Ashin's Commission, RA Style--Michael Alone

[ajanders]

Michael finds a nice hill where he can see into Duvik...maybe a half-mile to a mile away?
He tethers his horse on the far side of the hill, crawls up the hill under a bush, and settles down to look down into Duvik for about half an hour.
He doesn't rightly know what to expect, but he generally knows what a normal village looks like and doesn't really expect to see it here.
Actually, he mostly expects to see a gory pile of patrol corpses being battened on by ghouls.
Or, if Zaeryl's ravings were correct, a high stockade with people languishing in chains.

If he's really lucky, he'll see giant ore wagons, but he expects they'll be up at the mine.
He tries to hide and keeps his hammer handy, in case someone comes up to club him over the head and eat him.
There are easier ways to lose weight, he thinks to himself.

 

[Rystil Arden]

*From his position significantly northeast of the town, he can either go around east and turn south and enter the town, or he can head upwards on a sloping path onto a long promontory that directly overlooks the town down a hill.*

 

[ajanders]

Michael starts up the promontory, leading his horse behind him.
It occurs to him such a natural overlook is not a bad site for somone trying to find out what's going on in Duvik to be, so he keeps an eye out for any Fallon patrols.
Or sniper posts. Or giant watchtowers flanked by ballistae glowering down on the town.
He pickets the horse about three quarters of the way up the hill and climbs to the top, hammer ready and dodging from cover to cover.

He begins to remember why he got heavy armor.

 

[Rystil Arden]

*From the top of the promontory, as Michael proceeds south for about an hour, he begins to get a good view of the town below. A mining town, Duvik is built up against the cavern-strewn mountains filled with rich veins that have made the town rather famous and wealthy, at least for its size. In the still quiet of the air and from his vantage point upon the promontory, the town looks quite peaceful, though if rumours are true, then this is a mere facade, an illusion brought about by the distance. There appears to be a single set of tracks up here, as if from a lone scout who has proceeded up from the south and then turned about the other way.*

 

[ajanders]

Michael stays up on the hill about half an hour: long enough to take multiple 20's on Spot and Listen checks.

Is this a peaceful cheery silence, or is this like the hush of the grave?
It's reasonably early in the morning: people should be going to work, feeding the chickens, hanging out the laundry, squabbling with their neighbors.

Is there any newish looking construction for, say, a garrison? A massive jail? A gallows?

Piled corpses? Packs of inhuman beast-folk?

Cooking fires? Fires from burning buildings?

Taking 20 on Spot and listen gives a 23 each, taking 20 on search gives a 20.

 

[Rystil Arden]

*More of a peaceful silence than the hush of the dead. Standing watch and paying close attention for half an hour, Michael does see people, little more than specks from up here on the promontory, going about their business, though they do seem to be doing so carefully and to be getting back inside when they can--also, with few exceptions, they don't seem to be children, as if the streets are no longer safe for the young. There does not seem to be any massive new construction, nor smoldering ruins, nor a pile of rotting corpses, nor a raving pack of inhuman beast folk, at least for the moment.*

 

[ajanders]

Michael scratches his head.
Something surely doesn't seem right -- even in the dead of winter children would be out having snowball fights.
I decline to make it my problem.

Satisfied the patrol is not in the village, dead or alive, Michael gets his bearings on the mine, mounts up, and heads in that direction.

The Fallonese can't be oppressing them very much. Not from what, five miles away?

 

[Rystil Arden]

*Michael has a few possible ways to approach. By far the shortest path as the crow flies is to skid and balance his way down the promontory's slope and the loose rocks until he reaches the bottom and then cross the town. Otherwise, he could also go back north until the promontory slants down and then bear north of the town and sweep back in.*

 

[ajanders]

Michael decides he shouldn't leave the demon-horse tethered, and heads down the slope the way he came, staying low.

He has no intention of walking into town: nobody since he left Orussus has been glad to see him and he's out of desire to buck the tide.

Swing wide and go find the soldiers.

 

[ajanders]

As a side note, if Michael notices the psicrystal Ironwolf left him doing anything, he pulls it out and sets it on the ground.