The Kingsroad; 598

[Sam]

Steffon and his men fan out and move forward, watching the tall grass carefully for any indication that something was moving at its base. Each is mounted and wielding his boar-spear and the kennelmaster releases his three dogs into the tall grass, to flush out anything that might be hiding.

[The Stranger]

The dogs howl and bark as soon as they are brought into play. They dive into the muddy waters of the bank. The grass begins to shake, there is more howling, then the sounds of whimpering, and one dog emerges, whimpering badly, crawling its way out of the bank on its remaining two front legs.

[Sam]

Steffon swears, and dismounts, followed by the knights with him. They begin to make their way through the tall grass slowly, using their spears to push it aside, and one man carried a machete, making short precise chops to clear their view slightly. The tracker was beside Steffon as the made their way cautiously forward, always looking for signs of their quarry.

[The Stranger]

The knight chopping at the grass with his sword groans as he steps forward, and his feet sink down into the muck all the way to his upper thigh. He struggles to free himself, and continues to sink.

"Help!" He cries.

[Sam]

Steffon waves over his two squires, who'd been standing with the horses, shouting for them to get the coil of rope from his saddlebags. It was not long, only fifteen feet, but long enough to serve this purpose. Two of his knights grabbed hold of the rope and tossed the other end to the man who was stuck in the mud, and when he had a secure grip they began to pull him out. Steffon and the Summer Islander kept an eye around them for any movement in the grass, still trying to find what had killed the dogs.

[The Stranger]

There was rustling off to Steffon's left. It sounded to be perhaps thirty feet away.

[Sam]

Once the knight had been pulled out of the mud, Steffon and his men started moving slowly toward where the rustling had come from, the foremost man testing the ground with the butt of his spear, so he would not get stuck like the other knight had.

[Fel]

Ashurgi approaches a few steps behind, his bow drawn with an arrow pointing at the rustling.

[The Stranger]

By the time the man is fully extracted from the mud, the rustling has stopped. They move through the area, but do not find anything. Ashugri points to an area of distrubed water, where the dirty has made the creek's water brown. He believes that the boar headed up stream, then crossed the creek while they were rescuing the man.

[Sam]

The party remounts, and begins to move after the boar, their horses making odd sucking sounds as they crossed the mud and water. Steffon watches the Summer Islander, to see if he can pick up the trail on the other side of the stream.

[Fel]

Ashurgi follows the stream, trying to find a point where the boar came out of the creek.

[The Stranger]

Ashugri finds it. The boar is close. The opposite side of the creek is almost all high dense grasses, with trees in long shady rows. The Boar is well hidden here.

[Sam]

Steffon checks the sun to see how many more hours of daylight they have left, and then slowly urges his horse forward on the opposite bank, followed by his men, their spears held out before them.

[Fel]

Ashurgi steps back, allowing the men to move into the grass, and knocks back an arrow in case it runs out past them.

[Sam]

Steffon charges toward where the boar is hiding, his men close on his heels.

[Novice Lance/Spear]