A Battle That Got Pretty

Erannar guided Farwind to the ground, and directed him to drop the figurine. Farwind became small again, and on taking the figurine, became large again. Starq than put the statue in his own mouth, and though he felt light of heart, not much else happened. He then gave it to his raven familiar Varen, who became 30 ft. tall and wanted to keep it. It was shiny.

After pondering the disappearing stranger once more, the group moved forward. Ahead of them, the unicorn tracks disappeared and reappeared in the soft mud of a cave in the bank of the stream across from them.

Dreneil hacked a fallen tree from its few remaining roots, and the group dragged the tree to the edge of the bank. Dreneil summoned a hummingbird, which grasped the figurine in its tiny beak, and then hovered over the stream to position the log. Erannar waltzed down the makeshift bridge; Dreneil followed him and recovered the silver statue and dismissed the hummingbird. All made it across until Starlight, Dreneil's cougar, fell in and got stuck on the lower opposite bank. Starq tied a rope around himself, and rightly so, for he too fell in and Dreneil had to haul him up. With the help of a rope, Starlight made it up too.

Now inside the smooth earthen tunnel, the party continued to follow the unicorn tracks. They came to a wider place with the remains of a camp, and several vertical shafts; after discovering nothing but darkness down the holes, they continued on. Again they came to a break in the path, with another ill-smelling vertical hole, and a break to the sunlight above. Following the unicorn, they reemerged into the forest.

Ahead they heard orcish voices, orcs singing a marching song. Starq ran up and hailed them, but they did not understand. Erannar spoke to them in orcish, and after little conversation, the orcs decided to attack. Starq, however, intimidated them with his potential magical powers, and the orcs decided to continue hunting their previous quarry.

Soon, all of them came to a clearing by another stream, where the orcs were making ready to attack a group of goblins, who seemed to be having a face-off with some fish-folk. Acting quickly, the group started to negotiate with the goblins through Dreneil, and managed to keep the group of orcs cowed by the giant eagle. Starq had limited success speaking a few words of draconic to one of the locathah, so Dreneil tried to press the goblins for more information. They poked her with a javelin when she tried to explain their plan to everyone else, however.

The goblins returned the sealskin pack to the locathah, claiming that they hadn't stolen it, it had just appeared in their midst. The party was reminded of the mysterious stranger from the day before.

Erannar managed to make the orcs leave off hunting the goblins - who'd run off from their city, they said - by giving them each three pieces of gold. With the orcs gone, the goblins explained they were trying to found their own city, a better city than the one they'd come from with the orcs, and that they were looking for the powerful Pearl of the Sirines, held by the late Leader of the Forest, on Mt. Heatwing.

From what Starq could gather, the locathah were also heading toward Mt. Heatwing.

So, they all decided that for the time being, the best plan was to travel together.

Experience:

Creative spell use (Starq): 50
Crossing the log: 300
Navigating the tunnel: 100
The battle that didn't happen: 500