Stupid Fat Fingers

Summary of Events
The battle versus the dogs was vicious and short, with the survivors coming out victorious, if not unscathed. The group quickly decided to reverse their course and head West as the ghost advised them to do the night before. After a day's travel, they found the hollowed husk of an old watch tower. Thinking it a safe spot, they set up camp. After eating a rather bland meal made from small game animals that they were able to capture on the run, the group settled in to rest.

From the woods, however, the group heard sounds of combat. Rushing to see what was happening, they stumbled upon the final moments of a battle between a tall, fair haired man in chain mail and several of the so-called "Beastmen." The fair haired warrior dispatched the last two of six, right before their very eyes. Impulsively, Varrick charged the warrior. Dugan and the others followed on his heels, though it seemed more to support him than any real desire to fight a seasoned warrior.

Their trepidation was with good reason. The warrior fought mightily and scored deadly hits on both Varick and Dugan. It took some doing, trying to pierce the mail of the warrior, but eventually the combined efforts of the group brought the warrior down. A quick blade to his throat ended any threat that the warrior may have posed if he awoke. With several members badly wounded, the group set about using what healing they had available. They were able to stabilize Dugan and Varick, though both were still badly injured. The good news is that they found proper weapons for the first time since coming to the island.

The "beastmen" had short, curved blades and daggers along with studded leather armor. The warrior, which Varick had identified as one of the Bludvolk ( a tribe of fierce raiders from the icy North ) had mail and a great sword. Varick and Dugan were also able to pick up bows from a couple of the fallen beastmen. Sufficiently armed and in sore need of rest and recuperation, the group returned to camp. There they found a raggedly old man sitting by the fire. He had helped himself to their stew but other than that, appeared friendly. He greeted them as one might a friend. [Thus ended session five.]

After a brief moment of disbelief, the group joined the old man. He seemed harmless enough, but obviously a bit addlepated. He rambled for some time about different topics but seemed to develop a sense of purpose that cleared his head. He urged the survivors to move along, as search parties from both the Bludvolk and the Irrick (beastmen) would be looking for signs of what happened and would likely stumble upon the tower before much longer. Seeing the wisdom in the old man's (Ramey) suggestion, the group begrudgingly gathered their belongings and moved off.

About 100 paces down the path, Ramey stopped and muttered an incantation. He seemed well pleased with himself and the survivors were stunned by this open display of power. Magni immediately took to pestering the old man to teach him magic. Ramey put him off and the group continued on until Ramey found a suitable site sometime in the wee hours. At that point, he gave Magni a quick lesson in basic magic theory and suggested that Magni try to sense the magical side of the mundane. At that point he disappeared into the woods to find some herbs to aid in healing the two most injured of the party members.

While the rest of the party made preparations to eat, with Varick able to summon up enough will to catch a couple of fish, Magni started his first steps in becoming a full magus. He was able to sense some of the metaphysical qualities of the fire. It was not long after that Ramey returned and had him observe the process of healing magic. Even Dugan got a lesson in how to use his herblore for more than cooking. After the healing was finished, Ramey warned them that the place they were heading, Lucien's Watch, was a haunted place. He mentioned that the ghosts are less active during the day, but one could never tell when the Irrick sought to wake a dragon. He then drifted off into sleep.

The next day, the sun broke through the clouds. The group made good time and entered Lucien's Watch to find no ghosts whatsoever. This seemed to flummox Ramey, who apparently expected all sorts of horrible things. The survivors took the day to make the town a comfortable home base and dreamed of turning it back into a viable town someday. Ramey commented that as long as the Bludvolk and Irrick still inhabited the island, any township the survivors tried to establish, would be doomed. The group resigned itself to dealing with the dual threats before taking any further steps to restore the township. They would need a larger population and raw materials anyway.

The morning of the fifth day on the island, the survivors set forth for an old manor that Ramey had mentioned several times. They traveled until about mid morning, maybe noon, before seeing the manor. The journey would probably have only been one of about an hour, but Ramey is paranoid and sticks to low ground and travels far out of his way in order to avoid detection. From a copse of trees, the survivors got their first good look at the manor, only to see it guarded by a squad of Irrick Soldiers.

Behind the Scenes
There was a lot of conversation to be had in this session. It was good to get a feel for the character portrayals outside of a pure survival or combat situation. I think I have got a pretty good handle on Varick, Devlon and Magni at this point. I worry a bit that Dugan's personality may be geared towards the non-adventuring lifestyle at this point. It will be interesting to see if the player can manage to balance Dugan's simple desire to be a chef along with the need to be something more than that.

Not much else behind the scenes. Each session sees just a little more comfort with the macros and that is a good thing.

Experience
Two for session five. Three for session six. There was a lot of good roleplaying in six and that gets a bonus.

A summary can be found in the new Epic Everyman Group.