Jacen frowns at the prospect of having to drill for 17 hours back at camp to make up for this performance.
___
"You can't last forever!"
"Evidement, this putrescence does not think so."
Armand's command of language starts to dissolve as his temper rises.
Yuriel moves around to strike while leaving a space open for one of his fellow combatants to step up. He jabs at the noble in irritation, driving his spear home into its chest. The now dead noble, to stay this time, slumps over the end of Yuriel's spear before he withdraws his weapon to let the body drop to the ruined floor in a rumpled heap.
"Good work, Boss!" Booj declares as he discreetly tucks his garrote back under his rags.
"Bien. Now we search them and seek to know why they have occurred here, no?"
Armand shows no signs of wishing to do so himself.
"Booj, mon frere, where have you placed Levechem?"
"This slave hasn't seen him, Boss," Booj replies amiably, if unnecessarily.
Then, with some doubt, "This slave can start searching . . . These things can't feel as bad as they taste."
No one has seen or heard from Levechem since he flew off to scout with Booj.
Looking around the debris of building scrap and the rotting limbs there is obvious old arms and armor. The three soldiers were each using chain mail, light shields and long swords. The six rotting corpses had moldy leather. The noble was wearing leather and a helm. Each of the undead has a coin purse.
In the back room can be seen three dead bodies, which look to be freshly dead. It's possible these were the three that you followed here.
"This slave can start searching . . . These things can't feel as bad as they taste."
"You were biting them?" Yuriel looks shocked.
Booj looks abashed. But not too much so to rifle through the coin purses.
Between the eight undead there is a total of 100 gp, and two onyx.
Unless otherwise directed, Booj proceeds to check the bodies which have only died once.
"Go ahead, Booj. The three deceased are our only lead to the missing plans."
"I now regret releasing Levechem as a scout. Should we meet again, it will go hard for him if he has proved dishonourable. He has forfieted our protection."
Armand frets slightly.
"Indeed, Booj. Commence the search."
Booj goes over the bodies of the three newly dead. They are dressed in rough, dirty clothing. Underneath, though, they all wear cloth badges with a bear on it. Badges of Legio Ursidaes.
They also have a blood-stained letter.
"Donovan,
You and the men will meet me at the old guard post we had agreed upon. When you have the reports, go there and use the signal. I will arrive and you will get the reward you deserve for your service.
Signed, Giovanni"
"Well, it seems clear that their reward was as they deserved, if not as they wished. Armand, does the name Giovanni mean anything to you?"
Armand shrugs. "I am not sure."
In his typical and churlish manner, Roedd mumbles to no one in particular...
"I wonder of the peacock has enough sense to look for anything that may have given life to the dead or perhaps controlled them enough to keep them here? There has to be something here amongst the rubble and spoils."
For once, Jacen and the High Protectors can both agree that undead are an abomination of the natural laws.
"This might not be the work of a novice necromancer," he reckons as he studies the former-noble zombie from two steps away.
Jacen notices what appears to be an expended ritual trigger in the room of the three victims. It resembles some workings associated with the negative energy, or a planar connection to the world of shadow.
The name Giovanni is not so rare that it could be associated to any one person by that alone. All of you may have come across someone by that name just in your time with the forces. The odd thing, however, is that no one can remember seeing any Legio Ursidaes within the allied forces.
DM:
Is this intentional house-ruling? It's the 3.5 way, but 4E baseline is 5 minutes of fiddling identifies anything. Your game, your call, of coures, but want to check.
"The perfidious undead is unknown to me, I think, but the Bears had no part in our forces. Some treachery is at work here."
Armand allows himself to contemplate the helm of the re-deceased noble.
The helm is old and in a minor state of disrepair, but other than that, Armand can only really tell the fact that it is obviously magic.
"It is old. It is magical. More, I cannot say."
Seljak is going to contemplate his numerous errors this battle, trying to figure out where he went wrong.
Meanwhile, is anyone still injured or need medical aid?
Other than that, Seljak awaits orders from his superior....
"Peut-etre there may be tracks? I am not skilled with nature, but these canaille did not move with grace."
Meanwhile, is anyone still injured or need medical aid?
"Brith Un... I could use your help, that I may live one more day. Though it confuses my eyes to see you standing yet."
"Peacock! Settle your feathers... I will find our path as soon as the grizzled-one sees to my wounds."
Xollest surge of endurance swells Booj's small frame.
Booj looks at Seljak in awe. "Thanks, Boss!" he cries as he flexes the previously wounded areas.
As the group relaxes enough to catch their breath, tend their wounds and investigate the area, Roedd discovers tracks. They appear to be from one heavy, four-legged, hoofed creature, most likely a horse. The trail of hoofprints lead further off into the forest, still following toward the river's origin in the mountains to the northwest.
Jacen directs the team to follow the set of tracks going further into the forest.
Booj cheerfully complies.
Armand follows along, being careful to stay close to those better able to notice the trail and impending danger than himself.
Seljak will take up a forward position as he follows the tracker.
With half a day behind you, and energy revitalized from the rest, you all gear up and make to follow the tracks that Roedd has discovered. The path is easy enough to follow at first, the soft ground and the speed at which the rider travelled made deep divets in the earth. After an hour of trailing the rider's path the signs diminish as the undergrowth and rocky terrain both become more prevalent. It is not long until the trail becomes almost too hard to find, the forest's depths and the encroaching dusk hiding the signs. Without a stronger trail to follow, judging the path taken by the rider will be difficult. There must be some way to continue to effectively follow your quarry?
Booj scrambles over the rocks with a monkey's agility, looking for new vantages from which to help the more perceptive trackers spot sign.
Yuriel seeks the natural paths through the undergrowth, the easy passages between rocks, that will unconsciously guide the horse and rider. These are the places for Roedd and others to search most carefully for signs of passage.
"Check over here, beside this outcrop."
Using the points that Yuriel has pointed out, Seljak takes extra time attempting to find spore in these areas.
Roedd checks for unnatural positioning of rocks (those that may have been disturbed by passing),missing lichen patches that ought to be present on rocks, and the lack of wild life (to include bugs) whose absence may be due to recent intruders.
Nature:
EDIT: Whoops, didn't realize that Yuriel already made a nature check. Not sure if that precludes me from doing the same. Your post does not make clear if everyone get's to make a check, or one per skill, etc...
Armand concentrates on keeping away from any possible tracks so that he does not obscure the area for those with better skills.
He succeeds beyond his wildest dreams, displaying a quite uncanny abilty to not be in the way.