Moira helps with the burial. It was a shame but these things happened. Sometimes people went into the forest and never came back. They just weren't prepared for it or just got unlucky. Then Vera speaks of possible foul play. And takes a look too.
was not expecting that. Do I gleen any more information than Vera?
Vera shrugs. "Like I said, I can't be sure. It's possible, even likely that this is just a normal animal attack and the mark just means he lost something. I don't want to rule out foul play though. If there's someone who did this hanging around I'd rather be prepared for them."
"Some sort of satchel torn from him perhaps?" Dyrm offers his own guesswork as he looks at the wrist. He glances out at the water wandering if something fell in deeper
The corpse has indeed been dead for months.
Dyrm steps into the water and finds a small satchel that was once attached to the man's belt. The satchel is now worthless but the 87 gold pieces within are in fine condition. You also find a masterwork quality short sword with a rotten and snapped leather weapon cord.
"If I knew who he was and where his family was, I'd offer this to them, but as it is..." He holds out the coins and short sword, "I suppose this belongs to us now? Does anyone wish the short sword? Seems to me the metal is of good quality."
Sa'sori will step forward, "I could make use of a small sidearm.. unless Cotton wants it?"
Sa'sori looks at the corpse, "I say I'm not comfortable leaving the corpse as is. I don't like the way other creatures have not tried to eat portions of the corpse... how do they know he was poisoned? I'd like to destroy the body ... just to make sure."
"The body was floating in the water. That alone would make it difficult for most scavengers to get to. That and they could probably sense or smell the poison. This person is not from Kassen though. The leather in the armor more like the stuff you would find in one of the bigger cities. Looks to me like he was just ill prepared for traveling in the forest or really unlucky to run across that snake. I'd rather we continue burying him so we can tell someone back at Kassen later."
A side note the lakes water is pure enough to drink and would make an excellent source to refill your waterskins.
How long do you guys want to take to bury this man?
[ooc]Same on the burial. That water can't be pure after a body has been floating in it for months. Does anyone have create water?[/b]
In the interest of sanitation, Vera will use create water to fill up everyone's waterskins while the burial is finished.
Dyrm will throw his back into the digging efforts, "I could try to set the body ablaze. It might take a bit of oil as waterlogged as he is. Some prefer death by pyre anyway."
Without tools a burial would take a few hours of daylight. Burning the corpse would be faster. A grave or rocks to cover the body would be the fastest.
Sa'sori shrugs, "...I can dissolve the body and destroy it. It would only take a few minutes - if that much... and use up None of our limited burning oil reserves."
She gestures with her left index finger... the tip of which glows a sickly green radiance in readiness...
"Well, it's certainly an efficient method if nothing else..." Vera comments with obvious discomfort.
"Hey, let's just put him under some rocks now," Cotton says. "We can always tell the townies where he is so they can give him a proper grave later. Melting a guy's body and letting it seep into the earth is such an Ustalavian thing to do."
A hasty pyre is prepared, and Dyrm considers Sa'sori's offer, "Let's try fire first. Disolving shouldn't be any worse, but it feels a bit odd to me, or less natural than plain old fire. If this fails to catch, then do what you must"
And when the body seems prepared, the druid allows a small ember of flame to gather and grow in the palm of his hand, and then throws it on the pyre to ignite the body
"I wouldn't bother with fire, the body and the clothes are too waterlogged. It would take longer than burying him but I think he deserves a burial at some point. Someone might be looking for him. Lets just build a Cairn and move on. We are wasting daylight."
I agree with Moira. Proper respects can be paid at a later point in time.
The two sorceress set to drying the body while Vera and Dyrm build a pire to keep the surrounding woods safe from the flame. Moria sets off into the woods finding plenty of dry woods and brush. Once all the supplies are collected you set the body in place and light it. It does struggle to burn but with some coaxing the flames take the body.
Having lost some daylight you push back to the trail with haste. Your pace is forced to slow again as the clouds above the forest's canopy give way to a bitterly cold drizzle. You follow your map even deeper into the Fangwood though a confusing maze of trees and ravines. The trail climbs atop a small rise with a broad valley stretched before it whose opposite side looks like a writhing serpant. Between you lies a steep hill that looks slick and dangerous. According to your map, the crypt lies at the bottom of this hill of dense, thorn covered brush, treacherous roots, and uneven rocks.
"Well, here we are," Cotton says, arms crossed over her head against the steady drizzle. She looks at the tangled landscape between the group and their objective. "Hmmm... Looks slippery. We should be extra careful going down, I guess."
"I think you're right, Cotton. How much rope do you all think we might have between us?"
"Fifty feet, right here," Cotton says, patting the coil tied around her waist and hanging on her hip. "The good stuff, too, not hemp like the hangman uses. You never know when you're going to need to climb or ford a raging river, am I right?"
"I'm going to have a bit of trouble here." Vera says eyeing the slope. "I'm not exactly light on my feet to begin with. Combined with my armor...Let's just say I apologize in advance for the trouble I'm about to cause"
If it will let up soon and be better tomorrow Moira says, "Let's just wait till tomorrow. Its sloce to dark and shouldn't rain much longer. Might be more manageable."
If it will continue Moira pulls out her own set of rope, hempen, to help people down.
A cold front is coming in signaling this drizzle will likely be a storm by daylight tomorrow.
The slope shows no signs of magic. It can take a half hour to safely decend this hill, or a full hour if you wish to take a more cautious pace and route. The ropes will provide a +2 equipment bonus to your checks.
I need 3 acrobatics checks from everyone and how long you want to take getting down.
Moira stares at the sky as the others tie the ropes. Cotton and Sa'sori both knew Moira as a bit of a stargazer, sometimes getting lost in the clouds for hours. Just before they start to wonder she speaks but still stares at the sky. "I was afraid of this. We are going to have to hustle down this hill before it gets worse. Cause it is."
Sa'sori will lend her 50'ft of rope to the effort if its is needed. And make her decent second...
"Here goes nothing."
Dyrm isn't sure about this, but readies the rope and tries to keep up. I feel silly, I'm supposed to be a druid , one with nature...
Setting off down the hill cautiously following Moria as their guide the party starts their decent. Not far down the hill Dyrm weight causes a rock to slide into the mud sending the dwarf tumbling down a small hill before crashing into a tree. The dwarf regains his footing a bit shaken but mostly unharmed.
Seeing the dwarfs tumble gives everyone enough of a scare to proceed with caution. You descend down the hillside another twenty minutes. Moria glances back to check on the group gets her foot caught in an unseen root and nearly tumbles into a patch of thorny briar before catching herself on the knotted rope.
Having reached the bottom of the hill, you follow the last bit of the map to the marked entrance of the crypt. An archway of stone is set into the side of a small hill at the bottom of the valley. Moss has overgrown many of the details, but one is still quite clear. The keystone of the arch is carved with a flame symbol with a stylized rune in the middle. Beyond the archway is a darkened tunnel that leads to a pair of massive wooden doors, one of which is slightly ajar.
A pair of horses and a trio of ponies lie slaughtered next to the archway, each corpse still tied to a post set into the ground nearby. A swarm of flies hangs lazily in the air above them.
"Okay," Cotton says after a moment of pregnant silence, "call me a crazy Gnome if you like, but that doesn't look right. Something's wrong here, or I'm a Spriggan."
The little Sorceress renews her spell of detection and looks around. A second cantrip, muttered on the heels of the first, causes four balls of light to swirl into being, bobbing in the air.
Vera draws her axe and heads over to horses. "If this isn't another illusion, then I agree that something is very wrong."
If this is the towns people's doing they have a sick since of humor. But she is fairly certain it isn't. Arnama always told her to trust her instincts first. And her gut was saying tread cautiously. While Vera goes to the horses Moira shrugs off her bow and approaches the archway first and waits, listening for sounds that shouldn't be there.
If she hears nothing she moves to the door stealthily and listens again. If someone tries to follow she gives them a shooing motion and tries to convey the seriousness of the situation.
Nothing detects as magic in range of the spell. The horses each have saddlebags on them that can be searched. Moria under one of the horses you spot what appears to be a human skull trapped under the horse. The corpse would need to be moved to examine further.
You quietly approach the doors and strain to hear what you believe is a wailing noise far into the chamber.
Dyrm rubs his sore shoulder.Ah well, pride comes before the fall.
Then they come upon the corpses of the poor beasts
"Part of me hopes it IS another illusion," He tries to determine how long they've been dead as he also closes.
The horses look to have been dead two days, likely slain by crude swords or claws.
"Two days I'd guess," Dyrm wrinkles his nose even as he sniffs the decay, "These marks...the wounds.. I can't tell if they were caused by claws or very crude blades. It's too rough to be sure."
"Let me just - unf! - come on, don't get stuck on - grr! - there we go!" Cotton tugs her spear loose from its loop on her backpack and grounds it. "Claws or swords," she says, "I'd say it's time to bring out the weaponry, folks."
Sa'sori will move forward look at the horses in distaste... but begin going through their saddlebags to find out if she can get any clue as to who was here and what they had intended to do here at the crypt.
"I'm more curious about where the horses riders are. , would you please help me and move these corpses out of the way so we can enter and leave without hassle."
Vera will begin moving the horse's body to uncover the skull. In the interest of thoroughness, she will move the other horse and the three ponies just to be sure they aren't hiding any clues beneath them.
Then examine the skull.
Dyrm certainly helps, but answers, "I think they might have gone into the crypt"
All but one of the saddlebags are empty. The one horses bags that are not empty contains a pair of large, comforatable pillows, a quiver with 20 arrows whose tips have been hammered blunt, 2 trail rations, a full waterskin, and two pints of lamp oil.
The skull is not alone under the horse. An entire human skeleton is scattered under the horse. Some of the bones have been crushed apart. Vera the skeleton is very old, years dead, at least.
"I think we can be reasonably certain this wasn't one of the riders at least. I'm curious about it, but the only place we're liable to get any answers is inside" Vera prepares herself to enter the Crypt.
Sa'sori looks at the smashed skeleton... and grimaces.
"Wait."
She moves back over to the hillside and draws her elven curve blade and begins to hack a few limbs from the closest trees jutting from the perilous hillside. She cuts six branches off.
Frowning at using her treasured blade for such crude work she sheathes it again and brings the collected branches over to thew entrance. Drawing one of her three daggers she begins to cut any stray leafing still on the branches until she has... 6 crude clubs.
"Here... everyone carry one. That skeleton is obviously not fresh... it was not laying there when the horse fell on it. No I think it killed the horse and the horse fell on it! Check the skeleton's hands... and teeth.. I'll bet their blood stained. Undead. It's got no flesh to cut.. so breaking its bones I'd bet is the best option.. there may be more inside. We should all carry a club... just in case."