Four of five players together and a big dinner… I think we spent just as much time talking and eating as we did gaming.

Lots of criticals all round, but mostly minor injuries to the PCs, except for one against Aglann…(100) “Disembowel foe, killing him instantly.” She used a Fate point to reduce this to stun and hit damage. My rule states you can use a Fate point to “downgrade the severity of a major wound/critical just received”. I might have to be specific as to how it works, like -40 on the same Crit table.

15th May, midday:

There’s been more exploring than walking today – so this seems a good place to stop for a meal. They continue to check out the remainder of the village, and then head into the forest, expecting to reach the third ruin site on their map before having to stop for the day. Along the road they sight a raven on the road. It watches them as they pass. Minutes later there is another raven (or the same one) on a fallen tree, that caws at them. Filencë wonders if the bird is someone’s familiar, and casts a spell to determine if there is magic involved but finds nothing. He speaks to it, and Hérehort offers food which it picks at happily, then flies off. Further on, yet another raven drops beetles and moss onto them as they walk under an over-hanging tree. As it flies away, Celeblason faintly hears “Caw, caw, familiar…” and a spitting sound!

They arrive at the next ruin site. Half a dozen fairly solid looking stone buildings stand on the south side of the road, and others in much worse condition are scattered through a clearing on the north side. The group notes that many of the older trees look rather scraggly, but are in lines. Perhaps a dozen large deer and grazing here, and picking at the bark of the trees, and small fruits on them. Loud raucous calls come from top of a ruined wall – where three identical ravens hop up and down, flapping their wings. The sound startles the deer which scatter in different directions. Three males bolt towards the road, and stop suddenly at the edge on sighting of the party. The largest shakes his antlered head and snorts at them. The group speaks quickly and backs up slowly, not interested in hunting at this time; the deer run east along the road out of sight. The ruins are investigated. Most are little more than low walls, and there is no sign of goblins or fires. They determine that some of the trees have pears and apples, taking a few that have ripened. One of the southern buildings has a bit of a roof and they use it to make camp for the night. They set watches, but there is no disturbance during the night.

16th: Filencë feeds his owl, and casts Familiar on it as he does each morning, and will continue to do for a few more days. Not far down the road, Celeblason alerts the group to movement ahead and on each side. The group ready weapons and two wolves charge out towards him, Aglann and Brohiem. The Ranger also glimpses movement behind the group and calls that two more wolves are approaching on the road behind them. Aglann is bitten severely. Filence gets off a sleep spell, but only drops one of the wolves at the front. Broheim and Celeblason take down the other wolf but not before it bites Aglann again and she falls unconscious; Herehort using magic to stop her bleeding. Filencë firebolts the third wolf, badly wounding it, and the fourth flees into the forest. The finish off those that remain, and spend time bandaging and using healing herbs as almost all of them are wounded. Oddly, they see that one wolf appears to have stepped in something black and sticky.

Just before the location of the fourth set of ruins, they reach a southern path heading towards Combe. A dead tree with branches to the side like arms, and a large hole like a mouth has a white painted “nose” and eyes. The ‘arms’ are decorated with red and blue strips of cloth. Most of this decoration is old, dirty and weather-worn, though some may have only been tied on in recent weeks. They decide it’s a bit childish and not that threatening to be a goblin totem.

Minutes later they reach the clearing with the last ruin. Just under a dozen buildings have low walls, and piles of rubble – most being overgrown with weeds and grass. There are many signs of small animals; digging in the dirt, scratches of branches, and droppings. Many of the buildings show sign that stones were removed decades ago. There are signs of camping and fires in a few of the larger buildings, and one has an arch in an ivy-strewn wall. It’s partly blocked by a fallen tree, and the Elves realise that it was dragged into that position. Within is a small sheltered area, with perhaps a 2 day old fire. Some of the vines around the walls have been cleared and there is a small Cirth rune carved into the stone above the arch. There is no sign of goblins; those who have been here were likely men or hobbits.

The next two miles of road proves rather interesting. Herehort spots something shiny on the road. It turns out to be a small broken bottle, with a mostly dry puddle of ink. This is followed by three feather quills, a leather case with a map, a recipe, and a list of trees and herbs. Torn scraps of red and white cloth are scattered about the road, and a torn sack is retrieved; further on, a wooden whistle. Lastly, they see a long red feather near a fallen tree. Behind it, they dig up two torn sacks, and a bloodied cloth. Tracks here suggest a hobbit or two. They presume some hobbits were attached by wolves along the road, heading in the same direction as they are. They reach the next path off the main forest road, passing by.

Returning to the main road, they are perhaps two miles from Archet when they hear a dog barking just off the road. They move off the road to investigate and find a trapper and his dog. The dog is quite excited to meet new people, and the group ask the man if he’s seen wounded hobbits passing by. He says he only came out of Archet earlier today, and isn’t aware of any. While they speak, the dog begins to growl as something approaches through th forest. A bear stands up from the undergrowth and roars at the dog, which flees back to hide behind Hérehort. The group respond quickly, with Filencë preparing another sleep spell, while the others position themselves for melee or fire arrows. The bear is initially stunned by the attacks. The trapper looses an arrow at it that misses, and Hérehort and Broheim move to flank the bear. It ignores Filencë’s spell, but is brought down by multiple solid strikes; only managing one hit against Broheim. They leave the bear for the trapper, who is pleased with its pelt.

They decide to backtrack to the Combe road to look for tracks, wondering which way the hobbits went. They find some tracks on the south-east road suggesting there assumption was correct.

The forest begins to thin out, and they come across a number of woodsmen. They are called over, as one of the workers is feeling unwell. Celeblason goes to look at the trees he had been stripping bark from, and Hérehort looks for injury, suspecting a snake or spider bite. He finds a red swelling and mark on one of the young mans legs, and Celeblason confirms two hand-sized green and brown spiders on the trees. As he wields his sword to squash them, others jump out from the timber. They inflict many minor bites, proving quite quick at dodging blows. In total, six spiders are either splattered or stunned, and only Broheim gets a serious sting. He feels nauseous for a while, but his dwarven constitution soon shrugs it off. One spider is taken as evidence, and they load the young man onto their pony and hurry into Archet. The green spiders are known in town and the woodsman is soon receiving treatment. The group report back to Shirrif Redmoot, who is concerned with the number of goblins met along the Rushlight River, but relieved to hear that none were seen within the Chetwood itself, and that there wasn’t anything unexpected seen within the forest either. He arranges for the group to stay with two farming families over night and will draft a letter to Bree’s Guard Captain and Mayor, suggesting further investigation of the goblins.

17th: The group purchase a few wood cutting tools as they plan to cut a way through the tree barrier they found near the river. If Bree send them to scout the southern Midegwater, this will be a stop on the way east. They ride back to Bree and eventually speak with Shirrif Bunce, Mayor Heathertoes and the Guard Captain.

They learn that the Dwarven traders left yesterday. Most of the bandits they caught will be hung the next day. Damah, has been working in the Prancing Pony stables, and will probably be on probation with the town guards after that. Meneldir has taken a liking to him, and it sounds like he has a talent with horses. Acair & Maisi are branded, if they are caught breaking the law in Bree-land again, they will face execution. Acair has been doing road repair along with Gil and Nat (who were fined and anything stolen they possessed was reclaimed) – all four will be released in a few days.