-----Jeilin watches Lovan with a smile and almost loses her grip on the crossbow she is loading. Frowning, she returns her attention to the task.
-----"Unpredictable," the priestess mumbles to no one in particular, as if reciting from some book, "And yet, predictable."
-----The party quickly falls into order as Sol suggested, and Garrison begins leading them carefully through the thicket. For the first few yards, movement is difficult for those in armor, which proves to be everyone from Jeilin in her studded leather to Sol in his full plate armor! Strands of weeds seem to pull at the protective garments while any exposed clothing picks up small burrs or occasionally snags on unyielding briars.
-----“These accursed brambles!” Lovan shouts as he stumbles into Sol from behind. “Shhh!” Garrison responds as the woodsman halts momentarily to look back at the others. Dilton emits a grunt as he is almost hurtled to the ground from the underbrush. Though she doesn’t stumble, Jeilin finds that she is slowed by the collection of thin dead branches, briars and weeds that seem to be at her feet and sides.
-----Finally, Garrison leads them to a spot where the offending vegetation thins out and the woodsman points to the ground. There, he shows them a section of ground, with perhaps a radius of twenty feet, where the weeds have been trampled and the soft dirt underneath reveals many small footprints. Looking up toward the east, the hill that conceals the village the adventurers had just left is clearly seen.
-----“This is the spot where I thought I saw movement when we were there in the village,” Garrison explains.
-----Lovan grunts as he looks at the ground. The Storm Priest seems confused by the flurry of marks in the dirt. “How did you figure the number of goblins from these tracks?” he grumbles. “They’re everywhere.”
-----Garrison smiles in return and simply says, “Just from some of the skills I learned in the wild.”
-----A few moments later, Garrison continues to lead them through the rough in a northerly direction. “Hope we ain’ a’pickin’ up ticks on us,” Dilton mutters. Suddenly, Garrison holds up his hand to signal everyone to stop. The woodsman then carefully strides forward, inspecting the ground.
-----He then points out a series of thin vines strung out between strong bushes, but positioned low to the ground in the way of the path the adventurers were following. The purpose of the vines seemed to be placed in order to trip whoever came this way.
-----Sol signals for Garrison to continue slowly, and the armoured warrior himself steps over the trip vines with exaggerated care. There was a time when Sol would have been enjoying himself, but quite frankly he was nothing short of irritated. The effort to plow through this overgrown vegetation in his own personal oven was frustrating and highly uncomfortably.
-----The price one paid to keep one's body in one piece...
-----"Wait," Jeilin whispers. "Let's see what these vines do." Looking genuinely interested, the priestess observes with an academic eye the tensions of the vines, then traces them left and right to find the mechanisms on each end. After that, she carefully goes around on each side to see how someone tripping from either direction would fall, and into what, if anything.
-----Sol eyes the priestess dubiously, but says nothing, instead keeping an eye on the surrounding thickets..
-----After scurrying around the vines for a bit, Jeilin comes back to the group. "Hmm," she says with a quizzical look. "Do you see? These six vines are all lined up so that if you trip and fall, your head will hit the next vine. Unless of course it's the last vine where you'll fall into that stiff bush over there. Someone made this on purpose so it's meant to signal or trigger something, or," she adds with a shrug of her small shoulders, "no... "
-----The Astral Priestess then looks again at the bushes and lightly taps her foot in vexation.
-----"Well," she finally says after a long moment. "This could all just be a display of primitive goblin art. The second century Imperial surveyor Coriani did mention something similar in his accounts, I believe." She looks entirely unconvinced at her own words, however, even as she speaks them. "Sorry to keep everyone waiting."
-----Sol straightens up, and intones solemnly to the group, "I believe it's important that we all take a moment t'appreciate th' artistic side o' our enemies." Several heartbeats pass before the Gorian grins and nods to the group to move out again. "Whether art, or a bunch o' traps, take care heading through here. Make sure o' yer footing a'fore ye put weight int' yer step too, in case yer introduced to a lovingly crafted pit wi' pointy stakes. After you, Garrison."
-----Garrison smiles and adds, “Goblin traps are pretty primitive and these goblins were probably in a hurry, especially if it was close to sunrise.” A frown then crosses his face as he ponders. He then says quietly, “If they were, I wonder why they were in a rush to put these here?”