Vor will look about for a stout length of wood, strip any branches, and use it to poke and prod any suspicious places, test the steps as he goes.  He will be looking for oddities; inexplicable holes in the stone, odd patterns of stone work, cracks that seem unnaturally formed, material one wouldn't expect to find in these circumstances (metal, wood, glass, etc.), places where a collapse of the stairway could result in the unwary falling, or where a part of the cliff face could be made into a deadfall.

Investigation   7

Nature   15

Perception   1  Wait a minute!...Vor gets a + 1 on his perception roll

OCC Whopee! We're all gonna die

Hallanann will make sure his staff is equipped, and the hood on his Cloak of Elvenkind is up over his head. 

 "Aye, neither seem good, so I've no preference." Chikra will follow the others, looking out for signs of attackers. Perception: 9

Krusk will stay perceptive and investigate as needed.

Perception: 22

Investigation: 6

As Vor moves up the stairway he’ll try and recall if anything about it is even a bit familiar.

History    12

After about a mile of the trail, while making your way up a section of stone stairs, Krusks notices a Dryad resting under a tree about 300 feet up the trail.  At this point, it has not spotted you.

“Guys, stop.” Krusk tells the group when he notices the Dryad. “There’s a Dryad ahead. We should be cautious, don’t make any sudden movements. If possible, we should avoid it.”

Hallanann would like to make a... history? nature? check to see if he knows anything about Dryads. 

History: 21
Nature: 2

"We either continue along, being as silent as possible, or go back and try the other approach."  Lia reminds the others.  "Not much else we can do at this point."

Lia stealth: 22

"If those are our options, I vote for stealth," Hallanann opines. "I'm not exactly keen on the idea of wasting so much time."

Hallanann Stealth: 21

((I had an error with the post that I made, so I tried to edit it and then it made a "manipulated roll" error. So, I decided to just delete the post and re-post it. BUT, the original Stealth roll was 12, not 21.))

Chikra nods. Stealth: 20.

Vor looks up the trail toward the Dryad, “Waste o’ time t’ backtrack ‘n maybe run inta an even worse problem.”  He will think about Dryad’s and what he knows about them:

History.  15   Arcana.  19   Nature.  17

“Seems t’ me we might maybe make it cum t’ believe we mean it nae harm, cuz we doon’t n’ that’ll be the truth, so she might believe. Worth a try,” he shrugs.  “Worse that kin ‘appen is we all die.” 

Stealth.  23

"Well, that is, indeed, the worst that could happen. It is an outcome, I would just as soon avoid, though."

“I’m not the stealthiest, but we can try to sneak past it,” Krusk says. Stealth: 16

OOC: ...I’ve got a +0 to stealth...

Quote from Memer_Asriel >>

“I’m not the stealthiest, but we can try to sneak past it,” Krusk says. Stealth: 20

OOC: ...I’ve got a +0 to stealth...

 ((You've also got a nat 20. hahaha.  You are the stealthiest.))

From your knowledge of nature you recall that Dryads prefer to live away from civilization, delighting in the savage wilderness away from those that sought to cut their trees. They live with respect to nature and accepted the company of those that did so as well. Attractive men who were fond of nature were often be taken in by a dryad as both their mate and guardian.

Dryads are generally benign, and attempt to warn off intruders. Only those who were particularly cruel and determined to destroy a dryad's forest saw the full wrath of these fey.

All dryads are magically bound to a single tree. These trees served as the dryad's life force and home. They will fight to the death to protect their bonded tree, as should the tree be cut or destroyed, the dryad will die soon afterward. A dryad cannot stray too far from her bonded tree without suffering the same fate. If a dryad leaves the vicinity of her tree for too long, she will die.

 Everyone successfully sneaks by the Dryad.  Dryads are a very unusual site, especially from a trail.  There is something unusually magical about this place.

During the last mile of the hike you notice that some of the trees have warped into strange shapes; a few seem to have contorted faces, limbs, or sections of torsos growing out of the wood of their trunks. Stones seem to have arranged themselves into images of twisted faces or grasping hands. And signs of mutation are everywhere; many of the birds, insects, and other small animals that would normally be seen in this type of terrain are misshapen, infested with tumors, or have the wrong number of limbs or heads.

The forest here is scattered with houses that were once part of the village of Lapo before it fell into decay. These are often a mix of wood and stone, and they are in various states of dissolution, many with collapsed roofs and walls and overgrown with vines, fungus, and weeds, and some even partially sunken into the earth as if the land itself is trying to swallow the last remnants of civilization.

Just over the top of the second stone stairway, the temple of Madriel rises against the forest, a vast domed cathedral sixty feet high and over two hundred feet from end to end. Branching off from the main sanctuary are two wings, each rising just over half the height of the central section. The temple’s entrance sits atop a three-tiered dais, where four massive columns support a lintel carved with a tableau of Madriel victorious in battle at the end of the Divine War. Underneath, the double doors that fill the tall entrance archway are never locked. When closed, their inlaid carvings show a sunburst surrounded by peacock feathers.

"Well, here we are."  Lia says as she looks over the structure.  "Shall we use the main door, or try to find a less-obvious entrance?"

“We should try and find a less obvious place to enter. If there’s anything that is in the temple, we don’t want it seeing us when we go in,” Krusk says.