When you arrive at the scene of Kadlian's ambush, you find that it is a mild but overcast day. It is almost calm. Nevertheless, the air is thick and hazy with smoke, thanks to Jerrold's fire elemental. The forest itself is surprisingly intact. In a natural ecosystem, fires rage through a forest every so often, burning away the underbrush and deadwood before it accumilates to the point where it can provide sufficuent fuel to set the crowns of the trees afire and kill them. That is what you see here: the low growing bushes and ground cover, plus the deadwood are cinders, now. The trunks of the trees are scorched, but their upper branches are mostly untouched. Small fires continue to burn and smoulder here and there, and probably will continue to do so until the next rain arrives.
The fire was largely contained to the valley that you are currently in. It runs east-west for some miles, narrowing and climbing to the west. All about the valley are high mountains, capped with snow, their slopes covered in thick coniferous forest. In places on the mountainsides, you occasionally see fires burning.
Looking about the immediate area, you see no sign of the snare that caught Kadlian. There is no sign of his equipment, either. Looking for tracks, the rangers are unsuccessful again. The fire has obliterated all traces of the hobgoblins.
"Damn. Hlarn, find my sword with your magic, please."
Giving a little feel to Rage's chest with a wing, Jerry swoops up and scans the area in eagle form, flying high and wide to get a good look of the area.
Kadlian, surprised that he came, turns to Zanax. "Might I borrow your frostbrand? I did not grab a sword from our stores. At least, I thought to put on my extra suit of armor before Rage shrunk me like that."
He looks at Rage quickly, "Not that I am complaining or anything, it was just unexpected."
Rage looks at Kadlian.
"It could be made permanent," she says with a grin.
Kadlian grins back. "Thanks, sweetie, but no thanks."
Jerry flies back after his search and lands in front of the party. He changes back to human form and says, "All of the hobgoblin camps that seem to be gone. The entire area is torched. There are many charred corpses through the trees."
He intones in front of a healthy tree, "Great Silvanus, allow your servant speak to plants," as he casts speak with plants. "Great tree, I apologize for the damage, but the blight of the hobgoblins seemed dire indeed, did the fire kill them all or did they escape elsewhere?"
"Like, uhhh, I saw lots of them runnin' around, man, to get away from the flames," replies the tree. "You might want t'ask another tree near their camps."
Kadlian looks to see what type of tree it is.
It looks like a fir tree.
Sasha chuckles and whispers softly so the tree can not hear her. "I don't know why I always thought trees were a bit more articulate ... you know .. wise and somber ... "
"Fine," Jerry hoofs it closer to a camp, staff out, wary for any attacks.
You all walk for about a half an hour, until you come to the site of one of the camps. Even after the fire, the signs of hobgoblin habitation are obvious. There are also a lot of burnt corpses about, too.
Once you arrive, he restates what he said to the first tree.
"Yeah, they were running around everywhere," says the next tree that Jerrold asks. "Lots were killed, but some got away, I think."
"Dumb as dirt," Jerry mutters to himself, "can you tell me what direction they went in and were there others than just hobgoblins?" he asks.
"They scattered in all directions, like. There was this big thing made of fire, chasin' them everywhere. It was quite a panic."
The tree laughs.
Kadlian tries again. "Hlarn, please locate my sword. You did say you would memorize that spell, correct? Sasha, I do not suppose you memorized a locate object spell?"
"Uh ... no, I"m sorry Kadlian, I did not." Sasha replies.
Hlarn nods. "If its close enough... But first let's try something else."
First he goes to the biggest corpse he can find, for as we all know, size does matter. He then cast speak with the dead.
"Will you please give me specific directions to wherever it was you were travelling?"
"Not travelling," says the voice from the beyond.
"What sort of place is this location?"
No answer.
"What is the names of your leaders at your base and who are they?"
"Grunknak and Bob. They're dead."
Hlarn then casts locate object to determine if the flame tongue still remains anywhere in the area, although it was problably taken by the survivors unless they dropped everything to run.
He picks up nothing within spell range.
Kailar scrys for Kadlian's flame tongue and then his frost brand.
Looking for the flame tongue, he sees a rather scorched hobgoblin sleeping in a forest glade.
Seeking the frost brand, he sees another, much less scorched hobgoblin moving hurriedly through a coniferous forest.
Kailar does not recognise either locale.
"Well what now?" the gnome asks.
Hlarn casts another speak with dead spell on another body (also as large a corpse as he can find).
"In as detailed directions as possible, where is your home and please give me specific instructions on how to get there."
"Home is mountains of the Mountain Dwarves, now ruled by us. Big whoppin' cave west of Trader Nest. Overlooks Western road. Dragon hall in mountains behind us."
"In as detailed directions as possible, if you had been separated from the group, which way would you travel to get back home?"
"Go west to head of this valley. Go through pass and northwest to river. Follow river out of mountains and into hills. Stay in hills above West Valley and go west. Watch out for road out of Trader Nest going into dwarf-lands. Stay in hills until you see blazed trail to Hobhome."
"In as detailed directions as possible, which way would you travel to go to a place of safety if you had been separated from your group of hobgoblins?"
"Bob said we regroup at head of this valley."
Hlarn looks at Kadlian. "You're the ranger... I suggest we go to the edges of the burn zones and look for tracks out of here. Whoever left probably did so in a hurry. We know from what direction the hobgoblins came from attacking Petras and company. Let's start on the opposite side and see if we find anything. But if we don't in a day, we'll have to wait until our scrying can determine a good location to teleport to."
"Kailar, can you zoom out on both of those hobgoblins and try to get a view from above? If you can do that and project that image, maybe Jerry can get us a fix on where that is."
The image fades when the gnome tries to do so.
"Hlarn, we will head out and start looking along the edges. We will form two teams. Sian, Hlarn, Agulhas, Kailar in one and Zanax, Rage, Sasha and I in the other. We will leave Jerry to fly between the two to relate messages and relative positions."
You part company and head west, Sian and company staying on the southern slopes of the mountain, Kadlian's party staying on the northern.
All day you slowly make your way through the devastated area, seeking for signs of the hobgoblins. All you find are a few more charred corpses.
Finally, as evening comes on, you stop to ponder your options. Jerrold, who has been flying about, tells you that the others are about five miles to the north of you.
The fires definitely have not done the damage around here that they did further east. Ahead of you lie intact woodlands.
Jerrold returns from Kadlian's group and tells you that Kadlian and the others have stopped for the night. Rage has teleported back to the Black Keep in order to memorise more spells. She will return in the morning.
Kadlian would like Hlarn to try his locate object spell again.
"I think we should continue on. I can track a lot better on the ground that isn't burnt. But I can't be sure that I will get the right hobgoblin. There are a lot of tracks," says Sian "On the other hand we could follow the directions that the one gave us and get the other frost brand back at least."
"Yes, we should probably try beating the hobgobs to their home and lay an ambush for them. We'll never catch up to them if we have to go just by tracking. We now know the way."
"Jerry tell Kadlian that we are going to head for the meeting place that the dead hob told us about."
Jerrold takes off.