The Cabin in the Clearing

We took shifts on keeping watch throughout the night. Since the majority of us do not require much sleep, due to our elven nature, Freija and Finfer took the first two hour watch, Freija and Temporalis took the second two hour watch, and Willow and I took the final four hour watch. After an uneventful night, and once everyone was rested, we started following tracks again. The tracks were solid, leading us in the direction we had been going, when they were suddenly crossed by several more warg tracks that were fresh and strong, intermixed with the humanoid tracks, which had weakened and faded.

I pointed to the ground. “More warg tracks here.” I said. “Where do you suppose these wargs are going?” Willow asked. “I don’t want to find out” Finfer replied. “Neither do I." I said. "One warg was bad enough. I am still feeling the affects of that last encounter, even after resting. Willow, can you mark the area in a Druidic method, so if we run into issues with the humanoid tracks we can backtrack to this area?” Willow looked around. “Yes, give me a moment.” After Willow marked the area, we continued along the path the humanoids had taken, Willow marking our trail as we went. As we went on, the tracks faded, but having lived and hunted in forests all my life, I had no difficulty spotting them. After a short time of following the faded tracks, they were suddenly quite fresher, as if the ones leaving them had attempted to hide their tracks, and either failed in doing so, or simply gave up. However, the tracks now included those of a beast, similar to the lizard-type one who had attacked us shortly after we had left Medietas. Proceeding with caution, we came upon a small camp in a clearing, spotting two of the beasts and a half elf the same time they spotted us.

The first beast, the larger of the two, charged me and clamped down on my leg. Willow immediately cast a spell that released a poisonous gas on the beast, causing it release me and stumble back a bit, coughing and disoriented. At the same time, Freija encountered the smaller beast, swinging with her short sword, but it was just out of her reach. I let out a scream of pain as the half elf pulled out his short bow and shot me with an arrow in the same area where I had just been bitten. Pulling my short sword, I sliced an ear off the large beast in front of me. The beast, enraged at having its ear cut off, having been poisoned, and nearly shot, was very angry. He bit me again, harder this time, in the same leg, crushing all the bones below my knee. Freija and the other beast were still battling nearby, teeth and blades everywhere. Willow cast a healing spell on me to alleviate some of the pain and mend my bones enough so that I could walk, and shape shifted into a giant spider. Freija, seeing the amount of trouble we were having, rushed over. When she reached my side, she called out to the half elf, “Leave now, or you will die.” The half elf smirked and said “I think I will enjoy dragging your corpses to Immetis, myself.” He pulled out a hand axe, ran up to Willow in spider-form, and buried it deep into one of her spider legs. I finally managed to shove my short sword into the neck of the large beast in front of me, killing it, while Finfer, after seeing Willow transform into the giant spider, moved up behind her to use her to help conceal him. Temporalis focused on the half elf, firing at him with magic, hitting him on the shoulder, and causing blood to start running down his arm. Unfazed by the hit, he swung his axe again, taking another flesh chunk out of one of Willow’s spider legs, causing her to squeal. Finfer climbed up on top of Willow’s back, took aim with his crossbow, and planted a bolt in the middle of the half elf’s forehead, killing him. Willow crushed the neck of the other beast, killing it, as well.

Once the fighting stopped and we had a chance to catch our breath and assess/tend to injuries, we proceeded. Through the trees ahead, we could see a camp that contained a decently-sized cabin and an extremely large area of trees that had been cut down and cleared. “I don’t like this,” Freija said. As we were looking at the layout before us and trying to determine this cabin’s purpose, who might be in it, and how best to approach it, two arrows came out of nowhere, one lodging in a tree in front of Freija, the other in Finfer’s left shoulder. Looking up, I saw two hunting blinds in trees, each containing an elf with a longbow. “Up there!” I yelled out. “In the trees!” They shot at us again, one nicking Finfer’s left arm and the other grazing my right cheek. Finfer ran up to the right and hid behind a tree, and I ran to the left and did the same. Freija yelled out “Stop what you’re doing! We come in peace in the name of Ehlonna!” They responded by sending more arrows at her, one hitting a tree to her left and one narrowly missing her ear. In between arrow shots, Finfer, Temporalis, and I moved forward, going from tree to tree for cover. Most of the arrows missed us, but a few grazed a shoulder, or an arm, or a leg. Willow, in spider form still, ran toward the left blind, and we heard a female voice yelling “They have a SPIDER?! I HATE SPIDERS!” and fired an arrow at Willow, hitting her, causing her to shift back into her elven form.

We advanced through the trees, hiding as we went, when seemingly out of nowhere a male half elf appeared near Willow. He took a swing at her, but she saw him in time, ducked and ran forward, causing his scimitar to slice into a tree. As he worked at pulling his weapon free, Freija, who was trailing behind Willow, said “You really don’t have to do this! You can put your weapons down and we can talk peacefully!” He responded with “Or, you can burn in hell.” Willow turned around and shot an arrow at the half elf, lodging it in the back of his shoulder. Enraged, he yanked his weapon free, turned, ran up to her, and swung his scimitar wildly. She dodged it easily. While she was dealing with this half elf, another one emerged behind Temporalis on the other side of the forest and hit him with a mace in the back of his shoulder. Temporalis turned, grabbed either side of the half elf’s head, stared him in the eye and whispered an incantation of some sort. The moment Temporalis let go, the attacker’s head exploded, sending gore everywhere. All fighting stopped when this happened, and everyone looked at Temporalis. “What?” he said. “He hit me first.” The two elves in the tree blinds climbed down from their posts, cursing and angry. Finfer, who had been sneaking around using trees as cover, surprised the half elf that was trying to attack Willow and killed him with his crossbow. Freija met the female elf from the tree stand, stabbing her in the ribs with her short sword. Temporalis sent a burst of magic at the male elf from the other tree stand, hitting him in the chest. Finfer had run across the forest, and subsequently shot the male elf with his crossbow in the back, piercing his heart. I was lucky with an arrow, and shot the female elf in the chest, killing her before she had a chance to attack anyone else.

Once we were certain no one else was hiding, we cautiously proceeded to the cabin. It was fairly large, with training grounds of some sort occupying the cleared space behind. Sitting back a bit from the cabin was a tent, and even further back was a larger tent with tassels and a flag, depicting a series of blue and white triangles. "It's quiet.” Finfer said. “We should be careful." As we approached the cabin, we could hear somewhat muffled voices coming from inside, one of them saying something about Windy Coast. “I’m going in.” Freija said. “You all stand back, in case they come running out.” Temporalis, Willow, Finfer, and I formed a half circle a few feet back from the door, weapons at the ready. Freija stood in front of the double doors, took a deep breath, and in one solid motion planted her heel in the crack where the two doors meet, kicking them open, sending one flying off its hinges. Inside, we could see four long tables in the middle, two round tables with chairs towards the front, and a series of bunks along the back wall. Thee humans and a half elf were seated at one round table, and a large human and an elf were seated at the other. As soon as the door burst open, they rose and drew their weapons. “What the...who are you, and what are you doing here?” said the elf. Once they saw the rest of us, two of the humans moved to the leftmost wall, and the half elf and the third human moved to the rightmost wall. The big human and the elf moved to the center at the cabin, weapons ready.

With her shield up, Freija went in, turned to her right, and stabbed the half elf there in the leg. I stepped up to the door of the cabin, peered in, shot the same man in the head, pinning him to the wall, and stepped aside. As soon as I was out of the way, Willow shot the elf in the center of the room in the head, killing him, and then went through the door. As soon as she entered, the human on the left closest to the door took a swing at her with his short sword, but Freija pulled her down just in time, and he missed. Finfer ran in right behind her, shooting the big human in the thigh as he went, and ran past him toward the long tables, ducking down behind them. The same human that tried to attack Willow also attempted to hit Finfer as he ran past, but the halfling was too quick. Temporalis stepped in and cast magic at big human, hitting him square in the chest, knocking him back a bit. As soon as Temporalis stepped in the cabin, the other human to the left shot a crossbow bolt at him, piercing his shoulder.

Willow, in the center of the cabin, changed into the form of a brown bear. She charged the big man in the middle, raking him across the chest with a claw. I ran in behind her and shot the man to my immediate left in the neck, piercing all the way through. He fell to the floor, choking and gagging. Meanwhile, Finfer would randomly pop up, shoot at someone, and hide again. As soon as Willow clawed the big man in the center of the room, Finfer popped up, took aim, and shot him in the back of the head. The remaining human on the right, who had been battling with Temporalis, met the sharp end of Freija’s sword in his side, and fell to his knees, clutching his wound. The last human on the left, after watching Freija and I kill his companions and Finfer kill his leader, ran screaming up to Willow, swinging his scimitar wildly. He managed to connect, sending bits of bear flesh and fur flying, but Freija came up behind him, and with the edge of her shield, hit him in the back of the skull, knocking him out.