[Rolls the dice anyway]1d20 [/ooc]
[BLEEP!]
So, 1d20+10 -> 3+10+2 -> 15 to influence a CR 2 aurochs bull (DC 17).
No dice: the bull is happy with his female herd, and uninterested in giving up his cushy grazing life to go adventuring with a polymorphously perverse male biped.
Cricket (hopefully) uses his cape skills to gently and non-confrontationally steer the bull back to his cows.
Ole!
The cows calm down with some distance, and it's fun watching the birds bomb them -- the giant boobries create giant droppings.
In the wet ground are some slightly smaller hoof tracks.
Just calves, probably.
While Cricket is up to his antics, Caspian offers an aside to the others.
"It would be better if he were to warn us first, perhaps by saying something like hey you guys watch this...."
@Cricket afterwards.
"I missed part of the excitement how about in the future you let me know your about to do something?"
Cricket waves his red blanket and tries to get the bull to come back and gore Caspian.
Anyway, Tsarok looks at the other hoofprints:
Tsarok:
Obvious, but inevitable:
Poor calf.
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Tsarok crouches down beside some of the tracks in the mud after spending a long time failing to decipher what the point of Cricket's red blanket was. "A Horned Ghost has been born here recently," he announces gravely. "An aurochs-headed bestial spirit given physical form by its malevolence and hunger. They hunt the unwary in gangs through the swamps, never getting lost, always knowing the best way to turn. ... They can't swim very well though," he adds, almost as an afterthought.
Caspian listens intently to the information Tsarok has provided on this monster, the theme seems to fit the lore of the minotaur, though with some subtle differences......
"Is it related to the minotaur?"
"I've never heard of that name before," Tsarok admits as he straightens up. "Perhaps that is the name the humans refer to them as."
Jaegr listens to the talk of the horned ghost and says, "I don't swim well either, so if we run into one, I'll be facing it rather than sinking to the bottom of the bog."
Cricket immediately detects spirits and keeps doing so, periodically, until I say he stops
"Anyone know of anything else?"
Knowledge (lore)
Caspian distracts himself from the discussion as he noticed Cricket trying to lure the bull on his ass!
Wyvurn frowns and shakes his head.
"This does not sound like a minotaur or any other magical beast. Nor does it sound like some form of restless dead. I have never heard of cow zombies that hunger for the living. I wonder if it is not some form of demonic possession."
It occurs to Wyvurn that exotic legends often start from mundane facts and pure, dumb coincidence. Like, if there are cattle, and also mean bull-headed monsters, sooner or later someone will start inventing fanciful connections between them, even though none may exist. It occurs to him that the best way to deal with the Horned Ghosts is to act from the standpoint that they are not ghosts, nor demons, nor anthing but what they look like -- simple bull-headed monsters -- and work from there.
As if to give credence to this, Cricket senses no malevolent spirits nearby. There are the usual vague, diffuse spirits of the marsh and grasses and waters, but these are indifferent to you and largely powerless anyway.
One of the truths of lore, Occam's razor......
Tsarok's people don't grow hair, so they have no need for razors...
Not sure if that did it, but thanks Kelgan.
Wyvurn feels as if he has ferreted out a lesson that will serve him well, even outside of the marshes.
You continue traveling, into the wetter parts of the moors. At one point you become aware of a Horned Ghost following you from a distance, but when Wyvurn turns around and races straight towards it, the thing seems awfully confused, and eventually turns and flees from you -- granted, the hobgoblin is scarier-looking than any cow-man!
[Cries every day Kirth is absent]
Back on line!
Tsarok, feel free to describe the party's arrival in your village. You can set up your village any way you like (consistent with what's already been posted, with the lizardfolks' generally low tech level, and within the tribe size range listed in the Bestiary).
Tsarok, is your village gone? That would be creepy!
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Ooh, like Roanoke
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The muck continues to make walking difficult in the swamp area he keeps looking at Tsarok...
"So Tsarok is your village in a nice location?"
You reach the site of Tsarok's village -- it's hard to tell if the lizardman's face shows anything, but his pace noticably increases -- and he stops, hard, indicating something is wrong. Caspian's worst fears are realized: there is nothing but a nasty mud wallow. The mud huts are all collapsed, flat, and the earthen burrows caved in. The ponds are clogged full of rocks, silt, and burned, charred brush and trees.
Survival (DC 15; apply Favored Terrain: swamps if applicable):
Survival (DC 20):
Survival (DC 25):
Survival (DC 30):
Detect spirits:
P.S. If you score a higher DC, you also get all the lower-DC information.
P.P.S. No peaking -- it ruins the mystery!
Jaegr quickly takes in everything he sees. He isn't as familiar with above ground battles, but he has been in enough large scale battles to understand most of what went on here.
"Can't see much for lizardfolk tracks, but not surprising. I do see webbed feet that appear to hop from place to place, probably bullywugs and maybe a dozen or so. They came and left again from the northwest."
Looking around some more Jaegr sees something else that is interesting, "Looks like there were four ogres and something else, maybe flying creatures? Mostly likely summoned now that think about it. Also one other thing was here that I am not sure about. See this large bipedal claw marks? Its not reptilian but I am not sure what it is."
Looking around some more a look of sadness crosses his face, " Sorry Tsarok, but it looks like there was a massive pyre here erected by the ogres. Most likely they burned the bodies of the fallen on both sides then pushed the pyre into the water. "
Cricket takes out a hankie and gives it to Tsarok.
Caspian eyes the hankie suspiciously not know what uses it has seen previously.
Caspian takes in the comments of the others and tries to discover something also...
Survival
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Survival 1d20 ⇒ 2
From his viewpoint, Caspian is pretty sure that there was a bear on a unicycle being chased by a clown on stilts. The tracks are clear as mud!
Wyvurn kneels down and looks closer at the tracks. After a bit, he shakes his head.
"Impressive insight, Jaegr. I am not seeing it, but what you say makes sense."
"Are you guys sure?"
"Which way did they come from and how many and which way did they go?"
Caspian looks both directions and finally stares at a single track, though he is not even sure which is the front or the back......
Cricket sees everything that Jaegr does, and of course is aware of the whole dearth of spirits thing as well (see above). It occurs to him that, with the situation as it is, no one could even commune with spirits or speak with dead to find out exactly what happened here and why.
"They came and left again from the northwest. They were directed by someone, maybe the one who was summoning the creatures. Looks like all the ogres made it, but maybe half or so of the bullywugs did not"
[Consoles Tsarok]
Coupled with his brutally clear assessment of the tracks, Jaegr deduces that
Someone was making certain, in a very "low-tech" kind of way, that no one in the village could talk to anyone outside of it, not even after death.
It's not totally clear how many bullywugs were killed, because their spear shafts would have been burned in the fire and their stone spearheads cracked from the heat, and after that kind of treatment theirs and the lizardfolks' would be indistinguishable from each other, even if you dredged the entire lake. However, a guesstimate of half of the bullywugs surviving is probably reasonably close.
It also seems very odd that you see no signs of magical defense (like, from a tribal shaman or something) in the village itself.
[Consoles Tsarok]
Apparently Tsarok has been shocked speechless...
Wyvurn grabs Tsarok and shakes him.
"Get a hold of yourself, man! By the Great Spirit, you're a sorcerer!"
Merry day after Christmas, everyone! And hope everyone had a happy Chanukkah, sizzlin' Solstice, rockin' Ramadan, kickin' Kwanzaa!
Back on line and waiting to see what the intrepid heroes are going to do... and if Tsarok will recover!
Caspian moves to console the lizardman since he has misplaced his village....
Cricket uses Handle Animal to console Tsarok and, later, include Caspian in a Tuelvi warrior ritual of grief and release.
Afterwards, if Tsarok is still in shock, he mentions, away from the gallamesh, Hey, guys, is it just me, or, Old Mother Tree forbid, if Tsarok doesn't recover from this ordeal, there isn't really much need to go on, right? I mean, gestures at the tracks and the lack of spirits and shivers, Mama Tree instructs us to never let a bullywug burble, but she never said anything about bullywugs and ogres!
Wolvie whimpers sympathetically.
Jaegr shares what he deduces. "The bullywugs probably got here first, then waited for the claw-footed humanoid and the ogres to arrive. The ogres strode in and started destroying huts and killing lizardfolk, and then half the bullywugs leaped into the fray using some kind of impaling weapons like spears, based on some stab marks in the ground. With the locations of some other bloodstains, some of the bullywugs had formed something of a perimeter, watching obvious exits, and were killing any lizardfolk who sought to flee. Most likely there will be more bullywug traces on the far shore of this biggest pond or small lake. I've seen things similar to this in some of the under mountain raids, someone was making certain that no one in the village could talk to anyone outside of it, not even after death."
"It seems odd to me that there are no visible signs of magical defense from a tribal shaman or something in the village itself. Of course magic isn't my specialty, so there may be something I am missing there."
Tsarok of course knows there was a wise old shaman in the village, one that would have summoned spirits more powerful than crocodiles, to aid in the village's defense. Not finding any signs of his magic is perplexing.