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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carlo-One" data-source="post: 8212297" data-attributes="member: 7015827">Aerikoth took the boy – scared but eager – back to Tallwell using his magic, the wizard grasping the boy’s hand and speaking a word of power after a moment of concentration, the two of them vanishing afterwards. While Aerikoth was returning Fente home, at Shanni’s suggestion the others began looking for dirt and other dry, powdery materials that would reveal footprints. The wizard then returned quickly and suddenly, making Darrow think he had teleported directly back to where he and Dermot were located, rather than to the main bedroom. Aerikoth explained that he had returned the child to the innkeeper’s wife, who said she was willing to accompany him home.Shanni, who had been scouring the manor for supplies, reappeared struggling along and hefting a large sack of flour. She thought it would help the cause, even if it was full of weevils. She started scattering the flour, heading back to the front door of the manor. Dermot and Darrow meanwhile started for the downstairs, the dwarf trying but failing to avoid stepping in the flour, leaving footprints behind. Shanni returned and scattered the remainder of her sack’s contents in the area around the two storage room doors. The petite rogue noted that there was one more sack left.After some discussion about the chest they had found in the manor, which Aerikoth re-examined to ensure it was nothing special, the four adventurers headed for the basement. The wizard remarked that he had only been on the lower level once before and it had held implements of torture, which Darrow also recalled. As they descended, Shanni scattered the last of the flour on the stairs behind them.With the agreement of the others, Aerikoth cast light as soon as they emerged onto the dark floor. Looking around, they all noticed that the visible bloodstains appeared to be old, but there were fresh urine stains by the floor drain. Darrow spotted a bedroll on the floor, which Aerikoth observed had not been there during their prior visit. The dwarf took a closer look and said that the bedbugs in it were fresh. Shanni came to the conclusion that someone had been bunking down there.Dermot, looking at the torture implements, wondered who would do that, when there were untouched rooms up top. Both Aerikoth and Shanni made the point that whoever it was seemed to want to avoid the guards upstairs. Darrow half-jokingly stuck to his two-kobolds-in-a-robe theory about the ghost, despite being chided by the two of them. (Dermot's question reveals that the ranger maintains a sort of innocence about him, which is remarkable considering what he has seen in these chronicles, and what he must have experienced previously as an adventurer. Sadly, his personal aversion to torture devices and the stale signs of their use is not necessarily shared by everyone. --R)Further examination of the downstairs revealed nothing new and the four turned to discussing the significance of what they had found. Dermot suggested that it might have been treasure hunters, but Aerikoth considered it more likely that it was an assassin fleeing the raid on House Cormaeril, who believed that the locals in Tallwell would be incapable of acting against him. Shanni and Darrow agreed, the rogue noting that the two murders might have been to scare folks away – which was working, until the adventurers had come along.The wizard thought that whoever had been there had fled to a safer locale upon their arrival, which would explain the door sound that Shanni heard. He suggested that Dermot’s tracking skill would serve them best at that point, if the ranger could check the two entrances to the manor for recent tracks not made by the party. They then headed back upstairs, where Shanni noticed dwarf-sized tracks in the flour, which caused momentary confusion until Darrow explained that they were his.</blockquote>

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