Episode 2: Trial by fire?

When last we left our fresh batch of adventurers, they had just exited the east gate of a thriving merchant village. Their task is to safely escort this merchant and his 3 carts to a remote village and back. None of them know each other or their employer or what they're really doing. What could go wrong?

In this party we have:

Kenara, the half-orc barbarian

Maermyl, the dwarven alchemist?

Viktus, the half-elf redeemer

Thaddeus, the nervous halfling fighter

Bedlam, the human madwalker

Biff, the dwarven barbarian

Glitra, the halfling bard

Editors note: I'll fluff out the descriptions of this party after a few more sessions as I get to know the characters better. Thaddeus is being played by a lass so if I mess up genders periodically just let me know!

Captain Harkon and Mr Burnside, the merchant, believe this trip will take 4 days to get there. We will stay in that remote village 3 days, then take another 4 days to return.

Leaving the east gate we have 3 horse-drawn carts. The first cart has the merchant, with Captain Harkon, Maermyl, and Kenara escorting it. The second cart has a driver with Glitra and Viktus escorting it. The third cart also has a driver, escorted by Bedlam and Thaddeus. Biff is bringing up rear guard, which seems to suit him.

Things seem to start off fairly well. Everyone's mostly keeping an eye out, though we're all fairly untrained aside from Captain Harkon. Glitra spends most of her time either talking - though Viktus probably can't even hear her over the creaking of the cart - or humming and/or playing an instrument.

However, there is a reason the merchant hired security, and we quickly learned that the hard way.

Shortly after lunch the first day out, coming up out of the tall grasses, was a gaggle of bandits. The party, being overly excited but not terribly experienced at all, went full attack mode on them.

Biff and Kenara sprang forth to start dealing much damage with their weapons, along with Captain Harkon. Those three mowed through some bandits. Maermyl proceeds to try to set up a smoke screen while Thaddeus stood frozen in fear. Bedlam proceeds to use some of his skills to destroy the bandits but quickly got in over his head when the enemy got within melee range of him. Glitra, realizing she couldn't see a thing, proceeds to climb up on the cart to start shooting bandits with her shortbow. She also realized that Bedlam was in trouble so she used one of her two spells - bane - to hopefully hinder the bandits attacking him.

What none of the party realized or thought about or was experienced enough to know was all of the bandits were on the right side of the road. So Thaddeus and Viktus found themselves in melee with the other two bandits because they were the last two at the carts. Glitra was on top of the cart, however, she was completely oblivious to the fight behind her at first. Thankfully Thaddeus, once presented with an up close danger, got busy with his sword and was a very effective fighter.

But after a few rounds of shear chaos the haphazardly assembled crew was victorious in killing off the bandits.

And then things got weird. Bedlam basically had a meltdown, ranting, raving, kicking the dead people. He then starts to behead the dead bandits while some of the party was attempting to loot them, but Viktus and Captain Harkon intervened on that process as it was weirding out our employer's staff.

Continuing on our journey things were fairly quiet and peaceful, though yet another skill our party doesn't have is how to do overnight watches. Also, Maermyl keeps trying to get people to try her treats or slip things into folks' drinks. Not sure what's up with that.

The next day everyone is a bit more on alert after the bandit fight but things are fairly quiet. That is, until the wolves start sounding off. This just unsettles everyone as we continue trekking along. But nothing occurs while traveling.

That night we circled the carts like the night before, but then added 4 more torches outside the ring of carts. Glitra raised her hand and goes "Mr Harkon? It appears we have 3 fighting sorts and 3 not fighting sorts would it make sense to pair one of each type per watch?"

Swallowing a chuckle "Yes, quite right, good idea"

And so that's how the watches were broke out. One fighter type and one not fighter type per watch.

Didn't help though when the wolves attacked.

This fight was messy as most of the party was asleep inside the ring of carts. Glitra, she chose to be under a cart, to prevent being stepped on while sleeping.

These wolves were cunning but once the party got engaged they were able to get through the 3 that were hunting us, including the alpha. Several injuries occured though, and Mr Burnside was quite flustered.

After the fight both Maermyl and Glitra tried getting him to calm down, and at some point somehow Thaddeus lifted his whisky flask.

The next day folks are a little wary, and a little weary, but still head out relatively on time. This day is fairly uneventful though, just walking along watching for yet more shenanigans.

Later in the day the party is approaching a forest when Captain Harkon calls for a halt. He then asks Mr Burnside if he wants to go through the forest - the more direct path but with higher risks - or go around the forest. It's safer to go around but would add to the travel time. Mr Burnside just huffs out that he has to stay on schedule and what was he paying ECS for?

After the events of the past couple of days plus the higher risk of the forest, Captain Harkon calls the group together for a quick briefing and reminders to keep our eyes and ears peeled for issues.

And into the woods we went, though Glitra refuses to be totally quiet.

Things went fairly well but after awhile Mr Burnside and Captain Harkon realized we wouldn't get through the woods this evening. Declaring the horses needed to rest, Mr Burnside asked where that could happen, and Captain Harkon recalls up ahead there's a wide spot in the road where another road merges in.

Sure enough we find that wide spot in the road and circle the carts for another evening.

And that's where we'll leave the story! More soon! :)