Helping himself to a large helping of Kisaiya's cooking, Rory prepares to push his wolf away with an elbow. But as Storm nears and sniffs, the halfling is surprised when the wolf whines and turns a way. Pausing a moment Rory focuses on the link and realizes Storm's nose was telling him the food was bad. The normally not picky halfling joins the normally not picky wolf, and dumps the food, telling Kisaiya loud enough for the others to hear, "Sorry Kisaiya, Storm thinks the food smells bad. We normally love your cooking, but with all that's going on I'm going to trust him on this one."
Sneaking a little jerky out of the saddlebags while he saddles the Wolf, he shares it with Storm while they get ready to go.
Perception
Mukluk would never not eat food, especially not eat food prepared by a friend. He would eat. Unless it was black licorice, that’s awful stuff.
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Durgan's keen Dwarven senses pick up the scent of hemlock.
Unfortunately, he does not typically prepare Purify Food and Drink as one of his daily orisons, but he can change that in the future.
"Hemlock. Don't touch it.
One of the Frozen Shadows will confess to this before they die."
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Kisaiya slams a fist into the table. Her eyes dart back-and-forth as she tries to figure out when in the cooking process this could have happened. She finally stands up. She bows deeply to her comrades. ”It is my responsibility to provide meals, and I have failed to catch such a grievous treachery. I apologize with all my heart for not noticing sooner.”
She straightens and scowls. ”This is not just craven, to attempt to poison our food, but the deepest of insults. I care about providing for people. That they would try to sneak it into my cooking…to try to turn my work into something vile and treacherous. I will not stand for it. Whoever is responsible for this will pay. I will make sure of that.”
Breakfast is dumped, camp wide. A simpler fare, and easier to check for poisons, is made for the hungry. A check will have to be made of the camp supplies to see where it was snuck in, but for now that can wait.
After a second breakfast then, the party does a little shopping (ding!) and prepares to head into the hills. It is called Ravenscraeg because it lies high among the rocky crags outside Kalsgard, accessible only to the eponymous ravens that roost atop its ridgepole, save for a perilous stair that climbs the cliff face to the hall above.
The trail passes through boggy terrain south of Kalsgard dotted with small copses and shale hillocks. The gray line of craggy hills is visible to the south and beyond them the green forest. You make excellent time and reach the foot of the stairs by lunch.
The hills rise sharply ahead into a steep and craggy shale escarpment hundreds of feet high. Tucked into a narrow defile between two of these crags is a stone-and-timber longhall and tower, weathered and gray. The hall stands nearly one hundred feet above the base of the cliff, with only a single wooden stair climbing in a series of switchbacks up the cliff face to its front gate.
All is silent save for the raucous caws of the ravens that congregate atop the hall’s tower and ridgepole high above.
Raising an eyebrow as Durgan identifies the poison, Rory is sad he had to throw out the oatmeal with walnuts and honey, but Storm was right it wa for the best. As the dwarf declares he'd get a confession from the assassin Rory wondered if it had been the archer, they'd let escape. Turning to Kisaiya as she lamented, he mounts Storm and rides over close, telling his friend, "Not to worry Kisaiya, we know it's not your fault." As Storm tried to lick her hand to let her know it was ok.
After leaving the market and heading towards the boggy terrain, Rory keeps Storm near the others; hoping the wolf understands they need to protect Ameiko instead of galivanting about the countryside. Frowning as he looks towards the stairs and then the murder of crows congregated above. Trying to be light, he adds, "Looks like we found where the crows live."
Concerned about being ambushed on the stairs, Rory considers the fastest way to get to the top of the defile. He knew Durgan could fly and for the first time he didn't wish Mukluk had brought moose. Breathing a sigh, "We need to get to the top as quickly as possible." He gestures towards the stairs, "Storm and I can rush up the stairs as a distraction, while some folks fly up and establish a 'beach head'."
Mukluk reluctantly spits out the food. He was, and still is, willing to trust his strong dwarven stomach to handle the hemlock and thus preserve Kisaiya’s honor, but the social implications of shoveling delicious, if poisoned, food into his gullet might cause problems. So he lets it go and eats a raw cabbage for breakfast. It’s tough to think any assassin would consider poisoning a cabbage, as most people don’t even consider cabbage as food.
* * *
”Ah, the crows,” Mukluk looks up when Rory points them out. ”A murder to watch a murder. And if they have been spying on us, then they probably know we are coming. No need for any tricksies, a straight approach might be best.”
Mukluk takes out his wand of scorching ray, and also prepares his usual magics.
”It might be nice to know where there might be traps or foes above us, that would helpful even if you rush ahead. I’m more slow and steady, and so as everyone knows what is what here, no need to rush.”
Mukluk takes his time to examine the paths ahead…as much time as needed to examine it as best he can.