Ever his eye on the way civilized creatures treat their animal companions, Sathalvir begins to acquaint himself with the residents of this awkward community with the stable keep.

He approaches the building, curious about its upkeep. Is the structure maintained?

Surprisingly the stables are well maintained.  The young man is dressed in a green tunic and brown overalls, clothes well kept and mostly clean, his short blonde hair and goatee are closely trimmed.  The hay is fresh and the animals appear in good condition.

"hay, where did Shalech go"

"Hail," Sathalvir shouts on approach. The wood elf enters the stable like a stale wind through the forest, leaving every piece of straw where it was abandoned, every leaf where it fell. He continues his introduction with the informal gesture of fellowship.

Sindarin, Sathalvir says in elvish. Well met, in the common tongue. Does the stable keep reply in elvish?

"Um, greetings sir.  How may I help you?  Have you come to rent a horse?"  The young man shows no signs of understanding Elven.

Quote from RobertHReaper >>

Searching the closet first, you run your hands along the dust and grime covered walls, ceilings and floorboards; with no result beyond dirty hands.

Upon entering the bedroom, Shalech quickly notices the cloth covered footprints leading up to the bed.  The bed is unmolested and loaded with dust, but as your eyes go over it piece by piece, you notice that the edge of the top canopy seems to have it's dust removed in a few places.

 Shalech runs his fingers where the dust has been removed.  He tries to push, pull, twist, lever... and looks for something that may be hidden up there.

As you feel along the cloth you notice that a large area of dust is missing.  You look above the canopy and notice that there is obvious signs that someone has been on top of this bed.  The dust is mostly cleared under a section of the ceiling that looks like a hole blocked by a squared piece of wood; which is normally hidden from view by the bed itself.

Shalech, not wanting to stick his head into the attic to have it stabbed or clubbed, goes and informs the others of his find and asks them to come help investigate the attic further.

“If someone hits you I can heal you“

Looking at Urselles, Shalech countered, "Can you revive me too?  I'm not exactly sturdy, like Croak over there."

The group has now gathered together in and around the bedroom.  Theodore, you sense no magical auras from the attic.  Croak, you can clearly see over the top of the bed, the piece of squared wood sits slightly ajar.  Shalech, you and Theodore illuminate the room; revealing repeated past movement in and out of this room, originating from the attic entrance.  Nathan, stuck in the hall due to lack of room, sees mostly Croak's back.  Urselles sees mostly legs.

(Looks like we are back up to six players, sorry for counting you out AdventureHalz, but I think I've figured out a way to keep recruiting open while closing down availability a bit.

How about we simply all, myself included, vote yay or nay on if someone can join when they ask to join the thread.  We could even have them describe their character to see if we think they would be a good fit to the thread.

As for the current person requesting, they seem nice but I don't know anything about their character.  Also, I think it would be good for the group to spend more time getting to know each other before more distractions appear; so I vote nay for now.  Maybe later, but not at this moment in the story.  What are your thoughts?)

(The onus of having a large group of players lies on the DM, who has to generate the encounters.  The more allies we have in the group, the more we're able to counter enemy abilities, focus fire and play whack-a-mole with death...  The larger your encounters become, the more chance we can get focus fired or one-shot.  I really don't want to have the responsibility of deciding when it will become too much...  I'll vote to break a tie, but am not keen on making the decision.)

(I have mostly laid out what is likely to be encountered in this campaign already in my notes, the party size will have little impact on those encounters unless there are roleplay reasons for them to change; and as mentioned in the intro, not all encounters are level appropriate for the group.

New players add to the story and the world, and hopefully aid each other; though if you all ended up turning on and killing each other that's cool too.  Lol.  I just want to help the players tell a story together, provide a world for them to do so, and help them reach their character's goals; while potentially killing them in the process. Lol)

Joining the rest of the party, Croak inquires about the long object wrapped in cloth.

"Is there something on top of the bed? I can't see anything from back here! Is that a hole? why don't we open it and send somebody or something in? Does anybody know the Find Familiar spell by any chance?" Nathan tries to see what is going on from behind Croak's back.

(Sorry for not posting for the last two days, but I am on holiday and internet access is a bit sporadic. I will try posting at least once a day anyways, and I will be back in full force by Tuesday!)

(There was a lull in posting so you were not alone.  We each have lives so I understand if the story takes a moment move forward.)

Peering just over Croak's shoulder, while Shalech pulls down the top of the canopy a bit to see better himself, Nathan can finally see the attic entrance.

"That old bastard better be up there. Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum.."

Croak attempts to open the attic entrance.

The canopy begins to tear as Croak starts putting his weight on it.  After a moment, Croak just shoves the entire bed over, which is evident even to those outside the room from the sound.  He pushes up the piece of wood blocking the attic and tosses it aside.

Inside is dark and dusty, but with the aid of the light from your allies, you can see that the room is empty of people.

"The room is empty, Croak?  Well then, lets get up there and figure out what purpose our mysterious skulker had in the attic."

Investigation: 7