OOC: Good roleplaying, guys. I think you've really captured the despair and frustration of the Midnight setting. To move this along, I will assume the 4 people doing the scouting would be Valurel, Mardo, Starhl, and Lodric. I realize, Toric, you suggested 3 people, but I don't want to leave anyone out that seem the sneaky type and I want to move this along. 
The quartet moves through the dry grasses stealthily, staying to the lees in the land and hiding in the longer grasses. Kaela and Herger follow more slowly, staying back to avoid being spotted by unfriendly eyes. The distance to the source of the rising smoke is great; several miles pass and even Herger's slow moving bulk disappears in the distance.
By late afternoon in the oppressive heat, Valurel, Mardo, Lodric, and Starhl crest a small rise, moving low through the grasses. To the west, the sun hides behind a mass of black clouds. To the south, a dark smear occludes the horizon, perhaps a forest far to the south. Peering through parted grasses, the quartet looks down the hill on the source of the smoke and the remains of a massacre. The remains of four sod homes lie in ruins, the heavy earthen structures ripped apart by some great force. Smoke rises from the interior of two of the sod homes. The sod homes are clustered about a village square of hard packed earth. Surrounding the village, a small amount of the Erenland plains have been claimed as farmland, green corn growing high, potatoes greens rising from the ground.
Partly hidden in the grass, two crumpled figures covered in rags lay sprawled on the ground, their bodies savagely hacked apart. Wooden clubs lie their outstretched hands.
A bloody track in the earth leaves a muddy trail lthat leads south down a steep descent to a river valley. The descent is so steep, the Heroes cannot see its bottom from their vantage point. However, to the south at the bottom of the descent, lies the river valley of the River Orh. Mardo smiles in spite of the scene below him, remembering his times on the mighty river. Mardo's smile quickly fades. There, near the River Orh lies an overturned wagon, one of its axles split.
From the bottom of the river valley nearest the descent and hidden from the Heroes' eyes comes a heavy grunt and a loud snap, followed by a greedy, wet gobbling.
What do the Heroes do?
To explain why the Heroes cannot see the bottom of the descent, I drew a picture. The Heroes are at X, the village at Y, and the sounds heard at Z. From the Heroes vantage looking down the hill, they cannot see Z. The drawing is not to scale.
X
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xxxxxxxxx Y
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Z River Orh valley
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