Devarus winces having half hoped to make us of the telescope. He wordlessly goes over to try and inspect it, hopeful yet to see if it still worked at all. And if so, he'd lug the thing through the east door to have a look out over the forest to the east, figuring if not plainly hopeful of spying some distant campfires.

Perception: 12. 
(if at advantage using the scope: 10.)

(Not sure on the exacting size of the scope, but I assume since its not a high end one it's not all that great in size. If wrong though, feel free to ignore the bits about inspecting/using it)

((The telescope is like the tripod-mounted ones that kids use nowadays. That's how big it is. Kind of flimsy though))

The Telescope flies through the room and bashes against the door from Runt chucking it. Being a smaller and flimsier make, its legs snap and the glass shatters when it hits the door. So much for using it. A narrow beam of light comes out from the hole the telescope was pushed up against. The door to the balcony remains intact though.

Deva picks up the broken Telescope but there is no using it now. Looking outside, he does not see any campfires. Given that it is daytime, it would make sense that Vlad would have set up camp and there would be no smoke to detect at all. Well... either that or he is inside a carriage and moving through the woods at that very moment. In either case, there is no fire and no smoke to see.

Elsara will glance around the room. "Well if they have magic guards and wardings, maybe..." She incants a quick spell to Detect Magic. (Ticked off spell slot)

Unfortunately there is nothing magical in this room

Elsara will keep concentration on the spell regardless, since they might need it as they investigate further. (I guess spend a minute to investigate the room before moving on?)

Investigation: 16

Val will help Elsara's efforts ( in case you can roll with advantage) 

(In case of advantage: 18 )

Elsara searches the place but doesn't quite find anything that is immediately useful... There was a file cabinet. The file cabinet itself, by the way, had some ink, brushes, blank pages as wells as maps of Lun in them. These were thing you can easily find at the store. The party was even given their own maps of Lun from the Guild so the things there were useless. The cabinet also contained various pictures of constellations that can be seen with the naked eye. It also had some Calligraphy tools and a lot of random Calligraphy art done by Vlad.

Then Elsara finds a scrap of paper that seems to have flown under the cabinet at some point and forgotten. It was very old and dusty. The Paper simply read:

Collect tax for Spring from Alisfield

"Well it was a longshot in either case," Devarus muttered to himself as stepped back inside the observatory. In seeing Elsara with the scrap, Dev waltzed over for a peek over the shoulder before quietly humming in thought. "Interesting. So, he may not be quite as isolated as we... well, I was led to believe. Apart from the of course occasional unfortunate soul to simply wander too close to this vamp's neck of the woods."

"Either way, it's something." He gives the room one last quick look around on the spot before sighing and shaking his head. "In any event, let's move on." He strides out on that note with every intention of heading back down the hall and having at least a peek into the adjoining rooms one by one, looking for anything that might further stand out. 

"At least we do have a lead. If anything fails we could check that Alisfield and if he returns to it to collect taxes... set a trap. Even if he sends a proxy it could lead us to him."

( Does Val know of a place or person named Alisfield? is that in the general direction were we saw the cart's traces go? ) 

Val seems to remember something while they proceed to the next room. 

"Do you think he has left that staff we were talking about the other night? " 

((Val does not know of any place or person named Alisfield))

"We may as well check." Elsara replies to Val. "It is an important item. If it's gone, they might be headed towards the witch?"

"Hmm To seek refugee with her? I hope don't. In fact, I do think that he was lying to us and that staff belonged to one of his victims..." 

Runt growls He can't hide. My axe will find his neck where ever he goes.

So you guys heading to the dining room to check for the staff?

"So will my bolt, Ms. Ruu." Devarus adds before regarding Elsara and Valwynn. "While it could be an artifact of one of his victims, it would not hurt to look all the same. Though I cannot fathom why he wouldn't have taken it with him. Not unless the thing was possessed of a great will or too much power of its own to warrant absconding with." He admits but was prepared to make tracks in the direction of the dining room.

Yeah, I think walk and talk towards the dining room.

"Well it is a potent staff that is aligned with mother nature." Elsara reasons. "If Lord Vladimir is truly a vampire, it might not be something he can tolerate physically? There's a lot in this world I don't know, but that's why it's fun to learn!"

Rolling Initiative:

Deva: 10
Val: 18
Elsara: 18
Runt: 6

Vampire Spawn: 23
Helmed Horror: 8
Animated Armor (Crossbow): 22

Map: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_QklefscGuKe-4tRdLx6UB_fNo7HWI33AnVKWsPICaw/edit?usp=sharing

Enemy State:

The party heads back downstairs and heads to the Dining Room where they saw the staff Vlad had. A few moments after they had just entered the dining room from a passage to the south, the double doors on the east side of the dinning room burst open and the Maid rushes out accompanied by two Helmed Horrors and two Animated Armors wielding Light Crossbows. The maid was caught by surprise seeing the party there. She hadn't expected to encounter them in the dinning room. However she quickly snaps out of it and hisses, revealing Vampire Fangs.

The maid says, "I didn't expect to meet you here. I smelled the burning ceiling and was going to cut off your escape when you would try to leave. Looks like You've come to me."

Party's turn.

I would like to RAGE!

Runt roars in defince and charges at the nearest enemy to her (it looks like it's HA2 on the map.)

She swings her axe with all her might

Attack: 22 Damage: Unable to parse dice roll.

Attack: 21 Damage: 14

Bonus thunder damage 4

(Barbarian Attack rolls feel so good)