Sorry for the wait on this one. Snowstorm knocked out our power, not to mention I had to spend a lot of the past couple days shoveling.
The other house is decorated in a much larger number of cuts across its face, especially around the doorway. The door, conversely, is pristine and tightly shut. From outside the house you can see furniture and supplies pushed up against the windows, presumably as barricades of some sort. The coppery smell of blood covers the area, though the outside looks relatively clean. A soft creaking noise emanates from inside, though the source is unclear.
Kalathas lifted the crossbow to his shoulder again, prepared to aim it at anything that seemd threatening, but stepped forward slowly, giving the house in front of him a cursory glance.
"Hmm... blood, barricades, and... something that starts with a 'b' that means mischief." Dieter peeks through a few windows to try to see inside. "I think some investigation is in order. Shall we try the rear of the house?"
Sorry, had a bit of a surprise 'vacation' from the internet. Carrier 's building got damaged by the second bit of snow or something. I hope some of you folks are still checking the thread. I guess I'll find out sometime soon.
The smell grows stronger as you approach the back door. The rear entrance is unblocked and open, swinging back and forth slowly in the breeze. A horrid scent of decay and blood billows forth from the building, strong enough to gag anyone with a sense of smell nearby.
Fort save (DC12) or nauseated while in the building or near the back door
When the door opens, you can catch a glimpse a large amount of dried blood pooled about the center of the main room. Above the gore hangs a well-dressed corpse, seemingly in festival wear and dead from the noose around its neck. The poor soul used to be an older human boy, perhaps in his late teens. Across from him you see words carved into the furniture used as a barricade, the markings similar to those on the outer stone walls.
The message is curiously capitalized, and reads "ToNIghT Is youR TuRN".
Hagrym takes a step back at the scene of carnage before him. The murdered corpse in front of him was not much more than a boy. To kill such a child showed true evil.
"What do you make of that message? Do the capital letters mean anything to you," he asks his compatriots.
Kalathas looks over the body with an eye appreciative of the work, then turns back to the other mystery at hand. He turns his head one way, then another as he attempts to make sense of the cryptic puzzle.
The curious message seems to be crude with a crude tool, you imagine it might be difficult to get the precision to get curves easily. It's quite possible that the capital letters are merely a way to simplify the 'writing'. From the state of the corpse and the blood, you'd say whatever happened here occurred perhaps a week or so past. It's entirely possible the message was left before or after the corpse, though.
Ossitha is generally in favor of burial, except in the cases of those killers who were truly horrendous.
You do notice that the blood appears to only have one set of footprints inside the pool of it. If this is a sign that all this was put together or if only one person hung the lad is unclear.
Also of interest, he the rope the boy is hanged by is not actually tied to the rafters, but wrapped about them with the end under one of the heavier pieces of furniture. The noose around his neck is also quite crude, and looks as though whoever tied it was somewhat new to the concept of knots.
"Hold on, look at this," the monk pointed out to the others, "Notice only one set of footprints here." He points to the pool of blood. "And look at the rope. Not even tied off, just wrapped around the furniture. This was clearly not done by a professional. Nevertheless, with Fel Maroth's blessing, we will right this act."
He grabs an end of the rope and begins to lower the corpse to the ground.
Where is Dieter, might you ask? Being inundated with work from his internship site. Bleh! Sorry for the delay.
"I believe we should search the rest of the building. I would prefer to burn the body, if we can gather some cordwood for a pyre. It would be much less time-consuming than digging a hole. Let us be cautious and continue into the house."
You probably are if the game is still going on. I usually give a pbp 7 days for a response before giving up on it entirely, and if I can't post for that long, I generally let people know ahead of time. It's PBP, not live gaming.... *shrug*.
You probably are if the game is still going on. I usually give a pbp 7 days for a response before giving up on it entirely, and if I can't post for that long, I generally let people know ahead of time. It's PBP, not live gaming.... *shrug*.
Ok sounds good. And pretend i didn't post for your 7 day window, he he
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