"What a pretty bird.. Never seen one like that one before.. Shall we continue?"
Fenn smiles at Skully, "Yep... sure is. Its not from around these parts Ah can tell that's fur sure.. wonder how it got so far from home?"
He ponders it briefly, "Ah well.. yeah.. let's get moving sweety...!"
Fenn continues on into the brush following the trail... gesturing for Skully to do the same. He follows the trail but is not ON the trail - he moves off about 20 from from the trail/path not wanting to trip any traps or alarms.. goblins are cunning little buggers...
Bow at the ready...
Skully follows..
More than once, Fenn has to stop and relocate Skully as she disappears and reappears in the foliage. Her feet fall silently, disturbing not a trig or leaf.
They finally come into view of the manor. Once, it may have been a fine home, but that was long ago. Now, it lies in disrepair...the windows are boarded up and the front door hangs by a single hinge.
Fenn can't help but smile at the Hafling woman's light step...
{..if only she were not so small..}, he muses to himself.
On finding the manor Fenn surveys the scene from his foliage concealment, looking for signs of any hostile habitation.
Whispering to Skully, "ok.. we found it. And like good scouts we don't enter.. we report back and bring the party up to it direclty...hopefully unnoticed since we now know the way. But one o' us should stay as forward observer and the other lead the party here... which would you prefer, Skully?"
Whispering.. "Your better at backtracking.. I'll stay here and keep a watch.." She'll sneak back into the foilage and keep a watch on the manor..
Fenn, nods to Skully... but as he turns he notices the vines.. and plants... his eyes narrow.
He pauses to observe then... not getting closer but closely.
He settle a hand on Skully's shoulder, whispering, "...Skully... do you see those plants and vines? Do not go near them."
Fenn watches the vines... looking for any piles of bones beneath them or any odd lumps perhaps wrapped in their foliage. He watches them... do they move.. in opposite direction to any breeze?
As for the odd flowers {that he realizes should NOT be blooming in autumn approaching winter...} are there any animal corpses near by them or perhaps asleep near them. Does Fenn hear ANY sounds of birds or any other forest animal near about? If its deathly silent ... it means natural animals have learned to avoid this place.. likely for good reason!
He frowns, whispering, "...stay put. Ah'll be right back with the others."
Fenn leaves heading back along the EXACT path Skully and he trail-blazed to bring them to the manor {he knows that route is safe of traps or natural dangerous flora. As Fenn goes he will look for those same Vine and flowers and make a particular note to avoid them.
Fenn will return with all 'safe' haste back to the party...
What did you find? and where's Skully? Brom asks when Fenn returns with out the halfling.
Ah, welcome back Mr.Fenn. I was starting to worry, though I wouldn't want to come after you and give away your position
Jeseare lifts one arm and and down, causing his armor to creak to punctuate his statement.
Fenn smiles, "We found the Manor house... Skully is watching it as forward observer... I came back to lead you there. Follow me... Oh.. and something odd is going on there was a bird and there are plants that are not from around these parts... kinda weird actually. Not sure what it means... but come-on..."
Fenn turns back to the foliage and leads the way...
Right then. Lets go. It isn't nice to keep a lady waiting. Brom says as he picks up his gear and follows Fenn.
Fenn nods in reply and leads the way back down the path he's already travelled... returning to Skully's side.
He readies his bow and whispers to Skully, "...yur on point sweety! I'll be right behind ya.. let's sweep tha' perimeter first. Avoid those odd plants if ya can.. Ah'll try ta' find any tracks to see if any goblins or anyone else is frequentin' tha' area..."
Skully will smile and nod.. She takes off slowly into the brush, circling the manor to get the layout..
The group makes their way through the forest, down a drive way of sorts, until the find Skully crouching in the undergrowth watching the manor. Strange plants and animals are seen here and there. Fenn and Skully quietly sneak off to check the area.
Skully whispers.. "I think there might be a trap in front of the porch.." She moves up and attempts to disable it.. Before messing with it she'll take a much closer look..
Brom, Quolamin, and Jeseare watch as the scouts appear from the back of the manor and stop, staring at the entry way.
Fenn nods in agreement to Skully's whispered warning. Lifting his bow to aim at the entrance way as she moves forward to examine the likely pit trap.
Fenn gets Skully's attention pointing at the discarded battering ram. He moves over avoiding the pitfall dead-drop area she points out and with his foot shoves/rolls the battering ram over to the pit trap... hoping its weight will drop the dead fall.
Skully will ready her shortbow as Fin apptempts to disarm the traps with smarts..
The log rolls onto the covering. . .which holds but for a moment before falling into a pit.
Skully winces as the log goes crashing into the hole.. "Betcha they didn't here that.. Lets go.." She moves up to the door and checks to see if its locked..
With her bow out Skully sneaks into the manor and takes a look around the entryway..
Fenn skirts around the pit... covering Skully with his longbow ready to shoot anything that might try to attack her... out of the shadows.
*continues to wait in the back, craning his neck in a none too successful attempt to see inside*
Brom watchs from the edge of the forest as Skully and Fenn inspect the entry. He winces at the noise made by the log falling down into the pit. Idiot child is going to get us all killed. he mutters to himself.
Lets go! Quickly. He says to Quolamin and Jeseare. He hurries across the open space to the entrance, skirts the open pit, and goes inside after Fenn and Skully.
I thought you were the stealthy one. He hisses at Fenn as he moves past him further into the building. The spike on the end of his lucerne hammer advanced to meet anyone that might come to meet them.
It takes your eyes a moment to adjust to the dimness of the room. When they do, you see with your eyes what your nose already tells you is there...death.
Laying, strewn about the room, are pieces of many different creatures. You see bits of birds, reptiles, pigs, but mostly dogs.
What the room was at one time, you could never guess. An empty chandelier hangs from the ceiling. Empty door ways stands before you, to the left, and to the right.
Ah... Oh. I don't believe there was any mention of this."
"Indeed.. Not that i have to say it but be on your guard.."
Denn gives Brom a lopsided silly grin, "...hush you! You are such a worry-pants! If there was someone waiting to ponce on the fall o' that trap.. they would have jumped by now - and Ah would have shot them fur it! That log didn't crash to the bottom .. it settled to the bottom but ruined the trap... no chance of us falling in now. So quit yur b%+**in'!"
Fenn puts his longbow away now that they are entering the manor and draws both his longsword and shortsword.
Stalking forward behind Skully, "Nah.. I expected somethin' like this... its a goblin lair after all... notice all tha' kills are small animals? Plus dogs... goblin's ain't fond o' dogs.. dogs can smell 'em commin'... tha' feeling's mutual!"
"Let's be thorough, ah'm thinking there may be more traps and this human boss, , o' theirs! Skully sneak ahead we go left and work our way to tha' right. Always check open hallways first before moving on.. let's go. Skully you got point, ah'm right behind ya!"
"Jessy' {Jesare}..go on ahead and cast yor light.. as most of tha party don't have as good a eyes as me... no point in hindering yaw.. plus Goblins don't like light much."
Fenn heads over to the leftside doorway... waiting to follow up behind Skully... but keeping his eyes open to oddities or enemies.
Skully will sneak ahead.. To the right first..
Fenn shrugs and follows behind Skully.
'Okaaay, right first then...' he mutters...
Fenn readies his buckler... on his shortsword hand...
At least we know the goblin wasn't lying to us about lairing here. There must be quiet a few goblins to have made this mess. we need to be careful. Brom says as he looks around at the leavings of the mad little humanoids. Where do we look for a bottle of wine?
Would seem prudent to check everywhere, wouldn't it?
Fenn looks at Brom... his expression one of... disappointment.
Turning to Jeseare, "...you got tha' right o' it, Ah'm not heah ta' just grab a bottle o' booze an' run. Ah'm heah ta clean out everything tha's a threat ta good folks using these here roads without fear o' being attacked!"
"So.. we sweep tha' whole building an secure it from all hostile critters... THEN, we worry about some stupid bottle o' booze - we ain't getting paid much ta' find nohows..."
And if there are too many "hostile critters" for the five of us to handle? Then what? Brom hisses back. Go home empty handed and having walked all the way out here for nothing. I can garuantee that dwarf won't pay us for trying.
"Can we save the arguing for another time perhaps? The little buggers prob have the bottle, so most likely finding them will mean finding it.. Now sush before the whole place hears yea.."
With the light cast by Jeseare's neckless lightening the gloom Brom motions for Skully to lead the way. Take it easy and everyone stick close. If we can avoid traps or disable them silently we do it that way.
Seeing the closed door Brom steps forward and sets his ear against he door listening to see if he can hear anything from the otherside.
regardless of what he hears he steps back and says softly to the others. shall we start our search here?
When Brom places his ear to the door, he hears snoring coming from the other side...low guttural snoring.
Sounds like something is sleeping inside.He tells the others