The Kingsroad; 598

[Fel]

Ashurgi Saboa is amongst the king's party, having been recommended to the king by Prince Maekar as an excellent tracker.

[Sam]

Lord Steffon notices the Summer Islander who arrived with the King, and went to speak with him. "I've been told you're something of a tracker, Master..." he let the question hang, waiting for the man to supply his name.

[Fel]

He nodded. "My name is Ashurgi... Ashurgi Saboa. If this boar is in this wood, I will find him for you."

[Sam]

"Aye, he is here, somewhere," Steffon replied. He gestured to the tracks near the wallowing pool, that were old but still indicated a boar of massive size, heading southeast into the Kingswood.

[Fel]

Ashurgi dismounts and checks the tracks, trying to estimate how old they are.

((Tracking roll, Noteworthy))

[The Stranger]

Ashurgi ascertains that they are indeed fairly old, and indeed heading Southeast. They are also definetely large boar tracks, deep set into the ground, not piglet tracks. Other than this, he's unsure.

[Fel]

"I can not see much more here than is obvious to all," Ashurgi said.

[Sam]

"Then we follow them. Hopefully the dogs will pick up a scent before we make camp for the night," Steffon replied. He could see the sun was almost directly overhead, so they had a good seven hours of daylight left but deep in the forest darkness would seem to come more quickly each night.

[The Stranger]

The first night falls, and Steffon is forced to give the order to set up camp, having moved deep into the Kingswood, without so much a one curly pig's tail to show for the effort.

[Sam]

He sent a few men out to find some small game, rabbits or fowl or the like, enough for the men to eat while they were camped. Steffon gave the order to rise on the morrow and resume the hunt for Hogzilla, though smaller animals should be caught if any were found, for it looked like this could be a long hunt.

[The Stranger]

Night falls. All is darkness and silence, except for the natural sounds of the forest. Suddenly, there is a horrible rustling noise, a loud squeal, and than something plows through Steffon's tent. It passes so close to Steffon's head that He can feel the spiney stiff hairs on its back, before it tears through the other side of the tent, and darts back into the brush.

"Milord, are you alright?" cries one of the guardsman, "A great beast just ran out of the forest. It tore through the camp like a boulder fired from a trebauchet, and then out the otherside!"

[Sam]

Steffon awoke with a start, snatching his sword and scrambling to his feet. Cries were going up around the camp, and torches were being lit for light, since the large campfire had begun to die down. "Saboa!" Steffon bellowed, calling for the Summer Islander. He finally escaped from the ruins of his tent, and snatched a torch from a nearby guard, and attempted to determine the direction the beast had run off in, as well as to see if it left tracks.

[Fel]

Ashurgi ran over to where the Steffon had called for him.

[Sam]

"It just ran through our camp, this boar of ours. Let's find it and kill it, we've torches enough to see," he said, sheathing his sword and taking up a long hunting spear. The haft was 8 feet long, with a foot of steel at its head, shaped like a leaf with several razor sharp barbed edges, ensuring that it would do more damage coming out than going in.

Not all of the storm knights who'd chosen to join the hunt had awoken, though most of them had while the king's section of the camp had barely noticed the commotion.

[Fel]

Ashurgi examined the tracks, trying to get an idea of where the boar had gone.

((Tracking roll))