21:14:46: <havocfett> Almost three weeks ago, a caravan set out into the Isonzo Plains. It carried a hundred people, a solid twenty of them dedicated guards and more armed or capable of casting. Over the next week, a total of fifteen of them, mostly civilians, returned alive.
21:16:09: <havocfett> The caravan had been harried by goblins, small raiding parties, almost as soon as it left foothold. They hadn't thought much of it, killed some goblins, and some bugbears, and continued moving. They reached their destination, an abandoned city, in good order.
21:17:01: <havocfett> However, as the caravan entered the city they were ambushed. The city's portcullis slammed shut, trapping half the caravan within its walls, and goblins, worgs, wolves, and bugbears (Though no hobgoblins) leaped from walls, buildings, and prepared hides in ambush.
21:18:08: <havocfett> All of the survivors were from near the rear of the convoy, where some of the guards and casters managed to punch a hole through the goblin ranks and allow them to run. The survivors claim that there were at least sixty goblins, though the rescue team that tracked the goblins to the Greenhaven Hills didn't find many of them
21:21:30: <havocfett> The expedition to check out the battle site leaves mere hours after the one tracking the course of the Isonzo. They leave in good order, a few hours after dawn, and aim to make it to the battle-site by the end of the day.
21:25:03: <alessandro> At the front of the party is a young man of 18 with auburn hair , a green faded Brigandine, with a poleax leaning against his shoulder, his eyes sweeping the road as they go along.
21:26:00: <alessandro> his bascinet with an orange silk ribbon attached bounces on the retention chain as he marches
21:28:54: Clanless has a straw between her lips, and watch with distant interest the road around them. She's a pale woman, once-vibrant red hair dulled by the sun, blue eyes; less stout than most dwarves, but with an odd swagger to her steps. She wears no armor, only tattered robes pieced together, and she carries... Alltogether too many axes for one person.
21:29:55: <ulfric> Hey, sorry I'm late.
21:30:17: <alessandro> Ulfrich get in #SheolOOC
21:30:22: <alessandro> np dude
21:35:38: aldrich sits a little way back from the front of the caravan, one leg folded over the other. He's a tall man, dangerously thin but clearly not poor in his fine primrose clothes. He smiles politely, thinly, as one of his fellow riders continues to chatter away.
21:41:14: <Clarity> An armored tiefling walks in step a few paces behind Alessandro. They look much as they did before; black hair now tied into a bun between their swept back horns, a war pick at their waist, and their tail lazily moving back an forth behind them. The holes in her armor (expensive new additions) allow a pair of bat-like wings to rest folded on her back.
21:47:39: <ulfric> A tall, young male human slowly strolls along several paces behind the Tiefling, wearing robes that almost call to mind the cut of a military uniform, without outright suggesting it. He wears a dagger on one hip and wand and the other, and carries an explorer's over his shoulder.
21:48:04: <havocfett> The group sets out. The plains are a sea of green as far as the eye can see, marred only by the Isonzo River to the group's left and faintly visible mountains and hills, far in the distance to the north and south.
21:55:20: <Clanless> "That's a boring country."
21:56:18: <havocfett> The grasses here are nearly waist-tall, not as tall as the rushes around the Isonzo, but still far higher than most in the group are used to. Still, it's easy going
21:56:30: <havocfett> And for the first five hours of march, utterly uneventful.
21:57:42: <havocfett> On their fifth hour of march, 20 miles into the plains, they spot creatures flying above them. Almost birdlike things, with furry wings and bright, long heads, like some sort of bizarre mix between a bat and a heron
21:59:53: <Clanless> "Who's up for some fowl meat?" A pause. A frown. "I don't actually own a bow."
22:00:11: <havocfett> Some fifteen minutes after Ulfric spots the creatures, the group hears them screech loudly and scatter to the four winds. There's a moment of confusion as the group looks up, before they spot the cause of the clamour. A pair of Griffons on an attack dive
22:00:23: alessandro grabs a javelin from the donkey
22:01:11: <aldrich> "My word. What foul little creat-" The screech echoes, the beasts scatter. "Oh. Goodness."
22:01:12: <Clanless> "I love it when the food comes to me," Clanless says with a wide grin as she takes her greataxe in both hands.
22:01:55: <ulfric> Ulfric squints at the creatures on the wing, as if judging the range, raising a wand.
22:02:04: Clarity unclasps her war pick and raises her shield.
22:03:53: <Clanless> "Nah, I get enough time for a shot, I think..." She says, pulling a javelin off her back. She weighs it in her hand, frowning - then hurls it upwards at one of the beasts.
22:06:01: <havocfett> The throw goes wide, and the javelin lands somewhere in the fields ahead. There's a surprised growl from up ahead, presumably from a very surprised animal near the landing zone, and something moves in the rushes, heading away from the imminent battleground
22:06:14: alessandro puts on his bascinet
22:07:50: <aldrich> Aldrich's neighbour on the cart rushes for cover while he slings a crossbow across his lap. He glares up at the griffons as he tugs at the weapon's lever, voice raising in a steady rant. "Disgusting creatures, griffons. Overgrown heraldry, fattened on sheep too stupid to be born goats."
22:10:00: <havocfett> The first Griffon doesn't understand the insult, but is pissed about it anyways
22:12:34: <havocfett> It dives, angling towards Clanless, and tackles her in a flurry of claw-swipes and vicious bites. It rolls off of her, rearing up on both legs, and seems both surprised and annoyed that the Dwarf is still alive
22:13:24: <havocfett> There is some annoyed bird-call traded between the two Griffons as the second prepares to dive
22:17:28: <ulfric> Ulfric's wand tracks the Griffon still on the wing. After a brief moment it unleashes a bolt of fire that flies through the air to impact solidly with the beast.
22:24:03: <havocfett> The second ignores its burns and drops on top of Alessandro, it manages to hook a claw inside of his visor and leave him a horrid gash across his face and neck that nearly slits his throat
22:25:14: <alessandro> In return Alessandro brings his poleax blade down hard on the wing of the griffon as he jumps up, sending a spray of feathers and blood into the air
22:25:55: <alessandro> After having spitted the same wing on his point
22:26:28: <alessandro> then pulling the blade from the monsters flesh he rams its buttspike into its breast
22:26:50: <alessandro> removing it with a foul sucking sound as he tries to clear his head
22:26:55: <havocfett> The Griffon rears back and roars in pain
22:27:01: <havocfett> And then trades a glance with the other Griffon
22:27:10: <havocfett> You suspect that they regret their choice of snack
22:34:09: <Clanless> That's the precise moment a pale hand marked in claw bites reaches out of the grass to catch the griffon's throat in a vice-like grip, and bring it in acquaintance with a very large and rusty axe. There is also some incoherent screams of rage.
22:34:38: <Clarity> Clarity puts a glowing hand on Alessandro's shoulder. He feels his most grievous wounds knitting themselves shut, and the worst of the pain drains away. "Don't die on me now, friend."
22:35:40: <alessandro> "Thanks Clare" he says as he finally is able to shake of the groggyness
22:37:33: <aldrich> Aldrich stands, apparently done fiddling with his crossbow, and violently jabs his index finger at the griffon currently staggering from its injuries. "Haha, yes! That's how it's done, my boy! We'll teach this thing a bloody lesson!"
22:37:37: <aldrich> Apparently satisfied with this stirring invective, he hauls the crossbow up to his slender shoulder, sights, and looses a bolt at the feathered monster.
22:45:16: <aldrich> The shot slices past the meat of the griffon's leg. It's a hit, but no-one would think it a devastating blow... unless they could see the way the wound hisses with unnatural putrefaction, aggravating the damage.
22:45:39: <aldrich> Aldrich cheers anyway, every bit the enthusiastic noble on a hunt.
22:46:16: <havocfett> The Griffon hisses, there's a short set of leonid calls between the two, and then the Griffon next to Clarity backs off and leaps into the air, clearly trying to get out of the area
22:52:59: <ulfric> Seeing the healthier of the beasts turn to flee, Ulfric turn his attention to the injured Griffon upon the ground. Unleashing another bolt of flame sees the fiery missile hit it's mark upon its breast.
22:56:59: <havocfett> The Griffon, realizing that it's outmatched, backs off and, like its fellow, flees
22:58:44: alessandro hurls a javelin at it in a fit of rage. spitting its right paw with it as it retreats
22:59:45: <Clanless> "GET BACK HERE YOU-" Follows a series of explosive expletives, and a javelin is hurled with tremendous strength at the fleeing beast.
22:59:52: Clarity takes one of Alessandro's javelins and attempts to hurl it at the fleeing griffon.
23:00:15: <Clarity> It falls incredibly short.
23:00:42: <Clarity> "..."
23:04:08: <Clanless> "...I'm just going to pick up my javelins now."
23:04:40: <aldrich> There's a moment's pause as Aldrich decides whether or not to play the "enthusiastic noble with his blood up" role to the hilt. Hell, why not? A little senseless violence never did drama any harm. He finishes tugging back the lever, fires - and smiles thinly as a single ragged shape falls from the sky, its partner screeching in grief.
23:05:42: <havocfett> With the Griffons dead, the rest of the march is easy. The Donkey kicks the corpse as you pass, and the group manages to grab trophies, as well as enough meat to supplement their rations for a couple of days.
23:05:46: <aldrich> Then he turns back to the caravan with a whoop. "By all the gods! I don't think I've made a shot like that since I was a lad! What a jolly trip this is, eh? Shall we send someone to pluck the thing? I fancy griffon stew's a fine taste!"
23:06:45: Clanless gives him a look that's part "are you kidding me," part concern for his health, and part simple bewilderment.
23:07:04: <Clanless> She settles "You have an odd accent."
23:07:36: <alessandro> "That things hide is mine, I want to get my wife a fine pair of griffon leather gloves"
23:09:21: <aldrich> Aldrich seeks out Alessandro and gives him a firm pat on the back. Well, as firm as his slender courtier's arms will allow. "Marvelous show there, young man! Simply astounding. I fancy that beast would have had our guts if you hadn't seen it off!"
23:09:44: <havocfett> Near the end of the day's march, they reach the city, griffon-meat in tow. It's after noon, perhaps four though none of them have a timepiece, and they can smell the city almost as soon as they see it. It's a large thing, might've housed as many people as Mulmaster in its prime, and it's certainly larger than Neverwinter was.
23:10:22: <havocfett> Its walls are a gleaming white, like Foothold's, though they are far less intact. The masonry is crumbling at points, and Clanless suspects that there may be breaches in the stonework where the party could enter.
23:11:32: <havocfett> The Portcullis on this side of the city is still closed, and no-one has buried the bodies from the battle waged there. The group can smell decaying corpses from a ways off, and can see the ruin that the goblins wreaked on the caravan by the city gates.
23:12:24: <Clanless> "We should scout around the walls for unguarded entry points. Better than just walking in through the front door..."
23:12:44: <Clanless> "It's not like we can help them now," she says with a sweeping gesture at the bodies.
23:13:12: <Clanless> "Bastards didn't even burn them. No care for filth or disease. Maybe they don't live *in* the city?"
23:13:58: <alessandro> "Who knows but I can see one of the old hides from here
23:14:24: <alessandro> "it will make an excellent camping spot and unless they return we should be completely invisible in there"
23:16:03: Clanless nods. "Good thought. And a watch post nearby to keep guard, I think."
23:16:06: alessandro leads the party into the hide away and grabs his ax as he unpacks he tents
23:16:57: alessandro hands Clanless a smaller hunters ax
23:17:07: <alessandro> "care to join me in setting up a watch post?"
23:17:24: <Clarity> "We ought to give their bodies the respect they deserve." Clarity wraps a bit of cloth around her mouth and moves towards the corpses. "I doubt we can bury them at the moment, but perhaps their souls can be at peace."
23:18:21: Clanless weighs the axe and nods.
23:18:29: Clarity begins moving the remains into an organized line, reciting prayers of Torm as she does so.
23:18:29: <Clanless> "Sure."
23:18:33: aldrich is bustling around, a somewhat vacant smile plastered on his face. Every so often he pauses to chat and offer a good firm handshake or pat on the back.
23:19:12: <aldrich> His advice is clearly unwanted and often meaningless, but it somehow seems to help anyway, the strands of fate knotting ever so slightly in response to his movements.
23:19:15: <ulfric> Ulfric makes his way over to the decomposing bodies, his face intent, and begins to slowly walk back and forth examining the area for clues as to what happened.
23:19:24: <havocfett> The battlefield is a grisly sight. In addition to the utterly repugnant stench, small scavengers, reminiscentof brightly colored jays with toothy jaws instead of beaks, flit between corpses, feasting on the dead. They scatter as Clarity performs her rites and as Ulfric begins to investigate.
23:22:21: <ulfric> "There are tracks here," Ulfric calls out "Can I get someone to to take a look at these?"
23:22:39: <Clanless> After setting up camp and watch post, Clanless goes over to the remains of the battlefield.
23:22:51: <Clanless> "Sure," she answers, crouching down next to the tracks.
23:22:56: <Clanless> "Can try, anyway."
23:25:03: <aldrich> She's joined by Aldrich, who shows a keen interest in the tracks, humming and hahhing before concluding that whatever made them wasn't wearing shoes made by his favoured cobbler.
23:25:48: <Clarity> After collecting all the bodies in one place, Clarity pulls a censer out of her pack and puts a bit of incense in it. She lights the end of the incense and sets it in the midst of the bodies, kneeling and saying a few more prayers.
23:28:12: Clanless conveys her findings to the group: Two went back to the town. One is four humans who went south, and the last is... Eighty-ish monsters with eight human prisonners who she soon learns went to Van Cave.
23:32:06: Clarity pulls a length of tarp over the bodies. It's not what they deserve, but it's the best that's around. She returns to the group.
23:33:44: <Clarity> "I'm going to see if there's anything I can find from above. I'll be back in a moment." With that, she unfolds her wings and, with a jumping start and a great deal of loud flapping, takes to the air.
23:39:06: <Clarity> She drops back to the ground a couple minutes later. "Plenty of goblin corpses and such on the other side of the wall. Looks like the gate on the other end is open."
23:39:40: <alessandro> "well go over the wall near it in the morning then, we have the rope"
23:39:51: <ulfric> Examining the scene, Ulfric realises that there is something peculiar about the nature of the scene. He closes his eyes and clears his mind, attempting to cast his senses into the Weave to feel for any sign of magical energy. Minutes pass slowly, the Weave on the Sheol Plateau feels bizarre to the senses.
23:39:52: <alessandro> "on that note, Watch order for the night?"
23:40:19: <Clarity> Her wings fold and unfold, as though flexing. She sighs. "I didn't realize how hard it'd be to fly in this."
23:40:25: <alessandro> "I think Clare, you and Clanless should be the last two, since well you can see in the dark"
23:41:08: <ulfric> There's no sign of magical energy per se, but Ulfric realises after a few moments more that the Weave feels as if it is knitting itself back together in the aftermath of some display of power.
23:42:50: <Clarity> "Sure thing. You taking first watch, Alex?"
23:43:06: <alessandro> " Of course"
23:45:04: aldrich spends the last hour before nightfall continuing on self-appointed "rounds", his bright, soft outfit standing out like a dandelion in a battlefield.
23:45:08: <alessandro> "On that note I will go clean my helmet and maille and just roll up in my cloak after I set up this tent, wake me up for first watch."
23:45:28: <ulfric> "I will take second" Ulfric calls out, late to the discussion. He keeps the news of his examination of the Weave to himself for now; it means little by itself and his companions would hardly understand in any case.
23:45:39: <aldrich> He inspects the watch station, running his finger along dust-caked surfaces like a fussy maid, and pokes around the edges of the campsite like an amateur tent-peg enthusiast.
23:45:59: <aldrich> Whenever he's out of sight, the smile crumples off his face like a paper mask, and he peers into the darkening surroundings. The net woven by his passage hangs over the camp like a tense atmosphere. Nothing out there can surprise him now. And yet...
23:46:12: <aldrich> He cheerfully offers to take a watch, so he can "stay up all night singing those marvelous camp songs". The others decline.
23:48:11: <Clanless> "Last watch is fine by me," Clanless shout from her clot, already lying down with a piece of cloth over her eyes.
23:49:18: <aldrich> In the middle of the night, Aldrich leaps from his bedroll, the cold tendrils of an alarm gripping his mind. He takes a moment to calm himself - only one breach, and it's not moving - and strides from his tent, nodding in a gormless sort of way at whoever's on watch while he surreptitiously investigates.
23:50:09: <aldrich> It's one of the scavenger birds, a tiny thing, currently menacing a beetle. Aldrich glares at it, and begins to regret weaving his net so tightly. It's going to be a long night.
23:50:34: <havocfett> The scavenger bird chirrups good naturedly at him and continues to menace its beetle
23:52:09: <aldrich> "Stupid little thing", he hisses spitefully, all trace of the cheerful noble momentarily gone as his insult draws a dark line through the scavenger's mind.
23:52:58: <aldrich> Then he returns to bed, offering a loud "nighty night!" to the watch.
23:53:13: <havocfett> The scavenger chirrups once, then dies
23:55:08: <Clanless> Having taken the last watch, Clanless is the one awake when morning comes - the one to wake up the others. And she does so. With a *creative* interpretation of a "proper waking hour."
23:55:26: <Clanless> "IT'S TIME GET UP WE HAVE SOME ADVENTURING TO DO," she shouts going around the camp and poking sleepers with a stick.
23:56:13: alessandro rolls out of his cloak and grabs his arming sword immediately before realizing its just Clanless
23:56:28: <ulfric> Ulfric leaps out of his bedroll and gets halfway through an incantation before calming his racing heart. "Don't do that" he hisses, clutching at his chest.
23:56:32: <alessandro> "Bwuh! Red knigts' tits woman!"
23:57:14: alessandro moves to the fire to mull some wine for the party before they head out
23:57:15: Clanless grins.
23:57:27: <Clanless> "I always dreamed to do that once. I promise I won't do it again."
23:57:27: <Clanless> "Much."
23:57:53: alessandro hands the both of them a cup of mulled wine
23:58:10: <alessandro> "So you said there were some breaches in the wall we could get through?"
23:58:13: Clarity gets up irritably. "Next time I'll just take last watch."
23:58:13: aldrich is startled awake. He's unused to being woken by something other than the cold mental tugs of his alarms.
23:59:03: <Clanless> "Yep. Only a guess but a city this old and abandoned, I'm pretty confident."
23:59:24: <Clanless> "We should circle around. Can't take too much time."
23:59:24: alessandro prays his beads to the Red Knight and Tempus as he finishes his wine
00:00:33: <Clarity> "I can just go over to the gatehouse and see if I can get it open."
00:00:49: aldrich glances at the wine, takes sip, and barely avoids wincing.
00:01:16: <Clarity> "Didn't look like there was anything around, so I ought to be fine on my own." She stretches her wings.
00:01:19: <aldrich> "Good stuff! Good, hearty, drink to start an honest day."
00:01:33: <aldrich> He takes another sip, this time enjoying it far more as the lie becomes real.
00:03:28: <Clanless> "Are you sure it'd be safe?"
00:03:41: <Clanless> "...can you take someone with you?"
00:04:34: aldrich offers Clarity a toast as she flies away. "Good luck! It must be terribly exciting seeing us all from the sky. We probably look like little insects!" So, he thinks, if nothing else it offers an accurate /philosophical/ vantage.
00:07:21: <Clarity> "I'm sure it's fine. Torm will protect me. Also..." She hefts her shield. "This will too."
00:08:32: <Clarity> "And no offense, but you lot look too heavy to take with me." She jumps, and starts lifting up. "I'll be back soon."
00:08:50: <ulfric> "Luck be with you" Ulfric says, nodding.
00:09:20: <havocfett> Clarity manages to land inside the city and find the gatehouse without issue. Unfortunately, the mechanism is incredibly rusty
00:09:50: <havocfett> /more/ fortunately, Clarity is both incredibly strong and receiving magical assistance
00:09:59: <havocfett> And she manages to force the portcullis open with some difficulty
00:12:39: <Clarity> Clarity walks back to the group at the gate. "Safe and sound."
00:12:41: <havocfett> The group enters into a battlefield, but one that could well have happened yesterday. The blood has been washed away, presumably by a rain shower at some point in the past two weeks, but each corpse here looks as if it has just died
00:13:04: <havocfett> Not one has been chewed on by scavengers or even begun to decompose normally
00:13:11: <alessandro> "Eerie"
00:13:59: <Clanless> "So for all you pampered 'I ain't ever seen a dead body in my life' types, that doesn't happen. This is magic, or something."
00:17:25: <havocfett> Alessandro finds Jacques in short order, propped against the wall of a dilapidated house. A crossbow bolt is sticking out of his visor, and his spear is in hand. The house's awning seems to have protect him from the rain and he, his spear, and the dead goblin at his feet are covered in blood.
00:17:39: Clanless circles the area, looking for any trace of animal life in the vicinity.
00:18:06: <havocfett> There is the minor issue, of course, that the bolt that killed him was not a goblin bolt, and some of the blood on his speartip appears to be human, or at least near-human.
00:18:22: <aldrich> "Perhaps it was simply... very cold?" Aldrich lets the inane commentary run freely, holding a handkerchief to his nose while his amber eyes scan the courtyard. Something about how the corpses fell...
00:18:41: <alessandro> "What happened here my friend"
00:19:44: <alessandro> "I pray to both Tempus and the Red Knight that even though you have died in this dire place your soul will find peace."
00:20:03: <havocfett> Clarity finds deep depressions in the soft, marshy earth to the side of the road. Animal prints, and enormous ones. Like if a lizard was the size of an elephant and walked on two legs.
00:20:15: <alessandro> "Ulric you have keen eyes what can you tell me?"
00:20:33: <havocfett> Aldrich finds that quite a few goblins have been shot or stabbed in the back, and that several bolts sticking out of people appear to be crossbow bolts that are not of goblin make.
00:21:45: <aldrich> "I say", he raises his voice. "These are some rather fine bolts, here!" He tugs one out of a corpse and holds it up. "Where do you suppose the goblins got their hands on these?"
00:22:37: <alessandro> "My dead friend was killed by similar bolts and has human blood on his spear"
00:23:21: <havocfett> Clarity also finds a dead bugbear, larger than the rest, with a rough iron crown upon his head. He's farther away from the rest of the fighting, and appears to have been cut down while running.
00:24:59: <Clarity> "There's...hm. Giant lizard footprints in the ground. Also..." Clarity bends down and picks up the Bugbear's crown. "I wonder why this one is so far away."
00:26:39: <ulfric> Ulfric crouches low to examine Jacques' body intently for clues.
00:26:42: <Clarity> "I found the goblin's...king? Do goblins usually make bugbears their king? Or...have kings?" She turns to the group.
00:27:07: aldrich Aldrich shuffles some of the intact bolts into his case, twisting them daintily from eye sockets and soft guts. He wipes them down with his handkerchief, which seems to clean them rather more completely than it should.
00:27:21: alessandro grabs the other favor he held and stores it in his purse, but stares at the feathers
00:27:30: <alessandro> "hmm Ulfric what do you make of these?"
00:29:00: <aldrich> "You wouldn't think the little green blighters would leave their crown behind, really." He muses. "Even they ought to know the value of royalty. You don't suppose they were... well, waylaid themselves, do you? Treachery twice-over?" He seems solemn and disbelieving at the prospect of such a thing.
00:30:32: <Clarity> "If Alex's friend was stabbing humans with that spear, then I suppose it's quite possible that they began fighting amongst themselves. Maybe the remainder were simply too frightened of what was happening to retrieve it."
00:30:48: <Clanless> "This is getting kind of scheme-y to my taste."
00:31:06: <ulfric> "He has a favour from his wife within his harness," Ulfric says slowly, gently leaning about the corpse to see from different angles "and some large, colourful feathers kept inside the lines of his clothes".
00:31:42: <Clarity> "Perhaps they fought some other breed of griffon beforehand?"
00:32:01: <ulfric> Ulfric squints "One feather is bloodstained. I'm not sure if it's his, or someone else's."
00:32:58: <ulfric> Ulfric shrugs at Clarity's suggestion "Could be, I suppose".
00:35:47: Clarity looks around. "You haven't found any other bodies anywhere else, have you?"
00:36:12: <Clarity> "There seem to be ten or so people missing."
00:37:46: <Clanless> "Then there might be survivors."
00:37:59: Clanless looks around the battlefield for tracks going away from it.
00:40:07: alessandro examines tracks leading out of the battle area as well
00:41:48: <ulfric> When Ulfric rises to his feet, he frowns. Clarity's preliminary examination of the battlefield notwithstanding, he felt like he was missing something. He began to trace a route around the area, trying to pick out further details.
00:42:02: <alessandro> "what"
00:42:41: <alessandro> "From what I am seeing here apparently they were hit by a force of at least 40 men at arms in full harness and maybe 4 of those large lizard mounts"
00:43:04: <Clanless> "...you're better at this than I am." She frowns.
00:43:11: <alessandro> "Gods"
00:43:19: <Clanless> "That sounds like a lot for us to take on, but I say we should still investigate."
00:43:29: <Clanless> "Can we follow these tracks?"
00:44:10: <alessandro> " the real question is do we want to? I mean 40 men at arms armored better than any of us with monstrous mounts?"
00:44:19: <alessandro> "I will see though"
00:44:31: <alessandro> "they seem to have some prisoners as well"
00:46:07: <alessandro> " and it seems they went out through the opposite gate>"
00:46:46: aldrich makes his way through the bodies to Alessandro. "I say, I couldn't help but overhear- that chap by the wall there, with the, ah-" he gestures at his eye socket. "-well, I suppose there's some comfort that he fell against such odds, hm? A valiant, yes, a heroic end! And he can rest well knowing he'll be so swiftly avenged."
00:47:04: <Clanless> "...avenged, yes."
00:47:09: Clarity takes time doing the same rituals as yesterday while the others investigate further.
00:47:33: <Clanless> "We can't take on forty armored men on our own, but we have to do something. Track them, find their hidehours, maybe deliver some kind of blow before we live."
00:47:39: <Clanless> "We can't just let this... Happen."
00:49:19: <alessandro> "Just so, So track them down and then seek those other 4 who went south on our return?"
00:51:30: <Clanless> "Sounds like a plan."
00:51:37: <Clanless> "If everyone is okay with that."
00:52:48: <alessandro> "then lets get moving were burning daylight"
00:54:39: <ulfric> Ulfric nods.
00:55:02: <havocfett> The group doesn't have to go far. Just outside of the other gate, they find their first signs of the mysterious party, as well as the first of the missing caravanners.
00:56:04: <havocfett> There are four graves by the side of the road, each with a headstone with an inscription in that odd, local bastardization of Celestial and Common
00:56:26: <havocfett> And, to their right, are three corpses. Caravanners, with their throat slit, stacked like cordwood with no particular care
00:57:06: <havocfett> They, like the bodies inside of the city, have not begun to decompose, but an adventurous bird-scavenger is sitting atop the pile and is taking an adventurous bite at the cheeks of a dead gnomish woman
00:57:23: Clarity rushes over and shoos it away.
00:58:14: <Clanless> "No, don't!" Clanless intervenes.
00:58:19: <Clanless> "I may be able to get something from it."
00:58:56: <ulfric> Upon seeing the script, Ulfric cast a working to enable him to read it.
01:01:39: <Clarity> "What? It doesn't seem large enough to get much edible off of, and I doubt we want to eat something that's been eating the caravanners anyways."
01:02:18: <Clanless> "Not that. I can talk to it. Just give me a few minutes," Clanless says, slowly approaching the bird and sitting in front of it.
01:02:37: <Clarity> "Oh. My apologies."
01:02:39: <Clanless> "I have to... Attune to it, I guess. I'm not sure how to explain it. But it might have seen something useful."
01:03:05: <Clanless> She closes her eyes, meditating on the kinship between a lost, foraging human and the scavengers of the wild.
01:03:55: <ulfric> "From what I can make out, these poor souls were somewhere between 16 and 25," Ulfric says, eyes roving over the inscriptions "Names were... hmm, 'Ioannes', 'Mariam', 'Ioseph' and 'Elisheva', apparently".
01:05:36: <Clanless> "Bird. Or... Lizard. Thing." She bites her lips, looking for the right words. "Who has killed these men?"
01:06:22: <havocfett> The creature stares herin the eyes, and seems both surprised and thrilled at the experience of talking to someone.
01:08:10: <Clanless> "Have you seen who killed these people you are eating?"
01:08:14: <havocfett> "Men, the, ah, the," it hops in place for a moment, as if trying to remember, or finding terms to describe something. "Weirdmen. Feel wrong. Came a while ago, killed people, but it felt wrong so we didn't eat. Feeling less wrong now."
01:08:34: <Clanless> "What do the weirdmen look like?"
01:09:50: <havocfett> "...Like weirdmen?"
01:09:58: <havocfett> "Like the ones you have."
01:10:02: <havocfett> "except yours aren't weird."
01:10:29: <Clanless> "Hm."
01:10:54: <havocfett> The bird stops chirping, like it just remembered something, "Ooh, ooh, they"
01:10:55: <havocfett> "Uh"
01:11:01: <havocfett> "They put some weirdmen in the ground."
01:11:06: <havocfett> It gestures with one wing at the ground.
01:11:09: <Clanless> "Oh! Where?"
01:11:13: <Clanless> "Here?"
01:11:32: <havocfett> *graves
01:11:50: <Clanless> "I see. Thank you."
01:11:55: <Clanless> "Do the... weirdmen... Come here often?"
01:14:26: <havocfett> "Sometimes?"
01:14:40: <havocfett> "Always leave bodies. Feel weird for a while, but big meal when it stops."
01:15:12: <Clanless> "That is helpful." Clanless digs a piece of meat out of her backpack and hands it to the beast. "Thank you, and go in peace."
01:15:16: <Clanless> Turning to the others:
01:15:20: <Clanless> "We're gonna need shovels."
01:17:04: <aldrich> Aldrich offers an unfeigned grimace, raising his delicate hands. "Is, is this really necessary? Well, I, ah, suspect I'd only get in your way. I'll just- see if I can't find- be over..." He trails off as he shuffles a little way away.
01:18:24: <Clarity> Clarity frowns. "I don't support this. We shouldn't be defiling these people's graves, whatever they've done."
01:19:05: <Clanless> "I understand how you could feel that way," Clanless says with a slow nod.
01:19:09: <Clanless> "But there is foul magic at work here."
01:19:14: <alessandro> "at the very least we should learn more about what these people are, why give up free information?"
01:19:31: <Clanless> "And whatever creatures have acted here, we must know what we're about to face."
01:19:37: <Clanless> "They did not spare those humans."
01:22:09: <Clarity> "No, they did not, but that doesn't mean we should stoop to their level and become petty grave robbers." She crosses her arms. "We can't just ignore that this is wrong because it's /convenient/."
01:22:47: <Clanless> "Okay, but there is more."
01:23:16: <aldrich> "Ah, dear sweet lady Clarity, I fear I have no stomach for such dark deeds, either. This is a far cry from the work of court!" Indeed, there one was expected to /bury/ bodies. "Perhaps you and I should take a walk elsewhere, for the time being? There's bound to be something around here that can aid our pursuit of these blackguards?"
01:24:07: <Clanless> "These 'weirdmen,' as the bird called it, were accompanied by some kind of powerful magic. It made all the corpses... Untouchable. Warded off all corruption. And it is just now dissipating. This is a violation of... Of the natural order. Something here breaks down the cycles, makes things aberrant. And to me, that matters."
01:28:42: Clarity grinds her teeth and turns away to face the graves. She closes her eyes, opening her senses to the scents of divinity and corruption.
01:30:30: <Clarity> She opens them quickly, confused. "That's..." She closes her eyes again, brow furrowed. "That doesn't seem right. I shouldn't be able to sense them..."
01:30:58: <ulfric> As the others talked amongst themselves, Ulfric crouched down and begun to prepare a divinatory ritual. When completed, he released to working. He frowned at the results; according to his ritual the corpses in the area were being influenced by some manner of innate magical affect rather than an active working which had been cast.
01:32:49: <ulfric> "Whatever's going on here, I can tell you it's not the result of a spell" Ulfric said out loud to the others "It's something else. Something more... inherent?"
01:34:08: <Clarity> She turns back to Clanless. "The bodies are human. And strongly desecrated too, though it's fading like that bird said."
01:34:38: Clanless looks disturbed.
01:35:12: <Clanless> "...then that's one more reason to... Dig them up. If only so we can set it right. And perhaps learn from it."
01:35:38: Clarity chews on the inside of her cheek, conflicted.
01:36:28: <Clarity> She sighs. "Yes, I suppose it is."
01:37:49: <havocfett> It takes two hours for Alessandro to find a shovel, and another twenty minutes to retrieve the first corpse.
01:38:03: <aldrich> "If we are to put this to a vote..." Democracy. How novel. "Then I must abstain. I will not dig, but I appreciate what we might learn from it." Aldrich fancies he knows how any such vote will go. Principle always take a back seat for expediency.
01:39:05: <havocfett> He's....human. Paleskinned, young, maybe seventeen, or an old looking sixteen. He's wrapped in a burial shroud and wears smallclothes, though the rest of his possessions are missing, and he has an arrow wound through his chest.
01:39:23: <havocfett> He has dark hair, and you could easily mistake him for an inhabitant of Neverwinter, or the the Moonsea
01:40:40: <havocfett> Next is Mariam, and she is rather like the boy. A woman, early twenties, long hair, stocky. If you had to guess, you'd say she was from Mulmaster.
01:40:44: <havocfett> Human, both of them
01:41:40: aldrich takes a close look at the bodies. Particularly the faces. Imagining how they might look in life, letting the false faces churn just beneath the bone of his skull. The unnatural lack of decay helps.
01:43:14: <aldrich> He stands, suddenly. "I... I say, I rather thought these blighters would be some sort of... unnatural fiends. Not just some young folk."
01:43:14: <havocfett> Elisheva is different. Her skin is pulled taut over muscle and bone, and there's no fat, no tissue, anywhere on her body. Her gut looks almost hollow, as if the organs there are too small. Her right arm is malformed, a bony sword below the elbow, and she has no hair. Her eyelids are transparent, and her eyes remind Alessandro and Clarity of the Hydra
01:43:34: <havocfett> Like the others, she is wrapped in a funeral shroud, with all the apparent reverence to her burial the others received
01:43:49: <Clanless> "That third one looks plenty unnatural to me."
01:44:06: <havocfett> She still shows up as 'human' to Clarity's senses
01:44:20: <alessandro> "That one, looks like the hydra"
01:44:26: <aldrich> "Yes, that's rather more what I was expecting! Some sort of... horrid little thing. I wonder what she is. Are the others really like that, do you suppose? Just disguised?"
01:44:35: <alessandro> "what in the name of the gods"
01:44:53: <Clanless> "I doubt the gods had anything to do with this."
01:45:02: <Clarity> "But my senses say it's human. It.../must/ be human, mustn't it?"
01:45:12: <havocfett> Ioannes is the last. Like Elisheva, his skin is taught, his fat gone, his internal organs shrunken. His fingers are like claws, and a bony shield grows out of his left forearm.
01:45:16: <Clarity> "Perhaps she was simply born...unlucky."
01:46:44: <Clarity> "...Very unlucky."
01:46:44: <Aldrich_> back
01:47:15: <Clanless> "You know, in the right walk of life, bone-shields and arm-blades aren't considered 'unlucky.'"
01:47:24: <Clanless> "I have a sinking suspicion these were purposeful alterations."
01:48:12: Aldrich_ nods sagely. "One disgustingly deformed child might be considered misfortune. Two seems more like carelessness."
01:48:31: <Clarity> "Mm." Clarity's tail wraps around her leg. "Let's just...let me just do the proper rites, and we can bury them again." The 'where they belong' goes unsaid.
01:49:28: Clarity pulls out her incense and censer and begins the rites.
01:54:25: <Clarity> Holy magic radiates from the censer, washing over the four corpses. The aura of desecration fades away from her senses, but the corpses do not. Once she finishes, she packs her tools away and starts reburying them as quickly as she can, shooing away Ulfric's blade and the small bird.
01:57:20: <Clarity> She sets other corpses on the ground respectfully, shoos away the bird again, and performs the rites again sans magic.
01:57:42: <havocfett> The group follows the tracks along the road from the City. An hour in they find the remains of a camp, and the tracks grow in number, gain several wagons, and slow down /massively/. You're clearly gaining on them, and based on campsites, over the course of the next five hours you cover what must have been three days of travel for them.
01:57:48: <havocfett> Their wagons must be slow.
01:58:34: <alessandro> where do they seem to be heading
01:58:39: <alessandro> woops
01:59:29: <havocfett> On the sixth hour, some eighteen miles north and west from the City, you find a battlefield. No corpses, but the spell-burns across the field and the piles of discarded gear, presumably decided not to be valuable enough to loot, mark it.
01:59:51: <havocfett> You also find the wagons, which have been shattered and left to rot in a great refuse pile
02:00:55: Clanless decides this is as good a time as any to get a shield.
02:02:17: <aldrich> "...my word. It seems none of these barbarians can go a step without betraying and slaughtering each other." Aldrich pauses. "Or, hm, trying to slaughter each other? Surely they didn't take the bodies with them? I can't imagine they no-one died in a place like this."
02:03:04: aldrich realizes his frustration is getting to him. He's being far too salient and helpful.
02:05:46: Clarity pokes around the battlefield, but finding nothing of importance decides to do a bit of aerial reconnaissance.
02:07:13: alessandro moves around with Clanless looting
02:07:42: alessandro takes some javelins and haubergons and straps them into the donkey
02:07:50: <aldrich> Aldrich's frustration grows as he surreptitiously checks the wagons. No food, but no bodies. People survived, because they needed supplies... but they took all their dead with them. What /for/? More of that strange desecration?
02:09:21: <Clarity> Something chatches her eye, and she flies a few hundred hundred yards away.
02:09:28: <Clarity> *catches
02:11:50: <Clarity> She picks up a chewed up set of manacles, abandoned by what seems to be a bunch of gnolls and newly freed humans, going by the tracks they left.
02:15:06: <Clanless> "The victors ate the dead on the spot. Charming."
02:15:53: Clarity starts a little at Clanless suddenly appearing behind her.
02:16:27: <Clarity> "Uh, yes, I suppose so. It seems they freed some of the prisoners as well. I wonder why."
02:16:30: <alessandro> "seems like the gnolls cleaned up and freed the prisoners, killed most of the mutants."
02:16:38: <alessandro> "and headed northeast"
02:16:50: <alessandro> "Only about 15 or so mutants left>"
02:17:05: <Clanless> "Sorry. I was bored so I followed you from the ground." Clanless looks sheepish.
02:17:32: <Clanless> "Maybe they freed them, maybe they just thought they wouldn't need the chains..."
02:20:33: <aldrich> "Goodness! What a melange." Aldrich has calmed down. He's feeling far more obtuse now. "Goblins, gnolls, our people, and... whatever those ghastly things in the graves were."
02:24:46: <aldrich> "Well, I say we follow these furry corpse-eater fellows", he continues. "After all, I'm sure our feelings on these dreadful raider-types are quite settled, but if these gnolls have /freed/ our folk... well, mother always said that a stranger was simply a friend one hadn't yet made. As a former diplomat, I must say this seems a most hopeful possibility!"
02:25:47: <Clarity> "I'm...not certain how true that is, but if they have survivors we ought to follow them, so I suppose I agree."
02:29:32: <ulfric> "Gnolls..." Ulfric shakes his head, "I won't hope for friendliness from that quarter; those beasts are antithetical to the very /prospect/ of civilisation. I will most certainly agree however that we should not leave them and the survivors to their own devices."
02:30:49: <Clanless> "The walking desecrations weigh more on my mind, but... Yeah, you're right. And they have the caravan's people with them. I guess we have to follow the gnolls."
02:31:07: <alessandro> "We should make camp now, evening approaches, we can pursue them on the morrow."
02:32:19: Clanless nods.
02:32:42: <havocfett> As the group begins to make camp, they spot something on the horizon. Two animals, enormous, birdlike creatures, black with a shock of blue feathers around their heads and crests, approaching the campsite at speed.
02:33:13: <havocfett> They're seven feet tall, twenty long, with a pair of stubby, wicked horns growing from their eyelids, and as they approach camp they /roar/
02:47:09: <aldrich> "What in the name of all that's holy?" Aldrich leaves the question unanswered as he stumbles forward, grabbing his crossbow from the donkey's pack. He readies it, but doesn't make to fire - instead, pressure builds up inside his tongue as the feathered creatures draw near, like dozens of writhing tendrils inside the muscle just waiting to be unleashed...
02:57:07: <ulfric> Ulfric raised his wand to level at the beasts, still a hundred feet or so off. He performed the incantation and felt the burst of energy just beyond his fingertips as three fiery rays lanced out from his wand. Two missed, going high and wide, but the last took the lead beast directly, burning into its hide.
02:59:35: <havocfett> The Carnotaurs don't seem to notice, and instead lower their hands in terrifying charges.
03:00:21: alessandro plants his poleax against the charge, and while he gores the monster in the chest, it slashes him across the arm bursting links of maille and cutting into the meat of his shoulder
03:01:23: Clanless rakes the chest of one of the beasts ineffectually with her axe.
03:01:26: <Clanless> "Tough hide..."
03:02:41: <aldrich> ...silent, mind-rending whispers rip forth from Aldrich's mouth as the beast lunges toward on his wizardly companion, but it barely flinches, instead letting out a mad screech. What kind of idiot hunger drove these beasts?!
03:03:32: <havocfett> One hits Ulfric, knocking the wizard flat and dealing him a terrifying bite that knocks him unconscious instantly.
03:04:58: <havocfett> The other charges Alessandro, Clanless swings, Aldrichs magic rattles it but doesn't even slow it, and it rams Alessandro at full force, while he drives his spear deep into its neck.
03:05:14: <havocfett> The soldier manages to stand his ground, and the Carnotaurus reels back, visibly frightened by the outcome
03:10:10: <Clanless> "NO YOU DON'T!" Clanless screams. Or, thinks she screams. It really comes out as more of a gargled shriek of rage, and she *leaps* her full size into the air swinging her greataxe to take off the beast's entire neck.
03:10:58: Clarity rushes over to Ulfric, hands already glowing with healing magic. She puts everything she's got into the man, then stands to face the Carnotaurus. Her warpick begins crackling with energy, the smell of ozone filling the air around her.
03:12:18: alessandro allessandro shakes off the arm injury and swings the hammer head of his poleax into the things knee with a satisfying CRUNCH
03:12:36: <alessandro> the beast wails in pain and fear as it falls to its knees
03:13:01: aldrich flinches away from the sudden charge with a yelp. "Mangy landsharks!" he snarls. "Find your food elsewhere!" The stabbing words seem to have little effect, dark influence washing cleanly over the beast's head.
03:17:41: <Clanless> something so small.
03:17:41: <Clanless> The first blow doesn't decapitate the beast. Neither does the second. The third gets pretty close. But honestly, at that point it's kind of a blur. The chipped, bloodstained great axe falls over and over and over until bone spinters, blood sprays, and the thing's enormous head rolls to the ground, eyes open hagard as if surprised it could be killed by
03:17:45: Clanless pants.
03:25:00: <ulfric> Ulfric thrust his hand into the beast's looming face and fired another series of Scorching Rays, screaming 'How do you like it! How do you like it!" Two struck home, with the last barely missing. The scent of burning flesh filled the air as the flames washed over the creature.
03:27:23: <havocfett> The creature rears back then, annoyed, descends upon Ulfric. It bites him, slams him against the ground until he stops moving, and then steps over him to try to bite Clarity.
03:27:38: <havocfett> She manages to fend the creature off with her shield and blade, keeping it from getting a good grip on her.
03:27:59: alessandro steps over to Clarity and the wizard, slams the pick end of his poleax into the animals knee and /PULLS/
03:28:29: <alessandro> The animal falls forward unbalanced, roaring in defiance as its face still burns
03:28:51: <alessandro> falling and rolling onto its back
03:32:03: Clarity pulls back her warpick. Alessandro's and Ulfric's hair is standing on end, though only one of them notices.
03:33:11: <Clarity> The Carnotaurus is helpless, unable to get itself up off the ground in time to dodge away.
03:34:27: <Clarity> There's a crunching noise as the pick impacts the dinosaur's skull. Then an incredibly loud, resounding, /boom/ of thunder, that rings in the groups ears and echoes across the plains.
03:35:13: <Clarity> The Carnotaurus' body flies limply through the air, thudding into the grass some distance away. Clarity smiles in spite of herself.
03:36:36: <Clarity> She allows herself a few moments satisfaction, then kneels down next to Ulfric, hands glowing again with healing energy. The wizard's wounds knit themselves together (again), and she gives him a pat on the back.
03:38:17: alessandro dusts him self off and starts taking off his armor to fill his shoulder wound with honey and wrap it.
03:38:32: <alessandro> "well then, anyone care for some monster steak?"