Sigmar cursed under his breath as he parried away a thrown spear. Two dozens goblins rushed out of their cover and toward the party. Now grinning to himself he rolled off his horse and immediately recoiled back as he deflect a sword swing. He jumped back once, evading a club swing regained his stance as he asses his current situation. Surrounded by 4 goblins.

He held his body low, feet apart, right feet slid forward 90° forward and his left feet would be 45° to the left . His torso crunch up very much like a boxer and in his right arm held his shield landscape style like a gauntlet . His hands would be very boxer-like. His Left fist held very close to his face, on the knuckle barely touching his cheek while right fist were slightly away, waist level.

This was his offensive stance he normally to engage in combat with his shield alone

He grinned, this was chance for him to see how rusty he had become.

All four of the goblin charged towards him. Sigmar took off to combat immediately. He raised his right feet and leg up till his knee touch his chest, bending his other knee too before all of them spring up, causing Sigmar to lunge forward with a straight kick. This kick would lunch one of the goblin away.

He swung his shield to his right side, parring goblin C however he was forced on his left knee as a small blade cut into his calf

"bloody hell!"

Currently there's three Goblin, two on his left while the one he just parried stood on his to right. He quickly ducked under a club swing from Goblin B and took his left fist, back handing one of the goblin's knee causing it to bend inward sickly before grabbing it's head and slammed it's head down on the ground, using his orcish strength to crush its skull.

Once again he parried another sword swung before bending his left knee further, causing his left arm to slack down, evading a sword stab before he regain the original position of his left knee, firmly placing his shoulder under the green fiend's armpit

With a cocky grin he grabbed the sword wrist and using it's and his shoulder a pivot he dislocated the goblin D shoulder blade. It screech as it went down and bit down on Sigmar's shoulder

Gritting his teeth he pushed himself off his right feet and allow himself to fall on his back to the left, slamming the goblin into the ground, knocking the wind out of Goblin D.

Quickly he rolled off the goblin and scrambled on his feet just in time to block a one-two combo from Goblin C and Goblin A he had kicked earlier. However the force had caused him to stumble back and into a tree

He chuckled to himself musing to himself "Talk about rusty" before he realized
"Oh wait i have a team"

Scanning his vision he spotted only Aldrich and Miri. Where the other two? He'll figure out somehow later

Now he was cornered by two goblins with his back against the tree. One of the goblin, Goblin A took a step foward, swinging his sword in an overhand motion. Sigmar took this opportunity. He too step forward and swung his shield diagonally to deflect the sword and send goblin A flying into Goblin D . He then zipped past the two and run straight towards Aldrich who was charging towards a group of goblin nearing Miri with a orchish growl he barreled into the group , sending 3 of the small goblins flying

He shift his grip on his shield portrait style, the normal way of holding a shield and began his defense, providing dynamic defense for Miri and Aldrich

"Um sorry was a bit busy"

Aldrich was quite surprised as the massive warrior crashed through the goblins he was pursuing, but he quickly recovered. As he cut down the 4th and final goblin of the small group he turned to Sigmar to thank him. "Thanks, I was starting to tire, there is only so much energy in my body. As he said this his left arm went limp and he glanced down, "I only have a few more minutes I would say, then you'll have a sleeping swordsman fighting on your side. Hope you have a plan!"
As he finished his sentence he dodged a sword strike from one of the goblins and rushed in close to headbutt it. As the goblin reeled away from the pain another got a small jab into the back of Aldrich's calf, causing him to fall to one knee. Aldrich then rolled to end up back behind Sigmar, safe but unable to stand.
"Up to you now."

Wren took Kayden's hand, letting him help her back to her feet. "Tha..." she tried, still recovering the breath that had been knocked out of her chest. She took another steadying breath. Her back was sure to be tight and sore later from the fall, but it seemed overall he was correct and she wasn't seriously injured. "Thank you, Kayden," she managed this time with a shaky smile. "That was a bit too close."

She nodded to his offer. Unless they managed to recover her horse, she may not have much choice but to walk or double up with someone. "Are the others ok?"

--

"Dulcena knows how to pick 'em," Fleta whispered quietly from their vantage point. Luckily, she and Axton had been trailing far enough behind the group that they had not been caught up in the ambush and instead were able to watch the scene unfold from a safe distance.

There were a few goblins still attempting to get at the half-orc, the blue woman, and one of the human men, encouraged by the blood drawn on their intended victims, but the tide of battle had definitely turned in favor of the defenders.

"Gonna be tough to nab one for questioning unless we can catch one alone," Axton replied, matching Fleta's quiet tone, but not taking his eyes off the party.

Fleta cringed. Lord Raullin had ordered no such thing. Their orders were simply to report back to Raullin what Dulcena's newly acquired "help" was up to. But Axton often took matters into his own hands. Gris could keep him in line well enough, but chances of him heeding Fleta's warnings were slim. Still, she had to try. "That may not be necessary. Let's just see where they're going first."

Axton shrugged, unwilling to promise her anything.

@POOHEAD189@ProfessorLambo@pandapolio@Pumpkinbot

Mission: Blackmarsh

Bergoda elbowed Rolf lightly in the side while while Zarwin expertly distracted one of their guests and leaned in close. "Try and get why they wereon the run out of the little one." Se whispered to him, before walking up behind Gris.

"Can't just go tellin' ya things like that." She said all friendly like, smashing her way into the conversation with all the grace of a runaway boulder. "Someone real important went through a lot of trouble to hire us on. We can't just give away details of an exclusive contract like this." She then pointedly looked over at the quiet elf, and mumbled under her breath just loud enough for him to hear, "At least, not around those that might be listenin'." She jerked her head conspiratorially toward the bow of the ship and walked that way.

"Catching alligators," Rolf answered, latching on to the captain's discrete excuse. "Most of the stuff that'll eat ya stays in the water, so long's we stay in the boat, we have an understanding. The trick," he leaned forward conspiratorially, "Is to convince the gators to come up here. They'll still try to eat ya, but the old man swings a mean oar," he mimed swinging something over head head in a downward strike. "Makes a mean gator jerky, too, which is the whole point."

The journey passed surprisingly amicably, for two groups who each didn't want the other to know what they were up to. Bergoda sailed almost as much as the old man, to his begrudging pleasure. Rolf got sucked into gambling on dice throws with Otho and Jacob. He let himself lose his boots, but then coaxed the bone dice into giving him some lovely sixes, and won them back along with a good handful of silver before the other two men quit. Zarwin played lookout, still more cool to the newcomers than Rolf or Bergoda, but nowhere near the feral malice that was radiating from the Elf woman. She stayed at the bow, practically growling at the old man if he admonished her for being in the way, arms crossed and glaring daggers at the gambling ring that sprang up on deck.

In a few hours time, they approached a veritable wall of greenery that their river fed right into. On the east bank of the river was a series of buildings on stilts above the soft earth.

Kayden gave her a half bow, half nod from her thanks. "No problem. We are a team after all." He told her matter-of-fact. He meant it too. He might be a flirt often enough, but that didn't mean Kayden didn't value the lives and welfare of his teammates. He wouldn't have made a good mercenary captain if he was lacking in that area.

Kayden mounted his horse, and then hoisted her up with him, allowing her room to hold onto him before he set off and turned the horse around. "They were doing fine last I saw," Kayden told her, glancing back. "The Goblin's seemed close to running off. They'll do that if they don't have a boss around, and their quarry puts up any kind of a real fight."

Kayden trotted back to the group with Wren, running another Goblin over for good measure and seeing the other diminutive green creatures fleeing into the forest. "Who here is wounded? Anyone unfit to walk?" He asked them, his voice a tad louder in volume to get their attentions.
@pandapolio@ProfessorLambo@Pumpkinbot@Kelewen

Mission: Blackmarsh

Gris sighed inwardly as the little town of Blackrest came into view. Though outpost on the fringe of civilization might be a more appropriate description for the group of dilapidated structures ahead. Perhaps he'd learned a little of the motives behind going into the Blackmarsh, though not nearly enough paint a clear picture. And he was already figuring out how they were going to procure means to follow the group discreetly.

"Much obliged, folks," he said when the fisherman docked the Wavehalk long enough for the pair to climb out. "Good luck hunting your alligators. Looks like the weather might take a turn for the worse," he warned and pointed to some heavy clouds forming in the distance.

"Now what, Gris...?" one might just catch the quieter "Jacob" saying as the pair turned away and the small craft was pushed away from the dock.

Mission: The Boy

Wren accepted Kayden's aid to get upon the horse, still hurting from the rough fall. As he glanced back toward the others, Wren was struck again by the fact that he looked familiar to her. She promised herself that she would ask him if he'd been to Taldene. Later, of course, when there was time to talk.

For now, she hung on tight as Kayden steered the horse back toward their companions, grateful that he'd come for her as quickly as he had.

Miri had let the magical shield fall, grateful to finally have a few moments to recover her strength and shook her head at Kayden's question. Though some of her companions were bloodied and scraped to varying degrees, it seemed that with the help of the remaining horses, everyone could move. "Maybe let's press ahead a bit to safer ground before stopping to patch ourselves up, lest the creatures return when our guard is down."

Aldrich struggled to sit up, more from exhaustion than anything else. "I think I'll just need a bit of help to get on my horse, then I'll be fine." Once he was up he immediately grabbed a cloth that was hanging at his belt and started to clean his sword. The magnificent blade began to shine again the the blood and dirt was wiped off of it.
"Nice to see no one died in our first battle. Maybe we have a future as a team. Now what I want to know is why the goblins wanted to capture one of us. From what I know of goblins, they usually aren't the planning types, so someone must have put them up to this. I don't know what kinds of enemies you people have, but if its one of mine we are in some serious trouble. But I believe that is not the case, because they did not specify, so someone wants to know what we are doing."
Aldrich sincerely hoped he was wrong, because being chased isn't very fun. He would know.

With Aldrich fell directly behind him he went full sentinel mode, masterfully parrying the blows from the remaining goblins. Despite the Giant shield to redirected the blows or at least try to. It did results in several cuts due to stray swings. To be honest he's just doing this for practice. The technique was still there. He wordlessly assured himself as one of his parry grab which essentially is just violently parrying the swung weapon before trapping the forearm of the opponent between his own forearm and shield.

However despite his technique his physical conditions were not up to par, barely dodging the blade of one of the goblins

Soon they all retreat, causing him to drop the shield and collapse beside Aldrich breathing heavily

Sigmar began laughing out loud as Kayden approached the group. "Oh my saving the damsel already" he joked seeing Wren behind the Kayden no longer caring about his previous distaste for the human

Turning his head to Miri he regarded her with a toothy grin,showing his tusks

"sorry Priest lady I feel like crashing now"

He lie on the forest floor as he close his eyes and try to listen what the team would discuss as try to rest

Mission: The Boy

Wren pondered Aldrich's comments about the goblins for a few moments while she still hung on to Kayden. "It could have just been to keep one of us for eating later," she said uncertainly, shuddering as she thought about that being her fate if Kayden hadn't come to her aid.

"Think they'll come back?" she asked, glancing toward the tree line where the remaining goblins had retreated. With both Sigmar and Aldrich needing time to recover, the group seemed vulnerable if the goblins were organized enough to take advantage of it.

"Maybe," said Miri. She needed some time to recover before she could bring her own magic to bear again, but since two of the warriors were on the ground anyway, she got to work the old fashioned way. She pulled some bandages from the saddle bags and bound the worst of their wounds to staunch the bleeding on Sigmar and Aldrich. "Drink," she ordered, pointing to their flasks.

--

The goblins did not reappear.

"Could just hit 'em now," Axton suggested as they looked down on the party from their vantage point. "Half of 'em are on the ground anyway."

"Not yet," Fleta countered, hoping to rein in her partner a bit longer. "Not until we know where they're going."

Kayden handled the horse expertly, keeping it at bay as the group discussed among themselves. He counted everyone to make sure they were all accounted for as he handled the reins. "Good," he murmured in acknowledgement, before raising an eyebrow at Sigmar's comment. Kayden gave a laugh. "Wren's not a distressed damsel. If she was, she wouldn't be in the group." He told him. Still, he couldn't argue it felt nice her holding him like this, but now wasn't the time for those kinds of thoughts. Even in relative leisure time.

"Wren is right as well. They probably just wanted to take prisoners to..." He didn't let that thought finish. He glanced back at her, and gave a wink. "But we handled them, eh?" His voice was softer, and after a moment he said. "I'll dismount now and help you down. The horse is still a bit spooked, but as long as I have the reins he will not run anywhere, you have my word."

Gingerly, he slipped out of Wren's arms for a moment and stepped down, before offering her his hand as he held the horse's reins in the other, the beast calmed, though fidgety. "I think as long as we keep a good watch and stay away from short bushes, we'll be alright." He told the others. "Someone want to get a fire going for a second?"
@Kelewen@ProfessorLambo@pandapolio @Pumpkinbot

Mission: Blackmarsh

As the Wavehalk approached the Blackmarsh, the smell of fetid water, mixed with the occasional burst of fragrance from flowering plants, replaced the brisk, fresh air from earlier. The fisherman slowed the pace to barely a crawl as the water became shallower and more difficult to navigate. A cool mist grew steadily thicker, obscuring the way forward. Not far away something splashed in the water at the approach of the boat.

Soon enough, the captain stopped the craft completely as it's bottom was beginning to scrape the muck. "Can't get ya in no further. You'll have to go a foot from here..." he said apologetically. But as he looked into the forbidding mists, he was glad enough that he wasn't accompanying them.

"Best of luck to ya. I'll wait for ya here."