While Brock imagines himself a master of stealth, it is obvious to all around him that he, at this time, is not.

The approach to the house is not difficult but as he approaches, he stumbles over the corpse of one of the fallen circus folk. Soldiering on Brock finds himself within twenty feet of the house, however this is where the tall grass ends, getting any closer means becoming exposed.

The front of the house is plain and simple, a stone stoop leads to a frail wooden plank door, and to the right is a single four pane window with the panes busted out, the glass laying on the ground in front of the window. Inside from this vantage point is dark and nondescript, but when the wind blows just right, a terrible gaging oder can be smelled coming from the house. And a rythmic and slow creaking sound can be heard coming from the back of the house.

Thinking he will learn from the stealthiness Brock has proclaimed he tries to follow in the Dwarf's footsteps, but too late realizes that following in those footsteps exactly means he is not being stealthy himself. He sighed, shook his head, and just walked towards the barn instead after most of the way stealthing.

He headed around to the back to see what the creaking might be - his imagination filled in several terrible scenes and he hoped he was wrong.

10:44, Today: Garrett rolled 8 using 1d20+5.  Stealthing a different angle than Brock.

”I suppose we should join our companions,” Gregar says to Nashford and Sefira. ”Thoigh from the sound of it stealth is not going to aid in our approach at this point.”

Keeping in a low crouch with his shield at the ready, Gregar approaches Brock’s position cautiously.

OOC: I suppose I will go ahead and roll stealth just in case.
12:22, Today: Gregar Gergundi rolled 14 using 1d20+2.  Stealth.

Brock has no idea that he's been really jangled by the whole situation. The neighbor's house. The circus performers on the road. These are the biggest horrors he's ever seen.

They are causing merry havoc with his ability to do something as easy as put one foot in front of the other without finding every dry stick and loose rock in the area.

And now, a foul odor and a noise that he is certain cannot be good. He takes a knee, the easiest way to be low to the ground and waits for his friends so they too can smell and hear all the next bad things.

Garrett can see the back of the house from his angle, stretching almost forever behind the building is tall weeds and shrubs leading off into hill country. There is a dirt area behind the house where a wagon would normally be, and a trough and hitching post for horses, but they too are absent.

The odd sound coming from this side of the house is the back door wide open and very gently, ever so slightly, swaying in the wind. Inside the house is unlit but ransacked, and Garrett can make out swarms of flying insects toward the center of the house.

The grass leading away from the house and further south into the hill country is parted slightly, as if a large vehicle was pulled through and the grass and shrubs had been trampled enough that they wouldn't go back to their full upright positions.

At the front of the house the rest of the party meets up with Brock. Sefira dropping to her knee as well looking to the others as if to say 'what now?'
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:11, Wed 17 June 2020.

Garrett let out a sigh. He had seen death often enough to have a good idea that there was either rotting food...or a corpse...inside to attract the bugs like that. He pulled his shirt up over his nose a bit, knowing it would only help slightly with the smell.

Then he stepped inside and headed inward to see what was dead.

10:13, Today: Garrett rolled 19 using 1d20+5.  Stealthing inside the house (not that I think the Stealth check will be needed).

”Looks like Garret is going in the back. We should try the front.” Without waiting, Gregar moves toward the house, wary for danger.

Front of the house:

Sefira follows Gregar to the front door. Her muscles tensed and ready for anything.

Upon trying to open the front door there is a massive amount of resistance and it will not budge.

------
From the rear of the house:

Stepping into the house Garrett is hit with the sick wet smell. It is like walking into a wall. the inside of the house is holding much of the heat of the day and the air in the building is now both almost unbreathable and somewhat humid. The reason is evident, and no real surprise to Garret.

The house is laid out as one big open utilitarian floor plan. The back of the house if both the kitchen and fireplace, the front of the house is a large living area, and to one side is a small wooden ladder leading up to a loft above a closet, big enough to lay on but nothing else, and it is where the bedding is as well. These were not wealthy farmers that lived here, but likely share croppers, surfs, or peasants barely holding on.

The house has been ransacked, the table turned over and propped up against the front door as a barricade and the front window smashed out. nothing has been left standing or intact. In the center of the living room is three bloated corpses, one of a man, a woman, and a teen male. It looks as though they had all been tied up together and left in the center of the room. Their skin is beginning to slough off and bile and nasty are leaking out across the floor in black, green, and yellow puddles. Their cause of death is not immediately evident from the decay of the corpses, but it is obvious they have been dead for a week at least, meaning that this ambush site was planned well in advance. The house is swarming with flies and ants, eagerly feasting and laying eggs in the bounty left for them.

Staying in the house will require a CON save to keep from retching. And to identify the cause of death will require either a NATURE, MEDICINE, of INVESTIGATION CHECK.

Gregar sees the broken front window and peers in, seeing some of the horrifying scene. He stifles a gag.

In a hushed call to Garret, he says,”Something’s blocking the front door. Can you see what it is?”

Brock was at the front door with the others. The fact that it didn't budge was a good and a bad. "Someone made sure this was barricaded?" It was kind of obvious but he shook his head in the negative about it.

And he followed around to the back of the house too.

It smelled wrong all the way back here.

"We're really going to have to tell the sherrif back in town about all of this. And maybe they can tell someone else about it too. This is a lot bigger than just us and a missing girl."

 As Nashford begins to make his way out to his companions, he becomes curious about the corpse that Brock tripped over. <OOC>Does it look anything like the person the group was asked to look for? Are there any more dead people in the field near the farmhouse?

Garrett quickly staggered back out of the house. He didn't vomit, for which he was grateful, but it also wasn't his first time around dead bodies. He shook his head at the group coming around.

"Ugh! I wouldn't go in there. Family's dead, at least a week I think. It's...really ripe in there, the bodies are...very decayed. And gross. Lots of bugs." He took in a deep breath as he pulled down his shirt from his mouth and nose. "Place was ransacked, but it was obviously a base camp for their planned ambush."

The body Nashford examines is an elven male, he appears to be one of the circus troope, from his attire. He has a single crossbow bolt to the forehead, which is the obvious cause of death. This is neither Reyshanel or Kila.

There are no other bodies within five feet of this corpse.

Any further bodies to be found will require a perception check as you search around.

"I don't know what we should do other than get back to town as soon as we can." He took a few more steps away from the house and stopped to talk with everyone. "We've been dragging behind what ever all of this is by a good ways. We're sort of close to what happened to the caravan, I mean that just happened, so these old bodies they were, what, the people who owned this house?"

"The more people trying to solve this the more likely it is to get solved. The circus performers, they'll tell everyone in town about what happened to them, but no one knows this connects to Reyshanel besides us."

"If we have any idea about which way people went from here, maybe we can try and learn a bit more. This is all, well, just a few tons more than I expected when we agreed to help look for a missing girl."

”It seems clear that Reyshanel is working with these bandits, whoever they are. And based on the evidence we found in her house, she’s into something dark and sinister.” Gregar muses out loud. ”From a certain perspective, we have solved the case. Reyshanel left of her own accord and on her own business. The rest is none of ours.”

Gregar glanced around the yard, panning his head left to right. ”Perhaps we take some time to make a thorough search of the grounds and the house, though something will need to be done about those bodies before we can really search the house.”

"That's a sort of grim victory. And we're going to have to find a way to tell her father about it." Brock was having a tough time finding any good news in the middle of all of this.

"Should we, I don't know, put all the bodies together? I practically tripped over one out in the field." He pondered it for a moment and talked himself out of it. "Maybe if there's something worth finding time matters. We should look around out here first, see if there's any kind of a hint about what direction they went."

Garrett looked torn. On the one hand, he'd like to be done with this and tell the father and the authorities. On the other hand, could they just let this girl and the bandits just get away with all this?

He gave a nod to the suggestion of looking around and began to circle around and outward from the house.

O.O.C Any further bodies to be found will require a perception check as you search around.

Sefira quietly listens to the group as she looks around the corner of the house. Until the notion of leaving comes up. Looking at the ground and then back to the rest of the group she speaks up. "If we are all deciding whether or not to go after them, well I am... after all we promised that circus girl we would find her friend, and she did give us some potions to help in that cause... I won't ask any of you to come with me if you don't want to; but I know the kind of people these cultists are... And I wont let them get away with hurting anyone else if I can help it... Not again." She says looking back to the group for their answer.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:30, Fri 26 June 2020.

While the team searched the grounds, Gregar focused on the house. He debated whether getting the bodies out would help or if he should just stomach the stench. In the end, he opted for the stench.

He soaked two small rags in some incense and stuffed them up his nose. He then doused another rag with more incense and water and wrapped that around his face. Then he entered the house. First step was to open any door or window he could, quickly, but then he focused on searching the place as thoroughly as possible.

Not sure if taking my time gives me a bonus or a "Take 10" situation. But my plan is to be as thorough as possible.
14:11, Today: Gregar Gergundi rolled 3 using 1d20.  Search. +3 = 6 unless I get a bonus. Can I retry after some period of time?

14:11, Today: Gregar Gergundi rolled 9 using 1d20.  Constitution Check.
17:02, Today: Gregar Gergundi rolled 3 using 1d20.  Con roll #2.

+0 = 9. So I'm barfing as well as searching.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:03, Fri 26 June 2020.

"You're right, you're right, we should keep on going. I'm just feeling like a fish out of water in all this that's all." Brock turned his attention to walking the farm grounds. There was a lot of mark up showing how they came up on this place. Hopefully there was something just as obvious showing how they might have left. He searched the grounds and the other farm buildings besides the house.

16:41, Today: Brock Fineanvil rolled 1 using 1d20.  Perception Roll.

My last two skill checks, both rolls of a 1.

Brock is clearly rattled by all of this.

Gregar I am going to give you advantage on the con roll, for the steps you took, also don't forget everyone has a point of inspiration they can use at any time as reward from the first little scenario that brought your team together, to gain advantage on a roll of their choice.

As far as taking ten is concerned, correct me if I am wrong but I think it exists only as passive ability checks now. Something you would just notice rather than taking 10, could be wrong, not the greatest at 5e. So the roll would just stand as is, and any bonus I would give would not let it break a 10 so no real need to do that.

Man good thing you all are getting the low numbers out of the way now, so they don't pop up in combat lol.

  Nashford also tries his hand at searching the grounds.<OOC> Got a five, infinite sadness. "Times like this I wish I was a little taller. It would definitely make it easier to search."

"I'm not sure that being any taller would be any better." Brock continued with looking but it seemed rather hard. His heart was sore from all the odd things they were all wrapped up in. It was tough to see this a a puzzle that they could solve.

He didn't give up but he did not get a sudden moment of clarity either

16:32, Today: Brock Fineanvil rolled 13 using 1d20.  Inspired Perception ReRoll.

4:20

While searching the grounds the group comes to notice the disturbed grass that Garrett noticed earlier.

Brock finishes speaking and moves a handful of tall grass away to reveal the corpse of another two circus folk, both with killing blows from a crossbow, one with a bolt in his neck and the other with one straight in the center of the chest. Soon he has stumbled upon two other bodies not far from them also killed in a similar matter, bringing the new total of bodies outside the house from one to five.

Inside the house Gregar has found that no matter how bad the smell is alone, with incense crammed up his nostrils it is worse. After adding to the mess inside he is assaulted by flying biting insects that now smell new opportunities. The search of the house begins to prove futile as the more he swipes at the bugs the more of them that show up.

Garrett helped Brock outside as they wandered around. "This is terrible. I mean, in there...completely awful. But this..." He gestured at some of the bodies, ""here...this whole..." He gave a frustrated wide-sweeping gesture, "situation is so dark, messed up. How are we going to find this crazy woman?"