Bellis shakes her head.  "Supposed to be three.  Not seeing where they would have hauled the others...  Those things are heavy."  She slowly begins to pace around the site, respectful of the Leafblade Company, inspecting the ground and walls carefully.  She signals for the three messengers to hang back.



Going near Bellis, you can see the damage to the wagon is substantial.  It looks like it was hit with something monstrously strong and big.  If it had been hit by a landslide, there would be rocks.  If it had been a monster, one would think there would be some trace left behind, as the sides of the wagon were reinforced with metal plates.  It's possible, however, that someone might have used magic.  You know of spells that use pure force or mental power to move, fling, or shield.  The classic magic missile spell is one of those, but this damage looks much more advanced.



The three dead dwarves are in contorted poses, their axes and hammers shattered, their armor riddled with cracks.  There are no wounds visible on the front, but when you shift them over, you can see claw rents in their backs, through their brittle armor.  It looks like they were very, very cold, then attacked by a clawed creature from behind, which broke their backs.



  The boars look curiously unmarked, or at least there are no obvious wounds on them other than from scavengers.



Bellis nods at Haazheel as Narthian and Thunder also step forward.




There are wheel marks and boar prints from a hasty turn-around away from the ambush site, back along the direction they had come from.  From the looks of the tracks, the boars and wagons were going as fast as they possibly could.  There is no ichor, blood, or tracks of any humanoids or other animals.

Mystique, Haazheel's owl familiar, flies up in the air. It goes hither and yon as if searching the ground for prey, but it's course eventually takes it right by a crevice just up the canyon. She perches.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:07, Fri 09 Nov 2018.

Lantamori urged Cloud to follow the tracks a ways down the road at a walk.  She was careful to keep the others in sight, but wanted to know how far they might have made it.  She hoped they'd make it safely back to the Citadel.

Guiding with her knees as Cloud ambled along, the elf strung her longbow and knocked an arrow.  This was much better than staying at the fort.

"It appears that these men were nearly frozen before being clawed by something very strong, as their spines are broken and their armor is brittle in the rear," Farian explained as he got up. "What killed the boars?" he asked, walking up to them as well.

OOC: If there's a point to looking them over, here's another roll. Not that it was that much better. Lol

21:12, Today: Farian Raymellie rolled 16 using 1d20+9.  Heal check to investigate boars.

"The other wagons retreated the way they came," Narthian says, indicating the tracks. "If the men we frozen, then I suspect that the boars were too. Cold enough perhaps to kill them outright. There are few creatures that can do that," he says, looking to the sky. "And leave no sign upon the ground. A species of dragon, for one." He goes close to the wrecked wagon and inspects any nearby vegetation for signs of frost damage.

Know Nature - cold dragon?: 20:28, Today: Narthian Goldleaf rolled 20 using 1d20+10 ((10)).

Know Nature - frost salad: 20:31, Today: Narthian Goldleaf rolled 27 using 1d20+10 ((17)).

"Based on Prreet's experiences with them, the shadows either use cold, or are themselves cold-based." Dante frowned thoughtfully.

"Could the shadows be some kind of undead?" Dante asks, looking to Farian. Then he looks over toward Haazheel, adding, "Or something not naturally of this world?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:17, Sat 03 Nov 2018.

Haazheel spreads his hands. "I know no more than I recalled. Sorry."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 04:16, Fri 09 Nov 2018.

Dellas approaches slowly as he looks at the corpses his eyes wide, a slight tremble in his step and his words as he speaks

"What ever did this was powerful, the damage done the wagon took magics beyond my control or something immesly strong. You said the armour was brittle, and something froze them before rending the armour open. Any other signs on how big of an area was affected by the cold? It may help"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:03, Sun 04 Nov 2018.

While the boars also show some of the effects of cold, there's a distinct withering effect around the exposed skin around the eyes and snout, like the boars had been abruptly aged.  You've seen this effect before while being taught - it's the effect of their energy being drained by necromancy; a negative energy attack that is antithetical to all life.



The cold damage seems to be confined to the dwarves themselves, their equipment, and even their wagon.  A frost or cold attack by most monsters has a more widespread effect, so something different tickles your mind.  This has a distinct look of the chill metal spell, a spell distinctive to druids for dealing with metal-armored foes.



Prreet sticks his nose in Averdante's ear as the elf speaks. 



Taking a look around, you don't see any cold damage to the landscape.  The vegetation here is not extravagant, but it is still thriving. 

Haazheel, Mystique hoots very softly above. 


Bruenor and Volsh are carefully watching the perimeter for any danger.

Bellis carefully comes closer as the party investigates.  She gingerly peers inside the staved side of the wagon, and looks surprised.  "Most of the tribute is still here, intact!  Coffers are sealed...  Looks like one or two are missing completely, but no more than that.  Those coffers usually take two strong people to shift, so it would take some hefting to get them away from here.  I'm not seeing any tracks but dwarves, boars, and wagons, though."

Haazheel beckons to the members of the group. When they're gathered, he gestures toward the treasure and back toward the fort, but his words partly bespeak something different. "Several bats in a crevasse nearby are watching us. For all I know, they could be shapechangers of some sort...vampires or familiars come to mind too. If you're not prepared for a desperate fight, perhaps we should take what we can salvage and go."

Mystique flies off and lights on a branch nearby the group.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 07:30, Fri 09 Nov 2018.

"Perhaps I should go talk to them," Narthian says, looking towards the crevasse. "I'll just stay in the sun's rays, just in case they are vampires. I should be safe enough." He makes a sign for Thunder to stay with the group and takes a few steps in the bats direction, his silvered spear resting casually on a shoulder.

Farian relayed his findings to the others. "Intact, hm? Do we know what, exactly, was included in this tribute? Was it just coins, or perhaps our thieves knew exactly what they were looking for and only took something specific?" he wondered out loud as he looked towards the crevice. "We could only be so lucky that a group of vampires were that close to us that I could scorch them all with Pelor's holy light," the priest laughed, almost wishing he were wrong so that he could eradicate some more scum from this plane of existence. "I would like to try a spell, but it will take quite a while to cast, several minutes at the least. Do we have enough time, or should we be heading off soon?" he asked nobody in particular.

 Lantamori kept riding, following the wagon tracks just a little further.

"Stay in strong light, Narthian," Dante advises. He casts a quick glance toward Farian as he tells the druid, "The shadows do not like bright light. They will hide from it in crevices or cracks in the ground, although I do not sense that it does them any significant harm. They do seem to be completely insubstantial, so they can seep into stone as easily as smoke through a crack -- which means there may be more than simply bats in there."

Stroking Prreet affectionately, appreciative of the help the stone cat's provided. He moves warily closer to the wagon for a better look at it. "If most of the tribute is still there... maybe they're not done hauling it away?"

The lack of tracks doesn't particularly bother him; there are far too many ways of magically transporting something. He turns to take another look around the area. "Of course, if we're dealing with something large enough, perhaps we haven't looked far enough from this point to find tracks."

Dellas looks back towards the crevice and then down the landscape around

"Well I believe I can rule out a dragon doing any of this. The cold damage is limited to just the dwarven armour and weapons. It was not as if a dragon's breath fell upon them. This is most intriguing."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:10, Tue 13 Nov 2018.

Narthian gives Farian a thumbs up. As he nears the crevice, he casts Longstrider on himself. Once he's as close as he can get without leaving the sun's warm embrace, he casts Speak With Animals and calls out to the bats. "[Language unknown: Ithencous e tohiss traessthi! Omons ntipo ofec we pe it eraithion linvorthatic lepl hatyinati ons?]"

Volsh walked around scratching his head, much of this was beyond his expertise of hitting things. "So the dwarves were attacked with some sort of cold spell then clawed, the boar was hit by a mix of cold and negative energy, and the wagon was hit by something that didn't leave a trace. Could the wagon have been hit by a giant piece of ice or something similar then?" The savage asks Dellas.

In reply to Volsh son of Vor (msg # 24):

Dellas walks over to examine the cart in further detail, examining the metals and wood to see if there were any traces of cold magic involved

The bats watch Mystique warily, but do not budge from their crevasse.  Either they are unconcerned about the threat the owl represents, or confident that their location represents too great an obstacle for them to become prey.  Or they're vampires.  One of the three.



Bellis, their scout, answers the question about the tribute.  "The tribute was gold trade-bars and weapons.  The gold pays for Crown expenses: Guards' pay, forts' upkeep, repair on the trade roads, that kind of thing.  Weapons mostly go to the Guard as well, but some pieces are made special for the Royals for rewards and whatnot.  No special ones in this lot that the Commander mentioned, but then again sometimes they don't advertise the fact, eh?  Those coffers are big enough for a longsword or a battleaxe, easy, so 'tis possible the missing ones were the special orders."





Bellis nods at Averdante's musing that perhaps the caravan raiders aren't done here.  "'Tis possible that it's taken them this long to move what they have, if they already got the other two wagons.  These folk don't look dead more than a couple of days.  I can check up the trail a piece to see if there's anything else to this tale."



As Lantamori travels ahead, she discovers something interesting.  About a furlong down the road, more tracks abruptly join those of boars, dwarves, and wagons.  There's tracks something large and clawed, very heavy, on top of the tribute caravan tracks and heading in the same direction...



The bats pause, seem to look at each other, and one gives several high-pitched squeaks and screeches. 



Volsh doesn't notice any sign of a dried puddle from ice, but there have been a few of your companions trampling about the place.



It's possible that the metal of the wagon was hit by a chill metal spell before being struck; that would weaken the metal and make it brittle.  You don't see any residue on the outside of the wagon, but with the amulet that gives Dellas' eyes the power to see in the dark, he can spy something inside the darkness of the wagon, easily missed in the gloom of the enclosed space.  On the inner side of the staved-in panel he sees the broken-off tip of a claw.  It's larger than Thunder's, that's for certain, more like the size of that ogre werewolf you all fought on the Baroness' lands, and black as night.  There's also some dried brown stuff that you're pretty sure is dried blood crusting the claw.

Seeing the new larger clawed tracks, Lantamori turned Cloud about and headed back toward the others at the same pace she'd left them.  It looked as though the two wagons had company.

"[Language unknown: Miekmi, wa k? Ekio ver ithfi ro si a il u of hou onutck! Iteiek a utiou i minano k ng m era n hipa staomeear dererepre ionoutter ng erofee ugh p.]" Narthian continues speaking with the bats for some time (up to 5 minutes, but probably less) before returning to the group.

Speak with Animals lasts for 5 minutes. He uses his Wild Empathy to try to make the bats more friendly, but is unsuccessful. Surely they are in the thrall of the monster that attacked the wagon! He'll speak with them for only as long as it takes to get useful information, or to realize his attempt is fruitless, or the bats start to show signs of hostility. He studies the bats carefully, as many as he can see, trying to determine if there is anything unnatural about any of them.

Wild Empathy: 08:15, Today: Narthian Goldleaf rolled 9 using 1d20+6 ((3)).

Know Nature, Natural Bats? 08:16, Today: Narthian Goldleaf rolled 18 using 1d20+10 ((8)).

Dellas search of the wagon caused an slight squeal from Dellas as he clambers inside the container and wrenches at the claw to break it. Making his way out he shows the claws to the other as he examines it more closely in the light to see if he can make any headway on what it could be.

Curious about what Dellas has found, Dante leans down to take a closer look at it. "Maybe Narthian can determine what kind of creature shed that type of claw, when he's done talking to the bats." Knowing if it had come from something more animal-like, or more humanoid-like, would certainly be useful. Could it have come from whatever cast the cold spell -- or was it only a physically powerful minion of the caster, employed to use its brute strength in smashing into the weakened wagon?

Which raised another question, so he turned to their guide. "Bellis, wouldn't one of the dwarves who was with the tribute have had a key for the wagons? Is it possible someone -- the one with the key -- escaped? There's no reason to smash the wagon open if there's a key handy."

Volsh stared at the seen trying to make things add up in his mind. "Well just looking at this seen I am already confident this was no troll assault. But still have no clue what these 'shadows' could be." He shrugged. "Doesn't seem like they were raiders after wagon loot either."

Haazheel is observing, waiting for what the group wants to do next.