Deception : 20

Kari can't seem to get much of a read on the woman. Though, she has no obvious reason for having showed up at the general store. 

Clearing her throat, Danae then says, "Well, just coming to say hi then, I'll let your customers shop."  With a bit of a disappointed look on her face the woman heads outside.  

Outside, she does look at Mal, and seems to get VERY interested, but as soon as she sees Mal's covered face she seems disappointed again and heads off into the darkness. 

Badger drops the telepathy and simply speaks out loud: Well, that was weird. What a strange town this is so far. I'm sure I could have a most entertaining time here... Without any further discussion in front of the storekeeper, Badger helps make any purchases and then meets back by Mal. It is there that he shares the brief snippet of thought that he overheard, and asks whether this is anything worth delaying their plans for. (Badger thinks it is not)

If there is anything in the store that might help Badger keep warm, then he will buy it. He is already heavily rugged up, but would probably still attempt to pull on an extra pair of mittens or another scarf. A hot water bottle wouldn't go astray either. Or anything made of a solid block of metal that he can magically heat up and shove in between his layers.

Seemingly happy to leave the strange town behind, the group continues on their way out of Lonelywood and head north east along the Shaengarne river.  The animals seem happy for the absolutely flat footing on the frozen snow covered river and the group makes good time. Once in a while though the group is forced to veer out of the river bed basin to get a look around.  It's three hours of such travel before you come up out of the rise. The trees have thinned out here and there are some long views. From here you see the tiny shape of a cabin in the distance, south east of the river bed.  It is perched on the edge of a snowy ridge above a gorge. You make your way across land towards it. As you get closer you see that it is a black lodge on wooden stilts. Whatever path might have led to this ramshackle retreat lies buried under snow, but approaching it at the top of the gorge is easy enough.  The gorge lies on the other side of the cabin.  As you get closer you get a good look at the ancient ramshackle frozen cabin.  Icy steps climb to a snow-covered walkway that clings to the left side of the structure. The building’s slumped posture and sagging, snow-covered roof, coupled with the broken windows and loose, flapping shutters, suggest utter abandonment. Large snowdrifts huddle around the rotting stilts and engulf a nearby woodshed and outhouse. Only the wind visits this sinister place. Kari shivers as the icy northern wind blows across the scene, buffeting you, but it's not from feeling cold. 

HELLO!! Badger calls out, although he feels as though the wind whips his words away ere the reach the cabin. Frustrated that he has neglected to prepare his mobile seeing-eye, the gnome instead rubs his nose, looks to his companions and says: Er...  Kurik! Why don't you go take a look...

"Kurik pulls out flametongue and lights it up.  "Shall I knock," he says and then raises his chinten covered boot and continues, "Or shall I knock..."  He pauses for a moment, "Well, i'll knock quietly and then I'll knock loudly if no one answers."  With that he makes his way towards the building and up to the nearest door.  Wrapping on the door his booms out, "Anyone one home?"

Discussing the strange woman with Badger, Mal is pretty sure she might just be looking for some help on some task, but she is glad the group leaves the town quickly, as that woman could turn out to be dangerous, or at last an annoyance to their travels.

Mal would accompany Kurik as well but stay a bit back form the door, "Who knows what waits inside better to be a bit cautious." She whispers to the group.

As Kari mentions caution, Kurik walks along the creaking porch, the boards flexing under his stride, a flaming sword alight in his hand.  He briefly glances back at her and then slams his fist on the door and says loudly, “Anyone home?”

The only answer is the whistling of the wind as it sweeps through cracks in the cabins walls and down into the gorge beyond. From the porch near the door Kurik can see the gorge below that the cabin is haphazardly set atop. Icy cliffs extend far below. 

Badger waits and watches as long as he can stand, but after a while the cold wind is just too much, and he dismounts and approaches the house as well. It seems deserted and should be safe to take refuge from the weather. Only bothering to make the most perfunctory check for tracks in the area, Badger walks up to the porch and rises on the tips of his toes to look through one of the windows, hoping to spot a hearth and some firewood...

 While the others approach the house, Kari decides to take a look at the wood shed and outhouse. She can't help looking down the hole, knowing that anything (or anyone) down there would likely be frozen, then she makes her way to the edge of the gorge and looks down. Looking around, she tries to see if there is any established way of climbing down into it.

While Kurik stands at the door, the crackling flame on his blade casting an orange light about the place, Badger wanders around. The stilts this cabin is built on raise it ten feet in the air, leaving a large rocky area underneath that's coated in frost. Badger heads up the creaky frozen stairs and along the porch towards Kurik, and lifts himself up to peer in through the first window. There are shudders inside that are shut, but a pane of glass is broken so he pokes a dagger through to push it aside and looks into the cabin.  He sees the southern most room appears to be an abandoned workshop. Frost covers every surface and a closed door leads to the left into the rest of the cabin. The door that Kurik stands in front of leads into this workshop. There is another door the leads into the cabin, further along the porch, but there is a sizeable gap of rotted broken boards in the deck that would require a jump to get across. 

Kari meanwhile heads over to the shed which holds stacks of firewood powdered with blown snow. Walking past that, she finds the wooden outhouse is half-buried in snow. She takes a moment to undig the snow and clear a path for the door and peers inside.  There is a stack of discarded notes and blueprints, which appear to be available for toilet paper. While peering down the dark hole she sees nothing but lumps of waste and bits of crumpled stained paper amidst it all....all of which is frozen solid.  She picks up the paper in case the other want to look at it and then wades through the snow drifts to get near the gorge.  From near the edge, she can tell that part of the ridge that the cabin is perched on fell away some time ago, leaving the westernmost section of the building hanging over the gorge. Looking down she sees a 120 foot descent to a treed bottom.  As the wind whips through the gorge she hears an odd whistling that sounds a bit like laughing.  There is no obvious path down into the gorge. 

Kari shivers from the sound. I don't like that she says to her hitch hiking companion. Wind shouldn't have voices. She walks over to where Mal is, hanging back a little from the others. I found some papers, if you want to take a look. Not much else though, I think whoever lived here must have left when the side of the cliff collapsed from under the house.

With all that, Kurik tries to open the door.  If it's locked he will try and force it.  If he get's it open, he'll have a look inside.

Badger follows Kurik, looking for a way to get inside.

The door is a bit frozen shut, but with a solid shoulder Kurik manages to get it to slam open.  As it slams open, he sees two squirrels bound from a book case across the room and through a hole in the floor.  A gust of wind blows into the, sending sparkling frost into the air and fluttering bits of paper that are strewn about. The workshop contains a set of smith’s tools and a set of tinker’s tools spread across a wooden table along with some twisted bits of metal.  The bookcase against the north wall has bits of junk on it and some scraps of paper and other detritus that the squirrels seem to have collected. 

You poke about but there's nothing else of interest.  There is actually no door leading to the rest of the cabin here. You must have mistaken the bookshelf for a door. Seems you'll have to go further along the balcony and jump the gap to get to the other door into the cabin. Unless you try another approach. (If you want to approach the other door, make a DC 10 Dex check for me.)

Badger takes a few moments in the room to look around. He is curious about what kind of activity was taking place here, and inspects the scrap metal and the papers for clues (and the blueprints from the toilet if he is aware of them). He also tries to determine if there has been a struggle here.

Investigation: 13

Kari will come join the others when she sees them go in and, recognizing a workshop, say Do you think these papers came from here? I found them in the crapper though, probably not good for much. You guys haven't heard any laughs, have you, I'd swear I heard something a minute ago. She absently reached a finger to her shoulder/neck and pets at the little spirit there.

"This is a workshop of sorts it seems thought I see no sign of any recent activity here.  Maybe in the main lodgings?  I think' I'd like to check it out," he says and heads outside.  He moves to the East side o fthe building and tries to climb in through a window.

Seeing that the house does not immediately explode once Badger goes in, Mal will join Kurik on the east side of the house to help him get inside.

Kurik comes to the first window. His weight pressing down on the old rotting and frozen boards of the deck are making them flex in unsettling ways. He keeps his feet near beams and slides open the first window into the main house, its glass long broken, pressing open the shudders inside and climbs nimbly inside the house. 

The main room of the cabin contains the lingering smells of burnt wood and flesh. Added to that, you catch the faint odor of old sour wine. These smells are faint, though still permeate the air despite plenty of wind blowing through the room.  Snow has fallen through holes in the roof, then been pushed into corners by stiff winds blowing through broken windows. The walls and furniture are scorched black, including a table with the charred remains of a book on it. Next to the table, on the floor amid several broken wine bottles, is a mostly incinerated skeleton and a round, frost-covered object about six inches in diameter.

"We got dead body in here!  Badger! Magic potential dangerous magic item too," Kurik yells.  He will then get close and take a better look at the item.

13 Arcana check