Party reshuffle and some basic exploration

We lost Antoni. He had left during the night. We wouldn't be able to catch up with him easily, and if we had to stop to read tracks we wouldn't catch him at all. So all we, or at least I, could do was to pray for his safety. And ask Oleg to pass word to trappers and other local folks, if they should meet Antoni they should aid him. I would cover any costs incurred.

Our mood was rather dull that morning. Dragan wasn't about to cry after spilled milk, oblivious to the fact that he was one of the main causes the milk got spilled. Tyrillia was wondering wether she should feel sorry or not. Turalyon at least appeared worried, and was vocal about his dissappointment in our party cohesion and general interparty skills.

To prevent any further grief, I smothered the conversation. I asked Turalyon to sign our contract, to put him on equal level with the rest of us regarding the mission from Restov. I also assumed Antoni's former duty as the mapmaker.

I am not proud of practically abandoning Antoni at this point, but I acted to prevent a possible party split. We have a mission in these lands, and the bandits will eventually muster enough courage to attack the trade post. So we cannot lose any time to search for Antoni. However I am concerned about the lack of humanity in our humans.

During the night newcomers had arrived to the tradingpost. A caravan of gnomes had spent the night there, and were busy making preparations while we argued. They left behind one of their number and a curious little creature, a kobold. Putting the argument behind me, and focusing on the tasks asked of us, I approached the kobold. I was curious if he (she/it?) was a member of the local tribe, for then he might help us reach a non-violent solution to the kobold problem. He wasn't sure of which tribe or where from he was. But he would be keen to seek the local tribe out, and it might be safer to travel with us while searching. So I recruited him.

We left the tradepost well before midday, heading to the temple of the Elk, with Jhod Kavken and Buckthorn (the Kobold) coming with us. We reached the site encountering and avoiding a bear on the way. Jhod was rather elated seeing his temple intact, and claimed he could feel Erastil's benevolence at the site.

We set out again, having slept really well at the temple. This time we explored the western parts of the forest. Western wood were rather quiet, a few rather large frogs tried to eat Turalyon at the hot springs and some lumberjack was crushed beneath logs.

A quick resupply at Oleg's, and off we went again. This time to the east. Before leaving Oleg's we heard that the Staglord is becoming more and more of a nuisance in the south, and this got Turalyon all flustered and wanting to go and kill the villain.

-Exploring the eastern plains we found a hut, occupied by an alchemist, who was completely bonkers. And afraid of kobolds. But willing to teach Turalyon some alchemy if the elf brought him a bucket, nay, two buckets full of fangberries. Last time we (Turalyon) had tried to pick those berries the thicket ran red with his blood, so I guess it'll take some time to fill those buckets.

Then we found a huge tree. Not recalling it was a nest of fairy magpies we almost rode past it. But eventually greed won (Buckthorn is showing some adventurer traits already) and we went to explore.

Eventually we triumphed, rescued a kobold from the mites and decided to have a small moment of introspection.

Here are some highlights of our military genius:

• An archer leads the charge
• The barbarian shuffling his weapons (was surprised he didn't start juggling them)
• An epic two-man shieldwall against a critter with enormous reach (us with no reach weapons)
• And the already mentioned flanking maneuver through unexplored mite nest.