As the four adventurers reach the top of the ladder, they come across an unnerving sight: the village is in shambles. Everything--doors, bridges, furniture, personal effects--is overturned and smashed. And scattered about, they also find the bodies of dozens of dead gnomes, adults and children alike, blood covering them and most everything else in and around each treehouse. Whistler has enough experience to tell that the deaths are recent; Evan knows that they all occurred within the last hour--at most.

The party is at the western edge of the tree village; as far as you can all see, it stretches across bridges from tree to tree about 500 feet to the east, about 200 feet to the north, and about 200 feet to the south. None of you see any movement, or any creatures, either on the ground or in the trees.

Suddenly, the insect chirping and occasional wild animal cries cease. Aeron, Evan and Gordon now hear a distant, constant noise from up in the trees toward the east... it sounds like someone speaking, but it's too faint to make it out. The sounds of nature slowly begin to resume, muffling the noise even further.

(( What will the party do next? You can communicate from the trees to the ground, and vice-versa, but it would involve shouting loud enough to be heard for quite a ways.

Those who heard the noise can pretty much tell the direction it came from, and can move toward it.

The cause of death of the gnomes is obvious--they each have multiple slashing wounds. But Investigation checks of the treehouses and bodies may turn up more information. ))

"stay on guard, these are very fresh, less then an hour I'd say" Evan says to the people with him, and moves twords the houses, looking around, *forgot to add modifier, add one please*

18

Quote from MaxDef >>

(OOC: are the gnomes common villagers? and how far is it from the trees to the ground?)

(( Yes, you can consider them common villagers. The treehouses and most of the bridges, balconies and other attached structures are all 30 feet above the ground. ))

Quote from MaxDef >>

"Arr... what a slaughtering scene" Redoff puts away the long bow. He loads a bolt into the hand crossbow, and checks on the nearest Gnome corpse, shield upfront. 

Investigation 3

Redoff looks over the body, that of a female gnome child. However, he isn't able to tell much other than that her deep wounds are the cause of her demise... perhaps it is the kindly face with eyes forever closed, or the bright yellow bows in her hair distracting him and casting a dour tone over the scene.

(( Feel free to make a separate Investigation check for the houses. ))

Quote from dragon8824 >>

"stay on guard, these are very fresh, less then an hour I'd say" Evan says to the people with him, and moves twords the houses, looking around, *forgot to add modifier, add one please*

18

Evan steps over to one of the closer houses, one with its front door ajar, barely hanging on one hinge. Lying on the floor is a deceased female gnome, an older lady going by the wrinkles and white hair. She's still clutching a small wooden box with the lid open, and her eyes are frozen wide, a pleading look on her face. There are silver, gold and platinum coins scattered across the floor, and judging by the spread and angle (and the spatter of blood over the gnome and under the coins,) Evan gets the distinct impression that she was holding the box, filled with the coins, when she was struck down. Yet it seems that not a single coin has been taken...

(( Evan finds coins with a total value of 50gp scattered on the floor. These were all in plain view; everyone else would have seen him retrieve them. ))

Whistler was quiet as he slowly maneuvered around the bodies, occasionally looking inside a door. He eventually came across a larger, nicer-than-usual treehouse, with a large sign with writing on it above the doorway. "Well, shoot," said the bounty hunter dejectedly, "I can tell it's Gnomish, but I ain't able to read it. Mebbe it's the name of this house, or even the whole village?"

(( Whistler will Investigate the structures: 6 ))

 Stepping inside the structure, Whistler noticed long wooden pews in an otherwise-empty large central area of the floor; looking at them askance, he could tell they had probably been arranged into a large circle before, but now they were moved out of position haphazardly. A large, plainly-visible wooden plaque hung on the far wall, with what looked to more Gnomish carved into it, in three separate lines of text. Spotting nothing else inside but a couple more bodies and more blood, the warrior simply shook his head and stepped back out to rejoin the others.

"More Gnomish in there, but I can't make heads or tails of it."

Darbakh prods his familiar with his boot. “Take a look around,” he communicates to the corporeal spirit with their telepathic link.

The snake familiar begins to slither around the grass in Darbakh’s immediate vicinity on ground level, keeping lookout passively.

(Should I roll anything for the time being, or is all quiet on the eastern front?)

Quote from Ihsan997 >>

(Should I roll anything for the time being, or is all quiet on the eastern front?)

(( As far as Darbakh knows, all is indeed quiet. He can still Investigate to see if anything is to be found on the ground, can try to communicate with the others, or can move to another part of the village (east, north, south or up.) I'll have his familiar alert you if it detects anything. ))

Quote from MaxDef >>

Redoff steps into an unsearched house and intends to find tracks and traces of whatever or whoever caused the death of the villagers. 10

(If all houses are checked, he goes to the corpse of the old lady)

Focusing on finding tracks, Redoff doesn't find anything in the first house, but does find part of a bloody boot print in the next. There is a dead young gnome couple lying on the floor, but neither is wearing boots--and neither has feet nearly that big.

As he leaves the structure, the adventurer finds another nearby print, same part of the boot, and eventually finds more of them leading across a bridge toward the east, in the same direction as the noise the others heard.

Quote from RodTheBard >>

Quote from dragon8824 >>

"stay on guard, these are very fresh, less then an hour I'd say" Evan says to the people with him, and moves twords the houses, looking around, *forgot to add modifier, add one please*

18

Evan steps over to one of the closer houses, one with its front door ajar, barely hanging on one hinge. Lying on the floor is a deceased female gnome, an older lady going by the wrinkles and white hair. She's still clutching a small wooden box with the lid open, and her eyes are frozen wide, a pleading look on her face. There are silver, gold and platinum coins scattered across the floor, and judging by the spread and angle (and the spatter of blood over the gnome and under the coins,) Evan gets the distinct impression that she was holding the box, filled with the coins, when she was struck down. Yet it seems that not a single coin has been taken...

(( Evan finds coins with a total value of 50gp scattered on the floor. These were all in plain view; everyone else would have seen him retrieve them. ))

 "Whatever it is... Isn't humanoid" Evan calls, reverently placing the coins back in the box

(( If Aeron or Gordon wish to investigate, you can still give me the rolls. You're all also free to simply head toward the noise/tracks--our even back out of the village if you like. ))

Quote from RodTheBard >>

(( If Aeron or Gordon wish to investigate, you can still give me the rolls. You're all also free to simply head toward the noise/tracks--our even back out of the village if you like. ))

 investigate before heading towards the noise: 17

Quote from AlaricBloodhunter >>

 investigate before heading towards the noise: 17

Aeron visits a few of the houses, and it suddenly strikes him: despite all the bodies, there's not much sign of actual struggle. Most of the corpses either are face-down with wounds from behind, or their hands are in defensive postures and their faces show shock, terror, pleading. There's almost no one showing signs of anger or aggression.

And apparently, while the kitchens indeed have knives, and there's even an axe next to a pile of chopped wood, there's not a single real weapon in the village seen so far. No swords, no bows, not even anything like a dagger in anyone's hands. No armor of any sort either, or shields.

In the last house he looks into, Aeron finds an older gnome male on the floor, seemingly struck from behind as he was opening a small chest at the foot of a bed. The chest is open, and judging by the few drops of blood on top of the contents, it appears the coins inside were also left undisturbed.

(( Aeron finds coins worth a total of 150gp in the chest. Note that Whistler had gone in to investigate this house with him, and was also witness to the scene. ))

"Kind of a gruesome sight," remarked Whistler quietly as he exited the house. "I wonder if those footprints Redoff found might lead to someone still here? Y'all think we should call the others up before looking, though? We might could use some backup."

*Sorry I haven't posted. Can this happen a little back it time (while everyone starts investigating)*

Gordon will climb up, and cringe at the sight. "What happened here?" 

He will investigate a house, being on guard for whatever would do this. 2

Quote from RodTheBard >>

"Kind of a gruesome sight," remarked Whistler quietly as he exited the house. "I wonder if those footprints Redoff found might lead to someone still here? Y'all think we should call the others up before looking, though? We might could use some backup."

 "Definitely "