Yuki watches Daufni creep forward, near the wall.
As glad as she was that it was not her, she was ready to help if something went terribly wrong.
She is getting paid to risk her life, to fight enemies of Sandpoint. I'm getting paid to deliver ale to tables and fend of guys three times my age trying to pinch me in the butt. It's logical that SHE does the scouting.
When you reach the gate you can see the doors were not stoutly built, and were attached by leather hinges. Typical goblin craftsmanship that you could probably have kicked down yourself with a little time and effort.
Inside you see no signs of inhabitants or movement. If not for the large smoldering pit a few feet away, you might guess the place is abandoned.
The structures inside the walls are built on stilts and connected by walkways, all of wood. The platforms are about 3.5 to 4 feet high. Ladders allow access to the doors of buildings and the platforms.
Daufni peeks into the village, then stands up straight. She looks back at her companions and signals for them to approach.
Inari moved forward as carefully as he could, nervous and excited.
Mari leans down and sticks close to Flax and gently nudges him forward, keeping her lucerne hammer out and close to her as the wolf lopes forward as quietly as he could.
Inari and Mari on Flax move forward to join Daufni at the gate's entrance. Inari does so quietly, Mari and Flax much less so. Still, even with some noise to announce your presence, nothing moves within the village compound.
Inari picked up a good sized rock and tossed it in a high arc at one of the more distant buildings, waiting to see if there was any kind of potion or activity.
Talene approaches as cautiously as she can.
Stealth
Now quite willing to take risks, Yuki crept forward, too, staying with the others. With everybody else watching the village, and it was fascinating, Yuki made sure to watch their back, too...
... but really, the deserted goblin hamlet was a lot more interesting, and it was hard to direct attention elsewhere-
As Yuki joins the others at the gate's opening, Inari throws a rock. It hits the roof of one of the huts and rolls down to clatter on the platform below. Still, nothing moves or makes a sound within the village.
Daufni takes a few steps inside the gate. If she is not attacked, she will move forward and investigate the smoking pit.
Daufni creeps forward several feet inside the gate and looks down into the pit. She sees that it is relatively shallow, only a couple of feet deep. In the bottom are the remains of at least a dozen goblins, partially cremated on a still smoldering fire.
Talene heads inside as well, once she reaches the pit, she covers her mouth. While she has seen dead Goblins before the smell of them burning turns her stomach.
She then begins to look around the village, "Perhaps we should look and see what else is here, perhaps survivors, perhaps evidence of the Goblins stealing any trade goods..."
"You think we're too late? Someone else was faster and took care of the Goblins already?", Yuki wonders with a mix of surprise, shock, and relief.
Only taking a fleeting glance at the pit with the burning Goblins, she steps away again quickly:"I agree that we should take a look around. Whoever did this may already have taken what they came for, but we may still learn what happened. Daufni, are there any other tracks around here that could give you an idea of who was responsible?"
"Well, there was that group of mercenaries that went missing several days ago. Classless lot if I remember them correctly, perhaps they are not lost after all and were just out slaughtering Goblins."
"That would be just my luck. Late to the party." Inari quipped coming out of cover and walking around with the others.
"This place smells like burnt hair and old meat."
"I still say we should be careful, guys. There might be a reason why they didn't come back quickly after all - it might not be the mercs." Mari taps Flax's flank with her heel. "I'm gonna do a quick patrol around the village, see if there's anything we can find. Everyone look around too - see if we can find anything, maybe like a body that isn't gobber. Meet back near the entrance in about ten minutes?" If everyone agrees, Mari starts her patrol.
"Sounds good."
Perception to search the village.
Heal check on Goblin Corpses (cause of death - length of time dead) .
As you begin to spread out in the courtyard to look around, a light drizzle begins to fall.
From the ground it would be difficult, and perhaps dangerous, to scout the entire village. the buildings beyond those adjacent to your current open area are also raised, but not to a great height, under four feet. It would require crouching under the floors and walkways above.
Mari, you can see there are breaks of light in a few places among the maze of pilings that support the buildings, but Flax is loath to try and squeeze underneath. You would have to dismount or lie down along his back to fit.
Within the courtyard itself the only feature is the smoking pit of goblin corpses. Without pulling bodies out for close inspection it is difficult for Talene to get more than a broad notion of what happened to them. They have been burnt to a greater or lesser extent, which also makes examination difficult.
She estimates they have been dead for at least a day. Their deaths seem to have all been caused by grievous wounds, but the types vary. She sees some straight slices that would be made by weapons, but also others that look like perhaps the gashes of claws. Some of the bodies show many wounds, and are badly torn.
As Mari and Flax complete their circuit of the courtyard's perimeter, they notice the last building, nearest the pond on the far side, is burned down completely. The others near it are undamaged though.
Daufni notices a scatter of bones on the shore by the small pier built out into the pond.
Daufni will investigate the bones by the pond.
"Perhaps knowing about this is enough, it seems whoever did this went through make great lengths to prevent anyone from knowing how they did it. Dangerous as this place seems to be because of how it is constructed, I have a hunch that none of these buildings house any missing fireworks..."
What was more scary than a Goblin village in a swamp?
A mysteriously abandoned Goblin Village in a swamp.
Only night-time could perceivably add weirdness to the situation at hand.
Yuki stayed in the middle of her allies as they seemed to spread out to diverse directions...then another thought crossed her mind...taking a quick count of the buildings, if one wanted to call them such, and the number of Goblins in the pit(as best as she can guess), she works out some math...
Daufni spends a few minutes looking around at the bones on the edge of the pond. She finds a scatter of them that stretches from the bank a little ways into the water. They are definitely the bones of humans, or very similar humanoids. The bones are quite jumbled, so without collecting and sorting them it isn't possible to make a better estimate of the number of individuals represented beyond more than about five, less than about ten.
The bones themselves are not new. They have clearly lost their collagens and are dried out. On the other hand, the lack of any sediment burying the bones shows they have been deposited in this location recently.
Yuki's comparisons of building sizes and possible living capacity, along with her general knowledge of goblins would suggest to her the number of goblins in the pit is lower than could be expected for a healthy goblin tribe, or the size of the village here.
Mari spies the last building that was burnt down around unburnt buildings and frowns, going over to investigate. She gets off Flax and she digs around in the remnants of the building for a while, trying to figure out how there could be a fire here without it spreading to nearby buildings.
"So where'd the rest go? Are there any tracks leading out of the village?" Inari asked.
Mari doesn't see any particular reason why the building is the only burned one except that it was not connected directly to any other buildings except by the walkway.
"Perhaps we need to go deeper into this swamp then we thought. I am not sure we have learned much here except that I am starting to believe my hunch more and more that these attacks are not attributable to the local Goblins..."
"But where could they have gone? If a whole village of Goblins leaves their village, there should be more tracks, right? Unless they fled wildly into the surrounding marsh. In that case, maybe those mercenaries did succeed, and attacked the village. Killed their chief, the others fled, they burned the bodies, and maybe the building with the fireworks.", Yuki points towards the burned bodies and the burnt building.
Looking around again, the young girl heads towards the nearest intact building:"We should try and verify if any loot from these raids remains in the village. I doubt the mercenaries went out of their way to retrieve anything stolen - if we find any of that in their abandoned hovels, we at least know they are involved."
Stopping at the door, Yuki holds her breath for a moment:"And considering the implications, I'm not sure if I hope we find something, or not."
With that, she attempts to open the door.
"I'm with Yuki. We should check out these. . . 'buildin's' just to make sure we aren't leavin' anythin' behind.
Daufni goes with Yuki to the shack door. Weapon drawn, she'll put her hand briefly on the other girl's shoulder and then move past her into the building.
The ground shows plenty of tracks, but they vary in size, age, direction, and so forth. The open area between the gate and the building was obviously a very heavily trafficked place every day. In any case there is no particular pattern among them you can see.
The ground shows plenty of tracks, but they vary in size, age, direction, and so forth. The open area between the gate and the building was obviously a very heavily trafficked place every day. In any case there is no particular pattern among them you can see.
Yuki pushes against the door, which is designed to open inward. It seems to be locked or barred because it doesn't budge.
Yuki attempts to use force. They did come here planning to deal with the Goblin problem. Being "careful" with their structures was not on the agenda.
"Maybe you want to give it a try, Daufni?", she asks the other woman when her efforts are not very successful.
Yuki pushes harder, putting her weight into it. The door creaks but remains closed.
Talene puts her back into assisting Yuki.
Strength
With Yuki and Talene shoving in unison against the door, it gives way with a loud crack. Whatever was holding the door closed seems to have either broken or popped free of the wall completely. The door flies open, and is met with terrified shrieks from inside.
Yuki and Talene, in fact everyone, hears scurrying, wailing, and rapid crying out in a language you don't understand, but recognize as goblin.
You are able to pick out a couple of things said in Common amongst the word salad though: "ghosts!" and "go away!"
"Hey!' Daufni shouts into the building. "Where are you and why are you hiding?"
At the sound of the goblin language, Inari's head swam for a moment. He put his hand out against the wall to steady himself and tried to shake of the flood of half formed memories and feelings that flashed though him.
Yuki is very surprised that there still were Goblins in the building, barricaded on the inside.
Then she remembers the bones, and establishes a mental connection with the fearful cries of "Ghosts":"Necromancy...I think someone used undead to attack the village! They are superstitious creatures."
Then she looks at the other buildings...do they also seem barricaded? Do they have windows, and, IF so, did the screams and shouts in Goblin from this structure cause any further Goblin Heads to pop up to try and see what's happening?
The rustling, shrieks, and squeals from inside settle down after a few moments. Presumably the occupiers have found new places to hide.
One voice, perhaps the bravest or stupidest of the goblins, answers Daufni in common.
"We're hiding from you! Go away, we don't have anything!"
The oddness of that was enough to break Inari out of his momentary spell. "Well, it's nice of them to tell us that they're hiding."
Talene sighs, "Hard as this may be to believe... and say ... she mutters under her breath. "We mean you no harm, we are simply for answers as to what took place here and who may have caused this... carnage".
The goblins inside fall into what seems like a few seconds of acrimonious squabbling. Then one of them replies We's not stupid. YOU's all did it. You's walking bone ghosts! Go away! We don't have more stuff."
"I don't have any walking bone ghosts. Any of you have walking bone ghosts? No? No bone ghosts here." Inari said, rapidly growing tired of talking to goblins.
"Well, there's a skeleton right here. Hiding in me.", Yuki quips, finding the situation quite paradoxical: "Actually, Mr. Goblin-who-is-not-there, there's a skeleton in you, too, biding it's time."
Mari reunited with the others before too long, finding them talking to a barricaded group of goblins in one of the houses. Atop Flax, who sniffs around the house as she follows them, Mari eventually just stares at the others in confusion. "So, uh, why are we trying to explain stuff to goblins, guys? They're goblins."
Talene shrugs at Mari, "Good question, I think I would lie to know who did this, though I am not sure we can get the answers if none of us speak Goblin. Luckily I have a spell for that. It could not have been undead, at lest not without direction, why would mindless undead burn the Goblin corpses?"
Talene casts Comprehend Language.
She asks them again, "We will go away once you give us a description of those who attacked you! Tell me, in your own tongue, what they looked like".
Daufni also wants to know what happened, but she still has a job to do. "See if you can find out where their leader is," suggests Daufni. "I think his name is Gut...somethin'." And in a lower voice to everyone, "Remember, we're tryin' to get them to leave, not convince them it's okay to stay."