Chapter 13: Breaking the Siege

Rives furrows his brow, but nods. Why had they just ridden north to turn around and go south? It made no sense to him, but then again, nothing he had done in the Red Prince's Army made sense. Men were silly. Horses made sense.

The group takes advantage of the remaining sunlight to find the best camp location they can in this part of the woods. Marin finds a reasonably good thicket, but Alelip actually stumbles across the perfect site: a bit of a grassy ridge where the side of the hill has been worn away by one of the various creeks that feed into the river. The curvature is such that the gnolls could only charge in from the northwest, while the defenders would have excellent visibility of their advance and high ground from which to fire arrows and set spears in defense.

Caedmon nods in satisfaction and helps corral the horses to one side of the little hill. Then he takes a hatchet and starts chopping some arm-length tree branches. "Like the Lieutenant was telling us at the watchtower, if we set these at angles they can slow down the gnolls even further. I'll take first watch with someone."


These dice sets were omitted or moved: 1d20+6

I'll go with you on the first watch, said Marin taking some of the chopped branches.

ooc note

Rives helped the horses get settled in and begins rubbing them down. They had run hard all day and several were rather lathered. He was thankful that they had been able to sufficiently water the horses and let them graze a bit as the rest of the group had searched for a place to make camp.

He was on edge, and even the littlest noise made him jump. He was imagining gnoll calls everywhere. It had taken a while to get used to sleeping in the tents while they travelled, and at the keep. He wasn't sure how he'd ever manage to sleep tonight.

OOC: Rives wasn't "in camp" when watch was discussed, so he'll wind up with whoever... I'm guessing its Ken and/or Alelip.

Alelip nods his appreciation for Cademon and Marin taking the first watch, then adds, "Three hour shifts. Cademon and Marin on first watch, Ken and I on second watch, Marin and Rives on third watch."

He looks at Marin gathering chopped branches and, having missed Cademon talking about defensive positioning, speaks up again, almost as an afterthought, "Marin, no fires tonight. The last thing we want to do is give the gnolls our position. Hopefully we can spend the night undetected."

"This are for spikes, not for fire. Sir" Marin said looking at him as if he was crazy just for saying the idea of making a fire "It would be stupid to set a fire if we're trying to hide and ambush... Tough maybe not, we could set up a bait and truly ambush them. Not a big fire, just a small smoke to drag the patroll here. There are enoguh hiding places for all... It is your call though, sir" She said, muttering her ideas as they popped in her head

Taking the thickest branches that Caedmon had chopped, she tried to follow his example and set some of them as traps. Not knowing how well they were placed she turned to the young man "Caedmon, come and see these ones? Just to check"

While Caedmon checked her traps, Marin took her bow and gracefully climbed to a tree with thick folliage, barely bothering to look where she set her feet. Once up she looked for a spor where she could spot the way the gnolls would be comming and settled as comfortable as she could and still have a good chance to shoot.

"I'll keep watch from here, it shold give us some advantage" she said to the others

Caedmon nods in satisfaction as he checks Marin's work, then joins her up at the point of the ridge. He stays low in the grass, finding a little hollow where he can remain mostly obscured while still having a line of sight.

Rives quietly nods in recognition of his assignment and finds a sheltered place in their makeshift camp to unroll his bedroll. It smelled like sweat and smoke and horse, and the ground was rocky, but he quickly found himself sound asleep, his make-shift staff clenched close to him.

Alelip looks at Marin's expression at first in shock, then in understanding that they were in agreement.

"No fires. If the gnolls get lucky, they get lucky, but I want nothing to aid their luck." Almost as an afterthought, he adds, "We ride at dawn for the town."

Alelip then retreats into the camp, repeats the message about leaving at first light to Ken and Rives, proceeds to unroll his bedroll, and is out cold within 5 minutes.

The group spends a cold night on the hillside, huddled in blankets when asleep and watching the horizon with desperate thoughts while awake. Fortunately, the gnolls seem to have lost either the trail or the taste for blood, and the first creepings of dawn's light begin to filter through the trees with Marin and Rives together near the crest of the ridge. Heavy mist lingers in the air, making everything feel cold and clammy. At Alelip's wise insistence, though, there is no heat of fire to make up the lost warmth.