Maldorn looks a bit worried: "Hmm.. Jambiya... and I found something," he says, clearly still getting used to referring to the goblin girl by her first name. "Take a look, Icequiver, Beric." The ranger then hands over the two pieces of paper he found (post #170). "Jambiya thinks the word 'specter' is being used literally."
You'd all notice that while Maldorn is trying his best to remember Jambiya's name properly, he has no such concern regarding Anafrey's or Erric's names.
Erric looks over the pages, eyebrows raising, and then looks immediately back to the burnt-out house, looking for anything looking back. [OOC: how far in the past were these pages written... what month is it now?]
"Jambiya may be right, or perhaps he was leaning too hard on his metaphors," he says, still examining the pages, front and back. "I'm really bad at this. Usually when I'm around something problematic, I just rush right in and Lady Luck keeps me alive. I just want to run right into the front door and find out what's going on. But we all almost died right over there at the hands of some kenku who we don't even know, so I'm trying to be smarter. Which, by the way, why did those birds attack us? And where's the other one?"
He looks around again, glancing up at the sun to gauge the time of day [OOC: how long do we have till sunset? And what's the weather like now? Still clear and pleasant?].
"We are looking for clues to unspool this whole mess, and we'll have to find the right questions if we want to stay alive," he says, looking at Jambiya. "If you're right, and Clarice really is a literal specter, then I'm not sure we're qualified to handle such a monster. I've heard stories of people encountering one of those and ending up empty husks, no matter how strong or quick they were. Still, I'm not sure what other option we have other than to go into that house and see what's inside."
He's going to walk up to one of the lower windows and see what he sees.
"It seems we should at least discover what has gone on, and if we can help this unquiet spirit settle, all the better. Did you find any other entrances? Or should we go back to the front?"
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ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he). Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. I love it so.
OOC: Saw that weather report and was just curious if we're still early enough to have sunlight, or if it's cloudy. And I don't know that we've gotten much description of the house - I assume there are other ways to get in. We looped around the back to avoid the scary plants so maybe we missed an entrance. It is a little scary to me that we could do into the house and if something happens at the front and we need to find another way out, the back exit with the garden is the only way out? Also, and this is still very OOC, I'm out of spell slots and just have a mundane little rapier to deal with anything spectral.
Anafrey shrugs, "If our minds are set on dealing with spirits we may as well be polite and see how far diplomacy gets us. We go in with steel at the ready and we're like to be as good as dead." She finishes whatever's left in her hip flask, cursing.
"Is there any way to track down the fourth kenku? We could perhaps barter peace for answers, and answers are what we will help with diplomacy. Otherwise let's just go in, since I'm not sure what I can see in these windows."
The party knows that the month is Eleasis, but the house appears to have been abandoned some time ago. Perhaps years.
Erric approaches the back of the house to look in a window, but finds he's too short to do so. The lowest portion of the windows is a good nine feet off the ground at the point.
The only two entrances anyone is aware of are the front door, and, yes, Erric and Anafrey saw another door through the garden.
"Between Maldorn and myself I'm confident we would have seen the other kenku's tracks by now if there were any to be discovered. Presumably it's inside, so let's enter with caution shall we?" Anafrey starts trying to usher Erric and Jambiya towards the front door. "Those of us that are capable of exercising caution anyway..." she mumbles.
The only out-of-the-ordinary plants Erric feels confident he sees are the ones at the back of the house. The occasional slight breeze rustling leaves doesn't help his jumpiness.
The group gathers at the front of the house. As stated, the front door is missing, and an empty arched doorway remains. Even standing outside, the group can see inside the front room: a two-story entrance hall that is now open to the elements and littered with the charred remains of fallen timbers. Three burnt steps are all that's left of a staircase that once ascended to the upper floor.
"We're using diplomacy, right? Should we ask if Clarice is here, nicely? Or should we keep it quiet? I'm happy to put on the charm. I don't see any dangerous flora in there so my courage is waxing again. Shall I?"
Anafrey rubs her face with both hands sighing heavily. "Very well... as you please, Erric." She waves him forward, posting up a few feet behind him, her hand on the hilt of her shortsword, ready to jump in to defend the halfling if needed.
Erric walks up to the entrance and mimes knocking at the absent door, casting minor illusion to make a hearty knocking sound. He projects a friendly, happy, tone into the house (if you'd like, here's a performance/persuasion/deception check 25):
"Hello in there! We were looking for Lady Clarice. An old friend of hers, who cares for her deeply, was very concerned for her and we've come a long way to see if she's around."
OOC: Holy cow that roll! I suspect it will be wasted on an empty house or an entity who's not listening, but hey at least it entertained me!
To Anafrey's comment about the fourth kenku, Maldorn will respond: "Aye. I confirmed the forth one's track led into the house, but only three left. Unless they did so just before we approached, I would guess the bird-folk would not have stayed near the building for too long if they had seen an apparition of some sort."
(OOC: How familiar is Maldorn with kenku in general. I know Eric asked this before but maybe Maldorn would know more from his 'ranger-ness'? If you need a check, here's a d20 roll: 5. Please add +2 for nature, +5 for survival, or maybe a +0 if a straight INT check would be appropriate.)
Maldorn will then wait and see if Eric's politeness warrants a response. The ranger is standing 15 feet behind the rest of the group. He'll also take a peek over his shoulder just to be sure they are alone outside (perception: 22, please add another +2 if we are close enough to the woods for Natural Explorer to kick in.)
Erric's perfect introduction receives no response. A bird flies overhead. A very slight breeze lifts everyone's hair barely. Even Maldorn's look over his shoulder rewards him with nothing.
Maldorn doesn't know anything about kenku. They're not something to hunt, and they're not hunters that he's encountered, so this is his first contact.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
After waiting a respectable amount of time, while tapping her foot impatiently, Anafrey opens the door. She nods at Maldorn, then enters first, keeping her eyes open for danger, particularly movement.
Maldorn will nod back, wait until Erric and Jambiya follow Anafrey into the building, then slowly make his way inside. All his weapons are stowed, respecting Anafrey’s proposal to not approach with an aggressive stance.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Erric follows Anafrey into the house. If he can ready an action, he'll ready the vicious mockery cantrip if anything appears and seems like it's about to attack the group. Eyes wide open, looking at and listening for everything: perception 21
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Maldorn looks a bit worried: "Hmm.. Jambiya... and I found something," he says, clearly still getting used to referring to the goblin girl by her first name. "Take a look, Icequiver, Beric." The ranger then hands over the two pieces of paper he found (post #170). "Jambiya thinks the word 'specter' is being used literally."
You'd all notice that while Maldorn is trying his best to remember Jambiya's name properly, he has no such concern regarding Anafrey's or Erric's names.
Erric looks over the pages, eyebrows raising, and then looks immediately back to the burnt-out house, looking for anything looking back. [OOC: how far in the past were these pages written... what month is it now?]
"Jambiya may be right, or perhaps he was leaning too hard on his metaphors," he says, still examining the pages, front and back. "I'm really bad at this. Usually when I'm around something problematic, I just rush right in and Lady Luck keeps me alive. I just want to run right into the front door and find out what's going on. But we all almost died right over there at the hands of some kenku who we don't even know, so I'm trying to be smarter. Which, by the way, why did those birds attack us? And where's the other one?"
He looks around again, glancing up at the sun to gauge the time of day [OOC: how long do we have till sunset? And what's the weather like now? Still clear and pleasant?].
"We are looking for clues to unspool this whole mess, and we'll have to find the right questions if we want to stay alive," he says, looking at Jambiya. "If you're right, and Clarice really is a literal specter, then I'm not sure we're qualified to handle such a monster. I've heard stories of people encountering one of those and ending up empty husks, no matter how strong or quick they were. Still, I'm not sure what other option we have other than to go into that house and see what's inside."
He's going to walk up to one of the lower windows and see what he sees.
Jambiya
"It seems we should at least discover what has gone on, and if we can help this unquiet spirit settle, all the better. Did you find any other entrances? Or should we go back to the front?"
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. I love it so.
OOC > Today's forecast in #79 was "clear and pleasant with clouds beginning to gather just before sunset."
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. I love it so.
OOC: Saw that weather report and was just curious if we're still early enough to have sunlight, or if it's cloudy. And I don't know that we've gotten much description of the house - I assume there are other ways to get in. We looped around the back to avoid the scary plants so maybe we missed an entrance. It is a little scary to me that we could do into the house and if something happens at the front and we need to find another way out, the back exit with the garden is the only way out? Also, and this is still very OOC, I'm out of spell slots and just have a mundane little rapier to deal with anything spectral.
Anafrey shrugs, "If our minds are set on dealing with spirits we may as well be polite and see how far diplomacy gets us. We go in with steel at the ready and we're like to be as good as dead." She finishes whatever's left in her hip flask, cursing.
~♡~
"Is there any way to track down the fourth kenku? We could perhaps barter peace for answers, and answers are what we will help with diplomacy. Otherwise let's just go in, since I'm not sure what I can see in these windows."
The party knows that the month is Eleasis, but the house appears to have been abandoned some time ago. Perhaps years.
Erric approaches the back of the house to look in a window, but finds he's too short to do so. The lowest portion of the windows is a good nine feet off the ground at the point.
The only two entrances anyone is aware of are the front door, and, yes, Erric and Anafrey saw another door through the garden.
The time is about noon.
"Between Maldorn and myself I'm confident we would have seen the other kenku's tracks by now if there were any to be discovered. Presumably it's inside, so let's enter with caution shall we?" Anafrey starts trying to usher Erric and Jambiya towards the front door. "Those of us that are capable of exercising caution anyway..." she mumbles.
~♡~
Erric follows along, still looking askance at the overgrown foliage in the front of the house, looking for any ominous ones...
The only out-of-the-ordinary plants Erric feels confident he sees are the ones at the back of the house. The occasional slight breeze rustling leaves doesn't help his jumpiness.
The group gathers at the front of the house. As stated, the front door is missing, and an empty arched doorway remains. Even standing outside, the group can see inside the front room: a two-story entrance hall that is now open to the elements and littered with the charred remains of fallen timbers. Three burnt steps are all that's left of a staircase that once ascended to the upper floor.
"We're using diplomacy, right? Should we ask if Clarice is here, nicely? Or should we keep it quiet? I'm happy to put on the charm. I don't see any dangerous flora in there so my courage is waxing again. Shall I?"
Anafrey rubs her face with both hands sighing heavily. "Very well... as you please, Erric." She waves him forward, posting up a few feet behind him, her hand on the hilt of her shortsword, ready to jump in to defend the halfling if needed.
~♡~
Erric walks up to the entrance and mimes knocking at the absent door, casting minor illusion to make a hearty knocking sound. He projects a friendly, happy, tone into the house (if you'd like, here's a performance/persuasion/deception check 25):
"Hello in there! We were looking for Lady Clarice. An old friend of hers, who cares for her deeply, was very concerned for her and we've come a long way to see if she's around."
OOC: Holy cow that roll! I suspect it will be wasted on an empty house or an entity who's not listening, but hey at least it entertained me!
To Anafrey's comment about the fourth kenku, Maldorn will respond: "Aye. I confirmed the forth one's track led into the house, but only three left. Unless they did so just before we approached, I would guess the bird-folk would not have stayed near the building for too long if they had seen an apparition of some sort."
(OOC: How familiar is Maldorn with kenku in general. I know Eric asked this before but maybe Maldorn would know more from his 'ranger-ness'? If you need a check, here's a d20 roll: 5. Please add +2 for nature, +5 for survival, or maybe a +0 if a straight INT check would be appropriate.)
Maldorn will then wait and see if Eric's politeness warrants a response. The ranger is standing 15 feet behind the rest of the group. He'll also take a peek over his shoulder just to be sure they are alone outside (perception: 22, please add another +2 if we are close enough to the woods for Natural Explorer to kick in.)
Jambiya
She will stand right behind Erric in the threshold, looking over his shoulder into the house. She is very impressed by his polite cheerfulness.
ey/em/eirs, or they/them works, too (just not he).
Role-playing since that keep on those borderlands. I love it so.
Erric's perfect introduction receives no response. A bird flies overhead. A very slight breeze lifts everyone's hair barely. Even Maldorn's look over his shoulder rewards him with nothing.
Maldorn doesn't know anything about kenku. They're not something to hunt, and they're not hunters that he's encountered, so this is his first contact.
After waiting a respectable amount of time, while tapping her foot impatiently, Anafrey opens the door. She nods at Maldorn, then enters first, keeping her eyes open for danger, particularly movement.
perception : 13
~♡~
Maldorn will nod back, wait until Erric and Jambiya follow Anafrey into the building, then slowly make his way inside. All his weapons are stowed, respecting Anafrey’s proposal to not approach with an aggressive stance.
Erric follows Anafrey into the house. If he can ready an action, he'll ready the vicious mockery cantrip if anything appears and seems like it's about to attack the group. Eyes wide open, looking at and listening for everything: perception 21