You hear the door open suddenly behind you and half turn around (I assumed you were on the south side of the bed, looking north, having headed straight to it, to begin your search) to look back and find Davkul coming into the room.
Given the circumstance that you have been caught in the act of going through a dead man's pockets with no forewarning that anyone was about to walk through that door, I have taken the liberty of suggesting to Davkul that you might have a slightly guilty look on your face. If you could keep an initial response brief please, or wait for Davkul to post first? You can address spoiler tags to both myself and Davkul again, for now.
With a sigh, Davkulshuts the door behind him and leans against it for a moment. "How you got here first, I am not sure, but I am almost glad that you did." Jerking his head towards the body on the bed he asks, "Any idea how or why yet?"
spinning around in fright to see who came in the door, “Oh crap!”
Then pointing to the body “I nearly joined him, you scared a century’s life out of me. In answer to your question, I’m pretty sure it was poison, 'dark reaver powder’. As for who he really is, well I was trying to find some identification when you came sneaking in. Why don't you lock the door, then try casting detect magic around the room to see if there’s something the assassin missed ”
An inspection of the door shows it to have the expensive (but common to Mrs. Prestwick's boarding house) dwarven 'rolling bolt' mechanism set into the wood, whereby it can be 'bolted' by sliding a screw set into the bolt on this side, but also be opened/closed from the other side by anyone with a fitting key. You can certainly bolt shut the door from this side, although it is likely anyone with an appropriate key will be able to gain access from the other side. (Presumably the staff keep keys additional to the ones which they hand out to guests. Davkul can certainly secure the room against accidental intrusions by sliding the bolt, however.) Time: approximately 08:55, 30th Nightal, 1383 DR Carry on talking to one another, etc, for now, and I'll supply updates as/when necessary. At present I'm looking to you to give details of what you're doing or looking for, with ability or skill checks as appropriate.
As you head past the mercenaries, trying to gve them a wide berth, some of them notice you, and glance in your direction. (Random percentile chance (1d100=85) ) The seated man in fact calls out to you:
"Be careful, travellers. There were reports of strange happenings in this part of town yesterday, and of dangerous beetles that may have chased down and eaten at least one gnome or halfling before vanishing here- perhaps burrowing into the ground at the feet of the trees."
Nim and Bronx arrive at the edge of the forest. The snow looks maybe only a few inches shallower beneath the trees, here on the edge, than it does in town, and any traces of your passage of last night have been thoroughly obliterated. Occasional flakes continue to drift from the grey clouds overhead.
If you want to proceed with this, Bronx, then please make an unmodified Search check (to determine how generally effective you are at picking up any clues that may remain as to where you went before last night's snowfall) and a Survival check (to try to navigate where there are no clues, based on a half-remembered sense of direction). Nim is completely out of his depth here, and could maybe take ten to give you +2 'aid another' bonus on the Survival check.
Seebo casts Detect Magic around the room looking for anything magical still in the room and for residual effects, to shed light on what may have occurred.
You cast your spell and scan the room intently but your detect magic is not showing up any auras on anything except any items which you and Davkul are already carrying and know about. If there were any spells in use here recently, it seems that they weren't powerful enough for their traces to have lingered until you arrived. (I did take a random percentile, Random percentile chance. (1d100=29), just in case there might have been something lingering, outside of what I thought of as having happened, but nothing was indicated.)
Seebo starts making any preparations for the over the body and saying what prayers he can for a human. A prayer to Garl Glittergold, for guidance of the spirit, for guidance as to how best to proceed with the investigation and a polite 'watch your back' to Garl himself as Seebo feels that there is something stirring.
Davkul sees Seebo cast a detect magic check the room, sigh in disappointment, and then begin to conduct religious observances for the deceased fellow lying in the bed (the presumed Mr. Pophilov).
Longreach/Davkul: Are you having difficulty posting at present?
Casting his own detect magic, Davkul looks around the room, meanwhile beginning to search for evidence of some kind as to who the Pophilov man might have been, or even better, who killed him.
Whilst Seebo is busy with the body of the deceased, Davkul noses around the room, trying to think of any places which other searchers may have missed, or clues which they might have left as to their identities and motivations. In the fireplace, amongst the glowing embers, Davkul identifies what look like the remains of what might once have been sheets of paper- possibly pages from some sort of book or journal- although so blackened as to be illegible (if once they contained writing) and fragile that they crumble to fragments as he rakes the embers with the fire-irons. The bedside jug (which I should have mentioned is glass, for what that's worth) contains a transparent liquid from which a faint scent of lemon rises.... Mrs. Prestwick sometimes supplies jugs of water 'with a drop of lemon juice in, to keep it fresh' for guests who have dry throats at night. There seems to be a faint trace of the same liquid at the bottom of the accompanying glass, which is smeary with the marks of having been handled by someone (probably with sweaty hands) since the staff member put it out. (With Mrs. Prestwick's obsession for 'good housekeeping' it would be a major reprimand for a staff member to put out a glass with marks from handling like that on it.)
Davkul:
Spoiler:
On the writing desk you find a bottle of black ink with the label of a Waterdeep company, of a sort suitable for stopping up for travel. It is three quarters empty, and another one (full and unopened) sits next to it. The papers on the floor, crumpled to a certain extent- probably as a result of what appears to have been the general ransacking of this room- all look to be receipts acknowledging payments of one kind or another. You recognise the crests of several Waterdhavian businesses and families on some of them, and a couple of businesses based in Silverymoon on another two. Your best guess is that if these are Pophilov's papers, he may have been collecting them as proof of expenditures which he had made, and that he may have travelled (going by the dates on them) from Waterdeep by much the same route overland as you took, albeit at a somewhat more relaxed pace than your own flight if the dates are anything to go by. Whoever ransacked the place apparently had no interest in these papers, anyway.
The clothes, from the variety of quality and 'upkeep' (state of repair, cleanliness, etc) convey the impression of an owner who required a wardrobe able to 'blend in' in a nondescript fashion in a variety of situations.
The heels of all the boots seem to have been stabbed with a small pointed implement, by the way, as if to check for hidden compartments in any of them.
Seebo:
Spoiler:
It might be helpful if, whilst Davkul is searching and you are making necessary religious observations, you mention to Davkul anything which struck you as significant which you learned between parting company and meeting up again here....
(Edited to untangle mix-up):
I gather that there have been some technical difficulties experienced recently by Davkul's player, with regard to posting on this this thread. I realise that Pres Man/Bronx may have been experiencing similar problems. I can copy/paste posts from the Discussion thread, if necessary, if Pres Man/Bronx is able to make them there instead.
"Davkul, the maid told me that, he said something about wanting to be woken because even though he'd been travelling hard and only arrived yesterday night, apparently he had an appointment to keep today. And they were supposed to take special care of him, because someone important in town was paying for his bed and board here."
"She also said that the mayor would need to be told"
"I wonder if he has the same appointment as the other merchant from town?
The one at the midday, at the mine?"
For an hour or so you proceed upwards through the trees, Bronx surveying the route ahead from the back of his pony in the increasingly frequent breaks between Nim having to force a way through snowdrifts for Bronx to be able to proceed onwards. The forest seems eerily quiet today, echoing with none of those strange bird-calls or shrieking wind sounds of the night before. Occasional flakes of snow continue to drift from the grey skies above, although the cloud is not so low today as it was last night, and visibility is currently unhampered by weather conditions.
Random encounter check (1d100=77) Current time approximately 10:00, 30th Night, 1383 DR
The snow, lying on the ground beneath the trees is now over a foot and a half deep where it is undrifted, and reaches in three or four feet deep in places where the wind has blown it, or there has been a small slide down the slope.
Bronx:
Spoiler:
You haven't noticed any sign of trouble so far, although you've been keeping a sharp eye out for it. You have a feeling that you're starting to get close to that shelf of last night... maybe only another hundred yards up the side of the ridge through the trees, and hopefully you'll reach it fairly close to where the dead bear was.
At this point I'm checking if there's anything different you want to do, as you proceed upwards across what you hope to be the final stretch and any instructions/advice you want to give to Nim.
"It is entirely possible, perhaps it is best we collect what evidence we can now before we head on to the meeting, perhaps we can find out more there." With that Davkul begins smoothing out and rolling the scrapped sheets of paper so that he can examine them later for clues, or hand them on to someone in a higher position of authority.
While Davkul grabs what ever he thinks is useful, Seebo busies himself with the finish of rights and the tidying of the body.
"Davkul who in this town do you think we can actually trust?
I mean, if this human's room was being paid for by someone important...."
Seebo let's the sentence trail off and lapses back into quiet contemplation
Now he just waits for the authorities to arrive.
You plough onwards and upwards through the snow. After some particularly hard and noisy going by Nim through some deep drifts, finally a break in the rising slope of the ridge appears up ahead, and it looks like you're just short of the horizontal shelf. A lighter covering of snow, only a foot or so deep, lies on the ground between the trees over the twenty or so yards of the slope between here and the shelf (it looks like a lot of snow slid down last night to make that final big snowdrift Nim has just forced a way through).
The occasional 'schlump' of snow falling off of distant trees echoes through the woods, as the day (slightly) warms up.
Nim is blowing hard after the effort of forcing his way through that last drift, which was well over four feet tall on the downslope side, to its crest. (Treat Nim as fatigued until he gets a minute's rest.)
Bronx:
Spoiler:
You're fairly pleased with your navigation, as you think that you're pretty close to the spot where you left the bear and other things last night. From the back of your pony you can make out a snow covered hump on the shelf a little way north of the point where you should reach the shelf, which you figure could be the dead bear.
Seebo & Davkul:
Spoiler:
For the time being carry on conversing or doing other things, and I'll let you know if you turn anything up or if/when other people arrive.
"If we cannot trust the law and those who are supposed to do what is right, we must do whatever we can by ourselves. But we must remember that order is not always about what is right or wrong, for there is often also order in the darkness."
Bronx waits for Nim to recover his breath, then lets him lead the way up the final slope.
Nim and Bronx (the latter on his pony) arrive on a rough shelf, set into the side of the ridge, running approximately north-south, the back of it a long face of dark rock outcrops.
The snow here is perhaps three quarters of a foot deep, although there are weird grooves and ridges in it which average less than a foot across- almost as if something has been burrowing around in the snow at some point, disturbing the surface.
Thirty feet or so north of Nim & Bronx there is some enormous obstruction lying on the eastern side of shelf, beneath a covering of snow. Here and there strands of brown fur are visible protruding from this obstruction, and it may very well be the dead bear of last night.
Half a dozen feet south of this larger obstruction, tatters of black cloth stick up from the snow, amidst a clump of what appear to be small light purple and turquoise mushrooms growing up through the snow. (This was about where Nim dropped the body of that dead gnome last night.)
The dark rock of the rear of the shelf runs north beyond these features with few distinguishing features. There certainly isn't any apparent sign of the symbol incised circle inlaid into it which you both thought that you saw last night.
Bronx is currently on the back of his pony, with his bow readied.
Nim currently has his glaive readied.
Nim: Please remember to use spoiler tags by the way.
Going through the papers, you come across a handwritten receipt for the payment of a 'consultation fee' marked with the mage rune in the top-right corner of a Waterdhavian sage... whose speciality, if you recall correctly, is magical beasts and some of the less common varieties of outer planar creatures. It looks from the price as if just one 'standard consultation' was paid for, and you aren't seeing any other papers amongst these to indicate that that sage was visited again.
Davkul has finished collecting together all the papers which he can find, though he has not concluded going through them yet, when you hear voices and many feet in the corridor outside, then the rattle of the door knob and finally: "Someone's bolted it. Wait a moment and I'll fetch out a key." in the familiar tones of Mrs. Prestwick.
Time: Approximately 09:20, 30th Nightal, 1373 DR
Watched by Bronx, Nim heads forward past the mushrooms and rags to the big mass, and dislodging some snow from it, discovers it to indeed be the dead bear from last night. Nim begins to gingerly 'fish around' in the snow surrounding it, stabbing the snow with his glaive and sweeping from side to side, hoping to hear the clink of metal on metal.
Suddenly, the small piled of black rags and mushrooms stirs, snow being dislodged as the dead gnome of last night abruptly 'sits up'. The injuries dealt to him are still clear upon him, and what flesh there is exposed has a soft and moist appearance- and looks to be covered with powder blue mould. A turquoise mushroom protrudes from each of the otherwise empty eyesockets, and for a moment the jaw clicks soundlessly open and shut, as if the gnome was trying to say something.
Then, a shrill squeaking noise emerges from the light purple mushrooms covering him: "Pixie Food".
initiative check (1d20+2=3)
Would one of you please roll initiative for the pair of you, and unless the roll is 3 or worse, you may each take 1 set of actions (in any order of PC) as if you were in a combat round. The dead gnome covered in mushrooms is currently 10 feet south of Nim, and fifteen feet north of Bronx on his pony, between the two of you.
Bronx:
Spoiler:
The mushrooms are obviously part of some unholy fey sorcery which may be reanimating the body.
Seebo signals to Davkul, to look like he is helping then calls to those on the outside, "Please wait, I shall unbolt the door, and please observe some decorum for the deceased."
Sitting down in the desk chair, Davkul pulls out one of his tomes and opens it at a random spot, appearing to be hunting for something within.
Audibly to those outside the door, Davkul growls out: "And make sure no-one touches that damn water jug, the poison could have been in there!"
Davkul leaves the pile of papers in a neatish pile on the dressing table, and hurries over to the writing desk to extract a book to read from his pack, whilst Seebo unbolts the door.
Suddenly the room seems to be full of hefty men in the chain shirts and black tabards of the Company of the Sable Bow (or at least that is to say that there are five of them, which is pretty full in a room this size) and Mrs. Prestwick. Seebo and Davkul can see at least one more man, through the door, out in the corridor.
Several of the men apparently recognise the dead man in the bed on sight, (despite the distortions of the ugly death) and show signs of not being at all happy about this situation.
One of them, clean shaven unlike the others, who has gold wire wrapped around the hilt of the longsword at his belt, and who is presumably the senior officier here looks at Seebo and Davkul.
"So who are you two, what are you doing in this town generally, and in this room, specifically? I am Merruth Orcbane, and the Lady Mayor has graciously delegated authority of the investigation of the death of this man, to myself as a representative of this town and my employers. They weren't happy, let me tell you, to hear that he could be dead, and worse still, foul play involved."
Raven 34/Nim:
Spoiler:
Sorry to have to do this, but it looks like I am going to have to remind you every time I post to you to use a spoiler, please, or at least until it is no longer necessary.
Nim & Bronx:
Spoiler:
Nim's blow slices into the thing, with a squishy noise accompanying the impact, although since it doesn't exactly seem to be alive, it's difficult to tell how much it's been hurt. It's still standing, and Nim backs away five feet as he indicated, to the east side of the bear.
Bronx?
"Mr Orcbane, I am Seebo Murbig, cleric of Garl Glittergold and this is a colleague of mine Davkul Gladdenstone. I am here administering what rights, comforts and prayers I can to aid the soul of this man."
"As for my colleague, he has merely consented to watch the door and ensure that nobody interrupts these rights and that nobody, but the authorities, which I believe is you, come into this room."
"I was actually sent here by Mrs.Preswick, to do just what I have told you, if you would like confirmation, please, ask her."
"As for the 'foul play', I think that is most likely. If you check the water jug and glass, I think you will find it's been tampered with, poison is my best guess, from the look of the body."
With a certain amount of disdain in his voice, Seebo says, "Come on Davkul, I think we can leave this matter to the 'delegated authority' now."
Ride check to quick dismount.
1d20=19 Oops forgot to add the dex in, So yes, I made it, free dismount.
Bronx quickly dismounts, drops his readied bow in the snow and draws his scythe (free action as part of move) as he moves up to the unnatural creature.
Attack Roll: 1d20+5=16
Damage Roll: 1d6+3=7
Down foul abomination!
"Delegated Authority eh?" Davkul gives a slight smirk as he begins to rattle off information in a brisk but efficient manner.
"A few things to check up on, his belonging have been thoroughly searched so this was most likely not just an assassination. You will probably note the piercing marks on the soles of his boots.
You may also want to check up on who this man actually is because as I recall, Popilhov is the undercommon word for 'nobody' and would never be used by any self respecting man.
Lastly please be very careful with that water jug and glass as we are almost certain that it was dark reaver powder."
Closing his book with a snap, he looks up the the apparent captain. "Is there anything else you would like to know? We don't have all day since we are due to go represent our group to a local merchant in an hour or so."
For a moment whatever it is that you're fighting goes down, and lies twitching on the snow. Then you notice that the blue mould visible covering the flesh, including in the places exposed to the air by the new injuries which you have just ripped through the clothes and dealt, seems to be pulling the body back together, and knitting itself back up to renew a continuous blanket covering any exposed flesh which you can see. With a horrible squishing squelching noise, the creature rises back to its feet, a squeaking sound vaguely resembling laughter emerging from the light purple mushrooms covering it.
"Thanks.", it titters in common.
Bronx is currently standing five feet south of the creature, whilst Nim is fifteen feet to the north, backed up around the east end of the dead bear. Bronx's pony is ten feet south of him.
Bronx's shortbow lies discarded next to his pony. Bronx is armed with his scythe, and Nim is armed with his glaive.
Next round, again acting in whichever order you prefer.
Nim:
Spoiler:
Please remember to spoil your posts.
Bronx:
If you make a DC 12 Knowledge(Nature) check:
Spoiler:
It occurs to you that you have heard that some creatures can soak up incredible amounts of damage from weapons not inimical to them, and keep on pulling themselves back together to attack again and again. Magic, fire, acid, holy-water- even weapons made of unusual materials- might be needed to finish such creatures off.
Bronx tries to trip the creature back down to the ground.
Melee touch attack with scythe: 1d20+5=21
Strength check with size modifier to trip: 1d20+2-4=14
Don't forget, you can go back and edit a post as long as it is within something like 30 minutes.
Bronx makes contact with his scythe, and the creature, for a moment, tries to nimbly dance out of the way of Bronx's 'hook' action, but miserably fails. Dex. check, avoid being tripped (1d20+2-4=5) Maybe it was expecting Bronx to try and hurt it instead of put it down on the snow. At any rate it falls over flat again. (Currently prone.) Nim. Your turn.
Mrs. Prestwick intervenes and mutters something to Orcbane, but he seems unimpressed.
"That may be so, but they're staying until my men have checked which of his possessions were left by those who have been looting this place. Fortunately, he sent a preliminary report that included a list of all important documents and items which he would be bringing for inspection." He orders a couple of his men: "Check this place, thoroughly, and try and account for all papers."
He turns to Seebo and Davkul.
"You two can wait here, whilst we search, or until Seryn arrives, with a scroll, so I can determine if I can trust you or not. I haven't heard of either of you before, and whilst it says either you or your employers have good taste, if you're staying here, I'd be an idiot to let you just walk out of here on your say-so that you've done nothing wrong."
Two of the men start to search the room, beginning wth the pile of papers which Davkul left on the dressing table. They start going down a list, very slowly, marking things off with a stub of coloured chalk which one of them produces.
Orcbane glowers around the room for a moment, then heads across to the bed to check the body. The other couple of men in the room hang around just inside the doorway, whilst Mrs. Prestwick looks around seeming very flustered, and muttering things about 'must have been them blasted pixies', and 'have to hire a holy man to ward the place against them'.
The creature rolls aside, desperately, as Nim's sword comes down, and although the sword ploughs through some of the light purple mushrooms, sending them flying, where it rips through the clothes it only traces the thinnest of lines through the mould that covers the flesh. Where the tip of the sword did make contact, it looked like smoke puffed, for the briefest of moments.
An angry buzzing noise emerges from the mould and mushroom covered figure, and moments later, the air is filled with a cloud of eye-watering spores. Nim and Bronx should each make a DC 12 Will save, to avoid being blinded for the time being. In the aftermath of this attack, Nim and Bronx can hear the creature crawling around nearby, crunching in the snow. I am waiting to discover if you make the saves or not, before posting my end of round summary, and going on to the next round.
Nim & Bronx:
For either of you who make the save:
Spoiler:
Through the swirling spores you can see that it has crawled five feet west, across the shelf, out from between the two of you.
No, Bronx, no attack of opportunity; it only ended up moving 5ft.
The cloud of spores didn't seem to be big enough to reach either the pony or the dead bear, by the way, and is currently settling on the snow or dispersing on the slight breeze.
At the end of the round:
Nim has dropped his glaive, has his (cold iron) longsword drawn, and is currently blinded. (Usual attack penalties, including 50% miss chance, to be rolled by DM after Nim attacks anything.)
Bronx has his scythe drawn, and is not blinded. His shortbow is over by his pony (10 feet south of his current position).
Bronx and Nim are standing with a 5ft gap in between them.
The gnome & mushroom thing is currently close to the ground (effectively prone) immediately northwest of Bronx, and immediately southwest of Nim. When it crawls it is making scrunching noises on the snow, the same as anyone else is, so Nim currently knows where it is. If it moves again- especially if it moves away from Nim, whilst staying close to Bronx, Nim may get confused over which sound source is which without further audible clues.
Next round, again acting in whichever order you prefer.
Bronx:
Spoiler:
You can see that the blue mould is continuing to pull the body back together, and to spread back across the areas where it was torn apart by your and Nim's first attacks of today.
Just got home from a very long stint at work and I am barely ale to think at the moment, I am about to go to sleep so I can go back in tomorrow. This is just a post to let you know that I will most likely be unable to post for the next 24-36 hours or so. If I need to be NPC'd, no problem.
Nim goes berserk and starts chopping away madly with his longsword at where he thinks that the gnome/mushroom thing is with blows that would surely do severe damage if they struck something; however Nim fails to make contact with anything. Check for 50% miss chance (1d100=16) Bronx?
Bronx will side step (5' step) to stay with the creature relatively speaking, giving Nim advice as to which way to swing. Bronx will ready an action to try and trip the creature if it tries to rise again.
I take it that is a five foot step to the west, to put the rock face to the west and the creature north of you (and heading it off from heading directly south along the western edge of the shelf)?
