The Faerie Woods [Knight Otu Judging]

[Manzanita]

Persephone

"So the necklace didn't glow before this incident. Something must have made it start glowing. Perhaps it hosted some sort of intelligence, which came to life and escaped. Rilithorn thought it was of significant power. He thinks it was this necklace that interferred with his experiments and thus caused the fire next door in the first place."

"Hmmm. Do we have any way of tracking where its gone? You say it came from an estate sale? Do you know who the former owner was or anything else about it?"

 

[Zweischneid]

One hand holding up his cloak, Morulas kneels next to the speckles of dried blood and the tiny glass fragments. Letting his gaze shift, the slim elf notices the fine scratch along the wall and carefully follows the line with measured steps, his fingers very gently tracing the scratch in the wall to feel for more information.
So intend the elven Ranger is on the tracks, that he nearly bumps into Nars when he reaches the end of the scythe mark at the vault.

'Look there!' the elf exclaims 'If I read these marks correctly, the thief didn't even take some time to glance around the store, or to search the iron vault. So intend on his price was he that he sliced up the whole wall getting to the safe as fast as his feet would carry him. And he knew right away where to find the necklace!'

Glancing back from the vault to the newly repaired window, Morulas follows up some thoughts.
'And over there below this window, there are still traces of blood to be found. Unless you cut yourself, Sir Gontor, when cleaning up the mess? I'd assume the burgler just burst through the window without much regard to any injuries.'

Turning the inquisitive gaze of his curved elven eyes on the dwarven jeweler, Morulas offers his conclusion.
'Now, I'm pretty sure that this wasn't a theft for profit. Whoever the culprit is, there is some meaningful connection between him and this necklace. If we can can trace the origin of this necklace.. an estate sale you said?... we might very well find the thief who stole it.'

 

[Patlin]

Gontor explains that the estate from which he purchased the necklace was that of Tarbain Fairblood.

"Fairblood is said to have died after taking a blow to the head from the hoof of a frightened horse. Died without issue or named heir, so all of his posessions were sold off."

Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) or Knowledge (History) DC 15 [sblock]Tarbain is the sole decendant of the famous fey-touched Druid Allanoth Fairblood. He was said to have been the guardian of the Faerie Woods until about twenty years ago, at which time he disapeared and was presumed dead. The Faerie Woods are a relatively small area in the very southernmost portion of the Silverwood, only about 60 miles nort of Orussus. They touch upon Larkenwold Reach.[/sblock]
Knowledge (Nature) DC 9 [sblock] After pondering what you've heard for some time, you reach a conclusion. You've heard of a fey creature called a 'redcap' that vaguely matches the description you've heard: a small creature, little bigger than a halfling, but typically carrying a scythe much to large for such a small creature, more apropriately sized for a human.[/sblock]If you exceed the above knowledge nature check by 5 or more: [sblock]Redcaps are so named because they like to dip their hats in the blood of their murder victims. Weapons made of anything but cold iron are less effective against them.[/sblock]If you exceed the above knowledge nature check by 10 or more: [sblock]Redcaps are complete psycopaths, they live on the pain of others and are almost always mass murderers. You have the impression that Redcaps are quite powerfull, like miniature ogres. In spite of their desire for multiple victims, redcaps often live in out of the way places such as abandoned keeps.[/sblock]

 

[Zweischneid]

Barely listening as the dwarf grumble on, Morulas silver-blue eyes glaze over as his mind turns inward to the times of his youth.

'In the forests, near my the villages of my people, Fairies and their kind were not such a terribly uncommon thing.' the young elf explains quietly

'As soon as I started to join the hunts and scouting expeditions into the wilds, I was also taught about the dangers of dealing with the Feyfolk. One of the darker tales talked about a creature called a 'redcap' that could match the description we've been given by Rilithorne: a small creature, little bigger than a halfling, but typically carrying a scythe much to large for such a small creature, more apropriately sized for a human.'

For a moment Morulas pauses, shivering as he recalls the gory bits and pieces of the grim tales about 'redcaps'.
'Never have I met such a Redcaps and glad I am for it. They are justly feared. There very name, it is said comes from the fact that they like to dip their hats in the blood of their murder victims... . If the stories can be believed, Redcaps are complete psycopaths, they live on the pain of others and are almost always mass murderers. And in spite of their small frame they are very dangerous opponents.'

Pausing once more to let the grim details sink in among the people present, Morulas concludes the tale with a few odd ends.
'As with most Fey, weapons made of anything but cold iron are less effective against Redcaps. Fortunaltly, the are rarely encountered since they usually live in out of the way places such as abandoned keeps.... except that one likely broke into this place.'

Turning his eyes up the dwarfen jeweler, Morulas inquires with a worried expression.
'You don't keep any more items from the estate sale around somewhere, do you?'



[sblock]
Knowledge (nature) +4
[dice]
Total = 21
[/sblock]

 

[nimisgod]

[sblock] [dice] [/sblock]

ooc: Untrained knowledge check (+2)

Ishmael nodded as he considered the information before him. He was, for the most part, quiet as he usually was when he was in intense thought.

"Little creature with a scythe? A Redcap?" he muttered to himself.

His hand went to his belt and pulled out a cold iron dart. "I shall need more of this kind of weapons." he said to himself. "I wonder if Rilthorne can ask his comrade to make a cold iron glaive instead of a steel one. Perhaps not. Cold Iron is more difficult to enhance than steel, and thus, more costly"

Lost in thought, he focused his gaze on the vault as if he could pry out insights from it with his eyes.

 

[Patlin]

I've noticed that most of you find the dice rolling function unsightly, and are hiding it within spoiler tags. If you prefer, you can use invisible castle instead. It's particularly usefull if you want to roll for more than one thing per post.

 

[Manzanita]

Persephone

Knowledge checks are trained only, are they not?

Persephone grumbles. "Yuck. Those redcaps sound terrible. Let's hope that's not what stole the necklace. They sound more like murderers than theives anyway. I'll get some cold iron bolts if he head off. But where would we go? We don't really have any leads. Perhaps we could consult a sage about the history of Tairbain Fairblood. But that could get expensive..." she nods expectantly to the dwarf.

 

[Zweischneid]

Knowledge checks are trained only, are they not?

You can make an untrained knowledge check for common knowledge, which is anything with a DC below 10.
So you could try for the one Knowledge Nature check that is DC 9, but you wouldn't know anything of the DC 14 or DC 19 ones and neither could you attempt the Knowledge (Nobility & Royalty) / (History) untrained.

Thats why I was fidgeting with cold iron vulnerability before this... these things (Troll vulnerability to fire, Lycanthrope to silver, etc..) are not common knowledge.

In many cases, you can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s HD. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster.

There might be some EN House rule to handly these things differently / ignore that monster special powers and/or vulnerabilites are hard to come by, etc..?
But in my games, I've seen (and been part of) quite some groups that got into tough spots because the characters (not the players) failed to work up the knowledge that Basilisks can petrify or that a Spectre is vulnerable to sunlight until it was to late. Those DCs can get difficult at higher levels.
Then again, I've seen many DMs just plain ignore this one though...

On the other hand, thats one thing that makes Bards so valuable.. they know these kind of things..

 

[Patlin]

Looks like I miscalculated the DCs a little bit, for some reason I had 5+HD instead of 10+HD in my head. Lest you get overconfident, though, Redcaps have a large range of HD and I based the knowledge DC on the smallest specimen.

I agree that knowing exactly what cold iron is effective against is non-trivial. However, I stand by my earlier ruling that with cold iron Amunition being so cheap, it's entirely reasonable to have your character buy all his ammo in cold iron.

 

[SlagMortar]

Nars will finish up searching the place for any more clues. If Morulas is also searching, he will aid the search.

OOC: Search +7.
On the cold-iron issue, I would think if I went to a shop and saw a big sign next to the arrows saying "Cold Iron! New low price of 2 gp", I would probably ask the shop keeper, "So why would I want to pay twice as much for arrows?" Then he would say, "They more easily injure fey creatures." Now, I would still not be able to recognize a fey creature when I saw it so I would have to guess, or notice that my regular ammunition was not effective.
My 2 cp.