SR's - Great Southern Isles (PbP) (Inactive)

Game Master stormraven

"Could steal, yes. Would steal, why? Gnolls raid... would not take one. Would not take just children." He thinks a moment and scratches his ear. "Only other Tribe is North where I sent my littermates. This area was for our Tribe. Our smell on it. Get it?"

Another thought strikes him, "You said, 'death only in wind'… what did you mean?"

He points to the ranger, "SongMakerTrackMaster follows trail of death. Is not clear? He stalks it."

Hand o Fate 1d100 ⇒ 92

"Great… either our abductor smells of death, or the kid is dead." Jayse voice remains emotionless as he looks back into the night, "Well, let's hope that's not the case with all of them. That's gonna make an awkward reunion with all the parents."

He thinks for a few more seconds before continuing, "Okay, i don't know that I have time to put it all together, but I think we may be dealign with one or more shape shifters… or werewolves. And my best guess is that Coe and his daughter-in-law are in on this somehow. I don't really know much about shapeshifting or were-wolves, but if our abductor tried to frame the gnolls by bringing the kid this far in some kind of gnoll-like or werewolf form, then it would make sense if their natural smell resumed after the river if they shifted back… thinking we'd have lost track of the trail by now." He shrugs, "Best I can come up with, but for the time being, my money's on Coe or his kin. Either way, I say we follow that perfume scent and see where it takes us. And keep our eyes peeled for what kind of tracks coincide with the perfume scent, too."

If you guys are wading across the river... DC:10 DEX rolls (15 for Strae) or you get a thorough bath.

If everyone else is fine with moving across and following the scent…

Jayse turns to Straehan with a grin, "You want a lift?" Then (with or without the gnome in tow) he turns and leaps across the river. Jayse can make the jump without a roll (+30 jump modifier).

"Well, as much as I like wading chest deep through frigid water, I'll take your kind offer... if only to ensure that you make it safely to the other side."

With a ridiculously gazelle-like leap, the monk and gnome land on the far side of the river.

As he sets the gnome down, Jayse chuckles, "I do need looking after."

"Ah, that was like old times! Do you recall when we made that run... well, you made that run from the goblin cave to Forestal with me on your shoulders?"

Shaggar plows through the water without complaint, his gnoll aversion to bathing keeps him upright despite the current. He fords the river and shakes the water off his haunches.

Dex Check v DC:10 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (16) + 3 = 19

Straehan whiffs the air and gives Jayse a not-so-innocent look. "Smells more like wet dog than perfume."

"Geez. Hadn't thought about that run in a while. And have you been working out? You've lost weight." :)

He can't help but join in the gnoll-ribbing either, "I believe what you're smelling is Parfoom of Shaggar… all the rage in town."

Straehan waves a hand in front of his nose to dispel the scent. "Ya know Bitiborium was willing to trade us the sail for something rare and exotic. I think Parfoom of Shaggar counts. And it lingers."

After you all ford/jump the icy stream...

Jofram curses silently as he inspects the far bank - there is no sign of the gnoll's tracks anywhere along it within 10 yards of your crossing point. Jofram roams back and forth further from the bank hoping to pick up the trail but the rock reveals nothing. In fact, it is suspiciously clean of any debris. Jofram puzzles over this only for a moment before he and Jayse both hear a strange sound. It is a rhythmic, organic sounding swish/scratch.

The darkness is too complete for Jayse to see the source of the noise except to spy small twinklings of white in the middle distance to the North. The non-human vision of the ranger and sorcerer provides more details. While neither drops their jaw, the sight is clearly surprising...

Straehan looks at Jofram, trying to gauge the ranger's reaction to what they see, as he offers his stunned opinion, "Oh you have got to be f@<&ing kidding me."

Jayse's head snaps to face the sound in the dark, echoed by the sharp WHA-pssssssss of his blade flaring to life in his hand as he sinks into a ready stance, "What?"

Ushari takes a few steps back, before taking a running leap across the wide stream.

Jump 1d20 + 14 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 14 + 5 = 25
Looks like a little short to me...

Once she has dried herself off, she looks off to the direction where the others are gazing.

She reachs into her pouch, making sure Skitter is ready to go. "I don't like this...AT ALL!"

Not trying to string you guys along... I'm just leaving the reveal to Jofram if he wants it since his tracking skill got you here.

Straehan looks at Jofram, trying to gauge the ranger's reaction to what they see, as he offers his stunned opinion, "Oh you have got to be f@<&ing kidding me."

"I... must agree." Jofram points to a small pale shape in the darkness - a small gnoll skeleton with a broom systematically and thoroughly sweeping the granite on this side of the stream.

"Undead gnoll. Haven't we had enough of necromancy? Perhaps it was left to obscure the trail?"

Straehan mentally moves the ghost lights closer to the strange sweeper so that Jayse and Ushari can see it more clearly.

"I think you're correct. It's here to make tracking difficult."

Ushari sighs, "Yeah, I definitely do not like this." She looks over the skeleton trying to determine if it was an advanced skeleton like Mr. Bones back at the town called Shiv.

Knowledge, Religion 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18

It appears to be a plain old skeleton.

A deep growl emerges from Shaggar's throat as he sees what has been done to one of his littermates. He hefts his massive battleaxe and starts to stride over to the creature. "This is NOT be."

Ushari curses under her breath, Of all the impulsive...

She hisses to Shaggar, "Stop! We need to find who created it first!"

The massive gnoll spins on her. "ShinyHair, this not sacred to gnoll peoples. You want answers? OK. I ask questions to walking bones for you." He puts away his axe and pops his knuckles flexing his meaty, clawed fists.

It looks as if Shaggar's intention is to throttle answers from the skeleton as he slowly stalks over to it.

Jayse tries to stop Shaggar, by force if necessary. (if he resists... initiative 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (8) + 9 = 17; grapple 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (5) + 12 = 17.)

He looks at the others, "Ushari, how much information will an undead like this have? How smart are they? I'd hate to tip its master off that we're here if we don't have to."

Shaggar stops no grapple needed despite being clearly enraged by the skeleton. "This is your pack, your hunt. OK. BUT that gets brokened - now or later. Right? You... promise."

Jayse considers, He is helping us out...

Finally he concedes, "If these are gnoll bones, and we don't get a chance to destroy them while we're out here, and you don't survive to do this justice yourself, I'll come back to destroy them."

Shaggar nods. "OK, that is right. What now? Does ShinyHair is a BoneTalker?"

Jayse shrugs and looks at Ushari and Straehan, "I don't know. Can either of you talk to it? Would it even know anything?"

Straehan shakes his head. "To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to question or communicate with it as a 'mindless' undead. There are spells that let you speak with the dead... but we'd need the spell and then we'd have to destroy this thing before using the bones to question the spirit of the gnoll that formerly occupied them."

The sweeper continues its mindless task while slowly moving in your direction. From time to time, it pulls a flask resting in its pelvis and pours a thin liquid into the broom's bristles. The smell of perfume accompanies it.

Ushari comments softly, "So...the perfume is being used to mask the scent of whoever is behind this. Definitely not a gnoll."

"It seems that perhaps the Striper anticipated that the gnolls might track off his scent and took steps to prevent it."

"Well, unless we can talk to it right now, I suggest we keep moving and try to pick up the trail again. It's either that or gamble that this thing can tell us something useful without giving up that we're here."

"Perhaps Ushari has access to that particular spell; I don't. As for the trail..." The gnome looks up-stream and down at the swept rock. He waves a hand taking in everywhere East of the river. "I think it's a safe bet that the trail is somewhere on this side, otherwise why have this skeleton sweep and scent it.... But where do we look? How far upstream or downstream do we begin this hunt?"

"Sorry, I do not have access to that spell right now. I would need to pray for it in the morning." She looks about her at the dark shadows illuminated by the gnome's spell. "Sooo...are we continuing on?" She glances to Jofram for a response.

Straehan thinks for awhile as he surveys the dark wilderness on this side of the river. "I'm going to suggest a way to tackle this problem from another angle. We've got Shaggar here who can sniff out our culprit. Obviously our Striper is worried about that possibility since he loaded up Sweepie here with parfoom... So, perhaps we should consider going after Stripey right now. We've got surprise on our side - maybe he thinks the gnolls killed us. We roll into town; spot him; you boys beat him down; we wring the location of the kids from him and rescue them along with the missing gnolls - hopefully - and then Shaggar here delivers his justice and dines on this bastard's brains. I call that a win."

Two things...
1. I was under the impression that Strae could maintain Dancing Lights for a long time. I was wrong. It is a one minute spell and he can hit it only once per day. I've got no other light generating spells... so you guys will need to pull out torches or perhaps Miss Ushari has a better occult option.
2. Straehan's suggestion is just that a suggestion - not an unsubtle DM Hint. It's the sort of suggestion I'd make as a player in this scenario. Feel free to take it or ignore it as you choose. Strae will go with the group concensus.

Good deal, cause I wanted to see if we could follow this trail to the end.

"I say we let Jofram take some time to try to pick up the trail. We've come this far, and if we can find those kids while we're out here, we'll b that far ahead our Striper."

The gnome smiles. "That would leave us holding most of the cards... and you know how I like to stack my deck."

OK, gimme a few details on the plan here. Are you going to start your search here and then expand it? If so, which direction(s)? Or are you going to jog up or down river a ways and start the search. Will everyone be involved - meaning Perception checks for you lot to spot a telltale print and Survival for Jofram to do the find/track or is it all on Jofram? And how long do you search before you call it? Right now it is about 8PM. You know... things like that. :)

I was under the impression that Strae could maintain Dancing Lights for a long time. I was wrong. It is a one minute spell and he can hit it only once per day. I've got no other light generating spells... so you guys will need to pull out torches or perhaps Miss Ushari has a better occult option.

Ushari has Light memorized, so she can cast it on a rock, and Strae can use his Mage Hand to move it around.

Coolio. I wasn't concerned about Strae being able to move it... just that you less ocularly-gifted characters have enough light to see. :)

Personally, I really want to track 'em down. This little skelly isn't going to discourage me - I think I can do it. Especially if we can prevent them from taking another kid. This is where Jofram shines, so I'm inclined to keep going for as long as I can pick up the trail.

"I can search the perimeter of the swept area, and try to pick up the trail again. Hiding a trail isn't as easy as picking up a broom - and I won't be beaten by such a lazy trick."

Ushari nods, "OK, we keep going." She then turns to look at Shaggar, "Rest assured, that skeleton will be destroyed!"

OK, guys, so what's the plan? The end of the rigorously swept area is on the granite, about 30 yards from the stream. It continues both North and South along the river for as far as you can see. I looked at the character sheets - no torches. So it looks like the only light the humans have is courtesy of Ushari's light spell. So Jayse and Ushari have to stick together. You could split up then into as many as 4 relatively effective search groups - Jofram, Jayse & Ushari, Straehan, and Shaggar. Shaggar alone may not be particularly effective since his perception roll isn't a match for your group in general. Whatever choices you make on your group composition and directions, to prevent metagaming, give me:
Jofram - Tracking roll with Favored Terrain but not Favored Enemy
Others - Perception roll

Perception 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

Perception 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (16) + 14 = 30

DING! DING! DING! 4k Posts - check the OOC thread!!!

Perception 1d20 + 13 ⇒ (4) + 13 = 17
Joy, another GREAT roll...YAY!....at least she is getting hotter, he he.

Tracking (Favored Terrain: Forest): 1d20 + 15 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 15 + 2 = 29

I should point out that Favored enemy includes Human/human subtype & undead - though I'm assuming that our current prey counts as none of the above.

Stuggling a bit in the post-dusk gloom, Jofram focuses on the task at hand. Moving through the woods with and almost unnatural grace, his senses seek out the path left behind by his target.