Tieing the reins to the seat, D'aden hops off the wagon. "Let me see if I can find any tracks around here. If there were draconians nearby, they should have left some signs. Besides, the children might have wandered off on their own and may be easier to track than to find."
D'aden begins to circle the house, spiralling inward, searching for tracks of the children or draconians. However, he is somewhat distracted by the farmer's distress and doesn't do a good job of it.

Staying on alert, Olven Wolf scans the countryside, looking for any signs of an enemy, particularly draconians.  "Let's press on for the Lyceum," he says at length.  "Perhaps we'll find the children there.  At least we know now who else might be in the vicinity."

To the farmer, he says, "We'll keep looking for them.  Hopefully, we'll come across their trail."

"Thank you so much," the farmer said.

"We will do our best, Christopher.  I agree with Olven, we should press on while we still have light."  Jarl says as he watches D'aden search for tracks.

Having promised the farmer to keep an eye out for his children, the heroes continued south.

A couple of hours later, the wind had picked up as they had ridden along the road among the fields. On one side the cold gray edifice of the gates of the Lyceum stood before them.

Wide stairs leading to huge double doors that seem to be the only entrance. There were no windows. And it was quite clear that it had been there for some time. A foreboding place indeed.

D'aden once again ties the rins of the wagon and starts to scout around. Grinning back at the others, he says, "I'm going to take a quick look to see if those kids might have wandered through here. I'll let you introduce yourselves to whoever lives there."
Chuckling at his own joke, he tries to make some sense of the tracks near the lyceum.

Jarlianthas smirks at D'aden's humor, "Perhaps we shall..." He dismounts, sliding gracefully off of his horse.  "Two should probably stay here with the horses and cart, I think."

"I'm coming with you," Olven Wolf says, and looks around at the others.  "Kar?  Sara?  Would the two of you stay here and protect the wagons while we scout around?"

Climbing down, he slings his shield and shield on his back, and loads his crossbow.

D'aden, Jarl, Olven, and Owain started looking around. Tarhall and Sarah approached the door. While the others dismounted, but seemed to be content with waiting for the others.

As Tarhall and Sarah approached the door, the wind caused dust and leaves on the stairs and the landing before the door to swirl up from the ground and around the duo's feat.

The door swung open too, seemingly by the same gust of wind.

D'aden becomes a little tenser, and says, "There are draconian tracks here, they aren't old enough to suggest the draconians are gone. It's probably best we be on guard."
So saying, D'aden readies his bow, and takes a long, hard look in all directions.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:05, Thu 09 Dec 2010.

"You spot no human tracks?  Either the children are not here or they were carried."

GM passing a message

"The human tracks are on the opposite side of the road, they appear to have given this place a wide berth."

"In that case, the Lyceum is a very old place.  It can wait a few more hours while we find the children.  They should be our priority."  Jarlianthas states as he follows D'aden to the human tracks.

"Well, the king asked us to explore the Lyceum, not rescue missing children."  Olven pauses at the Lyceum's gates, then looks up the road in the direction of the human tracks.  "But as long as we are going to explore the Lyceum, I suppose a detour is within the terms of his charge," he says, and follows the others, keeping a sharp lookout for draconians or other creatures bent on doing the group ill.

"If we assume that the farmer is correct in his assumption that the draconians took his children," Tarhall said. "Couldn't we also assume that the children were carried into the Lyceum, thus leaving no human tracks?"

"I assume nothing," Olven says.  "However, these tracks that skirt a wide berth around the Lyceum - how do we know which humans made these tracks?  If we don't know for sure that the children made the tracks you found, D'aden, we shouldn't bypass our main charge."  He looks all around him, scanning for hostiles.

"The Lyceum has been standing much longer than any of us have been alive... and that speaks volumes considering my lineage, Olven.  The king has not given us a time frame to study the Lyceum, if these children were in fact kidnapped then they are likely in peril.  Let us follow these human tracks first and return to the Lyceum secondly."  Jarlianthas is rather shocked at this lack of respect for humanity, shown by Olven.

"You don't protect the deer from the bear by tracking the deer as they pass the lair. If there are draconians in the lyceum, not only would they be in violation of the treaty and therefore up to no good, they would also be a threat to the missing children whether or not they have the children."
D'aden has his eyes firmly on the lyceum, scanning for anything to suggest there would be imminent contact with whatever is inside.

Olven holds up a hand.  "No disrespect, sir," he says.  "But I abide by the terms of my contract.  We didn't follow these human tracks from the farm, so we don't know whose they are.  Or do we?" Normally an incurious sort, Olven walks over to the tracks and looks for a clear footprint, endeavoring to discern from the size of the foot whether it belonged to a child or an adult.

Squaring down on the side of the road, Olven says, "Sir, the king needs money for the rebuilding of Kalaman.  That's what he's asked us to do, and that's what I intend to obey." Olven casts an arm out back along the road.  "If you look around you, you'll find plenty of good deeds to keep you occupied for the next three hundred years.  I'm not saying to turn our backs on these children, and if we have reason to believe they left these tracks, then we can spend some time looking for them, but our mission is clear: explore the Lyceum and bring back whatever we can find to help rebuild the city."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 08:37, Sat 06 Jan 2018.

Looking at the tracks, they were the size of adult feet or perhaps that of a large teenager. But too big to the footprints of a child.

"The farmer said his son was as big as he was, but the girl was smaller," Olven says, scratching the stubble on his jawline.  "These tracks aren't conclusive enough to me, but I'm hardly a tracker.  What say the rest of you?  Shall we follow these adult-sized footprints, or see what lies in the Lyceum?"

"Clearly, I am in a minority of opinion in following the other tracks.  I will abide by group consensus.  I suppose we are entering the Lyceum, immediately." With that he enters the doorway, leading the group.

[I'm starting a new thread for the Lyceum. I'll get back to CP awards. You can spend them anytime you like if you're improving a trait you already have, pending my approval. For traits you don't already have, you have to find a trainer first. This thread is now closed.]

GM passing a note