Jaesali will walk over to Caine. "Is there anything about 'Norgon' in there?"

Caine looks up at Jaesali as she enters the bookstore.

"It is in some sort of code," he says, looking back down at the book. "That is not something I have dealt with before but there does seem to be some pattern to the markings."

(Caine Investigation Check: 9  )

Helena checks around for tracks similar to the ones they’d seen before.

Survival 24

Tam moves to the outside of the bookstore and keeps an eye out for anything other than the party.

Perception: 4

Caine's efforts fails to bring much fruit. All he can gleam is this: at the bottom of the page, the cryptic symbols seemed to be scrawled frantically- the ink is darker than the rest of the cipher. It eventually devolves into indecipherable scribbling, and an uneasy feeling overcomes the monk as he analyzes the scribbles. However, nothing much can be made of it. 

Meanwhile, Helena is thorough as she checks the manor entrance for tracks. It seems that while the group of bandits may have approached the entrance, they did not step foot inside. Instead, they looped around to the back of the manor, but not before painstakingly covering their tracks- something which they had neglected so far. Still, Helena can follow their trail, if she so chooses. 

Tam sees nothing out of the usual, but the sun is begin to drop lower. He estimates the party will only have an hour or so before it becomes dark. 

Caine picks up the book to show the others later. Perhaps one of them will have better luck than he has had.

He looks back at Jaesali and then around the room again.

"Should we try upstairs?" he asks. "We can check quickly and then rejoin the others."

Caine heads for the stairs, doing his best to check the condition of them before heading up.

(Perception: 22 )

Jaesali walks out and sees Tam. "Anything?"

After his answer, she walks toward the manor, waiting for Helena to come back into view. "Do you have a direction?"

Helena points in the direction of the tracks. “They went that way, less than a day ago. If we kept going til dark we would make up some time on them. I think they went through this town to hide their tracks, trying to trick people into thinking this is where they stayed.”

“Works for me.” Nolla says, nodding in the direction indicated.  “Let’s keep moving while there is still light.”

Tam shakes his head in response to Jaesali before following her, occasionally giving worried glances around he will ask quietly,

"Do you think this place, not the town but everywhere here, was always like this?"

The sun begins to fall lower as the party regroups at the front of Brugel's Books. In the dying light, the husks of the abandoned buildings give long shadows with frightening proportions. 

As Caine has grabbed the book from the desk, he notices something strange. It may be a trick of the light, but the rats that were so eager to flee before...are looking straight at him. In shadows, they stand completely still and glare at him with red eyes. 

The old staircase seems sturdy enough to allow passage.  

Cedar takes a few steps up, watching for traps or false steps 

Perception: 24

"I think we should leave, camp away from this place. Like Nolla said, we can cut the bandits' lead a bit."

His eyes dart between the impenetrable darkness of the growing shadows.

Wondering where Cedar came from, suddenly appearing at the base of the staircase, Caine follows up the stairs, watching his step, but keeping an eye on the rats. Are they staring at me, or the book he wonders.

(Lol, I thought I said that Cedar was following Caine earlier, but now I realized I didn't. I am an idiot sometimes 😑)

Jaelsali nods. "Caine?" She steps back into the bookstore and toward the stairs. She sees the rats but doesn't pay them any mind. It takes her a minute to realize who the other figure is. "Caine," she whispers, standing a few steps below. "Something?"

Inside the bookstore, Caine follows Cedar up the creaky old steps. They arrive in front of an open doorway, and see a dusty and decrepit living room. Once vibrant gold paint on the walls is peeling off, covering the edges of the floor in paint chunks. A rusty iron poker lays next to a fire-place, and above the mantle-piece is some sort of painting; alas, due to the toll of the ages, the façade is unrecognizable at first glance, but a closer inspection may reveal what it depicts. 

In the center of a room, a rocking chair faces away from the party. Sitting on it is a dark skeleton, which holds another dusty tome in it's bony hands. The scraps of clothes that still remain on it's body are covered in soot. A glint of gold can be seen in it's jaw. 

Nolla would nod her agreement. "We should round the others up and get moving." She heads back into town to see where the others are at.

(I would guess that Nolla and Tam are outside of the bookstore, and Cedar, Jaesali, and Caine are inside.) 

In a lowered voice, Caine speaks to Cedar, "Curiosity has its own reason for existing, but I wonder if our explorations here are taking us too far off task."

But despite his own admonishment, Caine steps further into the room, closer to the skeleton. He eyes it carefully for any sign that it might be more than it appears.

(Perception: 18  )