Survival

Game Master J4RH34D

There are only bones left of meals in the pots. Dirt has been blown into the houses and plants are taking root in some corners. You would say anywhere from a month to 6

"Why aren't you interested?" Jester asks Wolf. "I like the things they build. Like my box."

"Because they're boring. There's no chasing involved in looking at their burrows." Wolf says. "But we can look inside. Maybe there's something to eat there."

"But maybe there is something in to chase out?" Jester suggests.

"Alright, little dragon. Let's go have a look inside then," Wolf grins, taken by the young one's enthousiasm. He trots up towards the front door, trying to peek inside every time the door creaks open a bit.

The interior is dark and little can be seen as they approach.

As the door creaks open Jester charges in and lets out a loud "Roaaaaaaarrrr" Because nothing gets chased out by just looking.

Wolf readies himself to grab anything other than Jester running out.

A stained glass window can be seen on the far side of the church, behind an altar stands a few steps above the floor of the rest of the church.
It is a simple square room with a few rooms off to the sides.

As jester stampedes in, his roar echoes back at him but nothing stirs in the church.

His eyes adjust as light streams in behind him, through the doors he threw open. The pews of the church are splintered and broken. The doors to the adjoining rooms hang broken.

The light from the stained glass window is tinted. Beautiful colours reach Jester as he stands in the doorway; blues, yellows, greens and others. As they look further down the aisle the colour drains from the light. It transitions into a red that one would see looking through a glass of wine.

Jester looks up at the window and can see crimson hand prints, a few above the rest until they become an indistinguishable mass of dry blood. The floor, pews, broken doors... every surface stands stained and caked with crimson.
Deep scratches adorn the inside of all the doors.

Jester looks around and takes in the destruction. He slowly backs out of the church again. "Something already jumped in and hunted everything down." he tells keeping his eyes on the room. All of the courage suddenly gone from the small dragon.

Wolf pads in after Jester, just about crossing his path as Jester backs out the door. He takes a look around the church as well.
"Someone had fun in here. We should show Lamb." He seemss eager rather than scared.

Jester looks at Wolf with suspicion. He likes his fun more clean. Sure if you hunt something and kill it there will be blood. But wanton destruction and such a gory mess? That's for sure not Jester's cup of tea.

Wolf trots out of the building again. "Come, little Dragon, let's find Lamb." He starts walking back, and barks her name occassionally.

Lambs walks out of a building she's been checking at Wolf's calls, holding a bow that has obviously seen better days, and asks, "What's the matter, dear Wolf?"

"We found something interesting" Wolf answers. "Didn't we, little Dragon?"

"No. We found something scary." Jester replies and runs to hind behind Lamb.

"Can you show me where, little Jester? I'm sure we can make it less scary for you."

"It's there in that building." Jester tells and points to the church.

Lamb moves up to the door, pushes it open slightly, and uses her darkvision to look inside the gloom.
"This could be a little disconcerting, yes." she says, but her face remains rather calm and expressionless.

She then smiles at Wolf. "It's almost if some form of us has been here before."

While Lamb sticks her head into the building Jester sneaks away into the next building and hides in a closet.

Stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (16) + 9 = 25

Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (20) + 4 = 24
Wolf notices Jester is gone all of a sudden. "I think the dragon learned to fly, Lamb. He's gone off."

"You don't think he's been hurt or taken by whatever did this, do you?" Lamb asks concernedly.

"No. He would've yelped at least." He sniffs the air. "I'm hungry. I haven't seen anything to chase or eat here."

Lamb laughs, a chiming sounds. "Perhaps you'll have to eat one of little Jester's salted fish after all, then. I've put the crate and his box in that first house the two of you barged in. Let's get some food in your belly and then make the place a bit secure." She starts walking back, reciting a poem as she does so.

Jester hears Lamb laughing. Oh, no my fish. But he decides that Wolf better eats the fish than him.

"The weft and weave guides our people to their..." as her voice trails off.

Arriving at the house, she starts preparing it. Closing any windows or shutters that can still be closed, making sure the floor to any doors is nice and free to walk, and looks for some strings and jars, cans, coins and porcelain to make warning traps from.

Wolf pads after Lamb. He looks around every once in a while to see if he spots Jester, because he has grown quite attached to the little fellow.
Arriving at the house, he noses the lid off the crate, picks out a single fish, and starts eating it with obvious protest.
"I'm eating this under protest. It's just that my stomach protests harder."

She finds numerous jars, and a few tins.
There is an upstairs to this building as well.

As it gets silent and hears Wolf and Lamb leave he sneaks out again. He looks carefully around that no one is there. Then he takes all his courage and crosses the road again to sneak into the church. Hopefully who ever did this is no longer there.

He ducks and sneaks along the wall to the doors to look into the neighbouring rooms to see if anyone might have survived this and hide somewhere.
Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (7) + 5 = 12

There are no people in any of the rooms, the only hint that people have been in the church is the blood that stains the floors of even the side rooms

Lamb puts all the gathered bits on a table, closes the crate of fish, gets another pail of water from the well (because Wolf is probably thirsty now), and ponders whether or not to set Jester's box outside as an invitation to come there.

As there is nothing of interest in the rooms he searches for the stairs to get to the highest point of the building to get an overview of the village.

Wolf decides to check the upstairs, see how the windows there are, and if there's anything to chase. He moves quietly in case there's any prey to sneak up on.
stealth: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26

There is no prey for wolf, and no windows on the upper floor. However there is a stairway to the roof.

In the church Jester finds a a stairway, up to the top of the bell tower, in a side room.

Wolf decides to continue to move up, and check out the roof.

Standing on the roof wolf gains a better view of town

Jester runs up the stairs to reach the top. Then he carefully looks out the openings besides the bells trying not to be seen.
Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20
Stealth: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

Jester can see Wolf standing on the roof, and can see the whole town from his position in the tower. However besides Wolf he see's nothing peculiar.

Jester is disheartened. Everyone who took care of him sunk with the ship. Even though some of them he won't miss for sure. And now he sits on this island with no people at all. And somewhere here is some horror that killed all these people on the island.

And the only two other survivors from the shipwreck could as well be as bad as this horror. Jester really wants to crawl in his box, close the lid and never come back out. But now he not even has his box any more.

Lamb first decides to place Jester's box outside the building, just by the door. She figured if Jester didn't know where they were, then this would be a pretty good signifier!

She then focuses on channeling power through herself.

"Spirit, come to my aid. I have need of you."

Lamb casts unseen servant and instructs it to start creating ways to alarm the new occupants if anyone else tries to come in - placing tins right behind windows and tying them to the shutters, for example.

While the unseen servant gets to work, she starts using Mending on the bow.
restoring hitpoints to bow: 1d4 ⇒ 1
restoring hitpoints to bow: 1d4 ⇒ 4
restoring hitpoints to bow: 1d4 ⇒ 4

With each casting of the spell the wood dewarps slightly further and the string frays a little less. After a while the bow is as good as new.

This drives Jester crazy. The box placed in plain sight. And no way to get there unseen. And even if he waits until it's dark it wont help. In the distance maybe but not in front of the door. And how should he get the box away without making a lot of noise? This is cruel! And what will he do once the night comes? Maybe this horror that made this bloody mess comes in the night?

As Jester can watch over the whole town and even beyond from that position he lies down at the wall with his head lying so he can look out in direction of the house with his box. But still in the shadow. With turning his head a little he can also look out of two other of the four windows. And there he waits.

Wolf trots down again before the unseen servant 'traps' the roof door entry. "Lamb. The dragon is gone a long time. Were we not taking care of it?" he asks of his other half.

Lamb thinks on this for a while. "We can go once this house is secured, or the helpful spirit will leave. I can't call it back again today."

"But I'm bored." Wolf complains

"You can go and look for him already. But don't stray too far, or you'll feel unwell. You know this." Lamb warns.
She then adds "If you come across some arrows in the meanwhile, let me know, ok?"

Wolf lets our a short growl, more of a woflish 'hmpf'. Then he moves out the door and starts searching the nearby dwellings for the missing dragon.

Jester tenses as he sees wolf coming out of the house and searching buildings. He retreats a bit further behind the wall his gaze locked on wolf.

As wolf finishes searching the nearby buildings, he lies down next to Jester's box, and lays his head inside, waiting for Lamb to finish doing her boring stuff.