City of the Spider Queen

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Jyren was quiet most of the time, surprised at the reaction of the farmhand and the family. Looking onward, his watery eyes traced over the terrain around them, "It is not unlikely that these people know only that there were raids. I know that when I grew up, I knew very little of the world around me..." he did his best not to add that he still knew little about it, "Let us do what we are here to do...I believe the only help we can provide these people is to stop these raids. I wouldn't expect it would matter very much to them the source of the raids...as long as they end."

 

[Dakkareth]

Please, there must unity among us, if we are to face enemies such as these., the wizard addresses the two companions. Personally, I think it's too early to judge Morn's actions, but we should make haste to discern the actual level of the threat and what possibilities we have to counter it. Namely we should look briefly into the damage caused by one of the raids and then scout out the crypts. It will be our actions there, not our words here, that make the difference.

They both have a point unfortunately. From a purely political point of view this Hazrael is right and I would have probably acted the same way, while so little information is available. On the other hand I wouldn't want anyone to suffer like Rashak did. Let's hope, we (I) can focus (us) on the task at hand to make the point a moot one.

Merion drives his horse between and then past the two of them turning eastward to the raided farm the family indicated. Let's go!

 

[Rayex]

OOC: Sorry, my mistake, the raided area is east, not west. No biggie though.

You set out the way showed to you by the family. Before you, the trail winds past a low, rounded hill dotted with jutting boulders and dense briar patches. Sere grasses crown its barren slopes. Beyond the first rampart, a long chain of rugged hills stretches away to the south and the west - the Dagger Hills. The trail continues south, skirting the lower slopes.
You go across the hill, and you realise the boulders are remnants from old. Probably an old fort or something.

After some times you come to an abandoned farm. Cattle and chickens are walking freely around, clearly untended. The door to the farmhouse is open.

 

[Dakkareth]

Approaching slowly Merion casts his sight into that strange nether region, where material things become no more than hints of solidity in the swirling grey, but the nexi of positive or negative energies, that are living souls or respectively undead, become brilliantly visible. I mislike surprises ...

Assuming there's nothing out of the ordinary within and around the farmhouse, Merion dismounts and cautiously enters through the open door letting the others precede him, if they also want to take a look, check for tracks or anything.

What could be greater than the gift of seeing the living and dead as they really are? I still wonder, how it came surpass - chance, fate or meddling of third parties. Maybe I'll find out one day.

[OOC:

Spoiler

Making use of the spirit sight special ability.

]

 

[Rayex]

Day 1 - At the raided farm

Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, Merion enters the abandoned farm. The stench of death lies heavy in the air. You enter into the kitchen, and nothing seems out of order. Slowly you walk through the house, and finally you come to the sleeping quarters. Floors, walls and even the roof is splattered with blood and gore. The family who lived here was attacked while sleeping, mercilessly butchered in their own beds. The bodies have been removed, but thats about it. The floor is covered with dried blood, and any tracks after the raiders have most likely been messed up when the bodies were removed. However, you find some handprints in the blood in the frame around the window. The print is of lithe, elegant fingers, almost childlike, but clearly made by someone strong. Looks like an elven print.

 

[Dakkareth]

Merion looks at gutted room, the remains of the carnage and the handprint, but can discern nothing but the obvious implications. He turns to the others:

What do you make of this?

 

[DemonAtheist]

Hazrael dismounts and follows Merion into the farmhouse. The smell of human blood draws a mixed mental reaction: I do not shed tears for humans, but these people did not deserve the deaths they received. He puts this thought aside for the moment and uses the time to examine the imprints in the blood.

He bends over, putting his face inches from the ground, one hand keeping his cloak from touching the tracks and the other holding his bow, and an arrow between two fingers. He concentrates, not attempting to respond to the observations of the others. He takes a deep breath of the stench, and lets his mind be consumed by the task at hand.

Although the prints in the house were largely ruined by the dragged bodies, he follows their direction outside and looks for bloodied footsteps there. Once on the trail, he follows them further from the farmhouse to see if they meet up with any other tracks. He hopes to find out the total number of Drow in the raiding party from his examination of the ground to gain a better idea of what he and the others are up against.

OOC:

Spoiler

Hazrael makes use of the Track feat. to find the tracks he uses Search (+15), and to follow them he uses Survival (+13).

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Jyren dismounted carefully, making sure the horse didn't bolt off for a long moment before following the others into the house. Upon seeing the condition of the interior, he sighed heavily. Closing his mouth an trying to avoid the air in the room, he looked to the others and managed to ask, "Can anyone make something of this beyond that it was a slaughter?"

 

[Rayex]

Day 1 - At the raided farm

Hazrael follow the now obvious elven tracks from the window. You think that the raiding party was as big as eight, maybe ten individuals. The tracks leads east, towards the crypts. You follow the tracks for half a mile before turning back. From what you can see, they did not meet up with another party, not here anyway.

 

[DemonAtheist]

Hazrael walks back to the others, taking about five minutes. The three of them are still near or in the farmhouse. When they have all noticed that he returned from whatever he was doing, he announces We are facing at most ten Drow, possibly one or two fewer. There is no doubt that they came from the crypts. Also, there seems to be only one raiding party acting alone. He pauses momentarily, then adds Have you three found anything of note?