Bronx can see that there's a blackened chain around the bear's neck, which looks like it's been there for some time. He can't see all of the chain, because part of it trails underneath the torso of the fallen bear.
It looks to Bronx as if the bear's head was literally pulled off by brute force, and there are traces of a milky white substance which reflects the light in strange ways, on the fur around the edges of the tear.
The dark patch undeneath the bear close up can be seen to be black cloth. It looks like they could be either robes or clothes, maybe of someone whom the bear fell on top of when it died. It's hard to see more with the body of such a huge dead bear lying on top.
Callinging out his thanks, Davkul snatches up the roll of parchment and starts going double speed for the forest and the search party. 10 minutes into my run, I will call Nightsong to me in order to get him to guide me to the group.
Bronx will put his walking stick away and then gingerly touch the bear to see if it is still warm. "Looks like someone's pet, and I think they might have been crushed underneith it."
Bronx:
Except where the head once was, and flesh, muscle, and bone have been exposed to the elements, the body is still pretty warm beneath that winter coat of fur. Guessing (this sort of thing is really a trained heal check by someone with the investigator feat) Bronx estimates the time of death at three quarters of an hour ago at the most.
Donnie: Bronx's words about 'someone's pet' might strike a chord with you. If you make a DC 16 Bardic Lore check:
Spoiler:
Donnie remembers hearing that some time ago there was a troublesome druid around these parts who had an enormous Dire Bear companion. The druid was killed some half a dzen years ago, but there have been occasional sightings of the companion in the ears since, although nobody's ever managed to catch up with it. It had some sort of ornamental silver chain that the druid had given it to wear.
'Post in haste, repent at leisure...' My apologies, Donnie. If you make the Bardic lore check then (with the spelling corrected) the spoiler for you should have run as follows:
Spoiler:
Donnie remembers hearing that some time ago there was a troublesome druid around these parts who had an enormous Dire Bear companion. The druid was killed some half a dozen years ago, but there have been occasional sightings of the companion in the years since, although nobody's ever reported managing to kill or capture it. It had some sort of ornamental silver chain that the druid had given it to wear around its neck.
Having retrieved the scroll and mumbled his thanks, Davkul hurries around the boarding house and across the cleared ‘firebreak’ area behind it, looking for the boot-prints of his fellow gnomes. What marks are still visible that were made by the ‘beetle’ things, Davkul notes, seems to indicate that they scattered at the edge of the trees. The gnomes’ prints (obliterating any traces that there may have been of Fenwick’s boots) congregate on a point at the edge of the trees where something heavy seems to have flattened an area of the snow, several feet across. Whatever made this mark, at the edge of the trees, seems to have done so in a manner that left a trail that ascended into the woods, and which his fellow gnomes decided to follow if their tracks are anything to go by.
Davkul plunges on into the woods, trying to reckon how fast the others may have been going, looking for clues as they went, and how rapidly he might be able to make up ground on them. Davkul may be regretting having no means to create additional light to see by, since his chances of spotting anything unilluminated- given the clouds blotting both stars and moon from most of the sky- at any range are exceedingly slim. Still, he hurries on, up the slope, through the trees, following the bootprints and the strange crushed trail. On the way, Davkul has plenty of opportunity to note the snapped-off branches, at heights well above that of a gnome’s head, which seem to accompany this curious progression. There is the occasional plop of a branch shedding its load of snow, and the flakes of snow falling from the sky grow more frequent in appearance as Davkul gains height.
Puffing somewhat, (and noting that he seems to be gaining very slowly on Nightsong’s current position - are you quite certain that Davkul wants to recall his familiar, given that at present Nightsong is his best method for determining the location of the others and how fast he is making up ground on them?) a low rocky crag, around which the trails run, has just come into Davkul’s sight when he is struck by the *twinge* of a slight disturbance in the Shadow Weave, from some presence both nearby and up ahead. (It reminds Davkul, on a much lesser scale, of that which he experienced so very recently in the common room of Mrs. Prestwick's boarding house.) Fingers of the low clouds are trailing the slopes at this altitude, which combine with the circumstances of limited illumination to leave Davkul uncertain of what exactly may be the source of this disturbance.
this is very very stoopid!!
I may be stoopid but I am not this stoopid!!
whatever kill big bear so easily will have no trouble wid us!
let us go back now! or we be dead I think!
come bruther let us leave, there is no shame in being scared of whatever killed der bear!
you do make a good point there, I will continue to use my 'empathy radar' to keep track of the party's position relative to myself and do my best to catch up with them.
nim mumbles something about getting in trouble with mama
and goes over to the bear as there may be something underneath it?
if he can he will try to move the body?
You'll have to let us know if that search check got anything.
Also, I can see how the heal skill might be relevent to trying to determine time/how of death, but what does the investigator feat have to do with it. It just gives you a +2 to a couple of skills, it doesn't give access to any special abilities, or is there another investigator feat besides the one in the PHB?
Seebo moves up closer to the bear and examines it.
Heal check 1d20+4=18 to see if there's anything he can determine from the carcass.
"Donnie can you checkout the markings please, I've used my detect magic for today"
DM Charles wrote:
Set at the back of the shelf in a circular indentation in a vertical rock face, which has been chiselled smooth by some agency, is a series of flat yellow-white components, incised with tortuous swirling symbols, which together form the boundary of a circle approximately a dozen feet in diameter. At present, this circular frame seems completely empty, the dark rock into which it is inset visible through it.
Bronx: When I posted I had in mind a 'murder mystery' situation in an old issue of Dungeon magazine which gave considerable bonuses to characters carrying out forensic investigations who had the 'investigate' feat. Upon double-checking I have discovered that the bonuses applied to 'Search' checks of the corpses in question only, which leads me to agree that it does not make sense to require the investigator feat on top of a trained Heal skill.
Bronx does not discover any obvious snares in the area. However:
Spoiler:
He does have the time to take in that, although the traces have been much obliterated by the subsequently imposed trails which headed off south, the bear seems to have come along the shelf to this spot from that direction. Bronx also finds a patch of flattened snow at the base of a tree where a gnome or halfling sized object seems to have been dumped, and a couple of twisted pieces of copper (each approximately the sze of an adult gnome's thumbnail), which look as if they might once have been part of a miniature 'shield'.
Seebo:
Spoiler:
You estimate that the bear's been dead maybe twenty minutes, and that death was indeed likely due to the bear having its neck partially severed and head pulled off by main force, in a violent struggle with whatever killed it. The injury seems unlikely to have been accomplished by any manufactured weapon, however.
"The bear has been dead about 20min, so the trail is still warm."
stopping to think for a second Seebo turns,
"Nim, you did more of the fighting back at the inn, do you think one or more of the big bugs could do this? Maybe if it got a claw to the bears throat?"
Sorry to have to check but I wasn't clear on if you had paid any attention to the minor shadow-weave 'disturbance', from up ahead & very close by (much closer than Nightsong's current position) and were wanting to proceed and ignore it, or were still considering what response to make?
Nim:
Spoiler:
Just to confirm that none of the 'beetles' which Nim saw or fought at the inn (four and a half feet long was he biggest, which was the 'big' one in the common room) would have mandibles that could easily take the head of a dire bear of this size off... besides which Nim only saw the 'beetle' things on the ground, and they wouldn't have the reach to get to the bear's head, unless they maybe ran up its back or it was lying down on the ground.
Donnie removes the chain from the bear then using his sheathed sword Donnie will try to pry the bear into rolling over
strength check (1d20-1=18) if you need one
<after that has happened and if nothing particularly interesting is under the bear>
Donnie will move closer to the marking on the wall, cast detect magic and examine them further.
The bear in question looks like a Dire Bear- albeit a particularly big one by Dire Bear standards- and since the area is frequented by them, then yes, it presumably is native. Unless food is particularly abundant during the winter months, yes they do generally hibernate as far as Donnie knows, or at least until/unless something disturbs them (at which point they try to eat it and go back to sleep, unless there is suddenly a lot of food available).
Donnie tugs the chain over what's left of the bear's neck and- with a mighty effort- manages to drag the rest out from underneath the bear.
The chain is a dozen feet or so in length, closed together at the ends, and was possibly originally intended to have an ornamental function by the person who put it around the bear's neck, given that the closed ends are attached to a large metal 'maple leaf' of similarly blackened metal. (Weight for this chain with leaf attachment equals approximately 11lb)
Donnie then waits to use his sheathed sword as a lever, to help Nim in his attempt to roll the dead bear over and off of whatever's underneath.
Edit:
Oh, and congratulations, Donnie, on getting a couple of good rolls out of Invisible Castle this time!
I did notice about the disturbances, however for the moment, I am going to assume it is either more of those bugs or an invisible fae...
At which point I am fairly sure I stand very little chance against them on my own and rather than be taken down, I prefer to carry on moving at high speed and (hopefully) pass them by
i (Rav)on the other hand am feeling ill and weak at the moment! also can anyone cast detect magic to see what is magical eg. the satchel, chain or the thingy on the wall?
Davkul hurries up around the crag, and past a patch where it looks from the trails as if the others were standing around looking at something. As he makes his way on, there is a rustle of something shifting overhead, then *thwip* of a suddenly unladen branch springing upwards and a cold rush as snow and something else drop down from a tree, with pinpoint precision towards Davkul’s head.
Since Davkul was aware that something unfriendly was in the area, and likely has his quarterstaff out as a walking aid (he is heading uphill under slippery conditions) if he succeeds in an attack of opportunity against (touch) AC 10, he manages to knock whatever it is away and can hurry onwards. Otherwise, (Touch attack (1d20+4=22)) Davkul misses it and amidst the accompanying shower of dislodged snow it hits Davkul, dropping onto his head. (The 'small strange thing' reference on the invisible castle site for this attack, is not a reference to the creature's size, which is in fact tiny. The touch attack modifier has been house-ruled from +5 (higher ground, ‘charge’, size) down to +4 to account for the only partially controlled nature of the descent in this case.)
If it hits Davkul:
Spoiler:
Something small, flexible, and incredibly resilient for its size (Davkul gets the impression that it’s about 1 foot square) is trying to get a hold upon Davkul’s face.
Grapple check, -8 size, +2 Strength (1d20-4=6) Davkul needs to get a 7 or higher on a grapple check to stop whatever it is from latching on, and instead knock it off onto the ground. Please remember that the special size modifier of -4 applies to the grapple check for a gnome instead of the usual +1 size modifier for attacks.
Whether it hits Davkul or not:
Spoiler:
Whatever this thing is, it seems to be the source of the local disturbance in the shadow-weave that Davkul sensed.
Seebo, Nim, Donnie, Bronx:
With some effort, Nim, Donnie, and Bronx somehow manage to part roll, part slide, the enormous carcase of the dead bear to one side, exposing the small figure of a male gnome wearing black robes which had been lying on its back, underneath the bear. From the dreadful head injury and slashes to its robes it looks like the gnome had some sort of run in with a dangerous wild animal (the bear perhaps?). The gnome appears quite dead- at least until a flicker of green light issues forth from some sort of amulet or (un?)holy symbol that it is wearing on a chain around its neck, to surround the gnome with a nimbus of eerie green light and fill the previously blankly staring eyes. It surprises you, suddenly shambling to its feet, moaning ‘Idnigh, aragaratho, aragaratho, aragaratho!’
With regard to what manner of creature you may be facing, and the amulet/possible symbol around the gnome’s neck (a plain black disk, with a crude skull image carved into it) for any character that makes a DC 12 Knowledge (religion) check:
Spoiler:
A plain black disk is believed to be the unholy symbol of the goddess Midnight, although you have never heard of one featuring any sort of carvings or adornments before. This result is also sufficient to confirm that at least superficially the dead gnome appears to have animated as a variant of the zombie category of the undead, so slashing weapons might be advisable.
With regard to initiative (if required), any ‘opposition’ have Initiative check (1d20-1=6) for their initiative check.
Whoever responds first can roll group initiative for you, and you can then proceed to act in order of posting (unless whoever responds first gets an atrociously bad initiative check).
Seebo:
Spoiler:
Whilst examining the bear earlier, by the way, you also noticed faint traces of a milky-white substance, which reflected the light in strange ways, on the fur around the decapitation injury.
Nim seems not to have noticed his big brother's question about if one of the beetle things could have hurt the bear, by the way.
Knowing that this thing can probably keep up with him, Davkul casts a Silent Image of himself running into the woods on a slightly different path to himself and originating from the same square then carries on his way. Now whatever it is has a 50/50 of following Davkul assuming it cannot tell the difference between the image and Davkul himself. (Will save DC 16 to disbelieve the illusion if it is interacted with)
With a firm *thwack* the strike of Davkul's staff sends the creature flying several yards through the air to crash, with an angry squeak, into the depths of a snow covered bush. Mumbling the words of his spell, Davkul takes off across the slopes of the snow covered forest, leaving a trail of boot-prints in the snow behind him, as he sends an image of himself fleeing in a different direction. Whether the sight of two fleeing Davkul's confuses it, his blow managed to stun it, or it just feels disinclined to pursue him, Davkul senses no signs of pursuit, the disturbance in the shadow weave caused by that thing's presence falling swiftly behind.
Whatever it was, Davkul had an impression of something flattish, and speckled greyish white, difficult to differentiate from the surrounding snow. After running a bit further through the snow-covered forest, Davkul halts for a moment to catch his breath. By re-orientating himself upon Nightsong's position, despite the trailing streamers from the lowest clouds and the falling snow, Davkul can head up the hillside, and soon regain the trail left by the others seventy or eighty feet further up through the trees. Is that what you want to do, or do you have something else in mind?
Donnie clips his sheathed sword back onto his belt, shows open palms (as a sign of peace) and tries to communicate with the being.
"We mean you know harm. We are looking for a lost friend. We have no fight with you"
looking over to his friends
"thats not Fenwick is it?"
Donnie is just talking at the moment (i think my init 6 (kicker 0) is better than init 6 (kicker -1). i'll ready action draw sword and attack if he is obviously about to attack
Seebo, Nim, Donnie, Bronx:
Just posting to confirm that initiative 6 is better than initiative of 6 achieved with a -1 kicker, yes. Everyone carry on, although perhaps I should have made clear: please restrict yourselves to actions that could be carried out in a combat round, until it can be confirmed whether the situation is hostile or friendly.
Donnie:
'Ready' an action allows you to ready either a standard action, a move action, or a free action. Since you do not currently have your sword in hand, the best that you can do is ready the move action of drawing it (in response to an attack) which will at least put you in a position to benefit from any attack of opportunity situations that might thereafter result.
bruther, i not think beetles kill big bear dey too small to take head off!
nim steps between the strange gnome and his brother, saying hello I mean you no harm, do you need help!
In gnomish Bronx will say to the gnome that was under the bear, "I don't think you should move, you don't look well at all. Can anyone help this hurt fellow?"
Sorry; Mother's Day weekend, and somewhat hectic here. Will try to post by Monday.
Edit:
Donnie:
Did you add that (11 lb) chain + leaf to your inventory, or is it lying on the ground, awaiting inspection?
Seebo recognises the amulet as an unholy symbol of midnight(1d20+2=19 ).
He announces his info to the party,
"A plain black disk is believed to be the unholy symbol of the goddess Midnight",
"It looks like a zombie, so slashing weapons might be advisable".
Seebo attempts a turn check on what he feels to be undead
DM Charles
just a note to the gm, do i have my glaive in hand ( beacuse it cant be sheathed) is it ready for an AOO if the thing attacks me or tries to get past me to seebo?is that a fair assumption?? as a warrior of even 6 int i would not just casually put it down.
i'm going to say that once i dragged it off and realized how heavy it was i left it on the ground near by (as the weight pushes me from lightly encumbered to medium) also ignoring it until potential combat threat as been dealt with
Seebo, Nim, Donnie, and Bronx:
The nimbus of light around the black-robed gnome flickers for a moment, and then the gnome turns and begins to shamble away from you at speed (heading around the eastern end of the dead bear, and then southwards along the edge of the shelf) kicking long boot-prints into the snow as it goes and moaning very loudly: "'LARM, 'LARM, 'LARM'."
It doesn't seem to very much like the power of Seebo's faith.
Nim:
Given that have been busy throwing snowballs at Donnie whilst on the way here, it seems likely to me that whatever the method of carrying the glaive (shoulder harnass, or in hand) Nim does not always have it in his hands. As Nim has also engaged in tree-climbing activities this evening without mentioning putting down/picking up the glaive the balance of probability seems to me that this evening Nim most likely has had it in some sort of harnass, slung behind him.
With regard to the immediate situation I think Nim would have probably put anything which he was carrying down to help move the carcase of the big bear, but would have readied an action to draw (or pick up) a weapon if danger threatened.
Nim draws (or picks up, as appropriate) a weapon (in this case, unless the player wishes otherwise, his glaive) and watches the black robed gnome go.
Donnie draws his longsword, just in case.
The black chain with metal leaf is lying on the snowy ground, where Donnie had dropped it.
The falling snow sparkles orange and yellow in the flickering light of Bronx's torch. Bronx has his torch held aloft in one hand, and his walking stick readied in the other.
Unless anyone wants to pursue the black-robed gnome, it will disappear from sight in the swirling snow and cloud, on its next initiative, if it continues to head south. It is currently 25 feet away from Bronx (the closest), and the carcase of the dead bear (lying roughly along an east-west line) is currently blocking line of sight of both Seebo and Donnie (due to their regular gnome stature) to/from the black robed gnome. Please post actions you could carry out in a combat round.
Resuming his upward path, Davkul races up the slope, as fast as he can manage. Homing in on Nightsong as best he can, he soon rediscovers the trail left by the others, and once again begins to follow it, stumbling and slipping at times in the snow, but always managing to catch himself before falling wth the aid of his trusty staff. The incidence of cloud sweeping through the trees becomes more frequent, the falling snow thicker, and the snow lying upon the ground a much more regular covering.
To give me some idea of how much ground/time Davkul has successfully managed to make up (or not as the case may be) would you please make a Constitution check, and post the result? Since Davkul has been basically trying to go as fast as possible, for as long as is necessary, this would appear to me to be a situation primarily calling for endurance.
If someone has a free hand (Donnie maybe), Bronx will try to shove his torch into their hand (they might take it or let it drop). In any case he will also drop his walking stick and draw out his scythe.
If whoever Bronx is trying to hand the torch to is not right next to him, he will 1st drop his walking stick (free action). Move to Donnie or whoever (move action), and draw his scythe will moving (+1 BAB->free action while moving), holding it in his hand, and then finally attempt to give the torch to whoever (probably a move action). So depending on what type of action (free, swift, move) it is to switch to wielding it, Bronx may or may not have the scythe readied.
Seebo moves to take the torch off Bronx, and watches as the zombie shambles away.
Trying to make light of the encounter,
"I'm gald that turn worked, I hate hand to hand, it's so messy"
re the glaive i dont think a harness will work, i magine a glaive must be at least 12ft long? perhaps i carry it in my hand but we can assume i put it down whenever i have to do something that involves using two hands
anyway nim yells out and goes after the Zombie he draws his greataxe as he moves
die undead thing!!
1d20+5=21
if that hits damage is 1d12 +7 =8
Nim bounds after the gnome zombie, flourishing his axe, intent upon cutting it down. His enthusiastic warcry of 'die undead thing' rings very loudly through the trees, making dramatically more noise than the moaning of the zombie had been achieving....
Oh; and the zombie does go down before Nim's onslaught, instantly silenced. From the way that it sort of flops under the tremendous impact of Nim's blow, any doubts that might have been remaining that it could be a living creature are cleared up.
Racing upwards through the snow-covered forest, the cloud growing more constant a companion, (until visibility falls to 40 feet with illumination, or 20 for a gnome without) Davkul finally arrives where there is a brief break in the rising slope of the ridge in the form of a ‘shelf’ inset into the flank of the ridge, running roughly north-south. The shelf is maybe a dozen feet wide, with rocky outcrops facing eastwards projecting from the back of it. Nightsong is hanging from a tree just north of where the trails meet the shelf, although Davkul has a sense that something is faintly perturbing his familiar. The various trails all turn south along the shelf; maybe fifteen or twenty feet along it in that direction, Davkul can see the orange glow of a torch, held aloft by the gnome who introduced himself back at the boarding house as ‘Seebo Murnig’. Seebo, Donnie, and Bronx are all standing on the northern side of an enormous fallen bear, which is apparently dead; Davkul’s not sure, from here, where its head has gone (although if he moves closer he will notice it.) Donnie and Bronx both seem to have weapons drawn, and Bronx seems particularly interested in looking at something further along the shelf out of Davkul’s sight, around the eastern end of the fallen bear. There appear to be various items on the ground at the gnomes’ feet, including a discarded glaive and some sort of long black chain with some sort of attachment. Several smaller ‘trails’- paths of continuously flattened snow- seem to start over there, although Davkul can’t count or inspect them in any detail from here.
Set into a part of the rock-face at the back of the shelf, which has been apparently worked by hand, are a series of flat yellow-white components, incised with tortuous swirling symbols, which together form the boundary of a circle approximately a dozen feet in diameter. At present, this circular frame seems completely empty, the dark rock into which it is inset visible through it.
A cry of ‘DIE UNDEAD THING’ shakes the air from somewhere in the cloud and falling snow to the south, from where Bronx is currently looking towards. It sounds to Davkul as if it might have been from the big fellow, Nim.
Moments later, seemingly in response, Davkul senses the first tremors of some major disturbance running through the shadow weave from somewhere in that direction; and above the strange bird-calls, the murmurs of the gnomes, and the dying echoes of Nim’s shout, the shrill piping of a malevolent wind seems to be specifically starting to stir from somewhere that way.
Davkul, whilst you have now caught up with the others, please bear in mind that Nim can not currently see anything that you are doing until you go forward to join the others by the bear, or until he comes back to join them, and spoiler as you feel appropriate. For the present he may be able to hear anything that you say out loud.
If any of you happen to glance north, you will see that a gnome who resembles Davkul- and panting a great deal as if he has been running hard for a while- has just emerged onto the shelf where the trail reached it and turned south.
Would everyone please (Davkul now included) continue to post actions (including speech) as if involved in a combat round for the time being.
not sure when it is my turn with an action but as long as i hear no screams or cries for help (and i am not attacked) i will search the body as my next act
