We still doing the trials or assuming they went through them, passed, and are now working off as labourers around the fort?

I would still like to go through the trials personally

Sorry, but Lloyd's assessment of the party made him conclude that he would do better with the bandits...

In OOC thinking, I was all for an evil character, but once I found out a Paladin was in the mix, I did not really like the idea of the mixture: the Paladin's code makes it clear within the Core Rulebook that Paladins should only work with evil characters only as much as they need to. So This is sort of the best way to keep the party together without an amazing amount of headbutting and dark feelings.

Anyways, as Sib stated, I got a character in the works that will be better for the party as far as character is concerned. But some traveling will have to be done first; your going to have to find him... and by find him, I mean he will find you; as it is almost impossible to find him if he does not want to be found.

Alright, thinking we need to be off immediately, 'cause if Lloyd reaches the camp, he has all that handy info about our group to give to the bandits. o_o

Also, I'm assuming Ortlieb and Aria went and got Sylvia alright. Can do some back-posting to that effect, since we evidently need to be on the current events.

(And I'm pretty sure Ortlieb can heal us up, I just need to check his spells. EDIT: I have cure light wounds. >.> That doesn't seem like enough, but unless someone else has healing abilities?)

Oh, and did the escapees take horses? Are we down to three plus Claptrap?

After a quick scamper about, it turns out everyone is full health either by a curing magic from Ortlieb or Aria, or simple natural healing.

Also yeah, I meant to mention last night (I was tired, okay? XD) that Ortlieb and Aria found Sylvia up a tree again. Maybe did a little bonding along the way, as you see fit. She didn't run off too far (you know, there is actual wilderness out there. The wise don't face it alone and unprepared.)

What other loose ends did I leave undone?

I was originally expecting to have the trial later that day, but then the fight broke out and each side went their separate ways and I forgot all about the timing of the trial. Turning back to have a look, it makes sense to delay it until this morning--at least until we found that half had escaped and the other two had chosen to stay behind.

Now you can decide one of two things--have the trial now and let Happs, Lloyd, &co. get (more of) a headstart, or delay their judgement until after the traitors are tracked down.

Lloyd's box, if moved or shaken, gives off the sound of clattering metal, like chain mail or a lot of coins.

Also, I just wanted to point out that Happs' second Fire Flask was claimed by Lloyd before he skipped town, and he also bought both of Oleg's antitoxins.

Oh fantastic MORE exploding fire, and potential poisons, this should be inetresting.

Well, antitoxins are to fight against poison, so I guess that means he's at least a little protected from you. Granted, there could be another motive for his cunning theft (cleverly disguised as a lawful transaction, but we know it was theft because he's a bad guy).

Sylvia used lethal force before this. My understanding is that Happs is at a fairly low number in the negatives (I am thinking -8 was the number given, though I may be wrong on that). Just responding to Sylvia's resolution that she will now start fighting to kill.

It's arguable really. On one hand, if one's perspective is that the enemy is faltering, then maybe they would be able to stop the spell in time. Magic missile doesn't really shed blood, so you can't quite go by appearance. Then there's also that, unlike damage from blades, spells can't be set to nonlethal, so... *scratches head* A bit confusing to differentiate intent when it comes to spellcraft

I suppose you could put it this way: What did she do to Happs before that she's not going to do this time?

A: Stop after only two.

Oh, and besides that, I think pretty much everyone is in agreement about hunting down the bandit camp, hopefully taking down Lloyd along the way if you can make it far or fast enough. I just wanted to check if everyone who wanted to say something about this has (and give a chance for those with nothing to say to say 'carry on' out of character).

Oh, and if anyone wants to take turns bashing the chest lock with something, let me know. Alternately, you can just try to cut past the middle man and smash open the chest itself, but then you don't have a chest to play with. Btw, it's details are Small Chest, 25lbs empty (~30lbs current), 2 cubic feet of storage space.

She could have also hid closer to the group and pounced on one wrapping her legs around their waist to keep herself secure while she repeatedly injected copious amounts of poison into their bloodsteams, keeping their hands from grabbing weapons.

Alright, time to go back to the first page, have a look, and decide what to do. Having looked this stuff up, it seems Ortlieb is actually a good enough tracker simply to the penalty for moving at full speed and still manage to keep an eye out for their trail.

Oh, and the Forced March I mentioned earlier. Simply put, if you travel for more than 8 hours in one day, you have to push yourself to keep going by making a Constitution check that increases every extra hour. Failure means you take non-lethal damage and become fatigued (healing the damage removes fatigue) after that hour. Most of the party has a good chance for being able to make 2 hours until they're run down, unless they make an unlucky roll, and three is definitely possible. Longer is feasible, too, if those who succumb to the rigours are healed with a spell right away.

(Oh, and you can still push on if already fatigued, you can't run or charge, Str and Dex are at -2, and further failures result in exhaustion (larger penalties, halved movement). Both conditions are easily remedied by a good long rest.) All that's left for you to decide is how long you want to march each day. One final note, if you had mounts, they would be taking lethal damage for a forced march, so you generally only want to do this while on foot).

Sorry that I did not use a name, but I wanna keep it secret for a while longer... you can probably deduce a few things from this new character already just by the POV, but shhhh! keep it to yourself for now! >8D

Anyways, its getting exciting, and hope the new character will be better for the group. Sorry again about Lloyd... but you git to admit, it does make things a lot more interesting does it not?

I vote for forced march (unless we somehow happen to catch up with them before the 8 hours) simply because we won't have the movement penalty ('cause Ortlieb is good like that xD). And I think (so would Ortlieb) that 'twould be better if we made sure we caught up to them before they reached the camp, instead of just sorta hoping and guessing.

S'cool that Lloyd's a bastard. It's his character for one, and you are right, it provides some incentive to be off, rather than debating endlessly about how to approach the situation, which might have happened (again...) xD

(Also, I won't be posting until after 3 or 4 tomorrow probs, because of work (and I'm tired right now). No big deal, but if people are anxious to start chasing after people then we can probably just go ahead with my tracking them, if that's what people want (opposed to running in a general direction to cut them off)).