Abbot looks at the barn dubiously. "Why burn the homestead and leave the barn standing?" he questions out loud.

"Wisdom demands we leave it be, but curiosity compels me to find out." He reasons to himself. After a short moment of contemplation he makes a suggestion to the others. "We should set fire to the back of the barn, then we wait to see what exits out the front."

He speaks loudly so that anyone listening from within might simply choose to come out now.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:32, Sun 11 Oct 2020.

Abdur moves up to look at the remains.  He shakes his head having seen the results of raids such as this in the petty wars of the hills and mountains of his homeland.  "Likely they burnt out the defenders in the cabin and stole or slaughtered the stock in the barn that did not fight back.  Lighting the barn on fire would only send up more smoke and draw more attention." 

He looked around.  "Cover me, I'll go check out the cabin.  I doubt if the Picts are lingering but rather moving as quickly as they can back to their lands."  Adbur will walk warily up to the remains of the cabin.

Several of the party members look around the clearing and homestead to see what they can discern.

Darakyn Chard gives the barn a wide berth as he moves slowly around the burning house. His bow is ready.

Darakyn doesn't see anything notable while walking along the smoldering home's perimeter, but he is struck by the seeming absence of bodies -- and wonders what the ruins themselves might hide.

Abbot's verbal challenge provokes faint animal sounds from inside the barn.

Abdur looks around.

Abdur ventures further into the remains of the cabin, sticking to where it seems safest. He affirms Darakyn's assessment that there are no bodies here, and his search reveals some salvageable items. A loose floorboard jarred by his cautious movement through the debris reveals a pouch of some heft, its fabric warm but unburned.

Abbot does not give up on the barn. His eyes narrow with suspicion when the animal sounds emanate from within. He examines the barn closer now, only a dozen paces or so from its walls. He circles around the perimeter of the building then comes to a stop in front of its front door.

Abbot perambulates around the small barn. There's a main, sliding door in what might be considered the front, and a smaller single, solid Dutch door in the rear. While there are no windows, per se, there is a barn-long stretch of intermittent opening near the roof's edge, perhaps for light and ventilation. In places, a shutter of sorts is propped outward at that high position.

Abdur hefts the bag and slips it away.  He headed out to the join the rest. "No bodies at all.  I found a sack though, probably a stash from whoever lived here."  He opened the bag and looked into it.  "I'd guess that whoever lived here either fled or was carried away.  I'll keep this to give back to them or their kin."

"We should at least have a peek at the barn." Abbot approaches the main door and stands ready to open it. He waits for the others to indicate they are ready before he slides it.

Adbur joins Abbot at the barn.  He stood ready with his sword.  "Go ahead and we'll see if anything is left. I fear what we might find inside."

"I'll stand guard on the side door if you want to go in the front," suggested Chard. "In case someone tries to break out."

Inside the pouch, Abdur finds 10 slightly melted silver coins, a few molding together lightly, and a gold chain and locket.

Abdur will check the locket then head into the barn with Abbot. "Let's go, we need to finish this and get back on the trail."

Abdur with him at the front door and Darakyn going round back Abbot thrusts his weapon into the ground near where he expects the door to stop sliding and pulls on the door with both hands. He pulls from the back end rather than the latching end so that he is not exposed to the opening.

Abdur opens the locket and sees a small likeness of a pretty young woman.

Opening the door to the barn, Abbot and Abdur smell the warm animal scent of stock animals. No threat presents itself from the shadowy inside.

The barn door is now open.

If no threat materializes through the back door, Chard will open it cautiously.

If there are living animals in there he will be wondering what happened here.

"They burned the house but left the bag of treasure -- didn't take you very long to find it -- and they left the animals behind. Real wealth to a small farm and to bandits.

"Might they be slavers? Interested only in human stock?"

Abdur shakes his head as he stows away the locket and then steps into the barn to look around.  "Let us hope that the settlers here fled before the Picts came upon them."

"We should keep moving. We will know when the trail ends and we see for ourselves."

Abbot retrieves his weapon from the earth and waits for the others to make their decision.

Chard will investigate the interior of the barn before they move on.

Please make an appropriate search, spot, or other check to look through the barn.

Several farm animals are penned inside the barn: a mule, a goat, and a milk cow. They seem to be the source of the sounds and scents.

Darkyn Chard will look to the animals and see what kind of condition they are in and open their pens to let them out so they won't starve.

He also searches the barn quickly for anything out of place


13:47, Today: Darakyn Chard rolled 20 using 1d20+1.  Check on animals -- Handle Animal skill +1.
13:47, Today: Darakyn Chard rolled 14 using 1d20.  Perception - search barn.

Darakyn assesses that the animals might not have been cared for for a few days. They are hungry and slightly fussy, but relatively healthy.

Also in the barn, he finds several farming tools, a couple of lengths of rope, and several large sacks.

Chard will take the best piece of rope and coil it carefully on his pack.

"Never know when a good bit of rope will come in handy," he says.

As long as the animals are free to forage for themselves, there's not much more he can do for them, and he expects there will be locals who will come and take them when the danger is no longer there.

"Would have thought the Picts would have taken the animals," he muses. "They're worth a few pennies. Must be moving fast and light."