Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>37683489
Sure, let's have marie up there. See if you can spot any horrible horrible things, like walls of trolls.

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>37683489

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>15

"Sure, no harm in it. May as well get the lay of the land."

Marie hands off her rifle and pack to Tatiana, who takes both with the look of someone who doesn't rightly know what they should be doing. Then the harpy wings off with an awkward hopskip motion, circling the party as she gains altitude. She's but a speck in the sky when she catches the thermals, spreading her wings out instead of the frantic flapping she had been doing. Figuring she's just fine for now, the three remaining party members forge ahead, McCain taking the lead as you and Tatiana walk side by side, trying to not get in each other's way.

Scanning the horizon, you're vision crosses McCain's back, and you catch something odd sticking out opposite the backup rifle he brought along.

"You brought the sword?" You ask incredulously, staring at the blade he liberated from his impersonator back in Snake's Landing.

"Of course Miss, its mine after all. Had it back before and during what happened in... well you know."

"Yeah, but I mean, its been twenty years, you still know how to use it?"

"Miss, I ain't as good a shot as you,and it looks like that boy took care of it. It'll come back to me."

Tatiana breaks her silence, "I am one to put more trust in a blade that one of those clay breakers you have."

You're about the retort when you see Marie swooping down. "Miss Masterson. There's a group of SOMETHING up ahead." She says franticly, "Gangly looking and running on all fours."

Trolls.

>What do?

>>37684479
Well, standard procedure it to try to avoid 'em. Let's get ourselves to a concealed or fortifiable position and wait.

If they pass by, good. If they come right for us, then it'll turn into a firefight.

Any good brambles around here? I'd just up the tree if we were alone, but we've got non-snake friends.

>>37684479
>>37684552
Agreeing.

>>37684479
>See if the trolls are heading in any particular direction. If they're going towards the encampment, send warning.

Think of the Nitor!

>>37685350
Oh shit that's a pretty good idea.

We have a flying person too.

Send a warning if they're heading that way.

Alright, give me a 1d20+2 stealth roll.

New captcha decided not to post this while I went to take care of a thing, sorry about that.

Rolled 4 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>37685461
Alrighty.

Rolled 4 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>37685461
Time for the sneaks!

Rolled 20 + 2 (1d20 + 2)

>>37685461

Those sure are some rolls.

>>37685538
I need to keep a count of the number of 20's you guys have gotten. Its reaching the point of ridiculousness.

>>37685708
Well, when you do "best of 3, crits trump," we do have a 14% chance of getting a 20. Over who knows how many rolls over 38 threads, I'm sure it does add up.

Of course that means we should've had about the same number of 1s.

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>20

"McCain, you know the drill. Lets gut up into the higher rocks, with any luck they won't get close enough to smell us." You order, acting as rearguard as your motley crew scramble towards a particularly rocky section of the badlands. Keeping your rifle up, you slither tangent to the group, negotiating the tricky task of backing up when your lower half is that of a snakes. Finally, as Marie is forcibly pulled behind cover by Tatiana, you follow them around. McCain has his pistol up and Marie has her knives ready.

It takes several minutes, but you start to hear the rustling and thundering as the horde moves past you. You don't risk a peek around, but if you had the guess, the nearest group of them would have numbered fifteen at least. Eventually the noise peters off, and you wait another good five minutes before you pull yourself from the safety of cover. You can see where they came and went by the trampling of the under brush, a swath of destruction heading to the east, almost perpendicular to the way you were headed.

"Well, at least that's past," You say, noting the suns position in the sky. "Lets set up camp over the next ridge mayhaps? Get a fresh start tomorrow? We lost a lot of time waiting on the nitor to show up."

"Sounds like a plan." McCain says, re-shouldering his pack.

Making camp is a quick affair, not wanting to risk a fire with the possibility of trolls nearby.

Give me another 1d20 travel roll.

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>37686606

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>37686606
on the road again.

Except with no road this time.

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>7
You opt for second watch, figuring you'll end up sleeping in otherwise, you opt to deal with it yourself. Thankfully, the night is uneventful, and as you would come to find out, the day was too. Moving along, you get out of the badlands and into the border between the Kozak lands and the Szlachta. You're running off memory, but Tatiana appears to have at least of vague idea of where Purobka lay, so you've been letting her lead. As the day goes on, the surroundings are approaching something close to what you remember from when you were travelling with the Kozaks toward Ursus.

"I'm surprised you're not more sure about where we are Tataiana." You say after she stops get get her bearings the third time today.

[I'm not normally this far north. My home is in the southern part of our lands, where the mountains spring up again. I've only been this far north maybe twice.] She responds a bit testily.

"I suppose, the south is where the capital is, right? The one where Veles said that King Sigismund resides,]

[As far as I am aware, yes.] She replies tersly, focusing on the task at hand.

You make good time, and your way is bereft of any hazards as you make camp near a small oasis of sorts, there the groundwater seeps upward to the open air. McCain figures that you can hazard a fire, but you make sure to keep the flames and smoke to a minimum. No sense attracting any undue attention to yourself.

>One more travel roll if you would.

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>37688551
Oh shit, almost missed the update.
And sure, more rolls.

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>37688551

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>9

Nary the sign of trolls nor centaurs as you approach the final stretch before Purobka. Marie is the first to spot it, circling overhead and coming down, guiding you towards the walls of the town. Even from a distance, you can see something terrible has happened here. The heavy stone walls are fire charred, and you don't see an intact building from here. The place must have been ablaze for quite some time.

Even more distressing are the birds. Hundreds of carrion birds flushed from their grisly meals as you approach. You wince, seeing the prone forms laid out on the concourse heading up to the town. You note that McCain is the only without his weapon drawn, and you ask him why.

"Its simple Miss, this was a massacre, but that was the intention, " He says flatly, "You can still see where some of the buildings are still smouldering. Whatever did this moved on right after."

You look back at the scene, not looking forward to poking around a dead village.

>Head into the town
>Check the bodies outside the folwark
Either way, need a 1d20 search roll.

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>37690408
>Check the bodies outside the folwark

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>37690408
I am getting worse at keeping up with these.
>Check the bodies outside the folwark
I agree on this. See if you can find anyone NOT dead.

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>14 + 2 = 16

"As much as I don't want to, we need to search those that are down there, its a long shot, but there might be someone around still alive."

You're the first one to make it onto the concourse, pointedly ignoring McCain's raised eyebrow at your statement. Searching through the fallen is every bit the horror that you expect, with each centaur appearing to have been deceased for some time, the wildlife already taking what it can from them. However, you are able to ascertain that it was definitely the work of lances and bladed weapons, a surmise that McCain validates by producing a broken lance point from one of corpses. Marie offers to stand watch, and flies in her orbit around your party. Another breakthrough comes Tatiana who states that only the szlachta hussars have easy access to the weapons that could have cause these wounds. With no further information, you make your way into the town.

>Head to the eastern part of town (Rows of destroyed or damaged wooden buildings.)
>head to the western part of town (Fewer, but larger burnt out stone buildings.)

>>37691545
>head to the western part of town (Fewer, but larger burnt out stone buildings.)

Best chance of finding anyone or anything.
Man, I hope we weren't the reason some war thing was instigated.

>>37691545
>[x] Head to the western part of town (fewer, but larger burnt out stone buildings).

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>Head to the western part of town (fewer, but larger burnt out stone buildings).

"The western part looks in the best shape, we'll start there." You say cautiously proceeding through the ruined folwark.

[These areas are for the nobility. The spacing gives it away.] Tatiana states, you can tell she's getting more uneasy the further in you go.

Probing these buildings yields more of the same, though the dead here are charred beyond recognition, and in some cases, you can see where people were barred inside buildings as it burnt around them. Dead hussars are present here as well, though, but if Tatiana is any judge, they are the guard of the house here in Purobka.

Then you hear the faint sounds around the corner of the main hall. Cautiously peeking around the corner, you see a centaur lying prone. On top of it you see the misshapen form of one of the degenerate trolls gnawing on the shoulder of the fallen horse-man. Then you see the tail of the centaur move.

>What do?

(May necessitate a roll depending on the action.)

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>37692357
Immediately stop that darn troll. Time is of the essence, moreso than stealth here. Have a roll?

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>37692412
>>37692357
I sorta wanna roll again, because yeeesh

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>37692412
This

>>37692412
>>37692502
>>37692963
Just to check, are you shooting or physically attacking?
Also this two tiered captcha/submit shit is messing me up here, damnit.

>>37693123
Probably shooting, even though the noise might be a bit of a trouble.

Because get off him ya cunt.

>>37693123
Fire at center of mass!

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>15+4

You waste no time bringing your rifle up and letting loose a shot into the spindly limbed creature, the bullet impacting into it from the side shattering its left arm off at the shoulder. The limb stays gripped to the fallen centaurs arm as the rest of the creature is knocked back. It gives one rattle before it ceases to move.

You move up to the fallen centaur, and check his pulse. Its still there, but faint. Then you hear the rasp behind you. Turning slowly, you see three more degenerate trolls exit the ruins of the burning building. No doubt having been feeding on the dead inside until your shot drew them.

Then four more exit the building.

>Pausing the thread here for tonight. Next thread should be saturday, if only to make up for the week I missed. Thanks again for reading.

>>37693891
See ya later, canid. Thanks for runnin'.

>>37693891
Thanks Chemlab, I got here just in time for the thread to end.