Hewligan's Rise of the Runelords: The Skinsaw Murders

[Friadoc]

"Fair warning, we will not be able to see one and other," says Kael as he looks to each of you in turn. "And attacking someone breaks the illusion...which will last for six steady counts of sixty, after that the glamor will fade and we will be visible."

"I suggest we stay together as best we can with the one on point leaving marks in the dust or sawdust and the one at the rear, most likely myself and Mal, erasing the mark," suggest Kael. "This way we can stick together, follow one and other and meet any opposition head on."

"Unless there is a better idea?"

 

[Rhun]

"None," says Danth. "Your spell should at least give us the time to see if something...untoward is happening here."

 

[hewligan]

The entirety of this first floor consists of a loading area. An opening in the ceiling into the floor above is filled with a tangle of ropes and slings for lowering timber. Nearby, a flight of stairs ascends to the next floor. Two sturdy wagons sit to the south, next to a bank of machinery accessed by four low doors; the grinding and creaking of the machinery fills the room.

The doors to the south are metal and one of them hangs open, revealing the machinery (a long metal pole that slowly turns and turns, along with various weird bits and bobs) within. You guess, given the loud noise from below, and the gentle, constant rotation of the equipment, that this is the waterwheel-driven machinery.

The room is empty, but the noise and bustle from both above and below make it hard to determine the human noise from machinery from the river below.

The entire floor is covered in a fine layer of sawdust, with large piles of it brushed up against the east wall. It should be easy for the leader to draw an arrow in the sawdust and the last person to brush it away, but it is going to be very difficult to remove all tracks. Fortunately, there are lots of tracks already, as one would expect from a working mill.

OOC: You can either search this empty room, or try for listen checks, or head up the ropes/chains, or investigate any part of the room you want, or walk up the stairs to the next floor.

 

[frostrune]

Jokad will start trying to make sense of the tracks on the floor. He is hoping the hard riding boots of the mailed warrior will leave a very different impression than those of the typical worker.


OOC: Survival check = 18
Roll Lookup

 

[Fenris]

"Follow the path lads" says Jovik as he shuffles his feet towards the stairs, leaving a very obvious path for them to follow, and also indicates where Jovik is, not to mention it will conceal their numbers if anyone comes in later. Once at the stairs, Jovik will creep up the stairs peeking his head up just enough to see the next floor.

[sblock]
I am assuming a listen check is pretty hard in this environment, but here goes:
1d20+8=16
[/sblock]

 

[Rhun]

Danth follows his invisible companion as best he can, trying to move quietly and cautiously, but unsure that it is even necessary with all the sound in the room.

 

[hewligan]

You climb the stairs slowly and quietly. There is a small room at the top of the stairs with an open door that leads into a larger storeroom. The floor in the small room includes a large space open to the floor below and also continues open to the floor above, and another floor above that.

Moving forward to peer into the larger room, you see a large storeroom filled with stacks of timber, firewood, and other finished lumber products waiting for shipment. A network of pulleys on tracks covers the ceiling, ropes dangling here and there to aid in the shifting of inventory as needed. Machinery churns along the south wall, while nearby two chutes fitted with winches allow lumber to be hauled up from the holding pools below. Four openings in the ceiling lead to the upper floor; chutes extend through each of these from the log splitters in the room above. Under each opening is a collection bin.

There are four elaborately dressed men (black and white striped silken trousers, and decorative red cloaks and hoods that are down, revealing their faces. They range in ages from 20 to 40ish) who busy themselves inspecting lumber, arranging product, and preparing shipments. The noise is still quite powerful here, and they appear to be unaware of your entry.

The stairs you climbed also continue on up to the next floor. You can either enter the room where the men work, or move further upstairs.

 

[Fenris]

OOC: Ok, player conference. My first instinct was to sneak up and back stab one of the guys. But I wanted some concensus before I did, since you know we have our suspicions, but no proof.

 

[Rhun]

OOC: Obviously Danth is against backstabbing without actual proof. And we don't want the law on our trail if we are wrong. I say head upstairs and see if we can get some proof.

 

[frostrune]

OOC: I say use our invisibility wile we have it. Move on while we can.

BTW, I am on vacation and out of internet contact for the next week. Carry on without me me buckos!