Lady Dre manages to successfully calm the injured draft horse.

The horse gives in to the arcane levitational pull, but it's simply too massive for Tuuli to lift straight up. Instead, the spell lightens the horse's load, significantly.

Very light on its feet now, the beast easily scrambles up Baldar's makeshift ramp and out of the pit.

(Teamwork!)

The horse is limping, injured from the fall, but calm. The wagon remains in the hole, upright now, but with one obviously broken wheel. Some of the equipment and supplies in the wagon have fallen out into the dirt at the bottom of the hole.

A handful of widely-separated farmhouses are visible in the near distance, just beyond an overgrown field – Kianna's pact, at least according to Uncle Polder's directions.

"Maybe you folks should go ahead, and find Kianna," says Lady Dre, looking at the mess in front of her. "We're not going anywhere for awhile."

(Oh, right, horses are heavy.)

The wind dies down and Tuuli gives a big sigh. That took something out of her. She looks out at the distant farmhouses. "We'll go get help," she says, and looks to the others. "For the horse at least. And the wagon. Do you think you'll be safe here?"

"I'll stay with her," offers Proclaimer Ward.

With a nod, Tuuli turns to face the farmhouses. She snaps Lucky into her arms (poof! poof!), and says, "On our way, then," and begins walking.

Bendrak  offers to retrieve any needed items from the crater and surveys the area for any stray animated body parts before joining the others on the road.

Unless you have further business, the party gathers their things and continues on foot, leaving Lady Dre and the Proclaimer to tend to their injured horse and sort out pulling their wagon out of the pit. Even before you depart, Lady Dre has produced a stout robe and has made good progress in inching the damaged wagon out of the hole using the nearby trees as a makeshift winch.

The fields ahead are overgrown and the plants rotting. Crows flit between perches on the fences, but there are no signs of people. You count about seven widely-spaced farmhouses in the loose neighborhood, built some 600 or 700 feet apart from one another. The nearest farmhouse is small and utilitarian, sloppily painted with a large and muddy red X. 

Tuuli slows and finally stops. “Um, this doesn’t look good. Maybe we shouldn’t all approach from the front?”

Baldar looks around, trying to determine if any other farmhouses are also painted with an X, or if their field are also overgrown and rotting.
"I agree," she says to Tuuli "Do you think your kitty-cat could take a peek inside?"

Perception: 21

How far away from us is the nearest farmhouse with the X on it?

The party waits about 80 or 90 feet from the closest house. You can see a similar X on another small farmhouse in the distance, but it's difficult to see the condition of neighboring fields or the other houses.

All remains quiet.

Bendrak keeps his distance, but circles around to get a look at the opposite side of the house.

“Oh, that’s a good idea!” Tuuli says. She puts Lucky on the ground and he scampers off towards the farmhouse. Meanwhile Tuuli walks forward about ten feet and sits on the ground in a semi-meditative position. As wisps of her hair float up, she closes her eyes, and her lips move silently. Then she pops an eye open, “Sorry, I’m going to share Lucky’s eyes and ears, but you’ll have to shake me if you want my attention. One set of eyes and ears at a time.” Then she closes her eyes again.

Lucky will try to be stealthy, and will peer around the farmhouse.

In the Game Log:
Lucky Stealth: 20+4=24
Lucky Perception: 2+3=5
Lucky Adv Perception if it is smell based: 3+3=6

Nobody sees the cat, but the cat walks into walls it didn’t see.

The far side of the little house offers a similar view. A closed door, shattered windows, general disrepair, but no other Xs. The fields behind the house are overgrown and unhealthy-looking. A few farming implements – a hoe, a rake – lay untouched in the grass.

As Tuuli mediates nearby, Lucky vanishes into the overgrown weeds. He hops up onto a windowsill and peers through the broken panes and into the house, but sees no occupants, nor any sign that it was recently occupied. A small kitchen, with two small rooms adjoining.

Tuuli reports all of this to the others, without opening her eyes. Then she shakes her head, as if to clear it, and stands up, blinking. Lucky comes scampering back. “Nothing obvious, wanna take a closer look, or try one of the other farmhouses?”

"Let's go check out this one. Hopefully Bendrak has the back door covered. I'll go first." Baldar hefts her axe and heads for the front door. Once there, she touches the red painted X to see if it is fresh or quite old.

Tuuli nods, takes out her bow and nocks an arrow loosely, and follows about 30’ behind Baldar, Lucky right behind her.

Bendrak comes up behind, axe in hand.

Baldar approaches the front door. Tuuli follows at a distance behind her. (Is Bendrak staying behind the house, or circling around to join the others?)

Baldar Investigation check: 13

The door is wide open. Baldar finds that the paint is dry.

Inside she can see a small, utilitarian living area. It looks sparse, but furnished. The weather has damaged much of the interior, as if unoccupied for some time.

When nothing jumps out at Baldar, Tuuli closes the distance, putting up her bow and freeing her hands. She takes a cautious step over the threshold, looking for anything out of place.

Perception: 9
Investigation: 17

So, once she sees nothing dangerous (Perception 9? Sheesh), she starts checking things out, looking for secret doors, for bloodstains, for hastily cleaned areas, any sort of clue as to what happened here.