The reason for Nemaucum is the crossing it controls.  The Loing is a “secondary” river.  It is not navigable except by small boats.  Individuals can small groups traveling cross country can often cross such a river at a ford, or even swim it, but cargo and wagons, and such travelers as merchants, require a bridge or ferry.

The Yonne is a larger river, and they reach it after traveling most of the next day, a damp, dreary day on the road.  The bright side is that the Orcs don’t like to bother running around in the rain.  It’s a safe day.  But they don’t cover ground as efficiently as they can.  They are forced to make camp on the bank of the Yonne, in a stretch of land devoid of settlement.

Well, currently occupied settlement, at least.  They can see several old ruins nearby, along the river.

According to Marcellus, an old religious commune, or study place of some kind.  He’s never been there.  The terms he has with Redscratch cover just travel. He’s never pushed his luck with diversions for exploration.

pm

"Do you want to go exploring?" Raz asks Calatin.

Maybe it's his Mink nature that drives to be curious about everything. This time around, though, he knows he has a much greater responsibility, so unless the druid goads him in that direction he'll stay on track.

"Have an interest in history, do you? It seems as if this task of ours is important; you're supposed to know much more about it than I do. The problem with looking for something it that you sometimes find it, or, it finds you."

Calatin whistles for his hawk to land on his forearm then speaks a word while pointing at the ruins. It flies off toward them gaining altitude steadily. "He'll be back in a few minutes. If he sees any movement from above he'll let us know when he returns. Maybe that will be just enough to sate any curiosity."

Seek.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/handleAnimal.htm

He'll stay at least 125' above the ruins at all times and give them a couple fly-overs. He has a fly speed of 60', good maneuverability (which means he can hover), and a Spot modifier of +19.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:33, Fri 15 June 2012.

Calatin’s hawk makes some slow swooping circles over the ruins in the distance, terrifying a family of voles.

Naturally, long hours of training has taught the hawk that if instructed to "seek", voles don't count.  In fact, ignore anything rabbit sized or smaller.  That narrows down the world, quite a bit.

But still, there is enough.  The hawk flies back quickly, and has a nervous, flustered look.

Yes, the hawk something, enough to disturb it.

"I can cast a spell to ask him what he saw in more detail, but this is at least enough information to not risk exploration." Calatin looks around, "we may even want to camp a bit further away than we already are."

"It's probably a good idea to know what's there." Raz replies. "You know, it might not stay put. Could be goblins, actually. We saw some goblins a few times. I wonder what's the deal with them."

If they are with the range of the spell, Raz casts Clairvoyance to see the part of the ruins the hawk was anxious about.

Calatin twiddles his thumbs for what seems like an eternity, wondering what Raz is casting.

15:22, Today: Calatin rolled 13 using 1d20+12. Spellcraft, DC 18.

That magical sensor can't move, so you're at best only going to be able to see a small portion of the ruins...

It is true Raz's point of view can't move during the spell...

But he tries to see the ruins nonetheless, trying to get a hawk's eye view.

He can learn a lot looking down from above.  In the waning days of the Empire, many people sought refuge around isolated religious centers.  Temples became self contained villages.  This was one.  But many of the smaller structures look destroyed.  Only the main hall itself, and one squarish building with a large central court remain more or less intact.

But that's not all!

Raz describes to his companions what the divination had revealed to him: "There are strange creatures there. Bird-like in shape, but definitely not birds. They have legs like insects, for one thing. Any idea what they might be?"

"Describe them as exactly as you can."

Only if this helps:

14:54, Today: Calatin rolled 35 using 1d20+16. Know (nature).

Since I think we're on a path or road, I'll do this, too. If you don't mind a little ret-con, I could have been doing a bit of this while he was casting his spell for ten minutes.

(And yes, I have the Track feat.)

Calatin searches around for tracks that might belong to these creatures, as well as anything else that might have come through recently.

15:03, Today: Calatin rolled 22 using 1d20+16. Survival, find tracks.

Not great, but that's bound to pick up anything that hasn't made an effort to conceal themselves over the very recent past. The damn rain spoils anything else.

From Raz's description, and Calatin's knowledge of various things that crawl, creep, and fly, Calatin is sure they can be only one thing.

Stirges.  Nasty, bloodsucking pests that inhabit caves and old ruins, especially in wet, overgrown areas... this place is close to a river, of course.

It is impossible to say how many there are- from Raz's point of view he could see only the exterior of the ruins.  With could be a dozen.. two dozen.. a hundred?

Calatin knows that in this time of year they will not travel far from their nests, but they will attack anything that comes near the nests.

"That makes the decision easy for us, then." Raz replies to Calatin's description of stirges. "We don't bother them and they don't bother us."

Accordingly, Raz chooses a place to camp as far as possible from the ruins.

"Sounds like a plan."

Calatin instructs his hawk rest now so that it may help take part in watch for a portion of the night.

Calatin does a mental estimate of the distance a Stirge will fly on a cold night in search of food before it says  "screw this" and turns around.  Then, Calatin adds a wide margin of safety beyond that, and they make camp.

The region was once farmland, and they can see some remnants here and there; old trails now almost faded to nothing, a tumbledown remnant of a barn, a wall which is now little more than a strangely linear pile of rocks.  There are many places like this, they know.  Gaul has seen civilization collapse over a century, and now many areas are empty that were once thriving.

They keep a watch, but the night passes without challenge.  They are far enough from the Stirges.   In the morning, not far from the camp site, they come across the bones of some very large animal.


But the day looks quiet, and the road ahead to Agendincum looks easy, stretching in a very straight path along the west side of the Yonne River floodplain.

Calatin spends what is probably a little bit over an uncomfortable amount of time studying the bones. Raz has not seen him as interested in anything to this degree before, and is likely to not again for some time, if ever.

"These are elephant bones I'd say. I've never seen one, apart from on the surface of what you might call a scrying pool several years ago with a mentor. They generally live in climates thousands of miles away. I had heard that armies from the east had used them at some point in the past, but I know little more. What a fantastic creature. Actually, I've heard talk that beasts like this once roamed more of the world...", he trails off lost in thought.

While traveling, the druid stops a few times over the day and checks the trail now that it is not raining. Every 30 minutes or so he sends his hawk to make a broad half-mile-wide circle overhead, looking for anything that might be a threat.

With the trail checking: trying to get an idea of how often people come by here, whether it's on foot or mounted, and how often. This means I'm basically looking for anyone that's moving ahead of us, as we'd have passed anyone coming toward us already. With any lucky he might snag sight of a track of some horrible murder-beast so we're not as surprised by such a thing.

Survival modifier is +16 for this purpose. Only takes a few full-round actions to search a stretch. Will only do it a few times over the course of the day.

Other than that, continue on with the travel musical montage.

Raz examines the bones alongside Calatin, and then tuns to examine Calatin examining the bones. People are far more interesting to him than fossils.

"I have heard stories of oliphants, but was never sure whether or not they were true." Raz says. "Then again, I wasn't sure if demons really existed until I ran into a few of them. I guess I am currently willing to believe every fairy tale I've ever heard contains at least some amount of truth."

As they near Agendincum he grows more cautious, glad for the vigilant hawk above.

Calatin nods in agreement. "In my experience it is usually the case where you should dismiss the bulk of such fantastic tales, but it is wise to never forget them."