Uphill Battle

[Carthrat]

"I guess. No point taking any chances now," replies Tom, leading the freed-men onwards!

[Brian]

According to Phil's map, away from the hill is the grasslands to the....  Well, their directions are funny.  Their worlds (each of them) have two poles, one 'spinward' and one 'counter' or 'anti' spinward.  The Anabara gate is spinward from the hilltop.

Going straight there would be on the roads, which would take the group through a number of farming communities and small towns.  Trying to cut across the arc of road that connects the two gates would entail passing through the farming communities briefly.

Swinging wide and going around the arc of road/civilization(?) will take longer, but also not encounter any villages or garrisons, aside from the last garrison before the grasslands.  The choices are between speed and safety, but to be perfectly safe, it's going to require major detours.

And there's no guarantee of safety at the gate itself, either.

[Dracos]

"Mmm... I'm more for this route," Dracos gestured along the longer one, taking the safeway even if it involved going near a garrison. "If only to hopefully lose the questioners on our tail or, if not, not  deal with them in the middle of a village or some sort."

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"Then we're blind," replies Tom, frowning. "We need to try and keep an ear on news- we might hear about Bjorn or Hal, if we're all going to be doing great things.

"If we just cut across this arc here, we'll pass through civilised areas briefly, which might be enough time for you to have a quick meet'n'greet of the populance, find out if anything is going on."

[Dracos]

"Mmm...  If we're going to go that way, I wish we could set up some kind of ambush for our trackers.  Get them out of the way so we're not risking a fight in the middle of someone's town on it."

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"To be honest, I think we're outpacing them," replies Tom, thoughtfully. "I.. don't really know how we can easily set one up. But I don't think all of us will go into a town- I figured that honour might go mainly to you- you could take a couple of us with you and pass yourself off as an.. owner."

The last words comes out harshly, and Tom's fist starts to shake.

[Dracos]

"By a couple, you mean pretty much you.  Of course, even that's dangerous since it leaves them vulnerable, but who else would be quick witted enough if trouble actually occurred?  And yeah, I was thinking that there, but still... they caught up to us at the slave house far faster than I would've expected."

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"Well, actually, I would stay with the main group, and you'd have to direct those with you," replies Tom, sighing. "They're not stupid.. it's more like they're autistic. They're just not good at expressing themselves. I'm wondering if we could teach them to read."

[Dracos]

"Yeah, I'm not hugely comfortable with that, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  I really think we should stay here though and deal with our chasers now rather than later.  We can learn a lot from them and secure ourself from trouble later.  We can also take the time to gather supplies and try and rehabilitate Simmons and the others."

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"Alright," replies Tom, standing up and addressing the men once again.

"We're holing up here for a while," he states. "The.. churchmen are coming after us, and we're thinking of setting a-, well, we're thinking to ambush them in the forest.

"Most of us are going to have to stay around here, in hiding. But we'll need some people to serve as forward watchmen, and some people to forage for food and water in the meantime. Before we commit to this, I want to ask everyone what they know about the church, and what they can do."

[Brian]

Collectively, the freed thralls know very little about the church.  Except that all of them think that crossing the church is an easy way to get into trouble. What the church can do on the other hand, is obvious.

They control the gates.

Beyond that, the freed thralls aren't able to offer anything that Tom and Phil didn't already know.

[Dracos]

Dracos considered, drawing forth his tactical knowledge from the real world and began discussing with Tom and the group a plan of action to rid themselves of their Questioners.  Four would be alternating on keeping watch from atop the hill in pairs of two with the core job of letting Tom know when the Questiioners were within eyesight.  Four more were assigned to hunting duty, taking advantage of the natural forest and their own innate instincts to gather as much food as possible for the long haul.

The rest set about creating a fake camp with most of the non weapon stuff taken from the manor about halfway up the hill.  Then they set about building various traps, primarily taking advantage of the thick wood cover to place plentiful sharpened wood sticks positioned among the leafy bushes and firmly implanted into the ground to provide a dangerous surprise to someone walking through them unaware.

The plan as stood was to wait until they either saw them or heard their screams, hopefully luring them to the fake camp where they would be surrounded, the rest of the group leaping out  screaming from all directions as they entered.  Meanwhile, between the roaming hunters and the scouts  having the high ground in the area, they hoped to keep track if the circumstances demanded instant change.

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"We should plan a place for us all to easily meet up in case we all get seperated," adds Tom, scanning the map for a spot both distinctive and easy to reach- heading in one direction until they reach a road or the edge of the forest or some such, and then heading along it to some rendevous.

"And I don't plan to wait here too long. If they take more than a couple of days I say we pack up and leave; they've probably gone to get reinforcements more suited to handling a mob of ex-thralls. As far as luring them into the camp goes... we've got to be careful that *they* don't surround us, too. We should stick to the more dense areas of the forest- I'm pretty sure they'll favour us over them, and be ready to scatter if necessary."

He doesn't sound at all comfortable with this arrangement, and whenever he's instructing one of the other thralls on what to do, there's marked guilty edge to his tone.

"For the record, I kind of hope they don't come, y'know."

[Brian]

The map that Phil and Tom have found of their area doesn't enjoy many distinctive features that aren't also close to civilization -- and therefore, trouble.  The current position on a hilltop isn't terribly far from being centered on the Meridian (Anabara is spinwise, from here), though it's a few days travel edgeward.  The best location that can be discerned is a lake that's anti-spinwise, and further edgeward -- not far off the route that would swing wide to avoid most encounters.

The freed thralls do manage to perform the tasks of sharpening stakes, setting the traps Phil and Tom describe to them, and also locate a source of water.  Luck is also with the party; Twelve and Eighteen managed to bring in almost a dozen rabbits together, which will roast up quite tastily, given the prevalence of bread, cheese, and apples in the existing stores.

Everyone has time to enjoy a hearty meal, and then settles in for the wait -- which is not as long as anyone would have liked.  The freed thralls conceal themselves behind screens of brush and trees as much as they can -- the forest floor is a ruddy brown color which isn't too far from the reddish tint of their skins.

The first of the Questioners is following the party's trail slowly, bent low to examine the terrain.  Leaving a trail is almost unavoidable for a party of twenty men, so it's not terribly surprising.  Still, from behind his shrub Phil gets a chance to see the Questioner uniform.  It's pretty similar to Phil's own priestly vestments, save that the gate symbol on his robes is surrounded by a ring of bright red broken chain-links.

Directly behind him are two very tall men in full plate armor, each with a nice musket hanging across their backs, and swords at their sides.  The sounds of more men approaching from behind them carries -- though their numbers couldn't be determined, it's easy to say that there have to be at least ten of them, probably more if any are quiet.

Sounds indicate that there are horses somewhere in their group.

[Carthrat]

Hiding somewhere in the bushes, Tom reaches for the musket over his shoulder, trying to remember how the thing is supposed to work on the spot.

OOC: Inspecting the rifle and grabbing my +1 OCV all ranged~