Raider's Camp

Elceran falters for a moment, his staff swings wide while a kobold deftly evades his punch. Just a s it looks like he might fall, he braces himself on his staff and a simple side kick strikes the wounded kobold, driving the bloody crossbow bolt through it's arm and burying it in it's torso.

Needles to say that by the time the little dragon hits the ground, it's very, very, dead.

half of the kobolds are dead, and the other half briefly weighs their options, flight or fight?

flight it is! and boy oh boy, do they run!

the little buggers drop EVERYTHING. The hens, the swords, even their own daggers and slings - and RUN!

squealing like newborn piglets, your ears ring as they flee towards a line of boulders where they will easily disappear into stoney nooks.

Linston will try to take one more out with his crossbow.

luck, fate, prayer... who knows. Linston fires a 'hail-mary' bolt high into the air, and as it comes whistling down the group of kobolds seems to run to meet it. A spectacular catch! If it wasn't done with the back of he neck...

A kobold squeaks, as a pink mist is kicked up by the bolt sinking deep and through the spine. It hits the ground hard, and very dead.

Hooking her crossbow to her back, Clarice will return to the downed humans to search for any loot that may have been taken the night before.

"A quick peek around and then continue on?" she asks of the others as she begins checking pockets and any packs the humans may have had with them.

Sounds good to me.

"We will have to be more careful now. We may have lost our element of surprise."

these weren't wealthy, powerful members of the raiding army. Searching all the bodies accumulates 28sp. A few cheap weapons, and a burlap sack with four pewter candlesticks and a silver serving dish worth about 4gp.

A marching army would regularly travel with a rear guard that, well, guards the rear. This clearly isn't it. This is pretty obviously a small group of slackers that just couldn't keep up with the main force.

The tracks made by the army are still very clear, and very easy to follow as they continue on their path.

Guess there's nothing else here. We should continue to follow their tracks while we can Grim says to the group Unless anyone needs to take a short break.

Finding nothing of significant value Clarice doesn’t bother keeping anything that she finds.
"Grim’s right, we should keep moving."

Clarice calls out to Zsa, who scampers to her master’s side.
Ready to lead the way once more?

"find more ghastly thugs darling? SIGH..... if I must......"

and Zsa pads off into the tall grass ahead of you.

Elceran falls into step slightly behind the group to keep an eye out for the kobolds that fled, just in case they muster up some kind of courage.

"Lead the way."

as the group moves, Zsa pauses up ahead. She turns and toddles back to the group.

"Darling! If I was going to catch a mouse darling, I would choose the narrow gully up ahead. Purrrrrfect......"

"Well done, girl. Why don't you take a rest." Clarice holds out her right hand, stretching it wide open before abruptly clenching it into a fist. Zsa disappears.

She the warns the others - "Narrow gully up ahead. We should be careful what we're walking into."

you each take a moment to scan ahead.

Clarice and Grim both see the value of the gully as an ambush point, but can't see any signs that it is one.