Marikel swings open the door warily. The room looks just as it did when he peered in yesterday: stone walls and floor blackened from flame, a stone altar at the front of the room, a double-row of bare and twisted wrought-iron bedframes where once pews for the faithful must have been arrayed. He carefully steps in and finds himself standing next to a stone statue of Iomedae, as scorched as the floors and walls. On the far end of the room are another set of double doors that open into the ruined hall, and in the outside wall is an iron door.
The pair of guards on the doorstep watch him curiously, as the sounds of the salvagemen tossing debris to the ground continue from across the hall. Nothing happens as the priest cautiously steps into the room.
With excitement befitting the first use of a new toy, Vhailor unnecessarily aims the business end of the wand at the spider with painstaking accuracy, then speaks the command word. A glowing bullet of arcane energy skims up the slope of the roof and burns into the octopedal life-form with an electric crackle.
Taking a deep breath, Dorn spits on his hands, "Alright, there'll be no stoppin' me now," and tries once again to get up the wall.
"HA! I made it! And here I was afraid I was gonna have ta cut back on some of me meals. Whew! That was close," he says with a grin of relief.
Meanwhile, back to where all the real action is taking place, Skyreaver continues his assault on the spider that's bigger than it should be.
The bird manages to snap mightily at the air but there's no way to tell how much that really bothers him.
The dwarf finally finds a reliable foothold and hefts himself up to the flat roof of the stone annex.
His bird follows the spider which followed Alicia and jabs at it with its hooked beak but comes up empty.
Emboldened by the roc distancing itself, the second spider scurries out from beneath its cover and attempts to bite the human interloper.
Skyreaver lashes out with his talons as well...
...and lands a solid strike against the arachnid!
Alicia continues her dance with the smaller of the spiders, attempting to maneuver it between the roc and herself, and then stab it with her hopeknife.
Marikel swings open the door warily... He carefully steps in and finds himself standing next to a stone statue of Iomedae, as scorched as the floors and walls... Nothing happens as the priest cautiously steps into the room.
Marikel is about to take another step into the room, looks carefully at the floor, then decides against it. He looks over his shoulder to Kaleb.
"You don't have a talent for tracking, do you?" he asks forlornly.Instead, he studies the statue of Iomedae, checking if it has any similarities to the one downstairs.
"I'm afraid I'm less of a tracker than my mutt," Kaleb replies, his low tone mirroring Marikel's hesitancy. "Surely one of the Patrol might have such a talent?" he suggests. "Assuming we could persuade them there's nothing to fear in here."
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On the rooftop, the roc follows up his rather half-hearted bite attempt with a savage slash with a talon, which rips open the spider's carapace and flips the arachnid onto its back, curling its legs in toward its abdomen.
Seeing that the first spider no longer appears to pose an immediate threat, Alicia turns her attention to the newcomer to the fight. Unfortunately, her wild stab completely fails to make contact with the scuttling arachnid.
Peering into the swirl of activity atop the roof, Vhailor looks for an opening to release another burst of damaging force from his wand...
The gnome picks out just enough spindly legs and bulbous abdomen between Alicia's ankles to send another spider-seeking arcane bullet roofward.
Rubbing his hands once again, he gives it a go in hopes of making it to the roof.
Remaining aloft, Skyreaver turns his attention to the other spider, striking out again with beak and claws.
The dwarf crosses the flat roof of the annex and pulls himself up onto the roof of the main building. From his precarious perch at the edge, he can see Skyreaver hovering, the bird's attention on something just the other side of the roof peak.
Skyreaver attacks the new spider, just managing to tear open a bit of carapace with one talon.
The spider, having taken damage from magic it can't see and a predator it can, scuttles back under cover and attempts to entangle Alicia once more with a sticky web from a less exposed position, but the girl manages to dodge the gossamer cloud.
Alicia ducks aside another gob of webbing, then flings a dagger from her boot at the overgrown arachnid.
Ali's thrown dagger finds its mark, penetrating the spider's carapace with a meaty thud.
Without an eye upon the action above, Vhailor holds his action calling out "Everything ok Alicia?"
"Just fine!" Ali calls back. "Just an overgrown spider up here. The bird's killed its buddy."
Dorn grabs his longbow as he moves toward the others. "Nearly there. Nearly there," he mutters as he makes his way closer.
The roc realizing it can't reach the spider from the air, it lands and snaps at it with its beak.
The dwarf carefully scales the slope of the roof to the ridge.
The roc lands on the scorched wood surface and pokes its aquiline head into the ruins of the steeple, snapping at the cowering spider. It comes out with part of an arachnoid leg in its beak, crunching thoughtfully.
"I'm afraid I'm less of a tracker than my mutt," Kaleb replies, his low tone mirroring Marikel's hesitancy. "Surely one of the Patrol might have such a talent?" he suggests. "Assuming we could persuade them there's nothing to fear in here."
Having studied the statue intently, Marikel looks around the room again then looks at the floor and heads out.
"Where's Alicia? She should be helping with this."
Marikel heads back to where he saw Alicia last, heading into the main hall.
As the dwarf makes his way there, "Alright! Time ta put...," he starts but quickly stops as he realizes the bug is probably dead seeing how the bird sits there preening himself. Putting away his bow, "Blast. You know, ya could've just distracted it for a moment or two, I was nearly here," he tells the bird, looking at him as a parent would a child as if they'd done something wrong while tapping his foot.
The roc stops preening himself and looks up at the dwarf a moment, as if he's frozen in time. And then as if time started rolling again, the bird returns to the cleaning of his feathers, managing to work around the leather armor he bears.
"Hmph," the dwarf grumbles with a raised eyebrow at the bird. His eyes then move toward the girl and a grin easily forms. "He tries ta ignore me but I know better," he says, winking. "By the way, me name's Dorn. And this here's me friend Skyreaver." He cuts his eyes toward the bird who is still occupied with his feathers and leans in toward Alicia, "I like ta call him 'The Reaver' because it just sounds tougher but he don't care for it much," he tells her, shrugging. Leaning back out, "So...," he looks around a moment in a curious manner, "what brings you... up here? I've got ta confess, I've never met anyone on top of an old building," he says with a wide grin, quite impressed with this new way to meet people. "I'll have ta write this in me mental diary," he nods as a matter of fact. "Do ya wish me ta help ya down?" he asks as he looks out over the edge. "I figure if you made it up here you can probably make it down as well. But I figure I'd ask anyway."
Ali steps forward, eyeing the large bird warily. Once she's reasonably sure it's not going to bite her, she reaches into the alcove and wrenches her thrown dagger free with a wet squelch. The rogue then looks over her shoulder at the dwarf. "I'm Alicia. I was looking for a better view of the surrounding area, and this is the tallest point not on the boulder," she says, gesturing over at the adjacent stone edifice. "And no, I'll be fine getting down. You see any half-orcs around here anywhere?"
With that, she stands and starts walking toward the edge of the roof, following it around the perimeter while looking for her quarry.
Marikel abruptly turns and leaves the ill-fated infirmary, returning to the main hall in search of Alicia, but the entryway is deserted. He leads Kaleb toward the perpendicular hallway in the rear, but the only person he sees is Vhailor waiting past the broken staircase and across the pit into the basement by which they entered the burned church. He is staring up toward the roof, his cat on his shoulders.
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Alicia leans down and clears away old webbing to retrieve her dagger. Apart from the dead spider and her blade, the ruins of the steeple also contains many small bones, mostly avian in origin. Clearly the spiders have been preying on birds. Oblivious to the implications of poetic justice, the dwarf's roc loses interest in the chitinous segments of the leg in its mouth and half-flies, half-hops down the slope of the roof to the other spider, ripping open its exposed abdomen with relish.
The rooftop does indeed offer a panoramic view of the barren landscape of parched earth, scattered rock, and thorny, leafless shrubs, which appears to be uninterrupted by any humanoid figures. The view to the north and northwest, however, is blocked by Bloodmarch Hill itself.
Vhailor notes Marikel and Kaleb's approach with a genial smile and wave. Pointing to the roof he adds "Some spiders... but it looks like Alicia and the dwarf have it handled... I think the big bird is friendly?" shrugging at the last point.
Just as he's about to respond, Dorn gets distracted by the ghastly scene taking place between the roc and the dead spider. Grinning wryly, "Yeah I never get used to seein' that. But, ya get food wherever ya can... I guess." He then turns his attention back to Alicia, concentrating for a second before shaking his head. "Can't say that I have, lass. I mean, I've seen a few folk comin' and goin' but it's hard ta tell with the distance I keep from 'em. They don't tend to react to well to a bird of this size hangin' around, so I keep me distance," he says as a matter of fact, shrugging. "These half-orcs you're lookin' for, what direction did ya last see 'em go? Or at least think they went?"
"Some idiot helped these two sneak out of the city, and the guards say they saw them head east from the gate," Alicia says, wiping spider ichor off of her dagger with the edge of her cloak. She resheathes it, then her hopeknife. "Let's get down from here."
She heads back over to the ruined steeple. Grabbing ahold of the ruined rafter she had lifted herself up from, she grabs ahold. She hangs down, then kicks out and swings over to the landing next to Vhailor. "Nothing there," she says. Noticing Marikel, she adds dryly, "Glad you could join us, 'Padre.'"
Alicia acrobatically flips herself from the precarious edge of the roof over the pit into the basement and sticks the landing on the lip of the broken staircase.
Impressed by her agility, "Well that was quite grand. But I'm thinkin' it probably be best I take the long way around." As he passes the bird on his way back to where he climbed up, "Join us at your leisure, I wouldn't want ta 'disturb' ya," he tells it with obvious sarcasm in his voice and then works his way down as carefully as possible as the bird continues to munch on what little is left of the spider.
Once down, he begins his trek around the building, looking for any sign of the girl. "Blast. This building is bigger than I thought," he murmurs to himself. As he continues to make his way around, he finally spots a gnome. Making his way to him, "Hello! A word of advice, friend: I don't recommend a jog around this place... it's bigger than it looks, trust me," he says, nodding adamantly. "Anyway, I'm lookin' for a lass that was recently on the roof there," he points toward it before casting a curious glance at the gnome. "Wait a moment, you wouldn't happen ta be 'Padre', would ya?"
"Some spiders... but it looks like Alicia and the dwarf have it handled... I think the big bird is friendly?"
"Spiders!!"
Marikel rushes forward, hand on sword, until a beat later Alicia appears."Glad you could join us, 'Padre.'"
"Are you alright? What bird? Look, if there was trouble you should have called. Something could have happened. I was only... I thought you were behind me. I was checking out this haunt. It could have been them. I didn't want to disturb anything. Maybe you could..."
"Wait a moment, you wouldn't happen ta be 'Padre', would ya?"
"Who are you?"
Dorn turns to the newcomer, "Who am I? Well I'm Dorn. But I think the real question here, lad, is: Who are you? I was just talkin' to Padre here," he motions to the gnome, "and tryin' ta find the lass that was upon the roof. Cute lass, fairly young, about yay high," he places a hand in the air at a guesstimate height, "and strikes me ta be tough as nails." He then narrows his eyes toward the healer, "Wait a minute, you haven't taken her, have ya? Because me and Padre here may have ta deal with ya properly if ya did," he tells him in an oddly kind enough manner.
"Alicia? Are you all right? What happened?"
Alicia hops down the staircase to land near Marikel. "I'm fine," she says, glancing over at the dwarf across the yawning pit. "There were a pair of overgrown spiders, but the dwarf's bird ate them."
Marikel's expression shifts quickly from worry to perplexion, briefly through admiration and back to frowning annoyance.
"Be careful and stay out of trouble."
He turns to the dwarf.
"Greetings. Thanks for aiding Alicia. We'll come round."
Marikel makes his way outside to the others.
While Marikel turns around and heads back out the front door and around the outside of the building to join up with Vhailor and the newly-arrived dwarf, the gnome manages to convey to Dorn that he is not a priest.
Alicia follows after Marikel. "Find anything?" she asks the cleric. "I didn't see them from up top on the roof."
The party, plus one dwarf and one bird, are reassembled at the back corner of the burned church.
Alicia follows after Marikel. "Find anything?" she asks the cleric. "I didn't see them from up top on the roof."
"You were... I suppose that's a very good idea," Marikel concedes.
"I was looking for that ghost of yours that they said they saw this morning. I didn't find anything, but I didn't want to disturb anything in case you wanted to take a look. I was wondering if our two fugitives might have been responsible."He turns to Dorn and offers a hand.
"Marikel Selentin, at your service. Warrior of Iomedae."
His handshake is strong and firm, but his hands are smooth and manicured.
Smiling warmly, "Dorn's the name. Me pleasure." He accepts the firm handshake with one of his own, his hands quite the contrast to the healer's. "That one there," he motions toward the bird pecking something on the ground, "is me friend Skyreaver. I like ta call 'im 'The Reaver'. Well mostly just Reaver. It's just tougher soundin'. He doesn't care for it much but he gives me a pass," he claims, grinning wryly. He then takes a quick glance around, "Are you lot missin' someone? I could've sworn I heard the lass mention someone named 'Padre'."
Ali scoffs. "Don't tell me you were afraid of the ghosts in there," she says to Marikel. Affecting a very poor attempt at mimicking his voice, she adds, "I ain't afraid of no ghost. It was probably nothing, anyway."
The rogue looks at Dorn and gestures at Marikel. "Marikel is a cleric of Iomedae, so a lot of people call him 'padre' around here."
"Well met, Dorn."
Kaleb tapped his feet irritably.
"Are we not in the middle of a chase? This is hardly the time for socialising or mockery. Do we believe they did not come here?"
"I wasn't afraid of ghosts."
Marikel glares at Alicia.
"I think our fugitives might have been responsible for this morning's disturbance. I think we should all check out the hall. Carefully, for any clue. Dorn, are you much of a tracker? We could use some good eyes."
"Am I much of a tracker, HA! Lad, I could track a snowflake through a blizzard, a raindrop in a storm, a leaf on a windy day, a...," he pauses a moment before, "well that's all I got for now. Stand back and watch me work!" He gives a hearty wink. "By the way, a couple of half-orcs is who you're lookin' for, correct?"
"Thank Iomedae!" Marikel beams.
"Two half-orcs, male and female, fled Trunau only an hour or two ago. They came this way around the cliffs but I don't think they've climbed them. This is the only other place to hide but the guards haven't seen anything... except a ghost earlier this morning. I'm wondering if this ghost is our fugitives playing tricks."
Marikel glances smugly at Alicia and continues, "I've not stomped around the hall where the ghost was seen, so any tracks should be undisturbed."
"Yeah I got nothin'." He shrugs. "There are far too many sets o' prints here. No way I can separate half-orc prints from all these others. Is there a previous area that's not so walked on that you lot know of that they might have traveled through?"
Marikel thinks a moment.
"There's the edge of the cliff where we first noticed the guards," he suggests.
"We were convinced they were coming round to here and if they did then, like us, they would have spotted the guards from there and had to make their plans where we did."
"Wherever there's fewer footprints will definitely help. Show me the way, Padre!" he says, winking. As the cleric leads the way, Dorn spends a bit more time studying the area.
The dwarf has prepared himself to spend as much time as necessary studying the ground at the edge of the boulder, but it turns out that he doesn't need to: the ground here is far less trodden, and the traffic is recent. He easily picks out the prints of the priest, the halfling, and the dog, which lead to the front of the ruined building, of the girl who went behind the rock to the north side of the church ... and a pair of large prints which stopped a moment at the same place but then tracked off to the east. The landscape in that direction, like that in all directions away from Bloodmarch Hill, is dotted with leafless bramble bushes and scattered rocks; but at least one boulder is large enough to block line of sight from the burned church, and not far beyond that is a hummock of a hill.
"Lead on, please," Marikel requests drawing his sword. "I must warn you, these fugitives may well be dangerous and we believe at least one of them has been colluding with trolls. You're welcome to leave us at any point, though your help so far has been greatly appreciated."