Elyra nods at her cousin's request, pausing only to take a long pull from the proffered tankard. "Many thanks," she nods to the innkeeper, making her way to the door.
But there is suspicion in her eyes as she looks through the open doorway, after the dog.
Garridan collects the empty ale tankards with a grunt and a nod. Escorting his guests to the door, the innkeeper tips his fingers to his forehead in a perfunctory salute of thanks. As Tac, Elyra, Talashia and Sivan head out into the damp and fog-strewn night air, Garridan closes and re-bolts the door after everyone's exited.
Sandstone isn't anywhere in sight, but as the group clusters in front of the White Deer, two human men clad in rusty chainmail and armed with a short sword each and a lantern shared between the pair approach along the byway from the direction of the town hall. The gathering fog is thick enough this early in the evening to nearly blot out the lantern ere the men are upon the White Deer. The pair of humans start when they finally spy Tac, Elyra, Talashia, and Sivan. "OI! What's yer business?" The smaller of the pair addresses the group, his challenging tone an indication that he's a deputy-sword guardsman.
The pair of humans start when they finally spy Tac, Elyra, Talashia, and Sivan. "OI! What's yer business?" The smaller of the pair addresses the group, his challenging tone an indication that he's a deputy-sword guardsman.
Tac starts himself at the aggressive challenge.
"The sheriff sent us this way to look for trouble," he says, then points to the goblin bodies. "And we did. But the ... hunting dog we were using ran off that way. We're hoping he hasn't found more of these goblins."
The rough collie sniffs around the gateway, both to determine recent comings and goings and also what may have transpired to leave the portal open and undefended.
OOC: Perception +4, taking 20.
Hearing the conversation going on outside the White Deer, the canine's ears perk up. Facing south, Sanstone tries once more to summon aid with a brief bout of barking.
"The sheriff sent us this way to look for trouble," he says, then points to the goblin bodies. "And we did. But the ... hunting dog we were using ran off that way. We're hoping he hasn't found more of these goblins."
The smaller of the pair of men squints through the fog at Tac and holds the lantern higher aloft to get a better look at Elyra and Sivan. Looking down, the small guardsman kicks at the dead dog carcass left behind by Aldern Foxglove in the byway. "Looks to me like yer dog bite it. Sheriff, eh? Sheriff's back from trekking down ter the beach, you lot's wanted at town hall, or so I heard. OI!!!" The small man yelps as his large companion jumps and elbows him in the ribs when Sandstone starts yet another volley of barking. "Goblin dog! Goblin dog!" the larger of the two men rumbles upon hearing Sandstone's queerly loud bark. Both men are suddenly on point, and brandish their shortswords at a point directed up the byway toward the Gate.
The rough collie sniffs around the gateway, both to determine recent comings and goings and also what may have transpired to leave the portal open and undefended.
The normal custom of the town is to leave the gates open and unguarded during daytime hours but to close and bar the gates at night. From dusk 'til dawn, a two-man sentry is the norm at any Sandpoint gate. The gate should therefore have been closed and manned right about the time when Father Zantus was giving his speech at the Swallowtail Festival, right when the goblins attacked. Though it's been foggy this fall, it hasn't recently rained in Sandpoint. The area at the Gate consists of packed dirt, and many people have trekked in and out of the Gate in the dust of the day. Despite Taran's keen dragon senses, he requires better light and prowess with tracking to make sense of the many prints in the Gate area.
OOC
The "sniffing around the gateway" is basically descriptive fluff, right? Taran's character sheet doesn't include Scent, which really wouldn't be merited anyway since he's using disguise to maintain his dog form.If you've something on his character sheet that merits more detail from me, please let me know.
The small man yelps as his large companion jumps and elbows him in the ribs when Sandstone starts yet another volley of barking. "Goblin dog! Goblin dog!" the larger of the two men rumbles upon hearing Sandstone's queerly loud bark. Both men are suddenly on point, and brandish their shortswords at a point directed up the byway toward the Gate.
"No, the dead dog belongs to a minor noble, that bark is ours. And if he's doing that, I'm afraid there's more trouble. Town hall's going to have to wait," Tac says. He looks to the others for agreement as he begins running in the direction of the barking, drawing his rapier as he does.
Approaching the mist shrouded north gate from whence the barking had come, Tac sees the tawny colored collie standing vigilantly between the two open wooden doors. Seeing Tac with bared rapier in hand, the dog merely barks once in greeting and then lets his tongue dangle sideways from his mouth as he pants. There are no guardsmen to be seen nearby.
Talashia found the scene in the tavern surprisingly awkward...seeing people from that long ago, people who knew her, who she couldn't pull her usual aloof and mysterious air with...it was deflating somehow. And yet, kind of warming as well. That sense of awkwardness, of these strangers having seen too much of her, led to her keeping unusually quiet. That is, until she saw the gates.
"What the...who's supposed to be on gate duty today?" she demands of the two watchmen. "It wasn't you two, was it?"
In the commotion of the initial barking and Tac's drawing his blade and skirmishing for the open Gate, the small weasly guardsman hauls off after Tac, yelling something unintelligble. The larger of the pair of guardsmen seems uncertain whether to follow in the footsteps of his comrade. Just when the bulky man, perhaps a bit slow in the head, appears decided to head after his partner, Talashia's comment makes the dufus stop in his tracks and frown. The man replies, a touch confuddled, "Tallie? TALLIE!!! " before reaching out to strap Talashia in a would-be bear hug. Ere the man can grasp her, Talashia recognizes a playmate from her childhood, Ben Olafsson. Pere Olafsson, Ben's father, kept a small cottage outside the city walls and sold firewood for a living. Ben and Talashia, being the same age, played at fort-making in the Pere's woodpile.
Ben will incur an AoO if he attempts to bear hug/"grapple" Talashia. Let me know if Talashia accepts his hug, sidesteps it in some manner, or takes an AoO against him.
At the gate, the smaller weasly guardsman comes to a halt in front of Taran. Huffing for air from even his short burst of speed, the guardsman pants, "This yer dog? That bark'd wake the dead." The weasly man reaches a hand forward to pat Sandstone.
Let me know how Taran reacts to the attempt to be petted. And, yes, one possibility would be to take the AoO that the guardsman incurs.
Elyra looks off after the guardsman chasing after her cousin, then looks at the other guardsman embracing the sorceress. Perhaps when the goblins decided to raid Sandpoint they were less brazen and better informed than she had thought.
"Wait here, we will yell if there is trouble," she instructs her colleagues, and trots after the running guardsman.
At the gate, the smaller weasly guardsman comes to a halt in front of Taran. Huffing for air from even his short burst of speed, the guardsman pants, "This yer dog? That bark'd wake the dead." The weasly man reaches a hand forward to pat Sandstone.
"That's Sandstone," Tac says, "Though I'm hoping there no literal dead waking involved. It's been a crazy enough day without them. Now, what the blazes are you barking at, boy?"
OOC
Perception +6. Not sure if the fog's too thick yet to see the gate open.
Talashia has just enough time to widen her eyes in shock and gasp, "Ben?!" before she's enfolded in the hug of a man who outmasses her by a factor of nearly two to one. After a second she manages to reach as far around him as she can and gently pat his back, trying to signal him to let go.
When he finally does, she sucks in a breath of delicious, wonderful air and gives Ben a cautious, amused look.
"I'd ask if you missed me," she says with a grin, "but I think I can guess. This is a surprise though...Ben Olafsson of the town guard."
Elyra walks carefully past Tac and the guardsman and kneels carefully by the gate. She examines the packed earth at the edge of the gate, and then closer to the center.
OOC: She is looking for goblin prints, thinking a large number might have come through the gates. Since she is looking for Favored Enemy tracks (adds +2 to Survival) and as a Ranger she gets half her Ranger level on Track (I am rounding up -- Can't check the rules now, CB, but round back down if I'm out of line) her roll is +9.
Ben drops Talashia, grins, and roughs up the hair at the top of her head with a meaty palm. "You got taller, Tal. Hey, where'd Ernie go?" Ben seems to suddenly realize that his comrade in arms has left, which causes him to peer into the fog past Talashia. "C'mon, Tal. Let's go see where Ernie went." Big Ben lumbers down the byway and soon enough rounds the corner around the White Deer, swatting at fog the whole time as if it were a gnat in his face.
At the Gate, the smaller of the pair of guardsman replies to Tac with a shake of the head and a suspicious glance at Elyra, who stoops by the open gate doors in a crouch to hunt for tracks. "No, the watch afore us shoulda had them doors shut fast." With that, Ernie the Small pushes past Tac and, picking up a stout length of wood leaning against the wall to the left of the inside of the Gate, closes the doors and slides the wooden bar into place. "That'll keep 'em out." Ernie declares, brushing splinters and dust from his hands.
Elyra
I know everyone's going to read this, but at least if I put it in spoiler tags you have the option of not viewing it and having your PC remain faithfully in the dark. Elyra (Survival +9 to track goblins) has a good look at the tracks passing in and out of the North Gate. The ground here is packed dirt and though it hasn't rained in many days, the damp of the fog rims some of the prints to Elyra's well-trained eye, particularly when the lamp-bearing guardsman lumbers close enough to close and bar the Gate. In addition to the many booted feet of all manner of civilized folk, there are wagon tracks and horse and pony hoof prints. The Gate's been well-traveled the past three days as people arrive for the Swallowtail Festival. Laid over top the tracks of folk and commerce that Elyra would normally expect from a town Gate, however, are the in-bound prints of a band of perhaps 20 goblins. There are no goblin tracks heading toward or exiting the gate--save one, and that pitiless creature looks to be dead where Sandstone slew it. One medium-sized set of booted feet has laid a series of tracks away from the gate, and in several places these tracks have been laid on top of a set of goblin prints, which ought to be a clear indication that these latter tracks were the last set to leave the Gate area--before the tracks here began to get muddied by the stock of present company. Ernie, in particular, steps in and ruins a particularly vital print at the center poitn where the Gate doors meet, right before Elyra has the opportunity to get a better look at it.
Sandstone contentedly wags his long tail as the guardsmen close and bar the town's gate. Having previously searched the ground for goblin tracks, the guard dog watches with curiosity as the kneeling woman repeats the exercise. Then, with a light bark to draw attention to himself, the collie turns and lopes eastward into the mist. After only a few yards, the dog stops, turns and barks to signal that he should be followed before continuing on. An occasional bark signals his direction and distance as he continues on towards the Boneyard's entry gate.
For those who choose to follow
Past the entry gate the canine follows the northern wall eastward, leading those who continue to follow him through the mist-shrouded forest of gravestones. Eventually the collie comes to a stop and begins hoping up against a bare stretch of the Boneyard's northern wall. Gazing up past the line of Sandstone's pointing snout, sharp-eyed observers can make out the top of a ladder propped up against the wall's opposite side.
CanadienneBacon
I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds by ad-libbing this little side-trek to point out the ladder to the rest of the party. I'm just trying to move things along while keeping everyone in the loop.
BTW, what's with the "bit of fresh earth has been dug up near one of the tombstones"? How much earth are we talking about? Is it a freshly dug grave or someone's preliminary attempt to dig up a body? What's written on the tombstone?
Linear Mode
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