Disjunction

Game Master Diamondust

Right, but as Gordon suggests, our search should be handled methodically. Let's first step back and let this door shut, then reopen it to see if the garden path remains. If so, then we can proceed with the camera test.

Desmond steps back from the doorway, and as the others presumably do as well, he adds, I am grateful for you all.

Going to go ahead with the camera test.
Testing the door multiple times reveals the same outcome. The door opens on its own when someone approaches within about 15 feet of the door and each time it is the inviting garden with the winding dirt path. Satisfied with this, the camera is placed outside and then retrieved. It shows the door closing and reopening shortly after with no time discrepancy between your own time keeping and the length of time recorded by the camera. The door remained visible from the camera's view the entire time, anchored at both origin and destination.

Perhaps Gordon and Jasper did a little more exploration during this experiment.
Staying within view of each other but desiring more exploration, several of you look into the next room on from your original entrance to this place. Another empty courtyard with the same features as before. This door opens just like the others and this time you struggle to see anything. Torches light up parts revealing natural rock walls and varying ceiling height of 50ft. or more. You think you hear some running water too. The atmosphere reads mostly safe (slightly toxic, methane traces, CO2, etc.) though there is no reduction of gamma readings. Telemetry data from your equipment suggests that this is a large underground cavern system miles below the surface and the door is only located in a side cave. The deepest cave known on earth is dwarfed by this place and to have a pocket of breathable air is incredible. Toxic as in can cause health problems after extended periods living there, similar to a smog-filled city or so.

Janice proceeds with exploring further, and starts walking to all the doors and seeing where they go, recording a list in her Journal about each place:

• Area 0 - Desert
  
• Area 1 - Garden with path (someone had to make the path). Sound of birds.
  
• Area 2 - Underground Cavern
  

etc. She goes with Cooil's designations, so substitute "Area 0, 1, 2" with whatever he came up with first

She continues this until they have explored all the doors (unless something happens first, of course).

As she is doing this she wonders aloud to anyone accompanying her if the circles are another disparate set of destinations, or if they are connected to the associated doors in some way. If they are associated, maybe the desert scene is a way home? Not that it matters if we can't survive there long enough to get home, of course.

At least we have a radiation free place to retreat to, and even rest at. And it sounds like water is close. Gordon says with some relief. With water and a safe place to rest we could last for a few weeks. Lots of time to explore and so now less need to choose a door too quickly. I propose we continue in a line checking and cataloging doors as we go. Maybe we will eventually hit a wall or the end of these rooms in that direction and can begin to bound the size of this place. If its truly infinite then it won't matter at all that we went in a strait line and we loose nothing. He looks to the others to see if they agree and then his face changes to one of concern. It just occurred to me that when we open one of these doors it could be guarded on the other side and what is on the other side might be hostile.

though there is no reduction of gamma readings

I see that now. Not sure how I miss such things. sigh.

After they conclude the camera test at the garden door, Father McKinley suggests to Cooil, Walk with me down this path a bit to test the radiation levels away from the door. He explains his thinking, On umm... Earth... he fumbles with conceptualizing their situation The radiation was localized around the array of circles. I just want to see if the same holds true in this place, or if this radiation is pervasive throughout.

Cooil glances at the others after Father McKinley's suggestion. "You wouldn't be trying to lead me down the garden path would you, Father?" There is a twinkle in Cooil's eye as he says this.

"It appears we can get back if we need to. The existence of a thriving ecosystem suggests that either the radiation is less there or somehow harmless. If it is safe, we can perhaps locate some food and form a base of operations from which to explore the doorway rooms and map them out more carefully. I'm willing to take a walk. Are the rest of you okay with that? Do you want to keep together or watch from the doorway?"

It seems Janice and Gordon have already moved on, either Jasper can stay at the door to keep an eye out, or Desmond can hand Jasper the spear and let the two of them test further into the garden while he stands at the door(one turns movement worth? 20-30ft or so?) I realize he just gave a speech about keeping everyone safe, so lets not split the party up too much

Jasper decides to stay with McKinley and MacCray. Much as he doesn't like the group splitting up, he knows that Zeroux and Alexander are more than capable of protecting themselves. He hopes that one of them finds something other than wilderness behind these strange doors. He answers Dr MacCray.

I suppose I'll just stand here at the doorway: even we're sure that the door opens from both sides, I feel it's safer with someone keeping the door open if something happens. He stated. He let out a small chuckle. Hehehe. Look at me: I came onto this dig as an archaeologist and now I'm being demoted to doorman!

Sorry for not posting, I just didn't have anything meaningful to contribute.

Desmond chuckles at Jasper and turns to Cooil, Let's stay within view of the door he says as they start down the garden path, still concerned for their well being in this strange environment. He holds the ancient spear tightly in both hands as he scans the area, trying to take in any and all noteworthy details as Cooil tests the radiation levels.

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

"what is on the other side might be hostile."

hahah you preempt me. Good thinking though.

The torches mentioned in the description of area 3 were yours if you used them to help see into the darkness. There are no torches found in that area.

Janice and Gordon walk through to area 4. Behind them they can no longer see or be seen by Jasper as he keeps the door open. Sound also seems to be distorted and muffled through multiple archways becoming an indistinct background hum that you eventually tune out automatically.

Door 4 opens before you showing a bleak looking grey and empty landscape. Just dirt and fog. You can't see more than 100 feet from the door. At the edge of your range of vision your eyes adjust and you think you can seem a humanoid figure standing so still it could be a statue, it's pose uncomfortably unnatural. Concentrating on it shows Janice a dark, almost black aura coming from it, sending a shiver down her spine.

-----------

Jasper sees Janice and Gordon melt into the background of the distorted view through the courtyards and Cooil and Desmond walk down the path.

Cooil feels like each individual courtyard has the same central directional focus and getting lost is a possibility. So much for beneficial effects of this strange place. When he passes through he feels a wave of dizziness that quickly passes and now the path is leading them south east. About 150 feet in the door is occasionally obscured from view behind the trees but the path keeps going.

Father McKinley's keen eye spots movement up ahead in the trees off the path. Something small is moving towards you. You can soon see it but it doesn't notice you and is singing. It is the size of a young child but doesn't look childish, like it is fully grown at 3.5 feet tall. It might pass right by without noticing you.

So far the radiation hasn't changed.

Cooil snaps a picture of the small figure, but says nothing. He gestures to Father McKinley to return to the door. Once back, he shows Jasper the picture and proceeds to check on Gordon and Janice. "Best not be dealing with two areas of potential threats at once." He moves to where Janice and Gordon as looking through another door.

If he has a view of the figure in the dark, he tries to zoom his camera to give a better look and snaps a picture. Then he whispers, "There are people in the garden area. No contact made, yet, however."

these things are happening simultaneously. We'll wait for posts from everyone before you can rejoin the others yet. A lot could happen in that time.

Father McKinley nods silently to Cooil, hoping this odd miniature person doesn't spot them just yet. The fact that they've encountered another being almost has his heart leap out of his mouth its beating so hard. He feels his palms grow sweaty and his grip on the spear slipping as he trots cautiously back to the door im assuming we moved one turns worth in, one turns worth back. Jasper is a welcome sight as they reach the door. His eyes wide, he can hardly keep his voice to a whisper as he states what the camera must obviously show We saw something... someone!

Janice whispers to Gordon:

There is something very, very bad out there... back off and let it close.

After the door closes, she explains the black aura.

She adds to her list:

Area 1 - Desert
Area 2 - Garden with path (someone had to make the path). Sound of birds.
Area 3 - Underground Cavern (signs of life)
Area 4 - Dirt, Fog, Evil

They proceed to the next door.

Unless Gordon wants to do something else, of course. Also, changed the numbering system from the first list to reflect this being termed "Area 4" by the GM. That also makes more sense when counting, so going with it.

Jasper took a step back in shock. A person?! he practically shouted in his mind. He quickly bombarded McKinley and MacCray with questions: What were they doing? he asked frantically. Were they talking? Did they see you?

As he quickly processed this information, he came to a very positive conclusion, which he shared with his allies.

Father McKinley! Dr MacCray! Do you know what this means?! he barely avoided shouting. We have evidence of a civilization! If we try to talk to this person, we can get help, eventually even find a way back home!

Cooil nods. "It appears to day will be a day of firsts. Savor the feeling. Few scientists get to experience such things, to be the first to see something new and amazing, like Galileo seeing the moons of Jupiter or Maxwell realizing light was electric and magnetic fields."

"Let's hold off on making first contact until the others are with us. Whoever is here will can be found again with a little exploring. We don't appear to be in danger but the others might be."

Desmond tries to recall any details he missed due to his excitement was the person green-skinned with pointy teeth and ears? were they stout with a neatly braided beard? did they have outrageously colored hair and fabulous clothes?

They were coming towards us down the trail... uhh...singing. I don't think they saw us, however, I don't get the feeling they are a threat. I think it should be safe for us to make contact, but, yes, let's find Janice and Gordon first.

As they make their way to the others' location, Father McKinley feels a little lighter in his footsteps. His usually somber countenance breaks into a grin and his pace quickens, If we can communicate, we can hopefully, finally, get some answers.

It wasn't following the path, but walking through the greenery and happened to cross the path some distance from you (about 100ft.).
1d2 ⇒ 1

The humanoid creature continues singing in its strange language that Desmond feels has some commonalities with Aramaic. It has green, spiky hair but pale skin similar to yours and flashes of several colours are in its clothes. It doesn't notice you as it continues on its walk through the garden, caring not for the path but weaving its way between and doing no harm to the flowers or plants.

Forgot, but this would probably be of great scientific importance also. Cooil recognises some of the plants and flowers (knowledge(nature)) but there are many that aren't close to matching anything that he has seen or studied. Botanists would have a field day here. This contributes further to the feeling you are getting that none of these places could match to any known location on earth. The radiation is clearly not affecting anything in the garden negatively. There is not a single dead, dying, deformed or diseased looking plant in sight.

-----------

As Doctor Zeroux backs away from the door with Gordon the creature turns around and notices. It looks right at you for a moment. As the door starts to close it leaps into action and runs towards the door, a low growling noise coming from it. Its unnatural gait reveals a broken leg that it runs on without seeming to feel pain. It covers the distance at a startling rate and you think it might get through before the door closes. In truth it would but its clumsiness hinders it, moving too fast to maneuver through the gap in the door it collides headlong into the door instead. As it regains its balance it is too late for it to fit its whole body through the remaining gap but it seems unconcerned about its own well-being, thrusting an arm through trying to reach for Janice. The door closes and crushes the arm, ripping it off the creature by sheer force. It falls to the floor unmoving. The creature is stuck outside, but moving to inspect the arm could trigger the door to open.

Gordon does not hesitate when Janice recommends retreat. With an eye on the creature he quickly and quietly back-peddles through the open door and does what he can to help get the door closed quickly. When it looks like the creature was going to make it through the door Gordon moved to intercept it, spear ready, but not so close as to trigger the door again.

As he watches the dead arm on the floor he realizes he is sweating. He half expects the arm to start crawling and he postulates That thing, the black aura and running on the broken leg and all, it was dead. No, undead. And if that is right then perhaps as a dead thing it lacked the "life force" to get the door to open? He watches for a moment more. If the arm does not move he recommends I'll mark a warning in the sand and on the wall here. Then lets join the others.

I do not think we have tried to open the door from the far side yet, have we? If not that needs to be next. Send two through. Let the door close. Give them a minute or so to open it, and if they do not open it for them from this side.

Janice, shaken, says Okay. I think you're right. I want to map this place, but if there are other worlds like this, we definitely can't do it alone.

If we reached in with the spear to get the arm, would that trigger the door? I am totally NOT trying it. Just thinking about whether there is a way to get it and study it.

eek! an undead! looks like I get to put this cleric to use :)

assuming we meet up as a group somewhere between the garden door and the walking dead door, perhaps at the cavern door?

Desmond is almost bursting as they find Janice and Gordon. He gives a shout and waves when they come into view. But as they near, he can see a look on their face, as if they had just witnessed something completely frightening. His excited smile quickly fades and his face returns to his normal countenance of somber concern. He looks deeply into their eyes and asks, What happened?

Cooil follows Father McKinley and waits breathlessly for the answer to his question. "You two look like you've seen a ghost!"

I'm waiting on my question about getting the arm before leaving. I need to know whether we have it before talking to the others. If we just have to experiment to see, then we will with a different door... just wasn't sure if we maybe already knew how the door opens, and whether approaching it from any direction causes it to open, and how far away we can stand without triggering it. Seems like something we might already know, since we have done it with a few doors already.

Yep you know you need to be in front of the door for it to open and inanimate objects don't make it open and neither does the creature with one less arm. You could fish the arm away without opening the door again. It doesn't stop closing or opening once it has been triggered to move and there is a short time (6 seconds for simplicity) between when it closes and when it will be able to open again (like a reset interval).

Janice goes and fishes the arm from the door with her spear, and then (without touching it with anything but the spear), she returns to the group.

We encountered something that had a black aura, and which I am certain was very evil, though I am not sure how I know that... the aura perhaps. This is its arm. It saw me and was so desperate to kill me that it allowed itself to be maimed by the door. It also somehow did not trigger the door's function... therefore, as Gordon explained, it has to be "dead" on some level, like Haz-Mat man, or the door would work.

I wanted to map all of these doors, but... if there are more of those things, we cannot undertake it alone. Perhaps we should move forward and try to get home. I recommend we have some serious back up if we ever want to open that particular door again.

Gordon stands guard, trying to hold the spear like he knows how to use it as Janice fishes the arm away from the doorway.

It sure looked dead Gordan says supporting Janice. Right out of that Walking Dead show. He looks a little white. If it was intelligent at all it was single minded in its desire to get to us. he allows himself a shudder. I'd like to go home too, but I need to point out we do not know how to do that. And since we do not know if this place is infinite its quite ambitious to plan to map all the doors. Unless someone has a better plan I recommend we stay together and continue mapping doors in this direction. He points in the original left direction.

Cooil nods and adds, "We need to stay together. We went a little way into the garden-like place, saw a small humanoid person singing to himself, sort of wandering. Don't think he saw us. Seemed harmless, but probably best to assume nothing. Let's keep exploring doors, but so far, that garden area seems a likely place to go if we can't find a way back to earth."

"My desire to return to earth, however, I must confess, is becoming tempered with a strong desire to explore and learn as much about this place as we can. I think it would be a torment if we got back and then found that we could not reactivate the transport event and this little exploring is all we were left in terms of knowledge of this place."

I think I asked this before but don't remember a specific answer: Does Cooil's direction sense continue to point him toward the door in the initial arrival area or does it always point toward the door of whatever room we are in? Same question with regard to the compass.

Jasper wore a small smile as he rejoined Dr Alexander and Dr Zeroux, but quickly recoiled in horror when he saw the disembodied arm. The story behind it only strengthened the feeling.

Regardless, it appeared the group was once again caught in indescision: continue mapping the doors, or choose a door and explore further. He still wanted to see if more of these doors lead to a more civilized area, but if monsters like the one the others had seen were hiding behind these doors...

I think, he began, finally finding words. that we should try exploring a door further rather than seeking more doors. As much I wish to find a town or city beyond these doors, Dr Alexander- At this he turned to face Gordon and directed the rest of his words at him. I feel that the risk of finding something like the monster you both faced- if not something worse- is too high to continue like this.

He then turned to Cooil and gave him an adventurous grin. I know the feeling, Dr MacCray. As nervous as this place makes me. The idea of seeing the wonders of this new world excites me.

I also think that if we can find someone willing to stand with us on the circles that we could return home... or... Hmm. The circle was worn away in our own world, what if we obliterated the extra circle here as well? It worked with 5 there. ... Hard to say what is best.

I wanted to map the whole place at first, but honestly I was shaken by the owner of that arm. I need to examine it, so we can know more, but for now I have to agree with the others (sorry Gordon). We aren't equipped to face this threat level.

She then takes the arm aside and examines it to discover all she can. Worried about unknown pathogens, she tries to handle it as little as possible, but because of the circumstances, and having left her pack of medical gloves in her backpack at the site in a different world, by the end of her examination, she can't avoid becoming covered in bits of the arm as she cuts with the spear the best she can, and pulls things aside with her fingers to discover what she can.

Heal (representing her specific Medical Knowledge): 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (19) + 11 = 30
Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (11) + 6 = 17
Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25
Knowledge History: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

As she studies the arm she is wracking her brain, trying to connect it to anything she knows.

Cooil's sense points towards the centre of each courtyard he enters. The same with the compass. Like each one is a separate place despite the adjoining arches or that they all share/are the same place.

Janice's examination of the arm begins with another scare. As she gets close enough to it the elbow and wrist muscles contract and it grabs ahold of her wrist. After any panic it is easily pried off and never moves again. The arm is that of a humans and logical conclusions are that it is long dead. It does not bleed and there are no hairs or fingernails but it seems strangely well preserved (almost perfectly). The skin pigment is dark enough that you could think it belongs to a native African. You see no sign of disease or cause of death (or cause of moving around when it looks like it should be dead). Perhaps the strangest thing is the black aura is no longer able to be seen.

Desmond is a little too taken aback by the severed arm in Janice's hand to immediately report the sighting in the garden Thankfully, Cooil beats him to it. Janice and Gordon's testimony shakes him to the core, even the unreality of the day's previous events fails to prepare him for this.

Are you seriously talking about... zombies?!, his voice rising to an incredulous pitch as Janice begins her impromptu autopsy.

Of course there were biblical references of people rising from the dead, Lazarus, Jesus himself, but an undead horror straight out of a B movie? He peeks over Janice's shoulder as she works, making the sign of the cross as he does so, in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti he whispers. He's no medical doctor but it sure looks like necrotic flesh to him.

I'm not sure Cooil, with something like THAT... I'm even more eager to get home.

Something Cooil says triggers a thought he had earlier, one that he had kept to himself. He glances over his shoulder back to the first courtyard and this time wonders aloud,Surely the must have noticed us just... vanishing like that. Why, do you think, haven't they sent anyone in after us?

That's a good question, but perhaps they still will. An hour isn't that long. Although... there's another thing we don't know. Is time passing here the same as time passing there? All things we just don't have enough information to know.

I am willing to go along with the community consensus But that small man you saw could be more dangerous than the creature we saw. And we could wander in that garden world for days and never see it again. Of find other things even more dangerous yet. There is no safe course. He pauses and regarded each team member. We have opened only 4 doors. The choice seems to be to enter the garden door or open 1 or more additional doors. And as an option to that I'll offer that we could also walk in this leftward direction counting doors for some length of time or number of doors; say 144 total in that direction, if it goes that far. Unless we are not alone in this place there is no risk in doing that except that we expend calories and an about of time we may not fully understand.

McKinley puts a hand to his forehead, This is so confusing he mutters.

Taking a deep breath and a moment to think, he continues, Ok, so, we know that when the door shuts on the other side, it persists, but we still don't know if it will open as easily from the other side as it does for us here. I mean, consider this, if this place possibly has an infinite number of doors leading to an infinite number of worlds... And it serves as some kind of... station, then, well, where is everybody? Why are we the only ones here? Shouldn't this place be bustling with, i don't know, intergalactic travelers and the like?

"Father McKinley has a good instinct. Let's consider who might have made such a thing and what motives they might have had. One possibility is that this was done out of a kind of scientific curiosity. Perhaps these lead into places the creator of the--what shall we call this place?--the Nexus?--perhaps these lead into places they wanted to explore. Perhaps once created, it was easier to just try another if the first was not fruitful. Maybe all they wanted to do was spend a little time in the place, catalog any relevant features, and then try another place."

"If one could create such gates, the potential for profit would be great. If the goal were to make money, the gates would go to places people would want to go, such as major cities-states, places of great scenic beautify or places with exploitable resources. But if that were the case, you would keep the doors guarded. You would have gateways into the gateways, places to control traffic, to extract payment before letting people go on. That doesn't make sense for this arrangement, however, since once through, it appears a person can just wander and try doors as we've started to do."

"Or perhaps it started out as a science experiment or a travel hub, but a huge amount of time has passed since its creation and the civilization that created it is long gone, leaving the nexus for lucky travelers such as ourselves, who stumble into it."

"I think we need more data on the variety of places we might go. I vote that we check out a few more, always taking what precautions we can to defend ourselves should we encounter more strange creatures with dark intent."

"It would help if we had more weapons. I suggest we perhaps venture back into the garden world and collect clubs or branches that might serve as quarterstaves. We might also gather some stones and make some slings out of what materials we have on hand. I learned a bit about slings from the street urchins of Athens, who were surprisingly good with such a simple weapon."

Desmond looks down at the spear he holds in now clammy hands. The perspiration due to a the excitement of hope has chilled to a cold sweat. Maybe a few schoolyard scraps when he was just a boy, perhaps, but he had never committed a violent act in his adult life. But this... undead. The others may be scientifically curious about the phenomenon, but he shudders at the thought. An abomination. A defilement of the word of the Lord. He can't imagine hurting a living soul, but a thing like that...

So many options. He looks about the group, not knowing which is the best course, only that they should stick together. His last little idea separated the group and put Gordon and Janice in danger. These are all capable, intelligent people, and a few of them look like they know a thing or two about combat.

He defers, Whatever you all think is best.

He then turns to Jasper and holds out the spear for him, Here, I think this might be better off in your hands. Until we have to face off with such a monster, I will only be armed with the grace of God

Lots of ideas. Well, I choose the garden path because I want to find some water to wash off this gore. <indicating her arms>

I wouldn't mind counting doors either. However, I'm too gross to philosophize further. Whether or not we can get home, we must have some kind of base and supplies in order to function.

She walks over to the garden door and into the garden.

She looks over her shoulder. Coming?

Jasper was taken aback by Father McKinley's question: why weren't there any other travelers here? He'd originally assumed that the place (or "Nexus" as MacCray dubbed it) was simply abandoned. But if the doors were so easy to open from both sides, where was everyone?

Jasper decided he'd focus on the moment at hand and deal with problems as they arised. Getting supplies and forming a base of operations seemed like the best idea for now, until they could come up with a plan to get more information and eventually find a way home.

He took the spear from Father McKinley gratefully and gave him a confidant smile. Thank you, Father. I will do my best to see you through this journey unharmed.

He looked hesitantly at the spear in his grip (even now, holding it made him feel like a thief), then strode out to follow Dr Zeroux.

"As the great quantum physicist, Brian Greene, said, 'Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty.' And I believe it was Super Chicken who was fond of observing, 'You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.' " Cooil joins Janice at the garden door.

Once everyone is there, he asks people if they could tolerate taking time to capture the moment with a selfie. He sets up his camera on a small tripod, sets the timer and moves back to join the others in a pose with the garden door open and the world beyond waiting.

"That may be the last picture I take until we can confirm that our solar recharger works with this weird radiation."

Now that you've decided to all go through a door I will assume you test the door further.

The garden beckons but before you leave behind the 'Nexus' you let the door close with several of you on each side. It seems the door is equally simple to open by approach from the garden. As the door moves away from you on the courtyard side it moves towards you in the garden. Opening in only one direction from one side, travel is still possible from both sides of the door, even at the same time. You know that you will be able to go back through the door when or if you return here.

There is no one around that you can see and the tracks from the small being that Cooil and Desmond saw earlier are found easily. They lead west through the garden, but the dirt path leads south east.

I think we should follow the path, to make sure we know how to get back.

She waits to see if anyone objects, and if no one does, then moves along the path to the southeast.

Desmond agrees, A path like this denotes civilisation of some sort...

He keeps his mouth shut and his eyes open as they move along the path.

perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12

Once the decision to go through the door is made, Cooil begins assembling a simple sling. He uses string from our supply of string and cuts off a square of leather or stiff fabric from his backpack to serve as the stone holder.

Craft (sling): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
if needed, although a sling is such a simple weapon, I would think anyone with parts could make one, although it might be wielded with a penalty if not made properly. Cooil has no ranks in crafting weapons or anything else, but I hope the DC of the craft roll might be as low as 10.

Once on the garden side, Cooil begins to watch for anything on the ground that could serve as a club or a quarterstaff. He also begins to collect sling-stone sized rocks.

Gordon is not quite ready to abandon the room of doorways for any specific door but agrees to go when a consensus is reached. He is pleased that the doorways will open for them when they return and is happy to prove that theory correct.

Yes, path. Gordon agrees, unsure if he should hold the spear in a threatening manner or more casually in case they encounter another being.

Jasper wordlessly agrees with the consensus to follow the dirt path: better to find a building or household than to follow unknown tracks and get lost. As he walks along, a thought occurs to him, which he relays to Father McKinley:

Father McKinley, you were drawing a map earlier, correct? he asks. Perhaps you should continue to do so here in this garden? I can keep watch for anything hostile if you are worried.

With that, he goes silent and follows the Father's example of looking and listening for threats.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28

Hmm. Yes. Right., Desmond mumbles as he opens his notebook, careful not to drop any of the loose pages, and begins to sketch out a rough map of the garden path. He's no cartographer, though, and does the best he can. Let's see, it curved to the right a little bit, then to the left... He looks around for any distinguishing landmarks perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21, and tries to keep accurate count of their paces.

If only I knew which way we're headed...

Cooil, how is your sense of direction here? Can you tell which way we're headed?

Looking for weapon materials (club and/or quarterstaff)
Perception: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (14) + 9 = 23

At the Father's suggestion, Cooil stopped before the door was out of sight and concentrated on his newly developed direction sense. He also checked the compass and snapped a picture of the door in the distance, to help identify landmarks.