Sébastien bows pointing the direction of town....
Stepnik freezes in place as his unwitting foot fall creates a noise, then watches trying not to laugh as the Tree spirit entertains the drunk hunters.
"I guess we could escort them back, but it adds another day to our task... still I would hate for their lack of woodland skill to result in their deaths... which I guess we would be partially responsible for".
He then shrugs to show he is good to go along with the group's consensus.
Ustemir walks out of the underbrush. "Damnit, why do you put these thoughts in m head? They're not in immediate danger."
"Where are you from, fellas? Do you have a compass or anything of the sort? A tent to stay the night in?"
The three drunk hunters scratch their heads and look at each other, "Uh compass? Tent? Hey Bart, did you bring a tent?"
"Uh no... I thought you did."
An expert glance at their gear tells you they are woefully unprepared for an extended stay in the wilderness.
let's get these gravelbrained fools back to safety Waedin sighs.
The Tree Spirit smiles.
Ustemir looks at the bunch of drunkard stumbling their way through a forest, completely unprepared. They are obviously aware of some sort of beast able to snatch a man from a group of people, but they simply don't seem to care at all.
"You're pathetic, but lucky." he addresses the drunkards as he pulls out a length or rope form his gear. "My friends don't want your death soiling their conscience."
He ties a rope around the waists of each man, leaving a few feet of rope between them. "Come. Let's get you out of the woods."
He shakes his head as he grabs the rope and starts pulling the lost explorers back south.
Stepnik follows along on the rescue mission looking for the mushrooms, and any other interesting plants as they go.
Bert, Bart, and Bernard gladly follow the crew back to Camp B. From here, they can easily follow the narrow road back to town.
In true bardic fashion, Sébastien fully embodies his tree spirit costume and becomes one with the forest. I believe he has taken the Method Acting feat.
The group co tinues slowly moving northward through the forest, following the days old tracks of the big bad wolf. However, it is getting late in the day, and the sun is beginning to drop. No use tracking at night, so it is time to make camp.
The group sleeps soundly, uninterrupted, through the night. They wake in the morning light to the sound of bluejays singing in the trees.
I'm glad we're still able to trail the wolf. Waedin says. I'm a city gal myself, or least, a place with a ceiling kinda person.
"We'll see if these hikers didn't destroy the trail." Ustemir finishes packing his belongings and starts looking for tracks.
Sébastien seems both perplexed and pouty during the morning tracking.
The mud seems to have been Prestidigitation off...
Ascaede echoes Waedin, murmuring something about cells and small windows as she trudges along.
”As much as the wonders of the outside world are truly…wondrous…I fear my back may soon appreciate such that Sebastien waxes so lyrically about: a soft bed and an actual pillow.”
It seems Sebastien's embodiment of the woodlands has worn off. Good thing an actual ranger is here. Ustemir picks up on the trail again, and the group is off after a meager breakfast.
After a few hours of tracking and trekking through the wilds, just as the more sophisticated stomachs begin to growl for a lunch break, Ustemir spots something disturbing up ahead. There is a dead tree with its lower portion streaked with blood.
"Hm..." Ustemir squints in the direction of the tree. "What's this then? Look." and he points to the dead, crimson-spattered tree, and moves closer to investigate.
How fresh is the blood? Waedin asks, deciding to put her own field training to use.
As Ustemir moves in closer and around the other side of the tree he finds the bodies of three dead sprites, pinned to the base of the tree trunk with thin metal spikes. Their bodies have been cut open and entrails left hanging out, blood smeared across the tree in a gruesome if not ritualistic fashion. Waedin isn't sure how recent this grisly murder took place.
Ascaede kneels to inspect the carnage.
She can make no sense of the remains.
"Blood. And bodies? As a marker of some kind? A horrific ritual?"
She is about to rise when her head shifts slightly, as if noting something odd. She points to the ground, her finger following a line.
"No. Here! Reptilian footprints! So....possibly not our canine quarry...But were they responsible for this bloodletting?"
Ustemir explores the scene slowly, taking in the gruesome details.
"Alright, this is different." he mumbles to nobody in particular during the examination. "A lot of the blood is missing, though, even for such small creatures. They seem drained? Anyone heard about something like this?"
Stepnik steps up to examine the body but sees that Ustemir has a good hand on the subject.
"Well I'm not sure what the fey do with their dead... if they even normally die, but I feel we should at least un-spike them and perhaps bury them somewhere".
RK: Nature
Waedin grunts. It's evil, I know that for sure. But do I know anything else, about draining blood and staking them.
Yeah Step, after everyone's done. I'll give them a decent burial. Been doing that a lot lately.
Stepnik recalls that, although the nature of Fey souls is quite mysterious, most Sprites worship at the feet Saren, the Tusked God, although others may pay homage to other deities with ties to nature, beauty, and magic. They are capricious creatures, often guardians of places of natural beauty, or drawn to places of magical power.
Waedin considers the reasons for such a ritualistic killing, and concludes there may be a sacrificial component to it, the blood gathered to perhaps empower some sort of unholy rite. Which unholy rite, though, is inconclusive.
Ascaede wraps a shred of cloth around her palm then presses her hand into the footprints. "Kobolds" she says simply.
Then she turns her attention to the ritual slaying.
You're a treasure trove of information, but not all of it comes from reputable sources. When you fail (but don't critically fail) a Recall Knowledge check using any skill, you learn a bit of true knowledge and a bit of erroneous knowledge, but you don't have any way to differentiate which is which.
Constantly constructively completely copiously crafted lyrical literature erupts from Sébastien as the group travels through the mud infested, leaf strewn, creaking dead branches that attempt to steal your hat forest.
At the viewing of the ritualistic murders, the bard sighs.
A werewolf Necromancer would suck.
"Yes. Blood....apparently." Ascaede muses, apparently able to pay attention to Sebastien's well crafted surmisings.
Ustemir chuckles at the quip and stands upright again. "I feel like this is a two-birds-with-one-stone situation."
He sighs. "Just have to make sure our stones are large enough."
Plenty of evil rituals require blood Garena knows. Maybe that's what's happening here. I don't like it one bit. Question is, do we track this blood, these footprints, or continue trying to go for the wolf? Maybe they all go in the same direction?
Ascaede ponders the presence of kobolds in these woods:
Kobolds are diligent and hardworking creatures, though they often turn these virtues toward selfish ends. While some kobolds live in communal collectives that maintain neutral relations with the creatures around them, they can be easily swayed into serving malevolent powers or megalomaniac leaders. This is in part due to kobolds’ innate pragmatism, as they would rather concede to servitude than risk being killed, but it is also in part due to a reverence for the power that kobolds generally lack. Dragons in particular are viewed with a deferential awe, and kobolds eagerly offer their services to such mighty and glorious creatures when they can. While kobolds may scheme against other leaders, especially those that control them via subjugation, dragons are usually viewed with adoration, no matter how brutal they might be to their kobold minions.
She also digs into her knowledge about rituals, and thinks that, although this murder bears the hallmarks of ceremonial sacrifice and ritual, it seems sloppily done, as if incomplete or incorrect. Maybe a practice run for something greater and more nefarious.
Waedin isn't able to discern the direction of the kobold tracks.
Sébastien grins.
The city slicker bard bends both back and buttocks to dig his hands into the dirt and mud. Rubbing his hands all over his face, then dropping and rolling in the leaves, twigs and mud, the halfling pops up!
Peering, peeking, particularly pleasantly preparing to Track, Sébastien begins to fake it!
Meanwhile, somewhere in the First World, a giggling Lantern King places his chest pieces around the board....
Sebastien dons his tree spirit aspect and leads the party through the woods, following the kobold tracks. Maybe not surprisingly, the Kobold tracks eventually start following the same direction as the wolf tracks. After another couple of hours, you begin to notice you are gaining in elevation, and the terrain becomes hilly. Soon, you reach the edge of the forest and before you is a hilly terrain with sparse vegetation. The Crescent Mountains loom in the distance to the west. The tracks you've been following have been in a mostly northern direction, but here they cut sharply west and become more difficult to follow.
"Wow! Wildernessis hard".
Stepnik observes as he gets a stitch in his side from the unaccustomed trekking.
"I mean, Sebastien is doing a pretty good job. Must be some magical dirt." Ustemir grabs a handful of mud and just SMEARS it on his face, then starts looking for tracks as well.
He shrugs. "Eh... probably not."
I think I'm getting the hang of this tree stuff.
Ascaede nods as Stepnik finds the going arduous. Her own breathing is laboured and her clothes much…more…travel stained.
”Pray we do not have to ascend all the way into yonder mountains, good Stepnik.”
Sebastian huffs as the group travels seemingly haphazardly about the woods, hills, valleys and cliffs.
Seriously! I took one fricking pottery class at University and now I a fricking Expert!
The halfling turns to looks directly at you!
Dorian is gonna be obligated to increase my Survival to Expert next level! Disgusting!
I feel vindicated!
And as proof, the Bard actually does Aid Waedin!
Inspire Competence
Something about these foothills resounds within Waedin, and she perhaps feels a little at home, at least some part of her, with the snowcapped grey mountains looking down from above. With Sebastien's encouragement, she tracks the mixed kobold and wolf tracks up and down and around through the hills. It seems that this trail has been well used recently.
Late in the afternoon, you crest a hill and on the next hill over spot what looks like some ancient ruins. Surrounded by stands of gnarled trees, the windswept walls are made of stone well worn by the passage of time. The stout building looks to be slowly falling apart. Sections of the slanted shale roof have collapsed, and portions of the outer walls have crumbled. Weeds and wild thorny plants run rampant across the field leading up to the place, leaving only the slightest visible path approaching the front entrance. Beyond, an overgrown courtyard lies in shadow.
Sebastian looks forlornly at the collisions of collapsed construction.
Probably zero chance of a hot bath and soft bed at this Inn.
The Bard does offer Aid to those actually Knowledgeable.
Ascaede huffs and puffs to the crest, only to see they are probably heading across to another one. The majesty of the landscape takes her breath even further away, moving her spirit in a way that transcends her fatigue... She stares at the far pile.
"An inn. Oh, that would be nice. My legs ache. Sadly that one looks...dilapidated."
You're a treasure trove of information, but not all of it comes from reputable sources. When you fail (but don't critically fail) a Recall Knowledge check using any skill, you learn a bit of true knowledge and a bit of erroneous knowledge, but you don't have any way to differentiate which is which.
Do you think we stumbled across the ruins that we were wanting to go to that a lot of the people we're searching for headed to? Waedin asks. Might be our wolf and these kobolds are sheltering there too?
Ascaede nods uncertainly with a tired shrug.
"The lumbermaster Trookshavits mentioned a ruins near where signs of the wolf were lost...these could well be they..."
Society
"Well it must really be ancient, cause I can tell by the way the blocks are carved, and the height of the doors this is of ancient dwarven make".
We should approach with caution.
Let's look around the perimeter of it and see what's up".
Waedin and Asceade ponder whether this temple may indeed be the Crucible of Kamus, where Drazmorg the Wizard reportedly lead an expedition of mercenaries, including Vazenko Penchev in search of, where Druingar the Glintaxe went looking for the 'seal that guards the way back from death', where the Darkmoon Beast was rumored to lurk?
Stepnik identifies it as an ancient dwarven structure, and advises caution.
An old path runs up to the main entrance into the ruins through an overgrown field of weeds and grasses on the southern side. Outside the main gate are the remains of two stone statues. One has crumbled, while the other, although worn with age, is identifiable as a dwarf holding aloft a great stone hammer. The wooden doors of the main gate have fallen into a pile of rotted wood, leading into an overgrown courtyard. Overlooking the courtyard in the south-eastern corner stands a tower.
From here, circling the perimeter, you find other viable entrances. On the eastern side, a portion of wall has fallen into a pile of rubble, also leading into the courtyard.
A room on the north-eastern corner has also collapsed into a pile of rubble, providing entrance into the main building through a small door.
And, at the south-western portion, a wall has collapsed into a pool of stagnant water where the earth has become low and marshy, providing entrance into the main building.
Sebastian glares at each egress suspiciously. The halfling begins rolling up his trousers.
And, at the south-western portion, a wall has collapsed into a pool of stagnant water where the earth has become low and marshy, providing entrance into the main building.
The Bard also pulls out some water wings, a life jacket and his rubber ducky.
Best be prepared for anything. Anyone got sunscreen?