Aspekt

Hi all, Just jumping in here to say that I'm on travel this week for work, jumping a couple of timezones, and so I don't know how active I will be here until the weekend. As for learning about the enemies, since they are undead, and are your favored enemy, please pick one of the fields to learn about and then roll with advantage. So that looks like: 1. Pick one of the things you'd like to learn (Offense, Defense, Special Abilities, Resistances/Weakness/Immunity, Spells (Must be trained in Arcana)) 2. Roll the relevant check (since these are undead, roll 1d20 + RELIGION MOD, and since they're your favored enemy roll with advantage) 3. I will compare your religion check against the enemy's DC, and provide relevant answers to what you want to know. I am happy to let each person roll a RELIGION check against these undead to see what you all find out.

It took a bit of convincing, but the young girl finally stopped trying to hide behind her mom's skirts from "the demon". Hanna steps forward and speaks on the party's behalf to the rest of the villagers who come to see what all the commotion is about. And as night falls over the sleepy hamlet you are all provided a warm meal in one of the larger houses, and they offer to let you stay in one of the haylofts for the night. The cart and mules are put away inside the barn, and you all climb to the second level where dried hay provides a soft place to lie down. It's nice to have an actual roof and four walls for the first time in almost a week. It's almost midnight when a strange breeze begins to blow. The only light at the moment comes from a single lantern that was provided by the owner, and it burns with a orange glow that leaves long shadows in the corners. Anyone awake at this hour hears a dog barking for nearly a minute, and then it suddenly goes quiet. You know that the doors to the barn were closed snug behind you, but they weren't locked. You could leave if you want, or perhaps you'd rather stay and fortify your location? DC 12 Perception Check You hear muffled footsteps moving around outside of the barn. They seem to heading from the forest, towards the houses that make up this hamlet. The footsteps are light and quick. For those who Leave the Barn If you choose to leave the barn and investigate, you'll need some kind of light source in order to see clearly. Taking the lantern inside the barn will leave everyone else in darkness, unless they have a light source of their own. Dark clouds cover any light the moon might have provided. A strong wind blows at the trees, and causes exposed flames to flicker and fight to stay burning. 100 feet away from the barn, equal distance from the barn and the nearest house, two creatures with grayish scabby skin and long pointed ears are feasting on a dog that they have killed. Their hands are tipped with sharp claws and their mouths have long pointed teeth. Perhaps these were humans once, but they're humans no longer. They turn to look at you if you come close to them with any kind of light source.

I'm going to go ahead and move us up to the evening, just to get things moving again.

I really liked how you resolved it too, turning it to “librarian secretly stronk” into a “smarter vs harder” thing. I mostly threw it in there to see the character background on approaching the challenge and I thought it was very cool to see how you did it!

Oh sure, I can definitely see that point of view, wanting some closure for Tevis. Maybe it’s the play-by-post style, but I thought did such a good job narrating Tevis’ success and the reasons behind it, anything I would have written would just be a re-hash and wouldn’t add anything.

The girl makes her way further along the fence line towards the cart. Living here so close to the woods, she's used to walking unseen and unheard among the forest. Sam watches as she makes it all the way to the shadow of the cart, and hides with her back to the wooden panel. Her hand slowly reaches up over the back edge of the cart, feeling around inside for anything she can take as a trophy. She steps on the wagon's axle, bringing her eyes slowly over the edge of the cart until she can peer inside. She catches sight of Saya, lying in the bed of the cart. "Konichiwa." - Saya "AHHHHHHHHHHH!!" the girl shrieks at the top of her lungs, drawing every eye in the hamlet. the girls stealth

sorry if you feel like I cut your guy's scene short, that wasn't my intention! I just didn't see any ask from you guys that would keep the scene going. I guess that as the GM, I'm always looking for how you guys are acting on the world, either asking someone something, or acting on the world doing something. So I didn't see a follow up that I could act on so I kinda figured you guys were ready to move on. If you guys ever want to continue a scene to keep something going, just let me know in an OOC block what you're trying to accomplish.

Eira & Dapple "Oh wow," *munching noises* "These are delicious!" Dapple says as he happily eats the gooseberries out of Eira's hand. "Where did you find those! I could use some more of that instead of this hay..." Dapple listens carefully to the description of the three previous members of the Hawks that had passed through. "Oh yes, they were here. Didn't stay long, but the horse they had with them was kind, she told me about the goings on back in the big city." You take this to mean Keri's Crossing. "It was a shame she had to go so soon, we don't often get company out here. Anyways, as to strange things going on... I wouldn't recommend spending much time out in the woods after dark, unless you're looking for trouble. There was a kind milk cow who used to live in this barn, but she wandered out one night when they left the gate open. I could hear her yelling for help out in the forest in the night, and she hasn't been back since, I can only imagine the worst has happened to her." "As far as the people in town here, they're kind enough. It's hard work, but it's honest work. I pull the plow, help move goods into town now and then, the regular."

To the group; I will leave it up to you what you would like to do when we're done resolving the two scenes we have going on at the moment. What would you guys like to do next?

Saya While the others head off to talk to the villagers, you keep a sharp-eyed watch from the driving seat of the wagon. Crickets softly chirp in the mid-afternoon heat, and the sun is still and hour away from falling behind the tall nearby trees. You see them before they even start towards you. And you hear their whispered voices from around the corner. "Double dog dare, you won't touch it!" "Will too!!" "Chicken!!" And then, cautiously, a young girl makes her way from behind a nearby shed and along the fence line that separates the roadway the wagon is sitting on from a nearby field. She's only maybe 8 or 9 years old, a young human girl dressed in rough clothes. But she's clean and well cared for. From behind the shed, two more heads pop out as they watch "stealthily" as the girl makes her way towards the wagon. Somehow, the girl is looking everywhere except to you, and you can track her out of the corner of your eye. It seems like unless you do something, she's going to try to sneak right up to the cart.

Eira You head off into town in search of an animal who might be more forthcoming than the people you saw. An open barn door interests you, and inside the air is warm with the smell of hay and horses. An older workhorse, his muzzle grey with age, is standing in a stall eating lazily. You cast the spell and feel it take effect, and greet the older horse. His dark eyes get wide, and he looks you over carefully, and then he speaks. "Well I'll be damned. You speak horse! I never thought any of you two-legs would take the time to learn it, but I'm glad you did. Where did you learn to speak horse so well? Your accent is almost perfect." He takes a cautious step back out of his stall, and makes a low bow to you. "Excuse me, where are my manners? I am called Dapple. And you are?..."

Wow, I wanted to give everyone time to jump in, and then all the sudden it's Friday! I'll work on getting things moving again, PBP timelines can really creep up on you.

Haha, the GM also throws a loaf of bread at Saya. Really well written.

At Tevis' offer of help, Hanna nods her head and shrugs the load of logs off her back and onto the ground. "Oh sure, you look like a strong young man, can you just put those inside on the woodpile next to the fireplace?" (OOC: Tevis, DC 10 Athletics Check to carry this heavy bundle of logs) She straightens, and her back pops and cracks when she puts her hands on her hips and stretches out. Old, but still strong. "Oh sure, wolves and bears were always a problem. The first year we had a bear kick the door open in my house just to get at the honey we had saved up above the cook fire. But it wasn't bears that did that to my friends." She peers at you all, trying to judger your character, and then reluctantly continues. "I still don't like to talk about it. It's an unnatural thing, what happened there those years ago. I had been back to the Keri's Crossing, trading some elk hides, and I got caught up in the rain, even heavier than what we got yesterday. Delayed me getting back to Mosswood by a day, and I think that day saved my life. We had taken in a wanderer who had come out of the woods. He seemed harmless, just keep muttering on and on about how he had to 'kill the being' for someone and how he was trying to get out of some deal. Said he wanted back to his family. Anyways, he was staying in one of the houses near mine when I left town to go trade. But the night I came back into town, it was too quiet. Usually someone would be playing the fiddle, or chopping wood, or anything. But it was dead quiet. Made me suspicious, and I didn't yell out, I just tried to sneak up to my house and see what was going on." There's a pause, as she gathers herself. Her eyes look off into the distance, seeing something that happened years ago. "They were all standing around him. No light left in their eyes, just standing around that bloody stranger, in a circle, stock still. And as I watched, they just seemed to dissolve into some kind of black mist. Every one of them, even the children. And then when that strange man was the only one left standing there, he turned and looked right at me, seemed to know I'd been hiding and watching the whole time. His eyes were like portals into hell, they were. And then he just walked off into the forest." She wipes her nose on the edge of a tattered sleeve and looks defiantly at you all. "Well, believe it or don't, but that's what happened. Your friends there thought I was a crazy person, muttered about me having mush for brains all these years later. See what good it did them!" DC 14 Arcana Check - Clues People disappearing into smoke... that's some advanced magic. Almost sounds like a demonic curse gone wrong if you had to take a guess. Not something that any random person walking into the town could do. But at the same time, it might just be possible. DC 14 Insight Check - Read Hanna She seems like she's being honest. At least in her mind, this is exactly what happened. And looking at the way she carries herself and lives on her own, it seems like she's pretty aware of what's going on around her. She doesn't seem like the kind that would go around telling tall tales for no reason. Hanna makes a judge of character