Jaronel, peeking around the gate opening, nods at Chaku's instructions, his face pale. He inches through the gate, pack animals in tow.
Kaeysari's examination of the next body in, a dwarven warrior, reveals that she was killed by a slashing weapon. It looks like whoever did it went in for a degree of overkill, continuing to hack even after she had surely breathed her last.
The next body after that, a halfling, looks more like a farmer - calloused hands and no weapons visible. His wounds were made by arrows. Several broken shafts, fletched with bright feathers, lie nearby.
Moving over to the body at the unburned area, the shifter examines the body there closely. She quickly determines that it is too late to help this unfortunate, whose hide armor and war club still tightly clutched in hand identify him as another warrior. There are no obvious wounds or trauma. She rolls the body over and studies it for clues.
[sblock=Kaeysari]The man's limbs are swollen. There are discolorations on the exposed skin, not bruises but something under the surface. A yellowish crust is visible around his mouth.
[sblock=Heal DC 10 (passive)]These symptoms match those produced by exposure to some kinds of snake venom.[/sblock]
You don't pay as close attention to the unburned tree, which is still covered with ashes. But it does appear to be just a single tree that did not burn, and you don't see anyplace that it was cut. It just seems to have collapsed. The branches and leaves and so forth that you can see seem partially disintegrated, as if by acid.
[sblock=Nature DC 20 (active)]Actually there are some strange color patterns on the exposed bits of tree. It almost looks like it was affected by venom too, but what sort of venom might affect a tree, you have no idea.[/sblock][/sblock]
Papolstanaas avoids looking directly at the bodies, studying the remains of the trees instead.
[sblock=Papolstanaas]You find a small patch of tarry black substance on the ground between rows of burnt trees. You also note lines of off-colored ash on some of the burned logs. It looks like some kind of bitumen or pitch was used to help the trees burn.[/sblock]
It's plain to all that whoever did this was very methodical and determined to get all the trees. It looks like they proceeded in an orderly manner from north to south, as more small fires and coals smolder in the northern part. It probably took a while to do this.
Jynxx advances close to the lines of burning trees, peering through the smoke.
[sblock=Jynxx]You can get a slightly better view of the building. It looks like a thatched hut about 12 feet tall. There's also a well or cistern flush against its right edge. You catch a glimpse of another hut, a bit smaller, further in to the left. There is smoke in the sky above that one.
Also, you automatically pass the following Perception check since you're closer (not to mention your monster Perception bonus
).[/sblock]
[sblock=Perception DC 20 (active), +5 to check for Chaku and Azryah, auto for Jynxx]Above the crackling fire, you can barely hear a voice speaking beyond the smoke, in broken Allarian.
"Krassus, no more lie. There more, I know. No care about worker? You disgust to me. So now only be you. I think you care about you!"
There is a scraping sound followed by whimpering.[/sblock]
Jaronel, still back by the gate, starts muttering to himself in Magari. He is staring at the statuette, frozen in his tracks. His eyes look like they're about to bug right out of his head. He drops the mules' leads (again), takes a few steps back and says more in Magari, looking around wildly.
[sblock=Magari -> Dwarven]
??? when ??? here? ?????? see me, terrible(?)... ??? dead(?) ??? too late![/sblock]
He screams out a single word:
Zocaltipapatlaca!
He turns and flees through the gate, running flat out for the jungle.
A moment later another scream rings out from beyond the building. This one is wordless and cut frighteningly short.
// I'll be rolling initiative later tonight... Your starting spots aren't necessarily exactly where you'd be based on the above, you'll have a chance to "break" in a particular direction before we actually go into rounds.
