreshed the alarm on the southeast path.  Then they withdrew slightly to the south, and he set the alarm around them to audible, as a watch.  

The night passed by and dawn was occurring, when Dryali was pinged by the alarm on the southeast path.  He woke the others, and they arranged themselves.  Dryali made another force ballista.

Unsuspecting, 4 grblins mounted on wolves entered the camp.

Meurig stepped out.  "Brigands will pay!" he declared, and spat the acid breath of his ancestry, injuring them all.  One of the grblins died.  Tahu came out and threw a dagger at the most injured wolf, killing it; then killed another.  Dryali shot at the grblins with his hand crossbow, and missed.  The force ballista took out the grblin furthest away.

That left a surprised pair of grblins and wolves.   Meurig poured out a drop of water from his waterskin, and as it touched his finger, it shaped itself into an ice knife, which he sent flying at the closest grblin, killing him.  As the grblin slid to the ground, the knife shattered, killing the wolf he was mounted on, and the other grblin.

There was just the one remaining wolf.  Tahu tried to attack it and missed.  The force ballista slew it.

Dryali searched the bodies.  He found 12gp, 9sp, 23cp; what he didn't find was any sign these grblins had attacked any travellers: neither loot nor bloody armour.  Meurig started looking for papers or orders; Dryali looked again, for sending stones.  They found nothing, although all but one had the skull-and-scimitar badges.

The Freelancers gathered the grblins weapons, as they were salvageable, but not the wolf tack, which wasn't worth the bother.  Then they burned the bodies in the firepit.

Dryali's alarm spells expired without getting set off again.

The Freelancers discussed what to do next.  They decided going back to town was not a good idea; by slaying the entire camp they'd set a timer before the rest of the grblins came looking for their mates.  Instead, they decided to go back up to the tree, and from there Meurig could scout from the air some, and fly back to Marshfork to direct the other Freelancers how to meet up with Tahu and Dryali.

They got to the tree by early afternoon, and Meurig flew over in JollyHopper; his flyover scouting learned a lot that Dryali and Tahu had not been able to determine on their first visit.

• The "rickety rope bridge" was actually pretty sturdy; it was cleverly made of wood and rope.
• Hiding in the tree were two grblin sentries.
• The foot of the gully had scrub growing in it as well as the stream.
• There was no other entrance to whatever was on the other side of the gully.

Meurig told the others, "The grblins are not trying to hide.  Maybe they are just there to shoot people approaching."  Tahu became concerned at this, as he had not seen them.  "I wonder if I was seen," he lamented.

Meurig flew up again and checked for any other paths leading up to the tree, but found nothing on the south side of the gully.

Armed with that information, Meurig prepared to fly back to Marshfork, and tell the gathered Freelancers where to meet Tahu and Dryali.  He took with him, ⅓ of the loot from the grblin camp (19gp, 10sp, 31cp, 2 gemstones, 1 healing potion), as well as all the weapons (6 scimitars, 6 short-bows).  Dryali kept the potion of climbing, and Tahu kept the greater healing potion.  They settled down to wait for the others.

Meurig took a full day to get back to Marshfork.  Casimir had already noticed the reports of wolf howls had stopped, and was overjoyed to hear his news of the Freelancers' success and prep for the next stage.  He paid 450gp to Meurig, who promised to take it back to Freelancers Guild for appropriate disposition, and directed Meurig to a local smith for the grblin weapons.

The smith offered 100gp for the lot, which was likely generous, and Meurig accepted that too, then he went back to The Cantankerous Goose, where Manu, Kaikoa, and Kalleth arrived later that day.  They joined him for dinner, and he sketched out where Tahu and Dryali were waiting, and what they could expect to encounter.

The next day, Meurig departed for Cliffshadow, where their accounts with the guild would be accredited 168gp each (fee from Casimir plus the weapons sales).

• Meurig → lvl 3!