The question I asked, is which direction? If we head back to discover where the Orcs came from, then that takes us away from the child in the opposite direction.
"Press forward toward the child, that is our mission."
Drovic checks if the orcs have any interesting gear on them, then nods. "Yes let's keep moving."
Apart from some rancid lumps of blessedly-unidentifiable dried flesh, they have nothing more of interest.
Leaving the orc bodies behind where they fell, the party moves on towards their destination. At nightfall you figure you have another half-day of travel to reach the cabin.
Drovic volunteers for one of the middle watches since he can see through the darkness.
Dashel will take the first watch. The dwarf should take the darkest time with his darkvision.
Conner will rise early and take the final watch in the morning.
Being a veteran of this sort of thing, Dashel banks the fire as the sun goes down and doesn't look directly at it, trying to let his eyes adapt to the low light. His watch passes uneventfully, as does Drovic's. The elf manages to suppress the desire to do something untoward to the sleeping dwarf, rousing him at the shift change. (To the elf's mild surprise, Grungar awakens quickly and gets armored in short order, with minimal conversation.)
Watch order is instead Dashel-Grungar-Drovic-Conner. Drovic, the dwarf awakens you on time and settles down without any conversation. This ameliorates your desire to do something untoward to him while he's sleeping.
Seeing that the sounds are actually a threat makes up Drovic's mind. He charges up, stabbing at the nearest one to use the element of surprise before everybody wakes up. Then he sucks in air, and for the first time his companions hear him shout.
Drovic, it's still up. Somehow, as it turns to face you, one flailing limb catches you solidly. The other one misses you completely, though.
Everyone else, give me Perception checks and initiative rolls. Drovic, you're back up.
Drovic bends the light, making himself appear so normal that he becomes looked over.
Conner, you're waking up this round and can act next round.
Dashel, you're likewise waking up this round and can act next round. Grungar, unfortunately, is slower to rouse himself.
Drovic releases a pair of slashes at the undead he has already injured.
Drovic's first slash drops the wounded zombie; his second damages the other.
Map is HERE.
Round 2:
The second zombie continues to miss Drovic. Drovic, Conner, and Dashel are all up; Grungar is awakening this round.
It's still up, Drovic.
Conner will move to S21 and fire at the Zombie.
The arrow sticks in the creature's undead flesh, but doesn't quite take it down.
Dashel will enter the fray grabbing his long sword and clenching his holy symbol when he moves closer (P21) to the zombies, "the Holy light of Iomedea shall rain upon this ground." A warm glow of positive energy washes over the area
The zombie falls, blasted down by the flare of positive energy.
Dashel walks over cautiously to examine the zombies other than being zombies are there any unusual markings or anything of significant that I would notice/
Dashel examines the bodies. At first glance, they appear to be normal zombies. Both were male, moderately muscular (as far as can be told), with traces of scarring on hands and arms that suggests that in life they performed some sort of hard physical labor. Both are fairly fresh; their clothing isn't as beat up as you've seen on older zombies, and its quality and type supports the supposition that these two were lumberjacks or something similar. The priest is about to finish his scrutiny before saying a blessing for the dead when he notices something else they have in common: both of them have a single puncture mark on the backs of their necks.
The rest of the night passes uneventfully, although shortly before dawn a major storm moves into the area. Travel today is going to be quite slow.
Drovic keeps his hood tight, thoroughly miserable at the weather.
Late in the day, cold, wet, and exhausted, the four of you reach the house. No one is out at the moment (they are far too sensible to go out in the bad weather). The house appears to be intact.
Ok, any thoughts on how we want to approach this?
"Aren't we suppose to watch and try to avoid contact? If that is the case we should do a perimeter sweep out at lest a quarter mile, and find the likely ingress and egress points. Perhaps, Drovic can get a peek inside to make sure the family is in fact there." he points towards the window. "Assuming all is well inside then we set up watch."
Ok, I will work the perimeter. Don't make a racket, Dashel. You best have a story ready if you do. Either that, or let Drovic check on our charge silently.
Conner draws his bow and searches the perimeter.
"I will scout the house, learning what I can about any entry points, the family, and anything else of note. Everybody else should sweep the land so we can get better acquainted with the terrain. We should set up a meeting time and place once we're done."
The house is built of rough-hewn logs, sealed against the elements with clay. It looks to be but a single room, about ten by fifteen feet; there's a currently smoking chimney at one end, and a few slit windows casting a slight illumination over the area. There's also a lean-to off to one side, with a woodpile under it.
Dashel will begin to sweep the area heading in opposite direction than Conner, not wanting to make a racket for him.
* He is like an ogre trampling and stumping through the underbrush.
Drovic spends some time a good distance from the house, slowly circling in closer and closer. He looks for little things, like what route is taken to the firewood in back, which windows seem to stay open most of the time, how fresh the wood is. Finally he slips up to the window that is farthest from the front door and/or the woodpile and peers in.
Dashel trips and goes facefirst into a puddle, but manages to keep from cursing. In response, the light at one of the slit windows facing the cleric dims, as if someone passed in front of it. You don't notice anything out of the ordinary, though you're able to tell that there are only a couple of decent paths into the woods from the clearing.
Drovic, the windows don't really open as such; they're more like unblocked gaps between adjacent logs. There's a well-defined path from the woodpile to the house. You look in and are able to see a man looking out the opening opposite you (likely in response to the noise). As you watch he straightens up and says something to the room's other adult occupant, a woman at the hearth. Both relax slightly. Their tension returns, though, when a baby starts crying--apparently from right below the gap you're looking through. The woman rushes over to shush the child, oblivious to your presence.
Drovic holds his silence, gleaming what he can of the interior of the building and the three people within.
You all do your sneaky thing, I will stay here, dwarves arn't meant to sneak like you humans and elves.
Grungar hunkers down in the woods, keeping his weapon drawn and watching the surroundings for anything suspicious.
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Drovic, there's nothing obviously noteworthy about the couple or the baby--they look like a typical peasant family. There's a double-bitted wood axe and a hatchet hanging on one wall, along with a saw. The room isn't big enough to hold a forge in the part you can't see, though, which suggests that the couple is in contact with other people--at least someone who can make metal tools.
Dashel, when you start moving again you notice a shaded garden plot at the edge of the clearing.