Well aware that investigation and observation are not particularly strong suits for her, Emrael will stay back with the bulk of the party while the stealthy and observant take a closer look. She will keep an eye out for threats, though.
Perception
8 doesn't get Emmy much; she sees a massive ruined castle; nothing too interesting.
Dok sees signs of skirmish. Footplay of hand to hand combat evident.
He finds an old human knucklebone; a piece of tarnished armor decades old.
And he sees recent signs of skirmish; human sized fighters; he also sees something massive, and the footprints don't seem like any kind of animal he knows; more like just massive....poles, or something; where the foot treads should be; stilts, but big around, maybe a foot across, that's what the footprints seem like.
Recent, last couple of days to two weeks, is what it looks like.
And,.....he finds tracks shaped like crows, but.....these are big crows. Five foot tall crows, it seems.
Then,.......he finds a skeleton, human; decades old, wearing light oriental armor of some type; like a lamellar leather and steel breastplate with thigh guards.
Beldan pokes about outside the walls too, especially around the ramp
AF 25. Beldan finds on the northern wall, little tiny holes about 2 inches in diameter, which have little copper tubes lining them. He's out of the.......whatever, blast radius, target radius; he also sees cryptic geometric carvings on the wall, which would essentially represent a magical component to....whatever heinous machination is there.
Beldan finds another dead body; although it is a skeleton, decades old, and a cause of death is undescernable. It's in the right place to have died from the tubes in the wall there. It's in the right place to have fallen victim to those nasty tiny murderholes, maybe 5 or maybe 10 years ago.
He also sees that the ramp is cobblestone, and there's evidence of someone or something coming and going. Human sized, and larger. Much larger. The same "big stilt holes" are there.
I marked it as "TR" on the map, the location of the "murder holes."
Elgan casts Barkskin on himself, his naturally tanned skin turning the texture of his skin when in treeform.
"Hm. Seemz kinda-quiet lahk. Mebbe ah'll jes' take a lil' luuk aroun'." He says, casually shimmering into the shape of a hawk, and taking wing.
He flies first around the castle, at a medium height. Then circles in closer and takes a single sweep directly over it,...
He sees most of the courtyards overgrown and tangled; a bone or a skeleton here and there where it fell so many decades ago.
The place looks pretty sedate, but he sees a figure appear at k21. Short (SMALL sized), he only sees it very quickly; looks like a kid in a grey poncho and grey pajama pants. Kid's bald.
Elgan also notices, the big black square that I've now identified as the main keep,....the top floor has a sloped roof over it, but it is pretty much open aired under this roof, like a covered battlement; there are of course massive wooden pillars that hold the massive roof up.
And, amongst these pillars, he also sees the odd enclosed area, and scaffolding here and there, and he thinks he can see something else under this roofed battlement; maybe some big heaps of old equipment or something, tarnished from disuse. Maybe siege equipment?.....
“There’s a trap here ... looks like it might go off if anyone goes up that ramp. I can try to disarm it, though it might be tough, it appears to have a magical component ... or we can try the back way in.”
"Got rope?"
"Sure."
Beldan fishes a tightly coiled and tied length of lightweight rope out of his pack and tosses it to Dok.
Elgan flies back to the rest of the group and lands, shifting into elf-form as he touches the ground lightly.
"Dere's sumwun home. Ah saw wun et leas'." He says with what might be a touch of excitement. He swiftly describes what he saw from his flyby about the structure and the pile of, something, under the large roof.
"If'n dey's trapped deh doah, day mus' not be 'ceptin' visitors?" he asks.
“There’s a trap here ... looks like it might go off if anyone goes up that ramp. I can try to disarm it, though it might be tough, it appears to have a magical component ... or we can try the back way in.”
Heh heh heh.....
Elgan flies back to the rest of the group and lands, shifting into elf-form as he touches the ground lightly.
"Dere's sumwun home. Ah saw wun et leas'." He says with what might be a touch of excitement. He swiftly describes what he saw from his flyby about the structure and the pile of, something, under the large roof.
"If'n dey's trapped deh doah, day mus' not be 'ceptin' visitors?" he asks.
You could ask?.....;)
I'll be intermittent next few hours; daughter's birthday....
Huzzah!
“The trap’s been there for a while, judging by this poor guy,” Beldan says, indicating the yellowing skeleton.
“But ... why would this way in be trapped and not the other ... unless I missed something, or ... ah well, better the devil you know ...”
Beldan takes out his tools, lays them on the ground, takes another look at the trap and begins working to try to disarm it.
Beldan's able to jimmy the tubes out of the rock, after blocking the geometric patterns with a bit of copper wire; 1372 exp per each player for defeating the trap; the way seems clear now.
Dok looks thoroughly impressed at Beldan's expertise. "Well done."
Beldan shrugs modestly. “It’s a gift,” he says. “Shall we?” he adds, indicating the ramp.
It's steeply graded; probably for defensive purposes, and cobblestoned.
Dok climbs the ramp to see what he can see of the courtyard.
Stealth:
Perception:
Elgan shimmers into the shape of a small hunting cat, and leaps nimbly onto Claw's broad armored shoulder. He perches there, waiting,...
Rholf sees a cobblestone courtyard which is overgrown with scrubby foliage; untended for a good long time. Here and there, a fallen skeleton in decades old armor lies where it fell decades ago. There's quite a few by the crest of the ramp; apparently there was heavy fighting as invaders breached a massive wooden door, which no longer bars entrance to this place.
To his right, Dok sees a 6 man battering ram with a dude's head in bronze; the dude has a real long nose which formed the business end of the ram.
Then, across the courtyard, he sees the "KID" that elgan saw; in looks like gray karate gi looking clothes with sandals; the "KID" is walking purposefully towards Dok's position.
I reckon Dok's at the crest of the ramp; square "AB 5" (I've made this map 1 square equals 10 feet as such four medium dudes could go in one square if they wished); where's everybody else?....
Dok is at AE 16. The "Kid" is at U 17.
Everybody else is behind Dok;.....to the east of AE 16 I reckon.
(Haven't totally fleshed everything out; the walls/buildings around the courtyard are pretty much positioned.
You can refer to either map if you need to teleport somewhere or whatever. This is kinda a big space I reckon).
Dok stands up, holds his hands out (palms up), and backs down the ramp slowly. "Child comes this way." is all he says.
The "Kid" advances to the top of the crest. Looks down at you lot.
Just stands there.
Satari moves silently behind Dok, looking over his shoulder to see this 'child'. He looks calm but cautious. "This figure may not be as it seems," he warns, perhaps unnecessarily.
He seems disoriented, somewhat out of it. He smiles, but the smile feels wrong some how. Creepy.
He lifts up a hand, and waves feebly.
Dok looks at Colu to see how she is reacting to the boy, guessing he already knows.
The hair's up on Colu's back. Colu doesn't like it one bit.
Dok says, in the Orc tongue, "This bad..."
Emrael slowly moves toward Dok and Satari-san, trying not to alarm the child. Her katana remains in its sheathe.
He doesn't seem alarmed.
He waves again.
"Do you have any food?"
"I have a little rice. I am sure we can find more if you are hungry. Are you lost?"
"nnnnnnooooooo,"
he says.
He approaches, slowly walking down the cobblestone ramp.
Perception dc 15:
and now, you all hear a cacophony of voices, saying "food? is there food? where? where? hungry.....so hungry!" in a crowd of babbling. The voices come from all about, as if in the very walls.
Perception:
Dok quick-draws his falchion while saying, in common, "Stop!"
He stops, about halfway down the ramp.
He frowns, sadly.
The voices all gasp, as if in unison.
"Ah, I see. You don't like rice, and neither do your friends. Rice is very nutritious, you know."
"I like rice......your oni yells at me, though, Sir, and bares his steel.....I don't wish to offend..."
I've expanded out the eastern portion of the map a little, and placed everybody where I think they may be; please feel free to adjust as you like.
"What do you think he is?" Altai mutters to Dok in Orcish. "I'm not familiar with your ghosts and demons. Even a passing glance reveals that he's probably not human."
He switches back to Common as he casts a spell. "Hold it for a moment, everybody. Just one moment..."
See invisible lets you see in the walls there's about 20 of them; small, dressed in grey karate gis. You don't see into the wall, just parts of about 20 or so beings looking out, sticking a head and part of their body out of the wall here and there. There could be more of the little things, blocked by the wall because they're inside there, too deep for the spell to penetrate......
"Ghosts! Wow. There are so many of them..." Altai turns back to the little kid. "What's your name? And where are the oni you mentioned?"
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"TOZu. My name is TOZu." he points at Dok; "he's not an oni?"
"AW nah, Dat's Jes' Dok." Elgan drawls helpfully.
"Ghos's? Whar? Ah don' see nun,..."