The failed magic causes the cat to attack. It leaps from its perch and attempts to bite and claw Jie, who had approached it with the hopes of soothing the beast.
"Sorry, cat."
Benedict drops his bow, draws his sword, steps up, and attacks.
Totally unprepared for the sudden assault, Jie staggers backwards, bleeding from multiple scratch and bite marks. She manages to draw her sword and swings madly at the beast to keep it at bay.
Benedict's and Jie's attacks wound the lynx, and Grum deals it a fatal blow. Its lifeless body flops to the ground and rolls halfway down the escarpment.
Reaching the top, the group finds a small trail that leads to a wooden cabin. It stands in a clearing dotted with tree stumps. Someone has deforested this area to make room for the structure, leaving only tall grass to carpet the clearing. A jumble of poles near the cabin serves as a rack rack for drying animal hides or fish. A small smokehouse is at the rear of the cabin. No smoke issues from the chimney.
"Jie, take this healing potion I have."
Benedict offers Jie his potion of Cure Light Wounds.
Then he searches the ground for any tracks. Either for this cat's owner, or for hobgoblins.
Benedict finds no signs of hobgoblins, but the hard, rocky ground doesn't take well to leaving tracks.
Benedict retrieves his bow and stows his sword.
"Should we call out? Or just approach? Whichever we do, let's wait for Jie to be ready."
Thanks Jie says as she quaffs the potion.
She sadly looks over the lynx, trying to see if can be saved.
But the wounds look fatal.
"I'll cover you as you approach the cabin." Jie says. "But if its a ranger he or she is probably not home, or they would have come to defense of the lynx."
A rarely-used but obvious path through the tall grass leads up to the front door of the cabin.
Jie stays in cover, watching the cabin, bow out and ready to return fire if the encounter becomes hostile.
Benedict will approach using the path. Shield ready, but no weapon in hand. He calls out, "Hello?" and listens for a response, stopping about 40' from the cabin.
He also scans the grass to either side of the path for anybody crouching and concealed.
If he doesn't hear or see anything, he will approach the cabin and try to open the door.
Benedict doesn't see anything in the grass, but when he gets close to the cabin door, he catches the whiff of something dead. He also notices several dead animals lying around the front of the cabin.
He hears no answer to his call, but after a few moments, there's a creak of something moving upon the wooden floor inside.
The animal carcasses show signs of bite marks or claw marks, likely made by some sort of medium-sized predator.
The cat's kills. Brought here and left for its master, who hasn't eaten them or thrown them away. Gone or dead? But then who is inside?
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
Benedict draws his bow and backs up to about 70' from the cabin.
He motions for Amkarang and Grum to form up beside him, providing a barrier to keep Jie safe in the back.
The sounds of heavy footsteps and creaking floorboards issue from the cabin. The door slowly opens on protesting hinges.
In the entryway stands a haggard, wiry man with a gaunt face and tattered clothes stained with splotches of dried blood. Two red points of light burn angrily in his sunken eye sockets, leading to the unmistakable conclusion that this man who looks like death warmed over is just that: dead, yet animated with a fell unlife.
Those hateful points of light settle on the party, and his dry lips peel back in a rictus snarl. "I don't want no visitors!" he wheezes, but then stumbles forward menacingly.
This is a wight, an malevolent undead who rise from spiteful individuals or through necromancy.
Grum looks at the creature, and says to the party "What is that thing? Should I kill it?"
"Yes! But be careful!"
Note that Benedict has his bow out, and Jie behind us has her bow. Not sure about Amkarang but he will weigh in. Grum could ready an attack in case it gets within range, or he could move up and attack it.
Amkarang mutters, ”By Fumeiyoshi’s horns, what is that?” He swings his meteor hammer and lets out most of the chain, ready to trip the best if it comes in reach.
If Jie has a shot, she takes it, trying to put the poor miserable soul to rest.
Grum readies his attack for when the undead approaches. Jie fires her crossbow and the bolt sinks deep into its necrotic flesh.
When the creature shambles forward, Grum swings wildly, but Amkarang's chain sends it to the ground.
It starts to push itself back to its feet, opening itself up to an attack by Grum and Amkarang.
Benedict is too slow to get an AOO, but tries to help Grum's next regular attack connect (Grum has both an AOO against the undead while he is prone and trying to rise, then a regular attack if the undead gets back to its feet.)
He drops his bow, draws his sword, and tries to interfere with its defenses as Grum swings.
After attacking, Benedict will 5' step back and out of the way, to disengage and give Jie a better shot.
Jie sees Benedict stepping back to give her a shot and smiles. "No need to be polite. This thing takes forever to reload"
Amkarang steps forward, shifting the grip on his meteor hammer. He mutters, "Gods, you're ugly!" He then
Grum's savage swing whistles past the head of the wretched creature, but Amkarang's hammer gives it a punishing blow. It staggers to its feet and Benedict jabs skillfully to set up the perfect strike for Grum, but his foot twists on a hidden root and his swing is spoiled. Amkarang though, is ready with his shifted grip. He brings the hammer across its head with a meaty thwack. The evil red light in its sockets goes dark, and his form sags back down to the ground, dead.
"Poor soul. I wonder how this happened. See all the dead animals by the door? The cat must have been trying to bring food to him."
Benedict approaches the cabin and looks inside.
Satisfied with his performance, Amkarang smiles slightly before hearing Benedict and nodding somberly. He notes, "Despite the...bad energy around here, it might be worth considering this as a place to hole up if the weather gets worse. No matter how old, a cabin'll be better than anything we could make."
Jie finishes loading the crossbow. "How sad." she says in response to Benedict's theory for the animals. "You're right, Amkarang. We should move the refugees here. With that, Jie pauses and starts looking to the sky. With all the dead animals strewn about, she hopes to find vultures or other carrion feeding birds flying about.
Talking to the vulture, and hoping its ability to smell carrion implies a good sense of smell, she asks it. "Noble Bird, we are looking for 'two-legs' that smell bad and live in a cave. Do you know where they might be?"
Dust and cobwebs cover the interior of the cabin. The furniture is broken and strewn about, ruined in what must have been fits of rage by the undead creature. At first glance, there appears to be nothing of value in this cabin and a night spent here will be uncomfortable upon the broken and dusty furniture.
However, as you sift through the mess, the last light of the day is reflected off a sword hanging on the wall above the cold fireplace. It is a long sword of fine craftsmanship, and it is joined with a long bow of equally fine make.
You spot tiny footprints in the dust, always keeping to the shadows and never venturing into the open. They come and go from a small crack in the floorboards that would allow a small creature to squeeze through. You spot a boot that is partially covered by an overturned wardrobe that the small invaders were not able to extricate.
You find a hidden compartment under some floorboards. It is locked.
Jie finds a pair of vultures eyeing the group and the array of carcasses around the cabin. They look at each other, twist their heads to the side, and one flaps its wings.
::Stay away from stink-lizards! Any chick knows that! They come up from the ground, in the low, cool valley. That way!::
It orients its body to face the east, maybe slightly north. Then it takes off, muttering something about just-hatched chicks not knowing the good smells from the bad.
|
Grum spotted tiny footprints in the dust, always keeping to the shadows and never venturing into the open. They came and went from a small crack in the floorboards that would allow a small creature to squeeze through. He spotted a boot that is partially covered by an overturned wardrobe that the small invaders were not able to extricate.
He shared this with the party.
Jie excitedly bursts into the cabin. "I just talked to some vultures and they have told me where the 'stink lizards' are. They claim they are in a low, cool valley east of here. Well maybe a tad north of east." Realizing that the bearing may be important later on. She walks outside and scuffs a line in the ground to mark her best rendering of the direction. "They didn't stay how far away it is, but it does lie in their hunting range."
"That's great, Jie! So since we are East of our camp, this cabin is on the way to the caves. We could bring our band here for a night on the way. It might not be big enough for permanent shelter, but it could help out for a night. Let's bring anything that looks useful back for Rhyna and the others to look at.
We should also have those who know such things come here to bless the corpse and give it a proper burial. Don't want it coming back. Can these things come back? I don't really know."
The cabin is small, and would provide cramped quarters for just the four adventurers. Benedict estimates that if every available bit of floor space was used, it could uncomfortably shelter about nine or ten. The cabin alone could not shelter all the refugees.
The materials on the tanning rack have clearly been left unattended for too long and are now worthless. Of a happier note, the small smokehouse is still full of salted and heavily smoked meats and fish. The contents can easily be brought back to the refugee camp to supplement their provisions.
"Is it worth trying to track the tiny footprints? I don't know if they've taken other things of value, but I'm curious. Fey, perhaps? If I could make friends with them like I did with the pooka, they might be able to give us some information."
The dust tracks disappear once outside, as the elements have quickly erased any tracks of such small creatures.
"Let's get back to camp. We'll bring this smoked meat, the bow and sword, and, why not, that boot as well."
Jie also notices the footprints, but is unaware of what makes them. "I would guess some sort of fey." she remarks as she readies Feng for the ride back home.
Amkarang is a poor rider as it turns out, and requires much of Jie's attention and assistance in order to keep in the saddle. Fortunately, the only real difficult part was the switchback trail down the rise, but there was still daylight for him to use and his own two feet.
The forest is quiet as the explorers return back to the encampment, and though it is deeply late in the night by the time they return, it is ultimately an uneventful journey.
Foragers
+8
success plus 3 more animals
55-31+8+6+15=53 PP
Aubrin is woken when the group returns. Though her eyes are heavy-lidded, she smiles at your safe return and the bounty of smoked meats.
"It's good to see you. This will lift everyone's spirits, to have some good, salted venison and smoked trout. My mouth's watering just thinking about it."
She sobers, however when asked about how the camp has fared. "Well enough. What worries me is that we've bad three come down with a fever. Rori, Andrum, and Theros all fell ill some time after noon. I'm doing what I can for them, but I don't have the blessings to magically heal them."
"Well, if magic can't help, let's try medicine and skill. Maybe Rhyna or Amélie can help. If they all fell ill at the same time, there could be a common cause. Vermin bites? Bad food or water?"
Benedict will take a look at the three who are ill and try to figure it what caused it.
Heal is not among his many skills but it can be used untrained, I think.
"We also have four vials of antiplague - would that help? Although if we haven't identified the cause of the problem it will just recur."