Eithne, relieved that the real Nikolai has finally shown up, stops looking for his tracks, approaches him and replies to him and Chara: "Who this poor fellow is, I don't know. It could also be one of the famous bodies without a soul, created for some purpose. There must be someone here who really wants to play a joke on us... but who has a very perfectible sense of humor. Let's see if I can find him".
And with that, the savage stranger keeps looking for tracks, but near the point where the hanged appeared.
(Does she find something, with her already rolled 23 survival?)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Relieved that Nikolai is alright, Lucian loosens his grip on his knife...still, he can't relax yet. Someone was still out there...and there was still this...corpse.
Hesitantly, he approaches Chara as she checks the body for a pulse, "...Is...is he dead?" Its seemed a pointless question, after watching the neck snap on impact.
He looks to Eithne as she attempts to track down this unwanted visitor, "Famous bodies without a soul?" He'd never heard about that before...aside from what Blinsky had said...but those people weren't famous...
Pushing aside his thoughts, he looks up into the tree where the body had been hanging, wondering if the person could still be up there.
Perception: 7
If he doesn't see anyone up there, he will help Eithne look around for tracks, though he also keeps an eye on the trees as well. Perhaps there are broken branches signaling someone's recent passage.
Survival: 12
"I don't like this. Why would they target us? What did we do to bring...whoever this is...what did we do to draw their attention?" His voice is still a little shaky as he says this.
"It looks like it," Chara says somberly (I assume that broken neck = dead and Chara's Medicine check was good enough to figure out that the neck is broken). "We should probably do something with the body... as Nikolai said earlier, the dead around here have been known to come back, and the last thing we need is an undead doppelganger of our friend tormenting us."
Chara has another uncomfortable thought, which she decides against voicing. But... she can't put it aside entirely... what if the living Nikolai is the imposter?
As Charainvestigates the body, she notices it's waxy appearance. In fact, as she investigates it, it grows waxier. As you watch, the corpse's limbs elongate, stretching out as the droop slowing toward the ground and slough off the bones of the body. Soon, a skeleton hangs from the rope, while a fleshy pile of melting viscera and muscle gathers below. The bones of the skeleton darken, rotting before your eyes, turning to dust. The dust blows into your face, getting into your nose and throat (Chara, make a Con Save). You begin to cough and by the time you have finished, the bones, the flesh, even the rope, are all gone. The trees move with the wind and that's all.
Seeing her friend coughing, assailed by the dust of the horrible creature, Eithne approaches her, worried, asking: "Chara! What's going on? Are you all right?"
"You have a point," concedes Nikolai, "But I imagine I will spend many more hours lying awake or having nightmares about what I've just witnessed than he did in dying."
“H…Hey, are you okay?” Lucian asks, abandoning his search and instead looking to Chara. He was fighting the urge to be sick after catching just a glimps of the body before it was completely gone. As Chara continues to cough, he runs to grab some water from the cart and offers it to her, “Here…”
Looking to Eithne and Nikolai, he isn’t sure if the half-elf’s comment was an attempt to lighten the mood or not, either way he still felt like they should at least try to figure out who was responsible for this.
“Does…anyone know who could have done this? I’ve never heard of bodies disintegrating like that before…”
Since Chara reels back from the aweful stench, clutching her hand over her mouth, apparently unable to reply to her, Eithne starts to worry: "Maybe that powder was poisonous... or able to cause an illness..." she looks at her companions one by one "...there is somebody that can do something about it? I am not terribly useful," the savage stranger adds, with a touch of embarrassment, still holding her greataxe,"when there's nothing in sight that needs to be chopped down..."
Lucian looks down at Chara again, realizing that something is wrong beyond just the initial reaction to what happened. He puts a hand on her shoulder and kneels down next to her. "Uh... I... I don't know what to do!" He sets the wineskin down beside Chara so she can get it if she wants it, then looks over towards the rest of his companions, "I don't know anything about poisons. ...but...we don't know if it was poison... what if it was some sort of..." he stops himself as thoughts race through his head.
Charasneezes loudly...very loudly. The dust appears to have no other effect.
Eventually, the party returns to sleep and the rest of the night is uneventful. Nor is the morning, when you pack up camp and begin, again, on your journey. You continue to follow the Old Svalich Road. It twists and turns as you head south, rising and slithering between the hills at the foot of Mount Ghakis. The whole day's journey passes by quietly. You talk among yourselves about the events of the prior day, playing with the wolf pups when you stop to eat. As you rose through the hills, the forest fell away, but now that you are at the plateau, it has returned. The fog spills out of the forest to swallow up the road behind you. Ahead, jutting from the impenetrable woods on both sides of the road, are high stone buttresses looming gray in the fog. Huge iron gates hang on the stonework. Dew clings with cold tenacity to the rusted bars. Two headless statues of armed guardians flank the gate, their heads now lying among the weeds at their feet. They greet you only with silence. As you approach the gate, the iron doors swing open, seemingly of their own volition.
"This place welcomes us, it seems..." Eithne comments ironically as the iron doors open "...and not with the scene of one of us ending up hanged. We're getting better".
In fact, the savage stranger is rather uncomfortable, faced with yet another supernatural manifestation that she cannot understand...
'It must be the Devil Stradh!' the voices in her mind awaken. 'He found us! Change your way, Eithne!' 'He's the one who plays with us, using first the hangman and now the iron doors! Flee Eithne!'
"It can't be the Devil Stradh having fun with us..." replies the last of the dusk elf maidens, teeth clenched to control the mental cacophony (not even realizing he's talking aloud instead of thinking) "...They warned us clearly: if he caught us, he wouldn't play with us, but he would eliminate us. So, reassuring as this might sound, it must be someone else".
The sight of the statues makes her even more uneasy if possible: she tries not to look at them, to stare at something different... but it's difficult to keep them completely out of sight, big as they are!
'Fortunately, at least they are decapitated...' thinks Eithne with animosity, even without knowing where this aversion comes from 'Could it have been a giant? An earthquake? Luckily, because, big as they are, I certainly couldn't have damaged them... just as now I can't complete the work and destroy them' she shrugs. 'Time will take care of it'.
"Well," the savage stranger tries to gather courage "big and strong as they are, these doors, it would have been worse if they had closed in our faces. We would have had big troubles passing them. Since they have opened instead... let's be careful and go inside! Our path passes through there... And you stay near me, Juhowly" she keeps her she-wolf cub quite close, making sure it doesn't go away. "Don't take a step away, okay?"
With measured steps, senses alert and the trusty greataxe clutched in her hands, the last of the dusk elf maidens cross the threshold (unless something happens to give them reason to stop).
Chara looks up from the corpse, her fingers still on the man's neck trying to feel for a pulse.
"Nikolai?" she says in surprise and relief, withdrawing her hand from the clammy skin. "If you're over there... then who is this?"
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"I haven't the foggiest idea," replies the sorceror, subconsciously feeling his own neck with his hand as he gazes at the lifeless body.
Eithne, relieved that the real Nikolai has finally shown up, stops looking for his tracks, approaches him and replies to him and Chara: "Who this poor fellow is, I don't know. It could also be one of the famous bodies without a soul, created for some purpose. There must be someone here who really wants to play a joke on us... but who has a very perfectible sense of humor. Let's see if I can find him".
And with that, the savage stranger keeps looking for tracks, but near the point where the hanged appeared.
(Does she find something, with her already rolled 23 survival?)
Relieved that Nikolai is alright, Lucian loosens his grip on his knife...still, he can't relax yet. Someone was still out there...and there was still this...corpse.
Hesitantly, he approaches Chara as she checks the body for a pulse, "...Is...is he dead?" Its seemed a pointless question, after watching the neck snap on impact.
He looks to Eithne as she attempts to track down this unwanted visitor, "Famous bodies without a soul?" He'd never heard about that before...aside from what Blinsky had said...but those people weren't famous...
Pushing aside his thoughts, he looks up into the tree where the body had been hanging, wondering if the person could still be up there.
Perception: 7
If he doesn't see anyone up there, he will help Eithne look around for tracks, though he also keeps an eye on the trees as well. Perhaps there are broken branches signaling someone's recent passage.
Survival: 12
"I don't like this. Why would they target us? What did we do to bring...whoever this is...what did we do to draw their attention?" His voice is still a little shaky as he says this.
"It looks like it," Chara says somberly (I assume that broken neck = dead and Chara's Medicine check was good enough to figure out that the neck is broken). "We should probably do something with the body... as Nikolai said earlier, the dead around here have been known to come back, and the last thing we need is an undead doppelganger of our friend tormenting us."
Chara has another uncomfortable thought, which she decides against voicing. But... she can't put it aside entirely... what if the living Nikolai is the imposter?
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(I'm going to roll Investigation to see if Chara can figure out how the body was made to look like Nikolai)
Investigation: 13
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(...and forum roller isn't working for me. I went ahead and rolled in the game log).
Investigation: 12
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As Chara investigates the body, she notices it's waxy appearance. In fact, as she investigates it, it grows waxier. As you watch, the corpse's limbs elongate, stretching out as the droop slowing toward the ground and slough off the bones of the body. Soon, a skeleton hangs from the rope, while a fleshy pile of melting viscera and muscle gathers below. The bones of the skeleton darken, rotting before your eyes, turning to dust. The dust blows into your face, getting into your nose and throat (Chara, make a Con Save). You begin to cough and by the time you have finished, the bones, the flesh, even the rope, are all gone. The trees move with the wind and that's all.
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
Seeing her friend coughing, assailed by the dust of the horrible creature, Eithne approaches her, worried, asking: "Chara! What's going on? Are you all right?"
Nikolai gulps. "Well, I didn't think that could get any worse for me, but I was quite wrong."
"Oh, well..." points out Eithne "It could have been worse... imagine if all this had happened to you instead of him!"
"You have a point," concedes Nikolai, "But I imagine I will spend many more hours lying awake or having nightmares about what I've just witnessed than he did in dying."
“H…Hey, are you okay?” Lucian asks, abandoning his search and instead looking to Chara. He was fighting the urge to be sick after catching just a glimps of the body before it was completely gone.
As Chara continues to cough, he runs to grab some water from the cart and offers it to her, “Here…”
Looking to Eithne and Nikolai, he isn’t sure if the half-elf’s comment was an attempt to lighten the mood or not, either way he still felt like they should at least try to figure out who was responsible for this.
“Does…anyone know who could have done this? I’ve never heard of bodies disintegrating like that before…”
Chara reels back from the aweful stench, clutching her hand over her mouth as she tries not to vomit.
CON: 8
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(That does not look good... um... good thing there's a Paladin standing right next to Chara)
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Since Chara reels back from the aweful stench, clutching her hand over her mouth, apparently unable to reply to her, Eithne starts to worry: "Maybe that powder was poisonous... or able to cause an illness..." she looks at her companions one by one "...there is somebody that can do something about it? I am not terribly useful," the savage stranger adds, with a touch of embarrassment, still holding her greataxe, "when there's nothing in sight that needs to be chopped down..."
Lucian looks down at Chara again, realizing that something is wrong beyond just the initial reaction to what happened. He puts a hand on her shoulder and kneels down next to her. "Uh... I... I don't know what to do!" He sets the wineskin down beside Chara so she can get it if she wants it, then looks over towards the rest of his companions, "I don't know anything about poisons. ...but...we don't know if it was poison... what if it was some sort of..." he stops himself as thoughts race through his head.
Chara sneezes loudly...very loudly. The dust appears to have no other effect.
Eventually, the party returns to sleep and the rest of the night is uneventful. Nor is the morning, when you pack up camp and begin, again, on your journey. You continue to follow the Old Svalich Road. It twists and turns as you head south, rising and slithering between the hills at the foot of Mount Ghakis. The whole day's journey passes by quietly. You talk among yourselves about the events of the prior day, playing with the wolf pups when you stop to eat. As you rose through the hills, the forest fell away, but now that you are at the plateau, it has returned. The fog spills out of the forest to swallow up the road behind you. Ahead, jutting from the impenetrable woods on both sides of the road, are high stone buttresses looming gray in the fog. Huge iron gates hang on the stonework. Dew clings with cold tenacity to the rusted bars. Two headless statues of armed guardians flank the gate, their heads now lying among the weeds at their feet. They greet you only with silence. As you approach the gate, the iron doors swing open, seemingly of their own volition.
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
"This place welcomes us, it seems..." Eithne comments ironically as the iron doors open "...and not with the scene of one of us ending up hanged. We're getting better".
In fact, the savage stranger is rather uncomfortable, faced with yet another supernatural manifestation that she cannot understand...
'It must be the Devil Stradh!' the voices in her mind awaken.
'He found us! Change your way, Eithne!'
'He's the one who plays with us, using first the hangman and now the iron doors! Flee Eithne!'
"It can't be the Devil Stradh having fun with us..." replies the last of the dusk elf maidens, teeth clenched to control the mental cacophony (not even realizing he's talking aloud instead of thinking) "...They warned us clearly: if he caught us, he wouldn't play with us, but he would eliminate us. So, reassuring as this might sound, it must be someone else".
The sight of the statues makes her even more uneasy if possible: she tries not to look at them, to stare at something different... but it's difficult to keep them completely out of sight, big as they are!
'Fortunately, at least they are decapitated...' thinks Eithne with animosity, even without knowing where this aversion comes from 'Could it have been a giant? An earthquake? Luckily, because, big as they are, I certainly couldn't have damaged them... just as now I can't complete the work and destroy them' she shrugs. 'Time will take care of it'.
"Well," the savage stranger tries to gather courage "big and strong as they are, these doors, it would have been worse if they had closed in our faces. We would have had big troubles passing them. Since they have opened instead... let's be careful and go inside! Our path passes through there... And you stay near me, Juhowly" she keeps her she-wolf cub quite close, making sure it doesn't go away. "Don't take a step away, okay?"
With measured steps, senses alert and the trusty greataxe clutched in her hands, the last of the dusk elf maidens cross the threshold (unless something happens to give them reason to stop).
Perception (for eventual dangers): 20