Oliver nods with the assessment. "Yes, I do feel much better currently. Don't worry, Reekis, I'm still focused on working to help you get better."
Jasper breathes a sigh of relief as the divine magic knits his flesh back together. Soon he's back to his wide-eyed best, excited about the continuing adventure.
Anor leads the band of travellers off again, heading north-west towards Droskar’s Crag. As the morning wears on, the terrain underfoot begins to get more rugged, the hills becoming higher and steeper. At the same time, the trees begin to thin out – there are less darkwoods and oaks and more pine and fir trees.
Eventually the trees have thinned enough that you assume you have reached the northern border of the Darkmoon Wood. The mountain of Droskar’s Crag looms ahead, impossibly tall, its rocky slopes rising up above the snow line. Although it looks close, you realise the base of the mountain must actually still be some miles away, with many foot hills and smaller crags between here and there. Somewhere in this region lies the ruin you are looking for, but its precise position is not entirely clear from the descriptions you have been given and the maps you have seen – and there is a large area of ground to cover.
As the group discusses how to go about finding the location, Oliver eagerly adds what he remembers, "Did you know that Droskar's Crag dates back to the year ..." Rambling on, he also adds side notes to the others' statement, "You are correct Adalwin, the Crag itself did ..." and "Yes, Anor, I also heard that the people of the Crag often ..." He is clearly pleased to be among other that share his interest in learning.
Oliver, Anor and Adalwin, putting their heads together, recall that the ruin they are looking for is most likely a well preserved, fortified stone building (dating from the short-lived dwarven civilisation that dominated the area around Droskar’s Crag from about 4360 to 4470 AR), which is located atop a hill just south-east of Droskar’s Crag and within a couple of miles north of Darkmoon Wood. Oliver has heard that the building may have been some sort of monastery. The trio recall that it’s been reported that the ruin is visible from certain points along or near the northern edge of the Wood.
While the trio confer, Reekis and Jasper search about the area. They come across a narrow trail through the weeds and rocky rubble, little wider than a goat track – it appears to head through the hills roughly towards Droskar’s Crag. Jasper notices several sets of prints on or near this trail, looking quite recent; some appear to have been made by medium sized, four-legged mammalian predators, while there are a few that appear to have been made by smaller, bipedal bird-like or reptilian creatures. Reekis notices some short coarse dark grey hairs stuck to a thorny bush beside the trail.
Having heard the information the others have come up with, Jasper scrambles atop a nearby hill to get some height and looks about. On top of a taller hill about two miles north-north west of his position he spies what appears to be a partially ruined but somewhat intact building featuring a short, squat tower. The position and style appears about right to be what they are looking for. Although it’s difficult to be certain, given that the trail he and Reekis found winds its way around hills and boulders, and sometimes disappears beneath the sparse trees in this region or rocky overhangs, it does appear that the trail heads generally towards the ruin.
Jasper, excited to be moving forward once again, scrambles to a higher vantage point.
"I think I see it! There's a building like that over there, where Reekis' trail goes! Do you see the sheer cliff on the face of the Crag? Yes? It's just to the left of that from here."
He hops down, ready to get closer. ShadowWing flies up and lands in a tree above the group, on the lookout for the little hawk that's been around so much.
Adalwin turns to Eljoy, agape. "Those who put down people with intelligence are simply trying to hide their own ignorance." The young man blurts out the statement, then immediately goes a bright shade of red. "I mean, thats what my mum always used to say... didn't mean you are... I just thought..." He lapses into silence, looking at the ground.
Already started down Reekis' trail and too far from the others to really hear the interaction, Jasper is all but jumping from one foot to the other, "Come ON! Let's go see it!"
The group begins walking along the trail that Reekis and Jasper discovered. It appears and disappears, but between Anor's sense of direction, Jasper's sharp eyes and knowing generally where they are headed, the group is able to keep to the track well enough. It winds its way around the bases of taller hills, past rocky outcrops and through small fields and meadows.
Soon enough the trail emerges from a narrow defile between two steep, rocky hills into an overgrown field of tall weeds, head-high thistles and occasional gnarled, wind-swept trees. The goat track winds through the field, towards a broad, low hill on the far side, atop which perches the ruin that Jasper spotted.
Passing through the field and up the gentle slope of the hill, it can be seen that the building is of simple design, constructed of stone blocks, worn smooth with the passage of time. Despite its apparent stout construction, the building is falling apart. Sections of the slanted shale roof have collapsed and portions of the outer wall have crumbled. Weeds and wild thorn plants run rampant around the hill top, leaving only the faintest indication of the path leading to the ruined front doors, whose rotting remains lie on the ground beside the wall. Beyond, an over-grown courtyard sits in shadow. There is a mostly intact tower forming part of the outer wall to the right of the front doors. Piles of stone rubble around the sides of the building suggest that the walls may have collapsed in some areas.
Two old stone statues rise up from the weeds beside the path a short distance before the front doors. One of them has crumbled almost completely into rubble, but the other seems relatively intact and depicts a humanoid figure.
"Don't forget that grey fur on the trail," says Reekis uneasily. "Could be wolves and stuff."
"Did they scare you, big man, howling in the night?"
Despite her words, Anor makes sure to have her crossbow locked and loaded.
"Hey!"
|
Adalwin turns to Eljoy, agape. "Those who put down people with intelligence are simply trying to hide their own ignorance." The young man blurts out the statement, then immediately goes a bright shade of red. "I mean, thats what my mum always used to say... didn't mean you are... I just thought..." He lapses into silence, looking at the ground.
Eljoy glowers through Adalwin's speech, but doesn't reply verbally. When the young man runs out of steam Eljoy nods in a satisfied way, before hoisting his pack onto his shoulders.
Although annoyed by Anor's comment, Reekis follows her lead, taking out his crossbow and loading it.
Jasper looks about, but the bright sunshine on this cool, near cloudless day dazzles him, and he doesn’t see much. Up above, ShadowWing circles above the ruined building, looking down; Jasper does not pick up any sense of danger or distress through the empathic link with his familiar.
Anor searches about the area for any sign of mushrooms – there’s plenty of growth and vegetation about here outside the ruin, but nothing that resembles an ironbloom mushroom. She does find plenty of signs that wolves have been in the area; more fur stuck to thorny plants, wolf-like paw prints on the trail and such.
Eljoy strides forward, looking out for signs of danger but seeing none.
"Ok, nothing to see out here, shall we enter? We may need someone big and strong to get those doors open..."
Jasper hangs back to let the others approach first, but he pulls his flask of acid from his pouch, just in case.
The doors are open - lying rotting on the ground outside the walls in fact.
While the others tried to gauge the dangers of the keep from afar, Adalwin quickly struggled into his heavier armour. Now he strides to the front of the group, sword and shield out, and walks towards the statues, having a look at the more intact one, before moving onto the large entryway and peering inside.
Jasper will follow Adalwin and follow his lead on where he searches.
Adalwin and Jasper walk up to examine the statues. As they approach, a razorcrow that is apparently roosting under the eaves of the tower roof ~caws~ at them, but the bird does not seem otherwise aggressive.
The statue on the left hand side has collapsed almost completely into rubble, but the one on the right is mostly intact. The 5-foot-tall statue is incredibly worn but it can still be made out as a dwarf holding aloft a great stone hammer. Moss and creeper vines cover most of its surface. The pair shift aside some of the vines around the statue’s base to discover an old inscription, presumably made in the Dwarven language.
[b]"Anyone speak Dwarven?"[b] Adalwin calls back to the group.
Oliver ends his sharing with a sigh, but then shrugs it off. When Adalwin berates Eljoy for his comment, his eyes go wide, and he tries to placate them both. "It's fine. I'm used to it. I know I can get long-winded. People have said worse." He absent-mindedly rubs his bad leg. At Adalwin he adds, "Thank you anyways."
Oliver is interested in the statue and what story it may still be able to tell them after so many years. At the request for someone that speaks the language, he shakes his head, downtrodden by not knowing, but still offers "I do not at this moment, but if no one does, I could read and understand it using a spell I know."
From what little he can tell of the style of this statue, Oliver thinks it may date from around the time of the Rending – the last time Droskar’s Crag erupted – in 3980 AR. This puts it at a few hundred years older than when he had originally thought this ruin dated from.
Meanwhile, Adalwin and Jasper move past the statues and look through the crumbling entrance archway of the ruined building, into a small courtyard.
Tall grasses and chunks of stone debris have all but overtaken the small yard. Off to one side, a wooden stable has collapsed into a mound of rotting timbers. The outer wall on the east side has also collapsed, leaving a ragged hole. Relatively intact stone walls enclose the rest of the building to the north and west of the courtyard. Three doors exit into this yard— a pair of double doors to the west, a single door to the north, and a lone door leading into the squat tower in the southeast corner. All doors are partially ajar, sagging off their hinges.
There is little sign of obvious danger, apart from a few razorcrows nesting up amongst the missing shingles of the tower roof.
Green is difficult terrain (vegetation); blue is water; dark grey are walls; brown is doors; various shades of light grey are rubble (difficult terrain), low walls and things like statues. White is relatively clear terrain and/or areas you haven’t explored yet.
Adalwin looks especially boyish as he looks around excitedly, finding it hard to keep his guard up in the face of a (possibly) unexplored ruin. "It's pretty small but we might be the first people here in ages! Do you think it goes underground? Dwarves live underground don't they?" He seems pleased at the prospect of possibly venturing underground
He moves further into the courtyard, finding it hard to stop himself from completely leaving the others behind to start exploring.
Anor will follow the others, covering their rear with her crossbow. She's not too interested in the statue.
"That's a good point Adalwin, this complex could be a lot bigger than it appears. Don't wander off and get lost."
"Don't dwarves have lots of gold?" ventures Reekis.
Anor will follow the others, covering their rear with her crossbow. She's not too interested in the statue.
[dice=Knowledge Nature]1d20+8
"That's a good point Adalwin, this complex could be a lot bigger than it appears. Don't wander off and get lost."
Ironbloom mushrooms tend to grow in shaded but warm conditions, out of direct sunlight, and where there are large amounts of iron present.
"Regardless of what is underground, the mushrooms we want should be above ground. Do we need to investigate inside?"
Adalwin wanders into the middle of the courtyard. A razorcrow ~caws~ lazily at him. He can’t see much amongst all the long grass and weeds. The doors from the courtyard are all partially open, but Adalwin can’t see much beyond any of them from here.
Jasper's a bit nervous about walking in the tall grass and considers getting back onto Percival for a higher vantage point.
It seems safe enough in the courtyard (so far), so that's an option.
Adalwin moves towards the tower and stops just short of entering, heeding Anor's warning. He peers in the doorway, pushing the door aside if it is obstructing his view.