Fine do as you wish, but i do not think we have the time to be bothering to bury a dead man, it is almost winter is it not? and we do need to reach the Crypt before then.
"First you advise us to make a funeral pyre, now you say we have not the time for a rock burial....women...." Harken says throwing his hands up in the air.
I simply think we should leave the dead man be, it's not our problem to deal with. For all we know this is another trick meant to slow us down
"Fiiiiinnnneeee....." Harken mutters and then grabs his items and walks back to the trail.
Keshik starts gathering rocks.
"If we are determined to do this, it will take us no time at all to cover the body in rocks if we all pitch in. Perhaps that is also part of the test?" Ka'narg shrugs as he sets his backpack to the ground near to the others.
"Also, ghoulish as it may sound, has anyone checked over the contents of the pouch and the quality of the sword? He will not need them if they are good enough to use, and if they aren't, then he can be buried with them."
Irgal starts carving a makeshift gravestone into a piece of driftwood as he prepares the corpse. He takes time to examine his effects. "If we can identify him, we will be able to tell someone, somewhere about his passing. You're right, he won't need his sword, so we can take it. Certainly there must be someone who misses him."
He grasps his holy symbol and chants, "Deadeye, grant me sight."
He looks the body, sword, and pouch over one last time.
Irgal's spell has no apparent effect. There's no discernible sign of magic around the body or the items nearby.
The pouch contains a number of gold pieces. The coins look newly minted from Nirmathas' capital city of Tamran; they bear the likeness and name of Forest Marshal Gavirk, the country's nominal leader.
The sword is a short sword; it looks well made and well maintained, and has, just below the hilt, the imprint of a maker's mark (which specific mark none of you recognise, but the general indication is of a masterwork weapon).
The party moves the body to a place further from the shore, where it has no chance of being swept back to the lake and to whatever creature might have originally wrought the damage. They then carefully place stones over it, and ensure it's well covered, so that at the end there is nothing but a forlorn cairn, alongside Irgal's makeshift grave marker, to note the victim's passing. Irgal recites a prayer for Erastil, and the others murmur words of comfort from their own deities.
The entire exercise takes about an hour. It's now noon and the sun is at its high point in the sky. The mists are being burned off from the centre of the lake, but it's otherwise calm.
Once the makeshift funeral is over and done with, Ka'narg takes the map out again and points towards the southern tree line. "There should be a trail to follow down there, and we should make good time - unless there are more abandoned bodies that we need lay to rest on the way," he jests, turning his gaze towards Keshy then Irgal and smirking.
He looks over his belongings, opening the pack to rearrange the items that had shifted over the course of the last two days of use, and contents himself to wait for the others to finish their business before he makes to move out.
"There should be a trail to follow down there, and we should make good time - unless there are more abandoned bodies that we need lay to rest on the way," he jests, turning his gaze towards Keshy then Irgal and smirking.
"I sincerely hope not," Irgal blurts bluntly. "Think of all the poor mothers who would have lost a child."
People die every day,i don't see point in fussing over it
It takes about three hours to reach the valley within which the Crypt is located. The trail from the Lake leads deep into the Fangwood, through a twisting maze of trees and confusing ravines. The trees in this part of the forest are very old and quite gnarled. About an hour into the journey, the weather makes the journey even more miserable, as a cold rain begins to fall.
As the path tops a small rise, it opens out to overlook a broad valley, the opposite side of which looks like a writhing serpent. Yet between the two lies a steep hill sloping down into the valley. The rain is becoming heavier, so that the land beyond the other side of the valley is difficult to make out.
The party has reached the point that the map identifies as Serpent Gorge.
But, as the map would indicate, there's no clear path down the Gorge and into the valley, nor is there a way round it. The undergrowth on the hill is particularly dense, making it a thorn-covered maze of bushes, treacherous roots, and uneven rocks, and the difficulty of the ground is compounded by by the slipperiness caused by the afternoon's rain.
Irgal looks down the path, not even thinking of it as an obstacle. "I'll wait for you at the bottom," he states as he sets off.
Hey, he's confident! Good for him. Keshik states as he decides to walk behind a convenient tree, and remove the Scale mail he's wearing out of sight, before donning a soldiers uniform, depicting the coat of arms of Kassen. Without a suit of metal around him his tail seems longer, and he doesn't look quite as big in general. After putting his armor away, and picking up his pack, he comes around.
Adventure! As he heads off with speed.
Edit:
And putting the armor back on when down. Total time spent: 35 minutes.
"Tie off a rope to an anchor point and then descend down...? No point in getting hurt before entering the Crypt...and the little man just scampered off..."
Illya follows Irgal rather easily, Do you perhaps need help with this small obstacle Harken? illya calls back teasing
".....No!...." the stubborn Ulfen says to the witch as he finishes tying off his anchor point...
Keshy calls from behind Illya during this:
Actually, this is really hard. You should be careful Harken. Lotta rocks. Looking around him as he drops off an especially jagged and diseasey rock.
And thorns...
And this bunny. Half a bunny...
Ooh! You could take your armor off too!
Ka'narg peers down the steep trail and frowns, seeming to judge each step before he goes to make it. "The water is patient and tireless, wearing away all obstacles in its path in time," he says to no-one in particular. As Irgal, Illya, and Keshy disappear quickly down the trail, he sighs."But the water also didn't have friends who can't see in the dark who were insistent on racing ahead in the wilderness," he responds to his own comment. He turns to Harken and shrugs. "Keshy has a point, it may make it easier if we remove our armour before we start down."
"I will see you at the bottom then. Best have a rope here in case we need to exit the Crypt in a hurry and scale the cliff up." Harken says and then uses the rope to descend.
After 10 minutes, Harken is about a third of the way down the first cliff, carefully choosing his steps while attached to the rope. Everyone else is at the bottom of the first cliff and ready for the second.
"does anyone else have rope?"
Harken then swears profusely for a bit. climbs back up to the top. Un-anchors the rope, takes off his armor, affixes all his gear, armor and weapons to the rope, then lowers the rope to the base of the first cliff...then unencumbered he takes 10 to move down to the base of the first cliff. He will continue to do that until he reaches the bottom...
While laboriously packing his gear, armour, items and weapons for lowering by rope, Harken fails to notice that one of the items in question is a grappling hook.
Second verse same as the first. Armor off, but until we get to the bottom this time because I forgot there were three checks.
Then the armor goes back on. Between that, he yells back to Harken
No rope, sorry!
...grumbles...
Ka'narg tosses Harken an additional fifty-foot length of rope from his backpack. "Will that be enough?" he inquires. He waits for Harken to be set before he removes his armour and makes his way down the remainder of the slope carefully.
The party manages to make it to the bottom of the gorge without incident. After that, it's only about a 30 minute walk along the valley to the entrance to the Crypt. It's 4.30 in the afternoon by the time the group arrives, and the winter twilight is beginning to settle, but there's still enough light to make out the path.
The crypt entrance is an archway of stone, 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. The packs they had been carrying at the time they were killed lie scattered nearby, still connected to the animals' bodies by their strappings. Most of the packs look empty but a few are still full. Despite the fact that the rain is still falling lightly, a swarm of flies hangs lazily in the air above the remains of the dead creatures.
Irgal stares in shock. "That's bad. Really bad. Illusory orcs are one thing, long-dead corpses and treacherous paths are not threats, but this? This?"
Tears well up as he continues, "Who would do this to horses?"
Something hungry... Although I suspect it's mostly likely just another staged thing. She doesn't flinch at the sight, wandering over to the packs of the full ones to check the contents.
Of the packs that contain anything at all, two contain some food, spoiled by the rain. But one is still intact. It contains two days’ worth of rations, a pair of large, comfortable pillows, a quiver with 10 blunt arrows and 2 pints of lamp oil.
She takes the pillows and the Lamp oil There are extra rations and some blunted arrows in here if anyone want them
Still in shock, Irgal walks by Illya-Nym. "I'll take the arrows. Blunt? Dead horses, blunt arrows, that's not making a lot of sense, to be honest."
Keshik surveys the scene a moment, he walks up to Irgal, kneels and puts a hand on his shoulder. Hey. You gonna be okay? Before turning with a furrowed brow.
If these are real, then who left them behind?
Seeing the dead horses Harken kicks at one of the saddlebags littering the area in anger...
"These horses did nuthin to no one and deserved better than this. Why the pillow? We did not come here for a nap..."
they are comfortable and mine now...also potentially flammable when doused in lamp oil
Ka'narg watches over the scene, his brow furrowed. "Perhaps there were others near here who were less lucky with the wolves than we were? Can anyone determine what may have happened to these beasts or how long ago this all happened?"
Irgal pulls out his veterinarian's kit. "Let me take a closer look," he replies, testily. He offers a prayer "Erastil, strengthen my resolve..." and examines the wounds.
"Let me know what you find out Irgal, so that I may know the person who caused this tragedy and let them know the errors of their ways."