Penny's Dungeons and Dragons: New Frontiers

[Penny]

Chastity shivered as the woman whispered into her ear, but despite her excitement, took care to pay attention to her words. She turned and looked over her shoulder as the woman stepped away, her eyes widening when she disappeared behind the tree. Instinctively, she was tempted to circle the tree, looking for her, but she knew it would be pointless.

Now alone, she finally had a moment to fully comprehend what she'd learned, what she'd been given, and what she'd committed herself to. She swayed on her feet for a moment, her breath shuddering. The enormity and uncertainty of what lay before her felt insurmountable. Before the fear and doubt could take control, she dropped to her knees, put her hands together, bowed her head, and prayed.

"O, Helm, watch over me," she whispered. "The path before me is beset on all sides by violence and wickedness. I beg that You shield me in my mission. And..."

She took a deep breath and released it slowly. "My Lady...I beg you quell the fear and frailty in my heart. Bless me with the strength and courage to deliver the innocent from evil's clutch. Amen."

Chastity opened her eyes. Her fear wasn't gone, but it felt manageable now. What would come, would come; she didn't know how or if she'd deal with it, but what was important was she had faith. She stood, adjusted the backpack on her shoulders, and stepped into the forest.

---

The Gods - for Chastity was convinced both Helm and the Lady watched over her - were truly great, guiding and protecting her on the way back to the slaver's camp, and she whispered thanks to both when she arrived. Now for the hard work, though. Chastity was cautious at first, peeking into the camp from within the trees, but it was obvious it had been abandoned. Soon she entered the camp itself, retracing her steps against her better judgment to the point where she had laid when the attack occurred...and the place where she had been violated.

The feelings as she stood in that place were difficult for her to understand. Unpleasant, but also something else. She considered lying down to immerse herself in the memories, explore them deeply, even as it hurt her to do so. But she didn't have time - if she let herself start, she could lose hours trying to understand. Instead, she looked around, trying to decide where to start looking. Though she knew little of the wilds or tracking, she figured trying to find tracks in the camp itself was futile - surely, the slavers had been walking back and forth for hours before the attack. Better she turn her eyes to the camp's perimeter, try to find evidence of large numbers of people leaving at once. Surely, a group that large must have left something.

Mechanics

Survival check to track: 7, barely enough for a general direction!

Investigation check: 17, much better.

I also updated Chastity's character sheet to reflect her class change!

 

[Rising Of The Moon]

Unsurprisingly, Chastity's sheltered life had given her little need or indeed opportunitiy to learn about reading tracks, and the numerous tracks that covered the former campsite did not make things easy. But as far as she could tell, there were two sets of tracks leading way from the campsite. One led northwest, away from the coast and deeper inland. The other led almost straight due south.
Spending some time following each trail and investigating them and the site gave her a rough idea as to what likely had happened. The slavers had kidnapped Chastity and her fellow nuns and then made off towards the west. She remembered them switching directions several times during the day, to make things harder on any pursuer, but they had always made distance from the coast, until they settled down to camp.

The attack in the night had come from the south. She knew the slavers didn't have any horses, and would recall hearing the sound of hooves during the attack. There were plenty of hoof prints all over the campsite, but they were curiously small, more like what you'd find from a donkey or pony, not from a full-grown warhorse. The hoof prints followed the north-westerly trail for a hundred yards, before turning around and leaving that trail as only footprints.

Judging from what had to be several large splatters of dried blood, it appeared that the attackers had caught the slavers by surprise and left them in momentary disarray, thus enabling Chastity's escape in the chaos, but the slavers had rallied quickly and fought a fighting retreat that had convinced the attackers to fall back and be content with whatever spoils they had forced the slavers to leave behind in their camp.
The slavers had then continued northwest, and the attackers had retraced their way south.

Of course, it was impossible to tell if either or both of her fellow nuns were with the slavers, or had been freed - or merely stolen by - the attackers. Or even if they were still alive, seeing how someone, likely the attackers, had taken away any wounded or dead with them.

 

[Penny]

Chastity knew nothing of tracking, so she had to puzzle it out as best she could. She'd swept the floors and tended the grounds of the convents where she'd lived, so she tried to draw upon that experience in finding where a mess started and ended. It wasn't much, but she didn't have much.

The hoof prints confused her at first, to the extent that she suspected they must be something else. Then she remembered the slaver boss mentioning centaurs. How large are centaurs? She'd never seen a centaur before. She'd always assumed they were huge, a human stacked on top of a full-sized workhorse, but no one had ever told her that. Perhaps they were donkey- or pony-sized.

They like blondes, she thought, turning to look south. He'd been talking about another nun, the one that had been in the garden with her. The one whose capture had been Chastity's fault.

It only provided a clue to the location of one of her sisters, and even then, a very poor one. The attackers might not even have been centaurs. Still, it was her best guess. Whispering another prayer, she started following the tracks south.