Hilmir Enters The Wood

Elara shakes her head and shrugs, "Usually they take a bribe, sometimes they beat ya, occasionally they kidnap people and try to brainwash 'em into joining their cause."Having been shown the second figure, Elara pitches Dreli and Hilmir with half of a plan: "Me and Dani can handle the close one, if you two can take care of the farther one. You wanna be careful though, they know some magic."

Sneaking up to the farther one will take a successful DEX save from each. A failure will mean one of The Order members will spot you. If you're undetected, you will have the opportunity to roll a STR save to attempt a knock out. Failure on the STR save would result in a hit, but then combat would begin. Just wanted to lay out the stakes if you wanted to proceed that way, you are welcome to come up with a different plan of action.

Hilmir sneaks with incredible ability, and is nearly invisible as he moves towards the robed figure. A hefty rock in hand, he suddenly pops up beside the Order member and strikes him unconscious with one great blow.

Dreli lets Elara know that Hilmir has taken care of distant robed figure, allowing her to move in and execute her half of the plan. She sneaks up behind the threatening man from The Order, and makes a gesture to Dani to catch her attention. Dani subtly nods, and continues talking until she suddenly boots the man in the chest, pushing him into Elara who places him in hold. He is stunned to find himself restrained, and Dani knocks him out with a hard double-handed blow.

The pair celebrate the triumph quickly before Dani starts breaking down the walls of her hut, and Elara walks back to Hilmir and Dreli. "That was incredible! We got to get a move on, they won't be out too long and will come back with friends." She looks at Hilmir, "You're real strong. Why don't you help Dani tear down, Dreli and I will go search the Robes for anything useful."The threat is neutralized for now, is it Dani and Elara's intent to rob the men but leave them where they are. If you don't object to their plan, in addition to anything your character may do or say include the following rolls:

Hilmir, please roll a STR save to help determine how effective you are at helping Dani take down her hut without causing damage.

Dreli, please roll a WIL save to aid Elara in searching the robed figures to determine whether or not you find everything on their persons.

Searching through their possessions, Dreli and Elara find the following items:

- 2 days dry rations (can stack with existing rations so you don't need to worry about taking up any additional slots)
- A total of 16 GP
- A pair of manacles
- Two daggers
- Two strange stones, rounded perfectly, with some kind of arrow carved into the top
- An amulet bearing a symbol associated with The Order
- A Spellbook for the spell FrenzyMeanwhile, Hilmir briefly introduces himself to Dani and helps disassemble her hut. It is an improvised structure, with a framework that can be collapsed simply for easy transportation. While they're working on it, Dani says "Came up with the design myself, can make more but takes a lot of time and space to do it right. Thanks for your help back there, if Elara brought you here she must have a good feeling about both of you."

Looking over the items together, Elara expresses interest in one of the daggers, and one of the strange stones. Dani wants the manacles as she believes it can be used in one of her designs. After splitting the gold evenly (4GP to each of you), neither are interested in anything else but Dani says that she will take whatever you're not interested in to sell or trade.

Feel free to help yourselves to any of the remaining items, remember that you only have 10 inventory slots and when they're all full your HP drops to zero.

While going over the items, Elara takes Dani to the side for a moment and has a brief conversation. They come back shortly after Dreli finishes burying the amulet.

"Okay so Elara has caught me up, and it would mean a lot if I could sit down and have a conversation with both of you." "Dani and I are part of a... " Elara looks to Dani unsure what word to use. "...outreach group." Dani finishes with a smirk. "We're sick of living under The Order's thumb and are getting people together to fight back."

Elara addresses Dreli, "You have some history with The Order, before you came to the woods. That's rare around here an' we think that could be real useful." Then looking to Hilmir, she continues, "And you have history with the Frogmen. We need someone to connect us to a Frogman scout."

Dani steps forward and speaks with an authoritative tone, "It's getting dark and we shouldn't waste our head start. I can get us to a secluded area where we can make a proper camp for the night. If you're in, come with us and we can talk more there. If not, thanks for the help back there."

With that, Dani starts walking away. Elara quickly follows.

After walking for a bit, and taking a few sharp turns, the group approaches a rocky overhang. It is large enough for several people to camp under, while also offering protection from the elements.



Elara picks up a few pieces of wood from a pile that was already there, and gets a fire going. Dani drops the components of her hut off to the side, and gets Hilmir's help to move a couple large logs to use as makeshift benches positioned around the fire in a "V" shape. Elara says "I'll get some food going, y'all sit down and rest. Listen to what Dani has to say."

Dani sits, and beckons Hilmir and Dreli over toward the other bench, "I bet you both have a whole bunch of questions. If I'm asking for your help, least I could do is try to answer some of them."

Dani nods and gets to the point, "We've stumbled upon sort of a ruined temple, rumors are it was built by the Frogmen but they were driven out by The Order. I want to assemble a party to check it out further, and I want to get one of the Frogmen to join us. Problem is, Frogmen don't like getting mixed up in our messes. I hear some trust you?"

Dani carefully listens to what Hilmir and Dani have to say. Her tone is more passionate now, but less authoritative. "The Order get away with what they get away with because they wield a terrible weapon: The Sweepers. Huge golems, powerful enough to rip apart anything The Robes point them at. No one knows how to stop one but something in my gut tells me there's some clues in the old Frogman temple."

She looks at her feet for a moment, before turning to Dreli and continuing. "I've been in these woods for a few years and I still couldn't tell you where they are. But you... you seem to have some background others don't. I'd never go into an Order temple either, but this was built by the Frogmen. We know at one point The Order destroyed it, and sometime after that The Sweepers showed up. That's why I think there must be some clue there."

Dani claps her hands in delight and her entire demeanor loosens up. "Yes! Thank you, this is..." she trails off for a moment, becoming emotional, but clears her throat and continues, "It's easy to lose hope in this place. If we can knock The Order down a peg or two it will inspire a lot of people to push back."

Elara has been preparing a stew, which smells quite nice, and indicates it will take a bit longer to flavor properly. A little more relaxed now that there's an initial buy-in, Dani says, "So how did you both end up in these woods anyway? Anything about this place I can help shed some light on?"