"Thank you nonetheless." Vostiun traits the cup and blows on it. "Should we start with a look around?

Saidou shakes his head at Kon's suggestion that he journal his nightmare. "No, I would rather not, if it's all the same to you. That dream, it hit it's mark in a distinct and troubling way to me, and one that I would rather not pursue. Knowledge is important to me, the written record almost sacrosanct. Destruction of
knowledge, or promoting false knowledge, is not something I would ever be comfortable with. The nightmare, while troubling, is ultimately fleeting... And I would prefer to not bear written record, myself, of the dream any longer than I must."

Though he tries to keep his words more detached and almost clinical, his tone is less adept at deception. It is clear that there are a lot of emotions in Saidou's feelings regarding the nightmarish defiling of written word.

To Vostiun, Saidou would nod an agreement. "one of us should take a rough sketch of the standing structure as it is, while the rest of us check around for worked stone and bricks outside of the structure that have been claimed by vegetation. Establish a perimeter to the ruin, as it were. I am steady handed and methodical, so just let me know what task you want my attention on." He sips his tea and quietly converses with Spirit in preparation for their day's tasks.

I'll want to change my familiar and prepared spells from known.

Can we get a general vague 5dc perception answer of the ruin layout we have seen? We had the room we sheltered in last night - what else of the ruin structures is obvious, and what parts can we see that are unknown and can we start doing preliminary scouting of them?

Samara gives Saidou a little hug,then gets up, looking for a good vantage point.
Samara is looking for the highest accessible point within about 100' of their current position.

What does Samara want to accomplish with the "high place"? This will help me locate what you are wanting.

Samara would like to get a higher view of the site, hopefully also get a look at the surrounding area, see if there are any other structures or suspicious mounds nearby, or if there are any neighbors coming to visit.

Samara climbs a few trees to get a look around.


What is everyone else doing while she does that?

"Just leave the cups near the pot, I'll deal with them a bit later."  Kon stands and stretches, bending back and forth, twisting and groaning with exertion, "I'll survey the nearby area and see what I can find that might be related to our sorcerous friend while collecting some more firewood in the area and gathering some more water.  If I find anything I'll be sure to mark its location."

Kon will Investigate the surroundings, out to the area around the outsides of the ponds around the camp, being sure to stay within eyesight of the ruins.

Relevant skills include:  Arcana and Occultism for ensorcelled materials or tools used for magical purposes, and Crafting to judge the rough layout of the once settlement.  All +7.
Relevant cantrip:  Detect Magic.  The ruins/campsite is larger than 60 feet, so it should be possible to confirm whether there is anything significantly magical in the area while wandering around and confirm its general boundaries.
Relevant bonuses:  Pursuing a Lead - Been following up on this sorcerer since day 1, giving a +1 related to Investigating them
This message was last edited by the player at 18:18, Fri 03 Mar 2023.

Samara tosses a bit of bark or seed or something to get Kon's attention so she doesn't have to call out, "Kon, visibility is awful, let's not get out of sight of one another, OK?"

"Do you want our fancy new torch or a light spell?"

Vostiun will walk outward in a slowly increasing spiral, looking for anything out of the ordinary or interesting. Occasionally he gestures and casts detect magic.

Saidou watches the others begin their tasks, and nods to himself. He moves to their shared supplies Haznut had brought in, giving the dwarf a quiet "Thank you, for being the sturdy wood upon which our bookshelf of success is built. Allow me to use up some of the weight you carried."

Turning his head to his shoulder, he rattles off in a strange and precise tongue; [Language unknown: "Ith manwi cant un alnd beha ouatoltrin, Haeiai, thiherwhetic tr the ate tr int cecon our stiivevir whihasoulhat. Reroto sta ica iearfo ratur ur ev whnc i pe foisee a as mo thi ai k o etoer et hisessble?"] before following Samara to the vantage point above the ruins she had found, a drawing pad and charcoal scribe tucked under one arm.

Saidou would like to find a stable spot to perch just above the level of the undergrowth that would normally occlude his vision at short height, maybe a sitting spot in a very low branch 4-7 feet up. He starts sketching the part of the ruined exterior he can see, using Spirit and his familiar's Shared Senses perk to get a closer perspective for details when necessary.

Haznut maintains the camp while the rest of the party fans out to search the remnants of the ruin. Samara and Saidou quickly learn that there isn't any place in the trees that will provide even a passing ability to see the environs in any detail or even keep sight of Vostiun and Kon.


Walking the site it becomes clear almost immediately, that there is nothing here from an archaeological perspective. The occasional rusted piece of kit from the time of the crusades, remnants of repeated camp fires from years ago, but otherwise the ruins are fairly unremarkable and definitely picked clean of anything valuable to anyone but a dedicated scholar of ruins.

Saidou returns down from the tree, giving the trunk a glare and a muttered, "What are you even good for, tree..." before resorting to doing his inspection on foot. [Language unknown: "Trwhle, T ortingore rutonssti ant tioareant no thse laulll ta o manho it i fias acpr,  wider latndetin und fi ec us ul oveiveant. Asbese eenessati, tefidi-wehi conintoul wiloutave e laterealless il ectstiven rutro ss sta dinsomingany manenteresti o monelo ore est plwhse osof intwillininghis essearcom ntore redanyoneall ourme ous ateartpreeen?"]

To his companions as he finds himself near them, he will remark; "What we see here, what I've seen so far, wouldn't match the description for a sorcerer's tower. It matches more a, smaller shrine or temple. Far younger than 10,000 years. I still want to sketch it for records, that it not be forgotten. Let's see if we can determine to whom or what this place was dedicated for our notes, before we move on."


After climbing down, Saidou will do a check around the perimeter of their shelter room from last night, looking for ruined works outside (And will inspect the area Southeast corner of the ruin chamber).

Kon returns from his walk around the surroundings with an arm full of smaller branches and twigs, all dampened from the storm still and the marshy environ.  He nods to Saidou, "A Kellid diety by my estimation, putting the ruins at 800-1000 years old.  Remarkable that any carvings survived so long."  Kon hands Saidou a scrap of parchment with some crude map scrawling that approximate the surroundings, "I found them where I marked on the paper if you're interested.  I'll need something more stable to copy them down on, or a rubbing kit.  Do we have any charcoal and paper in that kit?"

He drops off the bundle of wood with Haznut and begins wandering out of the camp again, "Going to have another look around.  Clearly this isn't where we were supposed to end up, culturally significant as it may be."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:33, Mon 06 Mar 2023.

"I'll go with you so we at least we can get lost at once. It saves more time that way." Vostiun, with Sargon not far behind, sets off with Kon.

Samara jumps down from the branch.
"I cant see anything from up there," she says, "but I'm pretty sure we aren't in the right place. Perhaps we should move on?"

"We need to set up this place as a base camp, for now, before we move on."  Kon explains, "We don't know where the actual ruins we're looking for are, besides 'near the river' and 'near these ruins'.  Of course 'near' could be a day away, but at least we'll have some place to come back to while we're looking for the right place."  Pausing for a moment and sweeping his hand around at the ruinous camp, "Besides, maybe we find nothing out there and this is actually what we were looking for.  Professor Lorrimor just said the ruins were suspected of belonging to Voran Earthmane, not that we would definitely find them right here.  We're to document what we found as meticulously as we can, confirm whether it was or was not the Earthmane laboratory, and return with our notes and any trinkets we find."  He grins, "But what else might we get if we return with notes on a Kellid temple of worship as well?"  He turns back around with a nod at Vostiun and continues away from the camp.

Samara swishes her tail once, then inquires, "Fine. What do you need me to do?"

Kon slows to a stop, thinking for a few moments, "We'll need water prepared for meals, the single armful of branches will hardly keep us warm for the night, hunting for food around here would spare our rations; undoubtedly anything edible we find around here would be better than dried meats and bread tough enough to stop a crossbow bolt, we'll be spending most of the day recording the ruins here so we can return with something; even if we find no laboratory..."

He pulls down the fourth finger of his hand at once, then shrugs, arms wide, "And then there's the threat of the goblins.  We should prepare the site so it's more defensible, less likely that we'll be surrounded and more likely that they'll funnel in at us from one or two directions.  Really there's so much to get done before we retire for the night."  With a great sigh, heavy and considered, Kon turns back again to trudge after Vostiun, "Anything you can do is helpful."
This message was last edited by the player at 08:29, Fri 10 Mar 2023.

Staring unblinking at Kon, the tail thrashes become more pronounced as he continues.
Cocking her head, she asks, "And we are certain that we do not want to revisit this idea of this location being suitable as a 'base'? You left out clearing all this foliage around the camp so we can see intruders approaching. Goblins are small, yeah? I don't know if they climb well, but if they do, they'll have no problem swarming this place."

"Well, yes, that's part of making it more defensible, and we'll need some way of obscuring sight of our campfire for the night.  But there's no telling if this is what we are here to investigate," Kon gestures again in a sweeping motion to the ruins as he spins about on his heels, continuing his slow walk away, "and there's no telling if we'll be heading deeper into what those goblins assume is their land to find what we're after, if it exists to be found at all."  He pauses for a moment and furrows his brow while thinking to himself, "The laboratory might have even sank into a bog, never to be seen again, barring some serious intervention the likes of which no common man such as myself could hope to put forth."

He turns back again, "Can you exhume a house from a pit of fetid water, mud, and rotting plants?"  He then shakes his head, "No, why send someone who could do that to the middle of nowhere without a substantial team.  At any rate, the point is thus:  We were tasked to follow a lead to find a fabled workspace of an assumed long dead sorcerer in this general area.  Until we find somewhere better, this is the best we have, and the only landmark worthwhile in this possibly gods forsaken stretch of the wilds.  Ergo, we should spend the light hours attempting to make the most of this..."  Kon looks back and forth as he thinks of a descriptor, "Place, humbled by the passage of time."

With a shrug he begins to turn back again, "We'll be searching the surrounding area tomorrow at the very least, and if there's cause to believe we've found proof of the laboratory's existence nearby, we can move our camp at any time.  It's not like we're rebuilding the temple from ruins and rotten trees.  But we know where these ruins are, and we can find them again quite easily by following the river.  We're above the water line, there's...  Passable cover from the elements, unless the goblins are amphibious or have watery allies we know they're not likely to surprise us from the river and ponds surrounding  us, the river's water is at least potable so we have something to slake our thirst...", his words drift off into the air as he wanders away after Vostiun.

"These goblins are defined by their relationship to giant frogs and boggards. Every pond and river is an ambush point."

"Hmm, true.  Probably not boggards, though that would be a good thing to be on guard for.  Who knows if goblins could befriend them, honestly.  Frogs aren't known for being stealthy though."

"Ha! Boggarts and bogeymen. We should be so lucky."
"I'll get water and wood, I'm not experienced at building traps, though.
Who's coming with?"

Saidou doesn't seem to be paying much attention to the conversation that Elde, Samara, and Vostiun are having. His eyes are sweeping back and forth across the pieces of stone and wall as Spirit is flouncing along, the ferret companion providing Saidou with valuable frame of reference points as he literally uses ferret-lengths for scale.

Maybe he'll talk later; For now, he seems to have forgotten that his companions exist, as he records reference mapping of the site around them.