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Day one
The
side of the river is lined with little hills. They look quite
Hobbit like but are natural. They are formed by the river
floods and currents. Even though it is spring the ground is
covered with brown dried leaves from oaks, elms, and pines. You
cut between two of the hills carrying the pirogue between you.
The forest floor is tangled with ferns, vines, and holly but the
going is easy. After about two kilometers, and many breaks, you
come to the natural levee and the end of the flood plain. Both
of you move to the front and drag the pirogue up hill. The
ground here is fully dry. The fallen leaves crackle even more.
You are being followed by a pack of wolves.
They are trailing at a distance. You only notice them because
Lady Eva points them out to you. They are gray and gangly
looking. Even though you can only see two, Lady Eva says there
are eight of them. “When I was walking out of the swamp
these wolves followed me for the last three days. I think they
were waiting for me to collapse from hunger. I can’t
believe they are still here.”
This
is your chance to use an explosive gem, if you can get them all
together. They are animals and not monsters, so your gift of
making followers out of monsters will be of no use here. Lady
Eva is a naturalist who knows the area and animals well. She
insits that while they may not be monsters they are not natural
either. Natural wolves would only have a passing curiosity in
adults as healthy as you two. There is far too much game to be
had for them to bother. That, and why do they look so hungry
and lean? She suspects that they have acquired a taste for
human flesh and will continue to be a problem.
When you ask her how you can get them all together for one shot, she
suggests that you climb a tree. "Wolves and dogs can
become very brave when they think they have something trapped in a
tree." You leave the pirogue and move to a magnolia tree
with many low branches. Climbing the tree is very easy (3D vs.
DX if you bring your spear). After about an hour of being still
the entire pack comes sniffing around the base of the magnolia and
the pirogue. One of them rears up, puts his front paws on the
tree and looks up. It starts a terrible snarling that sets the
rest to a mad barking and yipping. They are now clustered
around the base and trying to jump up.
Lady Eva takes out an arrow and pricks her finger. She squeezes
out a single drop and it hits one of the wolves in the nose.
They go into a mad frenzy, clustering tightly, climbing over each
other, and generaly trying to climb the tree. "I thought
so." she says.