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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 4215980" data-attributes="member: 16069">Turn 11: Can you track it?Castle Whiterock.The rest goes smoothly, well except for the bit where the eight foot tall Praying Mantis sidles into what remains of the Great Hall, grabs the body of a dead false monk and retreats back the way it came.“Feck.” Twiglet states from his spy hole at the door.“What is it?” Gina wanders over just in time to catch the last of the show.“That’s a…”“Giant Praying Mantis.”“Hmmm.” Twiglet nods, and with that the shows over.The adventurers also take the time to rifle through the equipment of the captured and the permanently fallen.Rest over they head to the cliff where Twiglet discovered the track up to the tower, a fifteen minute trek later and they’re at the base of the tower, which up close is a mess. The thing must be sixty feet tall, there’s a lot of loose and crumbling stonework about, and a door in the base of the tower- which proves to be locked.Ronnie looks up, then nods towards Grugnarak, the Half-Orc sighs and begins to clamber up the side of the tower, then suddenly stops, there’s a rope a little way around- already in place, it seems to be firmly anchored, he heads on up.He gets a little over three quarters of the way up when just above him, out of a shadowy hole in the side of the tower a Hawk flutters out, a large Hawk with blood red plumage. Grugnarak climbs the last ten or fifteen feet as fast as he can, there’s a window, or at least an opening.ZZZZZThe Half-Orc grins and climbs as quietly as he can into the top level of the tower, the chamber is clean and tidy. A circle of arrow slits, and a trio of windows overlook the castle. Under one window is a bedroll- occupied, a small table, and a wooden chest. Sitting on the table is a wooden birdcage about three feet high. Inside a jet-black raven plucks at its feathers. ZZZZZThe wooden floor creaks, getting closer now, until…FWUMPAnd that’s the end of the false monk in the tower.Grugnarak’s peers down from above, the Half-Orc signals, down at the base of the tower Ronnie nods and starts on up, followed by Gina and finally Twiglet.They reassemble up above in the top of the tower, set to work, working out what’s what here.“Hey, don’t…”But too late, Gina watches the raven hop to the window and then flutter into the air. Ronnie looks a little sheepish.“Why did you do that?” The Gnome asks.Ronnie shrugs, “just a bird.”“It might have told us something, some clue.”“It was a bird, how could it tell…”“Raven’s talk.” Twiglet adds and nods, “my dad said he knew a Dwarf that kept one, Barry was its name, the Raven, not the Dwarf. Mt dad said it kept him company when his wife died and his son left him to go adventuring. He said if it wasn’t for Barry then Arthur ‘the axe killer” Smith, that’s the name of the dwarf, well he would have gone mad.”“How’d he get the name ‘axe killer’?” Gina wonders aloud.“Oh that… I think he killed some Dwarves… With an axe, I think- my dad said he was crazy in the head, you know, semi-permeable.” Twiglet taps the side of his head.“What happened to him?”“He died and they stuffed him.”The adventurers go about their business for a good five seconds, and then stop again, Gina breaks the silence.“Stuffed?”“Hmm.” Twiglet nods.“Why’d they stuff him?”“He was a friendly bird.”Twiglet gets back to work.Grugnarak turns back from the window, “the Raven is heading for Cillamar.” The Half-Orc pointedly stares at Ronnie.“Can you track it?” The Paladin asks.Grugnarak continues to stare at the Paladin, like he’s just asked the most stupid question in the world, ever- which is apposite.“Well how can I bird tell us what we want to know, there’s no proof it could talk, and besides if you were a raven you’d head to Cillamar- it’s obvious.”“Why?” Gina continues to investigate.“Obvious- food supply, water, lady ravens, it makes sense.”Gina wrinkles her nose.“Hang on.” Twiglet is fishing about in the chest, he discovers, well… a pot of ink, a quill, a number of small strips of paper, and an object to attach the aforementioned bits of paper to the leg of a bird. The Dwarf displays his find.Ronnie looks a little flustered. “How do we know, I mean… what I’m trying to say is it wouldn’t stand up in a court of law, just because you found… there’s no proof, I mean… highly unlikely, it’s only conjecture that…” he tails off.Twiglet shrugs and gets back to searching. There’s little else to find, Grugnarak indicates its time to check out the trapdoor which leads below, weapons at the ready the others circle the spot in case of any suprises.EEEERRRRThe thing hasn’t been opened for a while, and…SQWARK x lots.The circular chamber below is choked with straw, twigs, dirt and decay; and lots of bird <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />, it’s also choked with Hawk, Bloodhawks to be precise, adults and fledglings, all told there must be two dozen of the vicious birds in there.SLAMGrugnarak slams the trapdoor back in place.One more quick search and they head back down the rope to the base of the tower and the locked door, there’s nothing for it. Ronnie puts his shoulder to the door, eventually all of the warriors are taking turns.SMASHThey stumble into a dark chamber, webs, decay, another trapdoor in the floor heading down, and a huge stone spiral staircase heading up.“I though I saw something move.” Twiglet declares, and points way up.</blockquote>

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