untrained Survival
perception
"Bizarre. The man seems to have fallen prey to his own trap. Why would he need such a dangerous setup, anyways? Were these men hunting bear or other dangerous game?"
Raven stoops down to inspect the trap. "Yeah. This wasn't intended to catch deer or anything that hunters normally go after." Raven's gaze darkens and she scowls. "This could be intended for humans, perhaps. One we get back to the trading post, I'll contact Akiros." Over the past month, Raven has focused on improving relations with Akiros' slowly developing community, hoping that a merger could be reached with the group's budding nation.
Raven turns to the rest of the group. "Now, the question is, why sabotage? Perhaps a particularly willful victim came back from the dead to exact revenge? But that wouldn't explain the other disappearances."
"Why can't you use a trap like to catch deer or the like?" Elvara is clueless about hunting.
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"S̷̨͔̝̗̩͗̃͊̇e͇̥̱͓͗̍͟e͈̰̰͙͇̦̐͗̅ͯͣ͗̓̒͢ͅ ̻̎͊́w̏̈́̽̽͑ͥ҉̤̙̣̩̻̖̺i̟͋̄ͭͦͬt̲̩͎̖͎̉̑̑ͯ̊ḫ̖̱̠̯͚͉̌͌̐ ͙͍̺̳͚̟̳̏͐͛̅̀ͨ͢͠s̵̲͙̦͐ͫͣ̆̈͞h̯̭̭̭̤͙̬̩̅̈́̿̔ͬ͘͞ä̷͚̻͕̪͙̩͍̬͖́ͭ̏ͥ͛ͨ̽ͬȑ̡̛ͫ̌͑͆͊̅ͥ̉͘ͅ ̝̖̝p̡̺͇͉̹͉̪̥̩̈ͩͥ̅̈̈́ͦ̚ ̶͓̤͇͖̦̭̹̈́̃̇̔ͤ́ę̥̟̪͇͓͉̪̙̈ͥ̅̿̆̾͟y͔̞͔̠͂ͦͯ͆̏̀͜ẻ̵̛̼̳̰͖̰̼̤̹̓ͩ̊ͣ͘s̘̉̓ͭͦ̅̉̓̇́"
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Elvara touches her eidolon with an arcane work, making Smexy's eyes flash for a moment. She slithers over to inspect the scene.
"Cutsss. by sssomethingss sssharp." She points with a claw towards the rope.
Elvara smiles at her eidolon's discovery. "Someone cut this. Either it's an accident by the man himself or something else is afoot. There aren't really any tracks by anyone else right? So if it was cut by someone else, they didn't leave tracks."
She looks to Vorsirion. "You seem to have a way to gain information beyond what my abilities can do. Could you find out who cut this?"
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Having not noticed the cut rope before, Vorsirion listens curiously to the eidolon's discovery.
He walks over to the rope and closes his eyes as he concentrates on it.
He briefly experiences the sensation of blood in his mouth, but tries to maintain his concentration.
Examining an item in this way requires him to spend 1 minute handling the item. If the item is a magic item, the occultist learns its properties and command word as if he had successfully examined the item using detect magic and succeeded at a Spellcraft check. This ability does not reveal whether the item is cursed unless the occultist's class level is equal to or greater than the caster level of the item. If the item has any historical significance, the occultist learns one piece of information about its past (as determined by the GM). Finally, if the item was last used no longer than 1 day ago per the occultist's class level, the occultist learns one piece of information about the last creature to use the item. This information might be a glimpse of the creature's appearance, a brief vision of what it saw while using the item, or perhaps its emotional state when it last used the item. The GM determines what information is gained in this way. This functions like the psychometry occult skill unlock, but doesn't require a skill check and can be used at will.
Upon Object Reading, Vorisirion receives a vision associated with the rope. In a scene at dusk human male, who you assume is the same man that was crushed under the trap, strains to move several felled logs in a position at the top of a rise. The ropes hold the logs in place, and the man surveys his handywork with an almost malevolent grin. At the edge of the vision out of sight of the human, the axe that had been resting on top of a tree stump appears to fly up as if on its own accord, slicing through the rope and slamming into the stump!
The vision begins to fade and you can only see the man's look of horror moments before the logs slam down on him, before you return to the present.
Raven nods. "Either way, it can't be good. In case the axe is cursed, I would suggest not doing your scan on it." Raven looks around. "Now the question is, how can we put a stop to... whatever this is?"
The axe, based on Detect Magic does not appear to have any magical properties (and is unlikely to be cursed.
Currently, it is likely to be a couple hours away from dusk (to match the time seen in the vision.)
Raven sighs and rubs her forehead. "No solution other than to look for it, it seems. Whatever the hell it is. You know the drill: watch your back, conserve spells, and keep your hands on your blades." With that, Raven begins spiraling around in a slow circle from the site of the huntsman's death, methodically searching for the culprit.
"Agreed. By the way, Raven, I believe this magic should help you move around a bit easier. If you'd like, anyways," if Raven allows it, Alamina touches her on the shoulder and speaks a few words to Desna.
"There you go, much faster, for several hours, too!" Alamina smiles and brings her crossbow up, moving with the group and keeping an eye out for trouble.
perception
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Vorsirion looks around warily, a chill running down his spine.
Death...it comes for all of you...
The elf takes the axe from the log hesitantly, but knowing it wasn't to blame.
"This axe bears no curse that I can determine. It is of fine quality should anyone desire to use it."
The elf taxes a position with Raven at the front of the line.
"Let us proceed."
Given a lack of visible culprit and more questions than answers, the party decides to cautiously search around the site of the trapper's demise in a spiral. After an hour they are able to locate what they take to be the deceased man's handiwork: a rather large bear trap that is set and remains active. Luckily, the keen eyes of the party spot it before someone stepped into it.
As the party considers what to do with the trap, a few of the more alert can almost *feel* themselves being watched, a premonition that raises hairs on the back of your necks. The deep forest has an unnatural sense of stillness and quiet; it almost as if the temperature has dropped ten degrees almost immediately.
At the edge of the treeline about 45 feet away, a small, smartly dressed human boy watches you silently and with evident curiosity. The presence of the small child in the midst of the dangerous wilderness is probably disconcerting enough without adding in the fact that you can see the surrounding forest through the blurry transparent outline of boy. In a soft voice that reverberates in an eerie echo the boy whispers, "Who are you? Are you here to play?"
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Vorsirion pales visibly as he observes the boy...or rather, the ghost.
"This apparition is a ghost," he whispers to his companions. "There are often conditions to banish them...perhaps we can discover his."
The elf turns and addresses the boy.
"We are explorers," he says. "We did not mean to come into the area where you play. We can leave if you want. Or we can play with you. Is there anything you like to play? Or anything you need help with?"
A ghost! So what they said was true after all. That's worrysome. I guess we should try to learn as much as possible.
While Vorsirion talks Elvara mutters a quick cantrip to enchant her words.
"Hello there little one. I'm Elvara Rivers." She says with a smile. "Enough about us though. What are you doing out here in the woods? Is there something troubling you? We are always looking to help people in trouble."
The small boy smiles brightly (as brightly as a shadowy transparent apparition can) at the nice words of the woman, moreso than the elf (who clearly is trying to hard to appease the dangerous undead.)
"Oh, I like to play, and it gets boring here. I do get lonely sometimes, maybe we can play! Nobody really troubles me though... though there was that mean man. He liked to hurt things around here, just to hurt them! He left his nasty metal teeth-traps all around here, and yelled when I set them off so nothing would get killed!"
At that, the boy gestures to the uncovered trap a few feet from you, which snaps shut with impressive force. "He can't hurt anything anymore. No one can hurt me anymore."
Raven walks slowly towards the boy and kneels, giving a rather tremulous smile. "It must get pretty lonely 'round here," she asks awkwardly.
"I used to be pretty lonely when I was your age, too. Just me. My mom was never around, could never pay attention to me. All my uncle talked about was training me. Training, all day long! It made me so tired. But it doesn't have to be that way for you. You have a ma and pop, right? Or a granny, or an aunt or uncle? Somebody waiting for you just over the hill? You should probably go see them. I bet they're waiting for you, worried sick." Raven pauses for a moment, then takes off her pack and rummages around in it, before fishing out a linen-wrapped package. With great care, she unwraps it, revealing a crudely-made doll. "If you're afraid of getting lost, don't be. Somebody who was lost and afraid and cold gave this to me, and I found them and gave them a warm place, and I chased away their fears. If you ever feel lost and afraid and cold, just think of this doll, and I'll find you and help you."
"He conflatesssss the hurtsss from the trapsss with hisss own painsss. Smexy whispers for the benefit of everyone in the party, rather than sending the message telepathically to just Elvara.
Again Elvara takes the opportunity to cast another cantrip of guidance while the others talk.
"He won't hurt you anymore. We are here now to make things better." Elvara says soothingly.
Maybe by opening up and telling my story, he'll tell his in turn. Elvara shudders and feels her knees go wobbly as she thinks back to her horrible experience, but soon she steels herself to continue.
"A bad man once hurt me very much. He caused me great pain and did inappropriate things to me. Thankfully Smexy here came and stopped him." The summoner gives her eidolon a thankful look.
Elvara turns back to the ghost with a gentle smile and a concerned look. "Did anyone hurt you? Please tell us about it. Maybe we can stop that person from doing the same to someone else."
You can sense a conflict running through the ghostly boy. He seems to relax with as you all talk to him, although he looks a bit more apprehensive at the mention of being hurt. "It wasn't fair. Mum and dad would never let me do anything interesting, never let me play outside. The servants were ok, but they wouldn't play with me either. So maybe I ran away, ok? It's not like they'd miss me. And there was this man that said he'd show me the market, and horses! Mum and Dad never let me see horses, even though they owned several. So I went with the man. Then he grabbed me. When I could I tried to get away, but he hurt me bad." The child starts to cry for a minute, otherworldy tears. [b]"I don't think me meant to hurt me so bad. At least that's what he said. It doesn't matter, though; he tossed me in the water. That hurt too, for a while."
The boy seems to reflect a bit. "It was quiet for a while. A really long while. I wandered around, bored... but now I can see here again! And play! It's not boring, at least! Things are thin, between where I was and here. Like a piece of tissue I saw once!" He seems to shift focus again, quickly. "I... don't think I like it at the bottom of the water though. I'd like to play... but I wanna go home. I miss Mum and Dad." He looks surprisingly sincere as he amends. "Don't tell them that though, ok?"
"Perhaps we could help you out. Do you know where the water is? You said something about being at the bottom, maybe we could get you up from there."
"It's ok." Elvara says soothingly. "I ran away too." Her words lowers to a whisper so the boy doesn't hear. "Though from the bad man..."
"We'll help you get home to your mom and dad. But first we need to see the water. Could you take us there?"
The silence stretches for a long moment after the party suggests finding the water and the child going home, before he bursts out into tears. "I want to go home! It's so cold! And lonely!" Without waiting for a reply, his transparent form turns and moves towards the direction of the Thorn river.
It is getting dark as he leads you to an off shoot from the river and solemnly points to a wet and muddy eddy, that has been clogged with leaves. The remnant of the small child looks sad as he points and whispers, "Down there" before he vanishes, clearly not wanting to watch further for now.
Raven carefully wades into the river, and begins searching for the body, a small grimace on her face.
Once he disappears Elvara says with a heavy voice to the others. "It's good we managed to convince him to tell his story so we might get an end to this. But it's quite a sad thing that such a thing can happen. Raven, swimming in your armor could be difficult. Let Smexy try. I could actually summon a water elemental to look , but I wouldn't know how to communicate with it unfortunately."
Smexy gets a quick cantrip of guidance from Elvara and slithers into the water and helps with looking.
"Could you summon some form of celestial creature? I could speak with them in that case."
"I can actually summon celestial animals, horses, wolves or even an octopus. However sadly being celestial doesn't make them able to speak any more than normal animals, so it wouldn't help much. I suppose I could summon a dolphin and try to make it find the body. I do have a knack for dealing with animals. Let's see if Smexy can't find it first though." Elvara ponders and explains her magic as she watches intently for the result of Smexy's search.
It takes some time, but with magical light sources provided by Quint, Smexy is able to search out a set of small human bones within the bog, more or less intact. It is a slow effort to retrieve them all, but the eidolon amasses a macabre collection.
About the time it is clear that the eidolon is unable to locate further bones, the ghost of the young boy returns, staring at his own remains for a moment, then turning away to Elvara. "That's... that's me, isn't it? Or the me I used to be? Can you take them home? I lived in Nivakta's Crossing. Brently Wyrwood."
He looks down at his hand, that grows transparent even as he spoke. With a sad wave, he whispers "Thank you" and fades away. It seems likely that his connection to his place of unrest is severed.
Raven nods and gives a tender smile. "I'm sure your family is waiting for you," she says, before gingerly taking some of the bones.
Elvara nods to Raven, glad that they think the same way before she looks to the boy with a sad smile. "Of course we'll take you home. We're here to help."
"You're welcome." A tear comes to her eye as the ghost starts dissapearing.
Once he's gone she looks to the others in alarm. "Do you think there might be more gosts?"
"Who knows? I would not have wagered on there being even one, really. I'm concerned whoever took this boy and drowned him may have a longer dark legacy as well."
Alamina shivers and hugs herself, kneeling over the bones and whispering prayers to Desna, wishing the spirit of the boy swift passage to his final rearing place.
Raven cups her chin and nods thoughtfully. "Indeed. We'll want to keep an eye on the area, and maybe keep the woodsmen from entering it. The lumber and and hides that we lose is nothing compared to the panic that will spread if this continues and more people start disappearing."
"Yeah, I don't like it either, but not only may it be a harbringer of things to come, there might be other things already. Let's hope the boy was the cause for all the problems we've heard about. Too bad we don't have any way to figure out who the killer was from his remains. Let's see about getting those bones back where they belong." Elvara moves over and helps with gathering up the bones so they can get them transported to the boy's parents.
Vorsirion attempts to contact the spirit of the boy, but was unable to gather anything intelligible. A random assortment of mutterings echo in his ears for a few seconds, then go silent.
It is likely that you have dealt with the threat that inhabited this area. There is a woods full of traps that you can deal with, or you can leave it to others and return to Olegs and make an effort to return Brently's body.
"Let's deal with the traps in the area before we head back with the bones to make the area safe for travelers."
With the immediate threat passed, the party fans out through the northern Narlmarches, thoroughly surveying the woods and disarming a number of hidden traps through the use of strenuous maneuvering and summoned monster. After a day of scouring, you've amassed a small collection of trapping paraphernalia, which could be used for your own purposes, sold, or donated to the growing group of potential settlers that are congregating at Oleg's.
Raven stretches and gives a small smile. "It's nice to get back out in the field. If I had to go one more week of training those idiot villagers into a proper militia, I would have gone completely off my rocker."
Compared to the gristly and unearthly encounters of the past couple days, the return back to Oleg's Trading post is relatively uneventful, with only the burdens of a small boy's remains and solid iron traps weighing the party down. The time away had been productive, however, and the group has resolved an imminent threat to the new civilization.
Upon your arrival, Kesten Garess greets you with a salute, taking to the place of organizing patrols in your absence of responsibility. "Hope you've been succesful in your time away. People've been a bit antsy at word of "hauntings" in the woods." He scoffs.
"While you've been gone, a couple of individuals have arrived wanting to speak to you. A noble from Taldor, seems to be an alright sort. And a cleric of Erastil, though she seems to be a bit at odds with a few of the more hard-line Erastalites."
When you are ready, a young man dressed in a Taldor style approaches you. He has light brown hair and a styled beard out of place in an area where few men have looked in a mirror regularly. Despite his apparent care for appearance, from beneath his tailored coat you note a sheen of small chain rings and he carries a longbow as if he has some familiarity with it. After making a small nod he smiles and spreads his gloved hands. "So, you're the up-and-comers I've heard so much about. News travels fast in this region, and I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, My name is Lloyd, Lloyd Rezbin. I am quite interested in hearing your plans for this region."
He pauses for a moment, then continues. "I do have a personal interest in this region, as well. I am the third son of a small House, and as dear father already has his heir and a spare, I am a bit extraneous with limited prospects. While my brothers were groomed to take care of our small holdings, I was given time to learn from our Huntmaster... and time to read stories about our ancestors. Several generations ago, my family had a settlement to the South East on the bends of the Thorn River. I was hoping I might persuade you to locate any remnants of that settlement, and search it for anything that might have belonged to my family? Maybe something from the past would help improve my future."
Raven nods to Kesten, gesturing for him to relax. "We believe the hauntings have been taken care of," she says professionally. "As a side note, we need you to scare up some of your more... presentable men to deliver some remains to the Wyrwood family."
Raven nods at Kesten's report. "Care to enlighten me as to the noble's house? They tend to get touchy if they get mistaken. And can you tell me what he's here for? What about the Erastilite? How is she 'different'?"
Raven nods to Kesten, gesturing for him to relax. "We believe the hauntings have been taken care of," she says professionally. "As a side note, we need you to scare up some of your more... presentable men to deliver some remains to the Wyrwood family."
Raven nods at Kesten's report. "Care to enlighten me as to the noble's house? They tend to get touchy if they get mistaken. And can you tell me what he's here for? What about the Erastilite? How is she 'different'?"
"Wyrwood... Name isn't familiar, but with the comings and goings, I'm sure I can find someone dependable."
He thinks for a moment about the second question. "Ersatalites... can be a bit of an old fashioned bunch, if you ask me. Big on community and living within the bounds of nature... but some take that to having definite ideas about one's roles in society, especially when it comes to gender and a woman's place. There's a few of the settlers led by an older man named Jhod Kavken that is more of the stodgier sect, and he follows the tradition that a husband does the hunting, farming, building, a wife does the cooking, mending, child rearing. Latricia Evanore, however is a single woman and actively speaks against that particular traditional thinking."