Survival

Game Master J4RH34D

"For fun!" Wolf adds, wagging his tail.

"Honestly," Lamb says, "Sometimes I think I will never understand you two." Her voice remains light though, and there is a smile on her face.
"To answer your question, little Jester, I saw a cabin near the edge of the forest. Perhaps it is a hunting cabin, and arrows can be found there. I would like to look through it. Would you be interested in joining me?"

"Yay!" Jester replies jumping with joy. Until suddenly he stops and adds "I would be interested to join you."

"Race you down!" Wolf says, and takes off down the stairs

Jester turns around looking for the edge of the forest and the cabin there. "That thing?" he asks. But as Wolf already got a head start Jester doesn't wait for an answer but runs for the edge of the tower and jumps in direction of the cabin.
Fly: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (8) + 5 = 13
Clumsily gliding down.

Now someone has to tell what I'll land on :D

Jester's glide is clumsy but effective, and he lands about halfway to the hut, in somewhat of a tumble. He comes to no harm but it is a sight of flailing wings and tail for Lamb

Lamb skips downstairs at a leisurely pace, following her two spirited companions towars the cabin

Jester gets up and shakes the dust off after performing a landing like Albatross Airlines. He looks back where Wolf if coming. "I'll be first again!" he teases Wolf and starts running towards the cabin.

Wolf markedly slows at some point, about a hundred meters before reaching Jester. He lets out a wooping bark at Jester while grinning widely. Something that would look rather scary if Jester hadn't seen it many times before.

Jester runs all the way to the cabin. Once there he takes a closer look and walks around it.

The hut exudes a vile smell. The sound of flies can be heard within.

A drying rack stands outside with a few skins hung for working. On the Forrester side a tree stumo stands with an axe embedded in it, a stock of dry wood piled against the hut.
This was obviously a hunters hut set aside due to the smell of tanning and ofal.

There is a window to the inside that is hastily boarded up.

"This stinks." Jester states and looks what takes so long for Wolf to arrive.

Wolf leisurely trots up to Jester in a while. "You win again." he grins

"Yay!" Jester jumps. But then he moves behind Wolf "There is something dead in the cabin. Do you want to check on that?"

"Let's wait for Lamb, okay?"

"Sure." Jester replies. He has all the time in the world to wait as nothing will get him in there first.

Lamb comes skipping into view."Well, hello there you two. Aren't you sweet waiting for me?"

Jester smiles.

"It sure smells here. Shall we go in?" Lamb draws her dagger and carefully pushes against the door.

The door moves slightly, and you can hear it bump into something solid on the far side.

Jester is curious but jumpy. He looks out behind Wolf to get a glimpse but at the slightest thing - like the door bumping into something - he retreats his head out of sight like a turtle.

Wolf eases past Lamb, puts his shoulder against the door, and slowly increases the pressure to push the door further open.

Lamb looks over Wolf's shoulder, ready to defend her other half.

As the other two are pressing to get in Jester looks around where he could hide instead. "You're sure this is a good idea?"

Wolf growls "Of course."

"... We killed the boar too, didn't we?" Lamb finishes the sentence

Strength Checks please

Strength: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15

A slow scrape and then a rumbling noise resounds from behind the door as Wolf pushes it further open...

Jester observes from assumed safe distance what happens "Is there something dangerous in the cabin?" It looks kind of silly as he tries from about 40 feet distance to get a glimpse by moving his head up, down, left and right to find the best perspective - all while tensed and ducked to jump away if something comes out.

As the door opens the smell is enough to make people gag.
Fort saves please DC 14 or Nausea

Inside, opposite the door sits a corpse. There is no blood or signs of a fight. In the corpses hands rests a bow and next to him a quiver.

There is a pallet on the floor, a desk, workbench, and all the other basic amenities one might expect. There are also the tools of a tanner. In one of the corners stands a bucket that one would rather not look into.
There is a burnt out candle on the table and bits of old food strewn about.

Lamb halts for a moment at the stench, and looks around from outside at first. "This seems to be a more recent death. Everything in the village had gone near to dust. I wonder who this was or what he was doing here, and why he did not die with the rest of the village." She slowly walks inside, and looks at his clothing and tries to discern if there are any regional markers. She also takes the quiver, does a quick check to compare the quality of the bow to her own.

Wolf trots inside instantly. "The meat isn't fresh," he says. "Pity."
He looks over to Lamb as she enters the room. "Ah! Teeth for your tool!"

Fort Save Lamb: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4
Lamb heaves and expulses some water as the door opens. Then she looks around from outside.
Fort Save Wolf: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21

"What is it? Are you all right?" Jester asks worried.

Lamb, who by now has gone inside, raises her voice so the dragon outside can hear her. "It's fine, Jester.... The smell is just a bit pungent."

Wolf's joking voice comes from the cabin as well. "Her belly isn't as strong as mine. Because I do all the eating!"
He rummages around for anything else of use or interest.
Perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19

"I'll wait here." To be safe Jester sits outside and waits for the others to come back out. There is no fun in getting to see your breakfast again.

There is little else of interest to Wolf. But he does find some pelts bundled under the bed, wrapped about a book.

Wolf pulls on the pelts with his teeth, dragging the bundle out.
"Here, Lamb, for when you get cold." Thinking for a moment, which is rare for Wolf, he adds "And perhaps it would be nice and soft for Jester to sleep on."
Seconds later he finishes: "And for you to sleep on."

As wolf pulls out the pelts, Lamb notices the book. "Ooh, and a book too. I love books. Good find, Wolf." She takes the pelts, book, bow and quiver outside, into the fresh air. She looks over the bow again, decides that it isn't that much better. She unstrings it, and decides to bring it along anyway as a backup that she can store in their temporary house.
Then she takes a longer look at the book.

What pelts are these.
Jester looks at the pelts full of curiosity. "They look like animals. Just without the animal inside."

The book has certainly seen better days. The cover is scuffed and torn pages hang out the sides. It is tied closed with a thong.

Once opened its contents indicate the state of the hut.

The first few pages make it clear that this is a hunters journal.
It lists sightings of rare birds, and animal sightings. It tracks kills and where nothing was found on an outing. The writer's love of nature is apparent even in his killing of animals.

About two thirds of the way through the book the content changes suddenly. It no longer speaks of the actions of the hunter, but starts to speak of horrors seen in the town. It quickly devolves into ramblings of blood and screams heard as he boarded himself in his hut.

The dates of the writings are not recorded with familiar names for months and the like, but it is clear that the entries come slower and slower. They begin talking of stocks running low, and are laced with panic.

"Someone died a slow death here. Not a good, clean one." Lamb says. "I shall bring it back with me, to study. It has some information about the hunting grounds here. And if I take a bit longer to study, perhaps I can figure out what happened in the town."

"What is in this book?" Jester asks craning his neck to get a look inside. He is rather disappointed as it's only scribbling on the pages.

"Words." is Wolf's short, but apt, answer.

Lamb shoots wolf an 'oh, you!' look, and then explains to Jester: "Someone wrote down his experiences as they were hunting this area. What animals he, or she, encountered where and such. Then the journal speaks of what happened in this town as it came... under attack, or at least as much as the writer experienced it."

Jester get's the eww expression. "So it's not a nice story?"

Lamb thinks on this for a moment. But eventually she decides to ask Jester, "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because he wrote it and he doesn't look happy about the outcome?" Jester replies nodding towards the maggot infested corpse.

Lamb cocks her head to one side and thinks some more.
"Why would that not make it a nice story?"