A Gathering Storm

"I think we need to keep our eyes and ears open for elves, don't you think? What good will flora and fauna be to us if an arrow is about to pierce your heart, eh?" Oria says to Bartalom shaking her head.

Oria's eyes appear fierce and her expression unyielding, and the wizard stammers for a response that will not form. Instead, he turns his gaze forward and then glances to either side as if to demonstrate a renewed vigilance

You trudge through the forest along a wide trail, but it quickly narrows as if being swallowed by the dark press of trees. Wide branches scrape your arms, threaten to sweep your hats away. Surely the forest is more used that this? Modek presses on, his small stature giving him a bit more space.

He stops suddenly, holding a hand up and looking at you in fear. He holds a hand to his mouth and points at the first person, then looks around, listening. You hear a crashing far away, but it seems to be going farther. Modek nods and then hurries off on his increasingly invisible trail, but he's increasingly making less noise than he had been, downright creeping along, as he leads you over roots and fallen trees on some game path.

He stops at points at some hanging humanoid figures. "Elfs no want us go further."

Oria is fearful but she tries hard not to show it.

Why is the goblin going so cautiously and slowly, she wonders, and how can he even see the trail?

The sight of the hanging figures stops her dead though.

"You think?" she asks sarcastically glaring at the elf when he states the obvious.

Kvarek readies his sword and shield and does a slow circle ignoring the hanging bodies. As often as not, they are meant as a distraction as much as a warning. "Eyes out, those bodies are the least dangerous thing you can stare at. Whatever put 'em there could be watching."

"I was under the assumption they didn't even want to go this far." Prios guide me. Ansel looks around looking for some kind of ambush. Then his eyes slowly look at the hanging figures.

Ansel walks close to Kvarek. and says "I do hope it's just a warning."

The forest was a wonder to the eyes of a curious young wizard. Bartalom examined each and every unfamiliar growth of the forest as best he could without falling too far behind the rest of the party, taking samplings of each with the intent of practising his alchemical art upon them when opportunity might allow. But as the forest path narrowed, a sense of forbading dragged Bartalom out of his reverie.

Note: Modek the guide is a goblin, rather than an elf.

Ansel examines the bodies and he's certain they are human, but there is something wrong with them, too. It's hard to tell, as the crows have been at them, but ... something. They are dressed as Ambrians, that part is clear.

Bartalom's herb gathering is successful, but he finds the forest growing more and more oppressive the farther he gets from the others. Strange sounds, creaking, clicking, breathing, just behind the next tree, or the bush he is looking at.

Lothar notices Bartalom's skill with herbs, something that the huntsman had ever had the time to learn. He stays a bit close watching the herbcraft and serving as a protector in case the distracted wizard might fall prey to ambush. Unnerved by the forest's ambience, he suggests, "May'ep we ought to make back with tha others, Bartalom." It was rare for Lothar to be so moved by the mood of the wildlands, but this foreboding had his hairs twitch under his cloak.

The wizard is grateful for the presence of Lothar, and foresaking the bushes and the bark he jogs to his side. "Aye, indeed, Lothar. The atmosphere of the forest has started to feel heavy. But look at these..", Bartolom says excitedly holding out the strange hued herbs he has been collecting

"What tis that, ain't seen its like in da light forest?" Lothar asks, though despite his voice, his interests seem genuine. He draws close and looks over the herbs in Bartolom's outstretched hand. "I ne'er had the chance to learn about these, though I know it ta be useful."

"Those herbs may prove very useful but let's save all this for later. Right now we need to be paying great attention to these woods. Something is going on and I'd rather not be surprised as it could prove our undoing. Don't you hear the peculiar sounds? I hear breathing too. These are not normal woods noises.

Oria's eyes suddenly fix on a tree in front of them. "There! By that tree. Hush, listen!"

Lothar crouches low out of sight to try to hear if Oria heard something beyond her anxiousness with the corpse tree.

Lothar sees a darkness, a shadow, and when he makes eye contact, the bush explodes in movement.

The creature is humanoid, if only barely. It's face is amphibian like, with long gangly limbs. It reaches to snatch Lothar, and drag him into the woods as a meal for it's brood.

Bartalom reacts to the attack upon Lothar with a speed and purpose that surprises himself...

Both Lothar and Bartaloum act before the Darkling.

"Fuck." Lothar spits as he sees the frog faced demon rush for him. The man deftly rolls backwards out of the grasp of the creature before whirling his staff in an upward strike, trying to catch the creature under its jaw.

A powerful strike, beating it's pain threshold. Knock him prone, or Free Attack?

Although Bartalom is keen to focus on using his beast lore to try and recognise the creature, his instincts have the better of him, and he swipes the prone humanoid with his walking staff in the hope of knocking it unconscious