A Gathering Storm

"My thanks to you good sir."

"Eh, a moment dere, 'ittle goblin." Lothar redirects, "You never answered the question of why the knife ears were 'fter ya." He use his staff for a walking stick, leaning on it for support while staring at their guide. "I really don't give a shite especially, but the why is important, else, they make a point ta come back for us, when we ain't lookin'."

"Lovely..." Lothar growls. Seeing the others getting patched up by Bartalom, he asks, "We good to move?" He shifts his pack to a more comfortable position for travel and adjusts his hood to keep the rain out of his face.

"I'm ready to move on now that I'm feeling much better," Oria replies to the scarred one. Indeed she was ready to move on and forget about that battle.

"I am ready to depart Lothar, especially after dealing with the cloaked men. I'm not so sure about this creature. Ansel looks at the goblin, Lothar and then Oria with a concerned look upon his face.

"It knows a bit too much to be lying... " Lothar concedes. "If you're gonna lead, best be doin' it, Modek." He nods out into the wilds and makes to walk insisting the goblin ahead of him. He had no intention of trusting this little runt blindly though, and tries to understand the path as Modek leads.

Kvarek, falls in line as the crew begins to move out. Elves and Goblins.... That's good, never woke up from a nightmare that involved killing those things.

Bartalom begins to brush himself down. If my master could see me now!, he thinks as he examines the muddy, wet, patches that adorn his attire. Grumpily, the apprentice trudges after the group

Oria nods at the guard's thanks and watches the strange goblin. She doesn't trust him. His callous kicking of a corpse didn't sit well with her no matter what the nature of the deadman was.

"Lead on Modek!" she says, her eyes scanning the trees.

The goblin shuffles out from the gate, his legs quicker than he looks, and hurries after the running elves. The rain seems dirtier outside the walls, somehow, as if muddy, but the stink of the city quickly vanishes and you fall into pace with Modek.

After five minutes, you reach the road leading into the forest. Modek stops under the shelter of a tree to the side and rubs his hands. He quickly checks his gear, a small larder bag, a canteen, and several weapons. "Long way to goes now. Many dangers in Davokar." His toothy smile indicates menace, likely directed to whatever might accost you.

Oria feels that there is more to the goblin than meets the eyes and endeavors to watch him keenly. Gathering her cloak more closely to her body as if that could keep the stench away she walks on into the bleakness outside the walls noticing that at least the city smells have abated even if the muddy rain has not.

"What kind of menaces would those be exactly so that we might be more prepared?"

Lothar thought back for the stories the tribe told in their legends. 'Shadowbeasts that were nearly invisible until they struck, spellplagued corpses of those who dabbled with magic too much, and the like.' He held such ominous tales from the group, rationalizing there was not reason to spook them - not that he'd seen anything in the forest before. 'Bloody knife ears be a more ta 'hreat to us, any how.'

Instead he pushed for them to move on. He felt exposed here. "If you weren't gonna move us at nigh', we'd ben bette' off in town, Modek."

"It's Modek, right?" Without waiting for confirmation Ansel continues "The elves in the town, did they follow you from the forest? Do you think they may be waiting to ambush you? Should we be worried about being waylaid because of your guidance?" Ansel points to the road leading into the forest. This goblin makes me feel less safe, but it probably knows the forest better than any of us. No matter, I feel the tug of Prios pulling me to follow Modek and something will be uncovered in Davokar; I can feel it.

"That we shou'd, priest." Lothar replies to the holy man's question. "Push for tha' camp, then." He barks through the rain at the creature, perhaps harsher than he would have wanted, but he lets it drop. The barbarian tugs at the cloak already feeling a damp patch on his shirt that had blown in by the stormy weather. "I'll do what we can to help the others." he says to Kvarek, hoping he would take point. Lothar wasn't sure why he felt the others needed his protection, 'Most of them probably were fine. Kvarek doubly so.' His gaze passes from Ansel to Kvarek for acknowledgement and then to Oria. 'Nah, not her either. Just the mage and the minister.' He silently shakes his head, before doing a quick scan of the area, and then moving to alongside Bartalom to help him in the rough, root-infested muddy ground.

"Plenty of time to wonder what the elves are up to later. For now, we should move and keep our eyes up."

Kvarek steps through the others to nudge the goblin into motion. Since standing around was unlikely to get us anywhere.

Bartalom catches up with Modek and strides beside him. "You must know this forest well, friend. Do tell us all about it's flora and fauna", the wizard says smiling broadly